Maurilio Amorim

Month: December 2007

  • Beyond Jesus Junk

    I’m often embarrassed walking around Christian bookstores and seeing isles filled with Christian “tchatchkes” (Yiddish for trinket) that add little or no value to the lives of believers. Most of them just get thrown into the already cluttered world we live filled with more stuff than we could ever use or need. After all, who really needs another velvet painting of the King, and, no, I’m not talking about Elvis here.
    But once in a while something comes along that blows away the chattel people consume.
    Such is The Word of Promise: a fully dramatized audio New Testament featuring Jim
    Caviezel and a host of great actors. These are not just good reads of the New Testament books, but a fully engaging, theatrical rendition faithfully taken from the New King James Version. What a great product–visit their site and listen to a few samples and you’ll see what I mean. I remember getting goose bumps as I first heard Romans 1 featuring the voice of Stacy Keach.

    The product stands alone in its quality, but there’s another side to this story. I’ve had to privilege to spend time with Jim Caviezel in the past few months and get a glimpse of his heart and passion (no pun intended) for God’s Word. Jim is the real deal and his commitment to God’s Word is evident not only by the quality of The Word of Promise Audio Bible but also by his personal walk. We need more projects like TWOP around and less tchatchkes ( I just love that word). And, as my new year’s resolution, I’m selling my velvet Jesus collection next year.

  • Living Through Church Business Meetings

    I have been around churches a long time. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the worst in people come out in the name of Christianity. And, sadly, most of this poor behavior I’ve witnessed during church business meetings. Once during a particular quarrelsome evening where two feuding segments went at each other’s throats with wild accusations, I noticed the church secretary taking very few notes for the official minutes. I leaned over and asked her, “How are you going to write this down?” “It’s simple,” she replied, “I usually write, ‘much discussion followed.’”

    Well, I’ve sat through church business meetings that started at supper time and ended almost in time for breakfast. Those marathon meetings usually have one thing in common: strife. You can tell you’re headed for a church showdown if a bus of inactive members who haven’t been around in years suddenly shows up for the mid-week business meeting. I’ve observed one of those as well. Suddenly, people who have not attended, volunteered, or given financially or otherwise in years—sometimes never–will speak with passion and conviction about what they feel “right” for “their” church.

    Last night was a different type of church business meeting for me. Pastor Pete opened the meeting with a short

    overview of the largest growth percentage in our short five-year history as well as a record year for baptism. His eye lit up when he talked about our new satellite church in Dickson, TN opening up in January. But even in the midst of such great news, he spoke candidly about our financial challenges in not meeting our aggressive budget for the first time since the church started. Brian, an Elder, went through the process of Elder selection and presented the two new Elders chosen for confirmation by the congregation. Shortly afterward, Jenni, our Director of Operations, talked about the new ministry hires and future staff growth. Rod, our treasurer went over the proposed 2008 budget and the financial implications a new campus would have for the new year. All of this was done in less than 45 minutes.

    I thank God for my church and for the great leadership from both our Staff as well as from our lay leaders who are able to keep the appropriate check and balances in place while creating a culture of entrepreneurship and creativity where our church spends most of its time doing the work of the gospel instead of fighting about self serving or meaningless and trivial things that, most often, have no eternal impact. I pray we’ll always keep it that way.