The other day I was reading Breakout Churches which is basically Good to Great for churches and it discussed the concept of churches allowing the tail to wag the dog. Simply put this means that many churches allow their programs and events dictate the direction of the church. In a perfect world the vision, or direction of the church, would dictate what kinds of programs and events are done, but that’s not always the case. Then, one of the ministers being interviews for the book shared this insight. Some churches have a tail, but no dog. They have nothing more than a bunch of unconnected programs that are all entities within themselves and have no cohesive direction.

The more I think about that statement the more it scares me to think that there are churches that exist that have no sense of purpose, but rather all they do is exist to “do church” as it should be done. There is no vision, no mission, and no goals to achieve. The day a church loses sight of its mission and vision is the day that church starts its downward spiral toward eventual death. It sounds horrible, but in my opinion that’s how important it is.

Now let me ask you this. Do you know your church’s mission statement? Do you know your church’s vision statement? How many people in the church actually do? I think these are things that ever member should know and be constantly reminded of as we work together to achieve them.

Let’s make sure in our churches that the tail is not wagging the dog. And more importantly, that there is a dog!

As I was watching the news last night I heard that this has been the wettest October in the history of Louisville. We have received almost 9 inches of rain this month alone, and that is about double what we received all summer! The water usage restrictions have been lifted all over Kentucky and people can finally wash their cars and water their lawns (as if we need to now!). It amazes me how awesome and unpredictable nature can be. But this got me thinking. Aren’t our lives sometimes like this?

We go through times of drought where is scarcely anything there to keep us alive, and then there are other times when our lives are so richly blessed we are unsure how to even comprehend it all. Life is an awesomely unpredictable thing and there is never a guarantee of what tomorrow will bring. All we can control is how we receive each season. Are we going to whine around when things seem grin and nothing goes our way. Or will we face hard times with an attitude that looks past the bad straight to the good.

On Monday, my family and I traveled up to Cincinnati for Millie Beighle’s funeral. The Beighles, and most of their children, are members of the first church I ministered at. I feel very close to their entire family as they were, and still are, a great encouragement to me. Millie was without question the most positive person I have ever met in my entire life. She was diagnosed with cancer about 3 or 4 years ago, but you would never have known it. Her outlook on life never changed. I can remember constantly asking her about her how she was doing, and she would respond, “I’m great, the Lord’s great, but you look a little scronney. You need to come to my house so I can cook you dinner sometime.” That’s just how she was. She was always a servant, and always concerned more with the well-being of others above herself. But most of all she never let the twists and turns of life shake her. No matter what happened he response was the same. “The Lord is great.”

Just remember that no matter what life throws at you one thing remains constant; the Lord is great!

Craig Groeschel who is one of the pastors of lifechurch.tv and has written a few very good books like Confessions of a Pastor has written a new book called Going all the way. It is all about helping people to prepare for a Godly marriage. I think it would be worth your time whether you are a teenager who is planning to be married someday be married or a person who has been married for twenty years. We can all use these tips to grow and strengthen our marriage, and I have a feeling Craig will lay it out and make it doable. Check it out.

Yesterday I got to do something that I don’t normally do; eat lunch by myself. I am blessed enough to only live 5 minutes from my office and so I go home for lunch everyday, but yesterday I had to get some errands run so I just stopped at one of my fav local spots and had lunch by myself. Before my son was born this was the way most days went, and I loved it. My wife was at work, and so going home a cooking for myself was not really an option. I loved being able to escape for a little while and be alone to eat and maybe watch some sportcenter. But yesterday wasn’t like that.

I found myself sitting down to one of my favorite meals in a quiet spot with sportcenter directly in front of me and all I could think about was my family. I couldn’t enjoy that time like I once had. Now I know that there will come a time when I will crave to get away from the craziness of the family, but right now I want to be with them ever second I can be. When I’m not with them I’m thinking about them. I love the time we spend together.

Then this morning while I was doing some personal study and reflection I thought to myself. Why isn’t my relationship with God like that? I mean I’m a minister and I’ve spent had a daily time of reflection, reading, and prayer since I was ten, but why don’t I long for that time like I do the time with my family? I think that thought has entered many people’s minds at some time or another. Why isn’t my faith on fire like it should be? Why do I seem to be lacking in passion and drive? I don’t think it is an uncommon struggle for the dedicated Christian, and so here’s what I concluded.

