First of all thanks for reading this blog. I am currently brainstorming the new direction for this blog in the coming year. So today I am asking you to participate in a survey to help me gauge the direction that I feel will be the most effective for my content. Unfortunately with a free account there is no thank you page after you complete the survey, so thanks beforehand for helping me by taking this survey.
st. thomas university football stadium, originally uploaded by Dan Anderson.
So it’s time for another good ole Faceoff Friday. Today’s choices:
Football
or
Basketball
Which is your favorite?
As I was watching the Marriage Ref, one of my new favorite shows, the other day, I discovered an interesting fact. It generally takes about 27 minutes for coffee to go bad. Now 30 minutes after it’s brewed sometimes it’s still ok. But, I think that we can all agree that coffee is best when it’s fresh.
A lot of times people become like old coffee. Instead of being filled with the Spirit of God, they soak up in all their boiling hot, rancid, mess of life and allow it to continue to churn and churn instead of releasing the pain and hurt and sin and ugliness and being filled with the Spirit of God.
So today get rid of that old, terrible, nasty, rancid, horrid, stuff in your life and find healing. Then be filled with the Spirit of God. Draw near to Him. Be filled.
And smell and taste the fresh filling of God.
I figured that I would begin a new thing here on jcisonline.com I know that in production you are looking for great grooves all the time. I will try and post one band every month that has some nice grooves you could use as a backtrack. Check out LCD Soundsystem this month. They have a new-age funk/electronica sound. Anyway I love them. Possible uses: stop motion, animation, time loop, etc. Great sound, lighthearted and cool beat. Check them out with the song below and find them on Amazon with the links below that.
[audio:http://jcisonline.com/wordpress/audio/timetogetaway.mp3]
how to grill the perfect steak, originally uploaded by Caribbean Pot.
Today as Mike Hepola our Family Pastor is leading us through Life Hurts, God Heals as a staff. A question stood out to me.
Is my heart tender or tough?
I love to grill. In fact, I am really really passionate about it and also pretty good at it. I have two dishes that I just love to make. Caribbean Jerk wings and Chilean Adobo Chicken. I am a Marinate the meat guy. I use rubs and spices and bastes and mops and sauces as well, but I always love the meat that is marinated the best.
The Adobo chicken that I make is incredibly simple, but full of flavor. It takes about 6 hours of marinade. Lime juice, Orange juice, the zest of both fruits, the spices, and also some secret spicy sauce are the flavors that are present in this crazy tasty dish.
It’s ridiculous the way the chicken is tenderized, filled with flavor and juice. It becomes incredibly different than the original boring piece of chicken.
I think that God desires for our hearts to be pliable and full of life. In fact this verse talks about that very thing.
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 (NASB)
So be intentional about putting heart tenderizers in your life. Scripture, books, movies, music, and people that all tenderize your heart. That move your heart from tough to tender. From bland to full of passion and zest.
What are mine?
Hardball – the movie. Full of foul language from kids. Incredible message of being present in a kid’s life. I’ve watched this movie so many times and I have cried every single time that I watch it.
300- the movie. Fight for your country. Sacrifice for something that you believe in. Passing on a legacy
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry – book about racism in the south. Written in a southern dialect and incredibly emotional. Story of an African American family in Mississippi, in the middle of the Great Depression. I’ve read this book about 7 times starting when I was in middle school.
Always had a place for me in my heart.
My Story – Da Truth. is very close to my testimony….except for the rapping part 
These are just a few of mine. Make a list of things that keep your heart tender. Work them into your life on a more regular basis.
What are some of your heart tenderizers?
PlanB Promo from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.
Plan B by Pete Wilson is a book that I recently picked up to read as a part of booksneeze.com blog for books. I picked this book up, because I’m a huge Pete Wilson fan. He is the pastor of Crosspoint Church in Nashville, TN. He writes an awesome blog.
This book is one of the books that I had always thought about writing. I don’t have enough life experience for it to be really effective though. So I am so excited that you have a chance to pick this book up. Summary is easy. Pete says it on page 1,
“Do you remember the day you discovered your life wasn’t going to turn out quite the way you thought?”
Whether it be tragedy, circumstance, failure, or disappointment, sooner or later life takes a drastic turn from our Plan A. Pete desires to offer genuine, honest encouragement and doesn’t take the normal route of traditional Christians might when explaining real life.
I was continually impressed with how cordial Pete was in giving heartfelt encouragement to readers, who if they are in the middle of a Plan B situation, would certainly need. Discussion questions in the back were a huge asset for me to digest content and begin to ask myself tough questions. Really, really hope to see this in Small Group/Devotion format. This book combined with real talk of a person’s most intimate stories could bring small groups, families, and churches so much closer together.
One criticism from my point of view. Wish he would have fleshed out the Bible Stories a little more, but I’m a geek. I really would have loved to been more involved in the stories of those characters as he relates their Plan B’s to ours.
Awesome book and a great gift for someone whom is fighting thru their Plan B. I’m praying that God rocks some people with this book and that the church can face life in a new, exciting, supportive way.
You can find out more about Plan B, here at planbbook.com
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
This is Josh Bradley and his son Dawson. Josh is one of my best friends and is starting a brand new church in Woodruff, SC. This post has nothing to do with that, even though you should definitely check it out here at elementwoodruff.org
Josh’s son Dawson has Trisomy 18. He has a wonderfully crazy story of God’s love for Him and Josh’s family as well. I am writing this blog for people who work in Special Needs Ministry or know someone who does. I am incredibly proud of the ministry that we have at Brookwood called Special Friends and the incredible work they do for families that have special needs children.
I want to echo something that my friend Josh says all the time. “Special Needs Kids are not Second String Kids”. And as such we should spend the time to minister with excellence to them as well. And this resource that I ran across last week is geared towards helping out ministries for special needs children.
Amy Fenton Lee has started a blog called The Inclusive Church. If you know anyone who has a hand in special needs ministry, I am begging you to contact them today and point them to this resource. In the short time that it’s been available, the material has been ultra killer awesome! Seriously, it’s sort of ridiculous. I haven’t met or talked to Amy before but if you know her just let her know that there are a lot of people that are blessed by her work.
Keep it up Amy, your site rocks!
I play in our church basketball league on Thursday nights. Love basketball and love the fact that it’s a different environment to meet new people and interact without the crutch of Church Work. It’s so nice to see people interact in their natural habitat.
This past week as I’m watching a game, waiting on it to finish so I can get on the court, a collision happens and a man goes down. Nothing serious, just a little bit of a wreck on the hardwood, or in our case rubber/cement gym floor. His son is sitting a row below me. 7-9 year old boy. Frantic because his dad just took a fall. His otherwise joyful countenance is now flooded with worry. He is only concerned with His father’s safety. No-limit, passionate, relentless love for dad.
I am completely overwhelmed at this point. Dad is ok, for sure. Son is pacing on the floor now, hoping to walk with his dad outside the door and into their car and get home. This young boy’s singular focus on his dad’s well-being.
And then it hits me. Where did those passionate, focused, determined, and intense feelings of love for people go when I became an “adult”? Why have I become so tame? When the collision took place I thought to myself, “no big deal, just rub dirt on it”. This kid’s feelings would never make a manly things to do book. They are not “manly” feelings, but nonetheless lovely.
I think sometimes, in the midst of becoming an adult we lose the raw passion for loving others. I pray today that we look at ourselves and really evaluate the love that we have for others.
Hatred starts fights,
but love pulls a quilt over the bickering. Proverbs 10:12
What issues do you need to throw a quilt over today? Be a man or woman of God and choose the passions of childhood today over the adult know-how.
Time for the real crux of this formula. Remember the formula is here. Today we will talk about the R-Relationship.
Relationship to me is the most important factor in this entire equation, that we’ve talked about over the last few weeks. The depth of relationship that you have with people really increases your influence with them. It’s important to continually invest in people. When you come into a new organization, most people will give you this first piece of advice, “Build relationships, with people” and that’s true. You should continually look to build and deepen relationships with people in your organization. Insert this cliche here “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” and that pretty much sums it up. I know really corny post for such an important part but there are so many resources out there for connecting with people and building relationships.
Now this formula is not for you to manipulate people. But I hope that you begin to look at the formula and see some areas that you can improve upon.
I know that sometimes there is a fear to go out there and just search for advice. I mean honestly you don’t really even know me that well. But I want to encourage, go ask and connect with people on the interwebs… They have insight for you! Get it and digest it!
Here some places to get you started:
cmconnect.org (Children’s Ministry Community site)
psd.tutsplus.com (a few photoshop tutorials)
google.com/reader (rss feeder. if you don’t know what this is, this is where I would start)
twitter.com (make sure you signup and follow me twitter.com/jcisonline)
And here’s some sites that are my favorites from ministry world!
r04r.com (by @mattmckee)
My buddies 3amjosh.com and aaronlewis.wordpress.com
Church Crunch and all of their other sites!!
Start today and find some people to answer the many questions that you have about ministry and life and technology. Don’t be afraid. Jump in head first!
