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 [...]