quotes of the week #4

These are my top quotes of the week. Read what "Quotes of the Week" are HERE. enjoy...

“Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom MOVES THE WORLD.” – Ammon Hennacy [Catholic activist, 1893 – 1970]

"The Gospel is seeing that I am more flawed and sinful than I ever dared believe, but that I am even more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope." | Dr. Timothy J. Keller [pastor of Reedemer Pres. in NYC]

“Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose.” – Andy Stanley [lead pastor of our planting/partner church NPCC. From his book - Visioneering]

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” – Herbert Spencer

“God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days.” Why should you and I?" - Samuel Johnson [This is such an awesome quote & one that we all (especially Christians) need to remember!!!]

“Truth and meaning for Christianity lie with the narrative before it is expressed in the doctrinal form. Christian theology, then, should not be primarily rational-propositional in form, even though it usually is, especially among evangelicals. Its primary task ought to be to explore and proclaim the Christian story, which is what gives meaning to doctrines in the first place. Theology exists to serve the story and not the other way around.” – Clark Pinnock [The old Theologian who is always a pioneer into what's "next" in Theology... he said this back in 1990 & it's SO TRUE!!! I wish all the younger leading theologians who are writing the "Systematic Theologies" would take a hint from this "old guy".]

“I asked myself ‘Who is more likely to screw up my 1 and only life – me, or God?’” – Bill Hybels [what he asked himself when reluctant to leave a successful business career to start Willow Creek. WOW... I listened to him say this in a sermon recently on my iPod while mowing my yard. I actually stopped the lawnmower & texted that to myself. That's good stuff. Thanks for letting choosing wisely, Bill.]

“I left the think tank, as it were, to form a do tank.” – Douglas Johnston

“He who thinks he leads and has no one following is only taking a walk.” – John Maxwell [pretty much THE leadership Guru...]

“They [certain postmodern unbelievers] had no interest in what my beliefs did for me after I died, they wanted to know what my beliefs did for others while I was here.” – Shane Hipps [author of a VERY VERY intriguing book I'm reading right now titled The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture.]

[My favorite Coach ever of my favorite college football team ever has 3 leadership principles he tries to instill in every player] – “Integrity, passion, and courage of conviction.” – Bobby Bowden

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - MLK

“When Donald Trump becomes the poster boy for second chances and the church is viewed as a place of judgment… we have serious problems.” – Mike Foster [pimp & creator of XXXChurch, Ethur, Deadly Viper, etc...]

"May we find the Way, the Truth, and the Life

in a world of shortcuts, deception, and death." - Shane Claiborne [this guy is awesome & I enjoy reading his stuff & especially hearing him speak - he's the only hippie from East Tennessee I've ever heard and he talks like a crazy hick but is crazy smart...]

WHICH is your favorite quote? Which quote do you HATE? what do these make you think?

life...

life is short. is that a cliche? not sure how else to say it? life, for some peeps, don't last as long as we expect. we take it for granted.

life IS short.

death makes me sick on my stomach. it hurts. I don't think we can really comprehend it. our human perspectives are too small. but to put it "humanly", death sucks.

i love life. I want to live it to the fullest. I was reminded of that today. I want to do a whole lot MORE to bring fame to Jesus. but if somehow I can make Jesus more famous in death... then bring it on. that's all life's about anyway.

but as long as I've got life... I'm livin' it all out.

death hurts me. it hurts that a person can stop existing on earth. i can't understand it. i don't think any of us really can.

but i know there's a girl who acted a lot like Jesus would act & we won't ever talk to her again in life. that's hard to understand. i hope her death makes Jesus famous. we miss her though. & it hurts. because life is short.

driscoll on piper

I read a blog this week I thought some of you might wanna read. It's a little bit similar to an article I wrote earlier in the year about Piper HERE.

One of my fav pastors & speakers is Mark Driscoll & he's all about Piper. They're homeboys too. He wrote a blog called "Why I Love John Piper." Pretty good read. I like it. Especially reason #4 = "By not trying to be cool... he's cool." I DEFINITELY resonate with Driscoll betting that Piper's only got 1 jacket. It's this ugly tweed blue one he wears all the time... every time he was at Passion for the last 10 years anyway.

Read Driscoll's blog HERE. 

And make sure you watch the video interview with Piper. it's pretty cool. Piper mentions the college his dad went to! I almost choked on my orange juice! really good interview though... I love watching these 2 guys talk.

"are you guys in a rock band?"

That's a pretty familiar question for us these days = "Are you guys in a rock band?"

I've never been hanging with the church staff before & people ask us if we're "on tour" or if we're a band. Pretty crazy. Not usually what a bunch of "pastors" get asked. But, happens to us fairly regularly.

