Random Thoughts on Christmas Eve Day

• Feels weird to have preached yesterday morning and now have a completely different message coming up in T-minus-5 hours.
• Our ministry teams have a healthy dose of anxiety about tonight's service. Somehow churches got the impression that stress is ungodly. It's the only way to have a culture of excellence and dependence on God.
• I'm experimenting with a new web tool called Virb. It's a networking site geared for creative types, but with a much better blogging tool than others. A few church planters have beat me to it.
• I've been waiting a few years for an opportunity to stitch multiple video feeds together in one seamless image... and I think that moment is going to come in 2008.
• Love the cheekiness of this blog from Ethur.
  
• Had a great conversation over the weekend with Camron Ware. I'm inspired by creative pioneers like him.
• I love throwing out a challenge to our church's tech leaders like Dave Kruse and Andrew Luck and watching their engineering minds go to work.
• Watched the 60 Minutes interview with Joel Osteen last night. (yawn) Same questions; same answers. They need some new questions.
• Looking forward to Christmas Eve dinner in the Town Center tonight. We don't have family that comes-in for the holidays, so we've found stumbled upon some fun traditions that have all the conveniences a pastor's family needs. I'm sure it'll be Asian food of some variety. =)

Comments

[Tim]

Was the gospel not present in your message yesterday? If it was, which it should have been, then what's the difference between yesterday's message and today's?

[Ben Arment]

Tim, have you ever preached a message for a service?

[Chris Marlow]

Ben,

Virb is amazing. I'm surprised it has not caught on as much as I thought it would.

[Jason Curlee]

I've had a virb for a while and it seems to just collect dust...of course the css was beyond what I could do for now....but I thought it had way more promise than myspace...my other problem...the circle of people around me did not have a virb so for now...it continues to collect...

[Tim]

Not for a morning service, but I have a few times for the evening service. (please don't see my question as being mean, just wondering.)

[Derek]

Virb is great. Also, Tim, preaching messages are like baking cakes: they all contain flour, eggs, and sugar, but come in different tastes and textures. The Gospel should (and I'm sure it is with Ben's messages) always be present, but the 'wrapping' is always different.

[Tim]

I agree with you Derek; I guess I got all caught up in the word "completely" different from Ben's run down. I understand that sermons/messages will be different in form and in depth, but I'm just making sure that my friend Ben had the gospel message in both services and in the usage of "completely different" didn't mean the lack of the gospel in one and the presentation of it in the other. I'm pretty sure the gospel message was present and will be in the service in which Ben preaches (why I used "pretty sure", is because I wasn't at the service nor did I hear it on the stripped site). And as a friend and co-labourer in Christ, I'm just checking up and stirring hearts and minds. As Mark Dever puts it, in "What is a Healthy Church", "...the Bible teaches that Christians should very much care about what happens at a church." We should be huge advocates for each other, but we also should be asking the tough questions of each other, since Christ, in His kindness, has called us to handle the whole counsel of God and shepherd those who are in our congregations. What a privilege it is, but what a huge responsibility it is as well. My prayer is that we're faithful in the very little, in order that we're faithful in much, but only by His grace, strength, and wisdom do we accomplish this. May you Ben, Derek, and the numerous others who proclaim Christ and preach, do it faithfully this Christmas season and beyond (and I pray that for myself and the elders/pastors at the local body that I am a member of). Merry CHRISTmas!

[Jason Roberts]

Tim

As a friend of Ben's (or anyone else for that matter) -- If I have a question about the content of the message I'm going to ask him in a less public arena. I have no problem with the asking and making sure that we continue to preach the Gospel and lift up Jesus. What I have a problem with is that if you really count him a friend (which I know you do) and you have any doubt about the message, then you'd do your friend the courtesy of shooting off an email or picking up the phone. Bringing that sort of question to your friends public arena just doesn't seem like the most gracious first step.

[Tim]

My apologies gentlemen and mostly you Ben.