How Rich are You? In a recent class, one of my classmates, Nolan Donald, referenced http://www.globalrichlist.com/ as a site to type in your annual income and see how rich you are in relation to the rest of the world. It is shocking! Many times we complain about how much we don't have but we fail to remember that being born in America is like winning the lottery in most of the world. Check it out.

On another note, it is good to see the president reference Global Warming in the State of The Union speech. I do beleive this is a huge problem for our planet and it seems like most people in our country and lawmakers are getting it, especially the ones running for President in 2008. It seems like an educated populace is causing government to respond.

I'd like to thank Alicia Coltzer for this. It is the story of Methodists, claymation style!

Last week I was reading through Genesis and I came across Noah's Ark story. I was reminded of the time when I was a kid and heard Bill Cosby's routine for the first time. So I found it on line and ordered a copy.

Today I wondered if anyone had done anything on this in cyberspace and I came across his routine done to legos. As having children who love legos, I thought this was great. I hope you get a laugh out of this!

A sequel to the Last Video!

I got this from Fellow Bp's Blog. It is worth 1 minute of your time!

I know it is fashionable to pick on George Bush now, but this is funny!

This came up in a highlight of YouTube Videos for 2006. The Song is ok but the camara work is neat. Hope you like it!

What will be our Legacy?

Bishop Ray Chamberlain, former Bishop of the Holston Conference, once told a group of us probationary elders that "the future of the church will be decided over biblical interpretation". It is true that the different groups that fight in the church, conservative and liberal, fight because they have a different view of the Scriptures.

This week we are having a class on Biblical Interpreration with Dr. Bill Arnold. The goal of the class is help us interpret the Bible correctly with a view on both testaments and not making it say whatever we want it to say. Today he gave a devotional from Genesis 11 on the story of the tower of Babel. Below is the texts and some of the highlights.


Genesis 11:1-9 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." 5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6 And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 1-11 tell us the story of how we were made, what life was like before sin, how sin affects us. In Genesis 1:28 God gave the command for people to "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it". Instead of obeying God and filling the earth, we see here in Genesis 11 the people disobey God, gather together, build a city and make a name for themselves. Interestingly, dr. Arnold indicated that bricks were high technology for that time. Their ancestors could have never done what they were attempting to do. They thought the evolutionary chain had hit its height with them and they would leave a legacy to future generations on how great they were.

In our day and age we have a similar view. We beleive we are more advanced than any previous generation and technology can save us. Every generation thinks it can do great things (see the 60's). We build much higher buildings that Babel. We try to leave legacies so people will remember how great we were.

We as ministers are just as susceptible to this. We try to build legacies and things that will last. Dr. Arnold said today,"We can have a building named after us. But will people remember us in 50 yrs?, 100yrs.?, 500 yrs? 1000? Yrs." Our kingdoms will fade away. But the only lasting contributions are to God’s kingdom, God’s city (Augustine) that will never fade away.

I find it interesting that the only way God could get the people to do what he commanded was to get them to speak different languages. THen they filled the earth.

Another insight I gained today from the text is what the command to Abram was in Genesis 12:1. God commanded him to "Go". Abram obeyed and he went. We read this in Genesis 12:4, "So Abram went, as the LORD had told him". Dr. Arnold said the Hebrew for that phrase is all one word. In other words, Abram went immediately in obedience.

I sometimes think about this in terms of the church in America. In the great commission Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations. For the most part that is not happening very well. Now because we won't go, God is bringing the nations to us to America. We can have relationships with Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, etc. even in our small southeastern communities. The question is "will we lift a finger and go to the people God has brought to us?"

American Idol Reaction

If you are like me, you enjoy watching the American Idol shows, especially in the beginning of the season because you see the good singers and the bad. It cracks me up when people want to get noticed and on purpose sing bad or dress funky to get noticed. I'm sure there is a screeening system just to get the chance for an interview. THey surely take the truly good and the truly bad to make sure they both get exposed.

The past two nights episodes have bothered me because some of the people there are like deers in the headlights and are innocent. Meanwhile when Randy or Simon critique them, they are brutal and show no mercy. I wonder how 16+ year old kids can take that hit to their psyche? I am 36 and think I would have trouble. Last night in particular Kate commented that a few of those kids it looked they they would be suicidal. Instead of reacting with anger, some just took it and I could see how those comments could wound them for sure, let alone injure them for years or perhaps a lifetime. While some hard critiques need to be given, they need to have mercy on poor, seemingly defenseless characters.

For an upcoming Leadership class, we had to read The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. McNeal presents how the culture is changing and how the church needs to think differently in order to be effective. Because of space I will only tackle a few issues he raises.

