Quote o' the Day

I conclude that the essence of worship is not external, localized acts, but an inner, Godward eperience that shows itself externally not primarily in church services (though they are important) but primarily in daily expressions of allegiance to God. - John Piper from "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals" (pg. 232)

Quote o' the Day

"The great irony we found, in all the emotional turmoil of those days, was that the people who ought to have the greatest burden for frontier missions are the people who have the biggest heart for domestic ministries. The same love of Christ and the same sense of justice that burdens a person for evangelism and housing and unemployment and hunger and health care in their own cities will also burden a person for these same needs in people groups where no Christian impulse for transformation exists at all." - John Piper from "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals" (pg. 194)

LeadNOW 2008 - 2009

After having blogged about the LeadNOW 2008 conference in November, and wondering whether or not it would be a bunch of guys with new marketing schemes, brighter lights, newer toys, etc. "all in the name of Jesus".....I have to say I could not have been more impressed with some of the pastors and leaders at the conference.

This was my first time to hear anything by Francis Chan. Doug Whitaker had told me a little about his vision and his ministry in CA, wanting to build an amphitheater as opposed to a multi-million dollar facility for his church to meet at and worship. He was very impressive and greatly challenged myself and many of our leaders at hpbc.org to consider what it means to be a sold out follower of Christ.

Todd Wagner from Watermark Community Church was also very motivational, inspiring, and direct (as always) about how to live authentic lives in a Christ centered community. Many of our conversations in the ministry over the last month have come back to the question of authenticity, accountability, community, and living lives that are following hard after God! Thanks Todd.

Also Matt Chandler from The Village Church in Dallas was quite challenging. If you haven’t heard Chandler speak you ought to check him out. Although I’ve never met the guy, since he spent several years in Abilene doing ministry I have some feeling of “empathy” with/for him, as one who grew up in Abilene, TX for 18 years! I keep wanting to write a slow, sad, country song entitled, “18 Years in Abilene” but it just hasn’t happened yet…Chandler has an incredibly accurate perspective on life, culture, and living out our faith.

A few other guys I enjoyed getting to hear for the first time included Todd Phillips, Patrick Ryan Clark, and Brickhouse Choir.

Thanks Rightnow Campaign for putting on a great conference and for challenging Christian leaders to follow hard after God! Looking forward to LeadNOW 2009.

Night of Praise at Hyde Park Baptist Church....December 14 at 6:00p.m.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

$10,000 Hot Shot Competition

This is from a 3 on 3 Basketball tournament at 2nd Baptist Houston, TX....connect3on3.com

LeadNOW 2008 Conference and "Relevance"

I am taking off tonight to spend the rest of the week/end in Dallas at the LeadNOW 2008 Conference. As I become increasingly more and more disgusted with the word, "relevant" since everybody seems to be saying it and apparently so few people are "being it," I hope that they will go beyond talking about "being relevant" and actually "be relevant" and enforce the truths of scripture and the reality of God's eternal kingdom where Christ reigns!

As a friend and I rode to Jack Brown drycleaners (I found a 15% off coupon I could use there) yesterday to pick up some clothes, we began to discuss the complete lack of "relevancy" of many churches and ministries today, and their complete failure at leading the lost to genuine faith in Christ. We discussed the fact that 21st century American culture unashamedly rejects the message of Jesus moreso than perhaps any other generation since the founding of this nation, presenting some serious challenges to the church.

Throughout our discussion a recurring theme kept coming up again and again, "How do churches grow and remain "relevant" in a society that sees the church as irrelevant?" With so many different worldviews constantly colliding, it is almost seems as if the church is "lost in translation."

This issue of "relevance" in the church however does not seem to be a new concept. Should the church be doing everything it can to strip down any barriers that might hinder one from coming to know Christ? Absolutely. Should the church use every faculty of media and technology to convey the age-old message of a saving faith in Christ? Absolutely. Should the church address every form of idolatry and self worship in order to present the true God that is worthy of worship? Absolutely. Should the church become so consumed with its own customs and programs that we fail to change and adapt with time in order to not become "your grandma's church" where someone who had never been in a church would have to take a semester long crash course on "church language and tradition" in order to have a clue what was going on? Absolutely not.

