Figuring it all out one day at a time
Great Music hitting the shelves today and that you may have missed over the last few months!
Toby Mac at 
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Fair at
Fireflight at .
Carlos Whittaker at .
NewWorldSon at .
Hearts of Saints at .
Day of Fire at .
Owl City at .
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Currently Listening
Forget and Not Slow Down by Relient K
Currently Reading
Words that Work by Dr. Frank Luntz
Currently Watching
Last week I posted some Action Steps I was taking to be a better man and do everything with excellence. As I have been taking a good hard look at my life I realized that most of the issues of stress and ineffectiveness I face stem from my failure to faithfully observe the Sabbath. In his DVD, “Everything is Spiritual”, Rob Bell talks about the rhythm of creation and the significance of God taking a break from that rhythm and pattern on the 7th day. Here’s what it says in Exodus:
Exodus 20:9-11 (New International Version)
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
It’s one of the 10 commandments, and I fear it’s the one I break most often as a pastor. I am on this journey to discover everything I can about the Sabbath and balance that with what Jesus said in Mark:
Mark 2:23-28 (New International Version)
23One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
25He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
27Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
This is not a debate or discussion about whether or not to take a Sabbath or if failing to do so consistently has been harmful to my health, marriage, and spirit. What I would like to see happen is for a discussion to take place about how you’re making this happen? How are you unplugging for a day? What boundaries have you placed in your life to help you celebrate this holy time? What day is your Sabbath? Is there a day of the week when your church offices are closed so everyone can have a Sabbath? As for me, here’s where I am starting:
1. Commit to one day a week where I am totally unplugged technologically.
2. Make sure that I don’t follow my daily routine other than have my son at school by 7:55 am on that day.
3. Discover and rediscover hobbies that God can use to restore my soul.
4. Do everything I can to insure that my wife is able to have a Sabbath as well.
5. Study the roots, beginnings, and traditions of the Sabbath to see how God has used this holy day to renew and restore his people throughout history.
What about you? What steps are you taking or are you already having an effective Sabbath day? More to come later.
Currently Listening
Currently Reading
Currently Watching
Wondering what books to read next? Leadership Journal polled more than 100 Pastors and Leaders to come up with their list of the best books in two categories: The Leader’s Outer Life and the Leader’s Inner Life. Here they are:
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Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion
By Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck Whether you’re committed, disgruntled, hesitant, or disconnected from the body of Christ, this passionate resource will help you renew your love for the church in all its real-life guts, gaffes, and glory. DeYoung and Kluck’s valuable resource provides a solid reminder of the biblical mandate to participate in our local congregations. Relevant and encouraging! 224 pages, softcover from Moody. |
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The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity
By Soong-Chan Rah * A bold vision for the future of North American evangelicalism! Urging the Western church to escape the captivity of individualism, consumerism, and racism, Rah provides a keen analysis of the limitations of American evangelicalism and offers alternative models for congregational renewal, including those drawn from African American, Native American, immigrant, and second-generation Christian communities. 180 pages, softcover from InterVarsity. |
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The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church
By Dave Gibbons |
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Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches That Reach Them
By Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley & Jason Hayes Lost and Found presents comprehensive research about and in-depth interviews with young men and women ages twenty-five to thirty-four who have never really been churched. The findings, such as how open this generation is to spiritual things, will surprise church-based readers and break some long established assumptions and opinions. Expert church culture author Ed Stetzer (Breaking the Missional Code) also examines the congregations that are effectively reaching the younger unchurched and how they are doing it. Any church that is concerned about outreach to this generation will discover principles and methodologies to learn from and adapt into their own ministry. |
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Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion
By Richard J. Foster & Gayle D. Beebe Is your soul yearning to taste God’s goodness? Offering a classical model of spiritual formation, Foster and Beebe introduce you to seven devotional paths illustrated by Thomas Merton, Blaise Pascal, Julian of Norwich, John Wesley, and other key Christian figures. Discover how to experience the spiritual life as journey, deepen your friendship with Jesus, and more. 350 pages, hardcover from InterVarsity. |
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Leading on Empty: Discover the Secrets to Renewing Your Energy and Strengthening Your Passion to Serve
By Wayne Cordeiro Learn from veteran leader Wayne Cordeiro how to replenish yourself from a state of exhaustion in leadership, or, better yet, how to avoid the trap of burnout altogether. Find out how to lead when you just don’t feel like you can do it any longer, and how to navigate the helm of leadership when you’ve lost your spiritual bearings. |
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Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge
By Dallas Willard In the tradition of Mere Christianity, author and Renovare staff member Dallas Willard, presents a rational case for the Christian faith in our day. In Knowing Christ Today, he argues that spiritual truths are as a reliable body of knowledge as philosophy or science and form a trustworthy source of wisdom. Each chapter includes discussion questions for group study. |
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Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional
By Jim Belcher Deep Church, author Jim Belcher has been both an insider and an outsider to the Emerging Church movement. Now he brings the best insights of all sides to forge a third way. With appreciative critique, he explores the proposals of the emerging church leaders and provides constructive models of what this alternate deep church looks like – a missional church committed to both tradition and culture, valuing innovation in worship, arts, and community but also creeds and confessions. Plumb the depths of Christianity in a way that neither rejects our postmodern context nor capitulates to it. Instead of veering to the left or right, go beyond the extremes and go-deep. |
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A Praying Life
By Paul Miller Miller offers a practical real-life approach to prayer for busy families! His honest down-to-earth advice shows you how to practice praying in the midst of daily routine. You’ll learn to pray like a child, live your Father’s story, understand unanswered petitions, and more. Includes tips on using tools such as prayer cards and journaling. 272 pages, softcover from NavPress. |
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Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community
By Andrew Marin Marin was stunned when three of his friends came out of the closet. How could he reconcile members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community to his faith? Attempting to wrestle with that, he provides an inside look at the gay community and offers strategies to build bridges between GBLT people, Christians—and the gospel |