Coming back from ATL the last time the 4 of us guys - me, Chris, Adam, & Rusty - stopped at a Starbucks (of course). We were getting our drinks when the guy behind the counter asked "are you guys in a rock band or somethin'?"

We all looked at each other... laughed... & then were like "uh... no, we're pastors at a church." haha, fun times.

Most recently we were on a tour of Bobcats/Time Warner Cable Arena and the guy in the suit at the VIP entrance asked us "are you guys a band?" By now I was ready... "Yeah", I said "& we're playing here tonight." Without missing a beat he said "cool, what's the name of the band?" Haha... I hadn't thought this far ahead & then the other guys 'fessed up real fast & killed the whole thing before it really even got started good. Oh well, I guess that's what you'd expect from a bunch of pastors.

So, what is it about us? Melissa snapped these pics of us one day at the office to try to capture it. Of course we weren't prepared & def. didn't plan to almost all wear the same shirt so no comments about that. But, I wonder why people think this about us. What makes people look like they're in a band? Why do people always double take when we tell them we're pastors? 

What is a pastor supposed to look like? What is someone in a band supposed to look like?

***WHAT SHOULD BE THE NAME OF OUR BAND & 1ST ALBUM???***

*Oh, and the "You got no business being here" album title/tag line at the bottom of the "CD cover" at the top is what Melissa suggested for a title. Actually a pretty funny story behind this that Adam will never live down. In one of the early days of Ridge Church I had invited several peeps to come check it out & like their 1st or 2nd time they started serving! But in one of Adam's meetings in the middle of Setup... and I'm pretty sure this comment was directed toward Travis Hoeben... Adam said "And there are these guys who have no business being here!" haha... we all laughed. I knew what he meant, but I'm pretty sure everyone else was thinking he just kicked them out of church.

I started ANOTHER new book (what's a "pot book"?)

It's not secret that my ADD really kicks in when it comes to reading. I'm never reading only 1 book at a time. I'm always adding new books to read. Just look to the right in the "books i am currently reading" section (which needs to be updated, btw). Also read HERE about one of my ADD reading rampages.Anyway, really my only addiction is reading & what really gets me are new books that come out. I feel like I HAVE to read it right away. This happened recently when I was browsing through Border's and saw that Bill Hybels had written a new book. I have several other books by Hybels, but my favs are Holy Discontent & Courageous Leadership. I know he's one of the greatest leaders of our time so I got really excited about this new book!

It's titled Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs & it looked AWESOME! So I bought it. Basically it contains 76 leadership proverbs, principles... AXIOMS - straight from Hybels' experience. Each axiom is only 3-4 pages. I thought to myself "this is the PERFECT pot book!" And no, a pot book is not something I read while smoking pot. You figure it out. Needless to say, I find every opportunity I can to use my time wisely to read books. I've read several Piper books that were "pot books". It's a great practice that you should try sometime. You just read 1 section per day from your "pot book" & then before you know it you've read the whole book. You may as well start with Axiom & you can buy it HERE.

So, I should be done with Axiom in 76 days (well 72 days now since I've read the first 4 axioms over the last 4 days) & also a much better & wiser leader.

OK, next post I haven't decided if I'm gonna tell you about our "rock band" or post "quotes of the week" - we'll see how I feel.

a video that will make your day! (i promise)

This video has provided us with lots of laughter in the office over the past 3-4 weeks so I thought I would share it with all of you. I don't even know what else to say other than that you will laugh your head off at this. ENJOY!

(If you didn't make it to the "ZAP" then you didn't watch long enough!)

the homeless in charlotte & the kingdom of God... where do i fit in?

I went downtown again yesterday. My friend Todd goes every week and feeds as many homeless people as he can. He buys them all pizza from Fuel & then blesses them any other way he can, shows them love any & every way he can, we all pray for them, etc... I wrote about it another time HERE.

**It's probably one of the most raw & greatest expressions of the Kingdom of God! It's an unbelievable thing to experience. I love it! There were almost 100 homeless men & women there yesterday at College & 6th. Me & Todd had tears in our eyes. God was there... His presence filled that pizza joint crammed with "street people". Jesus was on mission at Fuel pizza. Jesus loves the homeless, He loves the poor, He loves the outcast... A lot of these homeless people are "weird" in our culture. They're definitely outcasts. His kingdom comes to Fuel every week when Todd decides to put these peoples' needs above his own comfort.

It jacks me up every time I go. I don't fork over any $. I don't even put myself out in any way. I hold the door, put the biggest smile on my face that I can (most of them have beaming smiles back at me), I give out some hugs & hand shakes & kind words, I pray for people who ask me to... but I don't really sacrifice anything - except maybe an hour of my day.

Then they all leave. it's a pretty moving sight to see almost 100 homeless people walking right past you and dispersing out into the streets of Charlotte. I stood talking to a few of them and watching the rest of them going their own ways. I started looking at each individual... wondering where she would find a spot to sleep that night... wondering if he would find something to eat the next day... wondering if ANYONE else shows love to these people... wondering if I would if I met them on the street one night and found them hungry... found Jesus hungry.

