Tragically there was an murderous attack on the Colorado training center for YWAM

Violence is an often forgotten aspect that lingers near missions and ministry. The message of Jesus is a message of grace and life change. But that message is also one of confrontation and challenge.

The shooter @ YWAM & New Life Church apparently had some mental issues and had developed a strong hatred for Christianity, which is ironic since he was a missionary in training @ YWAM in 2002.

While the loss of the YWAM members is tragic and the deaths of the teen sisters @ New Life is heartbreaking, if all were trusting the merits and person of Jesus then they have entered into the elite corps of martyrs that the book of Revelation holds in such high esteem.

Surely we are reminded of the relevancy of Peter's words, "The Devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour..."

One of a kind...

Like every parent I not only love each of my children individually, but there are qualities I admire about each of my children. Areas in which I wish I was more like them. Zak is very disciplined. Alley is very empathetic. Eli is very...different, and he is OK with that.

To Eli every thing is BIG. It's either BIG good or BIG bad, but there isn't much middle ground.
I wish I had that enthusiasm. Eli is just Eli. For example: The get-up he is wearing in the pic was his church clothes on Wed, dew rag and all. Oh, you can't see the chain wallet clamped around his ankle for reason I don't understand. It never crossed his mind that 7 year old preacher kids don't go to church dressed like that. It did cross my mind. But in the end...that's just Eli.

The question I ask myself is, "Why am I so uncomfortable just being me? Is it nature (that's just me) or nurture (family, experiences, church has bred that into me?)"

Mind Dump

*My oldest son turned 16 today. I am very proud of the young man he is becoming. God has blessed him with so many opportunities. I am convicted of taking him for granted and not praying for him (and my other two fantastic children) that God would continue to do for him what was said of Josiah, "your heart has been kept tender."

*Sunday was great. It just had one of those vibes to where you could tell the Holy Spirit was noticeable.

*It was great to see people make amends with the church and get traction in their walk w/Christ.

*Sunday School was fantastic. I love the fact that we have people who don't mindlessly tow the traditional line when it comes to cultural issues. I don't think Jerry Falwell would always enjoy our class and with due respect to Bill O'Reiley we aren't culture warriors.

*It amazes me that without fail when we have an Evangelism Explosion Class during the week we get a visitor(s) on the weekend. Rarely is it anyone we have visited. If we miss a class, that weekend we won't have any visitors. God loves to bless the Great Commission!

*Monday my oldest son got his driving permit. 16 years have passed so fast. Nevertheless, you raise them to have a life of their own. Driving is one of the milestones.

*I scare myself. This week I checked out Giving by Bill Clinton. What's even scarier is I have found some good food for thought. I have developed a curiosity in the Grameen Bank which is mentioned in the book. It is a micro-financing approach for the very poorest of people.

I have really gotten into Project X from webserials.com (not live link).
What I find interesting about this is the small scale. A 5 minute chunk posted every week. I love the way this kind of platform illustrates a democratic leaning. No longer do corporations have a strangle hold on everything public. Music, film and even churches are experiencing a second life by embracing the indie, democratic, non-corporate opportunities that have arisen.

*I'm officially a geek. I have done the freebie grade of Classmates.com. With the exception of one or two people I have not seen any of my classmates since I walked out of Millard High School Gym May 30th 1986 (which was my 18th birthday) on graduation night.
Here is a response to my bio on Classmates that mentions the former feather haired, head banger is now a gray haired pastor...
"Wow your profile shocked me (LOL). In a good way though still trying to picture you standing up there delivering the Sunday Sermon. Who would of thought..."


*It's been a good few days.

Wow.

If only all classical music was like this...


Here's the original eruption...



insane.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind this blog is personal. It is not the preachers blog. It is not the Baptist blog. It is a small corner of a very small mind.

Baaaccckkk in the Saddle

For all the Air Supply, Jackson Browne fans of the late 70s (hang your head in shame) Back in the Saddle was a killer Aerosmith song. Obviously that was before they were members of AARP. So after month long hiatus I am ready to post a few more thoughts.

Random Thoughts...
*I must be turning into a woman. I am enjoying Sugarland's song 'Stay'.

*Great Sunday service. We had guests- some first timers some returning. It is amazing how God keeps sending them.

*Totally pumped about this Thursday (Nov 15th). Lisa and I are going to Lexington (where she lived when we met) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our first date. Our first date consisted of her asking me (a hotly contested issue in the Duty home) to a Sing-spiraiton @ Ashland Ave. Baptist Church. I was hooked then and have been for the last 20 years.

