Albums I Enjoyed In 2009

Well, here comes all the year-end best of lists. I've decided this year not to rank my favorites of 2009, but just list them out. Here are the albums I enjoyed the most in 2009:

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

Sherwood - Qu

David Crowder Band - Church Music

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Phil Danyew - Danyew EP

Jars Of Clay - Long Fall Back To Earth

Paper Route - Absence

Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane

Owl City - Ocean Eyes

Weezer - Raditude

Phil Wickham - Heaven and Earth

Kristian Stanfill - Attention

I Fought The Law...

So every once in awhile in my life I've been kind of hounded by law enforcement. Sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it isn't. I guess it's time for it to happen again, because I received a ticket on my car for "expired plates." The interesting thing is that the tags say they expire Dec-09 which to me means they're good until the end of December. But oh no, not in the state of Ohio. It means they're good until your birthday, which in my case is December 3rd. I of course didn't know this because I don't know anyone in law enforcement, and the government did not send me anything letting me know that this new law had taken effect.

It reminds me of my last run-in, when I lived in Dallas and I received a letter saying my license was going to be suspended because of something that happened in Arizona. So I called Arizona and after several tries, I finally found out that I had a ticket in Mississippi that I never paid for, so they were suspending a license I never had in Arizona which meant that Texas was going to suspend my Texas license.

I have never been to Mississippi. I wonder if it was the Owl City guy back then? Because now I get confused with him, so maybe he messed my life up back then. Of course he would have only been like thirteen or fourteen or something like that. But it could have happened.

After paying a fine for something I didn't do, my license was reinstated and it was all good.

The time before that, I was interning in Arizona and couldn't get back to Colorado to renew my license because I was having brain surgery. Guess what happened when I got back to Colorado? The police had set up one of those drunk driving stops where they pull everyone to the side of the road to make sure no one is drunk. I wasn't drunk, but I did have an expired license. So I had to call my grandparents to come and get me, because my explanation, even showing the officer my shaved head and my scar, didn't get me anywhere.

So I wonder what will happen when I go to court to fight this ticket? The law will win, and I will be out 150 bucks. Merry Christmas to me.

Is Social Media A Fad?

Thanks to Kem Meyer's blog, I found a very interesting video on social media. I'm thinking about the possible ramifications social media has on the church and how we do things and "market" ourselves, but for now, here's just the video.

REVIEW:The Search For God And Guinness

So I'm part of this cool "we'll give you a free book if you post a review in your blog" dealy-o with Thomas Nelson Publishers. The first book I picked was something that immediately piqued my interest - a book about the Guinness brewery. It has been a dream of mine for some time to take a trip to Ireland, and one of the places I would definitely visit is the place where Guinness is brewed. I don't drink very often - and at my latest position, I had to sign something that stated I wouldn't - but I've always liked the way Guinness tasted and have had a few of them in my life.

It's interesting because a few months ago I was having a "conversation" online on a message board about a story I had heard concerning Guinness - that the founder of Guinness looked around his Dublin neighborhoods and saw fathers who were drinking away their money rather than spending it on their families, so he decided to create a drink that would be good for them, be filling so that they only spent a little on alcohol and that they would support their families. The problem in this conversation was determining the validity of this story: googling it produced nothing, so we assumed that since we couldn't find any sources denying it, that it must be true.

It's not. That's one of the first things you discover reading The Search For God And Guinness. Which for me was kind of disappointing; after all, we all love good stories, especially those heart-warming stories about incredible people (not to mention it's always a good thing when you can find some justification for drinking a beer: "Hey, I'm drinking Guinness because it will fill me up and I won't spend as much money on beer.")

However, The Search For God And Guinness is a fascinating tale of the Guinness brewery and the family who founded it: starting with Arthur Guinness, who was quite the man. Although generations of the Guinness family grew the company to what it is today (a beer empire), it was Arthur Guinness' vision that started the whole ball rolling.

To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of Guinness was the way from the beginning the company took care of its employees. These days (well, maybe not so much "these days", since a lot of companies are cutting health care benefits and other things because of the economy, so let's say "in recent times"), we take it for granted that a company would want to take care of those who work for it, but back in the early days of Guinness, that was a rarity. Arthur Guinness understood that if he wanted his employees to work hard and be loyal to his company, he had to provide them with benefits that would keep them happy and their families taken care of.

Guinness also not only cared for its own employees, but also for the community around the brewery. Arthur Guinness started the first Sunday School program for kids in Dublin, which showed how religion played an important part in his life. Several of the Guinness family throughout the ages have decided to forgo the brewery business to enter in the ministry, and church was a staple in most of the Guinness families' lives.

Another fascinating part of this book was the description of the life of Dr. John Lumsden, who was brought on board as the chief medical officer. Lumsden was a man of deep conviction and compassion and helped improved not only the lives of the Guinness worker and family, but also the lives of the underprivileged and poor of Dublin. He was the one who urged the Guinness brewery to champion the cause of the poor and needy. The amazing thing was not only the compassion of this man, but also that the leaders of Guinness decided to do it! From the book:

It is a tribute to the enduring benevolence of the Guinness firm that the board that convened in 1901 was eager to follow Dr. Lumsden's suggestions. It might have been otherwise...They might have felt themselves bullied and manipulated by this upstart, this fresh-faced young doctor with his novel ideas of corporate duties to the poor...instead, they threw themselves into the vision Lumsden had set.

Lumsden offered nine suggestions for improving workers' lives:

1. Technical education for the younger generation
2. Popular lectures of educational value
3. A program of athletics and exercise
4. Literature encouraging hygiene and the prevention of disease
5. Courses in cooking for mothers and young women
6. Education regarding the feeding of infants
7. Recreational opportunities in the form of concerts or social
8. Opportunities for management and laborers to meet and socialize
9. Housing

Like most biography type books, there were certain sections that I felt were a little too detailed, but for the most part The Search For God And Guinness kept me intrigued throughout the book. Here were two issues that I think resonated with me the most:

1. Corporate Responsibility

In today's age, with all of the corporate scandals and greed, and the ever-increasing gap between the CEO and the workers under that CEO, it's refreshing to read about a company who cared for the well-being and development of its workers over making money. We all understand that a company's main focus is to make money, no one is debating that. But to make money at the "expense" of the workers who are making it happen is a travesty. Now, I know that there are many "secular" companies who are doing good things for their workers, and good things for the community and such - however, we mostly only read about the "bad stories", after all bad sells (Enron-World Com-nameyourmessedupcompanyhere). However, I believe a generation is being raised up right now of people who are demanding that companies exist for more than just the bottom line: the almight dollar. And they aren't just demanding it, they are using their buying power to make changes. I think we will see this movement grow throughout the next decade, and it would be beneficial for corporations to look in the past and see what the Guinness brewery did and emulate their corporate responsibility code.

