The Return of Something Good…

A lot has happened since my last post. I promised myself that I would write things that I felt were worthy to be written about. Now I have just come to the realization that I get caught up doing other things and that I might be a little lazy when it comes to writing my thoughts. Maybe seminary pushed me over the edge when it came to writing since it feels like that’s all I did. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed writing alot of my papers in seminary. However there were a few that I found to be hard and less than enjoyable, such as “Calvin and His view of limited atonement”. Now I’m not saying that I disliked the topic, but you try writing about a topic that has created more heated arguments in Christian circles than the number of dust particles on a fat mans treadmill. In any case…. This post will be the return of me and my craziness!!!!!

 The devastation that occurred at Union University due to the tornado a couple months ago never hit me until recently. My cousin and his wife attend there and he did a unparallelled job of documenting the destruction, the fear, and the hope via his “flicker” page. I have been to Union several times through church camps. I started reminiscing about how that campus is where I experienced God, had my first true crush (Leslie Sanders), and felt my call to ministry (summer of 98).  Pray for that campus, pray for those students, and pray for healing.

 I am currently reading “Case For Faith” by Lee Strobel. Incredible book and if you want to be challenged in your faith and help when it comes to the hard questions…add it to your library!

Through much prayer and the always surprising Sovereignty of God, the Fritts clan is leaving Cow-town, for much greener pastures. I don’t know how green the pastures are, but the hill country is great, and I really enjoy Chris Madrids, the Spurs, and HEB, so my wife and I (and our future child) are moving to San Antonio. We are excited about the move but will miss our friends in F-DUB. But as soon as we get our first batch of HEB salsa and Hill Country Fare tator tots, we will settle in quite nicely. I will keep you posted about this transition!

 The new Counting Crows cd is surprisingly good so get it….

Ok….thats it for now, but promises will be kept…..I just have been taking some time!

Fatherhood is fastly approaching

Well, it has been a while since I posted. And honestly it is not because I have not wanted to. It is because I have not had time to… So here begins the new birth of me posting.

Its funny how I used the phrase “new birth”. Since I have last posted, I have celebrated the birth of the Christ child…as well as learn that my wife and I are expecting our first child. And I’m sure if you know me or any part of my history, you could probably say I was reacting a bit like Scott Baio on his VH1 show. Not because I was some massive player who never wanted to be tied down to one woman. That’s far from the truth. As for me, I know some of you are saying to yourselves, “Logan’s having a kid? That can’t work…Logan still is a kid”.

Well I have times have changed and I have grown up a bit…..but at the same time I hope I never grow up. Let me explain….When this wonderful child comes into this world this summer, it will be the third happiest day of my life, only to my wedding day and the day I accepted what Christ did for me on the cross. It will be a time of celebration and also realization. “Oh Crap, I’m a dad!!!!”

As this child grows up, I pray that I can be as good as a dad as my dad was for me. But the one thing I don’t want to be in a “grown up”. I see too many kids today who never see their parents because Dad spends too much time at work and when he does come home, all he wants to do is watch Sportscenter and throw back a cold one. My goal is to never become disinterested in my kid. Now we all get in ruts and they say you can only talk about school, life, sports, and relationships so much….well I want to prove them wrong. If I’m not involved in my kids life, then someone else will be…..but wait, that’s  MY kid, not theirs!

So my goal is to not be the dad that’s too grown up for their kids.I want to be the dad that wants to go down the slip-N-slide just as many times as they do. I want to be the cool parents that thier friends love hanging out with….My mom was one of those and I know my Dad would have been one of those as well.  So I am not going to grow up and become to busy for my kids…..I may mature a bit (which is not that bad) but don’t want to ever grow up and replace my kids with work, money, or status. I challenge you to think about this….you may never want to grow up either!!!!

iWorship

iWorship….but it has taken me a year to know why! weWorship….but do we really know WHO we worship.

It has been one crazy year for me. About this time last year, I was approached about being a worship intern at a church. Excited for two reasons:  1) I needed another job to help with the finances since I was newly married and 2) I really enjoy playing, listening, and applying music to everyday life. To me music is wonderful. Think about it. How many ways can music be created? The numbers our like the grains of sand. No matter if you have a $35oo Vintage Taylor or a $150 Yamaha that your mom gets you for Christmas (that was me), music brings everyone on the same level. You can make music from trash cans like “Stomp” or peaceful simplicity from a violin. Music is all around. And to think that God, in his infinite wisdom created or destined music to be more than just noise. God commands the morning to sing a song of new life, creation, and praise.

In February of this year, the person I was interning underneath felt a call to go back to school, which put me on the front page of the worship scene at church. Lacking confidence and experience I continued on and became the worship director by summer. So here I am, a guy who never thought playing guitar would lead to anything and I have been given the honor of being the lead worshipper for a community of believers. And I have seen everything from raising hands to stone faced “believers” who are still thinking about the presentation that they blew on Friday.

