I’m heading out to grab lunch and then on to the Lincoln Theater for our All Church Celebration. If you’re an NCCer, you really should come out. For those of you who aren’t, for the first time since National Community Church went multi-site, we’re having a unified worship service for people at all of our locations.
I’ve been helping to coordinate logistics, and I’m super-excited about it. If you have a minute, would you say a prayer for the service. My desire is that more than anything, God would be glorified. I would much appreciate it if you could also pray for me. I’m feeling a bit under the weather, and after a long night tonight, I have to come home and pack for a mini-conference/roundtable/seminar that I’m going to in Dallas. It’s a great week, but it wasn’t a great week to get sick.
Anyway, hope to see you all tonight!
Yesterday I found these two beautiful photos of a Christmas tree in Bejing. I know what you’re thinking, “Christmas in China?” According to the description that was provided along with the photo, “Christmas continues to gain popularity in Chinese consumer culture year on year.” Regardless, these are beautiful photos, and I love Christmas, so here you go.
I guess I should begin at the beginning.
On Sunday I finished up my time as a Protege at National Community Church. It was a year of ups and downs for me personally, but I learned a ton. If you’re looking for some good ministry experience, good people, and a good city, you should check it out and I’d be happy to talk with you more about it. I especially recommend Team D (a.k.a. the Discipleship Department, a.k.a. people who work on small groups).
On Monday I launched a new website, but more on that later.
On Monday night Rachel and I walked by a house that she had seen for sale online. The man selling it happened to be sitting on his front steps, so we asked him if we could take a look around. It was a great deal, and we decided to see if we could buy it, so I spent the next two and a half days applying for loans, running numbers, etc.
On Wednesday night I won $40 playing poker.
On Thursday morning I was working on getting pre-approval letters. Around 11:40 I checked the house listing again, and they had received multiple offers and weren’t accepting any more.
Whew…
I’m frazzled. I think I’m busier this week than I was when I was working at NCC. Ah well, back to work on the website.
Altar calls aren’t something we’ve done very much in recent years here at NCC, but they’ve been happening a lot more recently. We’re in a place where we’ve been challenging people to make a decision to put Jesus in charge of their lives. Over the coming days I’ll be going through the Gospels looking for stories of those who decide to follow Jesus. I’m excited to read the stories of those early believers.
As Mark, our senior pastor, put it, we want to help people to start a journey, not just raise a hand during a service and go on with business as usual. We are commanded to make disciples, not “get converts.” Disciple implies relationship and committment. There is a conversion experience, but we are called to a journey of faith with Christ and fellow believers, not just a one time intellectual act.
Today was a busy day. We had to pack up all of the stuff for Easter Eggstravaganza tomorrow, as well as prepare for the Good Friday services tonight. I’m not sure exactly how they got the time off of work, but we had a few great guys helping us out. If it weren’t for them I’d probably still be at the office, and by “at the office” I mean “loading a truck.” We’re blessed to have such great people at National Community Church.
From the Washington Chronicler:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the economy in decline, an unlikely trend is emerging. Jury candidates nationwide are actually seeking to become jurors. Attorneys and judges report that prospective jurors are giving all the “right” answers to the lawyers’ questions.
Payments to jurors differ by region, but the average daily stipend is $30 plus travel expenses. Shawna Patterson, a potential juror, was delighted at the prospect of jury duty. Out of work for six months, Ms. Patterson, 37, said that “Some work is better than no work at all. The pay may not be good, but at least it’s something to do during the day.”
Still, not all jurors are so pleased. One juror, a well-paid doctor who preferred not to be identified, bemoaned the loss of nearly $5000 in billing as a result of jury duty.
While it may not be for everyone, some are finding meaning and a bit of income in a task approached with dread in previous years.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I made that last article up, a bit of recession humor. I also made up “The Washington Chronicler.” I got the idea from the back of Dave Barry’s “Dave Barry Slept Here,” a parody of American history, specifically the quote “the Sixth Amendment states that if you are accused of a crime, you have the right to a trial before a jury of people too stupid to get out of jury duty.”