2. The Divide Between "Secular" and "Sacred"

Guinness helped break down the wall between secular and sacred by showing that a person didn't have to be a minister or a missionary to make a difference spiritually in the lives of people. Good things can happen outside of the walls of a church, it can even happen inside a brewery (gasp!). Stephen Mansfield, the author, showed his distaste of other biographies on Guinness, because too often they branched the Guinness family into three groups: the brewery Guinness family, the banking Guinness family, and the God-following Guinness family. To do so, argues Mansfield, is to lessen the impact that the other branches (brewery and banking) had spiritually as well. This type of thinking is one of the reasons why we as ministers feel like we have to do everything in a church: because our people don't recognize (either because we've told them or because that's their expectation) that no matter what they do as a career, it can be used for God.

I really enjoyed this book and it gave me new appreciation for the lasting impact a company, even a brewery, can have on the world. My hope and prayer is that we will see more companies take the example of Guinness and show more corporate responsibility towards its employees and the community around it.

Three Halloweens.

I have to admit, I haven't really even thought about my blog in more than a month. It's been hard finding time to write down thoughts, let alone think them! Hopefully I'll be able to spend more time here in the next few weeks as 2009 winds down. I'm sure at least one new post will be a reflection on this past year and how crazy it has been. On Halloween, I thought about the last three October 31sts and how different each one was:

10/31/07 - On the very day of Halloween, I had sent out my resignation letter to the elders and staff of the church I was working at in Springboro to let them know that I had accepted an opportunity to plant a church in my home state of Colorado. I remember I was a little nervous about going trick or treating in a certain neighborhood because I wasn't sure if I was going to run into one of the staff or elders and didn't know if they received the letter or not. I didn't really want to have one of those awkward conversations while my daughter was wanting to get more candy from other houses. Thankfully it didn't happen. I remember being very excited about the chance to return "home," if you will. I had regretted leaving Colorado when we did in 2000, and I thought this was a chance to stay in Colorado for the rest of my life. Little did I know that on...

10/31/08 - I was planning on moving back to Ohio. 2008 was even wackier than this year was. We moved back to Colorado and the entire year we were there, we never felt any stability or reassurance that we were supposed to be there. By the time Halloween had rolled around, we had decided to move back. Our house had never sold, my position at the church plant had been reduced to part time, and to be honest we were discouraged because we wrongly assumed that we would be welcomed back to Colorado with open arms. We wrongly assumed that the people whose lives we had touched and impacted over the years we served at my home church in Colorado would be interested in us being back and would want to help support us - if not financially, at least by encouraging us. That did not happen for the most part. And yes, I am still bitter and trying to let that go. The night of Halloween I was with my brother because my family was already back in Ohio, so we ended up going to a U2 tribute band concert, which took my mind off what I had been struggling with during the time (besides the bitterness I just mentioned). I was moving back without knowing what I was going to be doing. I was getting burned out on ministry and churches, so I wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to continue doing. I was angry and confused.

10/31/09 - A year later, I can look back and see God's plan, at least part of it. I still don't fully understand why we moved away from Ohio, but we have seen God bring us through this year with much blessing and we are thankful to be back where we are supposed to be, in Ohio. We got to move back into the house we love. Our family got to be back together again (we were apart for 5 months in late 2007/2008). We found a great church to do ministry in again. We were able to reconnect with many of our friends we had developed relationships with in Ohio. Through generous people here in Ohio, as well as a family member, we survived not having a job for four months relatively unscathed (although we are still feeling the financial effects of paying for most of our ministry expenses in Colorado with our own credit card and then only getting reimbursed for a fourth of it, which was not what was promised).

Three Halloweens. Three entirely different situations. We have learned our lesson and are growing roots where God has planted us - here in Ohio. We look forward to another year of stability and growth.

Advent Conspiracy

I love the above graphic - it illustrates how we have turned a special day to honor the birth of Jesus into a marketing tool to buy a lot of crap we don't need.

For more information on Advent Conspiracy, go here.

Forgotten God

I cannot wait...

to see this movie. I loved the book as a kid. I love Spike Jonze. I can't wait.

Climate Change Is Real. What Are The Implications For Christians?

"Too often my environmentally concerned friends are right. But as so many species slide closer to extinction, the rare species known variously as Christianus environmentalis or Disciplos verde is making a comeback. As songwriter Bruce Cockburn said, 'May their gene pool increase.' I don't doubt that this love for creation will be a hallmark of the emerging generous orthodoxy. My friend Melanie Griffin, national program director of the Sierra Club, says it like this: 'In the past few years, we've seen a big increase in the number of Christians involved in actively protecting creation. They are leading stream cleanups, giving sermons about creation care, and jumping into the public policy arena. Christians bring a special energy and spirit to environmental work.'"

- Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy

Let's be frank. Climate change is real.

I've heard all the arguments against there being an increasing dangerous level of climate change. (And if I hear one more joke about global warming on cold days in church, I might go insane. People, global warming is a dead phrase.) The fact is, we as humans are disrupting our environment. We humans through "progress" are polluting our world, destroying our forests, killing our animal species, and more.

More and more reports are coming out of scientific communities concerning climate change. You can read about the latest report here.

So, it's not really debatable. So stop arguing against the facts, and start thinking about what you can do!

And what is the Christian response? Can we as Christians look past the political ramifications of deciding to do something about climate change?

If you believe - as I do - that one of the responsibilities God has given to humans - going all the way back to Genesis - is to take care of the earth and what's on the earth - shouldn't our response be to fight climate change? Shouldn't it be to do our best to reduce our carbon footprint in the world, to choose carefully what we drive or purchase, to lead the charge to care for creation? After all, we are the ones who believe God is the one who created everything. Let's stop arguing whether or not climate change is happening, and let's start doing something about it.

To learn more how you can help take care of creation, go to the Creation Care website.

-------

I'm glad I heard that the blogging world is blogging about this today.

The Advent Conspiracy

This sounds really really good. Doing something different than the usual consumer stuff.

My prayer life stinks.

Pete Wilson, a pastor at Crosspoint Church in TN, has a great blog post about how his prayer life stinks.

I think most churchgoers would assume that pastors spend hours a day praying. For the most part, probably not true.

I know I don't. I pray, I have devotional time most days - but I certainly don't pray like I depend on God for His strength and guidance throughout the day. I wonder if I prayed more, would I be more proactive and less reactive throughout the day? Would I be more focused on Kingdom issues and less focused on what's coming up on Sunday morning? Would I get more accomplished by doing less?

Who knows. I do know that I need to pray more.

