Skip to main content
#
ChurchLead
parent resources
personal blog
site map
our twitterour facebook page linkdin
Wednesday, November 24 2010
I just read a story about a woman who was trapped in her bathroom for three weeks due to a broken door lock.  Thankfully, she survived by drinking tap water.  It turns out that she had been banging on the pipes in hopes of attracting the attention of her neighbors.  Here neighbors heard her banging all right.  In fact, they started a petition to stop workers from making noise at night!  They heard her, but they assumed they knew the source and they missed the message.

How many times do I hear God's warnings and miss his message?  Sometimes, I assume that the pipes are banging for no good purpose but to annoy me.  Other times, they must be for someone else.  I think that I often limit God's influence on me by deciding when or how he can speak.  The truth is, he can speak through a spouse, parent, child, pastor, friend... all the way down to the rocks!  I need to be in a state of mind that I am listening for God and what he has to say to me.  I should investigate situations and be ready to jump in if God is involved.  I desperately want to hear God speak to me... I just need to keep trying to listen!
Posted by: Rob Overton AT 08:44 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, September 09 2010
I was enjoying my Labor Day weekend with some jetski therapy and I learned something. (Yes, jetskis can be therapeutic!) My family has spent a lot of holidays like this at my in-laws lakehouse on Toledo Bend here in Texas. We had a great day enjoying a surprisingly pleasant weather day for this time of year. Daniel, my 13 year old son, who would later have an epic knee board wipe-out, and I were taking the jetski out on the first run of the day. Now, I had not planned on learning anything that day,  I just want to make that clear. Toledo Bend is a large resevoir on the Sabine River which seperates Texas from Lousiana. It is full of stumps which makes it a fisherman's paradise and a skier's nightmare. Yet we ski. In order to avoid said stumps, boaters navigate along safe routes by following countless miles of buoys. As we were approaching a buoy, Daniel, who was driving,  asked me "where is the next marker?" I looked and did not see it either, UNTIL we actually reached the buoy closest to us. And then I saw the familiar shape through the splashing water. I pointed it out to him and off we went... rapidly I must add. This was after all... therapy!

All of a sudden, there it was, the lesson I didn't know I needed. This is exactly the way I treat God and his directions. It is not enough for me to be able to see my objective that is right in front of me. Oh no, I insist on knowing where the next marker is as well. This causes me to be impatient and discontented. Now, the worst thing to do on a jetski in a stump infested lake is to charge off without seeing the next buoy. Sometimes those next markers are not easy to see, and to set off without a bearing could end badly. In the same way, when I can't see God's next objective for me, I tend to set out in a direction that seems to make sense to me. This rarely works out well, but I never seem to learn how to identify this kind of situation. I need to be willing to hang out around my current situation and see what God has put in front of me. This is true even when the next marker does not show itself right away. God has this thing about teaching me things at the least obvious times and situations.   In the waiting and seeking God, I tend to learn and grow.

So I wait, and seek, and learn, and grow and try to be content... and look for the next marker.
Posted by: Rob Overton AT 03:14 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Saturday, March 13 2010

I recently spoke to a group of parents about some practical ways to keep their families safe online.  The information below is from my handout.  I have also created a parent reference page on my site with links to some good information.


Background Information

  • Immigrants & Natives
    • In his book, Carpe Mañana, Leonard Sweet compares the challenge of adults born before 1962 sharing Christ with people born after that year to immigrants trying to communicate with natives. He calls people born after 1962, "A.C." (after computers) and natives to today's culture. Those born before 1962 are "B.C." (before computers) and immigrants.
    • This culture uses a different language than ours. We will either use our kids as interpreters, or we will learn the language ourselves.  I think that this is a deliberate decision that we have to make as parents.
  • A Targeted Generation
    • Teenagers subjected to hundreds of discrete forms of advertisement each day. Why? Because they have the most discretionary money.  Not only that, they are relatively easy to influence.
    • View “Merchants of Cool” which is a documentary from a few years ago. It really opened my eyes.
  • No Absolute Truth
    • In a recent study, the Barna Research Group revealed a stunning statistic that continues to reverberate throughout the evangelical world. Only 9 percent of professing Christians have a biblical worldview.  
    • Why is this important?  This is important because most people don't really believe that God is the author and arbiter of truth.  Once we put ourselves into the equation of determining right from wrong, then we have opened the door wide open to relative truth.  If this happens, the collective society gets to redefine truth as they see fit.
    • Take a look at information from the Truth Project on this topic.

Basic Checklist

  • Set your search engine settings to filter content
  • Update your firewall/anti-virus/malware/spyware software
  • Run the updates to your operating system
  • Set a limited-rights user account for each child and configure their internet home page
  • Utilize Internet Controls (I recommend Safe Eyes)
    • Filtering and Monitoring and Accountability
    • Software or Hardware
    • Content & Time
  • Consider your computer environment
    • Keep computers in a common room
    • Position the screen to be visible to all
  • Establish house rules (Covenant)
    • Acceptable and non-acceptable websites
    • Rules for IM, texting, gaming, social networking, information sharing etc…
    • E-mail - Don't invite trouble with poor practices.

Social Media - (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, gaming, texting, chat rooms etc...)

  • Work to understand social networking
    • Understand that social network tools are a valid and lasting form of communication
    • Understand "Virtual Presence" and modern peer pressure
    • Learn to understand the language of the “natives”
    • Age appropriateness
  • Monitor activity and enforce rules of engagement
  • Make sure your kids understand
    • Internet information is forever.
    • There is NO anonymity on the internet!
    • Social networking companies DO NOT have your best interests at heart.

Reference Page - http://www.techtoolsforministry.com/parent_resources

Posted by: Rob Overton AT 08:00 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, January 21 2010
I have been intrigued by the advertising campaign of Microsoft's new search engine called "Bing!".  It is billed as a cure for the confusing task of searching the internet and it's amazingly varied pieces of information.  They claim to be the "world's first decision engine".  I agree that the internet can be dizzying at times and it has a way of putting together different content items that have no business together.  It is a stream of consciousness to be sure and it makes perfect sense that we need a way to help us make decisions.  Check out a recent add.



Now, here is my point.  I think that real life is more complicated than the internet and there is no doubt that we need a decision engine to help us along the way.  But I really doubt that Microsoft has the best engine for me to use to make decisions.  What is needed is a Biblical worldview where God is the arbiter of absolute truth.  In 2003 the Barna Research Group released a study that indicated that less than 10% of people in America process decisions with a Biblical world view.  This is a staggering statistic!  This did not happen overnight, but gradually over the past few decades society has shifted toward a relative truth decision engine where everyone is supposed to make decisions that are right for them.

As a parent, I am impressed that I need to teach my kids that God needs to be the filter by which all decisions should be made.  It is a matter of helping them to see that the world routinely lies to them when it says that there is no absolute truth.  I don't know how parents can possibly make consistent decisions when the standard of truth is a shifting line. I have to admit that it is very easy to fall into a pattern of making decisions based on worldly standards.  It is always a relief to remember that I don't have to determine what is right in a certain situation.  All I have to do is apply God's truth to the situation and remain consistent in my response. 

So perhaps Microsoft is onto something after all.  We definitely need a decision engine.  We just need to use the right one.  I kind of doubt that this angle will appear in any of their ads!
Posted by: Rob Overton AT 07:00 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email

Share this page
Email
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
  • Home
  • Church Websites
  • Mind Wanderings
Helping churches achieve their mission