Which Movement Are You?

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 68% Reformed Evangelical 68% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Neo orthodox 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Classical Liberal 46% Fundamentalist 43% Roman Catholic 32% Modern Liberal 29%

MUST Reads

It's been a great week in 'blog land' with several great posts from many different areas. I wanted to share with you some of the great ones from this week. Hopefully this is something I can continue to do each week.

"Once a Youth Pastor..." is a blog that recently got hit with a ton of traffic due to Marko talking about it in his post. It's about one youth pastor's exit from youth ministry because he felt God leading him somewhere else. His posts are great! It's all about why modern youth ministry isn't working and he raises great questions. Make sure you read this first! But make sure you make it over to The Piano Teacher part 1 and part 2.

Church Marketing Sucks is a great website for those that are looking for the more "commercial" side of our faith. It aims to equip leaders to be more effective in their outreach and media. Pretty good stuff! But this post on why Christian Living Sucks floored me! It's a must read! Here is a small snippet:

"Forget polishing up that web site, planning your next series or training your greeters. Because if we can't effectively live the gospel, how can we hope to communicate it?"

What is the Kingdom features a video on the horrors of Lord Waldemart!

One of the hardest things to do in our lives as disciples is to surrender. RETHINKING YOUTH MINISTRY has posted about this very subject with a great prayer written by Charles de Foucauld. Simply beautiful prayer that I aim to keep with me.

Oh, and don't forget to Take the Test!

Enjoy the reading! I sure did!

"All ye..."

I had a friend come across this video off the now booming GodTube and it was certainly an encouragement to me. So, I wanted to share it with you and hope that it encourages your day as well.

Can you name all 50 states?

In 5m 2s

Click here to Play

Thanks goes out to Marko for finding this.

Homosexuality and the church

Jeremy Zach is having a great conversation on the topic of homosexuality and the church and what is to be our response to homosexuals in the church. I point you in that direction to take part in the conversation.

Purpose Statements

Many will remember back in the 90's when the big "Purpose Driven Church" movements came into existence. At the time I was a clueless 15 year old who just kind of went along with it all, but I did remember that we were challenged by our youth pastor to memorize our "Mission Statement". In fact, we were expected to know it at a moments notice and could even win $1 if we asked a leader to recite it and they didn't know it.

I never did memorize it...it was like a paragraph long. But I DO remember the key words: Reach, Connect, Grow and Discover! I never read Purpose Driven Church or Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. I guess I just dislike program oriented churches.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with some individuals that I know and trust and laid out all the challenges that we are facing in our student ministry. I drove home with the conclusion that we just flat out lack a vision.

Vision is different than a purpose statement.

Vision is a matter of the heart.
Purpose is a product of the mind.

You can have the greatest purpose statement in the world that is short, quick, easy to memorize and even say a lot about your organization, but if it lacks vision it's just a lot of words on paper. Vision is what drives people, not purpose. Let me give an example from a mission statement I found (and actually happen to like):

" Youth Ministry is a church wide ministry which strives to provide a variety of opportunities and experiences to draw teens into active, responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the faith community and the greater church."

I like this because it has vision! You can sense that the person(s) who wrote this, had a wide view of what a church ministry should look like. Two years ago, I had a vision. Today it's been twisted and misguided into every day pressures and influences. I would like to make a stop to that and regain the vision I once had.

So now I need a vision.

Quote of the Week 3

"Your personality may open some doors for you, but it is your character that will keep them open." - Unknown

Good Clean Comedy

Now, for those that know me know that I hate that we have a Christian subculture: Christian Rock Music, Christian Contemporary Music, Christian Death Metal, Christian Bookstore, etc...It drives me nuts! So as often as I can, I like to present artists and speakers that don't promote themselves as a "Christian anything" but rather someone who is a believer and happens to be in a rock band, or a comedian, or...you get the picture.

So I want to make a recommendation for something I came across this week that I think is noteworthy for youth pastors, parents, families and anyone else that just likes to laugh. His name is Tim Hawkins and he is a stand up comedian/music parodist (wow, that actually seems to be a real word). The man is hilarious! If you're a fan of Brian Regan, or Weird Al Yankovic, you'll love this guy. His songs are great and his comedy is top notch.

For anyone that lives close by, I have his DVD and you're more than welcome to borrow it.

Simplicity

I had one of those moments yesterday while teaching Sunday school that I come into a new realization about something.

We got onto the topic of predestination...or with our class...*I* got on the subject of predestination and salvation. We talked about how some people make our salvation a difficult thing. You have to agree to a certain amount of doctrine, you have to give so much money to the church or attend a denominational conference, etc...People make up these lists of how you are seen right in God's eyes.

But it's so much easier than that.

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." - John 3:16 from The Message Remix

It's that simple.

Faith in Jesus.

We have all this "You have to live a holy life..." or "You have to have good works..." those things are products of our sanctification. As we come to know Jesus, he trims away the excess of who we were and puts in place himself. The process takes more than a lifetime.

There isn't a list or creed we have to memorize or recite or a list of things to do. It just comes down to knowing Jesus. Simple.

Adventures In Youth Ministry 3

If you've never heard of Mike Yaconelli, drop what you're doing and go see as many of his videos and read as many of his books as you can. The man was amazing and ever since I was introduced to him years ago, he has been a great encouragement to me. Mike has gone on to be with Jesus now, but his passion still remains.

This video was a shot in the arm for me this morning. Take 10 minutes and watch it, you'll be glad you did!

Youth Ministry is Broken

Let's face it. Youth ministry as we have known it is broken. It no longer "works". I've studied enough and been with enough youth ministers to know that the youth ministry that worked back in the 70's and 80's no longer works today.

Here is what we have done for the past 30+ years:

Church hires youth pastor.
Youth pastor creates fun and engaging programs.
Youth pastor encourages kids to show up and 'bring friends'
Friends become part of youth group.
The world is saved.

Heres the problem: We're still doing that today and it clearly is not working. I've had the opportunity to get to talk to a lot of different pastors here in the past 2 years. Some are my friends that I went to school with and some have been in it a LOT longer than me. They're having the same troubles that our church is having in relation to their youth. Namely not showing up and not getting involved. That makes me feel a little better as I've struggled for months believing that maybe, possibly it was all my fault. Of course there is still that nagging possibility that I am the problem.

Post-modern youth ministry HAS to change in order to survive. How? Wow! I wish I knew the answer to that so I could write a book and make millions. My gut feeling is that parents have to take more of an initiative to get involved in the ministry process. Church youth ministry should ALWAYS be the complement to what is going on at home. The discipleship process should always start at home. When that influence isn't there at home, such as in the case of unbelieving parents, thats when the church becomes more instrumental in the discipleship process.

Something needs to change.

What I would love to do is completely cut off all church activity for a year. No Wednesday Nights. No Sunday nights. No events. Just worship on Sunday mornings. Getting OUT of the cycle of monotony and living the believers life in simplicity of every day life for just a year. Of course, I would be fired for such a suggestion as it is my job to keep everything busy. There...I said it, and I'm not taking it back either!

I always hear about big words like "missional" and "attractional" and why it is bad to be the latter and how we need to be the former. I would agree with that, but how do you share that mindset to other people? That is a complete paradigm shift and people will only believe it when they learn it for themselves. We're fighting 50+ years of church tradition, and that in itself is a near impossible task.

It is my prediction, that within the next 50 years, the churches that are refusing to make these radical changes will either cease to exists, or on the brink of death. I'm not saying that's a bad thing...maybe thats what we need. Being in a section of the country that you can throw a rock and hit 4 or 5 churches in a single throw, less churches may be a good thing.

We need a change. A drastic change. What kind of change, I haven't a clue and I'm always open to suggestions. Let us continue to seek the face of God in all of this as we struggle on making his Kingdom more of a reality here on earth.

