Peace and Hope

A couple posts ago I talked a bit about the story within the story of Christmas (political and revolutionary!) and that sparked quite a few comments... so while I may regret this later I wanted to do another post on this to continue the conversation and invite others to join who haven't been reading those comments (see "story within a story").

The way I understand peace and hope in this world is this... sure people are going to screw it up. We are people and selfish after all. I'll even admit that I'm oftentimes the one who screws it up (the sooner we all realize that the world centers around me, the better off we'd all be!). But the fact that people will screw it up, that they will take advantage of peace, that they will at times violently try to supress and contain those who are after peace, should not control me or my hopes that a day will come when shalom, peace can exist. Jesus himself lived this way, hoping and living for peace and love... and yes it got him killed. But the promise beyond that death of a kingdom and a "life to the full" are built on peace and the hope of peace (see the tanakh, that's the Old Testament you Protestants).

I'm not saying that we should run around playing the matyr, but I wonder if we too often sacrifice our hope for our pride, our vision and dreams for control? Is it too much to ask really that we live as people of peace, trusting others and committing to the long-term of relationships? Assuming the best of others instead of dreading for the day when the worst will come? Perhaps I'm naive. Perhaps I'm an ingoramous. (okay not such a stretch) But why not live this way and not allow others to take it away from us?

I have much work to do to make this happen starting at home with my own family and on out into the world in which I live. I'm gonna try though. I'm gonna keep on trying. You've got to hope in something, why not peace? Shalom to you all!

Christmas Music

Those who know me, know that I'm not a huge Christmas music fan. I don't hate it. I just think it has a place.

I used to work at a radio station that played Christmas music ONLY from Thanksgiving through New Year's. This kind of exposure is bad for you. It makes you want to stab yourself in the ears.

My other thing with Christmas music is, why is there so little new Christmas music? Is the best we can do really just those 15 or so songs? Do we really need another version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"? Do we ever need to say "ye" again? And don't get me started about the time I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus...

Well to make my Christmas music naseau complete, we were at a very nice luncheon this week sponsored by Nazarene Publishing House. Many thanks and props to them for a nice dinner, for getting people together and for trying to show they care. After dinner though they "treated" us with their newest and top selling Christmas cantata. Did I mention it was a Southern Gospel musical? Thankfully the wait staff had cleared the forks and knives off the table so I couldn't hurt myself. Urgh! Many people thought it was wonderful. I simply did not find it to be my element or in anyway really redeemable.

It came complete with a choir that looked cultishly locked on their leader - scripted smiles, tears of blessing and handraising abounded. Then the two soloist ladies had on dresses that were... well let me describe. One was so shiny and sequened I found myself being mesmerized and drawn to it like a Mosquito to a bug light. The other looked like a cocktail dress from the 80's complete with shiny teel fabric.

And just when I texted my friend sitting next to me "I feel an altar call coming on", the leader stood up and proclaimed, "this would be the spot where we would normally do an altar call..." he hesitated as though thinking of doing one there and then and then I felt many gazes shift to the underdressed publishing house warehouse workers at the table next to mine. I almost cried. Thankfully he moved on into another kind of speech about understanding us and our problems and our "tiredness".

That was truly a classic nightmare come to life.

The story in the story

We've been talking at church about the "Christmas songs" in Luke. Last week we talked about the angels song to the shepherds. There is this part before the song at the beginning of the passage that reads simply "in the time of Caesar Augustus..."

This is the same Augustus whose quotes include that he was "god in flesh on earth". He also referred to himself as "son of god". He was also referred to as the "turning point of salvation" because he was going to save the world by bringing peace to everyone (except he was going to bring peace by his army and killing anyone in his way). They even coined (literally put it on their coins) the phrase, "Salvation is found in none other than Caesar" and "Caesar is Lord".

In the midst of this time the angels say to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The glory goes to God not Caesar. Peace comes from God, not Caesar. Hmmmm... It's quite a political statement.

This also begs the question - what do we turn to now for peace? hope? Who or what do we hear claiming to be our salvation? Who or what do we turn to for peace?

Bitter-Sweet

A few updates from the silence...
- REALLY tough day yesterday... enough said

- recently decided that I'm Sweet enough and we'll be moving on to another book or something soon. I'd love any suggestions for a focused reading and/or discussion from time to time.

- An incredibly great conversation recently involving Dave, myself and several leaders from our seminary faculty and a few others about the emergent church and how they as a seminary/denomination might be ideally placed in time to be a Boaz to many people who are in the church but can't keep on doing church the same way. It was truly a God thing that brought the convesation together so quickly and truly God was in the conversation. Good people. Perhaps this is all "for such a time as this". I thank God for the chance to be a part of the conversation and for the opportunities he's given me.

You Might Be Emergent If...

This blog post is awesome and you have to check it out. I know nothing of who this is... but awesome none the less.

Sweet Ch. 5 - Big Ears

Big ears huh? I wonder if the amount of wax you have is dependent on the size of your ear? And if so, who or what represents the wax? But I digress already...

There seems to be quite a bit of repition in this book and it seems to be pretty herky-jerky - probably not unlike my blog - but no one pays to see my blog.

GREAT THOUGHTS
1. Is actually point 3 in his list of learning a living - "When I was learned, knowledge was everything. Now that I'm a learner, kindness is everything." This just echoes that relationships and valuing people are the key compenents to life period. People aren't going to share with you or listen to what you have to share if you don't value them or care for them.

2. The components of a hearing aid - decompression chamber, selective hearing, self cleaning, hearing partners and play. I appreciated these and thought that they pretty much tell the story of the book in a much shorter and more concise way.

QUESTIONS I HAVE
1. If change is our only constant in an organic world, then how do we train ourselves and others to be ready and adapatble to change? How do we train ourselves to have effective filters to sift through all the information, sounds, noises, images and stories to find where God is moving and where its just hocus pocus?

2. Does anyone else have the feeling that Shackleton would have just been a complete jerk in any setting other than survival?

3. How do I find my voice in the midst of all the voices? How do I find God's? (and no I don't think those are the same)

4. If leadership is primarily about listenting, then why does it seem that a leader must speak to begin transformation?

5. How come I can't see Matthew Broderick as anything but Ferris Bueller after all these years?

Fish and chips

Grilling Salmon tonight. Going well. Salmon done. Moving from grill to plate, and then... OH! Salmon down! Salmon down!

One piece fell into our box of wood we keep on the back porch for our fireplace. bummer. I reach into the box to get the piece of fish out and - did I mention that the fish just came off the grill? - ouch!! Fish falls into pieces, I begin to Christian cuss, burning my hand, finally getting fish back onto grill. That piece of fish was covered with bark and wood chips. A real fish and chips.

Then Carol sticks her head out the door and says... "I saw that." How do you not love being married?

Sweet Ch. 4 - Surround Sound

Things I liked:
1. A leaders job is to involve people in a mission that will change their life and the world. - That's just good.
2. and to go with it - Everyone has a mission and can make a difference.
3. Mission needs to be related in narrative form. - praise God for those who get this. We need to go somewhere, not just hear three thoughts from you that float in space forever.

Questions I have:
1. Why can we not get away from the business world in our stories and dreams of vision? Are we that similar? Is the church and the Fortune 500 company really going the same places, needing the same leaders?

2. If we were to use metaphors as part of our narrative, and the leader is a gardener cultivating growth and health, letting each plant grow in its time and way, bringing what it was created to bring to the garden, then could we also say that the best leaders are those who let others lead the group to places that they themselves would not have gone and in ways that they themselves would not have gotten there? What if a leader spent more time releasing others than controlling them? If this is the case, then how do I as a leader spend more time painting the picture of what I believe in people and where we could go, instead of logistics and direction?

3. The title of the chapter is surround sound... how do we surround ourselves with people who we can trust, who can trust us and who can survive in community?

4. Does every great leader have to suck at home? I understand that many people who don't have a mission seem to falter, because what makes them great is their mission, but what about just being a person. Why can't that bring us infinite value? Is it too much to ask a leader to be a whole person?

5. Why can't I perfect the breakdancing move "the head spin"?

Europe 2006 looks good

I'll never be able to go... but if you can check this out. "Calling All Nations" is in Berlin in July next year. Andrew Jones posts on it and it looks good. If my name were David Rebello I'd be there!

Darth Pilgrim?

