Yearly Archives: 2009

Perryisms

Nearly every week, blogger Tony Morgan publishes a post called “Perryisms.” These are lines from that Sunday’s sermon by Perry Noble, pastor of Newspring church in South Carolina. Perry has a great way of putting things, and I always look forward to the latest “Perryisms.” Here are a few from today’s post:

  • “When Jesus paid for our sins, he paid for every sin.”
  • “If you don’t let your past die, it won’t let you live.”
  • “In the Church, we suck at letting people get past their past.”
  • “We can’t meet Jesus and stay the same.”
  • “When our sin collides with His grace, He always wins.”
Share Button
1 Comment

iPods for National Defense

The military is using iPods in variety of ways. For instance, snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan use them to calculate ballistics. At less than $300, it’s a good deal. You just know that if the military designed something for the same purpose, it would cost $150,000 each.

Share Button
Comments Off on iPods for National Defense

A Three-Movie Weekend

Thanks to tax season, Pam and I haven’t seen a movie all year. But now, since her emancipation on Wednesday, we’ve seen three movies.

  • Taken. This Liam Neeson film came out in January and is still hanging around. A really good thriller. Saw it Friday.
  • State of Play. This one came out on Friday, with Russell Crowe and Ben Afflect and one of those young actresses I can’t remember. Another really good thriller. It’s set in a journalism context (Crowe is a reporter). I like that stuff. Saw it Saturday.
  • Facing the Giants. Saw this tonight at Anchor’s movie night. I’d heard it was really good, and wasn’t disappointed. A football movie that makes you teary-eyed. It shouldn’t be.
Share Button
Comments Off on A Three-Movie Weekend

Jack Welch Grades Barack Obama

I’ve been reading BusinessWeek for about 25 years. It’s a nice supplement to Time and Newsweek (which strike the same chords). Since it targets the business crowd, it’s generally quite conservative.

The first thing I read is the last page, the weekly column by Jack and Suzy Welch. Jack Welch, of course, is the legendary former CEO of GE, sometimes considered the greatest CEO of the 20th Century. 

Their April 20 column was titled “Obama: A Leadership Report Card.” They started out with some disclaimers, saying they disagreed with Obama on many policy issues. 

  • They “passionately oppose” eliminating secret balloting in union elections. 
  • They’re “suspicious” of the cap-and-trade proposal (okay, I don’t know what that means). 
  • They find the new budget “alarming–with its optimistic forecasts and staggering short-term deficits.”
So they have major disagreements with Obama policies. But their column, they stressed, is not about policy, but about leadership. How is he operating as the country’s CEO? 
  • Vision. “Whether you like his politics or not, Obama’s obviously got it. From the economy to the environment, education to health care, the President has articulated his goals to the nation.”
  • Communication. You must state your vision “consistently, vividly, and so darn frequently that your throat gets sore….Every time he speaks, which is often, he’s thoughtful, expansive, and candid.” And they like that he’s getting out of Washington to impart his message, like on the Leno show.
  • Team-building. They were initially skeptical about how Larry Summers and Tim Geithner would work together, and how Hillary Clinton would mesh. But they see Summers and Geithner working together “seamlessly, egos in check.” And, “Hillary is refreshing in her new role, with the President clearly giving her the latitude to make a mark.”
  • Speed. At first, “We actually worried that he was moving too fast on too many fronts, diverting attention from the economic crisis.” But as the weeks progressed, they saw Obama tighten his focus and take some decisive actions (whether you agree with those actions is irrelevant to the column). 
  • Authenticity. This trait, they say, is “the hallmark of evey effective leader.” And for that, they say, “Thank goodness for Michelle.” Barack Obama is “somewhat cool in his effect. That’s fine. But people crave humnanity in their leaders. Luckily, his wife, with her warmth and broad appeal, is supplying it in buckets.”

In summation: “When it comes to the traits a successful leader absolutely has to have, the President is hitting on all cylinders.”

Having said all this, they stress that Obama hasn’t been tested in two key areas: resilience, and championing unpopular causes. Time will tell on those issues.

They conclude, “While we’d like to see his skills applied to different plicies, when it comes to leaership, Barack Obama has certainly earned an A.”

Share Button
Comments Off on Jack Welch Grades Barack Obama

Ain’t This the Truth!

constructioncones.jpeg

Share Button
Comments Off on Ain’t This the Truth!

If Time Equals Money….

