Mix Tape

I'm so excited about our MixTape series that starts this weekend. 5 songs that will be fun to hear our bands perform and 5 songs that will be great catalysts for teaching. Here they are:

10.21 - Life is a Highway
10.28 - It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
11.4 - Unwritten
11.18 - Jesus, Take the Wheel
11.19 - I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I'm even more excited about how many people actually took one of the invitation tapes to hand out. I know many were wondering about the whole tape thing. Many asked, "why tapes?" The whole concept behind handing out a tape was for it to be strictly an invitation tool. A tape for a series called "mixtape" seemed to make sense. The message series and dates are listed on the front and it makes an easy something to hand to someone and say, "You're invited." We put something on the tape purely as a bonus for someone who might still have a tape player and decide to listen. Unfortunately many of the tapes went out without anything because they were defective. The tool still works though just to pass out.

In case you were someone who got one without something, here is the audio from it. The best way to describe the audio is basically the conversation you would capture if you recorded us and we didn't know it.

If you didn't get one of the tapes or if you want another to pass out, we still have more! They're good until the end of the series.

Staff Retreat '07

Got back today from an incredible staff retreat. We typically get away for 2-3 days a year just to be together as a team and focus on leadership stuff. Most of these retreats have consisted extensively of long range planning. Coming on the heels of the 4c/Puzzled stuff we decided instead to focus on growth for our team. Great discussions...great teaching on utilizing strengths from Marcus Buckingham...and lots of laughter. Here's my highlighrts:

• Relentless harassment of Bobby's sweater vest he wore on Sunday.

• When Bobby ordered blackberry Tea, again we harassed him but the moment was sweetened when our waiter asked, "Is your name Chandler as well?" Oh man, we lost it.
• Of course, the short jokes abounded with fervor. Btw, the target of our laughter did move to each one of us. That's what I love about this staff. We know how to have fun, and no one takes it personally.
  
• Highlighting for each other the things we loved about each other and some things we each need to work on. That was not a comfortable experience, but man it was so helpful for us.
• Eating at an incredible restaurant on the lake in Syracuse, IN. Don't remember the name though.
• Worshiping together - we actually did this several times, incredible God encounters.
  

Sunday

I can't tell you how glad I did NOT run the Chicago Marathon today. It had to have been miserable for the some 35,000 participants. They even cut it short. When I watched a little of the live coverage it did make me miss the experience. 2008 maybe???

There was a photo finish for the men and a surprise for the women's finalists. You can watch both here. The women's finish reminds me to never "count your eggs until they've hatched...or something like that." Adriena Pirtea of Romania thought the women's victory was her's as she jogged down the final stretch. Not looking back, she did not realize that Berhane Adere of Ethiopia was sprinting the last 600 meters. She managed to catch up to Pirtea and cross the finish line before Pirtea even realized what was happening. What a finish.

I did get to visit Faith church's 2nd site. They launched a second site in Cedar Lake last month. It was a great service. They are doing a fantastic job of reaching people for Christ!

I also got to slip down into our Student Life Worship that went to 2 services today. I gotta say...they know how to rock down there!!!

Good day.

Incredible group

Had our 2nd meeting with our new group. It's a great group that God has brought together. Our topic of cultivation led to a time of prayer for one couple who's son has a serious illness. I always love it when people "connect" with others in a real way. Our discussion was quite lively. It's cool to see the varied opinions and view points and yet every single one desiring to serve the same God.

Prayer

I started digging into "Prayer" by Philip Yancey last night. Actually I picked it up again after starting it but not getting very far into it. Great stuff, especially in light of our emphasis on cultivating a personal relationship with Jesus this week. Here's what he said:

"How often do I come to God not with consumer requests but simply a desire to spend time with God, to discern what God wants from me and not vice versa? Prayer that focuses on God, meditative prayer, can serve as a kind of self-forgetfulness. Some have called it a useless act because we do it not for the sake of getting something out of it, but spontaneously, as uselessly as a child at play.

Though my needs may drive me to prayer, there I come face-to-face with my greatest need: an encounter with God's own self.

Prayer that is based on relationship and not transaction may be the most freedom-enhancing way of connecting to a God whose vantage point we can never achieve and can hardly imagine (55)."

To be honest prayer has always been the hardest spiritual habit for me. I'm not talking about the kind of popcorn prayers that we say as we go through our day. Those are good. But I'm talking about an extended "conversation" with God where the focus really is on Him and not on my needs and wants. It's hard for me to quiet my soul and focus...yet it may be my greatest need.

Some things that have helped me do this have been taking a walk or even a jog...for me sitting makes it impossible but when I'm moving...even driving, it comes more naturally.

Pastoral Mystique

I am struggling here this morning with tiredness. Thought I got plenty of sleep last night but it seems something is not quite right...so I thought I would post about something that I've been thinking about while I drink a Mountain Dew. Craig Groeschel,l lead pastor of Lifechurch.tv, was taught in college that pastors should maintain what a professor called the "pastoral mystique." This is when a pastor maintains a distance from the congregation and basically doesn't have friends. He keeps a safe distance so that he will be respected and admired from a distance. Indirectly I suppose I was taught this as well. I think it is a load of baloney.

I'm a pastor because God has called me to that. That doesn't make me better than a plumber or lawyer...it just makes me have a different career. Yes, my career is more focused on "God things" but it doesn't make me better nor need to maintain some kind of distance from others. This is so completely the opposite of what Jesus did. He was with people. He had friends. He had a family who didn't even believe him...that's how real he was.

As a pastor I have always had this tension when meeting new people outside of the church. A conversation can be going great until I drop the bomb that I am a pastor. Sometimes this ends the conversation. Other times it means I have to work all the harder to build a friendship with them. Either way it plainly stinks that there is this awkwardness with people. Recently we were over at some neighbor's house and the man of the house was basically falling over himself to please me. I just wanted to tell him to relax. I just want to hang out...not be served.

I guess it is one of the things that goes with the territory, but I refuse to maintain a distance...I refuse to try to put up some facade that I should be treated differently...that I can't have friends who really know me...inside and out and still have the ability to pastor them.

Some may wish I was a little less open at times. :)

Blogging advice

I thought this advice on blogging from an Innovate Conference (Granger CC) breakout session was blogworthy. Good stuff if you have a blog or are thinking about blogging. Things I would strongly echo are:

• Be yourself - blogs where the author is always trying to "teach" you something don't hold my attention.
• Blog when you can and don't apologize when you can't.

I would add one:

• Be positive - I want to know what someone is for, not just what they are against.

And then the ultimate blogging resource: The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey
And then one I haven't read but understand to be THE book on blogging for businesses:
Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble

Whose line is it anyway?

Here's some highlights from when we did Whose Line is it anyway?: World's Worst at Suncrest, all three services.