A moment of silence...

The Elephant in the Church

It's been quite enlightening following the blog brainstorm over at Mark Batterson's blog about his upcoming series... The Elephant in the Church. The comments are pouring in with things that people always think but never say about the church. Check it out!

An old dog learns new tricks

My friend... mentor... infamous punster... and general journeying partner has entered the blogosphere to wax eloquent on the highways and byways of life. I'm excited that he has finally crawled out from under his rock and is going public with his thoughts. He speaks from a lifetime of following Jesus and from 31 years of formal ministry in a variety of contexts. Yet he continues to grow... develop... and change.

He has recently left a secure ministry position as he takes "getting out of the boat and following Jesus" to its radical extremes. BEWARE: If you read his stuff... he might challenge you to do the same. Check out Denny's work over at Joy in the Journey.

I'm Back

I'm breaking my blog fast. I had the shakes the first few days of vacation... but when I realized that we only had dial-in access on an ancient laptop I embraced my vacation from keeping you updated on me.

While I was gone: In short we had a great time. I enjoyed the chance to be away from work, our normal routine, our normal sites and our normal responsibilities. It was great to rest, to play, to read and to really give myself the freedom to relax. For me that means forgetting about the stress, the pressure, the expectations, the things left undone... back home.

And in that state of mind I have freedom to think new thoughts... to dream new dreams or to pick back up long forgotten ones. So I hope to share some of those with you along with some new family pics in the weeks ahead.

Upon my return: I walked in to 80 e-mails (I'm really depressed it is only in the double digits) and I flipped ahead 10 days in my planner. Do you know what it is like to flip over 10 blank days in a planner? I'm partly relieved and partly grieved. If it is not in the planner... did it really happen?

My wife and I are teaching first graders this week in our church's vacation bible school. As "Crocodile Clay" ("Croc" for short).... I'm an Amazon River guide who is guiding kids into the fun of Creation Science. Today in just 25 fun-filled minutes I debunked Evolution... I'm good. And you should hear my Australian accent... g'day.