1. Christian ads at the Super Bowl from Church Marketing Sucks.
2. Churches using Facebook ads to draw in visitors from Church Crunch.
3. A couple of great vids from Ed Stetzer on what a Missional Church is.
4. Ed Young talks about being investigated by a reporter. His response: I have nothing to hide.
5. Michael Hyatt talks about Zoecity which scans hundreds of Christian sites to give you the stories you want.
6. How to keep Momentum going from Monday Morning Insight.
That’s bit of what I’m reading. What captured your attention this week.
One of my favorite songs off of U2’s “All that You Can’t Leave Behind” album is “Stuck in a Moment.” They also put out an acoustic version which blows me away each time I hear it. Here’s the chorus:
You’ve got to get yourself together
You got stuck in a moment and now you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later would be better now you’re stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it
Have you ever been in the place where you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut and will never recover? Has something ever happened to you that took your confidence and you didn’t know if you would ever get it back? It’s a bad place to be. It affects all of our relationships. When we are in a place like that we can be difficult to be around. We lash out at the ones we love and the God we serve because it angers us to feel like we will never recover. Are you in a rut today? Do you feel stuck?
I wish I could tell you that there’s a specific prayer to pray or thing to do that will fix everything like magic. There’s not. It takes time to heal. Time to recover. Time to get back on that horse. That doesn’t mean that we are just supposed to sit there and wait for things to work themselves out. Getting out of the rut requires action. With that in mind, I’ve come up with some things that maybe you haven’t thought of. This obviously isn’t a be all/end all list, but it’s helped me when I was “stuck.”
Forgotten 5 ways to get out of your rut
What’s on your list?
This is the album version. Sadly, the acoustic version is no longer available.
Several things have happened in the last week that have compelled me to make some changes in my life. I was tired of being a procrastinator with a messy office whose adult ADD always seemed to be in overdrive. I had been tired of this before but was never moved to action.
A senior in my youth group is doing an internship this semester with me from 8 am-10 am Monday-Friday. This forced the first of many changes as there could be no more dilly dallying around in the morning. Rather, I would need to get my son to the church daycare by 8 am so the intern and I could get to work. This lead to change number 2. Fortunately, the intern is a neat and organized person. We spent her first day cleaning off my desk(I have to pay her $5 if she ever finds it covered and cluttered again) and trying to create a good working environment. I was also faced with the issue of figuring out what she was going to be doing for the next 4 months.
Over the weekend I read two great books(Crush It and the 4 hour work week). They really challenged me in finding the balance between being a youth pastor, husband, father, and blogger. FYI-I sped read both these books with a technique I’ll be sharing some other time. Both of these books talked about the importance of eliminating useless things and focusing on the important tasks at hand. I also looked back on my notes from when I read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for even more direction.
Finally, my wife and I have been enrolled in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. February 1 started our new life on a budget using the envelope system. I told Karen that I felt like February 1 was going to be the first day of the rest of our lives and was running with adrenaline all weekend raring to go only to have a massive snow storm hit that has had us homebound for 3 days and counting.
Without further delay, here is a list of the things I did and am doing to Chase My Lion and catch that sucker.
1. Made a list of everything I have(and want) to do in a given day, week, month, and year.
2. Made a list of all the projects I am currently working on.
3. Made a weekly schedule that gave a specific amount of time to all of these things.
4. Started living on a budget as a family.
5. Made a list of the time wasters in my life like news sites, sports sites, negative blogs, random TV watching, talk radio, logging into Facebook once an hour, google reader, and email.
6. Eliminated some of the above while scheduling a specific amount of time for the rest. Email will get checked twice a day along with Facebook and Google Reader. Drudge Report is out along with other news sites. Information overload is like meth for someone with ADD.
7. Vowed that I would stick to the schedule and started day 1 by sleeping in since it was a snow day. By noon I was caught up and ready for lunch. I vowed I wasn’t going to do any blog/twitter/affiliate marketing/anything computer related between 4 pm and midnight. #epicfail
8. Today is a snow day as well, but I’m on schedule so far. I just need to pencil in “make it up to my wife that I gave my time for her yesterday to Oprah and a domain redirect problem.”
So, what action steps do you need to take?
