In a mirror, dimly

Some interesting quotes:

Leadership is to be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.

— Homer, Iliad, 700 B.C.

and

As a leader you provide for people only what they can’t provide for themselves.

— Ken Blanchard

Hmmm, and how could I forget

Leadership is the ability to recognize the special abilities and limitations of others, combined with the capacity to fit each one into the job where he will do his best.

J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 1967

I need to write all of these down somewhere safe and remind myself of them in the days ahead as I continue through VLI-AD.

Short entry, with the promise of a larger one to come. Last night was the first meeting of the Winter Quarter of VLI-AD here in St Louis. In addition it was also the first of the preaching/teaching mentoring classes. Wow. A long night - 5:30pm to 9:30pm - of intense stuff. We’ll be studying the writings of the Apostle Paul over the next ten weeks with weekend intensives on church planting and church growth. I have to say overall I am a healthy mixture of nervous and excited. Robert Stovall, the pastor of Fenton Vineyard, is teaching the mentoring and has invited a half-dozen folks from the 3 Vineyard Churches to attend also. This means that over the next few weeks we will all preach 4 times. That is what I am excited about. It’s the pinnacle of the 3 mentoring classes. Its the thing I was most looking forward to learning. What’s even better is that I’ll get to combine the Internet and preaching; Robert doesnt require us to write out and submit the entire text of our sermon but he did strongly suggest that we manuscript the whole thing to give a better sense of structure, pace and delivery. What better place to manuscript than here in the blog? This has been my “pulpit” for a long while now!

My “Sci-fi thoughts” blog has been returned to the fold - 30 or so posts folded back into the main blog and everything re-published. I dont want to implement “categories” this way. Maybe if I want categories I’ll install my own (or write my own) blog server. For now, thanks be to Blogger that let me post with modified dates on all those old entires. Now I have have 40 posts of purpose and this blog to post to. Somehow it feels more do-able.

My movie watcher page has been updated with a sorted list of movies coming this year. Obviously, its not a perfect list nor do I endorse all of these films as being worth watching (heh, some of them should never have been made in my opinion). I’m missing links to a few trailers and official sites - if you run across the information, do let me know!

What exactly is the “40 posts of purpose” blog all about?

Simply put, its an attempt at creating a virtual environment for working through Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Life”. It allows people in disparate locations to come together in a central location and post their own thoughts on each of the chapters of the book and to then comment on one-another’s posts. By having everyone post it’s obvious that everyone will get their say in an even-handed manner. Making other people comment on posts will allow for interactivity but it also shows a priority - comments are a secondary matter to the primary experience of working through the book and answering the questions that it raises.

“The Purpose Driven Life” is a book divided into short chapters with end-of-chapter questions. The author strongly suggests that the reader only read a single chapter a day at most, and ponder the implications of what it raises. A group setting provides an environment where people can come and know others are feeling the challenges of the material. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (proverbs 27:17)

The internet has long been the meeting place of like-minded people from all manner of different geographical locations. It is my hope that the micro-publishing format of Blogger, combined with the episodic material will be a useful tool in (a) creating a group blog and (b) in changing our lives individually to be more like Jesus.

If you’re interested in joining in, leave me some feedback via the “Contact Me” box on the right. The only requirement is that you (a) own the book and (b) make a commitment to stick at the exercise for a few weeks.

Mindhunters
Trailer / Official Site (2004?)

The Day After Tomorrow
Trailer / Official Site (May 22, 2004)

The Passion of the Christ
Trailer / Official Site (Feb 25, 2004)

Spiderman 2
Trailer / Official Site (July 2, 2004)

Chronicles of Riddick
Trailer / Official Site (Summer 2004)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Trailer / Official Site (Summer 2004)

The Perfect Score
Trailer / Official Site (Jan 30, 2004)

The Butterfly Effect
Trailer / Official Site (Jan 23, 2004)

Shrek 2
Trailer / Official Site (May 21 ,2004)

The Incredibles
Trailer / Official Site (Nov 5, 2004)

Alien vs. Predator
Trailer / Official Site (Aug 6, 2004)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Trailer / Official Site (2004, sometime)

Hellboy
Trailer / Official Site (Apr 2, 2004)

Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban
Trailer / Official Site (Jun 4, 2004)

Troy
Trailer / Official Site (May 2004)

Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Teaser Trailer / Trailer 2 / Official Site (Mar 2004)

Torque
Trailer / Official Site (Jan 16, 2004)

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
Trailer / Official Site (Jan 23, 2004)

Looney Tunes Back In Action
Trailer / Official Site (Nov 14, 2004)

Pride & Prejudice
Trailer / Official Site (Now out in Utah of all place…)

I, Robot
Trailer / Official Site (July 16, 2004)

One of my fellow VLI students loaned me a pair of books. I was skeptical but thought it best to give them a read anyhow. They have been fascinating!

Something I learned from the marriage preparation classes our church put us through was the phrase, “Not wrong, just different.” It was suggested to me that each and every time my wife does something that ticks me off I should repeat the phrase a couple of times internally and see if she’s simply different about the thing, or, truly wrong. You’d be suprised how few arguments we have had simply because of that little phrase! We have been married now for going on 8 and a half years, looking to take our marriage vows seriously when we said “’till death do us part or Jesus comes again.”

Reading through “Cross Cultural Connections” I found Duane Elmer describing the exact phrase that’s been so helpful in married life. It’s pointed out that there is a definite “right” and a definite “wrong” yet between the two is a grey area marked “different”. How big that area is and what it covers is defined culturally for us. What I define to be wrong might not be so bad for someone else and vice-versa. For instance, length of hair in church: its not a big deal to me (then again, neither is smoking, tattoos and body piercings) where someone from my father’s generation would freak totally. If you’re called to reach out to those who dont know Jesus, its worth remembering that their culture and the Christian sub-culture will differ on what falls in the 3 buckets (Right / Wrong / Different). The gospel itself can be an offense, so let’s not add any more through cultural mistakes!