Playing Hurt

21 Years Ago ... Terry Tanner Tribute in CS

Books I'm Reading Spring 2020

What are you reading?

Ten Steps to Breaking the 200 Barrier?

Came across this book by Bill sullivan. Interesting book as is it only takes 10 steps and puff its done. Anyways ....Here they are:

1. Examine your motive

2.Intensify your praying

3. Increase your faith

4.Set a Barrier Breaking Goal

5. Think through your plan

6. Focus on the Critical Few

7. Create Excitement

8. Launch a Growth Thrust

9. Evangelize First

10.Lead the Change.


I think it there isn't a magic formula to growth rather to be Who God called you to be. Growth comes, plans, and trying to be Jesus' hands and feet.

Thoughts?

Dangerous Wonder - Mike Yaconelli Tracy illustration.

This illustration is from Mike Yaconelli's book, which I've used several times. pg. 58-60. A must book for anyone.


Last year Bill Harley, singer, songwriter, and storyteller, told a marvelous story on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. It is the story of a young girl who ended up break­

ing the rules, rejecting the expectations of all around her, because she loved with abandon. Here is her story:

Last year, my young son played T-ball. . . . Needless to say, I was delighted when Dylan wanted to play. . . . Now on the other team there was a girl I will call Tracy. Tracy came each week. I know, since my son's team always played her team. She was not very good. She had coke-bottle glasses and hearing aids on each ear. She ran in a loping, carefree way, with one leg pulling after the other, one arm windmilling wildly in the air.
Everyone in the bleachers cheered for her, regard-

less of what team their progeny played for. In all the games I saw, she never hit the ball, not even close. It sat there on the tee waiting to be hit and it never was.
Sometimes, after ten or eleven swings, Tracy hit the tee (in T-ball, the ball sits on a plastic tee, waiting for the batter to hit the ball, which happens once every three batters). The ball would fall off the tee and sit on the ground six inches in front of home plate. "Run! Run!" yelled Tracy's coach, and Tracy would lope off to first, clutching the bat in both arms, smiling. Someone usu­ally woke up and ran her down with the ball before she reached first.
Everyone applauded.

The last game of the season, Tracy came up, and through some fluke, or simply in a nod toward the law of averages, she creamed the ball. She smoked it right up the middle, through the legs of 17 players. Kids dodged as it went by or looked absentmindedly at it as it rolled unstopped, seemingly gaining in speed, hop­ ping over second base, heading into center field. And once it reached there, there was no one to stop it. Have I told you that there are no outfielders in T-ball? There are for three minutes in the beginning of every inning, but then they move into the infield to be closer to the action, or, at least, to their friends.

Tracy hit the ball and stood at home, delighted. "Run!" yelled her coach. "Run!" All the parents, all of us, we stood and screamed, "Run, Tracy, run, run!" Tracy turned and smiled at us, and then, happy to please, galumphed off to first. The first base coach waved his arms 'round and 'round when Tracy stopped at first. "Keep going, Tracy, keep going! Go!"
Happy to please, she headed to second. By the time she was halfway to second, seven members of the opposi­tion had reached the ball and were passing it among
themselves. It's a rule in T-ball -everyone on the defending team has to touch every ball.

The ball began to make its long and circuitous route toward home plate, passing from one side of the field to the other. Tracy headed to third. Adults fell out of the bleachers. "Go, Tracy, go!" Tracy reached third and stopped, but the parents were very close to her
now and she got the message. Her coach stood at home plate calling her as the ball passed over the first baseman's head and landed in the fielding team's empty dugout. "Come on, Tracy! Come on, baby! Get a home run!"

Tracy started for home, and then it happened. During the pandemonium, no one had noticed the twelve-year-old geriatric mutt that had lazily settled itself down in front of the bleachers five feet from the third-base line. As Tracy rounded third, the dog, awak­ened by the screaming, sat up and wagged its tail at Tracy as she headed down the line. The tongue hung out, mouth pulled back in an unmistakable canine smile, and Tracy stopped, right there. Halfway home, thirty feet from a legitimate home run.
She looked at the dog. Her coach called, "Come on, Tracy! Come on home!" He went to his knees behind the plate, pleading. The crowd cheered, "Go, Tracy, go! Go Tracy, go!" She looked at all the adults, at her own parents shrieking and catching it all on video. She looked at the dog. The dog wagged its tail. She looked at her coach. She looked at home. She looked at the dog. Everything went to slow motion. She went for the dog! It was a moment of complete, stunned silence.
And then, perhaps, not as loud, but deeper, longer, more heartfelt, we all applauded as Tracy fell to her knees to hug the dog. Two roads diverged on a third­ base line. Tracy went for the dog.

