New Life Assembly

Generous on Average

I'll have you know that you're keeping me from my afternoon coffee.  I made myself a deal that I wouldn't go get my coffee until I had finished writing my blog, so in a weird way, you're helping keep me accountable to my goals.  Thanks for that.  I couldn't have done it without you.

But now that you're here, let's talk a little bit more about generosity.  You may think we exhausted that topic with the message on Sunday, but I'm pretty sure we were just scratching the surface of the subject.  And just in case you're feeling a little threatened, here's what I'll do for you - I'll just talk about my issues with generosity, and let you see if any of it resonates with you.

I tend to think of myself as a fairly generous person.  I'm not so generous that I'm giving out money to homeless people on the street of the city when I walk by them, but I'm not so stingy that I wouldn't pay for a friend's dinner or coffee.  I'm generous enough that I give over and above 10% of my income, but not so generous that I think I'd be willing to get really radical and sell my possessions to give money to the poor or needy, even if I knew them really well.

In other words, I think I'm just about average in generosity.

And that's the problem.

I measure my generosity based on what other people around me do.  I measure my giving based on percentages and then think about what my neighbors do (or don't) give to charity and I start to feel almost saintlike.  Then other days I have a conversation with someone else whose generosity even out of their lack of resources absolutely puts me to shame, and then I start to feel like a selfish, ungrateful, stingy Scrooge. 

As long as I measure my generosity against someone else's, I'll probably always vacillate between those two feelings.  But when I start to measure my generosity by the standard of God's grace extended to my life, suddenly generosity comes into more clarity and definition for me.  When I consider, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8, the incredible grace of Jesus towards me that caused him to impoverish himself so that I might become rich, my generosity consistently feels insufficient.

Perhaps that's why Paul was insistent on not giving the Corinthian church a percentage to give, but told them to look inside their hearts to see what they were going to give to God's work.  I don't think it's because he didn't believe in a principle of tithing.  Rather I think it's because he believed that if they understood grace they would never want to stop giving generously of their resources for God's work.  If I ever grasped grace, my tendency to do the least and to measure myself against someone else would be swallowed up in the ocean of God's great grace in my life.  

My goal is to live a more generous life that better reflects Jesus' grace in my life.  Practically speaking that means that I don't settle for stagnancy in my giving to God's work.  A long time ago Rita and I settled that we were going to give 10% of our income and live on the rest.  But since then we've also made the decision to increase that percentage every year if it's at all possible.  We've also found that living within our means has allowed us to be more generous on those occasions when we become aware of needs in the lives of people around us.  

We certainly haven't figured this out, and truthfully even though I know we're more generous than we were 10 years ago, I still don't think we've arrived at the place God wants us to be.  I suppose that this area of my life, like any other area of spiritual growth, requires constant evaluation and commitment to step away from what's comfortable into greater dependence on God.  

What would you do if you moved towards a more generous life today?

Why I CrossFit (and Church)

For the last 12 years of my life I've paid much more attention to my physical well being than I have at any point in my life before that.  I remember the day I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office at the age of 25 to see it reading 240 pounds.  I remember the day my grandmother in her most well-intentioned but direct way told me that I was (how do I say this delicately?) more well-endowed than my sister.  Not long after that Rita and I found out that she was pregnant with our first child. 

It was a perfect storm of sorts for me.  I was terribly overweight, out of shape, and even my grandmother was making fun of my body.  Something had to change.  I went on Weight Watchers and lost nearly 40 pounds.  Then I gained a lot of it back.  Then I lost it again.  Then I started exercising in addition to dieting and I maintained my weight.  Then I gained some back and lost it again.  I started lifting weights at the YMCA with a friend, which made me feel stronger but when I had to start lifting on my own, I found my motivation lacking.