Perhaps the most ironic part of this all is that I came up with the idea for this post on Saturday night. Later that night, Rachel got the mail and brought me my first jury duty summons.
It may be March 2, but it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Here’s some snow covered holly from my walk this afternoon.
What are you grateful for? If you spend some time at National Community Church, you’re likely to hear Mark Batterson talk about a gratitude journal. The idea is that each day you write down something that you are grateful for. In Mark’s words:
Keep a gratitude journal this week. Find something everyday to be grateful for. It’s a spiritual discipline. Psalm 103:2 says, “Praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits.”
In the words of the hymn:
Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done.
Your focus will determine your reality!
I’ve decided to start keeping a gratitude journal on Twitter using the hashtag #gratitude. After searching, it looks like some others have already put the hashtag it to good use, and you should join in too!
I’m aiming for three things a day. I feel like that will force me to think about it more than just one thing would. Today I’m grateful for free museums with places to sit and read, for the wonderful night I had last night, and for my day off.
What are you grateful for?
In case you’re not already aware, Lent begins today. Lent is a solemn season of fasting (abstaining from something, traditionally food) that is modeled after Jesus’ 40 day fast in the wilderness.
Lent is practiced in many churches and often looks different for different traditions, but the idea of giving up something in order to spend more time seeking God is fairly common.
I think that it can be especially beneficial to give up something that is or has the potential of becoming an idol to you. An idol is anything that takes the place of God as first in your life.
A while back I gave up working on a web project because it was consuming me. It consumed my time, my thoughts, so I stepped back from it for a week.
For Lent this year I am giving up seeking out new Twitter followers. I’ve been on a quest for the past few months to gain followers, and while I have been able to use this expanded reach for some good purposes, it does have the potential to become all about self-promotion and my ego, about self-worship.
For the sake of honesty, I should mention that there are a few ways that I work on gaining followers, and one of them in particular is what I plan to quit. Not sure about the others yet.
Are you fasting anything up for Lent? Why are you giving it up?
One of the most important things to do when you set goals is to define points at which you look back and reflect on your accomplishment of/progress made on the goals. For my New Year’s resolutions, my first such evaluation point was set for one month. (Yes, yes, I’m a couple weeks late). So, how am I doing so far?
Spiritual Goals
- Pray/Read through Morning Prayer service every morning during January.
Other than one day when I was traveling and had forgotten to print off the service the day before, I accomplished this goal.
- Fasting once/month (through March) plus once for Leadership Retreat.
So far so good
- Scripture Memorization
No progress made.
- Reading through Bible with Rachel
No progress made.
- Reading through New Testament
Progress is slow but being made.
- Intentionality with accountability partner.
Trying, but still working on it.
Physical Goals
- Eat Reasonably
Little Progress
- Run 2x per week
I’ve been running 3 or 4 times this year.
Intellectual Goals
- Book Reading
Little progress made, some books changed out for others
Relational Goals
- Rachel
I have been more intentional about our relationship, and I think it has made a difference.
- Others
I’ve been busy, and some relationships have been put on the back burner. I need to work on these a lot in the coming months. I wouldn’t say I’ve failed at most of these, just that I need to put some extra effort in to them.
Stop Doing
- Limit TV to 15 hours/week
While I was failing at this initially, I’ve been so busy in recent weeks that I haven’t had time to watch more than 15 hours of TV per week.
Why did I write all of this? You probably don’t need to read it, but you probably do need to take a look at the goals you’ve set and your progress. If you don’t have any goals, you should probably think about setting some. You accomplish more when you’re working for something.
How do I feel about my progress? Well, pretty good actually. While I certainly haven’t nailed everything, I feel that I’ve made good progress on the goals that are most important to me (the spiritual and marital ones).
What are your goals, and how are you doing?
