I was just pulled into an interesting conversation that began with Senator Craig and ended up talking about mega churches and the TBN crowd. I got to listen to one agnostic, former Catholic, and a occasional church goer give their unabridged opinions on several church issues, while I prayed my hardest to say the right thing.

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When I talk about house church it is rare that I get an excited response but this past Saturday a friend introduced me to another couple as running a house church and the couple was actually excited and interested in the concept.

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Some Time ago a quote from DA Carson and it has really had a profound affect on the way I think about the gospel and ministry. Here is the quote in full context and a link to the text of the message.

Perhaps more common yet is the tendency to assume the gospel, whatever that is, while devoting creative energy and passion to other issues—marriage, happiness, prosperity, evangelism, the poor, wrestling with Islam, wrestling with the pressures of secularization, bioethics, dangers on the left, dangers on the right—the list is endless. This overlooks the fact that our hearers inevitably are drawn toward that about which we are most passionate. Every teacher knows that. My students are unlikely to learn all that I teach them; they are most likely to learn that about which I am most excited. If the gospel is merely assumed, while relatively peripheral issues ignite our passion, we will train a new generation to downplay the gospel and focus zeal on the periphery. It is easy to sound prophetic from the margins; what is urgently needed is to be prophetic from the center. What is to be feared, in the famous words of W. B. Yeats in “The Second Coming,” is that “the centre does not hold.” Moreover, if in fact we focus on the gospel, we shall soon see that this gospel, rightly understood, directs us how to think about, and what to do about, a substantial array of other issues. These issues, if they are analyzed on their own, as important as they are, remain relatively peripheral; ironically, if the gospel itself is deeply pondered and remains at the center of our thinking and living, it powerfully addresses and wrestles with all these other issues.

The Gopel

The audio can also be found here.

• I saw a report of Foxsports.com about the new “Worlds fastest Man” a title given to the man who holds the world record in the 100M dash.  The link said, click here to see highlights of his record breaking run.  How does one edit down highlights of a 9.74 second race?
  

• Walking down the hall at work I am accosted by signs with factoids about the work being done by the United Way.  Now I don’t give to them due to some moral disagreements but the issues they discuss are volunteer groups keeping streets safe, calls to food banks, kindergarten kids in trouble, and I can’t help but think that if the church was doing its job these things wouldn’t be necessary.
  

• The more I think about the quote “It is easy to sound prophetic from the margins but what we need is people who are prophetic from the center” the more I truly believe it.  It quote was from John Piper talking about the loss of the Gospel as the central theme of sermons in America.
  

• I found out that “LOST” isn’t coming back until May but it will run straight instead of that crappy 8 week break.  And that it will only be going for 6 seasons, it is good to know that there will be some finality.
  

• It is simply amazing how much paperwork you have to do in corporate America.  When the paper work takes more time than the actual work you are doing the paperwork for something is wrong.
  

• “The Big Bang Theory” is probably the best new show I have seen recently, it seems that since I became a father I don’t want to watch Law and Order CSI or any of those more serious drama shows, and most comedies haven’t struck a chord with me but this show is great.  It will probably hit with the same crowd that watched “Frasier” because many of the jokes are based on intellectual and geek issues, if you get a chance check it out, if you really get a chance DVR it and pause it on the producers “vanity card”.
  

• Sorry I have been out of blogging for a minute, our family has had a great deal of drama over the last week.  Heather’s purse was stolen our of our van at Blockbuster but a few days later the dufas threw out her wallet but missed the dumpster and it was found by the apartment manager so we got everything back but our cash and debit card which we had already canceled.  Ironically, most of the cash that was still in her wallet was our charity money so we decided God wanted us to give to this guy money so we are just thankful to have all of her other stuff back.