Life Long Learner

Thoughts from a Neo-church planter

2005-11-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

These are some of the things I am thinking...

• Change is inevitable
• If people want to go to church…they will.
• There are churches for church minded insiders to go to.
• There are churches that think about and adjust their practices to reach out to the outsiders. (I want to be a part of this church)
• Since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, would it not stand to reason that from time to time things need o be “shaken” a little?
• God does not need us to defend Him, but to live in a way that we walk and move in Him. Thus, evangelism is no longer door knocking and beating people up with canned manipulative scripts rather it is loving people enough and believing God is big enough to save them through what we might find as very ordinary acts of kindness including listening to them, respecting them, loving them as they are not as they should be. RELATIONSHIP with no conditions – even if they choose not to follow Christ!
• Some people might respond to guilt, coercion, even reason, but most will respond to loving kindness in the form of respect.
• A worship service should be to allow us to express our worship to God and find the “boost” we need to go back in the world and love people, to be the workers God sends, to listen, to love, to learn.
• Conversation in Community then Conversion. Conversion belongs to God.

Thoughts anyone?

Where have I been?

2005-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

I'm back after far too long of a hiatus from the old blog.

What have I been doing you ask??? Hurrying up and Waiting.

Hurry Up and Wait....to a recovering procrastinating perfectionist these words make sense. I see what the horizon could be bringing...I know what we need to do...I am ready for results...BUT

WE MUST GO THROUGH THE PROCESS

In working to establish a new community of faith in the form of a local church, I must consistently remind myself that it is a God enterprise and much more art than science.

Process. Struggle. Messy Faith. Failure. Rejection. Process. Change. Revolution. Unsettled.

Are these words of victory or defeat? Wrong dichotomy to compare to. They are words of process.

How do we measure "Progress" through the "Process"? Seems everyone has their own ideas about that. I am still thinking through it.

Hurry Up and Wait....Process

Be at Peace.

Keep learning...

LLL

Can you bust internal stitches?

2005-09-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Bad timing for allergies or a cold or whatever the massive amounts of nasal secretions running down my throat and through my nose making me need to cough and blow my nose the day of and in the aftermath of a hernia repair.

That has been the worst part. Coughing and nose blowing creates an amazing amount of pressure on your abdomen. I am told I am an excessive nose blower. Be that as it may, the slightest of pressure, evening laughing at an Every One Love's Raymond rerun hurt.

They told me, don't pick up anything over 5 lbs. Well, I have been able to adhere to that unless pouring a class of water or picking up the Gatorade bottle is more than 5 lbs.

Our son has been great...very gentle and very concerned that I am OK.

So I have not lifted any heavy objects, but bending, laughing, sneezing, coughing, and nose blowing have been painful. Have I damaged the repair before it had time to heal or am I just paranoid???

My surgeon is out of town for the next 3 weeks. I called his main office and the phone just rang and rang and rang and rang. I didn't even know they could still do that! So I called another office number. They said his partner would call me back since I was complaining about excessive reddness and the area around my incision being hot to the touch. Several hours later...they call back and say I should come in tomorrow.

So tomorrow in I go. I am sure he will say it is nothing and go on. My worst fear though is that through my own excessive nose blowing and coughing/gagging on the darn nasal allergy secretions that I might have caused my own trama. Let's hope that the string used to sow my internal hernia was stronger than that!

Belly Button Surgery

2005-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well...tomorrow I am having an umbilical hernia repaired.

The surgeon shared that he would "carve" a permenant "smiley" :) face under my navel...aka belly button.

I don't mind the surgery...it is the not being about to lift anything for over a month that bothers me! I should be happy about not "getting" to mow the yard, yet it is the fact that I will now have to pay to have a yard service do it. Such is life!

We have tried to explain to our four year old son that daddy will not be able to "pick" him up and carry him, but that I could hold him if I was sitting down.

His main concern to this.... Daddy, what happens if my legs break? I am not sure how that little brain of his works, but it absolutely facinates me! I told him that if his legs should happen to "break" we would get them fixed.

Where does he come up with these things? He is very inquisitive asking so many questions. Daddy what is ___________? Daddy, why ____________? I love seeing him learn and how his brain works.

Well, time to sign off...got to get to bed so I can get my belly button fixed!

It's 3:00 AM

2005-08-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Well...here it is 3 am and our son has been plagued with the stomach virus.

Like clock work it strikes.

Too bad they don't have a vaccine against it.

Our son is 4. he is awesome. he is doing at 4 what I'm not sure I did until much later in life....HE CAN GET HIS FACE OVER THE TOILET when visited by the stomach monster.

My parents spent countless nights cleaning up after me since i would begin the trek to the bathroom down the hall rarely making it. (sorry mom and dad; and the kid I exploded on in elem school) I finally learned that if I feel it coming...I just take my pillow to the bathroom and sleep on the floor.

Well, now it is my turn to comfort, clean, disinfect, and pray that my wife and I are counted worthy to miss hosting the stomach monster.

I better sign off...time is ticking away until the next episode is scheduled to be released.

Things I am thinking about

2005-08-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a list of some things I am thinking about currently ( in no particular order)...

If people wanted to go to church...they would go to church.

Ours son has decided that IF he ever has a baby brother, he wants to name him "Buzz Lightyear".

Time is both ally and tyrant.

Life is always in motion.

Time is a non-renewable resource.

I need to make time for play.

Faith is messy.

In the words of Forrest Gump's mom, "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!"

People who don't live as a Christ follower don't live like a Christ follower. Sometimes people who do claim to be Christ followers don't act like they are. None are perfect but when Christ is an ever present reality in our lives, we can't help but live differently.

We should live lovingly, intentionally, faithfully, passionately, and engagingly.

Peace.

I'm Bored

2005-06-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

I learned from a young age never to utter within my dad's hearing, "I'm Bored!".

That meant he would find me something to do where I would no longer bear the burden of being bored. Often time the activity involved picking up rocks.

Now we lived on what I always considered the most rock producing soil God ever created. Everytime dad plowed the ground, more rocks, thus always plenty of rocks to pick up. Rocks of all shapes and sizes.

Sometimes I had quotas. One bucket, two, a waggon load.

What did we do with them you ask? Simple, we collected them and poured them into the "rock pile". When the rock pile became to large, we loaded them up and took them to the local land fill.

Imagine my surprise when my mother tells me that a young impressionable child who my sister is teaching was out at the house as a "field trip" to the "farm" found that he liked picking up rocks and ASKED TO COME BACK AND DO IT AGAIN!

My first comment to my mother was, "Rocks - what rocks? Surely by now we have collected all the rocks after 25 years of picking them up!" She roared with laughter as she said my sister said nearly the exact same thing. To which I relied, "I don't remember B picking up rocks!"

I am inclined to think that perhaps our minds as adults might "tweak" certain memories from our childhood and our parents may not be as clear on all the details as they once were.

Nonetheless, as Forest Gump said, "Sometimes there aren't enough rocks." He was not standing on the land of my upbringing. Evidently there is a whole new generation of rocks for bored and not bored youngsters to collect.!

LLL

Old Friends

2005-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

I love how God weaves stories together.

I just had lunch with a friend from Jr. High and High School. We lost touch after he graduated and did not even realize we were now in the same area.

What a joy it was to sit across a table from him and share a meal. What a joy it was to hear the story of his life since college. What a surprise it was to hear how he and I starting from the same town and church of origin have taken very different paths to end up in a similar place with very similar philosophies and patterns of thought. Both of us are interested in starting new churches and seeing people become life long Christ followers.

If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be having lunch with my friend with both of us excited about starting new churches that impact neighborhoods and cities for Christ, I would have laughed in your face.

I am sad because during some tough times I was not there for my friend due to not being in touch and our lives going in different directions. I am greatful to have been reunited with him and look forward to continuing our journey.

Do you have friend you lost touch with? Don't let miles or years keep you from touching base with your friend. A good friend is a gift. Now go make that phone call or write that email...

A Little Fellow Follows Me

2005-06-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

A careful man I ought to be,
A little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray,
For fear he'll go the selfsame way.
I cannot once escape his eyes,
what're he sees me do he tries.
Like me he says he's going to be,
The little chap who follows me.
He thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine,
The base in me he must not see,
That little chap who follows me.
I must remember as I go,
Thru summer's sun and winter's snow.
I am building for the years to be,
In that little chap who follows me.

Author ~ Claude Wisdom White from Texas --- contributed by Nancy Minegar

Relatability

2005-05-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

As I have done with Cheers, Seinfeld, and Friends - last night (now a few weeks ago) was momentous by watching the final episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond".

Not an early fan of the show, I was eventually drawn in by the dysfunctional "family" humor. I have given pause to why the show was so successful. RELATABILITY

Ray Romano said it himself in the shows view of the past years. There is something we like about the characters. Perhaps we see ourselves, our friends, our families in one of the characters or situations. Perhaps we wish our families were more or less like them. We relate with the topics, characters, issues, etc...

