Today's rant is brought to you by the letter "S"

"S" is for Satan, and how he takes no greater pleasure than in distracting Christians from our mission. No, he may not be able to claim our hearts, but he sure can screw with our heads and create chaos.

The topic of the day is dissension in the Church. As you may or may not know, I'm a member of a small church plant in Hollywood aptly named the Hollywood Church. I haven't been with them from day one, but I've been with them for over 2 of their 2 1/2 years of existence. I love my church, and am so thankful that God led me to it and the people involved with it.

Lately, we've been experiencing our fair share of "disgruntled" members, and it's resulted in a significant flight from our church. In the grand scheme of the size of the church, the numbers aren't too terribly overwhelming. But because it's a good chunk of my very small core group, it's a significant amount in my world.

Unfortunately, I started to let myself get caught up in the issues and considered bailing myself. But then I realized I wasn't going to be "one of them." I'm not going to bail on my church because it's not satisfying my every need. I'm sorry, but that's just selfish. Do I have issues with certain aspects of the church? Absolutely! But I'm sorry, unless these issues get in the way of the gospel message being preached each and every Sunday, then they're trivial. Should they be addressed? Yes. But should they cause you to leave? No.

So I challenge each and every one of you to quit running from problems in your church and instead be a part of the solution. Pray, communicate, get your hands dirty. It's not supposed to be easy. The Christian life isn't a walk in the park. And I'm not just addressing the issues we're having at the HC. This goes on everywhere. Probably even more so in the Bible Belt than out here. Quit leaving Grand Avenue for First Baptist. Quit leaving Eastside for Grand Avenue. It's ridiculous. Quit leaving your church without fighting for it. You're letting Satan win.

T-Minus One Week...

...until Vacation!!!!! Woohoo!!!

I will go here....

And here....

And here...

And here...


That's right! I'm going back to Germany and Paris one last time, and I CAN'T WAIT!!

Oscars

Mo'Nique.

Christoph Waltz.

Sandra Bullock.

Jeff Bridges.

Kathryn Bigelow.

The Hurt Locker.

Avatar: All Techy Awards.

The End.

Politics again?!

You know how I'm always like, "I'm not going to talk about politics anymore," but then I always do? Yeah well, here we go again. I can't help it. I find it interesting. Good news though. This will be short, and I'll just post links to the articles I read. That way, you can check them out, or not. Your choice.

Palin Should Cut Out Hypocrisy

Why Dissing Palin Won't Work For Dems

As you've probably figured out from the headings/picture, they're about Sarah Palin. They're both editorials. One essentially pro, and one anti. Oddly enough, I agree with both of them. She may be the face of the new conservative movement, but let's be honest. There's not that much there to back it up. I faulted Obama for lack of experience, and I'm not going to let Palin slide for it either. She doesn't have much under her belt, and she quit the one big thing she was elected to to bask in the celebrity spotlight. On the other hand, the Democrats need to quit bashing her and wake up. She's connected with middle America, and you might just want to figure out why. Democrats have control, yet they're somehow disconnecting from the typical American more and more each day. 2012 is not going to be a good time for them if they don't do something about it.

Here's my solution. Republicans are dumb. Democrats are dumb. Let's forget parties and all become INDEPENDENTS!! Geena Davis for president!! And yes, that is a dated television reference. I'll let you IMDb that one.

A Church on Mission

A friend posted this on Facebook, and I thought I would share. It's a great 2 minute video on the idea of a missional church.

Dear Super Bowl:

Please let relevant bands/musical acts play the halftime show from now on. We get it. Justin and Janet screwed up. But must we, the public, continue to suffer. I'm sorry, but I don't care about The Who. If this were the '60s and/or '70s, then it might be a different story. But it's 2010. Did you hear that? 2010!! I couldn't pick The Who out of a lineup if you held a gun to my head. And that's even after seeing them perform last night.

And honestly, I don't even mean to pick on The Who. Here's a list of the previous 5 year's performers:

2005: Paul McCartney

2006: The Rolling Stones

2007: Prince

2008: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

2009: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Granted, they are all legends of Rock and Roll, but again...it's a new millennium for goodness sake. When was the last time one of these groups had a major hit?!

Bottom line, I don't want to see old men jamming to songs I've never even heard during the halftime show anymore. You know, unless they're paired with some current performers a la my favorite halftime show of Aerosmith/NSync/Britney/Nelly. Now that was a good show!

Respectfully yours,

Me

Hamm & Buble