Unfolding Neurons

Archive for category Deep Thoughts

Seth’s Blog: The lesson from two lemonade stands

Jul 21

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff | No Comments

Some time ago I read this article by Seth Godin,  ” The lesson from two lemonade stands“.  Go read it, then come back here.

For the church – what lemonade stand are we?

  • Are we passing out tracts and telling people the “bridge” story or are we loving people and walking with them to the bridge.?
  • Is it more important to us that people attend or that people encounter?
  • Are people an audience or are they participators?
  • Does tradition trump God’s leading?
  • Does playing it safe to protect what we have trump taking a risk in faith to go where God is?
  • Are we known more for what we take than what we give?
  • Or put another, way – for what we are against than what we are for?

I’ve purposely left the “in between” unfilled in this post.  Hopefully these questions get you thinking as much as they have me and I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments!  So, what lemonade stand is the church?

Permanent link to this post
(184 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Tags: , , ,

Something I’ve been struggling with

Jul 13

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff | 2 Comments

Is there ever a good time to lie?  If you ever want to spark an interesting conversation, this is the question to ask.  If I’m honest with you, it’s a question I struggle with and if you’re honest, I think its something you struggle with too.

I always thought the 10 commandments had a “Do not lie” somewhere in there and it does BUT it only says something about not bearing false witness against your neighbor.  In other words, “Don’t lie about something you witnessed your neighbor doing or not doing”.  Kind of narrowing the context in which you must not lie.  But then, lying is listed as one of the six things God HATES in Proverbs 6:16-18. If you lie, you are putting yourself in opposition to God. Ouch.

So I struggle.  I struggle because there are some times where its really easy to be a truth teller. There are other times where its not that difficult to recognize the temptation to lie and resist it.  But then there are the the times…  

  • when my wife has come through a grueling day of looking after the kids, doing laundry, cleaning the house AND has supper ready when I come home.  It tastes awful.  She asks me, “Do you like it?” I’m tempted to say, “Delicious”
...This is a preview of Something I’ve been struggling with.
Read the full post
(481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

At the focal point of history…

Jun 29

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff, Leadership | No Comments

I read an interesting article a couple weeks ago about a little known guy named Ron Wayne who is actually one of the founders of Apple Computers.   You can read the article for the details on his story but it was fascinating to read some of the comments from this guy who sold away his 10% Apple Stock back in 1976 for $800.  That same stock would be worth about $22 billion today.  Yeah, that’s what I thought, wow.  But notice what the guy has to say,  

  • “Well, I’m one of the founders of Apple Computer”
  • “I’m living off my Social Security and I do a modest trade in collectors’ stamps and coins”
  • “What can I say? You make a decision based on your understanding of the circumstances, and you live with it”
  • “We did get fairly chummy, had lunch together, dinner together and had conversations,” (about his relationship with Steve Jobs back then).
  • “What Jobs had in mind was that he and Woz [as Wozniak is sometimes called] should each have 45 percent and I would have 10 percent as mediator in any dispute that would come up,”
...This is a preview of At the focal point of history….
Read the full post
(711 words, 1 image, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

Tags: , , , , , ,

are you missing it?

Jun 12

Posted by Darren in Aside, Deep Thoughts, Home Turf | No Comments

Yesterday I posted this.  And then today I read this which reminded me that the most important investment for my life is right before my eyes.

Permanent link to this post
(35 words, 1 image, estimated 8 secs reading time)

Tags: , , ,

Failure

Jun 11

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, Leadership | No Comments

This video has been making the rounds of some of the blogs I read.  It’s so good I just had to post this here.  It goes along VERY well with something I wrote a few months ago on failure.

What are your thoughts on failure?

YouTube Preview Image

Permanent link to this post
(51 words, 1 image, estimated 12 secs reading time)

Tags: ,

#PAOCGENCONF2010 – Thoughts and Review

Jun 11

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff | This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series PAOC General Conference 2010 | 1 Comment

As promised here are some wrap-up thoughts (albeit I got this published a bit later than I originally intended!) on the 2010 PAOC General Conference that I had the privilege of attending this year.  I’m so grateful for the opportunity granted to me by my church family that made it possible for my wife and I to go – it was our first ever General Conference in the 14 years that I’ve been a PAOC Pastor.

Overall, there are really two “themes” that kind of impacted me the most in all the things I heard and experienced at this conference.  There was nothing really groundbreaking or life-changing for me but it was more of a reinforcement of the things I’ve learned in ministry and a reminder of the importance of them.

