The Finish Year

January 2, 2012

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A few weeks ago blogger/tweeter/author Jon Acuff challenged people to join him in what he is calling “The Finish Year”. Here’s a quick description from him, but click the link for the full post:

This year, let’s finish things. Let’s finish writing our books or our business plans. Let’s finish paying off our debt. Let’s finish losing that extra 10 pounds. Let’s finish saying, “I want to go to Italy someday” and actually go. Let’s finish thinking about volunteering at a local homeless shelter and do it.

So I’m participating in the Finish Year. Today I’ll post my finish list, and over the next few day, I’ll be talking a little more about each goal.

My Finish List:

1- Blog at least 3 times a week.
2- Turn at least 1 blog series into a kindle single.
3- Publish a book through amazon/kindle.
4- Get an A in Intermediate Algebra. (This is my third try in as many semesters. Time to get it done.)
5- Write a semester of curriculum for my ministry.
6- Read 12 non-fiction books.
7- Re-Learn the clarinet.

Check out the post on the Finish Year, and let me know if you’ll be joining me and countless others as we stop starting things, and start finishing them.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Reasons I Like Going To A Small School: Part 2

December 20, 2011

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Guys. I’m going to be honest with you: I’m kind of lazy about a lot of things. One of those things is being physical…in any way shape or form. I don’t like to walk back and forth to the car after a grocery trip, so I’ll bring in as much at a time as I can; I don’t like to have to get up from my spot once I’ve started watching tv, so I get all the stuff I think I’ll need before I sit down. This also means that I don’t want to walk 20 minutes to have to get to a class, or be somewhere so big that I have to take a bus (Howard Payne does have a bus…it goes one place and then back. Not a lot of schedules to memorize.)

I like going to a small school, because it has a small campus. My youth minister graduated from HPU and the other day a lady told him she drove through Brownwood and saw part of the campus, he informed her that she’d actually seen all of campus. I can stand on one end of the campus and see the other end it’s great. Outside of a class at the Academy building, or Newman (The only two off campus buildings, where I no longer have classes), it doesn’t take me more than three and a half minutes to get to class. It’s great. Everything is right close to where I am. There’s honestly no way I would have survived at a bigger school. I would never have gone to class because ti would have been too far away.

I work literally across the street from campus, and I’m looking for a place to live off campus that I can still see campus from. I don’t want to have to work to get to where I’m going. It’s as simple as that. I’m lazy. A small school provides me the environment I need to feel like I’m doing great to be somewhere on campus on time.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

What are your thoughts?

December 19, 2011

superstippy Life 1 Comment

Today, my boss posted this paraphrase of a thought from the book “You Lost Me”:

One of the biggest reasons why Millenials/Mosaics (people aged 18-29) are leaving the church (not faith, just the institution) is that they beleive the church is no longer relevant and does not effectively interact with modern/post-modern culture.

This was my response:

I agree to an extent. I also believe that people in our age bracket tend to be very entitled, so when things don’t happen how we want, we leave to do our own thing. If we’re not careful, in 40 years, our children will be just as disillusioned with our version of church as we tend to be with what is around today. We ought to commit to staying with a local body of people who believe the same things and work on reconciling our stylistic desires to further the kingdom of God.

What are your thoughts? On the quote, or my response?

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Confession 1

October 18, 2011

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Hi my name is David, and I’m an addict.

I feel as though I have to have it to function.
I use multiple times an hour. If I don’t, things just don’t seem normal. I don’t know what’s going on.
When I first started, I never thought I would be someone who would let it get this bad.
I thought I could use as much as I wanted, and just stop.
I really only started because it made some things earlier. But eventually I found excuses to bring it into other areas of my life.
It has upset family members and friends.
Especially when I use in situations when I really shouldn’t.
Sometimes I get better about it. I can hide it if I want also. But it always shows itself. It gets pretty obvious.
Part of me wishes I could stop. The other part of me just wants to keep going and going. Just to see how much damage it can do.
I mean. The reasons it can be bad as some other things I could be doing. So that’s good, right?
Tho those who have been disturbed, annoyed, or even hurt by my addiction. I’m sorry. I really am making an effort to wean myself down. I’ll probably never be completely off though.
Thanks for listening.

