I’m very reflective this time of year…

As we head into a New Year, I considering if my life is achieving the things of greatest value…

One way I’m doing that is asking myself some self-evaluation questions…

For example…

Am I more concerned about:

• My clothes or my character?
• What others think of me or what God thinks of me?
• My success or my influence?
• Having fun or making a difference?
• Making a quick and easy return or a creating a long term investment?
• Gaining instant pleasure or producing eternal rewards?
• My personal safety or my obedience to God’s will?
• Being loved or loving well?
• My happiness or enhancing the happiness of others?
• The worries I can manufacture or having a faith in One I can’t control?
• My popularity with the rich and famous or a relationship with my Creator?
• My bank account or making a Kingdom impact with what God has given me?

Sometimes it is not a matter of good or bad, but of good or best…

In 2011…let’s be concerned about things of greater value…

What else could you add to my list of questions?

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11-12 NIV

One thing I have learned about Bible verse: a verse usually has more than one application.  As I have read the Christmas story over the years, I have become intrigued by the phrase “This will be a sign to you”. A sign of what?

Well, after careful study, I’m certain I can apply this verse in multiple ways.

Obviously, the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger was a sign to help the shepherds recognize Jesus. When a child is first born, sometimes clothes just don’t fit.  It would not have been unusual for a newborn to be found wrapped only in a blanket. Though there could have been many babies, even newborns in Bethlehem that night, there probably weren’t many in an animal’s feeding trough.

Also, the sign of the baby could have been the angel’s way of saying, “this will prove that I’m telling the truth.” I’m quite sure shepherds out in a lonely field at night, might have some doubts about what they had seen and heard. It could be a situation where one would say to the other “I didn’t see anything if you didn’t see anything.” Seeing the baby would insure they had indeed been visited by an angel.

Perhaps another, even deeper, meaning by the phrase, “this will be a sign to you” points to the real meaning of Christmas. I did a little research. The Bible uses the term “a sign” several times. Gideon asked for a sign that God was talking to him (Judges 6:17). David requested a sign of God’s goodness.  (Psalm 86:17). The first rainbow was a sign of God’s covenant (Genesis 9:12). Circumcision was a sign of being God’s child.  (Gen 17:11) The Sabbath Day was a sign of God’s Holiness. (Ezekiel 20:12) God uses signs to teach us and guide us!

Now I know that’s pretty deep this Christmas Eve, but let me leave you with a question: What is the sign of Christmas? The baby Jesus…wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger…. What does it all mean? What is the real meaning of Christmas? I really don’t intend to answer the question for you!

I have a strong feeling, deep within my heart, that at Christmas, God was sending us a sign; the greatest and most important sign of all times. Have you discovered and read that sign this Christmas?

What would you think the sign of Christmas would say?

I love the readers of this blog, my Twitter and my Facebook friends! Ask a question and you answer!

Yesterday I asked for your favorite Christmas song…and you responded.

Here are the results of this very scientific survey….(j/k)

Songs receiving multiple votes in order of total votes received:
O Holy Night (This one was the overwhelming number one choice)
Mary Did You Know?
Silent Night
Little Drummer Boy
Oh Come Oh Come, Emmanuel
Away in a Manger
Angels We Have Heard on High
Carol of the Bells
White Christmas
I Celebrate the Day by Relient K
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Do You Hear What I Hear?

Songs receiving at least one mention:
Wexford carol
O Come, Emmanuel
The Star of Bethlehem
Holly Jolly Christmas
Hallelujah Chorus from Handle’s Messiah!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
I Wonder as I Wander
Adeste Fideles
Redneck 12 Days of Christmas
Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
Happy Christmas (War is Over)
It’s Cold Outside
Where Are You Christmas?
A Baby Changes Everything
Joy to the World
Silver Bells

Songs with a specific artist mentioned:
Little Drummer Boy by Jars of Clay
How Many Kings by Downhere
Winter Snow by Audrey Assad
Love Came Down at Christmas by @HighStreetHymns
I Celebrate the Day by Relient K
Christmas time by Phil Wickham.
Nuttin’ for Christmas by Sugarland
Winter Wonderland by Steve Taylor
O Holy Night by Third Day
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams
O Holy Night by Nat King Cole
More than a child by Sylvia Fleming
Oh Holy Night by Jon Berry

We do have different tastes…don’t we? Does the variety surprise you?

Did we list yours? If not, feel free to share something we could be missing? What is your favorite Christmas song of all time…or at least at this time?

This past Sunday at Grace Community Church I spoke about the genealogy of Jesus, including where Ruth fits into the story.  It’s a shorter message than normal, but my prayer is that it will challenge you to see the Christmas story as your story.

