Doin' stuff

Well, today I preached my second and last sermon of the summer at my home church.  It was on worship (like my first blog, which was actually a session for me to get some thoughts for my sermon).  I thought it went pretty well, seemed pretty well received I guess.  It was fun, I'm still wondering about whether a pastoral role is in my future, and what that would look like.  I guess we will see where God takes me.  So it was pretty good, I definitely felt God's hand in all of it, which was nice. 
Watchin' the closing ceremony for the Olympics, John Lennon is singing in his past self.  Cool stuff.
So, today I got my cycle ready for the trip out to Virginia, fastened my GPS mount to the fairing so I doesn't get lost and fastened a cup holder on as well, so I can drink my booze.  Well, actually it will be water or pop or something, nothin' illegal.  This will be my first time driving more than a hundred miles, but I am splittin' it into two days, stopping at my second cousins in Ohio, so 6 hours each day.  Also my first time driving by myself, it will be awesome.  And I will drive through the mountains, so I am excited for that. 
I also really should have been more strict in my running and working out for the soccer season.  I did a couple sprint workouts last week (for the first time this summer, I might add) and man I should have started doing those earlier.  I am gonna struggle a bit for this first week.  But I did run a 5:43 mile once this summer, and I am going to time once this week.  I have run a lot more than ever before, but I haven't done all the different types of running that I should have.  Anyway, this soccer season is going to be better than both Hesston seasons, I am sure.  Just because of the people I think, and not being a captain, and playing on a good field, and being around family who will come watch me play.  It's going to be awesome.  I am hoping I play.
So that's all I got for today.  Not much deep content here.  But I preached this morning.
I will say that I am done interning at the church now, seeing as I am leaving Friday.  It was a very great summer and I am extremely blessed to have that opportunity.  I definitely got some direction for my life, which is saying that I am not quite sure if I do see a pastoral role in my future.  But I know that God has me doing ministry, I just don't quite know what that will look like at the moment.  But He is in control of my life and will let me know when the time is right.
Also, I am changing to a Business Administration major I think, maybe a business minor and keep my ministry major, that will be decided tomorrow.  The reasoning behind this is that I already have my associates in Youth Ministry, so I can really get any youth ministry job that I want, and if I take Bible classes now they may very likely get repeated if I ever go to seminary.  And if I don't go to seminary to be a pastor, then I will need some other base to start my life after that on. 
Yup yup. Life is happenin', and I like it.  God is good, God is good.
In other news, I posted a picture of the Wiener Mobile that I saw once, I guess the driver of that mobile could have been Mitt Romney's new Vice Presidential Candidate, Paul Ryan.  Check it. http://cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2012/08/11/sot-paul-ryan-on-weinermobile.cnn

Also, here is a picture of my motorcycle that I am soon to drive to Virginia for my college life.

Make it a good day.

