May we all be found at the cross!
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” –Exodus 20:7
The name of YHWH was so holy to the Jewish people they never even spoke it. When they would get to the name of God in scripture rather than say Yahweh, they would say, “Adonai”. Casually using God’s name without any purpose, shows a low view of God. How? Because anyone or anything we love we don’t speak of flippantly. My boys are two of the most precious gifts to me and I don’t speak of them as a sidebar or as a curse word. They are of utmost value so I speak their names as their names and not at a whim.
I was raised in a home where we couldn’t even say, “gosh,” “geez,” or “golly” those words my parents felt were to close to the name of God, I think they were/are right and I am grateful they instilled that fear of the Lord in me. Long before I was a Christian when profane speech was part of my everyday vocabulary on the couple of occasions I took the Lord’s name in vain I felt a twinge of remorse and guilt…the Lord was using my upbringing to remind me that He was still Lord and that He was still there…even for me!
“There is an urgent need to plant churches if the North American Division (Seventh-day Adventist denomination) churches are to maintain their current presence in North American communities,” says Dr. Joseph Kidder in a recent article entitled “Reflections on the future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America: Trends and challenges (part 1 of 2).”
It is alarming that there is an “urgent” need to plant churches just to “maintain” our presence in our cities. But does God call us simply to maintain our presence? As I read scripture and particularly the great commission the goal from our Lord is always to “GO and make disciples”, to increase presence. Dr. Kidder states, “Increasing the Adventist presence and visibility in local communities would require even more aggressive church planting efforts.” To me what this is saying is that we must become multiplying churches! Viral churches! Churches that not only plant once, but that plant over and over again, or churches that plant churches, that plant other churches, that plant other churches…
Why does Dr. Kidder make these assertions and why do I agree with them? In 1913 when our church was growing at one of its greatest rates we had one church for every 52,000 persons, but in 2005 (and I am sure the gap has grown even more in the 6 years since) there was one church for every 65,000 persons in North America. This is one of the factors for the church going from a 3.61% growth rate from 1913-1975 to a 0.06% growth rate from 1976-2005. If we were to have the same ratio of churches to population as we did in 1913 we would need more than 1,000 new churches.
What does this mean for my community?
The current population of Visalia, California is just a little north of 125,000 persons with 2000 professed Adventists, 1.6% of population, but in actuality only 800 active (attending church at least once a month) members, 0.6% of population. If we are going to reach all these people we are going to need more churches! I used to think we would just need bigger churches, but after reading Dr. Kidder’s article and doing a fair amount of other research, “New Churches” are better able to reach folk than necessarily “bigger churches.” Which is why I think it is time to begin looking at a model of church multiplication rather than just church growth.
Three zip codes make up Visalia and in those three zip codes which include some outlying rural areas as well. The zip’s are 46,000, 38,000, & 56,000 (136,000 total) in population. Why couldn’t there be an English church of at least 500 active members in each one of those zip codes? Along with a Spanish church of at least 500 active members in each one of those zip codes? Do you know that would still only be 3000 active Adventists only 2.2% of those zip codes combined? That means there would still be 133,000 persons still to reach in just this one part of the valley. So why not then dream bigger? Why not six churches of 1000 or maybe 12 churches of 500?
Here is the great thing though, none of these churches would be competing for members! The goal would be multiplying churches not just growing “my” church! The goal would be increasing the presence of Jesus and sharing the Three Angels’ Message not increasing our membership rosters. Right now what to often happens is a competition over the Adventists that already exist, even church plants are more often church splits that just siphon off members from other already existing Adventist communities. And in reality even our growing churches mine included, is more transfer growth than conversion or Kingdom growth. We need to stop competing and we need to start planting churches TOGETHER to grow the Kingdom of God and increase His presence and His message in the hearts of all people.
This is a great excerpt from a sermon given by Pastor David Asscherick at Oakwood College.
