Brad's Blog

One Prayer

2008-04-03T16:21:00.003-05:00

Craig Groschel is going to go down as one of the greatest leaders of this generation. What he and his team are doing to bring the Church and Technology together are mindblowing! Here is a video about One Prayer their newest endevor. We are looking into participating this June at Saint James:

Character is Cumulitive

2008-03-16T19:33:00.002-05:00

No doubt you have heard the news about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer being involved in a prostitution ring. It is yet another reminder of the power of sin in this world. Sin does not just take over one day, it creeps into your life inch by inch. I guarantee that Gov. Spitzer never would have thought this would happen to him. I am sure he never would make the choice to engage with a prostitute if simply asked point blank. This was the culmination of a ton of what seemed to be small harmless decisions.

Could this happen to you? You bet it can, this is why it is so important to guard our character at all costs. Your wife/husband and children depend on you doing it. Ask yourself what are the stupid choices you are on the verge of making that will deliver a knock out blow to you and wreck your life.

When you are traveling who are you accountable too? How honest will be with your taxes? Who knows what you look at on the internet?

Emerson wrote "the force of Character is Cumulitive." The decisions you make are putting you on a path to somewhere, is it where you want to be going?

The question I always ask my self is this "what if this impact of the decision I am about to make was multiplied by ten." It's only ten dollars. I will only be alone with her for 30 minutes. It's only one of my kid's games. Would I still do it? Most often not.

There a ton more questions to ask but you know where you are most vulnerable. Protect yourself relentlesly and don't let sin creep in. Accontability is the key, be sure you have it.

Petition to the list of official spiritual gifts

2008-02-11T16:50:00.000-06:00

Imagine this conversation: Person 1 asks “would you go to the store for me?” Person 2 replies “yes, I defiantly will” End of conversation.

Seems like there is a lot left out of that conversation that would be very important! For example things like WHAT to buy, WHEN to buy it or even WHO to buy it for. I noticed yesterday that I have this conversation almost daily only with a few different words.

This would be closer to my conversation: Person 1 asks “will you pray for me?” Person 2 replies “yes, I defiantly will” End of conversation.

No mention of WHAT to pray for, WHEN to pray for it, or even WHO to pray for. Romans 12:6 says We each have gifts that differ according to the grace given us…I wish I could petition to have “knowing specifically at all times where I need God to move most” added to the list of official Spiritual Gifts. First it shows our constant dependence on God. Secondly it gives others the ability to pray in a whole new way. Finally it makes it much easier to give God all the credit when he does answer our prayers.

When we pray vaguely we see God vaguely at work.
When we pray specifically we see God specifically at work.

Today if you tell somebody you are going to pray for them, be sure you are not going to the store without a shopping list.

I don't have a clue, but.....

2008-01-29T15:16:00.000-06:00

Rachel and I are expecting our first child on March 1st and because of that I have been really praying about what kind of parent I want to be. Everyday I learn how little I know. I thought I would share with you four things that I am going to try to do/be as a parent.

1)I don't want to raise a child who is experientially rich and relationally poor. It seems that so many parents get consumed with taking their child to every water park and beach in the south, have them in every sport and eat at every cool restaurant there is. Most kids spend their childhood perfecting skills that they will NEVER use in their adult life. For me I played basketball every waking moment from 4th-12th grade. Now I play one hour a week on our Church team in the B-League! We haven't even won a game yet. I would much rather have my little girl know people who love her over skills that have no real value. Not to say that these things are not important just in moderation.

2)I want to love her to life, not death. There are going to be points in my daughters life where she is going to begin going down the wrong path. I know that he sweet little eyes are going to have a lot of sway but I pray that when this happens i will step in and be her parent and not her friend who is afraid to hurt her feelings.

3)I don't ever want to forget that she is a blessing from God. I don't ever want her to just be my daughter. I never want it to become routine having her around. I'm sure there will be day's when I want/need to get away but God has blessed us with her and I never want to take that blessing for granted.

4)I want to take responsibility for my daughter to know who Jesus Christ is and that he loves her. Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. This is not the responsibility of her school. This is not the responsibility of her Sunday school teacher. This is not just the responsibility of her mother.

As I write this I do understand that I have no clue what I am getting into but that should never keep me from trying. Feel free to email me if you have any great advice. bgoode@sjlife.com

Rick & Bubba

2008-01-23T16:34:00.000-06:00

Just caught the Rick & Bubba show this morning and found out that Rick's son just drowned in a swimming pool. It is so powerful to see Rick leverage this tragedy to share the love and comfort that comes from a relationship with Christ even especially in the hardest of times.

About to have a daughter myself I can't imagine the pain he is experiencing. Here is a video from him speaking at the funeral of his 2 year old son.

Perfection as the killer of all resolutions.

2007-12-30T21:28:00.000-06:00

We often set resolutions that are nearly impossible and end up setting them in every facet of our lives. Our resolutions, if accomplished, would have us functioning as the perfect human being. The only problem is that we are not perfect and never will be no matter how great our intentions on January 1st are.

When Satan tempts us, he uses lies. On January 1st, he tells everyone that this year is the year they will lose that weight, save that money/get out of debt and get more organized. When we fall short of all those resolution, he shows up again telling us that we are failures and we should keep doing what we were doing before the resolutions. They are all lies, we will never be perfect, we are not failures for not achieving perfection again this year, and we should not stay the same.

This year, simplify. Pick the one resolution that will benefit you the most and focus on it.

Focusing on it means making it more than just an end in itself, but defining the means.

If your Goal is to lose weight, make it your resolution to not eat fast food or drink Coke.
If your Goal is to spend more time with God, make it your resolution to read 1 Chapter of the Bible a day.
If your Goal is to serve others more, make it your resolution to find somebody to do it with you once a month.
If your Goal is to get out of debt, make it your resolution to pay off a certain amount each month.

We will never be perfect, so we can always be better. Let this year be the year of better --not perfect.

Is this real?

2007-12-25T18:33:00.000-06:00

Just watching a show on CNN about Heroes of the Year and saw a commercial for this. It's as bad as it sounds. Go here and listen to previews of:

The Oak Ridge Boys singing Come now is the time to Worship
Emerson Drive singing I can only imagine

Diamond Rio singing Open the Eyes of my Heart

There are even songs by your favorite artists such as Rascal Flatt's, Charlie Danial's and Ricky Skaggs.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:17:00.000-06:00

Hope Everybody has a great Chrismas. We are on our way to "the north' and will be there soon! Here is a video of some guys that are way more talented then i will ever be.

A Christmas Letter

2007-12-22T19:03:00.000-06:00

Walter Albritton is one of our pastors here at Saint James and is incredible to be around. I hope and pray that when I am 75 I will continue to challenge myself physically, mentally and spiritually as Walter does. Last week we got a call that Walters wife was in the ER. She ended up being OK but it was a big scare.

It's hard for me to imagine but they have been married over 55 years, they met in 1st grade so they have known each other even longer then that. It was obviously a tuff time and he wrote her a letter on his blog (thats right he's 75 and has a blog) that i just read really wanted to pass it on to you. You can read it here.

Merry Christmas

Thanks!

2007-12-20T20:20:00.000-06:00

Every year around Christmas time somebody mails me a cashiers check with no way of telling who its from. I have no idea who it is, but THANK YOU!

Saint James is one of the most generous Church's I have ever seen! I'm not saying this because of what they give me but because of what I see all of you give, all the time!

Today there were literally Christmas Presents spilling into the hall because of so many people dropping off gifts to be delivered to the Children of people who are prison.

I could go on for days about this but i'll just say thanks.