GOP full of "Fake Christians"

Can't say I disagree with him, Charles Barkley, former pro-basketball player made a bold statement on CNN the other night. See what you think here.

Over a week into the diet...

Things are getting easier. I'm losing my cravings for some of my favorite foods...although I'd LOVE to have some Taco Bell today. One of my favorite meals consists of turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, red onions and a very thin layer of reduced fat Miracle Whip. I'm going to have one in an hour and I'm already craving it..And It's healthy!!

To be completely honest, I'm actually having a problem of eating enough food! Let me put it this way, I don't do calorie counting...that's no way to live. But I do have a rough estimate of what calories I have been taking in and shooting for about 1800 a day. Unfortunately, I'm only getting about 1200 a day...which you would think is good since you're supposed to take in less calories. But I'm just not eating enough to sustain my workouts.

I cycle for at least an hour everyday at a moderate level. According to my research, I should burn at least 500 calories from each cycling workout. So while the weight is coming off, I'm probably not doing my body any favors with the energy deficit.

This weekend will be a challenge. I"m taking my wife up to Indy for Valentines day and we're eating at one of our favorite places to eat: Cheeseburger In Paradise. I'm going to have to be extremely careful as to how I eat that day so I can afford the 1000+ calorie food I'll be consuming that night. I've looked all over the internet and can't find how many calories are in their food, so it's going to have to be a straight guess.

We might even get some Japanese Hibachi, which isn't all that healthy either (white sauce anyone? LOVE IT!!) so, it will be a tricky weekend not having my exercise readily available but I think I'll be alright.

The Evil Eye

Friends,

In my journeys throughout the internet, I have never encountered such a video that made me laugh as hard as the "Evil Eye Baby". What you're about to see is the most amazing video...ever. In other news, I hope to get a new post up and going here soon. Stay tuned.

Being a 'Bigger Loser'

A couple of weeks ago, one of the men that I look up to a lot in youth ministry posted on his blog about his personal need to lose weight. Mark Oestricher of Youth Specialties talked about how they had toyed around the idea of having a contest to see who could be a 'bigger loser than Marko'. Me, and apparently a lot of others jumped on the bandwagon and thought that would be a great idea.

Thus the contest had begun!

Today I officially joined the community to start this "Biggest Loser" contest. The prizes are pretty neat, I have to admit, however the motivation to finally do what I've been trying to do is an even better reward. My goal weight is 190 lbs. I'm flucuate between 230 and 240 and to be under 200 would just be amazing. So here's what I'm going to do about it.

A couple of weeks ago, someone slipped $150 worth of Chamber of Commerce gift cards underneath my office door as a Christmas present. I vowed then and there to use that money to get in better shape with either the purchase of a treadmill or exercise bike. I still don't know who gave that money, but it was a blessing and I plan to use it to better my health. Obesity runs in my family, and thankfully heart disease does not, but just the though of being able to run and play a game of football and not be all out of breath is just an amazing thought to me.

So, I ask for your prayers and your support. This is going to be difficult for me and I'll need lots of help. My diet isn't horrible per se, but I didn't get to 240 by eating broccoli. So with a combination of better diet and exercise I hope to drop under 200 lbs by the middle of April. We'll see what happens!

Lost: Season 4

Needless to say I'm pumped about the upcoming season of Lost. I've been slightly dismayed at the delay of 24 season 7, but there is little I can do about that. So until the release of 24 I have Lost.

When we last left off, the passengers from Oceanic 815 were getting ready to be 'rescued' by the boat just off the island's shore. Some will be saved...some won't.

If you've never season an episode of Lost, that's okay. You can watch some of them on ABC's website. And if you don't have time to watch 3 seasons of Lost, you can go to the Lost website and watch all 3 seasons summarized in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. By the way, I don't think it's a coincidence that the video is that long. You can find the video here.

Quote of the Week 2

"Don't waste time: In just two days tomorrow will be yesterday."

Getting Political

Honestly, I'm not much of a political person. But with election season in full swing, I have chosen my candidate relatively early. You've probably noticed that with the ad on the right side of the page here. My candidate of choice is Ron Paul. Why? The man is a genius! When you listen to him speak, he is passionate in what he says and you can honestly believe that he cares about what he is talking about.

While other candidates make their usual campaign promises, Ron Paul talks about the issues that really matter to the majority of Americans. You can't help but listen to him and believe what he says. I don't agree with all that he stands on, but I can't find anyone else that I more readily agree with. If you're like me and you're a big fan of smaller government, take a look at this video. Even if you know nothing of the man, watch it anyway. You'll enjoy it!

Quote of the Week 1

Each week I'm going to try to put up a new quote that is either insightful, inspirational, or something that makes you think (I ran out of words that begin with "in"). This week's quote comes from an unknown source but that doesn't devalue it.

"In addition to knowing God, there are 5 secrets to a joyful life:

1. Free your mind from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less."
   

We're watching you

By now, most people have heard of Google. Of course Google is most famous for their amazing search engine which can find pretty much any information you want. If you knew the term, you could even search for unprotected security cameras in various areas and literally take control of them.

However, quite a few people are still unfamiliar with the other services that Google offers. Gmail, which is web-based email, news, shopping and they even try to show you ads that you might be interested in as you search! Probably the neatest piece of application they offer is their ability to make maps and show you satellite images from all over the world! And this is the application I want to ask a few questions about.

People got a little freaked out when they learned people had the ability to look at their house from a satellite image. But now with "Street View", you can literally drive down your street using your web browser. People didn't like this either. In fact it's made some stories over the past couple of months about people seeing funny things that people are doing walking down the road or even invasion of privacy.

I thought it was all quite an amusing bit of news and something fun to play with when you're bored at home. Then yesterday, it was brought to my attention that Seymour was now on Street View and thought it simply unbelievable! There are large cities out there that haven't even been mapped, and yet they have Seymour on the Google Street View map? And sure enough, there it was!

So of course the first thing I do is go and see if I can see my house. Sure enough, there it is! Not only can I see my house but I can see both of our dogs outside in great detail and I can see right into our living room. Kinda freaky! All in all it doesn't bother me because this type of "information" is available to anyone who just drives down our road. You can't even make out the license plate numbers on my wife's car. But it was a neat thing to be able to see your dogs on the internet through google.

So, what do you think? A neat novelty or an invasion of privacy?

Lil' Markie

I found this little diddy over at Marko's spot. Word's cannot express this video. You have to watch the whole thing. Notice the awkwardness of the audience...

The questions kids ask

A couple of weeks ago I started a "series" in our Junior worship (1st grade through 5th grade) about "Questions about God". I challenged the kids to write down a question that they had about God or the Bible or anything in the church and I was pretty excited that they accepted the challenge with an amazing gusto!

The first question I got? "How can God be three different people?"

From a 4th grader. We have a young theologian in our group!

But I wanted to focus on the question that I got this morning from a third grader. She asked: "Why do we do bad things that we know is (are) wrong?"

Good question, I wish I knew the answer to that. If I did, I'd sell more books than Rick Warren!

Paul kind of struggled with the same question in Romans 7:15

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing."

To sum up, we are evil creatures. This is the only part of my theology where I come close to being a Calvinist. I believe that we are totally and utterly depraved, unable to do any good EXCEPT through the grace of God. Only God allows us to come to him and accept his love and grace.

I often think about the decisions I make in life and ministry. Am I making this decision because it is what I believe God wants? Or am I doing this because I want the glory of it? The eternal struggle between what I want and what God wants is nothing new, it's been going on since day 10* of creation.

Only when we get to heaven will we finally be able to live in total and complete righteousness.

*Day of the first sin is only an approximate...but you knew that already.

