4 months ago and 44 years ago

Four months ago today, April 28, 2007, I married My Life, Laurie Janine. I haven’t regretted it one moment since.

Forty-four years ago today, August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. Few speeches have had the impact MLK’s speech did. And yet we’re still fighting the “the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination…” and people who find themselves in exile in this land.

“Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

You can read the full text of the speech after the jump…
Continue reading 4 months ago and 44 years ago

Re: Miss Teen South Carolina

Lauren Caitlin Upton’s confused, mangled response in the Miss Teen USA contest has been drawing a lot of attention -especially on YouTube.
The 18-year-old got a chance to redeem herself Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show when she was again asked why one-fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a map.

“I would love to re-answer that question,” Upton said. “Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography.”

Read the full story

5-Star service at church

Craig Groeschel, pastor at Lifechurch.tv recounts two different experiences on the church’s blog.
One, a visit to a 5-star resort, the second, to one of his church campuses (funny how our churches are now called campuses).
He said at the hotel he was greeted by everyone all the time, “even the housecleaning crew—who were learning to speak English—went out of their way to be extremely nice.”
Yet at one of his church campuses he wasn’t looked in the eye when the greeters welcomed him.
Frustrating I’m sure.
I have to ask myself, am I going out of my way to make sure everyone at my church feels welcome. It’s very easy to point a finger at other churches I’ve visited and say, “Well we sat for 15 minutes and no one said hi to us.” But what if the shoe was on the other foot? What if someone new walked into our church? Would they be able to point fingers at me and say, “That guy that’s all about community walked by me three times and even sat right in front of me and never said a word.”
Doh.
“It’s sad to me that a resort has better hospitality than most of our churches. Let’s work to change that!”

Tonight

a. My Life is gone to class – starting Micro-Biology tonight
b. After dinner I’ve had the house to myself and The Dog
c. Uploaded the encounter podcasts
d. Repaired and returned our geocache to it’s original location – what once was lost is now found
e. Hid another geocache in the Waxahachie area (it’s not posted yet but you can look for it at: N 32°23.228 W 096°51.176)
f. Took The Dog to play in the park
g. Came home and updated the geocache website while The Dog fell sound asleep under our bed

Local churches don’t appeal to many ministry minded students

From the Baptist Press and DMN:

Ministerial students want to serve God, but not necessarily in local church
By Ken Camp
Published August 24, 2007

DALLAS (ABP) — College students who feel called to work in ministry want to make a difference for God’s kingdom. But a significant number don’t believe the local church is the place to do it, according to guidance directors for ministerial students at some Baptist schools.
“I think that for both positive and negative reasons, a lot of young people don’t see themselves settling into local-church ministry positions,” said Omer Hancock, professor of church ministry and director of in-service guidance at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. “An increasing number of our students are gravitating to other areas — other expressions of ministry.”
To some degree, students are looking for other avenues of ministry because of controversy within the churches, Hancock said.
“The reality is that for the entire lifetime of these young people, they have grown up in a culture where there is a lot of church conflict and a lot of denominational conflict,” he said.

Read the full article