Pray for the Becks at Purdue BCM

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beck familyPlease pray for the Becks today! They are serving Jesus in West Lafayette, IN at the Purdue BCM. Ben is my first cousin on my mother’s side. He and I were best men in each other’s weddings way back in the summer of 1995 (It was a very good year!). They are NAMB missionaries and I came across them on the Winter PrayerGram for students/collegiate ministries. If you think about it today, say a prayer for them and the students at Purdue that need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ while they are attending college.

Love you guys!!

Here is the PrayerGram (after the jump)

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Black Eyed Moose(s)

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I know it’s not proper English, but Taylor thinks it is funny to add the extra “s.” Here is a little Saturday night entertainment from our uber-creative boys. They do this a lot–they took a bunch of empty moving boxes and made a puppet stage for their stuffed animals. Tonight’s show is called “Dog Nite Live.” The special musical guest for the evening was the “Black Eyed Moose(s).” Here is a video of their song.

Black Eyed Moose(s) from David Stone on Vimeo.

24 Springfield Cardinals Suddenly Fall From Sky in Central Springfield

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Funny stuff from my friend Jeff Houghton on Fair City News, a satire website in Springfield, MO. . . My Fair City (as Click and Clack from Car Talk on NPR would say about their beloved Harvard Square)!

24 Springfield Cardinals Suddenly Fall From Sky in Central Springfield The Mystery Hour.

Indescribable

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I stayed up pretty early this morning to watch the lunar eclipse, which was amazing indeed. I wanted to show you all a friend of mine’s astrophotography–it is AMAZING! Phillip and I went to church together as children and teenagers. ?We later went to Southwestern Seminary together as well.

Check out his amazing astrophotography on his website, Visual Universe.

Here is a photo he took last night of the Lunar Eclipse…stunning how God placed everything in it’s place!

Lunar Eclipse, December 2010. Phillip L. Jones. visualuniverse.org

Lunar Eclipse, December 2010. Phillip L. Jones. visualuniverse.org

Advent Conspiracy

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Check out this video about how much we spend each year on Christmas alone…staggering. ?Because of our reduction in income this year, we have decided to make our presents this year for people, which I hope will help our boys (and us) realize that Christmas is much more about giving than getting. ?Wow, what we could do if we leveraged what we had to help others instead of spend all of what we have on ourselves!

Enjoy…And then maybe do something about the contradiction. ?Learn more here at Advent Conspiracy.

You can also give to a great missions organization’s Christmas Offering?here that churches all around the world participate in each year. (By the way, 100% of this goes directly to the field…no administrative costs are taken out of this offering). ?You can drill wells. ?You can serve at your local homeless shelter. ?Give new toys to children who won’t have a Christmas this year. ?There is so much to do. You know the drill.

Thanks John for the gentle nudging, I had this post in my “drafts” for a month or so now–it needed to come out in the open! ?I needed to preach to myself here for a little bit, too!!

Advent Conspiracy.

10 things for which I?m thankful?a not so traditional list

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I am slowly getting around to reading some of my friends blog posts in my Google Reader. ?I came across this post from my high school friend Matt Wilkie. ?It is a powerful post on what he is thankful for . . . based on his travels “around the world with Jesus” to spread the Gospel.

Numbers 1 & 2 really hit me hard this morning as I sit inside in the warm typing on a computer with wireless internet. ?My how we take for granted what we have and how God has blessed us–why us, I will never understand!

1. I?m thankful I don?t have sores on my legs because of arsenic in my water supply.

2. I?m thankful we have enough food on our table so we don?t have to consider whether or not to sell a family member to those who might hurt them in order to pay for food for others in the family.

Arsenic in water can cause sores

Arsenic in water can cause sores

Check out the entire list on his blog. ?Amazing.

around the world with Jesus ? Blog Archive ? 10 things for which I?m thankful?a not so traditional list.

My Soul Friends::Darrin Patrick

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The idea for this category came from Dr. Daryl Eldridge.?It is based off of the name of his blog–“My Soul Friends.” ?He is one of “my soul friends” too, by the way!

I first met Darrin at the Missouri Baptist Convention’s “Baptist Building” in Jefferson City, MO in the Fall of 2001 at a church planting assessment.? He and I were both walking through the process to plant a church in Missouri; Darrin in St. Louis and myself in Nixa.

