Getting a better life? Does life feel the same this year as it did last year? Choose a guru. Muhammad. Mother Theresa. Deepak Choprah. Gandhi.

Historians place all of these names side by side, as if they each has historical value, lumped together as 'heroes'  of some sort.

But Jesus addressed our heroism centuries ago. He addressed our guru-itis. And he addressed our quest for the good life - all in one sweeping statement that even baffled the people hearing him say it. "I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6, NIV)

What do you mean you're the way, Jesus?? Isn't that a bit - oh shall we say - arrogant?

Relative to every other guru, Jesus says he's ... the way.

"He could have scored more points in political correctness had he said, 'I know the way,' or 'I show the way.' Yet he speaks not of what he does but of who he is: I am the way." --Max Lucado, 3:16 The Numbers of Hope, p. 87

How can Jesus be my way today?

I want to live!

There are days we feel as if God is very hard to find - and possibly dodging out just when we get him in sight! We put a lot of energy into the chase. And chasing God is a great concept. The only problem is - God is right here!

So, is it actually a chase? Are we working and leveraging the

 Tell this story when you need to 'wake up' to the real, original destination together!

Did you hear the story about the two pilots who missed their landing - by 150 miles? Talk about embarrassment! According to The New York Times today, the pilots claim they were having a heavy, heated conversation about company policies - and didn't hear the entities trying to reach them by radio or text - and missed the bright lights on their console to alert them to nearing arrival. They kept on flying - right past their destination - until a flight attendant called back to find out what was going on!

(Picture created by friend, John Rhea, for a recent worship series at Pender UMC, and you can see John's other great work here.)

We strive hard to "smoke what we sell"! Here's the deal! If I'm not excited about what's coming up in worship, why should anyone else be excited to arrive and ready their hearts on a Sunday morning?

I've gone through phases of worship preparation. It used to be that I would sweat bullets wondering if I had stuff "cool" enough "to sell" on a Sunday morning to a younger crowd.

Then, God did a neat thing and taught me a great lesson. He let me exhaust myself so that I was a crying that I couldn't keep up this pace. He doesn't need selling. Our real job is to connect people with God in worship. If we do that, they know it - and they'll want more. 

But . . . it's my job to anticipate for others what we might experience together on the next "this is the best Sunday ever" day. Why not allow them in on a 'few secrets' of what God is preparing  for us? Why not share why I'm full of anticipation?

That's not hype. That's witness.

Here's what Perry Noble said in his blog, "How do you prepare a message?":
"Please don’t misunderstand…I am not preaching against doing mailouts or billboards or newspaper adds.  We’ve actually tried all of that stuff; however, nothing is more impactful than a church full of fired-up people who are so excited out of their minds about what the church is getting ready to address that they will actually dive out of their comfort zones and take a risk and bring someone else to church with them."

If you've listened to pastors like Perry, they "promote" what's coming next to their Sunday crowd as if it were the greatest deal on planet Earth. And they're right folks. It is the best day of the week on planet Earth when we get to talk about God together, right?

I am not one to do a lot of plugging of next week's sermon from the pulpit. I think I should do a better job at that. It takes more preparation on my part - how to work it into the flow, how to know enough about the next week to give a great lead-in, and how to give a foretaste of the heaven we'll taste NEXT week.

1. The Preparation Ahead of Time: Think coordination with others, and rearranging the work week to make time. For me, a rough draft has to be done by Wednesday, or approximately 12 days prior to delivery so that I can coordinate with our band. That rough draft should include these points: What's the issue being addressed in real lives? What's the essence of what God would like to say to us around that issue? Why should anyone listen to this message?
2. The Timing & Flow in Worship: Where does it fit? Most preachers tag it onto the end of the service which makes sense. Some gifted preachers flow from the sermon to remind people of what's coming up. Some work very well with putting it as an announcement time via slides or a video clip. I think it depends on what's coming up next! That means I should have the rough draft done at least 13 days prior to the message so that I can figure out where it's going to fit in the flow of things! So, now my rough draft needs to be done by Tuesday.
3. My Heart and Soul's Preparation: I need to be fixed upon Jesus and not on salesmanship. I need to review my rough draft for falseness - in other words, is it Jesus? Okay, so maybe I need that rough draft done 14 days (2 weeks) before and add some quality prayer after the rough draft into my schedule.

