Under the knife

Tomorrow is the day I go under the knife for my ACL replacement. Just in time, my knee went out again this morning. It sounds so yucky when it happens, like I injured t all over again but really it is just collapsing because it doesn't have the support it needs.
I think churches and ministries within churches are like that. You can lose an important piece and for awhile be fine but eventually it will collapse. You can try to just grin and bear it but in the end reconstruction is the best long term solution rather than walking through ministry/church life hoping it stays stable.

Wondering on Wednesday

I wonder...

What it will feel like having a dead person's body part in my body

If I'll throw up after the surgery like I did on my last knee surgery

When people will stop asking for a college football playoff...it's not coming, too much $$$ involved

Why we call Lebron James "King James"? He hasn't won anything yet nor is he an old translation of the Bible

Who gave him that nick name, hopefully not himself

Where the next soccer game I play in will be

How people decide where to go to church? Based on the preaching? Music? Stuff they have for kids? Location? Affiliation? Time of services?

People

Don't you think it's interesting how many different kinds of people there are? Beyond color and race and culture you have another layer of personality. In my job I interact with lots of different people. Some people wear me down. It might be because they are needy, difficult, confusing, or just a bit annoying but there are some people who drain me. Then there are those who seem to do just the opposite. When I am done with my time with them I feel more energized, more motivated than before I was with them. And the funny thing is that those people who fill me up are not just "energetic" people. They fill me through their thoughtfullness and their wisdom as much as they just "pump me up" to do whatever it is I am doing.

When I think about those kinds of people I think about which one I am to others. If you are taking notes, I want to be the one that energizes, encourages, and empowers and not the one that drains, confuses, and annoys.

We see a parallel to this in the Bible...the Pharisees and Jesus. The "religious leaders" held people down. They delighted in bullying people to fit in to the mold they had created. They criticized without reflection and refused to believe that there was any other viable truth than the one they were selling. When we look at the life of Jesus he was an encourager, a filler of people. He did challenge people but in a way that made them look inward and evaluate their life and their heart. That's the model I want to follow. I'd ask but I think I would be a little afraid of the answer...who am I to you? Critical, draining and annoying or encouraging, challenging and filling?

People you do not want to make mad

The person who cuts your hair! This lady who was cutting mine got mad at me because I didn't know if I wanted a squared back or a rounded back. Random. She's a recent import from Afghanistan so maybe the lingo got confused. Either way I made it out alive and with a fairly nice cut, but it could have been bad!

Wondering on Wednesday

I'm starting a new weekly entry called Wondering on Wednesday. It's pretty clear that I'll be wondering about some things and it's pretty clear that it will be on Wednesdays that I post.

I wonder...

if it's a good idea to give money (from our taxes) to businesses that are failing, auto industry, banks. Didn't they do this to themselves?

how angry people will be in 10 years when these same businesses are raking in the dough again and we are still paying taxes to cover their "bailout"

why static electricity likes me

when the Bengals will be a good team...I mean I only waited 15 years for them to make the playoffs only to have the most important person on the team get taken out follwed by who knows how many more years of futility

what our new daughter will be like...curly hair like Colleen or straight like me

Virginia Baptist State Convention

This past week I went to the Virginia Baptist State Convention. They are having a hard time getting younger leaders to attend. I was one of the youngest. I don't know who they expect to come with it being during the week. It was basically a room of bald or gray heads. The only people who are able to coem are retirees and ministers. Now I believe that those people should be able to come but we can't whine about never seeing young people (then deciding that they just don't care because they are "postmodern") and not make it available for them.

Tony Campolo spoke. He is always 3 things...challenging, funny, political. I thought what he had to say was appropriate for our setting except when he laid out his political strategies/policy suggestions to a bunch of non politicians. Nothing we do can get those ideas in place, it has to come from politicians and let's face it, how many politicians care about what's the right thing to do more than how to get re-elected? My cynicism is coming out there.

There also was a "worship leader" there. She spent her time talking about her fans and singing songs like " If I get to heaven". She really didn't lead in worship and I don't think they meant for her to either, we just should not have listed her as a worship leader. Semantics.

Do I have hope for the BGAV and the SBC? Yes, but we have to find a way to include some new voices, some younger voices or else we'll fade away in to a business meeting for old people.

New Hampshire

I went to New Hampshire this past Tuesday/Wednesday. We were on a sort of pre mission trip trip. We scouted out a few places that the ministries of our church might be able to help. We have teams from all ages and that are skilled in virtually everything that take part in our trips. This is a potential destination for the Youth Choir/Mission Trip. 2% of people in New Hapshire designate themselves as Evangelical. That's the same number used when talking about "unreached" people groups. There certainly was a feeling of emptiness there, not so much oppression but just nothing spiritually. Whenever we do go I imagine it will be an eye opener for everyone that goes and I am looking forward to that time.

Unless it's during an election. Tuesday we spent some time in Medford's small downtown area. It's set up like a round about traffic circle, a big one, and cars are able to circle as many times as they want. Several people were out with their signs inside of the circle, an area that includes a war memorial, gazebo, and grass area. As we sat in the gazebo talking about the needs of the people in New Hampshire cars would drive by people holding the opposition's signs and scream obscenities at each other and flip each other off! Such intensity from a state that basically has no significance in determining the outcome of the election.

No Heroes

So Colleen and I sat down together to watch Heroes only to remember it was pushed back so Saturday Night Live could make fun of every single political person. What a waste of time. Someone has lied to Lorne Michaels for years, SNL is well past its prime. It has turned from a funny skit show to a weekly roast of the latest headline. There's a reason it's on so late at night and not in prime time...it's not prime television viewing.

My surgery is set for November 29th. Glad it's soon because our new little one is due at the beginning of February and I didn't want to be on crutches when she came.

Hopefully Heroes will be back next week and SNL will go back from whence it came.