Church Freak Out

2007-12-18T20:54:00.000-06:00

Being a pastor I tend to view everything through the filter of what could the Church learn from this? When you walk out of our local Target, there is a huge banner on the wall that explains that 5% of all the money Target makes goes back into the local community. So if Target left town, it would effect more than just Target.

Burger King just came out with a really funny new add campaign called whopperfreakout.com They go to their stores and pretend to have taken the whopper off the menu and film the customers reactions to the news. It's great -- people really freak out!

Here is the brilliant question of the day: Would people react more to your Church or Whoppers leaving town? Whoppers leaving means a need (as perceived and crazy as it may seem) will be unmet, just go to the website and watch. If your Church were to leave town, how many needs, (real needs this time,) would go unmet? Does your church tithe? Does it give more back to the Community then Target?

If your church closed down today, who would care except for your members?

Do we bring more to the table than a whopper?

Abundance of Common Sense

2007-12-12T11:49:00.000-06:00

I walked to Chappy's (a local diner across the street from my house) (to see why I walked read the post below) I got my usual breakfast which Mary Ann my waitress knows by heart and brings to me without really even asking. Its a pretty routine thing. Today however was a little different she told me that the manager was buying breakfast for all the regular breakfast people for Christmas!

In the book Made to Stick the authors say this: The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a Pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Consistent sensory stimulation makes us tune out: Think of the hum of an air conditioner, or traffic noise, or the smell of a candle, or the sight of a bookshelf. We may become consciously aware of these things only when something changes: The air conditioner shuts off. Your spouse rearranges the bookshelves.

I think the church could learn alot from this. When we communicate the message of Jesus we do it in ways that are extremely predictable. So predictable that we can watch TV shows that mimic our efforts. What would it look like for you to communicate the love of Christ in an unexpected way this holiday season?

Check out one way through Common Ground Montgomery. Check out the info on www.sjinformation.com under the Missions Heading.

Lack of Common Sense

2007-12-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

So every now and again I do something really stupid. Today was that day. For the second time in one year, my wife picked me up for dinner after work then we went home. Then when I got up in the morning to go to work, I went outside and remembered that we forgot to go and pick up my car from work!

I had to call somebody to come and pick me up for the second time this year, because I FORGOT MY CAR! Usually i try to make something spiritual out of the things that happen in my life but not this time. Just Pure Lack of Common Sense!

The Golden Compass

2007-12-04T16:49:00.000-06:00

I have gotten emails almost daily over the past few weeks on this movie The Golden Compass so I thought I would share some thoughts about it:

1. Media is very powerful. I think we can use movies for good or bad. However sometimes I think we do overemphasis the impact one movie can have on our culture. We have seen in the past with movies such as Stigmata, Dogma, The DiVinci Code and now The Golden Compass they create all kinds of hype but very little influence. I think there is a big possibility that these concerns about Atheism and God Killing may very well be an extremely successful marketing ploy to generate hype about a sub-par movie. I have heard more about this movie more through email campaigns to boycott it then I actually have from critics or any other type of Acclaim. I would be very interested to see where these e-mails started.

2. Movies are 99% bad. There are tons of movies that come out every week that would be way more dangerous to our kids then this one. This movie at worst could prompt us to a conversation about how everybody does not love God or have a relationship with him the way we do and that the number one goal of the church is to make sure that more people know about Jesus and his love for them. The odds are that in any movie you go see someone will get killed, there will be inappropriate sexual relations, there will be alternate lifestyles represented along with inappropriate language. Not just the The Golden Compass
3. Parents should raise Children not movies. When my daughter is born in March, I am not going to let the culture raise her. I’m determined to disciple her myself. I am going to be a bigger influence in her life then a 2 hour movie. Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

4. The Church should have ten thousand times more influence then this movie. If the Church is truly scared of this movie it is not because of the power of The Golden Compass but because of the perceived weaknesses of the Church. We have a message that is exponentially more life changing and hopeful then anything any movie will ever offer.
So with all that said I think it would be good if we as a church responded. I think we should use this as a platform to promote what we are for: Parents raising their children in a way that is pleasing to God who loves them more then they could ever imagine, not what we are against: The Golden Compass.

These are just some thoughts. I may be way off base but I would love to have a discussion about it, I hope this is a good starting point.

Ephesians 3:16-19 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Tired

2007-11-29T15:52:00.000-06:00

I am wore out. My day off is Friday so Thursday for me is like everybody else's Friday. Spent ALL of today in a Staff Meeting. If that won't wear you out I don't know what will. Got to do some cool planning and if you are involved in our Student Ministry we have some BIG cool changes on the way.

In our meeting today we went over a talk Andy Stanley gave at Catalyst this year and I thought I would post some notes. As our Church gets bigger and bigger systems that used to work no longer work. So we need to be constantly changing and we spent a good part of today talking about what "system" changes we need to make.

Here are the notes:

*There are systems that are conducive to ministry and organizational systems that impede ministry

*There are systems that free leaders and systems that obstruct leaders.

*Systems are you way of getting things done.

*SYSTEMS CREATE BEHAVIOR

*Sermons do not create behavior SYSTEMS CREATE BEHAVIOR

*The systems that you have will impact what your staff and volunteers DO.

*Anytime you hear well our people just won't.... you are listening to someone who doesn't understand the influence of Systems.

*Systems have a greater impact on organizational culture then do missions statements.

*Mission Statements hang on walls. Systems determine what happens down the hall.

*If a new leader casts a new vision and never addresses old systems, nothing changes.

*The NT does not present us with a comprehensive system or model of Church.

*In the NT we discover what the early church DID. The NT does not lay out a comprehensive plan instructing church leaders what to DO.

*Always differentiate in scripture what is PRE-scriptive and what is DE-scriptive.

*Principals from scripture that should be integrated into our systems: Delegation Acts 6 & Exodus 18, Accountability Acts 15, Authority Romans 13, Interdependence Paul's Example, Seeking Counsel Proverbs & Acts 15

NOT QUITE SWITCH FOOT

2007-11-28T20:34:00.001-06:00

I was just complaining the other day that I haven't heard any new music that I really liked in a while then I heard this CD.

I guess its not technically new since its by Jon Foreman who is the front man from Switch foot but man it was good. Its just him and some strings and occasionally a harmonica. Sounds a little like like Ray Lamontange or Damien Rice.

I dont know what to call this one

2007-11-28T10:16:00.000-06:00

I just cant come up with a good title for this post, here were some options

*Why i am an Auburn fan.

*People from the north really dont understand what college football is like down here.

*The man you dont want to run into after AU wins the Iron Bowl.

*Even Bear Bryant would be embarrassed.

*What is tattooed on your forearms for when you pray?

*Do Alabama fans actually encourage this?

Let me know if you have a better one.........

Follow Up

2007-11-21T22:05:00.000-06:00

Mentioned the other day about posting notes from the YS conference. Well it was going to cost $25.00 a day to connect to the internet there so I decided to wait till I got home to do it. Maybe Friday.

Iron Bowl

2007-11-21T22:03:00.000-06:00

Just found out Rachel and I are going to the Iron Bowl this weekend! I have never been so I am pumped. HUGE thanks to my friend Bradley for the tickets! I am really feeling good about the Tigers in this one going for 6 in row.

NYWC

2007-11-14T22:04:00.001-06:00

Heading out early in the morning to the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta. Don't do nearly as much with our student ministry as I used to but am excited about getting to hang out with Jeremy, Mike and Woods for a few day in ATL. I am going to try and take as many counseling seminars as possible. I have been dealing with more people in crisis over the last few months then I ever have in my life and have a ton of room to grow in that area.

