Visit here to find some fantastic Indy worship music. My coworker and friend, Brian Lusky, just released a tremendous worship album. I highly recommend it. Start with the the song “Who Can Stand”?  So good.

Help me out,  friends. I’m working on the study guide for Fiction Father, Don’s next book. It’s an expanded version of To Own a Dragon.  I’m looking over the assignment and discovered that I need to ask Don ten questions that will go on Simon and Schuster’s website. So, what should I ask him?

I’m looking for help, especially from those who read To Own a Dragon. What questions did the book leave you with? Or if you have an interest in The Mentoring Project, or mentoring in general, what questions do you have?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I’ve been wresting with two songs that are found in are Luke 1. The songs sung by Mary and Zechariah are grand, prophetic anthems announcing the coming Messiah. It’s beautiful verse that captures human struggle and desperate longing for salvation. I have just one problem with these songs; they didn’t accurately predict Jesus’ accomplishments when he was here. Jesus had not pulled Caesar, Herod, or anyone out his throne for that matter. The humble weren’t exalted even though Jesus said they were blessed because they’d inherit the earth. Jesus died and the hungry were still hungry.

Zechariah sang about Israel being liberated from its enemies, but in 70 AD Rome tired of Jerusalem’s rebellion and destroyed it. Zechariah sang of a time when his followers would serve God without fear but shortly after Jesus death, Saul led a campaign to imprison and occasionally execute Christians. Zechariah got the part of the forgiveness of sins down pat, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection accomplished that. But the rest of his song seems to either be hyperbole or unfinished business.

So why would Luke choose to include these two “unresolved hymns” in his gospel?

I got my answer recently, when our church participated in Operation Christmas Child this October. Hundreds of people were already in the church, forming assembly lines around long tables of socks, t-shirts, pencils, and toys. Church members, boy and girl scouts, local medical students, and folks we’d never seen came together and filled the boxes until we filled the back of a semi-trailer with over 6,000 shoe boxes.

We huddled for pizza and then Kathy explained to us the impact the boxes could have. In some parts of the world, parents have to pay for their child’s education out of pocket. There is no public school system. Additionally, the parents are responsible to pay for their children’s school supplies. A box of crayons can cost up to a month’s worth of wages. So the crayons would be purchased and the family would live on a near starvation diet for a month.

Last year, there was a territorial dispute between Russia and Georgia. Russia dropped bombs on thirty-six Georgian villages. Hundreds of refugees fled their cities and holed up in abandoned schools and deserted army barrack. They were afraid to return to their cities in case the bombings resumed. OCC gave countless gift boxes to local Georgian pastors to give to displaced families.

Other boxes would end of in the hands of African children with AIDs. The toys they receive would help overcome the stigma they had for being sick and other children would be more willing to play with them.

Why did Luke include these songs in his Gospels if Jesus didn’t end up fulfilling the songs? Wouldn’t this either be an admission of defeat on Jesus’ part? Or, Luke placed these songs in his gospels to signal that Jesus’ resurrection was the defining event that would begin to place these prophesies in motion.

I thought about Kathy’s shoeboxes. Some of those boxes would undo acts of terror, like the boxes that challenged the oppression of the Russian government in Georgia. Other boxes would “fill the hungry with good things”— families would be able to afford nutritious meals and not half-starve themselves to get school supplies.

Kathy was stepping into Mary’s song, with all its conflict, with her life. Maybe this was the point of Luke including the song in Scripture. Maybe the song was left uncompleted to invite future Christ followers to take their places next to Mary and Zechariah and to sing. Christmas, then, is not holiday to be commemorated or enjoyed, but an unfinished masterpiece that Christ followers finish composing with their very lives.

Check out this clever post on babies, object permanence, and worship.

Here’s quick list of some thinkers, artists, thinking artists, and artistic thinkers that have been holding court in my head this Fall.

Kem Meyer: (http://www.kemmeyer.typepad.com/) I’ve been in ministry long enough to have accumulated ministry paradigms that are not defunct. My ideas on marketing and promotion fall in that category.  I grew up on the old Guerrilla Marketing model. The goal of the old model was to press your message in the consumers face until they took notice. Decades later, said consumer takes in 3,000 consumer advertisements a day and has gone numb. Kem presents a counter approach in her book “Less Clutter, Less Noise.” I don’t pretend to understand it yet. I’m still learning. Thank @daniellesuzanne for turning me on to her. (She’s our church communications director. My hope is to get my thinking aligned to hers ASAP. This book is a step in that direction.

N.T. Wright: The Bishop has rearranging some of my theological furniture in the past three years. His book “The Last Word” has expanded my views on Biblical authority (The Bible is authoritative because it demands we find our place in the narrative/history). I’m currently wrestling with the book Justification which presents an alternate way of understanding the doctrine of justification. I understand the controversy between he and Dr. Piper.  I haven’t landed intellectually yet, but I will say that Wright is no heretic. He might not be correct. But he’s with in Christian orthodoxy. And I would pay good money to take a class from him.

