e r i c . s p a n g l e r

How To Win At Church?

Congregations don’t win by sporting the largest auditoriums any more than sports teams win by congregating in the largest stadium. Congregations and teams win by reaching the goal. It may well be that winning teams tend to have better stadiums and that winning congregations tend to have better auditoriums, but don’t confuse the consequence with the cause.

 

Success is achieving an intended outcome. Success in God’s Church is achieving the outcome God intends. Another word for this outcome is mission. 

 

                        John Kaiser, Winning on Purpose, Abingdon Press, 2006 (p. 19)

The God of Mission

God’s church falters from exhaustion because Christians erroneously think that God has given them a mission to perform in the world. Rather, the God of mission has given his church to the world. It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission who has a church in the world. The church’s involvement in mission is its privileged participation in the actions of the triune God.

• Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission by Tim Dearborn (p. 2)

Some of My Top Web Stops

I'm not gonna explain 'em.  Some are self-explanatory, some you'll just have to check yourself!  :)

- Google (homepage has great widgets)
- MSNBC
- Lakeside's Web
- Bible Gateway
- Weather Underground
- Version Tracker
- Flickr
- You Version  (I think this may be WAY cool.)
- Monday Morning Insight
- Christianity Today Online
- Wikipedia
- Preview  (Movie Reviews)

...More later.

Evergreen State Fair

Evergreen State Fair, originally uploaded by pstreric.

Beautiful day to be out today... 75 degrees, blue sky, sunny... ahhh. The Pacific Northwest. Only here in Washington can you get Elephant ears at the fair made with whole wheat flour. :)

Maybe Churches Can't Be Revitalized

I found this thought-provoking quotation over at a blog called the Dying Church:

"In his new book A Second Resurrection, author and consultant Bill Easum says we may need to rethink our attempts to revitalize churches, because revitalization isn't enough:

Is it possible we have underestimated the seriousness of Western Protestantism's situation? What if the metaphors of reformation, renewal, and revitalization don't get to the heart of the problem? What if the situation is much worse than those words describe? What if the vast majority of congregations in the West are spiritually dead and God no longer considers them churches? What if God has one foot out the door of most of Western Protestantism? What if the vast majority of churches are like the church of Laodicea in the Book of Revelation? What if God is about to spit us out of his mouth?

Reformation, renewal, and revitalization assume some pre-existing foundation of faith from which to raise up a new church. But what if that assumption isn't correct? What if that assumption is part of the problem?...

I've long been convinced that 'American' Christianity is missing the mark (and I'd include myself.)  We long for something authentic, something real, something that works and reminds us of the NT church and Jesus.  I wonder if Easum's suggestions are right?

Here's the LINK to the original post.

Mother Theresa's Crisis of Faith?

An extensive Time article seems a bit bent toward misunderstanding (or at least overstating) the upcoming biographical book about Mother Theresa, particularly in regard to her 'crisis of faith.'  The suggestion seems to be that the crisis was not just a dark night of the soul, but as giving evidence that faith may be the ruse that so many these days point to.

But, the article closes with a quote that seems to me to be more consistent with the person she must have been --one who loved Jesus and loved the poor-- and contradicts any misunderstanding:

Please destroy any letters or anything I have written.
— to Picachy, April 1959

Consistent with her ongoing fight against pride, Teresa's rationale for suppressing her personal correspondence was "I want the work to remain only His." If the letters became public, she explained to Picachy, "people will think more of me — less of Jesus."

When much is at stake, the difficulty, darkness, and discouragement seem most unbearable.  Should not those times much more teach us to lean into Jesus, to reach out for him irregardless of what we think or feel?

Here is the LINK to the Time article.

Unrelenting Determination

I'm in the middle of a four week series in our local church that I've titled "Magnificent Obsession."  I know it is not original with me, but as I prayerfully considered our ongoing need to be all about Jesus, I found it an easy theme to work with.  Last week's teaching was "Dependent Connection," and this week's teaching is "Unrelenting Determination."  (You can get the podcast at our NEWLY updated, way cool website:  www.lakesidecf.com)

While working on tomorrow's message, my most excellent A/A offered some great quotes she found about determination that I'm passing on here:

Henry Ward Beecher:
It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

Norman Vincent Peale:
If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.

Jackson Brown:
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always, wins - not through strength but by perseverance.

Swedish Proverb:
Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Mark Twain:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Alexander Graham Bell:
What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it.

Winston Churchill:
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Vincent Van Gogh:
If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

Gandhi:
Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.

