11 months and discipline?

So I realized last week that I am extremely busy, but not always disciplined in my busyness and created a schedule to help me (hopefully) become a little more disciplined in my lifestyle.  Within my schedule I tried to alot 15 minutes a day (a couple days a week) for posting on social media accounts and blogging.  15 minutes is not a lot and many people might struggle to keep their time at that amount.  I could lurk on social media all day (which I am trying not to do), but I am going to try to discipline myself to devote some time to actually posting things.  Which means here is my goal and priorities:

1. Facebook: I use it for ministry purposes because so many awesome FBC Georgetown students are on it. I need to maintain a more active presence on it and am going to try to do be active by doing more than just posting events.

2. Twitter: I am great at lurking there because I follow so many great men and women.  You should get a twitter just to get Christian encouragement from people like Alvin Reid and Ed Stetzer.  Twitter is awesome for finding links to relevant blogs as well.

3. Google +: I have an account, but am not there often, but need to use it a little more just to see what is going on with it. Anybody have any useful feedback on it? Is it necessary to use at this point?

4. WordPress: This is where I need to learn to post things that are longer than twitter, but personal like facebook.  I want to also use my blog to practice writing.  You are welcome to follow me.  Hopefully I will make the time to post here a little more often–meaning I will learn my password, remember that it is wordpress and not blogspot (like I just tried), and post more often than 11 months (maybe every 11 days this time)?  Don’t expect something great on here, remember I am trying to do it in under 15 minutes. 

 

How do you manage your social media time and what is your goal?  Mine has been to grow in the gospel of Christ (hence following great guys who tweet a lot about the greatest story ever told: ( http://viewthestory.com/4133), but over the next few months I hope to contribute by using social media. Let’s see how much it happens. You can probably help it happen more often by telling me how you use your social media time and how you track it.

The Story

The Story

Check this awesome story out!

Church on Saturday night?

So, Lilli and I went to Summit church on Saturday afternoon for a 4:15 service.  It felt really weird to do service on a Saturday afternoon, but we really enjoyed it.  I was going to do a lengthy blog about it, but Lilli beat me to the punch so I’m just gonna link to her blog.  Here our thoughts there: www.lillimitchell.wordpress.com

The only 2 things I would add is how much I enjoyed worshipping in a community that really seemed to enjoy it.  It was amazing to feel the voices of other believers around us.  I was also really blessed to just participate in worship.  It was refreshing.  Check it out sometime.  summitrdu.com

Can you do church online? A book review of SimChurch

This is a book review I did for Dr. Hammett for an ecclesiology seminar. Read the review and give me your thoughts about whether or not you can have an online church.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1REG-kqxWkKNjdkNWRmNGEtNGQ0NC00MmYyLTkzODktMjdmYWFmYWU3MmY0&hl=en&authkey=CMGFvMUK

From Haiti to Central Asia and Atlanta: A journey in missions

This is the longer version of what God has been teaching me about missions over the last 14 months or so.  God’s hand has been all over it, but there have been times that I have been really confused.  Here is the timeline:

November (probably) 2009: Tried to book a trip to the Caribbean region for 2010 with the student ministry, but my emails and facebook notes never made it to the leader I was trying to contact.

December 09/Jan 10: Listened to my head pastor about not going to Alaska with World Changers or going international in 2010 and decided to wait to 2011.

June 2010: Started trying to book a trip to the Caribbean region and was able to contact the leader, but we had to wait a few months for school to get started to find out if the ministry was going to fit.

April, June, August 2010: Contacted the IMB and asked about taking a team nearly anywhere, but never heard back from anyone.

September 2010: Found out about an organization going to Haiti!  Was pumped about it and it sounded great, so booked the trip, had a good info meeting on it and waited on applications. Not too worried about cholera: it would pass.

October 2010: Got 7 applications in and started planning for a great trip. It’s still a long time to the trip: cholera will pass.

Mid December: Began to have some uneasiness about Haiti, but just kept praying. Cholera will pass.

