Summer Mullett Season

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TO

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

To all my Achey Breaky lovin, Joe Dirt havin, rebel flag wavin, fans of the greatest hair style ever, it is time once again for a mullett hunt, no holds bar style. The only rules to this are as follows: 1) Must be business in the front, party in the back. 2)Must be a mullett you shot from the time of this post until the contest is over.

BONUS POINTS!!!!!

If you can get them to pose for the picture=5 points

If you can get them to pose with their  favorite beer= 10 points

If you can get them to pose with you or an immediate family member while holding their favorite beer=15 points

If they threatin to “whoop ur ass” while you are taking the picture=20 points

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES EARLY AND AS OFTEN AS YOU LIKE, I WILL POST THEM AS OFTEN AS I GET THEM. GOOD HUNTING!!!!!

My e-mail address is jalack75@gmail.com

Last seasons undisputed champion of the world, the AUSTIN 3:16 MULLETT

Recipe

What do you get when you add students, moms, logistics worker, chemist, managers, teacher, pharmacist, guitar guy, editor, office administrator, bar tender, waitress, and a computer geek together?

Community.

I am so proud of my Life Group for stepping up and being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

Everyone did a great job, it was hard work but a lot of fun. Most important is that Christ was glorified and some very special people had fun. Thank you guys.

Please rise

I was sitting in a court room yesterday waiting to see if a former employee of the company I work for would show up and plead the charges brought against him. While I was sitting in the court room I realized that I had never been in a court of law before, not even for my divorce.

The best words I can find to describe the time I spent in that court room was spiritual, but also a little saddening.

The things that I thought was sad was watching people being lead in bound one to another wearing a striped jump suit with chains on their hands and feet. People there to either proclaim their innocence or admit their guilt. People that most likely had a choice, but felt like they had none. People that thought maybe this will make my pain go away. People that didn’t give a crap and didn’t care who they hurt. People that committed a crime or has been falsely accused. People hanging their hopes either on a lawyer they paid or one that was appointed to them.

It was really a thought provoking experience for me.

I got an opportunity to witness to the lady that was sitting next to me and talk about what she was being accused of. I won’t go into the details of her case but the bottom line is she is hurting and is seeking comfort. I am praying she finds that comfort.

 The spiritual aspect of my court room experience was one of questions like, I wonder what God’s court room will look like? How many of the people in here that stand accused know that no matter what they have done they can be forgiven?

Oh and the guy didn’t show up….

buddha

Me and one of the guys I work with were at a local service station today and he made a comment to me that just grated every bit of me.

His comment was, “I can’t understand what they are saying in there it sounds like a bunch of ducks quacking”.

“They’re Vietnamese”, I responded.

He said “ya whatever, I just can’t understand them”.

I agree you can’t understand them.

The conversation goes on and he tells me that “they have some kinda Buddha shrine set-up in there and I don’t much care for that, but hey that’s for them, it ain’t for me.”

I almost responded ” hey it ain’t your store, it’s their belief and their culture.”

How many times have we seen an idol or shrine set up to a false god and we just say, “hey that’s for them, not for me”?

Or how many times have you wanted to defend someone because of their beliefs?

I don’t believe in attacking anyone because of how the believe.

But I do know for fact that we are to share the Gospel of Jesus, with everyone…..even Buddhist.

Chazzism’s

Closed out our Heroes series at church this week with a Rockstar.

Charles Hill is one of those guys that when he gets up on the mound all he is doing is throwing heat. So in the spirit of what would normally be Davism’s (borrowed from Tony Morgan about Perry Noble), we have Chazzism’s this week.

