Busted Bailouts and Financial Freakouts...

Unless you live in some remote part of the world with absolutely no connection to current news or the modern world, then you've probably spent a little time worrying about money over the last few weeks and months. The government can't fix the problems. Wall Street is in turmoil. No one seems to have any answers. The bailouts busted, our moneys missing, and many of us are on the way to a full-fledged finanacial freakout. In light of this, I thought I'd share some links that have provided me some good information during this turbulent time of economic uncertainty.

1. Tony Morgan posted "14 Ways To Spend Less So You Can Do More." This blog contains some great, practical advice on easy, simple ways for a family to save money.
2. Joe Sangl gives us "Five Ways To Save Money Without Selling Anything." In fact, Joe is the author of I Was Broke. Now I'm Not and his entire blog offers solid, sound financial advice for times like these.
3. Our Lead Pastor, Cole Phillips, posted some thoughts about Turning A Layoff Into A Payoff. He offers some fantastic advice to the many people who are facing layoffs right now.
4. The folks over at Generation X Finance posted "20 Free Online Finance Courses" that you can take from the comfort of your home. These range from making wise investments, planning family finances, saving for retirement, and basic economics.
5. Frugal Dad offers advice for parents and students with his article Seven Ways To Fund College Without A College Savings Fund. Take it from a guy who is still paying off stupid student loans: There is some great advice about paying for college in this article!

For me, one pretty basic and simple thing that helped my finances was the concept of first giving to my local church through tithing, next giving to my future through saving, and then living on the rest. What about you? Any financial wisdom for these crazy times? Any links with stuff that is just too good not to pass on? Feel free to share and comment away.

The Weekend Update...

This past weekend can be summed up in one word: Basketball. I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this past weekend at the Texas U.I.L. Boys Basketball State Tournament. Me, my dad, and 2 of our cousins all had seats together for the entire weekend. My brother and some other cousins who are coaches also spent the weekend there. We had a blast together. It was great to see my old high school basketball coach, some old friends, and to get to hang out with my family doing what we love to do - watch basketball. Over those three days we spent over 35 hours in the gym of the Frank Erwin Center at the University of Texas watching 18 semi-final and final games of the state championship tournament. I'm not sure exactly what all the details of heaven will include, but this past weekend was at least a minor taste of "heaven on earth." Good basketball. Great people. Good times.

And The Name Is (Drumroll)...

It's been far too long since I last posted some thoughts on this blog. I could say it's been crazy, because it has. I could say it's been busy, because it has. I could say I've been traveling and off my normal schedule, because I have...but who isn't crazy and busy and off of their normal schedules these days. So I'll say to all my avid readers (mom) that I'm trying to get my blogging groove back.

But now for the real reason of this post: Johanna and I have FINALLY picked a name for our son. Actually, I have finally picked a name. We had narrowed it down to two names for months and Jo was cool with either one. I just couldn't decide. Naming a child is a BIG DEAL in my mind. I want to get this right. So I see-sawed back and forth. I prayed about it...a lot. I did all the name tests: I did the "banana fanna fo fanna" test. I checked to make sure Jo hadn't dated anyone with that name. I made sure it didn't rhyme with any vulgar language or form an acronym with the initials that was vulgar. I even checked it out with my mom, whose an elementary secretary, to see if she had any hellions by the name.

After all the fretting and praying and testing, it boiled down to this: honor. A name ought to be a thing that brings honor. My dad always told us growing up to remember whose name we carried. My hero and best friend in life is my Papa. He's my superman. He's who I've looked up to my entire life. His middle name is Russell and so to honor him, my son's middle name will be Russell also. A name ought to be a thing that honors.

So here it is: On or around April 20th (if the doctor is guessing right) Johanna and I will welcome to the world our son, Hayden Russell Burleson. We both have always liked the name Hayden since we first heard it. I only know one guy with that as part of his name and he happens to be a pretty solid kid himself that loves the Lord. And the middle name is a name of honor.

So you came here just to read about the name and you got my whole thought process behind it. Maybe I should blog more regularly and I won't save up such long thoughts for one post. Let me leave you with this advice that's helped me a lot in my life: Remember whose name you carry. It might have been given to you as a show of honor.

C3 Three Thoughts

Here's the final installment of C3 Three Thoughts. Ch-ch-check it out:

Jentzen Franklin – Second Session

1. You don’t know if you have a servant’s heart until you see how you act when you are treated like one.
2. We need to be addicted to the ministry of the saints. Are we addicted to what Jesus died for?
3. God blesses where His reputation is safe.

