I met an interesting guy the other day. The conversation was strictly business until we happened to make a connection. It turns out we both went to the same college back in New York. Of course I graduated 15 years ahead of him… OK so it was a bit more than that even.

But that’s not my point.

You might think that, seeing as how our college is oriented toward the same fairly specialized industry that we work in, we’d both run into fellow alumni fairly regularly.

Trust me, we don’t.

For one thing our school is fairly small. And Savannah is a long ways from New York City, in more ways than one, if you know what I mean. There simply aren’t very many of us in town. In fact, I only know of two at the moment, which is one more than I knew about last week.

But that’s not my point either.

It often amazes me how one little passing comment can lead to a bond with someone that you don’t get most of the time. In this case I had previously dealt with someone else at his company so I naturally asked where the other person was (answer: promoted and relocated). A little more polite conversation with a fellow Yankee in the Deep South and up pops a bond out of nowhere.

Go figure.

Gorgeous is reading a book right now called, interestingly enough, Connecting by Larry Crabb. It must be good because she’s read big chunks of it to me. According to Amazon.com, Crabb wants us to

“adopt a groundbreaking, but biblical, approach to healing the deep wounds of the soul – an approach that centers around building intimate, healing mini-communities in our lives and churches.”

Now I’m all about healing the deep wounds of the soul and all that. But I don’t see myself as that ambitious. Maybe its just that I would feel somewhat pretentious working toward something that monumental.

But I do know that I like it when I feel connected. Our church has a strong emphasis on small groups as well as our Sunday services. It is good to build those friendships, especially for folks like us who don’t live near their families. Connecting seems to make folks feel better and enjoy life more.

I’ve assured Gorgeous that I’ll read the book when she’s done.

In the mean time I’ll just appreciate connections that I find in unexpected places.

Enjoy!

When I got home from work today there was a nice little box from Amazon.com waiting for me. Now you gotta understand, I’m a bit of a compulsive reader. I tend to read several books simultaneously. I think I drive Gorgeous a bit nuts with all the different books I leave scattered throughout the house. And I haven’t bought a new book for myself in a while. So indulge me as I savor the moment.

The first thing I noticed was that it definitely gets an A+ on the packaging, baby! The book is a soft cover book. But it comes in a semi-clear rigid plastic sleeve kind of like you might see a CD set come in. When I pulled the book out of the sleeve, I noticed that it seemed a little stiff for a soft cover. Turns out that’s because it came with a Limited Edition DVD which “contains 12 inspirational life clips.” That was a nice unexpected bonus, for sure.

The first four pages are packed with recommendations. Of course I read every one, couldn’t help myself. On the second page, I see a paragraph from my own pastor, Greg Surratt.

“Craig Groeschel and Life Church are on the ‘bleeding edge’ of what the church may look like in the not-too-distant future. I love their vision, passion, creativity, and willingness to share what they are learning. Craig is the kind of leader who creates enthusiastic followers of Christ who believe that the only limits are those of vision.”

That sounds like a pretty good endorsement to me.

The subtitle of the book is “A Different Way to See Your Life”. And inside the front cover is the question, “Are you living someone else’s dream for your life, or no dream at all?” Good question.

Now I’m not about the hype. I want substance, especially where books are concerned. I’ll let you if Chazown delivers.

But it may take a while. Flipping through I see there is a ton of questions to answer to get to the root of the unique personal vision for your life. I think I have some work to do.

Enjoy!

Gorgeous is out of town. She and the other girls from our small group went down to Fernandina Beach, FL to overnight at a friend’s place. Our friends were out of town so Gorgeous got permission to have a slumber party at their place. It’s a little weird, I know, but our friends tend to be a trusting lot.

Well us guys got talking about the girl’s road trip and decided we should do something manly while they were gone. So we decided congregate at the biggest TV in the group, order pizzas and watch a manly flick. So after we gorged ourselves on Domino’s finest, extra meat, we had the “I don’t know, what do you want to watch” conversation. We eventually narrowed the field to Master and Commander and Serenity. We finally settled on Serenity because more of us had already seen the other flick. It didn’t much matter to me. I brought both finalists.

There’s just something about watching a good manly movie on a big screen with the surround sound really LOUD! The girls just don’t quite seem to appreciate the finer points of actually feeling the explosions rumble in your chest cavity as the sonic pressure squeezes your head until you try to go a little cross-eyed in an attempt to relieve the pressure. Oh, yeah!

