Rick Warren Invocation

Pastor Rick Warren gave the invocation at President Obama's inauguration. As we pray for our new president, may God give him "the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity."

Here is the full prayer:


Almighty God -- our Father. Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story. The Scripture tells us, ‘Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.’ And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King, and a great cloud of witnesses, are shouting in heaven.

Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice-President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom, and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes -- even when we differ.

Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation, and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day, all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.

We now commit our new president, and his wife Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life -- Yeshua, Isa, Jesús, Jesus -- who taught us to pray:

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

gotta be a God thing

If this is gonna happen- if we are going to be able to plant 10 churches in partnership with other churches in the community, well, it is going to HAVE to be a God thing.

I am more and more aware of how difficult it can be for churches to work together closely on a project such as this. I am not amazed that it doesn't happen more.

I guess the bottom line is, we are asking churches to trust us that we will make this a win for them, and will do everything we can to make it something that will cause their churches to grow, even while they plant another one.

We are trusting in God to make that happen. Not because it's our idea (planting churches). It's His. And He will do it -build His church- with or without us.

I want it to be with.

Christianity Today Top Ten books for ministry leaders 2008

Here is a link to an interesting list of books from Christianity Today to provoke thought and conversation for ministry leaders.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/21.76.html

From the article: "Charles Spurgeon counseled his students to be discriminating about what they read, and to bathe in good books "until they saturate you." He said, "A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books merely skimmed." But which books to choose? Each year in ministry, leaders find there are more books to read and less time to read them. That is why Leadership is presenting the ten books of 2008 deemed most valuable for church leaders. The titles were compiled from submissions by a diverse group of more than 100 pastors from across the country. Our contributing editors then voted to determine the winners in two categories: The Leader's Inner World, and The Leader's Outer World. We hope this canon contributes to your development as both a follower of Christ and a leader of his church. And yes, we know canon means "list" and not "artillery," but we still liked the image."

ALSO- for those interested in growing your library cheaply with local library Book Sales sign up here for automatic notification of sales in your area. Books typically sell for between $1-3 for hardcovers, and .50c and $1.50 for paperbacks at these sales, but arrive early.

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