One last important note I picked up from Perry . . .

One more thing…whatever you do…do not overpromise and under-deliver.  When you say it…mean it!! -- Perry Noble

Are we using the right scorecard? No says Reggie McNeal in Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church.

Our ecclesiology, or how we view the purpose and place for the gathered church, has been skewed since the Protestant Reformation says Brad Brisco. A renewed thought process, called Missional Ecclesiology,  is trying to refocus our churches upon what it means to be both the church and about the church's mission rather than about marketing or infrastructures.

The scorecard is under debate. What are the numbers that interest you?

This ad is ridiculous - and Fun (with a capital F and !)! What would it be like to ad some Fun Factor in church. Perhaps musical sounding notes when you put your offering in the offering plate? LOL

Oh, come on - Church COULD be fun!

I'm feeling challenged by fellow blogger, Vince Antonucci, to keep blogging around my scripture reading and quiet time with Jesus. It's easy for me to get into a whole lot of other stuff and reading, but really kind of sleepily lose that "in the sweet zone" with God's word in front of me and my quality prayer time as a first priority. It slips through unnoticed - for a while. Yeschhhh.

Does the Lord still speak to you?

"... the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant." Joshua 1:1

Joshua HAS to receive instructions from God. It doesn't say whether Joshua was having a great quiet time day listening and praying. It just says "the Lord spoke to Joshua." It doesn't say what he was doing to get into hearing. The focus is upon God and what God is about to do.

Perhaps we start and end our time with God focusing in the wrong way: How can I get into a right time of day, right position, or right scripture for hearing God? Perhaps we should be focused slightly differently.

What is God doing and what is it that He is up to in this time and circumstances?

I am a student on a long learning curve in how to blog well. Fortunately, there's Chris Brogan with sound advice. How does he get his blog ranked high and read often? Well, he tells you in his article, "27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community."

His best point, IMHO, is "Don't finish the article - Let your community finish it for you."

Assumptions. We all have them. We assume certain numbers matter (because someone told us so - or because the powers that be up the organizations food chain said so). We assume, in general, that worship attendance is a clear indicator of whether "we're being effective in our job as pastor."

I began to challenge that notion about two years ago. I don't see the correlating evidence that if our numbers are up, our discipleship effectiveness is up. It began to dawn on me that we might be measuring the wrong thing!

We are called to "make disciples." Making disciples is a long-tail process involving knowing your community, inviting people to know Jesus (not the church), sharing coffee and directed conversations about who Jesus is, growing in faith, courage, and love for Jesus, sending out people into the world to keep those conversations going, AND, oh by the way, when the day is ripe, for someone who's been building in curiosity to be invited to church.

  Want to give your group a clear and thrilling picture of breaking away from the "norm" around them?

This week we were talking about loving God and loving others, and how that really challenges our assumptions about life. How does it challenge our assumptions? One case in point: "My kids need to be in several activities that make them well-rounded individuals who will succeed in society." That's the assumption in my neighborhood. 

But Jesus' simple equation is: Love God, Love Others. He never said, "Get your kids involved in lots of enriching activities." We've made an assumption from culture that we need to take to God and ask Him about: "God, is this loving you to have my child involved with XYZ?" "Jesus, will XYZ encourage my child to love You and other people?"

We want to be different than the pack we swim with. We want to be God-loving first.

Here's my word-picture for inspiring others to break away from living the way others do around you. Break away from normal life like Dolphin 56!

Dolphins aren't supposed to be able to do what he's been doing. He's an unusual dolphin who was freeze-branded with a 56 to be watched and studied by researchers wanting to understand dolphins more. That experiment ended in 1980, but Dolphin 56 is still experimenting with humans!

He was never held in captivity. He was never fed from human hands or taught tricks. He had a school of dolphins he traveled with when he was branded back in 1979. So, his behavior is very surprising. He chose a different path from his ocean mates.

He left the part of the ocean where all of his compatriots stayed. He seems to crave human interaction, and approaches boats just like Flipper! In recent years, he seems to hover off of the New Jersey shoreline. He is just not your "normal" dolphin.

Read this article chronicling the life of Dolphin 56 - and for good story pieces on describing a life different from the rest.