It breaks my heart. My heart literally hurts for them. I want Jesus' kingdom to come to downtown. He loves them intensely & I want to do the same. I want to do more. What can I do? What should I do?

Today I go back to my normal, comfortable, American way of life. I go to pray with some guys 1st thing in the morning. I go to the office to work. I go to lunch and get full. I go back to work the rest of the afternoon. I come home to my amazingly beautiful wife. She gives me a big hug and a kiss. We go downtown... (only blocks from where the homeless gather on Wedensdays for a free meal & hopefully a taste of the kingdom) & meet friends for Oktoberfest at my favorite restaurant, Rock Bottom Brewery. I get full again. We walk to the epicenter for Live After 5. We just chill in the beautiful weather & amazing view of the city. God did this & made all this. I'm thankful.

The sky is beautiful. HE is Glorious & I thank Him for that glory under my breath. We listen to a pretty decent band cover some 80s & 90s hits. then some Bob Marley. We walk 8 or 10 blocks back to our cars. I hold my beautiful wife's hand as we walk in the night air. She's awesome & I'm so thankful for her. We all drive back to our house we've been blessed with. It's way bigger & nicer than we need and full of free furniture. The girls do some girly stuff upstairs while us guys go down to the basement & watch the football game & shoot some pool. Me & Myrick talk a little about some books, Sproul, Driscoll, & McLaren... Then we start the all night poker game. We talk about life. Kooter Browns in FL - the best wings ever. The best movies ever. I lost $5. Shouldn't have happened... I folded my flush on a big hand... got bluffed. My wife and I are about to fall asleep in our awesomely comfortable bed...

I wonder where that guy is right now that had on the Yankees 

hat yesterday? That woman, Marie, that I prayed for yesterday... I wonder if she has found a safe place to sleep? What can I do about it all? How can I live the way of Jesus? How can I more fully bring the kingdom of God to the people of Charlotte? Shouldn't I be doing more for the poor and outcasts that Jesus loves so much?

Or was the raw community I experienced today with my friends also an expression of the kingdom of God - during the poker game, and over dinner at Oktoberfest, & listening to the guy with the bad haircut cover Everyday People. + my short experiences of awe & thankfulness for God's creation & blessings. I'm guessing those things are the way of Jesus too...

I don't know. These are just random thoughts. I'm just writing them on here like they are bouncing around in my brain. I'm just being raw & not putting up any facades. Should I feel this guilty about sitting on my leather couch while the very people I hung out with yesterday are going to sleep hungry on the steps of the library downtown? Would Jesus live with these comforts if He were here? I don't know. I'm trying to figure that out. I DO know I want to live the way of Jesus. I want to see His kingdom more fully here on earth. I want to do whatever it takes.

24 & africa... my 2 passions collide (+ a little ADD)

so, i only watch 2 shows - 24 & Prison Break. & maybe that will

turn into 3 as the jury is still out on Fringe the brand new show that totally grabbed my attention. I'm a sucker for & totally intrigued by that "fringe science" stuff & the supernatural which is possibly why i "rethinked" my views on miraculous spiritual gifts a while back. & yes "rethinked" is a word... it's the past tense of rethink - also the name of one of my fav orgs. what? did you think the past tense would be "rethought"?? - WHOA! my ADD is in high gear today. this is just a TINY, tip of the iceberg sneak peak into what my brain constantly looks like... total ADD - just be thankful i usually edit it for you here in these blogs.> so, where were we?...

OH yes, I don't watch much TV. really only 2 shows & now a possible 3rd. But I am completely enthralled by those 2. they are like the best 2 ever.

I believe that 24 is the greatest TV show EVER MADE!!! (Of course, all due respect to Friends which is also the greatest tv show ever made - & no that's not contradictory, they're just so different that you can't really compare them. they're both the greatest.) Yeah, my blood pressure rises to an unhealthy level when I watch 24. It really bugs my wife, I think. she's also an avid 24 addict but she doesn't let it jack her up like it does me. she says, "Patrick, it's just a TV show. Chill out." But, it's just SO intense! it's CRAZY intense like you wouldn't believe. surely you watch it... right? we have the seasons on DVD if you want to borrow them. i dare you to start... you won't be able to stop! guaranteed.

*I have only ever wanted to "BE" 3 people ever in my whole life. You know, like your hero, your idol. The person you wished you could BE as a kid. 

Well, my 1st started when I was maybe 7-8 until about 12. ***I wanted to be John McClane. (Not Bruce Willis mind you, but John McClane.) 7 or 8 is when I saw the 1st Die Hard with my Dad & I became a man. You know, it's like a rite of passage or something in American culture. John McClane was a freaking pimp & no one could stop him & he was always bloody & said stuff like "Yipee Ki Yay" & stuff. So, in my childhood I wanted to "BE" John McClane.

