I am so pumped up about tonight!  This evening our teaching team will be getting together to put together our weekly themes for the entire year.  I recently read Dave Ferguson’s book, The Big Idea, and was compelled to put this discipline into practice at The Patio. 

I put off reading this book for a long time.  The premise just didn’t grab me.  When I finally buckled I discovered yet another instance of how I make ministry harder on myself.  The concepts that Ferguson lays out in The Big Idea are so frickin obvious it’s amazing that NO ONE seems to put them into practice.  I greatly enjoyed reading (in depth) how Ferguson’s team functions under this strategy. 

Thank you Dave for giving the readers a lot of information!  You do most of the work for us. 

This past week has been crazy creative for our team.  I have heard some fantastic ideas and I can’t wait for us to work through them this evening!

95$ worth of Barnes and Noble gift cards were burning a hole in my pocket.  So there I am, navigating the post-Christmas crowd, with Nolan in the stroller.  I had a list of 15 books and “Plastic Jesus” was definitely not on it.  I had seen it sitting there on the shelf before with it’s “look at me” cover art and a “adjective not normally associated with Jesus” title.  I wasn’t down on the book…I just thought I already had heard the stuff it had to offer.

Then Nolan started waking up and I knew I didn’t have much time.  Frustrated with my inability to find “Jim and Casper go to Church” I grabbed “Plastic Jesus” and bolted.

A day later the only thing that has kept me from finishing this great read off has been unexpected visitors and my new Xbox 360 (Sorry Eric but Master Chief has to stop the Flood).  Eric Sandras has a comfortable writing style which has the feel of a conversation over coffee (albeit with someone who doesn’t listen so well…since, of course, Sandras hasn’t heard any of my thoughts out yet).  The chapter titles feel a bit forced, but the content is fantastic.  Sandras really starts hitting a stride in the chapter, “Keeping up with the Joneses”.  I’ll give a better review in a day or so, but I really like what this dude has to say.

Quote of the book (so far) – “We expend a lot of energy keeping our Christian doctrines all clean and form fitting, our appearances buffed up, and our lives organized around Christian meetings and conferences.  But honestly, you call that adventure?  At best, such a lifestyle is maintenance.  At worst, it’s counterfeit Christianity.”

So my first Christmas present of the year was the new Brian McLaren book, “Everything Must Change” (Thanks Vickie!). McLaren isn’t for everyone, but I happen to think that he asks a lot of really good questions…even though I don’t always agree with his answers. The particular question framed in this book is:

How do the life and teachings of Jesus address the most critical global problems in our world today?

Does that grab you? Yea, me neither…but for some reason I think it should.

Last night I went to bed at 11:15. 
(Pause for dramatic effect)

11:15.  I wasn’t sick either…just sleepy.  About a month ago I started re-reading Making Room for Life by Randy Frazee.  Since then my day has been so much more productive and fulfilling.  I was really convicted on my lifestyle.  Not only was I missing out on the designed blessing of God interwoven into the fabric of rest, but I was headed down a path that could seriously damage my relationship with my family.

It’s tough.  I am more creative at night.  My “bucket o’ thoughts” has been half-full (optimism is a side-effect of going to bed at 11:15), but more of my ideas are coming to fruition.  The other difficult aspect is turning work off.  In our society it is valued to be a workaholic.  I have heard many pastors brag about how much time they were “putting in”.  I really don’t envy them working at their desk, but as much as I would love to leave that type of “ministry” to the pros…I find myself trying to keep right up with them by working late into the night. 

I figure, in the long run, my busywork might suffer but my ministry will come alive. 

Last week I read a great little book called “Out of Solitude” by Henri Nouwen.  Its a very simple book topically broken up into 3 Christian meditations: Solitude, Care, and Expectation.  Nouwen’s chapter on care was by far the most meaningful for me. 

“It often seems that not to care has become more acceptable than to care, and a carefree lifestyle more attractive than a careful one”

Think of how often we say the words, “I don’t care”.  It’s commonplace to express our indifference in this way, but it abuses the word of its meaning. 
“Kara” – “to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with”

To care is to enter into someone’s world of suffering and to live in it with them.  My approach towards the hurting has always been the emotional repairman…usually attempting to fix the problem with Biblical or intellectual tools.  This probably has more to do with being uncomfortable with the intimacy of empathy. 

“Our tendency is to run away from painful realities or to try to change them as soon as possible.  But cure without care makes us into rulers, controllers, manipulators, and prevents real community from taking shape.”
Nouwen

I love short books that I can knock out in a day.  This afternoon, after Jason brought it teaching, Kristan and I went to Drexel, NC to pick up our dog.  The drive is about 2 hours and that was plenty of time to finish the book I received in the mail the day before: Making Vision Stick, by Andy Stanley. 

This is a must read for any pastor, but it was especially applicable to The Patio.  We have a tough vision to cling to.  We will always fight the temptation to compromise what we believe God is calling us to do in order to have bigger numbers.  There have already been times where people needed to leave The Patio b/c the vision simply didn’t work for them.  This needs to be something we celebrate rather than bemoan.

“Making Vision Stick” was a great reminder of how important it is that everything we do is motivated by our vision to become a community of people coming alive through authentic relationships. 

Let me end this with a quote from the book that really resonates with me:
“You want the people who choose to follow you to end their journeys with more respect for you than when they began.  For that to happen, you have to embrace and live out the vision.”