Unknown Author:
Don't get discouraged; it's usually the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.

Top 10 Sayings ... By Mark

Found at MondayMorningInsight, here are Mark Batterson's Top 10 sayings.  What do you think?

#10 Love people when they least expect it and least deserve

#9 Stop living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death

#8 The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet

#7 The healthiest, happiest and holiest people on the planet are the people who laugh at themselves the most

#6 Irrelevance is irreverence

#5 Criticize by creating--Michelangelo

#4 Live as if today is the first day and last day of your life--Fredrick Buechner

#3 The greatest freedom is having nothing to prove

#2 There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet

#1 Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God

Live Cameras Around WA State

For my friends who WISH they lived in the Northwest... click HERE and you'll see live views around Washington State, from the ocean to mountains, lakes, forests, other beautiful views...

Erik Mongrain at Leadership Summit

At WCA Leadership Summit today young guitarist Erik Mongrain was on stage, and it was WAY cool.  Here's the YouTube version:

God's Freedom

Read this today at the end of an article by Gordon MacDonald at LeadershipJournal.net:

Thanks to Steve Brown in his book Scandalous Freedom: I am reminded of a convent school where a basket of apples sat on the dining room table. A note under the basket said, "Take only one. God is watching."

At the other end of the dining room sat another basket filled with chocolate-chip cookies. In a child's handwriting, a note under the basket read: "Take all the cookies you want. God is watching the apples."

That kind of freedom makes me smile... makes me breathe out and relax.  How 'bout you?

Power of Your Mouth

I preached from James 3 last Sunday, and afterward a young woman from our church family shared this poem with me.  Crystal had written it some time back, and my teaching reminded her of it.  Thanks, Crystal!

Ephemeral Sounds- By Crystal Swetz

Are words merely vibrations of sound that accompany breath?
For they can only portray one’s heart to a certain degree,
Until they are only still just words trying to express
Emotion that will linger after uttered by a voice.
What thought seemed so urgent
To attempt to formulate into comprehension?
For speech is the human’s attempt at portraying deepest thoughts.
It is the closest way to materialize the desires of their soul.
This is the power of understanding such ephemeral sounds.

If everyone has something to say,
Do not let the desires of their soul fall upon deaf ears.
Mourn for those in Auschwitz whose souls’ voice was lost,
Buried in the mass pit with other muted breath.
Mourn for the unborn child who will remain as such;

Whose spoken words could have potentially had the power
To save another from taking his own life…But alas.
This is the possibility of a mere ephemeral sound.

Even the most triumphant song from a trumpet cannot compare
To the same lips that bring life to the instrument.
For the horn does not have an opinion.
Its sounds do not spout fire just to turn around
To sing praises to the rain as the tongue does.
Such loquacity, this ephemeral sound! 

Why are people so easily misconstrued by the tongue?
By the lips that give birth to lies and false hope?
For God created us greater than the beasts by giving us a mouth
To express that we, unlike beasts, have a soul.
Why, then, do we feel the need to misrepresent ourselves?
Is it for the approval of man whose words will fade?
Like every deceptive word coming from a fading breath,
Man’s judgment will also cease to expel from his lungs.
When God rested and his words ceased to vibrate in the air,
His breath lingered in the form of mankind itself
Who would proceed to curse his Holy name
With the very…breath…of life…which God…breathed…into them.
This is the repercussion of man’s ephemeral sound.

Proof I Take A Day Off

Ocean Shores, WA (South Jetty), originally uploaded by pstreric.

Normally my day off is Friday, but I'll be at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit this next week. So our family left late Sunday afternoon to be here for a couple of nights. From left to right is: Sarah, Andrew, Bethany, Virginia, Bekah, and me. :)

Wait For It (Monorail)

Wait For It (Monorail), originally uploaded by pstreric.

Just a quick candid shot from our family day to Seattle a week ago...
:)

LookingSouthFromTheAir

LookingSouthFromTheAir, originally uploaded by pstreric.

 

Inches From Death?

My friend Allen sent the following photos to me, and I verified the accident at Snopes.com, one of the sites that identifies internet hoaxes.  According to the report, this accident occurred 30 Dec 2006, when the pickup crashed through the guardrail, flipped somehow, and landed over the culvert headed in the opposite direction... just inches from plunging hundreds of feet down the cliff.  Amazing photos below.  The location is  near Hurricane City, Utah.

Here's the first photo:

Here's the second photo, that gives the scary perspective:

Incredible Bike Rider

Nuthin' but fun.