I would not call myself a runner, though I do run a lot.  Running for me consists of getting from point A to point B with as little effort as possible.  The reality is that I really don't know what I'm doing when I run - I just put one foot in front of the other and hope for the best (BTW - this is how I approach swimming, except its hands and not feet).

The other day I was looking at a training guide for running and it talks about "proud" form.  Proud form is your chest out, your back straight and your arms working parallel to the ground.  Proud form is good form.  Good running is running with good, proud form.

I just run, but I need to run with better form in order to be a great runner.

For me the parallel with the Christian life came easy.  Any one of us can be following Christ, reading Scripture, and going to church - this doesn't mean we are doing it well.  We have to have good form - in this case it means making sure we are doing all of this the right way and, for the Christian life, for the right reasons.  Good form in this case would be showing the fruits of the Spirit in our lives (peace, patience, kindness, love, longsuffering, humility, etc).  When we run the race with the right form we maximize our effort -  our Scripture reading, our service, and our prayer.  Good form is the key to running . . .  and the key to our our spiritual life.

Get good form!

I had a great meeting today with an experienced and seasoned pastor.  I meet with him a lot to talk church, life, and how to be the best pastor I can be.  It's worth it.  No matter if your a pastor or not, I would highly recommend finding someone older than you to bounce ideas off of and reach your potential. 

Today I talked to him about my frustration with churches that cannot seem to find a balance between fellowship (looking inward) and outreach/evangelism (looking outward).  My heart and the reason I got into ministry was evangelism - reaching others with the Good News of Christ - what He did for me He can do for you. 

It's not that I'm against fellowship.  I believe that it is a Biblical concept and one that needs to be built into the life of the church.  The problem for me is that churches have a natural tendency to curve inward (fellowship) and not outward (evangelism).  The easiest thing to do is to hang out with who you already know.  The hardest thing to do is to go outside of one's comfort zone and share Christ.  Churches have no problem with fellowship, but it has a big problem with evangelism.  A church that has fellowship as the focus is a church that is not a church at all - it is a country club; a well intentioned country club, but a country club no less.  

A church that is all evangelism is not Biblical either.  To much focus on evangelism can lead to abuse of church members and completely ignoring aspects of discipleship and serving one another.

You can probably tell, though, that I come down on the side of evangelism.  I have a passion for it and want to see more of it - at my church and other churches.  We need to come up with creative ways of presenting the Gospel in contextualized ways.  

Probably the hardest part of evangelism is where it starts - with a realization of what Christ has done for you.  If you can't do that, you are useless in evangelism.  You have to be aware of and live out Christ in your life in order to share that with others.  If Christ in your life is just a cultural thing, you have nothing to share.

Let's love each other in the church as we love those outside the church.  Can't have one without the other.

It starts with you.

Last month I came across Spotify for the first time.  I've known about it for a while, but never go to it.  UNBELIEVABLE. I LOVE IT.

I joined and for $10 a month you get unlimited music - almost everything is on there.  There are a few things I've search for that I haven't found, but only a few.  It is so cool - especially if you have unlimited data like I do - I can listen all day if I like :)

You can create playlists, make them available online or offline, and come back to them later.  You can just star a song and come back to all the starred songs later.  Even if you don't want to join they have a Pandora-like radio you can use.  If you do join you can use it on your computer, smart phone, and tablet (iPad).

I love it - revolutionizing how I listen to music.  Sadly, the quality isn't great as with any MP3 service.  The bitrate is too low, but that's a result of the streaming, at least with where the technology is right now.

Go check it out!

Today I began going over a book I read a while ago called Who Needs Theology?  It's a good question for most laypeople and sadly a lot of pastors because oftentimes they have no idea what theology is and why it is important.  Grenz (R.I.P) and Olson give a good primer on theology and it's importance in the church.  I can't summarize the whole book, but I will include some snippets here:

My kids go to school in New Hampshire and this coming week is their vacation week.  Leading up to vacation week my oldest daughter (7) starting running off a litany of places her friends are going: Disneyworld, Hawaii, Turks and Caicos, etc.  The natural and innocent reaction of my kids is "Can we go someplace?"  We have a travel trailer that we use all summer, so we go a lot of places.  This doesn't help with their desire to go someplace NOW.  

I'm so exciting to be starting this book tonight.  Since I started the book on Scripture I've been dying to start this book.  My wife got it for me for Christmas.

So far its a stream of consciousness book - totally what you would expect from Neil - I love it.

Pick it up if you can!

I've been on vacation for two weeks (stay cation) and finally finished reading a book I've been dragging out over the past year. It is The Divine Authenticity of Scripture by A.T.B. McGowan.  The book is very good for two reasons.  First, it gives a great summary of the the historical development and debate surrounding the issue of inerracy.  Second, it argues at length that a better alternative to the doctrine of inerracy is the doctrine of infallibility.  

One great argument of McGowan is that inerracy is a modern response to liberal theology and it's drive for rationalistic proof.  Inerracy, claims McGowan, gives into the same rationalism that it reacts to (fights against).  God cannot be captured by rationalistic arguments

Infallibility is a better doctrine because it doesn't tie God down to a mechanical understanding of inspiration.  It is concerned with the ability of Scripture to be sufficient and efficient (Calvin) for salvation; in other words, God gets His message across in Scripture without being dependent on textual errors.  Secondarily, it confirms the important role of the Holy Spirit in the development of Scripture in a way that the inerrant doctrine does not.

Great book with a lot of great historical stuff as well as suggestions for the use of Scripture in the everyday life of the church.