My Blog has Moved

My blog has a new home on wordpress. You can check it out at:

www.missionalthoughts.wordpress.com

Dressing Up

Today, Ava was playing dress up. It was hilarious.

Is Yoga Bad?

The other day, there was a conversation on TV about yoga and whether or not it is okay for a Christian to do yoga. Personally, I do yoga. I find it incredibly relaxing and it is great for my body. I think this might be a little overboard to do debate this, but apparently it is worth talking about for these guys. For me, yoga is not about "emptying" myself, but is more physical. Obviously, there is a problem with emptying your mind and opening up to whatever, but I don't think there is a problem with doing it for physical reasons.

Conference

Tomorrow MissionalX starts. I finished my seminar talk on "Preaching in the missional church." I have an hour, so I have only 4 things I am going to talk about. I will share them after the conference, because I don't want to give them away beforehand.

I am excited because I love speaking at conferences. I love being around other leaders, sharing what I have learned and learning from them. During the Q & A time, I am always taking notes on what others share. I get some of my best ideas from what others are doing at other churches.

Funeral

Today was the funeral for Gary Hawksworth. He was the father-in-law of one of our elders. It was a nice service and they kept it upbeat, which was Gary's wish. It is interesting comparing the funeral of a committed Christian to someone that didn't know God.

He was a major in the military for 21 years, so they had the military salute at the graveside, which was the first time I saw that. It was pretty cool when they shot the guns. They also lowered the casket while everyone was there, which was another first for me at a funeral. It definitely gave it a different feeling.

As I was standing there, I looked down at the gravestone I was standing over. The guy who is laid there was only 26 when he died. It definitely made me pause as I am 28 now.

Last night at the viewing I learned that Gary was told a few years ago that he had 5 years to live. I wondered last night and today, if I had 5 years to live, would I do anything differently than what I am doing right now?

The Lost Art of Community: Crowded Loneliness

Today was the first day in our series The lost art of community. I was really excited about today, I could hardly sleep last night. I got to take a much needed break this past month, but it was awesome being back on my stool and speaking on sunday mornings. Today was also the first day of having 2 services. So I am a little tired.

The band did an awesome job today. I was thinking today, if you told me in college that I would lead a church that did a Green Day & a U2 song in the same day, I would not have believed you. It was awesome. Way to rock out guys.

Today we talked about how from the beginning of creation, we are wired for community. I came across a lot of medical studies that show being in community leads to a healthier life. In fact, if you live outside of community, you actually are more likely to die than those who live in community. You can listen to the message to hear more of what I shared. This explains why we crave relationships and the ache that we feel from loneliness. It is not by accident, but because we are wired that way.

Today was also the beginning for signing up for small groups. We had over 20 families/couples/singles sign up to be in a small group. That is awesome. I think a lot of great things are going to be happening as we move to having small groups within our church. Overall, a great day.

2

Today was the first day of having 2 services. A little bit before the first one, I wondered whether or not anyone was coming, but they came. In fact, we had more people in each service than we had 2 weeks ago in 1 service, so that is a good thing. It was tiring speaking twice, but I will get used to that. On this day last year, we had 85 & today we had 120, so that is a great thing to see how God is sending us people.

Females Love the Steelers

In a report that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it said that the Steelers are the most loved team in the NFL among females. Since we all know that females are the smarter sex, that should say something about how great the Steelers are. Clearly, we might have a new America's team. I've thought this for awhile, as Katie looks pretty hot in her Steelers jersey.

Date Night

Last night, Katie and I were able to go out for a date night. It was the first one since Gavin was born. We went out to Elle Wine Country Restaraunt. It was great. Good food & good wine, a deadly combination. We also had a great babysitter, see below. It is amazing who we let watch Ava.

Beyond Megachurch Myths

While this book had a lot of backing from megachurch pastors, it felt very dry to me. Beyond Megachurch Myths is based on 2 studies done by the authors of over 1200 megachurches (churches with attendance above 2000).

It covered everything from they are too big, they are all alike to the more common they water down the faith and they are all about the show. Having worked at and attended several megachurches, I can say that many of the "myths" the authors try to debunk are true. But there are also megachurches where the myths are not true. It varies in different places.

I think it was a worthwhile book as many people have misconceptions of megachurches. The sad thing is when other pastors lay into these leaders. Sometimes it is warranted, other times it is not. Most pastors I know in smaller churches get upset with megachurches as they are afraid they will steal people. I remember one pastor telling me I shouldn't share anything with a megachurch pastor I met with recently. His reasoning was that they would do it better and steal people. My response was, "There are plenty of pagans to go around for all of us. Besides, our "competition" at Beginnings is not other churches, it is anything else you can do with your Sunday morning. Our competition is sleeping in, going to Starbucks, watching football, taking a bike ride. That is our competition."

Overall, if you like reading research projects, which this is, then this is a good read. It is a good one, but it was somewhat dry.

Next Series

We are starting a new series on Sunday called The Lost Art of Community at Beginnings, to coincide with moving to 2 services. I am really excited about this series. I have been researching it for almost 2 months in preparation for it. I really think God is going to move in powerful ways as we dive into this whole idea of community. Here is how it breaks down:

September 16: Crowded Loneliness

September 23: Making Room for Life

September 30: Rediscovering the Neighborhood

October 7: Centered on a Story

October 14: The Table

October 21: Rediscovering Interdependence

October 28: The Spaces we Inhabit

November 4: Becoming a Spiritual Community

Here is a list of books that I read as I prepared for the series.

MissionalX

Because of vacation and moving to 2 services at church, I forgot to blog about this. Next weekend I am speaking at a conference here in Tucson, which makes it my favorite kind of conference to speak at, as I don't have to go anywhere. The conference is called MissionalX and will look at the practices of a missional church. Darrin Patrick & Jim Henderson are the main session speakers, both are great thinkers that I am looking forward to hearing. I am doing a workshop on Friday afternoon called "Preaching in the missional church."

Website

So our new website went live on Saturday. Between Saturday & Monday we had almost 200 hits on the site from the fliers we passed out over the weekend. That is awesome. Our digital team rocks, way to go guys in getting that done.

Vacation is Over

I am home. It was great visiting friends & family on the east coast, but it is nice to be home. I forgot how humid it gets there and how bad my allergies can be. Dryness is nice. I figured out how you know you are on vacation: if you forget what day it is & if you gain weight. I did both, but only a pound.

So I turned my computer on today to check my e-mail and found over 100 messages to read. I have almost 1000 blog entires on my google reader to catch up on, probably won't look at all of them. Needless to say, I saw all the e-mail messages, but I am not answering them until tomorrow. And I have a message to finish writing for our 2 service launch this weekend.

I am really excited about the series we are starting on sunday, I will blog more about that later this week. Needless to say, it will be an awesome series.

I am off to bed, getting to bed early will feel nice as I have a long week ahead.

Vacation - Day 9

Today was the day of the wedding that we came out here for me to be in. It was a nice ceremony and it was good to be a part of it. I have known Kevin since I was in the 2nd grade, and I really can't think of a major milestone in my life that he wasn't in the pictures of. He definitely married up as all smart men do.

Ava before our morning walk