Thursday, April 30, 2009

I promised not to use GUILT...

We're heading towards week 3 of our Generosity series.
There is one thing I'm increasingly sure of. Our first (and probably hardest) task is to invite God to change our hearts.
Real generosity will only happen when our hearts are transformed and freed by God. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. But its our job to open our hands and let God have access to our hearts.

So...that's where it starts. I'm praying that you'll open your hearts and that God will respond by transforming your hearts.

THAT SAID
I've really been having a tough time this week with a couple of very tough and very straight forward verses.

1 John 3:17,18 - If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.

Malachi 3:8-10 -  "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' 
      "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

Amos 5 (the whole chapter) - God basically says "I hate your worship because it isn't matched by real (maybe generous) compassion and active care for the poor and oppressed. I hate your assemblies. I hate your songs."

What do we do with those kinds of verses? There's quite a bunch of them.
It seems that there is a fine line somewhere between guilt and honest conviction about the ways we fall short. And maybe for fear of getting too close to guilt, we just use avoidance instead.

Maybe its enough to just read the WORD and let the Holy Spirit work.

thoughts?

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I REALLY wanna know what you think...

So we're going into week 3 of the Generosity series.
This is tough stuff. It's tough to say. I know it's tough to hear. God is challenging me deeply in my personal life as I think through this stuff. I hope God's doing the same in you.

Last week, we asked you to think about what God's answer would be to you if you asked him, "God, what am I missing?" We asked you to take some time to consider what the things might be that bind you, shackled you, prevent you from being truly free and truly generous. Then we gave you the chance to write down your thoughts - anonymously - on scrap paper. (Don't miss this coming Sunday's unveiling of our artist in residence did with our shackles).

There were some amazing answers. Here's what some of us wrote:
ambition
need to maintain self image
selfishness
I want to but don't know how
fear
debt
my stuff
self centered
taxes
my appetite
disobedience
too controlling
never satisfied
the need to be wanted
too scared.
TOO SCARED!
scared to take the first step
I've been hurt by the church

Some really powerful stuff. I read these notes and see how clearly so many of us want to be what Jesus intends us to be. I hear loudly the longing for real freedom. And I see the pain of knowing that things are holding us back.

The good news is that as we continually offer those things to Jesus, he takes our shackles and breaks them and gives us back freedom and real, abundant, meaningful life. We'll talk about stepping out in trust this coming Sunday.

So what do you think?
How is this series impacting you?
How is it making you mad?
Do you just wish it would go away?
What are you learning?
What are we missing?

I really want to know. If you are comfortable commenting here, just click on the word "comment" below this article. You can choose the anonymous option if you prefer. I'd love to hear from you.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

A near perfect weekend...

I know I didn't do anything to deserve it. But I'll take it! Especially after last week. But, this was a great weekend. Some "thanks" are in order...

First of all, it was hot and sunny. Thanks, God.

On Friday, I got an invite to fill in for a cancellation at the Young Life Golf Tournament. I got to putz around with Steve Tyler (who let me drive the cart and who had a few good drives of his own with his crafty little 3 wood) and we were matched up with Matt Lammers and Matt's dad. Thanks for the invite Matt! I don't think I hit a fairway all day with my driver, but I had a couple of killer approach shots and played well enough to want to do it again. Matt Lammers can hit a ball about 3 miles. On one of our best holes, a 500+ yard par 5, Matt hit his drive so far that I only needed a 9 iron to hit the green on our second shot.

Then we had our small group on Friday nights. Yep, that's right. Our small group is so rockin that we give up a weekend evening for it. And it's always pretty much the best night of my week. Thanks fluffer uppers!!!

Saturday, I had YMCA football. Always good for a laugh. And met some cool parents whose kid is on our team. Thanks Y!
Then I took the kids to the Illini Spring Game. We were one ticket short and I was trying to find a ticket booth when a dude just handed me a ticket. Thanks dude!

Then we came back home and took Lucy to play in the creek. It was her first time playing in the water and she loved it. Went crazy. Lots of jumping and splashing and laughing. It was really fun. We saw a good dozen big ole carp in the creek! And we caught two teeny little baby turtles, no more than an inch across. They were just floating down the creek. And the ducks were out with their little baby ducklings. (Glad Lucy didn't see them!) Good times at the creek. Thanks, creek!

Then we got to spend Saturday afternoon and evening with some great new friends. They live on a big lake out in Mahomet and there's something about water that just soothes my soul. Eric asked me if I wanted to fish, and yeah I really did want to fish. It's been years. I wasn't expecting to catch anything. But I did. 4 bass and a crappie. The biggest bass was probably 12-14 inches. Not bad. Thanks Eric! And the food was phenomenal, especially the dessert! It would have been awesome if we were sitting in a cave eating it. But we were sitting on the deck overlooking the lake. It was perfect. Best dessert I've had in years. Thanks Jessi.

And then came Sunday. At church we had the SAFE house guys sing for us. One of the guys shared his "spoken word" testimony. Very cool. My kids loved it! When they started, our little man said real loud to Melissa; "Mom, is this black music?" Those fella's even got us Presbyterians to clap! Can you believe it? I love preaching when those guys are there. They say stuff when I make a good point! Thanks guys!

And then after church, I went grocery shopping. And I found everything on the list. And I only had to ask for help once. Thanks ricotta cheese.

