Serving

We are doing a study in our small group called "Life Rules" by Andy Stanley. The basis of the series is this fact: Our relationship with God is reflected in our relationships with other people. We cannot say that we want a relationship with God and then treat other people poorly. It doesn't work that way. Our relationships here on earth show other people the health of our relationship with God.

So one of the Life Rules we talked about is Serving. It's defined this way, When you see a need you meet it, when something needs to be done you do it.

Serving is the opposite of selfishness. You want to stop focusing on yourself all the time? Serve someone else. Not because of what it will get you. Just serve them.

So I came across this article today that deals with serving someone else in a HUGE way. Click here to read the story.

What do you think? What if the Church really figured this out? What would it look like? How then, would it impact the world?

Elections

I have been privileged to do some book reviews for different publishing companies here on the blog. And recently I have started getting some books from Thomas Nelson. They let you select one book at a time to receive and review. I started looking through the list of available books I could choose from and found two that stuck out to me.

I won't let you know the two different books I was looking at, I'll just share the one that I have chosen. I'm going to read The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield.



By this time next week we'll know who our next president will be. And it very well could be Mr. Obama. Now, I won't have the book in time to read it before the election. So I can't say this book will influence my decision on who I vote for in any way. I believe I already know who I am voting for in the presidential election. I just thought it would be interesting to see and understand how faith impacts Mr. Obama's life.

They've sent me the first two chapters by email so I can get started reading the book. Should be fun. Look for the review in the coming weeks.

I'm Not a PC Part 2

A while back I posted about the Microsoft commercials that are all over the TV. If you don't remember the Seinfeld commercials you better head to YouTube because I believe they've already been pulled.

Anyway, Mac has responded with some classic commercials of their own. I'd like to say, this is what an effective marketing campaign looks like. (And it's probably some good advice as to what Microsoft should be doing with their money!)

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So, are you a PC or Mac?

It's Here

Yep, it's finally here. And we have our tickets. The family is heading to see it tomorrow night.

Just to get ready for the big night, I picked this up just to get us all ready.

My kids cannot wait.

Will you be there?

Most Important

One of the most important parts of my day is dinner time. Why? It is the one time during the day that we all sit down as a family together. And we make it a point to sit at the table, only eating in front of the TV on special occasions. Why? Because it's important to spend quality time together. And at dinner time each night we get to spend time talking about our "favorite part of the day."

I make it sure that I'm home for dinner each night. It's that important. And after dinner we usually spend time playing games, singing, dancing or just goofing off.

Makes me always remember what is most important.

My phone

I have an incredible cell phone. We've recently gone to 3G here in town. No, I don't have an iPhone...yet. No, I don't have a Blackberry. I really don't have a smart phone at all. I have the amazing...Razor. Now before you laugh, it was free when I started my contract with AT&T. That was enough for me. I wanted to text, call and get a free phone. This one worked.

Now, why am I taking a post to talk about my cell phone? Here is why. I try to make all of the phone calls I need to make while I am driving in the car. It's like I have this free time that I can use to make calls that I've missed during the day. So lately I've been making the calls on my way home from work. The problem is, the calls have taken longer than my drive home and I end up sitting in the garage in my car finishing the phone call.

You may think that this isn't such a big deal. But I have realized that it is. Let me tell you why. I have two kids who are usually waiting for me when I get home. And there's nothing better than two kids screaming "DADDY!" as I walk in the house. But over the past few weeks they've come to the garage door, opened up to see if I was in the garage, seen me on the phone, frowned and shut the door as they went back inside. And when I finally make it into the house they ask me, "Why are you always on the phone when you get home?"

And I must admit, that made me rethink my priorities. So the past few days I've gotten home without the phone on my ear and this is what I hear, "Daddy is home and he's not on the phone!" Then there is much screaming and we hug and play with each other.

I know I'm not always the world's greatest dad...but I'm working really hard each day to be. I'm realizing that I only have one shot at raising my kids and I want them to know they are more important to me than anything else. Especially a free phone.

And you know what? I think that's how God feels about us too.

Favorite Part

Something my wife and I really put an emphasis on with our kids is eating dinner with them each night. I know there are some nights that things get in the way but the majority of the week we're all around the dinner table together. We really feel that this time is important.

