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It has been a great Christmas Eve so far. Yesterday we kicked off two of our 4 Christmas Eve services well. Some highlights for me:

• Seeing a Mom come to the morning and evening services. She did this because her grown children couldn’t come to the same one so she came to both in order to encourage them to be there;
• Seeing a couple sitting together who were on the brink of divorce 2 short months prior;
• Seeing someone worshiping knowing that just this week she found out her mom will need hospice care;
• Experiencing worship of our King with my Suncrest family.

Previously I mentioned that one of my goals for 2008 was to read 28 books in ’08. I won’t decide on all 28 books because I need to leave room for some new releases and books yet to be determined for a graduate class I will be taking. I’d love to have some more suggestions, but here’s the start of my list:

Go put your strengths to work by Marcus Buckingham

Going all the way by Craig Groeschel

Prayer by Phillip Yancey

Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont

Who moved my cheese by Ken Blanchard

Listening to beliefs of emerging churches by various authors

Vintage Jesus – Mark Driscoll

I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt by Vince Antonucci

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

Glocalization by Bob Roberts

Words that Work by Frank Lutz

Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer

I just have to say that Suncrest has the best Elders! We had an Elders meeting last night so it is fresh on my mind. I have served many churches with many good men serving as Elders, but as a group of men committed to do what it takes to see God work through Suncrest, our Elders rock. We talk about their responsibilities being to guard and guide the church and they do it well.

I’m so grateful to work in an environment with such outstanding leaders.

This weekend’s message on “Everlasting Father” was the most biographical that I have ever done. It was surprisingly less hard than many thought. I suppose this has a lot to do with the fact that I am “owning” my past. That is, I accept who I am and where I come from.

One of the biggest responses to my absence of a father is to make sure I pass onto my sons what only I can pass onto them. This is a toughy because I didn’t have a dad do this for me. In the song “Father of Mine” by Everclear this line strikes at the heart of the issue:

“You would take me to a place inside
That is so hard to reach”

I believe that there is a place inside each boy that only a father can reach, only a father has the ability to connect at this level with his son. A part of my journey has been letting my Father in Heaven connect with me there in the absence of my biological dad.

As a dad though, I want to reach into my son’s heart and connect with him. I want to help him transition to a man. One of the ways I am doing this is by covenanting with a group of dads to help raise our sons into men. We meet every Tuesday to share life and sharpen each other. This has been such a blessing to me.

Another element to our group is that we have designated certain ages along our boys’ life to celebrate and mark with rites of passage. We have been deeply influenced by Robert Lewis on this subject. It is still a work in progress but it looks like this for us right now:

13 – retreat with all the boys, we give them a compass and talk about the definition of manhood as a compass for their life
18 – graduation from high school, probably something really cool like a sword
22 or so – college graduation
At their wedding – a family crest that we have yet to design and get made.

I’m looking forward to walking with my son through the various stages and helping him be a man.

Today, Sheila and I celebrate 14 years of marriage. I have a friend who always responds this way when asked how long he has been married: “10 great years…but 17 all together.” I can say that we really have been married 14 great years. We certainly have had our ups and downs. Some years were definitely harder than others. But my perspective is that all of them…the ups and the downs…has made our marriage what it is today. I know I am so blessed to have such a great woman to put up with me and still be in love with me. We celebrated last night with dinner and a little year-end review and planning for next year. I know it sounds so unromantic, but actually it was all good stuff about what we want to improve upon next year.

For any guy reading, your wife will absolutely love you to pieces if you initiate these types of conversations. One thing I have at least learned in 14 years.

I’m looking forward to so many more years with an amazing woman.

I was listening to Mark Batterson on the way in this morning and this comment has stuck with me.

“The church can get a new pastor. My kids can’t replace me.”

There’s always this pull away from the family because they typically are not urgent. Work, the house, the car, whatever is always more urgent than my kids. I’ve placed some boundaries in my life that has helped, but I need to take some other steps.

One of the steps I have taken and been pretty successful at is always taking my day off. And when I do take it, no work happens. That is not only healthy for me, it’s healthy my kids. My kids need at least one whole day where dad is not distracted by work.