Adventures In Youth Ministry 2

On December 26th one of the most memorable moments in my life occured: Operation Knee Socks. Long story short, our High school youth group decided to plan a lock in type event that involved me being kidnapped and thrown into our church van for an afternoon/night of fun and excitement.

I present you the video that gives you the play by play on what happened.

Adventures In Youth Ministry 1

I wanted to start a series on here entitled: "Adventures in Youth Ministry" where I share funny stories, anecdotes, and even the dark times of youth ministry. To kick off this series I want to begin with a funny "Top 10" that is in this month's issue of Group Magazine. FYI, I wrote a letter to Rick Lawrence the editor of Group and he published it in this issue as well, but that's just bonus. The following was written by "Steve" a contributing editor of Group and not written by me.

Top 10 Rejected VBS Song Titles

10. I'll never be as good as Jesus
9. Come on down to Brokeback Ranch
8. What did David do with Goliath's Head, Head, Head?
7. I get a buzz from the Savior's love
6. John, John, John the Methodist
5. Vomit, you big fish, Vomit
4. She-bear, she-bear (Poor Elisha had no hair)
3. C'mon, it's time to Exegete!
2. We're gonna build a new church (with the $ in mommy's wallet)
1. Father Abraham had many sons (and wives!)

And we're back...

It's been a while but I'm back and ready to get back to getting on the soap box again.

Today's topic: Normal person + Internet Anonymity = Jerkwad

If you've ever participated on an internet forum you know what I'm talking about. When you take completely normal people and give them complete anonymity and free reign to talk about whatever they want, they become the biggest idiots of all time. It's almost magic how the transformation takes place.

Let's take for instance, posters on our local newspaper forum. All reason and sanity are gone when a comment is made.

I have witnessed someone posting a topic on a video game forum stating that the original player had died and the brother was posting in the forum to say his goodbyes for him. The very next reply was by one of these anonymous idiots asking "Did he drop any loot?"

When a disagreement takes place it is not uncommon for one person to tell another to "go and die in a car fire" or "have a few drinks and go for a drive".

It's been called by the media "cyber-bullying". I call it being an idiot. You wouldn't say these things to someone's face.

The famous advice given to children about annoying friends is still the same today: Just ignore them and they'll quit doing it. Unfortunately, people are unwilling to ignore such people and give forum trolls and idiots exactly what they're after: Attention.

So please, do the internet a favor and stop feeding the trolls. Happy surfing.

On a Jetplane - Blog Silence

I know I'm not one to update daily, but we are leaving for Florida in the morning and I won't be updating this week as far as I can tell.

That's also the 2nd reason for posting tonight.

I'm terrified of flying. It's an irrational fear. I know it's the absolutely safest way to travel. But that doesn't help me. So I have a couple of things to help me...we'll see how that goes.

So, I ask for your prayers. Our plane leaves at 11:40 and lands a bit after 2pm. Pray for us! Pray for me that I don't freak out. Pray that I can keep my sanity for those 2 hours. Pray that Carrie doesn't kill me before we land :-) Oh and pray for our safety as well!

See you all next week!

Prepare to have a faith crisis

Yesterday, while going through some of my random searching of the web, I came across this blog about a particular painting that sparked a controversy in the Portland area.

The controversy has now spilled over into 'blogland' and I submit it to you for your evaluation and personal reflection.

Global Warming: What if we're right...but wrong?

There is a huge debate going on about global warming. Whether or not it's happening...if it's our fault...etc...I was just thinking a few minutes ago (scary) about this and came up with a question:

What if we successfully curb global warming and it ends up being an even more disastrous decision?

Is anyone thinking of what the effects would be if we're "successful"?

What if global warming is purely something the globe is supposed to do and we mess that up?

Are you a geek?

Seymour's 'Holy Trinity'

If you have ever visited Seymour Indiana you've likely heard the three tidbits of information that natives just love to tell you:

1) Birthplace of John Mellencamp
2) 2nd Largest High school gymnasium in the state.
3) Site of the world's first train robbery.

As I was looking for some facts today, I came across the news that the worlds first train robbery actually did NOT occur in Seymour, but in North Bend Ohio just a year previous to the infamous Reno Brothers robbery in Seymour. What else is interesting, is that to the rest of the world, they believe that the first train robbery was by Jesse James almost 10 years later then the Renos.

So there you have it. Knock that off the list of things "Seymour is Famous For".

Supply Side Jesus

This morning I woke up and had a friend send me a link to a comic from beliefnet.com. To be completely honest, I was put off when I saw the article was written by Al Franken, a political liberal. The only time I liked Franken was when he played that guy on SNL with the light blue sweater. But that aside, I found that as I read this comic, the more I found myself allying along side with what he was trying to get across.

Take a moment and read the comic here.

Regardless of Franken's political stance or religious belief, his satire proves an extremely valuable point. What do you think?

Question for readers

For discussion:

Is there ever a time when a church split is a "good thing"?

Imagine a world outside of the box

What would happen if we ventured outside of our safe places and thought outside of the box. What if we did things differently?

Geez..be more creative!

For the love of God (literally) be more creative! Can't we come up with something different than "Hey! This thing might be anti-God...BOYCOTT IT!!" Isn't there some sort of constructive method of entering into conversation about topics that might go against the flow of what we believe?

Take for instance the upcoming movie The Golden Compass. If you haven't heard, there is a large movement of Christians that are supporting a boycott of the film. Why? Because in the final installment of the series, the children 'kill God'. Seriously. Now, what should our action be?

Does getting on the trumpet calling for a boycott sound like a smart maneuver? Did it work when the Southern Baptist Convention boycotted Disney and their affiliates? Not at all. In fact, that boycott didn't do anything but make Christians look stupid and cost the jobs of people who desperately needed them. I was working there when they fired thousands of people to recoup that money.

I think about when Jesus called his children to be the light of the world. Are we really being a light when we get more up in arms over a series of books than when a 15 year old girl is imprisoned with 20 men and raped repeatedly over several weeks?

Let's be more creative in our approach to things we don't approve of. To the world, we look like a bunch of lunatics crying about a children's movie. I once again point out that there wasn't a break out of witchcraft in our elementary schools because of the Harry Potter series. If you don't support the movie, that's fine, don't see it. But making a huge fuss about it only further destroys our voice in this world because we look like a big child throwing a temper tantrum.

Perhaps instead of being so scared that children are going to flock to atheism, we enter into a conversation with our children after seeing the movie/reading the book and talk to them about it. Giving kids what I call a "crap filter" is absolutely imperative in this world that we live in. If they aren't able to distinguish between what is good and evil and what the hidden agenda is, they are in for a difficult life. We have to teach discernment.

But please, let's be more creative than the old fashioned boycott.

When Monty Python Meets Star Wars

Exactly how this has escaped my wide adventures in internet travel I'll never know. But I bring to you one of the greatest remakes of all time:

The Golden Compass

By some sheer miracle if you haven't received an email forward about the upcoming children's movie The Golden Compass...then...you're lucky. But chances are, you've heard it and know whats going on. But just in case, it's the movie that is coming out his Christmas season strangely similar to that of the Chronicles of Narnia. Except, at the end, the children kill god.

There is a strong movement in the Christian community to have this movie banned and they're making a large fuss about the whole thing. I think I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm not too worried about it. Why? Well..."we" threw a big fit about Harry Potter because "we" were afraid that kids would start practicing witchcraft...and that didn't happen.

Neither did a massive revival occur at the release of the Passion of the Christ.

We get all worked up over nothing. For further reading I defer to the always wise SWNID.

Please..no huggie

The Christian Standard had some really good articles a couple weeks ago about how to be welcoming in your church. In an age where we are constantly trying to bring people to church, people jump from church to church to where they feel the most 'welcome'.