I will be posting notes all weekend from the sessions so check them out!

Rio Team is Back

2007-11-13T16:02:00.001-06:00

I had mentioned last week our Worship team went down and played at a conference in Rio last week and I just got the video in yesterday from the trip. It is defiantly worth the watch especially at about the 3:00 mark, you can see the big conference crowd! Big thanks to Brad Armagost for making this video. They were able to do some serious ministry down there and it was clear on Sunday Morning that God had moved in their lives. Worship was defiantly different.

Just to give you an idea about the leadership and vision of the Methodist Church in Brazil, they were praying for 1 MILLION conversions over the next few years in their area alone. That is some serious vision.

Check out the Video.

Check out the Video.

Rio Team is Back

2007-11-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Check out the Video.

Forgivness

2007-11-12T20:52:00.000-06:00

Have you ever gotten revenge and felt good about it? Probably not, at least not for more than about 10 minutes. Human nature tells us when somebody hurts us, we need to make things even. For example, if you were an Alabama fan, you would feel like you needed to beat Auburn 6 times in a row to make things even.

In Romans 12, Scripture tells us that judgment is for God, not us. This should free us from the burden of having to personally make sure all things are fair in the world.

George Wallace, Jr. is dealing with the fact that the man who shot his father is getting out of jail about 17 years early. Most people in his position would feel the need to fight the release of Mr. Bremer and “make things right.” But over the past few years, I have come to personally know Mr. Wallace as a true follower of Christ. He was quoted as saying, "My father forgave him and my family has forgiven him. That's consistent with God's law. Then there is man's law. I doubt the punishment has fit the crime." Through our conversations, I have been amazed by the humility and personal peace he has shown when talking about Mr. Bremer. He does not need revenge. He understands that Arthur Bremer does not answer to George Wallace, Jr., but to God. The peace he has is what comes from knowing that God did not put him on this earth to judge, but to love and forgive as Jesus Christ himself did.

Are you playing the role of Judge or Christian? Even when we feel like the victim of an injustice, we can still not let past sins of others keep us from receiving the future grace and blessing of Jesus Christ.

Catch up time!

2007-11-07T21:33:00.000-06:00

Got a lot going on this week. Just thought I would post what's new:

*Rachel is 23 weeks pregnant and has 17 to go! Rebecca Caroline is going to be here before we know it!

*Going to eat breakfast with a Mentor friend of mine David Woods. He has some HUGE news coming up over the next few week.

*Had a cool holiday market at Saint James last night. They had over 50 vendors from all over the place selling Christ-Centered holiday gifts. There were about 400 people shopping!

*My brother is still working to get to be a Foster Parent for Cody. Should be finding out the verdict is a few weeks.

*Got an update from the money we loaned to Usobov at Kiva.com. Here is what they sent us: The business you have loaned to, Eldaniz Usubov, has made a repayment of $86.00. The total amount repaid is now $86.00. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders who helped to fund this business,depending upon the percentage each lender contributed.

Please note that these funds will not be credited to your Kiva account until the loan is repaid in full or when the loan term is complete. At that time, you will be able to withdraw these funds from Kiva.org or to re-lend these funds to a new business.

*Our praise band went to play for a Methodist Rally in Rio Di Janeiro last week. Here is a video from one of their shows! It might be the worst quality EVER and you have to turn your head sideways to see it. I will post a better one as soon as I get it.

Decisions

2007-11-05T20:55:00.000-06:00

Every day we make thousands of decisions. Some are so simple that our instincts make them for us. It’s those decisions with big implications that we struggle with. In 1 Samuel 24 there is a story about two guys: David (wanted to be king) and Saul (was king). Saul had been chasing David trying to kill him for quite a while. In the strangest of circumstances, they met. David was hiding in the back of a cave when Saul came in the exact same random cave to go to the bathroom! Of all the caves in the world, how did Saul end up in the same one? It seemed like God’s timing for David to become king by force. But David knew that it wasn’t.

Sometimes making good decisions keeps us from making great ones.

I always want to make the right decision, and to help me, I always remember this: Most things of God have a short-term negative and long-term positive. Things not of God have a short-term positive and a long-term negative.

Think about it in terms of….
What you eat
What you drink
What you say
How you spend your money
The time you spend with God seeking his direction

Nobody has ever said “I wish I would have eaten worse yesterday.”

In light of your past, present and future circumstances what is the right decision for you to make today?

bama vs. lsu

2007-11-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

Getting ready to watch the bama vs. lsu game and I can't decide who to go or geaux for. I love it when bama loses and it would be great for lsu to beat up their old coach. It would also make Auburn beating bama in the Iron Bowl that much better if they beat LSU and got to thinking they were good! We'll see what happens.

Leadership Summit 08

2007-11-02T08:49:00.000-05:00

Every year Willow Creek Community Church hosts a leadership summit and hopefully Saint James is going to be a part of it this year. You may remember me posting my notes from it this year. We are meeting with some pastors from Willow on Monday morning to work out the details but if we end up hosting this event it will be HUGE. Over 100,000 people attended this event last year alone! Here is the info from the 2007 event.

Say a prayer that this works out. I can't tell you how incredible of a ministry this is going to be to the business community of East Montgomery. We hope to have over 750 business leaders at Saint James for this event.

Shoot me an email if you would like to volunteer with this.

New Building Pics

2007-10-31T11:42:00.001-05:00

Here a few pics of the addition. The one on the right is going to be the Worship Center and the one on the top is the two story childrens center. Still on target for October 08!

Rebecca Caroline

2007-10-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

There she is! Its a pretty funny picture because although she looks like she is lying peacefully on her back she is actually standing straight up inside of Rachel facing forward! I never picture little babies in that position.

Gmail Users

2007-10-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

For those of you who use gmail I just found this cool little gadget. (I think you can use it for other emails but I only got it to work for gmail) Its called Send2Email and after installing it you are able to right click any file on your computer and with one click send it to yourself in your email. It's basically creating a backup of everything you need with one click. You can get all the details here.

Rachel does her homework on this computer and saves it to the computer then has to email everything to herself so she can get it at school. Makes things quite a bit faster and easier.

I'm Feeling Old

2007-10-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

So when I was younger we lived in a pretty small town of a few thousand people. There wasn't always a ton going on but we made do. This video is of kids doing EXACTLY what me and my friends used to do. Makes me feel incredibly old! I never thought I would see this place on a youtube video!

Follow Up's

2007-10-24T21:15:00.000-05:00

I realized today that I needed to follow up to a few recent posts so here we go:

*Were having a girl! Rebeca Caroline Goode will be her name. She is approximately 129 days away.

*My brother is still in the process of becoming a foster parent. I have had a few people grab me and tell me that they are praying for him and I can't tell you how much it means to me and Ryan. It is still a few weeks away from a decision but when one comes I might have Ryan post the whole story on here for you.

*The new building is rocking. You can go to sjlife.com to see all the pics. I will post some more this week.

*Usobobv's spare parts is up and running. Here is the link to the original post. Here is the email I got from Kiva.org, Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Eldaniz Usubov by Komak Credit Union in Azerbaijan. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 14 - 20 months, Komak Credit Union will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I will be sure to post when I get some updates.

Stop Working

2007-10-22T20:33:00.000-05:00

Last week my wife and I got to stop for a few days at the beach. I think there is something spiritual about stopping. When we work, work and work it makes us less effective and aware then if we work, stop then work. I can sense way more direction from God in my life when I stop then when I work.

When we work, we concentrate on what is possible through our own power. When we stop, we can reflect on what is possible through God's.

