SilentGap

What will it take? Are we going to continue to fly by the seat of our pants?

Too many times in the church i’ve seen people, pastors, lay personnel, Christians, opt to take the shorter route to success. And and too many times i’ve seen that route (really it’s a mentality), fail. fail. fail.

How desperately we need competent people in the Body of Christ, but more importantly, how desperately we need the leadership to understand it won’t come without sacrifice in training. I’ve heard many say thing’s like, “we just need to believe that God will send us the right person who will just get it” (with IT (not to confuse IT with I.T.) being whatever the need happens to be at the time).

At first, when involved with the ministry, I heard my mentors say these things and I would get a check in my conscience about it, but i’d dismiss it and tell myself “Well, they’re anointed by God, they also must be wise” (Hmmmm – this statement can easily be misinterpreted as something other than being honest, be careful you don’t).

I would think to myself “Well, fine, let’s pray that the good Lord send us those people & not only pray but believe. However, until that time, we have a perfect opportunity to train the people God has give us”.

Well, 15 or so years have passed since I first heard this statement and i’ve seen no one come through the door that meet’s the leaderships expectations. But, I have seen many many people walk through the door of the church, wanting to be plugged in, wanting to be guided, directed, trained and equipped. Yet, the statements from the leadership have continued.

One could say, “Well, we’re still standing by faith”. And I think to myself, “If we wouldn’t of been waisting time complaining that God hasn’t sent us anyone, and instead spent that time training people, where would we be”? Well, we’d at least have a few people equipped and ready.

What conclusions can we draw from this? We, we can certainly jump to conclusions (insert movie line from Office Space – Jump to Conclusions mat), but we need something a little more concrete than conclusions.

#1. Admit we’ve dropped the ball and be honest with ourselves and with others
#2. Don’t dwell on the past but move on towards progress
#3. We could use a plan of action & a belief and hope that we’ll be led by the Lord
#4. We need the leadership to teach, train and quip, not tell, manipulate and then complain when there’s no results
#5. We need not fear failure, but embrace the lessons learned with what doesn’t work

Now, this post purposefully leaves out the practical steps, and instead is meant to bring awareness to step #1.

The issue is not that one person is dropping the ball, but rather that many are choosing to not step up to the plate. We then lie to ourselves about why we’re not stepping up, why we’re not taking responsibilities for our actions (or rather in-actions).

Even if you think I’m off my rocker, let me know. I rather be corrected and move towards the right direction, then just sit, complain and never try anything.

Scriptures: Matthew9:9-12, 35-38 && Matt 10:1 && Matt 13:1-9 && Matt 17:14-20
I’ve got more, but I figured Book of Matthew would be a good start & you can look for the rest yourself.

Tim Schoffelman of SilentGap

It’s difficult at times, to look back and force yourself to relive the memories of old. Regardless of how good or bad the memory is, you end up digging up all the emotions you felt or didn’t realize you were there.

Today I sat at my desk, staring at code, and remember thinking to myself, “Man, I can’t believe I do this for a living. I’m having the time of my life, and I’m getting paid for it”.

Too many times I think Christians buy into the fact that they are destined to live out a particular path, without any say in the matter.

I went to Bible school to enter into the field of Youth Ministry, and I was going to be in the full time filed for the rest of my life. Well, as it turns out that’s not the case, but I look at my life and I can honestly say, my relationship with God is closer today then it has ever been during all those years in youth ministry (this statement is made without taking anything away from all the youth’s lives i have been involved with in the past).

To all you Christians out there that feel hopeless to change your life around or who feel trapped – you’re not alone, and there is a different route to take in order to complete the path God has set before you. He doesn’t want you to be miserable, but he doesn’t say that you’ll live an easy life. Figure out if your life is miserable or if you’re just going through a tough time, then act accordingly. Don’t be afraid of those who oppose you, even if it’s your mentor(s). If you know it’s right in your heart, go for it, you’ll be glad you did.

Scriptures to follow in the comments section.

Tim Schoffelman of SilentGap

Alright, so at work, what started out as a conversation about getting internet access on dial-up with a windows ‘98 machine (sorry Karla, for having to endure the pain of messing with Win ‘98, much less Win ‘98 on dialup), ended up with the subject of a “cantenna“.

A cantenna is a directional waveguide antenna for long-range Wi-Fi used to increase the range of (or snoop on) a wireless network.

What would be fun is to have a competition to build one of these things and see how far away you could be away from a wireless access point and still load a page like Google. Build one you say? Yes – check out the “How to build a tin can waveguide WiFi antenna” for a blueprint of sorts.

The problem I run into is justifying breaking into my WiFi card, and voiding the warranty. Esp. when my home mac already has a wireless card built into it. Anyone have a cheap laptop and WiFi card I could ruin for this experiment (my boy and I (when old enough) will have a lot of fun building things like this (well at least I imagine we will))?

Tim Schoffelman of SilentGap

Today in church, we had a guest pastor speak. One of the things that really spoke to me was “people do what they’re passionate about”. This got me thinking, what am I passionate about?

Well, I know the best way for me to find this out is by looking at what I spend my free time doing. So, what am I doing? Well, aside from work (which I love – so I may have to come back and consider this in my analysis), and sleep, food and all that stuff, that leaves me with the following:

a. Volunteer work (this has gone down by quite a bit in the last year or so)
b. Movies / Entertainment (This has been very high, for a very long time)
c. Blogging (This has gone up this last year)
d. Family / God (The Lord, wife and future baby boy – needs to go up, but has been at a consistent level)
e. Home Repair / Remodel (This has climb substantially – main b/c we own a house now)
f. Friends / Extended family (This is about the same – maybe has gone down even a little)
g. Web Development (This has been going up)
h. Guitar / Music (This has been the same for a few years & can also fall under volunteer work)

So, even w/o placing a percentage next to each activity, i can begin to tell that some of my priorities have shifted. And I can also tell you that in a few short months, they will shift all over again, w/ the birth of my first child (which is a great thing).

The one thing that is majorly out of wack is the Entertainment / Movies category. I probably watch about 3-4 movies a week, and do a fair amount of research and web browsing. I can safely say that the only thing that has come out of all the movies I’ve watched and research / web browsing I’ve done is spout out movies lines, have a good laugh and create conversation w/ just about anyone (this skill I’ve been able to do well for a long time now).

Out of the list above, I would like it to be in the following order – d, g-h (I’d like to play guitar as much as i do my free time development), f, a-c (and – I’d like to blog as much as i volunteer), e, b.

What are you passionate about?