A Million Miles

Here are the first 30 pages of Donald Miller's new book. Enjoy!

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller

An Ocean Of Grief

Be forewarned...this post is probably going to be pretty raw and unfiltered. So FYI.

--

A 93 year old man and a 7 month old girl died this past week.

The 93 year old man was named Norman. He was a faithful attender at the church I work at. His first wife died of cancer in 1992 I believe, and he re-married in 2001. From what I was told, his last eight years of his life were his best.

The 7 month old girl was named Caitlyn. Her mother was a student in my first youth ministry at my home church in Colorado. I can not even begin to describe the amount of time that I have spent with her over the years - face-to-face, emails, letters, etc. She was one of those students who always had problems and situations in her life. When I left for Dallas, she was still in high school and went off the deep end for awhile and her life was a mess. She started getting her life back together when her first daughter was born, and last year when I was in Colorado I had the opportunity to spend time with her and with her husband and attempt to help them through the difficulties in their marriage. When she found out she was pregnant, she was extremely excited, but I remember wondering if that was so great of a thing because I wasn't sure she was ready to face being a mother of two children.

I never got to meet Caitlyn, but I know she was a joy to be with. Her mother's facebook updates and messages to me were filled with statements of how wonderful she was.

She died Friday night in a tragic crib accident staying with her grandparents on her dad's side. The funeral is this Wednesday.

Even though I didn't know her, the tragedy of her death and the addition of one more thing in her mother's already hard life reminded me of my own mom's hard life and this floodgate of emotion opened up in me last night and this morning. I don't know if you have ever felt like your heart was literally breaking in two, but that's what it felt like to me. I'm writing this post because I'm afraid that if I don't talk about it now, that I'll repress it all back in again and something else will happen and the flood will begin again.

I think I have these huge cracks in my heart that I've attempted to fix myself with glue that doesn't last. I remember in college, my mother's death hit me all of a sudden in the middle of my junior year (three years after she died), and I thought I would never recover. Unfortunately, at a Christian college you're supposed to act like you have it all together, so I just shoved the pain back in and bandaged up the wound and put on a fake smile and kept on moving.

This morning, as I sat in Starbucks drinking coffee and waiting to film one of our church members doing their job at Kroger, I penned these words in my journal:

And I'm stranded on this island in an ocean of grief
So won't You be the one to rescue me?
Will you be the one to rescue me?

And I'm hanging by this thread of my own insecurity
So won't You be the one to rescue me?
Will you be the one to rescue me?

I haven't written a song in ten years, but those words are starting to sound like one.

When I filmed the church member this morning, I almost lost it again. This particular church member is mentally challenged and it opened up some questions in my mind that I've wrestled with for a long time. Questions like

I understand that disease and disabilities and the like are the result of the Fall, but why are those things seemingly so random?

If my heart feels like it's breaking with the weight of my grief and my unanswered questions and situations from my life, how can You God deal with the weight of the entire world's grief? (this is a proof that I use in the evidence against God when I have my doubts.)

I've had my own near-death experiences (brain tumor), and I've experienced the pain of seeing someone you love almost die (my daughter when she fractured her skull) and succumb to death (my mom), and as I grow older nothing is easier and nothing is dealt with and I'm afraid that one day something will happen and I will become so numb from it all that I'll have a nervous breakdown and give up.

But for now, I still have faith.

The Office Intro

Wow, so I never post in here anymore. I'm extremely busy at work and home...well, let's just say I have a ton of things to do at home as well.

Here is a video that we showed this past Sunday. We are doing a message series called The Office, and we wanted to do a fun intro like the beginning of the T.V. show, but show our own church people working at their jobs. I thought it turned out really well, so here is the first one, with more to follow.

Office Intro 082309 (without names) from Miamisburg Christian Church on Vimeo.

God On Mute Quotes

The revelation of God's love - the tears in His eyes - may not solve any of our intellectual questions about why He leaves a particular prayer unanswered. (In many ways, the sight of those tears makes His unresponsiveness even harder to comprehend.) But it does touch an emotional need within us that is perhaps even deeper than the intellectual one: the need to know that what we are going through and the way that we are feeling matters; the need to know that our requests have been heard; the need to know that God - in whom we have placed all our hope - is near and He truly cares.

When my deep prayers don't work, I easily default to despair, anger or doubt. Although I believe that God can handle my hang-ups, the truth is that there is only temporary comfort in anger and no hope whatsoever in doubt.

God's voice can so easily be muted by our hurt, our self-hatred or our crazy preconceptions about Who he really is, how He speaks and what we think He will say.

Mark's gospel account of the Garden of Gethsemane event tells us that Jesus used the word Abba to talk to His Father. This is the only time in which Jesus addresses Yahweh as "Abba" (Daddy), and He is doing it at the time of His greatest vulnerability.

first there is
prayer
and where there is prayer there may be
miracles
but where miracles may not be there are
questions
and where there are questions there may be
silence
but silence may be more than
absence silence may be
presence muted
silence may not be
nothing
but something to
explore
defy
accuse
engage
and this is
prayer
and where there is prayer there may yet be
miracles...

Alice In Wonderland Trailer

I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

So I'm reading the above-titled book because we are going to do a message series based on the book at the church I work at.

It's pretty good so far - humorous, insightful and pretty powerful. I liked this quote the best so far:

Perhaps you've had an alias. You've been given other names besides your real one. Could it be that those names have shaped you? Maybe they've left you feeling unlovable, unable to understand how you could possibly be the one Jesus loves.

Well, other people may have told you that you're not worthy much, but the truth is that God wouldn't trade you for anything. In fact, when he set the price tag on you, it was His Son.

And you may be torn and broken. You may still bear the marks of deep wounds. But God is a master at reconstructive surgery.

And perhaps, because of all this, you have difficulty connecting with God. You feel like your prayers bounce back at you off the ceiling. At church other people sing out the worship songs, but you struggle to, not necessarily because you have a bad voice but because the words come from a bad heart. And so you're sure that to God, it's bad music. But no, when God hears you, he moves in tight.

You know why? Because you are his. Because since the beginning of your life, you have belonged to him. He shaped you in your mother's womb and his finger marks are permanently embedded in you.

You are the one Jesus loves.

One Of My Favorite Songs of U2's New Album...

is now in video form. (Unfortunately, the embedding option is not available.)

The Hole In The Gospel

I just bought the book "The Hole In The Gospel" by Richard Stearns, who is the president of World Vision U.S. It's really good so far, this "paraphrase" of that famous Matthew 25 passage has hit me the hardest so far:

"For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved."

Super Joe Retires.

I was hoping for at least one more year out of my favorite player, but Super Joe is making the announcement this week that he's retiring after 20 years of playing in the NHL.