Often the stop is what makes the work so evident. Imagine a drummer who played every drum on every beat. How monotonous and dull would a football game be if there wasn’t time to stop and make ourselves more aware of the magnitude of the previous and next play.

Jesus had to stop. He often had to not heal sick people or preach to another crowd because he valued stopping and seeking guidance from God on what to do next. In Mark 7 we see Jesus enter a house “and did not want anyone to know it.” He was trying to stop.

Take Jesus’ lead today and stop. Give God five minutes outside of your normal environment and let him change the direction of your work.

Good News

2007-10-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

Just realized something tonight. Our baby is due on March 1st but I hear that most baby's come a few days before their due date. If our baby comes one day before the due date it will be born on February 29th. Since next year is a leap year it could possibly be born on a day that only comes once every four years! I think that is great and Rachel thinks it will get ripped off on birthday parties. I guess we would just have to have HUGE bashes every four years. It would also mean we would have a genius. It could potentially drive when it is 4 and graduate college when it is 5.

Were also going to the doctor tomorrow to find out if it's a boy or girl even though I am pretty sure it's a boy. I really don't have a preference I just REALLY think it is going to be a boy. And his name will be ______

I actually get to golf and call it work!

2007-10-11T10:19:00.001-05:00

Going out to Emerald Mountain Golf Course to Golf for Missions this morning. Big thanks to Tim Turberville for letting us use the course for free! We expect to make over $10,000 dollars today to help support our overseas missions. Me, Jeremy our Youth Pastor and Lester are on the same team so everybody look out! Literally.

Indiana Prayer

2007-10-10T09:08:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned my brother on here a few times before but if you don't know him he is a 24 year old Pastor in Southern Indiana and the guy needs some prayer this morning.

He works a lot with the youth and about a year ago a kid came to the church and really connected with Ryan. To make an extremely long story short, Cody had a horrible family situation and ended up in a youth detention center. Over the past few months Ryan gets up at 4am to be on the road for four hours to visit Cody for two hours and then drive back home another four hours.

Ryan is literally the only thing this guy has going for him in the world. Well here is where the prayer comes in. Cody is due to get out of jail in the next couple months and the state is in the process of setting up where he will go. They keep pushing for him to go to his grandparents house which is ultimately a bad situation. Ryan however who is single and 24 has offered to be his foster parent for the next two years! What a HUGE sacrifice that is for him. Normally I would be extremely cautious of a 24 year old adopting a 16 year old but it is so clear that God has brought Ryan into his life and Ryan has prayed and prayed to know this is the right thing.

Ryan called his State Representative to get involved when it looked like the court was going to send him to his Grandparents and proved to him that His house is the best place for Cody. So the Rep is meeting RIGHT NOW with the court to decide Cody and Ryan's future.

This meeting could potentially change Cody's entire life. He is just about to get out of the cycle of violence and poverty that he has been trapped in his entire life.

Home Sweet Home

2007-10-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

Just an update on some things going on in my life.

*With Catalyst going on last week I didn't really have a day off so thanks to Christopher Columbus I am chillin at home today. Get to paint a room, clean a little and just hang out. Promise I am going to post the Catalyst notes soon!

*Also today is the start of the 19th week of our Pregnancy! Next Monday we will be half way! It's going by so stinking fast.

*Every Monday Morning I meet with a group of guys for a short bible study and breakfast. The past few weeks have been great. We are talking about money this session and have some guys make some huge changes. Last week we talked about how it is not bad to have stuff as long as we are leveraging it for use in the kingdom of God. So if we had stuff that was useless we should sell it and use the money on things that will impact eternity. Had two guys sell some expensive stuff and donate the money! One of them just gave me the money to give to a ministry that I thought could use it.

*One of my best friends Erik called me a few days ago and asked me to be the best man in his wedding. I am really excited about it. It really is an honor. I am so grateful for some of the friends God has allowed me to have over the long-haul. I have been friends with Erik for almost 15 Years and have been doing ministry with him for about 10.

*Going to Myrtle Beach Next Week for a little fall get a way before Christmas and the baby come.

*Find out Friday if we are having a boy or girl. I will be just as excited either way but I am strangely confident it is going to be a boy. So much so that I just refer to it as a boy all the time and Rachel keeps yelling at me IT COULD BE A GIRL! We'll see.

Off to Catalyst

2007-10-03T13:09:00.000-05:00

On my way to Atlanta for this years Catalyst Conference. This is one of the highlights of my year. Really gives me motivation for the rest of the year. My brother is in town to go with us. We just the biggest lunch ever at Jim N Nicks. He also helped me move our new bed in to the house, we managed to only scratch it once. Its a little crazy trying to fit a king size bed into our apt! In our bed room there is absolutely no room for anything but our bed. The door shuts with about an inch of space between it and the bed.

Anyway I will keep you up to date with some notes from the conference over the next few day.

Optimist, Pessimist, Realist and Christian

2007-10-01T15:33:00.000-05:00

My wife used to get upset with me because I was what some would call insensitive. I preferred to use the term realist. Some of us claim to be optimists or that others are pessimists! My thoughts lately have been centered on what type of attitude I should have and have settled on the term Christian. I should have a Christian Attitude. Not the Ned Flanders type attitude but the Christian type attitude that sees past the weaknesses in people and into the potential of what they could be in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus chose his disciples in Luke 5 we see he picked guys who were viewed very pessimistically. These guys had no education or skills; they were simply fishermen at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Jesus did not choose them on what they were but on what they could become.

That is a huge challenge for me. My tendency is to be a realist and judge people on what I see. But I am praying to be like Jesus, to have a Christian attitude and see people as who they could become.

The Emerge Gathering

2007-09-27T19:22:00.000-05:00

Getting to go and teach at THE EMERGE GATHERING tonight. Big thanks to Chad for putting a ridiculous picture of me on the front page of the site! I'm excited about this service. There is nothing like it in Montgomery. If you are a college student anywhere in town you need to come by Ligon Chapel @ Huntingdon College Thursday nights at 8pm.

The Best $25.00 You Will Ever Spend

2007-09-26T17:17:00.001-05:00

Came across a new website last week called Kiva.org. It is an incredible site. It is not a Ministry in Name but Defiantly in Works. I can imagine a better thing in the world to do with $25.00. Kiva partners with organizations all over the world that partner with local business people who need money to start or further a business. Micro-Financing is the actual term.

The idea is that the people in the richest country in the world(America) can loan money in very small increments to help people in third world countries start businesses. This is not giving to the poor this is investing in the poor.

The site is so popular and people are so willing to help they limit donations! Imagine if the Church was helping people in such a that we actually had to tell people to only give us a little money. Anyway Rachel and I decided to invest in Usobov's Spare Parts. Its a spare parts store in Azerbaijan. He runs this store to support his family and was raising $1200.00 to expand his inventory.

Monday Morning

2007-09-24T16:11:00.000-05:00

On Sundays at Saint James I usually go up and welcome everybody to get the service started. We have three services so at the 8am service I usually do the welcome and then leave the service to get some more work done before the 930 service. Well last week I came into my office like usual and ran into Walter one of our pastors here. We were talking about the Auburn game and a few other things. Then we hear somebody storming back to my office yelling my name telling me to stop talking.

When i got off of the stage my microphone never got turned off and EVERYONE in the sanctuary heard every word of the conversation Walter and I had. When we found out what had happened i got sick to my stomach hoping I hadn't said anything I would regret or have to go back on stage and apoligize for! (Luckily the only thing bad I said was about football coach's who don't go to our Church)

Words are powerful. We need to choose them wisely in all circumstances. 1 Peter 4:11 says, If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God....so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

We should be praying that in every situation the words that come out of my mouth would be the words God himself would speak. I am learning to live and speak as if the microphone is always on.

