My Thoughts Exactly!

From Fox Sports Forum:

It amazes me just how low some people's standards are when it comes to athletes. They can lie,cheat,steal, beat the hell out of some woman, kill animals for fun, rob someone and yet many have no problem with them playing on their favorite team. Some represent a college that the fan attended and worked dam hard to get a degree from. They just blindly support these thugs who care not one little bit about anything or anyone except themselves. It's all about show me the money! I got news for you boys. There are millions of kids attending college that have very tight finanical situations. Oh, and their having to borrow the money to pay for school not being given a free ride. So excuse me if I don't feel a bit sorry for the players that squander their free ride for a few quick bucks.

My Opinion:
The NCAA is a money racket.

Advent Words from Bonhoeffer

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and martyr. He was also a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender.

A Really Helpful, Meaningful Sermon

Today, our Interim Associate Pastor, Brian Grassley, preached on this Fourth Sunday in Advent. I've never heard the Christmas story presented in this way. The Holy Spirit used Brian today.

If you wish to hear it, go to cpcboise.org

Then, on left side, click on sermon recordings and choose today's sermon, "Born of the Virgin Mary".

You will be blessed, especially second half of sermon.

Planning a Church's Future

When I first became a senior pastor of a sizable church in my early ministry, I soon realized I did not have the skills to manage a larger church effectively. So, when the opportunity arose, I attended a two-week National Institute on Church Management seminar led by two Harvard Business School professors. The planning process I learned was extremely helpful and I soon found myself serving as a consultant (as time permitted), leading local churches in planning their futures. The process I led looked like this:

A. Building a Statement of Purpose characterized by the following:
KISS (keep it simple stupid)
Will the person off the street immediately understand the Mission Statement?
Is it doable?
Is it forward moving?
Is it biblically based and theologically sound?
etc.
[I've seen Mission (Purpose) Statements that are long and winding, uninspiring.]
B. What goals need to be reached for the statement of purpose to be realized? Limit the goals to the five most crucial
I. Goal 1 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
II. Goal 2 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
III. etc
IV. etc
V. etc
C. What objectives, if accomplished, would insure the goals are realized?
1. Objective
2 - ?? etc
D. What strategies, if implimented, would insure the objectives are accomplished?
a. strategy 1
b - e ?? etc.

Recently I noted a number of churches using a similar approach which looks like this:
A. Where have we been?
B. Where are we now?
C. Where do we want to be?
D. How do we get to where we want to be?

Whatever approach is employed, the point is that if a church (or any organizatioin) wants to be relevant, successful, sure of their path to a desired future, serious planning has to be completed, then reviewed/monitored regularly.

Too many local churches are simply maintaining rather than building a planned future. They are reactive rather than proactive. Leaders have no clear idea where and what they want to be -- meaning they haven't seriously sought God's direction for their future. They haven't asked:
Why are we here?
Why has God placed us here at this time in our life as a congregation?
What is it God wants us to be and be doing?
MOST IMPORTANT: Are we willing to risk ourselves to be what God wants us to be?
If we don't know where we're going and how to get there, we'll get nowhere, simpy dog paddling along.

The Holy Spirit is waiting to empower churches of all and any size.

Where Have You Been?

Someone asked, "Where have you been on your travels? Here's some of our favorite sites in the last three years, in no particular order:

Alpine, Texas, at Donna and Manning Davis' ranch:

Scotty's Castle in Death Valley:

John Wayne movie set Gammon's Gulch in Benson, Arizona:

Deer near our site at North Forks RV Park in northeast Idaho, parked on the banks of the Salmon River:

Hoover Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona:

Tombstone, Azirona:

Mackinaw Island, Michigan(near the family compound on the mainland of Mackinaw City):

Fishing the Owyhee River in Oregon:

Talledega, AL, Speedway:

Tybee Island, Savannah, GA:

The Shed (fish camp restaurant) next to Journey's End RV park in Ocean Springs, MS:

Fredriksburg, TX, near Spring Branch RV Park:

Sun Valley, Idaho

Kentucky Horse Farm, Lexington, Man of War

Rodeo, Caldwell, ID:

Pahrump, Nevada at the Terrible's RV Resort:

Lemhi Pass, Salmon, ID...7300+ feet elevation:

A return to Duluth, GA (Johns Creek) to preach in spring '09 at former church:

Trip to Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC, for Homecoming:

Colossal Caverns, near Benson, AZ:

Oxford, MS, for Ole Miss vs LSU game

Salmon Fishing, Lake Michigan

Trout fishing in northen Idaho with the Deliverance Foursome

Date Farm in California's Death Valley (30,000 pounds produced each year)

Bad gang after round of golf at Tetons Jackson Hole, WY, with Buck, Mike & George


NOTE: check back for more photos in near future