I sometimes feel like I don't have anything interesting to say

This is one of those times.  So I won't bore you with uninteresting blogposts. I will show you a couple of very impressive tricks by Ricky Jay.  He's pretty much amazing

Here he is on the old Arsenio Hall show

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKuHiY397U]

And another amazing trick

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgm4wZCACYg]

Enjoy

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Best Web Junk (May 22)

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This is very long, but I was pretty much fascinated by it.  If you have a chance, give it a read - Now THAT'S a Commencement Speech This picture is so awesome, you need to see it for yourself.  I get why the adults can do this but for the kid it should be called child abuse

This is a long-overdue invention.  I am totally on board

They are calling this a hamburger fail, but I'd call it a small print win

I have not seen the new Star Trek, and I'm not a trekkie, but this vid is very clever

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.825059&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Last week I posted a Price is Right video, why not make it 2 in  row?

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.826291&w=425&h=350&fv=]

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Are Associations Still Necessary? part 2

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Because this is associational emphasis week in the SBC, I began yesterday to explore the answer to the question; are Baptist Associations still necessary?  Today I intend to give my answer.  I find it interesting that the first two responses to this post at SBC Impact happen to express opposite opinions on Baptist associations. Before I answer, in the interest of full disclosure, I should let you in on my bias today.  I serve on my associational youth team, I am an associational messenger from my church, and I participate regularly in associational ministers meetings.  (I even spoke at one.)

My church is a member of a very large association.  The NSRBA has over 100 churches spanning 3 counties.  To drive from The Bridge Community Church to Union Grove Baptist Church (one end to the other) would take well over an hour.  Many of our churches are extremely rural, and some of our churches are quite urban.  All of this diversity should benefit everyone, but there are still those who feel the association is unnecessary.

As I see it, here are some of the weakpoints of the local association.

  • Big churches don’t participate – this is obviously not a hard and fast rule, but during my 12 years of ministry in 3 different associations there are very few big church pastors who feel the need to be active in the association.   I’ve never been in leadership of a church that averaged more than 150 in Sunday school so I can’t speak with certainty, but my thought on why large churches don’t participate on an associational level is that they don’t need the resources that the associations can provide
  • The flat world means that small churches now have less need for what associations can provide – The training, resources in the form of media, curriculums and technology, guidance, and even the financial assistance available through associations can all be procured elsewhere
  • Some associations are just not good – There are associations with poor leadership who do nothing, or who pander to every complaining pastor.  There are associations that take in churches that are cast-offs from other associations because of theology or disagreements.  And there are associations which make no effort to impact their local area for Christ

Despite those problems, I still feel that associations are viable and worthy of continuing into the 21st century. Here are just a few things that associations offer.

  • Fellowship for pastors – Pastors, as God-called leaders of their congregations, need someone with which to fellowship.  Obviously they need to be a part of their church’s community, but occasionally there needs to be someone outside the church who shares the same sense of calling with which to discuss common issues and decision making.  I realize that this could be done apart from the association, but the association makes this easy, and you will find a distinct lack of this sort of fellowship when you move to independent church situations.  (Youth ministers also, are notoriously poor at this type of fellowship.)
  • Vision for the community – This is where local associations can truly thrive.  Associations are broader in their ministry scope than local churches are.  But much more focused than a state convention could hope to be.  And even in an association as diverse as the NSRBA, the association can have a vision of ministry for greater Fayetteville that no single church should be concerned with.  This should guide where church plants are needed, and where specific ministries can best be focused.  This is a function that the state convention could never hope to carry out.  (Also, state conventions have a tendency to focus outside themselves and look to inter-state partnerships and even international partnerships for ministry opportunities.)
  • Cooperating allows for greater ministry – This is the entire concept behind the cooperative program.  (I’ll add here that associational money is not CP money.)  The simple fact is that we can do more together than we could ever do alone.
  • Cooperative local ministries – There are many worthy ministries that would be too large a task for any one church to carry out.  For example, in the NSRBA we have a ministry to the workers at the Cumberland Co. fair.  One church may be able to provide bottled water, lunches, and some counseling, but this ministry also provides a dental bus and lasts the duration of the fair.  That would be a huge burden for even a very large church.  Without a dentist and a few hygienists in membership it would not even be possible.  There are also ministries to migrant workers, a Christmas toy store for needy families, and two thrift store / food pantry ministries.  These things would simply not be possible by any single church.

