Great Quote

The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday.

HT: Bed R

Advent Conspiracy Promo Video

Like_youknow

nice.
HT: Marko

Fishers of Men

What defines success in ministry? I have been thinking about success and what it usually means:

1. rise in attendance

2. rise in giving

3. rise in baptisms

4. rise in program participation

5. rise in building funds.

Pastors and elders can butt heads on issues of what success means in a church, and usually do. People working outside of a church setting are expected to perform in their jobs by bringing in a rise in numbers, be it sales, orders, customers... that is how their performance is judged.

Then you come into this thing called the church and you have another element that is a bit harder to gage. The spiritual realm. How do you gage success in a church? You certainly can't go by numbers alone. On the other hand, you certainly can't let a church decline into nothing and call it faithfulness. Where is a balance? How can you gage success in a church?

At Shiloh we are gaging success in one word: Movement. We have a process that we want each believer to walk through. Come | Grow | Serve. 

Come is seen with weekends at Shiloh, the worship services. We believe that when Jesus is lifted up, He will draw people to himself. We We want people to COME to Jesus, and our main vehicle is our Weekend worship service.

Grow is seen in our teaching venues. We offer "classes" or short term Bible studies that get people to look at where they are in their faith and take another step. We have a class going on now about the spiritual disciplines and how to practically use them in your life to make space for God to fill.

Serve is seen in Ministry teams that you can get involved in. Kids ministry, youth ministry, Audio Visual, Worship Service etc... We want our people to serve Jesus by serving others.

Come | Grow | Serve. Obviously Weekends are not the ONLY place that someone could Come to Jesus, it is just where we are going to funnel our resources for that purpose. Grow can happen outside of a Bible study, but the studies are going to be our main channel for that purpose. Serve can happen outside of a ministry team, and we hope it does, but our main focus is going to be those three channels.

So how do we define success at Shiloh? Movement. Let me show you how it works:

  Weekend attendance 550

   Study Attendance 3

+Serve Participation 0

_________________=

Shiloh Failing as a church

there is no movement in getting people to deepen their relationship with Christ. they just show up for the service and leave. I did my God thing for the week.

  Weekend Attendance 550

   Study Attendance 45

+Serve Participation 35

___________________=

Shiloh is getting more successful in moving people toward maturity in their faith.

So now, everything that we do as a church has to point to or enhance this movement process.

So, someone wants to start a polka dance training seminar held in our gym. We will ask, them a question, how does this enhance or promote our vision of getting people to Come to Christ, Grow in Christ, and Serve Christ at Shiloh? If it is not an entry point to our venues or a stepping stone in between our venues, it cannot work at Shiloh. 

Does that mean that Polka Dance Seminars are bad... Yes, but that is because it is Polka. When we turn down a ministry, or ask a ministry to change it is not because it is inherently bad, it is just sucking resources from the Main Vision at Shiloh.

This is all part of the transition that our church is in the middle of. I am very excited to see where god takes us in the next few years with our leadership and vision of the church.

Little Helpers

we are al getting into the home project.

Nolan

Some kids have teddy bears...

Porch Construction

With rising Propane costs, Kara and I prayed that god would provide an alternative source of heat this year, and he did. God provided a sweet wood stove for us for free. A couple in our church decided to buy this wood stove for us. It is a $1200 wood stove that a guy was selling for $500 and heard we were in search and charged us $300. The couple decided to pay the $300 for us and picked it up and delivered it to our house at no cost. What a blessing.

We had to figure out where to put it though, so we decided to finish the back porch and make it a part of the house and place the wood stove there. Here is a before and after picture of construction so far.

We have had to:
1. Demo the porch to the framing
2. Move and re frame a window
3. Move and re frame a door
4. Insulate and drywall the exterior wall
5. Level the porch floor
6. Install a sub-floor
7. Install ceramic tile
8. Frame, insulate, and drywall the ceiling
9. Install electrical for an outdoor light, an indoor outlet, and two sconces.

We still have to:
1. Install the stove and piping out the roof
2. Install laminate flooring
3. Final coat of mud
4. Prime and paint the walls
5. Mortar rocks into the back splash of the wall
6. Finish Drywalling, mudding, priming, painting the ceiling after the pipe goes through it
7. Install sconces
8. Install shelving unit in side wall.

I really don't have much experience in construction, so a lot of what we are doing is the first time we have ever done it. It's been fun though. I will post a finished product in a few weeks.

I got this today

Christian youth and Family Night
There will be no smoking or alcohol in the bowling center during this event
Come Bowl...while listening to today's Christian Rock and Praise and Worship!

As we all know, Jesus said, "Go and be the light of the world by secluding yourself and withdrawing yourself from society. Do not listen to their music, do not wear their clothes, do not hang out with such people, and most certainly, NEVER NEVER NEVER be around a non-christian while they are drinking or smoking."

I know whoever is putting this on means well, but I think we may be missing the point on church events like this. Why should we kick all the "non-Christians" out of a bowling alley so we can "have fun without them spoiling it all with their dirty language and habits." I think this attitude is a wee bit condescending and self-righteous.

Just my thoughts. Do what you want with it.

Guatemala Preview 08: going home

After five days of adventure in the mountains and villages of Guatemala, we boarded our place for Huston, Texas (with the help of this very proffessional sign the Guatemalan airport made for us out of drywall and paint.)

I have a great knowledge of what a team can do onthis trip,and what our team can do when we get there in July. This trip was so very valuable. It did many things:

1. It gave me the opportunity to preview the missions trip and speak about it first hand from experience, and not from, "well I heard that we may..."

