Here’s the big last one before a week off edition of Short Rounds!

THUMBALIZR – RECOMMENDED SITE I’M NOT SURE OF!

Okay, I finally got it to work – and it does. You can put in a sites URL and get a thumb nail image of it in several different sizes to download!

I’m not quite clear why this is so useful, but here it is anyway!

UNUSUAL MINISTRY SITE OF THE WEEK

Shelly Lubben is a former porn star, now a believer and trying to tell the truth about porn, check it out.

GROSSEST NEWS STORY I’VE EVER HEARD OF!

Some crazy guy in England has a house load of strange insects, snakes, etc. Ends up not just being killed by them – but eaten as well!

A police spokesman said: “It was like a horror movie. His corpse was over the sofa.

“Giant webs draped him, spiders were all over him. They were coming out of his nose and his mouth.

“There was everything there one could imagine in the world of reptiles.

“Larger pieces of flesh torn off by the lizards were scooped up and taken back to the webs of tarantulas and other bird-eating spiders.”

RAID!!!!

WHEN IS POOR NOT POOR?

According to this article – when they live in the USA!

FALWELL PAY OFF HIS SCHOOL’S DEBT FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

Really!

NEWS ABOUT MYANMAR/BURMA

Here’s a ton of news you won’t see many places in the Lame Stream Media about Myanmar. As you might know I’ve been there several time, have a great love for the people, and this news is heart breaking!

Jim Carrey Speaks Out!

I’m not a huge fan – but sure do appreciate this – and he’s right too!

Important News Stories

US Campaign For Burma

Authorities Crack Down

The UN Fails Again!

Democratic Voice of Burma – Fear in Rangoon

GREAT BLOG POSTS!

Why We Must Preach The Gospel Every Week

Do You REALLY Want To Be Like Jesus?

When Sermon Illustrations Go Bad!

Communicating Vision

And that’s all folks!

Schedules, we’ve all got them. I don’t think most of us could live without them in the modern world.

Millions of dollars are made every year producing calenders, planners, software to do all that, and of course books and courses on how to schedule your life more effectively and efficiently.

Personally I use Outlook as my main planner and scheduler, I love how you can set it to remind you ahead of time that you are supposed to be doing something. With my memory – it’s often a life saver!

But there’s one huge problem with all this scheduling – it doesn’t work!

Today was the perfect example of this. I had a counseling appointment scheduled this morning, and I also knew that I had to do a lot of heavy lifting on my sermon which is way behind were it should be on a Wednesday!

So what happened? A church member named Bill who’s in the hospital with cancer, and who had developed pneumonia, was suddenly going to be released! He was an hour away with no way back, so I started making phone calls.

In the midst of all his relative from New York called. She was going come out and drive him back to NY where his family is, to do his chemo. But she hadn’t received the money to make the trip.

So the most of the rest of my day was spent on the phone, going to the bank, going to Safeway to wire money, etc. In the end, he stayed in the hospital for one more day, she got the money and will call when she knows when she’ll arrive so we can pick her up, and my counseling appoint never showed.

Like I said, schedules don’t work. In fact they don’t work more often than they do work, but like you I keep on making them!

Of course all this is just part of living in a fallen world, and I know it. But every once in a while I need to be reminded that God is in charge, not Outlook, and He’s the one I need to obey!

Whew – I’m tired, glad I scheduled in a trip out of town next week! I’ll tell you more about this weekend.

This is a crazy couple of weeks – it seems like people’s sin is busting out all over!!

It’s driving me crazy wanting to talk about it but not really having much to add to what’s already being said, so I’ve laid low on much of this. But the pathetic reemergence of Ted Haggard, and the so-called “revelations” of Mother Teresa’s doubts (note the word “crisis” used over and over again by the media), have got me to thinking, and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you.

