This Sunday @ Discovery

The building is not the church. The worship service is not the church. The people, the followers of Jesus, are the church. This week, Discovery Church will be finding a variety of ways to be the church. We will not have a weekly worship service, but the church will still be meeting. What will the church be doing? They will be: loving family in towns far, far away; serving other churches; loving their neighbors (in completely legal & moral ways). So don't come to the movie theater on Sunday expecting church. The church won't be there this week (unless they happen to show up with a friend for a flick).

News of the Strange & Stupid

Criminals tend to be disproportionately stupid. Not just silly or ignorant, but stupid. However cops can be tricky too. Take this story from coming out of Chicago. Here's a hint for future criminals: if you have a warrant for your arrest outstanding, do not go to a free giveaway.

Quote of the Day

"When God chooses man, He invests him with full responsibility for total obedience to an absolute demand." -- Paul S. Minear, Eyes of Faith

Quote of the Day

"A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away." -- Anonymous

This Sunday @ Discovery

Very excited about this Sunday at Discovery. It will be the last Sunday of the year as we take a break and encourage the church to reach out and be creative about being community for a week. We're wrapping up our Christmas series, "Christmas Classics." We'll watch a clip from one of my favorite childhood Christmas movies (hint: stars My Cousin Vinny). Also, the band might have something special for us. Check it out Sunday @ 9:30 AM (free Starbucks @ 9) at Kerasotes Stadium 16 (yes, the movie theater).

Overcoming the "Religious" Mindset

While reading today, I came across this quote:

"While in the Western spiritual tradition we have tended to see the "religious" as one category of life among many (we even call nuns and monks the "religious"), the Hebrew mind has no such distinction about a purely "religious" existence but is concerned with all of life...All of life is sacred when it is placed in relationship to the living God." -- Frost & Hirsch, Shaping of Things to Come

It rocked me. Why do we try to compartmentalize our lives and keep God in the "religious" quadrant? If He truly is God (and that perhaps is the primary question of life), then doesn't He deserve so much more than our Sunday morning box? If He truly is the author and sustainer of all, doesn't He deserve our everything?

I know for me that this is not always easy. I like boxes. It is easy to pull down the Bob's box or the debate box or the Discovery box or the family box. Boxes are okay...if there is a place for God in each box. How am I allowing God to work and move in and through me at Bob's? In the speech & debate community? At Discovery?

What about you? Do you have boxes? Do you have God in the boxes or is He simply on the shelf of your life, waiting on you to acknowledge His presence, His existence?

Quote of the Day

"In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend." -- Solon

One of the Best 5 Minutes of My Day

Saw this early this morning and it was one of the best 5 minute blocks of my day.

Check it out: http://vimeo.com/2535351. Trust me it's worth it.

Quote of the Day

"A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution." -- J. Oswald Sanders

Matthew 11:12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."

Today's Big Plans

More HR. Making all the Group Ex instructors as official Bob's Gym employees sure does add to my workload. It'll be great for the gym though.

Also today, lunch with Jeremy to begin thinking about music for the worship services in January ("Chasing the Lion").

Irony (Definition of)

Sitting on the couch eating pizza from Papa John's while watching "The Biggest Loser" finale. That's my life.

The Reason for...

This past weekend, Perry Noble laid down a line that shook me. Here's what he said:

"Jesus is not the reason for the season;

He's the reason for life!"

Wow... Nothing new, but if it became a part of your life it would change everything.

Quote of the Day

"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Housing Update

As you probably have heard once or twice, Kitten and I (and the girls) are in the midst of rehabbing a house. Another productive weekend and we might be done. Here's what's left that we need to do:

• Master Bedroom: get carpeting down, paint closet doors, replace door & hardware
• Dining Room: last coat of paint in closet, replace electrical outlets, replace light switches
• Kitchen: install microwave, install cabinet above microwave
• Laundry Room: rebuild closet, paint ceiling
• Living Room: paint ceiling; replace ceiling fan; replace electrical outlets; prime walls; paint walls; replace window
• Study/Spare Bedroom: another coat on flooring; prime walls; paint walls; replace electrical outlets
• Alyssa's Bedroom: another coat on flooring; prime walls; paint walls; replace electrical outlets; paint doors; rehang doors; replace ceiling fan
• Morgan's Bedroom: paint trim; replace ceiling fan
• Bathroom: replace electrical outlet; rehang mirror; replace light

So...do you want to help with any of this?