The Unquenchable Worshipper: Matt Redman - Illustration.

The yeaR IS 1744. HymN writeR CHaRles wesLey IS IN Leeos, eNgLaND, HOLDING a pRayeR meet -
INg; IN aN upstaIRS Room. SUDDeNly tHeRe IS a cRack IN tHe floORBOaRDS, foLLoweD BY a massIVe cRash, aND tHe wHoLe flooR coLLapses. aLL 100 people CRaSH Right tHROUgH tHe ceIL­
INg INtO tHe Room Below. tHe place IS IN cHaos-some aRe scReamINf;, some aRe cRy ­
IN some JUSt Sit IN SHOCk. But as tHe DUSt settles, Wesley, WOUNDeD aND Lying IN a Heap, cries out, "feaR Not! tHe LoRD is witH us; ouR
lIVes aRe aLL safe." aND tHeN He BReaks out INtO tHe DOXOLOGy: "pRaise f;OD, faom WHOm aLL BLeSSINGS f ow"-peRHaps a BIZaRRe CHOICe
of SONG;, CONSIDeRING; WHat Has JUSt HappeNeD !
But HeRe's tHe poiNt: WHILe eveRyoNe else was stiLL LickING; tHeIR WOUNDS, tHe HeaRt of tHIS
UNStoppaBLe WORSHippeR was RespONDING WltH uNsHakaBle pRaise

May 1998

Article from 5 years Ago

An Article from 2015

Things They Don't Teach You in Bible College.

There are a lot of things they don't teach you in Bible College. A lot of it has to be learned from the school of hard knocks. One of course is how to deal with a pandemic.

Other topics such as computer skills, videology, social media, relationships, finances, buildings, and so forth.

Here are some items I've come across the way:

1. What you keep them with is what you win them with. So if gimmicks and games guess what have to continue to do? Thus balance. Tools can be a good thing but not the focus. I remember attending a church that was so glad to be wearing "Football Jerseys" and the focus tended to be on the clothes they wore that Sunday rather than on Jesus.

2. Use Current Available resources. FREE is good. Read a lot. Borrow. Listen to others. Try not to reinvent the wheel, but use it to fit your context. See what others are doing and learn. Waypoint Church Partners puts together webinars that great in this area.

3. Know the "Why?" The questions that go back to elementary school. The Why do we do what we do? We Sunday Morning? How? Who? When? What? Asking questions leads to a better understanding of vision, priorities and goals.

4. Get to know others around you. With the recent at home order, several organizations have put together resources to update on what has been going on looking and as a result things like Hanoverhelps started. A group from forrichmond.com has updates weekly for different areas ...for my context Henrico updates on Zoom on Tuesday with updates from the local county, social services, foster care, and school system and others. A good resource and got me to know different leaders in my community.

5. Don't Hoard. Digitalize. I had binders, and filing cabinets full of "Resources" if not going to use it ..throw away. Don't waste space. I finally went through a lot of the material I've kept for over 20 years ...newsletters, coorespndence. Some I've scanned and saved to a hard drive, others just got rid of.

6. Learn to delegate. Utilize volunteers. You don't have to do everything. I recently have a volunteer that has helped set up our online presence ….why? Cause that's his giftedness. We've gone to streaming live in a matter of days what probably would of taken me months to figure out and do all by myself. Get people smarter than you to do it.

7. Identify, but don't be identical. I remember everyone wanting to adapt Purpose Driven to their church model. You can identify what works, what doesn't but don't try to be "exactly" like church A down the road. Be WHO God created you to be. For me, it is being a successful small church in Henrico County and Central Virginia ...one person at a time.

8. Check your pride. You are not in "charge." There are a lot of leadership podcasts, being the successful this and that, consulting churches to grow seminars etc. Recognize that it comes to ministry to check your ego at the door. The best leaders are those that are found serving first. Stacking the chairs, helping to clean the bathrooms etc.