A cool part of dinner is that we each share our favorite part of the day. And it's become normal for our favorite part of the day to always be eating dinner with my family. So we have to ask each of the kids what their second favorite part of the day was.

And since I've been in Atlanta all week and am traveling home while you are reading this I haven't been around for these conversations this past week. But Crystal still asked the kids around the dinner table and she shared with me what my daughter Alexis said this past Tuesday.

When asked what her favorite part of the day was she told my wife that it wasn't eating dinner with the family because daddy wasn't there.

That's awesome. I love my kids. Can't wait to see them today.

Catalyst Day Two

I'm sitting in my hotel room after a full day at the Catalyst Conference. Everything is packed up ready for our flight home tomorrow morning. I must admit that it will be great to be home with the family.

But looking back at today's sessions I must admit that God was all over the place. Through some incredible speakers and intense worship I felt God all day long. It's almost overwhelming what He was saying to me through all of this. It will take several days to unpack everything.

Some of my favorites today: Andy Stanley closed things out and like always just nailed his session. I also really loved the session by a speaker named Matt Chandler. He's a pastor in the Dallas area. (I won't post all of the notes here...there are several other blogs that have some great notes...let me know and I'll send you the links.)

Also Billy Graham received the Lifetime Achievement award from Catalyst today. He wasn't able to be here because of health reasons (He turns 90 next month) but his son Franklin was here and accepted the award for him. I don't know of another person in ministry that is respected like Billy Graham. What God has used him to do is simply incredible.

Well...it's time for me to get away. Like I said before I'm looking forward to seeing my family tomorrow when I get home. I'm going to spend some time with them and then it's off to the church to prepare for Sunday's message.

Looking forward to Catalyst 09!

Catalyst Day One

We've made it through the morning sessions here at the Catalyst Conference. And they've moved things up a notch this year.

I won't take much time to recap things here but Andy Stanley opened the conference again and brought the house down with his talk. Afterward I was able to meet him and have him sign one of his books. If you haven't read some of his stuff, you need to.

Anyway, then we heard from William P. Young the author of "The Shack." And finally before lunch we heard from Jim Collins the author of "Good to Great."

So far Catalyst has been great. Getting ready for an incredible afternoon.

And don't worry...Bryce, Chris and myself have been really nice to Pam.

Catalyst Conference Labs

We're in the middle of the labs here at Catalyst and they keep amazing me. Just spent some time listening to Perry Noble from Newspring in South Carolina and I must say, he really brought it. I've never heard him live and I was really looking forward to it...and it didn't disappoint. I'm going to be unpacking what he said over the next few days....several things he said were for me.

Now we're in the session with Margaret Feinberg, author of The Organic God and her new book The Sacred Echo.

It's getting started, so I better get back to it. Great stuff.

Leaving Today

So as one of my previous posts talked about, I'm leaving with the rest of the Pastoral team for the Catalyst Conference. In fact, when this message is posted I should be on the plane heading to Atlanta.

But if you can't be there this year, no worries, just check out this great website for all the great backstage happenings.

You can also follow what's going on with me right here at www.marccauthon.com and over at my twitter.

So don't forget to check out catalystbackstage.com.

For Young Men Only -- Book Review

I've been able to do another book review, this time on a book called "For Young Men Only: a Guy's Guide to the Alien Gender" by Jeff Feldhahn and Eric Rice.

You can buy the book here.

For Young Men Only is another book in a series of popular books that help men and women understand the other gender. In this installment the focus in on teenage boys, helping them to understand the alien gender they know as girls.

The authors take an interesting approach by not just giving their opinions on what teenage boys need to know about girls, they actually did their research. They set up focus groups, spoke with hundreds of teenage girls in malls and ignored obvious stuff. They wanted to know the shockers that most guys wouldn’t believe, but were true of most girls. But one of the most important aspects of the book for me comes from the fact that the authors are Christians and while they don’t let that fact impact the results of their studies, the influence of the Bible does come through in their commentary. And as a minister and former youth pastor I really appreciate that fact.

