erikscottberg.com

wronged

erik — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:18:45 +0000

Several weeks ago I was reading from the One Year Reading Plan when I came across 1 Corinthians 6. The Apostle Paul is writing about how some of the Christians at Corinth had disputes with each other and had brought those disputes to secular courts for judgment. Paul criticizes them for their inability to resolve their differences on their own.

But then Paul takes the topic to a deeper level. He says in verses 7-8,

“Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.”

And then week ago Pastor Phil spoke about forgiving those who have hurt you and caused you pain. It was a great message. One of those where you nod your head and think, “yeah, I need to forgive those horrible, evil, arogant people who have wronged me. They’re so bad for treating poor, innocent me that way (#sarcasm).”

Then came the proverbial “kick in the teeth”.

Pastor Phil closed the message out by encouraging us to not only forgive, but then to also pray that those who have wronged us would experience blessing.

Ouch.

Then this past week, Mark Batterson wrote on his blog about bitterness and how to overcome:

I honestly believe that prayer is the only antidote to anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. You can’t just forgive. You’ve got to pray for that person. Why? Because it will change your heart. You’ll find that a supernatural love for that person disarms your anger. Forgiveness will set your free. And prayer is the key.

Um, anyone else see a reoccuring theme here?

Yeah…I think I have some praying to do….

6 years old

erik — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:26:16 +0000

My son, Parker, turned six today. I can’t express how proud I am. The kid is a genius. Today we found out that he’s the only kindergartner in his school (out of four classes) to pass all of the math challenges up through 1st grade. He’s been playing basketball with our kid’s church teams and I can’t believe how quickly he’s picked it up. The following clip is from a few weeks ago.

Anyway, I just wanted to take the opportunity to brag. Happy birthday, Parker!

LOST/Office Valentines

erik — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:10:04 +0000

I thought I’d dust off the old blog today and send a little love out to my friends who are fans of two of the greatest shows on television: LOST and The Office.

I hope you all have a great Valentines Day!

new year commitments

erik — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:40:55 +0000

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.

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.
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….
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

erik — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:50:39 +0000

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:

Heart = Compassion
Soul = Wonder
Mind = Curiosity
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

erik — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:55:15 +0000

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.

dancing with santa

erik — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:28:45 +0000

Just a quick video of Kent dancing with our musical Santa. I walked into the room and found him like this. Once he realized he was being taped, he started the “shaking my butt” lyrics. The kid cracks me up! (pun intended)

lights up

erik — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:35:53 +0000

I finally got the chance to get the Christmas lights up today. Fortunately the weather was perfect for it. So here’s my day in just under 60 seconds.

I used a free program called Gawker to make it on my macbook. Simple to use and worth checking out.

The music is from one of my favorite Christmas albums, “8-Bit Jesus: Classic Christmas Songs in the Style of Classic NES Games”. You can listen to it and purchase it here.

thanksgiving

erik — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:43:24 +0000

It’s been forever since my last post. I didn’t intend to stop posting but somewhere along the way I got to the point where I didn’t feel as though I had much to say. (Insert “comment about how I promise to post more” here.)

I do feel as though I should write tonight, however. Bethany and the boys are asleep and it’s been a busy couple of days with family and friends. I’m sitting in the dark downstairs with my laptop feeling blessed, knowing that I have people in my life who love and support me and are walking with me through life’s journey.

Bethany went to bed early. She deserved it after being almost non-stop since yesterday morning (I’m sure she’ll tell about her early morning Black Friday adventures on her blog). So that left me with the boys. Without over dramatizing the situation, I just had one of those “dad moments” where I looked at my kids and was overwhelmed with appreciation and thanksgiving for the blessing they are to me. There are a million and a half things I could be thankful for today. I’m not even going to try to mention them all because if I tried, I’d end up leaving something out.

So tonight, before I head upstairs, I just thought I’d just mention my gratitude for a beautiful, supportive and loving wife and my two energetic, fun-loving, wild and crazy boys.

scottpress.com

erik — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:35:14 +0000

This past summer, I set up a website for a friend’s church plant in Chicago. In the process of doing this, I realized that there were probably a lot of churches who could benefit from an updated (and affordable) web presence.

For instance, our church has been utilizing a professional CMS (Content Management System) for our website for the past several months. The company we used charged high monthly fees and a hefty setup cost. The CMS is used for Doug’s site is called Joomla!. It’s an Open Source community developed platform that is free for anyone to use. Tomorrow I’ll be transferring our new church website, built on Joomla!, over to www.thestonechurch.org. (In the meantime, you can catch a sneak peak at www.stonechurch.info.)

I began working Content Management Systems in 2004 with the Open Source project, Mambo. Shortly after this, the development of Mambo split and Joomla! was created. In January of 2006, I began developing a site for the youth ministry of Stone Church using Joomla!. Since that time, I’ve set up several Joomla! sites and branched out to using Wordpress in 2008.

This is one of those things that I’ve recently discovered that I truly enjoy. And probably, my desire in this is really to help churches. There’s just no reason that churches should have to pay enormous amounts of money in order to have a decent looking website.

Anyway, do me a favor. Check out the site (scottpress.com). And tell a friend.