Danger, Crack, Rock, and an Intercom. Amen!

Hello Friends,

Read a wonderfully dangerous post on my spiritual blood brother, Matt Ritchie's, blog a while back. This is awesome!

Mankind was born for worship, for communion with God. Our hearts where designed for wild worship, yet we're offered liturgy. Our minds designed to dream big the heart of God, we're offered building plans. Our bodies were designed for dangerous service; we're offered biblical commentaries from the safety of a pewÂ…or a comfortable theatre chair. There is nothing wrong with liturgy; the bible is filled with ceremony. There's nothing wrong with building plans, I like to be dry as much as the next guy. And we need the word, its absolutely essential. But at the end of the day, if we haven't touched the heart of God, if we haven't basked in His Glory, then the gathering is irrelevant. We don't need Sunday school; we need Jesus.

Matt's blog can be found here or more articles can be found on the website for the new e-zine called Precipice:

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Just Let Me Finish My Crack.
A North Carolina man didn't speed up when police started chasing his car — he slowed down.
That's because he wanted to finish smoking his crack cocaine, Dunn (N.C.) police told the Dunn Daily Record. Read more.

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The following is a logo and an excerpt from a flier I sent out to our church announcing our new sermon series on the life of Peter. Much love to Mark Weather's for his mad word smith skills.

"Peter's hands bore the callouses of a fishermen's life. Pulling in bowline as the sun drifted below the rocky hills in the distance, stitching up the holes of his wind tattered sail before the next work day, scaling fish on the Sea of GalileeÂ’s shores, silently taking count of that days catch. But one day, pulling in nets beside his brother Andrew, a distant figure called out from shore, offering an invitation, and in accepting this call life for Peter, called Simon, would be radically altered.

Centuries later, we still tell the story of the fishermen who became the very foundation of the Christian Church. We remember the foolhardy promises he made to Christ, we reflect on the bitterness of his denial of the very one he had sworn allegiance to and we look with admiration at ‘The Rock’ who would stand before the world with a testimony that could not be quieted, not even unto death. But we do not retell his story because of our love for nautical characters, or simply because we are endeared to tales in which victory streams from the dark waters of failure. The story of Peter must be told because, we too have accepted an invitation from a mysterious figure who stands in the distance, and we have a lingering sense that maybe the triumph of his life might become our own.

This Sunday, October 2nd, Lake Cities Church of Christ will 'put out into the deep waters' of a four part study on the life of Peter, the one who didn't get away. I hope to catch you there.

Following with you.

Joel
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I read a great piece on leadership the other day. You might enjoy it - you might not...
http://mba.mccombs.utexas.edu/mma/info/exchange/2004/ceo.asp
I loved the part about being an intercom! So true.

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I was researching the word "Amen" the other day (because I have that kind of time...) and found out that it has roots in IsJudaismudism and Christianity. Want to know more? Click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen
And finally, strange bit of trivia here - Amen is the last word of the Bible. Didn't know that.

Amen!