This will be the last post probably until we are home. I´ve got over 350 pictures to comb through and good luck finding which ones to post. Remember the Tall Skinny Kiwi? He blogged on the Evangecube and this group from Florida brought them. Yes – I will link it when I get stateside. Yes read more
I´ve signed more autographs in the last 24 hours than U2. It´s nuts. And it gave us the chance to preach the gospel in a public high school in the poor part of Porto Alegre. Evan got the Harry Potter remarks as usual. Michael Wenneker has many marriage proposals to go through when he gets read more
Quick blog for my dad. Happy Birthday – to both of them. Long story. I´m in Brazil ruining teenagers with Jesus and I was thinking about Ron. The guy has ruined me forever. In a good way. Try new things. Push ahead. Keep praying. Trust God. Follow Him down whatever crazy path He takes you. read more
Yesterday was both Feliz Pascoa (Happy Easter) and my dads birthday. You read that right – my dads birthday. Both my stepdad and my dad have the same birthday – long story which will not be told here… We did two services here – the early one (9 AM) was in English. It was okay. read more
I am in a LAN house in Gramado – which is about an hour and half bus ride from Porto Alegre. Beautiful town – but man, I miss the wireless coffee houses and my American Keyboard…minor details, I know. We made it in Sao Paolo, changing airports. The airport was on the other side of read more
Okay – I’m up. I’m rested. I’m ready – sort of. Got to: 1. Pack Laptop case. For those of you who travel alot – you know how important this is. Don’t want it too heavy – BUT must have the essentials. Book. Bible. Journal. DVD Movies. (I know – travelling in the new era) read more
Leave for Brazil Mission Trip tomorrow. It’s my third trip. I love it. It’s about hanging out with teens, being relational, earning the right to be heard, then sharing Jesus. No pretense, just loving on teens. Why won’t that work in the states? I think it does – mostly. Although even I have to admit read more
Guidance is when we help others learn to listen to God. It’s not just ‘good advice’ or wise counsel. It is about helping people discern what God is telling them to do. The Quaker tradition has what is called Clearness Committees. The committee’s job is to ask questions, lots of them. By asking all those read more
Debunking the Myths Sitting across from someone, asking a list of sin management questions, then finally asking if they have lied to you is a poor imitation of accountability. Real accountability is getting ‘on the scale’ to see if the application is working. Ideally, what lifewalking means is that we are ‘in each other’s stuff’ read more
It is not merely enough to study and know God’s word. It must be applied to real life. That is the definition of application – putting the Word of God on our real-life situations. Immediately we are faced with two problems. The first problem can be found with the wonderful WWJD cliché. “What Would Jesus read more
We – the Aimster,me and 16 of our closest friends – leave the country in a little less than 52 hours. That’s nuts. And I’m exhausted. Not curl up in bed for days exhausted – but the “If I talk about one more ‘issue’, I’m gonna open up a can of whip-butt on someone.” And read more
Correction, Spiritual & Functional Our leaders will need correction in order to develop. Let’s first make a distinction between two types of correction. It’s important that all parties involved know the difference AND know which one is the topic of the day. Spiritual Correction is about sin issues. Gossip, slander, breaking confidences, and lying. More read more
Before you get images of standing on the sideline screaming “L-I-F-E!” at your leaders, let’s get a biblical understanding of what encouragment is. Let’s start with Hebrews 10:24-25. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…let us encourage one another. The word encourage means “to make sharp, read more
We are the vision casters. We lift heads up to ‘re-see’ the goal of why we do this. We are the champions for life changing experiences with Jesus. How do we cast vision? Communicate Verbally confirming the goal of encountering Jesus and being changed by Him. Putting the “pursuit of Jesus and His purposes” in read more
John 13:1-14 Jesus does something nobody expected. He washed their feet. At the end of the shocking event He tells them they should do the same. Jesus never asked anything of His followers that He himself did not do. We have to be the same. As coaches not only will we lead out of the read more
Our definition of a coach is clear – we are disciplers of leaders. Specifically Life Group Leaders and Interns. If we, as coaches, are planning and leading a Life Group – we are failing at our prime mission. In fact, it is going to be extremely difficult to lead a Life Group and Coach more read more
I know what you’re thinking…you’re thinking, “Man – that looks a lot like the Intern track.” You’d be right. Now that you are leading a group – some of this stuff is going to be a lot more valuable to you. Plus we’ve thrown in more bonus features for you! Increasing an Intern’s Role, Birthing read more
There are different kinds of tired. There is travelling tired. Kinda groggy but mostly achey. A good cappicinio and/or sleep can help you with that. This guy’s theory is you take care of your feet, you are way ahead of the game. Then there is workout tired. Amy knows all about this. I don’t think read more
Leading a meeting is a good thing to know. Leading a group is better. I think you’ll catch the difference once you go through these sessions. If the purpose of our groups is to encounter Jesus and be changed by Him, that may or may not happen in your meeting. Leading A Group L I read more