First of all, for those of you who don’t know, Ted Haggard is back in the news again – unfortunately! He not only sent out an e-mail asking his “friends” to donate money to him so that he and his wife can go to college, but he requested the funds be sent to a now defunct non-profit organization that was run by a registered sex offender!
I first heard about this from Christianity Today, and have confirmed it from KRDO in Colorado. Here’s part of the e-mail:

In preparation for the future, Gayle and I are both enrolled at the University of Phoenix at their main downtown campus. Gayle is in the undergraduate program studying psychology. I am pursuing my master of science in counseling degree, which means we are both full time students. Alex and Elliott are both attending a local Christian school…

It looks as though it will take two years for us to have adequate earning power again, so we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years. During that time we will continue as full time students, and then, when I graduate, we won’t need outside support any longer.

But for the next two years, we will need support. Between now and the end of the year, we have to find the people who want to help us transition into our future. So I am starting today to let friends like you know that we are raising money for support as we move into the Phoenix Dream Center…

If people want to support us directly, they can mail checks to Ted and Gayle Haggard, 9699 N. Hayden, Suite 108, PMB 180, Scottsdale, AZ 95259. This is a private mail box address that we have been using since we moved to the Phoenix area. If any supporters need a tax deduction for their gift, they can mail it to Families With a Mission at P.O. Box 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962. The supporters would need to write their check to “Families With A Mission” and put a separate note on it that it is for the Haggard family, then Families With a Mission will mail us 90% of the funds for support and use 10% for administrative costs.

Thank you so much. We feel our move into the Dream Center is the next step God would have us take. Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven

Next come the “revelations” about Mother Teresa, and that she had doubts about her faith. It’s amazing how shocked the people at Time and other Lame Stream Media outlets claim to be, about a faith that at other times they mock as out dated and absurd!

It’s also funny how prudish they are on the subject of doubt. The undertone of many of the articles is that Mother Teresa was somehow hypocritical in her service and life because she did struggle with unanswered questions.

That’s just silly – anyone ever heard of Job?

Besides, from what little I have read of what she said, it sounds to me like she struggled with not feeling God or sensing His presence in her life, not whether or not He existed, and didn’t seem to doubt the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Be that as it may, I find it interesting how these two figures are impacting the faith they both claim(ed). Ted has never shown any doubt at all. Through it all he seems to be unshaken in his faith – which Mother Teresa apparently struggled with her doubts till the day she died.

But answer me this: Whose the better witness for, and example of, Jesus? The doubter or the one who’s so sure?

Pretty easy question huh? I’d rather doubt and honestly struggle with my doubts, than be a rip off artist first class like Haggard! A life lived honestly, warts and all, is far superior to living a lie with a big plastic smile, your hand always out for money, and a horrible secret in your closet.

Yes – I know Mother Teresa didn’t admit this, and didn’t even want this known. She too failed the honesty test in that regard. But now we know – and I don’t think it diminishes her legacy one bit!

God, give us honest Christians! Amen!

Update: Check out the poll results on Christianity Today – here’s the results as of 9:04 AM, 8-28-2007:

**********

Kinda sounds like a 1950′s B Grade Science Fiction movie doesn’t it?

Well by now I’m sure you’ve all heard about Michael Vick’s claim to have “found Jesus” as a result of his being accused on Federal dog fighting charges. And of course there’s already wide spread reporting of all this in just about every media outlet.

As Christians I think there are two extremes we need to avoid as all this plays out on our TV and computer screens.

1) Cynicism. It’s already started in the news media of course, where one would expect it since most reporters are very cynical of just about everything that has Jesus attached to it.

But as believers we need to be careful here. I remember way back during Watergate when Charles Colson’s claim to have become a Christian made the news. I didn’t believe it and just figured it was another “jail house conversion” that would vanish as soon as he got out of trouble. And I held that position until I saw a film (yes children, back then we actually watched film because video hadn’t come along yet!) of his testimony.

