It was quite the weekend here at Casa de Felker. I hit up a concert VIP-style, I wogged a 5k, spent the evenings with my beautiful wife, and reached a milestone with my online relationships. For more on each of these events keep reading.
RUSH Concert
I have never considered myself a fan of RUSH before but I have enjoyed and appreciated their music in the past. This concert was incredible. It is hard to believe that three people could put out that level of sound. Their musicianship, stage presence, and visuals were outstanding. Perhaps my favorite part of the night was when the South Park kids (as “Lil’ Rush”) introduced the song “Tom Sawyer” on the video screen. Hilarious!!! I got the VIP hook up from a friend at church and was able to enjoy the second half of the concert from the VIP box. It was a great concert and and great night. Except…
Race for the Cure
I shouldn’t have stood for three hours at the concert because I had the Race for the Cure bright and early on Saturday morning. This was my very first 5k and although the main goal was to just finish I was able to finish just under my target time. I lost a few minutes of time waiting on the portajohn and i wasted some time maneuvering around moms and their strollers but all in all I finished strong. I can’t wait for my next race!
501
Today I added my 501st friend on Facebook. This is kind of a big deal for me as I have personally met every one of the people listed as my friends (even Dave Ramsey). This is a pretty big milestone and I appreciate everyone of you who have added me as your friend. If you haven’t added me as your friend please drop me a message on Facebook. I was going to offer a prize for my 500th friend but the number snuck up on me and I wasn’t prepared. Maybe I’ll have something planned for the 550th. 🙂
Hope you have a great week!
I have been just living inside of a great study on the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA.
Last summer, Chan preached a 7-part series on the Holy Spirit to his congregation and I have just now been able to begin working through the podcasts. Chan is an incredible teacher and his passion and desire for God is made evident when he is expressing this gift.
The podcasts have been great but I have been able to go deeper into the study by following the small group study page Cornerstone provides their people. (they are available for every lesson on the Cornerstone website. Main>Media>Sermons)
I have never heard lessons on the Holy Spirit this revealing, tempered, and powerful. Like Chan, I too believe that our greatest sin to the people we lead is neglecting the power of the Spirit.
The last few days have been eye opening for me. I have been able to approach this (too often) delicate subject without fear and trepidation. I have just found myself meditating and marveling at some passages of scripture that I feel like I have missed over the years.
My heart is so full right now that I find it difficult to put my thoughts in blog form.
The long and short of it is this: the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, sent from the Father, is a mysterious truth that we will never fully understand. I am grateful that through these podcasts and through the Word of God I am scratching the surface of this mystery.
Discussion Question:
Why do we neglect teaching about or learning about the Holy Spirit?
Over the last few weeks I have received 3 free books in the mail. Books are awesome. Free is amazing. Free books takes it to a whole different level!!!
Last fall at Catalyst, I subscribed to the Catalyst Filter. It was my understanding that the Filter would be primarily a web-based companion to the conference.
On one level it is. At the site you can find audio from past conferences, articles from speakers and leaders, and connect with other subscribers. It is good but just worth the price of admission.
However, the real benefits to the Catalyst Filter have been through the “off-site” things. I have been able to participate in exclusive conference calls with pastors and authors like Mark Batterson and Gabe Lyons. Each one that I have participated in have really ministered to my soul and imagination for making Christ number one in my life, church, and community. I would subscribe again next year for the conference calls alone.
But wait, there’s more.
I had no idea that they would be sending us books. They have sent a total of 4 books to me since Christmas and I couldn’t be more pleased.
Last month I received The Organic God by Margret Feinberg. I have heard some great things about this book and I look forward to reading it beginning today.
Yesterday I received 2 (count em: 2!) books crammed into my mailbox.
I am most excited about the pre-release copy of Nancy Ortberg’s Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey through Tattoos, Tofu, and Pronouns. Hopefully, I’ll get to it sometime next week.
The other book sent to me yesterday has the best title of any Christian book I’ve read this year. I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Replacing Souvenir Religion with Authentic Spiritual Passion by Vince Antonucci looks to be a great book. Vince became a Christian at age 20 after reading the New Testament. When he began to get connected to a church he was dumbstruck by the superficial nature by which most Christians he encountered lived out their faith. I can’t wait to dig into this one.
Thanks Catalyst for a great conference (see you in October) and thanks for the free books. Keep them coming!!!
Take a look at the gorgeous new Mac Book Air.
Unfortunately, at the point price of $1799 (plus $99 for an optical Super Drive) a look is the only thing I can afford.
Amazing.
picture via
(See Video Above) A huge drilling platform also known as the Chuai station collapsed into the ocean and sank to the bottom in several hours. The platform located in hunderds of kilometres from the american coast belonged to the japanese corporation Tagruato. At the moment the amount of people on the place of the accident is unknown. This video was got by news agencies from an anonymous source. Experts will have to investigate what exactly this footage shows. But now we know for sure that the collapse of the platform is not a result of enviromental cataclysm. Some moments of the video show that there was skirmish. All parties releated to the incident prefer to keep silence. We may only guess what happened there.