Leadership Summit 2

So today was a pretty good day at this Summit as well.  We got to hear people like Patrick Lencioni, Geoffrey Canada, John Ortberg, and Bill Hybels, of course.  Lencioni started this day off on a really good note, talking about organizational health and all that.  He had 6 (maybe 7, I mighta missed one) questions that each organization should ask itself. 
1) Why do we exist?
2) How do we behave?
3) What do we do?
4) How will we succeed?
5) What is most important right now?
6) Who will do what?
He also said that a company should have 3 core values that they base every decision off of.  3 anchors to fall back on for decisions so that each person in the organization can make decisions, so that not everything needs to come back to higher management in order to happen.  His example was Southwest Airlines (Jim Collins talked about them a lot yesterday too, apparently they are the best airline out there...) and one of their core values was "A Sense of Humor."  They also had, I don't remember them exactly, but things like a quick-turn around time in the gate and something else, I forgot to write those down.  But then, when you make a decision, whether you are just a flight attendant or the top of the chain, you go through those core values, ask whether it will damage the company or lose them money, ask whether or not it will make the reputation with customers  better or worse, then do it.  So yeah, he had some good stuff.  His organizational health thing had four steps, 1- Build a Cohesive Leadership Team, 2- Create Clarity, 3- Over-communicate Clarity, 4- Reinforce Clarity.  I think he thinks that clarity is important...
Then we heard from some negotiator that wasn't very engaging and I didn't really listen to him at all.  Oops!
We then heard from Pranitha Timothy, she was somebody who had had a brain tumor and could barely talk because of that, but she had led over 50 operations to free slaves in Asia and shared her story and how she was able to do that.  It was pretty incredible, inspiring.  She knew what it was she wanted to do and she did it.
Then Mario Vega talked, leader of a 73,000 member church in El Salvador.  He only spoke Spanish so it was through a translator which makes it really hard for me to pay attention, but one of his points struck me, "As a leader, you are not only responsible for your actions but for the actions of those people that you influence."  I thought of how true that is, and important, and thought of the example of Thomas Muntzer and the Peasant's Revolt and the Munster Rebellion during the Anabaptist Movement.  The Anabaptist's influenced those that participated in this revolt, but (not their fault) they didn't clarify their beliefs enough with them before radical action was taken.  That had to do with lack of available communication and stuff, but it tainted the names of Mennonites and Anabaptist's for years and years after, and even today there are people who only know those stories of Anabaptist's and Mennonites and have no idea that we are (should) be pacifists.
Then we had John Ortberg, pastor of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Cali.  His message was titled "Who is this man?" and was more of a sermon than a leadership thing, but it was awesome.  His one point was "What is the driving force of Christianity?" To make everyone in the world, regardless of race, ethnicity, color, or age a member of a single, transformative community.  Pretty sweet (sounds a bit like a reason for pacifistic Christianity, does it not?).  He also started out asking the question "Who was this man?" and then at the end he changed it to "Who is this man?"  It was neat, he also has a book called "Who is this man?"  That's what I got about him.
Then Geoffrey Canada was up, he was an inspiring man too.  He started "Harlem Children's Zone."  He didn't talk a whole lot about it, which I respected, but it sounded like it was an education thing for children and youth in poor regions of cities, which he had grown up in.  But one thing that he said was the important thing for a leader to remember is that the organization is not yours, but it is the people's that you are doing it for.  Humility to the max.  And that, as leaders, you can't be afraid of hard conversations, which you hear a bunch, but it is so true.
Then Bill Hybel's came to wrap it up the way he does.  It was good, but I was being plagued by another idea so I didn't really pay attention too much, except that he said "The local church is the future of the world."  Oh, and that the key to leadership is Christ.  I'm not going to talk about my other idea except this, "What is the local church like in Germany?" So he wrapped it up really well, he knows what he is doing.  Then we came home.  Also, Gungor is sweet!
Alrighty, peaces.
Here is a picture of a giant wiener.  Saw it on the way to Virginia quite a few years ago.
"My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R, my baloney has a second name it's M-E-Y-E-R.
Oscar Meyer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A." 

Leadership Summit

Not expecting people to really read all of this, it just helps me process things.  
So I am attending the Leadership Summit put on by Willow Creek Church today and tomorrow.  It's a pretty sweet event, I think they said something like that they are translating it into 42 different languages for people to watch it in the next few weeks or something, some 90,000 people attending.  Pretty crazy.  They have some great speakers, today we had the likes of Condoleezza Rice, Jim Collins, Craig Groeschel, and Bill Hybels.  They also have music entertainment provided by the band Gungor.  And Kevin Olusola. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMRzpmnl7U There is a very nice example of their musicianship.  So good.
So this is a pretty sweet event.  Only problem is, I am in Midland, Michigan, and the event is taking place in Chicago, so we are seeing it on a live stream.  So it is a little bit removed from the actual event, but there are about 300 people watching it with me in the big church there in Midland.  So it is fun.

