Its that time of year. The weather is cooling off and the season has started to change. Well, as much as seasons change in South Texas. It’s the time of year when you want to sit in an easy chair with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and read a good book, or visit with a good friend. You might even take a blanket out on the back porch and listen to the geese fly overhead. What is it about this time of year that affects us so much?

I know each season brings its own special set of emotions and feelings but fall and winter seems to over ride the other seasons. What has God put in us that is affected by the yearly changes in nature? Why do I love to hear geese call to each other as they cross the night sky? What is it about a cold morning that makes breakfast taste so much better? Why does the house seem so much more like a home on a cold winter night?

I’m convinced God designed us to enjoy our time here. He created this world for our use but also to produce joy in the ones he loves. We along with the creation are fallen and suffer the consequences of that fall but there is still a great deal of God to be found in his creation. This weekend I’ll be fishing with some good friends and I’ll go in search of the wonder inspired by Gods handy work. Whether it’s in the yard, the pasture, the deer blind, your house or on the bay I hope you find some of the joy God has out there for you.

Is it just me or have commercials become the best part of T.V.? For a while it was the beer commercials that dominated the screen. They seem to introduce humor to advertising. Then came the Super Bowl craze and commercials took on a whole different light. They became an art form all their own.

I took a marketing course at The University of Texas where we had the opportunity to see the greatest commercials from around the world. I learned that a really good commercial has no language barrier. Regardless of language advertising can communicate on all sorts of levels. This truth becomes evident today when several commercials never use words at all.

Now we have the xbox 360 advertisement that only shows people jumping rope but they let you know its time to jump in to their game system. I love the Coke commercial that shows the baby Polar bear sliding into the penguin celebration. The Beach Boys tune in the background makes it all work.

So what are your favorite commercials and why?

Because of certain events that have happened over the last few months I’ve come to think about faithfulness differently. The question, what does it mean to be faithful, has started to produce different answers. In the past I considered faithfulness to be linked to a point in the future. Being faithful insured that what happened in the future would be what I desired. That might be going to heaven or things working out the way I want them to. Whatever the case faithfulness was determined by the results it produced.

I now see things differently. Faithfulness is about here and now. The question, what must I do to be faithful in this moment, should be what determines my action? What results from this faithfulness is not my concern. God will do with it what he will. Things may work out the way I want them to or they may not but how things work out is not the issue. Being faithful in this moment at this time is the issue. If I am faithful here and now the results of that faithfulness are Gods responsibilities not mine. I’m free from the fear of the future and the fear of failure as long as I am faithful in this moment.

This will be my last post till next week so I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. This will be a first for the Brown family. Were hosting Jodie’s family this holiday instead of going somewhere. Things change, as you get older. I assume it won’t be long until we are hosting all the holidays and our kids are coming home with their families.

While there’s a lot to be thankful for lets not forget that people suffer also. All around us this week there will be those who’s life will be less about thanksgiving and more about survival. While we enjoy family and friends lets remember our call to imitate Jesus and his love for those who suffer.

We’re about to make some changes in our small groups here at Central. January is going to be Small Groups month at Central and some great things are going to happen. The details for all of this will be coming over the next few weeks but I have two questions for you today.

What do our groups need? How do we make them better?

What are some of the stories from your group experience? I’d like to hear the stories of encouragement, relationship and discipleship.

If you don’t want to post them hear for all to read drop me an e-mail or come by the office.

The new Harry Potter movie is out and I think I may be the only one who hasn’t seen it yet. That will end this week when both the kids are home. One of our Holiday traditions has been to take in a movie. We’ve seen all the Harry Potter films and The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a family during the Holidays. Eric will run Thanksgiving morning in the local Turkey Trot 10k. I don’t have enough miles under my belt right now to join him so I’ll just be watching. This race is another tradition at our house. Along with food, family and football all sorts of things have crept into our Holiday routines. How about you? What’s different about your Holiday traditions?

For the last few months I’ve been reading a great deal about community. I’m getting ready to preach about community in the coming year so a great deal of my time has been spent thinking along the lines of what community is and how it works and what type o results it produces.