• We don’t have an accent, you guys have an ack-cent.
• Does it count if your mother was born in the south? Your Jewish if your mother is Jewish.
• When you look at the confederate dollar bill that’s my blood. (No he’s not a racist he was telling a story about a distant relative)
• I’m not Chris Rock like Dave is.
• Get your band-aids out, we are about to get a little wounded today.
• Ricky Bobby is a true Alabama hero.
• How many of you ever thought of Noah’s wife as a hero?
• Heroes act when called upon.
• Heroes are at the right place at the right time and they do the right thing.
• You better be doing more outside in this world than what you do for an hour on Sunday
• Are there such things as booger seeds? (A question his daughter asked his wife)
• Coming to church an hour on Sunday is not contagious.
• Going to church does nothing.
• Heroes are mission obsessed.
• You’ll be able to tell what your obsession is by looking at what you spend your time, your talent and your treasures on.
• Are you really willing to give your lives?

I really needed that band-aid Charles was talking about.

Are you excited?

I am a refugee of sorts.

Contemplating if I should even say what I am thinking right now…..

I am a refugee from boring church.

Is that wrong of me to say?

Ok, before anyone gets there panties (or manties if your a dude) in a bunch let me explain.

My church FREAKIN ROCKS!!!!!

Sad reality, not everyone that goes to a church, or has attended a church, or will attend a church can say that. I am not church bashing so hold your e-mails for just a sec um-k? Um -k. People get bored with church. Period. Whether it is the music the sermon or Sunday school. Going off on a tangent here, who ever thought up Sunday school? When I was in school I didn’t like it, why would I want to go on a Sunday? I mean, really? Back on topic, people get bored, they aren’t excited, does that mean they aren’t excited in their salvation, ya that could be a reason, but I think a bigger reason people get bored is because church can be boring. Oh is that taboo to say?

Here’s the deal, Jesus is Lord, without Jesus there is no church. The scripture tells us that he is the head of the church. So why would we want to tell people about Jesus in a way that most people would think is boring? No, not everyone thinks their church is boring, but there are some that are sitting in the pews at the First Bapticostal Methodoligistic Holiness Church of Our Lady in the Clouds Christ Episcolated Calvin Luther Assembly that might, next time when you catch yourself thinking about what buffet your going to head to for lunch look around you and see how many people aren’t paying attention either. If you love Jesus and truly believe that he is the savior of the world and that if you don’t have salvation you are going to hell wouldn’t you be jumping up and down trying to compel people to come to Christ? Would you tell people about Jesus in a way that would put them to sleep? Bore them? In a language that they can’t understand? Sing songs about deer panting for a drink of water? Or would you rather tell them in a way they could understand. In a way that would excite them.

Are you excited about your church? Can you honestly say that when you get up on Sunday that you are excited to hear the word of God from the man that is anointed by God to bring it to you?

I ask you all this for one reason. To pray.

I am not trying to compel you to come to my church. What I am trying to compel you to do is pray. Pray for your church, or for yourself. If your not excited about your church it is probably because your church isn’t exciting. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about church. He serves in his church but would love to come to ours full time, and ya know I would love to have him at our church full time. That is a selfish thought and it convicted me. What I should be praying for is his church to be excited. You see I’m pretty sure this guy is excited in his salvation or he wouldn’t be helping our church set-up on Sunday morning and them leaving to go and serve at his church. I want his church to be excited so he won’t have to look for a church that is.

hands and feet

What does community service mean to you?

Does it mean wearing an orange jump suit and picking up trash on the side of the road?

Talking to a group of students about the dangers of drug use because a judge told you to?

Going to a homeless shelter and serving people on the soup line?

Giving someone your last five dollars so they could get a cup of coffee and sandwich or *gasp* a bottle of cheap booze?

Praying with a person that is hurting, the world has come down on there shoulders and they are on the edge of jumping off a bridge, swallowing a bottle of pills or cursing God?

Painting a local charity organization’s thrift store?

Buying groceries for a family that has hit a rough patch and just needs a little help getting through it?

What does being the hands and feet of Jesus mean to you?

mission, military, ministry

I am learning a few lessons this week in regards to leadership. I am not an expert on leadership and I don’t believe there is an expert in this subject. I will also contend that being great at something does not make you an expert. With that being said I will start in on how I suck.

Lesson #1: “Mission before men” does not apply when working in the ministry.

