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FRIENDS, RSS’ers, FAMILY – Guest Blog Today – so click over and comment, engage in discussion!

Hey Everybody – welcome to “FreePlay Friday”!  Today I’d like to welcome a good friend, Deane Duggan as my guest blogger.  Deane and his wife lived in Atlanta and visited St. Simons Island often.  They visited my former church a few times and we just seemed to hit it off and become friends.  Now they’ve moved their family down here to paradise and we have the privilege of seeing them often.

In addition to kicking my butt on the raquetball court, Deane has an incredible grasp on politics … of the conservative nature, that is … and has some great insights into our Constitution and how our government was meant to operate.  Who knows, maybe we’ll see Mr. Duggan on a ballot some day?

Deane’s passion is driven not by politics or government, but by his relationship with Christ, and his desire to see God’s Kingdom here on earth, “as it is in heaven”.  So without my need to blab any longer, I’m sitting back today and allowing Deane to take “FreePlay Friday” with this post, “Football”.

“Football” – Thoughts from Deane Duggan

I am a college football fan, but a few weeks ago a question returned to my mind as I was watching a Saturday night game – “How do we motivate Christians to be as passionate about God as many people, including some Christians, are about college football?”  Personally, I am less fanatical about college football than I used to be.  My relationship with God, my marriage, and my children have changed my priorities.  However, I can still identify with the highs and lows that are evident on fans’ faces as their emotions reflect the success or failure of their team.  In addition to the emotional investment, people spend lots of time and money on tickets, travel, and tailgating. How do we encourage Christians to invest similar emotion, time, and money for God’s Kingdom?  How do we get people to care as much about “Kingdom battles” as they care about football games?  The result of a football game matters at most for a season, and in light of eternity, it really does not matter at all.  I am not suggesting that Christians should not watch college football.  I am simply suggesting that we view it with proper perspective.  Is it possible to transition the passion for football or any other sport/activity that someone is passionate about to a passion for God and God’s priorities?

How many football games do you watch during the week?  How many hours do you spend watching those games?  How much time do you spend reading articles leading up to the game?  How much time do you spend reading articles about the games you watched?

When I was on a plane, I was thinking about how people could offer to God everything they do and allow him to either keep it and use it or, if necessary eliminate it.  As it relates to college football, a disciple may need to change some habits – spend less time and less money going to, watching, reading about, etc.  To put a more positive spin on it, a disciple may need to spend more time in the word and in prayer, and may need to invest more time and money for God’s Kingdom.  A disciple may need to look for ways to involve God in the activity – display a Christ like example at the game, organize a food or toy drive, donate tickets to Big Brothers/Big Sisters, etc.

Here are a couple of verses that came to mind as I was contemplating this:
Matthew 6:21 – For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Romans 12:2 – And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

What are your thoughts?  Enter your comment below.
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The election is over.  Obama was declared the winner, as I’d suspected over the last few weeks.

As I’ve been praying over the last week especially, I realized something.

What I hate about America ….

I hate about  ….

ME.

OK – so “hate” is a very strong word.  I confess, I used it on purpose.  I bet that title grabbed your attention.  I hope so.  The word may be appropriate, though.

Just what am I talking about?

It all came to me last week during prayer time.  We were together, repenting for all the sins of our country.

“God forgive us, as a country, we are  ___________________” (insert your sin of choice)

Greedy.
Materialistic.
Immoral.
Captured in Idolatry.
Swept away by entertainment.
Selfish.
Deceptive.

The more we “repented” of all those sinful things we hate about our country … the more I realized that I often have all of those sins in my own heart.

And I realized that the condition of our country, sadly, is a magnification of the condition of the Church.

This must change.

As for our election … my thoughts are simple.

I didn’t vote for Obama, but not because of the color of his skin.  It was for policy issues only.  But now he’ll be my President.  I’ll pray for him.  I hope that he’s successful.  I do not wish harm or anything bad him, and it breaks my heart to see some of us doing just that.  As if we can’t wait for him to fail. C’mon folks.  This is our country we’re talking about.  It’s not a game.

As for the race issue – all I can say is that I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible leaps we’ve gained as a country.  It’s a historical day and I’m proud to have witnessed it.  America is truly a place, as Obama said in his speech last night, where “all things are possible”.

Let us come together as Americans, in unity.  Let us change the face of our land, not by party or laws, but by the actions we live. Let us be “transformed” instead of “conformed”.  (Romans 12: 1-2)

In closing, I’d encourage you to check out a great post by Brad Ruggles called “History in the Making”.

Your thoughts?

PS:  I TRULY DO LOVE AMERICA!

Hey Everybody!
(special thanks to Steve Lowe for the image idea!)

So I never thought this week’s blog material would turn into a series. But did it ever. The response from you all has been incredible, and obviously – I’ve touched on something that we’re eager to discuss.

It all started with a recap of my experience this past Sunday morning as a “worshiper” in the congregation, as opposed to the Worship Leader, or someone running sound, producing, etc.

I followed up with a recap and incredible perspective from a former college professor, Dr. Michael Braz. He had some thoughts that really made us think.

As promised, I’m coming back today to close it up. I’d hoped to get this thing out first thing this morning; however I had lots of last-minute things to complete for SSCC before leaving town … that’s right … leaving town – we (the family) are headed up to Gainesville for some family time on Lake Lanier. We’re turning the McKinnon Manor here on St. Simons Island into a party home for house-sitting pals, Jay and Brooke.