In the course of all this thought I’ve found myself being more and more moved when I see community overcome some obstacle. I’ve started to wonder why my emotions have come into play. Why does the sight of people who are committed to each other, working together to achieve something stir something in me? Am I just getting more sentimental as I get older? I don’t think so. I’m afraid that what is happening is I’m realizing what I’m missing.

There’s not much community any more. I have trouble coming up with examples in my life of real community overcoming the obstacles of life. We live in a world and society that worships the individual. I live in Texas. This is the epicenter of individualism. The pull yourself up by your own bootstraps capital of the world is Texas.

I know the stories of community are out there. I know you’ve lived some of them. I need to hear them. I need to hear them so my preaching is real and relevant. I need to hear them so I can pass them on to others who are looking for community. More then anything else I need to hear them so I can believe that community is still possible.

This past summer provided a unique worship experience. I had the privilege of attending a family reunion in the Dallas area. We spent the weekend doing family stuff and had a reasonably enjoyable time. My family is rather interesting so any time we get together you never know what might happen. A weekend of visiting, eating and generally catching up with one another gave way to Sunday.

Sundays are important in this family. We are church people. Sunday is the day for church so preparations were made for us to worship. Personally I was hoping for an upper room but that didn’t happen. My family gathered in the Bluebonnet Room of the Holiday Inn where we were staying. Shortly after nine-thirty in the morning we were all set to begin singing when an oriental voice from the room on our right started a chant accompanied by a tambourine. It seemed we would have competition this morning.

You need to know that my family can sing. Thirty to forty of us sound better then most churches over 200. So sing we did and easily over came the chanting Christians next door. Somewhere in the middle of our second song I heard the band crank up on our right. By the time we finished that song we were covered in contemporary praise music accompanied by very enthusiastic band. Again our accapella prowess had been challenged and we sang all the louder. No band would drown us out.

So dueling worship lasted for over an hour. As I sat trying to worship a mental picture kept coming to mind. It was an unbeliever walking down the hall that was outside these three rooms wondering what in the world all this meant. What were we “Christians” teaching with our dueling worship?

Now I believe in Accapella music but I also believe we need to live good theology as well as think it and the theology we Christian lived that morning was no so good. I wonder when the unity of the Body will really start to matter?

Yesterday I wrote about my experience at a UT football game last weekend. Here’s another observation.

I sat in a sea of Longhorn football fans thinking about what divides these people and what unites them. These folks are from every walk and background you can imagine. Politically they are all over the map. If you read bumper stickers in the parking lot you can find everything from flaming liberals to right wing neo-cons. They also cover almost every socio-economic group available. There are the unbelievably wealthy to the lower middle class. Obviously the poor aren’t there but I would guess a great many of those folks watched the national telecast. That leaves the homeless and my guess is they really don’t care about any sports of any kind. I’m convinced that every religious group was represented that day and they were all wearing burnt orange. I’m sure the anti-religious were also there to cheer on their team.

All this to say if these people can lay aside their differences and accept each other as part of a support system why can’t Christians. Maybe we Christians can learn something here. If we could major on what holds us together rather then what we disagree on maybe the world would see us differently.

Why is it the church tends to form a circle when called to form a fire line?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for serious bible study and a quest for the truth. I don’t buy into a you do your thing and I’ll do mine and we’ll all be o.k. Philosophy. I’m sure I study a lot more then most people. At the same time I want to draw all those who wear the name of Christ together. That doesn’t mean they have to agree with me on everything. It means we have to agree on Christ being the centerpiece. From that point we can work our way through anything. We might or might not agree on a lot of things but we have one thing that will keep us together.

If silly football fans can do it why can’t we who have been called to love each other as Christ loved us.