I heard this morning, while traveling to Indy and listening to CNN, that Joe Biden and his wife gave a whopping 1 percent of their income to charity. An additional press release said they not only give of their money, they give of their time. Yeah, right. Like, 9 percent of their time?

I’m going to put a percentage value on the time Pam and I give to our church, and then reduce our monetary tithe by that much. 

Or maybe no. Because, Joe, that’s not BIBLICAL.

Share Button
Comments Off on If Time Equals Money….

How to Do Church

Quote from Perry Noble about the church he pastors, Newspring:

We do not have the corner on the market when it comes to a movement of God.  We aren’t doing church “the right way.” We aren’t doing church a better way. We are doing church the way God called us to do it

Share Button
Comments Off on How to Do Church

Done with Christianity…as We Know It

A number of dynamic, young, different-thinking megachurch pastors fly a little bit under the mainstream radar. I’m thinking of people like Perry Noble, Craig Groeschel, Francis Chan, David Gibbons, and Rob Bell. They are the future of evangelical Christianity. And yet, some of them strike fear into the hearts of mainstream, baby-boomer evangelicals, because they don’t toe the party line. They are stretching evangelicals in some directions we’ve been ignoring during the past 30 years as we’ve been focused on wielding power–something tese young pastors show little interest in.

Another of these young pastors is Geoff Surrratt, pastor of the multisite Seascoast church in South Carolina. He recently posted a blog item called “I’m Through with Christianity.” I must say, I agree with practically everything he said. Let me offer just a few quotes:

  • “I am one of the many Americans who would no longer describe themselves as a professing Christian. I cannot in good faith associate any more with what the label Christian has come to represent in America. Christianity is now a set of political views, a way to distinguish different groups of people (Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus)….”
  • “In order to be a faithful Christian I can only vote for politicians who say they hold the party line on the right issues.”
  • “Christianity in America seems to be led by self-appointed spokesmen who attack others without charity, seek places of prominence wherever they go, and live outrageously extravagant lifestyles.”
  • “I love Jesus more and more the older I get, and I love the church with all my heart; I just can’t buy into the Christian thing anymore. So I quit. I am resigning from the Christian party, the Christian club, the Christian religion. I am going to devote the rest of my life to loving God with all my heart and loving my neighbor as myself.”
Share Button
Comments Off on Done with Christianity…as We Know It

Bo as a Pro-Choice Symbol

bo_dog200.jpgI think Bo is a cute First Dog. But animal rights groups are picking nits (like everyone else). They think the Obamas should have chosen a dog from an animal shelter, rather than a purebred dog from a breeder.

So I’ve been toying with ideas about family choice and the pro-choice view. 

Animal rights groups tend to occupy the political left (though there are plenty of us in the middle and even on the right horrified by the conditions in factory farming). Those animal rights activists would probably be pro-choice–if you don’t want a baby, choose abortion. Your family is your personal business.

Now, the Obamas very deliberately chose Bo. They could have gone to the local dog pound, but didn’t. Their family, their decision.

Actually, you could think of Bo as a dog that had been given up for adoption. Bo didn’t work out with his original owners, so they returned him to the breeder. So in an analogous sense, the Obamas were rescuing an unwanted child. But that apparently doesn’t count with the PETA people.

Let’s play with this some more. Should we criticize parents who give birth to a child, when so many children are awaiting adoption? Many children languish in orphanages and the foster care system, just as untold thousands of cats and dogs sit in animal shelters. 

Maybe we should criticize the Obamas for giving birth to Malia and Sasha, rather than adopting children. How terribly selfish of them. What kind of example does that set for other Americans? How can they encourage adoption, when they themselves chose differently?

In their own families, do those animal rights people adopt children rather than having their own biological children? That would be consistent with their values. 

Or do they, indeed, birth their own children (at least the ones they don’t abort), but only adopt when it comes to pets? Are pets worth rescuing, but not children? 

These are just ideas I’m toying with as I search for something profound to say. I’ll find it eventually.

Share Button
Comments Off on Bo as a Pro-Choice Symbol

Grandma Setting Up Her Digital TV

This is great–a Youtube video of grandma trying to set up her digital TV. (Sorry, they disabled the feature for embedding the video in blogs, so you have to go to Youtube. But it’s worth it.)

Share Button
Comments Off on Grandma Setting Up Her Digital TV

Receive Posts by Email

If you subscribe to my Feedburner feed, you'll automatically receive new posts by email. Very convenient.

Categories

Facebook

Monthly Archives