DeeLauderdale.com

I use Google Reader to subscribe to about 30 blogs that I read everytime they post something new. It’s great because I can blow through a bunch of them real fast. Here’s a few that I’ve read lately that struck some sort of chord with me.\

Chris Elrod on Discipleship

This kind of stuff only happens to my buddy Gary Lamb. Hey Gary, you might want to teach your staff the difference between the gas and diesel pump.

The church resembles this sign waaaayyyy toooo much.

For every uptight church legalists who still thinks that their pastor has never used another pastor’s idea/sermon/outline.

Great series on success in the church. part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Wondering how to handle a huge, financial gift.

Open source spontaneous baptism. Or how to baptize 1000 people in ONE day even though you meet in two different high schools.

I need more…….

Four types of staff members

If I were the Devil….

Accountability. think I’m gonna steal this one and build a sermon for men around it.

Every married man needs to read this AND do it. You’ll thank me for it.

That should be enough to keep you busy.

There are lots of things about Christians that I don’t understand. Some of the are funny, like these from the blog Stuff Christians Like:

• The dude that drinks the water and gets sick on a mission trip
• Riding on the cool van on youth trips
• Occasionally Swearing (you KNOW who you are)
• Saying “Bless her/his heart”, after you’ve ripped them
• Comparing “Braveheart” to Christianity
• Singing “Friends are friends forever” at camp
• Tattoos for God

If you any of these ticked you off, then you’re not going to like the rest of it. One of my pet peeves is Christians turning churches into Forts. Places where we can be “protected” or “set apart” from the world, that mean, nasty place where unclean people live. These people cuss, drink, DANCE, spit and go with girls who do. We can’t be around them and we certainly can’t allow our kids to rub shoulders with them unless it’s in a nice, safe environment like feeding the homeless.

Where did we get the idea that the way to change culture was to disconnect from it? Whenever it was, it’s the same day the whole “Christian” industry started. Music (if you think the Christian music industry is Christian ask a musician and see what they say), clothes, kids football, baseball, soccer and baseball leagues and the worst of all, church softball. If you want to learn a whole new vocabulary, go to a church league championship game!

But Jesus did not call us to gather inside the walls of a fort to keep out the world. He sent us out into the world. If you want to read a great story about a guy doing just this, check out Acts 17. Paul basically gets kicked out of two cities for preaching the Gospel and ends up in Athens. Here’s how he spent his first day:

“While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. 17 He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. 18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.”

Sure he went to church but he didn’t stay there, he went out!!!! He debated with the academics. He walked around the town getting a feel for what the people were into. But HE DID NOT stay in the fort. Believers will NEVER reach the world for Jesus if we decide to stay where it’s safe.

Last Friday I wanted to run up to two ladies and tell them “Help a brother out!” Why? Because of they way they were dressed! The first one was sitting in chair outside of Panera and her jeans were reaallllyyy low and her thong was hanging out for all the world to see. I had to move because it was impossible to ignore. The other one was a young mom in the food court at University Mall. As I was walking in the door she was bending over the table and I swear I could see her navel! Her top was that low cut and she was that “gifted.”

Ladies either some of you don’t understand how visual men really are or you know it and are making us nuts intentionally (if that’s you, stop it!). But some of you need to know that you are making it hard on us guys who are trying to discipline our eyes. Please, please, please help us.

The next time you’re getting dressed try this “you can dress attractivelly  without dressing to attract”.

On behalf of men everywhere, please, help a brother out.

Are you ready for some football? I’m officially in football mode. Last Sunday I went to the open practice that UA had at Bryant-Denny (or simply “the stadium” if you live in Tuscaloosa). I just got back from watching Hillcrest High School’s practice. This will be my third year to serve as chaplain for the team and I love doing it. This season will be a little different because our church meets at Hillcrest. Anyway, I love being around football: players, coaches, everything.

Coaches are loud, in your face, intense guys. I think that’s the way a church staff should work, lead pastor is head coach and rest of staff are like assistants. The reason I like this idea is a really good head coach, coaches assistants more than players. I like the fact that a head coach can get in the face of an assistant, tell him in very specific terms what the problem is but then they both move on. Nobody gets their feelings hurt and nobody holds a grudge.

But that’s not what I wanted to write about. I want to talk about the transition every dad has to make as his child grows up. We start out as coaches. Helping, giving instructions, inspiring, correcting. Hopefully they’ll use the Bible as their playbook to coach with and to show their kids the plays. All good stuff. But there comes a time when you transition to cheerleader. I’m in the middle of that transition. My oldest daughter starts college in a few days and I told her recently that I’m now her biggest cheerleader. There’s not much left for me to teach her. Now all I can do is sit on the sidelines and cheer her on when she’s doing well and try to pick her up when life has knocked her down. Part of me is sad but another part is kind of excited.

If I could tell parents who’s kids are in the same season as mine one thing it would be “let go!” Stop hovering. Be the best cheerleader your child has ever had.

My oldest daughter moves into her dorm this Sunday. Wow, hard to believe. I’m also blessed to have another daughter still at home and she’s pretty happy about not having any more competition. I’ve got friends who are also moving their kids to college over the next few weeks who are now empty nesters.

Number one I’m not old enough to have friends who are empty nesters! Number two, how would you do if you woke up tomorrow as an empty nester? Would you and your spouse look at each other and say “who are you?” How weird would it be to discover that you just spent the last 18 years raising a kid but growing completely apart? You didn’t mean to, it just sort of .