So about nine months ago, in hopes of getting stronger and more fit I walked into our local CrossFit gym (affectionately known as a "box") to see if this was what I was looking for.  From the first free introduction class on a Saturday morning I was hooked.  It was seven minutes of pure agony that made my hour long workouts at the YMCA seem like a Sunday nap.  I knew I was in for pain when the coach said to all the newbies that the "warm up" would be worse than our regular workout.  He was right.

But I came back.  I signed up for the On Ramp class to get introduced to the basics of CrossFit, and then I started joining regular workouts.  I had found something that I thought would make a huge difference in my pursuit of physical fitness.  And in the process I found some interesting parallels between what was happening in the gym and what happens in my life in the church.  The same reasons that I loved my church were the reasons I kept coming back to CrossFit:

• I needed a coach.  I needed someone to look at me from outside and evaluate what I was doing.  I needed help figuring out when my form would break down.  I needed another set of eyes to watch me as I learned how to lift in ways I'd never lifted before.  Sometimes I need the reminder not to burn through the beginning of a long workout too quickly.  Other times I need the coach to stand beside me and refuse to let me drop the bar even though everything inside me wants to.  In other words, I found that the coaches function like I want to function as a pastor in my church.  I pray for my words to be well timed and provide encouragement to those who are tired and challenge to those who need to be stirred up.  There are times that I want to just provide another set of eyes to someone in my church so that they can see the ways that God has been working in their lives.
• The Community.  When I worked out at the Y I drove to the gym by myself, put in my workout by myself with my music playing, and then walked out the door alone.  I've found that the sense of shared experience at CrossFit is a huge piece of what makes it meaningful to me.  We talk before a workout, then we experience the shared blood, sweat and tears of a workout, and when it's over we bump fists or shake hands and stack up weights together to get ready to do it all over again the next day.  While CrossFit supports my quest for physical fitness, the church provides the same sense of community for my spiritual fitness.  We share that Sunday morning experience or a small group environment together and when we do, we're taken to a place where we are no longer individuals, but where we are the church united in worship of our God as we move closer to him.  I grow more as a follower of Jesus in community than I ever would on my own.
• Fitness.  I've never been much of an athlete.  I played sports as a kid, but as I got older my life had gotten more sedentary.  CrossFit has allowed me the chance to compete (albeit against myself) again in a way that has felt more purposeful than spending 30 minutes on an elliptical machine ever did.  As a result I'm more physically fit and capable than I've probably ever been in the past.  I needed a push in this direction, and CrossFit provided it for me.  But more important than my physical fitness is my spiritual fitness.  CrossFit specifically doesn't train for specialization, but for being generally fit and capable of doing more work.  I think spiritual fitness is much the same.  Sometimes I think we can specialize in one area of our spiritual fitness to the neglect of others, and that doesn't prepare us well for actual life.  We need to be ready for the spiritual demands of a life that often presents us with challenges that we've never seen before, and my spiritual fitness community (a.k.a. my church) gives me the place to work out that fitness.

 

 

"Mother's Day" Monday Reflections

In my ongoing efforts to be (a) more disciplined, and (b) more creative, I'm working on a new blogging schedule.  For a long time I've been just going once a week, but starting this week I'm shooting for two.  I think the Monday post will be probably a bullet point download of everything I can think of from the previous weekend, and then later in the week I'll try to write on something more substantive.

So, enough chitchat...let's get to the point.

