If you break chains with muscle

 Yesterday, at the Tatesbrook Second Saturday Men's Breakfast, we talked about a lot of practical things over some donuts, scrambled eggs, chicken sandwiches and coffee.

Men have always loved practical discussions, but yesterday, our beloved pastor was really hung up on how he had transitioned away from a smart phone and back to the old school flip phone that forces him to only communicate with the verbal form of his words.  This stirred up all kinds of emotional energy from men whose lives had been transformed radically by technology in a positive direction.

The topic of "libertine vs legalist" mentality was born out of our pastor's back to the future experience with his communicator.  In the simple mind of a man, this seems to be a choice of one versus the other. The geometric point where you sit on the geometric line from one to the other determines how you will see any given person on that line.

Man comes up with powerful statements like, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."

In worship this morning, we declared that Jesus is our chain breaker.  That deflates our strength and our tools in one fell swoop.  As we sang the declaration together, I began to see all the chains that I had broken in the past were temporary.  I even began to think of chains like muscles.  If you break muscle it comes back stronger.  Makes me wonder if you break mental or spiritual chains with muscle, if those chains come back stronger.

I don't know the answer from any geometric point other than mine, but for today, I believe that unless you solve the problem in the domain of the problem, it will come back when you least expect it and it will come back stronger, like a flip phone.

C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer

A friend of mine dedicated his life to missions over ten years ago when he read this book.  After waiting patiently on the Lord, he and his family are now embarking on a life of missions.  They have sold everything and are but a few days from being deployed.   Watching them shed their earthly possessions has been extremely exciting and I know that God has great things in store for them.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and am stirred to do more as a result.  If a 22 year old C.T. was not special enough to stay in his father's hugely successful dye business or follow his rapid rise to the top of the cricket world by holding that top spot for many more years, then I can hardly declare I am special enough as a cog in my company, a good citizen of a great community, a member of a wonderful church, or even as a fantasy football owner that finished in the top half of a meager league to stay where I am and not go at the age of 48.

C.T. has many famous quotes, but one that drove him to missions for the third time at the age of 53 was at the tip of his tongue for him to reply to his many doctors, consultants, partners and friend that questioned his foolish decision:

• If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.

I have known a few athletes, missionaries, hikers and bikers but to put them all together in a single life that moves from England to Australia to China to India to America to Africa.  He started as a boy swinging a cricket bat evenly against a reflection of a carpet seam line.  A straight swing as a boy was unstoppable when placed in the frame of tall athlete with long arms and large wrists.  Simple straight talk was unstoppable when placed on the tongue of a man that preceded in prayer and dedication.

Here are some more quotes that jumped off the pages:

• "Cursed is he that trusteth in man" does not make a very good pillow for a dying man. "Blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord."
• Christ does not want nibblers of the possible but grabbers of the impossible.
• Some wish to live within the sound
  Of Church or Chapel bell,
  I want to run a Rescue Shop
  Within a yard of hell.
• All God wants is a heart; any old turnip will do for a head. So long as we are empty, all is well...
• A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service.

As he and his wife founded and fostered organizations and methods for sharing the gospel with unreached places of the world, he also jotted down a few flow charts that helped to define a sustainable and repeatable process for teaching truth.  We all have time to do that, we just have to start.

Coming Back Stronger

My youngest daughter gave this to me for my birthday and I am thoroughly enjoying this book. Injuries, defects, mental breakdowns and mistakes are some of the best ways to learn how to keep pressing on toward a goal.

A pure heart, talent, support and blessing are rare in professional athletes because of the way we Americans worship them. It takes great love and discipline for God to develop character in a super bowl quarterback from Texas.

Reading about athletics and humanity has its limitations, but this is inspiring.  I recommend this book and have given it to a few friends to read when it seems like everything is going bad and the potential is there for it to get worse.