Now, I'm not going to get in a large discussion about how to make people feel welcome in your church. It's pretty straight forward: Go up to someone you've never seen and introduce yourself. That's pretty easy.

But one thing that is absolutely critical...and I mean ESSENTIAL that you absolutely DO NOT do: hug people as they come in the door.

Let me repeat that: DO NOT hug people!

It's weird and violating! I have a personal bubble! Respect it please! Let me give you a short story to illustrate this:

The year is 2006. We have our High schoolers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at a fairly large Baptist church. We bring our students to this church because it's Sunday and we need a place to worship before we head on our way towards New Orleans.

We have several young girls in our group ranging from 14 to 17 years old. As we approach the building I saw him. He was about 60 years old and heading straight towards us. No big deal, I'm familiar with larger churches and their greeter policies. But as he approaches our Senior Minister, he gives him this great big bear hug then proceeds to hug each and every one of us. His hugs linger a little too long for my liking on our young girls. I was a bit uncomfortable (I tend to be the overprotective father type when it comes to our girls).

So please, if you want someone to feel welcome, do it with a hand shake. Hugs are not necessary. Hugs are for relatives and good friends. Not for creepy old men and young teenage girls. Make someone feel welcome with a hand shake and remember their name!

Ex-Religion Journalist has a good point

This morning I came across this article on a religion journalist who was walking out on his faith. The reason? He was sick of all the scandalous things that went on within the faith community.

But that's not the reason I found this article interesting.

"Bates, who says he still regards himself as a Catholic, said he was turned off by the intolerance he saw towards gays and the self-righteousness of Christians who “pick and choose the sins that are acceptable and condemn those – always committed by other, lesser people – that are not.”"

Bates is certainly right! We do pick and choose sins. We will fight pain and nail to get things like abortion banned, but we do nothing with vagrant disregard of our environment. We need to branch out a little.

Kick his ask!

For your daily cuteness...

It's a sad day.

I turned 26 years old today.

Birthdays just aren't as fun anymore.

Life just goes by way too fast.

Ministry To Men

Let's face it. The American church caters to women. Walk into any typical church today and you will notice some of the following things:

1) Decorative paintings
2) Floral arrangements
3) Love songs to Jesus
4) Flowery furniture and accessories
5) Quilts and banners and bows
6) And other miscellaneous things.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I don't believe these things are bad or that we need to trash all this stuff. What I am saying, is that we are inadvertently repelling men.

Compare the following lyrics of worship songs:

"A mighty fortress is our God! A bulwark never failing." - A Mighty Fortress is Our God

"I'm feeling like the eagle that rises. Flies above the earth and it's troubles." - Abba Father

The first song, written by Martin Luther focuses in on God and applies terms that a man can identify with: Fortress. Bulwark. Strong terms that men can identify with. The second song focuses in on feelings and emotions. Notice the very second word of the song is "feeling" and how that relates to things that are immediately surrounding the song writer. Again, nothing wrong with that, but from a man's perspective he just isn't comfortable singing love songs to Jesus.


That's my personal peeve, and thankfully our worship music at RCC fits the bill, but when I was in college we would always make fun of the brand spankin' new worship songs that would come in. We often made up our own lyrics such as "I want to buy you a rose Jesus".

Anyways, we're missing men in today's church. I used to have a ton of statistics on this matter, but you don't need stats to look around and see that only a few men are coming to church and getting involved.

This was further proven to me during this last church leadership election. Absolutely no man would stand up and be "Chairman of the board" and we only had 1 addition to our elders. But we had about 15 women want to be deaconesses (and power to them!) This isn't just a problem in our church, but nationwide. Men are no longer coming to the church and we need to find a way to get them here. Even better, go out and get them.

Promise Keepers is an excellent program designed to disciple men. More churches need to get involved in this great program. They have an excellent article on this subject that you can read here. They say it a lot better than I can.

How about the Football night bible study. Watch the game, bible study at halftime, finish the game. Complete with pizza and *gasp* beer.

If I didn't know Jesus that would get me to church!

Pick your holiday!

Happy Halloween!
or for those of you who believe that Halloween is of the devil...

Happy Reformation Day!

Oops...there's a train coming!

Every morning I drive across the same set of rail road tracks. They're nothing special. Just typical railroad tracks on top of a mini hill and a set of lights and arms that stretch across just to stop traffic should a train be oncoming.

What I find interesting though, is that every time I go over these tracks, people either a) go over the tracks without paying attention or b) look for a train as they pass over the tracks.

The observation: People depend on the flashing lights and bells to tell them that the train is on it's way. What if a train was coming and the power was out? Or the lights simply weren't working? There are houses that line both sides of the track, so people wouldn't see the train until it was too late. They cross the track...SMASH!

We do this spiritually all the time. We get involved in something and think nothing of it. We say to ourselves that if something is wrong with this, God is going to send me flashing lights and bells to warn me. But we head straight on towards those tracks without looking for any danger. By the time we hit the track, we're so far gone we don't see the train coming and soon after that, there is a train wreck.

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he wil flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will life you up." - James 4:7-10

The more often we come to God grieving because of our own brokenness, the better off we are in seeing that train coming before it's too late. We can't always depend on those flashing lights to get our attention. We have to constantly be on guard to resist the enemy.

The Year of Living Biblically

I found a great article on Christianity Today's website. It's about an agnostic Jew who decided to read through the entire Bible and follow it word for word. Here is an excerpt:

Of course, some of the Bible's laws prove too strange even for Jacobs. The notion that one should break the neck of a cow near the scene of an unsolved murder (Deut. 21:4) is a bit too bizarre to be transforming the NYPD anytime soon. And, as Jacobs notes, some recommendations (e.g., "kill magicians") are downright illegal.

You can find the rest of the article here. You'll enjoy it!

Common Ground on Evolution

Lately I've been obsessed with social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com, in fact I often use popurls.com every couple of hours to keep up on what is 'hot' on the internet.

What I have found lately though, is that there is a common rising of popularity of atheist and evolution websites that keep popping up. Is it because there is a rising population of atheist and/or evolutionist? Or is it that these sites just happen to have a larger sample of those belief systems? I don't have the answer to that. But regardless, I have been keeping up with a lot of those sites, blogs and vlogs.

I think what bothers me the most is that neither side is able to come to any type of common ground on the issue of origin of life. The Creationist/Intelligent Design is not willing to step up and talk to Evolutionist and vice versa. What I've noticed is that a lot of the reason why, is because of preconceived generalizations about the other party.

Creationist/ID believe that evolutionists are morally depraved atheists, hell-bent on destroying the Christian faith.
Evolutionists believe that Creationist/ID are religious fanatics with no real intelligence.

Sadly, both sides have justification for believing some of those stereotypes. Speaking on behalf of intelligent Christians, I apologize for any of my brothers and sisters that may seem "stupid" or resolve to unintelligent debate such as circular reasoning. Unfortunately, we have earned many of our stereotypes and I think it's high time we started proving ourselves.

When it comes to the issue of origins, we have to have some kind of common ground on both sides in order for some sort of dialog to continue. I think it's going to have to be the Creationist/ID that will step up and make the effort.

How does that happen?

I think we have to start with one question: How did it all start?

When these 2 groups get together to "talk", both sides decide to spill their entire worldview onto the other, and that doesn't do any good. If we stick to one point, we can have dialog. Let me give a for instance:

Creationist/ID: Let's forget about the age of the earth, or evolution for a moment and think about life. How do you think life started?
Evolutionist: Honestly we don't know, but our best guess is that there was a pool of water and lightning struck it and 'life' was started.
Creationist/ID: I believe that instead of a bolt of lightning, there was an original mover, call it 'God', call it aliens, call it some advanced form of life before us.

