Emergent Brethren

In another post (a comment from my Forgiveness post), Jeff asks how much I read.  I read LOTS for many reasons, but primarily to glean illustrations, stories, quotes that will be helpful in preaching.  But you might ask… what do you do with those stories, etc.

 Years ago, both Dean Miller, then pastor at Christ Church of the Brethren in Carol Stream, IL, and John Maxwell, Leadership guru… taught me a great system that I have used for nearly 20 years.  When I read, I do so with pen in hand … I mark up all my books… underlining stories, quotes, etc and then in the margin I write a topic or theme.  Then I also record the page number in the back of the book.  When I get a stack of books that I have read, I go to a copier and make copies of the pages listed in the back.  Then I file those stories in a folder that is labeled with the theme.  I keep the file drawer alphabetical by theme.  Then when it comes time to preach on forgiveness, I go to the file drawer and pull out the file folder that says “Forgiveness” and I have lots of possible quotes, stories, etc to choose from.  I also mark the date on the story once I use it so that I know when it was last used.   This has been a real life-saver for me.

 Do you have a system you use?  Share it with us.

Am almost finished reading a great book on forgiveness.  I HIGHLY recommend it to you.  It is called “Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transended Tragedy.”  By Donald Kraybill.   It takes a look at the Amish School Shootings at Nickel Mines, PA a few years back and the forgiveness they extended. It also takes an indepth look at Forgiveness.  It sure challenges me to extend forgiveness more often and more quickly.

 It also has lots of good stories of forgiveness that would be great to file for sermons.

I recently was given two advance copies of Mark Batterson’s new book, Wild Goose Chaise: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God.  (It is now out in stores and is a good read!)  I finished reading it on vacation… when I was mostly sleeping, eating, reading, relaxing, and reflecting on my life.  In the book, Mark made a comment that caught my attention (actually, he made lots of them, that caught my attention)… he said, “too many of us live by default rather than by design.”
 

Take a moment or two to read that again and think about it.
 

Which way are you living?  By default – just taking life as it comes – not making plans or using the gifts God has given you.   Or, by design – living out of the gifts God has given you and making an impact in the world.
 

One thing I know… we are each one created (designed by God) with different interests, gifts, abilities and when we use them, we are living into the designs God has for us.  And when we do that, life can be pretty exciting and fulfilling.
 

What would your life look like if you were living it by design?

 

Not yet… but it soon will be!

I was offered the opportunity to receive two free copies of Mark Batterson’s new (not yet out, but on Aug. 19) book, Wild Goose Chase and blog a review of the book before August 19. The books just came today… I’ve been anxiously awaiting them and will move it to the top of my “MUST READ” list… actually I will take one on vacation next week. With today being the 13th and getting ready for vacation and the 19th just 6 days away, I am choosing to post a few helpful “one liners” from the book and will blog more about it at a later date.

Here is a summary and bio on Mark as well….

Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect. “Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh–Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” —from the introduction.

Author Bio:
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

One-liners…

“Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.”

“Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.”

“Stop repeating the past and start creating the future.”

“Stop playing not to loose and start playing to win”

” Quit putting eight foot ceilings on what God can do.”

I am sure I will blog more later… as Mark is some one that I really appreciate as an author, pastor, and blogger. I read his blog daily, have read his first book twice (In a pit with a lion on a snowy day– HIGHLY recommend it by the way!), and have attended his church twice at their Coffee Shop location in D.C.!

Last night, I hosted a prayer/worship experience that I called “Passages: Conversations with God.”  My thought was to offer somethinga that would help us connect with God in a variety of ways, using prayer, worship, and some spiritual disciplines.  Last night we used the Jesus Prayer and a passage from Luke 10.  The other thing I wanted to try was the 5 questions that I found in “Tangible Kingdom”… because I am thinking about using them as the framework for “the sermon time” in a new worship experience that I would like to launch this fall.  I was not sure how the questions would go… but it was the best part!   I didn’t want to delve deep into historical analysis of the scripture, etc.   I wanted to engage the Scripture as the Living Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our conversation.  It was totally awesome how rich and deep that time was.   Here are the questions that we used to guide our conversation.  1. What did you like about what you just read? 2. What didn’t you like? 3. Was there anything you didn’t understand? 4. What did you learn about God? 5. Regardless fo where your faith is at right now, if you were to apply what we learned about God to something in your life this week, what would that look like?

I can’t wait to see how using them goes several weeks running.