What's in my IPOD?

My IPOD has been stocked full of new music lately......here's a short rundown of what I am currently jamming to....

• Jesus Culture: Your Love Never Fails.
• Andy Kirk: Hearts on Fire
• David Crowder Band: Church Music
• Building 429: Self Titled
• Keith Urban: Defying Gravity
• Van Morrison: Still on Top-Greatest Hits

Such an eclectic collection of tunes but that's just how I roll :)

Random Christmas Eve Thoughts

• I've had a great time the last few weeks hanging out with family. Something I haven't done much of for the last few years.
• So thankful for the Christmas season. The fact that God became man, walked in my shoes, paid the price for my wrongs, and now I am reconciled with him. That's a great gift!!
• Just realized I haven't picked up a guitar in three weeks. That's the longest I have gone in like 6 years. No band practice until after the new year so It's going to be a few more weeks on that too. My fingers are so going to kill me.
• Thinking of two big things over the next few months: First I am considering getting PhD. With all the graduate level work I have now I only need like 17 classes to become Dr. Renner. My mom loves the idea (of course, right.) I am still thinking about it. I am fine with the course work. Not sure if I want to put myself through the dissertation process. We'll see how that turns out.
  
• Second, I am really seriously thinking about writing a book on how God uses teachable moments in our lives to redirect our paths. We seem to coast along fine, content to do what we've always done until he gets our attention and redirects us back to his will. More on this later if I decide to move in that direction.
• We are off to celebrate Christmas with April's family today.
  
• Praying the weather cooperates so we can get our flights tomorrow without issue.

Have a blessed Christmas. Be sure to thank God for the gift of his Son.

What if Church was like Target...

I copied this post from Tony Morgans blog.....great insight as to why we in the church are so disconnected with the rest of the world...read and enjoy..


‘Tis the season to shop for Christmas gifts, so I recently made a trip to Target. I love Target because I don’t have to spend a lot of money, and I avoid going to Wal-Mart.

After spending a little bit of time in the store, it struck me how different Target is from most churches I’ve visited in the past. That led me to wondering how Target would be different if it operated like the typical church. So, with that in mind, here’s my initial list:

What if Target Operated Like a Church?

• Instead of having men’s and women’s clothing departments, they would be called clever names like Impact and Embrace that are completely meaningless to new shoppers.
• Each department in the store would have its own logo to go with their clever name. And, of course, all those logos would be different than the logo on the front of the store.
• The workers in each department would all have their own t-shirts and flyers to promote what’s available in their departments. The youth clothing department would, of course, have the best flyers.
• The store manager and his wife would be pictured on the front page of the website.
• You wouldn’t actually be able to buy anything from the website, but each department would have its own page explaining why they are such a great department and the the information would be several months out-of-date.
• If you are in the shoe department and have a question about flashlights, the shoe department employee has no idea how to help you because it doesn’t have anything to do with shoes.
• Shoppers would be able to start their own departments so that they can buy the items that they want to buy. Don’t worry…that means there will certainly be a clothing department for singles.
• Shoppers would also be able to appoint their own store manager and then serve on committees and boards to tell the store manager what to do.
• The store would only be open one day a week between 9:00 a.m. and noon and on the first Wednesday evening of every month.

Hope this makes you laugh. (Emily and I did.) And, maybe it also challenges some preconceived notions. After all, churches are sort of notorious for worshiping methods and traditions whether or not they actually produce results.

What would you add to the list?

Burnout

Unless you were very close to me you wouldn't know that I was just plain burnt out from my time in ministry. It's one of the reasons April and I are taking a sabbatical from church and ministry. I needed some time away from it all to try and gain some perspective and clarity. Over the last year I had really developed a sense of apathy with respect to the work that God had called me to. You wouldn't have known it from my actions so much because I did and said the right things....It was an apathy in my heart.

My apathy was played out in my personal devotional life. It was played out in my personal prayer life. My apathy was played out in the relationships I choose to pursue. And Lastly, my apathy was played out in my motivation.

During my sabbatical I am reading a lot of books and spending extra time with God trying to regain my perspective and personal drive for God and people. One of the books I am currently reading is called Sunsets and Sushi. It's a book on the Psalms written by David Crowder. The other is a book called Mad Church Disease. It's a book on church burnout written by Anne Jackson....What a great read and it's hitting me hard on some stuff. One of the things that's hitting me hardest right now is the question of my motivation to serve God by serving others......Here is what Anne says about service and testing your motivation to serve.

How do these hit you?

