Check out My New Blog

I have finally made the switch. I am blogging with a WordPress powered blog created for me by Jason Loftis. Jason is amazing. You should hire him for your web design stuff. He created our Calvary Church website with Trevor Behrns. My new blog still has a couple kinks to work out, but it already is better than this one. So please change your links over to the new one. I will be posting over there from now on.

The new address is this - www.wakebird.com

I would greatly appreciate a post on your blogs informing people of my new site.

Complete Body Cleanse Update

Well, I have been taking these pills since Friday night - that's five nights. 8 high fiber, 3 laxatives, and one milk thistle liver cleanser - every night. I honestly thought that I wouldn't be able to leave the house on Saturday, but it was no big deal. This is hard to not be too gross about. But everything is moving smoothly with no effort, but I'm not running to the bathroom every five minutes or anything. I feel pretty good. I feel a little bit of cold-like symptoms, but that is probably just cause my kids are sick. Although, I thought that maybe it's all the toxins leaving my body.

Fundy to Emergent on a Map

This was an interesting chart I saw on this guy's blog through Scot McKnight's link to him. It's a link about understanding the differences between fundamentalism, evangelicalism, emerging, and emergent. I think it's somewhat helpful.

I would probably add Al Mohler off to the left somewhere and I would slide Brian McLaren a little more to the right on the chart. There's tons you could add or change. What would you add or change?

Top Ten Leadership Mistakes

I found this post on Tim Steven's blog. I think it has some great stuff.

Top Ten Leadership Mistakes by Tony Morgan

Tony delivered a content-rich talk to open the Church Solutions Conference. Here are my notes from his talk about the top ten leadership mistakes he has made:

1. Hiring Too Fast. Firing Too Slow. Every minute I delay in firing, I take away opportunity for God to work in that person's life.
2. Putting Projects before the People. Embrace the tension and find the balance between leadership and shepherding.
3. Trying to Fix the Problem Rather than the Process. Ninety percent of the time it isn't a people-problem. It is a process-problem.
4. Delegating Tasks Instead of Responsibility. It is hard to delegate, because many times I (wrongly) think I'm the only one who can do it right.
5. Assuming it is Always Black and White. Following rules is a lot easier than trying to deal with relationships.
6. Not Following my Gut. When we stop listening to God, he stops talking to us (consider the 13-year gap when God stopped talking to Abraham).
7. Dwelling on the Worst-Case Scenario. Worry might not be your issue, but everyone has an issue that can derail them.
8. Waiting Until There's a Problem to Provide Feedback. I have to discipline myself to encourage my team.
9. Staying Busy. It is a lie, but I tend to think if I'm staying busy, I'm adding value to my organization. (Fire ? At this point in Tony's speech, the emergency alarms sounded and the Phoenix Convention Center was evacuated for 20 minutes. Yes, I'm serious.)
10. Spending Too Much Time on the Details Rather than the Dreams.

Other notable quotes from Tony…

* "Are you going to focus on changing diapers or potty-training?"
* "I love executing the policy."
* "My dream for years was, 'I want to be a City Manager.'."
* "The sin I struggle with most in my life is worry."
* "I am encouragement-challenged."
* "My title is meaningless, no one knows what it means, which lets me do whatever I want."

Complete Body Cleanse

I popped 12 pills last night to begin this two-week complete body cleanse that I bought at Whole Foods. It includes massive amounts of fiber, laxatives, and milk thistle. The picture isn't the exact one, but it's a similar kind. I was nervous that I would wake up in the middle of the night and never leave the bathroom. I'm still nervous of what is going to happen to my body.

Have you ever done this before? What happened to you?

Preaching Prep Questions

I'm not a huge Driscoll fan like some of my friends. I'm not anti-Driscoll or anything silly like that. I just don't worship him like Matt Doan and Seth Beasley. But I read this list that he taught at his Boot Camp and I loved it.

Six Framing Questions for Preaching the Word

1. What does Scripture say? - The Biblical Question
2. What does the Scripture Mean? - The Theological Question
3. What is my Hook? - The Memorable Question
4. Why do people resist this truth? - The Apologetic Question
5. Why does this matter? - The Missional Question
6. How is Jesus the Hero/Savior? - The Christological Question

These are a great beginning to sermon preparation and a great check when you think you are finished. I'm going to start using them. I think Doan might have showed these to me once before.

Valentine's Dinner

I took Bea out to French 75 Bistro in the Marketplace last night. It was a tasty meal. I haven't been in love with this place in the past, but it was very good last night. It was a fixed price menu with some options.

First, after we sat down they brought us an appetizer of a tasty cream with raw salmon and caviar on an endive leaf.

Then I had the seared foie gras that was served on a big plate with toasts, cooked greens, and blood orange slices. It was my first time with foie gras (fattened duck or goose liver). I liked it mostly, but I wasn't sure of the sliminess of the inside. Bea had a lobster and corn chowder which was good, but more corn than lobster. Then we shared a Caesar Salad which was the kind where they don't chop the romaine spears. They were good, but overdressed.

For the main course, Bea had a filet. I had braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and green beans and carrots. It was very tasty.

