
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
My Personality

Monday, November 2, 2009
The Prosperity Gospel...
Pastor Johns comments at the end of the video on the "over-realized eschatology" are priceless. If you think heaven should invade earth before the second coming of Jesus you should study up on this.
The words of the apostle Paul from 2 Timothy 4 are being fulfilled in front of our faces.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.The prosperity gospel tells me what I want to hear. People who are consumed with the things of this world love it. My pride loves it. My ego loves it. God will bless me in such a material way that the world will know that I am special. Too bad its a myth. A myth built upon dozens of scriptures taken out of context while ignoring thousands that state its opposite.
You can't believe Psalm 91 and ignore Psalm 88.
As for me, I choose to believe the Gospel of Jesus. I choose to walk the ancient path that the apostles walked. I choose to believe that all treasure is "in Christ." That He is the pearl of greatest treasure and I can only be satisfied when He is my greatest desire. When my greatest desire is Jesus, I can walk through great affliction, endure suffering, and still be molded into the likeness of Jesus. My suffering actually pushes me into my relationship with Christ.
When my desire is health and wealth "through Jesus" my suffering actually pushes me away from the gospel because I see it as "not working." I have met many people who have walked away from Jesus because they didn't get their healing, money, or prayer answered.
Don't come to Jesus because He can make your life better. Come to Jesus because He is better than life.
This is why people need to read their bibles.
If the prosperity gospel is true, show me one apostle in the New Testament who got rich after following Jesus (one might argue that Judas did). Show me one follower of Christ who was commended for living the "American Dream." Show me one instance where the apostle Paul preached that followers of Christ should expect a life of ease, riches, and absence from affliction.
The prosperity gospel is a fools gospel.
1 Timothy 6:17-19Jesus saves from the American Dream.
17 As for the rich in a this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sacred City Church Update
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A new season.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
HopeATL
We decided to leave a few days early and make a difference in some people's lives before we get blessed so greatly by Catalyst 09.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Live KYC service tonight!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Scarred Deeply and Blessed Greatly!
Tony Wood: People of the Second Chance from Deadly Viper on Vimeo
Monday, September 7, 2009
3 Tough Questions...
How to start a movement.
If changing our world interests you, you should definitely read this review of Malcolm Gladwells book, "The tipping point."
I found it here.
THE TIPPING POINT IS:
- That one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once.
- The moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point, a place where the unexpected becomes expected, where radical change is more than possibility. It is a certainty. Epidemics...
- Tip b/c of the extraordinary efforts of a few select carriers. But they also sometimes tip when something happens to transform the epidemic agent itself.
- Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.
- Are another example of geometric progression: when a virus spreads through a population, it doubles and doubles again into infinity.
- Epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating:
- They (Epidemics) have clear examples of contagious behavior.
- They both have little changes that make big effects.
- It takes only the smallest of changes to shatter an epidemic's equilibrium.
- They happen in a hurry.
- This is the most important trait, b/c it is the principle that makes sense of the first two and that permits the greatest insight into why modern change happens the way it does.
- Epidemics involve straightforward simple things; a "product" (I put this in quotes b/c Gladwell writes this book using mostly marketing/business ideas. However, I see it as a way to spark revolution.) and a message.
- In order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.
- Contagiousness is in larger part a function of the messenger. Stickiness is primarily a property of the message.
THE LAW OF THE FEW
There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them. With an epidemic, a tiny majority of the people do the work. Once critical factor in epidemics is the nature of the messenger. Messengers make something spread.
Word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication. Rumors are the most contagious of all social messages. Connectors
People with a special gift for bringing the world together, people specialistsKnow lots of peopleHave an extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances, making social connections.Have mastered the "weak tie"; a friendly, yet casual social connection.Manage to occupy many different worlds and subcultures and niches. By having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together.Acquaintances represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.Social glue: they spread the messageMavensInformation specialistsOnce they figure out how to get that great deal, they want to tell you about it too.Solves his own problems, his own emotional needs, by solving other people's problems.Have knowledge and the social skills to start word-of-mouth epidemics.A teacher and a studentIn a social epidemic, Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. SalespeopleHave the skills to persuade when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.Little things can make as much of a difference as big things.Gives nonverbal clues that are more important than verbal clues.
