The beginning of our trip to South Korea

My first three days here in Korea was spent with the Noh family in Daejeon.  They are members of Sansung Church and Joshua is a member of the Nambu Conference of the Southern Conference of the Methodist Church in Korea young adult exchange. Yoon blessed us by taking us to Gyrongju, Jeonju, Pohang, Jinju and Gweangiu.  We visited Independence Hall , experienced fried Red Ginseng with honey, the 2009 7th Buyeo Seodong Lotus Festival,

Lotus Flower

traditional Korean housing and food. We met a lot of business owners and people in the community working with the health department through Yoon.  

We visited 5:00am worship service and prayer on Friday and Monday.  The ferverent effectual prayers of hundreds of believers daily are described as

Dream Worship At Sansung Methodist Church

the engine to do God’s work by Rev. Ji who spends at least two hours a day in prayer. I attended the Dream Worship bi-lingual worship service at Sansung was blessed by the praise and worship as well as Pastor May who preached a powerful message.

 

NY Restaurant Review

Michelle and ate at the MoBay Uptown Restaurant after seeing it featured on the Food Channel. It lived up to the hype.  I had the oxtails with collard greens and Michelle had the cabbage.  It has replaced our three favorite NY restaurants. The price was moderate, the service was fabulous and the atmosphere was relaxing.  I can not wait until our visit in the fall to try out more entrees.

Michelle and I also ate at Heartland Chophouse on Times Square.  The food and service was great.  It was loud the entire time.  The announcement of Shaquille O’Neal going to Cleveland was being featured on ESPN.

Pray for our waitress Sarah an aspiring opera performer.  JJ who is fighting kidney cancer, RV who is recovering from multiple foot surgeries, all of men and women in the armed services.  We are also praying this week for the families of Ingrid Wang, Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahan and Billy Mays as they grieve.

 

Tools ‹ Making Disciples in an Emerging Church — WordPress

Tools ‹ Making Disciples in an Emerging Church — WordPress.

 

Is the Beloved Community a Real Possibility

I believe that there is a lack of understanding about what the Beloved Community is and how it should operate in the 21st Century. Who are the guardians of the dream or the transmitters of the vision? I believe that the Beloved Community is balanced between Chrisitan piety and social responsibility. The ultimate goal is justice for everyone.(Rawl’s Equality Principle) God’s call for us to be in relationship with God and people demands that we share this relationship that we expereince as love, grace and forgiveness so that everyone will expereince what we are/have expereinced. The Beloved Community embraced radical racial and class diversity, economic opportunity for all and justice for those who were oppressed. This is the core of the Beloved Community.

Is this a lost concept with middle/upper middle class Americans? Does the American middle class value working for justice and equality of all of God’s people or only those who are most like them? People who encountered the Beloved Community in the King framework were transformed. They believed that their individual happiness in life (Mill’s happiness Principle) was rooted in the community being whole and unified. (Dyke’s Community is greater than the individual principle) That is why there was a civil rights movement.

Proposition: The civil rights movement is dead. Now is the time for the Beloved Community to become a reality in the lives of Americans.

Thesis: The vision of a flourishing democratic society that President Obama has cast is embodied in the Beloved Community of Dr. King. Without the theological foundation of God’s grace that also seeks justice for all, the vision is incomplete.

 

Exponential 09 Learning Points

Kingdom building is not about good preaching but about faithful disciples

Building appreciation disorder hinders church revitalization in older declining congregations more than a lack of money

What will start an urban church planting movement? Being more passionate about people outside than the comfort of people inside.

Blue ocean vision is not grounded in reality of the past

Lost people matter to God. What are you going to do today to let and unbeliever know that they matter to you.

Training leaders who you can trust and release is the foundation of multi site ministry.

The best way to share the Gospel with non believers is to live among them

Command and Control style of leadership is ineffective. Shared leadership, collaboration and adaptability are emerging.

True Leadership – You can be the heart of the organization without being the center of attention

Leadership development is essential for a sustainable church multiplication movement

 

Faithful Leadership

Leadership Jazz

Max Dupree

 

Max shares five criteria as a way to start thinking about faithfulness

 

1. Integrity in all things preceded all else
2. Servanthood of leadership needs to be felt, understood, believed and practiced if we’re to be faithful
3. Accountability for others especially those on the edges of life and not yet experienced in the ways of the world
4. Practice equity of relationships valuing each person on the team
5. Leaders must be vulnerable and transparent to those that they lead

I am currently at the Exponential Conference and Dave Ferguson led a session on 7 Moves to Multi-Site Church.  He emphasized that starting another site was about leadership preparedness, the DNA of multiplication and the apprentice principle.  Because everyone is focused on one vision leaders are able to be faithful, and find their voice in ministry. 

The #1 take away for today:  The Big Idea by Dave Ferguson

 

Dealing with Difficult People

dealing-with-difficult-people-leadership-day

 

High Impact – Mother Teresa

The fruit of silence is prayer. (meditation)
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.

Mother Teresa, A Simple Path

 

Church Web Sites

I have recently been asked to evaluate several church websites.  My observations are not as a web design professional but as an end user.

1. If you are not going to update on a regular basis make your information general and leave off specific dates
2. Make sure that your address and phone number and access to a map on the opening page
3. Make sure that email contact information is easily accessible for daily ministry activities
4. The wrong colors make the web site difficult to read and the church appears to be non inviting
5. Two maybe three menus are enough
6. If you have music make sure you have the option to turn it off that is easy to locate

Here are a few websites that I like

New Hope

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

Fellowship Church

Community Christian Church

 

Give Me The Courage To Live by Howard Thurman

 by Howard Thurman

Give me the courage to live!
Really live– not merely exist.
Live dangerously,
Scorniging risk!
Live honestly,
Daring the truth–
Particularly the truth of myself!
Live resiliently–
Ever changing, ever growing, ever adapting.
Enduring the pain of change
As though ’twere the travail of birth.
Give me the courage to live,
Give me the strength to be free
And endure the burden of freedom
And hte loneliness of those without chains;
Let me not be trapped by success,
Nor by failure, not pleasure, nor grief,
Nor malice, nor praise, nor remorse!

Give me the courage to go on!
Facing all that waits on the trail–
Going eagerly, joyously on,
And paying my way as I go,
Without anger or fear or regret
Taking what life gives,
Spending myself to the full,
Dead high, spirit winged, like a god–
On… on… till hte shadows draw close.
Ten even when darkness shuts down,
ANd I go out alone as I came,
Naked and blind as I camm–
Even then, gracous God, hear my prayer:
Give me the courage to live!