Favorite Quotes from Drew in the book:

• The road to success is usually a pretty bumpy one. And there are no shortcuts. 
• The painful things we go through have a way of teaching us things we can't learn any other way.
• It's not always the first-round picks who rise to the top. It's often the journeyman, the ones who persevere through trials. 
• I believe that when you fear God, you don't need to fear anything else---no man, no task, no obstacle or challenge.
• My goal for each year is simple: to be better than I was the year before.... by digging deep and evaluating yourself. 

The Myths of Innovation

A friend at work recommended I read this.

Enjoyed the first chapter that suggested that epiphanies are things we look for, hope for and believe in but are rare, and usually embellishments of reality because people want to believe them, and therefore not a good source of innovation.

I have to respect an author that is emphatic about getting his readers to put down all books and make something with their hands in the same book that includes a 100 book bibliography rank ordered by frequency of reference.

Senior Night for Carmen

It is really hard to believe that it was just a little over six years ago that Carmen started her first volleyball season for Southern Middle School as a sixth grader.

Over those years, she has played on eleven different teams and I have many memories as a spectator of each team. As I look at the group of people in the picture, I can't help but think of all the things these girls and their families experienced together. Here are some of my favorite volleyball memories:

• Watching Robyn's ability to serve and hit as a tiny little sixth grader.
• Observing a large diversity of skills and intensity in the tiny BAVA 13-1 team. I can still picture little Brianna, Carmen, Jessica and Robyn doing wall sits and jumping on bleachers at the YMCA practices.
  
• Watching Carmen, Allie, and Jessica play together on the BAVA 14-2 team
• Watching Carmen, Allie and Rachel do very well for Southern Middle in the city tournament as 8th graders. Lindi and Jackie were both active in organizing summer workouts before the season. Cassie played a large role as cheerleader from the bench to loosen up the serious 8th graders.
  
• Watching Robyn, Abi, Hannah [not pictured but not forgotten] and Laura advance as district champions.
• Watching Carmen, Rachel and Casey have the best record of any of the eleven different teams that Carmen played on. Janet and Jackie were involved in getting that team to the gym and warmed up before the games. ( Freshman TCHS 13 Wins -3 Losses )
  
• Watching Laura, Robyn, Abi, Allie and Rachel play together as a team at the beginning of a season to finish second in the Apollo Summer Slam.
  
• Spending time with the Sisks and Jones while Casey, Rachel and Carmen suffered through a long season for TEVA 16-3.
• Watching Carmen sit down on the Dunbar bleachers, take off her shoes, active ankles and knee pads then pack them into her bag as she had done a thousand times before.

Ego Lessons from Chappy ( Iron Eagle )

When the kids were young, they watched Iron Eagle over and over. Their whole generation grew up viewing people in authority as default thinkers that never challenged the status quo.

The lessons that Adam learned from this movie now meet reality in High School... OK, I have to take some of the blame as well for the DNA that I gave him and the thinking patterns that I have demonstrated to him.

Please read the following script while imagining the following substitutions:

• Chapman is me doing my best Louis Gossett, Jr imitation
• General is Jackie wavering between pardoning her son from prison while considering the safeness of just visiting him there everyday.
• Mr. Masters is young Adam Eby
• Air Force Academy is replaced with Lexington Catholic High School.

Chapman: "Begging the General's pardon, I urge you to reevaluate that decision. Letting this boy loose, would be a big mistake. He already has demonstrated his inability to keep his big mouth shut. I would suggest sending him to an institution, that can order him to keep that big mouth shut."

General: "Are you saying, we should confine this boy to some kind of penal facility?

Chapman: "As a matter of speaking yes sir, you see sir,.. Mr. Masters has applied to the Air Force Academy an institution well-suited for this kind of treatment, eh, unfortunately his application has some.. resistance. I was wondering if you could eh.."

Technically, Adam has not applied to Lexington Catholic, but it still sounds like a great idea for a young man that struggles with positional authority and can not keep his big mouth shut. He may find Lexington Catholic more challenging than IB at Tates Creek, he already does plenty of creative thinking, activity and social service.

