Craig Groeschel has a great post this morning on the Swerve blog. Some that really hit me:
1. What did I learn in God’s word this week? (I want to be able to have a good answer for this for the rest of my life)
3. Does my heart break for the things that break the heart of God? (or just my own)
6. Has my teaching and ministry deepened, changed, or evolved in a positive way in the last year? (keep me on my toes for vision and excellence)
Read the rest here. What are yours?
the band heads off to Lake Champion, NY this afternoon. it’s our fourth year heading out and leading worship for their youth retreats, and it’s seriously one my favorite weekends of the entire year. rocking worship – check. xbox projected on the mantel of the cabin – check. jimmy donaruma – check.
the only non-check is we’ll be missing tom & jamie this year. so in remembrance:
gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|gun|
…that my friends us a 21 gun salute.
In our house, the Today show is usually on in the morning as we go about getting ready for the day. I turned it on today at the beginning f a story about a college girl who had died, and her family was on to talk about it. The first question asked to her mother was, “What would you want people to know about your daughter?”
“That she loved Jesus and wanted other people to know about Jesus.”
At the end of the day, if only one thing can be said about me – I hope it’s that.
so I get up my office this morning, french press in hand and looking for a good day. i think the construction guys downstairs have different plans, though. i’m not sure if it’s the dust covered footprints thought my office, the yelling, the cutting drywall, the nail guns, the shaking walls, or the dust cloud, but something tells me i’m not going to get much done here this morning. i may be off to scout out a new location…
Back in January I made a list of personal goals for 2008 – not resolutions (lame) but goals (awesome). When I got to check off my first completed goal from the list, I realized that that list never made it here. Personal, yes. But good to put out there and have before me. Check out my original post from January below, as well as my first check & other updates.
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A few weeks ago Mark Batterson wrote about setting life goals. Honestly, this is something I’ve never done with any amount of seriousness or deep thought. There a few I’ve had for a while that would be cool for kicks:
- doing the weather on TV in front of a green screen wearing all green, so all anyone would see is my head and hands
- run on to a football field after a dude has a concussion and asking how many of me he sees while looking like this
- fill a pinata with cans of soda and/or bees
A list of life goals seems like a fairly intimidating thing to do, and one I want to work on. I figure a good place to start, though, would be a list of Goals for 2008. The first draft:
- read at least 10 books (2 down, closing in on 3)
- read through the Bible (not included in the 10 above) (I’ve slowed down on this one – just ended Leviticus – but it rocked!)
- get back down to at least 200 lbs
- build up an emergency fund
- rebuild the wall in my kitchen (and now the dining room ceiling, too…)
- recruit at least 2 new regular committed leaders in each of my two ministry areas
- win a poker night (Friday, March 14 – thanks Spence, Jon, Mike, and Seth)
Spence had a great find:
“In honor of the college basketball tourney, a Philly radio station is doing a bracket featuring hard rock bands. Admittedly, I’m not a hard rock guy, but it came down to U2, the Foo Fighters, Green Day, and Led Zeppelin.”
I just filled out my own bracket. Karl’s Final Four?
Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, U2, and Green Day. Of course U2 takes it all.
Which bands make up your Final Four?
I’ve taken a bit of a blogging breather this week. after a great weekend, bethany and I both got pretty sick. don’t worry, there’s plenty of blogging goodness being stored up for a sweet release soon…
seriously, what a great day today. I got to spend all day with two of my favorite people, Spence and Eric, re-setting the stage at church and eating cheese steaks. then it was off to a middle school performance of Seussical the Musical, which knocked me over that it was a middle school production. it was also sweet seeing a group of our kids from FUSE[midweek] in the cast and crew.
then it was really a reunion with a bunch of friends of PSU and our campus fellowship, ACF. we’ve started to spread out some now that life is happening, and it’s a blast when we can all get together again. it’s going to be a weekend of hanging out, cards, breakfasts, basketball, and music. i love it!
there’s a cell phone company that gives you the option to have a circle of friends that you can call, free of minutes. honestly, i don’t remember which it is (when it comes to cell phones, i’m really only concerned with the hope of one day getting an iPhone). everyone has a circle of influence – those people that are close enough to you, and you to them, that your lives and actions have an impact on each other. most of us actually have a larger circle of influence than we think – from your spouse or roommate to the waitress at the breakfast shop that knows your order as “the regular”.
but we all have an even tighter circle that that of general influence; the people that you really share life with. your husband or wife, your best friend, the coworker you actually really like, your small group/Bible study, ministry team, etc. even Jesus had these circles. He ministered to the crowds, but he also had a smaller group of 12 were there was an amazing amount of influence on their lives. within that, he has a special three (they probably had their own ringtone in JC’s phone).
do you know who is in your circles? who are you letting influence you? whoa re you influencing? do you need to do some housecleaning in your circle? should i end this post off with a question?
Ed Young is blogging. Sweet. He’s the pastor of a pretty rocking and influential church in the country of Texas. I’ve seen some video pieces he’s put together on YouTube, and he’s an amazing leader. I won’t steal it for here, but his first post on the voice of blogging pumped me up this morning. Check it out.
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