Although we relate to them, they are still in essence what I call reality fiction. It could happen and most likely is based from a writers experience. (Don't you know the writers' families love seeing their private events acted out on TV!?!?!?!?)

The same might be said for ABC's hit, "Desperate Housewives". Steven Culp appears as Rex Van De Camp said, ""It's very entertaining, and it moves fast," he says. "Beyond that, there are things about the characters that people recognize, and that resonate in their own lives."

It resonates. Think on that one.

My desire is for people to resonate with REAL people and REAL situations. My desire is that the church be the community where people resonate with one another. Why look to realistic fiction when we can meet together for encouragement, hope, and love in the reality of life??

Christ came that we might be able to embrace life fully with no holds barred. As a Christ follower, my problems have not disappeared....but they become bearable because I know that I am never alone. Christ is always with me. Other Christ followers surround me, and we share in one anothers joys and sorrows. We RELATE to and with one another.

A new community of faith in Frisco

2005-05-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our story begins in the hearts of a couple who desire to be a part of a church valuing:

Relationships over Religion
People over Programs
Excellence over Mediocrity
Teamwork over Individualism
Pioneering Spirit over Trampled Traditions that have "always been that way" (ABTW)
Community over Isolation

I have spent over half of his my life following God's call to lead Christ followers in the local church. For years I assumed that would be in an established church where I could put to use the formal and informal training I received from churches and schools.
That was not the case. When I was diagnosed with testicular cancer in November 1996, I gained a new outlook on life and for the first time my faith in Christ and claim of being a Christ follower became real to me. In desperation, fear, anger, and somewhat hope, I cried out to God saying, "If you are who you say you are...If you are who I have been taught you are...If you are who I have always believed you are...then I need to know you and experience you in my life in a way I never have!"

God heard my cry for mercy and gave His grace to me in a very dark hour. Not only did He answer my cries but invested His peace and confidence in me. I am now in complete remission and am a father to a wonderful son.

Now post cancer, I gained a greater understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower. It means surrendering my life to Christ in all situations - both good and bad. I believe I started life fresh and hope that I am now a better husband, father, son, friend, and person because of it.

What does that have to do with beginning a new church? Although I had been a Christ follower since age 11, the cancer experience made me embrace life in a new way. I went to work for the first time outside of a sheltered Christian environment into the bowels of what some call Corporate America. I worked as a telephone customer service representative. Not the most glamorous of jobs. I was able to advance with the company working full time while attending seminary part time. I saw that there are hurting people all over the world who have no understanding of the love of Christ and might never attend a formal church service, yet they would come to me with hurts, issues, concerns, problems. Whether they did or not, I saw myself as the pastor to the pastorless. I performed wedding ceremonies and funerals for team members. An understanding of what it means to share my life in Christ with others was becoming clear. I did not have to be "the pastor" of a church to be a pastor. What did this mean? Would I never get to follow and fulfill my dream of being the pastor of a church? Resumes were sent and posted for pastoral positions. Interested churches called but just never seemed to be the right fit for who I had become.

One day I was introduced to two men searching for the right family to start a new church in Frisco, Texas. As the description was read and shared, I felt as though my very resume, hopes, dreams, and desires were being read aloud to me. Though risky, we believed it was for us. We sold our home in Waco without listing it, purchased a home in Frisco from a wonderful family, said good bye to Waco and moved to Frisco.

So here we are. We are in Frisco building relationships with people. Some might want to join our pursuit to start Life Fellowship. I intend to continue to work in "corporate America" while building relationships, encouraging people and helping people see the joys in being a Christ follower.

Our hope. We hope to show those who have little to no interest in church that being a part of a community of Christ followers does not always look the same. Some will have no church experience, others will have abandoned the faith of their parents as too harsh or irrelevant. Wherever people might be, we hope to show them the love of Jesus Christ by wanting to hear their story, learning with and from them, and loving them. Problems never go away, but as a Christ follower they become bearable because of Christ's love for all of us.

New Beginnings

2005-05-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

Today is my grandmother's 85th birthday. She has been and continues to be a life long learner.

In her honor I begin this online publishing journey of my thoughts towards being a life long learner. In the past few years I have begun telling people I try to learn at least one new thing each day. It used to be a trite cliche; however, now 4 years of fatherhood, 9.5 years of marriage, moving to a new city to create a new work has proven to me that you can't possibly not learn at least one new thing each day.

So we begin...learning with and from one another. I welcome you to this journey called life.

In the coming days, I will be sharing more about how I started this journey and invite you to join me.