The state convention could simply not do any of those things.  Fellowship with a group too large is not possible.  It could never see the need for ministry at the local level, and even if it did, coordinating thousands of churches would be too difficult.

My conclusion is that the local Baptist association is still very useful and will serve a Great Commission function into the 21st century.

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Are Associations Still Necessary? part 1

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This is Associational Emphasis week in the Southern Baptist Convention.  So I thought I would write a couple of posts dealing with the following question: Is the Baptist association still needed? The logo for associational emphasis week

One of the things being brought to our attention as Southern Baptists with the Great Commission Resurgence is the inefficient spending of cooperative program funds.  Specifically, people have a problem with the duplication of efforts.  This is a valid concern.  It is both an issue of good stewardship and responsibility.  And let’s just be honest, is there really a need for church growth experts, or evangelism trainers, or church resource specialists at the state, SBC and associational level?  I recommend listening to the most recent Insight Podcast which is an interview with Johnny Hunt.  In part 1, the host quotes Dr. Mike Day from the Mid-South Baptist Association.  Dr. Day relays an example of the same function being performed by the three levels.  This is just a real-life example of why the question should be asked.  Are associations necessary?

The most significant reason why there would be a change in the need for associations would be because the world is flat.  Allow me to explain what I mean by the flat world.  The flat world concept comes from William Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat.  The thesis of the book is that technologically and politically we have reached a point in which a place on the other side of the country or the other side of the world can be reached instantly.  We have globalized nearly everything and the distance between us has shrunk to a negligible amount.

So what dies this have to do with Baptist associations?   In order to answer his question, I’ll need to explain what the purpose of a Baptist association is and how it works. The Baptist association is a gathering of cooperating churches to do ministry on a local level.  Interestingly, because of the strongly held Baptist view of church autonomy, this is the same definition for a state convention or the SBC.  (They are just different geographically)  This connection of churches cooperate to carry out ministry on a local level and to help one another with training, resources, and historically, even finances.

This is the same definition of the SBC and the state Baptist conventions.  With the flat world making distance less significant, that explains the duplication of functions.  Many people feel that the weakest of the 3 levels is the local association.  Hence my question.

Now that the explanation is out of the way, tomorrow I plan to actually answer the question, are associations still necessary.

Before I get there, I would like to hear from you in the comments.  Do you think the local association is still needed?  Even though the world is flat?  Even though many of the same functions are performed on the state and SBC level?

Rhodes Pond

About a week after  I moved to North Carolina, I drove past a beautiful lake called Rhodes Pond.  I was told it is private but has really good fishing.  That was 6 years ago.  About a month back I heard that the state owned it now and that it is free to fish.  So, last Friday, since I already had an errand on that side of town, I decided to try it out.  Before going, I googled Rhodes Pond to see if I could learn anything useful to help out with fishing there.  But there is absolutely no new information.  The most recent info I could find at all, was about the dam and dated to 2007, completely unhelpful to a fisherman.  So I’m writing this post about my experience just so there will be something useful as a guide for others.

Time & Conditions: We fished there on a hot day in mid-May.  It was the hottest day of the year so far.  The morning began heavily overcast, threatening rain, but became only partly cloudy and about 93° before we left.  We arrived about 9:00 am and left at 1:00 pm.