Tommy Barnett

1. If you don’t have some cigarette butts around your church, you don’t have much of a church.
2. For far too long the church has been a club where you have to believe the values and rules before you belong.
3. We need churches where belonging leads to believing.

Steven Furtick

1. Jesus is not our homeboy. He is the ruling, reigning, enthroned King of Kings and He deserves our honor.
2. Jesus didn’t die on a brutal cross so that we could shop and hop from church to church like we’re sampling a party platter.
3. As this younger generation of church leaders does more and does better than those who went before us, we need to remember that we stand on their shoulders and that they took the shots that we didn’t have to take. They deserve our honor.

Craig Groeshel

1. Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
2. When you have the approval of God you don’t need the approval of men.
3. There is a bigger church in you when you get over what they think.

C3 Three Thoughts - Ed Young & Bil Corneilus

Here's some more highlights of last week's C3 Conference:

Ed Young – Second Session

1. Being a preacher is like giving birth on Sunday, only to turn around and find out your pregnant again on Monday.
2. When we try to be responsible for people’s response we are guaranteed to end up despondent and depressed.
3. One of the best ways to get out of a funk is to focus on others and help someone in need.

Bil Cornelius

1. The lack of prayer in the pastoral leadership of the church is an epidemic.
2. Someone has been dealt worse cards than you in life and in ministry, and they’re winning with them.
3. The problem with our ministries is that we’re so focused on people showing up for our services that we’re not showing up before the Father on behalf of the people.

C3 Three Thoughts - Caine & Young

Here’s my C3 Three Thoughts from the first sessions of both Christine Caine & Ed Young. Check it out.

Christine Caine’s First Session:

• God calls us to be passionate about what He’s passionate about. And God is consumed and obsessed with a lost, broken, and dying world.
  
• It’s not just the world that’s lost. The church is lost. We’ve lost our passion, our mission, and our purpose.
  
• No wonder the world is full of darkness. We’ve taken all the light out. It’s hard to reach a world you’re not in. Jesus said “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” If we’re not becoming fishers of men, I’m not sure who we’re following.

Ed Young’s First Session:

• There is a difference in people who are “for you” and those who are “with you.”
  
• When pride walks on the stage, God walks off.
  
• When it comes to dealing with people acting crazy in the church, as a leader you’ve got to be willing to confront them, cope with them, and cut them from the herd if necessary.

C3 "Three Thoughts" - Jentzen Franklin...

I had the incredible opportunity to attend the C3 Creative Church Conference the latter part of last week at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. I got tons out of the two and a half days we were there and am still chewing on much of what was shared. Someone at the conference accurately described the conference as drinking out of a fire hydrant. That's definitely how I felt. If you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen tons of highlights from the conference. But I thought I'd do a series this week here on the blog called "C3 Three Thoughts" where I'd share just three main thoughts from each session that have challenged and stretched me. Each day this week I'll post a blog with three thoughts from the various speakers at C3. The first session began with Jentzen Franklin, so here's his Three Thoughts:

1. Mercy is when God looks down from the grandstand of heaven and yells, "Give 'em another chance! Give 'em another chance!"
2. You want the blessings of God? Be merciful. Show mercy to people. Take the limits off of God's mercy. God's mercy is greater than our failure.
3. You're never closer to God than when you are showing someone mercy.

Conference Time...

Tomorrow myself, our Lead Pastor Cole, our Executive Pastor Zak, and Cole's wife Pam are heading to the DFW metroplex for C3: Creative Church Conference. I've never been to C3 but I am pumped about the conference based on what I've heard from others. I know it's going to be a great chance to connect with other leaders, as well providing some challenging and stretching thoughts from some great leaders within God's church. If you think about it this week, pray for me and for our team. Ask God to grow us, stretch us, and renew us. If you want to know what's going on during the conference, I'll be twittering live from there for sure. You can check out my twitter feed on the right of this blog or even better, go here to sign up for your own account and then follow me here.

The Weekend Update - Love Edition...