2. It gave me the opportunity to do a mini missions trip with 5 guys without being the leader of the trip, constantly leading, and preparing. I had a chance to participate as a part of the team without the worries of leading a large team. Priceless.

3. I had a chance to get away and experience adventure with a bunch of guys I did not know, in a place where I was not familiar, with a people who I cannot communicate with by words, but by actions. I loved every second of this trip and would relive any part of it in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

4. I got to witness a barfight.

uatemala Preview 08: Cables X-Tremos!

On our way out of Panajachel, we stopped at a nature reserve to do some zip lining. They hook you up with harnesses and give you two guides who walk you up a mountain, across rope bridges and through the jungle.

When you get to the top one guide hooks up and zips 1,000 feet across tothe other side, and the other helps you hook up and sends you across the ravine. You do this eight times. Youo start far above the jungle floor and then go through the jungle canopy, and finally end up ziplining back in to where you started.

It is a beautiful way to see the jungle up close, and it was a whole lot of fun.

Guatemala Preview 08: Panajachel

Our first day in Panajachel was pretty cool. There is a lot of night life. We came out onto the main strip and caught a ride on a Tuc-Tuc, a three wheeled covered motorcycle. We took it to a place called the Circus Bar for dinner. The Circus Bar is a pizza place. We ate some really good pizza and witnessed a bar fight.

then we walked the shops. I didn't buy anything, I had what I wanted, but it was cool to walk the street and see the shops. We saw the largest wasp nest I have ever seen in my life hanging above the entrance to a travel company.

We then got coffee and went home to play cards til 1am.

In the morning we all got great views of the lake and volcanos and then we went to grab breakfast before heading to the zipline. (Extremos Cabalos!)

Guatemala Preview 08: lodging in Pana

We arrived at the Central American Missions Retreat Center in Panajachel and saw that our lodging was pretty fancy. We were not expecting such a nice place to stay in.

Guatemala Preview 08: trip to Pana

We went to Panajachel for an overnight stay. The drive there was long and trecherous. We drove through the mountains and through small villages with no street signs trying to figure out which way to turn and which road to take. We stopped half way for a rest at an unusually empty dirt spot off the road.

We saw an amazing view, but were not sure what to think of the buzzards. We looked over the edge of the cliff and saw a garbage dump! The cliff went straight down hundreds of feet with no guard rails, and trash was everywhere! We quickly hurried back into the mini bus and closed the door... someone left the door open. There were 30 or so flies flying around the bus! And then we looked up in horror to see the ceiling was covered in flies!

We started to drive and put the windows down and grabbed anything we could to bat away at the flies and to shoo them out the window. We eventually got them all out, and laughed really hard in the process.

Guatemala Preview 08: Banta House

One of my favorite parts of this trip was hanging out with the Banta family. We would gather there in the evenings for a fabulous meal. We got to meet and hang out with their kids, who were so amazing.

We got a run down of basic Guatemalan Culture differences.
1. Don't wave: it is the equivalent of the American middle finger
2. Don't point: it shows that you are a barbaric gringo, Guatemalans point with their lips.
3. If you walk into the room, greet everyone and say goodbye to everyone: even at the bank.
4. Don't lean on a wall: Guatemalans pee in public, and do so on walls.
5. Don't blow your nose in public: that's just gross. (and #4 isn't!?)
6. When you order at Burger King, don't order "I'll take one uno."
7. Don't drink the water, or even brush your teeth with the water: you will poo for 3 months straight.
8. Don't buy food from vendors: I refer you to #7's consequences
9. If you buy a drink, it will come in a glass bottle: The seller will want the bottle back, before you leave the establishment. You can take your drink in a sandwich bag and a straw.
10. If you can't speak Spanish, speaking English louder and slower will not help them understand, even if you use hand gestures (I refer you to #1 & #2).
11. If you run out of gas on a busy street, you can borrow a gas can from the gas station: but you will have to provide your own funnel, possibly made from a Global Soccer Ministries Banner.
12. If don't like suspense, close your eyes when you are being driven to anywhere.
13. Don't take pictures of strangers: they will wave at you. (refer you to #1)
14. Don't make finger guns at the security guards with shotguns in a shooter McGavin type posture. (refer you to #2)
15. Don't wave and take a picture of a swat team member with a really large gun. It's dangerous.

Guatemala Preview 08: Possible lodging

If we brought a group down on over 15, we would have to stay at this seminary instead of the liberty house. It was a really nice place. We took some pictures for future reference.

Guatemala Preview 08: Liberty House

We stayed at the Liberty House, the church's missionary house. It was a nice place to stay. Out of the gutter there was an impatient growing and thriving, and I thought that it was a great picture illustration of what the Global Soccer Ministries is doing in Guatemala, bringing beauty and hope into places where you would think such things could not thrive.

Guatemala Preview 08: Group Shots

Here are a few of my favorite group shots. The first one is on the way to Panajachel. The glowing spot is a raindrop that the flash caught just right. The second one is in Panajachel and the last one is a group of us guys the night before we leave with John and Amy, the missionary family who hosted us.

Guatemala Preview 08: Antigua

We decided it was time for some fun. We got in the cars and drove over the mountains to a tourist village called Antigua. Antiua was destroyed by an earthquake not too long ago and when they rebuilt, they passed a law that stated that any rebuilding that took place had to replace what was standing before exactly how it had been.

The result is a city that looks like you walked back in time 300 years. The streets are all cobblestone, the houses are all traditional colors. We walked around the marketplace and bought some souvenirs for our families and stopped to get some coffee.

I had an espresso and brownie. The espresso was so good I could drink it black. I did.

Antigua was a great break to take some time and have fun and shop a bit. I bought the boys and Kara one thing a piece and saved the rest of my money for a bag of coffee to bring home.