We must give Michael Vick a fair chance here, and lets just see if he really has repented and come to Christ. If he has he will prove his repentance by his deeds, and it’s all just a PR exercise to gain sympathy, that’ll show through as well.

2) Manipulation. Frankly, this is what concerns me most here. How often do you see a high profile person become a Christian one day and in a few weeks they are on “Christian TV” giving their testimony, speaking before huge crowds, pushing their new book and “ministry” and being hailed as a leader!

It not unusual at all for those self same people to burn out, drop out and even deny their faith a year or two later either. Anyone remember B J Thomas‘ proclamations of faith, then falling away and later even denying there was a God?

He was pushed into a prominent position and fell because he simply was mature enough to handle the stress. More recently much the same thing happened to Gary Bussey, who may or may not be a Christian, but is messed up enough that he shouldn’t be speaking to huge crowds – which Christian TV ministers have had him do.

These men, and many others, were chewed up and spit out by the PR machine that makes up much of modern Christianity. Used to draw viewers and increase offerings, and the thrown aside when they are no longer useful.

This is disgraceful behavior and I hope in the future “celebrities” and other well known people who come to faith will be discipled and nurtured in the proper setting before being hailed as leaders who have anything beyond their salvation testimony to say. There’s no such thing as “instant teacher” in the Body of Christ!

I hope and pray that if Vick is serious about following Jesus that Charles Colson or some other real believer gets a hold of him and can disciple him into a real walk with our Lord. And if I never see him on Christian TV, that’ll be just fine by me!

Okay – we’ve reached another milestone of sorts – 60 editions of Short Rounds! Like wow dude!

Onward…

Fototiller

For the artsy folk out there, some fairly simple instructions on how to use Photoshop to take a digital picture and turn it into a coloring book page for your kids to color! Pretty cool!

How Outgoing Are You?

Here’s a site where you can take a test to find out how outgoing you really are! You can see my results below.

STRANGE NEWS LINKS

The Radio Network for Women, Rips Them Off As It Closes!

According to two new reports, the Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and Rosie O’Donnell- backed outfit appears ready to ditch its staff without providing severance payments or offering other assistance.

Can you say, hypocrite?

Bishop Beats Up Prophet Wife

I’m not making this one up, I only wish I was! There’s probably at least one post in this, but I’ve decided to put it here for starters, because it’s just so tragic. Can we all stop now with this calling everyone and their dog “Bishop?” Of course violence against women is horrible, but if she’s really a prophet, why didn’t she see this coming? I sincerely hope he gets whatever the law allows, and she take a long vacation and gets her act together. I’m fairly sure he’s in trouble, but would bet a large sum she’ll be back in action real soon.

Bono Heckles Speaker Promoting African Self-Reliance

This one’s really disappointing, as I’ve watched Bono’s work in Africa and have admired it, even though I haven’t always agreed with him. I can tell you I sure don’t agree with him on this one!

There is a big movement afoot in Africa to end that continent’s dependence on international aid and instead focus on helping people help themselves through the private investment of capital, thus creating jobs and bolstering the economy. As Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda put it, “What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?”

Unfortunately, this idea of individual empowerment isn’t popular with everyone. Among those, apparently, is U2 rocker and international political activist Bono who took to heckling and cursing at Mwenda during an African aid conference.

GREAT BLOG POSTS:

• Gary Lamb Defines Success
• Perry Noble on Worship Styles
• Victor Davis Hanson Rips Andrew Sullivan A New One
  Okay, it’s not a blog post, it’s a colum, but Hanson is one of my favorite historians and his views on Iraq are important, solid and well worth reading and thinking about!

MILITARY HISTORY CORNER!

World War One

I think I’ve linked to this site before, but it can’t hurt to do it again, and it’s a great source of information about the War to End All Wars.

That’s it for now – go to church on Sunday and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

This is a follow up to what I wrote Tuesday about Innovative Ministry. I got an excellent response from Jared, who authored the post that started it all. Be sure to read what he wrote before reading this okay?

