the personal blog of Steve Sjogren

continued from Part 2, which you can view here

4: Concerns about criticisms from the small minded ensnared me.

That is, in 2008 I got caught up the times in worrying about what other people thought about me. It’s not that all who are potentially critical of me are necessarily small minded. It just so happens that most of them are such! Is it so in your life as well?

There were times in this past year when I was caught up in the notion that a lot of people were thinking some pretty critical things about me. When you take risks, when you’re out on the front lines doing things that are not commonly done by other people it is easy to begin to think that your target of other people’s criticisms. It is easy to think that other people are thinking thoughts of slander, thoughts of, “Man that guy is off the wall. What is he thinking? Why is he doing what he’s up to? Who does he think he is? Somebody ought to tell him the right way to go…” It’s easy a conger up in this inner conversation when you are convinced other people are focused upon you.

At an emotionally strategic time a significant conversation with my grandmother came back to me. She told me, “If you only knew how little other people think about you - you would be liberated to take a lot more risks! If you only knew just how seldom other people think about you in general in life you would be so much more capable of taking risks. I would guess the risk taker in you would be out there jumping on top of all sorts of new ideas all the time.”

This lady, my grandma, went on to explain she was convinced that nearly NONE of us are on the minds of other people. We are VERY RARELY in the thoughts of others. We simply don’t rank that highly. Others don’t have the space to think about us because they are preoccupied with their preeminent thought - thinking continually about themselves every minute of the day. That it is highly unlikely we will ever become so famous that other people are openly critical of you. It is highly unlikely that you are ever to become so famous that other people actually spend a fraction of a second in a given day ever thinking about you and what is it you’re up to even if you are the head of something or other in life. There just isn’t the brain space for them to be caught up with you and your stuff. You just aren’t that important. Get over your preoccupation with yourself.

Then get on board the risk-taking part of life. Start living life the way life was designed to be lived. Let’s move on with it. Life was meant to be lived out loud - boldly, profoundly, sustainably, wonderfully - all the things that we are a incapable of doing when we think other people are preoccupied with us. Guaranteed they are not. Life is a lot bigger than other people’s critical thoughts - how exciting is this!”

Final Thoughts

As we move into the coming year let’s remember the common thread of what we have learned from our favorite miscalculations for this past year.
I wish for you that this coming year- 2009 - be a year not free of mistakes but a year that is enthusiastic as you run not walk toward it.  Possessing more exciting things than this past one. Let’s break into this coming year with the greatest enthusiasm we’ve ever known.

How amazing it is that God allows us to get a brand new year to try out each time Jan. 1st rolls around. No matter how we handled the past one we still get a new one to try out. His mercies really are new every morning - and every year. He is just that kind of God. He is just that kind of Merciful One.

Let’s run not walk into this with heart, soul, mind and strength.

I am excited to share this with you. I do this with you because you are the people who have supported me through thick and thin these many years. I don’t think I could do this without you - nor would I want to or even imagine trying!

continued from Part 1, which you can view here

2: I concerned myself too much with where finances were headed.

Sometimes it’s possible to not necessarily worry about something but to merely focus on it and to haphazardly become negatively ensnared. It’s possible to become preoccupied with a matter that may be neutral then you become waylaid in the process. So it has been for me with money at times this past year. I don’t consider myself to be in financial straits. However I do feel the pain of a lot of people – that just goes with the territory of my current roles in life. I live life as a professional people connector. With that territory comes worry for others. Sometimes I tend to concern myself too much about the things people are going through. Other’s difficulties naturally become my difficulties. Perhaps you go through that to a degree. With me it is increased because of my Tye A and my role in life.

Regarding money, I focused too much about where it would come from especially. I have a feeling this burden was shared by a lot of others in the US in 2008.

The year 2008 was a negative banner year for us as a country. We dug down deep end and not yet found the basement of our emotional house. Most are still digging. For someone to walk past our emotional house they will see the dirt flying out from the basement windows today. The digging will cease soon I believe. It must stop soon. There’s not much dirt left to dig.

It’s safe to say in many of our cases 2008 has been an economic emotional roller coaster.

When it comes to rightly relating to money, we don’t lack information so much as we lack emotional stability. We need a soothing voice that is reassuring us that everything is going to be okay. Right now many are looking to our new president to speak hope and peace to us among other things. We’re looking to the feds to say that to us as. But what we really need is encouragement from God – day after day – in each step of our day in fact. But no president can provide that kind of reassuring voice to mankind.

