Strange Fire

Posted on | February 8, 2010 | No Comments

Who are we to tell God how to worship Him?

Category: Sermons

God, Love and Hell

Posted on | February 8, 2010 | No Comments

How can a loving God send people to hell?

Category: Apologetics, Sermons

Cynicism

Posted on | February 6, 2010 | No Comments

Conan O’Brien signed off from The Tonight Show a few weeks ago with a classy speech. After being maneuvered out of his dream job in a highly public way, he said:

"All I ask of you, especially young people . . . is one thing. Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen."

The cynic in me wants to note how easy it is for Conan to say that with his $40 million severance package. But instead, I have to confess that Conan’s three-minute farewell (the only three minutes of his Tonight Show tenure that I ever saw) inspired me. I have been listening for the past year-and-a-half to a funny but cynical political podcast. Conan made me quit (for awhile anyway!) Listening to people who make a living with cynicism tends to make you, well, cynical. Cynicism is easy. Creating something good – whether it is a product, a family, art, healthy relationships, or good public policy – that’s hard.

I want to drop the cynicism and get busy creating. After all, it takes a craftsman to build a barn, but any jackass can kick one down.

Category: Culture

Sunday Seven

Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments

AllAboutGod.com – A thorough, content-rich site for answering basic and not-so-basic faith questions.
OutwardFocusedLife.com – A simple site with valuable lists of ideas about how to lift up Christ through acts of kindness, service and mercy.
Tiger and the Good Life. Compare ads and obituaries. Ads sell good hair, white teeth, and fit bodies. Obits never mention these things. So what do we really aspire to? This and other insights come from John Ortberg in this Leadership article.
War Hero. CNN did this story on former MHCCer Phil Canafax. It’s great!
Earth Becoming Invisible to Aliens. Dr. Frank Drake laments that our switch from analog to digital reduces the aliens’ chance of finding us. Has he never seen Independence Day? From Telegraph.co.uk
Coaching in the Disco Era. Basketball coaches dress with style. In the 70s, this tendency produced some deliciously disastrous results. From the Sports Illustrated Vault.
If the 70s aren’t your thing, maybe you miss the early 90s and Windows 3.1. You can relive the awfulness here.

Category: Evangelism, Sunday 7

God Space by Doug Pollock

Posted on | February 1, 2010 | No Comments

I just started a thin and practical book about sharing the faith called God Space. Author Doug Pollock tells about doing an evangelism training seminar at a church, at the end of which he asked for volunteers to join him on a visit to a local bar to practice the lessons they just learned. The only taker was the pastor (and believe me, he had to volunteer).

I think the response would be different at our church. I can name several people who would volunteer in a second, and the minister (me) would be among the more nervous.

When Pollock asked them why they wouldn’t go, they listed the sins and sinners they would encounter at the bar. Then he asked them to raise their hands if they would be pleased if everyone in that bar tonight would show up for church the following Sunday. Of course every hand went up. Then he asked them: “Who do you think is going to make the first move?”

I understand the fear associated with going to any strange place, but Pollock says that even that fear teaches a lesson. How out-of-place would I feel in a biker bar? That’s how out-of-place many of the customers would feel at church.

Pollock went to the bar that night with the pastor and his wife, and spent a couple of productive hours there listening to people answering the question, “What has turned you off about church?” I suspect a question like that could start many spiritual conversations with people who seem quite hardened to evangelism – IF we are willing to ask…and listen.

Would you have gone along to the bar that night?

Category: Books, Evangelism

Worry: An acceptable deadly sin

Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 1 Comment

Worry never creates a scandal. But it can be a soul-killer anyway.

Click on an icon above to download for reading or listening, or just read on…

Category: Sermons

What about Christianity’s record of injustice?

Posted on | February 1, 2010 | No Comments

Christianity has a terrible record of injustice. How can you defend that?

Category: Sermons

Ravings of a maniac

Posted on | January 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

Keel over at MenOfAdventure.net convinced me to try Google Analytics at this site, and I highly recommend it to you for your site. I just started – hence the traffic spike at the end of the graph.

One immediately interesting fact that was that someone found Waiting for Sunday via a search on the phrase you see above: “…merely the ravings of a maniac…” I wondered at first how Google had so accurately pigeon-holed my writing, forgetting that these words are Thomas Jefferson’s opinion on the book of Revelation, and I quoted him last summer. Still, the sentence would be a good name for a blog if it weren’t so long.

Category: Web

Rebellion: Doing what comes naturally

Posted on | January 25, 2010 | No Comments

calf-1

It is easy to become a rebel. Just do what comes naturally.

Category: Sermons

Is Christianity a straitjacket?

Posted on | January 25, 2010 | No Comments

Christianity steals freedom. Everyone knows that. Right?

Category: Apologetics, Sermons

keep looking »

Strange Fire

God, Love and Hell

Cynicism

Sunday Seven

God Space by Doug Pollock

Worry: An acceptable deadly sin

What about Christianity’s record of injustice?

Ravings of a maniac

Rebellion: Doing what comes naturally

Is Christianity a straitjacket?

My Twitter

Links that catch my eye

1. Free tools I use

2. Must-Listen Podcasts

3. Favorite Places

4. Friends

Upcoming Sermon Text

Recent Comments

Tags

Archives

Me, Elsewhere

About books…

MHCC Sermons