To say the least, the Braves season has taken a tailspin. After the blowout yesterday I'm starting to think that pythageras might be catching up with them. But who knows?
You can blame who you want...Andruw, Davies, Woodward, or even Bobby Cox. The fact is that something is missing. Or maybe, just maybe, that something that is missing is not a something but a someone. What do I mean by that? Two words:
The first is Chipper. The second is Jones.
Chipper Jones.
Fact: The Braves have won a grand total of 4 games (This was typed before today's game was finished. The Braves are currently up on the Brewers 2-1) since the day Chipper took that spill with Batista against the Pirates. From now on that incident will be known as the Batista plunge.
After Chipper tumbled to the ground...the rest of the Braves followed. You hear all this talk about how 1 man can't make that much of a difference. How locker room leadership doesn't really exist...it's all about how they perform on the field.
We're 4-10 since the Batista plunge. We're 4-10 without CJ the past week and a half. Is there more to why the Braves are plummeting? Sure. But I won't get into all that now. I just want to keep repeating that record...4-10 since chipper hurt his palms/thumbs/whatever it was he hurt on his hand.
You never really know how much someone means to you until you have to survive without them.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Preacha time
Sorry for keeping everybody uninformed....but for those non-Valdostan's that read this blog, we finally have hired a preacher. It ha sbeen a very testing time for myself. My rookie year of ministry not onlly consists of me struggling to lead the teens, but I also have had to do some feal in preaching.
Needless to say, I'm excited. I lookforward to the coming of Bryan Jarvis, from Oklahoma. May God bless this church as we continue to run heavenward.
Needless to say, I'm excited. I lookforward to the coming of Bryan Jarvis, from Oklahoma. May God bless this church as we continue to run heavenward.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Who's church is this?
Before I begin, my apologies for the lack of posts. Between preaching this past sunday, getting ready for our senior-send off banquet, and VBS, I have had about as much as I can handle lately.
Ok, now that I got that out of the way...
really, who's church is this? I know we all understand that we are supposed to say it's God's church, or Christ's church...but is that the way we really feel (or act)? In the past 2 weeks or so, I have had several conversations over meals, in the dugout, on the green, etc, where I really want to ask that question.
Allow me to summarize in one sentence what the third party in these conversations wish to communicate:
"I can do a better job than these elders."
What's worse, I'm not exactly sure what to say to those who say this to me in a very wordy way. Sometimes I let them have it....I'm not exactly sure that is what I'm supposed to do. On other occasions I ignore them...still, probably not what I need to do.
but wait, I'm not done giving details yet. Over half of the individuals who tell me they can do better than the elders are individuals who aren't involved, have dwindling attendance, and IMHO don't really posses the qualities and characteristics that elders should biblically have (Titus and 1 timothy).
Christ is the head of the church. Why don't we let HIM lead, instead of questioning those shepherding the flock. I feel like we often forget that important detail. It is not the church of the elders, the elders are simply the shepherds, looking after the flock. Something has been lost in translation. Elders aren't old people that sit in the corner of a room and say "no". They are loving individuals who care for the church.
Another thing. And to be quite honest with you, I find this absolutely hysterical. But it is quite humerous listening to people talk about the elders AS IF THEY KNOW WHAT GOES ON AT THE ELDERS/STAFF MEETINGS. I mean, honestly, it's sad but funny. Quit acting like you know. For example, don't say, "The elders are crazy for not wanting to hire this particular preacher" when in reality, they did want to...something came up and the preacher had to withdraw his resume. Don't argue a point when you don't even know all of the details. Some of the issues that members question are issues the elders have thought long and hard about, contrary to popular belief.
Our elders here at Central are very good elders. They seek God's wisdom and they spend many hours in prayer praying for the congregation (even those who question the elders!) And no, I'm not just saying this because they sign my paychecks, I'm saying this because I believe it. These men are true shepherds and will gladly help any little lonely lambs out there.
How about this for a novel idea: Let's be disciples of Christ, and let Christ lead his church in a heavenward direction. With the Church in Christ's hands, what can go wrong?
One last thought. And I'm speaking this to everybody, the faithful, the unfaithful, the old, the young. I'm even speaking this to myself. We are imperfect humans that do imperfect things. So my final thought is this...
If you find the perfect church, DON'T JOIN IT. You'll mess it up.
Ok, now that I got that out of the way...
really, who's church is this? I know we all understand that we are supposed to say it's God's church, or Christ's church...but is that the way we really feel (or act)? In the past 2 weeks or so, I have had several conversations over meals, in the dugout, on the green, etc, where I really want to ask that question.
Allow me to summarize in one sentence what the third party in these conversations wish to communicate:
"I can do a better job than these elders."
What's worse, I'm not exactly sure what to say to those who say this to me in a very wordy way. Sometimes I let them have it....I'm not exactly sure that is what I'm supposed to do. On other occasions I ignore them...still, probably not what I need to do.
but wait, I'm not done giving details yet. Over half of the individuals who tell me they can do better than the elders are individuals who aren't involved, have dwindling attendance, and IMHO don't really posses the qualities and characteristics that elders should biblically have (Titus and 1 timothy).
Christ is the head of the church. Why don't we let HIM lead, instead of questioning those shepherding the flock. I feel like we often forget that important detail. It is not the church of the elders, the elders are simply the shepherds, looking after the flock. Something has been lost in translation. Elders aren't old people that sit in the corner of a room and say "no". They are loving individuals who care for the church.
