HE'S BACK!

By -
Did you miss me?  I've been gone a while...Cruisin' the Caribbean.  I like cruises.  Don't have to worry about where to stay, where to eat, where to go...it's all taken care of.  Just chill out and enjoy the sights. Plus, cruises are the greatest learning tool for a pastor I know of.  You get to observe a slice of our culture up close and personal for (in this case) eight days straight.  As a guy who spends most of his time in a church office, this is like a crash course in what the world around me is really like.  It's so insightful and helpful to me, I may suggest the church fund the next one under "research funding", but I digress.

So, what did I learn about the culture I live in from my cruise experience.  Well, it's a long list, so I'll share it over the next several days.  Don't miss any exciting episodes.  Here we go...

1.  Marriage has lost it's sacredness.  Lot's of honeymooners on the boat.  Few weren't living together prior to the wedding.  It just made it "official".

2.  Ink is the new norm.  More men (and a large population of women) had tattoos than those who did not.

3.  Women are looking for something, but I'm not sure what.  Lots of people read onboard.  Nothing unique about that.  However, easily 80% of women who were reading something onboard were all reading the same book, Fifty Shades of Gray.  I'm not sure what this says, exactly.  Video pornography is an unbelievable problem for men in our culture.  However, not so much for women.  Men are visually stimulated...women emotionally.  "Mommy Porn", as it has been dubbed, has found a way to make it into the mainstream in the written word.  Before you get all puffed up, let me say the church needs to respond, not by blasting this as a bad thing (that's what we usually do), but by asking "why?", find out what is missing and how the Word of God responds positively to this expression of women's neediness in a God-honoring fashion.

More tomorrow!  See you then.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHOULD JOHN KELLY APOLOGIZE?

By -
In case you are unaware, Dr. John Kelly is the Superintendent of Schools for Pearland ISD.  Recently, he, and other Houston suburban superintendents were asked about the mandate sent down from President Obama requiring all school districts in America to allow any transgender student to be allowed to use the restroom or locker room, not of their biological sex, but of whatever sex they "identified with".  Here were his comments. " When the Supreme Court re-defined marriage and invented new constitutional rights, the door was opened for re-defining all social norms, now including Executive Branch dictates about bathroom and locker room rules in local schools," he said. "A hostile vocal minority now rules in America aided by an apathetic, unengaged   majority. What's next? Legalizing pedophilia and polygamy? Unless we return to the Biblical basis on which our nation's laws were established, we are in serious trouble — and cannot expect God's con...
Read more

Who's Your Coach?

By -
Ever play on a team without a coach? I have. You know, a church-league basketball team. Softball league. Flag football. It's not exactly the same as the sports experiences you remember from your earlier years. Back in High School, everyone knew exactly who was in charge. Everyone knew who was calling the shots, determining the strategy and calling the plays on gameday. But, even before that, every day you knew who was in charge of practice. And you knew what his purpose was. Sure, to win games, but also, to make you the best player you could be. After all, that's what makes it possible for him to win games. My playing days are over, but recently I got myself a coach anyway. Not to help me with my jumpshot or put a few more MPHs on my fastball, but to help me be a better pastor. For the past six months, I've been part of a coaching network, along with some other pastors from accross the U.S. and a few other countries. We have a coach whose sole purpose is ...
Read more

BUNNIES, BOUNCING & BAIT

By -
Yesterday was the day before Easter. A few months ago, in a moment of insanity or inspiration, I'm still not sure which, I mentioned in a staff meeting that we should rent the local football stadium, hire a helicopter and drop a few thousand Easter eggs out of it. Yesterday we did it...with a few exceptions. We dropped 30,000 eggs. We had 15 inflatables. We had games, face-painting, popcorn & cotton candy. We gave away thousands of dollars of prizes. And it was all free. We really didn't have any idea what to expect. I mean, we'd never done this before. Initially, we thought if 1,000 people showed up it would be a success. Then we reassessed and revised our expectations. We hoped for 1500. I don't know how many people showed up yesterday. I know that after the parking team had parked 5000 cars they quit counting. I know that we caused such a traffic jam in Pearland that the Pearland PD had to dispatch 5 units to handle the traffic backups we c...
Read more