I'm not saying anything conclusively and I don't want to alarm any Star Wars fanatics... but I'm finding a striking resemblence here. I'm not trying to wreck anybody's dreams, so no hate mail please... just a brief observation. You form your own opinions.

What I do know is that the one on the left is for sure my son Jahred who is 6 and did a great job with his line in the kindergarten pow-wow last week! I have the best family.

Sweet ch. 3 - I Hear You

I liked this chapter much better than the last. Not just because I agreed with more, but because it was easier to read as well.

Here's the 3 main things for me:
1. Hiring the right person - let's not pretend that what we hire someone to do they actually end up doing. In fact the same can be said for anything you journey with someone on. You may have some ideas about the road ahead, but it's incredibly arrogant to believe you've forseen all the missteps, dangers and adjustments that need to be made. Finding the right person who can adapt and be a part of the whole group of you and be adaptable to the things that come up has to be far more important.

2. Taking risks - This is huge to me because I'm largely a coward in my own eyes. One of the things that the Lord of the Rings (I know a tad overused story) taught me is that nothing is as bad as it may at first seem. As bad as things seemed like they were going to get, there is always a way through somehow. But you're not going to see it until you get there. The risks we take in doing what is right are enormous. Most of the risks are ones we dont' want to face, like relational conflict. But doing what's right is far more important than feeling good about a falseness for a while. I also believe that we've taught an entire generation or more of people that failure is worse than not trying at all. So many of us operate mostly out of fear and not out of dreams. We make choices based not on what we really believe in and want to see happen, but on what if it doesn't work and I fail and look foolish? How can we teach ourselves and others that being faithful to what we're called to is the greatest success, even if it means falling down?

3. Relationships - this is by far the most important piece in all of this to me. No matter who you are and no matter what you've done, if you don't have relationship with people, then you aren't really going anywhere. This is my mantra for life and ministry. Relationships, relationships, relationships. (All my Bel Air youth workers are groaning somewhere because they heard it so much! Right now as I write this they probably have a little twitch starting up and they don't even know why.)

Jesus modeled this for us in the incarnation. If we are following Jesus, living life in his way, then this has to be the vital piece of the puzzle.

Oops!

Have not been able to post the last couple days due to some internet issues (I'm on the road again ... should be a song!).

In other "oops!" news I guess I didn't add a link to the Scrandrette post. So here it is...

Summoned to Lead Ch. 2

Yes. I'm a tad late on this post. Two days to be exact. My bad.

Annoyed a bit

I get the point of his metaphor - hearing is what leadership is about, not vision. Got it. All the examples he uses are all well and good, but not only do they beat the point to death, I also feel like they are examples that quickly could fall apart. For example, submarines may not have windows and so "hear" their way through, but they would have windows if they could see well enough or wouldn't compromise the structure of a ship, not just cause its better. Vision is important too. Let's not throw it all away.

Liked it
I really enjoy his emphasis on not just doing lots of stuff, but stopping, listening and responding to what we see. He uses this example of da Vinci and that he probably only did 30 paintings (of which we have maybe half). There is much to be said for that. Sometimes I think I get so caught up in hearing that others are doing things, thinking about things, writing things, preaching things, etc, that I feel like I should be too. Let's focus on catching the wave that God has sent our way and riding that out and then going back out and finding another one. I wonder if there is a rhythm to following God and living in the way of Jesus?

Missed it
I saw the heading "hearing heart" and thought for sure he'd bring up Solomon and his request not for wisdom, but for a hearing heart. But he swung and missed mightily on that one. I can only hope that he'll hit it later and that he's saving it. Or that he's reading this blog now and making the adjustments to the second edition. [If you are, Mr. Sweet, I've actually met you and enjoyed a "black eye" with you at Starbucks in Indianapolis.]

I Think I'm b-flat too
Cool point that everything makes sound. Black hole is B-flat 57 octaves below middle C.

Love It!
I really love the "and God sang" instead of "and God said". What an awesome picture to me! How great to think of the God of the universe YHVH, actually singing us into existence, creating in a new way!!! That so connects with the way music as a whole can take us places we've never been, can cross time and space, can go to levels of the spirit and heart that nothing else can seem to touch or name. And it explains why music is so important to the spirit of life.

Shawshank Redemption has a great part that brings this out. When they find a record of these two Italian women singin opera and they lock themselves in and play it over the loudspeakers for only a few minutes, one of the prisoners (Morgan Freeman) remarks, "We didn't really know what they were singing, but then it didn't really matter."

Encouraged
I'm encouraged by this book to stop and step back more. To listen more and not just do because I feel inadequate or unworthy or like everyone is watching. My ears hear a different song and I need to dance to that one. Even the rests.

Perhaps its the stuff we've been going through, or perhaps something I ate, but I think taking a step back and gaining perspective is SO IMPORTANT. Sorry God for all the times I rush on into foolish behavior and decisions, when I should just listen.

Darth Vader Lives in my House

Jahred got some money for his birthday that he socked away for a big purchase. Here is part of the purchase...

It has a voice changer - when you talk into the mask you sound like Darth Vader. Awesome! My head won't fit in it unfortunately. I'm not sure why Darth Vader is cool though. I wonder if I should be worried??? When I was a kid I wanted to be Luke Skywalker. Jahred also has started liking the song "Mr. Roboto" quite a bit. Hmmmm.

Jahred was so excited. When he got home from the store he put it on right away and walked around showing the family, saying, "Hey! It's really just me, Jahred!," so he wouldn't scare anyone. Kids are awesome.

Teacher? Teaching?

Mark Scandrette has a great post on what it means to be a teacher and also what it means to be a follower of Jesus here. You really should check it out. I love his picture too it is classic.

I've posted before on some of this, but I really do feel that following life (not just words coming out of the mouth) is the best and real teaching. Look at kids and their parents. "Do what I say, not what I do, never works." Anyway, check our Mark's thoughts, cuz I think they are right on.

Tomorrow we're going to try to resume our sweet book study/conversation/chat. It's not too late to join!

Some Details on the Accident

Warning: these pictures are a bit tough for some to take.

We are recovering from the accident. Physically the family is getting better, but otherwise, we still have our days and times that are tough. We're not sure how the kids are going to do in the long run. We've had a rough few days. Appreciate the prayers and support.

The story as I understand it to this point is as follows:
Carol and kids were in the Eurovan driving in the left lane going north on I-35. In the middle lane was a semi and in the right lane was another car. The semi changed lanes into the right lane hitting the rear end of the car that was there. That car was then spun by the semi perpindicular to traffic and towards the left lane where the Eurovan was driving.

The car then went in front of the Euro towards the median wall. The Euro hit the car at that point spinning it back into traffic and sending the Euro flipping in the air. The Euro wound up on its side, hit the median wall, then flipped onto its roof. Where it skidded and finally came to a stop upside down. Gas and fluid were leaking out all over. Carol unbuckled herself and the kids, kicked out a window and got them out to safety.

Amazingly Kate had only some cuts on her head and a little glass in it. She had some staples put in and they are now removed. The other kids had some buises and that's all. Carol has some nasty bruises on her leg and head.

I was in Chicago while this happened. Carol called me from the ambulance with the kids. I quickly got a flight back to KC - which was the longest flight ever - and made it to the hospital as the kids were being released.

We are so thankful and praise God for the safey of our family.

Below are some photos of the van after. We are HUGE Eurovan fans now for sure. After all that it held up pretty well.

Accident

On Wednesday evening around 6:30pm Carol and the kids were in a terrible car accident. They were hit in the front by a car that had been hit by a semi. They flipped, hit the median wall and wound up skidding to a stop on the roof upside down. Carol unbuckled, kicked the window out and got the kids out. They went to the hospital.

Thankfully they are all home and pretty much okay. To say it is a miracle is an understatement. Kate has a couple staples in her head from a cut and some glass in it. Carol is of course, banged, bruised and sore. The other kids are pretty much okay.

I'll share more later, but we'd appreciate all prayers as we pull ourselves back together and try to sort through all of this.

Chapter 1

I began this chapter a bit discouraged, because for his "anti-leadership" book stuff, it is ultimately about leadership as we often define it. You have Sweet starting off here talking about leaders "turning possibilities into realities", which to me is a statement about DOING more and not BEING.

But he quickly rallies in the fight for anti-leadership and says that the way we are positioned to do that "turning" (still weird language a bit - perhaps not matching up) is to be who we are - except embracing it.