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but the fact that I respect his writing and don’t always agree with him (but do agree with almost everything he said in his reply) is why he’s in my Google Reader!

As I thought about this I remembered something I wrote a few years ago, my Philosophy of Ministry. If you follow the link just remember I’m currently rewriting it, I still agree with the main points, but am changing a few things around based on what I’ve learned, and adding something really important I left out!

In this statement I used two words to describe my core beliefs about what ministry ought to be. They are, in the order I believe they must always be:

1. Biblical
2. Innovative

In view of Jared’s post and my reply, I found this interesting. Biblical must come first of course, otherwise you end up with anarchy. When I teach on this I joke about our church encouraging innovative ministries, but they must be Biblical, no Female Mud Wrestling Missionaries allowed! (I do know some women who I think would be great at this though – too bad!)

I think what I was reacting too, and what Jared said he is in total agreement with, is the fallacy that many traditionalists promote that being Biblical and innovate are in conflict.

I disagree with this concept strongly! Of course they can be – witness my mud wrestling missionaries above. But they don’t have to be, and in my mind usually aren’t!

Of course just because you are inline with the Scriptures doesn’t mean what you are doing is really innovative or creative either! Witness all the copy cat churches, and all the copy cat sounds you’ll hear on your local Contemporary Christian Music station!

Sometimes copying isn’t a bad thing. Lord knows that when I first began preaching my sermons would have benefited if I had copied more! And when I changed my style to a Purpose Driven approach to preaching, I preached a lot of Rick Warren’s sermons!

But not anymore. I learned, matured, can now stand on my own, borrowing from many different sources (yes, that’s the difference between stealing and research – taking from many sources instead of just one!) and blending them into my own study of the Bible.

I hope you found our exchange helpful, I know I did!

I was reading one of my favorite columns Tuesday and came across this. I just had to comment!

Last month during a luncheon for pastors and church leaders in suburban Baltimore I called five people to the front of the room and asked them to sit in chairs facing the group. Then I called some other leaders to kneel in front of them and wash their feet.

The five people represented five groups that have been overlooked and underserved in the American church: women, African-Americans, immigrants, businesspeople and the younger generation. As their shoes came off, tears began to flow freely. Words were not necessary.

First off I’m happy that people are trying to reach out and minister to those perceived to be overlooked, discouraged, etc. That’s a very good thing.

Second: some on his list probably are under served, but some aren’t, and one in particular just screams at me.

The truth of matter is this: In the American church today women are NOT under served, if anything they are overserved!

Don’t believe me? Consider the following facts:

• Christian publishing aims most of it’s offerings at women. Why? Because studies show they are the ones who buy and read most of the books. Men’s books are few and far between because in general they aren’t big readers or book buyers.
• Christian Radio is aimed right at women. In particular women in their mid 30′s with children. Why? Because that age group makes up most of their audience already, and also has a lot of buying power which of course pleases their advertisers and (for the noncoms) business supporters.
• Because of this Contemporary Christian music (CCM) is also aimed at the same audience. Again women in that age range are the biggest buyers and listeners to CCM, so that’s the age group they are aiming at.
• Most American Churches have more women than men in them, and women do most of the actual ministry. Therefore churches tend to shape their programing and approach to the feminine point of view. (See Why Men Hate Going to Church for more on all of this.)

Women are under represented in church leadership in most churches, and I’m not going into that huge theological argument here. My point is let’s actually think about things before we just buy into whatever PC idea is floating around.

Everyone needs Jesus. Maybe He’s the most neglected One of all? And maybe I ought to be focusing on Him?

Just a thought.

This is another book in the Leadership Library series, like Stanley’s Making Vision Stick is as well.