*Learning from the 'Art of Woo.' No this doesn't have anything to do with being alone with my wife in Lexington. It is the art of persuasion (not manipulation). For you readers who are leaders I highly recommend it.

Wow!!

This is great.

I know people will debate it ad infinitum but I can see Jesus doing this. Oh wait! He pretty much did do this in Mark 2! Let's not even talk about 2!

If the link doesn't work go to vinceantonucci.com and read the post 'More from the Bar'.

Monday Mind Dump

Cool Quote..."There's nothing like a trail of blood to help you find your way back home." ~ Nikki Sixx

Always amazes me...God always sends people to visit AFBC when we are involved in E.E.

Who would have guessed? I think people are actually enjoying the Sun AM messages on giving. I am enjoying preaching them.

Doulos Church. Cool name for a hip new church. I ought to trademark it in advance. Doulos means 'voluntary slave'. That's how Paul refers to himself in Romans and other places.

Chris Daughtry's song, 'Crashed' makes me remember my encounter with the power of the Gospel 20 years ago. "I didn't know I was going down...then I crashed into You (Jesus = my interpretation)...like a runaway train, Your Will consumes me, I can't walk away."

I love common grace. C.G. is where God exhibits Himself through the everyday 'non-religious' experiences. Romans 1 refers to this in relation to nature. In the absence of C.G. you only have a caricature, a shadow of the God of the Bible.

Vision

As a leader I find myself in a position to constantly think from a position of vision. What do I want to lead? How do I feel I should lead? Where am I trying to go? How will we get there? What will it look like when we arrive?

There are some quotes that float around the edges of my thinking on leadership.

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell. I wish to run a rescue mission a yard from Hell." CT Studd. That sounds cavalier, but it feels right.

I really like in Acts 11 where the new to town, founders of the Antioch church in essence said,
"I don't know if these Greeks can be saved, but let's take Jesus to them and see."

I did have one pastor friend quote a pastor he spoke to as defining ministry as "seeing that people keep coming to church." ~ If the context is winning = keeping everyone here 'here' I wouldn't sign off on that.

What should be the vision of church?

Homelessness = Driving Force for Ministry

One of the great pleasures in ministry for me right now is my attempts to reach out to the homeless/inner city around 5th street in Covington.

Each week I spend about 3-5 hours hanging out at the Covington Library where the homeless, addicted and jobless often congregate. The thing that makes this attempt @ ministry different is you have to earn your way into their world. These people are often socially backward and distrusting.

So, I go where they go, dress as they dress, no matter how hungry I may get I don't eat because they don't eat and try to meet them as they are where they are. So far it's been like fishing. There's a lot of waiting and watching.

How does this translate into a driving force for ministry? I believe you have to know your culture and enter your culture to truly earn the opportunity to minister. With the inner city people you watch people eat out of garbage cans, talk to themselves and listen to language that you won't hear during Sunday School. You end up shaking hands with men who have ground in dirt in every pore on their body or talking to guys who are getting publicly intoxicated. You don't approve of the sin. You don't participate in the sin. You just can't get to the sinner unless you get around his sin.

Much of modern day culture is unable to be approved by Christians. Nevertheless, just as you cannot remove the offense of the Cross as a part of the Gospel, you can't remove the messiness of dealing with sinners when trying to reach them with the Gospel. The idea that we can dart out of 'Camp Christian' quickly do something for Jesus and dart right back in behind the walls and moats of the Christian castle is both illogical and unbiblical.

We get one life to do something exciting and daring for the Gospel. The challenge must be taken up.

Jesus, "Be in the world (culture) but not of the world (don't let the sin of the culture overcome you.)"

A Giving Party

The month of October is our Stewardship Month.

Typically, this sounds like an endurance event or watching Curling during the Olympic Games.

What we are shooting for is making it do-able and enjoyable. A part of setting the culture is relax and create an atmosphere of enjoyment. This Sun AM Sept 30th we got rolling. The offering was introduced by the Black Eye Peas, 'Let's Get It Started' and clapping.

No doubt it took people by surprise. But AFBC has a great attitude and they began to smile and relax.

Our goal is to introduce people to stretching in their giving by giving extra (or start giving) in October. We have set a goal at $3,000.00 for Oct 28th. This is HUGE for us.

On Oct 28th we'll have a big Breakfast Giving Party. We'll be celebrating in advance for God working through His people to meet this Giving Goal.

For any AFBC remembers that read this remember....Baby Steps!

