We finished our Philippians study this week.  It was an insightful ten weeks looking through a letter that encouraged us to be bold in multiple areas of our lives.  In the final section of Scripture, Paul spoke of being content in every facet of life.  Whether in plenty or in want, whether in need or in abundance, Paul found happiness in the Lord.  Discontentment is problematic when it comes to the human soul, but I believe there is one place that discontentment is critically important.  Critically, may be an understatement.  Maybe indispensable is a better word for the necessity of discontentment in this area.

Let me quote Andy Stanley to get this discussion going.  "Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. . . Over time that dissatisfaction matures into a clear picture of what could be. . . Anyone with a vision will tell you this is not merely something that could be done rather it is something that should be done."  Humanity has seen this principle over and over again.  The cotton gin would have never been made if there wasn't a dissatisfaction with the tediousness of picking cotton.  A bowl was created in ancient China and Greece because of the shortcomings of a plates.  This principle is true inside the church also.  The Reformation most centrally began because the Word of God was not written in common vernacular for people to identify the truth of Scripture themselves.  The modern missionary movement took root because Christians took seriously the Great Commission and the need to take the gospel to the world.

While discontentment can be dangerous for the individual soul, God uses our discontentment to bring about vision.  What are you discontent with in what you see in the church?  The lostness of our generation?  The lack of biblical literacy in the American church?  The hypocracy within christian culture?  I am not calling you to complain about any of these things, but I am calling you to do something about it!  I believe that God uses discontentment in leadership to bring about visions for progress. 

What holy discontentment is God stirring in your heart to bring glory to him and to draw his people to him in repentance?

My daughter is beautiful. 

I know that every father thinks that about their little girl, but mine is obvious.  Piper is going to be an absolute, "Knock-Out!"  At first this was kind of cool.  I once felt a since of pride when people would say the phrase, "Your daughter is beautiful (which is strange because she doesn't share any genes with me or Tarah)."  Recently, trepidation is what comes over me when I hear this complement over and over again.  I start thinking of the brace-faced, hormone-raging, punk boys that are destined to be calling on the phone asking if they can take her to the movies.  Earlier this week Piper asked me, "Daddy where did that bump on your arm come from?"  I tried to convince her that I got that bump from giving a jujitsu forearm to punk boys and that I would do the same to any boys who don't treat her the way she should be treated.  She laughed, but I was serious.

What I once saw as, "pretty cool," I am starting to feel like is a curse.  Right now, I have convinced Piper that I am her boyfriend.  I have accomplished this through 'daddy dates'.  'Daddy dates' by title are self-explanatory.  I try to do everything for her. I pick her up, open the door for her, take her to her favorite restaurant, and pay for her meal.  Tarah thinks I treat Piper with more chivalry than I do her on our dates together, but I am trying to show Piper how an honorable man should treat her.  Just the other day, the boys were chasing her around the church saying, "Piper's got a boyfriend!  Piper's got a boyfriend!"  She made it all worthwhile when she corrected the teasing boys, "Yeah, that's right.  I do have a boyfriend.  My daddy is my boyfriend!"  That was awesome.  How do I keep this up?  What am I going to do when she loses interest in poor-old dad?  When she sees me for the boring man that I am?  When 'daddy dates' don't work anymore? 

Any of you long-time dads of girls got any advice for me?

This was my response to a JD Greer article.  I received a request from the Baptist Courier to respond to this article.  Below is my full response.  I invite you to read the JD Greer article

To Whom it May Concern:I am a 31 year old pastor of a Southern Baptist Church and I am concerned about the relevancy of the SBC.  My fear for the future of the SBC is two-fold. First, my generation of young ministers are flocking to voices outside of convention leadership for ministry direction.  While my more seasoned collegeas (over 40) still find leadership from tride and true Southern Baptist's like Johnny Hunt & Charles Stanley my generation is giving an ear to a different set of leaders.  Men like Matt Chandler, Darrin Pactrick, Rick Warren and Ed Stetzer, all of which are Southern Baptist themselves but find themselves outside of the leadership influence of the SBC.  I fear that the SBC leadership is soon going to have very little impact within my generation set and we will continue to seek out leadership from leaders like Andy Stanley, Mark Driscoll, and Craig Groeschel, who seem to have a true desire to see our generation succeed and don't see us as misguided, illigitmate, step-children, as we are often made to feel.  Secondly, I fear that if the convention doesn't try to attract the current generation, then in the coming decades the cubbard of leaders to pick from is going to be bare.  This reality is imminent.   Soon the unwanted stepchild complex of my generation will takes it toll and we will have moved out to fathers who seem to care about our passions.  Ultimately, leaving our beloved convention impotent without future leadership.

Will Browning
Journey Church

Baptist Courier Article:  http://tinyurl.com/dh8x8y

Ethan may be the coolest kid you have ever met.  Tarah and I adopted Ethan and his sister in 2006 after much prayer and pleading with God to fill our house with children.  God answered that prayer bringing great joy to our home.  Some moments have been more trying than others. 

Ethan was so bad when we first got home from the Ukraine that he spent almost every minute of the day in the corner.  I will never forget one day, early on, he was in the corner and was way past due from being released from that torture.  Getting out of the corner required one easy step, just say, "I am sorry."  Ethan's stubbornness not to say, "I'm sorry," persisted for some time.  I'll never forget hearing the thump of Ethan's body hitting the floor.  I rushed into the room only to find Ethan's doggedness had persisted so long that he fell asleep while in the corner!

There are so many great stories that Ethan has brought.  Like last night, he was talking about his Poppy's (name for his fraternal grandfather) garden.  He said, "Daddy, I can't wait to eat all that stuff in the garden.  Watermelons, squash, tomatoes, beef . . .”  We broke out laughing.  "Ethan beef doesn't grow in a garden it comes from a cow!" 

The one story that is forever etched in my mind comes from the first day away from the orphanage.  I was laying on a coach in Kiev, Ukraine in a small rented apartment.  Tarah had returned home to America to care for baby Jedidiah.  I was tired and ready to get back to America.  My ability to keep my eyelids at bay was becoming a conscious task every twenty seconds.  Then I felt some little arms touching my arms.  Ethan without inhibitions crawled up onto the coach, mounted my legs, laid his head on my chest, and said, "Moi Pa-pa!"  I knew in that moment God had answered my prayers and a special bond between a father and his son was galvanized.

Have you considered adoption?