• Rita spent Friday and Saturday with my mom, my sister and my sister-in-law out on the Cape for what has become their annual "ladies weekend" away.  I think she got some refreshing time away from the kids, and I did my best to keep up with everything she usually does.  What did I realize?  I wouldn't be a good single dad, and I still hate laundry.
• Mother's Day weekend was tougher for me than I thought it would have been.  Every card I wrote made me tear up thinking about my dad, even though they were for the moms in my life.  I finally understood how difficult these days can be for those who DON'T have the one they love around any longer.  It's yet another reminder that the more I age and experience different stages of life, the more God uses those moments to soften my heart as a pastor.  
• Yesterday was a great day at New Life on lots of accounts, but one of my favorites was listening to Jason bring the message.  He's grown so much in both his content and his confidence as a speaker, and I thoroughly enjoyed his message on why we do groups at New Life.
• Speaking of which - we do groups at New Life so that we can each have the opportunity to grow deeper in relationship to God and in community with each other.  But maybe the best question Jason asked yesterday was, "Why don't you?"  Food for thought when we come around to the fall and open up new groups again.
• While we've gone away from doing much in the way of morning announcements on Sunday, we are trying to make sure that we keep everyone in the loop of what's happening.  Our newest way to do that is through text message updates.  If you're interested in getting those about once a week, text "nla" followed by your name to 59769 and you'll be signed up to receive those.  
• Block Party is coming soon (June 22)!!!  We got our postcards to hand out and send out this past week, so be sure to pick some of those up to use for inviting your friends to the party this year.
• We've got another 21st Century addition to what we're doing at New Life that we're going to unveil this Sunday.  I won't tell you what it is, but it definitely has the potential to make your life easier. 
• Last but not least, I received a few positive comments about what I shared regarding Mother's Day at the end of service.  I should point out that my thinking was shaped in part by this post on another blog.  What follows is the text I wrote and read from yesterday:

Mother’s day probably captures the full spectrum of human emotions:

Joy to sadness,
Hope to despair,
Laughter to anger,
Peace to fear,
Security to doubt,
Trust to worry,
And everything in between.

That’s the case because no one here has walked exactly the same road to this point.

Some of us today are celebrating because we’re with our moms, or because our kids are sitting next to us, happy, healthy, and in right relationship.
Some of us today are grieving the loss of our own mothers, either through death or a separation that’s not of our own making.

Maybe someone here just found out they’re pregnant for the first time, and there’s a tremendous amount of hope springing up in your heart.
Maybe others of us despair because we’ve prayed for God to give us a child, and he still hasn’t answered.

Some of us are going to laugh with our moms later when we remember the great times we’ve shared together.
And others of us might silently seethe with anger that our mom never quite lived up to the promise of that name.

Some of us are caring for children that are not our children by birth, but are children by choice and by heart and find peace and contentment.
Others of us are afraid that those children we’ve birthed are making choices that are leading them down a darker, more dangerous path.

Some of us have tremendous security in being a daughter, a friend, a mentor and a child of God and don’t weep to not be a wife or mother.
Others of us are doubting our own worth because we haven’t filled the role that we thought we would have by now.

And in all of these emotions, all of these moments, we find God present with us in unique ways.  And all of you ladies may, at different times, feel any one of these emotions, or any number of them at the same time.  But in all of them we, your church community, want to honor you – mothers, grandmothers, foster mothers, adoptive mothers, spiritual mothers, daughters, sisters – as gifts to us from God.  

 

Good Words, Good Work

"Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth;
an outsider, and not your own lips."
Proverbs 27:2

Twice in the last two days I received some praise that was both sincere and unexpected.  Both were about areas that I have consciously worked on in the last several years of my life, and both were deeply gratifying.  There is a difference between sincere praise and flattery, and I think both of these compliments were given with a genuine heart.

Do you know what happened as a result of those?  It strengthened my resolve to keep making progress in those areas.  One related to the work I'm doing to try to take care of my body better, and one was related to some leadership lessons I've been learning over the years.  And in both cases I walked away from those very brief statements thinking that I should keep up the good work because it's really making a difference.

And then I thought how often I might withold praise from someone else, either out of pure neglect, or out of some deeper fear that praise will "go to their head" when it's offered.  I thought about how stingy I can be with words of encouragement at times, and how effective a well-timed word of praise can be in encouraging another person to move in the right direction.

When it comes to changes in my own life, I'm very willing to see the sacrifices I've made and the commitments I've made as these incredibly difficult, challenging things. But when I look at someone else working to change in their lives, I tend to minimize it, to see it as a minor improvement at best, or to ignore it completely.  

