Wednesday I celebrate 9 years with my wonderful wife Kelly.

I’d be a mess of a man without her love, support, honesty, and balance.

She calls me out and is one of the boldest truth tellers in my life.

I don’t talk about her or the kids much on this blog. 

That’s intentional.

We like to keep certain parts of our life private.

I know other bloggers tell the world about everything (their sex life, their fights, and what they ate for dinner).

I suppose privacy, especially in ministry, is one of our “secrets” to a successful marriage.

We’re also blessed with sets of parents who model what it means to love well.

I believe the main secret though is our relationship with Jesus.

Let’s face it.

Marriage is tough.

Super tough.

Jesus shows us what it means to forgive, love unconditionally, self-sacrifice, laugh, not demand to be right, and believe the best about each other.

Love is a choice.

A successful marriage is a conglomeration of these choices.

Happy Anniversary Kelly!

Thanking God right now.

For Addison June.

Find out the answer to this question…

In your discussion of the “Separatist” camp, you focus on the tendency to add extra-biblical rules to the commandments of Scripture. What kind of these rules do you see frequently? 

…and many more, including which TV game show I wish I could be on.

Plus win a free copy of The Fine Line.  All right here.

A few people have asked me if I will be attending either Brad Lomenick’s Catalyst Conference in Atlanta or Ben Arment’s Story Conference in Chicago 3 months from now in October.

Unfortunately, I’m not.

I totally enjoyed Catalyst last year and the Story seems incredibly innovative, but I am committed to maintaining my core commitments and not spreading myself too thin.

Instead, I am honored and humbled to be a keynote speaker at the Change Conference in Canada which is also in October. Past keynote communicators have been Chris Seay, Louie Giglio, Erwin McManus, some home-grown Canadians Bruxy Cavey and Mark Buchanan and patriarchs like Bruce Wilkinson and Henry Blackaby.

 Kutless will be appearing at this year’s Change Conference. According to their website, the Change Conference is:

intended to be a catalyst for youth ministry leadership being offered to students at all levels of their discipleship journey (new believers thru core students, youth leaders and 20-30’s). It is about inspiring and empowering students, young adults and leaders to step up to a new level of commitment to authenticity in knowing Christ and leading this next generation to follow with them.

For 2009, the keynote communicators will be Kary Oberbrunner (author of The Fine Line from Columbus, Ohio) , Todd Bender (Director of City Kidz, Hamilton) and Brett Ullman (renowned speaker from Worlds Apart).

We are thrilled to have these gifted communicators along with Matt Tapley leading worship and focus group leaders… Amie Sider, Natalie Armstrong, Mark Wallace, Carl Nash and more!

Here’s a promo video:

My two talks are titled: The Call of Discipleship & The Cost of Discipleship.

Are you headed to Catalyst or Story?

Why or why not?

In a previous season of discouragement, I received this encouraging email. Thanks Jenny.

Kary-

I just finished your book “The Fine Line,” and I have to say I honestly expected it to be another rant/ hate speech against culture. I was skeptical about exactly how you would come to a conclusion, or define the line between Christ and Culture- because before I read this I believed there was no compromise between the two. But I ate my words after the first chapter, and I was amazed by how you put definitions to the “camps” of people I had been noticing for years. This is by far the most insightful Christian text I have read- besides the Bible of course :]
That is what is so good about it though-I feel you came as close to conveying the heart and message of Christ as is humanly possible. You really shoot it straight. I respect that.
I can’t wait to read your other material.

Sincerely,
Jenny

Praise God and thanks to the wonderful team at Zondervan for making these types of emails possible.

What’s a powerful antidote to stress? 

What do you do after a killer day at work?

A great answer…

Pine cones and sewer caps.

I absolutely love my little ones and what they bring to my world. 

We hit the park this evening and instead of chilling on the swings we stumbled across some pine cones. For the next 1/2 hour my little Keegs and Izzy enjoyed dropping them into the sewer.

It was just the break I needed.

I praise God for the simple things in life, like the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies my wife made for me. Thanks Kelly.

Just like you I love trying to save the world every day. But the truth is, like you I can’t.

Only Jesus can.

And today God gently reminded me this again by of all things pine cones and sewers caps. Thanks God.

What are you waiting for?
The time is now.
You only have one life to live.
No reserve.
No retreat.
No regret.
Will you answer the call?
Will you pay the cost? 
Will you make the commitment?
Do you care?

iCare

I’ll be preaching the first sermon in this series (iCare) on Sunday morning at Grace Church.

The Podcast will be up next week.

A hearty shout out to the sponsors of KaryOberbrunner.com for this month. They believe in the message of this website and I believe in them. Show your support and click on their link below. They just might provide exactly what you’re looking for.