We have to speak on terms with those that don't adhere to our set of beliefs. Sure, we believe in God and miracles and that God created us. But the instant we start down that path with someone who doesn't believe in any of that, we appear to be preaching to them and we lose them. Now if a relationship exists, then it's a different story. But that's another post. Speaking in terms that an evolutionist can identify with only helps our dialog. We have to remember that we're talking to someone that doesn't share our faith, and finds things like miracles simply unbelievable.

I honestly believe that the point of Intelligent Design can be a plausible one for the scientific community. I don't expect it to be any science text books, nor do I think it should be (after all you can't apply the scientific method to God), but in a general dialog both matters come down to "Neither of us were there and no one else was, so we have to do our best guess." We will have our lens of faith while the other has on the lens of science. But we have to seek a common ground.

A Haiku

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

Ezekiel, prophet of weird stuff

I finished my nearly 10 month study on the Gospels this week and started the Prophet of Ezekiel.

Weird stuff.

"...and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze..." - 1:4b-7

"Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel." - 4:12

On a side note, when you make notes in your Bible, make sure they are legible. Apparently I had an insight into verse 5:1 and I have no idea what I wrote back in college. Oh well.

God has a word for the people of Israel and Judah through Ezekiel...and they aren't good words. Their sin is pretty obvious: Idolatry. According to God, "she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees." (5:6). That's pretty bad when the nation of God has become more sinful than those that aren't godly.

Now, I have to disagree with a lot of our evangelical friends who equate America to Israel. I just don't think that God was speaking to America when he was saying some of these things. I think God's main message was to his spiritual nation...not a nation of borders and national sovereignty.

In other words, God's word has MORE to say to believers than the United States of America. But that's a different topic.

The point is idolatry. Don't do it. Plain a simple. If it were only that simple. What is idolatry? Is it bowing down to a Buddha statue? Is it making a calf out of gold and proclaiming it as a miracle worker? Well, yes. Is it trying to solve all of our problems on our own? Yes. Is it setting relationships higher than our relationship with God? Yes.

God's Word is pretty specific as to what the consequences were to the Israelites for their idolatry.

"...cry out 'Alas!' because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. He that is far away will die of plague, and he that is near will fall by the sword, and he that survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I spend my wrath upon them. And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops..." 6:11-13a

Basically, God was going to wipe them out, there was no way around it. What does this have to do with us? We live in a culture of depraved idolatry, and we accept most of it on an everyday basis without even giving it a second thought. It's scary.

The almighty dollar.
Serial TV shows.
Books, DVDs, and other media
iPods
Computers
Video games
Work
Popularity
Success

I see a couple of mine on their, and I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm missing or don't want to think about. Church, let's give God that place in our hearts that he deserves.

No longer Christian, but disciple

I have decided to no longer call myself a “Christian”. Before you panic, let me explain. We throw around this term ‘Christian’ all the time. We talk about a Christian nation. We talk about Christian leaders and Christian families. Unfortunately, the name which used to signify someone being a dedicated and committed believer in Jesus no longer means that at all.

ABC News recently ran a poll and discovered that 83% of Americans call themselves Christians. Wouldn’t this country be a much better place if that were certainly true! I believe that the term Christian has simply become a term that someone believes in God. And that’s about it. Maybe they go to church once or twice a year for a holiday. There is no difference in lifestyle or worldview. Author Bill McKibben discovered that 40% of “Christians” can identify onlyfour out of the 10 Commandments.

The word ‘disciple’ has more of a deeper meaning and identification with Christ. If you remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 28: “Therefore go and make disciples…” Notice he didn’t use the word Christian, but the word disciple.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27.

The cost of being a disciple is steep. Being a disciple is more than going to church on Sunday. It’s more than participating in a committee. It is living out the faith every single moment of the day. From the time we wake up, to when we go to sleep. Faith is more than just calling ourselves “Christians”, it’s living it out every single day no matter how difficult it may be.

So I no longer identify myself as a Christian. That’s what 83% of Americans call themselves. I am a believer. A disciple of Christ.

Comcast will suck out your soul

Ladies and gentlemen if there was ever a company with the absolute worst customer service, that would be Comcast. Not only does their regular service beyond basic cable stink, but their internet services hardly ever work and their customer service, like I stated before...is the worst!

Let's rewind back to May.

I'm preparing to leave the parsonage for our new home in town. I want to make sure I have all my services disconnected, Comcast being my main concern.

I call them. They assure me that all I have to do is bring in my cable modem and all will be completed.

Oh if it was only that easy. The next month, I receive a bill for what was previously being paid on a monthly basis. I call to make sure everything is okay and they say "Well yes! That's normal! In fact, you'll get a refund for the month of June since you paid for that month." That's great I thought! All I had to do was wait for the paper work to go through the system.

Yet again, if it was only that easy.

The next month, the bill has doubled from not being paid the previous month. I call again, slightly annoyed. They tell me that everything is okay, I don't have to pay for it. They just need to send someone out to completely shut off the service to the house from the telephone poll. They tell me not to worry, it will be taken care of. At this point, I'm thinking "yeah...right."

So what do I receive in the mail yesterday? Another Comcast bill! This time for three times the amount! Needless to say I'm a bit mad. This is getting ridiculous. So I call...again. I explain to the nice woman on the phone that this has been going on for 4 months, and I just want them to stop sending me bills and return to me (but it really goes to the church) the refund it needs! She tells me to hold.

Wonderful.

She comes back and explains that she talked with my district supervisor and that I need to come into the local office (not really local for me) and show proof that I haven't been living in that house. At this point, I lose my temper...which is very rare for me.

"Why do I need to show proof that I don't live there? I requested it to be shut off and it shouldn't matter whether or not I live there, I wanted it shut off."

"This is what you have to do."

"Why? I was told from the beginning that all I needed to do was bring in my cable modem and the service would be completed and shut off. Now you're telling me that I need to use up my lunch break and drive 45 minutes to turn in a slip of paper?"

"I know and understand sir, but there isn't anything I can do...blah blah blah..."

So today I have to go in and turn in my paper that states that I moved out of the house in June.

Apparently, you sell your soul to have Comcast. They will do whatever it takes to annoy you, enrage you, inconvenience you and otherwise make your life a living hell.

For anyone that reads this and has the opportunity, please reconsider using Comcast. In Seymour there is Cinergy Metronet which provides amazing service for both HDTV Cable (less than Comcast) and Fiber Optic High Speed Internet (Both faster and cheaper than Comcast). There are other internet and cable companies out there that actually want to take care of their customers.

Oh..I'm addicted

Last January I became addicted to a TV show. 24. I absolutely fell in love with it. I couldn't get enough of it. So I rented the first 3 seasons and bought seasons 4 and 5.

I happened to come across a friend who owned the first season of Lost. Guess what happened? Addiction! I did the whole season in 4 days. I loved it! The depth of character is great, the plot lines are addicting and intriguing. It's great!

Now I have a problem. Season 1 left me hanging...big time! So I am in need of Season 2! Please someone help me find it!

Pray

I'm getting beat up bad and things just keep coming on and everyday is just a constant struggle.

I hate to ask for prayer on a blog like this, but thats all I can think of to do.

Arrr! Today be International talk like a pirate day!

Yup! Every year on September 19th, it's International talk like a pirate day. Well...at least according to these guys.

Don' you love the internet?

Ever wonder how much ministers get paid?

If so, don't go here. Well...I'm sure the survey is accurate, but certainly doesn't represent any ministers I know.

The youth ministers they surveyed came up with an average over 3 times what I make. Crazy!

What do Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Craig from craigslist.com have in common?

The internet has crashed!

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash



It starts out a little slow, but about half way thru it gets good.

Give your money so we can bless ourselves!

Few things make me as nervous as huge church building projects and churches going 'in a new direction'. Too often I think, our voices of greed and selfishness are heard louder than the voice of God.