We can take our best pictures of relevancy and the church today by looking at Jesus' teachings and Paul's continual use of culture and pagan worship to turn people to the truth of Christ and the necessity for the church. The 3 ideas I continue to come back to as I consider how to live a relevant life as Christian (and as a minister) and how to lead others to so as well include:

1) A Christian must first know the truth of Scripture. They must also have a clue about how people think who have no idea who Lottie Moon or Annie Armstrong is. A Christian must know truth in such a way that it pierces through differing worldviews and cuts to the heart of every issue......truth! Jesus says that the we shall know the truth and that the truth shall set us free. (John 8)

At the same time we must be careful that all truth points to Jesus, the one through whom we find salvation. He spoke specifically to the Pharisees who sought to find salvation through an intellectual exercise. Jesus says, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." (John 5)

2) A Christian must be available to be used by God. Does this mean that God will not and cannot use someone who is either not a Christian or who is living a life of sin and rebellion against God to further the purposes of His eternal kingdom? Absolutely not. In fact we know from scripture that God raised up pagan armies to serve His purposes because He is Lord over all things. However, it is clear througout scripture that the Lord's eyes move to and fro throughtout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. (II Chronicles 16)

3) A Christian must ask God to move in their life and ministry. Unless God is "moving" and "involved" in the ministry it will never be anything more than programs, services, events, etc., and will ALWAYS cease to be kingdom work. More on this idea later....I've gotta go pack and get ready to LeadNOW!

Unbelievable Ignorance

As much as I despise everything that Howard Stern stands for, this political interview in Harlam by Sal is hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCcHzUmVP5c

Missing Passport Saga Solved

If you've ever traveled internationally then you know the complications, paperwork, stress, uncertainty, questions, and necessity of having a valid passport. There is also the potential depending on where your destination may be, how long you will be there, and the nature of your trip, that a visa stamp in your passport may be necessary.

As our mission team prepared in August and September for our trip to Paraguay/Brazil in October, we took the necessary steps to make sure the entire team had a valid passport into our hands so we could send them off together for the visa stamp that Paraguay requires for entry into the country......

On Thursday, October 2nd, eight days before our first team was to depart on the 10th, we noticed that our passports had not yet been returned from the agency doing our visa stamps. Naturally we checked with the mailroom only to notice that the Fed-Ex package had arrived that Monday and had been signed for, even though we hadn't yet seen it!!! Frantically we started looking around all parts of the mailroom where a Fed-Ex package might have been set off to the side or fallen behind a shelf. With no luck in finding the missing passports in our mailroom we started asking different parts of this HUGE Hyde Park Baptist world if someone might have the package in their area by mistake. We asked the School if it was in their mailroom or the athletic offices, we searched in the education staff offices, the different international ministries, the music ministry, the business office, the Children's Development Center; we even had a couple of secretaries stop everything and grab a team to walk through each room possible in the building looking for the missing passports. We sent out emails to all staff alerting them of the missing package, and put up signs with red writng that said ATTENTION and explained the need to be on the lookout.

Long story longer, I had to tell our team on Saturday, October 4 that we were missing all the passports and had 3 choices, 1) not go on the trip, 2) find the passports, or 3) all drive to the Houston Consulatethis week and report lost passports, have new ones issued, and FedEx them overnight for the new visa stamps. Our team of young professionals were all overwhelmingly positive and were able to find the time to take off from work on Tuesday or Friday and drive to Houston....Road Trip! We were able to get all the paperwork done (again), spend some time together with our team, and get all of the newly issued passports FedExed off for new visa stamps. As you can read in the previous blog, we had the passports returned with our visas and had a great trip. My guess at this point was not that someone had clandestinely slipped into the church offices and pulled an Oceans 11 move on our group's passports and was selling them on the black market, but instead that they would probably show up 6 months down the road somehow. Sometimes things happen faster than you anticipate...

