Church

I purchased Tony Campolo's "Letters to a Young Evangelical" yesterday and am half-way through it. So far it's been pretty engaging and fun to read -- if you've read any of Campolo's stuff you know what I mean. In his chapter on why the church is important, quotes from Augustine: "The church is a whore, but she's still my mother." A good reminder that although far from perfect the church is still very important. I'll post more as I progress further through the book.

At LifePoint, we do something called "Pizza with the Pastor." It's a chance for newcomers to hear our story and interact with me. One of the best parts is the Q&A time. We had a diverse group of people at this one ... some who had been with us since day one and as recent as a few weeks ago. The best question would have to go to Cody:"If you could do one of the following things, which one would it be? A) Have a teleporter. B) Be able to breathe under water. C) Be able to remember everything you've read."Which one did I pick?

This morning I was watching the Discovery-Times channel (one of the blessings of 300+ channels) and it had a show about the New York subway system. While I've never been to NYC, much less been on the subway, I'm fascinated by these types of shows. It's the same reason I watch How Things Work, Modern Marvels, etc.I digress. One of the segments was about subway preachers -- a calling many of you didn't know existed. It featured this one older couple who spend their days riding the subway and preaching to the lost. It mainly focused on the lady who would quote from the minor prophets passages of damnation.Their name: The Kooks. I can't remember their first names but that was their last name. My first thought was, "That's impossible." But then again ...

Just a few random thoughts about commercials I've seen over and over and over. First of all, you would think that guy on FreeCreditReport.com would have raised his credit score by now. What's wrong with this guy?Why does that lady keep losing her car after all these months? Didn't she get one of those personal voice recorders months ago?Who doesn't feel pity for the Geico caveman? I have to give it to Geico for consistently producing some of the funniest commercials on tv. I've even found myself singing the song that plays as the caveman goes through the airport ("everywhere I go, there's always something to remind me"). Plus, the mock news interview with the split screen is a classic.

Among pastors, Monday mornings can be tough. It's on Monday mornings that we recover from Sunday mornings. It's on Monday mornings when we analyze and reflect on what went well and what didn't on Sunday mornings. You can usually gauge how a pastor perceived the previous Sunday by a Monday morning.We had a great time of worship this morning at LifePoint. Quite simply, our band rocks! We did a mix of jazzed-up Christmas carols, a contemporary worship song, and a song written by our worship leader's dad (in 1975). We had new faces and many more familiar faces. We had people stick around for a long after worship had ended.And we also had a few lows ... like attendance and offerings. As a young church, we're still trying to gain traction and reach critical mass. We're not quite there yet and the clock is ticking. But God is faithful and…