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Isaiah's first trip to the beach

Here are a couple of pictures of Isaiah's first trip to the beach. Sorry I've been slow blogging. Hopefully I can get consistent soon!

He loved it!

My favorite picture from the trip

Why?

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what church should look like. I guess the question I've really been asking is this: Why do we do church the way that we do it?

Don't get me wrong. This is not about questioning traditions. It's about making sure that every single aspect of what we do as a church has a purpose. AND...THAT purpose lines up 100% with the main purpose of the church.

Let's take a typical worship service at our church for example. Some of these things I see the point in, others I do not. Here's some questions to ask ourselves about each element.

*Countdown- Do people need a countdown to let them know when it's starting? Does there cell phone not sync up with the satellite?
*Opening Song - Why have a song to signal the start of a service? Kind of like the national anthem maybe?
*Welcome- Why do people need to be welcomed during the service? Did multiple greeters and other people greet them on the way in?
*Worship Set- Why have music at all? Can worship only begin with upbeat music and work gradually to slower, apparently "more worshipful" songs?
*Offering Prayer and Special Song- Why does this need to be in the middle of the service? Can people only give if there is some background music playing?
*Bumper- Why do we need a video that transitions between the offering song and the sermon? I wonder how Jesus could have been effective without it.
*Sermon- Why does it have to be a live speaker giving a lecture? When was the last time you invited your friends to a lecture?
*Invitation- Why should we give an invitation every week? Do you think one more verse will bring them down? (I see that hand).
*Closing Song- Why does it have to end with another song? Was six not enough?

Obviously, I said a lot of things tongue in cheek. I see a lot of reasons that we should do some of the things mentioned above. The main thing is, we have to know why we do what we do. If what we do does not line up with the vision and purpose of the church, we shouldn't do it. (What is the vision and purpose of your church? Sorry...I couldn't resist.)

What questions do you think should be asked about church life?

My snack of the day

I just finished up some of these for my afternoon snack. Yum...kind of.

Some Fresh Changes...

Isn't it amazing how many times we say we're gonna change something in our lives and we don't follow through with it? Well...I know there are a couple of changes that I'm making in my life that gonna be hard to stick with, but when all is said and done both will change my life for the better. What are they? Here ya go...

1) Patty and I are gonna be setting up a hardcore budget and paying off stuff as fast as possible. I'm sure that we won't be able to eat out much and we'll have to cut back on other things (goodbye cable package), but wow..it will feel great to be out of debt. This post by Seth Godin really sums up how I'm feeling about it. Part of our plan is that I'm gonna do some extra work on the side...maybe even some speaking or music. We'll see.

2) I'm going to lose weight and get into shape. I need to drop about 35-50 pounds and it begins today. I wish I could find an inexpensive personal trainer (is there such a thing?) but I'm just planning on toughing it out myself until that happens. Let's face it. Most of us know what we should eat and what we should do to stay in shape. We just don't do it. The Bible says our bodies are a temple. My temple needs a major renovation.

Should be interesting. I'll have to give everyone updates on our progress.

Isaiah's first trip to the pool

He loved being in the pool today. Now if his daddy can just lose some weight, you might see some pics with all of us in the pool!

Caption of the Week

Here ya go....make a caption for this picture:

Five from Q & A

SO...I was totally naive about how many questions would be sent in by our students at our Q&A night. To keep from having to answer questions on every blog for the next two years, I will take a good balance of the questions and talk about them. Without further ado...here are five random questions from our Q & A night (more coming soon!):

1) What do you do when a teacher discriminates because you’re Baptist? I would invite them to a potluck dinner and sing “Just As I Am” at the end of each class. (We actually gave a real answer at Q&A night.)

2) How do we know how to listen to God? God can speak to you in a variety of ways, but the main way is through the Bible. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from hearing God’s Word. God will speak to you as you study the Bible and He will never tell you anything that contradicts it. He also speaks so us through His Spirit. That subtle voice guiding you a lot of times is Him (John 16:13, Romans 8:14). He can speak to us through other people (Proverbs 12:15).

The main thing is to stop talking to God about our issues all the time and truly listen through these ways I’ve mentioned. It’s hard to listen if all we do is talk.

3) What do you do when some of your friends are saying bad words but when you tell them to stop, they say “But it’s in the Bible”? As far as I know, there aren’t any cuss words in the Bible. Hell is an actual place. Damn is used when talking about sending people to Hell to face punishment for their sins. Ass is a donkey. Other than that, I have no clue what their talking about.

4) Can you believe in God but think that He doesn’t like you? There is never a moment that God doesn’t love you. BUT…He often doesn’t like your actions (or lack of) or thoughts. It’s like this. Let’s say that I tell my wife (Patty) that I’m gonna wash the dishes and I don’t do it. Patty would not be happy with me and would not like what I did. BUT…she still loves me. She always will. That’s a small glimpse of God. He loves us but hates sin. (Romans 8:38-39...example of God always loving us. There are tons of examples of God hating sin in the Bible)

5) Something happened to me by one of my family members 3 years ago and I still haven’t told my parents. What should I do? You definitely need to tell someone about what happened to you. It will be difficult to tell your parents, but they would want to know so they can help you. Whatever happened, it obviously is something that still bothers you and is on your mind, so the first step to moving on is letting others know.