Another thing. And to be quite honest with you, I find this absolutely hysterical. But it is quite humerous listening to people talk about the elders AS IF THEY KNOW WHAT GOES ON AT THE ELDERS/STAFF MEETINGS. I mean, honestly, it's sad but funny. Quit acting like you know. For example, don't say, "The elders are crazy for not wanting to hire this particular preacher" when in reality, they did want to...something came up and the preacher had to withdraw his resume. Don't argue a point when you don't even know all of the details. Some of the issues that members question are issues the elders have thought long and hard about, contrary to popular belief.
Our elders here at Central are very good elders. They seek God's wisdom and they spend many hours in prayer praying for the congregation (even those who question the elders!) And no, I'm not just saying this because they sign my paychecks, I'm saying this because I believe it. These men are true shepherds and will gladly help any little lonely lambs out there.
How about this for a novel idea: Let's be disciples of Christ, and let Christ lead his church in a heavenward direction. With the Church in Christ's hands, what can go wrong?
One last thought. And I'm speaking this to everybody, the faithful, the unfaithful, the old, the young. I'm even speaking this to myself. We are imperfect humans that do imperfect things. So my final thought is this...
If you find the perfect church, DON'T JOIN IT. You'll mess it up.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
job security anyone?
Things have been kind of hectic lately around here, so sorry for the lack of posts.
What I want to talk about right now is job security. Maybe this is just the conservative side of me leaking out, but isn't job security supposed to be important. I'd rather have a lower salary and more job security than a high salary and not very much job security. Sorry if I'm the only one that feels that way, but I believe there is value in knowing you're wanted, knowing you're in this company's/organization's/church's plans for the future.
Take the yankees for example. There was recent talk that Steinbrenner was about to dismiss Joe Torre as manager of the NY Yankees. WHAT???? Isn't this the same Joe Torre that has led the NY Yankees to a division title year after year for the past decade? Doesn't that mean something?
Days later, Cashman fired Marty Miller, the Yankees director of performance enhancement (yes, there is a job position open every MLB team with the phrase "performance enhancement" in the title). He was fired because of all the injuries the Yankees have suffered lately (he was hired for the sole purpose of injury prevention). I find this situation odd. It's not like Miller was plotting ways to hurt Phil Hughes' hamstring. He didn't attack him with a sledge hammer.
What if I were to be fired because one of my teenagers hurt himself/herself and was unable to attend church for a few weeks? I would be appalled at how little sense that makes. At what point in our lives can stop analyzing the results and start analyzing the "why". When statheads study stats, they are looking at results (some exceptions do apply). There is nothing wrong with this, it is something that I have gotten into recently. But I think the real value comes with answering the question "why do we get these results?" Great, this person hits a lot of groundballs....why? This pitcher gives up a lot of homers. That's too bad, why is that? Not many homers get hit in this ballpark. Thats neat, why?
There's more to it than just results. As former Braves broadcaster and hall of fame pitcher Don Sutton once said,
What I want to talk about right now is job security. Maybe this is just the conservative side of me leaking out, but isn't job security supposed to be important. I'd rather have a lower salary and more job security than a high salary and not very much job security. Sorry if I'm the only one that feels that way, but I believe there is value in knowing you're wanted, knowing you're in this company's/organization's/church's plans for the future.
Take the yankees for example. There was recent talk that Steinbrenner was about to dismiss Joe Torre as manager of the NY Yankees. WHAT???? Isn't this the same Joe Torre that has led the NY Yankees to a division title year after year for the past decade? Doesn't that mean something?
Days later, Cashman fired Marty Miller, the Yankees director of performance enhancement (yes, there is a job position open every MLB team with the phrase "performance enhancement" in the title). He was fired because of all the injuries the Yankees have suffered lately (he was hired for the sole purpose of injury prevention). I find this situation odd. It's not like Miller was plotting ways to hurt Phil Hughes' hamstring. He didn't attack him with a sledge hammer.
What if I were to be fired because one of my teenagers hurt himself/herself and was unable to attend church for a few weeks? I would be appalled at how little sense that makes. At what point in our lives can stop analyzing the results and start analyzing the "why". When statheads study stats, they are looking at results (some exceptions do apply). There is nothing wrong with this, it is something that I have gotten into recently. But I think the real value comes with answering the question "why do we get these results?" Great, this person hits a lot of groundballs....why? This pitcher gives up a lot of homers. That's too bad, why is that? Not many homers get hit in this ballpark. Thats neat, why?
There's more to it than just results. As former Braves broadcaster and hall of fame pitcher Don Sutton once said,
"not all good pitches produce good results, not all bad pitches produce bad results."
~Don Sutton
Results can often be a little misleading, after the question "why" is asked. That is easily seen when you look at the yankees' situation the past few weeks. I'm not a betting man, but if I was I would put a lot of money that says Torre isn't to blame for the Yankees' slow start. Nor would I say that Miller caused the hamstring injuries.
But results transfer beyond the realms of MLB. I want to do anything/everything I know to do to see that the teens here at Central Avenue are growing spiritually. I am very communicative with the elders. They know what's going on, they understand the struggles that I have gone through my rookie year of ministry. We are on the same page and I am more than positive that the Elders are committed to me for longterm ministry.
I would never take a job where there is a history of letting workers go because of results that worker might not have even had anything to do with. I'm thankful that I wake up everymorning and not have to worry about keeping my job.
But results transfer beyond the realms of MLB. I want to do anything/everything I know to do to see that the teens here at Central Avenue are growing spiritually. I am very communicative with the elders. They know what's going on, they understand the struggles that I have gone through my rookie year of ministry. We are on the same page and I am more than positive that the Elders are committed to me for longterm ministry.
I would never take a job where there is a history of letting workers go because of results that worker might not have even had anything to do with. I'm thankful that I wake up everymorning and not have to worry about keeping my job.
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