So today I felt like asking myself, and you, what if we just took an extra moment today to pay a sincere, well-deserved compliment to someone else?  What good might come from that praise?  What might your wife think when she heard your words?  What might your kids think when they hear your encouragement instead of your correction?  What might your friend, your boss, or your coworker think when you offer a genuine acknowledgement of something they've done well?

We might find that those struggling through a challenging moment find fresh strength to face the day.  Those wondering about the value of the changes that they're making as they follow Jesus might keep at it for another season because someone else noticed the difference.  Those in places of leadership above you might lead with more diligence and more attention as a result.  

The Scriptures (in Galatians 6:9) remind us that we should not grow weary in doing good for God's Kingdom, because in time we will reap the results of that work.  Let's face it, sometimes we need to hear that word of encouragement from someone else, because the road can feel lonely.  Don't hold back from someone else what you would want offered to you. 

Of Les Mis, Lecrae and Les Sox...

I'm hoping that Tuesday's 45 degrees and rain was winter's last, desperate attempt to make my life miserable.  And let me tell you, winter succeeded, because every time I walked outside Tuesday I immediately felt at least 50% worse than I did while I was inside.

Guess what?  It's time for another blog post of random, disconnected thoughts!!  I know you're super excited for this, so here goes:

• I finally finished Les Miserables (the book version) last week.  What an incredibly rich, beautiful and redemptive story!  I found myself in tears at the end of the story, overcome with the rich imagery of a man who gives his life for others so selflessly.  I couldn't help but see the Christian parallels throughout the story.
• Then I watched the recent film version, and confirmed again that I don't think any movie can ever possibly compare to the rich experience of reading a book.  There's just too much stripped away to get to the visual storytelling that has to happen in a movie.  And believe me, I get it that film and the page are totally different media, but I still prefer a great book to a great movie.
• I can't think of Les Miserables without thinking of a few people in High School who were passionate fans of the musical.  And now I can't think of High School without remembering that when June rolls around I will officially have been a High School graduate for 20 years.  How did that happen?
• In my neverending effort to get myself cultured I also went to a rap concert a couple weeks back.  No, it wasn't Snoop Lion (or whatever he's calling himself these days).  It was a guy named Lecrae who my kids happen to think is the greatest thing since peanut butter and chocolate.  And while rap/hip hop is definitely not my favorite music genre, I have to admit that Lecrae's passion for the gospel was clear, his message was incredibly uplifting, and I actually enjoyed myself.  Also my daughter thought it was a win that I decided not to publicly embarrass her by showing off my dance moves.  That said, I stand by what I told her:  my dance moves rock.
• I have some great friends in so many different areas of my life.  I spent Friday night with a few of them laughing, talking and generally enjoying the good, bad and funny things about my life.  Last week I had coffee with a friend who is a mentor to me in life and ministry who was in town for a couple weeks from Indonesia.  I spent several hours Friday afternoon with another friend who always helps me dream bigger dreams for God's Kingdom in my life and my church.  It's amazing how good friendships enrich my life, and how good God is to have brought those people into my life.
• In a couple weeks Rita and I are getting to spend a night up in Boston.  We're seeing Needtobreathe in concert at the House of Blues and then have the day to ourselves in the city.  I'm not sure how different, if at all, it will feel post-Marathon Monday, but I do know that my love for that city has only increased as a result.  Can't wait to be there, and especially can't wait to be there with Rita who is, above all, the greatest gift God has given me.
• Speaking of Boston, how about them Red Sox?
• Speaking of them Red Sox, I sure do wish I could talk about them with my dad again.  He would have LOVED this team.

Stop and Go

I've been in a writing rut recently.  This usually happens to me when I get overly busy with all the other elements of my life, and this season certainly qualifies.  I realized on Sunday as I was teaching about burying gifts and refusing to use them, that in this area I was probably as guilty as anybody.  So I spent 10 minutes in a little writing exercise that I thought would be my blog for this week.  