A few questions out of this:
1) What if I don't like who I am (or think I am)? Why would I want to be more of that? Or why would anybody else?
2) How do I really discover who I am? What's the difference here between reality and my own perceptions? Is there any? Of course there is the point to be made that while I may be good at basketball at the end of the day I'm still only 5'7" and so good isn't good enough. But what if I thought I was? Is my not playing in the NBA a denial of my true heart or an acceptance of reality? How do I know the difference?
3) At what point is being me just about me and not really about anything bigger?


A comments on this:
1) I love that the focus here is being and not doing.
2) I love the emphasis on truth telling and being. Let's face it, if we all just did what we know is right and said what we know is true, then a lot of problems would be diverted and the problems created would be worth it. But it's just plain hard.
3) Originality is big for me as well. The population as a whole is trying way too hard to be only 3 or 4 people.

I again am loving the Shackleton quotes and stories. A few things need to be clarified to me however. Perserverance is important, but it only really matters in the context of commitment to relationship. I can make a difference and work through things with others if there is a commitment to the relationship. If I stick around and just continue to make my point for the sole purpose of getting MY way and making Brian clones, well the world may get better looking, but it's not going to get better.

Time for bed.

Halloween 2007

Went trick-or-treating tonight with the kids. Went well with lots of fun. The best part is that the kids just say whatever to the people giving them candy... "Hey! You only have socks on!" and, "You have birds and cats... those don't go together very well!"

Mark and Shirley Marvin came over and they both had on long straight black hair wigs. The kids didn't recognize them at all at first and tried to give them candy like they were trick or treaters. It was hilarious. Mark finally took his wig off and Isaiah said (after 10 minutes of him being in our house with the wig on), "Hey! How did you get here?" Quite funny.

Pray for us. We're just having some tough days lately.

Summoned to Lead

This is the first of hopefully an ongoing "conversation" through blogs/comments about Leonard Sweet's book "Summoned to Lead". A few friends are trying this way of conversing about a similar topic. We'd love you to join us, so comment away, link to your blog, etc. Josh is already blogging on the intro here.

Introduction

I need to be honest as I begin this whole thing. The conversation about doing this on a book thrilled me. The conversation about doing this on a leadership book... not so much. I'm kind of anti-leadership book. It's not that I don't think leadership to be good, important and a reality, but rather that I think if you have to do a bunch of reading on it, then perhaps you're already following and not leading. Besides that, my life is spent in the unique and admittedly oftentimes odd world of the church. But odd as it may be, it's not a company and it's pastor(s) is not a CEO. In fact that whole approach, I would argue, has gotten us into more trouble than good in recent history. The elaboration of that point I'll save for another day (or maybe just for myself). I've said all that to say, I didn't really want to do a leadership book. But my good friend talked me into it and I've had this book in my "to read" stack for quite a while (it kept getting pushed down). So here we go...

Being privy now to my thoughts on this matter it will not suprise you to find that my favorite quotes up front were,
"This is an anit-leadership book. It offers a patentely and passionately unfashionable stance on one of the defining issues of our day." (12)
"To put it bluntly: the whole leadership thing is a demented concept." (12)
"'Now our all-purpose explanation is leadership... We have basically lots of witchcraft, lots of religion, and very little understanding.'" (15 quoting Jim Collins)

So far I'm digging that he also has found leadership as an educational topic and book fodder to be pretty empty. He digs into this further when he begins to elaborate on the concept that leadership is about "hearing" more than "vision". "The words ear and wisdom are the same in ancient Sumerian." (17). In fact in the "famous" passage where Solomon asks God for "wisdom", he actually asks God to give him a "hearing heart". I don't know if this will come up later in the book or not, but I find it fascinating that the man many consider (biblical followers or not) to be the wisest or one of the wisest leaders and kings in history didn't actually ask for wisdom, but for a hearing heart. That is such a different prayer in my opinion than, "God please make me wise". To me one smacks of selfishness and the other of humility.

Sweet addresses this as well, in that humility is a greater attribute than charisma. An interesting thought in light of what many are "looking for" in a leader. If you've ever sat in on pastoral search meeting... well, that just gets funnier. "We need someone who our teens will think is cool and want to hang out with," and "we need a pastor who people are just naturally drawn to," seem so out of place when considering the "hearing heart" prayer.

Sweet then goes on to use Ernest Shackleton as a leadership model and will retrun to his quotes and stories as a reference for this kind of leadership. I dig it. I'm vaguely familiar with Shackleton before this and am excited to hear more about it.

I really liked how he launches out of this intro into the book, "This is a new age of exploration. In this emerging culture, everyone is an explorer, and every profession requires sailing in uncharted waters. " (23) I'm finding this to be more and more true the more life I live. No one is really comfortable. All of us are in new territory. If this is true, then why not allow those who are passionate, called and are heading towards something lead us there? Perhaps a leader these days is as much a curator and gatherer as anything else.

All in all I was encouraged at the end of the intro (this may change - it is about leadership). Mostly because I felt like he was focusing more on being what God has called us to be, than he was on becoming something your not (which I feel like a lot of leadership books are). This is more in tune with my own experiences. Does God really call us out of ourselves or deeper into ourselves? When I look at Scripture I see Gideon as called and not created, learned or born... "for such a time as this", says Esther. I think this theme goes on throughout Scripture.

At the end of the day the question I ask is this:
Is it easier to say "yes, I need to be totally different than I am and will start now to try to become that", than it is to just do what we already know is right? I think the talk of becoming something else is false. I would argue we need to focus more on being more of who we are created to be. Maybe leadership is just being what we're created to be the best we can and know. Maybe this blog is too long already...

Summoned to blog...

Tomorrow is the first day that we'll be sharing... you are summoned to join us. Tom this means you. And you too with the hair.

I've heard from a few of my friends in Maryland this week... yeah! Miss you guys and gals. My friend Jordan sent this funny video. It is a good one... rated PG. He always finds GREAT videos.

Yeah Aunt Sherri

My sister is here visiting. Its great to be together. She is from "Hot-lanta" and is not so hot, cuz its cold here. We'll be hanging out through the weekend. She is one of the best "stealthy" players of the classic youth group outside game, Underground Church, ever to live.

Oops, forgot Introduction

Tomorrow Josh and I will be blogging on the Introduction to the aforementioned book. Then we'll do Chapter 1 on Tuesday and then Ch. 2 on the next Friday and so on. Really, you should join us. Really. Seriously. You know you want to. You won't get addicted, EVERYBODY is doing it.

Open Invitation to Leadership Book Discussion

My good friend Josh (who also enjoys a good Fritz's stop) and I are going to start reading Leonard Sweet's book on leadership together and we'd like to invite whoever to join us in our discussions here. The book is entitled, "Summoned to Lead" and we are going to start with chapter 1 this week and then proceed with another chapter every 3 days or so. I've never done anything like this so I don't know if anyone has any interest in this sort of thing, or if it will work at all, but I'm all for trying. Anyone and everyone is welcome, the only request is that you actually read the chapter and stay on topic. Oh, and you should agree with me on everything... kidding, only kidding. The point is to help each other think!

Jahred's Birthday

This weekend we went to St. Louis and met Carol's sister and her family, and later Carol's dad and stepmom. It was a good time. We went to the Children's Museum, the Zoo and did some swimming at the hotel. We also did the gift thing and just hung out.

Today he brought in cupcake-cones to his class at school. He also got some Star Wars e-cards from me. Then when I got home from work he opened our gifts and then we went to Chuck E Cheese (kiddie Vegas) for more fun. All in all I'd say it was a great birthday.

Special thanks to all you who sent out cards, etc. He loves getting mail!

Great Quotes

So my good friend Josh and I have been talking (emailing) about good quotes and he tipped me to a great quote sight. You should check it out, it's quite good. This conversation lead to conversation of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and one of his great short stories, "Political Economy". Everytime I read this I laugh aloud. I recommend reading it out loud and to a few friends.

Cuz friends are friends forever...

If you're singing the rest of the words to that song right now, stop and kick yourself.

We had a great freind over tonight from back in Bel Air. Rebekah Aversano came out here to live and work at IHOP (not International House of Pancakes... International House of Prayer). She's so great. She was in our youth group in Bel Air, went to NYC 03, gave it all to Jesus, has been to China, blah, blah. awesome. It was good to have her around and just do life together. She kept us updated on her family (yeah Aversanos!!) and just enjoyed laughing at ours. It was good!!

Great Weekend!

