how i see it

I'm stealing this blog idea from my cousin. The Steelers are heavily favored but I want to know what's your Super Bowl prediction. Post it in the comments.

Mine is the Cardinals 24-17, basically because God wants them to win.

I've been on a little bit of a roller coaster lately. The economy has taken it's toll on a lot of people. I know quite a few people who have either lost their job or had their hours/salary cut. Working for a nonprofit my ministry is totally reliant on the generosity of others and this has caused quite a bit of worry in my life.

I called my father today to talk to him about all the uncertainty I'm dealing with. I have always respected what he has to say, and believe he has been blessed with godly wisdom and has more faith than anyone I know. Among other things he said to me, "Your mom and I have been through a lot of tough times and God has always provided." Now he wasn't kidding. They have been through many trials. He has been in ministry well over 25 years and has seen it all. He's been on the highest mountains and the lowest valleys and yet God has always provided and not just provided, but blessed.

God has always provided, and he always will. I just have to have more faith. This section of scripture has helped me trust God more and I wanted to pass it on to you.

Luke 12:22-29
22Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.

I'm looking for a good book to read. I just finished Rob Bell's Jesus Wants to Save Christians and wasn't too impressed (Velvet Elvis was much better). I am hoping you can help me. Any suggestions?

I posted on facebook that I was wondering what I should write a blog about and one of my students posted "Politics... from the Greek word poly- meaning many, and tick meaning blood-sucking insect". I thought that was pretty funny so here we go.

Since I love politics and there is some sort of inauguration going on this week I thought I'd write about it. Pretty much everyone in America knows that Barack Obama is being inaugurated this week. We had the We are 1 Inauguration Celebration (where it seems like every other second Obama was being compared to Lincoln) and the actual swearing in will probably be the most watched ever. I'm glad so many people will be watching. You can not deny the historical significance of this presidency, even if you disagree with the President Elect on issues.

I do take issue with all the money they are spending on all these events. I came across an article on abcnews.com What Recession? The $170 Million Inauguration Makes you wonder why we need to spend that much just to swear someone in. After I read the article I said to Alisha (my wife) "If the nation was in such a financial crisis and I was being sworn in I would have pizza or something for the inauguration dinner". Sounds funny but isn't Obama taking a huge chance of alienating all those people watching trying to figure out how they are going to pay their bills? I think so.

What do you think?

There are a lot of churches that do this well. For instance I remember when I was growing up every year my church (Stone Church) had a special Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless. They would send the church buses to shelters and bus in hundreds of people to the church and feed them a Thanksgiving dinner. Stone also bussed in hundreds of kids from the projects every week. However, many churches I have been to seem to be so inwardly focused they seem to forget the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

We are called to go and make disciples of all nations which means to spread God’s love wherever we are. One of the best ways to make disciples is to serve people, to show them you care, but most importantly to show people you love them without an agenda. Like Jesus did when he washed the disciples feel at the last supper.

The secular world is doing a great job of serving others. There are countless social justice campaigns from (RED) to Care and countless others. It's cool to care, but are we falling short as Christians? Are we too inwardly focused? I think the answer is too often yes.

Pointing the finger does no good therefore, does the church you are a member of do a good job at serving others? If they do, are you part of it? If they don’t what are you going to do about it? Also a personal challenge, outside your church, in your personal life (which by the way should be the same thing) how do you show Christs love? How do you care for others?

I just wanna say, Al Gore is an idiot. I could list plenty of examples as to why, but I'll just list one. It's gonna be -18 degrees with -40 windchill in Chicago tomorrow, no I didn't say tomorrow night, I said TOMORROW, like when the sun is out!! So much for global warming. It's amazing how junk science can get you a Nobel Prize. I would say an Oscar, but they routinely give those to horrible movies.

Disclaimer: This was written in good fun, so please don't send me emails about how Al Gore is an amazing person (after all he did invent the internet). I do not really think he is an unintelligent man, I just think on some (ok maybe a lot) topics he's kinda off.

I recently finished The Shack and wanted, as promised to share my thoughts. First of all the thing to remember when reading this book is that's it's fiction. It is not a book you should base your theology or doctrine, nor was it written for that reason. The Shack is a book that seeks to answer, through an allegoric story, the question Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? And it does that very well. This book does not have all the answers, and some of the conclusions may be flawed, however it takes you on a journey that will help you better understand your relationship with God.

Some of the criticisms that have been leveled at this book are ridiculous. People saying that it promotes goddess worship is totally unwarranted (I won't go into why because I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it but in no way does the book claim that God is a woman, again it's an allegoric story). Some have also said that the book claims that there are many paths to God, that could not be more false. In fact it clearly claims that Jesus is the only way to God. In a lighter moment in the book Jesus says, "I'm not a Christian," which makes sense, however some have jumped on that statement.

I would recommend you reading this book for yourself. It is a well written, fast moving book that may just change your life. Don't let the naysayers scare you, read it and discern for yourself. Remember what it says on the spine of the book, fiction, and you'll be alright.

This post is a follow up to my blog titled “What makes a good church?” In this series of blogs I want to identify some things I think the church can do better (and by the church I mean the people that make up the church) and how I think you can make a difference. This is in no way meant to point a finger at anyone or any church, it's simply insight and my opinions on what we, as the church can do better.

Some of you have probably read the book Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. While the title may give you pause, this book is strikingly honest, to the point and in my opinion accurate. In the book Murrow states that the church is not meeting the needs of men. When you think about church, words like comfort, care and support come to mind – not exactly manly words. When a man wants something to do, words like adventure, challenge and risk are running through their minds – not exactly your average Sunday morning service. Men need to be challenged, they need adventure, and they need to take risks. We, the church, need to figure out ways to give men this.