Let me start by saying I am a Texas fan. I bleed burnt orange. If that weren’t bad enough I have passed the disease on to my son. I’ll be the first to say this is a great time to be a Horns fan. Texas currently holds the NCAA baseball championship, is hopefully headed toward a showdown with USC for a football national championship and begins the year with a second ranked basketball team. Times are good on the forty acres.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Texas, Kansas game along with almost 90,000 other folks. As I sat in a literal sea of burnt orange I started doing a little thinking. If everyone in the stands spent 55.00, which is not hard to do, you have roughly 5 million dollars changing hands. Consider that there are at least 20 other stadiums just as big if not bigger then this one with the same numbers involved. Add to that the 50 or so smaller stadiums across the country hosting games and your suddenly talking about a lot of money.

As I sat watching a full stadium cheer on our modern day 18 to 24 year old gladiators some very discomforting thoughts came to mind. If 30 to 40 thousand children starve to death every day it is not for lack of food or money. People starve because those of us with an abundance of the world’s goods really don’t care. If the passion and commitment I saw devoted to college football teams were some how redirected to caring for the suffering and poor, what would the result be? Why is there so much energy involved in sport and so little involved in living a life devoted to others.

Let me say again I’m a big fan of college sports and I don’t claim to have answers but I’m getting more and more uncomfortable with what I see in me and others like me.

Let me start by saying I am a Texas fan. I bleed burnt orange. If that weren’t bad enough I have passed the disease on to my son. I’ll be the first to say this is a great time to be a Horns fan. Texas currently holds the NCAA baseball championship, is hopefully headed toward a showdown with USC for a football national championship and begins the year with a second ranked basketball team. Times are good on the forty acres.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Texas, Kansas game along with almost 90,000 other folks. As I sat in a literal sea of burnt orange I started doing a little thinking. If everyone in the stands spent 55.00, which is not hard to do, you have roughly 5 million dollars changing hands. Consider that there are at least 20 other stadiums just as big if not bigger then this one with the same numbers involved. Add to that the 50 or so smaller stadiums across the country hosting games and your suddenly talking about a lot of money.

As I sat watching a full stadium cheer on our modern day 18 to 24 year old gladiators some very discomforting thoughts came to mind. If 30 to 40 thousand children starve to death every day it is not for lack of food or money. People starve because those of us with an abundance of the world’s goods really don’t care. If the passion and commitment I saw devoted to college football teams were some how redirected to caring for the suffering and poor, what would the result be? Why is there so much energy involved in sport and so little involved in living a life devoted to others.

Let me say again I’m a big fan of college sports and I don’t claim to have answers but I’m getting more and more uncomfortable with what I see in me and others like me.

Let me start by saying I am a Texas fan. I bleed burnt orange. If that weren’t bad enough I have passed the disease on to my son. I’ll be the first to say this is a great time to be a Horns fan. Texas currently holds the NCAA baseball championship, is hopefully headed toward a showdown with USC for a football national championship and begins the year with a second ranked basketball team. Times are good on the forty acres.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Texas, Kansas game along with almost 90,000 other folks. As I sat in a literal sea of burnt orange I started doing a little thinking. If everyone in the stands spent 55.00, which is not hard to do, you have roughly 5 million dollars changing hands. Consider that there are at least 20 other stadiums just as big if not bigger then this one with the same numbers involved. Add to that the 50 or so smaller stadiums across the country hosting games and your suddenly talking about a lot of money.

As I sat watching a full stadium cheer on our modern day 18 to 24 year old gladiators some very discomforting thoughts came to mind. If 30 to 40 thousand children starve to death every day it is not for lack of food or money. People starve because those of us with an abundance of the world’s goods really don’t care. If the passion and commitment I saw devoted to college football teams were some how redirected to caring for the suffering and poor, what would the result be? Why is there so much energy involved in sport and so little involved in living a life devoted to others.

Let me say again I’m a big fan of college sports and I don’t claim to have answers but I’m getting more and more uncomfortable with what I see in me and others like me.

Let me start by saying I am a Texas fan. I bleed burnt orange. If that weren’t bad enough I have passed the disease on to my son. I’ll be the first to say this is a great time to be a Horns fan. Texas currently holds the NCAA baseball championship, is hopefully headed toward a showdown with USC for a football national championship and begins the year with a second ranked basketball team. Times are good on the forty acres.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Texas, Kansas game along with almost 90,000 other folks. As I sat in a literal sea of burnt orange I started doing a little thinking. If everyone in the stands spent 55.00, which is not hard to do, you have roughly 5 million dollars changing hands. Consider that there are at least 20 other stadiums just as big if not bigger then this one with the same numbers involved. Add to that the 50 or so smaller stadiums across the country hosting games and your suddenly talking about a lot of money.

As I sat watching a full stadium cheer on our modern day 18 to 24 year old gladiators some very discomforting thoughts came to mind. If 30 to 40 thousand children starve to death every day it is not for lack of food or money. People starve because those of us with an abundance of the world’s goods really don’t care. If the passion and commitment I saw devoted to college football teams were some how redirected to caring for the suffering and poor, what would the result be? Why is there so much energy involved in sport and so little involved in living a life devoted to others.

Let me say again I’m a big fan of college sports and I don’t claim to have answers but I’m getting more and more uncomfortable with what I see in me and others like me.

Eric Hurtgen writing for Relevant Magazine reminds us of the shallowness of this contemporary society and the danger we face living here. The danger of course is the loss of our souls. When I write about losing your soul I know we immediately think of an eternal situation, which in this case is true, but our souls can be lost here and now just as well.

So we end up running on and on and on; running to find some new something to inspire us again. But we don't realize that we, ourselves, get used up in the process of our running. So used up, in fact, that we eventually find that we're more container than content, a nice facade with very little underneath. And that's when devils do their best work. They find our defenses down and our places empty.

Hurtgen’s description of being more container then content is frightening but so true. Who of us hasn’t felt somewhat hollow? Who hasn’t felt the devils presence in the middle of that emptiness?

So where do we go and what do we do to become more content then container. Maybe doing and going aren’t the answer. Hurtgen suggest we wait and wait and wait until Jesus shows up to fill us. Easy? No. Effective? Yes.

Tuesday I had the pleasure of reading to a class of fourth graders. As part of an emphasis on reading week I got picked to participate. This is my second year and I love it more every time. This year I read a chapter for “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.” I wanted to read the resurrection chapter but I can’t do that without crying so I read about the children’s first introduction to Aslan. I love to see the kids I read to lose themselves in the story.

I have a brother-in-law who read for 20 years at an Elementary school near his home. I can’t think of anything more fun and possibly more effective as far as children go. I miss having little kids in the house to read to. I wish I had read to them more when they were around.

I have no great insight from my reading experience with these kids but I know I want to do it more often.

I believe the time has come to form a professional basketball league. There’s enough fan interest, enough money and possibly enough talent to form a twelve-team league. While I realize this is a rather strange idea I think it has merit. Follow me.

People all over the world love basketball. There’s great interest in Europe and South America. Why can’t we have a professional league hear in the U.S.? It’s a crime that America does not have professional basketball to enjoy. I for one think the time has come to change this travesty.

Whatever the NBA is, its not basketball. When the leagues most “dominate” player can drop his shoulder, initiate contact, and blow his defender into the third row and not be called for a foul, that’s not basketball. When a hand full of players are allowed enough steps to qualify for a five-mile merit badge, and not be called for traveling that’s not basketball. When your hand is on the bottom of the ball your carrying it.

I’m ready for pro basketball! Who’s with me?

One of the foundational beliefs of Christianity is that we are all broken. Each and every one of us is fundamentally flawed. We’re all sinners. Were not sinners because we sin, we sin because were sinners. Because we’re all sinners our first and foremost need is not to stop sinning but to be forgiven. If I were to stopping sinning completely today I would still need to be forgiven for all the sin in my past. I would go so far as to say one of the most important keys in dealing with my sin today is experiencing forgiveness of my past sins.

The poet philosopher Don Henely got it right when he said, “I think it’s about forgiveness”. All of life is about forgiveness. It’s the act of forgiving that allows marriages to survive, relationships to remain intact and people to live in harmony. Without forgiving one another how long would any of us put up with any one else? The person who can’t forgive is destined for misery. Is there any wonder why Jesus tells us we will be forgiven in the same manner we forgive?

