Different or Excellent?

Here’s a pondering for the day:

Do we have to do things necessarily cutting edge or just be excellent at what we do?

Let Me Explain:
I’m all for creating new ways and developing new programs to meet a changing culture, but no matter what you call it, preaching is still preaching, and sunday school is still sunday school.

Are people drawn to us for the “different” things that we do or are they drawn to us for the things that we do excellently?

Maybe we wouldnt have to be so cutting edge in every single area if we could muster up some excellence in those same areas….

What think ye, blogger land?

Where is my flying car?

Maybe im the product of my age bracket. Maybe i’m being picky. Maybe i watched way too many cartoons early on Saturday mornings as a kid.

There was one show i particularly liked called “The Jetsons.” For those unwise to the ways of Hanna-Barbera, the creators of the Jetsons, The Jetsons were a futuristic family living in a futuristic society complete with flying cars and other futuristic inventions.

I, like many boys my age watching cartoons in the 80’s dreamed of having flying cars, jet packs and other futuristic transportation devices to get around with.

We expected even before my generation that as a culture we would have all of the conveniences of Jetsons by the year 2,000 AD. But 2000 has come and gone with no flying cars.

Thats the strange things about expectations; without the people willing to do the work and make the expectations happen, they remain expectations. I expect today that ill eat lunch, but if i am not willing to get up and walk to the freezer and get out a pepperoni pizza hot pocket, then my expectation may never be fulfilled.

The same way, we can expect God to do incredible things in our churches and in our personal lives, but if we are not willing to do the work involved in making those expectations a reality, then we will never see what he wants done accomplished.

God has blessed me with big ideas and big dreams, and as a result i have high expectations for what he will accomplish both at Lone Star Church and in my personal life. I have to daily remind myself to be willing to do the work involved, because more than anything else in this life, i really want to drive/fly a flying car before my life is done. but in the literal sense and in the metaphorical sense.

Early Morning Ponderings…

It’s a curse.  There’s no other way to describe it.  It seems i get these random thoughts about things first thing in the morning.  ALWAYS.  Sometimes i wish he did “slumber and sleep.”  But anyway, here is my early morning pondering for today.

Do we have to do something new, hip and cutting edge or do we just need to do the things we already do exceptionally well?

Do we really need to reinvent the wheel or can we improve on whats already there?

If you’re reading this and you know me as a person it may come across as somewhat out of character for me to be asking this question.  I love innovation.  I love fresh ideas.  I love churches that do different things.  I love the (now cliche) idea of thinking outside the box.  I love the hip, fresh modern ideas.

But the question i have to pose is this: Do we focus so much on the new, different ideas that we neglect excellence in the core things that we do?

Its great if you want to have a huge sunday school block party to help the community become aware of your sunday school department and hopefully send their kids on your bus, but are we putting as much effort into the every week classes that the students will attend?

Its great to want to do awesome, cutting edge youth services where everyone is invited and big time speakers come in, etc.  But what happens when the big event is done?  Does our regular program measure up?

I know its a deep pondering for this early in the morning, but my assessment is this:

We need not neglect the little things in the process of creating and implementing new, fesh and cutting edge ideas.

agree? disagree? any other thoughts?

Leave a comment and we’ll talk about it some more.

Some Blogs I’ve Been Reading…

I love pretending to be like Christopher Columbus sometimes and “Discovering” new blogs or sites on the internet-o-sphere.  In case you’re needing help with your Christopher Columbus Skills, here’s a few Sites i find interesting and do my best to read daily.

www.twentytwowords.com – Unreal how 22 words can make you think.  My new Favorite Blog.
www.newspring.cc – Church in Anderson, SC and soon to be across the world.
www.perrynoble.com – Pastor of Newspring, his way of thinking is refreshing.
www.tonymorganlive.com – Pastor and Chief Strategic Officer @ Newspring.  Communications Guru is an understatement
www.swerve.lifechurch.tv – ministry blog of lifechurch.tv.  Craig Groeschell is a beast.
www.stuffchristianslike.net – Jon Acuff’s take on Stuff White People Like.  You see its funny cause it’s true.
http://brandonshanks.typepad.com – Amazingly talented youth pastor from MaddiVEGAS (madisonville, KY)
www.dawgbone.net – my University of Georgia Sports Fix

What are some sites you all check daily?

God is Fluid…

God has been dropping an A-bomb on my mind with thoughts on things the past few weeks.  Maybe it’s from all the driving I’ve had to do recently to avoid the Western KY Ice Storm.  1,000 miles in 4 days does not rock.  i’ll be posting a few of the thoughts ive been having in the next few days. 

God’s Spirit is Constantly moving. It is Active. It is Fluid. It never ceases it’s motion.

Have you ever been in the middle of doing some project or chore and all of the sudden someone calls or hollers at you that it needs to be done, without even realizing that youre already working on it?  Few things in this world drive me as crazy as being asked to do something I’m already in the tedious process of doing.  I wonder if sometimes God feels the same way towards us when we step into our worship experiences and beg his spirit to move in.  We pray so earnestly and desperately for the spirit of God to show up to a place that he is already in.  We try so hard so many times to make God do something that he is already doing. 

The motion and activity of God’s spirit is not dependent upon how hard we pray and beg him to show up, but is dependent solely on how sensitive we are to how the spirit is already moving.  God’s spirit and it’s activity is not the problem, we are.  It is our insensitivity that causes us not to feel his presence, not the lack of his spirit in motion.

What if we stopped pleading with God’s Spirit to move in our services and instead began to pray “God, Help me to be Sensitive Enough to Feel How Your Spirit is Already Moving”