Usually I am very wary of Megachurch things, just because they really seem like money-wasters and money-lovers.  I don't like big, flashy, Christian events because usually they advertise a bunch of organizations (Compassion, in this case) that really need money and ask all the people in attendance, possibly paying $200 to go to the event, to donate more of their money to these events.  I feel like they could get rid of most of their flashy things, still have a great event, save a lot of money, and therefore have a lot more money to give to the organizations they are trying to raise money for!  However, that doesn't really happen.  Of course, in an even like this, with such high-profile speakers, much of that cost is appearance fees, yadda-yadda.
Moving on from that, to what I have actually taken out of this event.

This event is called the Leadership Summit because we are learning how to be better leaders, hopefully.
First guy up was Bill Hybels and he talked about how a lot of times the hardest person to lead is yourself.  As a leader, you have to reach out to the people on the right, the people on the left, the people above you, and the people below you, but you also have to reach yourself somehow.  He also talked about transition in leadership and how it is really hard.
Next dude wasn't a dude, it was Condoleezza Rice.  That was pretty cool to be able to hear her speak.  She has a pretty crazy story, growing up in segregated, racist Birmingham, losing a classmate to a church bombing, etc.  Her parents raised her in a way that she believed that even though she couldn't buy a burger at the local market because she was black, she could still be president.  Those are some sweet parents, I don't know how they did it, pretty sweet.  So anyway, she said that as leaders we are supposed to try and help others realize their leadership potential.  Which I agree with.  Also, that we should strive to help the world become as it should be, not as it is.
Then Jim Collins, this guy reminded me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory, but I actually respected this guy.  I'm not sure how "Christian" he was necessarily (this event also attempts to cater to secular audiences) but he was a very engaging and meaningful speaker.  I liked a lot of what he said.  His main format was this triangle he had, On the top was Fanatic Discipline, bottom right was Empirical Creativity, bottom left was Productive Paranoia, and the middle (the "x-factor") was humility.  He related everything back to the first two teams that tried to reach the South Pole at the same time and how every person in one died and the others survived by a series of 20 mile marches.  This is where the Fanatic Discipline came into play.  They went a certain amount of distance everyday, no matter what the conditions were.  If it were a really stormy and miserable day, they would go that far.  If it was a beautiful day and it seemed like they could go farther, they would discipline themselves and only go that certain distance.  A big point he had in that was that we have to discipline ourselves in good times so that we can manage ourselves in bad times.  Then, Empirical Creativity was "living with eskimo's", taking time to learn things firsthand and use things and processes that are guaranteed to work.  If you are blazing a new trail, you need to implement processes and things that will work, because if something doesn't then you can be killed.  Productive Paranoia was being paranoid about what could go wrong so that if it does go wrong you are ready.  Then, we can't just sit back and watch our "good luck" moments come, we need to seize them.
Last dude I will talk about is Craig Groeschel, the founder of lifechurch.tv.  He was a good presenter, and he was funny.  So it was fun to listen to him.  He talked about how we (the younger generation) need to respect, honor, and learn from the older generation.  They (the older generation) need to know that we are entitled and to teach us things, not give up on us, and believe in us, believing that we can do things.

So yeah, that is what I learned today.  Have a nice day, here is a picture of a donkey.  He's a really happy donkey!  But I think he died from a heart attack, or somethin... Poooooooor donkey. :'(

Feigning Innocence

So the title of this blog is "Feigning Innocence."  Here is a little bit behind why that is so.
First of all, "feigning" is another word for "faking," so this basically says "Faking Innocence."
Second of all, and lastly, it sounds cool.  The end.




And in other news, it's got a little something to do with the human race, I guess.  Ever since the beginning we have been faking our innocence.  You got Adam trying to declare his innocence from eating the forbidden fruit.  Genesis 13:12 "The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
Ever since then we have been trying our best to deflect the blame for things that went wrong onto someone or something else.  We hate being told that we did something wrong, we hate being caught doing something wrong, so we try our best to say that we didn't do anything wrong or we try to blame someone else.  We try to be innocent even when we are guilty.  We fake our innocence all the time so that a) we don't have to admit we were wrong, b) so that others see us better than they would if they saw us doing wrong, or c) so that we don't have to try and correct what is wrong in our lives, because life is easier when we don't have to change.
Basically I hate that.  We shouldn't fake our innocence, we should learn from our mistakes and try and fix them so that we can live better lives that are more glorifying to God.  There is a popular saying that seems relevant, "Learn from the mistakes of others because there is not enough time to make them all yourselves."  And if we don't own up to our mistakes, then others can't learn from them.  But more importantly, if we don't own up to our mistakes then we can't learn from them either.  
We are not innocent, we are guilty.

