Randy Wray's Blog

Comedy and Parody in C Major by Tim Hawkins:

Way back in 1999 George Barna (The Habits of Highly Effective Churches) suggested that “printing the Bible verses used in a sermon, in the service bulletin or projecting them on a large screen” was a harmful habit.

He maintained “this has encouraged many people to stop carrying their Bibles to church and ultimately from using them through the week.”

Is that so?

We spent a lovely few days with Janice.

So happy that Greg was able to drive her up.

Our Southern Gospel Sunday Night Celebration was one of our best so far – the music was toe tapping, knee slapping fun.

Still waiting to hear if there will be any fall out as the evening activities were announced Sunday morning as a Southern Baptist Sing-A-Long.

The people who come really have a good time and the dinner fellowship afterwards is a really good thing.

We had a chili / cornbread cook off and totally, completely unscripted the winning chili was entered by a first time guest.

What are the odds of that?  And do you think that qualifies as one of those “God moves in mysterious ways moments?”

Brad made me aware that Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell both have active twitter accounts.

I recently added them as people I follow – some irony in that statement for sure!

The problem of course is not too many understand or appreciate dead founders of our movement humor.

Oh well, I guess the Bible major geek in me surfaces in unusual places.

Here’s a recent sample from Alexander Campbell:

Found our VBS Moses puppet floating face down in the baptistry today.  I guess it didn’t part this time.

which he followed up by saying:

Huh.  I though finding Puppet Moses yesterday was weird.  You’ll never guess where I found puppet Noah . . .

Barton Stone said:

Alexander Campbell would never have found the puppets if he wasn’t trying to pad his baptism numbers.

and followed up with saying:

Was just asked what I do all day.  Apparently, I answer annoying questions!

I really appreciate this approach to humor.

Still thinking about the mega church article and the questions it brings to my mind.

As Greg pointed out quite a few of us understand the contributing factors of a church going the other way!  But what makes a church in this climate and culture of TODAY have success for the kingdom?

What contributing factors propel a church of 100 to a church of 1000 plus?

Let’s rule out right from the start two things:

1. That God is not behind the growth.  (Let’s take the biblical view that says God gives the increase and heed the warning of giving the devil credit for the work of God)
2. Smaller is better because smaller is faithful. (Let’s take the biblical view that God wants all people to be saved and adds saved people to a local church)

Have you heard of any Church of Christ that has gone from 100 to 1000 plus without sheep shuffling?

In other words has there been a Church of Christ plant in the same time frame as these other churches that has achieved the same results?

And . . .

What makes us think that restoration movement stopped?

I mean if we trace our roots through the reformation movement which led to the restoration movement do we seriously believe that they got it right in the early 1800’s and the movement stopped?

What if the community church movement is the evolution (and I use that in a good sense) of the restoration movement?

What if the community church movement is the current stream of authentic New Testament flavored Christ living?

From where I sit it appears that the stream we’ve camped in is not flowing and nothing is going to change (for the better, for the kingdom) until we immerse ourselves into a living stream.

The LA Times reports that “California has more mega-churches than any other state, with the majority in suburbs between Los Angeles and San Diego.”

Here’s a link to the article.

Maybe we could add “The Mega Church State” to all CA license plates.

Our power at the house was out for extended periods of time yesterday.

When darkness begins to extend its reach into the late afternoon / early evening the loss of modern conveniences is certainly highlighted.

You think about pioneer days (at least I do) and the realization of how the sun dictated the daily schedule.

It was quite relaxing and quite humorous.

The power would come on for a bit (anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes) and we’d see what we could get done in that window before it shut off again.

Dinner finished cooking – seriously – the timer went off and the power went back off.

In one particular window the washing machine finished a cycle of needed athletic clothes for kid sports competitions – yes the time went off and the power shut off again.

Michael Scott cut (or tried to cut) the ribbon for the grand opening of Michael Scott Paper Company, Inc. and at that exact moment the power shut back off.

Through the night it went off and on again 6 times.  We know this because the printer, when it powers back up, prints out a time stamped page.

At some point you’d just rather it stay off until the problem is completely fixed.

It’s raining pretty hard here in Stockton, CA and the wind is picking up.

Forecast calls for heavy rain and strong winds today and tomorrow.

Perhaps instead of working on a deck I should have been building an Ark.

In the category of “unusual” country gospel, we find this classic example of “unusual country gospel” by Bobby Bare.

It’s been said that Country Music is an oxymoron.  I’ll leave that discussion to the pundits.

While looking for some Southern Gospel numbers for our upcoming praise band I found these delightful selections.

Please choose your top three favorite titles.

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