Some informational sources say that at the current moment there are ships of US coastguard but there is not official confirmation on that from the coastguard representatives. (translation from Russian news agency)
Everyday I am so amazed that I get to minister to and with some of the greatest teenagers on earth. It is such a blessing to be a part of this family. Thank you guys so much for giving me a great year. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”- Eph 1:3
Tonight was the annual youth group Christmas party. What a blast!!!We sang carols, roasted s’mores, ate some great food, goofed off and, of course, exchanged gifts. The best part of “Dirty Santa” is being last to pick a gift. There was one lone envelope left when it was my turn. I was destined to get that envelope.
It held the most coveted of all gift cards: a $10 Starbucks gift card. (see photo)
I totally made out like a bandit! Thanks to everyone for a great night!
Merry Christmas!!!
As a music lover I can help but be excited about last night’s Led Zeppelin reunion in London. Headline News played a few clips this morning. (see video) Plant sounded good. Page rocked it out on the guitar. Jones…um, played the bass. And Jason Bohnam definitely inherited his dad’s drum sticks.
By all accounts it was a big success and the band was met by the fans with a “Whole Lotta Love.” Makes you wonder “How Many More Times” they will preform together. Let’s hope there will be a world tour. Cross “The Ocean” and “Ramble On” down to Texas boys.
The day they play Dallas again will definately be a “Celebration Day” for me!
I had a great opportunity to participate in a leadership conference call with Pastor Mark Batterson this morning. Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church and the author of In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. The way NCC is “doing church” has really captured my imagination. NCC’s vision is to meet in movie theatres along the Metro lines in our nation’s capital. The only physical structure they use to meet in is a coffee house near Union Station. Ebeneezer’s serve great coffee and allows the church and culture to “intersect” on a daily basis.
Someday I hope to plant a church and I have learned a great deal from NCC and Batterson’s candidness. They are always open for questioning and are just as willing to speak about “missed opportunities” as they are about big wins. Mark’s blog is a daily stop for me on the interwebs. Mark is open and honest about leadership, family life, church direction, and vision casting. I enjoy hearing about what he is up to and I have enjoyed hearing about the victories that his church has been blessed with. Thanks Mark!!!
The conference call was put together by Catalyst Filter, a great leadership resource that I became a part of at this year’s Catalyst Conference. The call lasted about an hour and Mark talked about everything from balancing personal time with work to staff development. I even got to ask a question.
Here are my notes from the call:
Creativity and Innovation
Creativity is a byproduct of planning. NCC has a weekly “big idea” meeting where the leaders discuss what they want to happen each week in services, small groups, etc.
Creativity and innovation are hard wired into the DNA leaders and churches
Annual Retreat
Summer- “Play & Pray Retreat”- name says it all. The team plays and then they pray.
December- Planning Retreat– 48 hrs. spent dreaming, thinking, setting goals
Service Planning Process– What happens on Saturday and Sunday
Try and speak to what is practical in the lives of people
One goal of ministry is to lead people into becoming self-motivated disciples
20somethings– largest demo of NCC is single 20somethings
Meet needs- Students have needs and wants. Offer students pizza, homes to meet in, relationships with members
Speak to them- if the goal is to reach 20somethings, speak to/with them. Sermon series that address their unique phase of life (I believe most churches fail this point)
Engaging Culture
1) Engage culture by creating culture- NCC built a coffeehouse rather than a building. This breaks down walls within culture, allows for relationships to be built within culture
2) Sermon series that engage culture
Use music and movies. Most people today get their theology from music and movies. Movies reach out for truth but miss the mark in pointing to Truth- Jesus. We should step in and connect culture with Ultimate Truth. Movies and music give us permission to speak to tough subjects (Think “Hotel Rwanda.” I was able to use this film in a powerful way to speak on racism and equality in a way that I would have been unable to do through a typical Bible study)
Moving from Traditional to Contemporary
1) Make moves toward change that are practical in execution
2) Sometimes the change is too great for an establishment. When that happens, you can always plant and hardwire into the DNA of the church plant a desire for innovation and avoidance of stagnation. Sometimes it takes a step of faith.
Balancing Personal life with Church work– Mark has a wife and three kids
YOU control your calendar
Mark gets up at 5:30am and makes time to write, think, pray, go through spiritual disciplines before the day “officially” starts
Meeting days- schedules 2 days specifically for meetings
Focus days- 2 days to study, focus, read, dream
Family
Make family a priority. Mark is specifically doing 2 things this year to show his family they are the priority of his life
1) Mark intentionally used every single vacation day for he and his family
2) Father/Son Meetings– Mark and his 12 year old son agreed to a covenant that this year (as his son turns 13) that they will complete a spiritual challenge, an intellectual challenge, and a physical challenge. The point is to intentionally grow closer together and intentionally honor God during their time together (I plan on doing something like this if we have kids)
Learning
Stay curious
Stay humble- 1Cor 8:2- “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.”
When reading, cross-pollinate. Choose books and resources from a wide spectrum of disciplines
Keep learning
So there are the highlights. I hope that you too can benefit from the conversation. The call ended up being the best hour of my work week. So good!
I’ll be out of pocket most of the weekend. This might be my last post until Monday. If so, have a great weekend everyone.