Upcoming April 2011

A couple cool Opportunities Central Park Students and Parents::

April 13 – Family Fun Night for Jr. High Students and their parents

April 17 – Bike Night! This is an outreach for the neighborhood where we will invite kids to bring their bikes over to the church to air up tires; learn bike safety; and make sure their bikes are in working order for the summer. It is an opportunity for our high school students to give back a little of their time. I am accepting any old bikes or trashed bikes that anyone in the church has to part out and also donations to get intertubes and other necessary items to make this work!

April 22 – Seder! – The Passover meal was the ultimate picture of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. Come to the church on Friday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m. and we will reconstruct and experience our own CPCC Passover meal…(caution: Not a full meal; Eat first!)

April 30 – Jr. High Boys Boot Camp – Meeting at the church at 10 am on Saturday morning and doing guy stuff! We should be done by 8 or so!

The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make

The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make by Hans Finzel

Leadership has always been one of my short comings. When I was in High School we had a great group of leaders our youth group. Travis Mckinley, Jason Colvin, Lindsey McClellan and Aaron Brent were really good leaders because the set the tone in youth group and led by their examples. Once that class of about 12 seniors graduated; it was mine and my classmates turn to lead the youth group. Needless to say it was a few dry years for leadership (the likes of which it still hasn't quite recovered). As a youth leader myself I still find it difficult to lead my group of sponsors. I really struggle with what to do to train and lead them. We have such a strong and Godly group of Sponsors here at Central Park, that I almost feel as though I should be learning and being led by them instead of the other way around. So I read this book to try to become a better leader.

Since leadership is all about influence; essentially this book marks the 10 mistakes that people make to lose any influence they have.

(1) The Top-Down Attitude: the domineering, autocratic leadership style in use; in contra to a servant-style leadership model. The use of knowledge to keep people in line and in place. Though top-down leadership is easiest to exercise; it breeds contempt and distrust.

(2) Putting Paperwork before Peoplework: Viewing people as opportunities instead of interruptions. The higher we ascend in leadership, the less time we have to invest in people. Experts actually say that effective leaders spend most of their time with people doing people work.

(3) The Absence of Affirmation: Breaking news: people like praise!

(4) No Room for Mavericks: Penning in creative thinkers with rules and regulations. Essentially legislating out the creative process. He points out that the mavericks were the creators of facebook and google. There is a reason college graduates wanted to work for Mac over IBM or a new .com company over a mom-and-pop run organization. Younger generation employees want the room to explore and act. "Mavericks are messes by nature--but good messes-messes that institutions need." He also tracks the lifespan of an organization and shows where mavericks are needed most in the life cycle of an organization.

(5) Dictatorship in Decision Making: Understanding that the major players on a team should have a say in the direction of the organization.

(6) Dirty Delegation: "Overmanagement is one of the cardinal sins of leadership." Giving people tasks and letting them run with it is a chance for them to show their creativity and to feel excited about the path of the organization.

(7) Communication Chaos: Not knowing whose in charge of what and when. Keeping people in the loop.

(8) Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture: Embracing the culture at the organization. Changing the culture when it needs to be changed.

(9) Success without Successors: training up other leaders to replace you. Knowing you wont be here forever.

(10) Failure to Focus on the Future: Not looking ahead. Turing into kodak in a digital camera world.

When I read through this book I realized over the last year I was guilty of at least 8 of them. I still on a weekly basis find myself struggling with these things. But I am trying to practice at least one of them a week so as to further myself in leadership ability.

I don't believe leadership is a natural trait in humanity; but I think it can be developed. This book helped me realize how.

The Purity Dinner

A couple weeks ago we had our Jr. High girls purity dinner. Twenty girls and their fathers came to the church for a Hawaiian dinner and a devotion by Julia Bruns. They made lei's and bracelets; but hopefully they talked. As I look at society as a whole the father figure has probably taken the largest amount of abuse.My great uncle (Hugh Beaumont) played WardCleaver in the popular television series Leave it to Beaver (just look atthe nose and you will see the similarities). I cant think of a time when Ward was made the butt of the joke or was shown to be incompetant. Cosby started it; Home Improvement franchised it; and Everybody Loves Raymond perfected it. The idea of theAmerican Male Head of Household being an imcompetent and lost individual. It is a perception that I fear is creeping into the American Church as well. But on this night, I was able to see fathers and daughters sitting and talking. Dads hugging their daughters and hearing about their dreams and their hopes. Julia did a fantastic job of letting the Girls know exacltly who they are in Christ. It was a great night.

Here is a big Shout out to Linda Bohlender and Bobby Sapp for decorating and to Julia for a wonderful message. Thanks Dads and Daughters for your involvement and you support. A huge thanks goes to our high school boys that served too!

The Me I Want to Be

The Me I Want to Be

by John Ortberg

You wanna know what a life caught up in the Spirit of God looks like? You wanna take a distant look at the life you live?

In this book John Ortberg wants to get one single point across: Jesus came not to make you something different altogether; but to redeem you! Jesus wants to take our gifts and abilities (pre-conversion) and use them to honor him (post conversion) Its something that I see in youth group all the time. A lot of teens think that there are only a couple ways to really worship God. You have to be able to sing or play guitar! But God gave them the gifts that they have to worship him. Why try to be something your not! That is where this book starts. It starts with the frustration of trying to be something he never created me to be. But once we get in tune with the Spirit. The Spirit is our guide to becoming this version of yourself. The version that God has redeemed and saved.

Parts 3-6 are all about the journey that you take, with the Spirit as your Guide, to become the version of you that God really desires. He talks about changing the way that you think; allowing God to ignite desires in you life and removing the worry. He talks about how we spend our time by filling it with Prayer and removing the things that steal our time. The Spirit deepens our relationships with God and with the people who help with the flow of the Spirit. Finally our experience needs to be transformed. From work to suffering to family. All of these things come in flow of our existence; a flow that is meant to be with the Spirit.

Ortberg's book was a great read. Though it wasn't as strong as some of his other books; the two chapters on work (19-20) were worth the price of the book! He really makes you think about your giftedness and the things that help you feel a connection to God. His goal is to bring you into a close transforming relationship with God through the very means that God has already given you!

Plus with this book, you get to take a personality test online via monvee. It is something that really makes you think.

Book 2 of the new year!

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

In the Spirit of full disclosure: “I must confess that I did not read all of this book.” I skipped a full 2 and a half pages as he was describing his twin sons’ circumcision. The rest of the book was awesome. A.J. Jacobs is a Jewish-born-agnostic author who takes an entire year and devotes it to living out the commands of the Bible. He doesn’t shave (in keeping the command not to cut the corners of his beard [Leviticus 19.27]); he wears white clothing in accordance with Ecclesiastes; and he refuses to touch or sit where a menstruating woman was [Leviticus 15.18]. He attempts to follow the Ten Commandments and he starts tithing. It is an interesting social science experiment.

The book was great. He does some great research on the background of a lot of the Biblical laws. What really made the story great were the people who he was in contact with during his time. There was his eccentric ex-uncle Gil who is a former cult leader turned orthodox Jew who holds a Judaism study weekly in Jerusalem. There was Mr. Berkowitz, the orthodox Jew, who comes to his house weekly to make sure that he didn’t have any mixed fibers in his house [Leviticus 19.19]. Then there is the Jehovah’s witness who came over to meet with him about the Bible. He had to leave after 3 ½ hours of discussion. Jacobs mused that he out talked a Jehovah’s Witness about the Bible. He made a trip down to a snake handling church in Tennessee and met up with Jimmy the snake handler. That seems like something that I need to explore! There was the Pastor to Pasture, the atheist club, and his neighbor Nancy. This Biblical journey was by no means individual.

Finally there is Jacobs wife: Julie. Julie is the most interesting character. She has opened her life to this guys antics. When she found out that he couldn’t sit where she had; she sat in every seat in the house so he couldn’t. She is patient as he refuses to jaywalk anymore and as he builds a tent in the living room to celebrate the festival of booths. She allows him to write about her in vitro fertilization. She puts up with his trumpeting every first of the month and she even allows him to describe the birth process as she gives birth to the aforementioned twins.

As a youth pastor this book had a lot of things that made me think. He devoted much of his day to study; as an agnostic. I could definitely eek out a couple minutes. He also strove to live according to the commandments. He kept God at the forefront of his mind. He prayed for 10 minutes 3 times a day; all of these things that should be central to my own life.

