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Whoa! I missed my anniversary! Yikes.

No, not my wedding anniversary…my blog anniversary! It was June 19. I started this blog about a year ago. In that time, I made 206 posts, received about 900 real comments, and nearly 70,000 spam comments. So, those of you making real comments better pick up the pace.

I won’t tell you which posts received the most attention, because frankly, I’m now ashamed of some of my popular posts. It is amazing how much a guy can change in year. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and I am excited about what the next year might bring!

My pastor?

By Jeremy Myers

1 Comment

Stephen Hammond is my pastor. Well, actually, he’s not. The truth is that he doesn’t really like to be called a “pastor” but he does help lead a community of people (called Mosaic) who are making a difference in this world by following Jesus. By this definition, some would call him a “pastor.” He also co-leads a church planting organization called Square 1 church planting, which I have blogged about before.

But whatever his title is, I am so glad I know him (and his family – my wife loves his wife, and my three girls adore his daughter) and feel that my life will never be the same. He speaks into my life with much grace, wisdom, and encouragement. If you want to get a glimpse into his mind, he just started a blog this week, and I recommend you go read it: http://www.stephenwhammond.com

Here is something he wrote earlier this week about how Mosaic defines success:

Success at Mosaic is defined in part by how many friends we meet with regularly (i.e. softball, movies, concerts, food, poker, etc…) who don’t come to our Gatherings on Sundays but who love to spend time with our Mosaic family during other parts of the week.

When we insist that people have to meet with us on Sunday mornings to be a part of Mosaic we limit the influence Mosaic will ever have on creating the future. And yet when we simply meet with friends for fun, and not help them live a life of faith, love and hope through Christ, we limit what they can do for God and others both for here and for eternity.

18 hours with Mormons

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

I worked an eighteen-hour day yesterday on four hours of sleep, and then got only four hours of sleep last night also. I’m exhausted. I’m actually quite dizzy today. As soon as I finish this post, I’m going to go mow my lawn. Consequently, this may be my last blog post! Ha ha.

During that looong day, I was able to have several good conversations with two of the Mormons I work with. I really enjoyed getting to know them and discuss their beliefs with them. There are a lot of similarities with evangelical Christianity, and many strange differences as well. For example, they have a unique solution to the “What about those who have never heard?”dilemma. They practice “baptism for the dead” by which you can be baptized for a dead ancestor in order to give him or her the opportunity to spend eternity with God. The choice is still up to them, but since you were baptized for them, they can now make a choice they couldn’t have otherwise made.

They clearly are trying to “convert” me. I think I might visit one of their “temples” this weekend. I visited a Muslim Mosque last year, so I guess I’ll try a Mormon Temple too.

But all of this only reinforces my opinion that you should not condemn or judge a particular people group unless you are friends with someone from that people group (which then makes it nearly impossible to judge and condemn them). We need to try to get to know other people–with no strings attached (e.g. “I’ll befriend you so you become a Christian”)–so that we can love them. Too many of us “Christians” spend all our time pointing the finger at people we know nothing about. We think we know them because of something we read, or because of what some Christian teacher said. Then, based on this distorted knowledge, we feel justified in condemning and criticizing these people and their beliefs.

I’m not saying that criticisms cannot or should not be directed at other people. It should. But such criticisms must only take place within a genuine, on-going relationship with someone of that group, in which we invite and accept their criticism of us. If we cannot accept criticism from others in a peaceful manner, we must not give criticism either. Only in this way can we speak the truth in love.

So who have you been condemning and criticizing recently? Maybe you should take them out for dinner, and with absolutely no agenda to “fix their life” or “correct their beliefs” just strive to get to know them as a person. Such a practice will change your life. I guarantee it.

Pregnant Love

By Jeremy Myers

9 Comments

Do you know any pregnant teenagers? Chances are good that you do. Apparently, teenage pregnancy is on the rise this year, and some sociologists believe it may have something to do with the movies “Knocked Up” and “Juno” which portrayed two young women who became pregnant and decided not to abort. I don’t know if sociologists are right on this or not.

However, in a recent article in TIME magazine called “Postcard: Gloucester” (June 30, 2008, p. 8), it was reported that Gloucester (MA) High School is seeing four times the number of teenage pregnancies as last year. Initially, “some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. …[But] School officials started looking into the matter…after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant” with many of the girls repeatedly returning for multiple tests, and acting disappointed when they found out they were not pregnant.

It was soon discovered that many of the female students had made a pact with each other to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

Why would they do such a thing?

One student, a girl named Ireland who got pregnant as a freshman, said “They’re so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally.”

Are you loving other people unconditionally? It may be one of the greatest needs in our society today.

I Got a Job!

By Jeremy Myers

13 Comments

I know many of you have been praying for me, so I just wanted to update everybody and let you know that I got a job. It’s not glamorous, but it pays the bills (some of them at least!). I am learning to clean carpets. I work 12-14 hour days, five days a week (which will probably hinder my blogging ability). The job pays $10 an hour, but it is all I could get right now.

The company I am working for is called ZeroRez, and it is state-of-the-art, zero residue, green carpet cleaning. It doesn’t use soaps and chemicals, and it removes 95% of the moisture (others cleaners only remove about 70%) so it dries faster. And to top it off, there is no other carpet cleaning company in the world that cleans as well OR as green. If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and want to get your carpets cleaned, go with ZeroRez. Of course, wait until I become a tech, so I will be able to come out and do it for you.

