Glorious Mud

I found out that the AFA (American Family Association) has called for a boycott of McDonald's (you can read about it here ) because McDonald's has joined the national Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. I, as a family-friendly, socially-moderate, theologically-conservative follower of Jesus, think we should boycott this boycott. Why? Because I like McDonald's fries. OK, not really. I actually do not like Mickey-D's and haven't eaten there in years. The real reason is that I think the boycott is counter productive to actually advancing the gospel in our culture. Boycotts, and more importantly the mindset behind them, are actually turning the cultural tide against the progress of the gospel. The AFA clearly sees this as a battle in a culture war. On the AFA’s boycott website , they state: “[This boycott] is about McDonald's, as a corporation, refusing to remain neutral in the culture wars. McDonald's has chosen not to remain neutral but to ...

In 2007, I taught a parenting forum at The Journey .  I posted the audio for that forum here, but The Journey has since cleaned up their media archives and this forum was taken down.  For some reason, though, this blog entry continues to be one of the most popular on my site. So, in an attempt to offer something of value, I am going to update this blog to reflect some of the best information we explored at that forum years ago.  Many blessings to you in your parenting journey. ..... Too often we as parents discipline out of wrong motives or for wrong goals. We want others to think we have it all together. We don't want to embarrassed in public places. We sure don't want to look like those "other" parents who have no control over their kids. How do we enter into parenting with true humility and raise "good" kids who are no more than legalistic moralists or moral relativists? The gospel tells us that we are both more broken and sinful than we care ...

I just returned from the Orange Conference 2008 last night. I took three of my team members from the Journey to Orange in Atlanta because I was intrigued with what was happening in this new movement, especially their emphasis on family centered ministry. I haven't blogged about this, and I guess I should, but I believe children's ministry (CM) in the mainstream church has become too kid-centric. Can a church ministry be too kid-centric? Absolutely. If you haven't read Barna's Raising Spiritual Champions yet, you need to do so. He makes a very strong case that the church has done the family a disservice by enabling them to become passive in their children's spiritual formation process. Anyway, I have become increasingly interested in Orange because of its emphasis on "Reactivating the Family" - and recognizing that if the church is not equipping the parents to be the primary leaders of their homes, the church is becoming part of the problem. So, what...

I picked up this link today from a hilarious blog called " Stuff Christians Like ." Check it out.

Did you miss the latest throw down between Clinton and Obama? Well, no worries. Here is a link to a video that will give you a one minute run down on what you missed.

Aren't grandparents the cutest thing ever? They stand in the background with their eyes sparkling as their grandchildren toddle around making strange cooing and gurgling noises. They buy way too much stuff for the kids at Christmas and then brush aside their own children's complaints with comments like, "Oh, dear, it is a grandmother's job to spoil her grandkids." The whole thing feels reminiscent of the Norman Rockwell painting, Freedom from Want - warm, fuzzy, and lots of good food. If you had grandparents like these, count yourself lucky. If your own parents are like these, your kids will have a richer and more joyful childhood because of them. Loving grandparents are one of life's great blessings, and our kids are likely to grow up thinking that our parents are perfect. The reality is, though, that we know our parents weren't perfect. Hopefully we can all assert that they did the best that they could (and, tragically, there ar...

One of the Journey's core values is beauty. As a literature, quasi-artsy guy, I love that we give beauty a place at the big boy's table (normally reserved for such husky guys as Truth, Mission, and Worship). Beauty calls to something in us and calls something out of us that simply cannot be contained by the rational - it is experiential... So, that brings me to this Time Waster. The picture above will take you to a photo contest on Wired.com that was all about the color red. There are some incredible shots there - like the one above. Taking a few minutes to just appreciate the beauty captured in these photos, at least for me, is refreshing and worth a few minutes of sacrificed productivity.