Just wrapping up a great weekend and let you in on some of it...
- Friday night - took kids to "Fritz's" a restaurant with trains all over and trains that actually bring food to your table. They LOVED it! Isaiah especially.

- Saturday - kids went to "Uncle" Mark and "Aunt" Shirley's house. Carol and I got to go out and eat a great dinner. Then we went and experienced some GREAT jazz at 18th and Vine.

- Sunday - kids stayed night at Mark and Shirley's and so we slept in and enjoyed the day together. Another nice dinner, then pick up kids and bring them home and to bed!

It was very, very nice.

I Missed Gathering

This past week was the Emergent Gathering in Glorieta, New Mexico. I wasn't there. Lots of friends were. bummer. So I'm living vacariously through some others as they have recorded their thoughts on blogs and such. One good blog on it is by Will Samson here. I share in his encouragement and hope for the future for this great group of people.

Perhaps some of this is due to my recent loss of church family and consequent search for a new one, but I'm more passionate than ever about this conversation. Perhaps I'll post some more of my specific experiences and thoughts in the future here, but I'm really realizing the need for the church to engage culture and seek out where God is already working.

Had I been at the Gathering, I would have tried to host a conversation entitled, "Needing another Boaz: the future of existing churches and the need for shepherds". The focus would have been on the relationship between those in existing church structures (playing the role of Boaz) and those who are doing new things (playing the role of Ruth). For more on this read the book of Ruth and see whose shoes you think you better fill in the story - Ruth - the newcomer, outsider; Boaz - the older established person who is an advocate for Ruth; or perhaps the rest of the town - who aren't quite sure what to make of this new one and her role amongst them.

There are some thoughts to be harvested on this conversation in my specific context of the Nazarene denomination as well.

Good website, good food

Go to www.chipotle.com for good fun and to Chipotle the restaurant for good food. [While I am not being paid to suggest this, if you work for Chipotle and would like to thank me for my priceless endorsement, feel free!] It's just good stuff.

GK and me

Let me begin by clearly disclaiming that I am a dork. In case you were operating under some other pretense, let me set the record straight. Now on to my story...

I found out Monday night that Garrison Keillor (of Prarie Home Companion fame) perhaps the greatest story teller of our life-time, was going to be in town on Tuesday night. Now for most people this may be neat or even a little interesting, but for me it's just plain exciting. I LOVE good stories and he's been doing great stories for a really long time and he just plain knows how to write and tell good stories. Therefore, upon recieving the news of his appearance in the great place of Overland Park, Kansas, I got a little giddy (dork meter is spiking).

Upon a few inquiries I recieved the news that the show had been sold out. Despite my dampened spirits I pressed on in my pursuit to see this great man and show. With no other recourse before me, I showed up at the theater with hopes of charming, cajoling, lying, sneaking or buying my way in. As I walked up to the building I realized that I was excited and nervous and just plain giddy the way many people get when going to see their favorite band of all time... except I was going to see a story teller (dork meter at full!).

As I walk in the door an hour before the show starts, there are several signs posted, "Tonight's Show is Sold Out". The Box Office has all their mini-blinds of protection drawn and closed (the universal sign for "you can't even see light for hope so forget about coming to this show"). The only window open was the "Will Call". I got in the line. It was kinda long and full of people whose hair color had long left them. I pressed on. When I finally arrived at the window, I looked the man in the eye (through the bullet proof 6 inch glass), and said (through the cheese grater hole), "So you really don't have any more tickets, huh?" I was expecting the "here's your sign" look as he pointed to the sign right above the window that said "Show sold out". But he responded, "Actually... I have 1 ticket left." I smiled from ear to ear and said, "I'll take it!", trying not to sound like the soon- to- be-16 yr old who has been asked if he wants a new car for his birthday.

After purchasing the ticket, I proceed to the theater, grinning ear to ear for my good fortune (praying does work kids!), and with the thought that I will be sitting in a folding chair in the tunnel in the upper deck behind the 7 ft. tall man with a giant head. Oh well, I'll still get to hear him in person.

I hand my ticket to the usher who looks at me, then looks at the ticket and then says, "take the first aisle and they will help you". Hmmmmm. My seat is good. My seat is really good. It turns out that my seat is the very seat that I would have chosen had they given me the chance to pick any seat in the entire theater. I'm 7 rows back in the very middle, pretty much eye to eye with Mr. Keillor himself.

The show was amazing. He spoke for almost 2 hours and I barely thought 2 minutes had passed. He sang a few short songs that he had written himself. He told stories. He made us laugh. He laughed. He took this group of many hundreds and made us all feel like we were in another place, right there in the story. While you knew others were around, somehow you also knew that no one else was there with you in the story. I'm so glad I went. It was just fantastic.

If you've never heard Garrison Keillor before, you should. As I told the season ticket holder who was sitting next to me and had never really even heard of GK, "You're going to like it." And when you do listen, your response will be the same as his as we walked out, "You were right. I loved it!"

Two dates and some general grumblings!

Saturday morning and early afternoon Carol and I got to go out. Carol set it all up. We went to the Kemper Art Museum and hung out looking at art, really liking some of it and not really getting some of it, and then we ate at the cafe in the museum which is awesome with art all over. We had such a good time just hanging out and talking. Then on our way home we had a little time so we stopped at an estate sale in a really nice neighborhood. It really makes you think about what you'll leave behind when you walk through someone's house and look at all their stuff that their family really doesn't want but played a role in their life. It's weird. I wonder what I'll leave behind for my family to sort through, sell, throw out and maybe keep? Although with Ebay and my increasing popularity there will probably be a high demand for anything that I've ever touched or used. (hahahahha... if Carol reads this she'll probably burn all my stuff NOW)

Then Saturday night I went with Meg and one of her friends to her school skating party (it was "Glow" night). Meg had never skated before, so it was a little rough for a while, but she did better at the end. I played the dorky, dutiful dad who got the pizza, helped make sure no one fell too hard and watched the table while they played games. It was funny to me, because I felt like such a dork, but also because of my memories of Junior High roller skating. That's a world I thought was dead, but found out its not. There are still the slow kids, the fast kids, the kids trying to tricks in the middle, and the really annoying rollerbladers/roller hockey kids. I took the same approach this time as I did when I was in Junior High, "knock everyone down... no one is off limits". Little kids littered the floor. OK, not really this time.

Today we tried another church. While I will not comment on its name or whether we will try it again... let me say this - is it too much to ask a preacher to actually think about what they are saying instead of just rying to come up with some points or principals that you can pull out of the air and apply to any situation? I'm beginning to think that it really is too much to ask.

My wife is mocking my old age, so I need to go to bed.

Funny Story

Just went to the bathroom. When I arrived and went to down the zipper, I realized that this was not necessary as the zipper had already been down. How long? Who was I around? Was the giggling I heard in the other office due to that? It's a good thing many large and important decisions are entrusted to me.

We threw a party

last night! We had all the staff over that work for NYI USA/Canada for a party. It was fun, except the Humberto and his wife could not come. We provided the place/space, some hamburgers and hotdogs, and chips; Dave brought flowers (a regular Renaissance man), chicken for the grill, coffee beans (good thing, cuz I had just run out), and a cake from Dean and Delucca (Chocolate Raspberry!); Sandrine brought an Oreo cake that said "Yay! NYI funtime!"; Amy brought salad; RJ and Angie brought the sodas. It was great! Besides all of the food, we had some great conversations, laughter and of course fun with my children!

Some highlights include conversations about about Johnny Cash (country or rock-n-roll? rock-n-roll - duh and perhaps even the father of rock-n-roll); me rambling to poor RJ about Lesslie Newbigin and how he should be included in all missiology classes; Kate playing with Sandrine's shoes; realizing that RJ's wife, Angie grew up on the same district as I did and was in the same impact team with my sister and knows my brother's wife Jenifer (it is truly a small world afterall - that Jiminy Cricket is one smart dude).

I love having people in our house! I love parties! I love telling stories! I love making friends! I love giving gifts!

Then Carol and I watched Survivor together (yeah Tivo!!!!!!!!). Nice. Very nice.

Giving Gifts

What has God given you? What can you share with someone else, without condition, without any strings attached? When you give a gift you give it out of what you have. Sometimes these gifts are physical resources and sometimes they are time or just our presence. Let’s give many gifts. Let’s share with one another. Let’s give and expect nothing in return. Freely as you have received, freely give.

