AnotherJohn.Com

What are the best books to pass on to our children?  A parenting website called parenting.com (the home of parenting and baby talk) gives us some ideas.  You have probably read a lot of books on their list: The Polar Express (Okay, I admit I only watched the movie); Where the Sidewalk Ends; The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Corduroy. Here is the entire list they compiled: Best Books to Pass Down to Our Children There are even a few religiously toned books that made the list including the Quran and the Holy Bible.  Tell the truth; it makes you feel more spiritual to call it the Holy Bible instead of just the Bible. So do parenting.com.  Here is what Jason from Owosso, MI--a reader I assume--wrote about the Holy Bible on the website: "The Bible. It's God's word, preserved over thousands of years for us. Great stories, excellent advice, true wisdom and above all, the answers to all of life's most challenging questions." -Jason, Owosso, MI I am sure Jason i...

June was a good month.  Gloria and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary; plenty of softball and tee-ball games; and we surpassed 10,000 hits on the blog.  Nice going, June.  You were a bit hotter than any of us expected you to be, but thanks anyway.  Anything special or out of the ordinary happen to you this month? Well, I have compiled the top post from this past month.  This list does not reflect any sense of superior writing or content, and neither does this blog.  These are the posts that got the most hits during the month of June.You can reminisce, or see what you missed.  And remember, sharing is care. 5) Let's see, what was I doing in 1961 ?  Well, what were a lot of people doing in 1961? 4) Oh, the things you see while preaching a sermon.  You should try it some time.  You need a good laugh. 3) Shhhh!  I am trying to mute myself.  Yea, that only sounds like a good idea to you, Gloria! 2) This was a grea...

I feel like I just did this!  We finished printing our church's newsletter a little while ago.  It seems like it was only last week I was printing and mailing last month's copy.  July is a five-Sunday month so I should get a little bit of a break.  I have been able to recruit a new newsletter team member, but I will not have them help until next month.  This newsletter business can be tough stuff.  Newsletter editors sing together: Clip-art and photos, and VBS logos Birthdays and telling what the choir’ll sing These are a few of my favorite things. I'm wondering; how much feedback do most church newsletters produce? That is part of my aim, to generate feedback, or to make people want to tell me something. To get there I include, I hope, useful information about our local church and the larger UMC. Also, I think pictures of what we are doing are very important as well, especially for readers who might happen across a copy decades from now. I have not ...

Yesterday, during the Sunday school class I am leading, I read two passages, and told the group they could pick which one we would discuss together.  First, I read Romans 6:12-23 .  This is a great passage.  The wages of sin part is probably familiar to you.  After I read that passage there were no comments or questions.  Moving right along.  Then I read Genesis 22:1-14 .  This is the story of the binding of Isaac.  I finished the last word of the passage and before I could take another breath the questions began. We went with the binding of Isaac.  I think we had a pretty good discussion.  There were some parts of the story people had not noticed.  I am glad we stayed with that story.  That was the text I preached from as well.  I used it to began our new sermon series entitled Family Matters.  Over the next few weeks, you can read ahead if you would like , the lectionary texts tell of a certain family.  Thi...

We are beginning a church-wide prayer initiative soon.  You will hear about it in the next week.  However, in the mean time, I have asked a couple of people to begin praying with me for very particular things as we lead ourselves into that initiative.  My hope is that this group will include more people in the future, and that their task will remain a most important one.  I am confident that will come to pass. We are praying for several things including: church leadership; community issues; health and life concerns of members and friends, etc. Yesterday, however, I sent this group their first prayer specific assignment .   The assignment was taken from a line from a book I am reading now-- Missional Worship .  It is not a novel prayer request, but it is one important for us as we begin our prayer commitment.  There are two parts: 1) God, bring me people who need to talk about faith.  That is, bring to me (john, for example) these people...

I have always enjoyed watching computer animated movies ever since Toy Story.  Of course, as far as animation goes, they have only gotten better and better.  I would like to think I have seen most of the major productions, but who am I kidding?  If you have any suggestions let me know. Now, really, who does not love Sheriff Woody? He is a great character, and Tom Hanks does a great job of bringing him to life.  Here is a recent interview with Tom Hanks about his voice overs. ++If you are reading by email click here to watch the video.++ Hanks' thoughts about being in the enclosed sound room reminds me of preaching. During a sermon you see all kinds of things. Husbands nudge their wives to communicate something with their eyes. Yawns abound. I usually want to laugh when I see people do the nod back to life after a quick trip down Nap Ave. Some people "Amen" or nod and shake their heads yes and/or no with whatever is being preached. People are funny. ...

What a Wonderful World Yesterday was Trinity Sunday and Father's Day.  What to preach?  What to preach?  I am not convinced people are dying to hear another sermon on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  Are you?  I do my best to include references to the Trinity often.  Those references might not be specific or direct, but illustrate God's work through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I am not even excited about preaching a specific sermon on the Trinity. Also, I am not a big holiday preacher.  I cannot remember the last time I preached a Mother's Day or Father's Day sermon.  When I used to go to church and hear other preachers' sermons, it always bothered me when I knew what they were going to say beforehand.  That is to say, for example, a typically Father's Day sermon will include a sappy story and tell me a good father reminds me of our Heavenly Father.  Snooze. Now, please do not get me wrong.  That is something wor...

