Monday Mind Dump

Today I'm at home using up some of my remaining vacation days before the end of the year. I have a small honey-do list to take care... and I plan on getting to that shortly :-)

Here are some ramblings this morning while the self-cleaning oven is sending nasty small into my computer area...
  • "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." This one little verse has just been ROCKING my world the past few months. If Jesus is the example, and he DIED for me, then just what does that say about how I live my life? Who am I dying for? How am I imitating the life of Christ... so that that's what people are seeing? Jesus loved the poor. Loved the hurting. Loved the outcast. He spend his time with thieves and the least of these. Do I? This simple little verse is just rocking everything that I believe about the institution of the church and is shaking way out of my comfort zone! And, crazy as that sounds, I LOVE IT!

  • I'm having a bunch of computer problems here at home... had a look at it this weekend... turns out the fan on the graphic card is not working and it's getting hotter then a frying pan! That explains everything... guess it's either a new card... or a $2 fan that I just aim at the current card :-) Think I'll go with the cheaper option for a while.

  • Finished my class on Pastoral Leadership Foundations last week. I just LOVED that class! I learned so much that really inspired me and challenged me in this life God has called us to! Even though it can be hard and discouraging I could never imagine myself ever doing anything else!

  • This Saturday I'm speaking at a Christmas banquet for our College and Career groups. I love ministering to young adults. I just love their passion and potential!

  • Now that school is off for a month, I have a number of books that I'd like to finish off. I'm going to try to get through 1 book a week until mid-January. After that, I'm thinking that I'm going to take a 6 month fast from reading any ministry books (besides my school books of course!) I'm just going to take that time to read a couple of biographies and my Bible. And that's it. No Small Group books. No integration books. No pastoring books. Just want to really get into God's story... and a couple of stories of some others who have followed him to do some amazing things in our world.

  • My colleague at church, Lynette, won an iPod Touch from The Sticks conference that we all went to last month! My geeky techno blood is a tad jealous :-)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practical Atheist

Image
Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view
Read more

Revitalized Pastors and Leaders

Image
On March 15, 2023, the Barna Research Group released the "The Resilient Pastor Initiative". Its goal was to explore and share the state of pastors in America in the post-COVID climate we find ourselves in. According to the data, the state of pastors may not be as good as it appears from behind the pulpit. From 2015 to 2022 Barna notes the following where pastors responded "Excellent" in a number of categories: Spiritual well-being dropped from 37% to 14% Physical well-being fell from 24% to 9% Mental and emotional health plummeted from 39% to 11% The overall quality of life dipped from 42% to 18% The level of respect they felt from the community tanked from 22% to 10% Level of ‘true friends’ dropped by 50% from 34% to 17% The data also showed that this drop in wellness was more prevalent in younger pastors! Older pastors are riding it out to retirement. Now, before anyone from my church begins to panic, I'm OK. As shared in a blog post from January 2023 entitled
Read more

Captain America Rocks!!

Image
I gotta admit... sometimes I'm pretty clueless as to what is going on around me. I never buy the newest technology, and I never catch the cool TV show as it premieres. Sometimes it takes a big news flash to open my eyes to some cool stuff right in front of me... and this is definitely the case with the Captain America comic series! It took killing Cap to get to pick up an issue. And boy am I ever glad I did! I've never read anything with Captain America before. It wasn't until reading Civil War that Cap even came on my radar. I guess it's just the Canadian in me that just assumed that the character wouldn't be relatable if I wasn't American, or if I wasn't a war story nut. Civil War changed my perspective of the character. Sure, he's all American. But he's all that is great about the US. His morals, his values, his respect for others. His love of liberty and equality for all. His role in Marvel's Civil War was great and really gave me an
Read more