Here are a few facts that make Joe Sakic stand out from the rest:

1) He played for the same team (Quebec-Colorado) for twenty years, his entire career - which is something not a lot of players can say they've done.

2) He owns the record for most playoff overtime goals (eight), which says a lot about his calmness during pressure packed games.

3) He never complained about anything, was always kind and courteous to the fans, and although wasn't the vocal leader some wanted him to be, was definitely the leader out on the ice.

4) It's Super Joe, not Burnaby Joe - as most of those who aren't from Colorado and who are writing accolades and praises of Joe Sakic are calling him.

If you want to see more opinions on the retirement of Super Joe Sakic, you can find them here.

From The Weird Music and Video Files...

I have a penchant for enjoying strange music. I don't listen to strange music all the time; it's just that every once in a while an artist will come around, like Regina Spektor or Joanna Newsome that intrigues me and so I'll go on a weird music marathon.

Enter this month's weird music: Dirty Projectors. Their new album Bitte Orca is amazing. All kinds of weird instruments, weird singing, fuzzy guitars...awesome.

And of course, weird musicians usually think of weird videos. So, here is Dirty Projector's weird video for their weird musical number called "Stillness Is The Move." No, I don't know what the llama is all about, either.

Questions That Heal

This is from Pete Greig's amazing book "God On Mute". If you've ever struggled with unanswered prayer and the feeling that God is distant, you need to read this book.

Questions That Heal

It's interesting to note how many times after his resurrection Jesus introduced Himself to people by asking them questions. Good Friday had left a mess, and Jesus was systematically dealing with the consequences of chaos in the lives of His friends by provoking them to respond to His presence.

Jesus' question for Mary Magdalene, "Why are you crying?" (John 20:13) targeted her pain. His question for the two men on the road to Emmaus, "What are you discussing...Don't you understand?" (Luke 24:17-25) targeted their confusion. His question to the disciples, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?" (Luke 24:38) targeted their crisis of faith. And then He cooked breakfast for Peter and asked him a question that targeted his guilt: "Do you truly love me?" (John 21:15).

The journey through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday will create a mess in your life as well. But Jesus loves you too much to leave you for long in pain, confusion, doubt or a state of unbelief. He wants to help you deal with your disappointments. Perhaps your experiences of unanswered prayer have left you hurting and disorientated like Mary Magdalene. If so, He asks you the question He asked her: "Why are you crying?" So, tell Him! Lament. Rant, if you need to. And when you are done, stop and hear the way He speaks your name.

Maybe your disappointments in prayer have left you confused like those earnest men on the road to Emmaus. If this is the case, don't run away from the questions. Allow Jesus to explain the Scriptures to you by His Spirit. He wants to help you make sense of what you're going through. Study and think. Discuss these matters with friends. Perhaps, as you talk, there will be moments when you realize that Jesus has joined the conversation, just as He did on the road to Emmaus...

Maybe unanswered prayer has created a quiet crisis of faith in your life. Like the disciples, who could hardly believe it when Jesus appeared in their midst, your old confidence in God has been eroded. You are older and wiser, which is good, but you are also suspicious and weary. Imagine Jesus stepping through the locked doors of your heart and asking, "Why are you troubled, and why do you doubt?" Tell Him! You would not be the first, of course, to tell Jesus, "I do believe, help me in my unbelief!"

Or maybe in your journey through disappointment you have occasionally given in to the temptation to sin. Like Peter, you have been scared and said things you should not have said and held your tongue when you should have spoken up. Perhaps you too have sometimes felt like giving up and sinned anonymously with servant girls and strangers. Jesus may seek you out in the things you love to do. After all, that is how He sought Peter - on the beach after a long night of fishing - helping him to confess His love again, once for each denial.

When we suffer, Jesus comes with questions to refine and enhance our humanity. He of all people understands that this process of dealing with the mess created by our disappointments in prayer can hurt terribly. He knows that without His help, we will become bitter not better, and that we will lick our wounds like a dog or curl up in a ball of self-protection like a hedgehog. But if, like Mary, we will continue to worship, even at the grave of everything we ever believed in, our grief will turn to gold. The greatest miracle in the world - greater than any healing or any revelation - is the grace unleashed by a life refined through suffering. It is a grace that was first released when Jesus endured abandonment and death so that Mary Magdalene, and millions since, might receive a living hope that can no longer die.

I miss that bass.

Five Iron Frenzy was a great Christian band that I had connections with on several levels. But I stumbled on this video after not seeing it for a long time, and it reminded me of this really cool bass that we used to have in our youth band in Colorado that we ended up selling to Keith, the bassist from Five Iron Frenzy. You can see the really cool silvery glittery bass in the below video. I don't think it still has all the stickers we put on it though.

Why Hockey Rules.

Why Christians Should Read Fiction

Well, I finished reading "The Dumbest Generation" and it was very informative, interesting and of course, sobering.

One of the main points of the book is that younger generations are descending into an almost "anti-literacy" mindset. This comes in several different forms:

1) The younger generations only read books and periodicals that will keep them in tune and in touch with their own peer groups, i.e. teen magazines, Harry Potter books, etc.

2) The younger generations do not read for the sake of reading (and learning). They will read only what gets them by on a test. They will only read classic literature if they have to in school.

3) The younger generations aren't interesting in learning facts and memorizing historical data; after all, if the information is at a click of a mouse (Wikipedia), why keep that stuff in your head? You can find it just as quickly on the computer.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this topic in the future, but for now, I'll focus on a great article from BreakPoint WorldView magazine on why Christians should read fiction. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians shy away from reading fiction (which the author of this article gives several pushbacks that Christians use), or they read really bad fiction pushed on them (like the Left Behind series). Here are the ten reasons she gives for reading fiction - you can read the descriptions for each in her article.

1. Our view of the world beyond our door widens.

2. We learn empathy as you walk in a character’s different-sized shoes.

3. God uses stories to heal.

4. Fiction unmasks us.

5. God’s redemptive story permeates.

6. Novels allow for paradox, causing us to ask the kinds of questions that help us search for God.

7. Reading novels critically helps us navigate the Scriptures better.

8. Reading a novel connects us to the Creator

9. Reading a novel builds community.

10. Reading stories brings us face to face with Jesus, the grand storyteller.

Baseball Card Generator

I thought this site was kind of fun, you just upload a picture and pick your design and you can make a baseball card of yourself, your kid, your boss, etc.

Have fun!

June 11, 1996

Thirteen years ago today was a very special day for me.

Why?

The Colorado Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup! I had watched the first three games (well, I watched the whole playoffs), but couldn't watch this one. I was listening to the radio when Uwe Krupp scored and I had to stop the car I was driving and run around like a crazy man for a few minutes.