January 1-5, 2011: Huge reservations after finding out some other stuff that just didn’t seem right.  No better opportunities, think I just need more faith and cholera might pass before we go.

January 5-11, 2011: Decided I had to talk to my head pastor about my reservations.

January 11, 2011: Met with Pastor Ted and realized that we needed to go another route.  There were pretty serious security issues with the organization we were going with and a pretty large rising difference in philosophy of ministry so we canceled. Cholera really looks like it is not going anywhere.  Called Jack Powers, the best chairman of the youth committee anyone could ask for.  He shared that he had been praying for almost a month that God would show me we needed to go another route.  He didn’t know why, he just did not feel good about it.

January 12-20: Heard about two other organizations that had major issues in Haiti.  One canceled two days out from the trip and the other had to fly a private plane in to evacuate their people after 4 extra days of their team not being able to get out of the country.  A very confirming thing.

I would love to go to Haiti sometime and demonstrate the love of God and help the church there.  The time is just not now.  It was another door closed, but this time God opened a great door…

January 3-8: Was in a seminar with some great personnel who serve in Central Asia.  Developed a pretty good relationship with them pretty quickly and really developed a very deep respect for some people who are very sharp theologically and pastorally with a heart for the Lord.

January 11: bounced Central Asia off my head pastor and the team.  They wanted to explore some other options like Romania, Central America, and maybe East Asia.  They also wanted to keep the trip on spring break.

January 12-19: Kept trying other options, and trying spring break, but nothing worked out there and the trip to Central Asia in June came together great.  I realized I have close personal contacts with several people who are new in the country and just how close the philosophy of ministry lines up.  Decided to bounce Central Asia off the team.  The team is largely in favor of it and in June.

January 20: Announced to the church that we are headed to Central Asia in June.  Opening up for new team members, but with a team size of no more than 12.  Team members must be in at least 9th grade right now and should be prepared to talk/write to me about why they want to go, what they think God will teach them, and how they think God will use them.

Feb. 8th: Applications are due in the church office if you are interested in going with the team to Central Asia.  Let me know if you would like an application.

All told, I could not be more pumped about Central Asia!  God is doing some amazing stuff there as His servants serve Him faithfully.  We will get to do some neat ministry, but we will also get to encourage some faithful servants.  This will be a great trip, so prayerfully consider how you can be a part of it.  Some of you reading this need to go, others need to give, but all need to pray.  So about that Atlanta part:

The church is going to take a family mission trip to help some church plants inside the perimeter of Atlanta during July.  Keith and I chatted about it and felt like that it would be best to let that remain a family trip and let the youth take a youth trip another time.  We were looking at a week at the end of June, but it just wasn’t working.  Once we canceled Haiti, I emailed Jim Haskell the director of the Urban Atlanta Church Planting Network (www.uacp.net).

Jim said April would work great if it worked for us.  After realizing we had to go international in June, I talked to Pastor Ted about Atlanta and spring break.  All told, the student ministry (middle and high school) will be going to Atlanta over spring break to help out a couple of churches that are faithfully serving the Lord in an urban area.  Students and adults are needed for this trip.  It will be a great opportunity to see one of the great cities of America and help out some churches that are making helping to reach the hundreds of thousands of people inside Atlanta. We will do an info meeting on this trip in the next two weeks hopefully.  As soon as I get more info, I will get it out.

God is doing a lot in our student ministry and in missions.  What part will you play in these two great trips?  Will you be praying, giving, or going?  Ask God what part you need to play as our student ministry tries to partner with people who are reaching the nations by reaching a great multicultural city in the USA and in Central Asia.

Should churches do social ministry? (link works)

Here is an essay that I written arguing that healthy churches must be involved in social ministry. This was an essay I presented to Alvin Reid and JD Greear for a PhD seminar. Feel free to interact.  I think I finally have the link working:

docs.google.com/document/d/1DHfg3GeiumZAju3t9ENikjp6KbCnKM2ohcvSuFFC9nE/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLmpp9cK

Cam Newton, the NCAA, and God

So in light of the national championship game being played later tonight between Oregon and Auburn (is it possible that Oregon’s uniforms could blind Auburn and Oregon escape with a win?), I wanted to make a note about the NCAA’s recent string of actions.

