Let me tell you what homeschoolers aren’t:

• Unsocialized – Kill this stereotype immediately.  The majority of homeschoolers I interacted with were easy to talk to, easy to work with, and had kids that could hold intelligent conversations with adults while still being able to play with infants and toddlers.
• Behind the times – There are some incredibly tech and web-savvy people homeschooling their children.  To be honest, many were utilizing way more technology than the average family does.
• Boring – In a word….no.  Many of these families do more in one year than many families do in an entire lifetime.
• Lazy – Many people think that homeschoolers don’t work hard and just want to let their kids slide through education.  That is SO far from the case.  You would not believe the organizational skills everyone has and the immense concern for making sure their children are properly educated.

Let me tell you what homeschoolers are:

• Smart, educated, and well-rounded.
• No-holds-barred passionate about their family’s core values.
• Hilarious
• Resourceful
• Pioneers
• Loyal

I am so thankful that my eyes were opened to the benefits, values, and highlights of homeschooling.  If it’s something you’re considering, while it might be a fearful leap, you will not be disappointed and there is a vast support community available to you.

And, since I’m no longer with the company and I can say with integrity that this is a true shout-out to these people I’ve met and not a tactic to drive business, I wanted to thank some specific people for some specific things that they did for me while in the homeschool community:

• Kris – Thank you for being brave and asking me to support you from the very beginning.  You paved the way for many good things to happen.
• Amber – Thank you for showing me just how important real relationships with people, not customers, are.
• Jenn – Thank you for your friendship, your support, your vision, your innovation, and your confidence.  Your friendship means more than you know.
• Stef – Thank you for your no-nonsense approach to everything.  Don’t back down.  Ever.  (And thanks for constantly making me laugh!)
• Jolanthe – Thank you for being a pioneer in the homeschool world and showing people what is possible for one single mom to do.
• Erin – Thank you for your constant inspiration to raise your boys with godly values in a mostly God-less world.
• Cheryl – Thank you for your patience and the stress you endured because of trying to get the 2:1 conference off the ground.  I truly hope you succeed beyond your imagination.
• Linda – Thank you for your friendship, advice, joy, and being one of the best co-workers I’ve ever had (even though we were hours away!)
• Ashley – Thank you for showing me what investing into a relationship can do.
• Jamie – Thanks for your quiet, encouraging spirit and incredibly inspiring photography!
• Meghan – Thank you for your confidence and trust in me during the early Hip Homeschool Moms days.  I’m so glad your efforts and reaping such immense benefits!
• Samantha – Thank you for being so patient with me during technical glitches and vague communication during a homeschool contest!

Truly, homeschool moms and dads (and there are MANY more of you), thank you for teaching me.  You’ll never fully know the difference you made in my life.

Homeschoolers are Amazing – What I Learned from Working for a Homeschool Curriculum Company is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

Death is something that we tend to fear, the death of others and especially our own death.  I can honestly say that I’m not sure if I fear it or not.  Unfortunately, the thought of death is usually only thrust upon us in times like these, when we’re least prepared for it.  Although Grandpa was old, he was fairly independent and in pretty good health for his age.

My mind is inevitably drawn to thoughts of my own death.  Will I be ready?  Will I be afraid?  I’d like to think that, knowing what I believe, I can be completely free of fear from death.  But I’m not.  I’m afraid of the unknown, for even though Scripture has told us much about what lies ahead, there are still so many questions.

My prayer today is that God would prepare my heart, even now, for coming home to Him.  For now, though, I want to fully embrace Paul’s attitude of living between two kingdoms:

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!

I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” Philippians 1:20-26

I’m thankful, for sure, that Grandpa knew Christ and that I will see him again someday.  I’m also thankful that these words are a joy and a hope to me and my family in this difficult season:

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore

It Is Not Death to Die – I’ll Miss You, Grandpa is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

What do your personal worship times look like?  Structured/unstructured? Prayer/music? Extended Scripture reading? Share in the comments!

What Do Your Personal Worship Times Look Like? is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

Someone that’s been intriguing me with some fascinating thoughts lately has been Vince Marotte, a pastor at Gateway Church in Texas and author of the book Context and Voice.

He’s observing that the Church (as a whole) has become a place of consumption for too long and that Sunday morning is losing its value.  People come to a building, sit in the seats, sing songs written by people outside of their own church, listen to a pastor, rinse and repeat week after week.  With the advancement in both content consumption tools and content creation tools in our culture it takes much less than driving to church to hear a good sermon. Vince writes:

“Users can watch video of the best bible teachers, preachers and expositors from all over the world when ever and where ever they like. If the experience is simply about consuming content then showing up to a certain place at a certain time is inefficient.”

Stating the Sunday is losing its value is a pretty radical concept, and I’m glad that he has a good balance of perspective by saying “We all know that the church experience is about so much more than simply consuming content but the truth is, there are a lot of people who don’t get much more out of their church experience than that.”