The most exciting thing about the job is who I am working with. Most of them are Mormons. As I rode around in the truck today, I was able to talk for two hours or more with a great young guy named Seth. We talked about the beliefs and popular misconceptions regarding Mormonism, and I look forward to talking with him more.

Give Away Your Bibles

By Jeremy Myers

3 Comments

I recently packed up my office, all 210 book-feet of them, and in the process, realized I had about 30 Bibles (At least I’m not Bill Chamberlain, who owns over 2000 different English versions). I didn’t need them all, and didn’t want to throw any out, so ended up donating about a dozen to my pastor to give away. I hope he is able to use them, but I imagine that most will just end up collecting dust somewhere.

Today, I found something I wish I had done with them. Michigan-based Christian Resources International will help you send your used Bibles overseas. For only $11, you can send your extra Bible to someone who needs it. Also, Jerry Kingery directs an organization called The Bible Foundation which networks Bible drives for use in missions organizations. Check both out.

Of course, if you are simply interested in distributing new Bibles, we regularly send out Bibles through the Gideons and Bible’s Unbound.

Get the Word out!

Happy Fathers Day?

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

I vividly remember the first Father’s Day sermon I ever preached. As I tried to figure out what to preach on, I remembered that someone told me that there were no examples of perfectly good fathers in Scripture (other than God). In other words, every father in Scripture who is given more than just a brief mention, had serious moral failures and shortcomings. They were all flawed.

So since there probably weren’t any fathers in Scripture that were good examples of how to be a father, I decided to preach on the worst father in Scripture–Lot. So that is what I did. I called it “The Worst Father’s Day Sermon Ever.” And wow, was it bad! It is not a sermon you will ever find in my podcast. I remember looking out as I preached seeing all the mothers and fathers staring at me with that “deer in the headlights” look, eyes wide open, mouth agape. Some of the mothers were covering the ears of their children. It was bad.

After the sermon, not one person even tried to be nice about the message by saying “Nice sermon, pastor.” I only had one man make one comment about the message. He came up to me afterwards and said, “Well, one thing is for sure. That truly was the worst father’s day sermon ever.” He was a good friend of mine, so we both laughed about it, but the truth is that I felt pretty ashamed. I still do.

But ironically, this sort of thing happens every year on Father’s Day in churches across the country. The sermons that are preached from our pulpits may not be as bad as mine was, but most Father’s Day sermons tend to beat up on dads rather than encourage them and challenge them to dream big, take risks for God, embark on an adventure, charge ahead, and be a man! Instead, we beat them over the head with everything they are doing wrong.

I’m reading the excellent book How Women Help Men Find God by David Murrow (I will post a review of it when I’m finished), and in the book he quotes Dr. Kevin Leman as saying:

Not only are men supposed to attend morning Bible studies, but they’re supposed to get home in time for dinner, spend time alone with each child, date their wives once a week, and earn enough money so that their wives can stay home with their young children. This is a heavy load, and some Christian men start to resent it” (p. 37).

Then Murrow quotes Nancy Wray Gegoire who said this:

I’ve often noticed that sermons on Mother’s Day tend to gush over moms, while on Father’s Day they tell dads to shape up” (p. 37).

Just yesterday, I read the following over at the Church for Men blog:

Mother’s Day: A day devoted to honoring moms.
Father’s Day: A day to beat up men for not doing a better job!

So I hope that this Sunday, you are able to honor, bless, and encourage the men in your church. If you want to learn how to challenge men to action, I recommend the books by David Murrow and John Eldredge. And whatever you do, don’t preach on Lot.

P.S. My “Lot Sermon” was my third worst sermon ever. My WORST sermon was at a wedding. Some day I’ll tell you about it. I hope that couple is still together, but if not, they can blame me for starting out their marriage on the wrong foot. Yes, it was that bad.

Hodges on Hebrews (Part 8)

By Jeremy Myers

US Evangelism

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

I used to think that the best way to evangelize was to preach in churches. I figured that most “Christians” were not actually “saved” and so needed to hear the “true gospel” (as preached by me), and once they believed it, they would then become “true believers.”

In other words, I thought that the most fertile soil for evangelism in the United States was among those who were already in churches. I saw the US as a mission field, and churches as the primary location to sew the seeds of the gospel.

As I have developed a missionary mindset, this thinking has changed. While I certainly believe that the US is a mission field, and while I do believe that there are many, many people who go to Christian churches who have not believed in Jesus for eternal life, I have found that the most common result of telling church goers that they might not be saved is a lot of angry church goers.

I think that the average person in the average church, even if they don’t believe in Jesus for eternal life, are not very receptive or open to anything I might be able to tell them. If they don’t believe in Jesus, but they do attend church, they are likely to have a “Pharisaical” mindset, and therefore, it is almost a complete waste of time, money, and energy to pursue them.

The much more fertile soil in the US are those who would never darken the door of any church in the US. They are the ones I am hoping to reach, and who are receptive to talking about Jesus, and His promise of eternal life to those who believe in Him for it. Trying to tell this message to people in churches seems to do very little except split churches.

So who are you talking to about the free offer of eternal life through faith in Jesus? Are they primarily “churched” people? If so, how’s that working out for you? Have you seen any “conversions” recently? How about church splits and angry board meetings? I’d say that if as a result of what you’ve said, you’ve made more people angry than you have seen people come to faith in Jesus, you’re probably sewing seeds on the wrong soil.