Church

Yesterday, my wife and I took one of our daughters and a friend to the Denver Zoo (it was free day!).  The weather was a bit cool but sunny and the afternoon was mainly enjoyable. Except for the end. As we were leaving, we were walking behind a lady pushing her baby in a stroller.  Walking next to her was a man yelling and cursing at her.  Not surprisingly, he was obviously drunk.  He was saying the most vile things to her, often getting right up in her face.  She never said a word and just kept walking. When he started jabbing at the baby, cussing and waving his arms, I decided to walk up behind the lady to see if she needed help.  I spoke up and told her to turn into one of the buildings.  She kept walking.  At that point, the drunk guy called me "superman" (how…

In about a week, we will open the first session of E4U at Mountainview.  As we seek to help people discover God and grow deeper in Him, we are building E4U around six key values: Think Life Change: we wish to provide an atmosphere where lives can be changed.  Our goal is to not to simply convey information but to encourage transformation. Cultivate Community: we believe spiritual formation happens best within relationships.  Regardless of the length of a class or seminar, we will keep in mind the relational aspect of learning and growing.  Promote Participation: we value shared participation because it creates broad ownership.  The point of learning is not to impress but to progress.  E4U will encourage participation because students must be actively engaged in their own growth and development. Build Leaders: we seek to help you discover and develop your leadership capabilities.  Leaders come in all shapes and…

In ten days we're launching a new spiritual formation initiative at Mountainview called E4U.  It's an approach to spiritual formation and adult education built around four tracks: Equip: Understanding God and His Word. Encounter: Developing personal spiritual growth habits. Elevate: Applying God’s direction in your life. Engage: Using your unique SHAPE in ministry to God and others. While not unique to Mountainview, they represent four parts of life that are vital to health and growth as a Christ-follower. We need to have a solid grasp on who God is and what his Word says.  Without that, we're pretty much making things up as we go along.  Our EQUIP track is designed to help believers know the Bible better and to understand the truth it contains. To move from a newborn in Christ to a mature follower, we also need to develop healthy spiritual habits.  Our ENCOUNTER track will teach habits…

I'm passing along a cool web app called "Pray for Your Block."  For techies, it utilizes the Google Maps API to help people place flags on blocks of streets where they will pray on a regular basis.  Check it out: www.pray4yourblock.org

A few days ago I had a great conversation with a young man who is seeking after God.  He's in that wonderful spot where God has been working in his life -- and he knows it.  He knows he needs to make decisions which will carry consequences for all parts of his life ... work, relationships, family. So we talked about windows. As I grow older, I have become a believer in windows of opportunity -- those seasons of life when God opens a new door of learning and growth for us.  They may come in the form of an introduction to a person whom God has placed in our life for a reason.  A window of opportunity may be a challenge to tackle a new problem or a transition at work.  Slumps and struggles can be a window of opportunity, too, if we press in and press on to…