Month: May 2009

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i'm too busy for that … really?

there is a big temptation for ministers to determine their value based on how busy our schedule is. if you hang out with ministers enough you’ll hear it. someone will say something about a t.v. show, movie, or book of fiction (these are just examples) and soon one of the ministers will respond with “i’m too busy to read fiction” (or watch t.v. movies, or go fishing, etc., etc.). i was once in a worship service when a minister claimed from the pulpit that he would compare his appointment book with anyone and prove that he was busier. this is a good thing?

the weekly small group study that pam and i belong to is going through “the life you’ve always wanted” by john ortberg. while i think the title and the cover of the book make it sound like an oprah book club item i still think that what ortberg says is fantastic. this past week’s chapter was on servanthood. in this chapter ortberg tells of a time when he was talking to a friend of his about how busy he was. his friend’s response was great, “why would you choose that life?” ortberg continued to try and explain how he didn’t have any choice in the matter but his friend kept asking why he would choose to be that busy.

it was a great point. most times, not always but most times, we choose to be busy for our own reasons. this is especially true for ministers. i know some ministers who i believe choose to be very busy because they feel more important when they are. yes, ministry can eat up a lot of time. yet i have an advantage that so many other people don’t have … i usually get to choose my schedule. if i work late because i have to be at something or i need to go on a chaplain ride-a-long or anything like that, no one begrudges me taking some time off during the day. that’s pretty much true for for every minister i know. it’s not true for most of the non-ministers i know.

it makes no sense for us to say that JESUS should be the ONE WHO determines our priorities and then choose to be so busy that we can’t be interrupted. JESUS didn’t choose to be that busy and therefore as followers of HIM we shouldn’t choose to be that way either.

here’s to choosing not to be busy.

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i would have used this as a youth minister

this post from stuff CHRISTians like is great. it is concerning the tendency of college students to put their faith in a “lock box” during their university years. the advice prodigal john gives to students is:

  1. GOD is not trying to ruin your college experience.
  2. your parents’ faith won’t sustain you.
  3. college is not forever.
  4. don’t have sex. (he explains this one much better than just this simple statement – basically why settle for college sex when marital sex is better)

it’s good stuff.

i think my favorite two point are #1 & #4. i think GOD is portrayed as a “kill joy” far too often. HE is the GOD WHO said that HE had come that HIS followers would have life and have it more abundantly. for too often we turn HIM into the GOD of “don’t” rather than the GOD of “life.” john’s description of #4 is the same thing. his advice is for people to wait and thereby get the very best rather than settling for something less that is immediate. it’s good advice and something that i believe to be true.

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probably tmi

the test
as many of you know the terrell familly lives in a late 70s two-story split-level house. i mention late 70s in the description because we have been dealing with some of the decorating decisions from that era. slowly but surely we are bringing the house into the 21st century.

one of the projects that will happen this summer is the affordable update of the boy’s restroom. we have to replace the floor, the shower, the sink, etc. we’ve been looking into a slate floor. pam, the boys, and i all like slate for the floor. we were going to start until we thought that slate might absorb the stinky biological waste liquid that the boys release in their restroom. you see 12 and 15 year old boys don’t always have the best aim. therefore, a little splatter can happen. we clean it all the time but we are scared that slate may be more porous than tile and therefore absorb some of this lemon colored liquid and produce a foul odor that no amount of cleaning will correct. after researching the problem on the net the best advice was to have a trial run with one slate tile and one ceramic tile. therefore we have two tiles that are being “tested” for a couple of weeks to determine which one will stay clean the best.

you can guess for yourself how we are testing them.

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sometimes they do what you ask too well

tapestry worship involves group participation. that’s just the way we do things. last night i was talking from matthew 22 concerning JESUS’s statement to “give to caesar what is caesar’s, and to GOD what is GOD’s.” since JESUS’s point in this passage is that scripture states we have GOD’s image “stamped” on us just as caesar’s was on the denarius, i thought it would be nice to to encourage people to draw self-portraits during the message. i figured i could bring the self portraits back into the message around the end of the discussion and it would work for those who like to do multiple things. it would appear that it worked a little too well. for the first 15 minutes i didn’t see anyone’s eyes because they were too busy working on their self-portraits. everyone got into drawing their portrait and kept their head down. it was pretty disconcerting to me because i’m used to eye-contact and interaction on sunday nights. i’m not used to everyone looking down. next time i think i’ll encouraged everyone to do something that doesn’t involve them looking down. 🙂

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dropbox

okay – i’m sold on dropbox. 2 gb of free webspace and synchronizes any computers i have linked to it. perfect for keeping tapestry files the same on the desktop and laptop. it works real well for me working on a file that will be used at one of our sunday evening gatherings and automatically having that file updated on the other computers. it’s a cool thing.

if you need some of your files to be the same on multiple computers it is a great way to do it. if you decide to try it out, please let me know first. if i send you an invite and you register i get an additional 250 mb of space.