Then when I was a teenager I wanted to be Chandler Bing! He was the funniest guy in the world. I think that's maybe where I developed my sarcasm... from junior high sarcasm 101 with Chandler Bing. He had the life too - just chillin' in that recliner all day with Joey watching TV. I never missed an episode from 7th - 12th grade.

Now, in my 20s... I want to be JACK BAUER!!! THAT guy is a PIMP! he's like John McClane for the new millennium or something. Don't mess with Jack. I've seen every episode of 24... probably twice. greatest show ever made. We named our dog "Jack Bauer". I'm a 24 addict.

Needless to say I've been having withdrawals since 24 took a year off due to the writer's strike. I had to go back and watch some of the old DVDs to get my "Jack fix". Obviously I'm stoked about the NEW season that starts in January & YEAH I'm stoked about the 2 hour "prequel" in November. And yeah, I was freaking out when I saw the trailer like 6 months ago that showed who the bad guy was gonna be! = Tony freaking Almeida!!! are you kidding me!?!? Jack's best friend that got blown up with his wife the 1st episode of season 5 & then died in Jack's arms later that season. 

Now for the whole point of this ADD riddled blog = WHOAAA!!! did you see the sneak peak/preview for this season (7) after the premier encore of Fringe Sunday night? well, if you missed it, check it out below.

oh WOW! my heart was pounding & I'm still all jacked up. 24 has combined my 2 loves & 

passions = 24/Jack Bauer AND Africa/Justice for 

African kids!!! I don't know that I'll be able to contain myself. 

I LOVED Tears of the Sun & Hotel Rwanda - 2 of my fav movies on my shelf. I can't watch them much though bkuz it makes me wanna move to Africa TODAY & do whatever I can. It makes me angry to see the injustice. & now "jack" is going to stop the injustice... I guess he's gonna fight GENOCIDE & against kids being taken to be brainwashed as soldiers in the awful wars of genocide. they even say Jack is gonna be a "missionary" in Cape Town.

Crystal wasn't so sure they should be combining something as "real" as genocide & injustice in Africa with the fictional Jack Bauer... & maybe she's right. I just really hope the writers did a great job & it opens peoples' eyes to the realities of what is happening in our world. & then i hope people DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! 

who knows... maybe by the end of the season I'll have got so jacked up I'll move there & rescue some orphans myself. it's gonna happen one day & I'd prefer it to be sooner rather than later... we'll see what God decides.

haha... who knew Jack Bauer & the passion God put in me could intersect?

happy 1 year anniversary Ridge Church!

Happy Anniversary to us! WHOOOO! wow, it's so crazy to think that we've been going at this "officially" for a year! & now that I think about it - it's crazy that I've been married 3 times as long as Ridge Church has existed & I'm still a newlywed.

Here's a short video that Brian shot & Rusty made recapping our 1st ever Sunday morning worship experience + a few highlights from our 1st year. It's pretty awesome... definitely check it out!

SO SO stoked about what God is doing at Ridge. I'm pumped! stories are rolling in constantly of life change & God is getting all the props for that! That's why we started this thing. For God to use us to see lives change & spread His fame through that. I'm all about it. We'll stop at nothing to see it happen. There are so many peeps in Charlotte who are not even close to satisfied. they don't have a clue what they're missing... we're hoping to let that secret out the bag.

If you haven't been to hang out with us on a Sunday morning yet... what are you waiting for? No more excuses really, no more crazy schedules, no more senior citizen dances getting in the way... we're there EVERY sunday morning. Just another addition to the platform to help us lift up Jesus' name in this city.

louie's new church

Most people know by now that Louie Giglio is starting a church in Atlanta. I just want to say that I think that's really cool.

Our lead pastor told us that he was starting one back in like May/June. I was about to blog about it then, but Louie hadn't even made it public yet & I have GREAT respect for that man, so I figured he should at least have the privilege of making the announcement.

Well, word leaked out anyway - but he did officially announce it to the world wide web via his blog right at the end of July. Tomlin, Redman, & the Nockels are going with him to start it. That's gonna be some phat Sunday morning worship times.

I really think that God will use this church to house possibly one of the greatest movements for His fame in history. That's pretty amazing! God has definitely used Louie's ministry to influence me more than any other person! But enough from me - Go read it straight from Louie's keyboard = HERE. just go to the July 30th post.

I'm SO SO stoked to be a small part of what God is doing @ Ridge Church... but if Louie had announced this about 15 months ago when I was searching for something great to be a part of... before I knew about Ridge... well, let's just say we might be moving to Atlanta.

Pray for these guys. I really do think God is going to do something HUGE through this!

