Clif McKinley Dot Com

One of my favorite bloggers/authors/church leaders is Tim Stevens. This week Tim passed along this article that appeared in the The Indianapolis Star:

“Along about now, pulpits and church newsletters bristle with whining about the culture’s theft of Christmas.

There’s the so-called “commercialization of Christmas.” The manic retail spending but hesitant church pledging. Bustling malls but empty pews. Spotlights on Santa Claus but not on Jesus. The ‘taking Christ out of Christmas.’

Need I go on? We’ll even gripe about the people who finally do show up en masse on Christmas Eve and then scorn them for not being there every Sunday.

Never mind that these paradoxes are precisely the same as the cultural context into which Jesus was born. Never mind the teachable moment, the opportunity for compassion. Never mind that the religious holiday called Christmas has been a political and cultural icon from its inception.

This annual whining is a perfect expression of why many churches dwindle to irrelevance. This is “provider-driven” religion. We are blaming people for not wanting what we provide. It would be far better for us to ask ourselves: Why don’t we provide what they want?”

Read Article Here

This was very interesting to me and made me stop and think, what about you?

Here are some great thoughts from Perry Noble of Newsprings Church in Anderson SC. He was able to spend sometime this past week with Rick Warren and some other ministry leaders and these are some of Perry’s reflections coming out of these meetings.

#1 – A vision has to be primarily about passion and not programming.

#2 – People get passionate about something that changes their life. In order for people to become passionate about church–life change MUST be taking place there.

#3 – It is awesome to be a part of something that is so big that it will fail unless God shows up.

#4 – The church was AND IS God’s idea for reaching the world.

#5 – We MUST believe that God wants to do a great thing in our church!

#6 – It does not take “professionals” to do ministry; in fact, every revival/reformation that has ever happened took place FIRST among the peasants and “common folk” and NOT the religious elite!

#7 – Big vision must always be accompanied by small strategy–step by step is how a long journey happens.

#8 – The church has been called to shake the world.

#9 – The church doesn’t need to move ahead–we need to go back 2000 years to the first 300 years of our existence and focus on being a

movement and NOT a monument!

#10 – Rick said that Billy Graham once told him in regards to responding to critics, “Rick, when you wrestle with a pig both of you get dirty but only one of you will enjoy it!”

Those of you that are part of the Lighthouse Team, tell me you thoughts. How do these reflections challenge you? Where are we weak? Where are we strong?

I have decided to start opining my idea journal and start posting message series ideas/outlines/etc for people to use and develop. I am not Perry Noble, Craig Groeshel, or Andy Stanely, but my stuff isn’t half bad. So if you can use it, it is yours.

Here is a series ideas for you:

LOVE SONGS-3 parts series great for the February/Valentines Day season

1-”I Will Always Love You” (Whitney) Key Though: the unconditional love of God, no matter what He loves us, when we are good or bad or even ugly, He Will Always Love You

2-”All I Want Is You” (U2) Key Thought: we are the object of God’s affection, Jesus was willing to pay any price and overcome any barrier, even lay down His life because All He Wants Is You.

3-”More Than Words” (Extreme) Key Though: Jesus has shown His love for us, we need to do more that say we love Him, we need to live our live in such a way that it shows that we love Him, let our love be More Than Words

Why not take the songs that people already know and love and redeem/redefine them so the next time they here that song, and you know that they will, they think about it differently. I am big on using Pop Culture, taking songs, shows, movies, etc that people are already familiar with and using it to point them to Christ. God Bless

I’m taking a different approach to the Christmas Season this year. It is an X-Files/UFO/Sci-Fi Christmas.

My message series is called “Sightings” playing off UFO sightings. Three messages “The Announcement” “The Arrival” & “The Assimilation.”

This one is going to be a lot of fun.

I’m going to crack the shell a little. In this series of posts I am hoping to let everyone have a look into my head, heart, past, etc. These will probably be “Stream of Consciousness” type posts, because that is what it is like inside my head, so if it gets a little crazy and confusing I apologize but please enjoy the ride. So here we go:

For those who didn’t know I was born in the sunny south, West Palm Beach FL. If you have seen my son Maddox, you are looking at a carbon copy of me as a child, poor kid, everyday he gets to see what he is going to look like when he gets old, too bad. Anyway, my Dad came to faith the year I was born. The folks are from opposite ends of the world, Dad is from LA, the one with swamps, not the one with the celebrities, well Britney is a celebrity but she left Dad’s LA and and moved to the other one. Still with me? Mom is from the Bronx NY, they met in the Navy. I love our Military and even if you don’t agree with the war, SUPPORT THE TROOPS. And after Dad got home from Vietnam they were stationed in Pensacola FL, where my older brother was born. I came along two years later, it was that year that my Mom bought my Dad a guitar, an Epiphone acoustic, two crazy/awesome things that have forever impacted my life. Looking back those tow things, my Dad’s salvation and my Dad’s guitar, have both changed the course of my life forever. They have had a profound impact on me becoming the man that I am. The tattoos on my body even reflect those two things. Salvation and song forever entwined. Almost 35 five years have past since then, I still have the guitar, it is sitting in the corner just a few feet from me (although it is no longer playable thanks to my brothers who sat on it while wrestling a few years back) and I have a faith of my own. Cool.

Life has been very crazy for the past two weeks, between the holiday and the whole family being sick, it has been insane!!!!

So tonight, I get the 4 year old twins, Chloe & Airelle, to bed and they go down without any trouble. I walk down the hall to my 2 year old son Maddox’s room and the battle begins.

First he wants to read a tractor book, so we do, then he wants to unplug his night light and throw it across the room. Needless to say things are taking a bad turn. We have our battle of the wills, I lay him down and cover him up, he kicks off his blankets and says “NO!” Finally I get him settled and covered, I turn off his light and I say, (still slightly annoyed) “Good night Bubba, I love you” and his reply was one word, “Kiss.” So I turned around knelt down and our lips met and then he smiled. The aggravation melted away, and I said again in a much softer and more tender tone, “Goodnight Bubba, I love you.”

It is amazing how my kids can make me crazy and then in a moment melt my heart.