Then the dessert was unbelievable. It was a perfect White Chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce and cream.

At the end they brought us "free" glasses of champagne. I'm not a big champagne guy so I had a couple sips and then we left. It was a pretty good meal.

Did you go out or stay home or go out on a different night????

Cooking Shows Make Me Hungry

Ella is sleeping and I'm relaxing for a bit and I'm watching my new favorite cooking show called Jamie at Home with Jamie Oliver who I have loved since his Naked Chef days.

But whenever I'm watching these shows I get starving and I want to cook something fancy. I'm taking Bea to French 75 for dinner tonight. It's what she wanted and I'm very excited to take her there.

What cooking shows are your favorites? Why?

Love Video - WE HAVE AUDIO!!

Here's the video that introduced my sermon this past Sunday. I ran in the back doors at the end of the clip. It was pretty fun. Thanks to Tammy Harris and Dan Parsons for helping make it. Tammy did the editing and some directing and Dan used his amazing steady-cam gear and fancy HD camera to film it. Let me know what you think!

Quirky Stuff from The Week

Bad Week for Priorities - after a Florida woman was pulled over allegedly with a 24-pack of beer strapped into a seat belt, so it wouldn't be jostled, while a 16-month-old girl was unrestrained in the back seat.

Good Week for Unarmed Conflict - after several Israeli soldiers were caught "mooning" Palestinians in the West Bank in an effort to chase them away from a disputed area.

Only in America: The Mississippi legislature is considering a bill that would ban restaurants from serving food to very fat people. The proposed law would revoke the license of any restaurant caught repeatedly feeding the obese.

This magazine also has tons of good news stuff every week. You should get it.

Pro-Life and Pro-Obama?

In no way am I saying I agree with everything in this post, but I do resonate with it somehow. It's by Francis Schaeffer's son, Frank. It's called Why I Am Pro-Life and Pro-Obama.

I don't know if I could actually vote for him, but he is a lot more intriguing than McCain. The whole Supreme Court Justice issue makes me want to stay voting Republican. I will no matter what if Hillary wins, but Obama just feels revolutionary. Could it be more pro-life to vote Obama than McCain when you add up everything related to life? Not just abortion, but war, death penalty, helping poverty issues, gun control, etc.

HT: Zach Lind

Interesting Church Day

I preached today in both of our services. Celebration (8:45am - leans more blended/traditional) went really well. Our crazy video, that I will post later, was good. The people laughed. I wore a suit and said, "Finally Pastor Dave is gone and I can dress the way that I really want to." They also thought that was funny. I got some great feedback from people that I don't normally hear from, so that was cool.

Then in Elevation I did the same thing and it went well for the most part. I had a person planted in the service that was going to tell what it was like for a new person at Calvary. That was pretty good too. I tried to reduce the guilt trip factor of it a little bit. But then things started to go a little weird. My hands-free mic went out and so I had to use the hand-held one. That always bums me out.

Then this random homeless man with a big bag and an artificial leg walks into the room in the middle of the sermon and walks all the way up the center aisle to the front row. Don't get me wrong. I am very comfortable with people of all different backgrounds and situations coming to our church, but when you are on stage and somebody is walking up to the front row in the middle of the sermon - it throws you off a bit. Especially when they are talking kind of loud and you're not sure if it's to you or to themselves. He took about two minutes to get all his stuff put down and then sits right in the front center seat. Then he starts talking out loud to me. He was being very supportive, but really loud. He starts pulling stuff out of his bag. Remember, I'm still trying to preach. Also, our church has stepped up our security since the church shootings in Colorado on the same day that we had a man come on our stage in the middle of Pastor Dave's sermon. So I see one of our police officers that attends the church move up to about two rows behind the man, whose name I found out after church was Bill. The officer told me later that he was just watching what was being pulled out of the bag in case it was a weapon. Then i see one of our elders come and walk up to Bill. Remember, I'm still preaching. I say, "It's OK, let's keep going. It's cool." So then the elder sits down next to Bill and he was awesome. He puts his arm around him and starts talking with him and is able to help Bill listen without being "too" disruptive. I also see one our church psychologists move up into a position pretty close to the man at this point. Remember, I'm still trying to preach. Then a woman who was friends with Bill walks up the center aisle and high-fives Bill and sits about two seats over and then proceeds to fall asleep. Remember, I'm still preaching.

So at that point I keep preaching and I'm talking about love. Of course. I was proud that our church handled this potentially bad situation with love. We didn't kick him out. We didn't treat him poorly. But we did take precautions. We had an armed police officer and a trained psychologist waiting only steps away with one of our elders lovingly helping the man engage in the service.

I met the man after the service. He was still talking with the elder about 35 minutes after the service. He met another elder who did the same stuff in the Marine Corps as Bill did. Let me just say that this was one of the more difficult preaching services for me. It wasn't bad, but it sure was really distracting to me and everyone else. In the future I think I might address the situation a bit more. Not a lot. But maybe just stop and say. Let's pray and get re-focused. I went way overtime because I was so distracted and slow. I felt like I couldn't remember what was on my notes and what I was supposed to say next. It was weird.

