Saying No

Seth says "Saying No" is an important skill that frees you up to say "yes" to important opportunities. That's a skill I have not been good at, but just last night I said a rare "no" to another term on my Homeowners Association's Board of Directors! My goal is to reduce the number of organizations I'm responsible for by half this year. I'll need all the help I can get to accomplish this!

Don't Look Back!

Seth Godin says to "ignore the sunk costs", meaning "When making a choice between two options, only consider what's going to happen in the future, not which investments you've made in the past. The past investments are over, lost, gone forever. They are irrelevant to the future."

While his direct application is to marketing and the business world, it seems this also has application to the "church world". If more of us would release our grip on the aspects of "doing church" that we're "used to" and "comfortable with", and focus more on what's ahead and how we can accomplish God's mission, we would have fewer cases of "friendly fire". If we could ignore the "past investment" each of us has made, especially in the light of Christ's investment in the lost souls of this world, we might be better equipped to see the world as He does! Are our past investments holding us back from moving forward in fulfillment of God's calling for the church?

The world is watching!

Torture? OK. Taxes? No way!

That's embarrassing! Larry James reports that the latest polling data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life states that "White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did."

I'm guessing the East Texas numbers would have been even higher; but don't raise our taxes or we'll protest in the streets!

Really?!? Being 50% more likely to support some use of torture on prisoners - is that who we want to be? The world is watching - what are they seeing?

I understand the wine, but no hugs?

Corpus Christi Bishop bans communion wine; says offer only the bread, and only in the hand, not on the tongue.

Time to go to multiple cups, Bishop!

And no more sick people coming to worship, either! Wonder what Jesus's instruction would be if a sick person or a leper walked in? I think Jesus would touch them.

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