Ultimately only God can make a difference of any kind in our financial standing. God is the only difference maker when all is said and done.
I’ve heard plenty of sermons about the source of all funds – God on high is our supply. All funding flows from him no matter what the local expression appears. I’ve heard the right information for years – perhaps you have as well. But it’s one thing to hear the right info. It’s another matter to take into our hearts how that works. We need great application wisdom.

Have you noticed that? Just because we have the right information we don’t necessarily get it right when it comes to the outworking of how that works.

I know my heart is thick more often than sensitive especially when it comes to the matter of the resourcing of finances. My heart is more difficult to be gotten a hold of that it is delicate and easily touched by God’s power when it comes to funding.

What I am in constant need of is a touch from God. His touch needs to penetrate my heart. Once that occurs I am able to make progress in life.
God is always ready to penetrate our hearts. His power is sufficient to touch our hearts at the deep down level.  Our God is a God with invasionary power. We must not be naïve about the need for God’s Spirit being present for progress to be made. God’s presence by his Spirit is necessary for us to gain any kind of traction in the realm of financial perspective. God gets our attention first through the pain of finances it seems. Then he gains power in our lives by the presence of his Holy Spirit that allows us to make commitments that we are able to follow up on the gaze of his indwelling Spirit. It’s a simply profound interaction.

3: Concerns about future momentum ensnared me.

The future is headed in a direction that is precisely where God is. If I am spending time and energy connecting with God and working on my capacity to connect with God above all else I am making my strategic moves forward in the right direction. For me to dwell, that is to worry, about the small itsy-bitsy meanderings in the road instead of to stay at the center path of the dotted line in the road I am making strategic errors in my navigation of things.

Amazingly it is easy to see that God has been the author of momentum in my life consistently all these years but this year it was easy to question whether that would continue another year or two down the road.

When I look at the pattern of faithfulness of God it seem ridiculous to question God for even a nanosecond. Yet still I found it difficult to hold off the questioning voices that seemed to return until I “Journaled” them away with the comparisons of God’s faithfulness in the past (as David did so masterfully in the Psalms) to the immediate concerns I have. With this technique in hand I have been able to quiet these clamoring voices.

This has been a year of over concern and under influence. I’ve come to realize that I have been preoccupied with many things I cannot change – at least not now. I’ve come to realize that the future has loomed overly large in my mind and heart. I have had dreams repeatedly about the future. I’ve worried about the future and my capacity to meet the future. What is worry exactly? It is the emotional state I end up in one distressing, emotional state where the inner pressure is more than I can bear and it begins to drain me to a level of overall systemic debilitation. I’m not wired for this kind of emotional configuration. As my focus shifts to this I began to lose it and begin to be draining beyond words description. Ultimately I grow ill all around.

None of us are wired to grab onto the future and steer it way it needs to be steered. When we try to steer what we cannot our lives suffer. The quality of life in our souls grows weak and we begin to fade away.

To simply be alive causes one to be a bit preoccupied with such things. However the thin line of what is reasonable and proper with this and what is over the top is easily crossed due to human preoccupation.

We tend to be caught up with what we focus upon. That is, we tend to become embroiled with the very things that we gaze upon.

If we are not careful we will fall in love with the very things that intimidate us. We can become enamored with the things that scare the daylights out of us. Thus we have a love-hate relationship with things in life. How maddening is that? I do not know about you but I am not all that interested in having it any more such relationships. My life has been drained already by such arrangements. I’m ready to move on and have just strong love relationship the rest of my days.

continue on to Part 3, which you can view here

At the end of each year I spend time reflecting on my 11.5 months of making as many mistakes as possible. I look back upon the year that has passed and its miscalculations with a degree of glee. With a bit slight demented smile I sit down, a pad of paper in hand, a good pen as my companion I narrow down a long list of misfires into something I can relate to others as my favorites of the year.

I say “Demented” because not all people relish the notion of seeing in positive the things we don’t do all that well. In my case I have grown accustomed to reflecting upon these faux pas in a positive light each year. I see my misfires as opportunities for learning. These are a means for growing ever smarter, more emotionally vigilant as I move into each coming year.

