The Ball Hasn't Dropped Here... Yet

Happy New Year, friends! I'm anticipating that 2009 is going to be a good year, and I'm praying Christ's peace and presence in your life.

If you get a chance. Check out 365 Forum, our adventure in reading through the Bible together in one year's time. Drop me a comment when you're there. I'd love to hear from you.

Again, Happy New Year to you and yours.

Blog Shout - Steven Furtick

I didn't share a blog shout last Friday because I was pumped about seeing The Dark Knight. So, on Anything Goes Monday I want to take a breath and point you to Steven Furtick.

Here's Steven's basic message, but I've included the link to allow you to see the original.

Steven writes:

1. The bad news about valleys is that you will go through them.
   
2. The good news about valleys is that you will go through them.

Friday Blog Shout: Perry Noble

I want to go ahead and post my Friday Blog Shout so I can reserve tomorrow (the 4th of July) to be with my family. As I've said recently, I cannot navigate to PerryNoble.com. I get the RSS feed every day, but cannot go to the actual blog. Is anyone else having similar troubles? I don't know if the problem is my computer or his website.

So, here's his post from a few days ago verbatim:

Several weeks ago I shared the following story at NewSpring Church…but I just can’t seem to get it out of my head.

Last month I was in Oklahoma to record my

One Prayer message at LifeChurch…and on the way back to the airport the crew I was with decided to stop at Mi Mi’s cafe for some grub. While walking towards the front door I noticed an elderly gentlemen walking across the other end of the parking lot…and it was literally a struggle for him to take a step. He wasn’t “normal” I guess you could say. And so…when he went to step up on the curb he fell flat on his face.

He tried to get up…but he couldn’t. And so finally he just began to hit the ground and say out loud over and over again, “God #$%& it, God @#$% it!” (For those wondering…yes, he took the Lord’s name in vein [sic]!

At this point I ran over to him…but before I finish the story I want to include…He didn’t need a lecture about using dirty words - He had fallen, he was hurt. Would I have been right if I had told him not to use those words? Yes, heck, I even have verses to back that up…but it wasn’t about being right. If I had lectured him I would have missed meeting his greatest need.

He didn’t need to be studied - Seriously, he didn’t need me getting the group I was with for a discussion as to whether or not he was predestined to fall…or whether he had fallen because of the choices he had made.

He didn’t need to be put into a program - The biggest need for this guy was NOT to be enrolled in a

“How to walk effectively across the parking lot class.”

He didn’t need to be ignored - I could have just acted as if he wasn’t there; after all, there were lots of people in the restaurant already…and if it would have gotten too many people in it then everyone would have not been able to know everyone. It IS about who knows who–isn’t it?

He didn’t need me to try and establish a relationship with him - An invitation to “hang out” at my house in order to establish community would have done this guy no good.

What he needed was for me to put out my hand and help him up…which is what I did. At first he tried to tell me he was ok…but he and I both knew the opposite was true. I helped the guy to his feet and he thanked me over and over. I tried to help him inside the restaurant…but he told me he could make it from there.

I walked inside and dismissed myself from the crew I was with. I went to the restroom and about lost it. The Lord spoke to my heart and showed me that people in this world who are lost are just like that old man…but unfortunately the church wants to lecture people like that…or get into groups to study them…or ignore them…or whatever else…

BUT what these people need is for the church to extend a hand and help them–for that is when we will have our greatest opportunity to point out the fact that they need Jesus. Jesus said in

Matthew 20:28 that He didn’t come to be served but to serve…and that should be our passion as well…serve others into the kingdom.

That little episode in Oklahoma messed me up! People all around us have fallen…they need our help…the church is more equipped to help than ANYONE or ANYTHING in the world. The question is will we be willing to step up and extend a helping hand?

Friday Blog Shout

This week's blog shout out is an easy one. My wife, Janelle, doesn't blog that often, but when she does it's fantastic (picture Ignacio saying fantastic! without the sarcasm)! Check out her blog at janelle irwin - preacher's wife.

Blogging Geniuses

I don’t know how they do it! That's my rant for today. How do they do it? I find it difficult to post regularly, mostly because I’ve gotten out of the habit. Part of my blogging is as a spiritual discipline, sharing some of the things God is speaking to me, especially those things that I think would be helpful to you.