John Edwards

2007-09-19T10:25:00.000-05:00

Got invited to a lunch with John Edwards a few weeks ago. It was a really interesting time. He was speaking to a group of Lawyers at Beasley Allen and some guys from Saint James are Lawyers there and invited me. Pretty cool getting to talk with a guy who might be president. What a HUGE responsibility that is.

756

2007-09-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

Heard a great interview with Mark Echo on The Heard today. (the heard is a sports talk radio show on espn radio) He is the guy who bought Barry Bond's record breaking home run and what is doing with it is fascinating.

There has been so much debate over the ball and He said sports fans rarely have any say in what actually happens in sports so he bought the ball to give them a say.

You can go to his site www.vote756.com and vote for what to do with the ball. The options are:

1.Send the ball to Cooperstown

2.Burn an asterisk into the ball and then send it to Cooperstown

3.Shoot the ball into space to never be seen again!

He is dead serious about this and it is really a brilliant marketing ploy for himself. For what it's worth I am voting for number 2. It will be the symbol of an era for generations of people to see and be reminded of Steroids. I would say shoot it to the moon if Bond's was even the least bit remorseful.

You can also see a video of Echo on the Today show here.

www.tradeasone.com

2007-09-18T10:15:00.000-05:00

Wanted to highlight a cool ministry that I came across last week called tradeasone.com

They Summarize their ministry by saying this:

There are two worlds.

One where people are poor. The other where people have money to buy things.

Color us innocent, but we think there should be one world.

So we set up this site so people in America can buy things from people in the developing world.

We get beautiful and useful things. They earn a living.

That sounds like a fair trade to us.

There are alot of sites like this but what seperates trade as one is how cool the stuff is. They also work to mainly bring women out of Sex Trade in areas like Cambodia. If you are like my wife and are already Christmas shopping this might be a great way to follow up on yesterday's post about giving gifts from gifts.

Check out the video below for a little more info:

Here is another one

Monday Morning #6

2007-09-17T06:56:00.000-05:00

Giving Gifts From Gifts

It’s been a crazy weekend around our house and God has really been teaching me a lot about gifts. Here are three quotes that I have heard in the past three days.

*My wife to someone who needed a place to live for a few weeks, “Our house was a gift from God. You are not intruding, it’s not even ours so please come and stay with us.”

*A Guy I work with to me from his recent vacation “since somebody was letting us use their beach house for free we decided to invite another couple who could never afford a vacation like that.”

*A woman from Saint James responding to me thanking her for an extremely nice thing she did, “oh don’t worry about it, God blessed me so I better be helping others. If God didn’t use me to help you out he would have used somebody else, Thank God, Not Me!”

I’m learning to give gifts from every gift.

If somebody buys me lunch, I will buy something to bring back for somebody else at the office.

If I find twenty bucks on the ground, I will give half of it away.

If somebody has done some of my work and freed me up, I will help and free somebody else up.

If somebody gives me a vacation house, I will invite somebody else there with me.

Today at work when somebody gives you a gift of any kind, give a gift from the gift. I am becoming more and more convinced that God does not give me gifts that end with me. His death on the cross was not just for us to keep. He tells his disciples after meeting with them to go and give this gift of salvation away.

RELEVANT MAGAZINE

2007-09-12T09:11:00.000-05:00

It's Tuesday and around here that means I try to plug a ministry that I think is doing some cool things. Today I thought I would point you to RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM. They claim that they want to break stereotypes, challenge status-quo and enact change through the media. Thats a pretty big mission.

One thing that is a little different about them is that nothing on the website is in the magazine and nothing in the magazine is on the website. So to get the full effect of what they do you really need go to a bookstore like Barnes & Noble to pick up the mag.

Here a few reasons I read Relevant.

*It really is relevant. They are right on top of all the things happening in culture.

*They interview people who are searching in their faith not just those who seem to have it figured out.

*The Podcast is one of the best out there.

*They have one of the coolest video websites you have ever seen called relevant.tv

*They do an amazing job of intentionally trying to change the way the world views Christians.

You can also check them out on their myspace and here is an article from the USA Today.

Things I've Learned Working With Youth

2007-09-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

It is possible to send 8000 more text messages in a month then your plan allows for!

For the Record that would be....

Around 266 Per Day.

Assuming she sleeps 8 hours a day that would be about 15 per hour.

Which would be a text message every 4 MINUTES FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH!

Monday Morning #6

2007-09-10T12:29:00.001-05:00

Playstation or Praystation?

Coca-Cola It's the real thing or Jesus-Christ He's the real thing?

Abercrombie & Fitch or A breadcrumb and fish?

YouTube or GodTube?

Those are some of my favorite Culture icons turned Jesus Gear. There are a million more but these seem to be the ones I always come back to. I find this trend of the church taking things from culture and making them their own very interesting.

Some would say we are redeeming or sanctifying culture and others would simply say we lack the creativity to create our own "slogans."

This type of clothing or paraphernalia takes what is accepted in the world puts a little God spin on it and then call it holy. We as the church become a sub-culture. We take what the culture is doing, put a little God spin on it and call it Christian. We turn ourselves into a microcosm of what the world is.

This presents us with the enormous temptation of Apathy. We simply take our cues of how we live life from culture then spin it to include God. For us as Christians the challenge is to break free from the apathetic sub-culture and begin to let God create a counter-culture through us. When we think about our lives oftentimes they are simply the same as everyone else's with a little God spin on them.

What would it look like for you to live a counter-cultural life for Christ instead of blending into the sub-culture we have created?

Monday Morning #5

2007-09-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

When I was 18 I had a 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix. There were lots of problems with it. One was the seal of the back window had broken and in order to drive with out the wind blowing the back window off of the car I would have to drive with the sunroof tipped up so the air would flow over the window and not blow the huge piece of glass into traffic. Another problem with the car was the starter. My family is full of mechanics and I learned that instead of replacing my started I could just smack it with a hammer when it wouldn't work and sometimes it would be enough to start the car.

Thats prayer for me sometimes. I wait until things are bad and pull out the hammer to take a few final wacks at the problem. Prayer should be way more like the fuel we put into the car. The very thing it needs to move. My car ALWAYS needs gas. My life ALWAYS needs prayer.

Read Luke 11:1-13 for a funny story Jesus tells about how prayer is not a one time deal but a process. Sometimes a long one. If you have something that is about to be a problem pray now and tomorrow and the next day and the next day instead of just whacking it with a hammer when there are no other options.

War Eagle

2007-09-04T09:16:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am to live so close to Auburn Football. I had two of my friends come down from Chicago for the K-State game Saturday. One of the guys has been to games all over the country, Nebraska, Tallahassee and a bunch of pro stadiums and he was clearly amazed by the atmosphere and magnitude of the game.

One of my favorite things that they said was that it was the first ever football game they had been to that they would feel comfortable bringing their kids too. Neither of the guys are really connected to a church so it was cool to introduce them to so many cool people from Saint James that we ran into at the game and change their perspective of what Christians look and act like. They were amazed that all these normal and cool people go to Saint James.

Auburn won in the most impressive fashion. It's clear that Al Borges just keeps teams close to the mid fourth quarter without showing more then two plays. He then calls the perfect play at the perfect time and we win by a touchdown or so. It happens every week and it blows my mind that people still think it is an accident!

Emerge

2007-08-31T10:50:00.001-05:00

Got the opportunity to speak at The Emerge Gathering last night and had a great time. Brian, Chad and Jeremy the guys leading it are great and I really believe God is going to bless this new ministry over at Huntingdon College. If you are college student in Montgomery you really need to check it out on Thursday Nights @ 8pm in Ligon Chapel.