Our church is getting ready to embark upon a new building program. The church building has been in existence for 20+ years and in all honesty, we are busting at the seems. Which is a good thing. So, don't think that this post has anything to do with our building project because...well...I was on that committee and gave my $0.02 on what our needs are. Does it make me uncomfortable? Yes. But I honestly believe that if this is something that God does NOT want us to do, it won't happen. At least, thats what I keep asking God to do.

But back to my point. Being in such a culture where bigger and better means success, churches so often fall to this mindset that in order to be a successful church and fulling the mission of God, we have to build bigger and better things. If church attendance is going up, and people are joining the Church of God, that equals success! Not!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27

I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. - Mark 9:41

My prayer is that we don't give our money because of our selfish ambitions or vain conceits (Philippians) only so we can receive bigger and better things plus donuts. So, when are we going to give to the glory of God so that others may be well fed and taken care of?

The video is from TheChurchYouKnow.com and the site and videos are definitely worth checking out.

Funny Bumper Stickers

I found these tonight while using my favorite social bookmarking system StumbleUpon. Here are a few that made me laugh:

Without geometry, life is pointless.
My gamer fragged your honor student.
National Spellling Bee Runer-Up
Dyslexics Untie!
In case of rapture, can I have your car?
Keep on working, millions on welfare depend on you!
Want a little taste of religion? Bite the minister.
To err is human, to moo bovine.
Carpe Diem = Seize the day. Carp In Denim = Fish in pants.
Practice safe lunch: Use a condiment.

Anyways, have fun.

You have to be careful just trying to help!

The big news this morning is about a family who stopped to help a woman they thought was in distress. She wasn't. In fact, she was an undercover cop posing as a prostitute. What happened? The husband was arrested on grounds that he solicited a prostitute (while his wife was in the car, and daughter just inside the store). Click the link to read the full story.

Theres a couple of things that bother me about this story.

First of all is the act of entrapment. I can understand police officers hiding out and trying to catch a crime in process, such as burglary or even speeding. But to set people up to commit a crime to me, isn't moral. And we could go on for days asking the question "Is it really a crime for a man to solicit sex from someone who really isn't soliciting?" I don't know, our law experts can argue about that. I obviously dont agree with people wanting to visit a hooker, but aren't there far worse crimes that our police can be taking care of? Lets try to solve all the murders and break ins first.

The second thing that bothers me is that the city of Chicago won't make things right for this man and his family. They wrongly arrested him, impounded his car, and are demanding some $4700 for its return. Not to mention all the humiliation this family has had to endure thru all of this.

Sometimes I just sit back and wonder...When will the madness end?

Difficulty

"But they that wait upon the LORD

shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles,

they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint" - Isaiah 40:31

Yes!! This is my dream!

Lately I have considered going to the High School to start a "games club" and doing ministry within the High school through games such as chess, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and other games such as those (also deemed as "nerd" games, see previous post). We've had a huge outcry against our Karate Ministry at church...can you imagine what would happen if I started a Dungeons and Dragons ministry? lol

So I've considered doing it outside of the church in the High/Middle school.

Today I ran across a post on a website that describes EXACTLY what I want to do. Read this and be amazed!

Back long, long ago... When Geraldo was doing his level best to make a name for himself by trying to demonstrate the suicidal tendencies of D&D players and MMS (Mad Moms Syndrome) had taken root all through out our fair land, I had my most memorable reaction to my playing.

One of the women at church whose son my best friend and I had invited over to play D&D one Sunday found out about the invite. She went to the pastors and begged them to intervene before our souls were utterly destroyed. They promised to look into the matter. The pastors had all heard the stories, but thankfully, being Methodist, weren't going to take them at face value. That evening, Pastors Bill and Dan showed up at our house. They talked with my dad for a while, then called me downstairs. It was so odd, having these two ministers sitting there asking if they could borrow my D&D books for the week. My dad, who had never had a problem with the game, especially seeing as how my grades had shot up since I had taken it up as a hobby, told me to let them. I was afraid they'd be burned, but since I trusted them, I agreed. Turns out my buddy Mike agreed, too.

The next Friday evening, we got a call from Pastor Dan. He wanted to know if I could get my gaming buddies together and meet at his place for a game session. He would provide the refreshments, all I needed to do was bring some players. Again, I agreed and showed up with 4 or 5 guys in tow. Both pastors, the associate pastor, the assistant pastor, the youth pastor, and several church board members were there when we showed up. All I could think of was "This is an intervention". How wrong I was.

I turned out that the assembled group had been passing around our books all week, and found nothing "Satanic" or "suicidally provocative" about these books. Most of the readers had found the rules as clear as mud (1st Ed was written at an almost post-grad level), so they wanted a demonstration to better understand what they had tried reading about. That's why they wanted us game for them, so they could observe. We must have played for nearly 8 hours. It was more interesting than any of us expected.

All these highly educated people were astounded that a bunch of middle schoolers had developed such off-the-cuff math skills, advanced story-telling abilities, and used a college level vocabulary to discuss aspects of our game (Who knew that words like longevity, heirophant, and polymorph were supposed to be 6 years above our reading level?). A few of them even tried following along in the rule books or making up characters of their own. It was crazy, but they were so excited about the benefits that could be imparted that they seemed to forget all the negative hype that had been thrown around the media. By the time we left, it seemed that the church wasn't going to worry about D&D any longer. What actually resulted was much stranger than I could have guessed as I fell asleep that night.

During church the next day, Pastor Dan announced that due to the concerns of several members of the congregation, they had fully investigated D&D and had come to a conclusion. They not only said that it was perfectly safe ("Those who decry it the loudest are those that understand it the least"), but that starting in two weeks, a regular D&D game would be held at the church every Saturday night, chaperoned by the youth pastor and any other interested parties, and that the church was ordering a complete set of the books so as not to force those running the game to transport a small library every week. Most folks looked vaguely confused as to why the church would bother making such a big deal about a game. Many more were upset that the "Satan game" had fooled such good men. I'm pretty sure the rest were as amused by the outcome as my father was.

There has been a role-playing group in the church almost every weekend since. They supported a gaming convention in the community center once a year for a long time until it got too big and was forced to move to a larger venue. There have been D&D themed weddings, trips to rennaisance fairs, geek-themed movie nights, and other gamer-friendly phenomenon ever since. Here, 25 years later, it now has a huge fellowship of gamers and the current pastors sometimes even let D&D references slip during their sermons. Who could have guessed all this would stem from one kid asking another kid, with a wack-a-doo for a mom, if he wanted to play an elf?

All because the church decided to investigate something and find that, hey, it's not so bad after all! Amazing!

Yes, I am a nerd.

My wife continues to remind me, almost on a daily basis, that I'm a nerd. Let me list the number of ways in which I am:

1. I love Star Wars.
2. I love computers.
3. I love video games.
4. I miss the days where we the guys would devote 8 hours to playing a long Dungeons and Dragons session.
5. I miss the days where we the guys would devote 8 hours to playing a long Star Wars the Role playing game session.
6. Last Spring I sat down to watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended versions). Each one is 3+ hours long. I started about noon, and finished about 2am.
7. I can remember times when we would sit down and watch the original Star Wars trilogy in order.
8. I own a "Force FX" lightsaber. It's in my office.
9. We've made lightsaber battles on video.
10. I own a real sword.
11. I keep a collection of star wars figures and dragons.
12. I have a large bag of assorted dice. 20 sided. 8 sided. 100 sided. I have them all.
    
13. I can pronounce cthulu.
    

I can list lots and lots of things. But here's the thing...I'm proud of being a nerd. I really didn't believe I was until I saw a picture on the internet of a bunch of men, gathered around a table with dice, notebooks, D&D books and Taco Bell with the caption describing how much of a nerd these men were. I said to myself...wow...that looks a LOT like what our nights were like.