And the two things that I realized through this entire experience, is that I have no clue how to worship and we do not know who we worship. I know how to play guitar. I know how to lead a band. I know how to sing. But I didn’t know how to worship, or did I. Think of what we see on TV these days. People going crazy for music stars, celebrities, and of elite individuals. I saw a video of a Micheal Jackson concert where girls were literally crying and passing out over seeing the King of Pop. Have you ever felt that way about the KING of KINGS?

I knew how to worship, I just didn’t know how to worship God. How to set him apart from this world, to place Him on the pedestal of Glory that He is entitled to. I knew I was to praise Him but it was a ritual that religious people engraved into my mind. And now I realized that I am not passionate about being a lead worshipper. And so now I search for a new understanding of worship that makes my heart sing when I think about my Creator.  How about you? What do you enjoy about worship and what are you passionate about worship? I enjoy being a lead worshipper but I am passionate about standing next to a college junior who questions the existence of God and seeing tears run down his face as he finally gets “it”. I am passionate about holding the high school sophomore whose parents are divorcing and crying with them which results in finding the strength to sing “It is well”.  When you answer that question, and lay aside the things you enjoy about worship, that is when you see your passion for worship.  Gods waiting on us. So… I will continue my calling at my job. I will continue to enjoy worshipping and being a lead worshipper. But passionately I will search for God in the wonderful way that He wants me to.

Blessings

It has been a while since I posted and the only reason would be of laziness. So I am back for a spell and will try to be more consistent.

I read an article today in Christianitytoday.com that absolutely made me want to fight religion. Its an article on Paul Crouch. If you don’t know this man, he is the head honcho behind TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). It discusses his outrageous salary and his spending spree. You can read the article here. Later I will write my thoughts on this peddler of the word.

Sub-culture of Christianity.

   A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a website. (click here if you want to check it out). After browsing around on the site and laughing quite a bit. (you have to check out the t-shirts) I realized that this website was in a way making fun of what is wrong with Christianity today. Churches, retreats, conferences, groups, etc. have become so cliche. Think of the cheesiest title for a wednesday night youth event like YouthQuake or the name of a choir, Celebration Singers, and you will catch my drift. Christianity has become of subculture of the melting pot of society. We try and put up our barriers so that we are safe. Which in my opinion is hindering us from doing the ministry Christ has called us to do.

I can not take credit for this idea. I heard Matt Chandler, the pastor at The Villiage, speak about this at a conference in seminary. Being on one of the committees of the conference I got to read comment cards and thoughts that different people had concerning different sessions. We pulled all of the comment cards together and began going over them, looking for anything that would cause us to be concerned about a session.  Matt Chandler spoke on the same thing, and really challenged the students, ministers, and staff to look outside of the box. He made several people mad but made all of us think. He said something that I use quite often when I am talking to someone about embracing our call to Christ. He said, “God did not call us to be a sheep among sheep. He did not call us to build up our church walls and fences and get together with other sheep and just talk to each other about how great God is”. Now let me clarify, I think God has commanded us to worship Him because He is worthy, He is our redeemer, and He is the creator of the universe. But Christ called us to be sheep among wolves. To go out to the places that few dare and share life, friendship, and the story of the saving power of Christ with the lost. We should have confidence when doing this. Yes we are the sheep among wolves, but our confidence  comes knowing that the Lion of Judah is resting by our side. But He also calls us to make disciples and baptize them. If we stay in our subculture of Christianity, it is very difficult to do this.

Paul even embraced culture and saw to it that the only way he seperated himself was by preaching the Gospel. But if you look in Acts 17:22, notice where is Paul preaching and embracing the lost world. He is not in the new mega-church, he is at Mars Hill standing in the middle of the Areopagus. He has walked past idols where he saw one with the inscription, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. (I can see Paul get a little giddy here, seeing an incredible divine moment for him to share the good news). He is talking to all the religous officials and leaders and says, “hey that statue, that idol, that has “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”, I know that God. I know who that is.” Then Paul wonderfully lays out the identitiy of the unknown God. Paul says God cannot be made with human hands or dwell in temples made by hands.  Instead of  avoiding the culture and staying away, he begins redeeming it with the gospel. Two trustworthy sayings; Paul is good at what he does and he knows he can’t do any of it except through Christ.

So my challenge to you, is that you  embrace the culture you live in. There are hurting and dying people out there who need the love of a Savior, who have no where to turn and are seeking refuge and peace in things of this world. Share Christ, share life with the lost, and if it means you have to go out to a bar after work so that your co-workers will know that you care about them, then get a coke and do it. Lets stop runnin from culture, begin to redeeming it.

Woman…thou art smacketh!!

Ok ok, before anyone gets mad at me about the title please know it was the first thing that popped into my silly brain after I checked out this website. Its a movement that I think just might catch on and I think they are having a booth at Promise Keepers next year.  I encourage men to take a long hard look at this sit and consider the possibilities. Women, show your men this website and begin submitting….