So here are the 6 Big Surprises that are outlined in the book. (These are also the 6 major chapters of the book)
1. Guys think that girls go for guys who are rich and ripped. But in reality most girls are attracted to a guy’s hidden qualities.
2. Guys think that girls are attracted to “bad guys” who come on strong and treat them like junk. But girls are secretly afraid they’re not special or attractive and will be drawn to a guy who affirms her by pursuing her.
3. Guys think that when a girl gets emotional and irrational they’re out of luck. But the truth is when a girl is emotional she’s probably not irrational and there’s a lot a guy can do.
4. Guys think that girlfriends are heartless. When they want to break up they send confusing messages, then dump the guy with no warning. In reality most guys are clueless. While some girls are heartless most guys can protect their heart if they learn to read the signs.
5. Guys think they never know what to say to a girl, so they end up looking like idiots. And it’s true that a girl wants a guy to talk with her, to really make an impression, a guy just needs to listen.
6. Guys think that girls want sex just as much as they do, and they way to impress her is to go all the way. But the way to really score with the girls is not to press her about sex but to be her protector.

This book doesn’t get into any detail concerning how the girls just treat the guys. That’s covered in other titles. But this book does give some interesting insight into how teenage girls think about teenage guys. I do appreciate that it incorporates a lot of the survey and research in each chapter. It even gives links to check out the entire research study. And the final pages of the book gives a great recap and questions to ask. It’s great for personal application.

I gave a copy of the book to our youth pastor because I think it will give some great ideas and insight in ministry for teenage guys.

All of these books in this series are really helpful and I would recommend all of them.

Catalyst Conference 08

Heading out for Catalyst in the morning. After last year I have to say that I'm pretty excited about this conference. This year Chris and I have increased the team we're taking. Bryce and Pam are going with us too. My dad was supposed to go with us but his trip to see his new Grandson kind of changed everything for him.

It's going to be a great week away. Lots of great speakers, tons of people from across the country and even the world. Catalyst really is one of the premier conferences each year.

But, it will be hard to be away from my family this week. I'll miss seeing my son and daughter each day and of course I'm going to miss Crystal a ton!

....and did I mention that we get back Saturday afternoon and I'm preaching again Sunday? Looks like I'll be studying some on this trip!

I'll try to put some updates on here throughout the week. Not sure what type of internet I'll have at the Convention Center.

Catalyst Conference 08...here we come!

Uncle Marc

Even though Crystal's brother already had a daughter and I've been Uncle Marc for some time...it almost feels more official now. Why, you ask?

Because my sister Cheri had her first child this past weekend.

Everyone stand and welcome George Wyatt Baldree to the world! Here is a pic of Grandma holding Baby George:



And here is one with Grandma and new Daddy Michael:



Congrats Cheri and Michael! Uncle Marc can't wait to see baby George this Thanksgiving.

The Star

With Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson saying that he is going to "kiss the star" after scoring a TD today, it reminded me of a game that I was at while living in the Metroplex.

My friend Larry and I were at the famous "TO at midfield" game. We were sitting on about the 40 yard line watching. The game was a blowout, the Cowboys were getting killed. The only reason we stayed was because we had such great seats for the game.

Then everything turned around. It was great.

Here's a clip if you don't know what I'm talking about.



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Seen you somewhere

Maybe you can relate to the conversation in this video:



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You Need to Lock It

Hilarious. This is making the rounds on blogs this week.

Take a look:



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All-Access Tour

Here is a tour of the new Cowboys stadium with none other than the Owner himself, Jerry Jones.



Simply incredible.

It's Been Quiet

Yes, I know the blog has been unusually quiet these past few days. I'm really trying to get back here and post some stuff, but things have been kind of busy.

Here are some things that are happening:

I'm preaching for the next three weeks. Yep, in BIG church.

I'm going to Catalyst next week. Taking Chris, Bryce and Pam with me.

I've been at several different Missions Fundraisers (or Golf tournaments). But I haven't won....

My sister is expecting her first child next week!

I still owe the second video from my Sawgrass trip. I just haven't had time to edit it. I'm such a slacker.

And for the next few days I'm playing Mr. Mom while my wife is at our District Women's Conference. So tonight it's Happy Meals for the kids and tomorrow night it's Happy Meals for the kids...I don't cook much.

Did I mention that both of my Fantasy Football teams are 1-3?

So I promise a better post really soon. I haven't forgotten about the dear blog.

So I'll leave you with famous words from everyone's favorite Govenator: "I'll be back."