Here Am I, Send Me

The family and I have some big news about our future. About two years ago, LaRissa and I began praying about how God wanted to use us, seeking his direction for our future and our ministry. We first began to sense God telling us to get ready because he was going to call us to something different than anything we had been involved in to this point. So we continued praying, seeking to align our hearts with God's heart, and ready ourselves for whatever God was calling us to.

As we continued to pray, we began exploring some opportunities and looking at different possibilities for our ministry service, but none of the possibilities seemed to be quite right. Some doors closed and some opened that didn't seem to be the right decision. So, we just continued to seek God and allow ourselves to be molded and shaped into the people he wanted us to be.

In our prayers, we came to a point of complete surrender to God. We told God that we were available to be used by him whenever, wherever, however, and whatever, and that we would just wait for him to make known to us what he wanted us to do. We affirmed to God that the minute he did make that known to us that we would answer yes to him.

Well, about eight months ago, God began to clarify and confirm for us the direction that he was taking us in ministry. Finally, about six months ago, God clearly revealed to me exactly what he wanted us to do. I was in a meeting where the speaker was telling about the importance of church planting and various models for planting churches.

At that time, I felt God tap me on the shoulder and say, "That's what I want you to do." Now, God speaks to different people in different ways, and the way that God ordinarily speaks to me is through inward urgings and tugs at my heart. (I know that sounds very mystical and maybe a little vague, but that's the best way I can explain it.) But this day, God spoke to me with those specific words: "That's what I want you to do." So, I looked around to see if somebody had said something to me. Nope. So, I said, "Say what?" Really spiritual, huh? And God said again but more clearly, "I want you to go into church planting."

So, I went home that afternoon, walked through the door, and said to my awesome, beautiful, amazing wife, "I think God is calling me into church planting." Now, I've heard all the horror stories about wives' responses to a statement like that, but my wife says to me, "Yeah, I can see that." Over the next several months I began to seek wise counsel and continued to find confirmation of the call and affirmation of how God had worked in my life to prepare me for this.

To make a long story short, I am now connected with a church planting network, and will be planting a church in Anna, TX. Anna is currently the fasting growing city in north central Texas. It has experienced a 177% growth rate over the last six years. We will be planting with the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

The target kick-off Sunday for the new church is September 7, 2008. We will begin intensive work in the community in Anna in May.

We want and need you to be involved in this church planting process. First and foremost, we desperately need your prayers. This is a God-sized task, and it will not happen unless he works in amazing ways. Pray for our family. Pray for workers to help us. Pray for people in the Anna community that they would be receptive to the good news. Pray for our financial support. We also want your blessing. We also need people to actively be involved. We will be doing door-to-door surveying, block parties, community service projects, preview services, you name it. We need people to help us be the hands and feet of Jesus with us.

If you would like to learn more details about the church plant, I will be posting that information on a new blog: www.blazingthetrail.blogspot.com.

This Has Got to Be Effective!

I saw this truck in the Target parking lot this week. If you look closely, you will notice that one of the figurines glued to the top of the truck is the Grim Reaper holding a baby in his hands.


Also, take a look at the face of the guy walking by the truck in the background of the second picture. And, the red Target cart is reflected in the puddle under the truck, which makes it look like the truck is bleeding.

I affectionately refer to this as the Catholic Anti-abortionmobile.

I cannot recommend highly enough Mark Batterson's book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. The premise of the book is basically that some of the biggest obstacles in our lives, some of the most difficult situations, are opportunities for God to work in our lives in incredible ways. It's easy to read and incredibly inspiring.

M & M Shawn

My girls and I m&menized myself. Click here to check it out.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

In 1897, Francis P. Church wrote the following editorial as a response to an eight-year-old little girl's question. It has since become the most reproduced editorial in newspaper history and is a Christmas classic. It is also a stunning commentary on the modern era.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH
STREET.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All
minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.
He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry,
no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in
fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may
tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture
the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times
ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

A Suggestion for Those Wanting to "Go Green"

"Going green" is a really hot buzz topic right now. I don't know why, but for some reason I got to thinking last night about one of the ways that some of my old, widowed, great aunts and great-great aunts conserved energy when I was a kid.

Now, understand, they did this not out of a sense of responsibility for the environment, but because they were on a fixed income and needed to save money. Also, understand that I grew up in rural Arkansas, which is a little bit different (note the vast understatement) than the rest of America.

Several of my aunts conserved energy by living in two rooms of their house. They had their kitchen, which they did not heat, and their bedroom/living area. This was the only room that the heated. And they never used air conditioning. When you went to visit them, they had a little sitting area, but in the background was their bed. They usually heated the room with a little gas heater.

Maybe we could conserve energy by following their lead in our homes and using less space.

Oh, well, that's what was on my mind this morning.

Been a Long Time Since They Rock and Rolled

Led Zeppelin, some would argue the greatest rock and roll band of all time, reunited for the first time in over twenty years last night at a benefit concert in London. Does this mean more from the band? We can only hope so.

For the Love of Cornhole

Cornhole is a game that my family and I have enjoyed over the last seven years. It is decently popular in North Texas.