9. Take time. Seems that is what we have a lot of. Take time to enjoy that favourite movie, book, walk, your family. Build memories. Time management. Be on time, schedule it wisely, and balance it. Learn to say "No" and what to say YES to. Recently I've stepped back on a lot of meetings. I just spent a lot of time helping out our local camp secure "funding" for the future when a local ministry gifted the camo with their property (And after selling, lawyers etc. 1.2 million later) and then another organization mediation of a local pantry and Central Virginia pantry and some concerns ..which our Lakeside Clergy had helped give feedback. The result: lots of time, challenges, and obstacles. It worked out but the big sacrifice: Time. Try to balance it. Use a calendar.

10. Know who YOU are. Know your strengths, weaknesses. Who you are in Christ. The greatest commandment is to love God and love others as yourself. In order to do that you have to love, and know who you are. What are you passionate about? Excited about? Where you came from, where are you going? Not everyone is going to be Wayne Smith, Bob Russell, that African missionary but there is one you. Be that person.

Thoughts? Any other items you would add to things they don't teach you in bible college or seminary but really should?

Book I'm Currently Reading ....

Do It Again Prayer 2020.

Dear Lord,

We're still hoping we'll wake up. We're still hoping we'll open a sleepy eye and think, What a horrible dream. How could this have happened?


Just a moment ago moms were packing school lunches. Just a moment ago chefs were planning the day’s menu. Just a moment ago arenas were noisy, brides were walking down the aisle, and neighbors were discussing the weather.

In just a moment, everything changed. A phantom disease invaded our peace, our plans, and our security. In a heartbeat our language and behaviors were upended. Even young children understand the term “social distancing,” “quarantine,” and “Covid-19.” Grandma isn’t allowed visitors in her nursing home. Workers are telecommuting, zooming, and skyping in their baseball caps and slippers. Handshakes and hugs have been put on indefinite hold.

This strange season has introduced a level of fear we haven’t seen since 9/11. Fear of what might come. Fear of touching. Fear of exposure. Fear of what we can’t see.

We are anxious, Father. And so we come to you. We don't ask you for help; we beg you for it. We don't request; we implore. We know what you can do. We've read the accounts. We've pondered the stories and now we plead, “Do it again, Lord. Do it again.”

Remember Joseph? You rescued him from the pit. You can do the same for us. Do it again, Lord.

Remember the Hebrews in Egypt? You protected their children from the angel of death. We have children, too, Lord. Do it again.

And Sarah? Remember her prayers? You heard them. Joshua? Remember his fears? You inspired him. The women at the tomb? You resurrected their hope. The doubts of Thomas? You took them away. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

You changed Daniel from a captive into a king's counselor. You took Peter the fisherman and made him Peter an apostle. Because of you, David went from leading sheep to leading armies. Do it again, Lord, for we need counselors today, Lord. We need apostles. We need leaders. Do it again, dear Lord.

What we’re seeing on the news, you saw on that Friday so long ago. Innocence interrupted. Goodness suffering. Mothers weeping. Just as the darkness fell on your Son, we fear the darkness falling on our friends, our family, our world. Just as our world has been shaken by a disease, our world was shaken the day the very child of Eternity was pierced.

You saw it. But you did not waver, O Lord. You did not waver. After your Son’s three days in a dark hole, you rolled the rock and rumbled the earth and turned the darkest Friday into the brightest Sunday. Do it again, Lord. Grant us another Easter.

We thank you, dear Father, for these hours of unity. Selfless acts of service and kindness warm our hearts. Strangers see opportunities to share with others. Our medical warriors are working together, at personal risk, to care for the rest of us. We thank you for their remarkable commitment.

And we see the world turning to you, Father. People encouraging people with scriptures and reminders of your sovereignty. We read posts urging us to respect each other, care for each other, and look up. We confess we have been anxious, but because of you, we have hope.

We ask, Father: let your mercy be upon all who suffer. Grant to those who lead us wisdom beyond their years and experience. Have mercy upon the souls who have been hurt by this disease. Give us grace to help each other and faith that we might believe.

And look kindly upon your church. For two thousand years you've used her to heal a hurting world.

Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

Through Christ, Amen. (Max Lucado Prayer)