That seems like a long time ago.

Debby and I were not married yet. (We were engaged)
I was a youth minister at my home church.
I was driving a 1988 Ford Bronco II.
I was living in an apartment with a friend of mine near the University of Denver.
My little brother had not graduated from high school yet.

A lot has happened in the last thirteen years, no doubt.

The Dumbest Generation

I'm starting to think that there's a lot of truth to the idea that every generation distrusts the generations younger than them. I remember thinking in college and in my early twenties whenever I had to deal with a crotchety, critical old person, "I will never be like that. I will not think younger people are going to ruin the world."

Well, I'm not exactly old, but I find myself thinking along the same lines as the old people I dealt with at a younger age. I would say at least once a day there is something that happens - whether I'm driving, or in a restaurant, or sad to say, at church - where I think, "Once these kids (read: anyone younger than me) take over the country, we're screwed!"

Of course, I don't have any facts to prove my fatalism towards the younger generations. Now I do.

I picked up a book from the library called The Dumbest Generation, by Mark Bauerlein. In this book, he does use facts to attempt to prove that young people under 30 only excel when it comes to social networking. Everything else they are failing at: reading, working reliably, voting, making decisions, etc.

We'll see if his facts back up his assertion. To be honest, I'm not worried about the generations under me, because I also see evidence to the contrary. Plus, as young people grow older, they will I'm sure become more responsible - just like me, right? Ha! However, this book I'm sure will give some insight as to what the problems are now and what needs to be done to fix them.

Life After God

Douglas Coupland has written a lot of great books, one that even defined my generation, for awhile at least (Generation X).

I checked most of his books out of the library, although I did end up buying one of them, called Life After God. I think I bought this in Arizona when I was in between jobs and didn't know what was next.

Anyway, I love his writing style, and I'm rereading Life After God after finding it in a box the other day. Two quotes have been stuck in my mind all day long:

"And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened."

"Brent then said that humans are the only animal able to feel the pain of sorrow that has stretched out through linear time. He said our curse as humans is that we are trapped in time - our curse is that we are forced interpret life as a sequence of events - a story - and then when we can't figure out what our particular story is we feel lost somehow. 'Dogs only have a present-tense in their lives,' he continued. 'Their memories are like those carved ice swans you see at weddings, that look good but melt in an hour. Humans have to endure everything in life in agonizingly endless clock time - every single second of it. Not only this, but we have to remember having endured our entire lives, as well. What a drag, no? It's amazing that we all haven't gone mad.'"

Duck Pictures

One of these days I'll write about my duck adventure that took place this last month. But until then, here are some pictures of the eleven ducklings and the mama duck that we took care of.

Brooke Fraser.

If you haven't heard of, or heard Brooke Fraser, you're really missing out. She is a star in her home country of New Zealand, and she also sings with the Hillsong United worship band. I love her voice and she's a really good songwriter. Here are a couple of my favorites, in video form:

Below is "The C.S. Lewis Song":



Next is "Shadowfeet":



And this one is called "Albertine":



I would love to see her in concert, with or without Hillsong United.

God On Mute.

When I picked up the book The Search For Satisfaction, I also found an interesting book called God On Mute. I probably wouldn't have picked it up except I saw that it was written by Pete Greig, and I remember hearing his name associated with a 24-7 prayer movement (which was confirmed when I looked at the back jacket) and that he was an English "bloke".

This has been a great book so far. God on Mute is essentially about unanswered prayer and how we as Christians deal with God not answering our prayers. Greig uses his own story - watching his wife undergo brain surgery for a brain tumor - as the key narrative, although he uses a ton of other stories as well, stories that are...well...heartbreaking.

The new name for my blog comes from a chapter in this book called "Naked Prayer" (although I chose "Pray Naked" because that idea has intrigued me since a band called The 77's put out an album called that, and yet had to change the name to just The Seventy Sevens because of the outcry by Christians regarding the title. People, it means to pray with complete honesty...as in nakedness.) and at the end of this chapter, he shares a story that I thought was kind of amazing:

----

In 1842, an Irishman named Joseph Scriven graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and promptly fell head over heels in love with a girl from his hometown. They got engaged and, with great excitement, planned their wedding and began dreaming about their future together as husband and wife.

The eve of their wedding arrived at last, and Joseph's fiancee saddled a horse to go and see him. Tragically, it was one of the last things she would ever do. A little later, Joseph saw his bride-to-be riding toward him, and he grinned. But suddenly, just as she was crossing the bridge over the river, her horse bucked and threw her like a rag-doll down into the river below. In blind panic, Joseph ran to the river, calling out her name. He plunged into the icy waters, but it was too late. His bride was already dead.

Heartbroken, Joseph emigrated to Canada, where eventually he fell in love again. In 1854, Joseph was due to marry Eliza Roche, but she fell ill and grew progressively worse. The wedding was repeatedly postponed until, three years later, Eliza died. Joseph Scriven would never again give his heart to another.

Back home in Ireland, Joseph's mother was deeply concerned for her heartbroken son, and he in turn was concerned for her. One night, Joseph penned a poem to comfort her, little knowing that it would become one of the best-loved songs of all time. Several years later, a friend found it in a drawer at Joseph's house and was deeply moved. "The Lord and I wrote it together," Joseph explained. That poem, forged out of so much disappointment and pain, continues to call millions of people in their own Gethsemanes to admit their grief, their trials and temptations, their sorrows and their every weakness to Jesus in the privilege of prayer:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

err, websites, that I look at for entertainment value.

#1 - Awkward Family Photos

There's just something about other people's family portraits that makes you feel good about yourself. And also helps you partially forget about those pictures of you with a mullet.



#2 - Fail Blog

Another website to remind you that when you do something really dumb, there are a lot of other people out there in our world that also do dumb things.



#3 - Graph Jam

Using the latest technology of graphs and charts, one can find hilarity in almost anything in life.



#4 - I Can Has Cheezburger

There's just something about cats and silly captions that is doggone funny.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Two

Well, I was planning on spending a day on each chapter of Ecclesiastes, but then I went to the library yesterday to return an overdue book. I of course then went and looked for other books to check out, and my eyes fell on a little yellow book in the Christian section. I picked up and started laughing, because the book is called The Search For Satisfaction: Looking For Something New Under The Sun. When I read the title, I knew it was going to be on Ecclesiastes. God certainly does have a sense of humor.

I started reading the book last night, and it's pretty good so far. The author, David McKinley, is a pastor at a church in Dallas they we used to go to for concerts when my wife and I lived there. It's called Prestonwood Baptist, but most people called it either "Prestonworld" or "the Baptidome", because it was a huge church.

