Seriously, these must be the worst dancers you have EVER seen.

Jesus didn’t always use parables, but much of His communication concerning the Kingdom was done through story telling.  “The Kingdom of God is like…”

If you are a preacher, do you use parables when you preach?  Are you a story teller?

If you aren’t a preacher, do you like it when the sermon includes stories?  Do they help you understand the point?

Dear locks of mine,

I am so very grateful that you’ve chosen to remain faithful all these long years.

Though many of my friends’ manes have betrayed them, abandoning their crowns like rats from a sinking ship, you’ve stayed with me.

And there are so few albinos among you.

In spite of my metabolism grinding to a shuddering halt, my joints creaking and popping with gravel between the bones, my eyes no longer enjoying words near them but preferring text at arms length and my memory switching off and on in random fashion… yes, despite all of these decrepitudes, you still treat me as if I were a young man.

I am so very appreciative, it seems almost churlish to ask you this one favor.  But…

Would you please, if you could, stop sending missionaries to my back, nostrils, eyebrows and ear canals.

I really have no need for strands resembling the leg of a large spider to protrude from said body parts.

Though, after the way I treated you in the eighties, I suppose I should simply be grateful I have you at all.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned an anology from former IMB M “Stepchild” as he compared Christians and what happens to them as they are integrated into churches to animals in the wild and in the zoo.

He’s posted another compelling post that is right up my alley, Reasons Humanitarian Trips Are Replacing Mission Trips.

The reasons that this post rings so true to me are many, but I’ll list two.  First it assumes that the church is “doing” missions, as opposed to paying for someone else to do it.  Second, it reflects my convictions that service be a part of the message, as opposed to a “tract blitz” or some other short term activity that is neither incarnational nor relational.

These are exactly what we are trying to do in both Mexico and Vietnam – both of those trips happen in the next two months.

The reasons given at Missions Misunderstood are that the humanitarian trips are:  the benefit/execution is Immediate, they produce Tangible results, they are Socially Acceptable, there is a Pendulum Swing (of method), they offers a viable Platform, they have better Marketing, the next generation feels Guilt over selfish spending, a sound Missiology is becoming more profound in the next generation, the Experience of “Mission Trips” that have not accomplished much have left some feeling hollow and there is better Awareness of these opportunities.

You really should be reading Missions Misunderstood.  I hope you’ll put him in your feed reader or bookmarks.

I’ve had some bad experiences in the pulpit – I even preached a Disciple Now Rally with my fly down – but this one has never happened to me.  Yet.

Lord, I beg of You, great and awesome Father, PLEASE don’t let this ever happen to me!

Feel free to share your embarassing moment in the comments.  Anybody brave enough?

Haven’t been out lately, but here are a few of Cain’s Ballroom.  I’ve posted them before, but it has been a while.

Still, if you like these and want to see more, you can check out my photoblog or my flickr page.

Click a thumbnail for a larger picture.

[Show as slideshow]

I was asked the other day if I thought a Social Network, specifically Facebook, could be Missional.  This is my response:

Not really. Core Missional values are relational and incarnational. You begin relationships living incarnationally in order to reach those who never previously had a connection to the Kingdom.

That doesn’t happen on Facebook.

To the extent that Facebook can help you foster and nurture those relationships you already have, then it enhances the relational aspect of your life on mission.

Am I wrong?  What do you think?

If you disagree, how do you think you can live missionally within Social Networks?

A couple of years ago, our church staff had a little “Biggest Loser” style competition to lose weight.  Says alot about Baptists that it was an easy competition for us to buy into.  In other words, we’re fat.

So, I did really well and ended up continuing to lose weight well past the competition.  About 6 mos. in, I went to the Southern Baptist Convention and tried to continue to exercise and eat well while there.

While I was there, Marty Duren and I ate together several times and at one point, he chose Tony Romas.  It was the beginning of the end of my diet.  It’s all Marty’s fault.

Anyway, I’m starting back.  Just thought I’d say so, since I may be twittering things about it and posting things about it here on the blog.

Oh, and it’s not a fad diet thing.  Just counting calories.  I know how Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice and all those “diet” dinners help you lose weight.  It’s fairly obvious once you cook one up for the first time.  They starve you to death.

It’s good food.  Just about two teaspoons full.

Your prayers, as always, are appreciated.

Interesting clash of ideologies among evangelicals.  I read one report where a man was calling for prayers for the new president to fail in his aspirations and agendas.

The opposite perspective among evangelicals is represented most famously by Donald Miller, who prayed during the Democratic National Convention and tends to represent a great number of younger evangelicals by most observations.

So…  You are called to pray for the leaders of our nation.  How do you pray for Barack Obama?

Side note:  what did you think of Rick Warren’s Inagural Prayer?

Christianity Today has run a story on the University of Central Florida’s Campus Crusade and its attempt to partner with a gay/lesbian organization on campus to do an outreach around the issue of HIV/AIDS.

Some of my favorite paragraphs from the article:

Josh Spavin knows the stereotypes about evangelical Christians: judgmental, sanctimonious, narrow-minded. He may not buy into the image, but at the same time, he knows how real — and damaging — it can be.

“Because of the way they perceive us,” said Spavin, 25. “What we wanted to do is find common ground where we can serve along side with them. … We don’t necessarily agree with their choices, because that’s not part of our faith, but we still love them.”

Campus Crusade officials say they detect a new desire among young evangelicals to live out Christian concepts such as compassion and understanding, and to imitate Jesus’ welcome be engaging in broad-based social issues.

“Students today realize that connecting to other people, that just to tell the story or talk about Christianity doesn’t seem to completely connect,” said Chip Scivicque, a 30-year Campus Crusade veteran who’s now based at Auburn University in Alabama. “There’s this desire to live out the Christian life and live out gospel truth so that when those truths are explained they make more sense.”

Last year at Michigan State University, Campus Crusade partnered with other organizations on several events to draw attention to the international sex slave trade. The biggest event drew about 1,000 for a mock “Price-is-Right”-themed game show in which contestants bid not on prizes but people.

“I think a lot of it has to do with just getting into the Word more,” said Trent Wiesen, 27, who belonged to Campus Crusade as a student at Stanford and now works with the local nonprofit group, 2nd Mile. “There’s just a hunger for the Word, and they’re kind of looking at the way of the church in those early years and kind of seeing the ways in which it doesn’t exactly match up with the church a lot of us have been growing up with.”

Back at UCF, Spavin attributes the new interest in social justice issues to a more global world. Internet-savvy young adults read about AIDS and poverty afflicting the world — and they want to do something, Spavin said. Just before Christmas, Spavin’s group joined with a gay student group, a pro-marijuana group and fraternities and sororities to gather gifts for underprivileged children. Some 400 shoeboxes of gifts were collected for Samaritan’s Purse for distribution worldwide.

“It’s not just Christians but young people now — it’s almost like they’re waking up to the world,” Spavin said. “In general, Christianity has, like, a negative connotation to it. People feel like we are putting ourselves on a pedestal and condescending to people, and that’s not the love of Christ.”