The Heath Mullikin Project

Most of you know I just started training for a half marathon in June.  You can view my progress above under “The Race”.    Here’s what playing on my ipod for today’s run.  I know I need to update some of my Tunes so help me out.  What are you listening to when you exercise?

1.  Thunderstruck-AC/DC

2.  Sabotage-Beastie Boys

3.  Gonna Fly Now-The Rocky theme

4.  Born in the USA, The Rising, Working on a Dream-Bruce

5.  God of this City-Chris Tomlin

6.  Life in Technicolor-Coldplay

7.  A little less conversation-Elvis

8.  Happy Day-Fee

9.  Into the Mystic-the Once soundtrack

10.  Crazy-Gnarls Barkley

11.  Your Name High-Hillsong

12.  Hold My Hand, Go and Tell Him-Hootie live in Charleston

13.  Jump Around-House of Pain

14.  Beautiful Girl-INXS

15.  I won’t Back Down, I’ve Been Everywhere-Johnny Cash

16.  Jenny was a Friend of Mine, All these things I’ve done, Human-The Killers

17.  All I can do is write about it-Lynyrd Skynyrd

18.  Don’t Wait for Daylight, More Time, Haley-NeedtoBreathe

19.  It’s the End of the World as We know it-REM

20.  Just Me-Sevenglory

21.  Great DJ-The Ting Tings

22.  Beautiful Day, Where the Streets have no name, Stay-U2

Well, Monday and Tuesday I walked/ran around 3 miles.  Then Wednesday came, and I quickly discovered that it will have to be my rest day as it is the busiest day of the week for me.  Yesterday was Karen’s birthday and after taking the girls to school I returned home and immediately…fell asleep.  I don’t know what happened.  I woke up around 11 and we went and got her some running gear for her ipod, and saw the new movie, “Duplicity”,  last night.  Hopefully, it was a good bday for her as I presented her with a signed, notarized contract saying that I will train for and participate in a half marathon on June 6.  So, due to me not feeling well, a busy day, plus rain I did not train yesterday.  Then I woke up today looking forward to a free day with the kids who are out of school.  Same thing as yesterday.  Woke up, fixed breakfast, fell on the couch and slept until 11.  My head is about to explode and I don’t know if I took drowsy medicine by mistake, my body did not like running/walking, or if I really have a bug.  Needless to say, I will walk this afternoon because I fear if I don’t that I will never get over the hump.  Had a major breakthrough in some prayer things the other day.  I had been praying specifically for a vision and God just layed it out there that some things I was working on and planning were going in the right direction for the vision He has for us.  It was a cool moment that came at an unexpected time.  Here are a few links for your enjoyment/betterment.

1.  This firefox add-on will help you stay off time killing sites during work.

2.  I won’t be trying this sermon illustration any time soon.

3.  Baseball stat guru and Red Sox consultant has figured out how to tell when a college basketball game is really over.

4.  I found some info on blocking all the headlines on the new facebook layout.  When I get it working, I will share it with you.

5.  Two prayer requests:  Karen has 3 business opportunities right now.  Pray that she is able to get them all up and running soon!  Pray for my health and training for the race in June.  Pray that God continues to give me vision and the path to fulfill it.

First off, I ran a mile and walked about a mile and a half yesterday.  I must’ve streched and iced my shins properly because I woke up with minimal soreness this morning.  Either that, or I wasn’t trying hard enough yesterday.  I feel very invigorated this morning and can’t wait for the is afternoon’s trek.  Now, onto the topic….