“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” –Exodus 20: 5 & 6
As I said yesterday we make idols not through a lack of belief in God, but a lack of faith of God. This happens in the everyday living of our lives (which is worship), but often times it happens in what we specifically as followers of Jesus refer to as “worship” what we do Saturday mornings (or Sunday mornings). We create idols in “worship” when God isn’t enough. What do I mean by this? Worship for many is not successful unless the music was to the standard they desired, or the music was not of the genre they prefer. It is not successful if the speaker they like to listen to isn’t the speaker or if the speaker did not finish by 12 or 12:30. Even if truth, clear and direct truth from scripture was presented if the above were not up to their standard then worship by them would be deemed as not successful. Why because worship has become about what they prefer and not the truth of God’s Word! When this happens idols are created because we are no longer worshiping the Lord, but rather our own desires for worship!
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
–Exodus 20:4
In our current context how do we form images? To understand this passage I believe we need to look at one of if not the most directly quoted passage in scripture, Habakkuk 2:4 which is then quoted three times in the New Testament, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38, “The righteous (just) shall live by faith.” The reason the Israelites “made” idols for worship is because the way God was revealing Himself or not revealing Himself to them wasn’t good enough according to their own perspective. They couldn’t see Him, They couldn’t hear Him. He took too long to send Moses back down the mountain. So they reasoned to themselves that they should make something that would encourage them, that would make them “feel” better. To “feel” more secure. As you read scripture we see over and over again that many times the people still believed in YHWH (Yahweh) even as they made images. Idols weren’t always a sign of unbelief, rather idols were a sign of no faith, no faith in what God was doing. No faith that God would deliver. No faith that God would protect. No faith that God would provide. No faith that God heard them. However more often than not, they still believed! Well aren’t faith and belief the same thing? No, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19) Where Satan and the demons fail is not in their unbelief in the ONE God, they fail in their lack of faith in God. Idol worship continues in our current setting not because of a lack of belief in God, but because of a lack of faith in God and more specifically lack of faith in worship of God as we will see tomorrow. We create idols even if we “make” nothing physical, when we believe in God but fail to “live by faith” in God and therefore try to figure things out and do things our own way. Every time you or I try to overcome sin on our own we are making an idol. Every time we try to overcome a conflict in our own life apart from God we are making an idol. Every time we worry about how we are going to pay for something or we fail to give to God, because we then can’t pay our bills or go on that vacation, we are making an idol. Idols are not about unbelief they are about a lack of faith and scripture tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God..” (Hebrews 11:6).
So as we memorize this text let us think about the idols we’ve made and humbly ask God to tear them down by teaching us how to “live by faith.”
“You shall have no other gods before me.” –Exodus 20:3 (Write it down on a 3×5 card)
The first commandment of the 10 is pretty simple, pretty straight forward, and extremely important and profound. The entire purpose of scripture, the entire purpose of Christianity, the entire purpose of our lives is to give glory to God! Anytime someone or something gets more glory than the one true God in our lives, that thing or that person becomes our god! Our minds may automatically jump to bad things, but a god can be and often times is a good things as well: Our jobs, our kids, our spouses, our exercise routine (distance running, at times, unfortunately has been my God), our homes, our golf game. What do you focus on most? That is your god. Do you need to replace your God with the one true God?
“You shall have NO OTHER gods before me.” –Exodus 20:3
Yesterday I set some goals for myself, you can read about it here. One of them was to memorize 100 scriptures every Adventist should know. So I want to invite you to memorize with me. Every few days I will place on my blog our text we are going to memorize. I also at that time will add a little commentary on the text. Maybe if you read these in the morning this can be added to your devotional time. Either way I hope you will join me and check back regularly! Maybe to help you memorize get a packet of 3 x 5 cards and write the scriptures on them, keep them with you and look at them and recite them throughout the day.
We are going to start today with Exodus 20: 1, 2 and I am going to be using the New International Version:
Verse 1: And God spoke all these words:
Verse 2: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Personal Commentary:
These two verses are the prelude, the intro into the 10 Commandments that God carved into stone with His own hand. They are words that are directly from God, they aren’t the interpretation of man, they are not man’s perspective, the Bible tells us that “God spoke all these words.” That to me it seems would make them quite important! And in verse 2 we see the basis by which the children of Israel were to keep the law. They were to keep the law, because they were delivered by God from slavery. This text really highlights the basis for all obedience, including why we should continue to obey, because we have been delivered! Not like the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, but from sin, we’ve been delivered from the condemnation of the law by Jesus, therefore we should obey. I like how God reminds His people that He already delivered them and then asks them to keep the commandments. Our God’s acts of grace ALWAYS precede our response, our actions!