And then I accidentally deleted it.

And then I had a little fit.

And then I realized that maybe the writing exercise wasn't what I was supposed to blog.  Maybe instead I was supposed to blog what I learned about while I was writing.  So here's what I learned when I finished the statement, "If I could, I would..."

Stop making excuses.  Stop telling yourself that you're too busy, or too tired, or too stressed, or too frustrated, or too burdened to do whatever it is that you know God is asking you to do.  Stop quitting when it gets difficult.  Stop walking away from difficult conversations and from the people you need to have those conversations with.  Stop selling yourself short, and stop telling God that he can't do anything with the gifts and talents he gave you.  

Just stop.

And then go.  Go spend some time alone with God and let his word shape your heart more than your fears or the faces of the people you imagine are going to criticize you when you step into God's purpose for your life.  Go write, go spend time with the neighbor who needs your presence, go tell your spouse that you've been wrong and need forgiveness.  Go and be the person God is sending into the world to represent Jesus to your neighborhood, your school, your workplace.  

Stop and Go. 

S.O.A.P. Plan

In light of our January focus on prayer and fasting at New Life, I wanted to give you a possible resource or approach to your daily reading and prayer for your prayer journals.  It's not a new approach, nor one that is original to me, but I think it could be helpful to you.

It's called the S.O.A.P. plan, and is based on recording four things each day.  The first is the Scripture you read (S). The second is any Observations (O) you make about the text.  What do you notice about the passage? Is there anything that is repeated that is important and catches your attention?

The third aspect is Application (A), and really deals with what you want to do as a result of what you've read.  How can you make the text come alive in your life?  What changes do you need to make to apply this truth to your life?  The final aspect is Prayer (P).  This is a place to write down your prayer in response to what you've read, observed, and want to apply.

It's a pretty simple format, but highly effective especially if you're just developing the reading and praying habit.  Below is my S.O.A.P. plan from today based on our reading in 1 Peter 5.

Burton James McNamar: August 10, 1945 to October 27, 2012

"And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Several years ago I was reminded of these words by the poet, Dylan Thomas, as my father struggled through the winter.  His breathing, which had become more labored and difficult through the few years leading up to those moments had deteriorated badly.  He was hospitalized for several days on different occasions both before and after Christmas.  I couldn't help but think at the time that he, like his father before him, was going to die just before we got to celebrate.  

In my heart, something strange happened.  I accepted the possibility that I would one day live my life without my father.  I prayed for his healing, and hoped for the recovery of his strength, but I knew then what I had never really known before:  my Dad was not invulnerable.  He had been through surgeries before.  I had seen him weakened, and then recovered.  He had been through surgeries even before I was born.  He had fought a long, at times losing, battle just to be alive.  But never before had I thought that death would win.  Always I expected him to get back up, walk back through the door at the house by the lake, and fill up the corners of my life with his presence again.

True to form, he did just that.  He recovered, some would even say miraculously.  He worked on his breathing, trying to learn how to improve the quality of his life.  He eventually started working out at the local YMCA, carrying his oxygen tank with him on the treadmill, into the pool, and even into the Nautilus room where I never saw him, but always imagined him working on his bicep curls.  The first time I ever walked into the Y with him, everyone at the desk lit up at his approach.  He was, as I would have expected, both known and liked, because he always had the time to talk, and more importantly the time to listen.  I joked that he was the mayor of the Y, but when his local branch chose to honor a "Member of the Year" a few months ago, Dad was the one they chose.

He kept working, kept raging against the dying of the light, but the last few months brought even more tears as he labored to push back the darkness of death and let in the light.  Last week he decided to attempt a rather risky surgery to try to alleviate some of his difficulty breathing.  I don't know that I fully appreciated the risks when he talked with me about it, but I think he did.  He made it through the initial surgery, but as he recovered one of his lungs began to leak air.  When they went in to repair the lung, the surgeons were unsuccessful.  I heard from my sister as I drove from Rhode Island to Connecticut that I needed to get there soon.