In the DFW airport one of our team members was checking his voicemail and received a message from someone at the church that had called while we were in South America. The team member said "My heart sank as I listened to his message. The message said that he had a FedEx package in his office with my name on it." Of course the team member didn't bring it up to anyone as we sat in the DFW airport eating breakfast. Last night however while he was at church, he was able to get his hands on the package, and sure enough inside sat a stack of passports with a rubberband around them, all with visa stamps inside!

The name of the guilty party in this story has not been mentioned so as to protect him from the hands of the mission team members and the great embarassment that they might feel. I would like to say however that it is nice to have the passports back in our hands so people can "have their stamps" from other trips they had taken, and that the next time something like this happens the music ministry associates will be getting personal calls from me.

Brasiguayo Missions

Below is an email i sent to some family and friends that were instrumental in supporting our missions to Paraguay/Brazil. It is basically a short play by play of some of things that occured while we were there. The trip was truly an incredible experience and nothing less than a testimony of God's greatness!

1) The travel time from Austin, Dallas, Buenos Aires, Asuncion, to Pedro Juan Caballero was was almost 30 hours. Not only was this a huge piece of our time from there to back but was also about 75% of our expenses. We ate Brazilian steak/chicken almost everyday for next to nothing while we were there! Everyone on the team stayed in relatively good health the entire trip.

2) After arriving on Saturday night we spent the next day at the Japanese sports complex. We went out there to just meet some of the people and see what was going on....the next thing we knew 3 of our guys (including myself) had been asked to umpire for a Little League baseball game! Luckily Jeff played college baseball so we threw him behind the plate as home plate umpire while Danny and I took 3rd and 1st base. You've never experienced baseball until you've umpired a little league Japanese baseball game in Paraguay with Brazilian/Paraguayan/Japanese kids on the field all yelling, "ehhh pitcha!!!" to taunt the pitcher.........this was an introduction to the fact that things outside of the U.S. function a little different.

Later that evening at the Brazilian church the pastor asked me to share with their congregation why we were there and what we were doing. It was an awesome opportunity to share that we had come for one reason, to share the faith we have in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the hope we have for eternal life in His heavenly kingdom, and how we should all be active in sharing this message with everyone we meet.....

3) As we started the "pool play" on Monday morning for the 3 on 3 basketball tournament, we had the opportunity to play basketball and get to know "Brasiguayo" kids, mostly ages 10 - 18. They call themselves Brasiguayos because they live on the border of Brazil and Paraguay and they don't really identify or consider themselves Brazilian or Paraguayan, so they call themselves Brasiguayo. It thoroughly complicates things as you try to determine whether you should speak Spanish or Portuguese with them......

AfterMonday's activities on the basektball courts, we had shared the gospel through Bible Storie books and testimonies and led 20 kids to pray to receive Christ as saviour. Later that evening two of our girls went to an orphanage where they were able to lead 5 kids to faith in Christ!

4) Tues - Wed we had the opportunity to spend time with about 150 kids as the word got out about the tournament. We were going on to schools and telling them about the tournament, and made a great acquantaince with a coach at a school named Hugo. Hugo is a Christian guy that coaches about 60-80 kids on a dirt court with 2 "pop up goals" (something like you'd see in a cul de sac). It was amazing to experience the "openness" of the people in this area, and how grateful they were to have us there helping to host a tournament like this. He explained that our presence there as Christians and as basketball players helps him tremendously in his goal to lead kids to keep kids off the streets and to share his faith in Christ.

5) Thursday was our tournament day. It was such a site to see all the kids come out in their best basketball clothes.

Those that played for the school team all had on the jerseys and shorts that Hugo had helped them to buy. It was a little sad to see that the best some of the other kids had was jean shorts and sandals to play basketball in......The fascinating part to me was that they didn't even seem to notice or care. Their contentment and joy with ABSOLUTETLY NOTHING was amazing and incredibally challenging. Beth and Jeff shared on tournament day and we saw 15 more kids pray to receive Christ.

6) We took the names of all the players and were able to give all the new believers a Portuguese New Testament. We left the names of those who followed Christ with the local church and with Hugo to follow up with.