Your guide to the lake

The Lake: I kept reading the Rhodes pond is a “black water” lake, but I don’t know what that means.  (Although the water is very dark, so maybe that’s all it means)  It is an impound of the Black River and it is 461 acres.  (Here are the coordinates for use in your GPS or with Google Earth35.2293, -78.6517)  It has an excellent ramp, as good as any lake I know of that is limited to non-gas motors.  The lake is divided into two sections by a long peninsula.  The part with the ramp is unfishable because of the weeds.  Maybe I just don’t know how to fish in weeds, but that entire half of the lake has weeds growing up to within a foot of the top.  Not one cast came back clean for me.  (Much like Smith Lake on Ft. Bragg)

On the other side of the lake the water is quite clear.  There are cypress trees scattered in the main lake, fields of lily pads and dollar pads around the edges, and a forest of cypress trees inside the pads.

The fishing: Uhhh…there’s probably fish in there…maybe.  For such a beautiful lake with limitless cover, Neither me nor my co-angler got as much as a bite.  I fished my 2 standby baits, a Rapala super shad-rap (because I mostly fish shallow-water lakes), and a spinner.  I even threw a 4” tube around some of the Cypress trees.  Jack fished red worms trying to catch a bluegill.  There was one other boat on the lake but I couldn’t say if they caught anything.  And there were 2 people fishing from the levee in the other side of the spillway.  One of them said he had 8 crappie.

My final verdict: I don’t know of a more beautiful lake anywhere.  But I’m also not smart enough to fish it.  Too much backwater, too many weeds, too many pads and too much cover.  I would have settled for a grinnel.  If anyone reads this that had luck, let me know in the comments how you caught em.

After writing an entire article about Rhodes Pond does that make me a Rhode's [pond] Scholar?

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Best Web Junk (May 15)

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For some reason, this was a slow week in cool web junk.  Maybe I was just difficult to entertain this week, but here's a fun link, a big mistake on the Price is Right and an entertaining video Star Wars soundboard for the win

I really hope this was corrected during the commercial.  Bob Barker owes this woman at least 1,000 bucks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-m7tLxVIeg]

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.824374&w=425&h=350&fv=clip_id%3D1351444%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3Dchannel%26context_id%3D778%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00adef%26force_info%3D1]

Milestones

Today is my 34th birthday.  Birthdays always make me take stock of my life.  Last year I posted a fun list of stuff I had accomplished over the course of my entire life and you may remember my pseudo bucket list.  I thought I would do a hybridized version of those two this year.  I like to do things I've never done before, so here is a list of stuff just from the last year that I have accomplished.

  • Visited the Korean War Memorial (My grandfather is a veteran of that war)
  • Visited the WWII Memorial
  • Saw an MLB game that went into extra innings
  • Fished every open lake on Ft. Bragg
  • Live-Blogged a tropical storm
  • Became an uncle for the 3rd time
  • Went to an ACC football game
  • Spoke at a city council meeting
  • Won my church's Fantasy football league
  • Filled the pulpit on a Sunday Morning
  • Went 40 days with no sugar
  • Went to 2 MLB ballparks for the first time
  • Got in early on an internet meme
  • Drove in New York City
  • Ate a real cheesesteak in South Philly (Geno's)
  • Made a LOLcat
  • Taught a college class
  • Biggest mistake of the year - Got confused and had all my youth show up at an event one week early
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A Lesson in Argumentation

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I don't really know why I keep the Associated Baptist press in my news feed, but I do. Today this lovely gem appeared: Opinion: A pop quiz for biblical literalists - By Miguel De La Torre

I suppose De La Torre, has probably heard of the Straw Man argument.  But maybe all my readers have not.  I will quote directly from wikipedia here, because it is as clear as what I could say.

A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.[1] To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

The article I cited above is a perfect example of this.  De La Torre obviously believes that inerrantists are to dumb to understand hermeneutics.

Congratulations sir, you have destroyed a position that nobody actually holds.