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
–Romans 5:8
The act of grace came before our actions of repentance, before our actions of obedience, before our actions of love. But then we are to respond in love which is obedience.
” “If you love me, keep my commands.”
–John 14:15
If you ever run into someone that tries to discourage your obedience by telling you not to be a “legalist” because it is all about love. Remind them that love and obedience cannot be separated! We obey because we love, we love because we are delivered, we are delivered because God loves us!
Memorize this scripture and remember the commandments are a response to a mighty act of GRACE!
So I think I am finally ready to talk about some of my goals for 2011. ALL of us should set goals! Why?
What to know when you are setting goals: They should be SMART!
So here are some of my goals for 2011:
Spiritual:
Familial:
Physical:
Professional:
Personal Growth and Development:
Social:
I pray all of you will think about your year and set some goals, I believe that you will find that you can achieve more than you ever thought possible if you will just set goals, even if you write them down and never look at them again you are stil almost guaranteed to accomplish more than if you had written nothing down.
One final note on goals: Notice above everything starts with “I will” that is simply because that is the easiest way to state something in the positive. The reality is that “Only God can” & “Only God will”. You see “I can” on my own accomplish several of the tasks above on my own, but they will be far short of bringing God glory if “I do” instead of “Jesus doing things through me and in me…” And ultimately I don’t want to take away any more from the Glory of God in my life than I already have thus far. So pray for me as I pray for you!
Seth Godin wrote on his blog the other day,
I have deeds. ”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offer ed his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” –James 2:17-26
Abraham and Rahab didn’t just give lip service to faith in God, they allowed that faith to turn their world upside down and challenge them in ways they never thought imaginable. Is your faith all about words? Or are you allowing that faith to turn your world upside down? To paraphrase Seth Godin from a church and Christian perspective, “Let us do more than adopt the words of Jesus, let us adopt the change He has for our lives as well!”
While my overall experience at Saddleback was very positive and the Lord blessed my personal worship experience, there were three things I would change. Two I feel are essential to worship and one is just a personal preference.
Let us start with my personal preference just to get it out of the way: The dress is so casual at Saddleback that if I wore a suit there I would definitely feel “out of place.” Why would I change this? Because I like to wear a suit! Christina (my wife) on the other hand loved being able to dress down, and asked me if I knew how hard it was to try and corral kids in a dress? Dresses aren’t my thing, so I had to admit I do not understand that challenge.
Okay now for the other two items. There was only one prayer in the service. It was Pastor Rick Warren’s closing prayer. I didn’t like this, I believe if we say that prayer is important as believers and even Pastor Rick mentioned the power of prayer in order to change in his sermon, then we have to model it before our people and place great emphasis on it! Maybe they do this at other times, but it is not evident in their worship service. On a side note though, off of their patio (outdoor foyer) they do have a prayer garden and there are people that will pray with individuals and for individuals desiring prayer after the service. I would still like to see a greater emphasis in the worship service.
The other item that I didn’t like is that giving was never even mentioned in the worship service and if I hadn’t seen the plate coming I would not have even known they were collecting offering. Giving is an integral act of worship and again I believe this should be clearly affirmed in a worship service.
Those are the negatives from our time at Saddleback all the rest was great! Including a wonderful message on Biblical change from Romans 12:1-12.
I hope you have enjoyed the Saddleback Observations blogs.
No one that was late had to find their own seat. As I stated in a previous post, there were not very many that were late to the service, but of those that were, not a single one of them had to find their own seat. An usher went down the row and quietly and respectfully asked folks if seats near them were open. If they were, the usher motioned to the individuals and they came forward and sat down. This is a very little thing but think of all the times people have gone into a church, seen a spot that looked open, they walk down to sit in that spot only to see that there are kids on the floor playing or that someone has saved those seats. Then there is that awkward moment where they start scramble either looking for another seat or back to the rear of the sanctuary. I always feel bad for these people. This again is not anything that costs any money, it just takes coordinating and caring. I think we have both of these resources in most our churches.