• Your mission is men.
• If you cannot communicate your mission effectively how do you expect your men to carry it out.
• Your mission is personal, so are your men.
• Your men do not change to your standards you have to be willing change to theirs, so long as it doesn’t compromise the mission.

Ok now let me give a few explanations. When I was in the military there was two schools of thought in leadership. The first mentality is “You place your mission before your men”. The second mentality is “Your men are the most important thing”.

The ideal mentality is to find a perfect harmony with both thoughts. I can say that I never met one leader that found that harmony while I was serving. Most of the leaders I knew had a “mission before men” mentality. To be perfectly honest I prefer that. That was the way I was taught to lead. You complete your mission no matter what the cost, what you are working for is the “Greater Good”, you may have to make sacrifices. I never charged any machine gun nests while I was in the military, I was a power lineman. Not a lot of machine guns or Iraqis to deal with when you are changing out street light bulbs, looking back I didn’t have a lot of friends either. But the streets were well lit and there were very few power outages on my watch, mission accomplished.

Working as a volunteer leader at my church is making me totally relearn and change how I lead. I am having to learn that the mission is men, or mankind if you will, and that includes the men that work side by side with you in your mission. Communication is always the biggest key to carrying out any mission, but  leading people in the ministry it is how you communicate what your mission is. You can bark orders and they will be carried out. You can ask someone to do something for you and there is a better than 99% chance that it will get done, but the person you asked will feel better about what they are doing as opposed to having a “task master” barking at them. Your mission is a personal mission because you are working for your personal Savior. The people you serve with are just like you, screwed up mutts that love Jesus, get to know them. Be willing to change how you do things to accomplish your mission. Being nicer to someone does not compromise your mission, getting personal with someone does not compromise your mission, you will accomplish your mission with greater success and fewer sacrifices by changing how you do things sometimes. Leaders are in control of the things around them, the people around them and themselves.

Unfortunately I suck at all these things. This past week at church I got into a disagreement with one of my very best friends. The disagreement got heated enough that he left so he could cool off. The disagreement essentially centered around my leadership style and communication. I won’t go any further into the whys but the whole thing really set me back on my heels and has made me think long and hard about how I do things. My friend and I have already reconciled like most men do, I let him punch me just as hard as he could in the arm and I got to ride his bicycle. Bottom line is I needed that from him to show me where I fail. Thanks buddy, I’m sorry.

Living in the world….but not of it

Show of hands of the people that have to “explain” their church to people.

Ok you can lower your hands.

I have had, to borrow a phrase from Pete Wilson, intense fellowship with several people that go to a more traditional church about how and why we do church the way we do.

I have been told numerous times that we are wrong because that is worldly and we are called to be better than the world. We shouldn’t be catering to these things because they are not Godly. Movies and rock music is not the way to reach people for Jesus. That we are set apart from these things. Essentially to not be relevant to today’s culture.

Are we called to be separate when we minister to people? Are we told to be an outsider and act above all these things when we witness and tell people the good news of Jesus?

Uh…..no.

In 1 Cor 9:¹⁹ Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. ²⁰ When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. ²¹ When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law,^[d] I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.

 ²² When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. ²³ I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

I think Paul explains it best, but to sum it up for me, when you live in a culture that doesn’t know Christ it is our job to bring Christ to that culture, using the things of that culture.

Stepping down off my soap box now.

shut up you big baby

I have been looking over the blur that has been the last few days. I have been complaining about how busy I am and how I don’t have time for anything. WAAAHHHH. Shut up you big baby.

I am blessed beyond measure, and I complain? Well the complaint department is now closed. Yes I have been busy, but I asked for it. I asked for God to use me however he wants (I almost typed needs here but God doesn’t need me for anything, he is God). This doesn’t just stop at church, it includes my home life, my work, everything. I want God to use me.

My father use to tell me that there are two types of people out there, those that  &%$#@! about it and those that will do something about it. Well here it is. Buck up, put your big boy pants on and go, fight through the BS and go. Just shut-up and go. There are greater things to be done and it requires sacrifice. Are you willing to sacrifice, for your work, for your family, for your God?