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Best Web Junk (May 8)

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The coolest mouse evar I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this wasn't made in America.  I'm also betting it soon makes an appearance on failblog

This timelapse video is pretty amazing.  Here is the link to the original which gives a description of how it was shot.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.820576&w=425&h=350&fv=offsite%3Dtrue%26intl_lang%3Den-us%26div_id%3Dstewart_swf3500258467_div%26flickr_notracking%3Dtrue%26flickr_target%3D_self%26flickr_h%3D333%26flickr_w%3D500%26flickr_no_logo%3Dtrue%26onsite%3Dtrue%26flickr_noAutoPlay%3Dtrue%26in_photo_gne%3Dtrue%26photo_secret%3D48c91d9596%26photo_id%3D3500258467%26flickr_doSmall%3Dtrue]

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Your Help Please

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If you follow me on Twitter you know that I have been in the process of redesigning the church website.  I needed to move it to a content management system so that others besides just myself could update it .  I chose Joomla because of the amazing plethora of free templates, and the flexibility.  Also because I tend to think of wordpress.org as being just a blogging platform.  I will have a post later about the move, but in the meantime I need your assistance. I am close to going live with it, but it needs a once-over.

I'm not as far along as I thought I would be by the time of this post.  Some of it is unfinished, I think those parts will be obvious to you, (Like the ministries page which I've decided to reformat but haven't) but let me know your thoughts on the template, the functionality, how it can be improved, and obviously any errors or proofreading mistakes.  You have been very helpful to me in the past

I would like your suggestions of any way that the site can be improved, either through design or through content.  It's pretty easy to change things now that I have a feel for this template.

The new-and-improved site can be found at lagrangeparkbc.org/new. Check it out. Hit me with your suggestions.

Also.  I'm in the basement for a few days, so if comments need moderating it may take a while.

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Great Commission ressurgence needed

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I am frustrated as I write this, so the tone may not be what I am hoping for.  It may come across as a polemic rather than an illustration about the need for a great commission resurgence within the SBC. I’ll begin with some context.  Just over a year ago, the city of Fayetteville’s Dogwood festival passed a ban on all booths that promoted “religious or political views.”  Effectively this shut out all churches from the festival.

So last year the churches of greater Fayetteville made a big deal about not being allowed into the Dogwood festival.  We even held a political action rally.  This rally did not exclusively address the Dogwood Festival, but that decision was the impetus for the rally.

In response to the outrage, the board, rightly in my opinion, reversed the decision.

Political action working, right?  Yep.  We got the desired result, churches are now allowed at the festival.

Obviously then, this year, there were many churches there representing Christ, giving out free water (rather than selling beer) and telling people the life changing message that Jesus saves.  Right?  Wrong.

Three churches participated. They include, the largest church in town, a small Presbyterian church (PCA), and one church that was apparently fundraising.

There are 100 churches in the Baptist association which encompasses Fayetteville.  Many of these churches were represented at the political action rally last year.  Now let’s do the math, 100 churches in the association, zero churches participate in the festival after they hear our voice and change their policy.  That number, again, was zero.  Now, to be fair, not all 100 were at the rally, but many were.

Here’s the question; does that make us look inept, or hypocritical, or like we only want to cause trouble?  I’m afraid it sends the message that we have no time to witness because we are too busy complaining about people who will not let us witness.

To me it definitely says that we are not nearly as concerned about the gospel as we pretend to be.

By the way, my church was at the rally but not at the festival, so I am not merely casting stones.  Actually I want someone to tell me why I'm wrong to think this way.  I believe in political action, I’m glad the board reversed its decision, and I don’t expect every church in Fayetteville to be there.  I do, however, believe that we put way too much energy into fixing social issues and not nearly as much effort into spreading the gospel, even though it is the greatest message that could ever be told.

I believe that this is the perfect example of the need for a great commission resurgence. We need to have churches that focus on what's really important, the gospel.  It seems that we are currently out of whack.

