Presby-Musings

Yesterday was my birthday, and I got to spend it doing some of the things I love the most.  I was blessed to be able to preach and spend the morning with my church family, and to be reminded once again how amazing it is to serve as their pastor.   I also got to go on a bit of an adventure with friends and family as we continued our quest to find the very best BBQ in this part of Texas.  But mostly, I just relaxed, laughed and rested, which is kind of the best way to spend your birthday I'm thinking.   I've learned a lot in this past year.  I would have just as soon not learned some of those lessons--especially the ones that had to do with loss and grief.  But still, it's all part of this journey I've undertaken to keep stumbling after Jesus.   The older I've become, the more I've come to understand that possessing the willingness to be transformed by God is probably at the top of the list of requirements to follow Jesus more ful...

I am sitting in a pediatric dentist's office in Florida this morning.  My littlest boy had a dental emergency and they were able to squeeze him in for an appointment.   I actually wish I could go to this dentist.  The waiting room is decorated like a theme park and the waiting room is loaded with video games.  There's also a Disney movie playing on a big screen TV in front of all these comfy seats.   The group who works here knows what they are doing with kids.  They use the most state-of-the-art equipment, and have obviously studied how to minimize the negative feelings children have with going to the dentist's office.   When I was a kid, my dentist was a no-nonsense guy with a sterile office and a waiting room stocked with decades old National Geographic and Reader's Digest magazines.   Once the guy went against what nurse was telling him and brusquely injected the wrong side of my mouth with Novocain.  He eventually admitted his...

Today is one of those days when I am having trouble writing what I am feeling and thinking.   I've been listening to news reports, and reading through my Facebook feed most of the morning, and my heart is heavy.   In the aftermath of the horrific events that have happened this past week in Charlottesville, you would think the overwhelming Christian response would be one of unequivocal condemnation of violence and hatred.   You would think that because that's the only response that would be in keeping with the teachings of Jesus, right?  Yet, I've had to come to grips with the realization that many of us who call ourselves Christians are struggling to unequivocally name the sin of racism and bigotry as sin. We would much rather shift the blame, find a new scapegoat perhaps.  Or find some other sin to name.  And this why so many statements of condemnation by Christians over the events at Charlottesville have come across as defensive, and full of bl...

For the next several weeks our daily devotions will be focused on the fresh start that a new year brings, and how we have the opportunity to write a new story in a new year.  We're going to be thinking about how the decisions we make today, determine the story we tell tomorrow.  This week we're going to be thinking  about what we need to do to start something this year that will help determine a better story.  We just got a new puppy at our house.  He's an eight week-old West Highland Terrier named Elway, and he's about the cutest dog on the face of the earth.  My wife Merideth is an amazing dog trainer with the patience of Job.  Elway is currently learning how not to do his "business" in the house, and Merideth helps teach him this by passionately celebrating when he does what he is supposed to do outside, rather than inside.   The other day we were all outside when Elway went piddle.  Immediately, we all started cheering him as thou...

This article appeared in the Summer Issue of the quarterly magazine that I edit for my church.  Since most of the people reading my blog probably won't get to see said article, and since I thought it was kind of a good one, I reprinted it here.  I can do this, I actually wrote the first one!        In his book Transformational Church, Ed Setzer writes about two principles that he discovered after surveying and studying churches that were “gleams of light in the shadows” among the vast majority of churches that are “struggling to make a transformational impact on people and communities.”      These two principles are what Setzer calls “incredibly biblical ideas.”  The first “Incredibly Biblical Idea” is simply Transformation.  Setzer declares that Transformation is what happens when “God gets hold of an everyday person...Every thought and action begins to change.  Values and attitudes change.  And people notice. ...

Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath; Broadway, 2010 Chip & Dan Heath are brothers---brothers in business. They are the bestselling authors of Made To Stick : Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  They are also regular columnists for Fast Company Magazine . And they are brothers.  I wonder if my sons would go into business together and write bestselling books, and blog about stuff that millions of people read, and will keep their old man rolling in the green long after he quits earning. I doubt it. Switch is the newest offering by the Heath Brothers in their quest toward a more innovative, relevant and nimble business "model."  It's also an awesome read and full of straight up wisdom.  Switch sets up the analogy of a Rider that is trying to direct an Elephant down a Path toward change--an analogy that is carried throughout the book and into the prescriptive guidelines that the Heath brothers tout as vital for an...

I did something this past week that has felled lesser ministers.  I changed the worship bulletin. For those pastors out there reading this, I could very nearly hear your audible gasp. And right now your stomach is probably doing flips just to imagine what it would be like to do this in your own church.  But you've wanted to, haven't you?  You've hated it... that thing.   You know... That thing that you produce each week that is full of liberally and randomly used Microsoft Clip Art...  That thing that you produce that makes the Earth weep each time you run it because of all the trees that died in order to promote the Men's Prayer Breakfast...  That thing that has more inserts than a newspaper on Black Friday...  You want to change it, don't you? Now for those of you non-church-y type folk who might be reading this, I know what you are saying.  "Huh?" Exactly.  There are certain things that church-y people do and say that sho...