9/11 - where were YOU?

so, 7 years ago today was THE original 9/11. It was a big moment in history. I remember hearing everyone say that THIS would be one of those moments where EVERYONE would be able to tell you WHERE they were & WHAT they were doing when they heard that the planes had crashed into the twin towers. Kind of like people remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard JFK got shot or we landed on the moon, etc...

Well, I can vividly remember everything about the moment I heard about the 9/11 attacks. It was like my 3rd day of college! I had just moved away from home to start school & in a new place, etc... I had been in speech 101 when it happened so I still hadn't heard about it when I sat down in chapel at about 10AM that morning. I could still take you to the exact seat I was sitting in. I knew something was up when the V.P. walked up to the stage & I thought "this is weird... something is definitely going down." He told us about the attacks and everyone was in shock. Every TV on campus was showing videos of the planes & the towers falling. 

So, yeah, I still remember where I was and what I was doing. What about YOU?

Where were YOU & what were you doing on 9/11/2001?

ridge staff VIP tour

Chris (our lead pastor) planned a "shindig" (as Melissa referred to it) for our staff last wednesday. we've done this kind of thing before - always pretty cool & pretty fun. 

This time we hit up Bobcats arena (Time Warner Cable Arena) - where our beloved Charlotte Bobcats play & got the VIP tour. went in through the VIP entrance & got to see like every inch of that place.

Our friend from Ridge - Zach Sneed - works for the Bobcats & he hooked us up with this VIP treatment & was our awesome behind the scenes guide for the day. 

This arena is straight up amazing! Definitely one of the nicest in the league... super modern... and endless clubs! I can't even remember how many there were! All these exclusive clubs throughout the arena - mainly for rich season ticket holders. By far the coolest was the "Hardwood Club". They get to hang out in a little bar that is right beside the tunnel where the players run out onto the court. + their season ticket seats are the "Spike Lee/Jack Nicholson" seats = those are the ones where your feet are actually on the floor right beside the home team bench. Zach told us those seats go for $1,000 per game! The whole package of the Hardwood club season tickets is well over $200K!!! pretty crazy money.

We got to watch the bobcats practice on the practice court & see morrison's stache & hair in a ponytail that he hasn't cut in like 3 years. Oh, btw, I'll go ahead & make my prediction = Bobcats DEFINITELY make the playoffs this year & I'm really thinking they'll even make it to the 2nd round!

Then we got to walk around the court. Adam was trying to bet Rusty that he could hang on the rim - but it never went down. I would've bet against Adam. There's a pic below of our staff standing at center court - taken by Melissa's camera phone, so the quality is obviously not the greatest.

Big thanks to Zach for hooking us up with the VIP treatment. He may have talked me into buying some season tix once me & crystal get some money. anyone wanna split them with me?

Then we stayed downtown & went to RiRa's only THE greatest Irish pub in downtown Charlotte. of course I had the fish & chips. That's where we had staff meeting... our last staff meeting the pre-sunday morning era! that's right baby! Every sunday morning you can find the peeps of Ridge church at the levine center. 

Good times with the ridge staff... I'm stoked to be a part of it.

5AM, ridge, & EVERYBODY

(WHOOOOO! Sunday was AWESOME!!!)

when you're a "load in" church (rent a facility & can't leave your gear set up) and you're having church on Sunday nights it's not that big a deal. we used to meet at the office at 11AM to load in for the service at 6PM.

BUT when you move your service time to Sunday mornings - all your sacred sleep is gone! Sunday was our 1st ever Sunday morning worship gathering at Ridge church... ever! We were so stoked. I knew I needed to be up at 5AM. coincidentally our AC broke in our house on Saturday afternoon - whooohoo. 

it was pretty flippin' hot. 82 when we went to bed. So, the heat combined with all my built up excitement & adrenaline about the next morning caused me to toss and turn for a long time. so 5AM came really early... but it was totally worth it!

Tons of volunteers were pouring in at 6:30AM to set up our environments. the place looked pimp. we had our 1st ever "core worship" gathering for all our volunteers at 9:30AM. The Upstreet team meeting was packed with some awesome peeps ready to rock some kids' lives with love.

Andy Stanley brought it with the 1st part of our EVERYBODY series = "Everybody's Invited" & it's so cool to be a part of a church that IS NOT JUST for "church people" - but for EVERYBODY!

All the Upstreet volunteers knocked it out of the park as we kicked off our series on Humility... "God wants you to remember 

it's not all about you!"

I'm so stoked to be a part of God's movement in this city... I'm overwhelmed by the lives He's going to change & the glory He's going to get. I can't imagine doing anything else than working to spread His fame & I'm so happy to be doing it with Ridge church!

1st sunday morning at Ridge!

in a little over 15 hours Ridge Church will have our 1st worship gathering on Sunday morning! We're so stoked! we've been waiting for this for what seems like forever.