"Interactional synchrony": human interaction has a rhythmic physical dimension. We dance to each other's speech�we're perfectly in harmony.Motor mimicry: we imitate each other's emotions as a way of expressing support and caring and, even more basically, as a way of communicating with each other. Emotion is contagious. "Senders" are very good at expressing emotions and feelings. They are far more emotionally contagious than the rest of us.
Persuasion often works in ways that we do not appreciateYou draw others into your own rhythms and dictate the terms of the interaction.
THE STICKINESS FACTOR
There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible/sticky and compels a person into action. All you have to do is find it. In order to be capable of sparking epidemics, ideas have to be memorable and move us into action. Content of the message matters too.
What is needed is a subtle but significant change in presentation to make most messages stick.The elements that make an idea sticky turn out to be small and trivial."Clutter" has made it harder and harder to get any one message to stick. The information age has created a stickiness problem.Pay careful attention to the structure and format of your material, and you can dramatically enhance stickiness.Can tip a message by tinkering, on the margin, with the presentation of their ideas THE POWER OF CONTEXT
We don't necessarily appreciate that our inner states are the result of our outer circumstances. We are more than just sensitive to changes in context. We're exquisitely sensitive to them. And the kinds of contextual changes that are capable of tipping an epidemic are very different than we might ordinarily suspect. The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment.
Small changes in context can be just as important in tipping epidemics.An environmental argument.What really matters is little things
"Broken Windows Theory": in a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive panhandling, are all the equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes (Rudy Gulliani's belief)
An epidemic can be reversed/tipped by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment.
There are specific situations so powerful that they can overwhelm our inherent predispositions.Human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context. We are a lot more attuned to personal cues than contextual cues.Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstances and context.The convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions then the immediate context of your behavior.
THE MAGIC NUMBER 150
"There seems to be some limitation built into us either by learning or by the design of the nervous systems, a limit that keeps our channel capacities in this general range (i.e. the human minds inability to comprehend things beyond sets 7)" �George Miller "The Magical Number Seven"
"The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us. Putting it another way, it's the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar." �Robin Dunbar,
Even relatively small increases in the size of a group [beyond 150] creates a significant additional social and intellectual burden.The rule of 150 suggests that the size of a group is another one of those subtle contextual factors that can make a big difference.Peer pressure is much more powerful than a concept of a bossTransactive memory: we store information with other people. Since mental energy is limited, we concentrate on what we do best.Groups of 150 are an organized mechanism that makes it far easier for new ideas and information moving around the organization to tip; to go from one person or one part of the group to the entire group all at once.
CONCLUSION
First Lesson of the Tipping PointStarting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few key areas. Your resources ought to be solely concentrated on the Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
Second Lesson of the Tipping Point
The world does not accord with our intuition. Those who are successful at creating social epidemics do not just do what they think is right. They deliberately test their intuitions.
Important Conclusion!
What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push; just in the right place; it can be tipped. NOTES, ETC.
Diffusion model: a detailed, academic way of looking at how a contagious idea or "product" or innovation moves through a population.
- Innovators: the adventurous ones. Visionaries.
- Connectors, mavens, and salesmen make it possible for innovations to connect with the early adopters. They are translators: they make ideas and information from a highly specialized world and translate them into a language the rest of us can understand. They drop extraneous details and exaggerate other details so that the message itself acquires a deeper meaning.
- Connectors, mavens, and salesmen make it possible for innovations to connect with the early adopters. They are translators: they make ideas and information from a highly specialized world and translate them into a language the rest of us can understand. They drop extraneous details and exaggerate other details so that the message itself acquires a deeper meaning.
- Early adopters: the slightly larger group that is infected by the innovators. Visionaries.
- Early Majority: the deliberate and the skeptical mass, who would never try anything until the most respected of this group try it first.
- Late Majority
- Laggards: the most traditional group that see no urgent reason to change.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Augusts books
Great book for communicators and marketers! I read this one last year but needed to read it again! Phenomenal book!
Amazing book that I read on vacation on the dangers of overwork, and living at an unsustainable pace. Ministry is demanding and this book was a much needed eye opener for me! Burn bright but don't burn out!Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Redefine Conference 09