Jackie is working on helping Adam understand his limitations as the middle child by making him read about birth order and I'm trying to get him to spend some time upgrading his PC from Windows XP to Ubunto instead of watching TV.

If he can just change his birth order, he might be a good leader some day.
I also think memorizing Romans 12 would be good. The whole chapter is applicable to life's problems whether you want to lead as a middle child or make friends as an oldest child.
If anyone else has any suggestions, we are grasping at straws.

The value of quality to a craftsman

I'm still reading "The Craftsman" by Richard Sennett.

I read this morning that a focus on people within a company can drive the craftsman away. If you want to attract and retain craftsman, a company should instead focus on quality of the product.

Sennett describes Deming as complex and cautionary. The complexity is that to arouse the aspiration for quality and make good on it, the organization itself has to be well crafted in form. It needs open immediate communication, but it needs to wait to bring its products to market until they are really good. Deming knew these aspects of organization seldom appear on management charts of who reports to whom. Deming was not, however, a simple salesman, a booster of quality; he recognized that quality-driven work, focused on achieving good concrete results, does not necessarily unify or sustain organizations.

I Dare You

While we were staying with Jackie's dad over Christmas, I looked through an old Purina 100 year anniversary book that had some great photography. I saw a reference to a book written by William H Danforth, the founder of Ralston Purina Company.

"I Dare You" was written to inspire the people of his company and the youth of America to pursue excellence and develop themselves in a balanced manner.

He tied these basic truths to the checkboard that helped to establish the long lasting brand on every mill and every bag of feed and on every box of cereal. The four sides of the squares represented fourfold development:

• Think Tall - Mental Development
• Stand Tall - Physical Development
• Smile Tall - Social Development
• Live Tall - Religious Development

After enjoying the entire book, some of my favorite parts were references to other great leaders like this statement by Sir Wilfred Grenfell, "If the hardest thing in the world to resist is temptation, we should present a vision of Christ that tempts men the right way..... it intoxicates with deeds of kindness, justice, chivalry, love".

Later he shared a perspective of the story of the loaves and fishes that struck a chord with me. His focus was on attitude, not the work that was done. The attitude that takes account of the resources possessed rather than the difficulties presented. "Measure your powers, not your problems". When the disciples counted the crowd and complained that a few loaves were not enough, Jesus said "Don't look at the hillside, look at the basket. Don't count the crowd, count the loaves." Resources and powers are given to those who use what resources and powers they have.

• Through the use of our muscles, our muscles group and harden
• Through the use of our mind, mental capacity increases
• Through the use of our spiritual powers, these powers heighten

Resolution of Craftsmen

I'm currently reading "The Craftsman" by Richard Sennett.

I read tonight about the conflict between the designer and the craftsman that occurred in Peachtree Center in Atlanta. The problem was that the designers used CAD to plan the whole thing and never visited the city to know it was hot outside in the summer. The community of craftsman fixed many of the remote ideal design flaws, but they couldn't fix them all.

I found it quite ironic that I struggled for a week with a very similar issue within one of the office complexes there several years ago. Overall, the combination of design and craft worked well there.

So here is Richard's section on conflicting standards, one of my favorites so far:

What do we mean by good-quality work? One answer is how something should be down, the other is getting it to work. This is a difference between correctness and functionality. Ideally, there should be no conflict; in the real world, there is. Often we subscribe to a standard of correctness that is rarely if ever reached. We might alternatively work according to the standard of what is possible, just good enough-- but this can be a recipe for frustration. The desire to do good work is seldom satisfied by just getting by.

Thus, following the absolute measure of quality, the writer will obsess about every comma until the rhythm of a sentence comes out right, and the woodworker will shave a mortise-and-tenon joint until the two pieces are completely rigid, needing no screws. Following the measure of functionality, the writer will deliver on time, no matter that every comma is in place, the point of writing being to read. The functionally minded carpenter will curb worry about each detail, knowing that small defects can be corrected by hidden screws. Again, the point is to finish so that the piece can be used. To the absolutist in every craftsman, each imperfection is a failure; to the practitioner, obsession with perfection seems a prescription for failure.

