Flying...

I've always wanted to throw a paper airplane a long distance. Follow the flight of this paper airplane as it's thrown from the 31st floor a building in lower Manhattan.



At the end of this clip, I was sort of hoping the person in the car would get out and throw the airplane again... perhaps back up to the 31st floor from whence it came.

What Religious State Are You In...

An analysis of more than 350,000 interviews conducted by Gallup in 2008 finds Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas to be the most religious states in the nation. Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts are the least religious states. Texas made it into the Top 10 with a tie of Kentucky.

The question the Gallop pollsters asked respondents was, "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" 85% of Mississippians surveyed indicated it was, while only 42% of Vermonters indicated such. (Of the Texans and Kentuckians surveyed, 75% affirmed religion to be an important part of their daily life.)

It would seem that when it comes to self-identified religiosity, what region of the country one lives in does make a difference.

Blah, Blah, Blah...

I was smacked between the eyes by this recent post from James MacDonald. James is the senior pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel. He wrote:

"Why does it seem that most of the people talk talk talking about reaching the culture are doing such a meager job of it. Why is it that from frustrated old college professors to angry young mega church haters, the vast majority of people waxing eloquent about their passion to penetrate the culture with the gospel are bearing such scanty, sparse, spartan, even scarce fruit? By fruit I mean actual living breathing men and women turning from sin and self and embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and Master of their souls..."

James continues…

I think some people need to be a little more honest about what they really mean when they say “reaching the culture.” Here’s three things I think they mean:

1) They mean reaching people very different from themselves.

2) They mean reaching secular people who have no interest in God.

3) They mean reaching cool people who make them feel cool.

I think it’s high time we started challenging the ‘talk about it people’ to get over themselves and dive into the messy business of actually doing it. Cultures don’t come to Christ... people do, one at a time.

Too Funny...

We'll be using this clip to promote Sunday's "We Are The Sermon" Day (WATS) Fair and to encourage SoHills members to sign-up as a WATS volunteer. Lisa Linn, who serves on our WATS Leadership Team, plays the "good cop"... and her dentist husband, Gary, gives an Oscar worthy performance in the role of the "bad cop/dentist."



I laugh out loud every time I watch this clip.

Be A Light...

This picture was taken during SoHills' Refresh gathering this past Sunday, April 22. As we celebrated Jesus presence among us in the sharing of his Supper, we rejoiced that we had been called out of the dark places we had inhabited into God's marvelous light. We now were to live as people who reflected the light of Jesus.

The points of light you see in the picture represent over a thousand glow sticks that were ignited by people committing to live their lives as lights for God. It was a very cool... and very encouraging... sight.

Servant or Sucker...

For the past several weeks the YoungMarrieds class I teach at SoHills on Sunday mornings has been talking about how those of us who seek to be Christ-followers should respond to people we encounter who appear to be in need.

We’ve all been there. You pull up to a stop light and see a man or woman standing by the side of the road with a cardboard sign asking for a handout. Their hand written sign indicates they are one, or more, of the following: homeless, hungry, stranded in town, without a job, a disabled veteran.

Or someone approaches you in a Wal-Mart parking lot and asks for money in order to put gas in their car. They indicate they've just gotten out of an addiction rehab program and they're on their way to a nearby city where a job awaits them.

What do you do?

Do you give money knowing the person may use it to buy drugs or alcohol... or do you say “no” or even ignore the person as you drive/walk by? No one wants to be a sucker in these situations, but at the same time, Jesus’ call to help the poor echoes in our hearts and minds.

Realizing there are no easy answers to any of these situations, I found the following "ABCs of helping" to be useful:

Acknowledge the person has a problem.
Do not Believe everything you see or hear.
Compassion is not judged by giving people what they want.

Still In HIS Hands...

This image inspired and encouraged me.

Buckhead Church developed this graphic to use in support of a new series they'll begin this weekend.