Merry Christmas from my Non-Angry Family...

Sunday night I uploaded our family Christmas newsletter.  This year's theme: Angry Birds (and overcoming challenges).

If you haven't had a chance to see it, just go over to TheBirdnest.net.

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Super excited for Restore's Big Give launching today

If you are a part of Restore's church family (or even if you aren't), feel free to make this your smartphone's background.

Because this year's Big Give is gonna truly be BIG!

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Just call me John... Papa John

Tonight, I made our Friday night pizza (LeAnn is out of commission with a bad back). I must say, it was quite tasty.

But that's probably because I made it with love (as you can clearly see in the photo!).

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This is a creative way to honor your leaders & families

Every year in December, rather than do a normal Leadership Community, Restore honors their leaders in a creative way. This year: Bowling!

Enough said. :-)

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You Can Do That!

Late this morning, the staff of the Liberty campus of Restore started a discussion group about the book Exponential by Dave & Jon Ferguson.  One of the things we discussed from Chapter 1 was how empowering it is when someone hears your dream and says to you "You can do that!"

Just a few hours later after a great discussion, I was blessed to watch the video above.  Now, the video is a TED talk - and most TED talks are 18 minutes.  To many people (including you), 18 minutes is a lot of time to give.  But while you might give up 18 minutes of your life to watch it, you might also gain a year's worth of inspiration as you hear the story of how an 8-foot hooded woman empowered a 14-year-old poet and got her to believe "You can do this."

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Another great morning of baptisms @Libertyrestore

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Hey @patrickoconnell I found you a new bike helmet

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Reproduction - A Blog Series

Over on The RiverTree Project blog, I am beginning a 12-part series on the topic of Reproduction.  Six of the posts will be about the difficulties I am seeing with Reproduction.  And six of the posts will be about the "positives" of Reproduction I am observing through my Leadership Residency at Restore.

I will only be posting about 3 times each week, so the series will end up going through the first week of December.  But hopefully the short posts will serve me well in the future when I go back to read what I have been learning and observing during this time in my life.

So feel free to head over, learn with me, and leave a comment if you so desire.

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Church Planting, Swimming, & Comparing

I swim 3 days each week for exercise.  I'm not saying this to brag - but I am almost always the fastest person in the pool.  I like it when there is someone about my tempo in the pool to push me - but it rarely ever happens.

But just when a guy starts to get a big head...

The other day I happened upon the website of a college swim team.  Their "latest news" shared results from the team's most recent meet.  Now, keep in mind, this is a Division II school, so it isn't exactly spitting out Olympians.  But in a recent meet, one guy set a school record in the 100 Free.  His time was under 50 seconds.  I saw this and groaned - I can't even get under a minute!  Right now, in an all out sprint, I might get under 1:05. (I don't even want to go see what times Olympic swimmers can post...)

Comparison Swimming

If I compare myself to others, I am bound to "lose."  Those guys swim 3000 to 5000 yards each day, 6 to 7 times a week, with good coaching.  I am coach-less, swim only three times each week, and MIGHT do 3000 yards in a workout.

But if I compare myself to myself, things look differently. 

More is NOT Always Better (for Clouds or Churches)

I learned yesterday that Box.net is giving away 50 Gb (that's right - gigabytes!) to users of iOS 5.  I have a free 2 Gb Dropbox account that I use a little bit, but the allure of 50 Gb was too much. I downloaded the app (to my "old" iPhone 3GS - the budget can't support my 4S phone-lust right now), preparing to move my cloud-based items to Box.

However, after downloading the app and beginning to set things up, I learned that Box.net does not offer free syncing to those who only have Personal accounts.  I know they are a business, so I don't blame them one bit for this - they need to make money. And, they owe me nothing, so I am not entitled to free syncing for my 50 Gb account (I'm not even entitled to 50 Gb!)

But I know what this means: I will revert back to Dropbox as my default "cloud-based" account.

Yes, I only have 2 Gb with Dropbox vs. 50 with Box.  But the syncing efficiency of Dropbox, even though it has less, will tilt the scale in their favor. #more

I'm a pastor, so you knew the spiritual twist was coming...

I think many American churches and Christians make the mistake mentally that I did with Box. They think:

• More programs = better
• More Bible studies & classes = better
• More opportunities = better
• more money, more people, more "success" = better

But sometimes, the "more" we have, the less effective and efficient we are.  All those wonderful programs and studies and classes can be good things, but they often fill our schedules, thoughts, and lives so much that we miss the better task of making disciples.

The allure of "more" is real - as I experienced when I clicked the download button for the Box app.  But sometimes, getting more isn't the better option. Sometimes, more isn't really more.  Sometimes, "less" is more.

 

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