Saturday, April 09, 2011

Lets get along


I wonder if Facebook sometimes challenges relationships. I’ve noticed a couple of groups in my youth group that are having challenges this week. I think it’s that time of year, but I hate seeing relationships hurt.  Here are a couple of hints:
  •  Facebook is not the place to air out personal grievances. Pick up the phone, go get ice cream together, grab a cup of joe.
  •  Another boy/girl is not a good reason to lose a friend. God values all of our relationships and our relationships here on earth model the relationship we have with God.
  •  Reconcile, Reconcile, Reconcile. If you can learn to work through differences you will go a long way in life. I believe Jesus said something about forgiving 70x7.
  • The way we treat each other as Christians is the way people outside the church view Jesus. Take a second to think that over.
Over the years I’ve had lots of students (and Adults) who have had challenges with each other. I know that even the biggest differences can be resolved. Let’s not ignore problems, but face them head on with candor and courage. Often we grow in our understanding of each other and as a result in our God.
Keeping Jesus #1

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Real Economics of Christian Education

I've spend a lot of time in the last few months thinking about Christian Education. (for you non SDA's out there by Christian Education right now I am talking about school, not discipleship classes on Sunday/Sabbath mornings.) Anyways now that we have that cleared up, the Adventist church is about to go through some very difficult times or is already going through difficult times depending on where you are (AUC/WAU, you know what I"m talking about.) And there are many out there that are thinking of ways we can do this more easily by tightening our belts. I think that while we need to be good stewards of God's money, this is not the first thing we should do. We have already found that this hurts us.

First of all let me tell you about our church situation. Our local congregation, a great one at that with a little over 600 members, has over the last 4-5 years pumped around 200k-400k into our school. I could go into a lot of details about those numbers, but they would not necessarily help in my points here. I ask my self, if we did not put that money into the school where would it have gone? Perhaps we'd have a new sanctuary by now, or a youth room or a few more pastors? My belief is that money and the money people paid for tuition would have stayed in their pockets. We are really good at laying up our treasures here on earth, instead of in people. Stuff doesn't go to heaven, people do.

Perhaps, one of the great things that Christian Schooling does is that it helps us not accumlulate so much worthless stuff. I spent this evening in a very nice mall in Edina. One of the stores I went into was Crate and Barrel. As I perused the store I found many things that were both useful and very attractive. But as I was walking out (empty handed) of the store I made the comment to my wife, "There was a lot of really good looking stuff in there that we don't really need." I guess I need to challenge myself sometimes do I really need that? the answer is usually know. Now, don't get me wrong I impulse buy with the best of them, and sometimes we do need to just have a little happiness in life, but perhaps its things like having a tight budget that keep our spending in check as well as our priorities in the right place. And nothing says tight budget like 2-3 kids in Christian school.

So while it may be cheaper to do Christian Education other ways, perhaps the idea of investing in people, both teachers and students is actually the wisest Kingdom Economics thing we can do.

Keeping Jesus #1

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Feeling a little Lance Armstrongish

Ok so today I started Cytoxan which is a form of Chemo therapy for my Minimal Change Disease. It's a long story. Its kinda scary. I don't know what the side effects will be but there is something unsettling about taking 10 pills when you get up in the morning. Anyways as always chin up and hope for the best. who knows what the future holds make each day count.


For those who even mildly care...which I doubt you do, but the purpose of this is to get me off of another drug, which was working but can cause cancer in 25% of people taking, and hopefully wean me off medicine all together and put this into remission. That would be awesome. Nonetheless I still may be on something called Cellcept for a long time but its better than the drug I'm on now.
For all of you CHIPer's and health nuts out there I have looked at alternative methods and both Google and some Dr.'s that I trust say that for this there really isn't much you can do for this disease. In fact I am in such a small segment of the population that right now my Dr. describes what we are doing as 'voodoo' medicine because there is just no research on cures for what I have. that's encouraging isn't it.
Well my class is coming in now so I gotta go. I have lots to blog about especially Adventist Education! so keep your ears tuned.