Tidbits
Last week I was invited by Dee O’Neal Andrews to become a contributer to her blog called Grace Notes at http://gracenotesministries.org/. I am out of my league there with folks like Dee, John Dobbs, Patrick Mead, Bill Willaims, Greg England among others. But I consented to contribute. My first contribution was made late yesterday called Beyond the Sacred Page. I invite you to visit and bookmark this place. I am sure you will find grace wafting through the air.
I would also like to call attention to my friend Wade Tannehill’s latest blog called “Before You Enter the Ministry (Part 1).” This is an excellent piece firmly rooted in historical reality. You can access this fine piece at http://wade.typepad.com/ Wade and I were friends long before there was such a thing as the World Wide Web or at least we never heard of it.
Go ahead visit Grace Notes and read Wade’s essay.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
October 26th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Thanks for the kind comments Bobby, and thanks for stopping by.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:23 am
Bobby,
Your recent post at Grace Notes is outstanding! Thank you for your transparency. Thank you for encouraging us all to seek the Lord beyond the sacred page.
Blessings to you and yours,
-bill
October 27th, 2006 at 4:13 am
You are definitely not in my league, but I aspire to be up there in your league some day.
October 27th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Congratulations, Bobby. I’m sure your contributions will be much appreciated there!
October 27th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
Bobby –
Thank you SO much for not only your post today, but also your willingness to be a constant contributor to Grace Notes. I love your contribution “Beyond the Sacred Page.” It’s funny because I always thought about those words myself whenever we sang that song on Sundays (and Wednesday nights, of course) and wondered how many other people ever thought about what they meant.
Of course, I guess you know that you’ve succeeded in drumming that song into my head since I read your post!! Every time I turn around I’m singing it in my mind, but I think that’s a marvelous thing, actually. I’ve ALWAYS got songs in my head and what better one to have.
BTW – I have to tell you that your participation in Grace Notes, along with this blog post, along with the other contributors’ “promotional spots” I requested that you all put on your own blogs, have caused our hits at Grace Notes to be 4 1/2 TIMES what they were before everyone became more invigorated once again (which I’VE been working on). So THANK YOU for that! For sharing the story of Grace Notes with all your readers and sending them by. May God get all the glory! Amen!
THANKS!!! Dee
October 27th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Hey, I just noticed. When did you get rid of your picture?
Don
October 27th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Bobby,
I am so glad you put a link to Wade’s post. It is so help to ministers or those considering full-time ministry. I think his other posts on the subject are going to be just as great.
October 28th, 2006 at 1:51 am
I read the post on your link. I figured I would respond here rather than there.
When I started my Bible education at ACU, they rounded us Bible students up for a banquet in which they tried to talk us out of ministry. It did not work.
I am a nonpaid non staff minister with Vandelia Church of Christ in Lubbock, TX. When I went to school, I went with the idea of being a minister to the minister. I figured that guy had it so rough that if I were Bible educated I might be an asset to him from the pew.
In the end, I think I am that to a degree, but even more, I think I am what we all should be. Lay ministers. I don’t get paid at all; I spend all my money to do it. I have to earn my living elsewhere. But I put hours upon hours into ministry each week. I teach and I reach.
I have no retirement plan, no health insurance and no one can fire me. I do not expect to have children, I cannot afford them. I do not plan to live into old age. I think ministers should be like pilots -you know… “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are not old, bold pilots.” That goes for ministry too.
I think we need churches where members sell everything and give it to the church. I think we need a revolution in our comfort driven churches and lives.
I guess I run the risk of being or sounding like a kook. But that is a risk I have to take.
Many blessings…
October 28th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
I went to school with a fella that was mentally retarded. This was back in the old days before we hid them in “special schools”. He was just with us. He ate with us and hung around with us. He was at the pep rallies and [his real name] Bobby Meeks was just one of us.
Well, Bobby at times thought he was a motorcycle. He would run up and down the halls. He made noises like a cycle. He manuevered like a cycle. He even “popped-a-wheelie” every now and then while going from class to class. But you know you what? Bobby really wasn’t a motorcycle. He was a great guy and he was an asset to my High School life. But he really wasn’t a motorcycle no matter how much he sounded like one.
I think Wade is doing a great job on his site.
Don
October 28th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Bobby I read your article on Grace notes, very good. When we realize all things flow from GOD and all worship flows toward GOD we are on the way to learn how to worship. I wonder if some of God’s people who believe worship consist of directions given by Paul and others, don’t start a prayer by saying “thank you Paul”
October 30th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Bobby,
Thanks for the plug.
Don,
Thanks for the encouragment.