So. It's official. I'm a nerd, and I'm ok with that.

Blind man sat on the road and cried...

As I continue my studying on the Gospels, I am amazed at the accounts that I come across that I never seemed to take notice of before. This morning I read John 10, the account of the blind man that was healed.

John tells us that this man was born blind, and people had witnessed this man begging for years. The disciples asked Jesus "Who sinned? Him or his parents that he was born blind?" Because in that day, physical afflictions were believed to be caused by sin. They should of read more of Job. But Jesus' reply is "Neither did!" and went on to explain why he was born blind...but we'll get to that later.

Long story short, Jesus gave the man his sight and it caused a huge uproar with the Pharisees and teachers of the law. So much so, they decided to investigate the matter and to further accuse Jesus of being a sinner. The once-blind man was called in to testify, then his parents (who were afraid of the Jews and decided that it was best for their son to fend for himself), and then they brought the once-blind man in again. What he says is amazing:

"Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (verses 30-33)

Now, lets back track for a minute.

Why was this man born blind? Jesus tells us in verse 3:

"...but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

Jesus then told me to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. John tells us the name Siloam means "sent". I don't think that was just an FYI note, but to tell us something: This man is now sent to tell about Jesus. And that's exactly what he does when he comes before the Pharisees--he testifies that Jesus is sent from God.

What can we glean from this? I think what I pick up the most, is that there are times when we feel inadequate. I feel like that everyday when I'm trying to figure out what in the world I'm going to plan.

Inadequacy...that's what we're supposed to feel. If we felt strong enough to do it on our own, why would we rely on God? When we're out on a limb, we are forced to say "God, you brought me to do this, please work through me and in me to do what you want me to do."

Thats why the man was born blind. He if he hadn't, he never would of had the opportunity to testify about Jesus. So yes, we all have weaknesses--but for a reason!

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." - 2nd Corinthians 12:9

New study confirms it: Men like attractive women

And we all slap our foreheads and say "Duh!"

Researchers, led by Peter M. Todd of Indiana University did a study to find out if men go for good looks when finding a 'mate'. You can read the rest of the story here.

What I find interesting about the whole thing, is that they spent time, effort and money on this research. Couldn't they just have saved all that time and money and asked a couple of men on the street? Line up 4 or 5 women and ask men which one they would like to date the most.

I can see the conversation between researchers and their grant providers:

"Did you find the cure for cancer yet?"
"No."
"Why?"
"We were busy!"
"Oh so you're still research how to cure cancer?"
"Oh we gave up on that...we wanted to know if men find women attractive."
"..."

New Home

This will be my new posting home. I've gone back and forth from here to Xanga, but I just can't go back to Xanga any longer.

Feel free to comment and engage in any discussion on the topics discussed here. Also look at any of the items on the right side bar. I've posted some of my favorite blogs: Tony Myles and Mark Oestricher. Both of whom I read every day. They have some amazing things to say about ministry and God.

Make sure you subscribe to this page. If you don't know how to do that, go up to your "Bookmarks" menu and click "Subscribe to this Page" and follow the directions from there. If you have any problems, just ask!

Thanks for coming over with me!!

What Happened To Imagination?

A couple of months ago me and Carrie went with some good friends to go see "Night at the Museum". A comedy about a museum that comes to life at night and the night time security guard is responsible for keeping the place under control. He's not allowed to let anything out...or else they turn to dust when the sun hits them. I thought it was a wonderful family movie, one teeny tiny swear word in the entire thing and no sex. Great movie!

So I thought "Hey, this is a good movie to show at a lock in!" So I wandered over to my usual spot for Christian movie reviews to make sure it was completely clean. I'm usually pretty angry by the time I leave that site because of lack of imagination these people have in writing reviews.

What I want to know is why even bother watching a movie if you're going to intellectually dissect every single little scene and translate it into a 'blatant communication of worldview'?

For example, the following review on the above mentioned movie:

"Overall, it was a good show. It had a lot of references to evolution—the monkey and the Neanderthals. It also had a subtle Secular Humanism theme: The main character stands as the Giant voice of reason over the miniature warring cowboys and Romans. He explains that they both want what is best for their people and getting along is that very thing. The primitive nature of the combating Huns and other peoples are, likewise, brought under control. The implication throughout the movie is that man is capable and expected to rise above his primitive nature. Mankind, the Huns, are not bad people. They were just taught to act badly through a bad environment. Therefore, if you can change the environment you can change the behavior; you can negotiate with tyrants because love, not war, is the answer to our problems. Museum consistently refers to evolution and suggests that if we do not get it together we will become extinct like the Neanderthal who evaporated when he came in contact with sunlight."

My favorite part of that paragraph is the very last sentence. You have to dig extremely hard to come up with that kind of an observation, and in my opinion, it's an absurd observation.

It's a movie!

Heaven forbid people write a story that drives our imagination and makes us dream.

I see this 'condemnation of fiction' more and more on the rise of the Christian community. The whole Harry Potter scene was absolutely ridiculous when it came out. The Onion (a satirical website) posted a story about JK Rowling being a witch in real life and how she wanted to convert children to witchcraft.

Christians took the story literally, and began the attack. A satirical writing became the launching pad to quickly condemn her to an eternity of hell (even though she is a devout Anglican). More slanderous lies started to come out of the church about Harry Potter and his hellbound friends.

I sat in on an 'Christian anti harry potter' video one night at the church I was attending.

It was literally, filled with lies.

It stated that in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", the "killer, who had already killed 3 people, wrote messages on the wall in blood on Halloween night". Well, if you've read that book, you would know that that is the farthest from the truth. There was never anyone killed (until Goblet of Fire) and there was no writing anything in blood (it was red paint, I verified). And once again, the 'Rowling is a real life witch' came up again, as well as the books portraying REAL spells and incantations from the world of witchcraft. Again, lies and misinformation.

This was a Christian publication. Supposedly telling the truth on the Harry Potter situation. There was very little truth coming out of it. I was extremely disappointed in the Christian community for allowing this kind of junk infiltrate the church. Harry Potter is a work of fiction. There are elements in it taken out of legends and myths and greek mythology, but its all fiction.

The common argument? "But God's word says to stay away from all sorts of witchcraft...so we should have nothing to do with any kind of witchcraft and that includes Harry Potter."

I LOVED to ask the following question after that was raised: "What's your favorite Disney movie?" And of course the answers would vary. Snow White. Cinderella. The Little Mermaid. Alladin. It wasn't long before you quickly found out that these well meaning people didn't stop to think that all of these Disney movies included "magic" and "witchcraft". Especially when you add in Lord of the Rings. Double standards.

Harry Potter. Night at the Museum. They are works of fiction, written to first and foremost of course, to make money, but to entertain and to provide a type of escape that only stories can bring.

We are losing our imagination. The place where we dream is replaced by calendars and meetings and business proposals and clients.

Sit down and read an old favorite children's book. Thats what I do. It brings me back to those days that I pretended I could fly with a beach towel tied around my neck.

It costs how much??

With the prospect of buying a new home, I wanted to do some research on ways to saving a couple of dollars on bills and such (aka be a cheap skate...but hey...we need the money!) Me and Carrie were discussing the difference of her moving in when we're married on the electric bill and how we can offset some of that.

Did you know that in electric it costs the following?

