God’s blessings upon Russ and Rebecca Debenport as they make their journey to Thailand to join a mission effort in Chiang Mai.

I spent a month in Thailand one summer during college. The people were warm and generous. The food was delicious. The churches were vibrant. The weather was hot. The meat market was bloody. The fake watches were cheap. It was a great time.

Right now the team the Debenports will be joining is working is Phuket rebuilding houses in a Muslim village.

Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.

Blaise Pascal

Man-oh-man. My week has been packed and is only getting fuller. Sunday is “Family Business Day” at Garnett, which is another way of saying “Budget Sunday.”

Now more than ever, I’m understanding that a church like Garnett is both a family and a business. Both are equally important. Sometimes I get the sense that some would rather we not talk about business with the family, but the simple truth is that if we don’t take care of business and if the family doesn’t understand why the leadership is making some of the business decisions it is, then in the long run, there will be no family called the Garnett Church of Christ. The challenging part of all this is finding the appropriate balance between the two.

Tomorrow I’m making a quick run down to Oklahoma Christian to speak in chapel. I’m talking about “My Struggle for Faith.” That’s a topic I can go on and on about for hours, but I’ve got to condense it into 12 minutes. No problem.

Forgive me, but heaven gets in the way of lots of important work.

Hold on, now. Before you fire off a red hot e-mail response or call me on the phone or assemble a church tribunal, hear me out.

For twenty-five years I served churches as a pastor. For the past ten years I have been a member of an inner city church. So, I feel like I know how church folk think–both middle-class and under-class church members.

Most churches in the United States focus on the needs of their members. Their most pressing concern seems to be eternity and how it will be spent. Naturally, the weekly sermons in most of these churches deal with the issues of salvation: how to obtain it, how to hold on to it, and what it will mean eventually. Being “right with God” remains the central concern. Most of a church’s resources follow this fundamental focus so that almost everything flows toward getting people over safely to “the other side.” It has been my observation that, ironically, the more a church speaks of God’s love and grace, the more preoccupied it becomes with the afterlife.

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Have you seen the movie To End All Wars? If you haven’t, and there’s a good chance you haven’t, then check it out. It is based on a true story, is set in a WWII Japanese POW camp, and is brutally graphic. It is also one of the most “Christian” movies I’ve ever seen. If you were able to stomach “The Passion of the Christ,” then you will be able to stomach this one. Watch it and you’ll see the transforming power of the gospel in action.

After I saw the movie, I went out and bought the book upon which the movie is based. It is equally powerful. In fact, I’m using it as a starting point for my message on Sunday.