Being Amazing

Had a great conversation with Billy Chia last night. As we were talking, we were discussing the value of sometimes doing less. I loved some of the stuff that came from that discussion. It came at the perfect time as we discuss a change in our ministry structure at Discovery.

At Discovery, we're going to stop doing a high school/middle school ministry. Why? For several smaller reasons and one big reason. The big reason is simply this. What we're doing now is not amazing. Bob Franquiz, my church-planting coach, dropped this nugget from his church in our last session: "It doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to be amazing." As I evaluated our HS/MS ministry, we were falling short and did not have the resources or energy to get there yet. Someday in the future, we'll re-launch that part of our ministry and it will be amazing.

With all this perculating in my mind, like a fine cup of Pike's Place Roast, I stumbled across a neat article comparing a simpler model for church to Outback Steakhouse. Anything that has to do with Outback can't be all bad.

What's your thoughts? Anything in your life that needs to be eliminated?

Today's Big Plans....

Today shall be officially called "HR Day" for me. Bob's Gym is making some structural changes in the new year that have had a significant impact on my work today. Lots of new employee info to get into our system. Also, we have a new employee starting out on the Westside (Bestside) today.

By the way, Bob's new website went live yesterday. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Christmas Classics

Today we continued our "Christmas Classics" series at Discovery. We watched a clip from "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas." We talked about what Christmas is not about and what it is about. Here's the brief synopsis:

Christmas is not about gifts; it is about generosity.

Christmas is not about parties; it is about community.

Christmas is not about the "big guy;" it is about the "little guy."

What is about (or not about) for you and yours?

Fred Thompson on Economy

When I was in college, I worked for Sen. Fred Thompson's (R-TN) office. I just wish that he had wanted to run for President while he was running for President.

Great & Unexpected Acts

"If I were in your shoes, I’d go straight to God,I’d throw myself on the mercy of God. After all, he’s famous for great and unexpected acts;there’s no end to his surprises. He gives rain, for instance, across the wide earth,sends water to irrigate the fields. He raises up the down-and-out,gives firm footing to those sinking in grief." (Job 5:8-11, MSG)

I love it when God does His "great and unexpected acts" in front of me. Some of the surprises I have witnessed in the past year include:

• the launch and growth of Discovery Church
• financing for Discovery Church
• a co-worker having a life-changing experience
• my girls' beautiful smiles lighting up rooms
• providing a house for us in the particular sub-division we wanted to live in
• providing an awesome job that helps pay the bills while Discovery grows

What about you? Where do you see God showing up and showing off?

Quote of the Day

“Fix the problem, not the blame.” -- Japanese proverb

Experiencing Grace

We spent the month of November talking about money issues at Discovery. This was a big concern for me because we created Discovery for those who do not like church. One of my assumptions (accurate or not) is that people who do not like church think that the church is all about money (an assumption that the televangelists of the 80s certainly did not help us with). A series on the issue so early in our church's history seemed like it would just feed this thought.

We spent a week talking about tithing as a beginning point (for more great discussion on this issue, see Vince Antonucci's recent blog posts). We spent a week talking about contentment and another about debt. I challenged our community to do Dave Ramsey's second baby step and identify their debt with the smallest balances. The next week we would collect the totals of our community and get a pulse for how huge the problem was. The answer was shocking: over $130,000.

The last week of the series we discussed thankfulness. We asked people to put the information about their smallest balanced debt on slips of paper found in "the world's smallest church programs" (our bulletins). We spoke about grace, how God meets you when you do not expect it. I then announced that we were giving away our offering that morning, 20% to church planting and missions and the rest would be given to four individuals. We were able to pay off the debt of two individuals and pay $400 on two other bills. I believe that this experience is one of the defining moments in the first few months of Discovery Church. Such an awesome experience.

What are you doing to allow people to experience grace?