*So, be there - tomorrow morning = 11AM. you'll be really sorry if you miss it.

now, I'm going to bed because I've got to get up at a time that is illegal in 3 states...

funny stuff from donald miller & his conversation with obama

I've got so much to post but NO time to do it! we're gearing up for our sunday morning launch & are so stoked. more on that later...

I promised this stuff on Donald Miller. Make sure you get to the email exchange at the bottom - it is HILARIOUS!!! Here is his video interview with CT:  

OK, now you gotta check out his new blog HERE. His 1st one was his email exchanges with Barack Obama... straight up laugh out loud funny! I laughed so hard I wanted all of you to read it. check it out HERE. enjoy.

donald miller prayed at the DNC

I don't really watch political stuff so I missed this pretty cool thing. 1st of all Cameron Strang - who is the Head Honcho at my fav magazine (Relevant) - got asked to pray at the Democratic National Convention. (He also made quotes of the week yesterday with a "political" quote which you can read HERE.) At 1st he accepted, but in the end he didn't do it though because... well, read his reasons for yourself HERE. Also read his thoughts on the aftermath of all this HERE. I think everyone just needs to CHILL when it comes to politics. stop yelling...

Anyway, so Cameron asked Donald Miller to pray instead. He's a great author & I think I've talked about him a little HERE and HERE.Then, my 2nd fav mag that I get (Christianity Today) interviewed him about it. You can read that CT interview HERE. The prayer was awesome. watch below.



Pretty cool ending. "I make these requests in the name of Your son Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice. Let Him be our example… Amen.”
- You're the man, Don... I don't care what other peeps say about you.

(Wednesday night or Thursday morning I'll post some more cool stuff related to all this...)

quotes of the week #3

here we go for a 3rd time... and remember, if you're asking yourself "Why is he posting the quotes of the week & it's only Monday?" you need to go back HERE & read the disclaimers for this phenomenon that is "Quotes of the Week" here at renown.

+ The last time I posted quotes of the week was June 25th! I am going to try to post these QotW more frequently (and try to keep it a little shorter for your sake?) we'll see how it works out. OK, enough jibberjab...

[quite possibly the quote of the week...]

“it seems like the teachings of Jesus haven’t really rubbed off on his followers.” – Mike Foster

[a pimp who started xxxchurch, ethur, the junky car club, co-author of Deadly Viper: Character Assassins, +++]

“Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love.” - Buddha [that is straight baller! never read any Buddha before... but this... wow. needs to be on a t-shirt or something. I would wear it.]

* “We need to pray for our leaders and our country, but always remember that our leaders and country do not define us. We are the generation that will shape the direction culture, government and social action will take in the next 50 years. It’s not up to Washington, it’s up to us—and I say it’s time we step up and lead the charge. But that means with our lives, our finances and our actions every day. Not just Nov. 4.” – Cameron Strang [Publisher & Editor of my FAV magazine - Relevant. from his little "First Word" section in the latest issue.]

“Every man is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson [This has been the philosophy of life I have DESPERATELY been TRYING to live by the past few years!]

“Arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today.” – Mark Batterson [a genuinely nice guy & pastor of National Community Church in DC. author of 2 great books also. I think he is right on about the arrogance thing.]

“The soul never thinks without a picture.” - Aristotle 

“I would like to live a long life, but I’m not that concerned with that. I just want to do God’s will.” – MLK  [I'm with you 100%]

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain—and most fools do.” – Dale Carnegie [from How to Win Friends and Influence People]

“Christianity comes across as a system of beliefs not a way of life. Did Jesus Christ really mean to start a system of beliefs and arguments or a WAY OF LIFE?” – brian mclaren [leader of emergent village, visionary, author, etc...]

“There is no such thing as an emotionless vision.” – andy stanley [no intro needed...]

“No man who is resolved to make the most of himself can spare the time for personal contention. - Abraham Lincoln [I'm guessing you've heard of this guy. and I'm doing my best to live by this one too.]

“When mainstream culture and the Church’s mission line up, it’s kind of bizarre. Something’s gotta be afoot. There is definitely a shift in our culture to helping those less fortunate.” –David Crowder [amazingly talented worship artist... you're right on dave. feels like we better take advantage of this unique opportunity... I think God is "afoot".]

“One of our weaknesses is that we’re far more concerned with being right than being righteous.” = Margaret Feinberg [author & speaker. WOW - ouch. so true of the majority of Christians I have met. I pray to God that I'm not one of them!]

"Life is not short, so quit saying it. Life is excruciatingly long." - john mayer [if you were at the concert at Verizon Amphitheater a couple weeks ago then you remember this awkward

 moment during the concert when he was saying a whole bunch of weird stuff that didn't make sense. we didn't pay the $ to hear you talk John...]