Issue #1: A Spiritual Church?

McNeal writes, “A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith. (p. 4)” He calls them “post-congregational” Christians and the World Christian Encyclopedia estimates 112 million “churchless Christians” worldwide. Later he writes, “We don’t need God to operate the church … the culture does not want the powerless God of the modern church (p. 6)”.

In my experience, there are many who feel that way. They feel the church is filled with self-help talk and pastors who view themselves as “spiritual CEO’s”. I wonder how many people in the pews feel their spiritual leaders are spiritual. Do they have a deep well with God or are they trying to just grow the church? He writes later, “The north American church is not spiritual enough to reach our culture. (27)” Is that true? I am not sure about that but I do agree that we are not smoking what we are selling enough?

In Organic Church, Neil Cole quotes Sir Walter Moberly from his book The Crisis in the University. Moberly was a non-Christian who studied what evangelicals believed and their behavior and why they were unable to penetrate the university campuses. Moberly wrote, “If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.”(xxviii). This should sting. Unfortunately in most of our churches, churches that I have been a part of, this was true.

In addition, most contemporary churches value highly being real, being authentic, accepting people as they are but I do not know how well we are moving people along spiritually to holiness. In the trip to Houston, I heard several ministers use “edgy” language (meaning on the edge of profanity). In my experience, I have heard several ministers curse, usually not in sermons but on one-on-ones. I don’t want to be prudish but want to call us up in our attitude and walk with God. There are other important issues like justice and mercy rather than just language but should we seek holiness in all of our lives?

Issue #2: Taking it To the Streets

McNeal referred to a church that was lamenting the fact that they did not have enough Sunday School space, yet within two miles of the church they had over a dozen restaurants that did not open till eleven o’clock on Sunday morning. He suggested putting Sunday School classes in those restaurants. He shared about a campus ministry that shifted almost all their activities to public settings. They found more spiritual conversations and conversations happened at WhatABurger than at their space.

My understanding of a missional church has greatly expanded during this Beeson Year. Church does not have to happen just on Sunday mornings but at all times during the week. We all know the church is not a building but a people. Yet too often we spend most of our time in meetings in the church building rather than be the community of God in the community. I wonder what impact it would be like to have bible study groups and board meetings in a restaurant rather than at the church. Sure, it would cost more but it would force the church people to get out of the church and to go where the people are.

Issue #3: Turning Members into Missionaries

McNeal comments that most of the spiritual gift discoveries are designed to get people to do church work (44) and that our focus is to turn members into ministers. He says that many don’t want to be involved with institutional work. To them, “church ministry is just an add-on to an already overcrowded life” (48). He thinks we need our members to see themselves as missionaries in the world where God has called them.

While I agree with McNeal, I see two problems: 1) how do you do that besides by preaching and teaching about it?, and 2) there are many vital ministries the church needs to do day to day and week to week (i.e. facilities, children and youth ministry, small group leadership, Sunday school) that cannot just be dropped. If we did that, many important ministries would fall apart.

Finally, I did like one idea McNeal had of a minister who formally asked his congregation to release him into the community for two days a week (p.64). He is on the front lines trying to build bridges of relationships and networking. This may help me model to my church members the importance of being out there beyond ministering to the larger community.

My Trip to Texas

This trip to Houston was an excellent experience. I had never been to Texas before and it was overwhelming. First off, everything is bigger in Texas: the restaurants, the city, and the churches.

I must say Dr. Jim Jackson, our host and leader in Houston (The big guy in the center seen above) did an excellent job of setting up this trip.As you saw from my earlier post, we met with some big dogs. IThe picture above shows the sanctuary of his church. In the post I want to expose you to what I saw and what I learned.

The first day we flew to Houston, got in the vans and traveled to a church coffee house, where we had presentations from two presenters on cell churches and house churches. Both of these guys who lead these ministries are going about making disciples in different ways. The cell church planter believed that most of our churches do not effectively make disciples but get church attendees. They have small groups that meet together to worship. Each small group or cell group is independent and self – sustaining. I appreciated some of their insights.


That night we met with United Methodist church planters. After dinner (seen above, This is their youth room), each planter shared some of their story. Some of these churches were huge and some were just getting off the ground. Rev. Dr. Ken Werlein started Faithbridge after he left the Beeson Program in 1998. Based off of his personal experience with his lack of prayer, he made prayer the central focus of this church. His church over time grew and just 9 months ago moved into their new facility.