I have to remind Gorgeous from time to time of the guy’s perspective: Things that go whoosh and boom are cool. Speed is good. Faster is better. She just shakes her head. Sometimes I get the feeling that her take on that whole thing is that I should just grow up. Can’t really argue much with that.

Anyway she’s out of town so I’m a little short on sleep because I have this tendency to stay up too late when she’s not around. Somehow there’s just not the same incentive to get in bed when she’s gone. Go figure.

And it’s shearing day.

I am way overdue for a hair cut. It’s not so much that my hair’s too long. But the (remarkably few, if I do say so myself) grey ones on the side start to get a little cocky if I don’t keep them in check. It wouldn’t do if I started to look “older.” Then people might actually start to get the idea that maybe I should grow up.

Oh, and I’m starting to get some sideways glances from my neighbors about the lawn. I think I may be the only one on the cul-de-sac that hasn’t cut it yet this season. So I guess I’ll have to brave the gnats and get that chore done today.

And while I’m out for shearing I’m going to swing by and join the Y. Since I’ve been married my shoulders have effectively fallen to my gut. Something must be done! Gotta hang on to my youth as long as possible you know.

Am I a little vain? Perhaps. But life’s too short to get on the express train to the old dirt nap, as my brother in law would say.

Christianity Today just posted a great article about that David Murrow book in my Book Recommendations. The bottom line is most men feel the same way about church as these guys feel about most Church Marketing.

And here’s the grand irony: When our churches finally get a clue and change to become someplace where guys can know it’s OK to be a guy, the women will dig it too. Murrow has the stats to back it up.

Get the book. Read it. Change your church.

Derek Brown put up a few book recommendations the other day. He’s got some good stuff there. I put together a few of my own that I’d recommend today. I wouldn’t necessarily call them all “must reads”. They’re just some that challenged me. (Some would argue that doesn’t take much!) So here they are in no particular order.

Epic by John Eldredge. Now I am a fan of most of his stuff. I have to admit that one of his most popular, Wild at Heart, didn’t speak to me as much as some others. But that’s only because I’m not much of an outdoorsy guy. My idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service. In Epic, John helps us see that each of us were specially created to be the principle character in the epic story that is our lives. Unfortunately we’ve forgotten (or we were never told) how big the story is that we are a part of. We each have an important part to fulfill in the greatest story ever. It’s a pocket book so it is a good one for people who are not big readers. And it help you see a much bigger view of your own life.

Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow was first recommended to me by a buddy of mine that I often don’t agree with. I love him, in part, because he makes me think. So when he recommended this one, I though, “Sounds like another church bashing book to me.” Finally I think my buddy gave me a copy of it to get me to read it. Man am I glad he did! I kept saying to myself, “That’s exactly how I feel!” Murrow points out that in the typical church in America there are far more women than men. He’s right. Men are staying away from the church in droves. (As an aside, this is one area where I think our church, Seacoast excels. One of the first things I noticed about the church when I walked in was that there seemed to be a much higher percentage of men than I was used to in church.) But the best part is that Murrow doesn’t just point out a problem, even though he has tons of research and figures to back up his points. He goes on to give bunches of things that churches can do to help attract more men again. And the changes he suggests are pretty much all simple, real world things well in the reach of the smaller budget traditional churches. They aren’t gimmicky or trendy. This book really resonated with me. Everyone in leadership should read it. If we are going to reach our nation, we’ve got to get better at reaching our men.

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper to be one of the modern classics of our faith. I can’t seem to find my copy at the moment. I might have loaned it to someone. But I remember that his thesis is this: The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him for ever. We were made, and we feel our most fulfilled, when we are enjoying God. Some of you out there may think, “Duh!” But for me it was a pretty profound statement. And then the way Piper goes on to plumb the depths of what that all means really changed my walk with God for the better. “You mean life a Christian can be fun? Full of enjoyment?” Radical stuff considering most of our churches are filled with folks who look like they’ve been dipped in pickle juice!

Based on recommendations from Mark Batterson (Is that a cool name or what?) over at Evotional.com I went ahead and ordered Chazown by Graig Groeschel. If this bit from the book description doesn’t get your juices flowing, I don’t know what can. ”Vision and Purpose: Dream It, Live It, Attain It Do you wake up each day motivated by knowing exactly why you were created? Guided by intention in every step? Enter: chazown.” I’m excited to get it and I’ll let you know what I think of it after I’m done with it.