Iron Sharpens Iron
Sep 2, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
OK, this video is very interesting to me. It’s a conversation between Francis Chan, Joshua Harris, and Mark Driscoll. You get the message pretty quickly that there was a topic they were planning on discussing but it gets thrown out the window because there is a more pressing issue at hand. Josh and Mark spend the time challenging Francis on a few things regarding his recent decision to resign from his church and start something new.
I almost felt like a voyeur watching a very personal conversation. At the same time, you could see that these guys are humble and teachable. This video is a great model of the types of conversations we should be willing to have with those around us.
It’s only 15 minutes long and definitely worth watching.
What’s Next for Francis Chan? A Conversation with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris from Ben Peays on Vimeo.
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Tags: elders, leadership
One of the…
Aug 30, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
One of my favorite phrases is “one of the…”
Let me use it in a sentence for you: “I am one of the pastors at XYZ Church.”
Not sure if it’s me, but I am hearing this phrase more and more lately and I smile each time. It seems that perhaps we are beginning to recapture the often neglected biblical principle of a team of pastors/elders leading the church together.
Recently I have heard this phrase used by Larry Osborne, Mark Driscoll, Greg Surratt, and Pete Wilson to mention a few. They are from a wide range of theological / denominational camps, by the way.
I like.
Tags: church, elders, leadership, pastors
LEAD
Aug 24, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Just wanted to remind you that our next LEAD event is coming up on September 18, 2010 from 9am to 2pm.
This time around, we’re doing it a bit different. We’ll have a couple main sessions (one of which will consist entirely of music, communion, and prayer). We’ll also be offering specific training if you serve with RivKids, Chaos, The Element, EPIC, Life Groups, or Welcome Team. If you aren’t serving in one of those areas, we’ll also be offering our most popular class (Decision Making) and a new class on Interpersonal Communication you can take instead.
The cost is only $10 (to help cover lunch), but if you can’t afford that just let us know and we’ll cover you. We don’t want the cost to be the reason you can’t make it.
You can register now at http://LEAD.RivChurch.com
Just in case you still have doubts about joining us, here’s a little video where I pretty much say what you just read:
In case my video wasn’t enough to convince you, here are 10 more reasons to check out LEAD:
- 1. You’ll get specific training for how to lead in the area of ministry you are serving in.
- 2. Dan Price will be leading an intimate worship time with music, prayer, and communion. How intimate? You’ll have to come to find out.
- 3. Hang with other emerging leaders at Riv.
- 4. There will be coffee, of course.
- 5. Meet church planters from around Lansing and the rest of the state.
- 6. The MSU vs. Notre Dame home game isn’t on until 8pm that night (yes, we checked).
- 7. Get a pre-release version of a new Bible Study curriculum we’re working on.
- 8. It’s only $10 (to cover lunch).
- 9. If you can’t afford $10, it’s free for you.
- 10. Did I mention the game isn’t on until 8pm?
Tags: leadership, riverview
10 Reasons to Love Lansing
Aug 19, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Recently, Kiplinger rated Lansing as one of the Top 10 Great Cities for Young Adults. This put us in the same category as Chicago, New York City, Portland, and Washington DC. For a lot of people, this was kinda a shocker.
“Seriously, Lansing?” was what I heard over and over when I told people about the article.
But even as someone who grew up here and wanted to get away as soon as I could, I am growing to love this city. I asked people on Twitter and Facebook to tell me why Lansing is great and here are their top ten responses (in no order with a little commentary from me).
Integrated
I actually hear this one quite a bit from people who move in from other cities. While there are definitely neighborhoods with different feels, there’s quite a bit of integration. In most parts of town, there are nice houses and not so nice houses, a broad range of races, people of different economic status all kind of on top of each other. Even where I live in Holt, you are always within a few minutes from some huge houses and some trailer parks. This sounds weird to some people, but it creates an integrated living experience. I’m also noticing a lot more bi-racial marriages, but maybe that’s just because I tend to notice that particular thing.
Affordable
The cost of living is cheap here, period. Your money can go a lot longer than in most other places. You can live better on less (remember that when hunting for jobs).