Ken said something that was helpful for me as a pastor. One time he was having problems with someone on his staff. This person felt Ken was not as pastoral as he needed to be. He told his staff that he wears three hats: 1) Pastor hat, 2) Leader hat and 3) the Finance hat. He explained that sometimes he will be putting on the pastor hat and talk about how everybody is doing, but other times he has to put on the leader hat to see how they are doing as a church in meeting goals and looking forward to the future. The final hat is how well they are doing with finances so that hats one and two can happen. This was helpful because sometimes I had difficulty being the leader I needed to be in my last church because I was concerned on wearing the pastor hat. This was a simple way to explain it and wrap my head around this issue.

Jim Legget of Grace Fellowship Church asked us what the ten largest churches in the world have in common. The answer is prayer. That is why I am excited to go to Korea to see these churches and be challenged in my prayer life.

Another common denominator with all of the leaders we met was that they were positive people and who believed completely what they were saying. There was no hedging. Their conviction was compelling, even if their message disagreed with one another. This was challenging for me as a leader because I need to raise the level of my conviction.

Friday we met with Dave Peterson, Presbyterian minister at Memorial Drive Pres. He adapted a model of men’s ministry and called it Men’s Life. It has impacted the lives of thousands of guys. He believes that manhood in our culture is in a state of confusion. This is due to a lack of role models and understanding about manhood. This has led to emotional wounding. He finds that men tend to be passive, avoid responsibility, do not lead, and seek their own rewards. He uses Genesis 1-3 to teach that God created men to be active, to accept responsibility, to lead courageously and seek eternal rewards. He said you can find more info on this at www.fellowshipassociates.com or at Lifeway. He also said that every church should grow in three areas: Numerically, In Discipleship, and in Impact on their community. That was helpful way of looking at it.

Later that morning we met with Dr. Ed Young at Second Baptist Church of Houston.

Their website is http://www.second.org/global/default.aspx. This is the second largest church in America with over 31,000 attending. He was a compelling influential leader and he spent an hour with us. It started out at 250 people 27 years ago. They now have 13 worship services on 5 campuses. The picture below shows their main campus and on the wall their other campuses. They are in the midst of a building campaign for over 86 Million dollars.

He shared two things I had not thought of. He believed in Sunday school and not small groups. He felt our primary job was to teach the Bible and that most small groups do not teach the Bible, instead they facilitate the teaching and therefore the meaning is lost. He also believed that we should preach Doctrine in our sermons, because doctrine is vanishing in our churches. It was a special time. I am told he is pretty competitive but God is using his ministry in powerful ways.

Next we met with Kirby Jon Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village. He leads the largest United Methodist church in the USA, with over 11,000 attending. Part of their facility is shown above.

He told us the pastor’s job is to do two things: 1) to be led by the Holy Spirit, and 2) to lead his people. He made a decision early on in his ministry to move from being a shepherd to a sheepherder. He couldn’t keep up with everyone and so he trained others to do it.

He took us to his Kingdom Center he is building (seen above). It will cost $173 Million. It has nice low income housing for people, a charter school, a new worship facility, room for kids and youth. It is quite a site. I further respect him because every Friday night he takes his wife out on a date night and has made his family a priority.

That night we met with Randy Hageman, pastor of Gateway UMC (seen below).

Gateway is a new church start about 9 years old. Currently they have about 1000 attending. The picture above shows their gathering space which also doubles as a coffeshop and fellowship area.

We met with him because he followed the founding pastor about three years ago. The founding pastor had an affair with a married woman in the church for 7 years. When the woman’s husband found out he confronted the pastor. The pastor was removed from his position. This was devastating to the church. Contrary to the advice of lawyers, they handled the situation in a healthy way. They called an open meeting of the church that Friday night. The executive pastor was present, the staff and District Superintendent was also there. About 350 people came. The executive pastor told everyone what happened without identifying the woman’s name. People were hurt but appreciated the honesty. After a Q and A, the executive pastor stood up and asked people who were touched by this church and their lives were changed to stand up. Much of the congregation stood up. HE then said, "I believe this will be our finest hour." The next Sunday they received their largest offering to date and got out into the black. The executive pastor led the church for six months before their new pastor arrived. The church had counseling for members and staff during that time, as well as the pastor.

During this time the church actually grew in attendance from 750 to 800 people. This was the opposite of what normally happens. It teaches us in leadership that the health of the church is just as important as the health of the pastor.

Saturday morning we met with a pastor who left the Beeson Program in 1999 and started a church. His church went ok but it took a large toll on his family. Apparently his two teenage boys are in psychotherapy and he is on medication for depression. He is still in ministry but is still dealing with the emotional toll it took on him. Ministry is hard and we need to support our ministers who deal with tough stuff.