1. The importance of working together in relationship in the Kingdom

The message was loud and clear this conference – what we accomplish together is far greater than what we’d accomplish individually.  Whether that is on the denominational level (i.e. supporting national initiatives or missions internationally), or the local level (working with others in our cities) there was a renewed emphasis on keeping the relationship strong in everything we do.  

...This is a preview of #PAOCGENCONF2010 – Thoughts and Review.
Read the full post
(798 words, estimated 3:12 mins reading time)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Ready or Not

Apr 28

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff | No Comments

About a week ago I read this article about the possibility of another larger volcano eruption in Iceland and there is one phrase that just kind of stuck in my head.  It’s stuck in the midst of these final words of the article,

There are no clear answers, however, and even fewer predictions about what the future may hold. Volcano eruptions, like earthquakes, are difficult to predict.

“Katla can start tomorrow or in 100 years, you don’t know,” said Palsson. “All we can do is be ready.”

“all we can do is be ready”

I don’t know what prompted this, but when I read that phrase I immediately remembered something Jesus said,

You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:50 NIV)

One of the things I found funny before I was a Christian, and even today,  is how in some church circles there is so much emphasis placed on WHEN Jesus is going to return.  Some thought Y2K was the big signal (you remember that?), some thought the Gulf War was going to be the trigger.  Now, we have some even saying that Jesus return may be in 2012 because of all the talk of that being the year the Mayan calendar ends.  And don’t get me started on the pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib discussion.  

...This is a preview of Ready or Not.
Read the full post
(585 words, 1 image, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

do we really get REVIVAL?

Apr 27

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, God Stuff | No Comments

A few weeks ago I read a really thought provoking post by my friend Geoff Heeg called -> Revival Please* So thought provoking that while I read it I could feel a blog post coming on.  And here it is.

Revival. That word is kind of loaded. In it’s neutral form it simply means someone who has been revived. Were dead. Now alive.

In it’s controversial form it’s the pursuit of the religious fanatic – “give me some of that ol’ time revival” which is too often – sadly – really saying, “I want to be scintillated emotionally and spiritually by displays of wonder and power that will shock others into the particular brand of faith that I follow.”

In other words…

…Something started by someone really cool!

Something started by a person who’s particularly good at getting me hyped up about what God wants to do for me. If this person is really good with the spiritual vocabulary and does some cool things then I can feel a revival coming on.  

...This is a preview of do we really get REVIVAL?.
Read the full post
(1010 words, estimated 4:02 mins reading time)

Tags: , , ,

Going Beyond

Feb 18

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts | No Comments

I was just reading about American Shaun White’s gold medal run on the halfpipe on Monday and there’s one thing that stands out to me about his performance:  after securing a gold medal with his first run he went all out in his second.

He didn’t have to.

He could’ve just walked down the pipe for his second run and still would’ve won.

He could’ve sat on his snowboard and whooped it down the course, and still would’ve got the gold.

His coach even suggested to him to take it easy on the second run. Sound advice, after all there’s no sense in risking any injury.

But Shaun decided to go beyond that.  Not only that, Shaun performed the most difficult trick ever invented for the pipe (even the name of the trick is intimidating – Tomahawk).

This got me thinking.  How often do we settle for a win and glory in the win and even celebrate the win in our own lives and then decide that’s all we need to do?

When we:  

  • get saved (a HUGE WIN) and stop growing.
  • go on a missions trip and help a bunch of people and then just show pictures when we get home.
...This is a preview of Going Beyond.
Read the full post
(286 words, 1 image, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

Tags: , , , , ,

Raising the Value of Volunteers

Feb 11

Posted by Darren in Deep Thoughts, Leadership | No Comments

One of the things I’ve chosen to work on as part of the staff at my church is raising the profile of volunteers and developing ways for people to find on-ramps to serving in our church.  Any person doing this will tell you that it’s not an easy task.  Still it’s one I relish in tackling because I love seeing people discover their “fit” and living in it.

Some time ago I came across an interview Tony Morgan conducted with Ritchie Miller, the senior pastor of Avalon Church in McDonough, Georgia.  Tony writes that,

Of all the churches I’ve worked with in the last number of months, Avalon has the highest percentage of people serving in volunteer roles.

A little bit later, Ritchie gave the stats that show this:  Their weekly attendance average for 2009 is 1,419 and of that attendance they have 602 active adult volunteers (which does not include the middle and high school volunteers). So of course, I wanted to read what Ritchie had to say about volunteers.  Here’s some takeaways from this interview as Ritchie discussed what he believes are the reasons for such a high volunteer rate (Ritchie’s points are italic – the rest are my thought’s):  

...This is a preview of Raising the Value of Volunteers.
Read the full post
(772 words, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

Tags: ,

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes