BabuLife

Happy Birthday Momma!

Today my mom celebrates her ___th Birthday!  This year is unique in that she is celebrating it on the other side of the world.  Hope you're having a great day mom!

She's one of the greatest women of God on this earth! 

Is the Church Ready for Iraq War Vets?

Man...I ran across a post from Anthony Bradley asking if the church is ready to relate to the Iraq War vet.  More than just a simple "Thanks for your service" but offering some support that the U.S. government cannot alone provide.  Here's an excerpt:

Evangelicals totally dropped the ball with Vietnam veterans a generation ago but we don't have to make the same mistake. It's asinine that Americans expect the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA), alone, to meet the re-entry needs of Iraq veterans. The government is ill-equipped to address the core needs of veterans and the church needs to man-up and lead the nation in restoring the emotional, marital, familial health, and dignity of Iraq war veterans (Matt 5-7). Missional Christians fighting against the passivity of outsourcing help and restoration to government shout, "Abdication, no more!" Veterans need what the church has to offer.

Ninety-eight percent of the nearly 3,000 US troop casualties are men. When men die so that other men can sit at home and blog, play video games, watch Sports Center, argue about N.T. Wright, and obsess over what "emerging" means, the least we can do is commit ourselves to their families and to surviving veterans.

Read more...

HT: Anthony Bradley

T-Shirt Communications

ChurchMarketingSucks.com has some new t-shirts available.  I like the one that says "THAT'S HOW WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT".  Ah yes...the phrase every leader loves to hear.  (I'm being sarcastic here). 

While it's easy to judge others for being unable to adapt to change...I periodically have to put my hand over my mouth as my tongue is tempted to blurt out these words.

I hereby give anyone the freedom to pinch me anytime I say "That's how we've always done it". 

Go buy a t-shirt from ChurchMarketingSucks.com!

Lessons Learned from Missing Church

I removed Gary from my blog roll last week and added their Ridgestone Backstage blog in it's place...but I think I may have to add him back so I don't miss stuff like this.  There are some good nuggets here that he learned from missing Church yesterday.  All you "Men Don't Go To Church" people...check out #4.  What can the church do to bring them in?

As I stated earlier, DeAnna and I for the first time in 10 years did not go to church on a Sunday morning. We got up and went to eat breakfast and did a few errands and along the way God really pointed out some things to me.

1. RSC goes on without me - I'll be honest, from a human perspective that is somewhat hard. Everyone wants to feel needed. However, the truth is it is AWESOME! RSC is NOT about me or my "style." It is about God and what He is doing in the lives of our people. They don't come because of the music, the teaching, etc. They come because God rocks and is doing some awesome things in their lives.
2. RSC has the greatest staff in the world - I have not talked to one of our staff since we left on Tuesday in regards to "church" stuff. There again that has been VERY hard for me. I kept waiting all day yesterday for a phone call with some emergency that only I could fix. The call never came because we have a awesome team that knows what they are doing, is just as sold out as I am, buys into the vision, and doesn't need me around to make it happen. That is awesome. It is good to know that if I was killed in a car wreck (not that I'm looking to die) that RSC would continue on. One of the big criticisms I get from other pastors is that RSC is built on me. People who say that don't know how awesome our team is.
3. The large majority of people DO NOT go to church - Every pastor who has ever said we don't need more churches or that their church is reaching the community just fine is simply an idiot. I got the family up this morning and took the family to eat breakfast and run some errands and every place we went to was SLAMMED. Driving through the neighborhood I saw the large majority of my neighbors home. The church parking lots were empty as well. As pastors we are in church on Sunday mornings and as a result we don't see the facts about our community. The large % of people are not in church and see no point in it. The church better wake up and accept this fact and they better do it soon.
4. Men don't go to church - Yep, this is my hobby horse and I make no apologies about it at all. I would say there were 3 men out for every one woman we saw. I heard three different men at three different times at three different places make some type of comment about the wife and kids being at church. The church has become to feminine in it's methods and practices that men look at it as something women do and the kids should do. This is a hill I am willing to die on and as such RSC will always focus on reaching men because if you reach the man, you reach the family.

Read the rest of the list...

Spidey 3 Footage

Fellow Geeks...I bring good news!

I guess on Thanksgiving Fox Network played Spiderman-2 along with some glimpses of the upcoming Spidey 3 movie.  I wouldn't know because the Chiefs were busy beating up the Broncos on Fox that evening here in Kansas City.  Venom, Sandman, Hobgoblin...that's a lot of villians to deal with in one movie.  This should be a good one.

View From the Stage: New Band Debut

This morning the new band took the stage and led worship.  They didn't skip a beat.  They OWNED the stage this morning!  Here's what the setlist was:

• Blessed Be Your Name
• Once Again
• Worthy, You are Worthy
• You Never Let Go
• How Can I Keep From Singing?

We played Chris Tomlin's "How Can I Keep..." from the See the Morning album for the first time this morning and I gotta say this has moved to my new fave spot. 

I woke up today with a sore throat and lost my voice a few times.  I was really quite bummed about it.  Sort of left me feeling a bit out of it, but I think it all worked out all right.  The people of Grace were belting it out without me.

I hope all you original band folks enjoyed your morning off.   Great job guys!

Babu

Fat Friday Weigh In

When I took my blog fast back in September, I missed out on an opportunity to join some fellow worship leaders who started a weight loss accountability-type group online.  They're all doing video weigh-ins which is much too high-tech for me.  You can check out a few of them (Bobby, Pete, Los).

A couple weeks ago I was again inspired by Rich when I saw how he's just been losing weight like crazy.  He inspired me to go for it!

In January 2004, I went to the doctor and was weighed.  I hadn't been weighed in a few years before that.  When I stepped on the scale I saw the little weight thingy go to the 200lbs marker.  I expected that.  Then I saw the nurse move the second weight thingy to the right...farther....and farther to the right. I weighed in at 266lbs.  That was the most I'd ever weighed in my life.  I knew then I had to make some changes.  I made a goal to reach 200lbs.  That year I lost 55 lbs from February - October 2004.  I weighed in at 210lbs and never reached my goal. In fact since then I've gained a few back and now weigh 223lbs.  While yes I'm thrilled I don't weigh over 250lbs, I am still in the category of "obese"...yes..."obese".  Sooo....I'm going to use this blog as an accountability partner and you all who read will be a part of it.  Here's my first weigh in:

223

Is Worship Music Girly?

Check out a great post by a buddy of mine over at "It's About the Journey".  He poses a great question a common friend of ours asked about worship music in today's world.  Is it a little too girly?

"Interesting perspective on "church worship".  Personally this guy has hit on a lot of what I feel about singing in church.

http://www.churchformen.com/leadstory.php

Excerpt: "Many of today’s most popular praise and worship songs are feminine in nature. They envision God as a lover rather than a leader. A lot of these songs would be considered homo erotic if sung by a man to another man. What would you say if a man walked up to you and spoke the words of this popular praise song:"

     I can feel your presence here with me
     Suddenly I’m lost within your beauty
    Caught up in the wonder of your touch
    Here in this moment, I surrender to your love

Read more

Revolutionary Directions

Through reading "Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out" I found Mark Driscoll's blog along with some other folks from Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  Recently Gary Shavey attendend the "You Say You Want a Revolution" Conference and posted some observations on presentations by Brian McLaren, George Barna and other emergent-type leaders. 

Have a look at his post here.

Meet Sporty & Posh

Had a little fun with my two oldest kidlets today.  Meet Sporty Spice & Posh Spice.