"Cletus Take the Reel"

My uncle Al sent me this clever spoof of "Jesus Take the Wheel".

Mutual Edification with Minimal Distraction

I've been meditating on Romans 12:3-13 in preparation for a meeting I have after church this Sunday. Our church is making the transition from one to two services in three weeks, so I've been busy preparing what we've come to call Worship Support. Basically that's all the volunteer areas of service that are necessary to support the worship services, such as greeters, ushers, nursery, hospitality, set-up & security, etc. Romans 12:3-13 has become the Biblical basis for not only how we serve, but why. Flowing out of a deep appreciation and rest in the Gospel (i.e. chapters 1-11) we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Thinking with a proper and sober view of ourselves (v.3), we recognize that God has given us each a measure of faith and made us members of one another in the body of Christ. We then use our gifts according to the grace given us. What's interesting about v.9-13 is that it's pretty generic. "Let love be genuine", "Outdo one another is showing honor", etc. Perhaps without specifics we can truly go further in our loving one another rather than holding each other to a relative minimum. These verses are the basis of what I want to share with all of our volunteers on Sunday. It's not only important how we serve, but why. We aren't trying to earn favor with God. We're not trying to do what is minimally necessary. We're not a bunch of "event staff" like at a football game. No, we are the body of Christ, the church of the living God, called to put others interest above our own and serve each other, and especially in this context, so that we can all partake of the means of grace. While folks are serving in the nursery, others get to hear the Word preached. While men are working security, others can worship without reluctance. Overall, the goal of our Worship Support Team is to enable worship and mutual edification in Christ (i.e. the means of grace) with minimal distraction by serving one another with excellence.

Well, those are some of my thoughts in prep for this Sunday, but I can't help but look at the verses that follow (14-21). God in His wisdom knew that when we start truly attempting to love one another and serve one another as we should that we'd be in such close proximity and would most likely, as fallen humans that fall short all the time, have some conflict. It is here that we are exhorted to "bless those who persecute you" and "live peaceably with all". I must admit that these words fall heavy on me today as I think on a specific unresolved conflict in my life.

Four years ago this week, I handled a disagreement in the wrong way. I did not show honor to someone I was in conflict with. When I should have talked to him in person, I chose to handle things by email. That was a drastic mistake. Email cannot convey body language and inflection. There are still misunderstandings that continue to this day and there are other people who are hurting as well. I continue to pray that one day there will be restoration of the relationship.

I have valued greatly from the much needed ministry of Peacemakers. They are phenomenal in helping and equipping people to handle conflict in a Christlike manner. In fact, I'm planning to go to their national conference in late September in Orlando.

Florida Gators already #1...

..party school! Well, well, well, what goes around comes around.

GAINESVILLE, FL (AP) -- The University of Florida has been named the No. 1 party school in the nation.

The rankings come out each year from the Princeton Review and this is the first time the state's flagship university has been named in the top spot.

The Gators came close in 1999 when the school was No. 2 and 1998, when it was third. It was fourth last year.

Florida also came in first this year in the categories of students who study the least and students who pack the stadiums.

The only other Florida school making the list was Florida State, which ranked 10th.

The rankings come from the 2009 edition of the Princeton Review's annual college guide, "The Best 368 Colleges," which goes on sale Tuesday.

The Dark Knight

Saw it this afternoon at the IMAX at World Golf Village. It was excellent. Is it "dark"? Yes. Good writing? Superb. Good acting? Yep. Good effects? Yep. Good music? Yep. They did it right. My hat's off to Chris Nolan and his crew. Not exaggerating when I say I'd put this in my top 5 movies.

And I encourage anyone who can to pay the extra couple of bucks to see it at an IMAX. There are portions of the movie that go full IMAX screen.

UPDATE 7/26: Saw it again. Just as good the 2nd time. Can't stop listening to the score.

A Better Way to Live

Highly recommend Gospel-Driven's blog entry describing a better way to live in contrast to the danger and prevalence of Exemplary and Moralistic preaching that is all too common in most evangelical churches. John begins his entry...

While on family vacation, we attended a local, Evangelical church for two consecutive Sundays. Both Sunday services clearly illustrated one of the great problems with the Evangelical church in America, the prevalence of Exemplary and Moralistic preaching and the near non-existence of true Gospel preaching.

(Note: For those who may not be familiar with the concepts of Exemplary and Moralistic preaching, here are two definitions:

Exemplary preaching- Preaching that uses Biblical characters and situations as moral examples to be imitated. This kind of preaching dominated all of my summer youth camps while growing up and the vast majority of the Sunday School material I was taught [e.g., Life Lessons From David and How to Slay the Giants in Your Life].

Moralistic preaching- Preaching that centers on informing believers of the necessity, value and particulars of right conduct as revealed in Scripture and then exhorting them to apply themselves to such conduct.)

You can read the rest here.