When Leadership and Discipleship collide is another book by Mega Church Pastor Bill Hybels, and after smacking Hybels last book, I kind of felt impelled to review this one. Besides the title rang a bell and I knew I had heard it before, and figured I must have heard him talk about it at one of the Leadership Summit’s I’ve attended. Turns out I was right, he did so at the Leadership Summit in 2004, which attended.

But I’m still glad I bought and read the book.

It’s only 68 pages, so all the illustrations are short, sweet and to the point. What you have here seems to be a polished transcript of the message he delivered at the Leadership Summit, and that’s what I loved about it.

He makes his points, then moves on to the next, and when he’s done the book’s over! Just like that!

Which is exactly what a practical book aimed at leaders and Pastors ought to be. If you are writing theology or something, feel free to digress and explore things. But if you are trying to communicate some practical ministry or leadership ideas to those of us in the ministry – just do it and then move on!

That’s what Hybels does here, and if haven’t heard it before, do yourself a favor and pick this one up. Even if you have heard Hybels speak on this topic, read this one anyway.

I don’t think you’ll regret it.

I just read a post on The Gospel Driven Church, one of the blogs in my Reader, and it sure got a rise out of me! So I’m going to talk about it here, starting with the entire post (it’s short).

Ironic

Has it occurred to any of these “innovative,” “relevant” churches that the message series themes based on iPods, Mythbusters, American Idol, and all manner of other flavor-of-the moment bits of cultural detritus are being done by every other church just like them in America and therefore that this means they are most definitely not innovative and relevant? [Link]

I’m sorry to say that I think Jared is being way to cute here. Or am I reacting this way because I think he’s taking a shot at the wrong target? Either way what he wrote generated some thoughts in me (which is one of the things blogging is supposed to be all about) which I’ll share below.

• If doing the same or similar topical series makes one irrelevant or non-creative, does preaching an expository series of sermons on Galatians or another book of the Bible like thousands of “Gospel Centered or Driven”Churches do make you un-biblical?
• Should our churches seek not to innovate? When did being stale, uncreative, or mindless (all antonyms for innovative) become a sign of being faithful to the Gospel?
• Since 80% of Americans are plateaued or declining, and the number of people attending church shrinking every year, isn’t it time to do something different?

By the way – I agree that mindless imitation is neither creative or innovative. It’s usually not all that successful or fruitful either.

But then again it’s probably better than doing nothing!

And wouldn’t it be a better use of our time to focus on what we need to be doing to reach our culture, rather than take shots at each other? (This one applies to people on both sides of this particular argument.)

Last week I started blogging the Serenity Prayer, here’s what I’ve written up to this point:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

Here’s the final section of the prayer:

Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

This may be the most powerful part of the prayer to me. “Taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is.” Did Jesus really take the world as it is?

Yes! Absolutely, positively yes!

Read the NT and you’ll see Jesus dealing with the corruption of both the Jewish and Roman world in as an realistic fashion as you can imagine. If Jesus had been in denial and trying to see the world through rose colored glasses He would never have been so tough on the Pharisees and Sadducees as He was.

In that sense Jesus was the supreme realist. He saw the exactly what the world and all the people in it were like, and everything He said and did was sculpted to address the ills and evils before Him.

Yes, Jesus did indeed take this sinful world as it is – but He loved it too much to leave it that way! I tell people this all the time, in a more personal way. God loves us just as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way!

Which is why we must trust Him to make all things right, because only He has the power to do so!

The final phrase of this prayer is just wonderful to me. Everyone wants and hopes to be happy in this life, but we should temper this desire. We need to remember that as long as we live in a fallen world whatever happiness we find will not be perfect and never last long.

So, let us hope for a “reasonable” level of happiness, knowing that when we are in heaven, we’ll have the perfect and eternal happiness God wants for all His children.

I believe that we fail to do this most of the time. Which leads to intense frustration and even despair when we fail to find what we can never find in this world!

So, let’s have reasonable, Biblical expectations for our happiness in this world, and live, serve, struggle and sacrifice for the next.