Lessons Learned
It’s been a few weeks since I lost my pastor and mentor. And oddly, both Sally and I both are still reeling from it. We can’t get it out of our mind and have had a difficult time figuring out why. My hunch is that there are some lessons that need to be taken from [...]
Here’s to you, Mr. Robertson
Jesus loves you more than you could know. Oh. Oh. Oh. Dr. E.G. Robertson has been a part of my life since before I had life. He was Pastor of my home church (Connersville Baptist Temple) the year I was born. In fact, he had officiated my parents wedding five years earlier. Though God’s plan [...]
the Bradford Pears
A hauntingly beautiful drive… That is what I get to enjoy on my way to work one week a year because of a simple tree named the Bradford Pear, a tree that lines the last stretch of the journey between the outside world and my working world. For years these sentries have stood towering over [...]
3 Years
Three years since I left the setting Texas sun in my rearview mirror and met the next day’s sunrise in a new place, Alabama… where a new job, and new home, awaited. Three Years. Is it possible that it is has been that long ago?
Luther (and Friends) on Worship
Martin Luther, Reformation Leader: “The organ in the worship service is a sign of Baal.” Realencyklopadie Fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Bd, 14, s.433 cited in Instrumental Music and New Testament Worship, James D. Bales, p. 130. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic Theologian; 13th century: “Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to [...]
EPILOGUE – Colorado Expedition
It’s been a month since we left families, friends, jobs, and reasonable sanity behind to travel to the mountains with hopes of finding ourselves… and our God. Divine destiny met us there. Little did we know what God had in store for us, but as did Abram-of-old we took the first step and set out [...]
THE CHARACTERS – Colorado Expedition
Such were the exploits of these mighty men, wild of heart and gentle in spirit. Yeah are not their works recorded in the chronicles of the faith and guarded by the angels of heaven forever and ever? Yet so that you may know that God is a rewarder of them that believe in him and [...]
THE STORY – Colorado Expedition
In the sixth year of the reign of Bush the younger, five years after the great towers fell and two years after the great leader Reagan died, a band of fourteen men from the city of Birmingham in the region of Alabama gathered together. Now these men were devout followers of the Way and they [...]
DAY SEVEN – Colorado Expedition
It’s nearly impossible to believe that for all intents and purposes, the week is over. Now, we begin the long journey home. We awoke to as we have most other mornings this week, much earlier than we had wanted to and more chipper than we’d expected. Maybe it’s the mountains, our spirit, or the load [...]
DAY SIX – Colorado Expedition
TENT | DESERT OASIS CAMPGROUND | Dawn Yesterday was a long long day. The original plan had been to do climbing and rappelling on some of the rock faces around Como Lake. But Randy, a diabetic, has become progressively worse in his sick condition. He has not been able to keep down food or fluids [...]
DAY FOUR – Colorado Expedition
SUMMIT | BLANCA PEAK | High Noon Elevation :: 14,345ft. Here I sit on top of the world. From Blanca Peak I can see for hundreds (if not thousands) of miles. The climb here was horrific, and that is being gracious. Only but for the grace of God did I make it. All the way [...]
DAY THREE – Colorado Expedition
CENTRAL CAMP | BAIL-OUT POINT at 10,400ft. | MOUNT BLANCA | Dawn We are up and eating. My coffee is black, my stomach is full, and my mind is as clear as the morning mountain air. I am beginning to understand why Christ always went to the wilderness during so many tough ministry and life [...]
DAY TWO – Colorado Expedition
TENT | BAIL-OUT POINT at 10,400ft. | MOUNT BLANCA | Dusk The sound of rushing water in the distance is nearly deafening. The only thing louder was the silence before reached this point on the mountain. Stillness reigns supreme. The Mountain. Words nor pictures can do it justice. After a full day of climbing it’s [...]
DAY ONE – Colorado Expedition
ATLANTA, GA | 4:30a Leaving my love was the hardest. John Eldredge would call her “my Beauty,” and with that I would wholeheartedly concur. I’ve been blessed beyond measure to have obtained a Godly wife possessing both outer and inner beauty. She is, amazingly, simply radiant. Beyond the gift of my salvation she is by [...]