A philosophical nicety is necessary to bring out this conflict. Practice and practical share a root in language. It might seem that the more people train and practice in developing a skill, the more practical minded they will become, focusing on the possible and the particular. In fact, the long experience of practice can lead in the opposite direction. Another variant of the "Isaac Stern rule" is : the better your technique, the more impossible your standards. (Depending on his mood, Isaac Stern worked many, many variations of the "Isaac Stern rule" on the virtue of repeated practice.) Linux can operate in a similar fashion. The people most skilled in using it are usually the ones thinking about the program's ideal and endless possibilities.

Gathering in Columbus

I'm exhausted after a weekend of watching 8th, 9th and 10th graders praise God, learn how to share their faith, share their faith, confirm they dedication to the Kingdom and help each other.

Because of some last minute changes the day before we left for Columbus we added several adults to the trip that had not planned on going. One of these folks was Don Vanzant who is starting a church near Hamburg.

While we gathered in Columbus, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing his testimony, calling and methods for planting a church in an area of Lexington that is exploding.

If you would like to check out his church, please do so: The Gathering I love the name and the people oriented, relationship oriented purpose of a church in equipping the saints.

I would suggest the best way to meet Don would be to seek the truth by attending Bible 101... studying truth is one of the best ways to interact with a stranger because the truth will be a constant in any stage of any relationship.

I hope Tatesbrook will eventually be able to offer some of the same foundational teaching as a part of our outreach to the community around us.

Read Great Books

While shopping for a Christmas present for Jackie in a bookstore, a book titled "Good to Great in God's Eyes" caught my attention. The subtitle was also intriguing: "Ten Practices Great Christian's have in common".

This book grabbed me from a couple of different angles. The title and appearance were very close to one of my favorite books, "Good to Great" which transformed the way I believe a successive company should be developed over a long period of time.

The subtitle also reminded me of a book I read back in 1992 by Kent R Hughes that interviewed great Christians to see what they had in common.

It also said "Ten" things, which implied there was a list. I love lists.

So, I bought the book to see what Chip Ingram had to say.

In the picture on the left, I put "Disciplines of a Godly Man" on the bottom of the pile to point out the books that I have read after knowing what Godly men read. I put Chip's book very near the top since it represents a second opinion about what men that are "Great in God's Eyes" do.

Note: this is not a complete stack of my favorite books. It's just the top 10% of what I have here in the house. Some of my favorite books are loaned out to friends and some are on a bookshelf at work ready to be referenced.

Here's the list of ten practices that Chip proposes are common to great Christians:

1. Think Great Thoughts
2. Read Great Books
3. Pursue Great People
4. Dream Great Dreams
5. Pray Great Prayers
6. Take Great Risks
7. Make Great Sacrifices
8. Enjoy Great Moments
9. Empower Great People
10. Develop Great Habits

In chapter two, he closes with the following statement attempting to inspire the reader to develop a curriculum of reading.

Books have shaped my perception of God, my confidence in the Bible, my marriage, my ministry, and my relationships with other people. They've done the same for countless other Christians throughout history, some of whom have impacted the kingdom of God on earth quite dramatically.... that's why I'll never regret the practice of reading great books.

As I was reading chapter three, I decided to compare my favorite books with the list that a great person like Michael Card has read. I fall short. I need to read more great fiction and more great history.

Adam Recognized in Fayette County Newsletter

As a parent and volunteer guest teacher in the Fayette County Public School system, I believe it is important to listen to the leadership. The school superintendent really does a great job of communicating on a regular basis.

Here is the text from the "Kudos" section:

To Southern Middle School students Adam Eby, Tyler Farquhar and Lauren Shields for placing 7th in the Leadership Challenge team event during the 2007 National Technology Student Association (TSA) Conference.

Old Men in the Balcony

It has just recently come to my attention that a peer of mine and I have been compared to the two old men in the balcony on the Muppet Show.