There is a difference between leading a meeting and leading a group. Of the two – leading your group is more important. BUT, it is going to be hard to lead your group if you don’t have some skill in leading a meeting. Hopefully these sessions will help. Leading A Meeting Leading A Discussion Inductive read more
These are the disciplines that have to happen in community in order for Spiritual Transformation to take place. These are what marks the difference between a Life Group and just a group of people who meet together. These disciplines can help you evaluate whether or not your group is hitting the bullseye of having life read more
These are the practices (disciplines) that have to happen in the Individual arena in order for us to experience spiritual transformation. They help feed our souls. We want practice these individually to the point that we minister out of the overflow of them. All of that to reinforce what I said earlier – all the read more
This is good stuff, but it’s only half of it. Plus, it’s not all that valuable unless someone is walking through it with you. That’s part of your Life Group Leader’s job. Some of it is going to be “no-brainer” stuff. My advice – don’t spend a lot of time there. Focus instead on the read more
Oh Kansas! What happened? Does anyone even know where Bucknell is? Way to show up, Jayhawks, and lay a freakin’ egg. You should have blown them out of the gym – now, go home and hope Naismith doesn’t roll over and kick you all in the teeth. [will spend the rest of day mumbling, grumbling, read more
I want to talk about airplanes for a second. What? Yeah – airplanes. Which wing is your favorite? The Right Answer: Both. Everyone realizes that you need two wings to fly, so favoring one wing over another is not only ridiculous, but it can get you killed. Let’s transfer that to developing a leader. A read more
Chances are most people are going to bring a New International Version to our small groups. It’s the most popular version of the Bible in the world. So as a leader – be familiar with it. BUT – be familiar with a couple of other versions as well. There are 2 major ways translations differ. read more
A little self-pimping here…notice the new item in the sidebar? Recent comments – a little hack I stumbled upon. If you like it – click on the link at the bottom of feature. If you hover your cursor over the link it will give you the first line of the comment.
I feel terrible. My son – the wonderful one – has a problem most morning remembering his backpack. I realize that I have around 12 more years of this. So this morning, we get to the drop-off and he says – “I forgot my backpack.” Long pause. “I’m sorry, son. That’s part of getting ready read more
What a crock. Are baseball people the only people on the planet that don’t get it? No – obviously our Congress doesn’t get it either. I realize that I have ranted on this twice. But after today’s fiasco – good night. First, we have baseball players and executives saying – well, nothing of substance. Then read more
I’m not as important as I think I am. I’m not as important as you think I am. Neither are you. None of us are. We are all expendable resources of God for His glory and purposes. Does that freak you out? Join the club, we’ve got jackets. To quote the famous Mrs. Beaver, “He’s read more
Backstory: Leadership 101: ServeThis Ain’t No Heirarchy, Buddy! Jerry might be more right than normal on this – haha…my pot shot at my good friend. We might be playing a game of semantics. The point is this – biblical leadership is about serving Jesus, not people. And Jesus was all about doing what God told read more
Remember my friend Steve? We caught another movie together – Hostage. It’s got Bruce Willis and Kevin Pollack in it. Do you know the last movie these two were in? The Whole Ten Yards. That was better – even though it had Matthew Perry (see comments on this post) in it. There is no breathing read more
Trying to intrepret the Bible can be daunting. Fortunately, there are some guidelines to help interpret scripture. Most of this came from the book How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. Essential message of the Bible is clear. Here’s an assignment for you – can you put read more
You are gonna need 2 things to be a strong interpreter. The Holy Spirit and a mind. Believers have a stronger position to understand Bible because of the Holy Spirit inside them. This of course does not mean that every believer is a strong interpreter. There are some other factors. Some one who seeks after read more
If you want the backstory click here. Otherwise, I’m divin’ in. Mark 10:42-45 throws down three huge principles. Principle 1: Leadership isn’t hierarchial. Also see this. Jesus was the leader – hence heirarchy. I’ll agree with fact. I’m not buying the conclusion. Jesus is STILL the leader. He is STILL alive, STILL speaks, STILL directs. read more
The word has its root from the Greek god Hermes, the messenger god. He conveyed meaning or information. Hermeneutics is basically interpreting the Bible with an aim to applying it to today’s world. The first task is to discover what the text meant in its original setting. We call this exegesis. The word means ‘to read more
Mark 5:22-25 Most of us have a mask that we wear. The mask, we think, keeps us safe. It keeps us from being vulnerable so we don’t get hurt. But by the same token it keeps us from being vulnerable so we don’t get healed either. Confession requires risk. The ultimate question that we most read more
All that has been given up to this point will make us better interpreters and better conduits of the Spirit. The disciplines will give us enough “fuel in the tank†to have the ability to minister out of the overflow. That, however, does not always mean will be better communicators of those experiences. So how read more