I spent the rest of the drive with tears running down my face as the potential reality of a few years earlier became the actual reality in my heart.  I was going to live the rest of my life without my father.  On Saturday evening, at around 6:20, my father won his long battle, even while I lost mine.  The light faded in his eyes, but I'm convinced it was only a moment before he opened the eyes of his soul in the bright light of eternity.

His death has left an enormous void in my life, and the lives of so many others.  To say I will miss him doesn't seem to do justice to the weight of his life.  His presence filled up the empty spaces of my life.  He was in every major moment of my life - both the good ones and the bad ones - and he always made those moments more significant by his presence.  He won't be there for the rest of those life moments.  He won't see the kids graduate from college, or get married, or celebrate with Rita and me when we've been married for 25 years.  He won't be there with us physically, but I'll carry his memory with me into those moments, and hope that his presence still fills them up when I get there.

 

Holy Saturday

Some days I think the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday must get the short end of the stick.  While I know some traditions observe services on this day, we never have in any of the churches I've been around.  Yesterday evening we celebrated Good Friday with a number of other local churches as we gathered to remember the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for us.  Tomorrow morning our church, along with thousands of others, will celebrate the epoch-making event of Christ's resurrection.  Some will do so with paegants, others with musicals, others with dramatic presentations, and others in a quiet, understated way.

But what about Saturday?  I thought about that this morning when I woke up, and then several times again throughout the day.  The first Good Friday would have been a brutal day to be a disciple of Jesus.  They had misunderstood so much of Jesus' message throughout his three years that they couldn't have fully understood the significance of his death at the time.  Their hopes and dreams for a restored kingdom of Israel had been crucified along with Jesus on the cross.

And the first Easter Sunday must have been equally as dramatic - just on a much more positive note.  All of a sudden the Jesus whom they had seen crucified on Friday has unexpectedly turned up again, revealing himself to restore their hopes and dreams, but in a totally different light.  There's an empty tomb, word of angels sitting on large stones in front of that empty tomb, and whispers about Jesus' appearance to Mary, and then to some others who talked with him on the road to Emmaus, and finally, there he is standing in the middle of a locked room inviting them to believe that somehow he had conquered death, and was as much King of Israel now as he had ever been.

But what about Saturday?  Did they go to the synagogue to worship, to pray, to cry out their laments in the Psalms?  Did they hear the readings from the Torah, or from the Prophets, and feel in their hearts that maybe they had been deceived all this time as they had followed Jesus?  If Friday was a dark day, I wonder if Saturday wasn't even darker - darker in the way that it feels like night falls when the reality sets in after a tragedy has occurred. 

Saturday they must have been processing what this loss of hope meant for them.  Perhaps they gathered together to talk about it, or maybe it's more likely that they decided not to see each other because to see each other again would suddenly have made Jesus' absence all the more immediate.  Maybe they spent the day weeping, or maybe they spent the day in frustration and anger, knowing that the next day they would have to get back to work, get back to life as it had been before Jesus showed up, knowing that they would now have to get on with whatever it was they were going to get on with now that he was gone.

Saturday is the in-between day, the in-between place.  It's a mysterious day because we don't really know what's happening - the Scriptures are totally silent on Saturday.  It's like a big, dramatic pause in the story.  Tension builds as the pause extends past expectation and on into the uncomfortable silence range.  And still we wait, not knowing what will happen, or when it will happen, or if anything will happen at all.  We don't like Saturday because we can't control it. 