This year life is no different. These are now akin to the coming year of attractions in the theater of my life. I’ve done a decent job of continuing to make a sufficient number of mistakes that provide ample opportunities to fill the pages and a few minutes of what you’re about to participate in.

Maybe we are a little bit genius in our dementia – perhaps in our capacity to look back with the flow of positivity to it we have something going for us. It is in the positive reflection regarding mistakes that we learn our most powerful mistakes / lessons.

So for a few minutes let’s learn sit back, listen up and gather together to see what God has for us.

1:  I concerned myself with the notion of the small-minded idea of “Excellence” instead of pursuing what God calls  “Greatness.”

I’ve learned that as we pursue matters that begin with the notion of excellence we are in all likelihood going to talk ourselves into thinking of something that is utterly impossible for mere humans to accomplish.

Some things are attainable. Excellence is something humans talk plenty about. We chat about it as though it is something we can set our sites upon then persevere on our “To do” list then to simply get there by human effort. No so. In fact, never so. When we begin to chat about excellence and we must understand what stands behind that notion – it is a notion that appeal to our lower, broken nature.

The concept of excellence is not biblical. Instead of the “E” word we are wise to align ourselves with the biblical concept of “Greatness” – a word God repeats many times in the scriptures and holds high as a concept that describes his character and that which he calls his people to develop as we walk increasing dependence upon him.

What is greatness? It is a location in our orbit of nearness with God where we realize that our life is making a difference because we’ve done all we can do – we’ve said all we can say – we have aspired to all we can – and now all that is left to happen is for God to show up and make the ultimate difference in things. He is God and we can never fake his works. A person who attains greatness has an ever-increasing notion of the vastness of the power of God.

What is greatness? What does the Bible mean when it holds up the word “Greatness”? It is the quality of having an enduring life. We do what we can do in human faithfulness. We walk as disciples of Christ – little replicas of the life of Christ. We do what we are capable of doing. We lean into the strength of God with all our hearts. We have done all we can do. All that is left is to trust in God – to see God show up to do what he and he alone can do.

We know from lots of Bible promises and biblical stories that God majors in the notion of holding high the theme of showing up in the nick of time to show himself strong in our lives. When he is called upon, and when we cannot go forward but by the appearance of God himself, God loves to show up and prove himself to be all he promises in his word.

Then greatness begins to happen at the next, deeper level in our lives.

In greatness God proves himself as the deciding factor. If God does not show up there will be no greatness. We show up in human faithfulness. Then there is the mere possibility of greatness being attained. But in the end that is still left up to God. We cannot control the will of God. God is God and we are not. We cannot force Gods hand. God will do as he pleases and only what he pleases. We can pray. We can show up on time we can do our part to be faithful. But the rest is left up to God Almighty. If God so wills greatness will occur.

There is a real problem today among many, myself included, with our times of operating on a small picture of God. My challenge is the same as yours I suspect. I operate continually on a too small picture / notion of God. It’s easy to become chummy with God and miss his grandeur. We are destined to be blown away by the amazing vast size of God on a continual basis. When I have a geeky itsy-bitsy picture of God in my mind and heart and I am operating that way in my dealings with him I run the risk of anticipating that at all times I can do things myself. I can anticipate that he will of course always do things that will cause me and my system and my church – all the works of my hands in fact – to be seen as something that is fantastic. It doesn’t work that way folks. The way that it works is it is left to God’s hands to decide how things land. Sure, I can do things to cause a crowd to come together but that does not mean that greatness attained. I can do lots of things in an attempt to jury rig the surrounding circumstances to make God do something that he may not desire to do. In the end nothing will be changed whatsoever. I will have done nothing to change anything. Things will continue exactly as they were from the beginning. “Same as it ever was” as David Byrne wrote.

Excellence works that way. Excellence is an attempt to manipulate the end of things without taking into account the totality of the equation. Not greatness occurs because we operate in our strength only. My role is to give God my best, my highest then to lean back and say “God do with this what you will as you will and I will be satisfied.” He tends to take us at our word when we pray deep prayers of honesty from the heart.

continue on to Part 2, which you can view here

New and established leaders alike are in the same boat as our new new president steps into office. We need to establish ourselves afresh in the new year to make it clear we are moving forward with momentum.

The following points of demarcation are especially poignant if you are new to a role. You need to establish a few things with as much clarity as you can as you set out to change your territory with the mark of greatness.