7) Most of our days started around 6:30a.m. and finished around 10:00p.m. Needless to say by the end of each day we were completely exhausted and ready to crash. On Friday we turned an 8 hour bus ride into about a 12 hour bus ride to Iguacu Falls. On Saturday we had the chance to tour this is amazing park where natural waterfalls on teh Brazilian and Argentinian frontier creates a natural border between the countries (they are trying to vote it in as one of the natural wonders of the world). That afternoon we had quite a fright as our flight from Sao Paulo was delayed, which meant our connection to Buenos Aires would be delayed, which meant we might miss our flight to Dallas, which meant everyone would be VERY UNHAPPY because they would miss work. By God's grace all of our connections were also delayed and we made it to Dallas with only an hour and half delay. We were able to catch the next flight to Austin and crash the rest of Sunday!

8) Mon, Tues, and Wed. have been pretty fast and furious as we've tried to catch up and reacclimate to Austin. The experience of God's presence and using us in this trip was truly a blessing. It has challenged and emoldened me once again to remember the importance of sharing the message of God's love with any and all we meet in order that they might turn from sin and selfishness and turn to God for love and eternal life.

Attached is a link to a Picassa web album with more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/beth.haddox/ParaguayOct2008

Europe's Last Stand

I just read the following article entitled, "Europe's Last Stand" by Geert Wilders, chairman of “Party for Freedom” in the Netherlands:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=12D0C037-ABB0-44A6-8E5B-22922484FD4D

It is by far the most interesting thing I've read in awhile and is a real wake up call to democratic countries across the world to guard themselves against the schemes of Islam. I do not recommend watching the video...it is very disturbing.

Lost Valley Ranch

Beth and I are headed to Lost Valley Ranch in CO with the Trenz crew this week...Hopefully I will have some fun videos and pics to post from the ranch!

Jesus on Love and Friendship

I had the opportunity to preach last night at the "Wednesday Night Bible Study" at my church. I talked on the topic of Love and Frienship according to Jesus. We looked at John 15:8-17 and examined Jesus' instruction on the importance of abiding in Him and following His example of laying down His life for our friends. As I said last night in the service, "this is easy preaching and hard living," but it is clearly what God has called us to do and the life He has called us to live. Here is an excerpt from my message last night that I think is challenging for us to consider:

I want you to think about a couple of people that you consider to be good friends.
Why are they good friends?
I would be willing to bet that it’s b/c they listen to you, encourage you, laugh with you, give you perspective on certain situations, and care about you.

Now, think of some people that consider you to be a good friend.
Why?
Probably b/c you listen to them, encourage them, maybe laugh with them, and care about them.

Almost everyone wants to tell their story (some people more than others) but finding someone (a friend) to listen and really care is rare!

If your friends/family were friends to you like you are to them would you be better or worse off?

Jesus commands us to love others as He has loved us.

I want to share two quotes from Jesus that give us a really good idea of how He loves us and how I think He expects us to love others. Jesus has just told His disciples that He is going away and they start to freak out asking where He is going, and notice how He responds:

1) “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1
2) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

When you think about your relationships/friendships with others do you bring chaos or peace into the relationship?

Do you leave a conversation or get off the phone having people toward God’s goodness, God’s glory, God’s greatness, and God’s ability to “calm the storms in their lives”? Or do people leave you more fired up than when they came to you? Jesus had
Jesus had a supernatural ability to bring peace into situations, befriend sinners, and love people…How are we doing in those categories? He’s given us His spirit to call on…

Hopefully today you'll find a moment to turn someone's attention to the power and goodness of the living creator God, and encourage them to trust and have faith in Him to "calm the storms in their lives."

1st post

This is the 1st post to Chuck's new blog. I'm not intending for the graphcis to WOW people or the genius of the design to keep people coming back...my intention for this blog is to keep people updated on my thoughts and ideas. The reality is I find myself emailing small books to people far too often, when I'm thinking now I can lazily refer them to my blog for my opinions.

Hmmmm......Let's try the pic/video tab:

Chuck and Beth at Trent Monk's "Back Yard Concert"