This and That

Those who know me at all know that I have a love for sneakers. They are my art. I read through various street wear websites and blogs on a weekly basis and today I came across an article about the CEO of Nike; Mark Parker. The article said something that got thinking about the way I approach ministry. It is something that I have always believed and this one sentence become very faith affirming for me today. Here is what the blog had to say about Nike... "Everything that Nike does from the top down is considered from a design perspective, not a sales, product, or marketing perspective." In the world of big business profit margins often dominate the conversations and intern dominate the end product. Not within Nike though. Nike has been committed to design and quality from the beginning and there is no doubt that they are the largest shoe company in the world. Not only in terms of sales, but more importantly, in terms of cultural influence. Nike hasn't allowed themselve...

Obedience. I never have been very fond of requirements which the word implies but I was convicted in my heart last week that I needed to take my obedience to Christ more seriously. I didn't really know what that looked like as I began this week but as I read and made a commitment to being more conscious of my thoughts I quickly became aware of the importance behind the obedience in the Christian life. In fact, obedience is foundational to the Christian life. I spent a lot of time in the book of Matthew this week looking at Christ's life and the life of his disciples and it occurred to me that the first call of the Disciples, Peter and Andrew in Chapter 3, show us that all Christ requires when he calls people to discipleship is simply obedience. Peter and Andrew didn't know much of anything about Jesus at the time when Jesus called them to "follow" him but Peter and Andrew followed anyway. Not only did they follow but "Immediately they left their nets and fo...