caffeine, please.

Go to a conference, take home some axioms

Conference = Overload.  Consequently, I've learned to distill my takeaways to just a few so that I still have them a week later.  At the last Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels talked about axioms (proverbs) as powerful tools to condense and distribute values.

So with that in mind, I've condensed my takeaways from the Gospel Coalition National Conference '09 to a few axioms.  My hope is to retain the axioms even if I never look back at my notes.  What follows are my axioms and the speaker who's message I derived them from.  (For direct quotes I have, oddly enough, employed quote marks.)

People who see idols everywhere preach the Gospel well.
(Keller; this quote was the most valuable to me for ministry.)

"Son, none of this depends on you... and so take courage."
(Piper; this quote was the most personally meaningful to me)

The faithful servant leader does not fight to win. He fights for the Gospel to win.
(Driscoll)

He who always raises his voice is ignored in a real crisis.
(Driscoll)

"Misdirected love expresses itself in misdirected energies and pursuits."
(Copeland)

"You can arrange the wood but only God can send the fire."
(Copeland)

"The neurotic rooster believes the sun is comin' up because he's crowin'".
(Copeland)

"Don't let the pulpit drive you to the Word. Let the Word drive you to the pulpit."
(By way of Keller--a Dutch proverb.)

"Even an apostle must read." (2 Tim 4:13)
(Spurgeon, by way of Duncan)

A faithful Gospel-centered life will not guarantee that you don't end up all alone.
(Duncan)

The only flex in the Gospel is found in the sacrifices of the messenger's life.
(Carson)

On Good Friday

This afternoon, Gil and I came in intertwining shifts with pairs of our kids to the Good Friday prayer open house we're hosting at New Life Lakeview (noon to midnight.)  I had Jaley and Lena for the first shift.  After arriving, I went off to be alone for prayer and left them to go through the prayer stations together.  They quietly went through each station, following the instructions, praying cooperatively. 

Then they approached me asking if they could take communion with me.  What a great question to be asked by your children.  I took them aside and we talked through the basics of Passover/communion and then I led them in communion.

A short while later Gil arrived with Tyce and Olivia.  Similarly, Gil prayed alone while Tyce took Olivia through the prayer stations.  At the end they also approached me and asked to take communion with me.  The cool part of this is that Olivia just prayed to give her life to Christ last week.  So this communion was coming close on the heels of her expression of faith.  I took a similar amount of time to instruct and then led them through communion together.

A couple of things ring out to me from our Good Friday prayer time:

• Bring your children with you any time you can give them an opportunity to engage faith.
• Use the power of kid-pairs.  Kids can learn a lot by leading each other and they feel big doing it.
• Expect more.  And don't let a few wimpy protests, "dad, what are we going to do at the prayer thing?" keep you from bringing them.
• Let your children initiate spiritual steps and then instruct.  Their interest level is way higher than if their simply put through ceremonies and rites.
• Rejoice when God gives glimpses of faith in the lives of your kids.  Pray for them all the time and wait in faith for Jesus to bring them about.

Richard Florida Authors@Google

Readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of the research of Richard Florida.  His recent book, Who's Your City, is a valuable resource for people who want to understand cities.  Prof Florida was recently at Authors@Google to talk about the book.

Sidenote:  I love the concept of Authors@Google.  The premise seems to be, invite a thought-provoking author to present a thumbnail of their work to Google employees for the simple reason of adding value to the employees' lives.  Honestly, Google probably takes better care of their employees than just about any church I know of.  So I'm wondering,  how could we harness the concept of Authors@Google at New Life?  How could we bring great thinkers, writers and people of faith into our staff environment to present their best material and let it be a catalyst for growth, adding value to our staffs' lives.

Hitchens v. Hitchens

Maybe you have heard by now that famed and very popular Atheist Christopher Hitchens and his also accomplished and famous  (in England)  journalist brother Peter Hitchens debated recently.  The debate was held in my home town, Grand Rapids, and was hosted by my alma mater, Grand Valley State University at the church where my cousin recently married.  (Not sure why that matters, but there it is.)

I thought about posting the debates here, but it seems unnecessary.  There are 14 videos on YouTube  (where else)  that broadcast the debate in its entirety.  The dialog is fascinating and both men have an incredible grasp of history.  Personally, I found Peter more thoughtful and honest and Christopher more smug, more at home in front of a crowd, quicker on the draw and quite a bit wittier.    (What must family gatherings be like at their house?)

In video 8, Chris Hitchens puts forward his "two challenges" to what he calls "believers in the Divine dictatorship"--anyone who believes in God.  His challenges are these:

Video clip from Sunday

Thank you to ThinkChristian.net for posting this clip to their blog.  It was valuable to be able to use it on Sunday in my message during both celebrations at Lakeview.

Podcast note

Just a quick note for podcast subscribers.  We've had some issues with the podcast feed lately and it may have given you the impression it's no longer being maintained.  That's not the case.  Tim Dearborn, our ace web dbase programmer worked out some bugs with the feed and the podcast is up and running again as of about a week ago.  Just an FYI...

Two good articles from FC

I'm a big fan of Fast Company magazine.  I tend to find instigating ideas from its pages--ideas that can be translated into the church realm.

So with no further ado...

Make Goals, Not Resolutions
Is the Tipping Point Toast?