This is a fly-by entry that will probably become a sermon one day. 

1) My wife just bought an awesome new kitchen faucet from IKEA, chrome, goose neck, the whole nine yards.  I set out to install it and everything was going great; from removal of old faucet to dropping in new one, to hook-ups to not knocking my head under the sink.  Then I turned the water shut-offs back on, and the lines were spurting water all over.  After fitting and refitting, tightening and retightening, the leak was still there.  Coudn't figure out why water was still squirting out of the connections until my deep research found the culprit...an old dried out gasket in one of the locking points.  I had to run all over the city to find this little special gasket, only to find a comparable one, but not a true replacement.  After snuggling in the gasket to it's spot, I was dismayed to find, the lines still sprung a leak.   Wow...here I was with a $200 beautiful, chrome faucet worthy of a picture in a home magazine, and it was going no where because of a little gasket.  What power this little 30 cent gasket had over the $200 faucet.

2) Our church bought a brand new projector a while back, with easy to use controls, easy hook-up to laptops, and best of high, a high intensity lamp to bring out the best in our powerpoints and videos.  After several weekends of satisfied use, I got to our service one morning and proceeded to hook-up my laptop to the projector, only to find out there was no power cord for the projector to run off of.   All our presentations that week were "lost."  All the work we put into the graphics to synchronize with our message was "gone."  It was all stuck on my laptop with no where to go.  There was no way to project our work.  What power a $5 power cord had over our weeks worth of work and preparation.

Take away:  We can get all excited about the sexy chrome faucets and high powered projectors in our life, how great it looks, and how much value it will add to our lives, but we won't be going anywhere unless we have the hidden, humble, small, unheralded but incredibly critical non-sexy gaskets and power cords in our lives.  If we don't have them, there will be no power, and we will spring leaks.   

What are the gaskets and power cords you need to tend to in your walk with God and ministry?

My good friend, Michael Fletcher, Senior Pastor of multi-thousand congregation at Manna Church just posted this at his blog.  I re-post here in it's entirety b/c it's great content and it represents a man who's willing to change to reach this generation....

I just returned from a conference on social media - made my head swim. Of course, to the young guys I took with me, all of this stuff, the bulk of which was less than five years old, was old hat. They were very underwhelmed. My first take was, “Who has time for all this?” Who has time to tweet every thought that comes into their head, take enough pictures to keep their facebook page interesting, or have enough profound thoughts to post in a daily or weekly blog? BUT, in order to reach this generation, we have to learn to speak the language they speak in the manner in which they speak it. It isn’t about information; its about connection; its about being. You don’t have to be profound or picture perfect or insanely articulate. You just have to be yourself and connect. And once that connection happens (provided it is real and not simply a form or social media manipulation) ministry can happen. The church HAS to get this! Not using social media in this generation is like preaching in a robe in the previous generation. Who has time for this? Who doesn’t? The man who ignores social media will wake up one day in a room by himself preaching a message that no one can hear.

Michael

Video-resourced church. With so many fantastic video resources out there, I'm thinking out loud whether we should be an aggregator of the best video resources for our congregation, and as way for people to "taste test" our church first, or just feed at a distance until they're ready to engage in a full-orb church experience in person (which is the end-goal for everyone).

You've got VideoTeaching.com ready to launch. You've got NorthPoint.tv/share (Andy Stanley) ready to launch. You've got Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill out there. You've got Craig Groeschel LifeChurch.tv out there.  And you've got me, a local pastor!  All fabulous resources.  And here's the deal:  They all have huge kingdom hearts and want to share their resources for free.  Our access as earthlings to biblical anointed teaching is unprecedented in history, and I mean that literally.  But would it be a sidetrack or a servant?  Could it really help make Jesus famous in our city? (our governing purpose).

I'm church planting in Vancouver.  I love it.  Been at it 5.5 years now.  Our church is at a cozy 80 people, but we are a rockin 80 people, and I'm not just putting a positive spin on it.  I could go on and on about this...but I'll control myself and leave it for now.

I need your help?  Please tell me if you've become a VRC and how you did it?  What were some keys? What were the failures.  Is it even worth trying?  Have you been wildly or moderately successful?  Get down to details.   How do you do small groups with it?  Sunday services?  Do you use live streaming?  Web-based?   Do you use big-screen monitors?  Make available on iphone? 

We are a techno-savvy, technology loving church.  And our western culture is bent that way, so the bigger frame is there to try something like this.

Lastly, here's why I'm pondering this:  Jn 3:1-2 says Nicodemus came to Jesus "by night."  There are many that are hungry for God, but for various reasons need the "cover of night" to start the process of engaging God.  To me, implementing a VRC is a possible way to reach the Nicodemus' in our city.  

Feedback.  Please leave comments and thoughts, even if it's one line or a link to further the discussion.  

Thanks.

This song is powerful...prophetic, passionate and on the mark.

If you think Jack Bauer leads an exciting life as depicted in the TV hit series 24, just take a look at 72 hours in the life of Jesus as seen by the apostle John.  Most likely we are more attuned to the "God of slowness & patience" than we are the "God of speed & miracles."  But the latter is exactly what we see in the opening chapters of John - Jesus moving fast and furious, from taking over the revival from John the Baptist to turning water into wine.   When God acts with this kind of swiftness in our lives, as he did in John's, it goes straight into our memory banks and builds a unforgettable personal history with God.  More importantly, it ignites world-changing faith and an "all-in" attitude.  After the whirlwind of the three days, John writes "and the disciples believed in him."  Jn 2:11.  That's what God is after when he moves in speed and miracles - building up our faith.  Full message here.