It’s been a while since I have reviewed any books that I have read but I want to share one particular book that I am currently reading, So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore. For starters and this will mean a lot to COTN members, I was given the book by Helen Gunter, she asked me to read it. She called me on a Saturday morning so excited about this book, she told me that it was one of the books recommended in the back of the The Shack.  Which by the way is an awesome book and one that I read in about 5 days after purchasing. I also just heard from my good friend Rick Womack, that there is some controversy about the doctrine within The Shack but I must say it really had an interesting twist on the trinity and one that aligned with my spirit.

So back to, So you don’t want to go to church anymore, another fiction that makes you look at things from another angle. It takes you out of your comfort zone of church as usual, (which by the way is a good thing) and makes you think about why do we have the programs we have at church. What really is the church/building for and who is the church.

Here are some of the titles of the chapters in the book,

This is Christian education?

Loving Father or Fairy Godmother?

A Box by any other name

And my favorite, When you dig a hole for yourself, you have to throw the dirt on someone

Now if that isn’t the truth!!! At any rate this is another great read that will surely strecth your thoughts about God, Jesus and hopefully challenge you to take God out of the box and realize that God lives in us, not the church building?!?!?

We keep building houses to keep God in but Stephen said…

48“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
 49” ‘Heaven is my throne,
      and the earth is my footstool.
   What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
      Or where will my resting place be?
 50Has not my hand made all these things?’

So go out and buy the book and let me know what you think.

Mark Richt was asked what sites his players would get to see while in Arizona and here is what he said..

“In some ways you wish you’d spend more time kind of site-seeing and doing some things that might be memorable to them,” Mark Richt said. “But they’re going to see the airport, the hotel, the stadium, and the airport and whatever they can see out the window of the bus on the way. I probably should do a better job of letting them go to some type of tourist attraction. But we’re not going to do that.”

Now you got to love how he manages their time, if you don’t have idol time there is very little chance that you can find trouble. That is the same philosophy that Pastor Mark Preston uses when he leads missions trips to Mexico with about 20 teenagers. You get up at the crack of dawn eat breakfast fast and then drive 1 to 2 hours to the area you will be working, you work about 10 to 12 hours or until the sun sets and then drive the 1 to 2 hours back to the hotel to eat. By that time you are way to tired to do anything else, thus you go straight to bed.

At any rate you gotta love Mark Richt, he is gem when it comes to college football coaches.

Ok Georgia won again and that is a good thing, they could have scored more points. They dominated the game, offensively and defensively but that doesn’t seem to matter in the polls, they want style points.

The good news is we are 4 and 0 and we have not played our best game yet. Way too many penalties and we must execute in short yardage situations but again we are 4 and 0 and we have not played any where near our best game yet.

Ok here is my prediction for next week against Alabama, Georgia wins, 28 to 17, now that will move us up in the polls. Hope I am right!!!

Well that’s the question I am asking and for that matter all of my co workers and friends are asking what are we going to do with our 401K’s? I have no idea, I keep hearing over and over that we have not hit the bottom yet and that this is not a buyers market. For about the last 3 months I have actually raised how much I was paying into my 401K, because I believed that I was buying stocks at a bargain price but with the price continuing to drop you have to wonder what you should do going forward.

People say well the stock market can’t collaspe but that is not true it has already happened before, so it can surely happen again. I am fortunate that the company I work for has a pension as well but to retire and not work until I am 70 I will be very dependent on my 401K. I know that a lot of people out there work for companies that only have 401k’s and their retirement is dependent on the success of the stock market. So what do you do???

I know, I know God is in control of things, I know that but God would want us to be good stewards of our money. I am not worried but I do want to be informed and make good decisions with my family’s future. No matter what you must admit these are very complex and trying times, thank God he is the Lord of my life!!!

 

I was moved this morning while reading in John chapter 6, Jesus had just explained to his disciples that he was the bread of life and that they must consume his flesh and blood to have eternal life but they began to argue, they did not understand that their eternal Passover lamb was there before them and all they had to do was believe.

But a really sad part to me was when most of his disciples left because they said it was to hard of a teaching and that is when Jesus turned to the only people that were left and said..

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” 

Those words pierced my heart with sadness, it was as if Jesus was fighting sadness or failure or loneliness. He wanted so badly to reach His people with the love that He had for them and they could not understand and at that moment he says you don’t want to leave too…..do you?