Anyway, McKinley talks in the second chapter of his book (which is still about the first chapter) about a Satisfaction With Life test and scale that some psychologist developed. You are supposed to take the below five statements, and put a number next to it corresponding to these feelings: 1- strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - slightly disagree, 4 - neither agree nor disagree, 5 - slightly agree, 6 - agree, 7 - strongly agree:

_____ In most ways, my life is close to my ideal.

_____ The conditions of my life are excellent.

_____ I am satisfied with my life.

_____ So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.

_____ If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

The scale then goes: 35-31---extremely satisfied; 26-30---satisfied; 21-25---slightly satisfied, 20---neutral, 15-19---slightly dissatisfied, 10-14---dissatisfied, 5-9---extremely dissatisfied.

McKinley then gives "Five Myths Of Satisfaction" that he gets from Ecclesiastes. In other words, Solomon developed his own test of satisfaction, things that he tried in order to be satisfied, and found that they failed:

Search #1: Progress
Search #2: Excess
Search #3: Success
Search #4: Possessions
Search #5: Impression (leaving a legacy)

I'm sure we all go through these searches in our lives; for some of us, these searches last several years; for others they may be shorter, but we repeat them over and over again.

I'm excited to continue on in the second chapter of Ecclesiastes, as well as this book I found in the library and Philip Yancey's thoughts on Ecclesiastes tomorrow. But for now, I leave a Yancey quote.

The whole tone of Ecclesiastes reflects the tenor of King Solomon's time, when Israel reached its zenith as a nation. And there's the rub. How can the bleak despair of Ecclesiastes issue from the era of Israel's Golden Age, when things were going so well? The days of slavery in Egypt might produce such a gloomy volume, I reasoned, but not the glory days of Solomon and his royal successors...curiously, I learned, existential despair, whether in the Teacher or in Camus, tends to sprout from the soil of excess...despair arises out of circumstances of plenty rather than deprivation. Indeed, I did not find alienation and despair in the grim, three-volume Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn; I found rage, a passion for justice, and a defiant will to survive...existential despair did not germinate in the hell holes of Auschwitz or Siberia but rather in the cafes of Paris, the coffee shops of Copenhagen, the luxury palaces of Beverly Hills.

EDIT: I changed this to Ecclesiastes Chapter 2, because the Search For Satisfaction book actually numbered this chapter wrongly - it's supposed to say chapter two!

Jelly Telly

Hmmm.

Jelly Telly is the new creation of Phil Vischer, the man behind Veggie Tales.

There are really only two things I can think of that Christians have created that the world has copied (as opposed to a billion things that the world has created and Christians have copied...hello, Mr. "I put 'Be Wiser' instead of 'Budweiser' on a T-Shirt and thought it was really creative" Christian) - the Jesus fish that some people put on the back of their car; and Veggie Tales. Veggie Tales was using computer animation way before most non-Christian media companies were using it.

Anyway, below you will see Phil Vischer explain what Jelly Telly is all about. Kind of. He actually doesn't really explain what it is. But he does tell us the vision of Jelly Telly. But is it a T.V. show? A website? What?

You can go to Jelly Telly's website for more information.

Ecclesiastes Chapter One

To read this chapter, go here. (I'm using the New Living Translation)

There has been much debate as to who the writer of Ecclesiastes is. He/She refers to themselves as The Teacher, but beyond that, we don't get a name. Some of the verses in Ecclesiastes would suggest that Solomon wrote this book; after all, it talks about a king who is wealthy and has lots of concubines. However, most scholars would say Ecclesiastes was written by a contemporary of Solomon, perhaps a little later in time.

There are some writers that take a long time to get to the premise of their book/novel. Using creative means, these writers make you wonder for awhile what's going on, and then they hit you with the theme.

Not Ecclesiastes.

Verse 2 pretty much sums up most of what this book has to say: "Meaningless, everything is meaningless!" The word "meaningless" is used thirty-five times, and only in the book of Job does this word occur elsewhere.

One of the things I like about the chapter is the idea that time is pretty cyclical. You may think that something going on hasn't happened before, but as Ecclesiastes asserts, it probably has. It doesn't mean it's happening in the same way, but time is cyclical and there are patterns in history and in civilizations.

Verse 11: "We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now." Mike, the senior minister I work for, had an interesting statistic he threw out the other day. We are starting a series on family relationships, and he said that in most marriages, the problems that couples face in years 1-3 are the same problems that they face in years 10-12. The problems never really go away, it's how you work through those problems that determine whether your marriage will survive or not. That statistic reminded me of the above verse.

As I said in the above post, I also want to include a Yancey quote from his chapter on Ecclesiastes, so here you go:

Once I got over my sheer amazement about the message of Ecclesiastes, certain nagging questions set in. One struck me immediately, as I read the Old Testament straight through. How can Ecclesiastes coexist with its nearest neighbor, the book of Proverbs? Two more unlike books could not be imagined...Proverbs has life figured out: Learn wisdom, exercise prudence, follow the rules, and you will live a long and prosperous life. Its tone of worldly optimism reminds me of Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms, and in face today various industries produce early-American-style wall hangings featuring embroidered verses from Proverbs. Such industries, however, studiously avoid Ecclesiastes, for it depicts a world where none of the proverbs work out. The confident matter-of-fact tone - I've got life figured out and you need only follow this sage advice - has vanished, replaced by resignation and cynicism. Thrifty, honorable people suffer and die just like everyone else. Evil people prosper and grow fat, regardless of Proverbs' neat formulas to the contrary.

Ecclesiastes Experiment

In December, I blogged for a straight month about my thoughts and observations of the book of Proverbs. It was really tough, but I think I gained a lot of understanding by doing what I did in December.

There are a couple of authors who for me continue to challenge me through their books. One of those is Philip Yancey. I started reading his book "The Bible Jesus Read" again, and it made me remember how incredible Yancey is at examining an issue and looking at it from several perspectives.

So far I've read his chapters on Job, Psalms and just finished Ecclesiastes. His take on the last book so impressed me, that I decided to read through Ecclesiastes again. So last night I read through the first seven chapters, and really enjoyed reading it. Thus the decision to do what I did with Proverbs, only apply it to Ecclesiastes. So for the next twelve days (or so), I'm going to blog each day on a chapter of this great book. I'm also going to include each day an excerpt from Yancey's book, so you can see for yourself how great of an author he is.

The Cursing Psalms

One of my favorite authors is Philip Yancey - time and time again I read his books and am reminded of how similar his questions and thoughts reflect my own. I'm currently rereading a book of his called The Bible Jesus Read, which looks at the Old Testament. Right now I'm reading through his chapter that talks about the Psalms, and I included a part of what he wrote in my devotional thought on Sunday morning in church. Like Yancey, I have struggled at times with Psalms, because although I love some of the worship and praise parts of the book and appreciate the lament psalms, it's hard to understand what Yancey calls the "Cursing Psalms", where statements such as "Happy are those who take your infants and dash them on the rocks" happen.