• Self righteous service comes through human effort it delights in plans and orginization-True service comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Energy is expended but it is not feverish.
• Self righteous service is impressed with the big deal, it is worried about the outcome-True service doesn't distinguish big projects from small projects.
• Self righteous service requires external rewards...It needs to be noticed (subject to Christian modesty of course) - True service is content in hiddeness. It doesn't seek attention but doesn't fear it either.
• Self righteous service is concerned with results - True service is satisfied with the service.
• Self righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve - True service is indiscriminate.
• Self righteous service is moved and swayed by moods and whims (moved by the spirit as we say) - True service ministers simply and fully because there is a need.
• Self righteous service is temporary and loves short term projects - True service is a lifestyle.
• Self righteous service is insensitive. It forces itself in demands in the opportunity to help - True service listens with patience and tenderness before it acts.
• Self righteous service fractures community. Once the religious trappings are removed it focuses mainly on self glorification - True service builds community. It is caring, quiet, and unpretentious.

Most of those apply to me over the last few years. How about you?

Sabbatical

Since Real Life ended I have been taking a ministry sabbatical. That sabbatical is going to continue into the new year. At some point April and I are going to start trying to figure out where God want's us to be and what God wants us to do next.

To be honest. It's a scary time for us. for the last 13 years I have served at only 2 different churches. Those places were very different from each other and I find myself wanting to spend some time in a church that I wouldn't normally think about attending so I can get a better perspective of what God is doing in different ministries. Not sure how that will look but it's exciting and scary at the same time.

At some point God's going to move me into doing something ministry related at a new church. I think I have a much better picture of what that is than I would have had even as little as a year or two ago and that is a God thing :)

Odds and Ends and thoughts Part II

How many times have you looked at your life or situation and thought "how in the world did I end up here?" I know there are plenty of times I have gotten myself into situations without the slightest inkling of how I got there.

I know on the surface this doesn't fit into the musing about humanity being fundamentally broken but bear with me I do have a point. 21 years ago I thought about a career as a pilot. Not many people know this anymore but I actually still have a pilot's license. For a number of reasons I decided that was not the career path for me. I do however still love airplanes :) Anyway, when you are flying any distance it's important to keep checking you instruments for accuracy. If they are off even a little you can find yourself very off course very quickly. Just look at the case of those pilots playing with their laptops just a month ago....before they new it they were hundred's of mile off course.

So, how does this come back to us as people. IF you accept the premise that we are fundamentally flawed, broken, and have a bent that wants to take us far from God it stands to reason that the second we take our eyes off him we change course. The moment we stop allowing him to lead us we loose our bearings. The longer we have our eyes off chasing him the farther off course we get. It happens so fast....

We go from being firmly in God's grip to in places where we have no idea how we got there. We end up in situations that we have no idea how we got ourselves into them. We have pain that God never intended for us to have. We pay a price that we shouldn't have paid.

Keep your eyes on him.

Odds and Ends and thoughts

I know that I have been posting to my blog less frequently since I left full-time ministry. You can pretty much expect that pattern will remain. I'll try to get things on here on a regular basis as God lays things on my heart :)

So, a couple of things:

• First: April and I led worship last weekend at a friends church in Defiance. It was really, really weird for both of us. It felt so strange to be in someone elses church! Don't worry, we are still keeping our sabatical alive. We'd been promising my friend we were going to come and visit them. We wanted to go before the weather started turning so we had planned to make the trip Sunday. Saturday evening my friend texted me and saying perhaps we should reschedule as most of their musicians and singers were out of town for the holiday. So, I offered to bring a guitar and help them out.
• Second: God has really been laying on my heart just how broken and backwards humanity is. Think about this for a second. Have you ever noticed you can develop bad habits without even trying? It literally takes zero effort and nothing will stand in your way when you're doing things that are destructive to your life. But if you want to make some positive changes, my word, it's like everything gets in your way!! If you think I am wrong about that pick a day...any day....and set that date as the one you are going to start an exercise program.....so how long it sticks :)
  

So why is that? I think it's because we are broken. Sin has changed us and we are not the creations God originally designed. We want what we shouldn't want. We do what we shouldn't do. We desire that which we know is bad for us. Again, if you think I am wrong try not to think about cookies. I just made you think about cookies didn't I? I bet you're still thinking about cookies. Cookies are good....

I have just been reflecting on the Apostle Paul talking about always seeming to do those things he doesn't want to do....and not being able to do what he really wants and knows he should do and it hits me clearer than ever that it's because we are fundamentally flawed.

I know for many that seems like Christianity 101 simple stuff. But is it really? Do any of us really understand just how off base we are? Do you have a grasp of how off base you can be?

More on this later :)