Having watched that show as a kid, I was sure that the people at work who made this comparison were mistaken.

Community responds to a Tornado

What a Weekend for Nappanee and NorthWood High School!

• Tornado Ravages Nappanee on Thursday night
• Band Places 6th at State
• Volleyball team won the sectionals (delayed to Saturday morning, and moved to Tippecanoe Valley)
• Football wins thrilling first game of sectionals (delayed to Saturday night, and moved to Bremen)
• 3000+ volunteers meet at NWHS on Sunday to help tornado victims

Wherever I have gone in the world in the twenty years since I have left, Wakarusa and Nappanee have remained home to me. One of the things that makes these Northern Indiana towns special is the community that is modeled to the world.

It doesn't matter if the community is modeled in the many small churches, a high school, a football team, an Amish heritage, a mega-size missionary church or the Amish people that still live simply and live at a pace that doesn't exist elsewhere.

Community springs to action when trouble comes.

Interesting links about the tornado and the community:

• National Weather Service description of Tornado
• Amish Acres: Mutual aid versus insurance

Commissioning Service for Michael and Joe Joe

Michael and Joe Joe are gifts to our body. It was good to see their parents and family for the service and it reminded me of the hot afternoon that they were married at Tatesbrook a few years ago.

On that day, both of the air conditioner units in the sanctuary were out and the wedding was balmy. We had fans set up before and after the wedding to help move cooler air in from other parts of the building. As we commissioned them to head to Tanzania, they will soon be experienced longer periods of more uncomfortable conditions than they did on their wedding day.

I can't begin to think how much our family will miss Michael and Joe Joe. Even though they are much younger than Jackie and I, their contributions to the marriage group that we attended together were filled with wisdom beyond their years and always creative and full of love.

Michael has taught Adam everything that Adam knows about drumming in three years of lessons. Michael predicted that being a drummer would get Adam in trouble and he was right. Michael's love of music has inspired more than Adam within our family.

As I read "Lead Like Jesus", I knew that Michael, Joe Joe, Matt and Kim would all identify with the calling that compels us to serve as He did. As we studied this book together, it was Joe Joe that contributed the depth.

The commissioning service did not disappoint us. It was tremendously worshipful and creative. I loved the comparison of Michael and Joe Joe to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12 by all the speakers at the service.

As they depart from Haran, we are happy about the message they will carry and the packaging and delivery that has caused us to love them so.

Haran replies, "Good Bye Michael and Joe Joe!"

You can follow the ministry of Michael and Joe Joe on their blog: GoodbyeHaran

The First Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant

We have lived in Kentucky for 18 years and almost every where I go on the globe, when people hear where I live, it is common for them to ask me about Colonel Sanders and KFC.

The Bluegrass state of Kentucky is famous for horse racing, horse breeding, bluegrass music, coal mines, Mammoth Cave, Fort Knox and tobacco among other things, but Kentucky Fried Chicken gets global attention...

So on our trip home from Florida, we stopped at Harland Sanders Cafe & Museum to be able to say that we did. I must admit it was interesting.

The thing that stood out the most to me was the hand written poster that I believe captured the reason that Harland was successful in his business of serving customers.

The contrarian servant's heart skipped a beat when I paused to read it. I couldn't help but think that many small businesses, churches, organizations and corporations have chased fame, numbers, market share or other definitions of success until the easy way was buried in sand.

Here is the text from that poster:

The HARD Way

It is comparatively easy to prosper by trickery, the violation of confidence, oppression of the weak, sharp practices, cutting corners - all of those methods that we are so prone to palliate and condone as "business shrewdness."

It is difficult to prosper by the keeping of promises, the deliverance of value in goods, in services and in deeds -- and in the meeting of so-called "shrewdness" with sound merit and good ethics.

The easy way is efficacious and speedy - the hard way arduous and long. But, as the clock ticks, the easy way becomes harder and the hard way becomes easier. And as the calendar records the years, it becomes increasingly evident that the easy way rests hazardously upon shifting sands, whereas the hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.