(BTW - I really wanted to post this comic here because it is funny and goes with the last line.  But usage rights cost $25, which is ridiculous whenever you can just follow this link and see it for free.)

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Tomorrow

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Tomorrow I have a post coming that is a followup to what I think is the best post I've ever written.   Essentially I am interacting with that post and a recent news headline from my local paper. If you would like to read that post, here it is.  Today, however, I will simply outline my argument from that post.  Let me know if you agree or disagree, but think on it, because I really want the opinions of my readers tomorrow.

The argument I am articulating goes like this:

-  Christians often say, "We have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long." I have never heard this statement questioned.

-  What people mean when they say this is that Christians don't make their voice heard on social issues facing our country.

-  I say - we do make our voice heard, and we do it very well.  Every American knows the predominant evangelical view of nearly every social issue.

-  I say - this does not fix the problem because it is only treating the symptoms.  It's as if the doctor diagnosed you with Swine Flu but only gave you aspirin to get rid of the aches and pains.

-  I say - we have been silent too long...with the gospel message.  If people's hearts are changed, their political views will change.  Otherwise, lost people will behave like lost people.

Tomorrow I plan to demonstrate my point with a recent headline from our local paper and some context.

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Best Web Junk (May 1)

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Since this was such an SBC heavy week I'll include one link to a blogpost I give a hearty amen to regarding the state of the convention I found this tour of Michael Jackson's belongings fascinating, and depressing.  It gives real insight into the freakishness of that man.  Key quote:

I wondered if he'd commissioned these pieces himself, or if they were given to him. It made a difference as to where to peg him on the crazy scale. It's one thing to accept a painting of yourself as a gift from a fan, and another thing to call up your local portraitist and say, "Can you paint me as a knight? Or maybe as a glowing swordsman? How about as a glowing swordsman crowning myself as a knight? "

You don't really need to sleep tonight.  So have a look at these creepy mugshots

Better check yourself.  You can never be too careful.

At first I thought this was some kind of joke.  But then I saw that there are like 20 youtube vids of the same thing.  I guess St. marten is famous for this, but there should be a sign or something saying, "No Shaq."  It could literally be his last vacation.  This is just an amazing video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo]

I really enjoy the show Better Off Ted.  It's funny and it was preempted Wednesday night for President Obama's press conference.  In response they produced this video by the fictional company from the show.  It's not hilarious, but the fact that they would do it is amazing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpUPW4FL6Mo]

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What You People Come Here For (April Edition)

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This is your monthly installment of the interesting searches that brought people to my blog.  They are simply cut & pasted, there is no editing done on my part.  I have put some commentary in parenthesis.  The same theme pretty much continues from month to month.  Things from different posts get combined into searches, sadly none of these people found what they were looking here.

  • canadian geese under the tree images
  • fiching (I had to look this one up on urban dictionary to be sure it isn't secretly something dirty)
  • what a peach tree looks like pictures
  • when i was twelve
  • life stages of a canadian goose
  • why do geese mate for life
  • geese mate (I just love how I've become a goose expert)
  • story on pastor allowing phone use at ch
  • things to do when jeromy is bored
  • benefits from twitter at church (don't be twittering at church, people)
  • twitter and churce
  • what the baby using  (For some reason the bad grammar of this one reminded me of how is babby formed)
  • in these difficult financial times (I just put this one here because of the BOL drinking game.  It's not really funny)
  • "jeremy s" fishing blog (excellent use of apostrophe)
  • homologomen (I have no idea what this could mean)
  • what is a verb for a platypus? (Let's try something.  Man, he really platypused that dude.)

Add your own verb for platypus in the comments

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Yet another post about the SBC's declining numbers

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This is the fourth and final in this series of posts all on the same topic - the bad news that came to Southern Baptists last week. I am a Southern Baptist who is proud of my denomination.  I am proud of our stance on scripture and our history as the only denomination to come back from liberalism.  (Just think how far our decline would be if we had progressed in denying the Scriptures.)  I actually enjoy the convention itself.  The business and the preaching is enjoyable to me. I want to see the convention grow, but I only have control over one Southern Baptist - myself.  Likewise, I only have influence in one Southern Baptist Church - LaGrange Park.

