Scott Cheatham’s Weblog

Christmas shopping season has “officially” begun!  Black Friday deals were already being had in the wee hours of the morning.  I’m amazed at the consumer mentality of Christmas.  Despite all the bad news about our economy there were already people lining up outside of Wal-Mart ready to crash the doors to buy a $10 television (or something similar!).  So with that in mind I kick off my Friday links with:

…This video from my friend Keith Fletcher.  It speaks for itself.  Today, I sleep in a bit and then, I’m off to study for Sunday before relaxing at home with my kids (my wife has to work today).  We’re going to watch a movie and play some games before taking the dog for a walk later this afternoon.  I’m not buying ANYTHING today except a cheap cup of coffee when I’m studying.

It’s never too early to lay out goals you want to achieve.  In fact, you should be doing this regularly and reviewing your progress weekly.  Danny Gamache writes a great column on this very topic at the LifeHack blog.

Ron Hunter at the “Write Idea on Leadership” blog previews a new book by Pastor Stan Toler titled: “Re Think Your Life.”  The book’s premise is on a “mind diet” and making yours work better.  Interesting thoughts are shared.  Toler’s books are always a good read.

From the folks who brought you the “YouVersion” bible and “Church Metrics” free church software comes the latest project “VideoTeaching”.  Lifechurch.tv is behind these great products and this latest one looks to be another interesting addition.  Sign up ahead of time so you’ll be up to speed when it launches.

..and last but not least…

If you need to clean up the clutter in your home or office (maybe they are one in the same!) then don’t wait for the new year to do it.  Get it done now.  This post by Leo Babauta will help get you moving!

Happy Black Friday all!  Enjoy the reading.  I’ll see you again on Monday.

To my blog readers I want to wish a warm, wonderful Thanksgiving.  This time of year is special as we give thanks for all that we’ve been blessed with.  I consider you one of those blessings.  Thank you for stopping by each day and also for giving me such thoughtful input.

For those days when you just want to kick back and unwind, perhaps like this Thanksgiving, a voice like Marie Digby’s just gets it.  Grab a smooth cup of coffee and rest for a moment as you listen to this song.  I loved the chalk shadow idea for her video.  You can see more of this incredible artwork here.

Enjoy your day today!

If you follow me on TWITTER, you know I recently bit on one of those late night TV ads.  As a rule, I never order things from television but I was intrigued with the “Slim Clip” money clip so I decided what the heck and purchased a pair as advertised on their ad.  I didn’t actually call the number from television but did go on the advertised web site and placed my order from there.

Yesterday, a small box arrived and inside were two carefully wrapped and boxed money clips along with the “free” throw in gift of two keychain lights (My wife wanted those!)  I unboxed one of them and checked it out before transferring my money and cards from my wallet to the “Slim Clip”.

First impressions?  Well, I was impressed with the heavy duty construction of the clip itself.  I’ve had money clips before and usually they are either flimsy and don’t last more than a few months or the clips come spring loaded and don’t hold enough bills (Not that I have a bunch but I do carry a lot of ones around for coffee money!)  As you can see in the picture above, the Slim Clip is double sided so it holds your money on one side and cards on the other.  I don’t carry credit cards but do have a my license, library card, Sam’s Club card, etc..so I had plenty of room to put them in the back clip.

The whole thing fit nicely in my pocket last night as I carried it around to see if it would bother me.  It didn’t so initially, I’d have to say I’m pleased with my purchase.  I’ll let you know if it falls apart but it’s simple, one piece construction and heavy duty stainless steel body make it look like this thing will hold up for a while.  I’m planning to use the second clip to attach to my car visor as their TV ad shows.  I’m going to use it to place some church invite cards in so I always have some when I’m out and about.

I like simplicity in the things I carry in my pocket.  I’ve tried other clips, wallets, and even a large spring loaded clip to carry my stuff but none of them seem to stick with me.  This looks like it could.  If you like money clips and the ease of carrying things in your front pocket as opposed to your backside, you might want to check the Slim Clip out and see if it’s for you.

Earlier this year, I had written a review of a book I have titled “The Little Guide to Your Well Read Life” by Steve Leveen.  In it, the author mentions a book by Mortimer Adler titled “How to Read a Book”.  The book was last updated over 30 years ago and is still considered a classic by book officianados.  Adler died in 2001 but shortly after producing the third edition of his book, he and co-author Charles Van Doren, produced a series of little known videos discussing “How to Read a Book”.  For years the videos were lost but recently they were found and “The Center for the Study of Great Ideas” has elected to produce them into a DVD and are offering it for sale in exchange for a $29.95 donation to the center.  (It is a non-profit organization).