Mark Driscoll hits it out of the park!!

Comeback Churches #4

As I re-work through Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer quote after quote leaps out worth reflecting upon.

Under the chapter 3 Faith Factors these quotes leaps off the page...

On the subject of evangelism:

"Most churches love their traditions more than they love the lost."

"Most Christians don't like people. We wish it were not so but it is."

On the subject of empowering the membership:

"I think we have to stand by people and give them the confidence to do things. We have to give them the power to do the work of the church, then we must stand back and cheer them on as they carry out their tasks."

On the issue of relevancy...

"Internationally known church consultant Lyle Schaller frequently asks the same question when beginning to consult with a church, 'What year is it?' Every church lives in some era. The issue is whether it aligns with the reality of the era where the Gospel needs proclaimed."

"We need to repent of any traditional idolatries."

The good thing concerning Stetzer is he is a successful church planter 3 times over. He knows what it's like to start a church, grow a church and pastor a church. So he is a practitioner not a theorist.

Acts 29 Day 2 and Wrap Up

The second day was by far the best of the two. Part of it may have something to do with not having broken the 24 hour mark without sleep. But the main thing was the sessions by Mark Driscoll out of Seattle (contrary to common rumor I do not have a man crush on him) and Ed Stetzer whose book Comeback Churches I have been blogging about.

Driscoll is extremely likable. He's smart, funny and loves UFC. He really challenged us to love our families and to especially listen to our wives.

He threatened to punch anyone in the throat that was mistreating their wife and/or kick them below the belt (he put it far more eloquently).

Stetzer dealt with making the God of Missions the Mission itself. Old preachers used to talk about wanting the gifts more than the Giver. Stetzer was addressing wanting the Mission more than the Sender.

Their Q & A at the end was worth the 9 hour drive alone. Rather than try to recall it here it should be online @ the Resurgence Website in the near future.

I'll add more as I reflect back on the 2 days in Raleigh.

Acts 29 Day 1

I made the 9 plus hour trip to Raleigh NC arriving @ 10:30 am.

The hotel was nice enough to get me into a room where I hit the shower and off to the Conference by 11:30 am.

The Vintage 21 church building is very cool. It is in the inner city and used to be a night club. It has a feel between a coffee shop and a modern art museum.

I've got to meet a few people. There is Dan and Jo-el for North Carolina. Dan looks like Trent. Jo-el Dan's Children's pastor looks like he belongs on Miami Ink. Both very nice guys. I also sat with their fellow North Carolinian, Ty. A nice middle class 30 something that is in a church plant a couple of towns over. Rounding out our table was John, John and Dustin. They showed up late so I didn't see where they were from.

I did meet a young man named Brian whose church just had their kick off in Middletown OH.

The sessions were on what to expect from the Acts 29 vision (which I had heard before on line),
as well as how to spiritually take care of yourself and the mission so you don't become a burn out stat. Chan Kilgore of Orlando knocked it out of the park.

Tomorrow we'll be hearing from Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer a couple of my fave on line preachers and authors as well as some break out sessions.

It's late and tomorrow comes early so...good night.

Comeback Churches #3

Don't mistake the lack of blogging over the last 3 days as a sudden lack of interest in the C.C. book.

It is great! It is a mixture of conviction and hope. Here are some of many fave quotes...

On change..."Most heart patients are told to make changes in their lifestyle or die. 90% choose death over change." If that is true in the ultimate sense is it any surprise that churches stay entrenched in old habits even if those habits are killing them?

On being relevant..."If you don't choose to minister to the time and place in which you live, what is your alternative?" We can't minister 2 years or 200 years ago. Seattle or San Diego may be hipper but that doesn't help anyone when the church exists in Northern Ky.

On motivation for change..."Change only happens when the pain of the present exceeds the pain of change."

Sometime the Truth isn't Pretty

This is post #2 on Ed Stetzer's book 'Comeback Churches'.

In chapter 1 the question is asked, 'How do churches get stuck?' In the various categories mentioned there are some descriptions that should step on the toes of our church.

*Stuck churches believe it's purpose is to retain as many people as possible.
*Stuck churches intend to do the right things but never actually execute them.
*Stuck churches get a 'we can't compete' attitude. So they in essence give up.
*Stuck church (members) view the church as their personal chaplaincy.
*Stuck churches want to play it safe. Their biggest goal is to protect what it has.

Should we not consider the overarching goal of the church is to be a missionary? Jesus was a missionary in his town, region and world.

