This past Sunday, Restore Community Church was asked to hold their Sunday morning service outside at the annual Liberty Fall Festival. It was a GREAT morning. Here are a few photos I snapped with my phone:
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Awkward Relationships (video)
As part of our teaching series "Love At Last Sight," my friends Miguel and Lucas shot a video of them lip-syncing the song "Jenny" by Flight of the Conchords. The song fit perfectly with the topic for the day: "The Art of Risking Awkwardness."
Is there a relationship that is broken or hurting in your life? Perhaps you need to risk a little bit of awkwardness to begin reestablishing the relationship. Hopefully your conversation won't be as awkward as the one in the video. But that awkward conversation might just lead to the best relationship you've ever had.
Enjoy the video and the laugh!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A Little Coaching Goes a Long Way
Last Saturday, I had the chance to hit some tennis balls around with my 14-year-old daughter. She is a freshman on her high school tennis team, but we never seem to find the time to go play together. So instead of going to a homecoming dance, she chose to hang with her dad.
We got to the courts, and she asked if I would help coach her on her serve. I'm not an expert, by any means, but after 4 years of high school tennis and occasional games as an adult, I knew enough to recognize some fundamentals she was lacking in her game. I asked her if her coach had ever given her help, and she said, "Dad, our team is so large. The coach never has time to give me any tips."
So we spent some time working on her serve. She was erratic at first, but eventually she started getting some serves in. Then not only were some balls landing in, but that had more zip than she's ever had before! I could tell she was feeling really good about this. We left the courts as the sunset, but confidence rising within my daughter. But that confidence was going to be put to the test.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Church Planting Movements (book review)
In September of 2008, I heard God call me to plant a church that would help plant other churches (I tell the story a little bit here). For two years, my wife and I prayed, read books, listened to podcasts, followed blogs, and absorbed as much as we could about church planting to help us sort out this crazy idea. Church planting was not new to us as we had helped with a church plant in the Denver, CO area for three years. But because I felt deeply inadequate to this calling of leading a new church, I wanted to know as much about church planting to help me sort through what I heard God say to me.
But what I read and learned during those two years has been completely unsettled by David Garrison's book Church Planting Movements.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Your attention please - (37signals)
Your attention please Jason F. Sep 07
I used to think time was the most limited resource. It’s so limited that you can’t even save it for later. Every day you spend more time, and tomorrow you have less than you had yesterday. You can’t make more, and you can’t really buy more, so it’s limited and fleeting and those are the rules.
But there’s something even more limited than time. It’s your attention. Attention is a subset of time, therefore it’s more limited. How you spend your attention is more important than how you spend your time.
Attention is about focus and careful, thoughtful consideration. Unlike time – which can be broken into convenient chunks of 15 minutes – attention doesn’t divide quite so neatly or easily.
You hear a lot about “quality time” being valuable, but I think quality attention is invaluable. Giving someone your attention is giving more than just giving your time.
The greatest things you make and do are the ones that get your full attention. It’s helpful to take an inventory of what you’re doing and then ask yourself where you’re spending your best attention. You can fill your time, but you have to spend your attention. How you spend it is probably a better measure of priority than anything else.
Next time you say yes to something, ask yourself if yes means “yes, I can do that” or “yes, I can spend my attention on that.” If you’re not willing to spend your attention on it, is it worth doing? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s a good thing to think about the next time you take something on.
via 37signals.com
This is an excellent post from 37Signals about the importance of attention.
As I read it, I thought of the story from Luke 8:40-48. Jesus is on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader. On the way, a woman who has been bleeding internally for 12 years touches the fringe of Jesus' robe, believing that it will finally heal her of her hemorrhaging.
In the middle of the crowd's traveling with him, Jesus stops. No one saw the woman touch the Savior's robe. Peter tells Jesus that everyone is pressing in on Jesus - they are all touching him! Yet Jesus knows one person touched him with faith and purpose, not selfishness and rock-star awe.
In that moment, Jesus gives the woman his attention. He gives her his ears as he listens to her explain her past predicament. He gives her his eyes as he looks upon this precious and desperate woman. He gives her his blessing because of her well-placed faith. In the middle of the busyness, in the middle of traveling with purpose, in the middle of the crowd, Jesus gives the gift of his full attention.
I'm teaching at Restore on September 18th about "The Art of Acting Intentionally" as part of the series on relationships entitled "Love at Last Sight." Despite how the title sounds, this is not a "marriage series." You can learn the art of acting intentionally to help ALL of your relationships. Learning how to give your full attention will help you live life with relational excellence - and live like Jesus.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
The History of Redemption (more than a sermon)
This is one of the most powerful, moving, and beautiful sermons I have ever heard. The reason? It is ALL the words of Scripture. Ronnie Smith does a masterful job weaving the totality of the Christian Scriptures together to help his listener capture the grand epic story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.
So give up a TV show for one night, set down the newspaper, and quit playing on your iPhone so you can give 30 minutes of your attention to sit and listen to Scripture being recited, allowing your heart to get caught up in the true story of God's plan to redeem His creation back to Himself. If you prefer video, I encourage you to go to this page, find the sermon entitled "The History of Redemption" from November 28, 2010, and click the "related video" link.
College Students: Will you give up two years to take Jesus to the world's unreached? (A video interview)
My friend Andy hits a home run in this video. If you are a college student or single young adult with a heart for Jesus, I HIGHLY recommend you listen to this in it's entirety. And if you are a parent of a college student or single young adult - you should listen to this as well.
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