Live online stream of the U.S. Open 18 hole playoff. I’ve got dual monitors running. Sweet!

I went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie last night while on vacation in FL. It was pretty good, I give it 3/5 stars. Anyway as I was watching the movie i thought of a couple of things that really stand out about Indiana Jones that I wish I was more like.

1. He does not struggle with greed. At the end of every movie the people who have a greed issue always die but Indy is always able to alk away from the treasure.

2. He has meaningful relationships that he keeps throughout his whole life. Indy knows somebody everywhere.

3. He always is willing to help his enemies. even after he gets betrayed when the building is about to collapse he always tries to save everyone…even the enemies.

4. He has no fear (except for snakes!) His experiences in life has helped him to overcome his fear of things. But you have to appreciate that he still hates snakes.

I LOVE GOLF! I said it! I love to play the game of golf, it is one of my 2 hobbies (the other is xbox live.) I am actually pretty good at golf (which my wife says I should be as much as I play) Here is my question how come when you tell people you are playing golf you feel like you need to apologize that they aren’t. I get to play golf almost every Tuesday afternoon in a golf league with some friends of mine, and when I tell people about my great rounds I get this look like….”boy it must be nice to get to play golf like that” well….. it is! You should try it some time!

I started a new read last week called “Simple Church” You can find out more about it here

In ministry I am constantly trying to fight to stay focused on the main goal. For my church that goal is “To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ” It may sound simple, and you may think, “well isn’t that the goal of every church?” Yes, I think every church starts out with that goal but over time ministry can lead you to do so much that you don’t really do the 1 thing you started out to do. If you’re not careful a church can set up a million different ministries to scratch everyones itch and at the end of the day your not sure if you have accomplished anything.

So I am always trying to stay focused and books like this help. I would recommend it for anyone out there.

After many meals with this guy. I have changed the way I get my meat cooked. It’s medium rare for me BABY! I took a picture of a great one today for Mother’s Day.

What kind of guy is vain enough to give away an mp3 of himself…..well me I guess. I wanted to give away a message that I preached last night at our church (May 7th, 2008) I don’t do this alot, but I feel like this is a question we all must deal with at some point in our lives.

Click here to download:
Do I Really Believe that God Orders My Steps?

*Disclaimer* It’s a little longer than normal. Give yourself about 50 minutes

I have been reading the story of David during my devotions this week. It’s one of those stories I’ve heard a million times but it really comes to life when I re read it and catch all the stuff that had to be left out for the 25 minutes sunday school lesson. This hit me in the gut this morning:

7 As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”
8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

I am a self proclaimed control freak, I didn’t realize it until about a year ago. It’s not in every area but in a few areas I keep a strangle hold. Worship, graphics and media, meetings, etc. I think all great leaders deal with the struggle of releasing control and power, but there is this sick side in all of us that we don’t want to talk about that loves to be wanted and needed. If we truly worked ourselves out of jobs we would be miserable because we wouldn’t be needed anymore. What does it say about Jesus self esteem and security that the most effective ministry was done after he was gone?
Now in full context of the story we know that God had already decided to remove Saul from power, but imagine he hadn’t. What if Saul could have harnessed David skills and success and built a team around him to set up the greatest kingdom ever. What if Saul could have gone to bed every night knowing he was leader, but every one else in town thought David was the man.

About 5 years ago in a service I was in I was praying in the altars about ministry and God asked me a questions as clear as any voice I have heard. he asked, “If this ministry grows to be huge and you never get to step onto the stage, would you still do it?” I wish I could have given a clear yes that night, but I couldn’t. It is a daily struggle for me to empower others to do better than myself. But every day (or so) I am seeing growth.

What about you? Can you handle other people getting the praise from the people? Can you handle having people better than you speak in your pulpit, and sing your songs?

I have been out of town in Atlanta spending some time with the guys in my family. We get together every year around this time and play golf together. It was a blast. Here are some pics from the trip. Good to be back!

My wife Andrea is out of town this week for spring break visiting her parents, and while she is gone I have fallen into temptation and have been watching something that Andrea does not let me watch….the “TBN Praise- a Thon” She will not let me watch these things because I get so angry at the misrepresentation of the Bible for fund raising purposes, finally one night she said I was not allowed to watch them anymore. This is not the forum for my stances on prosperity and heretics so I will move on, but while I was watching tonight something came to my mind…

There are alot of things that happen on Christian TV, other churches, preachers, etc. that usually upset me, and when I have the opportunity to voice those frustrations to people much older and more mature than me I tend to get 1 answer more than others. It goes something like this, “…Well Jason I know there are some things that may not be right, but there are people who really get blessed by that, and if just one person gets blessed or gets saved from those programs it was worth it!”

Do we really believe that?

I’m really asking, that wasn’t rhetorical. Is our standard for shutting down things whether or not no one gets something out of it. Let’s look at some examples in the church world where we have had to answer this question( this is in the context of my church work, this is not universal to all ministries)

Sunday Night Church….Only about 8 people wanted to be there, the preacher was preached out, the music team just woke up from their naps, and there is enough energy in the place to have a session of congress on CSPAN. But how long did it take to shut it down because there was at least “1 person” who was getting blessed.

Sunday School….This was something that I had to promote as a staff member that I did not even attend myself. I would create some kind of busy work to get out of going. 4 walls, no windows, curriculum workbooks, & a teacher (which most of the time was the only positive! Shout out to all the sunday school teachers out there) When you brought up the idea of small groups, because people were skipping Sunday Night church and going to other peoples houses anyway, you were reminded that some people were still getting blessed by sunday school. At one church, the staff was perplexed why they could not get the college class to grow. I said that the problem was that it started at 8:30 a.m. and short of handing out $50 bills no one was gonna be coming. They were all together the night before anyway.

Here is my question, as leaders do we have the courage to shut things down before they die and take the heat or do we allow the extreme minorities to dictate our programming.

( As a young leader that means one day I will be shutting down some things that I genuinely enjoy because they are not working anymore)

When is the last time the business world didn’t discontinue a product or a tv show because for people in Canton OH were really liking it?

What are some other things that the church has been slow to shut down because of the influence of the minority?