a review of the scuds i launched yesterday

If you attended church at NewPointe yesterday, you know that yours truly spoke about one of the six elements that we feel God uses to "move our faith beyond periodic."

What you may not know is that at the office we talk about "scuds"--as in scud missiles--that got fired on any given Sunday (our definition of a scud is this: a missile that gets launched by any one of us on staff at NewPointe that has the potential to "do damage" to the listener or reader). My man, Kevin came by my office to ask me if I'd heard any reverberation from the scuds I fired yesterday (by the way, you can listen to message online right here.

I told him that I hadn't received any backlash from the the multiple scuds fired into the crowd. I've only heard positive stuff (although, admittedly, the positive stuff is what I'm most likely to hear from people).

So, in case you missed it...or you just want a Sunday scud review, here are a few of the missiles I launched in church yesterday:

• "One of the things we hear from time to time is, 'I wish you guys would go deeper with your teaching.' What that person is usually saying is, 'I want you to confuse the snot out of me so I can leave feeling smarter but not having to actually do anything about what I just heard."
• "We don't think NewPointe attenders need a history lesson, we think people need practical help with how to live their lives."
• "Our lives don't end up screwed up because we don't know the Bible. Our lives get screwed up because we don't we're not applying it."
• "The problem with the church in America isn't that we haven't been teaching people the Bible. We just think that maybe that isn't the right goal.
• "Spiritual maturity is not synonymous with Bible knowledge. Spiritual maturity is synonymous with Bible application."
• "There's no blessing for knowledge...knowing is irrelevant...knowing doesn't count for anything. It's all in the doing. The doing is what spiritual maturity is."
• "If you can't control your tongue, it doesn't matter what you know. Your religion, according to the Bible, is worthless."
• "We're not against knowing...we're just against knowing without doing.
• "The goal of teaching at NewPointe is to teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible."
• "If you haven't yet applied what you learned at NewPointe last weekend, you need to examine yourself to see if you're one of those people who just comes and sits and doesn't do anything with what they've heard."

If you got hit by a scud, don't worry...it's a good thing. It means that God is pointing out some things in your life that need examined. Scuds are good...if you take the time to prayerfully consider them.