Besides just being a good way of life, this kind of giving brings incredible joy. When you are experiencing God in ways like “Throwing Parties” and “Telling Stories”, what a wealth of things to share! In the words of the great theologians U2 “You’ve got to give it away!” The only way to really keep something is to give it away.

Joyce Meyers, some farming and a little mother-in-law

Tom Young keep your scalding email about my bad blogging to yourself. I'm back to it.

Thursday and Friday I was at Joyce Meyers' conference in St. Louis. Not as a participant/attendee, but as an observer. They were using a lot of the same facilities that we wiil be in 2007, so I was able to go and see it in action. It was very helpful.

But I know you don't care about that... here are the funny stories -
1) Actually printed on a brochure - "No men. No babies." I was actually stopped twice (despite my credentials) and told that to get in, I had to go see the special people.

2) 15,000 + women plus Brian = uncomfortable.

3) One woman actually said - "Hey! You're a guy!"

Saturday we went to see my uncle and aunt, and cousin, on their cattle farm in Iberia, Missouri. It was great. The kids got to run around, see cattle, and just be around good people. It was a lot of fun. Best line of the visit... Meg says, "Are those your cows?" My uncle says, "Yes they are. I understand you're going to be enjoying one of those this winter." Meg "........"

Today we met up with Carol's mom and a couple of her friends on their vacation at Osage Beach. It was a nice visit. A LOT of food. It really went well and was probably just the right amount of time.

Heard from my good friend David Rebello too. Word is out that he's up and posting from ljubljiana (loo-blee-on-ya), Slovenia. David is the man and we're praying for him and his continued time there.

If you're a Marylander and reading this... how about a call or email this week. We miss you guys.

These are the ways that Andrew Jones (Boaz Project) describes his ministry and I love it! Here are some of my thoughts/responses to that. This is part 2. Been a long time coming.

Throwing Parties

Just the idea behind party is a good one! Who doesn’t like to go to a good party? Would you rather go to a party or go to a church service? Well that’s not a hard answer for most of us. Jesus uses celebration, party and feast/banquet language all the time. In fact it is one of his primary metaphors for the Kingdom of God.

Which begs a couple of questions: 1) why aren’t our services more like a party/celebration? 2) what would it look like if they were? To simplify (perhaps overly) a bit, let’s go down the elements of a good party.

Friends are very important. Both friends you know now and friends of your friends who you’d like to meet and become friends with. So let’s invite our friends and their friends to our party.

Attitudes of joy and giving are important to a party. So let’s stop moaning and groaning about the end times or abortion or whatever else and tell the stories of how God is at work and play music together, and eat together and enjoy each other’s company! This involves a lot more people I think and lessens the pressure on the “service” planners!

Changing hosts. With great friends we throw the party and then they throw the party and then this other friend throws the party. Fun stuff. This not only diversifies leadership, it involves everyone at different times and in different ways, their ways.

Loving people sucks sometimes

So we have all these kids in the neighborhood. That is okay. Most of them apparently have no parents or parents who sleep a lot because we seem to never see them. Or perhaps we've stumbled upon a new millenium version of Neverland without a Peter Pan. But I digress...

The point of the story is that they come over a lot. Sometimes to play with our kids and sometimes to play with our kids and their toys and sometimes to play with our kid's toys. You get the picture. Today when I came home some kids were over and one of them was playing with my kids toys, but not with my kids. He was being a little rough with the toys. So I just asked him to not be so rough and moved on... no big deal. Then he started being rough with them again. And again. And again.

[pay attention here's the point of the story] I found myself not wanting any kids to be around my kids and their toys. It was kind of bothering me. And then I realized that if we really want to love people and if we really want to bring light into darkness and if we really want to be about restoration, then we've got to live with it and in it and it around us. I know it's really obvious and I know this all in my head, but I guess God was making sure it is in my heart too: love wins. Not control, not hate, not anger, not fortresses, but love.

God help me to love.

And now for a really good picture to make us all smile. [we do live in tv land after all]

Sleep, Block party and Soccer

Whenever I leave home, there are two things that happen. It is a law of nature or something. I know that this is true because many others have experienced the same thing. For us it is that someone gets sick at home and that something happens with the car.

So I just got home from being away for a few days... Good news is that nothing happened to the vehicle. Bad news is that someone got sick. Jahred. But he's over it. But now Kate's got it. Fever. Etc.

So last night we were up with her. Trying to help her, drugs, etc. We also had big storms roll through with much thunder and lightning. Isaiah joined us in our bed. But no sleep for Carol or I. Isaiah is a machine though and was up bright and early ready to take on the world.

So I got up with him and let Carol sleep. Then I took the healthy ones to the block party at Jacob's Well. Fun stuff. Fire engines, moonbounces, facepainting, food and music. We had a good time.

Then when we got home we played some of Isaiah's favorite sport of late... soccer. He can do it pretty well and he loves it. (David Rebello is smiling somewhere!)

Also listened today to some Prarie Home Companion. If you aren't into Garrison Keillor, then you should be. He is the greatest storyteller in the world. If you aren't into public radio you also should be, but that is where you can usually catch him. I put up with the rest of the show - not that into the country, bluegrass scene - but he is just awesome. We preachers/teachers have much to learn from him!

DLC

I returned yesterday evening from the District Leadership Conference (DLC) we held in St. Louis. It's a gathering of all the district youth presidents, district NYC coordinators, and district trainers. The main part of this year's conference was the passing of info from our office to the district leaders about NYC 07 (waterfirewind.com). It was a big week for us.

Overall it went well. We had a few snafus at the beginning of the week but the two main purposes of our time together went well: relationships with the youth leaders and sharing the information about NYC.

Some highlights for me:
1) spending time with friends - especially Kevin and Josh
2) worship services - we had Jon Shirley as our worship leader and he was awesome. Dave and Mark Holcomb shared in the general sessions. God moved in many ways and his presence was definitely there.
3) conversations - on Tuesday and Wednesday nights we had some great conversations with people from around the US, just asking questions and sharing stories about what God is doing and where God is leading us.
4) making connections - meeting people, making friends and connecting with folks in regards to NYC.

Some tough things were not being with my family and not being able to be with my friends in Maryland as they go through a tough time.

The main thing I took away from DLC was that there is incredible hope for our church and our future. So many people are ready to make changes and look at things in new ways to make disciples of Jesus!

Prayers are Good

We'd appreciate prayer for some of our friends. Four people from Bel Air were in a horrible accident early Tuesday morning. All four are in the hospital, three in ICU. These are all people pretty close to us, who have been part of our lives at Bel Air. Be in prayer for their families and friends as well. I'm struggling to be honest...

Jacob's Well

We have found a church we like a lot. It's called Jacob's Well. We started going there because the pastor, Tim Keel, and I have had some conversations at some events with Emergent. He is also on the board of directors for Emergent.

One of the thins that I have really loved so far about the church is their approach to children's ministry. Instead of operating out of the educational model only for kids, they are trying to operate out of a much more holistic method. They involve kids in the story, not just tell them story. Some times they'll be doing plays/dramas, sometimes they will be doing crafts, some times it will be just listening to the story. It's just great! I love that they are trying to value kids and their hearts for God and the expression that comes out of that. I wish we could teach more adults to value the same things!

I'm still searching out some outlets for teaching. Pray for me that way. Perhaps you blog readers will have a lot to put up with in the future.

Shamed into it...

I have admittedly been a very bad blogger of late. So I've been shamed back into it today by my friend, Tom Young, the cripple. See Tom you got your mention!

I've been quite busy as of late. Visiting the lovely town of Cleveland for a one day meeting and then two days in St. Louis for some important meetings this last week. While both visits had meaningful and good meetings, the highlight of both had to be the food. (I'm a Nazarene after all!) We ate at some very nice places on both visits and because I'm a food lover, it was my pleasure. I had steak one night, seafood (good too -as hard as that is to believe away form the ocean) and crab cakes another meal, and then some really good pasta another meal.

I'm learning a lot. For example, St. Louis is a big union town and that means you have a lot of negotiating to do with them. I will not be spending time talking ill of them here (but I do happen to think $42/hr to plug in a microphone is a bit steep). But in case someone reading this is union related or someone from St. Louis may be reading this... I LOVE THE UNIONS!!!

Shirt Size Big, Hat Size Small

Just in case I was thinking that I was really smart, or if anyone else was, just in we have proof otherwise. We decided that we were going to try to go to another church this past Sunday morning. We had talked to some people and there is a relatively new church not far down the street from our house. Cool. I looked at the web site. Cool. It's called Journey of Hope.

