Sabbath from Teaching

[I wrote this post 2 months ago but for some reason did not publish it]

I had the night off from teaching last night at Neighborhood Church. My friends Jay and Anna visited and shared what God is doing in Burma. This morning I woke up and was hungry to read, pray, and prepare for teaching next Sunday. Normally, after teaching on a Sunday night, I need a couple of days before I am ready to even think again. Note: that's not a healthy place. And it's why I'm thankful that I don't have to teach every week.

We now have several gifted teachers at NC, and our congregation needs opportunities to hear those voices. We're stronger for it. And I'm at my best when my work is rooted in rest. That's why the Jewish views on Sabbath are so wonderful. The day begins at night instead of in the morning. It begins with rest rather than ends with rest. That changes everything. Again, our work should be rooted in our rest!

For more on this, read this blog post from J.R. Briggs. There are some great thoughts that are beneficial to anyone.

My iPad

I've had my iPad 2 now for six weeks, and I'm ready to give my review. When the first iPad came out, I was not impressed. To me, it was nothing more than an oversized iPhone. My question was, "Why would you want an iPhone that can't make calls and that can't fit in your pocket?" I thought those were pretty good questions, and at the very least it kept me from catching gadget fever. At least for awhile.

A few months ago I borrowed John Carroll's iPad for a couple of days. Gadget fever started taking its toll on me right away. I immediately loved reading Kindle books on the iPad, and websites on Safari were much better than I had expected. I started doing some research and learned that I could fill out real estate contracts with an iPad and even get clients to sign them with it. I also saw how pastors were using the iPad in ministry. So I decided to start saving my money.

So after six weeks of use, I have to say that the thing I'm most excited about is the opportunity to go paperless. OK, maybe not completely paperless, but I'm getting close. Here's how I'm doing it. I was already using a lot of apps on my iPhone, but but there are two new ones that have become game changers for me. The first is Instapaper. With Instapaper, if I come across something worth reading, whether on my laptop or my iPad, I click a button on my browser that says "Read Later." The article is then formatted to remove ads and other clutter, and then I can access it through the Instapaper app. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to highlight in the app, but I'm sure at some point this will be available.

Instapaper is great, but what is even greater is PDF Expert. This app allows me to import a pdf from Dropbox (also on my iPad), and then mark it up. A more technical term would be "annotate", but I like "mark it up" better. I can highlight, underline, type notes, and even insert my signature or someone else (again, like a client's). So far I have used this for charts when leading worship, notes when teaching, and reading/annotating articles. I have no reason to ever print off another chord chart, or sermon notes, or an article. It's all here. And once I have my highlights and notes, I can email it back to me if I choose.

These two apps, along with the Kindle app, are wonderful and are meeting so many of my needs. If a book is on Kindle, chances are that I'm going to buy that version instead of a hard copy. And not having stacks of paper lying around is going to make me so much more productive. Plus, it will make my wife very happy!

The Kingdom of God

We're halfway through our series on Luke's gospel at Neighborhood Church. This week I went away to St. Columba's Retreat Center to gain a little clarity on the remainder of the series. One thing I continue to learn about myself when it comes to teaching is that I always have to keep the big picture in mind. Where are we ultimately heading? Why is this series important to the life of our church? One of the big questions for me was how to incorporate the Kingdom of God, Jesus' favorite subject to talk about. So after a day away, here's where we're going.

This Sunday we're on the parable of the sower, but instead of thinking about it in terms of evangelism, we're thinking about it in terms of the condition of our own hearts. There's a great quote by Rick McKinley about this:

Pay attention, Jesus was saying, because in a mysterious but powerful way, the condition of your heart radically dictates what the kingdom is going to look like in your life. If you wrap all your hopes and dreams around it and let it sink far into your inner being, the kingdom of Jesus will live in you and bear fruit

Next week we then begin another "series within a series" on the Kingdom. Here are my tentative titles:

The "Upside-Down/Available to All" KOG (2/28)

The "Advancing/Subversive" KOG (3/7)

The "Already/Not Yet" KOG (3/14)

The "Costly/Totally Worth It" KOG (after Easter)

Weekly Links

The 100 Most Read Bible Verses at BibleGateway.com

Before we can be something, we have to first dream something. Seth Godin says it well here.

Great read about churches in Austin partnering with schools in Austin

Ben Witherington on a theology of work (or lack thereof in our culture)

The TED Commandments (rules every speaker needs to know) - see here for more

Tony Morgan on the difference between Leading and Managing

Tim Chester's review of Sticky Church, by Larry Osborne

Weekly Links

Ben Arment on "Three Kinds of Jobs"

More from Andy Stanley on Communication:  Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

The messages from Advance09 are available for download from Desiring God

New iPhone and software getting ready to come out

Good explanation of bi-weekly payments on a mortgage - I've been doing something similar since we bought our first home, albeit without the fees.  I just divided the monthly payment by 12, then added that to the principal each month.  It will end up knocking around seven years off my mortgage, which will save me approximately $36,000 in interest!

Internetmonk's review of Love is an Orientation, by Andrew Marin.  Here's Andrew on the Neue podcast as well.

Saving the best for last..."Why couldn't Jesus shapeshift?" and other Awkward Questions from Children - from Scot McKnight  

A Great Church Resource

Mars Hill in Seattle has released a free resource in conjunction with their 28-week series on 1 & 2 Peter. It seems that there are a couple of reasons behind this document. The first is that they want to saturate the message of 1 & 2 Peter into everything their church does. They have outlined the two letters, giving the big ideas for each message. They've also written a study guide to be used in their weekly community groups. This also includes a daily devotional guide for families to use. I love this because it's centered around the dinner table and is to be used with the kids. Brilliant!

Their second reason for doing this is to help pastors like myself plan and "brand" sermons. I need all the help I can get, and I'm very appreciative to Mars Hill for this.

You can download this 207-page document from the Resurgence site.