Here we go.....

2007-08-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

This is the first piece of steel going into the ground of the new building! We are pumped up. It has all been dragging a little bit lately and there is something about seeing it coming out of the ground that starts to get everybody excited. We are shooting to be in by October of next year.

Bill Hybels

2007-08-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

I read an article once about how my generation does a horrible job of giving due respect and appreciation to the leaders of the generation before us. Tuesday posts are usually about ministries but I thought today I would write about a person.

Bill Hybels is by far one of the most influential Christian leader of my time.

Most every evangelical Church in the US has in some way been influenced by his ministry.

Here are some things that impress me most about him:

*He admits when he is wrong.
*His Church is a movement. It is always adapting to be relevant.
*He is older and still is on the cutting edge of ministry. He is always innovating and finding new and more effective ways to share the gospel.
*He understands unchurched people while still being completely immersed in the Church.
*Integrity.
*He still takes risks.
*He purposely shares everything he learns.
*He is a normal guy.

This year I was at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit along with over 100,000 other ministry leaders all over the world. Imagine the impact of that Summit. When you influence 100,000 ministry leaders it is unbelievable the impact that must have all over the world.

Also if you are a pastor your Church NEEDS to be a part of the Willow Creek Association.
I just got Hybels new book Holy Discontent this morning. I post about it later.

6 Day's

2007-08-26T21:15:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's only six days until Auburn Football. I have some friends driving 12 hours down from Chicago to experience SEC Football at it's finest. Season Opener's are great but they are even better when they are night games on ESPN.

Eliot

2007-08-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

Got to preach this morning and showed a video. Thought you might enjoy it. Don't watch this if you are at work because you will have to explain to everybody why you are crying!

Crazy Week

2007-08-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

This week has been crazy! I have all kinds of things I have wanted to post about but no time. Next week I am going to be back in the groove. Some cool things have happened this week.

*We had the most students ever at a Sunday Night Youth Event just over 150 Kids packed into the youth worship center.

*Rachel started back to school.

*Started telling people that were having a baby!

*Getting ready to preach on Sunday.

*Working on a communications overhaul of sorts at Saint James.

*Had a staff retreat.

*And lots of my time online has been helping my buddy Andre get his faithracers.com and myspace page ready for the fall.

Lots of other stuff but I will be back in the saddle full time come monday.

Aaron Shust

2007-08-20T20:11:00.001-05:00

Just got the new Aaron Shust CD. It is really good. His last CD had a song My Saviour, My God which started getting airtime July of last year and Matt Austin the general manager of WayFM told me that it was the most played song on Christian radio for the year! Anyway it seemed like one of those one hit kind of deals but his second CD whispered and shouted is great. Pretty diverse has all kinds of songs from punk band sounding to songs with mainly him and a piano. I was really impressed with it. Check him out here on myspace. Also here is a good article that pretty much sums him up.

2007-08-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

I was just helping a buddy out with his ministries myspace page and came across a new website that is really cool. lovemyflash.com is a myspace layout site but all of their layout's are done in flash. They are really cool and some of the coolest myspace layouts I have ever seen.

How I think Jesus would respond to a racist joke.

2007-08-14T09:28:00.001-05:00

If you hear racists jokes and dont know how to respond when one is told click here to find out the perfect response.

Monday Morning #4

2007-08-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

In 1 Samuel we see the story of Hannah who gives her first son Samuel to God. Hannah could not have children for a long time so once she finally did she was so grateful to God that she literally gave her son to him.

It brought up the question do I give out of duty or gratitude? When we are driving down the road and see somebody stranded often we think "I should help." Never mind if we actually stop or not! Saying I should help insinuates that we help out of duty not because we are so grateful that God has given us a car and cell phone that work.

This week when you are asked to write a check, give your time, tithe or even just observe a need pray that your response will come from gratitude not duty.

Richard Curtis Session 8

2007-08-11T10:37:00.000-05:00

Richard Curtis is a British filmmaker who's work you have probably seen. Films such as Noting Hill and The girl in the cafe are his work. He is also the guy behind comic relief and the episode of American Idol called Idol gives back when Simon and Ryan Seacrest went to Africa. He also organized the National Day of Giving in Britain which raised hundreds of million of dollars.

Here are the notes....

*Most people make movies about the worst thing that can happened to you. I make movies about the best things that can happen to you. People say my movies are unrealistic. One in a million people get stabbed in a barn in the country by an escaped convict and the movie creates real fears in people. I make movies about people falling in love and they leave saying i wish that could happen! Millions of people fall in love every month!
*There is great power in humor.
*Curtis writes Mr. Bean and he often asks the question "will they get the joke in Egypt?" he wants to make it so simple that everyone gets it.
*I never hire anybody for what they have done before but for what they are going to do.
*Don't be to emotional about failure.
*This is the best thing i heard him say: i have no embarrassment about asking people to give.
*People are looking for the opportunity to give.
*People lose themselves in the glory of political theory.
*If i am going to pray for something i better be acting on it too.

Some of the closing remarks about Curtis from Hybles:

*This guy disturbs me.
*His heart breaks over the things that God's heart breaks over.
*He claims he can really only do one thing well but he ruthless does what he does well to end injustice.

2007-08-11T10:36:00.001-05:00

President Carter just spoke and he was introduced by Hybles. As he was introducing he challanged leaders not to let his political affiliation keep you from learning from him. He challanged leaders to expand their learning bandwidth. He also said that Leaders who didnt bring their team to the summit because of Jimmy Carter were short sighted and exhibiting poor leadership.

Here are some notes from Jimmy Carter who has a masters degree in nuclear physics.....

*Honesty is the one thing i look for from people in my inner circle.
the chasam between the rich and the poor is the weakest point of our world.
*Washington should be known as the place to to resolve conflicet and stop human rights violations.
*We should accomodate to our times but never change our values.
*Psalm 34:14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it

Kirk Franklin is still rocking out!

Last Day at the Summit

2007-08-11T09:35:00.001-05:00

I am here at the last day of the summit and Kirk Franklin is on Stage going to town. I am impressed by his humility. Seems like a real servant of God. I have a few more sessions to post but the lights have been off for so long that I haven't been able to read my notes!

The attention to diversity at this conference has been great to me. They have had a great mix of people on the stage. In Hybel's first session he talked about the importance of being the one to break down the racial barrier and to be the first one to reach your hand across the line. The lineup of speakers is essentially him leading by example and asking others to follow him in that.

Kirk Franklin is ROCKING OUT!

One other observations that I wanted to make was to how incredibly anointed Bill Hobbles is. When that man speaks, he speaks truth. His words are powerful but he has an unbelievable sense of God's spirit prompting him. He displayed this when he asked Carly Fiornia if he could pray for her after she said she didn't know what she was going to do in the future. It completely took her off guard and he stood up had thousands of Leaders to pray for her. You could tell he said the absolute perfect word from God at the perfect time.

Jimmy Carter is coming up so I will post soon.

Marcus Buckingham Session 4

2007-08-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

This guy is great and has really seemed to be the common thread through alot of these speakers this weekend. He is leading what he calls a strength's s revolution. He has 3 bestseller books and a 1st class set of videos you can check out his site here.

Here are the notes....

