the accidental missionary

father's day in little rock, arkansas at a tennis tournament for the 3rd consecutive year. after jonathan's match, we went back to the hotel and watched a movie.

my 2 thoughts about "dan":

1. steve carell does awkward better than any actor alive. dan is not quite as socially awkward as michael scott, but he's uncomfortably awkward.

2. all dan's three-daughter-drama made me really thankful to have three sons.

Good news for everyone who's ever wanted to get inside Steve's brain - this book takes you there. Not my brain, but that other Steve - the barefooted Buddhist vegan who invented Apple, iMac, iPod, iPhone and everything else you can stick an "i" in front of.

According to Kahney, bro Steve divides all humanity into 2 groups: smart people & bozos. Steve believes that most people are in the 2nd category. This is the secret to his business success. He makes computers and electronics so simple that bozos can use them. As a technological bozo myself, i appreciate his vision.

The words, "simple" and "simplicity" appeared in the book almost as much as the word, "the". Simplicity seems to be the key to Steve Jobs' success. He works hard to make complex machines simple to use. I'm glad he does, otherwise i would not be blogging right now.

While i am not a barefooted billionaire Buddhist genius techno-whiz vegan, i think i do have one thing in common with that other Steve: SIMPLICITY.

I have always tried to communicate complex theological concepts in ways that are simple enough for a kid to understand. And, I have always tried to make our discipleship process so simple that anyone could make disciples.

Why? Because that seems to be the way Jesus did life & ministry. Plus, simple is more memorable and more transferable than complex.

If you believe in God - any God,
if you don't believe in God,
if you believe in evolution,
if you believe in creation,
if you're a teacher,
if you're a student,
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE!

Sure to be slammed by the Western media, PBS types and the educational elite - but sure to be loved by logical thinking people everywhere.

Despite the seriousness of the topic, Ben Stein's deadpan monotone cracked my up.

Here's a link to a 7 min super-trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGCxbhGaVfE

Best part of the movie was when Ben got the world's #1 atheist evangelist, Richard Dawkins, to admit that intelligent design is possible, but only if life was designed by intelligent aliens not an intelligent God. Huh?

There is obviously "no intelligence allowed" when Dick Dawkins spouts his theory of origins.

small book. huge impact. among the best vision books out there. can be read in 1 sitting, over 1 one cup of coffee. so short your coffee won't even get cold.

quote:
"...it is possible for a church to grow numerically while drifting further and further away from the founding vision..."

point:
gotta always watch out for those good things and new things that distract form the MAIN thing.
at victory our main thing is making disciples and there are potentially millions of new and good things that can distract us from that. in the every nation world our main things are church planting and campus ministry, and again, the distractions are endless.

andy's outline:
1 state the vision simply
2 cast the vision convincingly
3 repeat the vision regularly
4 celebrate the vision systematically
5 embrace the vision personally

if i counted correctly, that's 5 points - not 1.
someone notify andy.