Monday Morning Quarterback

another sunday has come and gone…

• i was saying to a friend of mine last week how much i love sundays at north point.
• i plan for it all week.  i look forward to what is going to happen…what god is going to do in the lives of the people who are there.
• to worship…to laugh…to reconnect…to reaffirm friendship…to give…to serve…to love…to be loved…to have a genuine connection with god.
• we had five new families come and worship with us yesterday.  five new families.  that blows me away!
• this is happening nearly every week.
• i’m amazed…excited…apprehensive…and mildly overwhelmed by what is happening around north point these days.
• what role are you playing?
• how is god using you to impact the lives of people ?
• week #2 of the “inside out” series was good.
• here’s a quote from the sermon that pretty well sums it up:  “the quality of contentment might be the most elusive and unknown of all human virtues…yet the one we need so desperately…”
• here’s another:   “contentment is something that originates from the inside.  deep inside.  and works its way out”
• and another:    “being a follower of christ does not simply mean that i come to believe a new set of truth, but that the one who speaks the truth actually takes up residence inside of me.”
• and a last one:   “the lord is my shepherd.  i shall not want.”
• how are you doing with these today?
• will you stay in the fight today?
• i’m grateful for all the people who work upfront and behind the scenes to make sundays a great day days each week…buzzy and the band…brazos and larry in the sound booth…debbie for tying everything together…john for organizing the serving…the bacas for preparing communion…all the different nursery workers…angela and her children’s team…logan and his youth ministry team…wanda, raeshel, and beth for focusing on newcomers…the group that joins for prayer at 9:30

will you be living from the inside out today?

what a waste…

this week was no bueno…

Monday Morning Quarterback

before i give you an insight, i want you to know that i missed being with you yesterday.  being with the north point family for our weekly reunion is the highlight of my week.  every week.  can’t wait to be back with you.

this morning, i am wrapping up my yearly trip to the mountains of colorado to spend time with a bunch of guys.  we haven’t taken off our shirts and run around beating drums.  we did not get in touch with our inner child. but we have tried to spend some time being honest.

i have led a group of men who have been married for years, been in youth ministry for years, and been around the block for years. it was a group full of wisdom, spiritual maturity, life experience, and huge vision. it was also a group of men fully aware that their lives and marriages and ministries were not everything they needed to be. that’s not the unusual part.

what was amazing was their willingness to talk about it. honesty. transparency. candid openness about lives that constantly fall short. frank discussion about trying to live by our own power instead of living by the power of the holy spirit. wrestling with our calling. running headlong into temptation, lonliness, independence, disappointment, failure, judgment, comparison, rejection, emptiness…and swimming back to the surface again for the breath of life.

men are pretty notorious for putting up walls, existing at arms distance from other men, living with secret sins, communicating that we really don’t need other men in our lives for deep friendship and real brotherhood. we struggle with camaraderie that goes below the surface and deals openly with conflict, difference of opinion, and forgiveness. for most of us, it is much easier to move away than it is to move closer.

i’m glad i got a week with some guys who reminded me that real brotherhood is a good thing. are you a brother? do you want one? …then be one.

Axioms…from my perspective

i dedicate thursdays to giving some of my personal life axioms…truth that, from my perspective, is self-evident. sometimes practical. sometimes philosophical. sometimes whimsical. but truth, no less.

for those of you who have been reading my blog over the past four years, you might remember this content from a previous post…

“avoid legalism…at all cost”

what’s the difference between legalism and obedience? clearly, God cares about how we act. there are many commands in the bible that appear to be explicit, understandable, and undebateable. there is no question that our behavior is a measuring stick of the quality and breadth of our faith. so what is legalism? let me offer my two cents.

first of all, legalism is action or behavior that seeks to win God’s approval or attempts to establish a list of rules or expectations that a person must adhere to, in order to have a right relationship with God or to be fully accepted into a christian circle.