He is admittedly a liberal guy; but one thing that I appreciated about this book was his ability to show both the fundamentalist and liberal views of scripture. I felt like he was able to walk

that line very well. If you need something to read that will make you think and laugh! The Year

of Living Biblically should be on your list! Devotionally I even got a lot out of this book.

I grew my beard the entire time I read the book (12 days) and this is all the further I got!

Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series (1)

Finished my first book of the year and it was a good one. Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series was really well done (A brief summary of the book can be found here). I have read Josh Peter before in Fried Twinkies; Buckle Bunnies and Bull Riders (another great book) but honestly Death to the BCS was an even better read.

The authors put forth a complete case for a playoff system based upon solid arguments and research. And in bringing foreword a case; the authors don't cease from importing history and story into their argument. We all want to know why Boise State has blue turf or how College GameDay came to be a national tailgate party (K-State gets a shout out). Everyone wants to know how the BCS came about; but I also wanted to know that the Big Six (a precursor to the Big 8) was one of the first conferences in the nation; Rutgers and Princeton shard the national title in 1869; and Les Miles wife coined the phrase "undefeated in regulation" to argue LSU's title contentions in 2007. You meet a guy who has formulated the national champion based on algorithms all the way back to 1869 and a guy who thinks he has found a way to bring the whole system down.

The book shows: the ineptitude of voters; the flawed formulas; the fraudulant and underhanded contracts; the instability of the system; and the greed employed by commisioners in the entire system. As large as all these things are, the book paints a clear picture of the injustice done towards college football fans with the entire system. This was a phenomenal book that really shows how a college football is messed up; but it also gives a view of the problems that constantly face the game today (like conference realignment and a lack of quality teams playing each other regularly). The whole BCS can be summed up in two words: Greed and Control. I didn't know much about the BCS prior to this; but this book was a phenomenal read that explained in detail all the inner workings of athletic programs and the men behind the most confusing system that we have in the world of Sports!

If you are thinking about reading this book check the summary (linked here again) and get ready for a couple hours of really thought provoking stuff. It was a pretty easy read; but highly entertaining.

Leave it to Linus

“My trouble is Christmas, I just don’t understand it.” – Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown was a symbol of ineptitude and futility. He was a subpar pitcher; a horrible field goal kicker; a horrible salesman; and a mediocre trick-or-treater! His incompetence gave rise to perhaps his most famous saying: “UGGGHHHH!” Christmas, the hap-hap-happiest time of year, could even be screwed up by Charlie Brown.

In A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown laments about his problem with the Christmas season: “My trouble is Christmas, I just don’t understand it.” Just as with Thanksgiving and the football debacle shows, the self-ascribed psychologist Dr. Lucy proves to be no help. Her idea of Christmas is attaining and trading real-estate. Charlie’s best non-human friend (and frankly more successful canine pal) has his own image of Christmas. Snoopy is out to win this year’s decoration and lighting contest with cash prizes. Sally, his loveable little sister, lays out in pen that she is out to get old Santa Clause to give her the presents she rightfully deserves!

Linus is always the voice of reason. In perhaps the most famous Christmas words since “God bless us, everyone!” Linus gives his Christmas speech, quoting Luke 2.8-14, reminding the Peanuts gang of the point of Christmas.

When I think of Christmas, I think John put it best in John 1.14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” When all is said and done on that night in Bethlehem, God was dwelling among us! That is the point of Christmas.

As I read through the Gospels the point takes on more clarity. Taken just from the book of Mark, Jesus is: tempted (1.13); angry (3.5); deeply distressed (3.5); rejected by his family (3.21); being laughed at (5.40); spitting (7.33); disrespected and ignored (7.36); hungry (11.12); Mocked and insulted (15.20); forsaken (15.34)! The humanity of Jesus jumps off the page at you, and this list wasn’t even complete. I counted many more. That night in Bethlehem; God took on flesh and remained!

Christmas wasn’t just one night in Bethlehem; but 33 years in Israel, where God walked and experienced among us! It was God undergoing the frustrations and sufferings of humanity!

That is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown! But every year it is good to be reminded by Linus of how we should not only live at this time of year; but every day! “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4.15)