Conan and the Tonight Show

Things have really heated up on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. The NBC bashing on last night’s show was just as funny as it was the day Conan stood up to NBC and said he wouldn’t move to 12am. What is it about all of this that we tend to like? Why have most people sided with Conan? Why are we cheering him on? I think it’s the fact that an underdog is standing up for himself against a money-hungry god named NBC. We love cheering for the underdog and seeing him or her stand up for themselves. There is an instant recognition that something is unjust and unfair here. We want something done about it. Conan is doing something about it and this makes us cheer and laugh.

Now pretend for a moment Conan is an evangelical Christian. Would it be appropriate to make fun of and rip NBC in the way he has been? Why or why not? What would be a correct Christian response to such a situation? How would you want him to respond if he were a Christian? What do you think?

A Couple of Bible Studies I've Written

I’ve been working on a MA degree in discipleship the past three and half years. I’m very close to being done. The degree has focused on how leaders of a church can help assist their church grow in their walk with the Lord through various activities and teaching. We’ve spent a lot of time on curriculum design and how to gear curriculum to making disciples. Some of the fruit from this labor I now humbly lay before you.

Over the past couple of years I have written a couple of Bible studies (I turned these in as projects for a class) that pull from some of the various things I’ve been learning in class on how to teach in a way to make disciples. I wanted to put my best foot forward when I was turning these projects in so I had them bound in book format.

The first one I wrote was on the book of James. It’s called Walking James. Both are available for purchase at LuLu (just click on a link). It was an incredible learning experience for me to have to write a study on a particular book of the Bible. I really enjoyed doing it.

After James I moved to Luke’s Gospel, and to keep the series going, I named it Walking Luke. They can be used by individuals but I designed them to be used in small groups. The James study is 15 weeks and Luke is 9 weeks. I had a former teen (Dion D) design the covers of these. He did an awesome job. I also had a brother-in-law help with the interior layout. So, if you are really bored and have a lot of time on your hands here is something for you.

New Year's Goals

Well, here we are into the New Year. Can you believe it? I have some goals for myself this coming year. Thought I would share a few with you.

- I’m working on becoming a morning person. Notice the time stamp on this blog? I usually stay up late and sleep in, but I’m working on changing that for 2010. The past couple of weeks I’ve been getting up at 6:30am. It has been nice to get up before everyone else (including the kids) and have some quiet time.

- Read the Bible through in a year using the NRSV translation. I’m off to a really good start on this and have a bit of a reading pattern down. I’m not following any year plan or anything, just reading five to six chapters a night. I’ve been using the NRSV lately and have come to like it.

- Continue exercising and eating right. Not that I was doing a good job at this before, but I did start working out last summer and have been able to continue that (November and December were bad months. Too much food and candy!). I’m actually going to be starting a 90 day challenge with our youth pastor this next week that will help me with the eating right. We want to see how good of shape we can get in by April.

There are a few of my goals for 2010. How about you, have any you care to share?