Surely not me!

Kevin preached at me today and I resemble everything he said! "Control the Beast in yo mouth!" He exclaimed. He used the word, "your", but he is a "Dawg" after all and like me they take shortcuts with ends of words. Unlike me though they sometimes take single syllable words and actually create two syllables words. The word, "wrench" becomes "wrey-ench" and the word, "quit" is magically altered to "qui-yit".
His voice has a Andy of Mayberry quality but really he sounds more like Matthew McConaughey. I need to find a way to get him on the radio here in Central Florida.
Anyhoo....He explained from James that the tongue has a controlling nature, a destructive nature, and an unfaithful nature. The remedy...well it's obvious, right? Bite your tongue! before it controls, before it destroys, and before it's unfaithful. Simple yet complete, convicting yet fixable, and all of it expository. Are we blessed or what?
Oh yeah...you can find his sermons posted to the right....

Seven is a Good Number

Steven Covey wrote a book entitled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and that book influenced my life on a personal and professional level. Steven Covey simply stated, through years of experience and observation, that he found seven habits that successful people employ. They are:
1. Be Proactive.
2. Begin with the End In Mind.
3. Put First Things First.
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw
I want to caution you that this is not advice on how to get stuff, to win at arguments, or to negotiate the art of a deal. They are seven man-centered principals that can absolutely change how effective you are when relating to folks around you.

The first three are personal habit forming philosophies. I have seen the term "self mastery" used, but I prefer to think along the lines of keeping "my body under subjection". So, the idea is not just avoiding evil (fight or flight) but employing these three positive habits. Be proactive, (not reactive; stop waiting for something to happen first). Begin with the end in mind (this includes exit strategies too). Put first things first (prioritize).

The fourth, fifth, and sixth are team building philosophies. Win-Win seeks mutual benefit from relationships. The Win-Win principle should be easy for Christians because it is "principle based" and we as followers of Christ all prescribe to the same set of life directing principles! Right? Ha...this principle is hard! Mainly due to our flat out disobedience. The Fifth principle centers around empathy. To be empathetic, pride must be wrestled to the mat and pinned. I had lunch today with my two closest friends here in Winter Haven. I perceived something I communicated might have been a little hurtful. I joke, but I need to be careful. So, I fixed it.
The sixth is synergize! I love this word. If they made a drink called synergize, I'd drink it. If they made a shirt that said synergize on it, I'd wear it...all the time.
The secret to achieving synergy (did I tell you how much I love that word?) is to be aware of differences. Respect that everyone is wired differently, build on strengths and make up for the weaknesses. The methodology, according to Covey, is the creative process, which is exhilarating, because you never know exactly where you could end up!
When I think of the word synergize, I think of the Church - "the sum is greater than its parts"! That is true about me personally and it is true about a team; especially if they are personally and cooperatively following the previous five principles.

The seventh is rest and renew. I suck at this. Sorry, but you need to know how much I do not like this about myself. On Sunday afternoon I start thinking about Monday. If a movie is not absolutely spectacular, holding my undivided interest, my mind wanders to all of the future projects I need to accomplish. I need to work at this, but I see-saw back and forth on my progress. I, Matt Wiggins, have failed miserably before and fatigue always played a role.

So that is today's post. Seven man-centered principles that can make you a better tool in the hand of the Potter. Thanks, Steven!

Only Real Men Podcast

I conquered my ignorance! (in this one area) I was determined not to pay someone to set up podcasting for us and I thought I could figure it out. I did! (pretty much)

You can now subscribe to our church's sermons.
Step one: Go the companion website to this one, Haven Baptist Sermons
Step two: Click on the RSS orange thingy to subscribe
Step three: Pick a subscriber: ie...Google, Yahoo, or ITUNES!
Step four: It downloads!
Step Five: I do not know what comes next.

My goal is to type in Kevin Clark's name or the words, "Haven Baptist" in iTunes and then get access to Haven Baptist (Kevin's) sermons. That has not happened yet, but I think that takes more time and more people subscribing to the feed than just me....so follow those steps above! and I will keep you posted on this side of things.

Hey, I just had an idea, for those of you that know what you are doing in this area, I would appreciate guidance or advice. Feel free to comment.

It's All About Intentions

My good friend, Cleve Page, came by for a visit today and we talked for awhile and now I have some time before my evening meetings. So I thought I would share with you the sermon Kevin Clark, my pastor, shared this morning. I told you last week, I wasn't going to start a habit of this, but two times in a row does not make a habit...yet. It was a good sermon in an area of James where there is not a command to go and do.