Who is your favorite character in the genealogy of Jesus?

The Jesus born on Christmas day was God’s gift to the world, but if that’s true (and it is), then what exactly are we getting for Christmas?

This week we are going to unwrap Christmas looking at a different gift each day…

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:14 NIV

Peace! It’s an amazing word. In the cluttered life in which we live, peace is a word we strive to achieve. Peace is something we all need…and the faster the world gets…the more peace we need….

Let me ask you a question:  What if you gave me a gift, but I never opened it? I wouldn’t even know what was inside, because I never bothered to take the pretty wrapping off the box. What if I told you, “It’s just too pretty. I didn’t want to mess it up, so I never opened the gift!”? Would you be quick to buy me another one?

Too often, I think we fail to open the gifts of Christmas.

The Bible says “grants peace”.  You can’t grant what you don’t own.  God owns peace! God, the Creator of the universe, has control over peace. We tend to look for peace in many different places. Some of us look for peace in our work, in trying to earn more money, in a spouse or friends. Unfortunately, some attempt to find peace in a bottle or by going from one bad relationship to another.

Real peace, that gut deep, total contentment, is a gift from God. Real peace comes from knowing God, through Jesus Christ. Real peace comes from recognizing that God is who He says He is and will do as He says He will; that His love for us never fades, and that He offers complete forgiveness to all who seek Him.  Real peace comes from placing our complete trust in the Savior who is Christ the Lord.

This Christmas, unwrap the gift of peace!

Do you fill more or less peaceful this year than you did the year before?  What in your life most gives you peace?

Let me warn you this is a random post…from my random thoughts….

I have used the Myers Briggs personality profile for years.  I even became certified to instruct and administer the assessment.   I have shared and talked about my type HERE and have written mostly about the difference in the Extrovert/Introvert preferences.

I think it’s a great tool for leadership development, relationship enhancement, and personal and career evaluations.  I’ve used it with our staff, with couples, and with our small groups.  I love the application of the tool, but if I were to rewrite Myers Briggs, I would change a few of the titles. I think at times it has been confusing.

Let me explain…

I’m happy with the E and I…

E is for extrovert...most people can hear that term and have a decent idea what it means…they are more social by preference, although, in my experience, extroverted people are less likely to think they are extroverted than introverted people know they are introverted.

I is for introvert...introverts are desperate for alone time…it’s where they get their energy for life…in years of working with Myers Briggs, I seldom meet an introvert who doesn’t already know they are one…

The S and N terms can be a little confusing…S is for sensing...a person prefers to use the information available, using the five senses, to make decisions…N is for iNtuition…and these prefer to make up their minds by adding their own information to what’s apparent…(You’ll normally find the creative types here…)

I’d probably leave the S and change the N to the letter R…for random…these people (like me) tend to have more random thoughts…not tied necessarily to one of the senses…

The T and F cause me the most problems as far as the title of the preference on a consistent basis…

T stands for Thinking…it’s a preference for making decisions based on the rational facts at hand…

F stands for Feeling…it’s a preference for considering the people or values aspect involved before making a decision…

I just don’t think these are the best terms…

In my experience…

Men resist being an F…because of the word “feelings”…

Women, especially the mom-types, resist being a T…

And the fact is (There’s my T at work) there’s nothing wrong with a man or woman being wired with either type….

Also, we all think and we all feel…just to lesser degrees of each…

I’d prefer to title the T – Logic

I’d prefer to title the F – Values

Those seem to fit better for how I see these preferences played out in a personality.

The ones wired for “Thinking” tend to make decisions based more on logic….They can’t dismiss the facts of the matter….the rational, logical, cold hard facts…

The ones wired for “Feeling” tend to make decisions based more on their set of values.  That could be people, or it could be a set of principles important to them, but when a value gets in the midst, it affects how they make decisions.

There are two last terms J and P…for Judging and Perceiving (again, pretty confusing terms)…Basically a J prefers to have things decided and a P would prefer to stay open to new options….

I’d change the J to a O for Ordered…because these types tend to prefer a more orderly life…where the future is more scripted.  I’d change the P to the letter N for Now…these folks seem to prefer to live in the moment…Let life evolve.  (They appear to have less stress too!)

Perhaps I’ll write more about each of these at another time…These are just my random thoughts…I’m sure there are even better terms…I’d just prefer to see some of them changed.

Have you ever had an official Myers Briggs administered to you?  What’s your type?  Do you enjoy personality profiles or not? (If you don’t, it’s possibly largely due to your personality…there are some letters for that…)

For those of you who know Myers Briggs talk…what changes would you make?