*Excellence is not the opposite of failure. Bad inverted is not bad which is different then great.
*This line of thinking would say that because all bad marriages have arguing that arguing is a sign of a bad marriage. This is not true healthy marriages have arguing.
*You only learn about excellence by studying excellence. We want to study the bad to learn what not to do but this does not work.
*What percentage of your day do you spend playing to your strengths.
*People are not our greatest asset . Peoples strengths are our greatest asset.
*3 Myths
1. As you grow your personality changes. (for proof think of your high school reunion)
The truth is that as you grow you become more of who you are.
2. You will grow most in your weaknesses.
The truth is you will grow most where you are already strong.
3. A great team member puts his strings aside for the sake of the team.
*The truth is a great team has individuals who know and use their strengths.
*Warren Buffet was playing to his strengths when he gave away his 31 Billion Dollars.
*He said Bill Gates can GIVE IT AWAY BETTER THEN I CAN!
*He then said that he respects charity enough to know that you don't want a guy like him giving it away. He knows how to make money not give it away.
*Play to your strengths.

Rev. Floyd Flake Session 3

2007-08-09T15:41:00.001-05:00

To many things fail because they don't know where they are going.

Focus on identified needs.

You must have clear goals.

Some people only want the title leader.

Trust God enough to be honest.

Do not be intimidated by negative reactions

We should lead so the next generation will benefit.

Carly Fiorina Session 2

2007-08-09T15:33:00.001-05:00

*I was not a gifted child but my parents were a gift to me.
*Sometimes knowing the answer is less important then asking the right question.
*Nothing worhtwhile happens with one person working alone.
*Many fears are stupid but they are real.
*Other peoples fears are not your burden.
*If you cant move a team nothing will happen.
*The vision needs to be greater then the fear.
*Leasership is sending people in a new direction.
*Your vision must include the reality of the work it wil take.
*Leadership is about seing and unlocking potential in others.
*Some of the best lessons I learned were from bosses who taught me what NOT to do.
*Leaders need objectivity.
*Passion can blind or motivate.

Bill Hybels Session 1

2007-08-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

*Vision Casting is a Team thing.
*Vision casting should be dramatic, quick and efficient.
*Vision creating creates community.
*People don't always need to have their way but they do need to have their way considered.
*Ownership of a vision matters.
*You should cast your vision to your leaders. If it dosent move your leaders it WILL NOT move your church.
*Vision Decleration is a team sport.
*Great leaders spend more time refining the vision rather then claiming it.
*Vision leaks, people will forget.
*People in your church have lives outside of the church.
*We should be the 1st to reach a hand over the racial divide.
*People will only own a vision to the extent they think you are going to won it.
*We need to commit longer then until it gets difficult.
*WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DIE FOR THE VISION GOD HAS GIVEN YOU?

Willow Creek Leadership Summit

2007-08-09T14:09:00.000-05:00

I am spending the next few days at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Instead of going to Chicago we drove down to Pensacola, Florida to a satellite campus. I am going to post my notes from the sessions as the day goes on. It's been great so far. Tons of good stuff.

It's a little weird when everyone claps for things that happen on the screen as if they are happening here but I'm getting used to it.

theauburner.com

2007-08-08T10:17:00.001-05:00

This is by far one of my favorite websites. Today they had a pretty funny post about Communism and why schools should offer major's in football. Sounds like a good idea to me. Not the Communism part the football part.

email me

theauburner.com

2007-08-08T10:17:00.000-05:00

My Movie Problems

2007-08-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

Just stumbled across this list on the Christianity Today website. They rank movies that they think are good and appropriate. It looks like a good list because they seem pretty objective. They even had a few R rated movies on there as long as the content was in line with the movie. (I say that because similar lists like this will exclude a movie as "not fit for Christians" if it is Rated worse then PG) They put The Shawshank Redemption (which is rated R) on the list and said it's hard to make a PG rated prision movie. Makes Perfect Sense.

Maybe this site will help me out. I havent felt like I got 8 bucks worth of a movie in the last few years. Maybe its just that I am horrible at picking out movies. Anyway a good list of recomendations might help me out.

For the record Rachel and I have NEVER been to the movies together.

Monday Morning #3

2007-08-06T15:21:00.000-05:00

Are you the thermostat or the thermometer?

That was the question that came up yesterday. In you interactions with people are you the influencer or the influenced? We often let others dictate our attitude for the day but as Christians (the light of the world) we are to set the example.

Ephesians 4:32 says Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

We often lose perspective on the forgiveness we have in Christ Jesus. Our joy does not come from other people but from Jesus Christ. If there is someone at your work/school or even home who has been difficult to deal with remember to show the same grace towards them that was shown to you.

Matthew 5:14 says that you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Are you the influenced or the influencer? The thermostat or the thermometer?

EMAIL ME

America's Got Talent

2007-08-03T14:07:00.000-05:00

Not the biggest fan of the show America's Got Talent but this video was so great I thought I would share it with you. We are going to be using it in a service in the next few weeks. God gives us all talents and we need to use them for his glory. So many people are so talented in so many ways and FEAR is all that keeps them from stepping out and sharing with the world what God has gifted them to do.

What are you holding back?

Nellie Burge Center

2007-07-31T10:10:00.000-05:00

Every year we take our Jr High students for one week and take them all over town serving in different locations. We mix it up the locations every year but we always make a point to go to the Nellie Burge Center in west Montgomery. There main purpose is to be an affordable daycare for parents but they also have a program for women who don't yet have their GED. Women can come in and take a GED course and there children will have free daycare downstairs.

It is an extremely effective ministry that has been in operation for 104 YEARS!

Last time we were there they said there biggest need was school supplies and adults to help tutor the GED students. If you would be interested in volunteering click here.

Monday Morning #2

2007-07-29T20:44:00.000-05:00

Monday mornings can stink. I have had jobs that were miserable. I used to work selling long distance as a telemarketer. I worked in a pink room for a place that ended up getting shut down because what we were doing was illegal! (i didn't know at the time, i promise) But being in what seems like a dead end spot in life can be a HUGE CHALLENGE. We can't see that where we are is precisely where God wants us.

Some of us right now are thinking things like...

This is NOT what I went to school for.
This is a dead end job.
This job has nothing to do with what I think God is calling me to do.
This job actually makes my resume look worse!

If you hate your job consider Moses and Joseph.

Moses spent 40 years wandering without a clue as to where he was going. The bad part for Moses was that he wasn't just an employee making eight bucks an hour he was the boss.

Joseph had spent time in prison and slavery before he ultimately fulfilled what God had planned for him.

So heres the challenge to you today Colossians 3:23-24 says Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are working for.

If you believe that God is in control of your life work as if you are working for the Lord. Not for a paycheck, your boss or because your parents are making you. Step up today and do the absolute best that you can where you are right now and be faithful with what God has given you.

Sometimes what could be can't be until God is ready for it to happen.

Work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God.

The Bears are back!

2007-07-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Bears start training camp today at my old college Olivet Nazarene University. I feel like since I have moved to the south from the Chicago area I am the only person I know who cares about pro football at all! Anyway if you care about the Bears this is hands down THE BEST SITE to keep up with them.

Joshua Bell

2007-07-26T13:01:00.000-05:00

Does context matter? Just read a fascinating article in the Washington post about Joshua Bell. If you’re like me you don’t know many violin players by name but apparently he is the best there is. The WP decided to do an experiment in context. They took the world’s best violin player and had him play in a subway station, downtown DC as a street performer for about an hour and half. Nobody Cared. Over 1000 people just walked by without even looking at him. Just a few nights before in the same town people were paying hundreds of dollars to see him play in person and because of context he cant even get a people to throw a few dollar bills his way!

The article is great and I don’t think she was writing to Pastors but it sure felt like it! Had a ton of thoughts about the article here are some more of them…..