This past weekend was all about Valentine's Day, dubbing this weekend update as "The Love Edition." Here's the recap:

• Johanna and I spent Friday morning consumed with all things baby. First, we had our last monthly check-up. Everything looks great at this point. And I say last "monthly" checkup because since Jo is now less than 10 weeks from the due date, she now has check-ups with her doctor every other week. After the check-up, we did some baby shopping and think we may have finally found a crib!
• Friday night myself, Zak, our executive Pastor, and Bryan, one of our worship leaders & my right hand man in our Student Ministry, all surprised our wives with a night out at The Melting Pot in Austin. The food was incredible. The experience was amazing. And the people we shared it with were even better than that. And talk about three guys who married way out of their leagues...
• Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Hung out around the house and did some stuff there. Then Johanna made me a Valentine's meal on Saturday night that was absolutely fantastic. She is an amazing cook and really outdid herself this time.
• Sunday we continued our series Rock of Love at TCC. Cole talked about purity and I'll say this about the message: Anytime the pastor models a pole dance, you know it's a good sermon. My favorite quote from the sermon came when Cole was talking about how there is no such thing as safe sex, because "you can't put a condom on your hear." Priceless.
• That about wraps up our weekend. As you can see, the weekend involved lots-o-love.

Skills of A Gracious Loser...

My brother wanted some audiobooks for Christmas for his daily commute to work. To oblige his request, one of the things Johanna and I got him was the audiobook The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching by Dean Smith. To say that our family are Tarheel fans would be an understatement. We bleed Carolina Blue. So I knew my brother would love this book. Over the Christmas break I rode with my brother from family gathering to family gathering and got to hear a little of the leadership lessons in The Carolina Way. One of the things that Dean Smith talks about is that every good leader has to learn to be a gracious loser. He says that good leaders don't want to lose, but they're also not afraid to fail. Here is how he recommends handling loss as a leader.

1. Recognize loss when it occurs. Admit it. Don't hide it.
2. Move to correct mistakes as quickly as possible.
3. Meet with everyone on the team involved in making the mistake. Ask this question: How can we learn from this?
4. Give everyone involved tasks to do to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. Don't just talk about it - Implement these things.
5. Forgive yourself and others involved. It's over. It's in the past.
6. After you've learned everything possible from the loss or failure, vow never to think about it again. Move on and take more risks.

What do you think? How do you handle loss or deal with failure? At work? In ministry? At home?

Books I'm Thinking Of Reading...Or Maybe Not...

I've been looking for some books to read. But none of these made the list and you'll quickly see why. These are actual book titles. If you don't believe they're real, just click the title of each book and it will take you straight to the Amazon.com page where they are being sold. This just proves that absolutely anyone and anything can get published these days. But on second thought, maybe we could get one of our youth small groups to practice awesomeness...

Whose Bottom Is This? (Whose? Animal Series)

Anybody Can Be Cool-- But Awesome Takes Practice (Devotionals for Teens)

Vi Agra Falls: A Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery

I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard

Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat?: Pop Psychology for Superheroes

Need A Laugh...

I ran across these videos on Youtube earlier this week. They're from a guy named Tim Hawkins, who I hadn't heard of before, but seems to be a pretty funny guy. They made me chuckle a ittle bit. And I thought to my self, "Self, whose day doesn't need a little laughter?" and so I passed them along to you. Check it out:

That's Quotable...

Today is my brother Justin's birthday. Twenty-nine years ago today God allowed me to win the brother lottery. If there is one person in life that has my back no matter what the situation, no matter how big the fight(besides my wife) it's my brother. I'm honored to call him my brother and proud to call him my best friend. Justin is a first year coach at Magnolia High School in Magnolia, TX near Houston. He is the head freshman coach and the varsity assistant. He is incredibly passionate about basketball. I've honestly never seen anything like it in my life. And he is a phenomenal coach. You'd never be able to guess he's just starting out. One of the little things he's brought to the Magnolia program is a weekly newsletter that informs parents and fans of the past week's activities, upcoming games, and provides motivation for the players. His team is in the second half of district play and in a battle for a playoff spot. This was his quote for the week in the newsletter he sent out on Thursday:


Those that believe it can’t be done… better get out of the way of those that are about to do it.


I like it. I like it a lot. And that quote alone gives you a good glimpse into my brother's outlook on life. Happy Birthday Bro! I hope those who don't believe get out of your way so they don't get hurt when you run over the top of them.

Rock of Love...

Our new series Rock of Love starts THIS SUNDAY at The Connection Church. It is going to be INCREDIBLE and you DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT! And even more than that, you don't want your friends to miss out. We'll be talking about dating, marriage, and sex in this revealing series about how to build your relationships on the "Rock of Love." This Sunday Cole will specifically be sharing a clear, easy to understand presentation of the gospel, so be sure and invite that friend or neighbor that you've been wanting to share Jesus with. Take that step. Make that phone call. Knock on that door. Do whatever it takes to get your friends who don't yet know the love of Jesus to TCC this weekend!