…man I got a kick out of this.

 http://christiandomesticdiscipline.com/Home.html

note* Just as a little disclaimer, If any of you know me your probably know my wife. And if any of you know my wife, you know that she is gorgeous AND that she was a national champion powerlifter in high school. With that said, if I ever thought that “CDD” would work in any marriage, you would find me tied to a centerblock in the middle of the amazon…..of coarse thats after she kicked my butt.

note** I actually think Promise Keepers is a great thing….but it was the first program to enter my crazy little brain!!

I think its about time…

So many of the bloggers out there have shared there political opinions, “who is great”, “who sucks”, “I hate George”, “Hillary for ‘08″. I have tried to stay out of the loop and talk about things that are a little surfacy or not as grown up but I think its about time to open up my own can of worms. One thing I will not do is tell you who you should vote for, who Chritians should vote for, or better yet who Jesus would vote for. That is best left up to the experts on CNN and Jerry Falwell (Although with his passing I’m not quite sure who has the gusto to take that torch and run with it…maybe Pat Robertson or Paige Patterson).

WAR-  War is never good. I dont like it but I’m not against it. The last thing I want is for people to die for an un-worthy cause. Revelutionary War, I consider breaking free from England pretty worthy. The Civil War, brother against brother just so that America would remain complete, very worthy(I always joke about being from the south but I am glad the Union Army won. Owning other individuals is wrong, everyone is equal) WWI and WWII- created new countries in Europe, stopped a power-hungry nut job, and defended our country after a bombing…worthy cause. In 2002, I thought that we were going to war to go after Terrorism. Man I was all for it. We were attacked and we knew who did it, its time to retaliate and bring justice.  So America is fighting Terrorism….worthy cause. Then all of a sudden everything shifts to Iraq and Saddam. Dont get me wrong, Saddam did some terrible things, but what happen to Afghanistan?

Now, we are in a “fiasco” and cant get out. Our troops are dying and our country has no clue what direction we are going. I understand the costs of war and if I was a parent, and my child joined the military, I would pray for a hedge of protection around them and that God would send His angels to be a shield. But if they were to die, I would cry and hold my wife, but I would be proud of them. They died for thier country fighting a worthy cause, and due to the sovreignty of God’s ordained will, I would find peace.

But I am not quite sure we are fighting a worthy cause right now. Fighting terrorism to make the world a safer place, I can get on board with that. Invading a country so that they can become a democracy “just like America”….I am not quite sure. America has its own problems right now. But until the day is done and our men and women are home, I will hold out hope. I hope that we can pull out of Iraq without the country blowing itself up. I hope we find victory someway. I hope in the saving power of Christ; that in someway His name will be made known through Chaplains and other beleivers in the army of God, that are over there fighting two battles, spiritual and physical. Lets fight the good fight but make sure the fight is worthy of fighting.

I support our troops 100%. Now the reason we are over there…? That one is still up for debate.

NEXT UP: Leadership of America…

A little music for ya…

So I figured I would recommend a couple of CD’s that I am listening to right now. The first is the new Timbaland cd that recently came out. I think if you were ever famous in the music industry in the past year, Timbaland asked you to be on the cd….fantastic

John Mayers new cd may be his best yet. I can listen to songs 1-7 straight through everytime I put it in. Its called “Continuem”. Its a good one

Finally, I would tell you to buy any Coldplay cd you do not have. Oh and while you are at it check out there website www.coldplay.com Apparently they now control thier own website and its not just some company doing it for them. Its got some diary entries, pictures and behind the scenes videos which make you like this band even more.

…the two bands I would want to see live before I move on from this earth?

Coldplay and Counting Crows…. man its good stuff

Transformers…? Yes Please!!

Alright so here we go. Yesterday afternoon I went to see the much anticipated Transformers movie. I was by myself, which I really enjoy seeing movies by myself, anyway and the theatre was relativly full. The previews were sub par and then it begins.

The first thing you hear is the voice of Optimus Prime, and the voice sounds just like it did on the cartoons. I am not sure if the same guy did or whatever but kudos to Spielberg. The movie would have been lacking if there was some cheesy robot voice. The story and history of the autobots and decepticons contiues to be set up throughout the movie. So no one can say, “I don’t get it”.

The characters are well thought out and it was good to see Prime, Jazz, Bumble Bee and Rachet chosen to be in the first movie, as well as Starscream and the other decepticons.

The character development is well done and everything falls into place quite nicely. I am not going to talk much about the movie because I do not want to ruin it for anyone. I will just say that there were a dozen or so times during the movie that I rememberd back to playing with my toy Transformers with my brother. This movie makes you want to be a kid again. It makes you want to believe, just like that kid, that these robots are real. And any moment you are going to see one running down your street…

Go see the movie….it was fantastic. If you are a true Transformers kid, you will be blown away…

Transformers…

I will have a review of this movie and a couple more soon because this week is…catch up on the movies week. I will attempt to see Transformers, Harry Potter, and Die Hard all this week. If I succeed I will be quite happy. I will also write on my opinion about the war in Iraq, when to bring the troops home, and if the democrats actually can pull off what all those candidates say they can.