I believe we can learn sometimes as much by what people don’t do or do wrong as we can from the things folk do well. So tomorrow I am going to share with y’all a few observations that Saddleback Church didn’t do that I hope we WILL do!
When Christina and I walked into Saddleback’s Sanctuary I was amazed at how many people I saw! (I took the picture below about 10 minutes before the service started). The seating capacity of the sanctuary is 3500 so I would estimate there were about 2000 folk in the main sanctuary (there are several other locations on campus that hold worshipers for different styles of worship: praise only, hymns only, hip hop, etc.. I’m not sure if these all go on Sabbath though or only on Sunday), plus folk at ten other campuses around Southern California that the sermon is fed live to.
Here is why the large amount of people at this worship service struck me. I have heard over the course of my ministry career that the reason more people don’t attend Seventh-day Adventist churches, is because they don’t want to go to church on Saturday. I’m thinking this may be an excuse! Because what I saw were a lot of people that were there on a Sabbath to worship. In fact most large churches now have at least one Saturday service. And most people I talk to their big obstacle of attending church is not that we have the worship service on Saturday. Let me throw in a quick caveat: I do understand that the way we teach Sabbath is different, we believe Saturday is the day for worship, rather than just an option, and I recognize this could be a barrier for some. But overall again as I talk to different folk that are guests at our church they aren’t hung-up on attending on Saturday, we think they are, because it gives us an out, but sorry that OUT doesn’t really exist anymore in most areas of this country (especially with folk 50 and under).
So if people aren’t attending Seventh-day Adventist churches and the reason is not because of Sabbath versus Sunday worship? Then why? It is a question we need to be asking ourselves! Yes accepting the Sabbath as a Holy Day may be challenging, but come on folk is it any more challenging than: A baby being born to a virgin and a carpenter growing-up and discovering that He used to be in Heaven and that His real dad isn’t that carpenter but is actually God in Heaven and He wasn’t conceived through intercourse but by the Holy Spirit planting Him in His mothers belly. Then He walked this earth for 3 1/2 years and at the end of those years He was convicted of no crime and yet He was still hung-on a tree, and 3 days later an angel rolled away the stone and folded up His grave clothes. Then He was picked up by some angels and went to Heaven. And what He left behind were about 120 totally sold out followers of His and they were hanging out praying when tongues of fire came out of heaven and into the room they were in and they started speaking in languages so that whoever heard them whatever language they spoke they could be understood…and “about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41) and “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). I guess the Sabbath doesn’t seem like such an obstacle when I think of that message that Peter and the rest preached.
So what could it be?
The foyer at Saddleback church is very small and in fact they have seats out in their foyer I’ll comment on this more later. But their real foyer is an outdoor foyer, which they call “The Patio”, this works in Lake Forest, CA., it was 78 degrees at the beginning of our church service there Sabbath.
On the outdoor foyer they have canopies and under these canopies are tables where folk can sign-up for the primary ministries of the church (small groups and Celebrate Recovery) and or sign-up to volunteer in different areas, a lot of churches I have been to, beg for volunteers a couple times a year, these folk had it set-up so that whenever the Spirit moved someone to serve, there was immediate opportunity.
I really appreciated the organization of the tables. Everything was laid out very neatly and was easy for a person to peruse through.
I also appreciated that all the volunteers helping with the ministries had name tags hung around their neck with the name of their ministry and or position title. You looked at the name and then you looked up at the volunteer and they were all smiling infectiously! They looked like very happy Christians…like they were happy to be serving.
The third thing I noticed and this stood (no pun intended) out for some reason. Every volunteer behind the table was STANDING! No one was sitting (that is not true there was one table and I will get to that in a minute). I realized in that moment that standing is inviting. Sitting can often be very closed, many of us sit with poor posture and this often times can create a closed position. There was only one table where the people were sitting, it was the youth and jr. high table. They were sitting and the volunteers looked disinterested and guess what? I never saw a single person at their table!