1. Justix Development - a small design company that enjoys helping people realize their dreams.
2. Clay Productions - video production, web development, and graphic design.
3. Kings Domain - One of the tri-state region’s finest camp, retreat and conference centers.
4. Earth Tourist – Exploring and appreciating the Arts & Culture of the World, from a perspective of Faith.  
5. T.R.E.N.  E Docs – Searching for Research? Your Resource for Theological Research.
6. Ministry-Tech – exists to provide professional and cost-effective technology solutions for churches and other ministries.
7. 1 Life Your Choice -  exists to help others experience the “abundant life” Christ came to give by focusing one’s Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength.
8. God’s Mac - THE Podcast where technology meets eternity.
9. Your Website

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor and getting the traffic you need to your website, blog, or business, click here to get the ball rolling.

A blog famous for writing about other people? In our narcissistic culture could a blog like that even cut it?

Todd Rhoades is the genius behind Monday Morning Insight - a blog  which is a compilation of Internet stories and resources that would be of interest to pastors and church leaders across the United States and the world.

Cool concept hey?

I had the rare opportunity to talk to the humble guy who’s always talking to other people. Here’s the story behind the story of Todd and MMI.

1. How did you get from there to here? I started in college on kind of a two track career.  I worked full-time at a radio station selling commercials (my first experience with marketing) and part-time for a church as a ‘minister of music’ (my first music gig).  Over the years, I would start my own advertising agency, and eventually get into web publishing.  My first site was called Minister-of-Music.com; and one thing led to another.  Before I knew it, I was running a growing church employment site (ChurchStaffing.com) and a new blog (MondayMorningInsight.com).  In late 2005, I sold the staffing website.  The next year I began working with Leadership Network.  Believe me, it’s been much more exciting than it sounds in print. 
2. Give us the Big Idea (3-4 sentences) behind Monday Morning Insight. MMI is really a simple concept for me.  I try to find things that I’m interested in, and hope that other people will also be interested enough to read it!  So far, it’s working!  A friend recently described MMI as ‘half Bible, half National Enquirer”.  I have to admit, I kinda like that.  I think it’s important for all of us involved in church work to not only have a good grasp on theological truth, but also keep up on what is happening in the current church world.  At MMI, I try to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in the church world.  And I never have a shortage of stuff I find everyday that absolutely fascinates me!
3. Don’t worry about sounding arrogant or bold, but what are some God-sized dreams He’s placed in your heart? I don’t know that I have any God-sized dream for me personally; but what I’m seeing that I’m really, really liking these days is that churches and pastors are really starting to use the internet to extend their connection with their people.  Whether its communicating through a blog, Facebook, or Twitter, I see some really sharp leaders ‘exposing themselves’ to their churches in some very good ways.  It allows them to extend their leadership on a very personal level without it having to be one-on-one.  On a personal note… I get a lot of satisfaction out of meeting many of the people who read MMI at many of the conferences and events that I have the privelege of attending.  I love to connect leaders and ideas.
4. Other than Buckeye football, what is your favorite thing about Ohio?  You know, I take a lot of flack for living in Bryan, OH… yes the dum dum capital of the world!  (You know the little dum dum suckers?  They are made in my home town).  Other than OSU football (of course), I like the small town atmosphere to raise my family in.  For the most part, it’s a great place to live!
5. In the circles you run in, what does it mean to be in the world and not of it…to integrate Christ AND culture? Wow… in the circles that I run in, most of the churches are highly innovative.  That means that many of them are pushing the limit sometimes when it comes to merging culture and the church.  I grew up in a very conservative, legalistic brand of Christianity.  I saw many people who literally ran from the church because of the long list of ‘worldly things’ that the church wouldn’t allow.  Many of those people will have nothing to do with the church to this day.  I think in order to reach people, you do have to speak their language to some extent, while keeping the gospel message Biblical.  That means that there are some churches who reach cowboys with cowboy music; some inner city churches who ministry to the hip hop culture in a very different way that the traditional church on the corner.  Sure, there are times when some churches go too far; but I really don’t see that very much at all.  I like what Craig Groeschel says:  “We will do anything short of sin to introduce people to God”.  Unfortunately, there are many people on the internet that think EVERYTHING is a sin. 

I think Todd has an interesting point concerning his view about Christ and Culture.

• Have you ever seen a church cross that Fine Line for the sake of the Gospel?
• Do you agree with Craig’s quote or did he cross the line?

The last of Podcast Week…

Episode 35 - Denver Interview

Commentary on the finer points of The Fine Line.

Download MP3