I really liked this post today on the Catalyst website. Tim really took what I don’t like about Starbucks and flipped it and stuck it to the western church. I think he at least has a valid point. There are some obvious generalizations that are not across the board. Either way, I agree with shutting down. At least cutting some of the crap, the sacred cows that do nothing save lateral movement, to make time for self-evaluation. I think it would be healthy to say the least.

I am really behind on reading my blogs, so i’m marking them all as read and just dropping by a few blogs to catch up. I stopped by Tony Morgan’s blog today and really connected with this post. It is so true and so overlooked. It reinforces the need for all those things in any organization. It makes me thankful for the leadership at the church I attend.

I finished AJ Jacob’s book about living the Bible literally. The New Testament portion of the book was so much shorter and less involved. That kind of bummed me out. The part that was really cool was when he was in Israel. He felt so connected to the history of seeking God. He realized that many of his endeavors were dead ends because we weren’t intended to do it alone. It is never about God and just one person. It is in the context of others that God makes sense. He ended the year and decided to hang on to some of the stuff. He is going to continue taking a sabbath. Turning off his cell phone, brewing a big pot of coffee before so he won’t have to work at all, not looking at e-mail, just being for one day a week. He said his whole week is oriented around it now and can’t imagine getting rid of it. There are some cool insights, and he is entertaining and methodical. I would recommend it if you’ve got the hankering for some light reading.