So today I am sharing with you a portion of my newsletter article I wrote for May 2009.

Last May I reported to you that the Southern Baptist Convention baptized fewer people for the third straight year, that number is now 4 straight years and for the second year in a row we saw a decline in overall membership.  I would like to offer you a challenge.  Let's not let LaGrange Park be a part of this trend. We are already well on our way to baptizing more people than we did last year, but it will still be a difficult task.  We can, however, accomplish this goal, which is certainly God's will, if we make sharing our faith with our friends, coworkers, schoolmates and family a priority.

This is my prayer:

Father, would you give our church a burning desire to share our faith?  Convict us of the need to live differently from the world (Rom 12:2), to tell others why we have the hope that we have (1 Pet 3:15), and to be winsome and encouraging to the lost world around us.  Burden us the way you burdened Jeremiah (Jer 20:9) because we know that there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11) Thank you for the gift that is salvation, and let us not take it for granted.

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What I will do in light of the SBC's declining numbers

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Yesterday I put together a list of things I would not do in light of the declining numbers in the Southern Baptist Convention.  Today, a list of things I will do. I will witness

I will be faithful those whom God has given me to minister to

I will be proud of my convention

I will affirm the Baptist Faith and Message

I will be a proud signatory to the Great Commission Resurgence statement

I will realize that my message is being pushed further into the fringes of society

I will be willing to speak the truth in love even if it hurts a bit

I will be willing to speak the truth in love even if it hurts a lot

I will attend the SBC as long as my church allows and I can afford it (anybody need to share a hotel in Louisville?)

I will pray before I vote for convention leadership rather than simply voting for the pastor from the largest church

I will share my faith

I will honor those who helped bring the convention to where it is

I will continue believe that the Bible is true in all that it declares

I will pray for the convention leadership

I will listen to those who are wiser than me

I will remember that the gospel is not just about the afterlife but that it instantly makes life better

I will tell others about what Christ did for me

I will encourage other under-40s to participate in denominational life

I will encourage my state convention to pass as much money on to the SBC as possible

I will continue to support the CP

I will remember that God is in control

I will make the gospel central to my message

I don't have any plans to make any further comments beyond this list, but if you want something clarified just ask.  Also feel free to add to this list in the comments

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What I will not do in light of the SBC's declining numbers

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As I was thinking about what I can do to improve my declining denomination I also thought about the reactions that I would probably read and hear from others.  So I decided to put together this list of things I will not do because of the bad news of last week. I will not panic

I will not abandon the convention (unless it abandons me)

I will not change the message of the gospel for the sake of growth

I will not assume that my gospel presentation is the only successful method

I will not look to secular gurus of business growth to learn how to grow the church

I will not teach a lesson in which I do not include a gospel presentation

I will not blame the Calvinists

I will not deny one word of Scripture even if it becomes very unpopular

I will not think that becoming more worldly makes me a more effective evangelist

I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that there is no problem

I will not take joy in the shrinking denomination

I will not assume that a shrinking SBC is a sign of the end times

I will not give more credit to Satan than he deserves

I will not blame everything on Johnny Hunt or Frank Page or Al Mohler

I will not stop giving to the Cooperative Program

I will not go to Catalyst or any other conference in place of the Southern Baptist Convention (I may go, but not instead of the SBC)

I will not assume that my way is the only way to do church

I will not lead my church by surveys or popularity contests but with Christian discernment and the Scriptures

I will not strive for a greater "voice" within the convention.  I will be faithful to those God has called me to minister to

I will not heap undue criticism on those leaders of another generation (older or younger than me)

I will not be hopeless

Feel free to add to this list in the comments.

Tomorrow - What I will do in light of the SBC's declining numbers.