The Way of Jesus

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

via www.washingtonpost.com

Here is one snippet of Joshua Bell playing in the DC metro.  I love this story.

Practicing Something Greater, November 1st Teaching

Download or listen: Practicing Something Greater

We continue with our Unleashing the Good News Series.  This weeks teaching is a follow up of from last week in how we develop eyes to see the sacred in the common.  If you are interested in the Washington Post article about Joshua Bell performing in the DC metro you can click on the link here "Pearls Before Breakfast"  I am grateful to Rob Bell for introducing me to this story line in the Scriptures and for pointing me to this Washington post article.  Shalom ~ D

Something Greater is Here

Download or listen: "Something Greater is Here"

This is Sunday October 25th teaching in our Unleashing the Good News series.

Malcolm Gladwell: What's More Dangerous than Incompetence?

Here's a great thought from Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping point and Blink posted in the Out or Ur blog.

Malcolm Gladwell told the story of the battle of Chancellorsville, VA, in which General “Fighting Joe” Hooker maneuvers his Union Army to encircle the Confederate Army on three sides, and then delivers a speech to his troops: “God Almighty Himself cannot prevent us from victory in this battle.”

What led to such misguided certainty? As the battle unfolded, it turned out he was horribly wrong.

Having more and more information leads to greater, even excess confidence. It’s called miscalibration. We have lots of information. You think you know more than you actually know.

Mistakes are made not because of LACK of knowledge, but because of excess knowledge. Mistakes are sometimes not the result of incompetence, but because of overcompetence. Incompetence irritates me. Overconfidence scares me.

Our economic disaster is a result of very smart, overconfident people making some terrible decisions.

What happened at Chancellorsville? Lee didn’t retreat, as expected, but counterattacked and surprised and defeated Hooker’s army. Hooker’s overconfidence led to his defeat and then his dismissal. Interestingly Lee then went on the offensive that continued until he reached Gettysburg, where he himself overreached and was defeated.

In times of success what we need is not overconfidence but humility. It’s too easy to cut yourself off from listening to the feedback you need to hear.

His best takeaway: In church world, we’ve seen preachers with massive leadership teams, deacons/committees. Then lone ranger not giving away power, wanting efficiency. Then seeking a diverse leadership team. As organization grows, the decision making has to be more collective. As long as then collective doesn't get overconfident, I assume.

by Marshall Shelley

From Religion to Reality

From Religion to Reality

Download this sermon from October 18th, 2009 by right clicking the above link to save the mp3 file to your computer or simply click the link to listen online.

We continue our series "Unleashing the Good News" by unpacking Paul's teaching at Mars Hill recorded in Acts 17 ~ shalom, D

Difficult Things, Sunday October 11th, 2009

Dave Creek preached this past Sunday on the challenge of confronting and bringing reconciliation into broken relationships.  He used the letter to Philemon for the mornings text. 

Play or Download: "Difficult Things"

This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from the Stasyuk family.  They are from Russia and have been living in our Hope House.  They shared their gratitude to our congregation and all of you who have come around them this past year and a half.  They have successfully found permanent housing.  Our Hope House is used to support refugee families arriving in the Twin Cities.  We partner with World Relief in adopting new families to the area and help them get adjusted to their new life here in Minnesota.

What are you thoughts on this article in light of Sunday's sermon "Growing Up In Truth, part 2"?

iMonk 101: To Be or Not To Be or Why I’m Not A Young Earth Creationist

I have been reading creationist materials since high school. I bought The Genesis Flood when I was a very young Christian. I was converted in a fundamentalist church that contained very few college educated members, but they were aware of the challenge posed by the teaching of evolution. Darwin’s theories were skewered and preached against, in traditional fundamentalist fashion, by preachers who had never read Darwin or sat through a college biology course.  (The rest of the article can be viewed by clicking the link below)

via www.internetmonk.com

I'm curious what some of your journey's been with some of these issues involving understanding scripture.  You can post comments by clicking on the comment link.  (I'd love your posts if you listened to "Growing Up part 2" , read the entire imonk article, and you are honest and charitable with each other :)

Growing Up In, With, & Through Truth, Part 2

Download "Growing up in Truth part 2"  As I say at the beginning of this teaching this is basically one continuos thought from Uncensored truth about Truth.  This stuff makes me so thrilled to be in the Jesus movement.  Here is a notes page from the sermon Download Teaching notes growing up part 2.  Have a fabulous week ~ D

What to Wear?

I was planning on attending one of the Yom Kippur services at the synagogue near us. Yom Kippur is the day of atonement.  It takes place 10 days after the Jewish New Year. My allergies were kicking me good yesterday afternoon, however, and I ended up not attending.  I had an event earlier in the day and was wearing a black suit.  I thought I was all dressed up and it would be fitting attire for the day of atonement. Fortunately, before attending, I looked up online some FAQ's about Yom Kippur services.  I learned that traditional dress for Yom Kippur is all white, not black.  The white representing both our human frailty and our cleansed status of our sins before God.  Wearing white on the day of atonement is this great act of faith in a forgiving God.  I think that is profound.  I am also glad I didn't saunter into the service in my black suit.

It did make me think about my assumptions of appropriate dress and how often I stand before God dressed as a sinner when he is trying to help me remember that I have been forgiven.