COLORADO – The Preface
I’ve just returned from leading an 8-day trip in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Myself and 13 other men from Mountaintop Community Church set out into the great unknown for a week of mountain climbing and spiritual direction based around John Eldredge’s bestseller, Wild at Heart. The Colorado Wilderness held challenges and experiences that likes [...]
The Kingmakers
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, 2006 Those who know my past are aware that I grew up in the Baptist church. The church I was reared in was of the Independent, Fundamentalist flavor. In our hard-line way of thinking, even the Southern Baptists were considered liberal. And to be sure, the Southern Baptist Convention once was the [...]
Order of worship
OK, this cracked me up…. Most churches have an order of worship where they tell you in advance everything you are to expect from the service. We’re too cheap to print out a bunch of flimsy handouts to get trampled on the floor of our church and turned into paper airplanes, so this is what [...]
Christian Missions
I had the amazing opportunity of co-leading a trip with our church’s middle and high school ministries with my wife last week. A weeklong cruise to the Bahamas is, in and of itself, an amazing experience. But add in the fact that the ship was chartered by a Christian group and was filled with believers [...]
It’s Hard to be Humble
This weekend in Worship Services I make my debut on stage in the capacity of singer. Honestly, I am more than a bit worried about it. Here’s the thing… I am on stage regularly for announcements, preaching, even some dramatic stuff, but singing is definitely not my most noted gifting.
I enjoy singing and have been pretty involved in barbershops, choirs, ensembles, and solo singing over the years, but its just not my primary area of focus or giftedness. Plus, its a stretch. They chose me before hearing me. No audition. YIPES! So please be in prayer for my nerves and the audiences ears this weekend as I solo.
On the upside, the song is AWESOME. I’ll include the text a link at the bottom of the post, but here is the 411: “It’s Hard to be Humble” is a tongue-in-cheek 70′s country song from Mac Davis that sounds more like a cross between a bar song and a sea-shanty then a country song. I will get to dress in my cowboy getup and really ham it up a bit on stage. For that, I am excited.
Just pray that my nerves and voice don’t detract from the point of the song, especially since it’s pretty critical to the theme of the service.
Oh, and one more thing…. I’ll never live this song down, cause people probably already think I’m the least humble guy around. Let’s hope they don’t think that I wrote the thing!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA.
On "The War Against Christmas"
Jamie’s Blog: On "The War Against Christmas"
I rarely link to other sites, but Jamie’s is a great site (as well as being a great guy)… and more importantly, he’s right on this one whether you like it or not. :)
Happy Holydays!
Also, you might wish to read columnist Cal Thomas’ take on the issue in “Not So Silent Night”:
“The effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a ”Merry Christmas“ might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the ”Happy Holidays“ mantra required by some store managers. I have never understood why so many Christians feel the need to see and hear ”Merry Christmas” proclaimed to them at stores by people who may not believe its central message. While TV personalities, junk mail letters and some of the ordained bemoan the increasing secularization of culture; perhaps some teaching might be helpful from the One in whose behalf they claim to speak…..
Job Description – #1
I am going to start posting my job description here as it changes. Currently, its been changing about every 4 weeks. Obviously this is not my first job description at Mountaintop… it’s about my 15th. But I will start numbering from “one”, for the sake of both reason and sanity. ____________________________________________ Job Title: GenX Minister [...]
I Imagine a People Who…
3.1 …..live with open-eyed optimism. 3.2 …..are wholly developed. 3.3 …..see themselves as God’s co-conspirators/co-collaborators. 3.4 …..live as useful religious people for the benefit of the world–moving beyond viewing Christianity as a “relationship with God.” 3.5 …..take the call of the gospel to live beyond the American dream. 3.6 …..listen to the outsides with the [...]
I Imagine Leaders Who…
2.1 …..are educated in more arenas than just religion. ……… 2.1.1 ….I am troubled by seminary education, not because I think leaders do not need to be educated, but because seminaries provide too limited an education. 2.2 …..utilize different skills–listening, extracting, converging, poetics. 2.3 …..have an optimistic, progressive view of history. 2.4 …..are conversationalists in [...]
I Imagine a Church…
1.1 …..that assumes God and not the Church to be the answer. 1.2 …..that joins in the work of God wherever it is found. ……… 1.2.1 ….our competition is not those who are seeking the good things of God, but rather those who are seeking to destroy the work of God. 1.3 …..where multiple voices [...]