here’s the rub..a legalist would never admit to being a legalist. he just sees himself as “better” than others because of his (or her) choice to do, or not do, certain things. we tend to judge others by our own standards of what is acceptable and what isn’t. the other day, i read this quote and it has kind of captivated me… “in essence, we think our sins smell better than other people’s. it seems like we have very little tolerance for people who sin differently than we do!”

legalism can take a faith that is alive and make it dull and lifeless. it can shrink our vision to the size of a communion pellet, bring enthusiasm to a screeching halt, steal joy, reduce our spirituality to a shallow pool, and generally suck the life out of anybody or any group. instead of finding freedom through Christ, many believers become drained by the church and ultimately walk away…tired of rules and judgment and alienation.

legalism makes us petty and judgmental. the legalist insists that everyone live up to the standard they have adopted. they see themselves as spiritually superior and the benchmark others should aspire to be. in other words, we want others to just “be like Mike”. when we think this way, we miss the incredible fun of living life in the midst of a bunch of different people. it’s not always easy, but it’s certainly the way God designed it!

i guess what it comes down to is legalism makes it impossible for people to see Jesus. i don’t think there is anything that pushes a person away from Jesus faster than a list of rules and regulations. maybe it’s time we stop making lists and rules and carrying around our private bag of expectations. maybe we can lay down our judgment and criticism and spiritual smugness and just get about the business of loving people and serving those around us in humble obedience.

maybe?

a personal request

this one is really personal.

i would like you to consider passing this blog on to others…especially at north point.  let me explain.

i don’t have some narcissistic need to have people read what i write.  i really don’t.  but i do have a passion for encouraging people to live biblically, to wrestle with difficult issues, to grow deeper and ultimately become all that god designed us to be.

that’s why i write.  more specifically, i find myself writing more and more about things that are relevant to our life as a church family.  i live and breathe north point.   i feel like so much of what i write is simply an extension of what i am preaching or teaching or conversations we have at lunch or as we work side by side.

i want you to continue to be part of it…and i want you to personally invite others to be part of the dialogue.

who can you connect here?  who can you encourage to join in?  who else needs to be hearing what you are hearing and responding to what you respond to?  go tell them.

write them an email, link them to this blog (or just tell them about it, if you blog link challenged), and even step them through the process of subscribing…you know, click on the subscription box and follow the directions!  it’s not too hard…

do it for me.  do it for them.  do it for north point…or some other church.  whatever.  just do it.

Politically incorrect…

okay, i’m still a little (no, a lot) bugged by what happened at lunch today.

i met up with logan for our regular monday meeting at bueno…again.  lunch was so good yesterday, we decided we needed more.  99 cent “muchaco monday” was just a little too hard to pass up.

anyway, while we were there, a young couple came in with their three children…a new-born and twin boys that were not much more than a year old.  they ordered a bunch of food, put their twins in highchairs, and sat down to what was obviously their normal lunch.

twin#1 didn’t want to be in the highchair.  nope.  not at all.  and he began to let everyone in bueno’s fine dining room know all about it.  i mean, aaaallllllll about it.  it was a cry that bordered on the demonic.  it came from somewhere low in his esophagus and seemed to regurgitate out.  and there was no end in sight.

mom and dad ignored him.  carried on a conversation and seemed totally unphased by the satan-sound that was exploding out of the spawn’s bowels.  totally unphased.

mom and dad appeared to be normal.  they were dressed normal.  they looked fairly normal.  they drove a fancy, big suv.  it smacked of employed. from what i could tell, they bought some 99 cent muchacos.  they obviously had brains.

so why the disconnect?  why the total disregard for courtesy and kindness?  why ignore your own child…not to mention your fellow bueno-heads…for nearly 25 minutes of absolute torture?

dad finally finished his food and begrudgingly picked up the little out-of-control-fruit-of-his-loins and…surprise!  guess who stopped the vocal explosion?  go figure.  he carried him outside as mom continued to eat, oblivious to the entire dining room full of shocked and horrified patrons.  not to mention, relieved.