Asking good questions is going to be key for leading a great Bible study AND other discussion as well. It is not possible to ask too many questions. Opening Questions. These break the ice or introduce a subject matter. These questions are normally low to medium risk. These are supposed to be “safe” questions. The read more
It is never fair to label an individual but there are some personality types that could prove to be more difficult than others. We all want to flex as best we can to help others fit and have an opportunity to experience Jesus. At the same time, we don’t want to sacrifice the goal of read more
Here are some guardrail questions: Does the issue involve someone else or is it just “my stuff?” If it involves someone else, have I attempted to work through the issues with them first? If I haven’t – probably isn’t appropriate. Ultimately, I think it all goes back to purpose. What is the point of me read more
Not everyone shows up and starts vomiting their issues. We will start with low risk, then move to medium risk, and then high risk. Low risk are items like the weather, sports, clothes, or music. Medium risk is when I risk disagreeing with someone. High risk is when I share something that you could hurt read more
If you have more than two people around, you are going to have conflict. If you don’t deal with the conflict, it only gets worse. Left alone, conflict brings with it destruction and bitterness. When we have been wronged and have every right to be bitter, it is important to remember why we confront. Biblical read more
Here is what one Life Group Covenant looks like. We commit to: Meeting weekly for community times together, worshipping together, and studying God’s word together. Serving others outside of our group on a bi-monthly basis. Coming prepared to the group by praying for one another and studying God’s word. Holding each other accountable Pray for read more
A mini-sermon to help understand the importance of a covenant. We need community. God created us for community (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:18-25). What held the community together? God did by setting in place a set of common values and expectations that everybody understood and agreed to. However, sin destroyed this community (Genesis 3). God redeemed it read more
Highlights about the life cycle The first two – Show up and Shed skin – almost always happen in that order. Those are the two key questions that every person MUST HAVE ANSWERED before they will choose to be vulnerable OR fit a LIFE Group in their schedule. People will not be vulnerable with people read more
So we show up at our first LIFE Group meeting and all of this just happens, right? We immediately start hammering on the 5 spiritual disciplines and LIFE. Yeah, right. If you have spent anytime at all in a group, you know it takes time to build trust. So how does a group move from read more
The purpose of a LIFE Group is to have a life-changing encounter with Jesus. That is the BULLSEYE we are shooting after. The outcome of these experiences will be fully mature believers of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). So how do you get from the purpose to the outcome? The acronym LIFE is a tool to help read more
Suppose we have a LIFE Group that is loving, caring and all the warm fuzzy words you can imagine. Tina is a member of this group and she has a problem with gossip. She is a member of this LIFE Group for a year. She continues to gossip and the group continues to love her read more
So let’s put what we know so far together. Our mission, as given by Jesus, is the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. The manner in which this best happens is out of the overflow of a life-changing experience with Jesus. The arena we think this best happens in is the Life Group. Transformation Transformation read more
It’s not enough to know the reason behind LIFE groups and the bullseye. We need some structure to get anything out of it. Having blueprints are great, but it is better to have an actual building. The ideal size of a LIFE group is between 10 to 15 people. It is very hard for a read more
How To Use This Site Interns Why are we here? Why Life Groups? Our Structure Purpose Of A Life Group Spiritual Transformation, 101 Framing Inner Disciplines Prayer, Audio Meditate (Marinate) on God’s Word, Audio* Basic Hermeneutics Being a Strong Interpretor Big Picture Theology All Those Versions Worship Silence & Fasting, Audio Serve, Audio Life Group read more
I think the best place to have a life changing encounter with Jesus is in community. It’s not the only place – I myself love to be alone on a ridge with Jesus looking at the sunset. It’s an encounter with Jesus to be sure. And to some extent it is life changing. But the read more
The definition of a clueless leader is one who doesn’t know where he is going and why he is going there. That is what a mission and vision gives. Fortunately for us, our vision and mission as believers has been given to us already by God. I call it GC2. It’s where the Great Commission read more
Ran across this quote on the comments section of this post. I think I like the guy who wrote it but I disagree with his quote. I dont think the problem is the congregation. The problem is a lack of leadership that has knowledge of how to lead. I have been in churches where the read more
This is the shirt Wayne got me from Hard Rock, San Fran. The minute I saw it – it became my favorite one so far. Check out the city skyline on the guitar! Thanks, Wayne and sorry about your Tigers…my Tide didn’t do so well either. Nothing like stumbling into the NCAA’s.