My first thoughts about this guy were, “wow, this dude is pretty sharp” and “he knows what he is doing”–both were things that I didn’t feel I had going for me!? (Don’t let the “dumb jock” stuff fool you.? Darrin is a very bright church leader.)? I just felt like God had called me to plant a different kind of church in Nixa to reach people who were not churched. I thought I had my stuff together, but he was a whole lot further down the road with his church than we were with ours.

Darrin had been through several other “boot camps” and was describing the process to me and a couple other guys that were there for the assessment.? (I didn’t even know what a boot camp was, except that I watched my brother’s graduation from boot camp in Chicago from the U.S. Navy!)? From that first meeting, I knew that God was going to do amazing things through my “friend.” (I use friend very loosely because we are not close; I have just admired and kept up with him and his church from afar and the occasional time I would bump into him at conferences–that he was LEADING!!)

God has truly done an amazing thing in The Journey Church in St. Louis, but I think more importantly God has done in his life.? Darrin has been faithful to learn and grow in his walk with Christ as well as hone his “craft.”? I love to hear him teach his people on their podcast each week.? He has been

This sounds like a total love fest for Darrin–and I guess it is. However, there is nothing really “special” about Darrin.? He is simply a guy that takes the Gospel seriously and has followed God’s calling on his life to reach the nations for the Gospel in a city that he loves with a great passion.

Take a look at this interview (you can also download just the audio here) and you will hear his story and insights from his new book, Church Planter.? It is a great read…like sitting down across the table at the Baptist Building in Jefferson City in the fall of 2001.

Conversation with Darrin Patrick ? Justin Taylor.

Pay Attention to People

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“One of the greatest expressions of love is simply to notice people and to pay attention to them. If you really want to know God, go to his people….. Rather than read twenty books on servanthood, get the idea, and then serve people. Some of us have experimented with this little prayer: “Lord, lead me today to someone whom I can serve.” – Richard Foster

Saw this quote as a friend’s FB status. ?Good stuff.

Wonder what would happen if I would “experiment” with that prayer today?

Sunday Sum Up and Monday is for Missions

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Wow, what an awesome day at FP Carthage on Mother’s Day 2010!? We had two great services with two baptisms and four baby/child dedications.? Very cool stuff, indeed.? One of the baptisms was unplanned…the second in about a month.? We had another spur of the moment baptism on Easter Sunday and another yesterday! I think it is really cool to see God moving in the hearts of people so strongly that they disregard their own personal plans for the day, “what will people think of me,” etc., and simply respond to the moving of the Spirit of God.? Reminds me of a group of men that Jesus called out to be his first disciples early on in his ministry. The Bible talks of their reckless abandonment in Matthew 4:18-22

The Calling of the First Disciples

18As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20At once they left their nets and followed him.

21Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Monday is for Missions. . .

I have talked previously about my friend from high school, Matt, that is works for Convoy of Hope in Springfield, MO.? He is currently in Haiti on a exploratory trip for his Convoy of Hope interns going to serve later this summer in July.? Check out this video of him talking about the “capital C” Church “getting it done” in Haiti after the devastating earthquake this spring.

Forest Park is also going to Haiti this summer. Check out more info. here on our website. You can also email our missions pastor, Brock Cummins-[email protected] for more information about our missions trips this year.


Give me another ball!

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Tin Cup 1Earlier today, I tweeted “ Is it just me, or do you have “Tin Cup” flashbacks when watching The Masters and they talk about Rory McIlroy and you think Roy McAvoy?” Really made me chuckle and remember The Colonial at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth while I was in seminary.? My buddy Rick Murray and I went to the tournament one day and I recall D.A. Weibring pulling a “Roy McAvoy” and hitting a ball right into the drink.? He had gotten himself in jail (which is easy to do at Colonial for sure) by hitting his drive close to some overhanging trees.? His first approach shot clipped a branch and landed in the pond.? He didn’t even look at his caddy.? He stared straight ahead at the ripples in the water and snapped his fingers for another ball.? After receiving the ball his didn’t even move at all…he just turned his hand over to drop the ball.? Awesome!!? He then hit his second ball within like 5 feet.? Unbelievable.

It was really something to see him be so laid back and roll with the punches.? No overreaction, not tantrum, no clubs thrown, no curse words.? We would all do well to take a play out of D.A.’s playbook.

How about you?? Any good stories of when you saw someone cool under discouragement or failure?