Next we had lunch in the African American community with a ministry that reaches the Hip-Hop Generation (seen below). Hip Hop is not for African Americans only. In fact, it is a culture regardless of race. One of the most popular artists is Enimen, a white dude. They reach their culture through relationships, street preaching, starting house churches, and through media such as movies and their own TV show. You can check them out at www.streetlifeworldwide.tv

That night we went to Mercy Street at Chappelwood UMC, our host church. This ministry was started 9 years ago with some folks who were in recovery. Now about 300-400 people call Mercy Street their church. About 65% of people who attend are in recovery. It meets Saturday nights and it was excellent. Former Asbury student Sean Gladding leads the ministry. They attract people who wouldn’t normally be in church. For example, one guy who shared his testimony one time said, "This is the most nervous I’ve been since the first time I committed armed robbery." This is an extremely labor intensive ministry with people who need healing. It is very authentic and real and was very moving. you can check them out at www.mercystreet.org

Our last day was a full day, Sunday. We would go to 3 worship services today. It started out with Joel Osteen. Perhaps you have heard about him. He is pastor of the largest church in America with about 40,000 attending almost every week.

There are people who love him and hate him. His church is about 33% white, 33% black, and 33% Hispanic. Joel knows our host Jim Jackson and got us seats on the third row. Joel is about 40 years old and has a smile that never ends. The music was great. It was praise and worship, gospel, pump you up kind of music. They had a full band, horn section, and about a hundred person choir. It was like being at any other megachurch or concert.
The View from our seats of the pulpit. Security is high around this area.The bookstore and children's area below.
I was pretty skeptical of him before I went. This is what I believe. I believe Joel has a gift for communicating with everyday people. He talks simple with people, doesn’t make it too complicated. He talks about every problems and issues people face and that is great. His theology of hope and that God can help you overcome every problem is inspiring. If you have problems or are down on your luck, there is no way you can leave his church and be down. From the music to the preaching, it is inspiring. While I believe he presents only part of the gospel and doesn’t talk about sacrifice much, he has a place in the kingdom and is helping people. Interestingly Sean Gladding reported that many people from Mercy Street attend Lakewood Church on Sundays and I know why. They need hope and if you’re an addict of something, you will find hope here. We did get to meet with him and pray for him privately, for perhaps three or four minutes. We got a group picture but it is on one of my colleague’s cameras and I will have to get it later.

At 12pm we went to St Johns UMC in downtown Houston. It had about 20 people in it till Rudy and Juanita Rasmus came 15 years ago. Now they have about 7000 members meet the needs of a diverse crowd. For example they had 10,000 members but 3000 had no addresses because they have moved on. Their web site is www.stjohnsdowntown.org

It is mostly African American and the music was great. This was my favorite church I visited. The Reason – Rudy and Juanita are themselves and they are real, even a little raw at times.

In having lunch with them after church, they said that everybody has pain. The difference is that you can cover up your pain when you have money. You can go shopping and buy stuff to mask it. The real question people have is who am I. They feel that most people need unconditional acceptance and love and therefore they accept everybody. Ministry is challenging. They don’t just offer services but do much community service in providing meals, childcare, schools etc. Their lives and ministry testify to the power of God reaching people at risk.

I must comment that it was amazing that he and Juanita remembered me (somewhat) from when they spoke at a gathering at the Holston conference this past February. Rudy even remembered a guy From our conference he asked to sing a hymn. They are real people who care about folks and are doing significant minsitry.

Our last church was called Ecclesia. It was started by Chris Seay (pronounced See). He is a leader in the emerging church movement. They have a center which is an art gallery, coffee house, bookstore, and community center, all wrapped up in one.

Inside view of their worship space.

Their service was like a typical postmodern service with acoustic guitar, broken people, candles, etc. They have raised 250,000 with four other churches to dig wells in Africa so people can drink water. They believe the gospel requires us to do something for the world and not just for ourselves. In dinner with Chris Seay, he said that most sermons are too neat. They try to wrap up everything. He thinks sermons should be like getting poked in the eye, that raise more questions than they answer. He also loves the Houston Astros and buys 28 tickets per home game and gives them away and invites people to games. He uses this for evangelism and to build relationships with people in his church. He found that with guys especially, it was easier to talk about what is going on in their lives when they were watching a game together instead of sitting down in an office somewhere. I can’t argue with him.

So overall, it was a great trip. My hosts Marilyn and Art were so hospitable. We left at 4am (seen below)

to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight, which had mechanical problems and left us sitting in the airport for another 1 ½ hours. It was good to be home with Kate and the kids.

