Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Pride of My Life...

One of the truths of my life is that I get a lot of attention. Certainly, some of that attention is negative and critical, but the lion's share is positive. I get to write some, travel and speak and have people gush about how I've blessed their lives. But today, I get to gush about someone who has blessed my life -- my wife, Rochelle.

This morning, Rochelle and I taught a session at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. This was our first joint session. I honestly thought my stuff was the best part of our class. Well, that was before we actually presented the class. I was blown away. She outdid me. And trust me, that hardly ever happens!

Rochelle did a fabulous job today, and I am very proud! In the past 2 months, my wife has given birth to a baby, organized and ran a women's retreat, taught our church's women's Bible study and a Sunday School class, lived with a husband who has been out of town several weekends and somehow managed to put together the best class that I've heard all week (and that's not husband grandiosity and pride).

What a woman!!

Nearly ten years ago, as Rochelle and I were about to get married, my mom said to me, "I couldn't have picked a better wife."

My mom has never been more right.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

One Day Done

I woke up this morning in beautiful Malibu, CA. The only problem was aI woke up at 4am to the cries of my 11-week old daughter and the the snores of my 3 year-old daughter. Nevertheless, 2 hours later when I arose for good, it was to brisk, clean air and sights of the moutains rising over the Pacific ocean. Each year I come to the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, I ask myself how any students or facutly ever get anything done. I went to Abilene Christian, in the dust bowl of Abilene, TX and barely got anything done while there, so Malibu would have been a diaster for me. This is truly one of God's more beautiful places on earth.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Missional and other things...

I've been talking to a lot of people about Missional Church. The scope of the discussion is extremely broad, and the language itself gets used by so many people many so many different things that it's difficult to get your head around. Though I've been immersed in the literature for about 6 years now, I am always fascinated by the folks who are really put off by the concepts.

For those of you familiar with Missional Ecclesiology and Missional Renewal, please comment or e-mail me about what excites you about it, or what concerns / worries you about it the shift from churchianity to Christianity.

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Our family is off to Malibu this week. Rochelle and I will be teaching at the Pepperdine University Bible Lectures. I will also be doing a session for high school students called "The Pepperdine View." Our girls are going with us and my mom is flying from Georgia to join us on the journey.

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Our 3-year-old is struggling to potty train -- or rather her parents are struggling with training her. Any helpful ideas?

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Much love to you all!