So in eternity's perspective it was a good Sunday. From my communicator's perspective it was horrible. But hey, more people will remember today than most other services.

Thoughts? Were you there? What did you think?

Handwritten Letters

I'm a huge fan of technology but I have been challenged lately to write more personal, handwritten letters to people. Barry Corey, the new Biola president, is super into writing personal letters on fancy paper with nice pens and writes in a Pauline way. I heard about that when there was all the drama about him being accepted as president or not. I just thought that was cool that he does that. Then I have been reading a Eugene Peterson book called, The Wisdom of Each Other, which is a series of letters he wrote to a friend. Peterson said in the forward that he will open any handwritten letter from a person. That made me think how much I agree and get excited about receiving a handwritten letter in this age of emails, blogs, texts and social networking applications. I love all those things, but a handwritten letter is special - it's personal. It's almost artistic. It also takes me time because my handwriting is so bad.

So yesterday at work I wrote a hand-written card of appreciation to a co-worker that I don't really hang out with outside of work or even at work that much. I want to start writing handwritten letters to people. I just think they are cool and special somehow. What do you think?

XP Seminar - last one

So the rest of the seminar was pretty good. I learned about the 5 Main Functions of an Executive Pastor - Administrator, Catalyst, Mentor, Minister, and Overseer. They were good. I learned about hiring, meetings, and other fascinating things.

It's interesting how in the Exec Pastor world you have half the people who are from the business world that changed careers and half the people are lifetime pastors. Obviously the lifetime pastors are better and cooler, but we can still learn some things from our business world friends.

I met some cool people. I wanted to connect with some SoCal people and we did. Roger Dermody, the XP from Bel Air Presbyterian, was a good guy. We had breakfast with him and drove to the airport together. We also met Rob Faulk, the XP from Church at Rocky Peak, which is up near Simi Vally. Then I connected with a man named Warren Schuh who was the XP of Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village. He was a speaker and I really liked him a lot.

OK, hopefully this was good bed-time reading to help you sleep. More normal posts to come. But I like being an XP so far. I pray I'm a good one.

XP Seminar Day One

I'm at the XP Seminar in Dallas today. It's pretty good so far. I'm definitely on the younger end of the spectrum for this group, but there are a bunch of people in their 30s here so I'm not super out of place. They all dress a bit more conservatively than I would prefer, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

We have been learning about conflict resolution and pastoral sabbaticals so far. It's been pretty good. The conflict resolution guy is trying to sell his materials so that kind of bugs me a little, but there have been good points.

We are hanging out with Jonathon and Mark Matlock tonight which should be fun.

More riveting XP Seminar info to come....

XP Seminar

So tomorrow I am leaving for the XP Seminar in Dallas, Texas. It should be interesting. This is a conference just for Executive Pastors and since Michael and I just started this job we thought it might be good to learn a little bit more about it. I'm very curious of how I will "fit in" there. We'll see. I have heard that it is surprisingly younger than you might think.

I have never been to Dallas either. I want to get some Texas BBQ.

I'm also preaching this Sunday in both Celebration and Elevation so the prep should be a bit tough while on the road.

Super Bowl Commercials (so far)

Best Commercial Finalists:
1. The squirrel screaming with the car coming at him and everyone else starts screaming but the car could move easily around it ws funny, but 15 minutes later I can't remember what car it was.

2. Prince Caspian trailer - I can't wait. I love that lion.

3. Fed Ex Pigeons

4. E-Trade Baby Talking

Worst Commercials:
1. Life Water lizards dancing to Thriller. Lame. Not funny.

2. Panda Sales Genie commercial - verging on racist, lame, not funny, and who cares?


Most Effective Commercial - Chevy's Hybrid campaign seemed to be the most purposeful unveiling of a new brand. The whole world now knows that they make hybrids and are doing the green thing with full gusto.

Tom Petty

He was cool. I didn't realize that Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows was his lead guitar player. I liked the Tom Petty style. Straight-ahead rock. Good songs. Good American performance.

Jordin Sparks - Lip Sync??

That looked fake to me. That stinks if she was really lip syncing on the national anthem.

Super Bowl Prediction

Now, I know this won't be earth shattering or anything, but my prediction for the Super Bowl is this:
The New England Patriots will beat the New York Giants.
Score: 35-17

I know most people don't like the Patriots but I will be rooting for them because I can't stand Eli Manning. He acts like a whiny little baby girl. He was drafted #1 by the San Diego Chargers and then refused to play for them demanding a trade. So the Chargers traded him. The Chargers are actually better than the Giants but they are in different divisions so that's why the Giants are in the Super Bowl. The last two weeks have been more important than the Super Bowl. S.D. vs Indianapolis and S.D vs New England were the true Super Bowls. Go Patriots Defense!! Sack Sack That Quarterback!!
Here's a picture of Eli doing what he does best. Nothing.

Biblical Picking and Choosing

Scot McKnight had an interesting post yesterday on "Picking and Choosing" when it comes to our doctrine and Bible verses that we actually apply to life. He asked commenters to list some. Where do you think we "pick and choose" with Bible verses to follow?