Don’t Be A Sleeping Tiger

Heavy Sleeper

     Our family went to the zoo here in Waco today. The last animal we saw was the Tiger. Now there are several things I have been wanting to blog about at the zoo. This one couldn’t wait until later.

     The tiger had fallen asleep against the front of it’s enclosure. Now this enclosure is not small by any means. The zoo is, I think, one of the best zoos I have ever been to. It does not overcrowd the animals and animals and visitors alike are well taken care of. Anyway, someone had tossed M&Ms in for the tiger. (Something the zoo and I would counsel against doing.) The tiger was such a deep sleeper it did not notice or did not care about those colorful pieces of chocolate on him and the ground.

     We left without disturbing the tiger. I was a little sad to see an animal with such a reputation lying there with a negelcted M&M on him. He should have been walking around growling and doing what tigers do. I guess it and we can become so use to our surroundings and people walking by somethings just don’t phase us anymore.

     Keep doing what God created you to do. And, if someone throws an M&M on you eat it or pass it this way.

Preteen Camp 2009

     Got a great preteen camp this year. The 2009 Kidz Kamp will be at Trinity Pines on July 6-10. Robert Burkhart will returning with great music as well as other leaders. The camp is the work and passion of Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Robinson, Texas. It is getting real close to camp so get your registrations in.

Flotzam and Twitter

     A while back I posted about using Twitter to foster interactive worship.  I ran across Flotzam on Major Nelson’s blog and immediately thought of its application in worship. Flotzam looks like it could be used to tailor twitter output nicely in a setting like worship.

Our Pastor’s Resignation

     On March 29th Bro. Bill announced to the church he would be resigning as pastor of Park Lake Drive Baptist Church. We have been blessed by his time with us as pastor. His health has dictated that he step down. He will preach his last sermon as pastor this Easter Sunday.

One Room Left

     I just got off the phone with Tapatio Springs and the block of rooms we have for the 2009 Minister of Education Retreat is almost full. I was quoted 1 room left for Monday-Tuesday and 14 for Wednesday. Now this is the “ME Retreat/BGCT block” which is guaranteed at $90 a night. They will have more rooms, just not at that price.

     Get your reservations in. If you miss that last room contact a ME your know, maybe they will share their room.

Frugal for an American

I found this (via FOXNews.com) interesting. It is not really a discipleship issue, but shows financial stewarship.

www.livingon1500foroneyear.blogspot.com

UPDATE 2009-02-24:  For unnamed reasons the author of the blog has taken it down.

A Must Read

I was pointed to this from another blog. Some things should be “viral.”

Musings Blog

#1 of 3 Things Leaders Need to Think About Every Day

     Day two of The Next Big Idea conference is over. Rick Rusaw led a session titled Working with High-Capacity Volunteers. In that session he told us the three things leaders need to think about every day, especially if they are working with “high-capacity” volunteers. Those are volunteers who are problem solvers, think in terms of sustainability, and just get things done. We all want those kind of volunteers, right?

 

Faith Development in Children

     Today was the first day of The Next Big Idea conference at Baylor University. Dr. Diana Garland led the session Actively Faithful-Youth & Family Ministry. Some of the things that stuck out in my notes are:

• The #1 request of families they surveyed in churches of several denominations was to get help serving others beyond ourselves as a family.
• Serving is powerfully related to teen faith. Ongoing service with their parents is more important to a maturing faith than camps, retreats, etc.
• Participation in community ministry more frequently = higher measures of faith development, more frequent worship participation does not.

     Her research is is based on three projects of the Baylor School of Social Work: the Church Census, the Families & Faith project, and the Service & Faith project.

Prevention Before Intervention

     Brad Hoffman was our speaker at the WRBA Pastors’ Conference today. He shared with us the path that led him to co-author the book Preventing Ministry Failure and some of what he learned on that path. As he studied cases of ministers who have had forced terminations from their churches he noted the reasons for those terminations. When he stepped back and compiled those reasons he found that they fell into seven categories. The #1 category is lack of intimacy which includes the closeness and emotional commitment of other ministers to support each other and bear each other’s burdens.