I want to make a quick comment on Saddleback’s inside foyer. The inside foyer has some extra seating and also there are some TV screens and the service is broadcast out to these extra seats. The reason this caught my attention is that I know each week there are a number of mothers who at some point in my service end up sitting out in the foyer. We have a sound system, but it often times gets turned off, but I was thinking it would be great if when these mothers, grandmothers, even fathers, and grandfathers need to leave the sanctuary for a ‘bit if they could still hear and SEE the worship service inside. Sometimes these little amenities make the difference (though this is something that may cost a little money).
So what can we learn, no matter what our size? Have sign-ups for volunteers every week so that when God speaks to an individuals heart that they need to get involved, then there is an opportunity for them to get involved! Second I learned that we need to always make sure we are standing-up, not sitting down, when wanting folks to take interest in what we have to show them at our ministry tables. These are just a couple things any church can do no matter the size or resources.
Look at the picture above. I want y’all to notice a couple things about this picture: notice how many folk are there and how few of seats are empty. Something I observed Sabbath at the Saddleback Church was that people were there early and how few people came in late. If folk wanted to be there, then they were there are on time! Not 10 minutes late or 20 or even 30, but on time! This observation obviously forced me to face the reality that this is not what happens in my church. Maybe not in your’s either? So why not? Is this an indictment against our members or against our worship services? Or maybe both?
Some questions to think on:
Do people not come on time because what takes place at the beginning of our worship services is not worth being there for? I have heard myself say, “everything is a part of worship so people need to be there.” That is a really DUMB statement! Just because we planned it, doesn’t make it worth anything and us planning something doesn’t make it divine worship either.
Do people not come on time because of their own Spiritual apathy? Church is not of priority enough in people’s lives for them to make sure they are on time, like they would be for work or school or a movie? Would this mean that the folk at Saddleback have their Spiritual priorities more in line than we do?
Do people not come on time because of the actual TIME we have our worship service? Saddlebacks service started at 4:30 p.m.. There is nothing sacred about the 11 o’clock hour yet we have made it a sacred cow that if anyone touches they are chastised and sent out to be shot. Should we rethink our start times for worship, would there be something that would be more conducive for families and more importantly for those we are trying to reach?
Do people not come on time because our worship services are to convoluted? Do we need to simplify and only focus on the necessary? I noticed that Saddlebacks service was very simple. 1 song, announcements, 2 songs, sermon, prayer, dismiss. It wasn’t that the service was short. Pastor Rick spoke still for 45-50 minutes, but the service seemed very simple.
I would love your honest and frank perspectives on this!
If you have not seen all of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” talk, take 17 minutes and watch one of the greatest oratory moments in our countries history. Following the video I have a couple thoughts below.
I watch this message usually a couple times a year. I watch it for several reasons first because the power of the message still needs to resonate in my moral conscience 48 years later. I watch because in this message Martin Luther King Jr. teaches those of us who cast vision, how to really cast a vision with words in less than 20 minutes. Finally, I will admit I watch because I want to be a better preacher. You see I believe that pastors or anyone that speaks publicly on a regular basis need to listen to great orators. Most of us are not that good of speakers and if we are only listening to ourselves, we may become fooled and begin to think we can really preach, when our congregations or audiences or classrooms have but one wish: “Please Stop Talking!” So I encourage y’all to listen to great orators, read great orators (yes even reading some of the great talks of yester year are of benefit), and become a better speaker.
Here are few that I really enjoy listening to:
Dwight K. Nelson
David Asscherick
Martin Luther King Jr.
Billy Graham (especially his campaigns from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s)
Ronald Reagan
Bill Clinton
Tim Keller
Bill Hybels
C.D. Brooks
Haddon W. Robinson
Some to read:
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Winston Churchill (Probably listen to some of his as well)
Dwight L. Moody
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
You can find a couple of these individuals on the American Rhetoric site
So this past Sabbath Christina and I attended Saddleback Church’s Saturday service. Over the next few days I wanted to share some observations with y’all. Most things at Saddleback we could never duplicate because most our churches don’t have the resources. There are however some small things, little touches that any church and any church member could do well with little or no money. So enjoy my observations…and even a couple critiques that I will mention that affirmed the way we do things.