I can give you one tip that will reduce the odds of that happening to you by 90%: regular date night. Real date. No kids, no food that you order through a speaker. Just you and your wife. Guys, you take the initiative, you ask. Our dates are not always extravagant or expensive. Sometimes all the budget will stand is a cup of coffee at Panera and sometimes there’s enough to go out for dinner. But whatever you have to do get these dollars in your budget.

Date is all about time for the two of you talk, vent, worry out loud, dream, plan, or just stare at the river because you’re both exhausted. It’s amazing how much this helps. I can tell a difference when we don’t have a date night for a few weeks. We’re just out of sync. The opposite is just as true. When Susan and I are having regular date nights, we don’t even have to talk as much to be in sync. It’s amazing how much a couple of hours can do for your relationship.

So if you don’t want to come back home from taking your child to college and discover that you don’t know your spouse anymore, do regular date nights.

Summer time is over so that means it’s back to regular posting. Sometimes it’s tough to come up with stuff to write about so I’m keeping a running list on my iPhone to keep me going. If you’ve got topic ideas, send them to me at dee.lauderdale@gmail.com.

One of my favorite movies is Apollo 13. When I was a kid my dad worked on the Apollo program in Huntsville, so I’ve always had a fascination with space. I’m still amazed that America put a man on the moon using slide rules and computers that had roughly one tenth the computing power of the MacBook I’m typing on right now. Amazing.

Apollo 13 is all about men who dreamed big dreams and got other highly talented guys to sign up to chase those dreams. Big, hairy, audacious dreams.

At the end of the movie Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell, does a voiceover recap of the mission and the men who worked to get them home. But that part of the movie always makes me a feel like a loser and envious at the same time. I WANT to be a part of something like that. I want to know what it feels like to take on a life or death situation and come out on top. Not just want it, but I NEED that. Not just me, but every man. Everybody wants that, it’s built into our DNA.

Sometimes men think they don’t have the same capacity as a Gene Kranz, JFK, or Jim Lovell. We could never do what they do. The fact is they were just standard issue men, not very different from us, but there was one huge difference, they had a dream. A dream that guided how they lived their lives. The bottom line is it’s not that our achievements have gotten smaller, only our dreams.

It’s day 2 with the 3g iPhone and all I can say is “wow”. Apple got Mobile Me straightened out sometime during the night so now I have true “push” sync with my email (both gmail and .me) calendar and contacts. Here are some of the cool features that I’ve discovered.

If you get a phone call while listening to music through ear buds, music is automatically potted down then you can hear phone call through ear buds and talk through speaker. After call, music goes back to where you left off.

Did a google search for a business, then clicked on phone number and phone dialed!

If you’re just checking email, EDGE is not too bad.

WiFi rocks.

The GPS is awesome and accurate. When spoken turn-by-turn comes out (rumored in the next update), it will be perfect.

Battery life seriously sucks. Hope it gets better after a few cycles of draining/recharging. I bought a car charger and I’m glad I did.

Internal speak ouput is pretty good and the quality is not half bad.

There are some great free apps out there.YouVersion for bible is very good.

Games utilizing the motions sensing part of the iPhone are amazing!

I bought the iPhone hoping I could leave my MacBook at home more often and I think it’s gonna work out.

Yeah baby it’s iPhone time! Finally got it! Of course then mobile me decides to crap out.

A guy comes in the office today and says “so what’s the beehawg (at least I think that’s how you spell it)?” I just looked at him so he asked it again. I still had no I idea what he was saying. Finally he says “what was the big, hairy, audacious goal that you told Captsone-Hillcrest about on Sunday?”

So for him and anybody else who missed it, the goal is for us to grow to 180 in the auditorium by our one-year anniversary on January 24th. Oh, by the way, that would be tripling.

This all started when we had our combined service a few weeks ago and I was counting the attendance. We had 180 and God said that was the next goal for us. This the first time in eleven years of ministry that I’ve ever talked about a numerical goal. It’s by far the biggest challenge I’ve ever called a group of people to.

This is what working without a net looks like. There is no way we can do this. Absolutely no way to triple in 6 months. There aren’t any books on how to do it. I can’t find a seminar to go to. So, we’re gonna go old school. We’ll do community events and have a few big services to help get the name out. But the foundation has two parts. The first is that every one of the 60 invite 3 people. How about that for simple? Everybody makes the commitment to get 3 new people attending between now and January 24. The second part is on me. Doorhangers have been the most effective tool, other than personal invitations, so far in getting the word out, so I’ve ordered 5000 with a new design. I’ll be spending a minimum of two mornings a week hitting the streets of the neighborhoods in South Tuscaloosa meeting as many people as I can. Letting them know about us and inviting us to attend. I’ll also have the doorhangers available to pickup on Sunday morning so you can put them out in your neighborhood.

So that’s the beehawg. Are you in?

If you’re a part of Capstone-Hillcrest or have just thought about checking it out, you neeeeed to be there Sunday. I’m going to be sharing a goal for our church that is big, hairy, audacious and impossible without God. I can’t find any books telling me how to do it, I can’t find a conference that will give me a 1-2-3 method to do it, all I’ve got is a burning passion from God to see it accomplished. It’s so big that it will take all of us and more, so if you’re up for a challenge, be there Sunday at 10. Spread the word and bring a friend, because it’s not often that you get to watch a pastor work without a net.