Counsel From The Cross
One of my favorite authors is Elyse Fitzpatrick. Yesterday my friend Toby gave me an extra copy of a new book by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson, Counsel From the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ. I think this is one of those must read books for counselors, pastors, and those in need of counseling (everybody).
This morning I skipped ahead and read the chapter, The Gospel and Our Sanctification. Much of the chapter is worth quoting. Here’s just one paragraph:
Sanctification is never advanced by self-focused grief or guilt. It is energized by joy and driven by love. This is the distinction that gospelized sanctification emphasizes. Only a remembrance of the gospel will free us from our habitual grief and guilt. Only the gospel can implant the joy and love in our hearts that will free, motivate, and inspire us.
Genesis
Thanks for your votes on Genesis covers. This is the final product.
Thanks to my friend Jon Wong for his excellent design work.
Live Free Or Die
With inspiration from my time in New Hampshire, my sermon from Sunday:
Born To Run
There are two types of people: those who love to run and those who don’t. For the latter group, reading Christopher McDougall’s new book, Born To Run, might turn you into someone who loves to run.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that I couldn’t put down. Skillfully written, Born to Run tells a fascinating story, provides a searching critique of American culture, and argues a compelling thesis: humans are designed to run.
If you already love to run, like I do, you’ll find yourself running more after jamming your way through this book.
The X Factor
For the latest issue of Leadership Journal, Collin Hansen has written an intriguing article about next generation/twentysomething ministry, exploring the question, “What have we learned from the rise, decline, and renewal of “Gen-X” ministries?
Broadly researched, the article examines what many different churches/church leaders have done in the past and are doing now to bring the gospel to the next generation.
Hansen interviewed me for the article and gives generous space to profiling what we’re doing here at Central Peninsula Church.
Beginning on Page 5, read what we’re doing here at CPC
Checking Email 2x a Day
While on vacation I did some thinking, praying, and goal setting for my life and my work. One of the goals I set calls for a change in how I use email as a pastor. Preparing for 2 weeks of vacation, I made a decision to not check email once during vacation. I loved it.
During my time away I realized how easily email can:
1) distract me/get me off task from the work I’m doing (how email can lead to an unwise use to time)
2) act as a default to-do list instead of my prepared to-d0 list (how email can control me, instead of me controlling email)
So, my new goal is to check email only 2-3x a day. I’m 3 days into my experiment. So far, so good.
I check email 1x in the morning, somewhere around 10am. This gives me a few hours in the morning to focus on solid blocks of work. Around 10am I tackle my inbox.
I next check email once or twice in the afternoon. At about 2 or 3pm, me and my inbox go at it again. Many of those emails have something to do with the morning email session. I also might pay my inbox a quick visit right before I leave the office for the day.
For several months not I’ve also been leaving my laptop at the office most days so that I have a cleaner break from work, so that email doesn’t punctuate my evening at home with my family. My wife loves this. I dig it too.
This doesn’t mean that I only send email 2-3x a day. Throughout the work day I’m still sending original emails as needed (making sure at those times to avert my eyes and not even look at my inbox).
We’ll see how this new goal/experiment goes. I can see this becoming a habit. Visiting my inbox only 2-3x a day is feeling about right.
Thoughts? What are you doing with email?
