Road Trip

Community

A friend has been over a couple of days this week working on his car in our garage since he lives in an apartment and doesn't have room to do that. It felt good to be able to share our space, my tools, a few meals, and our home with him. At dinner time last night(during a fantastic meal fixed by my wife), we talked about having one night a week where several of us get together for a shared meal. I hope we really do start that soon...we are truly blessed...

Dumbfounded

We had a meeting tonight with a "non-profit" fundraising company tonight about our next building project for the church. I think I am against the church at large using any such services, but I'm still not sure...if that makes any sense. I mean come on, you pay someone to come in and get your people excited about giving more money... I just don't see the church needing to operate like that...it's like we are trying to pass a school levy or something and we're getting our campaign going.
Although this particular company (Forward in Faith) is essentially a company that will give you the resources needed and train you on how to do the campaign yourself at a tiny fraction of the cost of a typical "fund-raising" company. You could tell they weren't in this for the money by the way they presented themselves and the company. It was nice not to have people come in and give us a hard sell, which is what I expected.

Even still though, something about it just doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, as they were presenting the materials that come with their package, two particular titles caught my eye:

"Fasting for Financial Breakthrough" and
"10 Ways to Increase Your Weekly Offerings"

Maybe they're not really as bad as they sound...or maybe they are...

Give it away

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple...In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Luke 14:26,27,33-35

I guess I never noticed the link here between giving up everything we have with begin the salt of the earth. Is this a call for the disciple of Christ to a homeless life of poverty? I don't think so, but I do believe it is a call to a radical redistribution of our wealth in this rich culture we find ourselves in. Even poverty level in this country is wealthy world wide. Is it a sin to own things? no, it just becomes sin when the things you own actually own you by making you a slave to the money that purchases them. I do know that we...especially me...ought to be giving away much, much more than we actually do. I guess I got the impression growing up that God's tithe was all I needed to be concerned about giving back. We must just shy away from this passage because we like the "good life" too much. I am finding though, that the real "good life" doesn't come until I begin to loose my grip and give what I have away to those that need it much more than I do.

Lord continue to teach me what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Busy weekend

Spent fathers day running to and fro seeing everyone I needed/wanted to see. It was good to see everyone and I really enjoyed myself. I have been guilty of not making a very big effort to make the trip down to see family because sometimes it just adds to the mayhem of our lives, but this time it was absolutely worth it.

Macee and Sara made me a couple of wickedly large cards out of 11"x17" construction paper...I never have been much of a card kind of guy, but when they're that big and hand made you have to take notice. Macee had the marker on her hands and arm to prove it too. Also got a nice T-shirt and a couple of books coming...Nouwen and Merton...I'm really looking forward to that.

Spent some time today with Tyrus, who had moved away 6 years ago and is now in Boston. It was good to reminisce about things today and it also served to remind me that I love our life right now and I wouldn't go back for anything.

Things culminated tonight with a humiliating loss on the softball field. We were champs last year and were undefeated still this season when it all came to an end. We were missing several of our key people and those of us that weren't missing may as well have been...oh well, thank God there is more to life than softball...

After the game I took up eric on his challenge to get a piercing...not a new one(relax mom and dad)just one in the old ear hole that surprisingly hadn't closed up over the past 8 years. Not sure why I did it...I guess I'll just use Bill Clinton's powerful reasoning and just say, "I did it because I could"...haven't decided if the right ear will get a matching hole...hey you only live once...

New links

I've been adding a few links to the mags section for the past few days if you are up for some reading...and my wife, whose been telling me for quite some time that she was going to start blogging, finaly took the plunge...

Interesting thoughts

the following is from i hate the emerging church about the very term "emerging church," check it out to see the rest:

I would make the following suggestions for the ways that we describe ourselves:

::It should describe something about us positively – what is it that we feel that the “emerging churches” share as characteristics?

::It should suggest a plural – it should suggest diversity and different experience and understanding

::it should allow for co-existence with established or traditional churches – how else can we invite the traditional church to share in our journey?

Out of the mouths of babes

I was talking to our sound-man last night and he was talking about his son(our bassist) going on the mission trip to the Bahamas with a group from our church(they're leaving tomorrow). He was relating to me some of his son's thoughts on the trip and I was taken back by the fact that this high school kid can see things that I'm hoping some of the adults will catch on to.

He thought this was supposed to be a mission trip...like one where they work with the locals and live with the locals for the week or ten days. He found out that they are working during the day of course, but then they go back at night to a 5 star hotel. He said that sounded more like a vacation than a mission trip.

He's got a point...

Sunflower Princess

I couldn't resist this picture of Macee beside the sunflowers we planted by the barn

One Flat Cat

You may be wondering what this is...this, my friends, is a dead cat I found in the wall of the room I was tearing apart in the barn...WOW

Worth a thousand words

Here is a weak attempt at a panoramic view of the room I started on...anyone need a work bench???

notice the one sheet of drywall by the door. Apparently there was going to be an attempt to finish this area, but it seems to have stalled out after only one sheet.

The Dilbarn

Started working on the barn today...WOW...

I just started tearing stuff out and banging stuff till it fell apart. I didn't even know where to start, so I just started swingin'...

Now I have a nice sized pile that needs to go to the dump, but I feel like I haven't even done anything yet. I just stood there in utter hopelessness looking around at the mess wondering if it would ever become usable space. Even still, I have had to reason with myself and resolve to believe that since we have begun the work that He will be faithful to give us the vision and the resources to get it done.