Another reason this is called feigning innocence is because I feigned innocence for a long time.  I couldn't admit to anyone, not even myself, that I was not innocent.  Slowly, I realized that there was no way I could fix my life if I didn't admit that I was doing wrong.  So I did admit I was doing wrong, but only to myself.  Then I started realizing that if I didn't stop feigning my innocence to those around me then I wouldn't be able to overcome it.  So I stopped acting like I was a perfect little church-kid, I sought out help.  And now I admit my mistakes often, it's kinda like confession to a catholic priest, except I do it to trusted friends who can help me through life, not some random priest guy behind some screened thing.  I am trying to stop feigning innocence because it gets me nowhere.  I want others to stop feigning their innocence as well, because you get a new feeling of liberation when you admit your mistakes.  So stop.
We are not innocent, we are guilty.
The great news, the reason that we can admit our mistakes, is that we are justified through Christ.  We are guilty, but He was innocent and bore our sins so that we can be free from them, if we only admit them and ask for forgiveness.
That is why we should not feign innocence.
And it sounds cool.  
In this song it says, "We are monsters on our own, banded together we'll overcome."  As long as we keep acting like we are innocent, by ourselves, we are monsters.  But once we admit our guilt we can overcome.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys74yq7mUi0
Those are some reasons why this blog is called that.
I will explain the other things in this blog later.  Gotta leave something for people to come back for... Ha.

I found this probably copyrighted picture of the quote.  Yay!  *No copyright infringement intended*
;)

Working Out

I have been doing this interesting thing called "sprinting" for the past couple days.
For those of you who don't know, sprinting consists of running forward as fast as you can for an amount of time, pumping your arms and legs to use maximum energy so that you can propel yourself forwards at around 20 mph.
I do this not for the feeling of wind in my hair, although that is nice, but to get myself in better shape.  Sprinting is a good workout for those of us who play sports, like soccer, or hockey, or football, or track and field (especially if you run the 100).  However, it causes pain for the rest of the day, sometimes even the rest of the week.  My question is relatively simple on this subject: Where is the line drawn between taking care of our bodies and self harm?

Now, I believe that we should take care of our bodies because they are a creation of God and we shouldn't neglect that.  If we truly love God then we will want to take care of the things He has made for us.  That should be a given for Christians.  Just like we should take care of the earth and not litter (while not making sustainability a religion (another topic for another time)) we should take care of our bodies and not let them go to waste.  But in taking care of our bodies, that also involves keeping our bodies from harm.  And when we workout, and we run, and we try and get stronger and in better shape, it takes a lot of pain to get there. 
Is that what God wants us to do to take care of ourselves?  I don't know what God thinks.  But what I guess I think is that we shouldn't rejoice in pain, but pain is necessary to get to where God wants us.  Sometimes that is physical pain, sometimes emotional.  I do not believe that self-flagellation is where God is calling us.  That is the opposite of taking care of our bodies.  But man, God needs us to be able to take control of our lives while at the same time being able to relinquish control to Him!
If we want to take care of our bodies, a little pain is necessary.  We shouldn't be trying for pain, and there is a big line between what is ok and what isn't (for example, some runners run until they throw up and then they call that a good workout.  That is not good.  Especially for those of us who hate throwing up...).  But sometimes pain happens.

The key to being successful in keeping your Christian life together with that is to be giving the glory to God, keeping your Christian life above whatever sport you are playing, and watching your temper while playing.  Dang that is hard.  Such is life.  And if your life following Christ is easy, are your sure that it is Christ you are really following.

(I like Calvin and Hobbes)