ok - if one chewy little slug is good, is two better? i think not - to many slugs, clog the system - remember, eat them while their young! the slugs that is - as a punk monkey, i find nothing better (well, not "nothing") better then a good plump slug - tasty.

why are we so concerned with "bringing-up leaders" as if leadership in the church is something that makes us better then the rest? i believe that the concept of leadership in the church is not the same kind as the concept of leadership in the community. one of the biggest problems the modern church has is it's concept of "servant/leader" - it a hoax. in most modern church "servant" is not even an issue. the church is ran by a group of old white men and women - most with college, or with money. look who jesus picked - woking stiffs with little or no education at all - in fact, the only "leader" in the group, the one in charge of the money, the one with education - was judas; and we all know what a great guy he was.

ok, i think you will like this - a friend of mine, chuck scott, wrote this great little article on his blog - check it out and let him know what you think - i loved it, i loved the images (anythime a person uses animals as images - very cool - besides, squirrels - cooked, with a good garlic sause).

i have this new bug crawling around and here it is - "it is not our place to make leaders." sorry maxwell, but it is not the responsibility of the church, the pastors, or any other christian organization to develop leaders - i know, that is so "anti-modern." it is simply our place to develop disciples, God brings to light the leaders. wow, what a concept - we develop disciples and God develops leaders. churches that are dalling apart are concerned with making leaders - but before a person can lead, they must be a disciple. churches are filled with egos, bosses, and silly little men who have no "power" in "the real world" so they "steal" control in the church. disciples have a heart for jesus, leaders have a heart to control; disciples have a heart for others, leaders only see what is best for themselves.

i will admit, this is still in process - but it is something i feel is truth in my heart and will be my new bug for a while - make disciples, not leaders. - pm

ok, here we go - here are my "10 things i hate about 10 thing lists:"

1. they are not always funny.
2. small fish make bad food - this makes no sence and it has nothing to do with the list, but what the heck
3. to many people do them
4. what's the big deal with "10 things?" why not 7 or 9?
5. sometimes they just seem like they are grabing for ideas (look at number 2)
6. things seem to repeat
7. things seem to repeat
8. sometimes it's hard to come up with 10 thinngs, so you have to say things like "sometimes it's hard to come up with 10 things"
9. it seems to be an over kill of things people like or dislike
10. i just hate lists.

thank you - pm

well, we made it back from san fran/oakland all right. very cool, very powerful and very open to God - we had a great time and are praying over if this is the place God is leading - who knows, in time - but one thing happened that i felt i must share with you all. as we were coming out of barstow heading north on 15 it happened - the beatles "all the lonly people" started to play on the radio - one of those "highway radio stations" that play "oldies" (i can still remember my amazement when i learned that paul mccarthy was in a band before wings). that's when ity hit me - 150 miles from vegas and the cars were backing-up heading to ca - man, is this world filled with lonly people. cars, upon cars, upon cars with just one person in the car - it was amazing and it seemed so lonly - as the song played i just watched as the people just sat in their cars coming from a weekend in vegas where for just a short time in their lives they felt wanted - at least for one night.

picture how badly these people in God in their lives - and picture how little the church is doing to help them find him. i was speaking with a friend this weekend and this fact came to life - church attendance has droped back to pre 911 numbers. why? because when people came to church to find God, they did not see him, feel him or in anyway meet with the life changing truth we call God - pastor john

well, were off to "san fran" this week - pastor john will be talking with the people with the 4square about planting a church in the oakland/san fran area - could be very cool. this is going to be crazy summer, but that's cool. keep pastor john, and us all, in your prayers as he seeks God's leading in some of the opportunites being placed before him - pm

flamehead - our living logo - has decided to create a new "page" on ginkworld.net. while we are not as creative with "catchy names" - after all we call the section where we ask severn questions of church leaders, "seven questions" that shoud prove we are "creativly challanged" - we are calling page "flamehead's stupid award." each month we will be giving our an "award" (we are cheap and have not 'actual' award) to some company, person, church or organization that has done something so stupid it just can't go unrewarded - we are in the process of determining who will be the reciever of the first award - we have a few runners and could always take more. if you know of a person, organization or company that should recieve flamehead's "stuipd award" let us know - and if you can think of a better name we are cool with that also - pm

over the past few weeks i have been dealing with mixed emotions on the whole "corp" thing. now, i will admit that i am not a big lover of large corporations, and i am not a lover of people who make more money then the national income of most small countries. but if we are to truly say that one is bad, we must not close the door on the others - corporations are greedy, but so are most (if not all) pro-sports people and politians. politians do not return calls unless you are rich and companies do not care about you as a person. one live changing relaity for me came with my "juno" account.

i had juno as my internet provider, and i did not have the "free" juno - i paid $120.00 a year for juno. recently i had the misfortune to use their tech support and customer service - and i have to say, i am no longer a juno customer - like most "big" business, juno and net zero, have become closed to the needs of the people they serve - they see us as simply ways to increase the bottom line. tech support people who say "we don't care" and customer support people who are willing to close your account without trying to solve any problems. companies are use to the "80's" and a life that all they wanted - even by lying - and so they figure the custome base is a never ending pool of "suckers" - well, the pool is drying up. greed and want will be the end of all companies in this world - if you do not care about the people you serve, don't go into bussiness -

i was watching the tv the other day when one of the reporters asked a very interesting question. one reporter looked at one of the "experts" dealing with the smart kidnapping and asked, "what have we learned from this whole experience?" the expert then gave a list of things learned. let me share with you what i think i have learned:

1. if you are a rich white person with friends who are politically connected, you will be able to have all the help you need to find your child. but, if you are a poor black family with no political power, you get crap from the fbi, or any of the tv networks.
2. if you are looking for a suspect, blame as many people as possible, toss enough garbage so some may stick, and get toothless people who live next door to say how "strange" you are.
3. people who claim to be "experts" get ticked-off when they are not allowed to control the feeding frenzy -
4. let's not worry about law, let's blame and convict on tv, this way we spare the country of that messy little thing some like to call a "trial."

if ever we see the way we are treating missing children and race - take a look at this one - God forgive us for our sins. (pm)

i was looking at the "new christian business directory" today - the 2002 edition - and started to wonder. now, i will admit it can be something to run and hide from, when i start to wonder. but here it is - as i looked over all the business, they all have "crosses" or "fish" (the think kind), and "doves." as i was looking i found some interesting facts - here they are:

1. 95% of all the business' in the christian directory do not have any christian signs on their ads in the "yellow pages." i found it intersting that these companies, and people, who felt this strong desire to place a cross on their christian directory page had no passion for their faith in the "secular" pages.
2. while i did not call all business' in the christian directory, i do know one guy who placed an ad - and he is not a believer. he placed his ad in it because he felt it was a "good market" to get connected too - when i approached the publishers of the directory and asked how this could be - the answer was, "they have to sign a document saying they are christian." my friend signed, and he did not care - he's a non-believer and the signing has no meaning.
3. churches in the directory are confused - the largest section is the "nondenominational" section and a great many of them are connected to a denomination.

we need to be a people of honesty and be an above the board people. (pastor john)