Here is a tribute to that great sport: http://www.rhettandlink.com/videos/the-cornhole-song

Virtual Church

Earlier this year LifeChurch.tv, a leader in the multi-site church movement, launched a virtual campus and worship experience called Experience Island online at Second Life. Users can explore the campus, participate in a worship service, and connect to XXX Church for help with pornography addiction through their online avatars.

Any thoughts on virtual church?

Is It Just Me?

Or are these the same bands, twenty years apart?

Righteous Indignation (Or Something Like That)

Wow! That's how you go after somebody!

How many pastors wish they could have a meltdown like that?!

Gotta Love It!

Stupid Arguments

I don't know why, but the level of arguing at my house seems to have increased over the summer. Maybe it's just that I'm around the kids more during the summer, so I notice more. Or maybe it's just that they have been hanging out with each other 24/7 for the last three months, and that is really getting old.

Whatever the reasons, there are time right now that I feel like my brains are going to ooze out my ears. What is really frustrating is the subjects that they argue over and the content of their arguments. They currently argue over stuff that does not matter one bit. Who cares whether one soda is better than another or if we went to the amusement park last week or the week before or if we watched this movie or that movie last night, or a hundred other arguments that really don't matter? The kids fight over stuff that, even if you win the argument, you really haven't won anything.

The second thing that is frustrating is the content of their arguments. They each state their position, and then, the argument generally goes something like "Nuh-uh!" "Uh-huh!" "Nuh-uh!" "Uh-huh!" ad infinitum. There is absolutely no hope of the discussion getting anywhere. The only choice for them is to get louder stating their point, whether it be "Nuh-uh!" or "Uh-huh!"

I am really frustrated with the Southern Baptist Convention right now for the same things happening. There are arguments going on right now about things that do not matter and for which there does not appear to be a willingness, from at least some, to have any kind of meaningful conversation. There are arguments right now over the use of alcohol, private prayer languages, expository vs. topical preaching. And the arguments so often degenerate into "Nuh-uh!/Uh-huh!" kinds of arguments.

What I want to say about each of these subjects is "WHO CARES?" They are meaningless arguments that don't matter at all when it comes to the task we have been given as a church. When will we start focusing more on fulfilling the Great Commission and less on who's in control and who's right or wrong over arguments that don't matter?

The Conservative Resurgence is over. We "won." We all believe the Bible. We all accept it as the inerrant, infallible, inspired word of God. Now, the question is, do we accept it as the all-sufficient guide for everything we do and do we accept its authority to govern our actions? If we do, then there is certainly plenty of room in our Southern Baptist family for differences of opinion. But those differences do not need to become dividing lines. Just like in a family, you have to accept that we won't agree on everything, and that's okay. Let's stop fighting over stupid arguments and get on with the work of reaching the world for Christ.

It's Been a While

Wow! It has really been a long time since I posted anything. We have just been having really awesome time with the kids this summer. The first and second weeks of June, we went on a family vacation with my parents and my brother and had an awesome time.

We went to the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, the Sequoia National Forest, Disneyland, Hollywood, the Discovery Science Center, and Big Bear Lake. All in all we saw some incredible things that God created.

The Giant Sequoias were amazing, and pictures just don't do them justice. It is humbling to stand at the base of something so big and realize some of those trees were over a thousand years old when Jesus walked the earth.

Here are a few pics from the trip.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Momma and Daddy at the Grand Canyon

Me, Momma, and My Little Bro'

Wow, She's Hot!

What a Ham!

The General Sherman Sequoia, the Largest Living Thing on Earth

The Kids sitting on a branch that has fallen off the General Sherman

Last Tuesday (May 22), LaRissa and I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anninversary. We went to Frisco and had some incredible Italian food and heard some cool jazz music at Terilli's. We then went over to the World Market and checked out some cool stuff for the kitchen.

In fourteen years, I have grown to love my wife more and more. Here's a list of just a few of the things I love so much about her. She's smokin' hot. How did a guy like me get so lucky? She thinks I'm smokin' hot. (How crazy is that?) She loves music, writes music, plays music, and really connects with God through music. She is an awesome mom (count them, four times giving birth). She likes hangin' out with me in the kitchen. She likes hiking and the outdoors. She challenges me to try new stuff like learning to dance. She's totally out of it by 10 o'clock at night. She's really smart and is an awesome 1st grade teacher. I love that she didn't know how to grate cheese, boil water, or knead dough when we first got married. I love that she hates football but watches it anyway and continues to try to understand it because I love it so much. I love that she tries to get home early every day to spend more time with our family. I love that she has this awesomely beautiful auburn hair that is so hard to define and that changes depending on the light and that every other woman wants. I love that she likes guy movies and thinks The Notebook is a stupid movie because it is such a poor imitation of what real love is. I love it that she loves me more than any human being ever has, through thick and thin, good and bad, in my worst times and in my best times. I love her because she knows me through and through, is my best friend in the world, and is the person I would most like to be with all the time. And, I love her because she fiercely loves Jesus Christ and challenges me daily to love him as well.