Arkansas gets a lot of grief – the inbreeding, the education level, and the unoffical state motto of “Thank God for Mississippi.” There is one thing about Arkansas that us “ferners” have come to love – it is a beautiful state. Exhibit A: Wye Mountain My young arrows in the daffodils. It was breathtaking. It’s read more
This is the Brethen built church that is now home for Methodist worshippers (what do you think about that Rey?). It’s right next to the daffodil field.
I need to put a HUGE warning sign over this next section. While I believe it is important that we as leaders know how to lead a Bible Study and communicate it creatively and effectively, I just as strongly believe that if we led a Bible Study every single week in our LIFE Groups we read more
First the apology – to MCF. I normally read his blog – he makes me laugh. But because he is so…um – let’s say ‘thorough’ in his writing, I haven’t had time to check in on him. My bad, bro. Which leads me to this – Blog Party II (aren’t roman numerals great?). Top 3 read more
A buddy of mine went to a church leadership meeting the other day (no, I didn’t make that one). He said something that was really funny yet really sad. He said that most of the guys at this meeting equated ‘emergent church’ with burning candles and incense. We both laughed – pretty hard. But it read more
My good friend Wayne is at the most exciting conference in the world in San Francisco. He said if I was nice, he’d get me a shirt. So – head over to his blog – leave him a nice comment. Maybe I’ll get the shirt. And the peasants rejoiced….Love All, Serve All baby!!!
I’m in a bad mood. Halo is in order tonight. Plus, the whole Michael Sicko Jackson. Did you know that some media outlets have started calling him Jacko? Inappropriate? Maybe. Funny. You betcha. Then you got the French. Only in Paris would the unions go on strike the same day the IOC was in town read more
Ya’ll know how anti-celebrity I am… (By the way, don’t you hate posts/conversations that start like this? It’s like someone who says – “You know I hate to complain…” or “I’m not a gossipper…” or “I’m not one to disagree…” It’s a sure sign that they are about to exactly do that. It makes you read more
I thought about naming this post “Things You’d Never Hear At A Christian School” but – it wouldn’t fit on the sidebar and you never know these days. I went to lunch at Carver today to eat with Cooper. The whole family went. It was…noisy. I love going to Cooper’s school. He’s a minority there read more
I love our parents at Grace – for the most part. They brag about me alot. In this last week, I’ve met/run into/e-conversed with people who have been “referred” by our parents. I’m flattered. I’m also scared. I seriously think “our” parents are ruined. We’ve ruined them into thinking that every parent and teen WANTS read more
I’m debating on whether to tell Coop about this or not. I mean – arguably the greatest chess player to ever live – fighting over a boiled egg? As another comment to the story – let Iceland have him. I think people feel the same way about the condition of Bobby Fischer as they do read more
A cyber head nod to Rey at The Bible Archive for doing this. bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now… Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho read more
I’m in Amos 5 right now. (Yeah, figure out my Bible reading yet??) Verses 21-23 are haunting. How in the world do you get to a place that your worship is viewed as NOISE to God? Historically – it’d be real easy to explain this verse. Culturally, it’d be real easy to excuse myself as read more
Ok, I only dig one and her she is. She ran the half in 2:05 and change. That’s under a 10 minute mile – which in my humble opinion is awesome. Amy’s Commentary on the Race: The Bridge was ok – nothing like Budapest. Governor’s Mansion was awesome. Running by Church’s Chicken at mile 10 read more
Amy runs in the Little Rock Marathon tomorrow morning. Actually she is running in the half-marathon. Which is exactly 13 more miles than I’ll ever run. They are live webcasting the race. We drove the route today – it is actually a very cool race route – by The Trailer aka Clinton Library, Alltel Arena, read more
This guy right here has probably had more influence on me as a pastor than any other man – minus my two dads (Ron and Big Tom) – in my life. I’ll give you the quick bio about him. His name is Gene Wilkes. His bride is Kim. Gene is the pastor of Legacy Church read more
Ever have one of those weeks? Virginia had one of those days. Wayne had a bloggers block. Brett Harkey finally found some time to uncork. I think I envy my brother-in-law the most. Read that post to see why. And Rob is just impatient…maybe. Me – I’m fried. Crazy week. And tomorrow night – I read more
Since I was a kid my two favorite basketball teams have been Kentucky and Kansas. Kentucky – I lived there for a few years and well, when in Rome… Kansas – I just thought they had the coolest uniforms in college basketball. Plus, I loved the way the Jayhawks played. Tough man to man all read more
I love student leaders. I do. Even when they make bonehead decisions. I’m in the middle of a situation right now that – let’s say, is going to require some finesse. Yes – I do have some finesse in the tool kit, I just seldom choose to use it. It reminds me a situation we read more
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