Just finished Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck's book, Why We Love The Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. It was so encouraging I'm going to start it again. If you think community is hip and church is uncool, and you want to walk away. Read this book. Here is an excerpt (pgs. 226-227)

So I guess this is my final advice: Find a good local church, get involved, become a member, stay there for the long haul. Put away any thoughts of revolution for a while and join the plodding visionaries. Go to church this Sunday and worship there in spirit and in truth, be patient with your leaders, rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, bear with those who hurt you and give people the benefit of the doubt. While you are there, sing like you mean it, say hi to the teenager no one notices, welcome the blue hairs and nose-ringed, volunteer for the nursery once in a while. And yes bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everyone else, invite a friend to church, take the new couple out for coffee, enjoy the Sundays that click for you, pray extra hard on the Sundays that don't and do not despise the "the day of small things" (Zechariah 4:10)

Well, I Wonder If You Know Him

Horrifying

Are video games just video games? Some of cultures brightest minds are wanting to change how we view reality. Virtual reality in the future may become virtually reality. How do followers of Christ respond?

Grace vs Performance

I found this blog at Resurgence. I had to share it. I think it describes our church. Thanks for making our church a community of Grace. It is a privilege to be your pastor.

What is the opposite of a community of grace? And I came to the conclusion that it's a community of performance. Communities of performance may talk a lot about grace, but they value performance—Christians who have it all figured out, churches that run smoothly, meetings that are accomplished. And so they communicate that what matters is that you perform well.

So is your community a community of performance or a community of grace? Try these diagnostic tests:

Communities of Performance

* The leaders appear to have it all figured out
* The community appears respectable
* Meetings must be a polished performance
* Failure is devastating, because identity is found in ministry
* Actions are driven by duty
* Conflict is suppressed or ignored
* The focus is on orthodox behavior (letting people think they have it all figured out)

Communities of Grace

* The leaders are vulnerable
* The community is messy
* Meetings are just one part of community life
* Failure is disappointing but not devastating, because identity is found in Christ
* Actions are driven by joy
* Conflict is addressed in the open
* The focus is on the affections of the heart (with a strong view of sin and grace)

In performance-oriented churches, people pretend to be okay because their standing within the church depends on it. But this is the opposite of grace. Grace acknowledges that we're all sinners, all messed up, all struggling. And grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome.
What Does a Community of Grace Look Like?

Imagine such a church for a moment. Here's Andrew: he sometimes uses porn because he struggles to find refuge in God. Here's Pauline: she sometimes has panic attacks because she struggles to believe in the care of her heavenly Father. Here's Abdul: he sometimes loses his temper because he struggles to believe that God is in control. Here's Georgina: she sometimes has bouts of depression because she struggles to believe God's grace. When they come together, they accept one another and celebrate God's grace towards each other. They rejoice that they are all children of God through the work of Christ. And they remind one another of the truths each of them needs to keep going and to change. It's a community of grace, a community of hope, a community of change.

Men and Woman!

This is so TRUE!

Growing Gospel

Great words from John Piper:

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:

Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

* grace gets bigger;
* Christ gets greater;
* his death gets more wonderful;
* his resurrection gets more astonishing;
* the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
* the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
* its global extent gets wider;
* your own sin gets uglier;
* the devil gets more evil;
* the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
* its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
* and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

Pray that it won’t. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

A Daughters Poem A Grateful Dad

My youngest daughter Corianne, wrote this poem for a school project. It brought a very grateful dad almost to tears. It is exciting as a dad, to watch God work in the lives of those I love. Please read to the end.

I’m long and curvy

Deep and wide

I hold a lot

Do a lot

Think a lot

Over think

Go deeper

I use my brain and my heart—

Maybe, too much

I hold every type of flower

Bright Reds, blues, yellows, greens, pinks

They aren’t organized

Some 2 feet

Others, 6 inches

The outside eye jumps from one to another

I’m random\spastic\crazy\loud

If I’m accidentally nudged

I’ll tip over and recover

If I’m knocked over purposefully

I’ll shatter

I can be glued back together

Never hold a grudge

But there will be a crack

I’m glass

Although I get shattered, dehydrated, and grow wild things

I have faith that there’s someone who will

Pick me up and glue me back together with love

Fill me up when I’m dry

Trim and replace my contents

No matter how:

Stubborn I am

How dry or dirty my water gets

How thorny and ugly my plants grow—

I love and trust God

I watch and take in the world around me

It helps my flowers thrive

And kills them

They soak up the sun when I’m in a window

Try to block out the darkness

Dirt finds its way to nestle between the petals of my flowers

Observing, I must be careful what I take in

Sometimes letting my guard down

I’m not perfect

When I’m happy, you’ll see my flowers

Sad or mad—my emptiness

Fake flowers fill me up when emptiness sets in

All for the sake of others

But the falsehood doesn’t go unnoticed

I wear my heart on my sleeve

I’m clear

Usually blooming

I try to brighten rooms around me

I smile

I would gladly give my flowers away

To make another happy

I’ll empathize, sympathize

Cry or break

At the sight of another

I hurt easily, care lots

Half full, never half empty

Usually full of blooms

Here for the One that placed me here

Used to brighten rooms

My creator, gardener, filler,

My cornerstone, my base,

Whatever I am or how I look

I am His Glass Vase