Good word

Good word for all of us trying to grow organizations.

A few frames

Part of the way I make my living is editing video.

One of the things that always strikes me is the difference a few frames makes. [a frame is one of the 30 pictures per second that we see as moving video]

Edit out a tiny pause in the action; man the difference it makes in the energy.
Lengthen a clip a frame or two and bam!... it hits right on the beat of the music.
No one wants to watch if audio and video are out of sync just a few frames.
Nobody believes the story line if a scene hangs on a few frames too long.
On and on... it's often a matter of a few frames.

I been seeing lately that much of life is a matter of a few frames as well.

In just a tiny moment of frustration, a relationship can go south.
Just a tiny instant of misunderstanding can needlessly get a work team off track.
Just a instantaneous hurtful word spoken to your child can harm her for years.
The decision to go into sin is often an impulsive decision.

A few frames can wreck months of work and years of love.

So what is the remedy?

On the front end...
Stay close to Jesus and think before you act

On the back end...
Grace, grace, and more grace

A day with the rest of our kids

Today, I went on a field trip with Deb's class to a museum. On the bus we played with photo booth. Loads of fun for the kids.






I love getting the chance to speak a specific word of encouragement or inspiration into a few of those kids' lives.

Then after school, I spent a couple of hours with the at-risk 2nd grader I mentor. He is so smart. We played chess and talked. He has so much potential but SO needs self-control to stay out of trouble. I care a lot about this kid. He's accidentally called me "dad" once and I've accidentally called him "son" twice. Please pray he has a breakthrough this coming week.

Thankful for eyesight

This week my wife's mother had eye surgery to repair a retinal detachment. It makes me think of the sight I take for granted.

What would I do if couldn't see...
My Susie's beautiful eyes and adorable expressions
My Alex's bright eyes and hilarious expressions
My Emmy's thoughtful eyes and maturing expressions
My Debbie's tired eyes and her need for change

I guess I'd try to make it like my amazing blind friend Larry, but for now I'm just very thankful to be able to see.

LifeGroups 2.0

I've been thinking a lot with a group of leader friends about how we can make our LifeGroups at church more purposeful. How can we make them more than little hang out groups where we go through soon-to-be-forgotten, random "small group studies"?

Here's something I've written in processing through this.

I think we let way too many people off the hook from becoming leaders. It’s like “missions”. We talk about it like it’s for the few and then only a few do it. Granted, not everyone is gifted by God for the highest levels of leadership, but who else should be leading in the world than those who have the Play Book and who have the Spirit of God inside them? Unless you are going to be personally purposeless, maritally passive, parentally absent, a frustrated manager of your household, a giver in to peer pressure, a follower of the world, you are going to have to be a leader in some capacity.

What better places but LifeGroups, miniature churches, for the development of people to lead? I'm using "lead" in a broad sense -- everything from leading others to Christ, leading our families, leading churches and movements in the kingdom of God, and most important of all leading our own wills, our own selves toward all that Christ calls us to.

LifeGroups can become a training ground for leadership in life and the main source of leadership for the church.

What do you think?

The cat is away again...

... so what should the mice do?

Debbie is heading to Dallas for another scrapbooking retreat with her Texas friends. I'm so glad she gets to do that. Have a great time, Deb!!!!!!!!

So what should we do here?

1) Clean the kids' rooms. Work on video.

2) Play all day and watch episodes of Lost Season 1. (I'm finally watching that great series via abc.com -- Don't tell me what happens!!!!)

We'll probably do some of both.

Interesting conjugation

I love how my almost 5-year-old daughter tries to conjugate verbs in the past tense. One morning she told me, "Last night I slape backwards in my bed, but my rail kape me from falling off."

Yesterday she said that I droove her somewhere in the car.

For some reason I find all of that really cute.