Rock of Love Invite Cole Phillips, The Connection Church from The Connection Church on Vimeo.

Everyone Matters...

Last night at our High School Connection Students gathering we finished up a series we've been doing called Everyone Matters. Here's the whole premis: Everyone matters to God, so everyone ought to matter to us. For the past three weeks we've talked all about how we can share God's love with others so that they know they matter to God. And it has been incredible to see our students engage and respond to what we've been learning together.

There's a church word for what we've talked about. It's called evangelism. Over the years, the church has made evangelism into a pretty complicated thing. We've got evangelism classes. We have evangelism campaigns. There are special conferences on evangelism. We buy books and studies on evangelism. We explain evangelism. We teach evangelism. And so many times we make it so complicated, that we never do evangelism. Here is what evangelism is: it is letting people know they matter to God. Evangelism is simply caring about God and those who are far from Him. It's that simple. Everyone matters to God. If we're his disciples, they ought to matter to us.

Attack of the Zombies...or The Hackers...

I saw this article thanks to my friend Randy Moore, who is the Youth Pastor a Milwood Baptist Church in Austin. Apparently hackers hacked into a portable traffic sign on Lamar and 15th in Austin, TX and warned people with this message:
That's not only impressive computer hacking ability, but impressive wit as well. Even the spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation agreed: "It's sort of amusing, but not at all helpful," he commented. However, if there ever is indeed a zombie attack in Austin, TX, it's good to know that our technology is capable and prepared to warn us.

Spit-And-Polish Veneer...

One of my goals this year is to read the entire Bible. I blogged about it earlier in the year here. So last night after our High School student gathering, I was reading in Matthew 23 in The Message and came across this in the first few verses:

"Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer." - Matthew 23:1-3, The Message

That passage hit me like a ton of bricks. I go to great lengths to make sure that I communicate in an effective and relevant matter when I teach God’s word, whether it’s to students or adults. Apparently the Pharisees were pretty competent teachers as well. But when it came to living out what they taught they stunk. They were so off-base that Jesus told people that their teachings of the word were ok, but warned them about following the way they lived. Ouch.

As I teach God’s word and lead others in following Jesus I don’t want that accusation to be made of me. I don’t want others to have an excuse to say that my teaching is all spit-and-polish veneer. I want to live in such a way that my life gives my teaching power, not polish. I want to follow Jesus with such passion that my teaching comes from my heart instead of hides it. When I think about sharing the word of God I want to be able to talk a good line. But I want to live a good life to give that talk power. God, help me to make sure that my beliefs match my behavior, that my convictions match my character, and that the meaning of my talk matches the marching of my walk.

An Inaugural Prayer...

Rick Warren took a lot of heat over his invitation and acceptance to pray at President Obama's inauguration ceremony. He took heat from all sides - atheists, believers, churches, and anti-religious groups. I thought he was a great choice. And I thought he delivered a great prayer. Here's just a portion of the opening part of the prayer:

Almighty God, our Father:
Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

(You can read the entire text of the prayer, along with Pastor Mark Driscoll's comments, by clicking here.)

A lot of people discredit and criticize Rick Warren for a lot of different reasons. In my opinion, he loves God, loves God's church, and loves people too much to see them live without a relationship with a loving God. And in my opinion, his inaugural prayer was top-notch.

A Little Link Love...

Thought I'd throw out a little link love today. Here's a variety of links with random stuff you need to check out:

• In light of today's historic Presidential Inauguration check out this Inauguration Speech Generator to make up your own speech, mad-lib style. Worth a couple laughs for sure.
• Have you seen the I Am Second website? If not, you need to go check it out right now. Incredible sight where people share stories of finding purpose and hope in the midst of everyday struggles and failures.
• Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a crazy-random-awesome-cool 6th grader? If so, check out Mackenzie Phillips' blog. She's the daughter of our lead pastor Cole.
• This daily blog by Brad Ruggle's is always full of creative goodness. And it may be one of the sickest blog designs...(wait for it)...ever.
• I mentioned this story via my Twitter several weeks ago, but I don't think I ever shared it on here. This story by Rick Reilly from ESPN will inspire you, challenge you, and probably make you shed a tear or two. Awesome read so click here now and check it out.
• I've been watching this blog and following Vince as he begins to plant a church on the Las Vegas strip. God has really burdened me to pray for Vince and Verve Church for the past few months and I want to encourage you to do the same.

A little linkage. A lotta' lovage. And I'm out.

Thankful For Dreams...

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.