A good explanation of what being missionary means can be seen in the Tim Keller clip on the blog.

Book Blogging

"85-90% of churches in America are plateaued or declining" so says Ed Stetzer. His book 'Comeback Churches' is a research project that studied 324 churches that escaped from being locked into that 85-90%

As the mood hits me I will be posting some quotes etc from the book.

"A missional church functions as a missionary in it's own community. It eats, breathes and lives within it's culture while sowing seeds of redemption and Good News."

"Being indigenous (native to the town/culture) is harder than it sounds because almost all declining churches already have a culture."

"It's ironic that most churches are filled with people that act like the world but look different from it. It should be the opposite. We should look similar to those within our community but act differently. "

These quotes are just 7 pages into the book. It looks like it will be a good read.

Watch it and weep...

The point behind this video in relation to our church can be found @ First Baptist's website.

Brain Candy

These TED videos are some of my fave. Each one is about 20 mins from scary smart people.

Enjoy!!

First up is inspirational: Polar explorer Ben Saunders.


This one is educator Ken Robinson's funny and insightful view of education


This is Majora Carter. You have to love her passion.

Ahhh...So true...

It is not only repentance toward God but faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that is required for the pardoning and purging of sin, for destroying sin and saving you. Repentance is not enough, for righteousness is not by repentance, but by faith (Phil 3.9). Prayers and tears, sighs and sorrows are not our saviour; it is Jesus only who saves us from sin (Mt. 1.21). None can out our sins to death but he who died for our sins. Bring all your repentance and righteousness, and it cannot compensate or make amends for one sin. If all the angels in heaven lent you their whole stock of righteousness - and it is a great one - yet it would not do. No satisfaction could be made nor anything merited for you but by the Son of God; he and he alone is the Saviour from sin…

Ralph Venning, The Sinfulness of Sin

(HT:Joe Thorn)

Less than a month....

I am less than 30 days out to heading out to Raleigh North Carolina for the Acts 29 Church Planting Bootcamp.

It would be an understatement to say that I am excited about the Bootcamp and the possibilities that I imagine will come from it.

Nevertheless, I can see from the look on peoples faces that it strikes them odd that as a pastor I am going to a Church Planters Bootcamp. So here is my thinking...

1. The concepts behind church planting is healthy for the local church.
2. The bootcamp deals with leadership development, gathering people, setting up systems etc.
3. I hope that rubbing shoulders with guys that I seriously respect will give me some clarity on vision.
4. I've had the conviction for almost 20 years that God will have me plant a church in my lifetime. This is an investment in that conviction.
5. Barney Fife moved to Raleigh when he left Mayberry.

Just Amazing

I won't lamely tie in a spiritual illustration to Cro Cop getting KO'ed by Gonzaga.

If you are a UFC fan and know of Cro Cop this was just amazing.

Keller nails it!

Christians tend to drift into a 'pool' that is exclusively Christianized.

We want to connect, we want to evangelize, but there seems to be this huge disconnect.

Tim nails the idea of what it is to be missional in the town, culture and neighborhood God intentionally placed you in.

Listen and learn!!

2nd Annual 5k come and gone(pics)

2nd Annual 5k come and gone

August 4th was our 2nd Annual Alexandria's 1st Baptist/Parks Dept 5k.

The day was a little warm but otherwise a great day for running.

Our turn out was a little smaller than last year, but there might have been a few factors involved. We changed the date, we weren't allowed to do yard sign advertising and St. Joe's Catholic Church had a 5k on the same day @ the same time.

Nevertheless, those that participated (approx 40 athletes) seemed to have a great time. Also, we were able to raise some more $$$ for the Parks Dept.

Thanks to all the runners, volunteers, the city of Alexandria, the Police and Fire Dept.

12 mos to the 3rd annual run!

"I wish I was preaching to a black church"

This Sunday we had Dr. Larry Harris of the church plant The Word Fellowship with us.

Dr. Harris was a real encouragement to our people (and especially to the Pastor).

Not only did Dr. Harris bring a great message but his wife and mother-in-law tore it up singing.
Mrs. Harris sang a great rendition of "We Shall Behold Him" and his mother-in-law Dorthea hit it out of the park with a very soulful "Precious Lord".

One thing that was funny and yet true was when Dr. Harris would get rolling he would stop and say, "I wish I was preaching to a black church!" The obvious point was a lack of response/feedback from the congregation.

Although he didn't know it he did address an issue we need to look at: involving the affections/feelings when we worship as a church. The great intellectual Jonathan Edwards was right when he penned that Christian religion was primarily a religion of the heart.