this whole nightmare got me to thinking.  i know it’s not politically correct…or even prudent…to get the government involved in the private lives of its citizens.  i’m not too hot on the government stepping in and telling me how to run my life, how to spend my money, what doctor i should go to, blah, blah, blah.

but really, after today, i think i would be all for required state-mandated tests…complete with yearly testing updates…to monitor the fitness of people to make and raise children.  i know that sounds harsh, but my ears still hurt.

call me insensitive.  call me too old.  tell me i’m out of touch of what it means to be a parent.  tell me i’m a crotchety old man who doesn’t understand how difficult it is to raise children these days.  i don’t really think i’m any of the above, but if it makes you feel better, call me whatever you want.

but when people start to mess with bueno, watch out.  it’s time for heads to roll.

Monday Morning Quarterback

what a really good sunday!

• there are other church blogs that will be telling of the hundreds of baptisms that took place in their buildings yesterday, but none will be any more important than the one we had yesterday in our building!
• way to go rachel!…and a huge boo-ya to elizabeth!
• i gotta admit that i didn’t actually watch the baptism, though.  i was messing with the dead battery in my microphone.  the show must go on…
• big crowd in the first hour again.  i wonder what would happen if the first hour became the popular one?  i bet the restaurants are less crowded at 11:30.
• i can see how someone could criticize the teaching yesterday.  there were a lot of words that come straight out of pop psychology:  personal worth, belonging, self-image, identity, importance, significance, value…
• but the thing is, those words and concepts (just like so many others throughout history) have been stolen from the bible and redefined in ways god never intended.
• when i read the genesis account of the beginning of the human race, i see adam and eve infused with worth and value right at the point of creation.  meaning and purpose flow out of relationship with  the god who made us…poured his spirit into us…uses us for noble work…and defines our destiny for eternity.  how’s that for significance?
• it’s always humbling to preach on excuse-giving.  not hard to find an audience!  not hard to be the audience…
• do you realize that if everybody that calls north point family would show up on the same sunday morning, we wouldn’t have enough room…enough chairs…enough communion…enough coffee…enough nursery space?
• we would have enough parking, though.
• i would like to experience that day.
• why do really good song writers and bands feel the need to make really good songs sappy by including non-words for us to sing in the middle of really good songs?  “signature of divine” is an awesome, powerful song that gets completely undermined by the…”oh oh’s”.
• by the way, i still love the song and our band rocks when they lead it.
• it was a “bueno” day at lunch.  a great place to spend a buck.
• my daughter-in-law whined about going to bueno, though.  she says the taco meat tastes to much like real hamburger.  she says she wants her fast-food taco meat to be more like dog food. i’m not joking…
• she said she liked it better when she mixed the beans and the taco meat together.  more like dog food, she said…
• good meeting in the afternoon.  to all who came:  thanks for the encouragement!
• you’ll be hearing more about the october 25th “funday”, holiday at the hall, and the advent conspiracy soon.
• this is going to be an awesome fall!
• to all my dallas cowboy friends:  i’m feeling your pain…

Axioms…from my perspective

i dedicate thursdays to giving some of my personal life axioms…truth that, from my perspective, is self-evident. sometimes practical. sometimes philosophical. sometimes whimsical. but truth, no less.