Go With Momentum From On High

The only things that will endure are those that God has established. Try as we might, all our great efforts will amount to burnt hay and stubble apart from the lasting touch of God’s Spirit breathed upon things. God given intuition shows us what is established by his strength each day. The same shows us what we are to lend strength to on a weekly basis as we survey the horizon of a multitude of projects we could lend our efforts to. Only the things Jesus breathes upon will endure past the moment though.

The only real success is what God deems as enduring - those things that last. Those are the things that hold people in high esteem, that value the people that God loves to highly he sent his Son to die for. Programs that are void of showing value to people are not all that great in the eyes of God - not when they don’t esteem people.

For success we aim to build momentum by reading the signs of God’s hand is upon. We cannot fail by doing what he is doing.

God grant us the ability to see clearly that we can understand what is important and what is passing. Otherwise we are prone to losing track of the vital and wasting our lives on what is probable of going down the garbage disposal of life.

Lead With Humility of Heart

We need the presence of Big God if there is hope for success. We can do nothing apart from his intervention among us. With his presence there is nothing on the positive ledger that cannot happen. It all begins as we get walk in rugged honesty.

Walk in Abounding Hopefulness

We can be hopeful because we are aware of the source of our hope. We are aware that our hope rests in the notion that God is in charge and he is a good God who is for us in all things.

In All Things Show Clarity

“The best is yet to come!” To the degree we can we provide it we must allow invested people to look over our shoulders to what will be coming around the corner. We all know that without a vision people scatter and driven to the four winds. They are also scattered when they are unclear on what is up when they have need for enough information. They don’t require an advance read of the newspaper before it all happens. But to be kept in the dark simply will not due. People are will not tolerate the mushroom treatment - up to their shoulders in stinky stuff and kept in the basement in the dark. Let’s let the light in and get the right information flowing. This is not a card game with our unique hand kept close to the vest. We are not playing in the World Series of Poker folks. Get over the notion that you have special information that must be kept from the people. For their good and yours inform them of what God seems to be up to. Share in humility. Share with enthusiasm what you believe to the the path God has you on. Share what you understand and share it with those words. Then listen to them clarify to you what they see happening. You will learn a lot in the returning conversations.

The popular digital readers from Amazon, the Kindle, is getting a revamp. If you thought of ordering one for Christmas it’s too late. They are sold out completely. That is bad news if you were holding out for one for the holidays. It is great news in that the new version will be released around February 1 and the price will perhaps be a bit lower than the current $350 U.S.

Since Kindle is refashioning their design at the end of the calendar year, maybe the handwriting is on the wall for the rest of us as well. We need to rethink our ways as well. We need to “ReKindle” if you will.

I have labored for years over the colliding topics of originality versus effectiveness. I ran a piece on this blog two years ago this week that parlayed its way into a front page article on the Wall Street Journal. Suzanne Satteline penned the eventual lengthy piece as an interview take with me and a number of other voices who have input about matters that have been relegated in the past to the catch-all of “Plagiarism.” But all of that is changing. Creativity in the Information Age is a new animal. “There is nothing new under the sun” has more relevance now than ever since Solomon first penned those wise words thousands of years ago. Complete creativity is difficult to claim by any of us these days in light of our exposure to such a vast array of things at various places hither and yon.

The original piece was something that appeared on this blog. That small introduction ended up being cut down and posted on Rick Warren’s Pastors.com site. I made the mistake of taking a mere blog entry and allowing it to be used as a representation of my thoughts on a very complex issue. Not surprisingly, the critics came out of the woodwork. As well the fans of my line of thinking gathered around to warm themselves by the fireside and found that there are lots of people who don’t necessarily think in a bifurcated way regarding the origins of creativity. I was not surprised to discover that nearly all of the critics came from the realm of theological institutions, specifically professors of preaching.

The original intent of the blog I did was to take a deep and long look at creativity. I still hope to encourage the greater look at this by each of us. If you are stuck in the middle of a drought of creativity lack look the below over a bit and see what comes of it. You may just snap out of it.

1. If you’re not ADD already become that way immediately.

That is, began to practice thinking quickly with fast and cogent thoughts. The day of slow, deliberate and drawn out thought-processes is long gone. We are not returning to the age of left brain thinking. If you’re a left brained thinker — if you’re way of coming to conclusions is by slow deductions and continual non-intuitive constraints that are long and drawn out and take enormous amount of time your future is sealed. You are going to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as an extinct species probably in the next two or three issues of that large and ever-increasing book.