"If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Cor 13:1)
You are the message. When we deliver a message to anybody without integrity to the messenger it doesn’t matter. Even if you are the best speaker in the world.
I think this is exactly why Church Plants are so effective. They put Church in a different context and thus people who would not have heard the message in its traditional context (Sunday morning under a steeple) hear it in a context that they respond too.
Church environments matter. If every Sunday we were to speak from the same pulpit, in the same spot, with the same background, talking about the same thing, to the same people we should expect the same results. Mark Batterson says that we tend to live and do ministry more out of memory then imagination. Sure we do, it’s easier.

I was online a few months ago and noticed on MSN something about somebody being shot at Virginia Tech. It was in one of the little boxes that changes and I just sort of glanced at it and kept on reading. When I came back to MSN later they had changed the layout on the page to something that took up about half of the page. Why did they do this? Context. As sad as it is to say it just appeared to be another shooting. Then I get all convicted because just one shooting wasn’t enough to make me look further. Then i realize that it is one of the single worst shootings in the history of the country. The WP article touches on how we should make time to take in beauty but what about sorrow. It is so easy for us to disconnect with things we don’t want to deal with but sometimes they get put in a context where we have to deal with them. MSN for instance is news. In my world the news is not a context where I really feel things. Jack Johnson sums it up in his song “the news” when he says

“Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die?
At least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes
Mama said It's just make believe You can’t believe everything you see So baby close your eyes to the lullabies
On the news tonight.”

We want to close our eyes. Whether it is beauty or sorrow if it is not in our plans we don’t really care and we don’t really see it.

What kind of beauty/sorrow is around us everyday that we simply DO NOT SEE?

erikwillits.com

2007-07-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays I am going to try and post a link to a ministry that I know is kicking butt somewhere in the country/world. I hope that you would check them out and let them know you are praying for them. Maybe you could even find some people to help support.

So the first ever Tuesday Ministry is.....ERIK WILLITS.

One of my best friends Erik Willits is actually in town today. He is just passing through on his way to New York to speak at a youth camp up there. Erik's main ministry is speaking at youth events all over the country. We have been friends for almost 18 years now! If you are looking for somebody to speak at your church/youth event you should defiantly check him out there is nobody that I would recommend more. This summer alone Erik will speak to over 3000 students.

Check out all his websites
www.erikwillits.com
www.erikwillitsblog.com
www.virb.com/erikwillits

Monday Morning Challenge #1

2007-07-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

Saw a video of Dave Ramsey speak earlier this week. It was a very interesting sermon. He used the formula from this picture to explain his theory of momentum. Let me explain what this means.....

Fi=Focused Intensity (over)
T=Time (multiplied by)
G=God (equals)
M=Momentum

It's an interesting thought. Not sure that you could prove it or come up with scripture to say this is exactly how God works but I don't know that you can argue with it either! It basically sums up the saying Work like it depends on You, Pray like it depends on God.

This is a struggle for a lot of us. Just look in the bulletin board for bowflex machines. (Only 3 in there this week but I have seen as many as 12 before) We can't do 30 minutes 3 times a week! So here is MONDAY MORNING CHALLENGE #1: Start doing what you know God wants you to be doing this week, do it with focused intensity ALL WEEK! Pray that God will bless it the whole time and hope that the momentum comes and it carries over to next week.

If you read 1 Samuel 14 you see the story of Jonathan. He was out with his army and he was not in charge but he saw that nothing was being done and that they had to start somewhere so he did it! He grabbed his armor bearer and went to fight by himself. While his boss/dad/king was sitting under a tree thinking about the best way to do it (because they had no weapons, see Chapter 13) Jonathan went and took on the army himself, God blessed his work and they defeated the army that was way bigger then they were. He could have said he didn't have everything he needed. He could have said what difference will one person make. He didn't though. He did it. He started and God blessed it.

So that challenge for this week is to get started! Do what you know God is calling you to do. Workout, eat dinner with your husband/wife, pray, read the bible, open an IRA! Or maybe you need to stop some things like eating fast food for lunch every day of the week, smoking or gossiping.

Whatever you need to start or stop this week do it with focused intensity, over time and pray for the momentum from God to stick it out

Pandora.com

2007-07-20T09:53:00.000-05:00

Just found about this website that is great. Already I don't think I could live without it. www.pandora.com is a personalized web radio station that only plays music that you like. All you do is go to the site type in a band you like and it will create a station based on the band you put in.

The best part is it takes about two seconds to get running! Here is what they say they do.....

The Music Genome Project©
On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.
It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey.

Tim WestergrenFounderThe Music Genome Project

Prayer Shift 2

2007-07-19T08:13:00.000-05:00

I have been reading 1 Samuel this week and as I was reading the story in Chapter 3 when God kept speaking to Samuel and he thought it was Eli not God waking him up so he kept going to Eli and asking him what he wanted. Finally Eli said, it's God talking to you, not me! Then he tells him next time he calls you say SPEAK LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.

That should be what I say but more often what I say is something closer to LISTEN GOD, YOUR SERVANT IS SPEAKING.

What if before any conversation I had today I would pray SPEAK LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.

before I go to Numan
before I got into Panera Bread to get a bagel
before I go and drop off some papers at a house
before I go and pay for gad
before I order my lunch
before I have meetings at work
before I get to go home and be with my wife
before I eat dinner with our neighbors
before I pray

I hope that it would radically redefine the way i approach conversations. I would instantly listen more then I speak, which is never a bad habbit to get into! People who once would have seemed insignifigant to me become of the utmost importance. I am learning lately that GOD IS ALWAYS SPEAKING, THE QUESTION FOR ME IS WHEN AM I LISTENING?

Prayer Shift

2007-07-19T08:11:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past few weeks really trying to change the way i pray. Focusing on the wrong things is a big issue for me. My prayers are way more of MY KINGDOM COME then THY KINGDOM COME.

Galatians 5 says The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

My prayers are changing from things like "God if you could just _____ in this situation so I could be happier" to something like "God whatever happens in this situation I want to be more like you, help me to see the things you are showing me"

When I was getting married I read a marriage book called The Sacred Marriage. The sub-title is "What if God designed marriage to make us holy more then to make us happy?"

I would challenge you to take the biggest issue in your life right now and pray not that God would make you happy but Holy. Pray for patience not a big chunk of Cash! Pray for Kindness not to be proven right. Pray for faithfulness not an unmistakable sign from God.

Better then Croc's

2007-07-19T08:09:00.000-05:00

I am not the biggest fan of Croc shoes. My claim is that they will be the tight rolled jeans of the 80's. In 15 years everyone is going to sit around and talk about the times when they wore neon green rubber shoes.

Tom's shoes are also in my opinion kind of ugly but but if it came down to buying Croc's or Toms it would be Toms. Tom has a simple idea he started a shoe company and for every pair you buy from him he donates a pair to somebody living in poverty. Pretty simple. Watch the video below or go to http://www.tomsshoes.com/ to check it out or buy some.

I love in the video below when she says "if you are going to start a small business, make giving a part of your business model." Amen to that.

Zambia

2007-07-19T08:06:00.000-05:00

Just got to spend a few minutes praying with our Zambia mission team. They are heading out for the 16 hour flight right now. When they land in Zambia it will be winter. It is so exciting to see people heading out on a trip like that giving up their time, comforts and money to serve the Zambian people in the name of Jesus. This was a great crew of people ranging in age from 10-70+!
Its so great to be a part of a church that believes in missions like Saint James. This year we are sending/have sent teams to Nashville, Montgomery, Haiti, Zambia, Ecuador, Brazil,the Bahamas and Cuba! If God is calling you to "GO" email me and I will get you signed up.
Please be in prayer for this team. We have a bio page for the team along with some other stuff on there to be praying for click here to get it.