With this as a background I have to ask why is it that the church is the last place forgiveness seems to be evidenced? Why are church folks so hard on each other? If were all broken and in need of being forgiven why are we so slow to forgive others? My experience tells me the quicker I am to forgive the better life is. The more I withhold forgiveness the more miserable I am.

The church should be awash in forgiving. If the world looked into the church and saw people who were quick to forgive, quick to accept their fallen brother and dead set on reconciling people to God and to each other we would have to form a line to get into this place. So why aren’t we practicing forgiveness’ more and withholding it less?

I think one of the great things about most churches is that they eat. While there is a great deal to said theologically about the church sharing meals I think its good to just eat. While I’m not a big food guy I do enjoy eating. I also enjoy cooking, hence this post. I need a recipe for pecan-crusted fish. I’ve had it in several restaurants and would like to try it at home. Somebody help me!

In recent months I’ve become more and more fascinated with biblical themes in literature and film. With the release of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe almost here I think it may be time to look more closely at the film and book industry and call attention to the places we find God in them.

C.S. Lewis’s classic is the story of the gospel. If you haven’t read it you should. I hate the fact that I don’t have kids at home to read to any more. Lewis will show you Jesus, Satan and probably yourself in this wonderful work. This exercise may help you start to see Godly themes in other movies and books.

Fantasy works like The Lord of the Rings and The Harry Potter series are full of the themes we find in the Bible. Good vs. evil, self-sacrifice, suffering for right, temptation and the power of love are just a few of the images we find in these books. Of course theses themes aren’t limited to any one type of media because they are the themes that flow through all of our lives. Gods message to us and his work in his world are everywhere if we just open our eyes.

If all good things come from Gods hand then we should be able to find God in the great works of literature, music and film in any age.

What are some of the spiritual themes you’ve found in books, movies and music? What would you think about us offering a class along these lines at Central?

I want to take this space to prop up one of my Elders. How many Elders will give up a weekend to drive a bunch of teens and their minister to Abilene? That’s what Roy is doing this week. It thrills me to see the commitment all our Elders have for Adam and what he’s doing here at Central.

Adam has been a wonderful addition to the church and the Elders have been a big part of him being here and supporting his work. Having spent several years in youth ministry I’m convinced that the Youth minister has the toughest job in ministry. A Youth minister can’t make it with out the support of the rest of the staff and the Elders. Not only are we fortunate to have Adam here Adam is fortunate to have a group of Spiritual leaders that love and support him in everything he does.

If life is a learning process there are some days the lessons are harder and come faster then you could expect. We had one of those times last week. One of the lessons that we should learn early but usually only get after multiple review sessions is that life is fragile, short and should be lived to its fullest today. The idea that tomorrow is not promised to us is not an abstract idea. It is as real as your own breath.

While learning lessons is often painful we can enjoy the changes that they can bring. Because life is short and we need to live it to its ultimate capacity now all sorts of doors open up to us. Here are just a few commitments I want to make to ensure I don’t miss out on anything.

I want to have more two hour candle light dinners with my wife. In fact this needs to be a weekly occurrence.

I never want to miss the sun coming up on the bay if I can help it. I can’t be there every day but when I can I want to be early.

I will write more letters to my kids and put on paper how proud I am of them and what a blessing they have been in my life.

I will make sure everyday has its share of laughter and smiles because even the worst of times can provide them if we just look.

I will think more highly of everyone in this world simply because God made them. If God can love me who can I say is outside his love?

I want to plan great things. Trips with my wife, family and friends. Parties that last to the wee hours of the morning. Experiences that sound outrageous and just might be.

I want to dance with my wife. There’s something about a couple gliding across a dance floor that just speaks about life. If dancing isn’t a metaphor for marriage I don’t know what is.

The bottom line is I want to laugh more, dance more, cry more, love more and just not miss a thing. Not because this world is all there is but because this world belongs to a God who has provided all this for us. Its fallen, broken, bent, sin sick and twisted but still has a great deal of “God” in it and I for one refuse to miss a single second of it.