Been Thinking About ...

My Church Family ...

Wow, I was thinking about my New Life family so much today ... and praying throughout the time of their service. Missed you guys big time today =*) I went to my parent's church Pantego Bible Church today. It was a church I recommended for them after reading a book by their former senior pastor Randy Frazee called "The Connecting Church". It's a very progressive approach to church and community life ... living "together" as the Bible outlines, while also finding contemporary means to do this. A good read.

My Options ...

I had an informative meeting with a university rep yesterday about possibly teaching there. I was amazed to see how vast people's definition and application of the ecumenical movement is ... even in the South (aka. Bible Belt). One seminary that's connected to the university has a Jewish OT professor, a Catholic Priest in charge of pastoral studies, a Disciples of Christ administrator, and a majority Lutherian student body ... pretty interesting (!)

New Mentors ...

I want to meet with some my classmates from my doctorate program who pastor in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before I leave too. One of the huge blessings from this course I was a part of allowed me to meet a bunch of older pastors who have been a great source of encouragement and wisdom.

I've always wished our 2nd generation pastors could have had a proper mentoring-type relationship with older pastors while growing up. But because of language and cultural barriers, we've basically had to learn on our own as to what to do and what not to do. But luckily for the next generation of pastors, there exists people who have walked the road ahead ... and who can (hopefully) offer more words of wisdom that can help them on their journey.

And I've been in touch with Dave Gibbons (founder of Newsong Church) who recently church-planted in Bangkok, Thailand last month =) I'm hoping to be able to stop by and check out what they're up to over there and seek his counsel of some issues too.

Relevance or Love ...

One of the books I'm reading while at home is by Henri Nouwen called, "In the Name of Jesus". The first section he talks about moving "from relevance to prayer" ... saying that one of the big temptations in Christianity is about striving to be relevant (or to please people and be popular with them). But he says that, "the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her vulerable self."

In order to avoid this temptation, we need to do one thing, and that is to respond to the question that Jesus asks Peter three times in the book of John ... and that is "Do you love me?". For our lives to be able to answer that question with a resounding "YES!" should be the aim of all we do. My primary aim in ministry should not be about pleasing people, but about displaying love back to God. That will allow me to be free ... to serve and live as God intended.

And finally ... the World Baseball Classic ...

In case you haven't heard yet, Major Leage Baseball has begun a new baseball promo called the "World Baseball Classic", where different countries will be competeing for a championship. It's kind of like the Olympics, but played out in different countries.

I don't know about you, but shouldn't THIS be called the "World Series" ... and the World Series called the "American Baseball Classic"? My friends from Canada and Australia always make fun of American sports teams that call themselves "World" champions after playing only American teams.

Anyways ... Korea is 3-0 so far! They beat Taipei, China and Japan in the East Asia pool. But have you seen their uniforms?!?!? SO PLAIN!!!!! NAST-EEEE!!!!!!! BOOOOOO!!!!!! Who designed those things?!?!??! I think every other country's uniform looks cool enough to buy ... but Korea must have gotten their designer for free or something ... disgusting. I was hoping the design would've been decent enough so I could buy a jersey ... but NO THANK YOU.

Well ... those are my thoughts for today. Have a nice week. Hee hee ...

Currently Reading In the Name of Jesus : Reflections on Christian Leadership By Henri J. Nouwen see related