The challenge becomes: How do we become more liberated when it comes to expressing our feelings during worship?

NYC Pics Day 1 and 2 (July 17 & 18)

The first day of the pics revolve around Time Square. The second day of pics is working @ Wadsworth Ave Baptist Church.

Michael and Pastor Josh Blair gave us plenty of work to do. A building this old and massive is a never ending project. Today we concentrated on cleaning up a couple of rooms. We filled a 30 yard industrial dumpster with junk!

To quote Audley McQueen everyone was 'working like we were killing snakes.'

A good first 2 days. Hard to believe tomorrow is the last day before we come back to KY.

NYC arrival July 17

The first team arrived @ Wadsworth Ave @ 3:45 on Tuesday afternoon. The second team arrived around 4:15.

Pastor Josh Blair showed us around the massive Wadsworth Ave Baptist Church building. Hiswife Marsha stopped by with their 3 boys (Caleb, Noah & Natan) as they were heading to a Little League Baseball Game.

Tomorrow we will hit the work of which there is plenty to do.

Look for more info and pics tomorrow

Vermont Sunday Monday re-cap

Here's the run down of the last couple of days in Vermont.

Sunday
Sunday morning we worshipped with Hope Community Fellowship @ the local community hall.
Meeting in a community hall was a first for me. Pastor Jeff brought a very thorough and practical message on 'We Need Better Men not Better Methods."

The congregation sang out and seemed genuinely happy to be in service.

During the afternoon we went over to visit @ a Nursing Home in Vergennes. We met Pearl, Mariam, Helen and Mildred.

Mildred (age 90) was one of the first woman air traffic controllers in US history. She worked in DC during WW II.

Sunday Night we met for the bi-weekly Men's Meeting. We discussed, "Half Truths and Outright Lies." This was led by Dave Carpenter. We had a good thought provoking discussion on the nature of truth and falsehood and our daily encounters with both.

While we were doing the men's meeting the Ladies were together preparing the literature we would pass out in town the next day.

We had a great day of fellowship, worship, discussion and food.

Monday
We were out @ 9:30 to pass out the professionally done literature of Hope Community Fellowship.
Three teams (Ron; Alyson & Lori; Tina and Sheila) went to the college town of Middlebury to knock on doors and invite people to services.
*Aly and Lori had a couple of good visits. Sheila and Tina did as well.

*Doug, Caleb and Adam went around Bridport and had a few good visits.

*The McQueens and the Duncans went to Vergennes and some country areas and had a few good visits as well.

We hope these prospects pan out for Pastor Jeff and HCF.

After a nice noon lunch, Pastor Jeff took us over to the local elementary school (Addison Central). We spent the next 3 hours ripping out 5 rooms of carpet.

The team did an amazing job. The 2 custodians had worked 2 days on it and due to an incredible glue job by the installers had only gotten about 10% of it ripped up. 3 Kauffmans and the team descended upon it and knocked it out quickly.

Just a note of how well it was glued down: The plywood floor was coming up with it. Or to quote Audley when someone said, "Audley this is starting to look like work." Covered in sweat and smiling he said, "Brother, it doesn't look like it. This is exactly what work is." He should know.

After the project was done, the school principal and the custodian made this comment, "You guys answered our prayers." I wonder if they knew how true that might be? It was also said by the principal, "Maybe we can get a mission team in here next year to help the school." This is from a public school, 15 mins from the most liberal college in VT, in a state where only 3% claim to be born again Christians.

After that project, the Bamforth guys went to jet ski with the Kauffmans, the Duncans and McQueens hung around to help finish a project for the Community Hall and the rest of us came back to clean up and walk the town.

Walking the town: All the shops literally close @ 5:30!!! So our walking didn't take long.

Back to the Kauffmans for a good bye grill out.

Devotions in the gazebo @ the Blue Spruce.

Hit the hay because it NYC tomorrow!!!

Monday in Vermont ~ Pics

The majority of the pics are us ripping out carpet @ the local public elementary school, Addison Central School.

The pics of little people walking towards the camera was part of our visitation team. The mission team went to approximately 100 houses on visitation this morning.

The bottom are some sights of which my photography skills do not do it justice.
There is Middlebury town square.
The other is a old metal railroad bridge over a creek. This is from the backyard while I was on visitation.
Then you have the one of the American Baptist Church next door to the Addison Town Hall.

More info on Vermont Sun/Mon re-cap.