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the week in tweets – 2009-05-16

  • real thankful for my mom and for the mom of my kids. #
  • @dhaltom7 – swine flu? or as i like to call it “bacon flu”? #
  • http://twitpic.com/4xl0m – Mother’s Day Lunch at El Mezcal – Yes, I know how to treat my lady right. #
  • After a great evening with Tapestry I am now watching the Mother’s Day “Deadliest Catch” Marathon – Happy Mother’s day Pamela 🙂 #
  • Realised 15 minutes ago that I was missing the Celtics’ game – the Deadliest Catch will have to wait. #
  • WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I can turn to “The Deadliest Catch” with a smile on my face. #nbaplayoffs #
  • I think I just saw two yellow finches mating or possibly fighting. Apparently, both activities look the same. #
  • @meganckelly – woohoo! emmett! he’ll make for a fun retreat. miss y’all. in reply to meganckelly #
  • @nate_ray – I LOVE CANE’S!!!! It’s one of the things I miss about Baton Rouge. in reply to nate_ray #
  • http://twitpic.com/4zyhv – @pamelaaugust made a huge mistake by sending me to the local cheese store. I found cheese with bacon in it. m … #
  • I just can’t get excited about either the Mavs or Cavs. The Cavs are thugs and the Mavs are owned by Mark Cuban. No winner. #nbaplayoffs #
  • @bsheets – i understand that as a fan but ben they play and act pretty thuggish. i personally had high hopes for carmello being like magic. in reply to bsheets #
  • About to eat lunch with our Association’s DOM. A baptist term that means “free lunch.” #
  • Looking for a relatively decent video editor that will work on my asus eee 901 that is running eeebuntu. Any suggestions? BTW, GO CELTICS #
  • @mike_shipp – nope there are at least two of us. in reply to mike_shipp #
  • Listening to Jonestown tape from when they began to drink the koolaide – very disturbing – http://tinyurl.com/q4pa78 #
  • @terrelldactyl – moi????? in reply to terrelldactyl #
  • Rain delay at the Little League game. Not sure he it is a bad thing or a good thing. #
  • The Little League rain delay has moved to a cancellation. Bad side? Make up game. The good side? I get to watch “Lost” with Pam tonight. #
  • @bsheets – here’s a spoiler for you – boring during the first hour but good during the second hour. 😉 in reply to bsheets #
  • @bsheets – i mistyped in the earlier tweet on the cavs and mavs – i was meaning the nuggets but typed cavs. the nugs are thugs not your cavs in reply to bsheets #
  • working on church constitution stuff – blah. #
  • @mike_shipp – if it only made me crave bacon (which it did) then it was worth it. 😉 in reply to mike_shipp #
  • Little League baseball + 20 mph = hopefully an interesting game 🙂 #
  • http://twitpic.com/5b308 – Eating a burger with a fork? That’s new. #

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ted style

i love presentation zen. it consistently has great info on making good presentations – which has a lot in common with preaching. today they posted on “ted style presentations.” it’s a good post. my favourite part is the detail of the “ted commandments”. the “commandments” are obvious within most all the presentations (which i think you should watch or listen to if you aren’t already). here they are:

1.thou shalt not simply trot out thy usual shtick.
2.thou shalt dream a great dream, or show forth a wondrous new thing, or share something thou hast never shared before.
3.thou shalt reveal thy curiosity and thy passion.
4.thou shalt tell a story.
5.thou shalt freely comment on the utterances of other speakers for the sake of blessed connection and exquisite controversy.
6.thou shalt not flaunt thine ego. be thou vulnerable. speak of thy failure as well as thy success.
7.thou shalt not sell from the stage: neither thy company, thy goods, thy writings, nor thy desperate need for funding; lest thou be cast aside into outer darkness.
8.thou shalt remember all the while: laughter is good.
9.thou shalt not read thy speech.
10.thou shalt not steal the time of them that follow thee.

pretty good stuff to keep in mind.

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the science of reflexology?

i promise i’m trying not to ease-drop in on anyone’s conversation but the young lady at the table next to me is verbally puking on the young man at her table concerning the science of reflexology. poor guy can’t get a word in edge-wise even if he wanted to. of course, i don’t think he really has a desire to say anything because he presently looks like a ‘deer caught in headlights.” anyhow i was tempted to break in when she announced that her reflexologist had told her that she was probably going to need a heart transplant in the next 10 years. i have decided to place my headphones on so that i am no longer tempted. i’m all for alternative medicine but telling someone to prepare for a heart transplant because of what you sensed while messaging his/her feet? i can’t go there.

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online ocr

as a church planter i am always looking for ways to do things without a traditional office. it is all the better when these methods don’t cost a great deal. tapestry is presently working on incorporating and part of the process involves developing a constitution. i9’ve asked several other churches if i could look at their constitution. everyone has been very friendly and helpful. one of the churches sent me their constitution in .jpg format (this is a graphic file). i’m not sure why you would save your constitution as a .jpg but i did now that in order to share this on google docs with the people helping me i was going to have to retype it or use ocr. that’s when i found ocr terminal. online free ocr work. woohoo!

i just thought i would post this for anyone else who might ever need it. it was quick, effective, and best of all free (for 30 pages a day at least – but i will never go over 30 pages in a single day).

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random thoughts on a wednesday evening

just a few meaningless thoughts

  • “frazier” is one of the greatest shows ever. it’s up there with seinfeld in my book.
  • my brief, non-spoiler description of tonight’s “lost” season finale – boring first hour that was made up for in the second hour. makes me excited about the last season next year.
  • i’ve swapped to the desktop version of eeebuntu on my asus 901 and i love it. does anyone know of a decent video editor for ubuntu? my goal is to be able to make an edited video with nothing more than my netbook and pocket camera.
  • earlier this week i bought bacon cheese (i.e. cheese with bacon in it) and friday i am going to fix myself a grilled bacon and cheese sandwich with it – yes this does mean that i am going to add even more bacon to it. mhmmmm!
  • come on celtics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • in a few weeks tapestry is providing lunch for all the teachers at wshington elementary school during their last day of the ’08-’09 school year. we also had a few people to volunteer to help them with their 5k race they did this past weekend. i’m greatly enjoying the connection with the school. today i talked with one of the administrators concerning us helping them read to “at-risk” kids next year before school starts once a week. nothing definite. all that has happened thus far is that the conversation has started. hopefully we will get to do more and more stuff that helps the kids and adults at washington.