So Sunday morning comes around and we head to church. We walk in and it feels a little wierd, a little wrong. We take the kids to their classes, sit down in worship and just kind of take in the scene. As I'm looking around I just realize that this is not a Nazarene church. (After spending my life in them, I just kinda know.) I lean over to Carol and said, "I don't think this is the right church." My always faithful and supportive wife says, "Sure it is. It has to be. You looked it up on the web." We look at the bulletin and sure enough. I had taken my family to the wrong church, "New Journey Church".

Apparently the church we were trying to go to is just a bit further down the road and over the interstate. That's your public education dollars at work ladies and gentlemen. Good reading skills. Follows direction in class.

But wait there's more...
I had a meeting today in Cleveland. We fly out in the morning, return in the evening. No problem. Except that when my palm synced with my work computer, all my appointments were pushed to an hour later. So when I looked last night at what time my flight was supposed to leave it said 7:20am. Oops. While I'm still assuming that I don't have to be there until about 6:20am, so I head out the door. Then I see these red and blue lights in the rear view mirror, surely not for me, WRONG! In keeping with a tradition by law enforcement officers across the nation, whenever I move I must be welcomed in the first month by a state trooper with a ticket. Kansas chose this morning to welcome me!

So then I'm driving to the airport and get a call from Dave, "hey, we're boarding the plane." oh yeah, you're boarding the plane... AAAHHHHH! So somehow I made it to the airport and it looked like I would make it in the nick of time... but no! Security decided that I looked like a threat of some kind and pulled me out to check me. After they discovered that I was indeed not a terrorist threat and allowed me on my way (I think it's the facial hair), I made it on the plane, just barely. Now that's a way to start a day.

I r smert and souport publik educashun.

Dome to Arch

We spent some time yesterday previewing some of the sites in St. Louis for District Leadership Conference in September and of course for NYC in 2007. I walked on the Rams new turf in the dome and toured the "belly" of it. Then we walked all over the city ending at the Arch. It was a good day, but very tiring. We ate lunch at the "9th Street Abbey", an old church that was converted into a restaurant, complete with stained glass. It was kind of neat, but awkward, because it was a church that had closed.

We met some great people who we will be working with at the hotels and convention center/dome.

I now this for sure, I often feel way out of place and like I'm not the perfect fit for this job. But I also know that God has called me here and so I am learning and growing into the role. God help me to know what's best and that I am not alone.

Telling Stories. Throwing Parties. Making Friends. Giving Gifts.

These are the ways that Andrew Jones (Boaz Project) describes his ministry and I love it! Here are some of my thoughts/responses to that.

Telling Stories
I just love this language and it flows out it so many ways in everyday life and ministry. From evangelism to teaching/preaching to friendship this language and mentality just flows in life.

Those of us who grew up in church have long been told that in order to “evangelize” others we need to memorize this formula, or these steps and these few verses, or these spiritual laws. But many of us have balked at this because we don’t ever just present an argument or rationality to our friends. That’s what commercials are for. And if there is something that we believe that much in, we take our friends with us to see it and tell them the stories about it. The idea of just telling our stories is something we all do anyway among our friends and so the permission to tell the stories about how God is working in our lives, in our strengths and weaknesses, is so refreshing. There is nothing to memorize here. There are no select verses to memorize, except those that have touched us so deeply that we know them, there are no spiritual laws to argue or prove, there are only our experiences to share. This is how God has touched me. This is how I saw God change me through this. This is how I met someone and did this with them and God was somehow in it. We can’t be wrong in telling our stories, because they are ours. We can’t be wrong in explaining to someone how God changed us, because we are the only ones who really know. This flows better too in the course of all our conversations, in the flow of our normal relationships, in the contexts that we live.

Those of us who have been in ministry that is “professional” in some way have been used to teaching or preaching in certain ways. We take classes on it. We go to conferences and workshops on it. Most of these teach us to find within a text 3-5 main “points” or concepts that we can draw out and show people. These are answers to the many problems of life and are centered mainly on myself and how my life can be better. Often everything else in the service and in the sermon itself are secondary to these points or concepts. If you think about most normal North American worship services they are gear up for and point to the sermon and the points. The stories and jokes and even the Scriptures themselves are secondary to the points. But if we were to change our paradigm from teaching/preaching points to telling stories, we would approach everything differently. Instead of pulling out three points that I can apply to my life, I would try to find myself within the story of Scripture itself. What is God trying to do in this story? What is God trying to do in me through this story? The focus moves from me to God. And the pressure is much less too. Can you imagine trying to hit a home run each week with 3-5 effective points that will change someone’s life and answer all their questions? Isn’t easier to be honest about the story, to tell the story, to struggle with each other about the story and where we find ourselves in the story… and it’s a story that has already been written and proven living and active!

Next time... throwing parties

Greatest blog ever???

This is a commercial long in coming, but I hope you've noticed that new link to your right for my wife, Carol's new blog. It has tons of pics and is really great. She is honest and open - the perfect blogging personality!

Office Space

While I am very NOT used to the corporate life, I have been fully indoctrinated as of late. I feel a bit like I've been transported to the world that I only used to read and laugh about in Dilbert comics. It's not really that bad, but sometimes you just think... uh, is this REALLY happening?

(Before I continue, if you have at all been wondering if I'm ever going to post some thoughts, as promised long ago, on "telling stories, throwing parties, making friends and giving gifts" that should begin tomorrow, if you haven't, then this is only a commercial!)

For example... I've been officially hired for a "temporary" position that will last over two years. Therefore the space that they've transformed into my office has been labeled temporary as well. In this same time that they've hired me, but before we moved into the office, they announced that in two years time they will be moving headquarters to another location. Pay attention, here's where it gets batty - we cannot hang anything on the walls of the office because its a temporary office and therefore we cannot alter the space or put any holes in the wall. In the words of my good friend and Jedi warrior, David Rebello, "Nice!"

Or this one, we had an all office lunch today. All of the NYI office staff were invited out to lunch. Before we went they gave us some options from which to choose so they could pre-arrange things. No problem, I understand that I think. So when we got to the restaurant they didn't seem to know where the orders we had faxed were. They tracked down the sheet and brought it out to us, but they had clearly not prepared anything ahead of time, etc. So instead of just going around and asking what each of us ordered, we had one person look at the list and try to figure out what each person had ordered. So he would ask you, did you order the number 5? yes you'd say, then he'd tell the waiter, "he ordered the number 5." And so on. Hmmm. (But I do not want to be down on the lunch or on going out to lunch. It was a good lunch with good people and I'm all for offices getting together for good and fun times... and if it happens to be paid for by them I would count that good too!)

I do like the people I work with a lot, so I praise God for that everyday. God is at work here there is no doubt, my prayer is that he would somehow use this goofy short white boy for his Kingdom. Cuz' he's the only one who could.

The Bus I never rode...

Things are moving along. Jahred and Meg started school and we live pretty close. They sometimes walk with their mom to school. That's just like me when I was growing up. Our school was right down the street. Because of this, I never rode the school bus. The only time was on field trips. Now that I'm "all grown up", I'm riding the bus. Here's a picture of the bus. But I start by getting on a short bus. I don't wear a helmet or anything though. Today my short bus was running late (our driver is not so good - she forgets the route a lot. Today she forgot a turn and had to go around a block), so I missed me big bus like in the picture. Therefore, I was a little late to work. I'm starting to figure it all out though. Man am I dumb.

Some VERY important updates

It has been a while since I've really filled everyone in on some of the greatest and best moments of our move thus far. A lot of gloom and doom lately, so I wanted to share some other things with you all.

First, today... I rode the bus to work which was fine, but I tried to get on the right bus- but going the wrong way - at my connection and so I was a bit late for work. No big deal though. I learned, but it was a bit humorous to me. Thanks to the nice bus driver for getting me in the right spot.

Second, and you won't believe this one even though it is true, on our move out here we had to stop at this truck stop/gas station off of I-70 just west of Indianapolis so that the fine truck of moving love would stopping beeping at me because it was below a 1/4 tank. As I'm standing there pumping gas, who would come out of the station with a soda in hand but none other than the world famous Rupert from Survivor! So I'm checking him out and saying to myself, is that really him? but of course it was because no one else in the world looks like that all the time. So I call Carol, who was in the Eurovan parked down a ways, and tell her. Now it should be noted that Carol is also a HUGE Survivor fan and was quite excited. She tries to casually "drive by" and see him, but once he saw me get out my phone he got in his car with his friends and then pulled away. I tried to get a picture with my phone, but it would not come out because I was too far away. So we saw 31 other yellow Ryder trucks on our move and had one Rupert sighting... awesome.