 Over the last 6 months or so, the NCAA has essentially given a slap on the wrist to Michigan, North Carolina (so far), Ohio State, and Cam Newton.  What do these four have in common?  All have used some kind of “I didn’t know” defense for their violations of NCAA law.  The NCAA has been extra wimpy and allowed these four headlining programs to use a foolish excuse and has allowed “I didn’t know” to be a way better excuse than “my dog ate my homework” when it is much more likely that the dog really did eat your homework. 

 This made me do a little thinking, well quite a bit of fuming over the stupidity of the NCAA, about how people like to use the same excuse with God.  Sometimes I hear or participate in discussions about how God will judge people who “didn’t know” something.  Generally it is thought that God will act just like the NCAA and excuse sinful behavior by those who “didn’t know better.”  This is directly against the reasoning of Paul in Romans 1:18-25.  Paul argues that God’s wrath is poured out on those who reject even the limited knowledge of Him that is “plainly” evident through creation.  I don’t know might work with the NCAA, but doesn’t work with God.

Now, with the NCAA, I am a firm proponent of huge penalties for these institutions and would greatly enjoy it if all of the above were to receive stiff penalties or be rendered ineligible from postseason play.  Why?  Because I don’t like any of them. 

But with the people of the world who claim the same “I didn’t know excuse” I am in a totally different camp.  I absolutely believe that God will judge all people and that Christ is the only way for salvation and forgiveness and apart from Christ none can be saved.  (If you want further discussion on how I would support this outside Romans 1:18-25, we can chat).  This means that I am huge supporter of missions so that those who truly have not heard of Christ, might hear the Gospel and be saved.

While I am sure that Michigan, UNC, Ohio State, and Cam Newton definitely knew and just chose to break the rules, I am also sure that it is different around the world with people who have not heard the Gospel in their heart language.   Over the last week I have had conversations with several people who are taking the Gospel to people all over the world who are hearing for the first time about Christ and salvation.  What a great task they have!  But the truth is, it is not just their task, but ours as well.  We have the task of being mission minded people who pray for, give to, and go tell the peoples of the world that they might not offer an “I didn’t know excuse” that does not work with God.  When we really begin to understand Romans 1:18-25, it is really clear why Paul also claims that it is his goal to preach Christ where had not been preached before (Romans 15:20-21). 

I don’t know works with the NCAA, but not with God even if we would like it to be the other way around. 

So about that football game tonight, I’m guessing that the guy who we are all supposed to believe did not break the rules, will probably win tonight and head to the NFL and be very glad that the NCAA has a very different rulebook than God.

Blogging about having better stuff to do than blogging

I am gonna give blogging a try. This is a first for me and it may not last long. Why blogging? Not b/c I have nothing better to do, but b/c I assume that you have nothing better to do than read this. I mean, really if you have anything better to do, shouldn’t you be doing it? Like right now, well more like when you actually starting reading what I am writing a few minutes ago, or maybe just a few seconds ago if you are speed reader. Long story short, because you really do have better stuff to do, I am blogging as an exercise in writing.

I am woefully inadequate as a writer. The biggest problem I have is speed problems. I write very, very slowly, which means I should really be doing something else other than blogging nearly all the time. But, I am going to break the habit of writing incredibly slowly by learning to blog. That means that the blog will be pretty much a un-edited stream of consciousness from me, which is not very much like a stream, but much more like rivers that are running in different directions at the same time. Not so much a stream, but a rambling and wreckless adventure. My mind goes about 20 different directions before I finish most sentences, so good luck following me. Like I said, you really do have better things to do.

Well if I rambled too much longer on this first post, you probably would never wander back over to see me and you would get a lot more done in life that you actually needed to get done. And who wants to do that, that’s what the internet is for, helping you avoid the stuff that you actually should be doing. Well I’m off to eat snack, so that I don’t starve to death in my sleep or in case I suddenly go into hibernation.

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