So, #1, I’m aware I have to re-develop the blogging habit. I get that. But let’s look at some accomplished bloggers, writers whose blogs attract hundreds of times the readership of The Masked Evangel.

Ben Witherington posted four blogs yesterday (Wednesday, June 18 – I’m writing this on Thursday to post on Friday – even though my blogging platform doesn’t provide a way to do that, my laptop has a little used blogging tool called Microsoft Word, so I can write ahead when I have the opportunity, and then post on a later day). Ben’s four posts averaged out to around 675 words each. I personally believe Ben is a robot who doesn’t need sleep. He’s one of those guys who accomplishes so much with the life God has given him, that I am ashamed to ever utter the words, I don’t have the time.

Craig Groeschel and Anne Jackson both write posts ahead (they’ve written about it as advice to other bloggers). Craig’s posts average 145 words each and Anne’s about 294 words each. How do I know this? Okay, I admit I took their last ten posts and did a word count.

Perry Noble posts every day (I'm having trouble linking to Perry today -- hope you can navigate there! I swear the link is right. Try www.perrynoble.com/), and his articles are usually a little longer – about 373 words each. Then there’s Greg Boyd (who has more brains and theological knowledge in his little finger than I have in my entire body), whose latest post (at the time I wrote this) was about 1900 words! Every writer has his own style, and the question isn’t so much, How long are the blog posts?... but, Is the blog worth the investment of time it will take to read it? Believe me, I’m a better person for reading the blogs I do. I subscribe to about 25 blogs. I scan them almost every day, and if they catch my interest I read them more carefully. I’m a better Bible scholar, theologian, pastor, family man, and person because of that small investment of time. Hey; If I find myself continually disinterested in a blog’s content, that blog gets dropped from my subscription list – life is too short.

Anyway, Friday is supposed to be the day I give a shout to someone else’s blog. This week I want to direct your attention to Craig Groeschel. Read this and this. It won't take long, and it will be worth it; I promise.

But first, thanks for reading The Masked Evangel. I’m dedicated to making it more worth your while than it’s ever been. (By the way, my last ten posts averaged about 225 words a piece – that is until this one threw off the curve!) And if you want to read some really great blogs, check out my blog roll in the lower right column.

Convicted

My friends at Church for Men-Florida caught me off guard with this quote from Shane Claiborne. Thanks, guys.

"We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great traged in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor."

Are You Praying for Your Pastor?

Are you praying for your pastor? Read this great post from Perry Noble.

Shout Out Friday - Church for Men - Florida

About once a week I want to use The Masked Evangel to promote some other blogs of note.

And by the way, if you're not using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication - and no, I'm not kidding; that's what it stands for) feed to organize your blogs, you're wasting precious time. Internet Explorer has made subscribing to your favorite blogs super easy. If you're using IE, at the top right of your screen there is a small orange RSS icon in the tool bar. To subscribe to your favorite blog(s), connect to a blog, and then click on the RSS icon. After that just follow the on-screen instructions.

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When you have some time for reading your selected blogs, rather than going to the URL of each individual blog, just open your favorites list (on IE at least that icon is a yellow star at the top left of your screen). There should be three columns: favorites, feeds and history. Select feeds. The names of all your blog subscriptions will be displayed. Any that have new material since you last checked will be in bold print, which means you don't have to waste time checking blogs that haven't been updated.

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And if you do subscribe to some blogs, make sure you include The Masked Evangel on your list.

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Let's give a shout to Church for Men - Florida. Church for Men (Daytona Beach, FL) just celebrated their one-year anniversary under the able leadership of brothers Louie and Frank Mercer, and their friend Mike Ellis. The guys meet once a month in a gym; there's no dress code, and they keep things simple to connect with men's attention spans. Their services last an hour, including a rock-band, a 15-minute message, and always free food. They decided, Let's try it for three months and see what happens. That was over a year ago.

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Their blog includes insightful oiginal content, and they often connect to other blogs for content that impacts men, including stuff that's thought-provoking, or sometimes just plain funny.

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Give Church for Men - Florida a try, and let's thank God for a group of guys who were willing to follow the Holy Spirit and try something new.

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God, we ask your presence and provision for the guys and ministry at Church for Men. May individual lives, families and communities be changed as a result of what you're doing among them. Amen.