My name is David, and I’m addicted to my phone.

HPU Homecoming 2011

October 17, 2011

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Last weekend I got to experience my first HPU Homecoming. Last year, Hillary and I went to visit her brother in Oklahoma, and I missed it. I was glad I was here for it this year.

On Thursday night Hillary and I used our date night to go see the HPU Theatre Department put on the musical South Pacific. Several of the FBC Brownwood college students were involved, so it was fun getting to see them do something they love and are clearly gifted at. I didn’t go to the parade on Saturday morning, but I was at the football game, and got to see the Lonestar conference champions from 1971 take the field. It was a neat experience to see them enjoy the recognition from the event, and I can just imagine those men sitting around and reliving that season.

The coolest part of the weekend for me though was Sunday morning. When I walked into our sanctuary, the stage and stage right area were set up for a full band to play. I had no idea the treat I was in for. Alumni from all over the country were once again under their former director playing an instrument they may not have played in decades. One man just got his saxophone that morning, and another woman had to rent a clarinet after not being able to find hers after a two week search. They wanted to be able to play together again, they were excited about it. You could tell in the way they played. You could tell in the way the director directed and the multiple times he choked up while speaking to the congregation about his experiences with that band.

It was a moment where I realized how blessed I am. I’m blessed to be ministering at the church I’m at. I’m blessed to be receiving a Biblically based education where I am. I got to listen to people talk about how they hadn’t seen some of the people they played with Sunday morning in 37 years. Multiple people told us about how they were married on that alter. The band director shared that all four of his children had been baptized at that church. There is a deep, rich history with the First Baptist Church of Brownwood and Howard Payne University that I think is often overlooked. I am glad, I am blessed to be a part of that history now, and I can’t wait until I come back for my own homecoming somewhere down the road. I have made many relationships here that I know will be lifelong, and I’m sure to make many more before my time here is over. I’m already looking forward to next year and taking the time to sit with alum and hear their stories about their days at HPU.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Reading Buddies

October 11, 2011

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This year in our college ministry we wanted to find a social justice issue that was important to us that we could begin to combat as a group. We settled on education. We’re working on finding a project that allows us to combat that globally, but this week we started our first local project for it. We’re partnering with an elementary school to pair our students with theirs who need help reading. It took a few weeks to get background checks, paperwork, and scheduling done, but today we finally.

While I’d been looking forward to the opportunity, I had no idea how much fun I’d have. In my first classroom, I sat and read “Sideways Stories from the Wayside School” to a class full of third graders. I read this book when I was their age and forgot how much fun it was! I got to do different voices and intonations, and watching the kids reactions to that was incredibly fun. In addition to helping with reading skills, I hope to be able to use time with these kids to instill in them the love for reading that was instilled in me at such a young age.

For my second class, I was with a group of kindergartners. Today, I spent time with them at their recess to get to know them so that it’s not really awkward when I spend one on one time with them working on reading skills. The energy in these kids astounded me. I can’t imagine that I have as much energy in my pinky finger as these kids seemed to have. I loved being reminded of the innocence of young children too. They want to know your name, where you’re from, who your mommy and daddy are, and they want to show you their tricks and how fast they run. They ALL want to show you how fast they can run. It was a great experience though, and I’m looking forward to working with them over the coming months.

Like I said before, I had been excited about the reading program, but nothing could have prepared me for the fun I had today. I left incredibly excited about, and looking forward to next week. Actually interacting with the kids showed me how great an opportunity just sitting and reading for an hour a week can be to minister. I am thankful that God put this opportunity in our laps.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Reasons I Like Going To A Small School: Part 1

October 10, 2011

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I recently said I’d be sharing reasons that I like going to a small school. The first installment: Relationships with faculty/staff.

Going to a small school means one big thing; I’m not a number. This give me an incredible opportunity to have personal relationships with many of my professors and other staff members. I love this about going to Howard Payne. Here’s a couple examples:

1) I took a second job this semester filming for the football team. This requires that I film practices, and one of my professors was kind enough to let me leave class early on Tuesday and Thursday as long as I come in for an hour another day of the week. More than being willing to do that, I look forward to it. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week. We spend part of the time discussing what I missed in class, but then we move on to whatever may be going on in the news, or in the book world, or one of our (mostly my) lives. It’s great.