This will probably be an ongoing thought series, but what would Wesley say about our denomination and churches today?  Wesley called his ministers to preaching for conversions, discipleship/accountability, and personal holiness.  I do think our Spiritual Formation department has it right with the heart, head, hands, habits mantra.  I think Wesley would wonder why it costs so much for our ministers to get an education, why they don’t receive more hands on ministry and preaching experience, and how slackers make it through the program.  I think if Wesley met a student who couldn’t keep at least a B average, who scoffed at taking Greek, and couldn’t spell “accountability” then he would recommend another career to them.  I think if he saw pastors(sr., youth, worship, children’s, etc.) who hadn’t read a book(or the Bible for that matter) to better themselves then he would ask them why, but I’m sure the answer wouldn’t be sufficient.  I think if he saw an overweight pastor like me he would be disgusted.  I think he would tell me that holiness starts at home.  I would offer him a Mountain Dew and after tasting it he would ask,”This did THAT to you?  Are you out of your mind?”  He would ask pastors when they had their Sabbath and what they prayed and read that day.  He would ask how God spoke to us during our times alone with him.  I wouldn’t want to be the sucker to sheepishly raise his hand to tell Mr. Wesley that most of us are too busy for that.  I think he would ask why people don’t bring their Bibles to church, but I think it would help him understand why many of our parishioners are the way they are.  Would he ask,”Are there enough Bibles for everyone?  Is that why so many of them are without?”  I think he would drastically reformat Sunday School to make it a more understandable Bible study and less time taking prayer requests.  He would probably turn Sunday nights into just a prayer meeting so the pastor doesn’t have to wing another sermon and no one has to pick 3 or 4 random hymns to sing(if the pianist shows up).  He would then wonder why only about 25% of the people from that morning came on Sunday nights.  To this I would reply, if it’s not important enough to plan then why would it be important for people to come.  He would probably look at our expanding waist lines, shrinking times with our families, sermons thrown together at the last minute, and realize we have made too many things a priority so that nothing has become a priority.  At this point, he would probably need a break.  He would look at me and ask,”Where’s that Mountain Dew?”

I’ve been reading Jack Welch’s book, “Winning”, and have been taking furious notes.  In talking about mission and values here are some values he shared from a business he was studying.  I have applied these to the local church.  They are all interlinked.

1.  Leaner is better-“You can get input from anywhere-and you should listen to smart people from every quarter.  But setting the mission is top management’s responsibility.  A mission cannot, and must not, be delegated to anyone except the people ultimately held accountable for it.”
2.  Eliminate bureaucracy-this would be a board forming a committee which would then form a subcommittee
3.  Cut waste relentlessly-every ministry should look carefully at its spending at the end of each year and make tough decisions(I remember a youth pastor spending over $100o a year on Wednesday night snacks.  If it’s bringing kids in or keeping them then fine, but if it’s not building the kingdom then cut it.)
4.  Operations should be fast and simple-while large expenses may need to be approved it shouldn’t take months or a board to approve it(I’m talking about TV’s, etc. not buildings and land)
5.  Value each other’s time-do you observe the one hour rule in your meetings?  If not, then is every minute of the meeting supporting your team and your mission.
6.  Invest in Infrastructure-if you don’t have a good organizational chart, flow, idea when your church is small then you won’t be ready when God brings the blessing.  Do you think God hasn’t blessed our churches because we’re not ready for it?

I will be posting some more thoughts on why I think God is blessing the growing number of megacurches and what the Wesleyan church needs to do to become a growing denomination.  After all, if something isn’t growing it’s dead.  Personally, I think it starts with putting the Wesley back in Wesleyan, but that’s for another time.

I have accepted many challenges(formerly known as dares) over the years ranging from eating ice cream sandwiches to singing in front of people.  Last week my wife told me that she wanted her birthday present to be a signed contract stating that I will run a half marathon with her this summer on June 6.  This is by far the greatest challenge ever issued to me.  Ironically, when we stopped on the Biggest Loser last night the contestants were running, you guessed, a half marathon of 13.1 miles.  I figure if they can do it then so can I.  The challenge has been accepted and if I don’t at least attempt to complete this race then I will have to suffer the penalty for failing a challenge-I will have to shave off one of my eyebrows.  I have accepted defeat on challenges before and suffered the consequences.  The growing number of challenges led the International Challenge Committee to make eye brow shaving the current penalty for failure.  So, come Middle School camp, I will either be in great shape and an avid runner or I will be the same old lovable, short, fat Heath with only one eyebrow.  I love my wife and I know this means alot to her and it should also mean alot to me.  I look forward to training, racing together, and knocking one more challenge out of the park.