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Here is an opportunity to get involved with social justice instantly. Go to World Vision’s website and sign the “Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007″. If you have seen some of the latest movies like “Blood Diamond”, or “Last King of Scotland” you may have been disturbed by the images of young boys being brainwashed into being ruthless killers. According to World Vision, this act will allow the US to pressure countries who allow this behavior - read more and ask Congress to support this Act here.

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If your reading this you are probably thinking “o great he is talking about that guy”. I had the privilege of knowing and serving in ministry with Jerry Falwell. Most of us only know what we have heard from the media about him. I wish you could have known him, you would have liked him, he was a great guy. He was such a fun guy and he knew why he was on this earth. He was respected even by his critics for standing up for what he believes and not wavering. There are very few people like that nowadays.

I’m sure if every comment that came out of my mouth was under scrutiny and publicized there would be many people who wouldn’t be a fan of me. It is never popular to be a leader or to stick to what you believe, you will always have a target on you. My life is different and better because of the impact that he had on me. He will be missed and always remembered. I wanted to leave you with this quote from Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee I think it describes Jerry so well.

“The thing people probably didn’t know about him was the incredible sense of humor he had, a big practical joker. He loved people. Often misunderstood, but he was a guy who truly had a tremendous passion for other people, all walks of life. Coming himself from very humble opinions, and never a person who took himself all that seriously. he took his calls and his mission and his commitment to Christ very seriously.”

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I’m sure we have all been in a place where we have had someone say that they will pray for us or we have said “I’ll pray for you”. Do we really mean this or is it just a nice comforting thing to say? I have been realizing the power of prayer lately, what an awesome opportunity to get in touch with God’s heart and also to intercede on behalf of others.

I have found a free website that helps those of us who want to pray for others but have a hard time remembering to.

This website allows you the ability to set up specific prayer request and then helps you schedule when you want to be reminded to pray for someone. It will send you an email at the time you choose. If you don’t get on your computer much then you can opt for a text message instead. Check it out! www.echoprayer.com

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Passion is at it again - talk about staying relevant and offering something that could really speak to people in their time of need. They have released an album called “Hope for the Hokies: Songs of Restoration and Hope”. It’s a free download - check out the heart of passion and download the album here.

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The guys over at www.worshippl.us have put up a “Worship Leading Essentials” list with some really great links and articles. I am making my way through them as we speak, but it looks right on. The first one deals with Life Journaling, which I have just started this year, and while consistency is the key, I have been really encouraged by it and it is becoming a habit that I don’t want to break. Check it out here and leave some comments on what you think.

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If you were into 722 or Passion in the earlier days, you might remember Candi Pearson (now Pearson-Shelton). She was, and continues to be an incredible worship leader, and amazing vocalist. Where’d she go? Well she has been busy in California - check this article out at CCM. It’s a great read to catch up with her and also an encouragement to any worship leader who wants to make a name for themselves to remember who we should be trying to promote.

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I just finished “State of Fear” by Michael Crichton (remember Jurassic Park?). You may not know this, but I have recently taken up reading as a hobby. I think I have read about eight or so books in the last three or so months - mostly suspense thrillers. This book started out pretty slow but I’d say the last few chapters made it a worthwhile read. It’s basically an environmental suspense novel using tons of real environmental and scientific studies to support a fictional story. The book does raise some very good questions about what is environmentalism, what is conservation, global warming, species extinction, urban industrialization, etc. Basically what I got from the book was that we (humans), don’t really know much about the climate, the earth, temperature changes, atmosphere, the future, etc., and yet we are spending tons of money and creating policy based on studies that are basically “good guesses”.

I’m not really huge on environmentalism - got lots of other things going on right now. Don’t get me wrong, I recycle when I can, and I would really love an electric vehicle (especially with gas being over $3 a gallon!). But this book has got me thinking alot more about our current situation. For example environmentalists want to build windfarms to generate energy, but apparently no one has studied how this will effect the bird population… oye - see what I mean? Sounds great - will it work? How much will it cost compared to how much energy will it produce - omg I need to stop typing!

Well at the end of the book, one of the characters decides to start a new type of environmental group - new vision, better research, more effectiveness, etc. He says “…all these environmental organizations are thirty, forty, or fifty years old. They have big buildings, big obligations, big staffs. They may trade on their youthful dreams, but the truth is, they’re now part of the establishment. And the establishment works to preserve the status quo.”

This got me thinking about my line of work - the church! Could this be compared to the church? What is we replaced the environmental group with the church and used that statement to describe the church of Jesus Christ? Could the church be just working to “preserve the status quo?”. This is a great discussion - personally, I think the modern American church does seem to have a lifespan - or a common growth chart that it follows. At staff meetings we have called it the church bell curve. It basically states that a church begins with vision - solving a problem, meeting needs, being fired up, creatively reaching for new and effective ways to accomplish Jesus’ final mandates. Then it starts to normalize, stabilize, organize, and settle into it’s programs - doing things the same way over and over. Then the church begins to be irrelevant, old fashioned, out of touch, and staunch in it’s views of how things should be done - and before you know it, it becomes a museum - celebrating the “good old days”, and becoming completely ineffective.

Ok, I have pontificated enough; the question we are left with is - how to you overcome this process? I am too tired of typing right now to tell you what I think, but I will follow up soon. Leave a comment on what you think!

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Dave Barnes - Balumtine’th Day

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The Office — Playing Dwight Schrute is…Jim Halpert?

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1. the state or quality of being creative.
2. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts.
3. the process by which one utilizes creative ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

I once heard that one of the most Godlike thing we as humans can do is to create, since He is the ultimate creator by nature. We are made in the image of God thus we carry his creative characteristics. Of course that statement works in favor of highly creative people. I’ve met many people who just marvel at the creative process, whether it’s art, music, tech, problem solving, ministry, etc. Check out this article on “9 Attitudes of Highly Creative People” - the author poses the question, “Can Creativity be learned, or is it just a natural ability?”. Make up your own mind…

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