But Peter the rock said no where would we go, you are the eternal one. In my heart I sensed that Jesus didn’t want to be alone, he long to fellowship with His children. That is all God has ever wanted was to fellowship with his children, from the beginning when he created Adam, to his cry to Pharaoh to let his people go so that they could worship Him, all he has wanted was for us to fellowship and have relationship with him.

Why is that so hard, why do we allow things to get between us and God. Why do we put up idols that consume or time and money and distract us from the one thing God longs for, fellowship and relationship.

Well I bet you didn’t know the word churchism existed, well it does, the definition is words used in church by church going people that most lost people in the world have no clue what it even means!?!?! On Sunday a young man probably in his late teens or early twenties tapped Rhonda on the shoulder, while church was going on and asked, “What does evangelism mean?”. Now if you have been going to church much at all you probably know the answer but this young man didn’t have a clue. Rhonda told him it meant when you go out into your community and share about Jesus, great answer I thought.

That got me started to thinking (look out, I might hurt myself!?!?), how many words do we say on an average Sunday that are only words that the churched would understand, now don’t become to sanctified on me, you know what I am talking about. Words like sanctified or evangelism are words only used in church. The average person, sitting at work or at home doesn’t look over at his co worker and state, you need to become sanctified or I think I will walk down the street and evangelize some neighboring businesses. (maybe burglarize but never evangelize)

No these are churchisms and I tell you what they do, they make outsiders feel like outsiders. They make people feel like they don’t belong, like they have just flown to another country and they don’t speak the language.

Is that a good thing, WELL NO, we should be trying to make people feel welcome, so that they can encounter God, (and then of course learn all the churchism words just like us, right!?!?!).

So I say let’s get radical, let’s keep things simple and speak the language of the lost. You say Todd you have lost your mind, you can’t do that. Well I say, that’s what Jesus did, when he was around fisherman he said, hey you guys follow me and I will make you fisher of men. He didn’t say hey follow me and we will go and evangelize the world and everyone will be sanctified, (well maybe in the King James version he did but you get my point?!?!?).

He spoke to people with words they could understand and relate to. The only people we are hurting are the lost and unchurched, the very ones who need Jesus the most, remember what Jesus said in Mark 2:17

 17Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”

That is what we need to be doing inviting the sin-sick people of the world with a message that they can understand. Can I get an AMEN!

This post is actually by my oldest daughter Hannah, she shared with me something that God impressed upon her heart. She doesn’t blog but I was really moved by the word she shared and of course thought that it was blog worthy.

     Have these words ever escaped from your lips: “I don’t hate them… I don’t hate anyone; I just strongly dislike them.” I have been extremely guilty of using these words on a daily basis. I just want to remind myself and others that as Christians, and simply as people, we are not called to “not hate”. Jesus’ commandments were not “don’t hate God and don’t hate your neighbor,” rather He said, “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” That is such a familiar scripture, yet we have somehow misconstrued it by simply by saying its enough to “not hate” without really understanding the love part.  I have found that just because I hold no room in my heart for hatred, that doesn’t mean that I have saved room for love. In fact, by saying that I “don’t hate” my neighbor it has given me an excuse or a “free pass” to not love them, yet not feel guilty. I am tired of this. I am ready to share God’s love with the world. So I encourage myself and all of you today: Find that person you “don’t hate” and show them love!

Ok I admit it I am counting the days until the football season starts, 28 days and counting!!! I happen to work with a few northerners (Yankees) who think that they no how to play football north of the mason dixon line. Well the below comparison should clear up that issue, also I know there are some references to drinking (for which I don’t do) and maybe a cus word or two but in the words of Lewis Grizzard, “It’s not just a football game, it’s our way of life versus theirs!!!” (also it’s very funny and true)

 Stadium Size:
NORTH: College football stadiums hold 20,000 people.
SOUTH: High school football stadiums hold 20,000 people.

Fathers:
NORTH: Expect their daughters to understand Sylvia Plath.
SOUTH: Expect their daughters to understand pass interference.

Campus Decor:
NORTH: Statues of founding fathers.
SOUTH: Statues of Heisman trophy winners.

Homecoming Queen:
NORTH: Also a physics major.
SOUTH: Also Miss America.

Heroes:
NORTH: Rudy Guiliani
SOUTH: Hershal Walker

Getting Tickets:
NORTH: 5 days before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and purchase tickets.
SOUTH: 5 months before the game you walk into the ticket office on campus and put name on waiting list for tickets.