Third, you have to see this to believe it. I was visiting this church on Sunday night and saw this sign in the foyer outside the worship space. There has got to be a story behind this. Somewhere there is a proud youth pastor who knows that this sign exists solely because of a game he played one night. Brilliant! I do not have any signs in Bel Air because of me. A couple policies perhaps, but no signs. Bummer.

"Normal" Day

Well we had a "normal" day in our new home. We didn't really have anything to do, anywhere to be, etc, etc. It wasn't so great to be honest. Not because we are always wanting something to do, but because it was a bit of a reminder that we don't really have any friends here yet. It was tough. We miss our Maryland friends very much. So, I'm writing this, not so much for people to feel sorry for us, but just to be honest about where we are. I know that many are praying for us and we feel their prayers and God's presence. Enough being a bummer...

This afternoon I went to get my haircut and couldn't find a real barber shop open, so I had to go to "Great Clips" or something. So I had some strange woman cut my hair. It's just weird. And she didn't do a very good job. But I feel lighter.

I Love the DMV!

I'm trying to think of the things that I love, I mean, really love. There is my wife, my kids,... and waiting in line after line after line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Go to this office and wait in line for your Driver's License - how fun! Now go to this place and have your vehicle inspected - Yee-haa! Now go over here and wait in line for us to call your number, have said number called only for them to tell you to go sit back down and wait for another person to call said number - the excitement only builds. Finally have your number called after much waiting, sitting, staring at strangers while on uncomfy seats - WHOOO HOOO! Add to that, every stop includes and special little ceremony where you get out this little book you have and write some things on a page and sign your autograph before tearing it out and giving it to them while adjusting some other numbers in the same little book - this is a party waiting to happen!!!

I think that my tiredness might be causing a new level of cynicism and sarcasm.

Tomorrow I'll start working on not complaining anymore for petty things in my life.

God's Involved Here

While I'm feeling quite overwhelmed at my position and the growing realization of what all this job entails, I'm realizing something else that's really great: God is already at work. While I believe that is true everywhere, it has been awesome to discover it here as we work on NYC together. From the people that he has brought together to the kinds of ways that we are connecting in the vision for the event, to the little coincidences (moments where you say, "It's almost like there's something else out there helping us"), we know that God is here. How awesome!

If you think of us pray for us and for the students who we are trying to reach, change and love with Jesus! Check us out at www.waterfirewind.com.

Commercial over.

Stop mocking God

This post comes out of some discussion with my brother, Kevin, (thanks bro for great conversation!) about a verse in Romans 6 where Paul talks about living like we've been brought from death to life. The question of discussion is, "do I live as though I were once dead, but now am alive?"

This also ties into a conversation we had on our High School mission trip a couple of weeks ago. We were sharing stories and some of the stories were more "dramatic" stories of death to life than others. These stories left some of those who had never "strayed too far" wondering if their faith or their relationship with Christ would be stronger or better if they had also done similar things. While I do believe every one has to find his/her own way, I also believe that the reason some of us feel like we haven't ever "strayed far" is because of this talk that some sins don't really matter or at least not as much.

I think the clarifying point for me is that we have all sinned. To trivialize "smaller" sins is to mock God's grace and his holiness. We do this all the time through teaching people that little "white" lies are no big deal, cheating is okay, obesity and gluttony are fine, hospitality is an option, etc, etc. I want to be clear that I'm not trying to lean back into legalism, but I do think that there is something to be said for realizing how far we are from God and how far his grace extends even to those of us who have grown up in the church and not really gone crazy with drunkness, orgies and the like.

For me when I begin to realize how far I am from God's holiness even when I'm trying, it makes me realize how great his love truly is for us, how far his grace extends and how much his Spirit can change us - from the inside out. This kind of life of embracing God's grace to me leads us to freedom and far from the fear that seems to dominate our culture, our decisions and our futures.

Hit the ground... running

We've certainly hit the ground. And I'm certainly running. I feel both of those. Overall things are going well though. Our NYC office is together. I hired two assistants and they both are sharp. I think it will work out well. They both come out of the Billy Graham crusade work, so they have large event experience.

Our family is doing pretty well. The kids are starting to just bug at each other, but that's expected with all the transition. They are starting to try to open boxes on their own in search of toys - needless to say that is not so good.

We appreciate your continued prayers. My parents should be here tonight and so that will be a big help!

KC Sunshine Band

We are here. I am tired. My wife is tired. My kids are tired. My van is tired. I don't know about the truck I was driving, but as far as I'm concerned, the sooner our relationship is over, the better.

Here are the low-lights of the travel.
1. Camper door popping open, several times. Losing stuff out of the open door on the expressway.
2. Coming out to a dead battery in our van this morning. We left every attachment in the world plugged into the lighters and then we left another light on and a door cracked. Oops.
3. 7,000 bathroom breaks.

The Jesus sightings:
1. The aforementioned stuff that fell out of our camper, some very, very, very nice truck driver, stopped, picked up, hunted us down and gave them back. Whoever says that there are no good people left in this world: well you're wrong.
2. A nice guy at the hotel this morning giving us a jump so we didn't have to wait 1 hour for AAA.
3. Our kids just loving hotels and pools. It is so funny.

Okay - that's all for now - dinner and sleep are calling.

Numb update

Well, we've returned from our mission trip to Elizabeth (awesome with lots of great moments, laughter, stories, gift giving and more) which I will update you on in the future. In the meantime click here for some pics.

We also have had our last service in Bel Air, which was really great and really sad too. We did celebrate though, all that God has done in our time there. He is so great! I'll update on that too this week sometime.

In the meantime I am sitting in a dark hotel room in St. Clairsville, Ohio as we are moving all of our things to our new home in Olathe, Kansas. Everyone is asleep and I'm catching up on a few emails and posts. Now it is my time to sleep too and so if you're checking in... good night and thanks for the prayers that have been said and will be said especially in these few days of travel.

God is awesome.

Mission trip day 3. Here we are adding more sheet rock and really getting things rolling. We really started moving this day. It was great to see people start to get the hang of it all and then to begin to do stuff on their own.

We also had a great day with Drew. He was helping Jim Wood run the wiring for the air conditioning and heating unit. They ran it, then they realized it was the wrong wire for that system, so they pulled it all, then they realized they did need to use it, so they had to re-run it. Drew was so happy. This is a great shot of Drew when he is about to kill someone with joy, coming out from under the stage.

That night we had a celebration. There was more food there than we could possibly eat. Pastor Bello brought out his accordian and led us in some songs. Pastor Brian Kido, who is the pastor of the Japanese Nazarene Church and the Metro NY district work and witness coordinator, and his family were there too. So we sang songs in Japanese, English and Spanish. Pretty cool.

Mission Trip day 2. This is Matt and Dayne and our first piece of finished dry wall! It was a good first day with many great stories, but mostly it was about beginning - friendships (some rocky) and work (a lot rocky that first day).

God is so good and present all the time. It's amazing when we give him everything and commit ourselves to him how he works through even our weaknesses and our stumbles and brings about goodness. By the end of work this day he had done the same!

Day 1 of mission trip. Here we are Sunday morning visiting with the Paterson Spanish church where we worked last year. It was a great morning of worship with much singing, celebration, dancing (conga line), and of course food! I preached that morning on Living Water in a room that was about 1000 degrees and everyone was hot and thirst. That might have been the work of the Holy Spirit, or the devil, I'm still not sure which.

Then we headed to Elizabeth for their evening worship service. It was a great day and included us getting a bit turned around in Paterson and a lovely scenic tour of the town. [Did I mention that Paterson is the town where the movie with Samuel Jackson as High School principal who locked the doors of the school to keep the drugs out is based on?]

Here we are shopping for our food before mission trip. This is that crazy Rebecca Steelman. Our High School group is going to Elizabeth, New Jersey Spanish Nazarene Church to help them re-do their fellowship hall. It's going to be great! All prayers would be appreciated! 

