Reading YEAH!!! Writing about Reading BOOO!!!

I am totally digging my pre-session reading for the two courses that I am taking this fall.  One is the meaning of Christian Community (it’s about the church) and the other is Theology and Contemporary Media (culture).  These are two of my favorite subjects to talk about, read about, think about.  But I’ve been procrastinating on my writing assignments.  The reading is great, the application is hard.  

Sounds like life, huh?

surprises good thing or a bad thing

This week all the news has been about McCain’s VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin. There have been voices on both sides as to whether or not this was good pick for McCain.

I don’t want to endorse either candidate on my blog, who you vote for is your business. But I will say this, by picking Gov. Palin McCain has brought attention to his candidacy that really wasn’t there. My opinion as to why McCain wasn’t getting attention was because he is the least exciting or charismatic public speaker I have ever seen. So to draw attention away from his lack of charisma and Obama’s abundance of Charisma, McCain had tried to change the game entirely.

This may prove to be a genius move for the campaign camp or it may bite them in the butt. Either way, surprise draws attention, and in politics it seems you are always fighting for attention.

I look at this story and I’m reminded that the worst thing in the world sometimes fir a leader us to be predictable. We need to zag when people expect us to zig. Not everytime, it’s good for people to know where we stand on core issues, but we also need to have the flexibility both mentally and organizationally to go in an unpredictible course. It could save our ministry, it could save our leadership, and it could change the game entirely.

Just some thoughts.

Legacy

Today I am working on an upcoming sermon for Sunday Morning – October 19th to be precise.  I’ll be preaching out of Genesis 49, which is a huge scripture for understanding the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, and some of the New Testament.  

What Jacob says to his sons in Genesis 49 will impact their families for generations.  And most of what Jacob says is in relations to his sons’ actions, the things that they have done.  So it got me thinking about legacy, and how important what we do today is for our tomorrows.  I think Jacob was probably very sad giving these prophetic words to his sons, because it kind of shows how Jacob himself failed as a father.  Jacob, was blessed with 11 sons and 9 of them did some pretty horrible things.  Somewhere along the line Jacob neglected his role of instruction and correction. Read Genesis 35.22 – Jacob did nothing in response to Reuben’s actions.  

It’s easier to just let things go, to let your kids do their thing, but we can’t do that.  I have a two year old, and I clearly see at this point that I can’t just let him do whatever he wants because he would end up a serial killer (he’s super cute but we are all depraved sinners).  So I need to work on instruction and discipline, I need to be his spiritual leader, I need to be his pastor, and it’s so hard to always be on like that.  But that’s what our family needs.

Jacob’s words in Genesis 49 are not just his sons’ legacies, they His Legacy.  At the end of the Chapter Jacob dies, and I can see why, It must have been really hard to realize that he was a horrible father in a lot of ways.

So dads let’s not let that happen to us.  Let’s build our legacy in such a way that on our death bed we die with a smile on our face, because we have family around us, and we can be proud and happen with the direction that their lives took.  We know that our name will be remembered kindly, and our sons and daughters names too.

Book Love

Last Thursday I had lunch with Shawn Peterson.  We are planning for Sno-Blast 09 which is going to be awesome.  I love sno-blast.  

Anyway, we planned, and then we had a really great conversation about ministry, and trying to create rhythm for ministry and all that.  As we were getting ready to leave a woman at the next table stuck up a conversation with us.  Turns out she and her husband are missionaries, and they go to Christ the King in Anacortes.

I recently listened to a teaching by Dave Browning on their multi-site strategy, and she said I should read his book.  And I wrote down the title and I was planning on acquiring it after the bulk of my school reading is done.  But then I check the mail yesterday, and she mailed me the book.  How great is that.  That’s amazing, what a great gift.  I look forward to reading deliberate simplicity as soon as I can.