This short video blows me away. It demonstrates the changes in the world over the last 200 years in age expectancy and poverty levels. I saw it on my friend Greg Atkinson‘s blog, but I thought it was worth sharing here also. This shows how things can change in a couple hundred years. That may seem like a long time, but in view of history, it’s fast paced. What are the implications here for the church? For the future economies?  For the way we do global trade, the global economy?  Can you see the change from America being a dominant superpower?  How will this impact this country’s future?  Do you see evidence of the change today?  How?  Just in my life the changes have been enormous.  Share your observations.

And notice the way he’s presenting information….Will we soon be preaching using this technology? Imagine sharing the story of the Bible like this?

Share your immediate thoughts after you watch this video.

I’m helping to raise money, along with some other great folks, for Gifts of Water. Gifts of Water operates with a simple concept. A lot of people giving a little money each can supply water for lots of people. Click on the link to learn more about this effort.

You can easily join my team HERE by sending one text which will cost you $10. I would love many of you to do this.

Today was my team’s turn to put out the daily update of how the campaign is going. Here’s the video we presented:

Thanks to our team Adam Bayne, Ben Reed, and Brandon Reed for helping put this video together.

DON’T FORGET…JOIN MY TEAM…..HERE

Here’s a fun way to tell you about a cool app or two…

What would you name this guy?  I created him with my Touch Board application on iPad.  I use this application to illustrate when I’m meeting with a few people or less and want to draw out what I’m trying to say.

If you are an iPad user, here are some of my other favorite apps:

Evernote  (I wrote about it HERE.)

YouVersion – The absolute best Bible application there is…period! I love the Tweet and Facebook share features.

World Factbook – I love culture and missions…this application helps me learn about different countries.

Amazon Kindle – I’m reading most of my books this way now. I love carrying all my books with me at the same time.

What are some of your favorite iPad…or iPhone applications? ….And don’t forget to help me name this guy…he needs a name!

We are five years into the church plant known as Grace Community Church. God has overwhelmed us continually with what He has done and continues to do among us. This is my second church plant. The first one continues to do well today. I feel humbled and blessed to be a part of such healthy environments He is using to reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I have learned a few things in the process. Some of these were new insights and some of were things I had confirmed, but all are things I would suggest other church planters consider.

Here are 5 lessons I’ve learned in church planting:

Don’t shy away from leaders, even though they are churched…you’ll need them – When we started, if a person showed up who regularly attended another local church, we shied away from them. We weren’t rude to them, but we really didn’t pursue them as we did other visitors, simply out of respect of other churches. What I have learned, however, is that many times this was standing in the way of something God was doing in the person’s life. At the same time, we were suffering from a leadership void not having enough people ready to lead in a church setting.

Don’t be afraid to talk about money…you’ll need it - I know this is a problem for many church planters, because many of the people we are reaching are repelled by money talks. They wrongly feel that’s all churches talk about and so they push back anytime money is mentioned. I know Jesus talked much about money (some say more than any other subject), but in an attempt to be attractional to unchurched people, church plants often avoid any money talk whatsoever. What I’ve learned is that it takes money to minister to people. Additionally, part of the spiritual growth process of a person is how they view and handle money and one of my roles is to help them mature in this area. I can’t do that unless we talk about it.

Surround yourself with some encouragers…some days they’ll keep you going - The work of church planting by itself is tough and places a strain on the planter and his or her family, but church planting also has plenty of naysayers. The church world can be very competitive and church planters are not always the most popular pastors among the established church world. I’ve learned I need enough people around me so that on the days when I’m down they can encourage me to pick my head up and keep moving forward.

Know what to control and what to let go of…you’ll be stretched if you don’t - There are some things to hold on to very tightly, such as vision or senior leadership positions, but I’ve learned to let go of things such as how the vision gets implemented or what color we use for rugs in the preschool area. (I never would have stressed about that last one…but you get the idea.) The more I can allow others to do and take leadership of, the greater success we will have in reaching our overall vision as a church.

Embrace hurting people…as much as it hurts - We have extended so much grace to people…and we have been burned a few times. I have been personally hurt by people to whom I invested so much love and support, but I also know God rewards this sacrifice. Some of the best leaders we have were hurting, broken people when they arrived. God still does miracles with people when we extend His grace and truth.

I am not sure these are unique experiences to church plants, but since that is the context in which I live I decided to frame them that way. We are still learning things every day. My personal hope is that others will learn from our experiences.

Which of these do you most need reminding of today? I’d love to hear from some fellow church planters or pastors who have other things you have learned in the process.