He goes on to say that “Gen X and Y/millennials are much more content in community in which they have a voice.”  While that might be true for many, is it true across the board?  Here’s what I observe from people in general, not necessarily in the context of the church:

• People watch A LOT of TV (either in front of the actual television or on their laptops or devices)
• People play A LOT of computer games (again, either in front of their console or on Facebook or on their devices)
• People read A LOT of books (physical, Kindle, eBooks, whatever)
• People seem to consume, consume, consume

Sunday Morning Losing its Value? Moving the Church from Consumption to Creation is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

Ouch.

On the other hand, part of me was glad to know that he was feeling convicted, at least in part, when around me.

The discussion revolved around a behavior that I thought was dangerous to his spiritual health.  When he didn’t respond too well to it I sought some wisdom from a friend of mine and loved what he had to say.

He reminded me that we respond with a life obedient to Jesus not because we have to, but because we want to.  We are not bound in the legalities of the law that we must follow in order to achieve salvation but rather we are bound by the love of Christ so amazingly great that we have no choice but to want to please Him.  Christianity is not a set of rules to follow and live up to, it’s joy-filled obedience to the only One worthy of our allegiance.

2 Corinthians 5 speaks of the proper anticipation of things to come while living in this world for a short time. Some highlights:

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (8-9) For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (14-15)

Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him….For the love of Christ controls us…that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

It changes your attitude, for certain!

• It’s Sunday so I must go maintain my obligation to go to church to…It’s Sunday and I am joyfully privileged to be able to worship in God’s house.
• I can’t possibly keep myself from doing all the things that the world does, there’s too much pressure to…My satisfaction is found in what God asks me to do, not in the fear and approval of man.
• I’ll never measure up or be as good as so and so as a Christian to….God has measured Himself and poured Himself out for me through Jesus, I am worth dying for.

Letting the Gospel Control (Compel) Us is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

Something got my wheels turning.  I am placed in a strange juxtaposition of two different cultures.  The culture I serve, my home congregation is a beautiful and wonderful place; a place I so enjoy serving, but I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of how to be creative.  We’re making excellent strides there and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

On the other hand, the online world of church creatives that I daily take part in is a place of bold innovation, extreme creativity, and fresh thinking that, at times, might even be offensive to some within my congregation.

I try to live in the space between with discernment, challenging our home community to be more creative when I see the opporunity and knowing when to say “that’s too much for us right now” when I feel pushed to be more creative from the larger creative community of church leaders.

I wonder if we get too caught up in it sometimes.  Let me set up the scenario:

You are working with a small team of musicians who are growing very successfully in their musical abilities.  However, they’re not scouring the web and searching for content to help them become more and more creative.  You, on the other hand, are constantly looking for new ideas, and you feel like you need to keep pushing the creative envelope and challenging your musicians, artists, and church leaders.

So, instead of hearing a piano player, who’s never learned to play by chord, play her first ever song with only a chord chart and get through it fairly successfully you say, “Nope, you’re not a creative enough piano player to fit into my team.  We only take people who can create from chord sheets, not people who are bound to the written page.  Sorry, we can’t use you” before she even starts.

How much does this sort of thinking apply to the broad spectrum of your entire congregation?

• Sorry, all of your designs look like something from – we need you to come up with something innovative and new
• Sorry, Vacation Bible School planning team, you’re not writing your own curriculum and music or using live musicians, we need something specifically tailored just to our congregation
• Insert whatever other creative ministry situation you can think of here

Maybe I’m the only one, but I’m finding myself thinking the above thoughts far too often.  ”Man, I really wish we had a creative designer.  Man, why can’t the people involved in the local theatre community use their skills in the church.  Man, why can’t we have a puppet ministry or a more exciting children’s ministry.”

Then I think, “Wait.  I’ve never encouraged or set out to train and equip any of these people!”  My disappointment in anyone’s “lack” of creativity has diminished any ability to help them get rid of that “lack!”

I wholeheartedly agree that the church needs to be more creative collectively and lead culture the way it used to.  However, instead of discounting someone just because they “only use clipart” or “only play written-out music” can we commit to helping move them from clip-art to creative design and from classical musical training to creative musical creation?

I’m afraid that sometimes the more we push people to be more creative, the more frustrated they might become. Gentle equipping and encouragement over the long haul is going to be what it truly takes to create a creative culture.

What do you think?

Unedited Photo from Ty Carlson

Does Forced Creativity Kill the Desire to Become More Creative? is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

Since I haven’t had much time to write or much of a connection I’ll point you to a couple places I’ve guest posted recently:

I’ve been part of Chris Vacher’s Summer Mix Tape here, writing about how God is using Let Your Kingdom Come in our church.

I also wrote on Ashley’s blog here, writing about living intentionally by faith.

What exciting things have you been doing this summer?

