Archive - December, 2009

new year commitments

December 31, 2009 in family, ministry, spiritual with 3 Comments

2010

As I’m typing this, I’m sitting on my couch, trying to work on my final sermon at Stone Church this Sunday, January 3. With all of the craziness of the past few days, I’ve hardly had a chance to reflect on Christmas, let alone evaluate 2009 or really give any thought to 2010. The last couple of weeks have been a blur of activity. Parties, family, get-togethers, saying goodbyes have all been a part of the busyness. I’m grateful for these opportunities, but unfortunate thing is that I haven’t been able to stop and focus on the season.

That may not be a bad thing. Typically I over-analyze my New Year’s resolutions and end up with a list so long that I don’t know where to start…so I typically don’t. So here are three commitments I’m making to myself for 2010.

  1. One Year Bible Reading Plan – I’ve been reading through the Chronological Bible for the past five years. It’s a great way to read the Bible in a year, but like anything else, the process has gotten a bit stale for me and I need to change things up. So I’m going to be using one of the reading plans from youversion.com. They have a great iPhone app that will help me keep up to date as well. I’d encourage you to check out their plans. They have several and one of them is bound to fit you.
  2. Read at least one book a month. This one has been on my list every year for several years. I don’t think I’ve ever quite accomplished it. Well, this year will be different. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that I just packed my office and had shelves (yes, plural) of books that I own but have hardly cracked. This means I’ll probably have to cut back on some of the feeds in my Google Reader….
  3. Spend more time with my family. One thing I’ve realized this past year is that I have to fight for my family. I have to fight for time with them and I have to be intentional about the quality of that time. It just doesn’t happen on it’s own. One of the ways I plan to do this is by starting to read to Parker before bedtime (thinking about starting with The Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit). This is going to be tough because I’m a TV junkie and his bedtime is right during that primetime hour, but I know I’m doing him a disservice if I don’t do it. And quite honestly, it’s pretty sad if I put TV before him.

Anyway, I’d love to throw in others, but these are the main three I’m going to focus on. The non-negotiable ones that I’m going to fight to accomplish.

What are some of your commitments for the new year?

book review: primal

December 15, 2009 in spiritual with 0 Comments

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When I was in college, I had the privilege of doing my ministerial internship with Mark Batterson at National Community Church. It was an incredible opportunity. While I was there, Mark told me something that I’ve never forgotten. He saw me reading one of the dozen or so books he assigned for me to read and said that I shouldn’t use a yellow highlighter (which I was using). Instead, he instructed me to use another color like blue or orange. That way, when the color fades over the years, I could still see the highlights. Yellow, he said, just didn’t last.

I would have listened to his advice, but to me, utilizing anything other than a yellow highlighter is an abomination. I’m sure there’s something in Leviticus warning against that….

But this is a review of his new book and not a discussion about highlighters. (For what it’s worth, however, that’s where my problems with him start and end.) I have a great deal of respect for Batterson. His two previous books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase have both had a profound impact on my life and ministry.

Batterson’s new book, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity explores the core elements of what it means to love God according to the Great Commandment. He seeks to pull back the layers of tradition and routine that tend to creep in and crowd out the primal aspects of Christianity.

The book is divided into four parts taken from Mark 12:30. In this passage, Jesus distills the Law down into what we call the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Batterson describes these four aspects of love as follows:

  1. Heart = Compassion
  2. Soul = Wonder
  3. Mind = Curiosity
  4. Strength = Energy

Each of these four aspects make up the sections of the book and Batterson tackles them with passion and clarity. For those who have read his previous books or follow his blog, some of the content here will be familiar. For me, that’s not a complaint. If there’s one thing I appreciate about Batterson’s writing, it’s that I’m constantly left feeling challenged, convicted and spurred on to greater faith. The book is jam-packed with insight, fresh perspective and inspiration.

Which brings me back to my highlighter. Maybe I should have listened to Mark. Halfway through the book the other night, mine died. The bright yellow had faded into a dull indistinguishable pale color. In other circumstances, I probably would have just kept on reading, but I knew I wanted to mark the book up along the way. So I stopped and waited until the next day when I could get my hands on another one at the office. I’m glad I did. As I look back over the book now, almost every page has something highlighted on it. Much of this has to do with the way Batterson describes truth in fresh, insightful and memorable ways:

  • “it’s much easier to act like a Christian than it is to react like one”
  • “you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving”
  • “making money is the way you make a living and giving it away is the way you make a life”
  • “Pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you.”
  • “overanalysis will always result in spiritual paralysis”
  • “Most of what God accomplishes through our lives isn’t because of us. It’s in spite of us.”

I could go on and on. Maybe I’m a compulsive highlighter, but this book is brimming with great content. For me, it’s a must read. Primal has challenged me to get back to the core aspects of my faith and what it means to love God. I recommend it to anyone who seeks to have an authentic, life-changing experience with Christianity. I’ve already pre-ordered a couple of copies for some of my friends.

Do yourself a favor and make Primal the first book you read in 2010. You won’t be disappointed and I believe it’ll transform your understanding and expression of what it means to love God.

Primal can be pre-orderd on amazon.com and will be released December 22, 2009.

For disclosure’s sake, I need to add that my copy of Primal was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

a rough night

December 2, 2009 in ministry with 2 Comments

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Tonight was rough.

Over 5 years ago, Bethany, Parker and I made a decision to join the pastoral team at Stone Church. During our time here, we’ve walked with students and families through times of great joy and utter sorrow. We’ve seen students grow and mature. We’ve laughed and struggled together. We’ve learned about ourselves and about each other. We’ve shared struggles and rejoiced in victories. Most importantly, we’ve grown to love these students and our leadership team.

Which brings me back to tonight: rough.

This past Sunday we accepted an Associate Pastor position at Cornerstone Church in Bethalto, IL and tonight we informed our students of the approaching transition.

The situation is really bittersweet. We are extremely excited about the new ministry assignment and believe this is an incredible opportunity for us (more on that in another post).

It’s tough, however, to begin to say goodbye to people in whom you’ve invested time, energy and emotion.

To the students of @thestonecrew, we love you more than you know and we’ll miss you terribly. But as I shared tonight, we can be confident of the fact that God is good and following his plans results in a better outcome than our own. Psalm 16:8 says “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Things may seem “shaky” during this time, but we put our trust in the One who himself will not be moved. And that is what sustains us during these times.