I like this, from Mark Batterson:
The longer I preach the more I realize that people don’t need to hear what I have to say but they do need a word from the Lord.
(Interesting permalink for that article, by the way.)
Today we’re working on the 2010 budget. It’s mostly the same as 2009’s, but we’re going to try to find places to cut.
The biggest problem with the budget is our bookkeeping. It’s good enough to keep checks from bouncing, but not so good I feel wonderful using this year’s actuals as a basis for next year’s budget. But there it is.
I spent Friday and the weekend on a brief mission trip in Arizona, but I’m back at work today. Well, sort of. I have almost no time to do, uh, work. In the morning, I’m meeting with some people to discuss a sermon text I won’t preach until September 20 (really!). In the afternoon, I’ll be doing some computer tutoring, which I’ll follow with my 8-weekly bloodletting. So, I’m back at work, but only just barely.
I spent Thursday and Friday in Irvine at the first-ever west-coast Catalyst conference.
As a whole, the conference was outstanding. (The weakest part for me was the worship music, by Hillsong United and other bands, because it was mostly unfamiliar to me, because I’m mostly a clueless old duffer.)
The speakers included Andy Stanley, Guy Kawasaki, Ravi Zacharias, Brian Houston, Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel, Jud Wilhite, Perry Noble, Francis Chan, Catherine Rohr, and Nick Vujicic. Here’s a sample of Nick Vujucic:
Here are two articles I should look at more closely, both in the New Scientist. (I forget where I came across them, sorry.)
Born believers: How your brain creates God
The credit crunch could be a boon for irrational belief
The second title is a game attempt to make something arcane and abstract timely and relevant. The first title is better. Imagine if, instead, it said, “Born seers: how your brain creates a visual representation of the universe.”
(Updated; I forgot to give this a title.)
In November, my “church” blog went dark as part of our move to a different hosting service. I’m semi-happy to report it’s back online again, at the same URL: blog.deserthillspc.org.
Well, I spent most of my day off doing it, but it was fun and it was programming, so I guess that’s still a “sabbath” of sorts.
The problem was to sort all the people in church geographically, so that, when the deacons divide them up into groups, each deacon can have a group that’s concentrated in one region.
Continue reading
We’re back, but it’s a busy week: meeting of a Presbytery committee plus a funeral and a pair of hospitalizations. Mercy!
I got rid of the behemoth.
When I moved my day off from Friday to Monday, I still wrote my sermons on Friday, but no longer on my day off. As a result, I no longer wrote them at home. Which in turn meant I came home with all kinds of bursitis and odd aches and pains from trying to type a few thousand words in a couple of hours at a non-ergonomic workstation. Ergo, the stand-up desk (“bar table”) I use at home must be more ergonomic than the gigantic desk at church.
So for my birthday, more or less, Mrs. Mess of Pottage bought me a new desk. My arms feel better, but my feet are sore. (The blue shock-absorbing mat at the bottom of the desk is a late-afternoon addition.)
I’ve already blogged this on my church blog, but I just keep chuckling at this image:
