I've decided that over the next few weeks I'm going to import a lot of old post into this blog.

For a while I had another blog, then upon leaving our last church I wiped it out went with this new blog.

But I'll warn everybody now... that blog was maintained during some very dark years in my life.  I was spiritually bankrupt, and it shows.  I'll be editing them slightly before they go live, but they will be on this site for archival purposes of my own.  I mentioned names and places in the old blog that I will not do on this blog. 

I'm not sure if the RSS feeds will pick them up or not, so it may not matter to you in the long run.  I literally have over 200 post to import... wow.   You'll see that every post from that blog will be marked in the category, "Old Blog"

I'm agreeing with Rosie....

Read here.

But while what Imus said (honestly never heard of the guy until this) was very wrong, I do agree with Rosie on this one.

This post represents my last post on this site.

I have moved onto a new site and a new blog. Please update any readers you have accordingly... I will be removing most of this content shortly.

http://www.ckurl.com/

I think we has a society have lost the ability to have a tough conversation. When somebody says something we don’t agree with we call them mean or intolerant. Sometimes we question their wisdom or maturity. All of those are really thought stopping replies to squash the conversation. I think this is the core reason why churches have started to slip into doctrinally unsafe areas and is a solid contributer to divorces. Churches are afraid of being called mean or intolerant so they are afraid to call sin what it is. Sin. It is against the will of God. The end result being that sin isn’t sin, but just a different way of life. In marriages, couples find it easier to leave than to sit down and work it out (in a sometimes heated way) through conversation. Talking is hard, but the consequences of not talking will be even harder to deal with.

I think this is one thing that causes me trouble with churches. I’m honestly not afraid to have the tough conversation. Because I know at the end of the conversation both I and the person I’m talking to will be closer to what Christ wants from us. They at times think I’m mean or intolerant, but generally they look down on my wisdom or maturity. Thats life. I’m OK with that.

This is actually one thing I have really liked about the Batavia Church of Christ, when my family and I first went there we were ignored. I can’t put it in a positive light… it was bad. So I got in touch with their minister and then the person who heads the welcoming ministry. I shared my thoughts and they accepted them very willingly. They didn’t take it as an attack, because it wasn’t. They took it as a guy wanting what was best for BCC and more importantly the people who walk through their doors.

Another church that was a very good example of this is the Loveland Christian Church. I visited their a few months back because I’m friends with a few of their staff members and I wanted to see how their welcoming ministry was. We walked into a crowded room and were spotted by a person and then taken to the children’s check in area… that was such a bad experience. When you have four children to sign it that can be a burden. So I emailed my friends and let them know what I thought of it, and they were VERY appreciative of some true and honest feedback. They tell me its fixed… one of these days I’ll go there and find out. Again they could have taken it as an attack, but they took it as a chance to improve.

We, especially we as a church, need to learn to be able to have a tough conversation and to take some critiques from people that may even annoy you. Because if they took the courage to say something then it must be important to them.

I have to say the move by Def Jam ( a major label in the hip hop industry ) to start removing certain curse words from the lyrics of its music is a GREAT step.

Bravo!

I go to the DrudgeReport today and see where a 'transgender' person is running for prom king. So I figured trans gender must have meant something medically wrong with this person. I have sympathy for those folks born with birth defects like that, and wouldn't be opposed to such a person running for king or queen.

But this person is just a girl who dresses like a boy!

I really fear what this world will be like for my children.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been listening to a teaching series from North Point Community Church, called “Practically Speaking.”

I highly recommend any person that has an active role in their church to listen to this. It really challenged a lot of my thoughts about church life, and it reinforced my thoughts at times.

Lesson two and three hit me the most. Lesson two was as if somebody had walked behind me and critiqued the Batavia Church of Christ as we walked through their doors the first few weeks. Lesson three was as if somebody watched my life for the past year and saw what went astray at a previous church in relation to my family attending their.

I’ve always been a strong believer that not every church will be for everybody. There are some churches that would be the worst place in the world for me. There are some churches that would be OK for me to be at. There are then some churches that are exactly what I need. And the truth is that this can change over time. For example I really do feel that at the beginning the previous church was where I needed to be at. I think my time there was an overall net positive. I was used to lead a man to Christ. Then it went to it being an OK place to be at, and was quickly heading toward it being the worst place for me. Had we stayed longer it probably would have went back through the cycle… it may not have.

You can go listen to this series from the website focused on it. This is really a must listen for folks in any form of leadership capacity.

This has been on my mind for some time and I’ve only now had the time to put my thoughts to pen.

God or Satan? Who is to blame when things don’t go well compared to our plans?

I’ve actually seen this in every church I’ve been a member in, things go bad and its obviously Satan working against us because things are just not going awesome.

But is it obviously Satan or obviously God? OK, before I even crack open my Bible to give this some credibility I say its obviously God. What??? Yes that is what I said. If things don’t go like you want them I put the ‘blame’ on God.

God is the beginning and the end. The alpha and omega. He is the great I AM. Without God nothing is possible, with God everything is possible.

When it came to Job the devil had to get permission to harm Job in any way. However the scriptures that stick out to me are:

Romans 8: 31b-32:
If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Acts 5: 38b-39
For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

If God is for something it will not fail. If God is against it then it may fail and I think people would serve God well by not blaming Satan, but by asking themselves what are thing doing against God’s will!

I think with this approach you look much less arrogant and you will only improve your ‘failing’ or ‘struggling’ effort. You can always improve to be closer to God’s will. If you think not, then think deep because you have just exposed the root of your problem.

When we first started attending the Batavia Church of Christ there was talk of something called the Jerusalem Market place. It was some event on Easter weekend that was to replace their annual Easter egg hunt.

My first honest reaction about it was a bit less than positive. Figured it would bomb and gave it very little praise. I had thoughts like, "My children would rather have an egg hunt." And frankly, even after this they would probably rather have an egg hunt.

So we showed up today and they had planned on having it outside, but thanks to Cincinnati weather it was to cold and windy. So they had it in their basement. But they had a very good turnout, not sure if it was all members or what but regardless they had a good turnout inside. Then the activities in the 'market place' were very cool. You could buy a harp, make a piece of bread, do some pottery, and more... And while they were doing this the children were given a piece of paper to with descriptions of five or six people and they needed to find those people and get a sticker from them. The people were characters like a fabric salesman, Mary the mother of Jesus, a beggar, and more. It made my children think about Jesus and his life on Easter weekend, which an egg hunt wouldn't have.

To top it all off, I asked them plainly if they enjoyed it and everyone of them did! So that I consider a great success.