2. Start to hang around idea people and you’ll probably become an idea person.

At least it’s more likely you will become an idea person. For Pete’s sake stop criticizing idea people just because you are not to the same degree an idea person as they are. Resist the temptation to come against those who are different (sometimes the opposite) than us. This is at times as difficult as not blinking when air is blown into our eyes.

The rule of thumb is we all become like the people we spend time with — both for better and for worse. That is a scary reality check. The “For Worse” part does not necessarily mean harsh, degraded ways. I wish it were that simple. We can be drawn down in ways that are simply not for our betterment. At the same time those ways are not going to stir us up to love, good deeds and expansion in the ways that God has called us to walk out our lives. In other words, are you spending time with people that Jesus has brought into your life to cause you to grow? Or are you spending time with people that are simply comfortable? If the second is more your case, stop here and pray for one thing: Courage. God loves to bring courage to those who are willing to receive it. He will certainly answer that simple plea in an instant.

3. Stop paying attention to matters of criticism — start paying attention to matters of encouragement.

It is a universal truth that what we become what we pay attention to. What we talk about with our mouths is the manifestation of our inner conversation. If we are critical of others we are making it clear that we have first been critical with ourselves. There is no momentum to be gained with self-criticism. We do this naturally enough to at least a small degree. What’s the point of becoming even better at this toxic task?

If I had all to do it all over again I think I would start today to give everybody I know a much wider break in life.  Pretty much everyone I know is trying about as much as they can in an effort to do as well as they can in life. Today especially it is true that most can’t do a whole lot more or a whole lot better than the job they are presently pulling off. Let’s join forces in giving one another a break in the journey and see what comes of it. I think together we can begin to make a difference.

Creativity is gained by God showing up in our lives.  Let’s give God the credit in advance for what he alone can do.

Jeopardy. “Alex, I’ll take Norwegian fjords for $100 please.” You’ve seen it plenty of times. Answers are given in the form of questions. Each answer doesn’t necessarily add up to a lot of money but in the end if you answer a lot right you can walk away with some decent change.

My wife Janie had seen some glory while on the CBS The Price Is Right. She won a lot of stuff on that show during the Bob Barker days when we lived in the Los Angeles area and were working with the launch of one of the original Vineyard churches. Long story short, “If she can do it, so can I.” A mutual friend of ours coached me on how to succeed in the game show biz without trying too much. He was in the Screen Actor’s Guild as are many who do well on those things. He gave me some tips. I went down to the try outs locally to attempt to get onto Jeopardy.

The first part of the try out is a knowledge quiz. That portion of the try out blitzed out the majority of the crowd. Of the fifty who began there were maybe eight still left who had apparently graduated from college and knew a bit about geography. I ended up doing a photo session with a Polaroid Instant Shot camera. The guy who took my picture said “Give me your best shot!” I thought he meant “Fake your best acting face” so I put on a pose that looked something like an edgy car salesman who was hyperactively hungry for a sale. I was way over the top with my look.

Some minutes later when it was time for the people present to do a quick interview together with the producer he pulled out my picture but couldn’t locate me in the group. Seriously. I was impossible to find in that very small group. The face I mustered up some minutes before was pretty much impossible for any sane human being who was not overdosed on crank to do once again. He didn’t say much but he flashed my picture to the assistant nearby. They looked at it together for a second and started laughing. Can you imagine the nerve of them. They were laughing at my portrait. I was in danger of having my poor little feelings hurt. But I learned some powerful summary lessons.

Be Yourself.

You are acceptable in and of yourself. You are worth rejoicing over as you are without the Actor’s Guild add-ons.

It’s Not Worth It To Fake It.

To change forward toward alterations is one thing but to fake it is to ignore who we really are deep down in God’s creation of us. When we try to be someone we are not we wallow in lies and the admission we don’t like the us we have been made to be.

Rejoice In Your Own Capacities.

You are good enough in your own story. There is no need to attempt to be or do anything that is different than what you are about. There are desires in you right now that are worth feeding. Nourish your creative hungers and see what comes of it. Who knows, you might then end up on a really cool, intelligent game show such as Family Feud!