Association Free Lutheran Family Camp and More is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

For many church leaders, the hour before a worship service can be lovely or ludicrous. For me, the hour before depends on the week before.

If the week before has gone well (that is, communication was efficient, people prepared their part for the service, and my heart has been regularly fed in God’s word) then the hour before is always lovely; a time to get ready for corporate worship, enjoy the company of my fellow church members, and look forward to the Spirit of God moving in worship.

If the week before has gone poorly (that is, communication was lacking, people didn’t prep their part, and I didn’t spend time privately in worship with God) then the hour before is ludicrous; rushing to make sure things are ready, feeling distant from God and the people I serve with, and wondering what’s going to go wrong instead of wondering how God’s spirit is going to move.

So, for us, how does it look lovely and what does it take to make it look ludicrous?

A lovely hour before needs this the week before:

The Hour Before Church; Is it Lovely or Ludicrous? is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

“Wow.  Look at this, I have some influence.  People listen to me.  This is pretty amazing.”

Now, the problem isn’t with people listening to that person, or even that they have influence.  The problem lies with how that influenced is used.  Will it be used for God’s glory or for personal gain? A new worship leader and blogging friend of mine says today that it’s possible and quite clear from Scripture that it could be used for both (think Moses, David, Solomon, the Apostle Paul), but there will always be a danger to take pride in the position we’ve been allowed to be placed into and forget about our call to magnify the greatness of God.

When we take pride in our position we start to do things like:

• Believe we’re the only ones with the right answers or solution
• Yearn for more influence, followers, and recognition of man
• Stop relying on God’s Word and character to drive our daily living

There are a few simple ways to combat getting caught up in our position that I’m learning to apply daily:

• Spend time in God’s Word every day and remind yourself that He is infinitely more great than we can ever imagine
• Allow wisdom from God’s Word to influence every daily decision made
• Pray daily, “God, thank you for putting me in this position.  I don’t deserve it and it’s only because of You that I’m here.”
• Listen to other people’s ideas and suggestions and implement them.
• Give preference to people above yourself in conversation (listen first, then speak) and organization (live to equip leaders as you lead, not dictate).
• Learn the words “You’re right” and “I’m sorry” and say don’t be afraid to say them when you mess things up.

Lead and lead well.  But don’t let your position become an idol and a cause of offense to those who are under your influence.

Question: How do you balance increasing leadership and influence with the ability to stay humble and continue to magnify the greatness of God?

How to be an Offering – Banishing Pride in Position is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.

First, you should know that I feel incredibly inadequate to do album reviews.  I have no experience recording or producing an entire album.  Yet, I keep getting blessed by several folks asking me to review their recording.  I hope someday I’ll be the one asking for the review, but until then, I’ll give my honest and raw opinion about what I hear.

Overview

Although the sound of this recording doesn’t have anything ground-breakingly fresh or unique about it the production, execution, and content are stellar and it is definitely a different sound than most worship music people are familiar with.  Matthew has put together a group of very talented musicians and singers.  And while it didn’t immediately make me go, “whoa, I’ve never heard anything like this before” (as in the case of Joe Day and Sojourn Music) it still stirs my heart and begs me to join in at the top of my lungs to the powerful declarations on the recording.

Matthew’s great strength lies in the energy of the “call”, giving us several “battle cries” if you will that could even be shouted with passion instead of just sung.  There are so many love-song-esque worship songs and recordings out (which have there place) that it’s hard to find a recording that men specifically can really relate to.  If there is one, this is it.

Rock-driven Proclamation

Apart from the one ballad on the recording, “Emmanuel”, this is a rock-guitar-filled charge to make God the center of our universe.  Soaring guitars and lots of unison vocals give the majority of this recording the feel of being a new anthem for our generation.  Another great strength of Matt’s songs are the straight-from-Scripture lyrics in many of them.

The majority of the songs on the EP are, from Matthew’s own words, “a prophetic call to this generation to awaken and unite as ‘one voice’ to see hope arise in the darkest places.”  The addition of Emmanuel into the mix of songs is a welcome break after the relentless drive of the rest of the songs.

Sum it Up

Emmanuel is my favorite song on the recording, including great lyrics, lovely harmonies, and subtle production.  The song is reminiscent of Lost Dogs and the added countermelody in the violin and bells reminds me of new things coming out from Sojourn Music.

While just a bit repetitive in parts, this EP is a great addition to any collection of worship music, but even more so, an important heart cry for a new generation.  Head over to Matthew Reed music to listen to the recording, buy from iTunes or get a physical copy of the CD.

disclosure: Matthew gave me a free copy of his EP to review.  All opinions are genuinely my own.

Come and Drink, a Declaration for our Generation from Matthew Reed (Review) is a post from: I am an Offering. The only thing it's missing is YOU! Please feel free to leave a comment as I'd love to interact with you.