Susan E. Isaacs: (http://www.susanisaacs.net/) Susan is an actor, comedian, and now a brilliant writer. She’s a fellow contributor to the Burnside Writers Collective. Susan has been a generous mentor and pointed me in the right direction with some books on plot and structure. Her book, Angry Conversations with God recently was recognized by Publishers Weekly as one of the best religion books of 2009.

Donald Miller: (https://donmilleris.com) Don is a brilliant writer whose writing, I think, may become lasting in American culture. His book a Million Miles is influencing how I’m thinking about spiritual formation. My church is in the middle of rethinking this also. Don idea editing your life could provide the framework for spiritual mentors or directors. I’m becoming convinced that one of the biggest sins the church at large commits is not fueling the personal ambitions of is members, or when it does, the church teaches people to have “institutionalized dreams. We inspire people to help run the machinery of the church. We be better served helping people awaken their God shaped dreams.

Thom and Joani Schultz: (www.group.com)I’m re-reading the Dirt on Learning. It’s out of print but I bet you could scrounge a copy on e-bay. This is the Bible on brain-based learning about how it applies to learning in the church. I read this as a rookie pastor and it still has currency today.

Michael has a fine post on the characteristics of weak leaders. The post could have been an addendum to “The Oz Principle.”

The staff of Grace Church had a quick 24 hour retreat together. It was a great time together and yet I’ve never returned from one of these more emotionally drained. We spent the time answering these questions and helping each other answering them honestly:

1) How is the way that I am doing the work of God affecting the work of God in me?

2) What is the singular way that I add value to this team?

3) What is it about my leadership, that if I keep doing, will hold the church back?

4) Who are the people you need to surround yourself with?

5) After all the denial, what am I doing that is no longer working?

Like I said, this retreat was emotionally draining. But it was great to do this experience with people who already know my faults and love me any how. As we continue to grow numerically as a church, our staff is going to need to continue to grow in our capacity to be honest with each other and to show grace.

I love the people I work with.

I was up early this morning building a side bar for a future Children’s Ministry Magazine article on The Mentoring Project. The article features an interview with Dr. John Sowers and a few thoughts from Donald Miller.  I got on www.youversion.com this morning and did a quick survey of the phrase “widow and orphan.”

Confession: The Epistle of James aside, I had no idea just how closely God connects the care of the single mom and her children with his worship. Take a look at this incomplete list of scriptures…

Deuteronomy 10:13 While describing true worship, God reminds his people that he ensures justice for the widow and orphan. The inference is that Israel should do the same.

Deuteronomy 16:9 God commands that the widow and orphan not be excluded from a sacred worship festival.

Deuteronomy 24:19-21 God commands farmers to not harvest all of their crops, so the widows and orphans could pick their own food and survive.

Deuteronomy 26:8 God ordained a special offering to be given to widows and orphans every three years. God again connects the care of single moms and their children with worship.

Ezekiel 22 Ezekiel relays God’s lengthy complaint against Israel. Not caring for the widow and the orphan is on their list of injustices. Ezekiel’s indictment is echoed by Jeremiah and Malachi.

Job 31 When Job’s friends see his suffering and wrongly assume that he has committed unrighteousness, they accuse him of neglecting the widow and the orphan. Job’s makes the case for his righteousness by recounting his track record of caring for the single mother and her children. Job and his three unworthy friends all recognize how strongly God values the care of the widow and orphan and how central it is to acceptable worship.

James 1:27 Sums up the connection between worship and the care of single moms and their children with these words:” Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

http://www.kidscreen.com/articles/news/20091009/smartypants.html

Nintendo’s Wii and DS have topped market research and Norfolk, Connecticut-based consulting firm Smarty Pants’ list of 100 Most Loved Brands of 2009.

With kids participating in more than US$500 billion in consumer spending every year, Smarty Pants president Wynne Tyree notes that the top brands aren’t traditional “for kids only” brands, with many of them not marketed directly to kids.

Rounding out the top 10 are Oreo, McDonald’s, M&Ms, Doritos, Nickelodeon, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Cheetos and Disney.

Smarty Pants also conducted a Young Love study among 4,700 US kids and parents, and brands that scored with the six to 12 set delivered on quality family time, age-appropriate content, parent-approved indulgence, variety/choice, accessible “cool” and chatter-worthy advertising.

Brands like Nickelodeon and McDonald’s, which appeal to kids and tweens across gender received the highest brand affinity scores and usage. Brands that allow kids to connect with their families were also at the top.

For more info, check out www.asksmartypants.com.

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