Category Archives: Life in general

Editorials, Life in general, Missional

White Frame Church

Little White Church Building 01In the 80’s a little white frame church building used to sit on the road between Lubbock and Lamesa (long e), Texas. It was a very small building that could have seated 50 at the most. On Sunday mornings you’d probably find just a handful of congregants, all silver-haired.

The absence of change either of its size, color, or location was ironic given how the world all around was and is changing. New businesses, new people moving into the community, new political elections, and a thousand other changes in communication, medical care, and education. The world flies by the little church building at warp speed.

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Editorials, Food for Thought, Life in general

Culture Wars

Sailor Jerry tattooRemember when only sailors had tattoos?

It wasn’t that long ago that you found tattoos the sole expression of the military and social rebels. But as musicians and actors began embracing tattoo art, it became more common to see men and women turning their skin into a canvas.

Now there is a television show called Miami/LA Ink which adds to the respectability of using the body for an art display. It’s not unusual to see tattoo parlors in the mainstream of commerce.  But culture wars had to be fought to bring tattooing into common practice.

We’ve seen similar wars before.   Continue reading Culture Wars →

Editorials, Food for Thought, Life in general, sermons

Disgust

Disgust

“Sue” was a woman I used to know. Unattractive mole-like bumps grew all over her face making her very unattractive, and I wanted to look away when she talked to me.

It was not a mature reaction on my part. Visceral and primitive, yes. Mature, no.

What I was experiencing was the psychological phenomenon of disgust. Richard Beck, Abilene Christian University psychologist calls disgust a boundary psychology, originally designed to protect people from noxious foods and such.

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Editorials, Food for Thought, Life in general

Just walking around…

silhouette-of-man-walking-around-the-outside-of-the-worldThe ancient Greeks had a word that literally meant to walk around. But it meant more than that.

It was often used to talk about how one lives. In the ancient world, “walking around” was euphemistic for the places you went and the things you did. And as we all know, those places and things can be good or bad.

One of the best places I ever walked was in Paris, particularly at the Louvre.  My wife and I strolled though its long corridors looking at centuries worth of art.  We were told that one gallery was a quarter of a mile long, and I believed it because my feet hurt so badly. Continue reading Just walking around… →

Editorials, Food for Thought, Life in general

When the world hates you…

oppositionA woman in her dream wedding gown stood at the back of the church sanctuary, the Wedding March about to begin, and she told her father that she did not want to go through with the wedding.  He did not give her the answer she expected but rather said that she should not marry this man if she had reservations about it.

“What about all the people I will be disappointing,” she asked. Continue reading When the world hates you… →

Editorials, Food for Thought, Life in general, People

We’re going to Urinetown.

Urinetown 01We’re going to Urinetown this weekend. It will be the second time we’ve seen this Tony Award winning play.

The first time we saw the play was in San Francisco at the Curran Theatre. It was fun telling people about our intentions: “We’re going to see Urinetown in the City.”

“You’re in town? That’s a funny name for a Play.” Continue reading We’re going to Urinetown. →

Food for Thought, Life in general, LifeSpring, LifeSpring Church

How to Build Fourth-Level Connections, Pt. 2

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Connections 02Cities sometimes see new businesses come and go after very brief lives. In many cases, the business creators had a build-it-and-they-will-come belief, and they were surprised when, after a grand opening, crowds did not frequent their new businesses.

The failure problem can often be reduced to one thing, namely, the refusal to do the work necessary to create third and fourth level connections. Joining the Chamber of Commerce and telling friends and family, though useful, are not enough to create healthy traffic through a business, new or old.

Continue reading How to Build Fourth-Level Connections, Pt. 2 →

Church planting, Food for Thought, Life in general, LifeSpring, LifeSpring Church

How to Build Fourth-Level Connections

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3d network connectionsI’ve been thinking about the way that human beings connect with each other, particularly how to turn simple-addition connecting into multiplication. I haven’t done a scientific study, and my observations may be purely anecdotal. Nevertheless I think that there may be some warrant to the truth of these observations.

First level connections are the simple daily interactions we have which arise as a result of our usual daily activities. The checker at the local grocery store is a first level connection. I call these connections, “bump-into’s” because they are generally not intentional beyond the need to go buy some milk or new shoes or gas or to register for a course.

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Food for Thought, Life in general, LifeSpring, LifeSpring Church, theology

My name is legion.

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Image I lived in Minnesota in the 70’s when the movie, The Exorcist, made its debut on American screens. The movie terrified audiences, and some people even imagined being stalked by demons trying to capture their lives.

When I first started working on the sermon I will deliver on February 24, my mind floated to that movie and Linda Blair’s head doing a 360. I concluded long ago that the movie only trivialized the possibilities for evil in this world. And the greatest evil is not something that makes your head spin, but rather which causes you to hate everything that is noble and beautiful. Continue reading My name is legion. →