Apparently James 2:14-26 has given scholars fits for a long time. I already knew that Martin Luther had a hard time with the book and as an ex-Catholic, James was our rallying cry when some "protester" told us Faith was a gift. The major issue, as I have come to see it is this... we as Christians read an awful lot of Paul's writings, (he wrote thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament), so we tend to define words the way Paul defined words. The book of James only seems to contradict what we know as Christians to be true with regards to faith, works, and justification.

For example, we automatically define faith the way Paul did, "a complete commitment to the whole person of Christ." So, we read faith and think "conversion". James is talking to first century Jewish Christians and they have baggage! He is challenging them to prove their "faith" (defined as a supposed claimed faith...not backed up) is real. "Show me your works! You baggage heavy, faith claiming, prejudiced Christians.!" James says.

Paul defines works as those filthy rags that an unbeliever thinks will justify himself. So we as Christians do too.
Works bad :(
Faith Good :)
James, on the other hand, defines works as those acts that a believer would do naturally as an outpouring of their genuine faith. We, as Christians, read the word "works" and go to Paul's place automatically.

We are naturally familiar with the way Paul defines "justification" - that legal act where God declares one righteous on the basis of Christ's finished work and the believer's faith in Him.
James' use of the word justification can seem opposite but is simply used as the demonstration of what one says they believe by what they do.
We need to be careful as readers of the Bible. Words mean different things. As Cleve told me one time when we were discussing a different subject, "It is all about the intentions".

Kevin did a good job wrapping up the whole morning by exhorting us to:
1. Examine our faith
2. Examine our theology
3. Examine our witness
4. Get Busy.

Good stuff. By the way I have posted Kevin's sermons on my site too. Look over in the right margin. Have a good rest of the weekend.

James Schick is a Papa

James Schick is my kid's youth pastor, and James Schick is the real deal. He is in his mid-to-late-twenties which makes him old enough to have been in my youth group in Maine. That realization came to me only recently when kids from my Maine days started finding me on FaceBook. I had never really thought of him that way early on and now I am used to him just being James. James is a wonderful preacher, and he served faithfully as interim pastor during our two years without a shepherd. One of the things I knew he prayed about was the future dynamics between him and the new guy. I absolutely understood that feeling and really prayed for that specifically too because our church had gone through a very long transition period, and James was instrumental in holding things together.

Kevin, our new pastor is a gem and he and James have really hit it off. He and James are not alike at all, but they are very compatible.

If I were driving a truck and Kevin and James were dogs riding in the cab with me, James would be the calm one staring at his paws or maybe staring at the jangling ignition keys. He'd be thinking, but you wouldn't know exactly what. Kevin, on the other hand, would be halfway out the window, tongue hanging out, ears flapping in the wind and baying at anything walking down the road...don't misunderstand me, I've seen James go after a referee in one of our school football games; and Kevin couldn't put together those signature sermons or initiate a plan to move our church in the direction it needs to go without his intellect. Personality-wise though?
...It works...at least in my mind.

Why Drug Dealers Still Live with their Moms

Back in 2005, Levitt and Dubner produced one of the most interesting books I have read in a very long time. It is called "Freakonomics". It has a totally cool title. They got Malcolm Gladwell to do the forward, and it even has ingenious artwork on the cover.

The book's premise is this - "If morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually works."
The "rogue economists" explain that there is a hidden side to everything and that conventional wisdom is often wrong when measured against empirical data. The book explains how we cheat and in doing so relates sumo wrestlers, parents who want their kids in daycare, and school teachers. It made me realize the power of being an expert and how Klu Klux Klan members as a group behave like real estate agents. I have had the book since 2005.

Disturbing was the premise that Clinton did not win the war on crime. The book proposes the Roe v Wade decision, (January 22, 1973) while obliterating millions of innocent lives, was actually the major reason crime rates dropped in the '90's. The authors made valid assumptions about the terminated babies (most likely unwanted and destined to be poor) and the dramatic drop in crime occurred two decades after abortion was legalized, the average age of the criminals committing those crimes at that time. I am oversimplifying the research and I am doing a poor job in my synopsis, but the book is important.

The book was formative in guiding the way I think about churches. If conventional (man's) wisdom is often proven wrong by empirical data, how many methodologies, habits and programs we employ in churches are worthless, ineffective, or even detrimental?
How important than is measurement? How important is follow up?
How important is thinking outside the box? How important is trying to make decisions outside of one's own prejudices?

Asaph Never Heard of Fannie or Freddie

Today I learned:
1. Over 150 people died in a plane crash in Madrid, Spain.
2. Tropical storm Fay dumped six feet of rain on my brother's town, Port St. Lucie.
3. Women's Beach Volleyball took the Gold...again!
4. Obama picked his running mate, but won't tell who...
5. My Gators SEC hope hinges on their defense and Tim Tebow's health...duh.
6. Kevin's wife, Stacey, has pink eye.
7. Fannie and Freddie may have to be bailed out by Uncle Sam, which means us.
8. Jerry Seinfeld is being paid ten million to pitch Microsoft products with Bill Gates...really?
9. Iran plans to send a man in space in 10 years...why?
10. The Bigfoot monster was a hoax....shocking!

