Birds

Have you ever noticed the way birds will hop from branch to branch, and always seem to balance perfectly, even when the branch moves under them? It looks to me like the reason they can do this is not because they have an incredible sense of balance, but because they have no fear of falling.

Who are our soldiers?

It has been bothering me recently that i hear more from the "Christian subculture" about the military than i do pastors, missionaries, and the persecuted church. Every day my radio station takes time to pray for someone in the military, but praying for pastors, missionaries, or persecuted believers is mentioned only occasionally. Many churches have plaques to honor members who joined the service, but i've never seen one with a plaque to honor members who went into the ministry. Are we really aware of which war we are fighting?

Milestone

P. S. I am very excited that the blog is up to a thousand hits! I'm not sure if i should thank those of you who read the blog or if that would be evidence of pride - thinking of you as "my readers." One thing i can certainly thank you for is giving me an outlet for the things i wonder about, and to those of you who have posted comments i am particularly grateful for participating in the conversation and moving us all toward new insight.

Dilbert and "The Dream Giver

Ok, so, kind of ironically, today's Dilbert seems to speak to the same theme as "The Dream Giver"

Read "The Dream Giver"

Well, it's just after 4 o'clock and i've just finished Wilkinson's The Dream Giver. I was a little hesitant because i thought it might be a lot of over-simplified promises of sucess in reward for faith, but at the same time i couldn't help being drawn in by the thought of learning more about our dreams and how to accomplish them. Usually i do a lot of dreaming, and in many ways its the only thing that keeps me going.

I failed to mention that i didn't start the book until about 1:45 this afternoon. Not quite gripping, but definitely compelling, it was an easy read and very inspiring. Basically, if Wilkinson is correct (and i suspect he is), God has given us each a big dream that we can accomplish. Not only that, it really makes a difference whether we accomplish it or not. In Pilgrim's Progress fashion, he relates to the difficulties we've had in pursuing the dream, and tells us that we must step out in faith to do the work God has called us to. I really can't do it justice here - although probably not everyone who reads the book will stay faithful to God and His dream until the end, i suspect that many will, and the world would be a better place if everyone stopped for a few hours to read this book and think about the dream God has given them.

I love books.

"Simple Church"

I got this article in the weekly "Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox" email, and it was really interesting, although kind of short on how to actually make it happen. The thesis is that, like people, churches can become too busy, and that a "simple church" is actually more effective. I'd heard about trimming unnecessary programs before, but I'd never really been exposed to the idea that churches could get "too busy." More ministries = more ministry, right?

Like i said, there's not a whole lot of information on what this really would look like, but it's a neat concept. What if the problem really isn't that we don't have enough willing volunteers, but that we're trying to do too many things? As an often-stressed pastor, it's a tantalizing thought. I hope there's a sequel to the article explaining more about it . . .

80/20

So I've learned that supposedly 20% of the people do 80% of the work and 80% of your effort on a project is required to reach the last 20% of excellence. These days, i'm starting to feel like the last 20% of excellence in ministry is necessary for 80% of the results. Like i can have an 80% ministry and only get 20% of the results i would get if i had a 100% excellent ministry. Has anyone else observed this?