2) I had a professor my first semester who I really connected with over our appreciation for technology. I haven’t had a class with her since, but anytime we happen to pass each other, we stop and spend at least ten minutes talking. She likes to keep up with what I do via Facebook and twitter, and is always asking for updates on things she may have seen weeks ago. She’s genuinely interested in what goes on in my life.

3) I’m fortunate enough to have my advisor as one of my professors. More than anywhere else, this is where not being a number is really nice. At least once a week I’ve got a question for him that keeps us talking for at least 20 minutes, and he’s more than happy to accommodate. As my advisor, he knows what classes I’m in, and asks how they’re going. He knows what I need to take next and what I need to plan on taking in the future. It’s an incredibly reassuring feeling.

4) The other day I was sitting outside Fambrough’s (“Sports Grill” on campus) with my fiancé and some friends, and the president of the university happened to walk by. It would have been incredibly easy for him to say hello and move on, but he sat down. He just sat down and talked with, and even joked around a bit, with us. It was tons of fun. Does he know who I (we) are? Maybe, maybe not. The fact is, he took 5 minutes out of his time to sit with us and just chat it up a bit. It was fun, and increased my respect for him.

5) My RD is the coolest. I mean that. He’s always got a minute to listen and give some advice. Plus he’s tons of fun to hang out with. One of my favorite things to do is just go sit in his office and hang out during some down time, because I know i’m going to have a few laughs while talking to him. I’ve met few people who genuinely care for college age folks as this guy, and that shows in all he does.

So. Those are just a few ways that the faculty/staff experience here is really neat. I know I don’t have the perspective of having experienced a big school, but people I know who have have said multiple times that sometimes at a bigger university you sacrifice those things, and get lost in a sea of people. I didn’t want that in my college experience, so I never even considered a big school. I’m thankful for my experience here with faculty and staff members. I’m glad about my decision.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Steve Jobs

October 5, 2011

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I’m deviating from what was going to be my blog today to join with the rest of the blogoshpere as we remember the life of Steve Jobs. I don’t have much to say, so this should be fairly short.

I have a good friend who will mock me for writing this, for the pure joy of mocking Jobs to me. Love him or hate him though, Steve Jobs changed the world we live in. Whether he was a brilliant innovator, or a skilled delegator, doesn’t matter. Actions taken by Jobs have given us much of the technology we have and use every day (I’m writing this from my iPad with my apple wireless keyboard).

I don’t think apple is the end all be all, but I do love some of their products, as does much of the technology consuming world. It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout for the company, but I think if there is it will be minimal. My belief is that in the last 2-4 months, Jobs was given a terminal prognosis which led to his stepping down as CEO to prepare the company for what he knew was to come. Instead of leaving his company reeling by kicking the bucket in the middle of the work day, or suffering in the eye of the public, he set them up to take off in his absence.

To those who believe that the company will plummet without his direction, I think it’s important to keep in mind that it is likely that the next generation of every product currently out will have Jobs’ fingerprints on it somewhere. The real test will be to see what they develop in his absence.

Few people are remembered past the generation of their grandchildren, but I am confident that the grandchildren of grandchildren will read about Steve Jobs in texts books. Things like this however make me think about the temporariness of now…or of three generations from now. Most things I’ve ever read identify Jobs as a Buddhist and if this is the case, then what I know to be true based on God’s revelation to man through the Bible, Jobs will spend eternity separated from God in hell. I could be wrong, it’s possible that at some point in his life, possibly on his death bed, Jobs made a decision to accept the gift of grace (through the death of Jesus on the cross), and could be dancing for joy in a cancer free body.

In light of this though, we have to ask ourselves what we’re striving for. Are we working to have a biography written about us? Do we want to be in the history books in 2 centuries? Or are we working to advance the will of God? Are we allowing ourselves to be used for a purpose greater than our own? Our striving to make ourselves great is useless, most of us will be lucky if our great-grandchildren remember who we are. We ought to examine what we’re doing and why.

I’m thankful for the ideas that he had, and the things that he brought to us. His wry smile as he nonchalantly introduces the newest product, his sweaters that would look tacky on any other individual, his easy way of carrying himself as he changed the face of what we knew technology to be, will all be missed.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Monkey Leadership: Part 2

October 4, 2011

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So. Last week I wrote about a leadership concept that I learned from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This week? You get treated to the other one I learned: Be a leader worth protecting.