However, Yancey reminds us that the Psalms are essentially flawed humans' prayer journals, and oftentimes these journals reflect my own journals. Lately I have struggled to write in my prayer journal; when I was leaving Colorado in a wave of confusion and heartache, I wrote in my journal much more frequently. I may deplore the words and attitudes of the cursing psalms; yet I guarantee you there are some sections of my journal I would be ashamed to show anyone, because they contain angry words (even some cursing), frustrations, lashings out at God, and more. It just happens that the writers of Psalms had their curses published and are read by billions of people. Thank goodness it's not the case for me.

New Changes To The NHL...

I thought this was rather amusing...


NHL Tries To Woo Fans By Increasing Scoring With Bigger Nets, 3-Point Line

Albi The Racist Dragon

One of my favorite Flight of the Conchords "bits".

The Continual Burnt Offering

I have a devotional book that I go through on an almost daily basis. It's called The Continual Burnt Offering and the copy I have is from 1944. Each day there is a short devotional along with a song or poem that corresponds with it. I thought that today's devotional was really good:

"I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord" - Zephaniah 3:12

It is the troubled and distressed who find their relief in God. Ofttimes temporal prosperity proves to be a hindrance to spirituality. It need not be so but we are so constituted that when all goes well in this scene and we have abundance of the good things of life we are apt to forget the Giver and be more occupied with His gifts than with Himself. In our afflictions and needy circumstances, if we turn to Him we learn how marvelously He can satisfy our hearts and lift us above the trials of the way.

---

Considering that the average income in the U.S. was 22,000 in 1944 (in 2004, it was 43,000), this was even more interesting to me.

Apple Mac Music Video

I'm not the biggest Mac Evangelist, although I made the switch four years ago and definitely prefer macs to pcs.

I thought the below music video was very creative, although I really can't stand the song!

Simplified Missional Living

I thought that this blog post by Jonathan Dodson was a really good reminder of the small ways we can pursue missional living. Sometimes we can get all dreamy and think of these huge ways we can be missional Christians - yet because they are these big dreams and visions, we end up failing at them because we didn't start small.

I really want our church to impact the city of Miamisburg in big ways - yet by doing some of these smaller missional-minded steps, we can accomplish so much more than just dreaming about it.

I am a shell...

O LORD,
I am a shell full of dust,
but animated with an invisible rational soul
and made anew by an unseen power of grace;
Yet I am no rare object of valuable price,
but one that has nothing and is nothing,
although chosen of thee from eternity,
given to Christ, and born again;

I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, of
the vanity of creatures,
but also of the sufficiency of Christ.

When thou wouldst guide me I control myself,
When thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself.
When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself.
When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself,
When I should submit to thy providence I follow my will,
When I should study, love, honour, trust thee, I serve myself;

I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself,
Instead of thee I look to man's approbation,
and am by nature an idolater.

Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee.
Convince me that I cannot be my own god,
or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, and rule me.

Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my credit is god thou dost cast me lower,
when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away,
when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.

Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;

Show me that none of those things
can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.

Then take me to the cross and leave me there.

- an old Puritan prayer of confession

Columbine: Ten Years Later

Yahoo News has a fascinating look at one survivor of the Columbine shootings that took place ten years ago today. It's good to hear of the good things that came out of such a horrible tragedy.

I was a youth minister in Colorado at the time, and although none of my students went to Columbine High School, a couple of my students lived nearby and went to middle school with a couple of the victims. My wife was working at a middle school a few miles away at the time, and when news reports started coming in about the shooting, they locked down all the schools in the area and I couldn't get a hold of her. It was a scary moment because there were rumors that other schools were also being attacked and I didn't know if it was true or not.

The next day our church held a service to deal with the shock in our community over the tragedy - the fact that it happened in a relatively wealthy area of Colorado made some people realize that anything can happen anytime and anywhere.

It's amazing to think of all the things in my own life that have happened in that ten-year span: I've lived in four different states, had six different ministries (yikes!), and have had a ton of experiences. But I will always remember what took place at Columbine ten years ago.

Pretty funny...

As someone who has been a victim of identity theft, it's amazing I can still laugh about that kind of stuff. This is funny though!

Hospital Visitations

Yesterday, I was the only official "minister" available to do some hospital visitations, and so I went to two different hospitals (thankfully at two different times) in order to pray and encourage those who were in the hospital.

It's one of my biggest struggles as a minister.

I think hospitals remind me of two things: (1) when my mom was suffering from cancer, she was in the hospital a lot and being in a hospital brings me back to 1987-1989; (2) my own trips to the hospital for brain surgery. I am totally out of my comfort zone when I'm in a hospital and have to really pray for courage and peace of mind when I'm in one.

Hospital visitation at a new ministry position is even harder.

In both instances yesterday, I had never met those who were in the hospital. And I had no idea if they had seen me or been to worship since I've been at the church. Which means there was a good chance that I would be wandering around each hospital calling out their name. Thankfully that didn't happen. But it was still awkward.

It only makes it even more awkward when you feel like you're the third string minister who is showing up because the first two can't make it (one was out of town, one was sick). "Hi, my name is Adam, you might have seen me on a Sunday morning, and by the way ________ and _________ couldn't be here, so I hope that having me here brings some encouragement."

Yesterday, as I was leaving the second hospital, I was reminded of a time in my own life when I was grateful for someone visiting me in the hospital, someone I had never met before. When I had my first brain surgery in Arizona, I was on the church staff (as an intern), and I had the entire church staff and eldership show up at the hospital to pray for me before surgery. Four months later I had to have the surgery again. This time I was no longer employed by the church (I was supposed to take a college internship at a large church in the Phoenix area, but because of my second brain surgery, that fell through so I was in between ministries) and I guess staff and elders at the church I had given my all for a year decided I wasn't worth visiting a second time, so I was all alone. About fifteen minutes before I was going to be whisked into the surgery room, a Baptist minister was walking by. He stopped in my room and said he was walking through the hall asking patients if they wanted him to pray for them, and he asked if I wanted the same. I told him yes. He prayed for me, shook my hand and left. Even though I had never met this man, I was so thankful that he showed up.

And hopefully the people I visited yesterday, even though they had never met me, even though I was the "third option," felt the same way.

Phil Wickham Live

Enjoy...












This last one is one of my favorites, but I couldn't find his live video. Oh well! You can still hear it.

Where's Waldo?

Can you find him?