July's books
Great Book! It will fire you up to color outside the lines!
I had to read this because I am learning how to work with an assistant. It was very helpful.
Read this on my way to Kenya. It was solid. I believe that God still does miracles and we should expect them. The problem is most of us don't allow ourselves or enjoy being in a position where we need a miracle. Saturday, July 25, 2009
This is Grace
Monday, July 6, 2009
Kenya Experience Kit
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Planting a Global Church
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Last day at 29

Thursday, June 4, 2009
May's Books
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Stay on top of your game
Monday, June 1, 2009
It don't come natural!

Some people think that growth comes naturally. People are like wine, they get better with age.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Bring it On!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
How to be a Truth Drenched Youth Ministry
(Author: Abraham Piper)
The following is from my notes at Kempton Turner's session yesterday at the CDG conference.
1. Be a truth-drenched example.
1 Timothy 4:16
Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
The example of your life is the hammer that drives your message home. If your life doesn't exemplify what you expect, your message will not be believable.
2. Have a truth-drenched marriage and family life.
1 Timothy 3:4-5
He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
We shouldn't see if someone is fit for the ministry by how they do in seemingly less important ministries. Rather, we should see what kind of husband and father he is. If he leads his family well, then maybe he's fit for the ministry.
Paul assumes that a church leader first leads his family. A truth-drenched youth ministry will get the overflow of the youth minister's leadership of his wife and kids.
3. Cultivate a truth-drenched staff.
Acts 13:2-3
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Gather as a staff mainly to go vertical. Meet with God and see what strategy comes from this worship.
4. Preach and teach truth-drenched messages and lessons.
Hebrews 13:7
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
The main thing your youth should think about when they remember you is how you spoke God's word to them.
Don't replace teaching truth with games, media, skits, etc.
5. Develop and implement a truth-drenched vision and philosophy of youth ministry.
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Picture youth ministry as a mountain. Develop a plan that puts the cross at the top with all the other good (but less important) things below. Then the truth of the gospel will flow down that mountain over everything you do, drenching your ministry.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Get your bike on!
Friday, May 1, 2009
April's books

Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Dead Zone
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Building Margin into your life
April 22, 2009
Building Margin Into Your Life
by Rick Warren
In our Devotionals series, Pastor Rick Warren discusses the Bible passages that inspire him the most. Today's Devotional is based on this passage:
"Jesus said to his followers, 'Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone'" (Mark 16:15 NCV).
A lot of people are on overload and headed for a crash. Consider these statistics among U.S. citizens:
• People now sleep 2 1/2 fewer hours each night compared to people from one hundred years ago.
• The average work week is longer now than it was in the 1960s.
• The average office worker has 36 hours of work piled up on his or her desk. It takes three hours a week just to sort through it and find what we need.
• We spend eight months of our lives opening junk mail, two years of our lives playing phone tag with people who are too busy to answer, and five years waiting for people who are trying to do too much and are late for meetings.
We're a piled-on, stretched-to-the limit society; chronically rushed, chronically late, chronically exhausted. Many of us feel like Job did when he said, "I have no peace! I have no quiet! I have no rest! And trouble keeps coming" (Job 3:26 GWT).
Overload comes when we have too much activity in our lives, too much change, too many choices, too much work, too much debt, too much media exposure.
Dr. Richard Swenson says, "The conditions of modern day living devour margin. If you're homeless we direct you to a shelter. If you're penniless we offer you food stamps. If you're breathless we connect you to oxygen. But if you're marginless we give you one more thing to do. Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That's marginless."
You need margin in your life. When you're not hurrying and worrying all the time, you have time to think. Time to relax. Time to enjoy life. Time to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).
Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America’s largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Update
This is an extremely exciting time to be involved in the Rock Church.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Marchs Books
This book has completely changed my life and ministry. If you struggle with getting things done or you are overwhelmed with how much stuff you need to get done this book is for you. I have to get a lot done and still be really creative. That is tough for me because my mind is always on my tasks at hand. This book teaches you how to get more done and more off your mind to enable greater down time and creativity. I highly recommend this book!




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