I pray God did things in my life that will last forever. Mostly though, I learned how important it is to be convicted of what I believe, to communicate that to people, to be more intentional about being a person of prayer, to provide hope to people who are hurting, and to think and dream bigger than my limited vision allows.

I'm Off To Houston, Texas!!!

Our Beeson schedule kicks off the new year with a trip to Houston from Thursday to Monday. These days are packed with meetings and services. It looks like an excellent trip and I am looking forward to going. Here is the schedule:

Thursday
6am - Leave for Cincinatti airport
12pm - Lunch with Mark Collins and Guy Caskey with a focus on House Churches
2:30pm - Bob Johnson - Being an Excutive pastor
5pm Focus on Church Planting with 5 church planters from Greater Houston area

Friday
8:30am Dave Peterson, Memorial Drive Pres. Focus on Men's Ministries
11am Ed Young, Second Baptist Church, Focus on Preaching and Multi-site Ministries
1:30pm Kirbyjon Caldwell, Windsor Village, Focus on Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Prayer
4:30pm Supper with Randy Hageman, Focus: Dealing with Predecesors who have comitted sexual indiscretions.

Saturday
10am Dealing with Disappointment and Starting Over
12:15 Lunch with Rickie Bradshaw, Focus: Church Planting in the Hip-Hop Community
3:30pm Chapelwood UMC, Focus: Developing Congregations within a Single Congregation
6:pm Worship and diiner with Mery street, Focus: Developing a Worshiping 12-step Community Within another Congregation

Sunday
8:30am Worship at Joel Osteen's church - Lakewood Chuch

12pm Worship at St. John's UMC, a innercity church that ministers to the community. It grew from 10 to over 4000 today. Dialogue with pastor Rudy Rasmus

5:30pm Worship at Ecclesia Christian Community and Dialogue with Chris Seay, Focus: Post-Modern Church Ministries

Monday
Leave at the crack of dawn and come back to Ky by lunch time.


As you can see, this looks like a great trip with excellent leaders and topics. Pray for all of us. I will write next week.

Part Three - The Rest of Our trip to Florida

For some reason, uploading pictures is becoming difficult so I had to spread this to three posts.

We opened presents at Gran's house on Christmas Day.

Max's T-Shirt was appropiate commentary on the season.

Bob and Gran made us breakfast before the presents were opened. They all seemed to enjoy their food.

Max got the game Battleship and we played it pretty soon afterwards.

There are other pictures I may post when Blogger seems to be working better. Just wanted to update you on what went on. After Florida we drove to Tennessee to see Kate's parents. We spent part of the day seeing folks from our old church and showing off Pierson. It was fun to touch base with folks. We spent New Years at Kate's Aunt Marion's house for a family party and it was back to Ky to get ready for school.

Kate and I had planned a long trip when I got done with the program in May before I start my next church. After This long trip, we are rethinking and coming up with a Plan B.

What I did on Christmas Vacation - Part Two!

We eventually got to Florida to see my mom. Seen here with Desmond the bird, named after Desmond Tutu, she had a great time with the kids. It had been 12 years since I had been with my mom for Christmas and this christmas was special so we could be together.

The kids had fun decorating the tree and seeing the ornaments I made when I was their age. We went to a family party on Christmas Eve Eve and they had a hot tub which the kids enjoyed immensly.

We stayed in a condo on the beach. It was about 300 yards from my moms house so we could go back and forth. It gave us enough room to spread out some and for the kids to have some space. Although you cannot see it here, this condo looked out onto the beach and almost everyday the kids were able to go out. They collected shells and saw all sorts of sites. Kate took Maggie out one day and they saw a shark caught by fisherman on the beach. Needless to say we didn't get in the water. Contrary to this picture, the kids did like the beach. They built sandcastles and loved getting their feet wet in the water. Max, our resident engineer, built the most elaborate structures.

What I did on my Christmas Vacation!

Before we left on our 2500 mile 2 week trip (that is not a typo), we did a few things here in Kentucky to enjoy the season. First is a picture of Pierson dressed up warm in a handmade gift from Penny from our church in Tenn.

Then we went to the Kentucky Horse Park where they display lights around the outside of the park. We drove through and went inside to check out the model train display and the gift shop. We tried to get another Christmas photo shot but no luck. It is difficult to get everyone looking in the same direction and smiling.

As stated in my earlier post, we went to Atlanta to see Kate's brother Kevin and celebrate Christmas with them. Kate's brother Eric and wife Frankie came down as well as her parents.

After Kevin's place we drove all day almost to Orlando and stopped in a hotel for the night. The next day we stopped at DownTown Disney to visit the lego store. It is one of Max's favorite spots in the whole world. He bought some lego stuff with his Christmas money.