YESSSSSS!

Okay, I am still playing "catch up" from having been on the road so long this summer, but I did find the VHS recording of The Present Future. I have since dubbed it to DVD format. Now, I just have to get it to Steve and others at VCC for their viewing. I even have the seminar outline that goes with the recording, and while it obviously won't be as detailed as the book was, it will be a good start to a revolution.

It is so easy to get caught up in the daily routine of busyness. It is a battle I must do better in winning, for sure. In the next couple of weeks we will say "audios" to several of our college students as they return to their respective campuses in Tennessee and Texas, while trying to keep our local college students engaged in living for Jesus here in Vero Beach. I have a major planning session for our children's ministry (with virtually no money to help fund this ministry) and for our student ministry (ditto), and sign-up deadlines for three major student ministry events all come this month. While I do have the September pre-school children's church materials ready for the volunteers who will lead this ministry, I am still looking over low or no-cost options for October and beyond.

I am still wrestling with ideas to get us more outward focused in our ministry to families at VCC. See, even the structure of that sentence bothers me, now. We should have our families at VCC more outward focused in their ministry. Oh, Reggie McNeal, see what you are doing to me?

Mistaken

After a long search in the boxes in my garage, I found the CCN DVDs only to find that I have the library starting in October of 2004, thus I do not have The Present Future DVD. I may have it on VHS though, so I will continue my search tomorrow in the office.

The Present Future

"The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style."

Reggie McNeal's words resound within my very being. Now, as I have finished reading the book by McNeal titled The Present Future: Six Tough Questions For The Church, I am finding out that the Church Communication Network broadcast a workshop on that subject back in 2004. I should have the DVD of that broadcast, but I will have to search in my boxes of stuff stored in my garage. I think I will because it is well worth finding.

As I think about my "church experience" over the past 20 years, I find that it has been way too inwardly focused. After reading McNeal's book, I know that I cannot continue to do "church" the same ole way. Over the next several posts, I will wrestle with thoughts and ideas spurred on by McNeal's book.

To reboot the mission and to have a radical obedience to the ancient command means getting way out of my church comfort zone. Just as I have challenged students over the past couple of decades to leave their comfort zones for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, I must reassess where I am in ministry methods. Yes, it is my job to equip people for ministry. No, I cannot effectively do that while tied down to my office. Peggy has long worried that I am too tied down in the office, and (of course) she is right.

So, what will it mean to be more missional in my position as Family Life Minister? How can I better equip families to live out their Christian faith and to share the Gospel message with friends and family? How can I help people move out of the "way we have always done it" when it comes to doing church? These are the questions with which I am wrestling today.

Why Another Blog?

I have no expectations that anyone out in cyberspace will ever have a desire to read my musings, but as I continue on my journey with Christ, I feel it necessary for me to post some thoughts based on that journey. The title of this blog is a play off of the varying pronunciations of my last name. See, I pronounce it in such a way as to rhyme with mount, count, or fount. There are, however, folks in my family tree who would pronounce it as "Blunt." William Blount for example, the first and only Governor of the Tennessee Territory pronounced it that way. Blount counties in Tennessee and Alabama are pronounced that way, too. Silly folks don't know how to pronounce the "ou" vowel combination. However, it does give me the opportunity to do a word play for the title of this blog.

So, with that explanation, I welcome you to share some thoughts in this life journey with Christ. I promise to draw on my daily devotional readings from the One Year Bible Online as well as a host of books I find myself reading at any given time. I invite anyone who so desires to leave comments so we can wrestle life's questions together as we seek the answers found in the Person of Jesus the Christ.

Be God's,
Scott