I confess that I worked most of the day on Saturday this week. It was just one of those weeks when sermon writing took more time. I confess that because of this, Monday Sabbath feels like it has some urgency, so this might be a lousy MMC. I confess that yesterday was the final day of my church’s capital campaign. We hit 80% of our overall goal, and ended up with a mortgage we can manage for the coming years.... Read more
Our family Super Bowl tradition includes a meager prize for the best total score on the following side bets each year. Feel free to cut and paste: Over/Under 2:25 on length of the National Anthem? Will Seattle call heads or tails? Who will win the toss? Who will score first? Will the first score be a touchdown or a field goal? Which team will commit the first turnover? Yes/No will there be a score on the game’s first drive? Over/Under 30... Read more
It’s seems like forever ago that that very nearly every waking moment, for me, was consumed with music, songwriting, producing records, and touring. So many hours, so much of my heart and soul were invested in these songs, and it all feels so fleeting now. About a decade, somewhere upwards of a thousand shows, and I still can’t remember the lyrics to my own tunes. I can’t always say this, but I’m really glad that I wrote Always the Same.... Read more
There’s a phrase used to describe the experience of intense or traumatic life events that leave us forever changed. “Being pulled through the knothole,” means going through a situation so singularly intense that many of the beliefs and assumptions we clung to before we were pulled through the knothole, simply fall away when we get to the other side of the fence. The result is often a significant transformation. It doesn’t happen to everyone, despite the fact that all of... Read more
I confess that I have been a terrible Sabbath breaker for the past few months. I have allowed myself to work on Mondays in order to knock out the manuscript I was working on, and to work on filling a staff position at church. The funny thing about being a Sabbath breaker is that it is a completely acceptable form of decadence, so nobody really cares. What makes it so destructive is that you can never get those days and... Read more
The Manuscript for Shrink was officially accepted by Zondervan last week. The final painful edits involved cutting a full chapter, which hurt a bit at the time, but seems so obvious now that I can’t believe I was ever worried about it. This feels like a pretty big milestone for me, and for the project. Essentially, it means that 1) I didn’t completely fumble the writing & cause the publisher to pull the plug, and 2) Now that most of the... Read more
I confess that today is the first day of the Spring Semester at NTS, and for the first time I will be teaching a class. The name of the course is Missional Leadership and Discipleship, and I’m co-teaching with Mike King. As part of the new module schedule, we will be going 8-5:00 for most of the week. I confess that so far it’s a small class, so if anyone wants to come visit for a day, take a look at... Read more
My first thought after watching this was, how many Sunday mornings would I have liked to try something like this. That thought was immediately followed by another, even more terrifying thought: how many Sunday mornings do the folks at my church wish this is exactly what I would do? I know it was just his funny greeting and they did worship as usual after this, but it was a brilliant bit. I want to be friends with this guy. Pastor... Read more
So this is my office. I actually kind of like my office right now. I feel at home there, and can be productive. But it wasn’t always this way for me. I’ve always known that I am very affected by my environment. Even as a kid, I would spend hours arranging and decorating my bedroom. I have been aware that I’m sensitive to my environment, and that I care a lot about my space. But I have not always been... Read more
So, the RNS posted an article about the top 12 worst pastoral stunts that were done in order to gain publicity, or do “ministry.” My first question was, why aren’t the top five all Ed Young related? The Sherman tank on stage, a live lion as a sermon illustration, or the bed-in, when Ed and his wife spent 24 hours on the roof of their church in bed together, web-casting the whole time, to promote their book on sex. The punch... Read more
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