Everyday we have to change our perspective. We have to change the way we look at God. Because we could spend our whole lives focusing on one aspect of God’s personality and totally miss a lot of other cool stuff. Our God possesses more great attributes than many of us know. So this week I challenge you to renew your passion; your fire; your excitement for your faith by realizing something about God that you have been missing.

After college football’s weekend of craziness this past weekend I think my Buckeyes are inching their way to the top of the polls with only Cal in front of them. In looking at the upcoming schedule I pondered a very precarious thought this morning. Could we see a Buckeyes and Gators rematch #3 for a national championship this year?

Next weekend could see the #9 Gators playing the red hot UK Wildcats fresh off their win over #1 LSU. I think Florida should have beat LSU earlier this year when they played, but I know UK will be no match for the Gators. With the strength of their schedule, if the Gator’s go undefeated the rest of the year and both Cal and South Florida loses a game (which I think is inevitable) the Buckeyes and Gators could be a likely match up come bowl time.

For those of you who don’t know: last year the Florida Gators spoiled Ohio State’s perfect season and beat them in the national championship game. Then, college basketball saw them meet in the middle of the big bracket, and again Ohio’s hopes were spoiled. This has all left many Ohio State like myself fans longing for redemption, and how much sweeter would it be if they got to beat Florida to get it. Here’s hoping!

Ever since the time I have entered the ministry people have been advising me that there were certain traits that I HAD to have to survive. The most reoccurring piece of advice I received was, “You must be thick-skinned!” I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought much about this over the last 5 years, I mean let’s face it: it’s pretty hard to get under my skin or hurt my feelings, but when this subject came up in one of the books I am currently reading it made me really think back over my ministry. Have I been thick-skinned?

The more I thought about it the more I felt like I had been overly aware of how people treated me and what I did in my ministry. If anything I have been thin-skinned. And then I thought about how leaders in the church would function if they truly were think-skinned. We would have a bunch of desensitized robots running one of the most personal and emotional movements all of the world, and that just wouldn’t be right.

I think if I were to tell fellow ministers anything it would be that you can’t run a marathon in a suit of armor. Ministry (and our Christian life for that matter) is a marathon, and if we try to avoid all conflict or deflect all criticism without first thinking about it we will never make it all the way to the finish line. Instead we must learn how to constructively deal with every obstacle and how to turn even the worst of situations into teachable moments. I know that this requires a certain amount of boldness that some of us are not used to displaying, but life is too short to waste being timid and thick-skinned. Let’s get out there, do the best we can, and when we get hurt, get over it and go on.

In my small group this fall we chose to use the new H2O video series put together by Kyle Idelman and City on a Hill Productions and boy have I been blown away. Kyle is a local guy here in Louisville and is a preaching associate at a little church called Southeast (some of you may have heard of it) so we figured we would give it a try. I thought it might be like some of Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos, but it goes much further. Kyle gives you a lot to think about and the videos are second to none. They travel to many cool locations and each location truly adds to the message.

Kyle has also put together a similar DVD set called STORM that deals with 10 tough topics. The ones I have seen so far on evolution and validity of the Bible were excellent. This is more of a teaching video with the same setting in every episode, but the information is well put together and as always well delivered.

They are a little pricey, but I think it would be worth your while to check it out if you are looking for some great small group material.

Check out H2O & STORM

I have added a new feature to the site for those of you who are into reading and would like to know what I am reading. On the sidebar you can find a list of books I am currently reading courtesy of Shelfari. I think it is a pretty cool little gizmo.

Along with that I have had to make some changes to my site layout and look. Enjoy!

I know there has been a lull on my blog page in recent days, but hopefully today I will make up for it with my first great insight from my first month as a father.

Now that Reed is a month old he is starting to become more of a person than a little baby, and lately he has developed this really cool thing to do. it seems like whenever he is a happy guy and he gets somewhere that just takes him to the next level of comfort like say his momma’s arms or his favorite car seat he will just get this big grin on his face as if to say, “Life doesn’t get any better than this!” This might not sound like much but this isn’t just any grin. I’m talking about a nose scrunching, face widening, ear to ear, toothless grin. It just sends me rolling every time I see him do it, and it lets me know that my son is, at the moment, as happy as he could possibly be.

After watching him do this for a while I got to thinking. How many times in life have I been in a place where I should have just sat back and given this type of reaction? How many times has life been that good for me? I think the truth is that God is better to me than I realize, and that if I stop to think about it I have more to smile about than I know.

I want to encourage you today to look for reasons to smile about your what God has done in your life, and to truly enjoy it as an innocent baby does. I think you’ll find that you have more to smile about than you realize.