I am inundated with information everyday. Tomorrow or next week the names and places will change, but the news will be the same. In two weeks, it will be McCain picking a VP running mate. Another tropical storm will dump on us. It will be another airliner in another country that horrifically goes down. Another entertainer will make more money than I can imagine for mugging into a camera, and Stacey will probably pass the pinkeye to someone in my family. What is a mere human who's chest is falling into his drawers to do? (I have furniture problems)

Asaph writes, When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Of Gardeners and Branches

I have another idea about the truths brought forth in John 15. God describes himself as the Gardener. He alone determines usefulness and/or uselessness. He sees the heart, so He sees the "fruit" and determines what kind of branches we are.

I am a branch. My specific role is to produce fruit...period.

Why do branches try to act like gardeners? What is it in our human makeup that makes children of God eat their young? The job of Gardener belongs to God alone. I do not have the right as a branch to determine another branch's usefulness or uselessness. It is outside my job description.
Some may counter at this point, "Yeah Matt, but we are to test the spirits, right?" and I will reply, "yes, we should, but only as it pertains to our ability to bear fruit." I have no right, Reader, to determine another branch's acceptability based on my feeble ability to look at his or her bark. I must determine to encourage all of those around me who are attached to the Vine. I certainly should not treat another branch differently based on an outward appearance of fruit or lack thereof.

Kevin is teaching on the Lord's Prayer tonight and he has the folks really participating. Good stuff.

Vines, Branches, Knees and Toes

I had an opportunity to preach to our teens last Wednesday and I enjoyed it. James, our Youth Pastor, is seeing growth in the lives of our young people and for that I am thankful. I spent some time in John 15 (my favorite chapter in the Bible) and talked to them about the different ideas brought forward by Jesus' illustration of the Vine.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches and God is the Gardener. It's really quite simple when you think about it, but the most profound thing for me...at least this week...is the idea that as I work hard to stay attached to the vine, I will grow fat and big. That may sound good, but the purpose of the resources traveling down through the branch (me) should be passed along by me, so that I can have a part in growing the fruit. The purpose is not for me to grow big and blessed, but to bear more fruit. That is why God cuts me back. That is amazing to me...
Most of my young Christian life was spent just trying to stay connected to the vine. I bounced back and forth between usefulness and uselessness. Now a days, I have a relationship with Christ and staying connected is easier, but I still question Him when the pruning comes. It has to come, so I can bear more fruit.
Thanks God, for making that clear.

Nine out of Ten Trained Monkeys Choose RIM!

I'm taking the day off! Why? Cause I am taking the day off! Tomorrow too.... But I cannot get anything done!
Courtney, our lovely number two daughter, (pictured at right) totaled the family's convertible last week (She is fine) and so today, we are buying another used car for the family. That comes later though, when Karen gets off of work.

But first, the girls and I (with the help of two strapping Alcala boys) are off to spread some good will to our pastors, Kevin and James. Then I am coming home where I will try hard to relax.

The Blackberry buzzes incessantly and like a trained monkey, I have to look at it and thumb a reply. I'm sick. I know it. But what can I do?

I can go mow....so I will.

I Hate Casual Berka Day

Kevin preached on prejudice this morning. James 2:1-13. I am pretty sure most of our congregation has no clue what goes into putting together a message that will feed them. I do. So, I pray for him.

Before I go on, I have a question for you, Reader. Do you pray for your Pastor? Often? Do you pray for his family, his walk, do you pray that God will preserve him from sin?...including sexual sin? If not, I would like to encourage you to do so.

Kevin's question this morning was: What does prejudice in your life look like to God?
He had four salient points.
1. To God we look like an unjust judge.
2. We look like we are opposing his Sovereignty.
3. We look like violators of His moral standard.
4. We look like we are in need of His judging.

On the last point I imagined God breaking off a switch and kind of testing it with a quick, "swish swish" and that was when the Holy Spirit brought to my mind my sin...my prejudice. Up to that point I had been congratulating myself on my love for all people. I was an Air Force brat and played with kids of all nationalities in my formative years, so...no problem...right?

Well, I suddenly remembered back on 9/12. I watched a report on CNN featuring members of Hezbollah celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers and the loss of brave American lives in airliners and at the Pentagon. The camera focused on a woman in what must have been casual berka day because I saw her physical features. Through crooked yellowish teeth she let loose a "Lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu" sound that I now equate with hate. When I saw her and heard her celebration whoops, I knew I hated her and her kind for what they did to us.

