Let's Go Colts

I was born in Indianapolis and lived there until I was 8. So because of that I love the Indianapolis Colts. They were bad for years, but now they are great. Great as in they just won the Super Bowl. Pretty awesome. I didn't get to watch much of the game, but it makes me smile to know that they won.

It also make me happy for Tony Dungy whose son died a little over a year ago and is a professing Christian. I also love Peyton Manning. He just seems like such a good guy. It's a great year to be a sports team that I like since my St. Louis Cardinals won the world series about 3 months ago. JM

Matthew 10:21-25

I love the idea that Jesus set the example of how we should live. Did you catch that? Jesus is the example of how we should live. So we have the potential to live just as holy of a life as he lived. Wouldn't that be incredible? To have that kind of holiness?
I hope one day I can get there. "A student should be satisfied to become like his teacher." Yeah, that will definitely be satisfying. I just don't want to have to wait until heaven to be holy. JM

Next Book

I'm debating what book I should start reading now. I have two that I want to read "small is the new big" and "Contemplative Youth Ministry". I started contemplative youth ministry about 3 months ago, but haven't read anything on it since, so I would probably start that one over. But I think I'm going to read small is the new big first. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done. JM

Attribute of God

So my small group leader called me the other day. We're talking about who God is this week and he gave everyone in the class the assignment to come up with their favorite attribute of God, a verse that displays that attribute, and what that means to you.
As soon as he explained the project to me, I knew what I wanted to talk about.
I'm amazed by God's creativity. The more creative elements that I am put in control of, the more I realize how finite my creativity is. Most of what I do is just rehashing what others have done. But look at how creative God was, and what he was able to accomplish creatively in just six days. That's why "there's nothing new under the sun." God's already done it all.
That's why I admire God's creativity. It also means that I can look to him for inspiration. I always have my most creative times when I take the time to surround myself in nature. Time kind of slows down and lets you think. Plus, it places you in the most creative element you can be in. JM

Matthew 10:16-20

I love the line "be as smart as snakes and as innocent as doves". I love that Jesus doesn't say that we should be pushovers who are always having fast ones pulled on us. He wants us to be aware and to be crafty. However, he wants us to be innocent. Which one do you struggle with more?
For me it's the innocence. I like to push the envelope a lot and get away with more than I should. Like tomorrow night for our middle school super bowl party, I just found out that we are doing several things illegally. Granted, it's too late to change anything, but our screen is too big, it's a public meeting, and we're charging an admission price to kids from our church. That's not being innocent. And I don't feel bad. Next year will be different, though. JM

The Blogging Church

Finished the blogging church today. There's quite a bit of good stuff in there. I found the "build a better blog" chapter to be the most useful to me personally with tons of tips and tricks for improving your blog and making it easier for people to enjoy your content. I also found some useful tips for ways to use a blog in your church. There was a great idea too on how to use a blog for special events. It makes an easy read, and a pretty good one too. JM

Matthew 10:1-15

Isn't it incredible the power that God gives the apostles when he sends them out? He gives them the power to heal the sick, raise people from the dead, heal leprosy, and drive out demons. That's incredible. It must have been very frightening to have that kind of power. Power creates responsibility.
In a sense, we kind of have similar responsibility. We've been given the power to show people freedom from sin. What an amazing responsibility we have. It's scary that we'll be held accountable for it. JM

Matthew 9:32-38

Have you ever wondered why people came to see Jesus. I mean, yeah, he was a great speaker, and yeah, he was different than anybody else, but I think the big draw, kind of the root of all this is that he was meeting felt needs. For some people that meant he gave them authentic teaching and interpretation of the scriptures. For some people that meant interacting with people in a personal and non-condemning way. For some people that meant healing them of their diseases and deformities. But he always met felt needs.
That's a great example for how our ministries should run. It doesn't matter how fun our program is, how entertaining of a speaker we are, or how interactive our online presence is if we aren't meeting felt needs. JM

One Degree

It's raining here today. They said it was going to snow or ice or something. It didn't. When I was at the gym this morning at 6:00 am, the temperature was 32 degrees. It must have been at least 32.1 degrees, because everything was liquid. One tenth of a degree less and school is cancelled, roads are icy, it's dangerous to walk outside, and I would see snow for the first time since moving to Georgia 3 years ago. One tenth of a degree makes all the difference.

You can do everything nearly right, but if it's not perfect, things fall apart. Take the time to do things with quality or you might miss success by one tenth of a degree. JM

Know Your Market

I hate Fox News. I'm conservative and all of that, but I would rather get a view of the world from the opposite perspective. I already know what I think, why do I need someone to agree with me. Plus I don't really watch the news.
What I love about Fox News is that they know their market. All of their commercials, all of their programming, even their slogan "Fair and balanced" says they will not put a left-wing viewpoint on anything. CNN doesn't say that. MSNBC doesn't say that. Whoever else has a newschannel doesn't say that. Fox News knows their market, they market to it, and they forget about the rest. We could learn a lot from Fox News. JM