Jesusgreek

Ok, so it wasn't The Masters or anything but yesterday was my greatest accomplishishment on the golf course. I was playing in the annual Merriwood Christian Camp golf marathon as I have for the past few years. This year Mike Willard and I teamed up with my friend Danny and one of his friends Zach for the captain's choice part of the golf marathon. I had absolutely no aspirations of coming close to winning since my track record in all things considered "athletic competition" is less then stellar. But as we played and the birdies, eagles, and even double eagles kept piling up, it became clear that we may have a chance of winning. When it was all said and done we sat at a score of 44 (27 under par). Now I must disclose we had the help of a golf package that included mulligams, throws, red tee shots, and string, but so did everyone else. When the scores were announced we were declared champs by two stokes. Except for my Piedmont Wiffle Ball Championship way back in '9...

I've had the opportunity to lead several small groups based of the Francis Chan book "Crazy Love". The discussion questions that come with the DVD study leaves a lot to be desired. So through my own personal questions and questions from other "Crazy Love" resources online I've been able to develope a more indepth study of the book. Below are the questions I have used for all 10 chapters of the book study. Feel free to use them as you'd like. Chapter 1: Stop Praying Stop and think about the last prayer you voiced. How did you begin? Our Father? Dear Lord? Jesus? What word or phrase did you use to start the prayer? Now, take a minute and consider the prayer you prayed before that prayer. How did you begin? Same word or phrase? Different? Sorta different or radically different? If you begin all your prayers in much the same way, ask yourself why. Read these words from G. K. Chesterton: A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, ...

Recently I had a conversation with a parent of some elementary students in my church. The parent was complaining of how their children don't fit in at our church. In the midst of our conversation I could pick up on some obvious blame being cast out. It was some how my fault, the children's director's fault, Sunday school teacher's fault, and church's fault that their children didn't enjpy coming to church the way the parent did when they were a child and attended church. To be honest I walked away beating myself up over their children falling through the cracks and trying to figure out what more I could have done to prevented it. I immediately started to dream of ways to get their children more connected and involved. Then it hit me. It really wasn't my job to impress kids enough to make them want to come to my church. It's really up to the parents. Which got me thinking, "Why are parents so opposed to simply making their kids come to church?...

The Pastor and His Wife Get to Pick Their Own Friends | Part 1 by Mark Driscoll  As church planters, Grace and I learned the hard way what a friendship is and is not. Somehow, I got the silly notion that everyone who picked me to be their friend was, in fact, my friend. Subsequently, I ate lots of meals with people I did not enjoy, had people on my family vacations that drove me so nutty I could not wait to get back to work, and spent countless hours answering the phone, replying to emails, and responding to the demands of pushy, rude, selfish people who smiled while saying words like “buddy” and “friend.” What they meant by “friend” was something more akin to “bullied victim.” The truth is, as a pastor, you and your wife have many kinds of relationships. What has been helpful for me is considering the kinds of relationships I have like lanes on a highway. I am then better able to clearly determine and articulate who is in which lane without allowing everyone to drive in my friend ...

** pic of Jacob and David when we met him at a concert The following is an email I just got from the David Crowder Band. A piece of me died when I read it but I'm so excited I have tickets to see them in Charlotte this fall. We have several things to let you know about, First of all, we can’t begin to express how excited we are getting about The 7 Tour this fall. If you haven’t heard yet, we’re doing a national tour with some of our favorite artists ever. Gungor, John Mark McMillan, and Chris August are joining us, and we cannot wait to be in the same room with these folks night after night. We’re pretty sure you’ll want to be at every single one of these get-togethers. “Unreasonable!” you say? Well, not to us. That’s why we’ll be there every single night. Seriously, we, the band, are all getting on a bus and following the whole thing around for like 3 months. It’s going to be awesome. Now, another reason we are sure this will be one of the most meaningful tours we’ve ...

On Monday by buddy Sam called to ask me to watch a short film called "The Butterfly Circus". He wouldn't tell me anything about it except that I had to watch it and he'd call me later in the week to discuss it. So on Monday night I had 20 min to kill so I took a look. It was the best 20 min I had spent all day and will probably spend all week. It's one of the most beautiful films I've seen in recent memory and absolutely deserves all the awards and praise it's receiving. You can check out the full 20 minute short film on the official web site: www.thebutterflycircus.com Afterward I'd encourage everyone to check out the following site www.lifewithoutlimbs.org for more info on the leading actor.

“Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.” – Proverbs 24:17 Pride. Celebration. Joy. These sentiments outwardly resonated with American citizens on Sunday, May 1, 2011 – a day that, for the rest of our lives, will be known as the day when United States military officials killed Al-Qadea leader Osama bin Laden. As a nation sat and watched hordes of students and adults running toward the White House I could not help but feel slightly uncomfortable. Had I not known that they were marching toward the White House, I could have easily mistaken their destination for a fraternity house. Certainly it is more than understandable that Americans celebrate this justifiable act of revenge. Few, if any, would disagree that the U.S. military was perfectly within its right to pursue and execute bin Laden, who not only committed some of the most heinous terrorist attacks in the past half-century, but also remained a threat to world peace an...