There are some other ways though I need to take some extra steps. Specifically in my evening routine I have not done well at keeping our dinner time sacred. Furthermore, the whole evening meeting thing can get a bit out of hand during some seasons. Got to work on that.

I’m preparing some personal challenges for myself for 2008. I’m thinking maybe 8 different challenges fro ’08. Has a nice ring to it. By 8 challenges I mean 8 BIG challenges. 1 of the challenges will be in my reading discipline. I really feel like I fell away from as much reading as I need to stay fresh in ministry. So I’m considering 28 books for ’08. I know, again with the 8 thing. But that would put me at 4 more than 2 a month and would definitely be a challenge for me. I’d love to do a book a week, but that is just not realistic for my schedule. So anyway, I’d love to have some suggestions. Are there books you have read that have gripped you? I think I want to include fiction on this list as long as it is quality fiction. I have my list started, but I want to hear from others to see what they would recommend.

Every once and awhile a book comes along that is as much fun as it is helpful. This is one of those books. Deadly Viper Character Assassins takes on integrity issues with Kung Fu fun. Both the authors are big fans of Kung Fu movies, as am I, so they use the whole motif to describe those character issues that every single one of us face. The short pithy, proverb like wisdom filled chapters may not go deep into the issues at hand, but they describe them with Biblical wisdom that will help start the conversation with other leaders and have fun doing it. More then that they proved some great practical steps to defend yourself and prepare for an attack. The bonus for me was interviews on these subjects with the likes of Dog the Bounty Hunter, Marcus Buckingham and Craig Groeschel. Check out www.deadlyviper.org for some great extra content. In the blog section there are two posts with an audio interview with Craig Groeschel I thought were gold.

Key statement in the whole book: Radical Integrity AND Radical Grace. Many times we expect integrity from others but want Grace for ourselves. The need is to pursue radical integrity, helping others do the same AND accept radical Grace for ourselves while offering it as well. I think this means holding ourselves and other Christ followers to high standards but offering restorative Grace when others fail and seeking it for ourselves when we fail.

I have been unseasonably in the mood to celebrate all things Christmas. This has especially been true for Christmas music. So, I thought I would throw out my top 5 Christmas albums. Now understand, they will be anything but normal Christmas fare and I am NOT a Christmas music expert. These are ones that are on heavy rotation this year though. In no particular order:

Mindy Smith’s “My Holiday” was a real treat for this year. Her delicate voice over holiday standards and original material makes me glad it is Christmas. I think her style can best be described as Sarah McLachlan meets Emma Lou Harris. Sometimes Jazz, sometimes almost country. I said almost. My favorite track is “My Holiday.”

Relient K’s “Let it Snow Baby…Let it Reindeer” is just pure fun. These guys know harmonies AND punk. Lots of fun with the kids on this one. I’m torn on favorite track. “I Celebrate the Day” is an amazing song, but “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is my favorite version of that song. Not for the faint of heart.

Barenaked Holidays is a classic by The Barenaked Ladies. These guys aren’t doing anything anymore, but they made a classic with this CD. Check out “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings” for the best.

Sufjan Steven’s “Hark ! Songs for Christmas” would be hard to classify. By far the least accessible. I’m not really sure I can even classify his style. I just like it. He’s an amazing lyricist. “Amazing Grace” is amazing!

This compilation has more of the standard Christmas songs on it by Christan artists. Great arrangements by great vocalists. Jill Paquette’s “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” blows the album away.

One of the things I do love about Christmas music is that most, not all, but certainly most is about Jesus. And so you have people singing about Jesus who don’t’ even follow him. I suppose some could look at that as a negative because many put out Christmas songs because it is easy to sell. However, what I see is that regardless of their motivation, Jesus is still praised.

BTW, all the artists above are Christ followers except The Barenaked Ladies.

The newest member of our family is Twyla Gamble. She is a cross between a Blue Tick Hound and a German Short hair. A local farmer’s dog had a litter of 12 and was giving them all away. We have been looking for sometime for the perfect dog for our family. Twyla fits the bill. In fact, we have been promising to get a dog for about 2 years. So…maybe we weren’t looking the whole time. Something about taking care of a puppy AND a baby just hasn’t apealed to me. Oh well, who needs sleep. She will be great part of our family.