We(the church board) are beginning to discuss phase two of construction on our "church building" (we just finished phase one in December) and yet we still don't have a working plan to meet physical needs of people in our community. After a board meeting tonight that left a sick feeling in my stomach I am beginning to think that maybe one use of this barn is going to be as a staging center for us to recieve and distribute goods to people that really need them.

People's first concern when this is brought up seems to be that we don't want to duplicate anything that is already being done by other churches or organizations, but I guess I am thinking to myself...if enough is being done by existing organizations, then why are there still people in need?

Balance

Is holy living a goal still to be sought after? How can holiness as a way of life be attained without stepping into the realm of piety? I know that holiness is much more than avoiding our 'thou shalt not...' list, but that doesn't mean we should disregard it.

Sara and I were talking last night about a faction of people we've discovered in the 'blog world' or 'Christian subculture' or whatever else you want to call it that seem to feel that sin and moral purity are non-issues as long as you are loving people with the love of Christ. There almost seems to be an 'anything goes' mentality brewing as far as moral behavior goes as a backlash to the legalistic way many of us grew up. It seems that foul language, overindulgence(in many things), homosexuality, having a critical spirit, and many other things are seen as no big deal. I'm afraid that in our attempts to immerse ourselves in the culture and form relationships with all of those around us that we have allowed certain parts of our behavior to degrade for fear of being rejected by looking legalistic or pious.

There must be a balance somewhere in this. I know that both extremes are very dangerous. If we begin to drift toward the legalistic end we become so far separated from the world that we fear we'll be contaminated by touching it, but then if we throw our behavior out the window we will begin to lose our saltiness.

I am reminded that we are not just responsible for our own behavior but also how that behavior effects those around us:
"'Everything is permissible'--but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible'--but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others."
I Corinthians 10:23+24

As I was thinking about all of this today I stumbled upon an article that touched on this dilemma.

Perspective

Kevin Rains says a lot in a short post about the kind of missional approach to life that I am longing for.

Bed Time

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I hope this template doesn't blow up like the last one did. It looks ok so far, but I'm not crazy about the color...may have to change that too...

Rhonda showed up Wednesday evening for a fire and s'mores. She is a teacher also and she is at the Junior High here in BG. We found out that her youngest daughter Tammy, who is 32, needs a heart transplant because of the damage done by a virus of some kind. Pray for her that she would know the healing touch of God Almighty on her body, soul, and spirit.

Some other friends also came over and met Rhonda, it was very good...I look forward to continuing to live outside ourselves as we build authentic relationships with our neighbors.

Started jogging again this morning...I had to so I could keep having s'mores like we have been...

I've been thinking a lot about how far away our neighbor's houses are and how difficult that makes it to casually invite them over, so as I was jogging this morning I made a deal with the Lord that if any of them were outside I would invite them over tonight for s'mores around our new chimnea. Two of them were out and about in their yards, so after my run I hopped on the bike and rode down to invite them. I think one might show up, the other had a track banquet tonight for her son at the high school.

I might call one of the others that we have a last name for...I hope someone shows up.

Thanks for the comment Marie...it must be my computer. I think I put it back to the size it was before, but on my computer it looks like size 32 font at least...I feel like I should call it the "amplified blog"

FONT CHANGE

Anyone out there reading this, let me know what the font size looks like to you. This blog looked like it had a font explosion earlier so I brought it down a bit. It looks normal size on my computer, but mine may be playing a sick and demented joke on me.

Please tell me this isn't all in my head

SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMER

What a glorious day...first day of actual summer vacation. Remind me to never complain about my job.

To celebrate the first summer in our new place and be able to have some excuses to invite neighbors and friends over we bought a chimnea the other night. Smores may be the next big thing here on Dirlam Rd. although I may have to start jogging again to try and compete with the constant sugar intake.
On Sat. and Sun. we had some friends over to hang out around the fire and enjoy some of those delectable treats and that was a great time which I am looking forward to more of, but what I am really looking forward to is having our neighbors over. The hard part is that we live far enough away that you can't just hollar an invitation over at them and we don't have any phone numbers, so it looks like we might be pounding the pavement again for an invitation to a barbeque.

fill in your own segue here _______________

A few of the older ladies at our church and I were having some discussion on music at the hog roast we had on Sat. night at the church. We were having some great dialogue about the music, personal tastes, and true worship when a discussion about my hair started. Erlma said, "I used to think you were a real handsome fellow, but I can't say that I like that hair now." Clara then spoke up and said that she liked it and thought it looked good which put my mind at ease as we continued to talk about more important issues. We had played a few songs that were a little more on the "rock" side of things for that night since it wasn't a normal "church" service, and Scott warned them before we played that it would be a little different from Sunday mornings.
Afterwards Erlma asked me what was different about what we had done compared to a normal Sunday and I told her that the electric guitar was what was cranked up quite a bit. I'm not sure what I expected her to say, but what I heard was this, "I just thought it was beautiful...I really like that electric guitar. That thing can make a lot of different sounds and I thought it was just great." She went on to say, "You know, in this book(Purpose Driven Life)we've been reading it keeps telling us that the music doesn't really matter, so I don't know why people keep making such a big deal about it."

Now I'm not sure which side of 80 Erlma is on at this point, but I know that she seems to have quite a bit of perspective. I only hope that when I am her age I won't be sitting in the back of a church gathering saying, "I sure wish they would at least play a couple David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, or Charlie Hall songs every once in a while instead of all this new stuff?"

Question: Does this blog look like it is on steroids to anyone else? It's like double its normal size right now...scary...what's going on Blogger?