“be content with what you have.”

let enough be enough.

the pursuit of stuff will control you.  we live in a culture that defines personal worth by what you have…your symbols of success.  all of us, to some degree, have bought into it.  and if you don’t aggressively fight it with all you’re worth (sorry for the pun), you’ll lose.  you’ll just lose.

nice things are not evil.  there is nothing inherently wrong with more expensive things.  i have some.

it’s just that there is an amazing freedom in living a simple life and being content with what you have, rather than living in a constant state of pursuing bigger, better, faster, newer, or nicer.  we just have to let go of the idea that better stuff equals better life.

there is great joy in being able to enjoy what we already have and learning to accept the limitations of our situations.  one of the greatest lessons i have ever learned (and continue to learn on deeper and deeper levels) is to let god be the provider of more when he wants to, and not necessarily when i want to.  unfortunately, this is a discipline that most of us know very little about…

more than anything else, if we are constantly looking to make our own lives better, more comfortable, more lavish, or more symbolically successful, we will never be able to truly experience jesus being enough.  it will be nothing more than empty words to a song we sing.

an idea

i was having lunch with logan this afternoon, and we were talking about how people (all of us to some degree) are held captive by money…the fear of losing jobs in a shrinking economy…the fear of having to adjust a lifestyle and do without…and the trickle-down effect that has on church life and ministry.

here’s a thought that just came to my mind:  all of my life, i have heard people get frustrated with the church for asking for money…talking about finances…promoting financial campaigns…guilting people into an increased offering check…over emphasizing the importance of tithing…telling people that god’s blessing will be withheld if they withhold the money that belongs to god.  you name it.

i’m probably one of those that stands near the head of the line at the church financial complaint department.  but here’s the deal.  people don’t want to be told by the church what to do with their money.  i get it.  but think about this…

we are told everyday what to do with our money…by the gas company…by the cable company…by the school district…by the band booster club…by our kid’s soccer team…by the credit card companies…by our favorite athletic teams…by the movie theaters…by the health club…by fashion designers…by doctor’s offices…by pretty much everybody.

and though we complain about rising prices and unfair trade and poor services, we still pay.  yeah, it’s our choice to pay.  we could turn off the cable or go without cell phones or tell our kids they can’t be in the band or on the team, or…or…or…

but we pay.  why?  because we want to.  we think it’s worth it.   we see how the investment will pay off in the end.  it gives us happiness or health or contributes to our overall well-being.  bottom line?  we spend our money where we choose to spend our money.

and as much as we don’t like to be told by anyone how, where, when or how much, when it comes to our money, we listen.  and then we pay.

so here’s my question.  what is god saying to you about how you should be spending (allocating) your money?  are you listening intently to what god is telling you through the word and by the holy spirit regarding your finances?

forget what the church is saying.  forget what some shiny-haired, silver-tongued, tv preacher is saying about your money.  what is god saying to you?

then do it.

Monday Morning Quarterback

what a great sunday!

• getting up and driving to np in the jeep in cool weather was awesome.  i am so ready for fall to arrive.
• to be honest, i was a little surprised at the number of people we had yesterday.  i expected more.
• of course, i expect a full house every sunday.  would you expect any less from me?
• brandon has used up his excuses for not playing the bass on sundays.  from now on, it will cost him.
• on top of that, he won’t even leave me one of his cool looking-playing basses for me to play.  he must be worried.
• my feet were really tired from standing from standing almost non-stop from 8:15-1:00.
• i’ll add that to my list of reasons i need to lose weight.
• we are unbelievably blessed to have the band and “a/v” guys we have.  8:30 every sunday morning…and both services.
• what’s your investment in north point? what are you doing to make sure that we are putting our best foot forward to people?
• i kind of feel bad for making fun of logan and his church language.  not really.
• double ed-ged?  puh-leeze.
• we finally came to a conclusion in the book of james!
• a 21-week series…that is definitely the longest i have preached at north point.
• what an incredible ending to the letter.  the call to invest in the lives of people who are wandering away from the truth is powerful.
• great songs.
• remedy was the perfect song to end this series.  “let us be the remedy…” wow.
• mighty to save was a perfect way to end the service.
• it was nearly 1:00 before everyone had cleared out of the building.  cool.
• “when your love outlasts my failure, that’s when church happens.” best new quote.  you’ll see it again.
• lunch at rudy’s barbeque.  a fitting ending.

can’t wait for this coming sunday.  ONE.