“Imagination precedes fact.” – C.S. Lewis [really smart dead guy. oh, and he wrote a lot of books too. I try to learn from dead guys. I LOVE this quote!!! it gives me permission to dream... to let my imagination run WILD in hopes that one day those dreams will be reality & my imaginations of what could and should be... will be.]

Which quote is your favorite? Which ones do you hate? What do YOU think?

rest

rest. it's a beautiful thing. Many people think of Sunday as "sabbath". Mine is usually every Friday. So this past Friday was my day of rest for the week. I just enjoyed the day with God & with my wife. it's a beautiful thing. That rest empowers me to be able to work my tail off today (Sunday & the rest of the week).

So, if today is your "sabbath" - enjoy it. Sit back & rest in the fact that the work will get done tomorrow. God is in charge, not you. He won't let the world fall apart if you rest for a day. Try it. I promise - it's a beautiful thing.

the triple skinny

2 of my friends in Dallas, Texas are also bloggers. Ryan & Scott are great guys & you can read their blogs here & here. We met in college & have kept in touch better over the past year as they both finished insanely long (120 credit?) ThM. degrees at DTS. pretty crazy, but they're pretty crazy smart guys.

Anyway, earilier this month Scott posted a blog titled "3 questions" and "tagged" me & Ryan. & then Ryan wrote his response (called "MEMEs") & tagged me too (you can see their answers on their posts). So, finally, here is my posting of "the triple skinny".

Q1. If you were to be in ministry 10 years from now (whether you're in ministry now or not) what would you like to be doing and where? [I would just call it "professional" ministry because I think we're pretty much all in ministry...]

Q2. If you could wake up tomorrow with a degree and all the learning that would have gone with it from any seminary which one would you pick and why?

Q3. What's your poison: donuts, beer, wine, pizza, chocolate, twinkies, key-lime pie?

A1. wow... 10 years from now! Scott, you hit my hot button! I hope I don't sound too audacious, but I think I'll be neck deep in an unstoppable Jesus revolution in sub-saharan Africa. God's gonna do it, but I'd love him to use me to lead a movement to spread His fame to tons of unreached people groups. With a pimp team I'd love to be starting some amazing WORLD changing orphanages, planting culturally relevant/indigenous churches, starting clinics & schools and building tons of wells to completely change entire communities! I think this movement has the potential to rid the region of AIDS, poverty, unclean water, and people groups without the gospel. Might take 3-4 generations, but God is on mission and I'm just hopping on the badnwagon for this part of the ride. (that was a bad Q for me Scott, because I could be writing on that for days)

A2. well, I'm digging the seminary I'm at (Gordon-Conwell), but mainly because it's local. There's DEFINITELY not a seminary I would choose over it here in the Southeast. but you opened it up to ANY... i guess i would have to go with FULLER or PRINCETON. I mean those are the 2 pimps of all the seminaries. i guess i would have to pick Fuller because of being in Cali... but Princeton just sounds so much smarter, right? Maybe even Mars Hill Grad school... they would probably do a better job than any to prepare me for what's coming in 15 years.

A3. my poison? the reefer. haha, jk. None of that stuff is really my poison though. I guess I would maybe have to say pizza because we eat at kristopher's on monday's which we affectionately refer to as "Free Pizza Day!" (buy 1 get 1 free)... a couple months ago I ate a whole pizza by myself & it was not good. I started having hallucinations & stuff (not literally, but almost). So I emailed the guys and told them to never let me do that again.

OK, now it's YOUR turn! They can definitely be way shorter than mine - I'm just a long writer which I know many of you hate. But drop your answers to these 3 Qs = whether they're 1 line or 10 lines. ANSWER HERE!

the phenomenon of NOUNVERBS

[nounverbs are not to be confused with Knowdaverbs - which if you remember "The Syllabus" you are TRULY old school.]

Some might think that I have a brash disregard for the proper use of the English language & that is totally not true. I just enjoy creating new words & especially new variations of existing words. I don't care if they're in the dictionary or not... if it serves a purpose, then let's use the word.

There are a lot of current phenomenons in language that are very intriguing to me, but I just want to bring up 1 of these today. The phenomenon of turning nouns (especially Proper Nouns) into verbs... especially in the realm of social media!

Do you know what I'm talking about? Probably the most popular example is GOOGLE. Everybody uses Google to look up basically everything. Google is a proper noun but it's very common for most people to say stuff like "have you googled it yet?/ hey, the other day I googled silly string..." etc... So, the proper noun "Google" became a verb BECAUSE it's easier to say "google it" than to say "why don't you go to http//www.google.com and type in what you want to know more about." Right?

Now, in regards to social media, I hear & say stuff like this all the time. "Yeah, I facebooked him yesterday." = in other words, "I wrote him a message/posted on his wall on his facebook page." Everyone knows what you mean because it's become part of our culture and language.