So today we start with things I observed about the greeters:
Christina and I arrived at the Saddleback campus and it is a campus! I had been there before for a conference, but was interested to see if things that happened at the conference were stepped up a notch than the week in and week out activities of the church. Would they still be as friendly? Would there still be a large number of volunteers? Would they still do their worship with excellence? The answer to all three of these questions, was a resounding “yes”!
Before Christina and I sat down we had been greeted four times by volunteers. I want to share some things about this greeting that may help us and other churches with their process:
Greeters were positioned at their spots and they didn’t move from those spots! Why did this matter? Because many churches I go into, a person never gets greeted or gets a side-glance greeting b/c greeters are so busy having conversations. These people were not there to have conversations! They were there to smile and welcome people. So I like that they stay at their posts. At the top of the steps from the parking lot. In the volunteer booth area. At the doors to enter the foyer, and then the individual giving you the bulletin at the door to the sanctuary. I counted only about 14 greeters this is very few considering more than 2000 folk pass by them for even their smallest service. How does it work then? Because they are strategically positioned and they hold their spots. People can’t enter that church without passing a volunteer greeter.
Greeters were there to greet not to have conversations. I mentioned this above but I want to expand on it. The greeters basic purpose was to smile and say, “we are glad you are here.” In fact the first lady said, “I am glad you are here.” I thought her stating that in the singular pronoun “I”, rather than the “we” added a very personal touch. And on the way out there were several individuals that we passed by as we exited the sanctuary, again strategically positioned, that said, “we are glad you came, have a safe drive home” or “thank you for coming have a great evening!” And everyone smiled a lot!
Only one set of greeters gave out a bulletin and no one was missed because they were positioned right at the doors where everyone had to pass through and get one if they so desired. Also this was nice because the other greetings were casual and it didn’t feel like folk were saying “hi” only to get a bulletin into our hand.
All of the things above any church can do. If you are a small church you probably only have one or two entrances, which means you don’t need a ton of greeters. If you’re a larger church this is even more important because there is no way the pastor can say “hi” or personally welcome each individual. We just need to help our greeters understand the importance of greeting! That the worship service actually starts with the greeting! I felt appreciated and that is a good thing, especially at church:)
Tomorrow I’ll share with you what I noticed about Saddleback’s Patio (basically their outdoor foyer).
The North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists has come out with a new initiative, “REACH North America” I believe the foci of this initiative are spot on, that said I am concerned. I am concerned because while the language is new and well focused, I worry that the methods are going to be the “same ‘ole same ‘ole”. Why do I have this worry? Because the first major event related to REACH is a Net Evangelism event. This event is taking place in the Fall of 2011 and already I have received a number of things in the mail (both snail mail and e-mail) promoting this event. It seems this is the major thrust of the NAD’s strategy for this year. I believe in evangelism, I have no problem with Net events, but I am challenged by the reality that our rate of growth has been in decline for the last couple of decades and yet we seem to be going back to the same well over and over again. In the mid to late 90’s and into the early ’00’s we had numerous Net events. I personally was blessed by two of these events tremendously, Net ’96 and Net ’98, that said my blessing doesn’t negate the reality that these were the major evangelistic events of the last couple decades and yet here we are in 2010 trying to figure out how to stem the decline of our church in North America. So we are in decline even though we had Net Events throughout the last two decades, and what are we pushing with great might this year again? Another Net event! The definition of stupidity according to Albert Einstein is, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Please hear me, I am not saying Net events should be eliminated, I just believe if we think a Net event is going to play a major role in stemming our decreased growth, and I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid we’re just being “stupid.” I believe Seth Godin’s counsel is key here, “If it’s a new problem, perhaps it demands a new approach. If it’s an old problem, it certainly does.” Folks after 15-20 years of this struggle to reach North America the problem is an old problem, it definitely demands a new approach not the same ‘ole same ‘ole!