Category Archives: Culture

We live in a busy world…

Most of us ignore taking a day of rest and instead go 100mph, 7 days a week and constantly feel like there is a pressure to do more and get more accomplished. We find it difficult to sit still. We are constantly going from the moment we wake up till we fall asleep because it is hard to rest. If you are a student you could always study more, if you are a parent you could always be a better parent, if you are an employee we can always improve, our marriages could always improve and as a result we have created a culture of busy people. I thought of a few types of busy people to give us some examples:

The Hurried Person: First we have the hurried person. This person is always in a hurry. They talk real fast, they drive fast, and sometimes you will ask them why they are in such a hurry and they will say, “I am not in a hurry, I just have a lot to do.” You know you are talking to a hurried person because while you are talking to them they are always looking around or at their watch at the next thing they have to do.

Continue reading

First Church Experience?

Do you remember your first memories of church? Maybe it was when you were a child and you remember your parents getting you up early on Sunday for church. Quickly your parents would pull you out of bed, get you dressed, and hand you a pop-tart as you unfortunately walked past the television and morning cartoons to get in the car to go to church. Why were they in such a hurry?

Maybe it was when you were a little older. Maybe elementary age? Church was different. People you didn’t know started asking you really personal questions. You remember waking up every Sunday with this knot in your stomach because people might find out all the bad things you had done that week and they might tell God! It was if they had some hidden spiritual x-ray machine that could read your mind. Why did your parents start going to church? Where did this come from? Had things been so bad that your parents were actually turning to God for help. This can’t be good.

Continue reading

Types of unhealthy conflict

Some see all conflict as bad and unhealthy, but until heaven we are going to have conflict and through Jesus we can have healthy conflict. To help us identify healthy conflict I thought I would start us off looking at unhealthy conflict. Which one best fits you?

There is the avoider: This person avoids conflict at all costs. Adam does this as he is hiding in the bushes. If conflict happens they avoid the subject, what are you talking about, I’m fine, and if pressed they will literally start to walk the other way. They are usually peacekeepers, generally optimistic, and in the midst of conflict just assume it didn’t happen.

Continue reading

Finding Romance

When you first meet someone it seems that romance is naturally in the air. So excited to be on a date, hold hands, get to know one another, but sometimes romance can start to fade.

Below are a few points of application to keep the romance alive in your marriage:

Relationship With Jesus: We have to have a relationship with Jesus if we are going to make it in marriage. Until Jesus is central it is going to be an uphill climb. You have two people going in two different directions. We need to start with a relationship with Jesus.

Continue reading

What makes you look pretty?

I have a 5 year old daughter and she is beautiful. This morning she put on one of her dresses that we got her for Christmas. It is a summer dress, but sometimes dresses are so pretty you just can’t wait until the summer. All you have to do to turn a summer dress into a winter dress is add a long sleeve turtle neck and thick leggings and lickety-split, your summer dress becomes a winter dress! And to be fair she is a girly girl who will do anything to wear dresses.

With her new dress on, turtle neck pulled up, and leggings tight she quickly asked me, “Daddy don’t I look pretty in my new dress?” Of course you do I replied. You are beautiful. I walked across the room to her, kneeled down beside her and said, “But it isn’t your dress that makes you pretty.” Do you know what it is? “My body”, she replied. A little caught of guard to hear a little 5 year old girl already so aware of her appearances I said, “No, not your body. Do you know what it is?” She said simply, “No.” I said it’s not your dress, your body, or your hair, but it is your sweet, sweet heart that makes you pretty.

Her face lit up with a smile and she wrapped her arms around my neck really tight. I asked her, “Do you know why its your heart that makes you pretty?”

Continue reading

What If Christmas Were Different?

One of our tag lines as a church is “What if church were different?” It has been something that has resonated with many and hopefully it creates the possibility that the things that were frustrating before could be different.

So it is with Christmas. Perhaps all the chaos of stress, traffic, shopping, parties, etc. could be different? Here is a video with Advent Conspiracy that helped to capture the difference visually. Hope you like it!

Lucy Read School Supplies

Lucy Read is the only pre-K school in AISD and offers public education to low income families in north central Austin. Unfortunately, Lucy Read doesn’t receive additional funding from Title I (the largest federally funded education program) and greatly appreciates any donation.

Our goal is to have a school supply drive for the month of September. You can make donations by dropping them off at Lucy Read on Sunday mornings at 10am or you can click here to make a financial donation to Lucy Read for school supplies or otherwise.

Come on! What else are you going to do with that $5.00. Buy coffee at Starbucks! It will be gone in 10 minutes and this will be a small step to help little children get a better education! LR Children

Living Lives of Influence

What if we lived with influence in our lives? A simple way to begin to move into this role is to examine our time, talent, and treasures.

Time: What if we set aside time to pray for the spiritual and physical needs of our neighbors, friends, family? What if we asked them if there was anything specific we could pray for them about and actually set aside time to pray for them? Then after 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or whatever feels comfortable we go back and ask them about what we were praying for? For some of us it might feel awkward but if we want to live lives of influence then we are going to need to take some risks. We can play it safe, have surface conversations, and never see anything exciting happen, but we will miss out on influence.

Continue reading

Branding God

Snapshot 2009-07-30 12-39-23I saw this picture on a site and I have always thought this kind of stuff was a little silly, but somehow people keep making it because people keep buying it. Churches tend to follow this model when they create t-shirts for everything they do as they turn their people into walking billboards. Here are few of the comments below of how the general audience perceives these products:

Whatever happened to “Thou shalt not steal”?
I’m betting this isn’t licensed.

Continue reading

It is getting hot in Texas

carcookies2It seems like it has been over a 100 degrees for over a month now and it is really hot. Not like the kind of hot where a nice breeze is appreciated, but the kind of hot that makes it hard to breathe at times. Honestly, I almost pass out walking from my car to the coffee shop.

I was looking through a blog the other day and noticed a way to make the most of a hot day. Bake cookies! Who doesn’t love cookies. Beat the heat this summer by setting a tray of raw cookies on your dashboard to bake in the stifling heat inside your car while you work — you get a tray of warm, fresh-baked cookies to eat on the return commute!

Continue reading

Game Show: Converting Atheists

A new Turkish game show asks clerics to persuade atheists and win prizes. Although this could be a total farce and never hit the airwaves I think it would be an interesting show because it seems like there is so much confusion about the beliefs to begin with.

The show will showcase a Greek Orthodox, rabbi, an imam and a Buddhist monk against one another with over a panel of professed atheists. The game show is to broadcast on Turkey’s Kanal T television in September.