Friday we can process with Scripture showing us that Jesus had to die, and that his death bought our salvation.  Sunday we can celebrate because it brings a satisfying, happily-ever-after ending to the events.  Saturday is much more elusive, but yet still seems necessary to the story somehow, like a Saturday morning resurrection would have been just a bit premature, like God the Father as he was telling the story wanted to make sure that there was enough tension in there for the resolution on Sunday to be all the more satisfying.

So tonight as I write, pray, and think about Sunday, I'm trying to remember not to rush there yet.  I'm trying to allow Saturday to do its work in me and my story, and to inspire me to tell the Sunday resolution in an even more hopeful, powerful, dramatic way tomorrow.

Apropos of Nothing

Here are just a few thoughts that keep coming back to the surface in my brain on life, leadership, church, and the world in general:

• Just because it's hard, doesn't mean it's wrong.  Just because it's easy, doesn't mean it's right.  This is something I have to constantly remind myself of as a man, a husband, a father, and a pastor.  The easy choices are so attractive to me, and the hard conversations, hard questions, and hard choices look so unappetizing.  I do know (from experience and observation) that the easy choice leads to a path that looks easier for a while, but which will eventually land me in a position where the right choice will be even harder to make.  If you're wondering about that, just take a look at the whole situation with the Penn State sexual abuse scandal.  If just one person along the way had the courage to make a hard choice, imagine the kids whose lives might have been altered.  But the more you hide, the more you take the easy way out, the harder it becomes to get back on track.  Big scandals don't happen with one bad choice, they happen because people or organizations get in the habit of making the easy choice rather than the hard one.
• At our last Catalyst meeting with leaders from our ministry network around Southern New England I was reminded of an idea that comes from the author, Jim Collins.  The most important question is not "what?", but "who?"  The most important choice is not your strategy for climbing the mountain, but who your climbing partners will be.  I'm very grateful to be making the climb from a good to great church with some great people here at New Life. 
• I've also been reflecting quite a bit on Andy Stanley's talk from the 2010 Catalyst Conference, where he said that not every challenge you face is a problem to be solved, but that sometimes you are seeing a tension to be managed.  The longer I lead, the more I realize that there are always tensions to be managed in church life.  Among others, right now at New Life we're trying to manage the tensions between being accessible to new and young believers and providing enough in the way of teaching and opportunities for more seasoned believers to keep growing and serving.  We're also trying to manage the tension between having freedom in our worship and having order to our service that allows un-churched and de-churched people to have a clear understanding of Jesus and the gospel.  These aren't easy tensions to manage, but they're necessary ones.  I'll always hope to have your patience as we try to navigate through them in a way that allows us to do our best work.
• When I don't read enough I get stale in my thinking.  I feel a large, book-buying binge coming on.
• We made our first significant hire here at the church about a month ago when we brought on Sally Genest to manage all of our communications at New Life.  Over time I've realized that while I'm good at communicating in a teaching environment on Sunday morning, I'm not great at communicating thoughts, ideas, and important details outside of that realm.  Sally was already doing so much work in this realm that it made sense that we would hire her to keep doing what she was already doing.  I'm so glad we made this move for so many reasons, not the least of which is that after 12 years of essentially being a one-person staff, it's really nice to have someone around the office during the day.  
• I love my new iPhone.  Siri-ously love it.
• I wish that stores would allow us to celebrate Thanksgiving before we celebrate Christmas.  Maybe as I get older I get more crotchety about stuff like this, but it really annoys me that Thanksgiving gets no play culturally while Christmas dwarfs the whole two months of November and December.  Call me crazy, but I wonder if part of the reason that we're losing the soul of Christmas as a true season of generosity is because we've forgotten how to be truly thankful for what we have received.  I wonder if the church could be a refuge from that.  In fact, that's what we'll be talking about in both the current series of messages and the four weeks leading up to Christmas.
• Speaking of Christmas - this year it falls on Sunday so we'll have both Christmas Eve service at 7:00 PM on the 24th and Christmas Day service on the 25th at 9:00 AM.  Looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior with the best church on the planet!