More spiritually healthy men = a healthier church. Another point Murrow makes is that in most churches the children's ministry has a pretty hefty budget and it is near the top of the priority list. I do not disagree with this; however, I believe it should come after men's ministry on the priority list. We always assume that if a child gets saved when they are young then they will follow Christ the rest of their lives. There are studies that support this idea very strongly. However, there are other studies that have shown that when a man gets saved, more often than not his whole family (wife & children) follow suit.

What can you do? First off, I would recommend reading the book (I am guessing a lot of you have already done this). There are also some great resources on the book’s companion website. Beyond that, if you’re a man and attend a church where there is not a men’s ministry, start one. Don't just start a ministry where you go get coffee and talk about your feelings (more than likely you won't have very many men attending it anyways); start one where men are challenged spiritually, socially and physically. Things like going on a mountain climbing trip, white water rafting, hiking etc. Jesus led his disciples on many adventures, and through them He taught, challenged and grew closer to them. Jesus knew how to develop strong, bold and spiritually solid men; we could probably learn a few things from Him.

So the question is, will you complain or step up? I challenge you to do the latter.

Over the past year and a half I have been searching for a church. This is really the first time in my life that I have had to do this, as I grew up in a pastor’s home. I never realized how hard it could be to find a church, and to be quite honest with you it’s been one of the most frustrating things I have dealt with in a long time. So through this seemingly endless search I have had to ask myself what makes a good church?
Is it the pastor? The teaching? The music? The location/facilities? The congregants? The programs they offer? The people? The easy answer is: it’s a mix of all of theses things. I agree with that, but let’s be honest, you’ll never find the perfect mix. Now, I know I'm pretty picky when it comes to church, I want a certain type of music, I want the pastor to challenge me every week, I want to go somewhere where everyone knows my name (no not Cheers), I want people my age to be in abundance (which is probably that hardest thing to find these days in most churches), I never want the pastor to teach something I don’t doctrinally agree with, basically I want, I want, I want. And you know what, that’s the problem.

I was talking to a friend and I told him that I’m convinced since I went to Bible school that I have been tainted when it comes to picking a church. I always seem to find the few things I disagree with, don’t like or annoy me about any church I visit. I said that my main complaint was that no churches had good programs for young married couples. When I said this, he just looked at me and said, “You have to find a church, commit to it and help it become better.” Now he wasn’t saying that somehow I hold the keys to making an ok church a great, he was just saying that instead of complaining about the church not having a young married class then I should start one. This made me realize something, church isn’t about me! Pretty shocking I know.

Absolutely, you want to go to a church where there is a good community where you feel comfortable. You should definitely like your pastor –and programs are important. But church is not about you just feeling comfortable; it’s about you living a life of worship inside a community of believers. It’s about growing in Christ, learning more everyday about the Creator of the universe, and living out your faith. Church is about God not you!

With that said, I am not thanking God for directing us to a community of people who are becoming our church home. The church (as we think of it, i.e. building, weekly service) is not quite planted, but it will be in God’s time.

In the next few weeks I will be writing some blogs about some of the things you can do to improve your church. Check back to catch the posts.

The following post was taken from Dave Ferguson's blog. For those of you who don't know, Dave is the lead pastor of Community Christian Church which has campuses across the Chicagoland area. He is also the author of The Big Idea: Focus The Message, Multiply The Impact. I would highly recommend checking out his blog on a regular basis.

I received the New York Times bestselling book The Shack for Christmas. I had heard a lot of good things about the book, and a few bad. Before I really got into the book I did some google and youtube searches on it to see what people were saying. I was pretty surprised by the result of my searches. There were many positive reviews by people like Eugene Peterson, Steve Berger, Wayne Jacobsen and everyone's favorite Contemporary Christian artist Micheal W. Smith, however I found many very negative reviews with some even calling the book heresy. How could so many Christians such strong and differing opinions on this book? One negative review on the book done by Mark Driscolle (pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington) said that the book, among other things, taught goddess worship. I was pretty taken back by this statement however I later found that Mark never actually read the book. On the other hand I read some blogs that were promoting The Shack on the same level as scripture. This book has definitely caused quite a stir!
I would love to see what you think of the book. I'm not sure how many of you have read it, but if you have please let me know what you thought. If you haven't, what have you heard from others that have, or even people who haven't read it.
I'm planning to write a full review on the book next week when I am done reading it.

So it's a new year. As I look back on a year that had many exciting events for me (not the least of which was marrying my beautiful wife), and forward to a year that holds a lot of uncertainty I have come up with a few resolutions. I am posting them on my blog because I want to be held to them and have a constant reminder of them. Here we go:

1. Be a better husband - I am guessing this one will be a yearly resolution, but I hope and pray that every year I will make progress on this one.

2. Pursue God more every day - Admittedly with ministry being my job, I often focus so much on others that I neglect my relationship with God. I want to be more intentional in this relationship.

3. Be a healthier person - I'm guessing that about 9 out of 10 people have this on their list, I guess I am joining that group. Seriously though, that whole gaining weight when you get married thing is definitely true!

4. Be more organized - Again, this is a yearly thing for me. This year I have done much, much better with this.

Well there you go, nothing too exciting but I think practical. If you are reading this, I invite you to call me on any of these. Ask me how I am doing with them. I would appreciate it.