So there I sat in church guilt washing over me. Not just because I was wrong, but because I wasn't sure how to get right. After all, it is an intense feeling. "Drop the Hate and Follow Love", Kevin preached and then he gave us three quick points on how to drop and follow:

1. Confess the hate.
2. Pray that God will love them through me.
3. Act on it.

Good Stuff huh? By the way, check out the link to Kevin's sermons on this page. You need to do that because I am not going to spend every Sunday afternoon re capsulizing his sermons for you.

And me? Well, I am at the praying stage. Stay tuned.

Whoa, I Need to Sit Down

I finished "reading" Blue Like Jazz yesterday. I promptly changed my FaceBook political profile. I do not want to be known as anything else than a follower of Christ. I need no other labels. When I pull open my shirt and rip off my tie to change in the nearest phone booth, I want there to be a "C" on my chest. That's it.
Somehow our "religious leaders" have defined me as a gun-toting, tax-break loving, fetus protecting, liberal agenda hating, war monger. That is not who I am content to be labeled as any longer. Born-Again should not be automatically synonymous with Conservative. God's word must define me and my views and my attitude towards others with opposing views.
I want to be clear, I am not advocating the formation of the "Christian Family Party" (where family is defined in the "hetero" sense.) I am rather, urging Christians to pick their political positions wisely with the Word of God in mind and then measuring a leader against that standard.
This site may help... Votehelp.org
Do not get lazy, answer all the questions.
Ouch!... I just twisted my ankle stepping off of my soap-box...That'll learn me.

And the Winner Is...Us!

Kevin is my Pastor and he is a pretty good guy. He is new to us, but not "new". We picked him over the course of a two year search and then (Praise God) he picked us right back and came to lead us. I personally like him. I had the privilege of "looking him over" in detail over a month or three and even visited him in Dallas as he was recently graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has a wife, he has three boys, he has a ThM and he has gifts and ideas that our church desperately needs.

I am forward thinker and looker and I love the organizational disciplines. I sometimes irritate my brethren when I let them in on my way of thinking and in doing so they see the church through my uniquely wired eyes. They do not like what I see and sometimes they do not like me. Let me be clear, I am uniquely wired not "rightly" wired.
I spent ten years in northern Maine. Often I was working directly under a pastor, but often I worked alone as our church was between pastors. I felt alone often. Through those ten years and then thirteen more climbing the often perilously tricky corporate ladder in corporate America, I have found that God has thickened my skin.

Here is a secret I will let you in on....I do not need to be liked. I do not pursue it and I do not care about it. I really enjoy fellowship and I love meeting new people, and I thank God for the one awesome woman and the few strong men, He has put in my life.

Which brings me back to Kevin, He is a leader, and a good man. This man is exactly what our body has needed for a long time. He is bringing change to our fellowship and he is attempting to build a work that will last and I thank God for him.

Did I mention I really like this guy?

iTouch and Blue

Karen and the girls gave me an extravagant gift for my birthday.
It is an iTouch and it is amazing.
I am an insurance broker by day, so I carry a BlackBerry around. It is a fine tool. It features texting, multiple email abilities, contact organization, Gmail, GPS Navigator, even a FaceBook interface. It is functional. Oh...and it is my cell phone too.

This iTouch though, is a work of art! It has even more stuff than the above mentioned and it's cooler and more artsy (which I like). It even does video.
No phone though...after all it is just a "suped up" iPod. I will some day (Lord willing) get the iPhone.
I downloaded Blue Like Jazz onto the iTouch because for the next few days I will be traveling extensively. Now Donald Miller's voice is in my head.
He is younger than I expected. what an unexpected surprise. I am happy that he is.

I Need Glasses

I cannot keep up my reading schedule the way I really want to. TV is getting in the way for one thing and so is sleep. Karen, my wife says I am grouchy when I do not get my "nappy".
So, I guess it is less TV for the foreseeable future. I have begun reading Donald Miller's, Blue Like Jazz and he is profoundly affecting me. His pursuit of spirituality is engrossing. He writes with an ease and a clarity that speaks to me on a level that reaches deeper than the "churchy" organizational and business type books I am used to.
Donald Miller is not just telling me "how to"... He is showing me his journey and I feel like I am kind of tagging along. I really like this guy.

Hello World

This blog starts a new adventure. I have tossed around the idea of conveying my thoughts in written form for quite some time and August 12, 2008, seems right. I am forty-five years of age today and I do not feel a day over forty-four. I also must confess I am more of a verbal person and do not feel very articulate when typing. I think my feelings on the matter over time will improve.

Please feel free to comment. I think it is true, writers write and readers read so that both might get to know each other. Believe me though, when I tell you the center of this process revolves around my desire to share (or teach if I can be so forward).
So, read and feel no obligation to do anything else.

Take care and I will talk to you soon.