I’ve placed my order and you can too by visiting their web site.  You can see a preview of one of the videos on the site.  For certain, these are for book lovers but even if you’ve always wanted to improve your reading, these videos will be great for an iPod generation that listens to things more than reads them.  Adler’s work is excellent and these videos compliment it.  Kudos to the center for making them available to the public!

The holidays are a great time to catch up on some reading you’ve been putting off.  Yes I know Friday will be busy as can be for shoppers but I choose not to get caught up in the mess.  I’ve been purchasing gifts for the past few months and will pick a few items over the next few weeks leading up to the holiday but for me, sitting back and enjoying the decorations and reading some good books is a perfect way to relax and enjoy the holiday season.

So what am I reading these next few weeks?  Well, I’ve wanted to read some good material on prayer for a while so I’ve started with Calvin Miller’s latest work, “The Path of Celtic Prayer”.  So far, I’ve enjoyed this one.  Miller’s book looks at six areas of the prayer life of the Celts.

After that book, I’m going to read Eugene Peterson’s masterpiece on prayer called “Answering God”.  Long before “The Message” was written, Peterson was writing some phenomenal material.  This book dates back nearly 20 years (1989) and uses the Psalms as a prayer book.  I read this several years ago but books like this are worth reading again.

I’m hoping I’ll have time into the new year as well to finish the third book I have lined up and that is Richard Foster’s excellent tome on the subject titled “Prayer – Finding the Heart’s True Home”.  Most who of Foster know him for his best known work “Celebration of Discipline” but he has written other great books including this one.  I recently purchased the ebook for reading on my Sony Reader so this one may travel with me in January when I visit Missouri for a missions conference.  I’m hoping to be done with it before then but with moving our church plant to a storefront, it’s been a busy time for me.   

These three books teach a great deal about the subject of the discipline of prayer.  I can’t wait to dig into each one over the next few weeks and I know I’ll be stronger for it.  As our church launches in its new location, I’ve felt convicted to strengthen myself in this area and encourage deeper prayer in our congregation as we move forward.

I found Henry Cloud’s latest effort to be a solid informational book but one I had a hard time staying with.  I chose to listen to the audio book for “The One Life Solution” which is 5 CD’s long.  Not bad for a book with this much information.

Fans of Cloud’s earlier works will find many of his principles brought back in a system like format in “One Life”.  First, Cloud identifies many of the problems we face in corporate America.  He rightly identifies our technology advances as a huge liability if not managed properly.  Having 24 hour access to information through computers and cellphones makes us more likely to stress ourselves if we don’t bring some “boundaries” to our life (Sound familiar?)

In the succeeding chapters, Cloud sets out a system of problem, potential solutions, and desired outcome.  Learning to manage our outcomes and tweak the system for maximum achievement gives the system its life.

In one sense, this book will bring Cloud’s work to a new audience.  He is well known in the Christian market but has not been as mainstream as I felt he could be.  His book “Safe People” is a book that all pastors and business leaders should read.  I also purchased the unabridged audio book of “Making Small Groups Work” as a resource for our small group leaders to use to learn the psychological aspects of being a small group leader.  “The One Life Solution” is published by Harper Collins which is a secular publisher that owns the Zondervan label that Cloud’s work normally is published under.  For this reason, “One Life” is seeing shelf space in the business section at Barnes and Noble, Borders, and similar bookstores.  Usually, you find his stuff in the Christian section.  This alone will give Cloud greater pull in the secular market as well and that is a good thing!

I guess from having read his earlier works, my problem with staying with the audio book was that I had adapted many of his principles in similar ways to what he suggests here.  Still, if you’re a fan, you will like this.  For me, as a fan, it was just hard for me to listen when I had an idea of where he was going.

If you’ve never read any of his work, “The One Life Solution” will be a great book to read or listen to.  Harper Collins did the release right by making it available in book, ebook, and audio book format all within days of its release.  

If you’re looking to bring order amidst the chaos of everyday life, this book might be what you’re looking for.  I’d recommend checking it out at the library first to see if it’s for you before purchasing it.

As my church prepares to move into a new storefront location, my writing has been curtailed slightly.  It’s given me some time to review the days of my youth.  The last couple of Wednesdays I’ve been sharing some selections from my vast records (yes VINYL) collection and today, I go back 26 years to 1982.  Asia!

A progressive rock supergroup.  I was always a fan of King Crimson which is where the bassist and lead singer John Wetton came from.  YES was another fantastic group that guitarist Steve Howe was culled from for a time.  Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer was the drummer, and Geoff Downes from YES and the BUGGLES fame was the keyboard player.  Nothing ever matched their first album.  The others never made it into my collection but the self titled release was amazing!

