Last night I had the honor of participating in our local Martin Luther King, Jr celebration service. This is always a meaningful event because we get to worship God together with a very diverse group of churches. I led the invocation during the gathering. This is what I shared: Dr. King once spoke the following words: “No American can afford to be apathetic about the problem of racial justice. It is a problem that meets every man at his front door.” This is so very true. However, so very many of us in the world have become so very good at closing our front door and ignoring the pain, the injustice and the brokenness that is right on our front steps. We have been conditioned...Read More →
Archive for January, 2010
-
January 19, 2010
An Invocation for Our MLK Gathering
-
January 18, 2010
Bi-Vocational Pastors
As a pastor who has spent the last nine years living a bi-vocational life (sometimes tri-vocational), I appreciated all the discussion on David Fitch’s blog post back in November. I posted the rhythm I have been living for the last nine months back in November also. Things have changed a tad for me since I am working a lot less hours at Sbux and we are in the midst of a transition at The Well that will probably bring some changes to my current rhythm of life. But, if you are interested in the topic, read David’s blog and be sure to read all the discussion below. There are some really good thoughts and questions addressed. Also, Jason Coker is going to be starting...Read More →
-
January 16, 2010
Top 55 Pastor-Bloggers
So, apparently I am one of the top 55 pastor bloggers. Not sure how that list was made. But I guess its cool. And hey, I am #33 right after the one and only Eugene Cho. Maybe that’s because we share a name (my middle name is Eugene and I used to be embarrassed of it until I started reading Eugene Peterson and met Eugene Cho!). In light of that, Naked Pastor has posted a list of 10 suggestions for pastor bloggers. It’s a good list and one that I would add that has really helped me in my blogging is this: Don’t stop being a pastor on your blog. So many people try to increase their readership by being provocative, edgy and use...Read More →
-
January 16, 2010
What Are Your Habits?
Sometimes I miss really obvious things. I think it is because of familiarity. You know, you see or hear something over and over again and you miss the significance of something. For example, most of you would know the name Dick Butkus (pronounced by most people: Dick Buttkiss). He’s one of the best Chicago Bears of all time and a symbol of the smash mouth style the Bears have tried to have over the years. Well, about two years ago, after being a Bears fan for my whole life, it finally hit me just how unfortunate this guy’s name is. I mean, Dick Butkus!? It doesn’t get much worse that than eh? How would you have liked to be him in grade school and middle...Read More →
-
January 11, 2010
Edwin Freidman on Change
Edwin Friedman spoke the following at the Baccalaureate address to Albert Einstein High School in 1964: “The universal ingredient and force which permeates all of life – namely change – is changing for the faster, and this means that it will become more and more necessary for each of us to be more resilient and flexible, more spontaneous in dealing with the new and unforeseen, and it will become less and less easy to find security and stability by just adopting the traditional customs and ideas and attitudes of the past.” (From the book: What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?) Sounds applicable to the church eh?