When Caesar ends up in monkey jail, he sees this big ol’ gorilla named Bull. Bull is not nice. But Caesar recognizes that Bull could be an asset to him down the line so he tries to befriend him. Eventually when he is executing his plan, Caesar throws a bottle of the gas that makes the monkeys super smart into Bull’s cage. Caesar has invested time into his relationship with Bull. He knows Bull will be valuable to what he is trying to do.

After they break out and are in their battle with the police on the Golden Gate Bridge, there is a pivotal scene with Bull and Caesar. The helicopter is about to go down and take Caesar down with it. Bull looks up and sees this happening. He looks to the helicopter, to Caesar, and back. He knows what’s about to happen. And he throws his almost monstrous weight onto the helicopter, taking it into the bay with him. He sacrificed himself to protect Caesar.

Bull knew that without Caesar, their monkey revolution had no hope of success. I don’t believe that ANY organization should be fully based around one person. But. Every organization does have a leader.

1) If you’re the leader, are you a leader worth protecting. Is your vision and mission clear? Are the things your organization doing leading you towards those things? Are you taking interest in the individuals you’re leading? What is your character like? These are questions you have to ask yourself. These are the things you have to consider if you want to be a leader worth protecting. Not necessarily physically like Bull did for Caesar, but when other speak or act against you, are the the people you’re leading protecting you? If not, what do you need to do to be a leader worth protecting?

2) If you’re a member of an organization (you are), are you protecting your leader? When others speak or act against him or her, are you coming to their defense? Are you remaining silent? Or worse, are you participating? If you’re not protecting your leader, why not? Is it on you, or is it on them? What needs to happen for you to be willing to protect your leader?

The organization shouldn’t be built around any one individual, but the leader should be guiding the organization. If the leader is to guide the organization well, they need protection at times. Are you worth protecting? Are you protecting those leading you?

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

Jesus Didn’t Want To Die

October 3, 2011

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I know. It seems strange doesn’t it? But it’s right there in the Bible. In black and white…err…red. In Matthew 26. Jesus has taken some of his disciples into the garden with him and asked them to pray for him while he goes off to pray. And he prays:

“And going a little further he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”" Matt. 26:39 ESV

Jesus knew what was coming, and asked God that if there was another way for the sins of the entire people of all history to be forgiven of sin, then for that to happen. But above that he prayed that the will of God be done. He prayed that the will of God be done over his desire.

By now, most of the world has heard of Youcef Nadarkhani. You don’t need me to lay out his whole story for you, there are pundits and better bloggers than I who can do that. He is an Iranian pastor who has been sentenced to death for not recanting his belief in Christ in a country where that is illegal. Things aren’t going well.

In most of the Christian circles I’m a part of or know of, in the Christian twitter and blogosphere, the cry has been to call for the government to resend the execution sentence, and allow Nadaekhani to go free. I’m curious though what the reaction in their area is. I wonder what the reaction from his close friends has been. I know that their context of belief is different than the context I’ve come to know. I spend my time arguing about what kind of worship is better, and whether or not I like the sermon/speaker. Their time is spent figuring out where they can meet and for how long.

It makes me wonder why we’re praying what we’re praying. There is no reason that we should think he has more of a right to life than anyone else who claims to follow Christ. I’m NOT saying I want the guy to die. I’m NOT saying I think he should die. I’m wondering if our prayers are coming from a place of personal comfort that we’re used to. I’m wondering if our prayers aren’t better placed in “God your will be done”, and our action placed in efforts to see his life spared but knowing that though our God is able to spare his life, even if He doesn’t, we will continue to worship Him.

It would be a testament to the power of our God to see the life of Youcef Nadarkhani spared from death. It would also be a testament to the power of our God if this man were to lose his life, and we were to celebrate his life knowing that God has a bigger plan. Jesus’ desire was for the will of God to be done. I’ve never met the man and I don’t think he wants to die, but I would guess that it is the desire of Youcef Nadarkhani to see the will of God be done. It ought to be our desire. Regardless of the outcome.

Grace & Peace,
Stippick

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