Friday Classes After a Thursday Night Game:
NORTH: Students and teachers not sure they’re going to the game, because they have classes on Friday.
SOUTH: Teachers cancel Friday classes because they don’t want to see the few hung over students that might actually make it to class.

Parking:
NORTH: An hour before game time, the University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities. The really faithful arrive on Tuesday.

Game Day:
NORTH: A few students party in the dorm and watch ESPN on TV.
SOUTH: Every student wakes up, has a beer for breakfast, and rushes over to where ESPN is broadcasting “Game Day Live” to get on camera and wave to the idiots up north who wonder why “Game Day Live” is never broadcast from their campus.

Tailgating:
NORTH: Raw meat on a grill, beer with lime in it, listening to local radio station with truck tailgate down.
SOUTH: 30-foot custom pig-shaped smoker fires up at dawn. Cooking accompanied by live performance by “Dave Matthews’ Band,” who come over during breaks and ask for a hit off bottle of bourbon.

Getting to the Stadium:
NORTH: You ask, “Where’s the stadium?” When you find it, you walk right in.
SOUTH: When you’re near it, you’ll hear it. On game day, it becomes the state’s third largest city.

Concessions:
NORTH: Drinks served in a paper cup, filled to the top with soda.
SOUTH: Drinks served in a plastic cup, with the home team’s mascot on it, filled less than half way with soda, to ensure enough room for bourbon.

When National Anthem is Played:
NORTH: Stands are less than half full, and less than half of them stand up.
SOUTH: 100,000 fans, all standing, sing along in perfect four-part harmony.

 The Smell in the Air After the First Score:
 NORTH: Nothing changes.
 SOUTH: Fireworks, with a touch of bourbon.

 Commentary (Male):
 NORTH: “Nice play.”
 SOUTH: “Dammit, you slow sumb@!ch – tackle him and break his legs.”
Commentary (Female):
NORTH: “My, this certainly is a violent sport.”
SOUTH: “Dammit, you slow sumb@!ch – tackle him and break his legs.”

Announcers:
NORTH: Neutral and paid.
SOUTH: Announcer harmonizes with the crowd in the fight song, with a tear in his eye because he is so proud of his team.

I love the passion and can’t wait to see the DAWGS tee it up for a new season!!!

Here are some rules for success in sales but I always love how simple rules for success work almost anywhere you are in life. This may seem a little cheesy but I was just thinking about them and thought I would share them.

Rule #1-Stay up front

• Simply put make your self available

Rule #2-Move fast (hustle) but with purpose

• Simply put do your job with passion

Rule #3-Create WOW experiences

• Simply put work to exceed your customers expectations, every time consistently

Rule #4-Don’t be satisfied with average

• Simply put strive to the best and don’t settle for complacency, put measures in place to off set complacency

These may seem very basic but if applied everyday consistently you will be a success at what ever you set out to achieve.

 

 

It’s interesting that to much of a good thing can be considered wrong, for instance whether in retail or at church one of the main goals is to make people feel welcome. So we go to great links to greet, assist and welcome each person that enters our establishments and while that should be viewed as the right thing to do, people will often complain that we are being too nice or invading their privacy.

Can you believe it too nice, what does that mean, is it possible to be too nice!?!?

Some of you know that Rhonda is a teacher, well the other day she lost an earring that I had just given her for mothers day and was very upset. She asked every kid in her class to begin to look, she even sent one of the kids back to the play ground in an effort to retrace her steps and hopefully find the missing earring. Well one of the kids did find the earring and when they gave the earring back to Rhonda they said what do I get for finding it, Rhonda stated, well you get a hug and big thank you. The kid then said no really what do I get, what is my reward, Rhonda said again you get the privilege of knowing that you helped someone out and that they appreciate it, the kid wasn’t impressed.

No offence to the kid, people think that they deserve something for everything they do. People won’t even show up to work on time, or do anything above their normal job requirements because they are not being rewarded for what they are doing.

Isn’t helping someone find something they lost the right thing to do, why is it that doing the right thing has been turned into the wrong motives. Motives that include what is in it for me, and leave me alone don’t speak to me or be nice to me, unless of course there is something in it for me.

This is nothing new though, in my opinion, it’s called selfishness and it is the opposite of what Jesus taught.