Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
I can’t believe there’s an app for that: PMS Buddy
Umm. Really? Surely whomever created this app has no female friends left…
Alright, this app is probably more of a novelty than it is actually useful, but I thought it was a clever idea, so I included it on the list. PMSBuddy.com is a site the helps men track the menstrual cycles of the women in their lives. By doing so, men all over the world can prepare themselves mentally for their wives’ or girlfriends’ PMS moodiness. All you do is enter the last known date of her cycle and its average length, and PMS Buddy will provide you with the date of your lady’s next period. Use this app with caution. Women can be touchy about their PMS. I probably wouldn’t tell your wife that you’re tracking her period on your phone unless of course you enjoy sleeping on the couch. Download the PMS Buddy app from iTunes – $.99
via: Art of Manliness
“One anothers” I can’t find in the New Testament
Humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, disapprove of one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins, intensify one another’s sufferings, point out one another’s failings … .In a soft environment, where we settle for a false peace with present evils, we turn on one another. In a realistic environment, where we are suffering to advance the gospel, our thoughts turn to how we can stick up for one another.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
via: Take Your Vitamin Z
Transformational Churches do not see the community as the place from which we hide our children.
Ed Stetzer in Transformational Church
Don’t ask what the world needs.Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. What the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman
via: @LenSweet
Behind my back
Tullian Tchividijian, 38, new senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and grandson of Billy Graham, on dissidents challenging his leadership:
“I haven’t seen Matthew 18 used nearly as often as it should be. I think what saddened me most was that those who stirred up the most trouble never even attempted to come and see me…
The real underlying issue was a perceived loss of power. When new members join the church, they promise ‘to promote the unity, purity, and peace of the Church.’ One of the quickest ways to break this vow is to gossip - to ‘chatter idly about others behind their backs.’ This seemingly innocent activity can cause a world of hurt. The corrective is found in Matthew 18.
I’m convinced that most divisions in the church would never happen if we took God at his word and scrupulously observed Matthew 18. When we sin against our brother or sister in Christ we sin against ourselves. A sin - such as slander - against any one of us is a sin against all of us. It’s like shooting ourselves in the foot, only much worse.”
- from July 2010 edition of Church Executive
via: Jonathan Herron
Many pastors copy models.
There is the “seeker sensitive” model, the “purpose driven” model, the “emergent church” model, the “contemporary church” model, the “spirit-filled classic charismatic” model, the “small group” model, the “multi-site” model, the “missional inner-city” model, the “dream center” model, and the list could go on and on.
Each of those models and the leaders who practice them have contributed a ton to the Kingdom.
Rather than copying the latest model that moves you, I suggest you let the Spirit of God direct your ministry based on the values, gifts, and people God gives you.
* What are YOU passionate about?
* What has God put in YOU?
* What needs can God use YOU to meet?
* What breaks YOUR heart?
* What are YOU uniquely equipped and called to do?
Even if you learn from another model, make it your own. Adapt it for your community. Improve on it. Tweak it. Take it up two notches.
Don’t copy models as much as you follow what God leads you to do.
Winning
Seth Godin:
A toddler wants what she wants, now. That’s a win.
A little later, when we’re more mature, we might define winning as getting what we want at the expense of someone else. I win when you lose. And yes, winning still means now, not later.
A demagogue cares so much about winning that he’d rather wreck the system itself than lose. It’s okay, he believes, to root for the failure of the republic or to destroy civility or democracy if it leads to something that could be called a win.
What happens when you define a win as getting closer to someone who wants the same thing? Or when you define it as improvement over time? Or in creating trust?
What if the win is the ability to give a true gift?
via: Seth’s Blog
The Power of Love
Don Miller gets it right about “The Power of Love” (thankfully with no mention of the Huey Lewis song.)
To whet your appetite, he says:
I want to make a little hypothetical wager here. I bet that somebody with unsound doctrine will gain a greater following if they are loving than somebody with sound doctrine who is unloving, bitter or angry.
Every day brings the Christian many hours of being alone in an unchristian environment. These are times of testing. This is the proving ground of a genuine time of meditation and genuine Christian community. Has the community served to make individuals free, strong, and mature, or has it made them insecure and dependent? Has it taken them by the hand for a while so that they would learn again to walk by themselves, or has it made them anxious and unsure? (92)
In their solitude they can shatter and tarnish the community or they can strengthen and sanctify it. Every act of self-discipline by a Christian is also a service to the community. Conversely, there is no sin in thought, word, or deed, no matter how personal or secret, that does not harm the whole community. When the cause of an illness gets into one’s body, whether or not anyone knows where it comes from, or in what member it has lodged, the body is made ill. This is the appropriate metaphor for the Christian community. Every member serves the whole body, contributing either to its health or to its ruin, for we are members of one body not only when we want to be, but in our whole existence. This is not a theory, but a spiritual reality that is often experienced in the Christian community with shocking clarity, sometimes destructively and sometimes beneficially. (92)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together
via: Tim Chester
