jeff gibson

Al Franken's Pie Hole

A friend left this cryptic message on my Facebook wall: 

Two words....... 1996, 19-0

I had little trouble deciphering this until I realized that I had recently revealed to this person that I was raised in Nebraska, and that my co-religion was Cornhuskeranity.  He apparently wanted to bring up the lone highlight in Arizona State's football history with their victory over Nebraska in 1996, when they broke Nebraska's 26 game winning streak.

This was my answer to him:

    Was that the year ASU won the national championship?  Or was it the year before.  No, that was             Nebraska.  Maybe it was the year before.  Oh wait, that was also Nebraska.  Dang, I can't remember.      What year was it that ASU won the national championship?

    Oh, and even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

    I mean, even the Cubs win their division every ten years or so.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is, that even in the years when Saturday Night Live wasn't real funny,         like after the first cast left, like the late eighties, or anytime Al Franken's pie hole opened, there still     was the outside chance that you would get a chuckle.

    So enjoy that 14 year old highlight, it will probably have last you another ten years or so.

NFL Player retires in second season

I was blown away when I read why Glen Coffee, a second year player for the San Francisco 49ers was retiring.

Coffee, a 23 year old running back, said this to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee:

"It was a struggle for a long time. Actually when I look back I feel I never should have entered the draft in the first place. Football was no longer my dream. I found Christ in college. It changed my views on everything. But I still was a football player because it was expected of me, it was something I did all my life. I was basically wasting the (49ers') time."

What a great testimony!

Cause Center - The Global Leadership Center @cccev #wcagls

For the Global Leadership Summit we've added a feature that we are calling the Cause Center, which has 15 organizations such as Tom's Shoes, To Write Love On Her Arms, XXX Church,and Blood:Water Mission.

We wanted to expose our conference guests to these missions.  Day One had a lot of traffic and it really generated quite a buzz!

Today's Random Landon Anderson Historical Fact

John "Liver Eating" Johnson:  Faced with certain death at the hands of the Crow, he had only one option…escape.  Managing to chew through the leather straps binding him, Johnson seized the guard and knocked him unconscious.  Once again confirming his brutal nature, he scalped the man and cut off one of his legs, which he then used as nourishment on the 200 plus mile journey to the nearest safe haven, the cabin of a fellow trapper.

From artofmanliness.com

On this hot and sticky Midwest day in Arizona...

...this is alI the grass I ever want to cut.

 

"Don't throw good time after bad work." #Rework

Every year churches face the task of putting together a budget.  Most will take the previous years giving, decide whether it will be up or down, then take last year's budget, and try to decide what to cut and what to increase.

The hardest thing for a church to do is to discontinue a program.  Invariably any program has supporters who have spent a lot of time and effort, building something up.  When the program begins to decline, they won't see it as something that has run it's course, but will attribute the slippage to a lack of support from the church.  "We need the pastor to say something from the pulpit!"

Because most churches are afraid of losing anyone, they won't kill the program, but will continue to throw good time after bad work.  So they keep the two or three that they are afraid of losing.  But the opportunity cost of keeping those two or three is the resources that could be used to reach ten times as many.

Here at Central there have been a lot of changes in the last few years, as things that have run their course have been eliminated.  I had someone the other day say how sad it was the the library was gone and how we should have kept it because people miss it.  I explained that now that room is used for things that benefit more people, which is the main criteria to consider.  Cal tells the story of how hard it was to eliminate the Classic service, knowing that people would be upset and that some would leave.  But it was done with the knowledge that changing that service to Contemporary would better match one of our core values, which is that Central exists for those who are not yet part of the body of Christ.

So whether you are trying build the bottom line or expand the crowd in Heaven, don't throw good time after bad work.

August Is Going To Be Big!

As July is coming to a close, things are ramping to be a busy, crazy August:

 

On the 5^th and 6^th, Central will be hosting the Global Leadership Summit satellite broadcast at the Mesa campus.  As next year’s Onsite Event Manager for it I’m doing an awful lot of learning about it this year.

 

The next day, the Gibson clan leaves to take Courtney to Fort Collins, CO to begin her masters program.  We’ll get back on the 10^th and then…

 

School starts on the 11^th!  Kelsey will be a junior at Mountain View.

On August 14-15, my friends at Parkway Christian Church will be opening their Phase 2 building.  So exciting to see it go from paper to poured concrete and steel!

On August 21-22 Central will be hosting Dave Ramsey, as he will be speaking at the weekend services.  We’ll be adding a service at Mesa to handle everyone who will  want to see him.  That weekend will be huge for last minute signups for Financial Peace University and getting people assigned to small groups.

 

What ever happened to the dog days of Summer?

Bedlam

What combines 1600 kids, oily sludge, great music, timely teaching, tasty snacks and 600 volunteers?

Has to be VBS at Central!

It's a kick to see LG running on adrenaline for one solid week.

It's very cool to see so many kids having such a great time this week. 

And what's even cooler is seeing all these volunteers having so much fun serving others.

Plan B

I just finished reading Pete Wilson's Plan B and thought I would pass on some of the things that struck me in it:

• Everyone needs healing.
• The greater struggle for is that God does exist, and so does a lot of pain and suffering.
• What happens when your dreams fall apart, how do you react?  What is your pattern when it looks like your dreams are not going to come true?  What happens on the inside of you when you give in to panic, and start running?  Where has your running brought you, has it ended your pain, or has it made it worse?
• In crossing the Jordan River, the priests had to take the first step and trust God, only then would God act.
• Because here’s what I know, everybody faces a Jordan.  Every one of us faces a barrier that keeps us from the life God has for us.
• Long before Joshua stood at the Jordan, he spent a lot of time face to face with God.
• He’s learned the truth that makes all the difference, constant contact with the creator is essential for transformation living.
• Incidentally, the Greek word that is translated as worry in this passage can be translated as “pulled apart.”
• The question is this, what would you do if you knew that God was absolutely with you?
• Will we ever understand our Plan B dilemmas?  On this side of heaven, probably not.  Does the way we respond to them matter?  More than you will ever know\When life isn’t turning out the way we had hoped, we always default to feeling that God has abandoned us.
  
• When people ask me how they can know God’s will for their lives, I tell them the best first step is to know God, beyond that I don’t have any steps.
• But that’s exactly what a lot of us feel in our Plan B situations, like we’ve done all the right things, and still we’re being punished.
• Paul thinks that he is to go to Asia, but ends up in Troas, wondering what is going on. Even though Paul doesn’t know the what, when, and where, he does know the why.
• If you don’t remember God’s past faithfulness, you’re going to have a hard time trusting him when you’re up against the wall.
• What if we viewed our hardships and challenges as opportunities to be the men or women that God created us to be?

I thought the book was effective at making me think about how I react when things don't go the way I think that they should. 

LG's VBS Commercial

The Amazing Race - Sludged!

Mesa VBS 2010 from Central Christian on Vimeo.