Youth workers unite - tonight

We had our last youth worker's meeting tonight at Bel Air. It was cool and tough at the same time. Probably what I expected that way. We ate together did a few nuts and bolts and then we just sat around and told stories! How great is that. Some highlights:
- The ski retreat when I said to all the adults on the trip at the beginning, "Whatever you do... don't get hurt." I then proceeded to run into a tree and sustain a concussion among some other injuries.
- The houseboat trip when Carol had just found out she was pregnant and I was driving the ski boat while she was tubing... then I launched her off this wave into the stratosphere - she got great air!! - and then having to pull her out of the water and have her almost kill me.
- The spring Middle School retreat when we were all outside at night in the woods, gathered round, the stars were out, the bugs were chirping - just nature sounds and us and God. I start telling them to focus on God and his creation and enjoy it and just listen - then this tractor trailer goes down the road somewhere near by - HONK! HONK! - Tony Steelman, one of our key leaders, starts laughing and just can't stop. So much for that God moment...
- The houseboat trip when some kids snuck off in the woods - of a state park in the middle of a drought summer - and let off some fireworks (which they were not supposed to bring and they all knew it). Then the rangers came buy and threatened us with at $50,000 fine and the confiscation of the houseboats which we were renting. Luckily they had mercy.
- Of the time I was filling on the softball team, playing second base, trying to help the team get their first win of the season and I let a ball go by that I should have gotten to that kept us from going into extra innings - and then I said a lot of Christian cuss words and threw a mini-sports-related-tantrum. Great pastor! Great witness! (When I am weak...)

And on and on! What a great night. Thank you God for surrounding me with great people and great friends! I'm going to miss them like crazy.

Great groovy day! I preached in the 3 services in the morning, then we went to dinner with our awesome neighbor, Mickey! This picture is from dinner at Applebee's as taken by my daughter Meg who is 7! Then I had a mission trip meeting (we leave on Sunday morning) and then went to the get together at the Stanfords with some of the high school kids. Cool! 

Where has all the passion gone?

It's amazing how people forget about passion. Have you noticed how many people are just living life... getting by... putting up with themselves and their jobs and their lives for what?

They've forgotten their passion. Remember the passion you had as a child? Remember how much you played and loved and cried and just lived life?!? What happened to that?

One of the things that I believe is that people lose passion because the things that they've chosen to follow aren't really worth being passionate about. Possessions - all get old and fall apart or go out of style or need upgraded. Sex and image - bodies age, people are more than their physicality, hearts can only be given away so many time. Whatever else it might be, it's just simply not worth being passionate about. Except one thing: Jesus.

What does it mean to really follow Jesus? It’s more than finding him. It’s more than knowing about him. It’s more than seeing him. It’s about experiencing him.

Following Jesus is about following the one who leads us to the unknown, the uncomfortable, to the place where there is wonder and mystery – to a way of life that loves in the craziest, most uncontrollable and wonderful ways; beyond hurt, beyond explanation, beyond self and into revolution.

That is worth being passionate about.

Great 4th Weekend - with a suprise, top-secret new fireworks watching location

We have some great friends and we have some great times together! Here are some highlights from our weekend:

Our friends Josh and Aubrey from York, PA came down on Saturday evening and we had a good time grilling, talking, playing with kids and of course eating! We just love to be with friends, especially when they come over and don't even seem to notice the giant mess of our house as we are packing.

Sunday morning was a great morning at church as Pastor Nikolai spoke in morning services. He's a pastor from Bulgaria that we are partnering with for the next couple years (at least). The Bel Air Church sent a team there in March of this year and will be heading back next August. This kind of missional partnering is so much better than the one and done deal. Its so much more in line with biblical relationships, long term difference making and just good old fashioned friendship.

Sunday afternoon we went to Jeff and Anita and Hannah Good's house. We swam in their pool and ate their food. Cool people- Jeff and Anita and Hannah.

We started the 4th off with the guys (Jahred, Isaiah and me) meeting up with our friend David Rebello and he opened up the construction yard where his dad works so we could play. Awesome. I got to drive this giant forklift and was going to do great things with it, but I stalled it out and then it had some trouble on the re-start.

With testosterone blazing we picked up the Hull gals and headed to our church picnic where we ate more food and did some frog catching and game playing.

Then we cruised home for a siesta (yeah!!!) and some down time before heading out to the world famous, internationally renowned Bel Air 4th of July parade. The good news and bad news about the parade can be summed up as follows - if needed our county has lots of fire trucks!

Then on to ice cream, grab a pizza pie and then headed back downtown for some fireworks! Bel Air always puts on a fine 4th of July display and they did not disappoint this year either. We found a GREAT and top-secret spot to watch them too. It's so great that we saw them all and were close enough to feel them. It's so secret that there was only 4 other people there around us watching the fireworks. In fact, it's so great and top-secret (with great parking and no crowds and no crazies) that if I weren't leaving I wouldn't tell anyone, so that we could go again and be the heroes who show only our friends the greatest spot ever. But because I'm leaving and am a particularly good American (in the spirit of celebrating our country), I'll be happy to reveal the top-secret location of the best fireworks watching spot ever to whoever either gives me the most money or the best sob-story about why I should let them in on my secret.

Let the bidding begin now!

Some Highlights and Reflections

from our time at General NYI Convention and Assembly in Indianapolis...

- the intangilbe conversations and run-ins - when you're there you run into people that you haven't seen or thought about for a long time. You also get to hook up with some people who you never see, but might talk to from time to time. We ran into my freshmen year roomate and his wife, Chris and Bridget Riggs. Cool. They have a new baby. Cool. there were lots of others too!

- The emergent conversation - one of our first nights there (they've all blurred together at this point) we got a bunch of folks together (okay it was like 15) and just spent some time talking about emergent kinds of things. It was great. We didn't solve world hunger or anything, but just to be together, know you're not alone and to have the conversations was terrific. I had several comments after too about how good it was to be together in that way. We must do it again wherever and whenever we can!!

- Worshipping from people the world over - how cool to worship with people from all over the world - the same God, his grace and love, that has changed us all! I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Cool too that we worshipped some in Spanish and some in English. That was just great for me personally.

- Stories - it was so great to hear story after story of people and how God had grabbed them with his love in Christ and changed them.

- Increasing openness - not only was it good to be with folks from around the world, but there was this over-riding sense (at least at the youth convention) of the necessity to expand ourselves even more. We passed a resolution to make it a priority to find ways to involve people who can't make it physically to the convention to still be able to be a part of the discussion and voting. It's kind of a "duh" moment, but it is absolutely the right thing to do and we needed to lead the way on it and we did! Yeah!!!

- Family time - it was good to see my parents and my oldest brother, Steve and his family. There's just something about family...

- Taekwondo team - this church from Korea uses their school to reach kids and teens for Christ! It's awesome. They all have this logo with crosses on the back of their uniform and the master has the Church of the Nazarene logo on the back of his. The coolest thing they did was run and jump off someone else and kick a piece of fruit that someone was holding (while standing on someone else's shoulders) and spray it all over the audience. Awesome. It was also cool how they yelled and broke boards and got the crowd into it.

Here is the house that we are in the process of buying! Kind of crazy, owning a home and all. I know most of you probably don't care, but we really do!  

A few things brewing

It's 12:30am and time for a quick update before some much needed sleep...

Friday
5pm - NYI global convention ends
9pm - rocking with friends by the canal
Saturday
8am - heading to KC to look at houses
4pm - arrive KC and look at many houses in short time period
Sunday
9am re-look at house we really like then look at some more houses
3pm put in offer on house we really like and then head for Indy
9pm after some back and forth banter agree to terms on house we really like!
12am arrive back in Indy

tomorrow - meetings until 3 and then head back to Bel Air

we are perhaps a bit too busy

busy little bees

Wow have we been busy! Some quick highlights for Carol and the kids - swimming with my parents, the zoo, the children's museum, riding the train in the exhibit hall. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about events at the same time as connecting with people and doing delegate stuff (translation: sitting in meetings).

I've had a great time this week with Kevin Snow and I'm really realizing how much I'm going to miss my good friend from this district. He's just great to be around, great conversation and a great friend.

But the highlight of my week so far was an emergent conversation last night at The Ram. There were about 15 of us and we just spent some time discussing how emerging and postmodern issues effect us as Wesleyan/Nazarenes and what we can do to change some of how our church is responding. There was great conversation and I think a lot of us were really encouraged by the participation and the thoughts. We are realizing that we really need to do more of this and that we need to spend some time focusing on moving forward together so that we can accomplish some things. I'll spend some time on some of this sometime soon here on my blog.

What a great thing to be together and to worship and pray together with peoples from around the world!