Friendly
I just got back from Seattle where I tried to smile at people while walking down the street. Nobody would make eye contact with me. The people in Lansing are a lot more friendly to strangers. They smile, nod, and every once in awhile hold doors for people. My sons and I are on a mission to make the last one something we’re known for.
Easy to Get Around
You can pretty much get anywhere in town in under 25 minutes.
Festivals
For a smallish city, we have a lot of festivals. Off the top of my head, I can think of the Silver Bells Festival, Moonlight Film Festival, East Lansing Arts Festival, Common Ground Music Festival, Lansing JazzFest. I’m sure there are more.
Churches
There are a lot of different styles of churches around town. Granted, I would like to see more and hope to start more, but there are some really great faith communities in town, including a dozen or so new churches in the last 5 years.
Higher Education
Lansing has 5 medical schools, 2 law schools (including the country’s largest), a community college and MSU. Add to that extension universities for Davenport, CMU, WMU, and others and you have a lot of education options.
Shopping
Little places like the Lansing City Market, the Holt Farmer’s Market, Lamb’s Gate Antiques, and Elderly Instruments make our city unique. You can find these shops all over town.
Eating
From hole in the wall places like Sawyer’s Pancake House to upscale places like Enso’s, we have a decent selection of places to eat. You don’t have to settle for fast food.
Stuff To Do
No one ever thinks their own town has anything to do, but Lansing boasts quite a bit. We have the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, the Lugnuts, Hawk Island Park, Burchfield Mountain Biking Trails, Impression 5 Museum, Potter Park Zoo, and many more.
Tags: Lansing
Re:Train
Aug 9, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Dan and I will be spending the week in Seattle as we begin taking Master’s classes in The Missional Leadership Program at The Resurgence Training Center. This year we are going to attempt the crazy plan of going to school in Seattle, all while trying to be good dads and husbands and continue pastoring full-time at Riv.
It’s going to be an interesting year, so we would appreciate your prayers and understanding if we seem dazed and confused on occasion. Luckily, we have amazing wives who are very supportive of what we are doing and a kick butt assistant who will manage our schedules and protect our time ferociously.
Tags: personal
What’s Next?
Aug 3, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Now that I am back from my Social Media Fast, it’s time to jump into the new year (Riv’s calendar really goes along with a school calendar). With this new season of life and a little bit of perspective from my month off, I am going to modify my use of Social Media a smidge. Here’s what I am thinking:
Twitter
I am suspecting this is going to be the hardest part of my Social Media world to jump back into. That’s odd because it was one of the hardest habits for me to break. Now that I am not Tweeting constantly, though, it’s weird to start up again. Not sure how this one is going to change, but I know it will…
Facebook
By far, Facebook is my primary mode of connection with people at Riv and around the world. I am excited to get back in there and start connecting again, but I am going to limit my Facebook time so it is not a distraction from Riv, family and school (yes, I said school…more on that later). Not sure what the limits are going to be, but I am thinking about starting the day on Facebook and ending it the same way and trying to stay off in between. We’ll see…
Blog
I have been blogging for a very very long time and I plan to continue for a very very long time. However, I have noticed that since I started importing my blog into Facebook, my readership has decreased on the actual blog site. In particular, the comments have almost completely died out unless I specifically request feedback. There has been a corresponding increase of comments over on Facebook which makes sense. Because of this, I am going to continue writing on my blog (and importing the feed to Facebook) but I am disabling comments (unless a specific post warrants it). If people want to comment, they can do so on Facebook.
I’d love your thoughts on this, but of course you’ll have to give them to me over on Facebook.
Tags: facebook, personal, social media, twitter
I’m Back!
Aug 2, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
I’m back from my month long Social Media Fast. Did you miss me?
I figured my first post should be a little look at what this month has been like without Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.
Week 1
Countless times a day, I found myself starting to log into Facebook. It made me realize the number of “breaks” I take during the average day to consume Social Media. Once I began to eliminate that urge, I learned something: I am much much more productive when I don’t have Facebook as a distraction. As I re-enter the Facebook world, I am going to have to seriously discipline myself to only login a few times a day.