In summary, I think there are tons of reasons that people aren’t singing in our churches.

• maybe the music isn’t loud enough, and their self conscious about their voice
• maybe the songs are too contemporary, too new, or in a key they aren’t comfortable with
• maybe they’ve been “trained” by our entertainment culture to watch instead of participate
• maybe they are engaged in worship, but they are overwhelmed by God’s Presence and can’t sing
• maybe they just don’t care … they aren’t being drawn in
• maybe they haven’t been taught enough
• maybe they’ve been “taught wrong”

and on, and on, and on.

I believe all of these could have some huge impacts on our corporate participation (or lack thereof).

However, as I prayed about this a while back, I felt like the Holy Spirit gave me this thought. It’s simple, yet profound:

“Without revelation, there won’t be much participation”.

Did you get that?

You see, when we get a revelation of God … how awesome He is, how huge He is, how loving He is, how compassionate He is, and all the amazing things that He has selflessly done FOR US … we can’t help but respond and participate.

So, if that’s the case – how do we see our people get a better revelation of “God”. Pray, certainly. Teach, absolutely.

I’ll be doing my best to publish tomorrow’s “FreePlay Friday” by morning … in the meantime, closing thoughts?

Fred

Hey Everyone,

My Sunday recap/worship confessional review is still pending … but I hope to have something for you by tomorrow at the latest. I want Sunday’s sermon to be live on our podcast before doing the recap.

There are several things on the radar that I’d like to mention, so this post is a bit of a “quick start” to solicit your help in making a few wonderful things happen. This should only take about 3-4 minutes of your time. To make it very simple, each link should open in a “New Window”, so take care of business, close that window, and this blog window should still be waiting for you to tackle the next step!

#1. Will you help me with my song, “Fix My Eyes” on IndieHeaven.Com? Today, it’s #19 on the FanFaves charts at IndieHeaven.Com. You simply mouse over the 5-stars next to the song and click to vote. You can vote once per day, per IP (computer). For those who will commit to remembering to vote daily, it REALLY HELPS.

(note: Why would I engage in such shameless self promotion? Honestly, I think this song has a message that the church needs to engage with. The top worship songs on this chart are being reviewed for a praise and worship compilation that will be distributed NATION-WIDE. So this is a great opportunity, but I need your help each day.)

#2. My brother, Robert McKinnon, started an engaging blog discussion on this blog called “Marriage and God’s Word”. He’s asked me to put out the word to my blog friends, and would really love your input. Especially you ladies out there .. so far, only men have commented about marriage. So visit his blog and jump in the discussion.

#3.

A relatively new friend online, blogster and twitter-ite, Chad Wright from Austin, TX has launched his new site, “WeTheChurch.Org”. It’s a common place where you can easily submit your prayer requests, praise reports, testimonies, and pray for one another. What an incredible concept. Please support Chad and visit his site, and spread the word – and visit www.wethechurch.org.

Hope this is enough to get your day started in the right direction! As always, my desire is to help bring you resources, discussion, music, and leadership to help us all become more like Christ, and to become worshipers in spirit and truth.

So … how are YOU doing anyway?

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Everyone,

So, it’s been a wild week. I typically take one day per week and “unplug” from blog world. Normally, I’ll catch up pretty easily but this week has had it’s share of detours, so I start out Friday morning with nearly 500 unread blogs in my Google Reader. So, yep – I did it again – I declared RSS Bankruptcy and “Marked All Read”.

Today Joy leaves for the weekend – she’s going down to Orlando with some of her girfriends who are running a triathlon race. Joy’s not in the race – she’s just going to hang out with some girls and have fun. I’d say she’s much-deserving of this get away. It leaves me this weekend with all four of my beloved munchkins … so pray for them! Seriously, I’m looking forward to it – we’re gonna have a blast.

Stay tuned this evening for a super-blog-post … one that is VERY IMPORTANT to me. I am going to set it to automatically release around 1:30 AM, EST … but on auto-release, my email subscription folks don’t get an email (I don’t know why that doesn’t work!?).

In the meantime, here are a few things I’ve been meaning to mention:

1. Please vote for my song, “Fix My Eyes” on IndieHeaven.Com’s FanFaves chart daily. As of today, it’s at #29 on the charts and rising.
2. I just watched my friend Mandy’s video, in partnership with Brent‘s wife, Tam … it’s on the new MTTV Video Blog … and is hilarious, so check it out and encourage those gals.
3. Travis and Chris hit homeruns as always with their media and print-related work for our current sermon series at SSCC, “Just Breathe”.
4. Worship this past Sunday was amazing. I need a dedicated confessional or text-fessional to describe it, but I think I waited too long.
5. There is a “revival” happening in Lakeland, FL – over 8,000 people attending every night. Lots of salvations, miracles, signs, wonders, healings. I’ve not been, nor have I watched it on God.TV, but I understand you can see it every night. I have a LOT of thoughts in my head about this type of thing, and I need to write them down … but I can sum it up by simply saying, “I believe, Lord help my unbelief”. More on that later.
6. EXTRA (added about 30 minutes AFTER publishing this) … Perry Noble had a great post called “Five Phases in Dealing with a Critic” … I just had to share this post, as I’ve experienced all FIVE of these phases within about 72 hours this week.  Dang, I can relate!

So Mandy & Tam’s tips on MTTV said keep your blog posts short … this is still within one “screen”, so I hope I’m doing OK … any constructive criticism, ladies?

Fred