All in all...this has been one for the books. Or the blog.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I've got a cold...

Not just any cold.
I've got a man-cold.

For those of you unfamiliar with the serious implications of this condition, here is a bit of background:



Now in our case, Melissa doesn't have a cold. She has a stress fracture in her foot and she's supposed to elevate it and stay off it as much as possible.

Which is all well and good.

But...I need some soup.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Now that's commitment

This just goes to show how incredibly full of awesometricity our Launch Small Groups must be.
My good buddy Mark (I promised not to identify him but his last name rhymes with Calender) turned down tickets to the Cubs / Cards baseball game on Friday, just so that he could be sure to make it to small group.

I'm proud of you Mark!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Taxes Taxes Everywhere

I'm sitting in my office watching the Tea Party protesters marching around Westside Park protesting high taxes and government bailouts and deficits and such. Having just sent in our tax return, I feel their pain!

Ironically, I'm sitting at my desk working on a sermon on Generosity.

And I'm sitting here reading a book that gathered together a host of studies on the giving habits of Americans. Please know that I am not making a political statement. I would just as soon pay lower taxes, given the choice. The following comments have more to do with church than with state. This isn't about taxes. It's about generosity. There is a difference. I'm pretty sure.

But I just can't get over these statistics. Rather discouraging.

According to one study, 50% of non-religious people in America reported giving ZERO dollars per year to any kind of charity or ministry or social service organization.
And the average non-religious person gives away less than 1% of their income.

Well, thank goodness for religious people, right?
Maybe not.
22% of Christians gave ZERO dollars away (that includes giving to church, united way, salvation army bell ringers, etc).
(AND yes you read that correctly, more than 1 in 5 Christians give away not one thin dime).
And the average Christian gives away less than 3% of their income.
Interestingly, other religions are more generous than Christians with Mormons leading the way at 5.2%.

But not us right? I mean us Presbyterians are well educated, usually rather successful, and, one would assume, more generous than the average giver.

Well, according to a 2000 study by the Center on Philanthropy, Presbyterians reported giving an average of 1.8% of their income. That's TOTAL giving with about half (.9%) of it going to religious giving and about half going to non-religious giving.

One last surprising statistic: The more people make, the LESS they give. It holds true for religious people and non-religious people. Somewhere in the 6 digit income range, people start to give a higher percentage, but until then, the people who have the highest capacity to give actually give the least (in terms of % of income).

PS. Its tempting to think that the numbers must be flawed. They probably are. The truth is probably even uglier. Numerous studies have shown that people almost always over-report their actual giving when answering surveys.

I'm not ready to make any summary statements about the statistics. And, again, I'm not making a political statement here.

I just hope those folks out there protesting higher taxes aren't counting on the church to step in and meet the real needs of people in our community and our country.

What do you think?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Spring Small Groups

This Sunday will be the start of our spring small group series. See the promo video below for more info!
We still have space in a few of our sermon based small groups if you haven't signed up yet.

The small groups will meet weekly for 8 weeks.
The first 5 weeks will be studying the Generosity Theme that is this year's mission emphasis.
The last 3 weeks will be about our vision / mission.

The groups are meeting on several different nights and in several different places around the C-U area. Sign up sheets will be posted at the Launch this Sunday before and after worship.

Email me if you have questions.

Generosity Promo Video

A little interview about our upcoming series...



credits to Granger for the idea.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Three Great Statements

The Great Commission: "Go and make disciples" - Jesus
The Great Commandment: "Love God and Love Neighbor" - Jesus
The Great Commitment: "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me daily." - Jesus

I keep running across tri-fold expressions that make simple but profound summaries of who we are called to be as a community of Christ followers. I read the above 3 in a sermon by Darryl Johnson recently.

What do you think of the above 3 statements as summarizing the PURPOSE of the CHURCH???




FYI...I preached on the 3rd statement this past Sunday. (You can listen to it here on my blog - right column)

Monday reload

So the portapotties are still out there on the street. The one on the left is leaning a bit. I think the additional weight added to it over the weekend is causing it to start sinking into the mud. Gonna get ugly if they don't come get that thing soon.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

One Car Wednesday (a day late)

So I pedaled my bike to work today. By the way, thanks for the bike, Paul!
Not sure how far it is, but it took my a little over 30 minutes. That's like 25 miles, right?
And while Illinois appears to be quite flat, it turns out that it is uphill the entire way here. That may prove to be the case on the way home as well.

On a side note, the city is busy putting up the PortaPotties around town in anticipation of this weekend's Illinois Marathon. Take my advice and avoid the ones at the corner of Church and State. It's right across the street from my office window. The city worker spent a good deal of time inside one of them being sure it was in good working order.

I wish they were already setting up the refreshment stations for the race. I could use the help on my way home today.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

A possible perk to global warming...

I certainly am not one to joke about global warming. Though the snow this past Sunday certainly didn't feel like there was much warming going on. Still, I was fascinated to discover that fluctuations in temperature are most likely to have both positive and negative effects on quality of life in various parts of our planet. It's all a matter of adjustment and perspective.

As an example,the winter of 1956/57 was unusually mild. Temperatures around the globe were substantially higher than normal. While this resulted in droughts in some parts of the country, it had a remarkable effect on agriculture in Switzerland.

See this video to learn more.