Week 2
This was when my need to Twitter really emerged. All of these little things kept happening that I wanted to tell the world about: the day I hiccuped for 8 hours straight, when one of my boys said, “Dad, do we HAVE to listen to rock music?”, when a flash flood almost washed away our tent when camping, etc. etc. etc. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to want to share this, I like the community it builds with people, it was just hard for me not to go there.
Week 3-4
These were vacation weeks for me so the temptation to blog, Facebook, and Twitter weren’t very strong except when I took pictures I really wanted to share.
Week 5
Last week was perhaps the hardest week because I was back from vacation and really trying to get things planned out for the fall. It felt like everything was “back to normal” except my social media stuff. I found myself craving normalcy.
Summary
This was a great thing for me in many ways and I think I may make a habit of doing this each July. Here were the best things about the month:
- My family vacation was truly that: a FAMILY vacation. I wasn’t consumed with having to share all the details with the world, and a lot of the time I would just leave my gadgets (including my phone) in the hotel room or van.
- I got a lot of reading done (which was one of my goals).
- The fast helped me to be less narcissistic. That’s one of the great downfalls about social media: we share every detail of our lives with other people and it makes is feel so dang important. It tends to place us in the center of the universe.
Anyhoo…tomorrow I am going to post a few thoughts on what happens next with me and Social Media.
Tags: facebook, personal, social media, twitter
iFast
Jul 1, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Everyone who knows me knows that I am a tech-junky. In particular, I’m a bit of an Apple Fanboy. I am always tapping away at my MacBook Pro or iPhone or iPad. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can become a bit obsessive.
In fact, I’ve been thinking about my social media consumption and production lately and I think it’s time for a break. Conveniently for me, my iPhone is dead and I’m not going to replace it until next month.
So, for the month of July I’m fasting from social media. Here are the parameters I am laying out for myself:
No Twitter. No tweeting, no reading other people’s tweets. A lot of time I’m not really living in the moment, rather I’m trying to capture the moment to share with others in 140 characters or less.
No Facebook. I don’t need to catch up on everyone’s lives, photos, and status updates this month. I also don’t need to share everything from my world. Sorry to everyone with July birthdays…you’ll just have to live without me saying “happy birthday.”
No Blogging. Most of the time, I love writing for my blog. Sometimes it’s a chore. This month, it doesn’t matter because I won’t be doing any of it.
No Reading Blogs. This one might be the hardest for me, since I have a lot of blogs I like to keep up on and no one would know if I snuck a peak. But it’s time for some offline thinking.
Limited Email. I’ll periodically check my personal email, but for the most part I’m going to let my assistant handle my work email. If something earth-shattering is happening that needs my attention, I’ll have her let me know but for the most part I don’t think the world will end if I don’t respond to email. To this end, I’m going to disconnect my iPad from my work email account so it’s harder for me to access. Maybe I’ll let my assistant change my password too. Yeah, I think I will.
So what will I do with all of the time / mental energy I save?
Read books. I have a whole lot of books I want to catch up on (and yes, a bunch of them are on my iPad…not giving that up).
Read the Bible, pray, and plan for the fall.
Vacation with the Fam. This month I have the coolest vacation plans ever but I don’t need to share every detail of them online.
That’s about it. My plan is to be back online in August. Who knows, though, I may like this offline world more than I think…
Tags: facebook, fasting, personal, social media, twitter
Marital Rating Scale for Wives
Jun 28, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
This weekend I read a bit of the Marital Rating Scale for Wives, originally published in 1936. Here’s the entire thing for your rating pleasure. Click on the thumbnail to view it in your browser. If you want to download a PDF version, you can do so by clicking here.
Manly Links
Jun 23, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Here are some manly links related to this past weekend’s message at Riv.
True and False Manliness by James Freeman Clarke, 1886
Twisted Gender by Reid Monaghan
Pastor Dad by Mark Driscoll
Resolving Conflict in Marriage – Gerry Breshears
Help with Porn – Here are some links to help you keep your home porn free