Last week Rutgers University students broke the Guinness World Record for the "World's Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Waldo" from Where's Waldo. They held a charity event, and a whopping 1,052 people showed up wearing red and white stripes.

How Decisions Are Made

Or as I should really phrase it, how MY decisions are made.

I was thinking about this today when I went into the closet in my home office looking for something and found a big piece of paper that Noelle drew. My thoughts led me to this question:

In all the decisions in my life - major ones, that is - have I made each decision more with my head, or more with my heart?

My answer is really easy, actually. And I can point to the last major decision (besides getting this new job as worship minister) as the perfect example.

In September of last year, we were living with friends. Down in their basement. Which wasn't actually that bad. And we had a good time with them. We had just found out that my position at the church plant I was at was going to be reduced to a part-time position. Our house that we had watched go up before our eyes in Colorado was sold to someone else because our house in Ohio didn't sell. However, even though my pay was getting cut, we thought we could make ends meet because the friends we were staying with offered to pay Debby to watch their three-year-old rather than having him go to a daycare all day. With her salary and my part-time (plus me getting another part-time), we could make it work, with the hope of selling our house in Ohio. All logical conclusions pointed towards staying in Colorado. Although we had a house in Ohio, I had no job outlook. We had made the decision to make it work in Colorado when we first moved there, and this was an opportunity to continue that decision.

One night I got home and my daughter was drawing on a huge pad of paper on an easel. It looked like a house with some things inside the house. I asked her what she was drawing, and she said, "Our house in Ohio, with you, me, Mommy, Minnie (our dog), and Zoe (our cat) inside."

We moved back to Ohio.

And it all worked out.

I wish I could say that all my decisions in my life have been rational decisions that have been well-thought out and reasoned through. But I would have to say that most of them, including the decision to move back to Ohio, have been made with the heart rather than the mind.

March (and April) Madness - Remembering Basketball's Founder

Christianity Today magazine had an interesting article a couple of weeks ago on James Naismith, the person who brought us the game of basketball. Who knew that Naismith trained to be a Presbyterian minister and who developed the game of basketball at a YMCA? I didn't.

Frozen Four

As those of you who know me know, I'm a huge fan of hockey. This year has been tough for my favorite team, the Colorado Avalanche, so I'm turning my attention to college hockey for now. My favorite college hockey team is the Denver University Pioneers, but I also am rooting for the Miami University Redhawks, who have consistently over the last several years have had a good hockey team. However, this year they actually made the Frozen Four (think of the Final Four, but hockey instead of basketball) this year and will play in the semifinals against Bemidji State (who?) to get the chance to go to the finals. Ironically, Miami beat my Pioneers in the first round of the playoffs to get to where they are now, but I'm not holding it against them. I'm just glad Colorado College had a bad year. :^) (DU's rival)

Go Redhawks!

Awesome.

I'm excited for this movie. Just watching the trailer brought me back to my childhood. This wasn't my favorite book, but I loved it just the same.

When Fear Strikes...

This past Sunday was my first Sunday at my new church - Miamisburg Christian Church in...Miamisburg, OH. The day started off inauspiciously, practice went decently and despite my microphone not working during the first song of the first service, everything went pretty smoothly. At the end of the first service, someone came forward at the invitation and knelt down at the stage, which I thought was pretty cool, not seeing that happen in a long time (most of the churches I've been at don't really do "come forward during invitation time" parts of the service, and I don't think MCC does much of that as well, but there is always a decision song and stuff).

Then second service started and I broke a string during the second song - which prompted me to try and figure out a way to get a new guitar without any money - when this same person who came forward last service starts walking down the front aisle again. Not during the decision time, but during a song. And all of a sudden, memories of church shootings in Texas, Illinois, Colorado and Alabama start popping in my head. According to my wife, the shooter in Alabama came forward the week before he did the shootings, because he wanted to see how close he could get to the front. So unfortunately I'm thinking all of these things, and at the same time a couple of elders must be thinking the same thing, because they come up to this man as he's kneeling at the front to talk to him a little bit.

We found out that he's a cousin of someone who goes to the church, and he was just needing some prayer and wanted to come forward to kneel and sing, which is pretty neat and all, but it's really got me thinking about what I'm afraid of. As the economy goes down the toilet, and there are more bank robberies and thefts and such, churches are not immune to desperate people who are looking for money. MCC is in the process of putting together a safety and security plan so that we are prepared for what's coming down the pike. In this world, what's the fine line between trust and making sure that complete protection is in place? I don't know, but for one moment on Sunday, I think I crossed the line.

Awesome...

So I decided to upgrade my blogger account, and it deleted all of my sidebar stuff. All my links...gone. Why is it that in most cases when you "upgrade", you end up angry?

Phil Wickham

I think Phil Wickham has become my new favorite worship artist. To be honest, I had never heard of him until my friend Rochelle talked about him on her blog. And it still didn't motivate me to really listen to him until I went to the Christ in Youth Conference last summer, and the worship band did a song of Phil's called "Cannons." We started playing that song in our worship services at Life Church and it became an instant favorite.

The last few days, I've been playing Phil Wickham's CD "Singalong" constantly. I believe if you go to his website, you can still get it for free, which is awesome. The CD reminds me of what early Dashboard Confessional would have been like if Chris Carrabba was a worship artist or something. Passionate acoustic guitar playing, high male vocals, yep I think I got it pegged. Anyway, my favorites on this CD are:

Cannons (of course)
Beautiful
Jesus Lord of Heaven
Come Thou Fount

I am going to paint my new office this week, and I had an idea about what to do on the big wall. The whole office is going to be painted "Chipotle Red" (yes, the red paint you will see when you go into a Chipotle restaurant), and on that wall, I'm going to paint a blue "night sky" area with the moon and stars, and underneath will be the chorus for Cannons:

You are holy, great and mighty
The moon and the stars declare who You are
I'm so unworthy, but still You love me
Forever my heart will sing of how great You are

I'll post a picture when I'm done. If it looks good, of course. :^)

Rocky Mountain News Closes Down After 150 Years

The news that The News is closing after 150 years makes me sad. It's the paper that my family had delivered to our house my first eighteen years of life. For some reason I stayed fiercely loyal to The Rocky Mountain News when I returned to Colorado and refused to look at The Denver Post.

One of my favorite stories - some say it's an urban legend - surrounds a writer of the Rocky Mountain News, along with three other Colorado newspaper writers - who fabricated a story about the Great Wall of China coming down because China wanted to increase trade with other nations. The legend states that the fallout from this false news story helped create The Boxer Rebellion, a violent movement in China in the very early 1900's that saw thousands of Christians and Christian missionaries killed. You can read about the possible uncovering of the urban legend here.