Yesterday I finished Larry Osborne’s book “Sticky Church”.  I must admit, the title generated some questions from people who saw me reading it.  The bees and honey on the cover aided in the questioning!  In short, this is a great book. It was not what I was expecting from a guy who’s had amazing success in growing a successful church.  This is NOT a church growth book but more a book about how to keep your church healthy and growing.  I’ve written in the past of my disdain for church growth books but this wasn’t one of them.

Osborne begins his book with a brief overview of his own humble beginnings at his church.  From there, he writes a series of short, to the point chapters of why he feels his system of “sermon based” small groups had led to the growth and unusually high participation in his church.  The final section of the book is the nuts and bolts of the methodology behind “sermon based” small groups.  Throughout the book, Osborne comments that the method is quite simple, required no publicity at all, and led to an 80% retention rate in his small group ministry (8 out of 10 adults attending worship participate in the groups).  He also mentions that the crux behind it all is a desire to see “sticky” relationships form amongst church members.  Along the way, he shoots down methods of small group growth that we’ve heard so much about over the years.  Things such as dividing existing groups (he says it’s a ROTTEN idea!), neighborhood or affinity groups (not bad, but not the panacea we are led to believe), and deep curriculum based versus social discussion (there’s a balance!).

I found myself agreeing with much of what Osborne had to say here.  For a while now, I’ve had the idea in my head that a sermon based system of learning would be ideal.  I’m not sold on the mega church model of “free market” groups as I’ve seen done in my own area.  I like that we focus on the growth of people and in so doing, build deep, lasting relationships within our churches.  That, Osborne rightly asserts, is how we shut the back door for our guests and retain more and more over the years.

The principles here are able to be modified to any setting.  Admittedly, in some settings it will be more difficult than in others but it can be done.  What I like about this book is that it doesn’t give you a “system” that you have to implement but rather a series of ideas to build relationships that can be uniquely personalized for your ministry setting.  That is why I can recommend this book to you and give it high marks for ease of reading, quality of material shared, and it’s brevity.  There isn’t a lot of fluff here designed to fill x-amount of pages.  You can mark this book up and use many of it’s ideas right away if you are so inclined.

For those of you in the blogosphere, proflections is simply a new word for looking ahead.  I stole it from Nelson Searcy who uses it all the time.  No telling where he heard it first!

This week will be busy for us.  The church I pastor is moving to a storefront and we finally received our build permit after months of wrangling with the city.  Today, I begin the process of scheduling work for our signs, building walls, putting in bathroom and carpet tile, fixing carpet, and ordering stage equipment.  Much of the leg work for this has already been done but now it’s a matter of firming up dates, making sure things get done on time, and being positive on our planning for the next few weeks!

We’ve discussed preliminary plans for moving our worship time, adding a new small group after worship for our older church members, and setting up the logistics of a parking ministry so we can best utilize the space we have at our new site.  So many things to consider.  So much to do.  If my writing doesn’t seem as crisp, please give me grace as I juggle many things.  Pastor, Father, Husband, and Student!  God will give me the energy to see it through.  I just need to be a master organizer now more than ever.

It’s a great time to be a pastor.  God’s work is never complete and with the excitement of a new place, a new start, and fresh enthusiasm, I face forward with a smile on my face and joy in my heart.  I pray your week is as refreshing!

I’m playing catch up with my writing today and that’s a good thing.  Yesterday, I spent time at a hospital with a family that needed me.  Yes, I know they didn’t really need ME but they needed a visit from the person who represents Jesus every Sunday morning to them.  More to the point, they needed Jesus’ presence.

I really believe that we need to encourage others to take the ministry banner and delegation is key if we’re to keep our heads straight and be able to minister effectively as pastors.  But there are times when a visit from the pastor HAS to happen despite our schedules and despite all the books that say otherwise.  We can’t just push off these things to small group leaders ALL the time.

I had scheduled my daily workout, some sermon prep, and a few other things that needed done ahead of time but I put that on the shelf for the day and focused my attention on a person who was scared, unsure, and needed the Lord’s comfort.  In fact, I parked several blocks from the hospital and walked which aided me in my missed workout.  The crisp breeze and the bustle of downtown Denver was quite refreshing and a nice change from the treadmill and staring into the gym I work out at.  During the surgery, I was able to bring my bible and NTSK books to a hospital cafe table and work on the message so really, I didn’t miss a thing.

In the end, I am blessed.  As we prayed, this person held my hand tightly; then, gave me a hug.  The reassurance that this person was being held in the loving arms of their Savior calmed their fears and made the transition to the operating table much easier.  The surgery went well by the way and this person will be home by next week.

Sometimes, in the quiet of a hospital waiting room, God slows our lives down enough to give us a reality check.  He is a good God isn’t He?

I’ll have my Friday link-o-rama posted later today!