Aquarium 30 gallon $3.67 / month (We have a 55 gallon!!!! Ouch!)
Computer w/Monitor, Printer 77.6¢ / week
Hair Dryer (hand held) 9.9¢ / hour
Television (color, solid state) 22.9¢ / 10 hours (I used to sleep with the TV on till I read this. Emphasis on "used to")
Clothes Dryer 41¢ / load (going out and buying clothes pins this weekend!)
Refrigerator (frost-free, 21.5 cu. ft.) 2003 $3.76 / month
Heater (portable) 1500 watt 12.3¢ / hour
Heating System (blower) $7.32 / month
Air Conditioner (36,000 BTU, central) 10 SEER $58.61 / month

Makes you rethink your electric use

Here is the full list

Corniest Thing we ever did...
If you've ever been on the ET ride at Universal Studios, they take your name as you enter because at the end of the ride, ET says thank you and your name.

That being said, when we were seniors in High School, Ken, Justin and myself took Troy to Orlando for a weekend to celebrate Troy's 18th birthday. We decided that none of us had been to Universal STudios in a long time and we should go there and the Orland City Walk to celebrate.

We were pretty disappointed. Universal Studios just isn't as cool when you've aged a little.

So we get onto the ET ride and one of us, being the bright ones and thinking we're funny (I think it was Troy's idea) get the idea that each of us should pick a Gospel name for ET to say. I was Mark. Ken I think was Luke.

So we get to the end of the ride and ET says...."Thank you Matthew. Thank you Mark. Thank you Luke. Thank you John." and we're cracking up thinking this is the funniest thing ever. Looking back at it now I think...Wow...we were lame.

And I've just wasted 5 minutes of your life with that story. Enjoy

Lost Tomb of Jesus thoughts
So...unless you live under a rock you've heard I'm sure that last night they aired the "Lost Tomb of Jesus" on the Discovery Channel. The Christian blogging community has been going nuts over this thing. Some people condemning it as blasphemy (and rightly so) and others seeing it as an opportunity to talk about Jesus more in the open light (also plausible).

I watched the 2 hour docu-drama and the 1 hour critical look show after it. I must say that I LOVED the Ted Koppel debate that followed, but more on that later.

In case you didn't get to see the special, what this documentary asserted was: "In the feature documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus a case is made that the 2,000-year-old "Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries" belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth."

So Jesus, Mary mother of Jesus, James brother of Jesus, Matthew Brother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen wife of Jesus and Judah, son of Jesus.

The documentary was very well put together and very convincing if you didn't approach it from a skeptics point of view. Here is my take on a couple of points:

1) I have a problem with how it was handled. The filmmaker said several times that "I'm just trying to report on these findings and present it as a possibility" (paraphrased) when in all actuality, the conclusion seems to be drawn from the very beginning. In other words, 'we think that because these boxes have the names of several people that we know from the NT, these must be the family of Jesus, lets do some tests to prove that and only that' and not giving any degree of another possibility. That bothers me.

2) The assertion that Mary Magdalen was the "woman caught in adultery". Well, first of all, her being a major Biblical character during the end of Jesus' ministry would of made sure that she was named the first time. Why no name when she is first recorded? That would make no sense. Also, there are many scholars that believe that this section of scripture is not consistent and shouldn't be in the Gospel record. It is a spurious passage.

3) Shocking part. The fact that Jesus could of been married and had a son does not bother me. I've heard many people say "Blasphemy!" when it was brought up in the Da Vinci code. Why? What is the big deal? Honestly, I think the big deal is that centuries long message of "sex is evil" by the catholic church is still sending shock waves today, and the thought that Jesus could of had sex with his wife to father a child seems blasphemy to many. Do we honestly believe that sex between a man and a woman in marriage is holy or do we just give it lip service? If we honestly believe that Jesus was tempted in all the ways that we were tempted, wouldn't that include adultery?

Jesus being married doesn't challenge his divinity, but increases his humanity. In fact, if I believe correctly, you had to be married to be a respected teacher and teach in synagogues, but I'll have to get back on that one when I have a reference for it. It was the Jewish custom to be married, why would Jesus, growing up in a Jewish culture ignore that or be an exception?

4) The best piece of evidence against this documentary is the fact that there were martyrs. Tradition holds that the brothers of Jesus died for their faith in the resurrected Christ.

Would you die for your faith if you knew that Jesus hadn't really resurrected? Would you subject yourself to the pain and torture of a cross or stones if you knew that all you preached about was false? Of course not. Now, one would say "Well, we've seen many delusional followers of religion before." Well yes, that is true. But if your faith was grounded in the belief in a physical resurrection of your Savior, wouldn't that be shaken a bit if you were the brother or husband of Jesus and you had to bury his bones in a ceremony yourself?

That just doesn't hold water.

5) The assertion that the "disciple whom Jesus loved" was actually Judah, Jesus' son. Sorry. That doesn't stand up to the test of scripture. There are too numerous of passages that suggest otherwise, not to mention that it is consistent with the writing style of John himself.

All in all it was entertaining and interesting to watch, it was neat to see the Talbiot tomb and the Jewish practices of those day. But the assertions made just don't add up. Obviously I am NOT an expert, and what I have posted were just my thoughts. I am not an archeologist, epigrapher, or historian. But I am someone who can put common sense into practice. Later I will link here to someone who is a lot more "learnt" them I am in this area if you're interested in reading a more scholarly reading.

But my final thought is this: I am glad they included the "A Critical Look" by Ted Koppel afterwards. He had 5 intelligent and capable scholars/clergy that did not care for the docu-drama. First he had 2 archeologists that attacked the processes taken by the film maker, and the lack of 'hoop jumping' they did to come to their conclusions. The 2nd set to debate with the filmmaker and Professor Tabor were 3 Christian scholars. They were intelligent! I say this because several nights ago on CNN they had some Christian leaders on there to debate this and they had no idea what they were talking about.

In the end, this debate shed a lot more light on this subject and how it is being ridiculed by scholars, both believers and non-believers. The documentary came out, by the end of this debate, to look ridiculous and full of holes.

So, I think this is going to be one of those things that we don't even hear about in another month. What was the Da Vinci code again? See..my point exactly.

Over the past several months I've found myself reading tons and tons of different books on "church movements". If you look back on the past couple of decades you can see the "Seeker" movements and today you have the "Emergent" and others such as that.

At first I was really impressed with the emerging church, I thought that it might possibly be the future of the church, but now I'm not so sure. It was actually Don Miller that started my doubts, something he said in a "sermon" one time that seemed to indicate that he didn't think too much of the emerging church either. He said "The Emerging church isn't doing anything different then what the church has done the past 1500 years...they are just using culture to meet the culture..." and then compared how the middle ages church fashioned their churches to look like castles, and how the age of the corporation made their churches look and act like corporations. Miller was among my favorite authors at the time, so this made me think. He had a good point. It certainly wasn't a 'revolutionary' movement.

The church as a whole just seems to have this trend of having several different movements going on at one time, each of them claiming to be the best way to be relevant or the best way to 'know God'. Whether it's starting churches in night clubs, or inspiring a congregation to engage in lectio divina, I honestly believe that these things are just another chapter in American church movements and in 10 years, people won't remember them.

So I propose a new "movement". A new way to be relevant in a pagan world: Be authentic. Instead of trying to find new ways to reach people, or new schemes or the evil and dreaded 'sales pitch', being authentic brings us to a place where people can see a genuine change in a person. The desire to know and love God and the desire to know and love people.

It's not programs.
It's not hiring more staff.
It's not buildings.
It's not an ancient Benedictine tradition.
It's not anything new.
It's not "purpose driven".

It IS being authentic and not just going thru the motions. It's going outside of that comfort zone to actually help the physical needs of people. Going outside of our own personal "bubbles".

There is a world of hurting people out there, and we can't even muster enough LOVE for our Savior to get out of bed on Sunday morning. That is being inauthentic.

So I don't know, maybe someone can take this and get the ball rolling with it. I'm going to try to be authentic. It's not an easy task, but it is necessary if we want to reach and make disciples.