Seven Degrees of Moweaqua...

I'm sure everyone has either heard of the game or once played the game "Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Well, this weekend I determined there was a new version...

We went to Providence, Rhode Island to check out the area for church planting along with Boston (only about 45 minutes north of Providence). While we were there, we went to a church plant that is 6 weeks old in downtown Boston. After church, we took the pastor and his wife out to lunch. Before we got our seats for lunch, Carl spent the time talking to Hank while I talked to his wife, Julie, the whole time. We hit it off and had really good conversations. During one of our conversations, it came up that I knew Brian and Allison Moll. She said "Oh, I know Allison...I grew up with her." I said, "I grew up with her too...where did you grow up?" She said, "Decatur...so you know Allison's uncle, Terry Maurer." I was so excited because Terry was my youth minister when I was a kid growing up in the small town of good ol' Moweaqua, Illinois! We got called to our seats and the subject got changed back to the challenges of church planting.

On our way out, we offered to take them home so they wouldn't have to ride the T (the subway system in Boston) and got back on the subject. Julie said, "So Lindsay, did you go to Little Galilee?" (the Christian camp in Illinois we always attended in the summer). "Of course," I said...after talking more about Little Galilee, we figured out that I went to one maybe two weeks of camp with her youngest sister and my brother and sister went to camp with her other sister! Crazy! It was so much fun to reminise about the midwest classics like Monical's Pizza.

When we dropped them off and headed back to our hotel, the more excited and baffled I became at the small world. My friend Erin and I like to joke, that though Moweaqua is your typical small town with only one blinking flashlight and not even a fast food joint...everywhere you go, you meet someone that knows someone that once lived in Moweaqua. So, when you meet someone new and find out they lived in Illinios somewhere, just ask them...Mowequa? (if you can figure out how to pronounce it!)

on the move

For those of you who don't know, Carl and I are moving to Louisville, KY for one year where he will be on staff at Southeast as a Church Planting Pastor. After that year, we are planting a church somewhere in the northeast...(Boston, DC, NYC)...not sure exactly where yet. It's exciting and scary all at once.

I started packing boxes this week...ugh...I have a lot of work ahead of me. We are moving on Sept. 27 and he starts work on Oct. 2. I don't have a job yet, but am sending my resumes out and am hoping to find one quickly. Keep us in your prayers as it will be a big transition...not really the move to Louisville since we will both be closer to family and good friends, but the move to the ne in a year will be big. I'll keep you posted!

Just felt like doing a list...of my favorite preachers...but I'm doing 11 because I wanted it to be better than a Top 10...

1. Carl Kuhl...(I may be bias on this one)
2. Billiam (aka. Bill Hybels..The Creek)
3. Ed Young Jr. (Fellowship Church)
4.Mike Breaux (The Creek)
5. Jon Weece (Southland)
6. Dave Stone (Southeast)
7. Bob Russell (retired Southeast)
8. Erwin McManus (Mosaic)
9. Rob Bell (Mars Hill)
10. Kyle Idleman (Southeast)
11. Dick Alexander (Clovernook)

"Ignore the lie, not the child..."

So I’ve recently been introduced to this clinician named Brian Post (www.post institute.com) through my work who has done a ton of research on parenting and also the human brain. I have listened to some of his seminars on cd and read some of his materials, but yesterday in supervision, I was exposed to him on DVD. He introduced a concept that was fascinating to me in working with kids (as a professional or a parent)…the concept was, “ignore the lie, not the child”. He explained that children, and adults as well, only lie when they feel scared or when they feel like there is no way out. So, instead of scolding the child and punishing them for lying, he suggests that the parent should do everything in their power to make sure the child knows you love them and that the child is in a safe place. The result is that the child automatically stops lying. He claims that if parents do this consistently for 2 weeks, that they will see huge results and he has research to back this up. So, the scenario goes like this…
Traditionally, parents respond this way…
Dad: “Did you eat all the cookies out of the jar?”
Child: “No, I haven’t touched it.”
Dad: “Well, you are the only one home and there were cookies in there 2 hours ago, and I didn’t eat them.”
Child: “I don’t know what happened to them, but I didn’t eat them.”
Dad: (yelling) “I don’t know why you are lying to me about this, but go to your room and think about what type of punishment you think you should have.”

Post claims it should occur like this…
Dad: “Did you eat all the cookies out of the jar?”
Child: “No, I haven’t touched it.”
Dad: “Honey, you know I love you right? You know that no matter what happened, I will always love you and nothing can change that.” (Dad leaves it at that and comes back a few hours later).
Dad: “Honey, you know that when you lie to me, it really scares me and hurts my feelings because it makes me think that you don’t trust me and that you feel like I am going to hurt you in some way? I just want you to know that I love you, but when you lie, it really hurts me.”
Post says after 2 weeks of responding gently this way to the child, the lies reduce by at least 50%.
Interesting huh?