The Starbucks “Pay It Backwards” story is an echo of what has taken place with SE stuff for fifteen twenty years. It is encouraging and scary at the same time. It is essential that we explain WHY we are doing what we do to show God’s love. To be nice to people for niceness sake does essentially nothing for people other than raise their spirits for a moment for so. It is vital that an act of mercy be tied to the presence of God in some way.

A connect card is a decent habit to get involved with. Check out KindnessResources.com for a variety of cards to choose from. Leave these in your wake at least to show others why you have done what you have. Otherwise you leave it to the recipient to draw a conclusion on their own regarding the act of charity.

Friends of mine are serving as roving “Street Pastors” in various cities in the U.K., Europe and North America. This short news clip captures the espirit de corp of these folks. Their attitudes are contagious as you will catch on this video.

Check out this video:

This has been a stellar week for me. My birthday was on Tuesday. I’m old but not that old. My son Jack thinks I’m old because I’m older than 21. I think I am younger than a lot of much younger people because I engage in playful activity a LOT.

“When you stop playing you begin to age.” - Steve Sjogren

A year ago at this time of course my birthday occurred again. It’s funny how that works every year about the same time on the calendar and everything. This has been a lifelong pattern for me so far. I’ll keep you posted on future developments here.

Last year I had less than 10 people outside of my physical presence in some way express birthday wishes to me. That may be a lot for some people. I didn’t think it was few necessarily. I was glad to hear from about a dozen people. Nice stuff. This year that number was a staggering sum closer to 150 - no exaggeration (thank you to those who are still well wishing me who think my day is different than it is - I’m not legalistic - I’m pretty much celebrating the entire month of November!). Now there are some differences between this year and last. I have over 1000 Facebook friends — a lot more than last year. But the people who wished me a happy birthday this year were mostly ones I knew last year. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes there is. Glad you asked.

Keep doing small things with great love faithfully.

Don’t give up.

What you sow will return upon you in abundance… (for better or for worse.)

There are universal spiritual-physical-relational dynamics we send into the universe that “Go around” and in time “Come around” to us. I wish this sort of thing were more scientific. It is a lot like quantum physics. There are rules to it but we don’t know yet how to explain them all. As far as I can tell it is not in the least a tit for tat matter that we can quantify or calendar in but it is indeed a spiritual truth that we can bank on in the long run. The good guys win. Yeah. The bad guys lose. Yeah again. What we sow we will reap even as Jesus followers - thus it is a good idea to pray for mercy on a regular basis in light of the misdeeds we have accomplished (committed).

Those of you who know me realize I am big on wishing others a happy birthday. I’ve been doing this for about 20 some years. I have done some wild and crazy things in the name of celebrating birthdays. Some of these things have been rather expensive even. Too much to go into here on a mere blog, but the years that I commissioned an artist to do original art and produce cards for several thousand people at my church on their birthday - GREAT IDEA now that I think of it. I am almost irritating in my enthusiasm about wishing others a happy birthday. I don’t do this with everybody but with some some years — it could be you — I call them pretty early and sing them all a Bill Murray-style of a lounge singer with the vibrato Las Vegas sound. It sounds like a prank call at first. If you get one don’t hang up - it’s for real. If you live on the West Coast I apologize in advance. I happen to live in Florida where the time is always three hours ahead of you. I sometimes forget that it is 6:15 A.M. there. You’d be surprised how often I connect and am the only one who remembers the day though… That’s another blog perhaps.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who in some way wished me a happy bday. You have no idea how much all of that means to me. I have teared up in my reflection of this in the writing of this blog. In my life a sincerely spoken, heartfelt good word goes a long way. YOU’D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY OTHERS OUT THERE ARE LIKE ME! It is worth the effort to keep on keeping on in your well wishing of others - whether bdays, anniversaries, or just an “attaboy” for being consistent at doing their job. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word rightly spoken” wrote Solomon. Hide that in your heart today.

Most interesting comment I received:
Scottish Pastor I’ve never met in person who had apparently never seen my face except recently on Facebook: “Steve you look so young considering your age.” (When does feeble officially start?)

My response to him on Facebook: “Yes, the secret to my young face — I avoid Scottish bar fights like the plague — the kind where people bash your face in with their forehead then kick you until you are unconscious.” I think I’ll stick to Starbucks and sipping coffee!

Christianity Today has posted a thorough story on the role of SE and outreach. It is exciting to see the wheels of progress turn in this direction! How many of you can relate to the points raised here by the CT writers?