Or "Dude, you've got to youtube it!" = search for a youtube video of "it". Youtube is the proper noun but we use it as a verb ALL THE TIME in this way.

"The other day I was twittering & saw that one of my friends twittered something really funny." = Twitter being the proper noun/website where you write what you're currently doing. SOOO... really "writing what you are currently doing" can be known as "twittering." [see how much more efficient this stuff is? it's way shorter & saves time.] the other day I even used this one that I may have made up? "Hey, Crystal, check this that so&so twitpic'd." = I wanted her to see a picture someone linked on twitter/twitpic.

This is currently true = "This morning I am blogging." = technically I am writing on my weblog, but blogging is a more than acceptable verb these days in the social media world [and WAY shorter to say... like 3 words shorter].

I doubt I made this one up, but I am constantly telling my wife that I will "iTunes it" = she hears a song that she likes & wants to know the song title and/or maybe buy it on iTunes so I search for it/ iTunes it.

have you heard this one = "I'll friendquest you when I get home." = which basically means - "nice to meet you. You're on facebook right? well, when I get home I'll look you up on there and send you a friend request." It will be mainstream very soon.

And of course we could go ON & ON & ON & ON because I love this kind of stuff & I'll probably write more about this in the future... but, I want to hear from YOU! Ok, this should be fun.

***What do YOU think of this phenomenon? Which of these nounverbs have you used? & PLEASE TELL US OTHER EXAMPLES OF THIS PHENOMENON THAT YOU USE OR HAVE HEARD!!! (and not just relating to social media, but ANYTHING!)

[oh, and just out of curiousity, would ANYONE have any idea what I'm talking about if I said/sang "luv is a verb" ??? haha, tell me if you do. & if you don't, maybe you could youtube it! but don't judge all of us that remember it & thought it was cool.]

the kingdom in charlotte (#5) - elevation church

This is my 5th blog about the cool stuff God's doing at other churches here in Charlotte. Because for us at Ridge it's all about the Kingdom... not our kingdom. We regularly pray for other churches in our city, by name, to have God's favor in advancing His name. One church that we pray for a lot is Elevation Church.

Elevation is a church I've been to a lot too and am pretty familiar with. There's some great peeps there too. So, Crystal and I have gone to Elevation the past 2 sundays. We went to their Providence campus 2 sundays ago & yesterday we went to the launch of their uptown campus at the McGlohon theater in downtown Charlotte (but at the Belk Theater the next 2 weeks).

I could write a whole lot about the cool things God is doing at Elevation... because He's doing some crazy cool stuff there! but, you should just go HERE & read their lead pastor, steven

furtick's blog about all the stuff that God is doing.

Elevation launched back in February of '06 with 100 people & a passion to start a revolution in Charlotte. Their mission is "to see people far from God filled with life in Christ." I started tracking with them during their 1st year. After 1 year there were about 1,000 people attending Elevation! pretty crazy. They've got some really talented musicians & worship leaders (including steven furtick) so they produced a live worship album (The Sound) on their 1 year anniversary. [I was sitting in the back row, but some security guy took me to the front row right in front of the crowd mics so my singular screaming voice is clearly audible at several points during the album!] 

They also started their 2nd campus during year 2 on Easter. And a few weeks ago they released another worship album - We Are Alive. 

This Sunday they launched their 3rd campus in downtown Charlotte which I think is a really cool thing. Probably the coolest thing is that an insane amount of people have "found new life in Christ" through Elevation. Something crazy like 600 people accepted Christ this weekend alone at Elevation (including a weekend student event & at their 3 campuses on Sunday). Glory to God! This doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary for Elevation! I don't know all the #s but I know that a ton of people have come to Christ and lives have been changed there because there were like 4800 peeps at elevation this sunday. pretty insane for a church that's not even 3 years old yet! You can catch up on all this stuff at steven furtick's blog.

At Ridge, we've been praying for these guys since we began. We've been especially praying for them the past couple weeks because they just started a series called "THE GOSPEL." It started yesterday & goes for 2 more weeks. Furtick says it's their most important series of the year. just plain and simple gospel each Sunday. 

pretty phat when they rocked some Viva la Vida this Sunday too & tied it into "the gospel" theme. Oh, and Furtick is on the main stage @ Catalyst this year, so if you haven't heard about these guys yet... you will soon! Elevation - keep rockin' it for the glory of Jesus boys!

We're pretty excited to be in the same city with these awesome guys & will keep praying God does awesome things for His glory through them. We're on the same team & are both in this city to raise up a banner that says "JESUS"... not anything else.

I am so STOKED about God's kingdom advancing in Charlotte & His fame spreading - not just at Ridge or Elevation... everywhere! Because it's not about individual empires... it's about Jesus' KINGDOM!