This is one instance where it is okay to laugh at the boy with tape on his face. ( +link) Amazing little tea candles . Nintendo guns like they were intended. is it a vase or two faces? Remember to think simple .  This is what keeps us alive. Does this sum up free will? King of the Hill preaches ! Hitler finds out the Miami Heat lost to the Mavericks.

You are about to read another bold prediction from another religious leader: I guarantee you something amazing is about to happen! Well, it may not be amazing to you, but it is for me.  You won't find this announcement on any billboards or buses, and I highly doubt there will be any come-to-Jesus moments because of it.  Then again, who knows? Within the next week--see how precise I am--this little blog that could, yes anotherjohn.com, will pass 10,000 page views.  That prediction is less likely than others to stir controversy.  And I know that 10,000 is a small number compared to others, but so what? This blog began as a small way for the congregation I was serving to connect outside of Sunday morning.  With over 600 posts I think it served its purpose, and continues to do the same. In the last couple of months the amount of page views has steadily increased.  Welcome aboard, new readers!  Now that I have no more class work to complete--only inte...

Our church is excited once again to be working with Trietsch Memorial UMC .  We have our Vacation Bible School planned July 11-15.  The theme is Shake It Up Cafe .  I am sure I will have much more to say about this partnership in the coming weeks. In the meantime here is a look at the promotional video, and, if you are interested, our online registration form . ++Click here to watch the video if you are reading by email.++ VBS 2011 - Shake It Up Cafe Preview Video - Cokesbury Vacation Bible School from CokesburyVBS on Vimeo .

Yesterday was a busy day. As usual, I was at the church by 7am. Yes, there is an important routine I follow. I led a Sunday school class with a small group; we had, I think, a great discussion. From there it was time to put on my dress and get ready for our worship service. After our service we had our monthly luncheon, followed by an Administrative Council meeting. So, we did not leave church until around 2pm. I had to be back at the church by 3:30 to make sure everything was prepared for session #34 of Disciple 1 (I'll post on that later). At the closing of our session the group headed to Spring Creek Barbecue (Can someone inform them it is no longer good practice to allow music to blare out loud automatically when someone visits their website?)  for a dinner together. Then there was some game on that everyone wanted to watch. That is how we roll in Irving!  In between all that I offered a week's worth of consideration to our congregation.  That offering w...

  Please do not let this walrus work out better than you. ( +link ) This prank is coming to a camping ground near you! It was only a matter of time before the inspirational bike kid brought his speech to the nation . This Dirt Devil is good. Is there truth here ? You knew Knight Rider was cool, but did you know all this ?     Warning: You will watch the video below , and you will get dizzy.

By this time next year, Lord willing, I will be commissioned as a Probationary Elder by the Southwest Texas Annual Conference , my home conference.  So, most likely, this week I attended what should be my last annual conference meeting as part of the North Texas Annual Conference .  Let me say it was one I will probably recall for some time. As far as meetings go this year's conference was pretty run of the mill. There were no pressing issues or dogfights. What?  Oh, you're church never has issues, right? It was an election year.  This was the bulk of our work together.  We electronically voted for delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conference.  If you're not quite sure what those conferences are you can find some information here .  Every four years we elect delegates to these conferences, and I sure hope SWTX has already converted to electronic ballots!  There were two comments that made an impression on me.  The first was by Bis...

I have spent this week preparing for sermons, Bible studies and writing personal reflections and blog post. Sometimes, within all that work, I come across some things you might be interested in. When you are down, and wondering where to start again this is the best place. Pi is better with music ( + ) Life in a perfect world Speaking of perfect worlds, what about glow in the dark TP? What 9-year-old hasn't dreamed of breaking this record ? Or what teenager hasn't threatened to do this ? Did you know all ducks wear dog masks .  No, you can never unsee it.  This guy is the most famous MacBook thief . Think about your house and decide which wall will be your Lego wall. Here is a dose of cute kids (Click on the title if you are reading by email): Thumbs up, everybody . Boy catches his first fish No, Momma won't kill you.

We have put out the latest edition of our church newsletter. I am not sure how often you read our newsletter, but I am thinking of implementing some design changes. It would be nice to have another regular feature as well. That may take a little more time to develop. People have had the best time trying to identify the Blast From the Past pictures. So, we will keep that up as long as we can. ++If you are reading by email, click here to view the June edition of Under the Oak.++ Does your church have a monthly (or otherwise) newsletter? What part do you typically like to have included? What do you think church newsletters are missing? Five-week months are helpful; they give me an extra week to get the newsletter done. June is not one of those months. So, back to work I go. Open publication - Free publishing - More church Stay blessed...john