Thus we builded. *

SANDERS COURTS AND CAFES

Asheville, NC
6 miles out on Knoxville Road

Corbin, KY
Junction US 25 - 25E-25W

* DICTIONARY:
Present participle and verbal noun.
To fashion or frame according to a systematic plan or by a definite process; to create; to BUILD a reputation.

Bob Warren teaching

Bob Warren joined us at Tatesbrook this weekend to teach us a thing or two. I love the lessons of life that he brings to us.

Having pursued excellence throughout his life and desiring the most excellent for those around him, I can see the passion in his heart as he pleads for us to understand the world from God's perspective year after year.

When I have a chance to sit down with Jesus one day, I'm sure that one of us will start a conversation with the question, "How about that Bob Warren fella, he's a piece of work, isn't he?"

Bob' s main topic was from Philemon 1:6 and convicted us all of the state of the church today. It's really a simple concept that intimacy with Christ is infinitely more important than our interaction with each other but we seem to get tangled up to the point that we are tripping over each other telling each other how we need to be intimate with Christ. ( not just a church thing, I do it at work, we do it at school, etc )

Bob always has a simple way of saying things that make me want to reflect on the depth of his understanding of the phrase. Here are the two that stuck with me from the weekend.

"I don't fear failure as much as I fear being successful at something that doesn't matter"

"If I don't know what I know, then I don't know"

Motivation from Despair

As I have studied the Bible and life over the years under several mentors, one thing that I have learned is that the best way to learn about ANYTHING, is to use, wear out and study THAT thing, not something ELSE.

The biggest THING in anyone's life should be their relationship with our creator. That is common to all mankind, part of us as created beings.


But there are other important things, too.

• Our relationship with the people in the church He established for His Son and inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
• Our relationship with our spouse, children, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews and cousins
• Our relationship with those we work with
• Our relationship with our neighbors ( Love your neighbor as yourself )

So, we should all spend more time "knowing the shepherd's voice" than knowing the ways of the enemy, but that satirical nature and the logical nature in me just loves to point out the obvious in the negative sense. One great literary writing that is an example of this is C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters".

In the area of leadership and personal discipline, I have often used www.Despair.com as a source for negative information that points to the ways of the enemy as he afflicts our fleshly desires.

This site makes fun of leaders and the things they do. It's convicting and sometimes painful to see the truth of our selfish flesh when it is amplified.

One encouraging piece of information for me is that the battle isn't over until it is over and I know who gets the credit for the victory. Until then, I'll just keep trying even if the world calls me "Stupid".

Beyond the Ultimate

I just got an email from my college roommate pointing me to the following website: Beyond the Ultimate

At this website, I found a new book to put on my wish list.

It is amazing that the Super Bowl became a platform for two Christian men to Go, Fight, Win in sharing the superior leadership styles of Jesus Christ and how those styles can unify and motivate athletes at the top of their game.

Super Bowl XVI was the third most watched event in all of history. And these two coaches demonstrated great sportsmanship on the field and pointed to the most significant event in all of history. Be sure to listen to Tony Dungy's view of our heavenly Father's ultimate sacrifice by choice.

Quote from Tony Dungy: “Football is a profession that is judged by performance and results,” says Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. “However, those things come and go so quickly that, as a coach, I have to base my career on something more."

Nice job, Tony and Lovie!
Nice job, Athletes in Action.
Nice job, Campus Crusade for Christ.

Stewardship and Tithing

Josh Wilson, Michael Harrington and Brady Hudson are starting to convert me to the latest instruments of satire. I've always used a healthy dose of satire in my discussions and writing, but video technology is clearly superior. This one you tube video is just beautiful.

I look forward one day to talking to Jesus about His clearing of the temple while He walked the earth. Back in the 80's when Jackie and I lived in North Carolina, we had the chance to tour through the remains of the PTL club.

It is amazing how many groups of people have gathered together to build towers of babel over the generations. This video is extremely convicting to any of us that have flesh.