Good news

THE BARN IS DONE...well, at least the siding is done. I'm thanking Jesus and my friends for helping me get it all done. Now I can get back to the finishing off of the inside. Framing and insulating has been coming along, but there's plenty more to do before it is ready for heating this winter. If you're ever bored and need something to do, I've got plenty of 2x4's and insulation to go around.

I'm still reading organic church and there have been some good things in there.

There are two closely related sins we need to repent of in the Western church. We need to repent of underestimating what God can do through a new believer. Second, we need to repent of overestimating our own value in helping new converts grow and become strong believers. The real sting in these assumptions is that we think we are better able to help people than the Holy Spirit Himself is. We end up creating a sense of dependency on human help rather than on the Holy Spirit--the divine Helper--and this is prevalent in all the church does today.

Scott and I were talking about how difficult we have made the "discipleship" process in the western church. We feel responsible for the growth of new believers and that somehow it is our job to get them to grow. We have two jobs as outlined in scripture...sowing and reaping...yet we gear most of our energy to the "growing" aspect of the process. God's job through the Holy Spirit it the growth of a believer, we are to plant seed and harvest the crop. If we would concentrate more on sowing and less on "Growing" maybe we would actually have something to reap.

As we were talking I said that it was through other people's stories that I have been "discipled" most in the past several years. The blogosphere is where I have seen these things lived out and where I observed people following Jesus in a way I hadn't seen before. By simply eves dropping in on others on this journey is how the Holy Spirit has been doing the growing in me. The people that have been discipling me didn't even know that they were. Scott remarked, "so it's just living the life and telling your story"...it was an ahh-haa moment for us that night. We've been asking the wrong questions about all of this...I feel like we're finally onto something simple, powerful, and easily reproducible.

The power of the Gospel is transformed people...obviously the greatest asset to us are the stories of these transformed lives.

Organic church

I'm finally reading organic church...I was told by Lee to read that book about a year ago and I'm just now finally getting to it. The "greenhouse" conference we hosted last month was basically the book in conference form, so I feel like I've already read most of it. It has challenged me, and more importantly the spirit has convicted me.

I am not praying for those around me that don't know Jesus, I'm not saturating myself in the scriptures, and I'm not really invading my community...

There was a time in my life that I would have felt severe condemnation for such statements...but now it is coming out of a desire to mulitply disciples...to know Jesus more...

On Monday Sara and I talked about Cosmos and how each of us have had that place in our minds and on our hearts lately. I haven't played there since early last month, and I'm not sure what to do with that, but I went there with Macee yesterday for an hour and a half. I met Danni there. After just a few minutes of talking with her I found out that pretty much the enitre staff there is new...complete turn-over since when I was playing there regularly. I'm not sure what that means except that I plan on hanging out there and praying for that place. I want that place for the gospel, I want it to be a place of peace. Macee and I had fun there working on a puzzle, and I think maybe today we'll go there and take a checker board to leave so we can play while we're there.

We have been too secluded from our community...We need to get down to a simpler level. Life transformation groups have been on all of our minds in the church that meets in our home. We all seem to have been burdened with it, but are still listening to find out who we're being directed to individually. I do believe that this will be the turning point in this movement...meeting as 2 or 3...reading the word and praying together...

Thomas Merton

Too often our notion of faith is falsified by our emphasis on the statements about God which faith believes, and by our forgetfulness of the fact that faith is a communion with God's own light and truth. Actually, the statements, the propositions which faith accepts on the divine authority are simply media through which one passes in order to reach the divine Truth. Faith terminates not in a statement, not in a formula of words, but in God.

If instead of resting in God by faith, we rest simply in the proposition or the formula, it is small wonder that faith does not lead to contemplation. On the contrary, it leads to anxious hair-splitting arguments, to controversy, to perplexity and ultimately to hatred and division.

...Faith goes beyond words and formulas and brings us the light of God Himself.

...Therefore we must make every effort to believe the right formulas. But we must not be so obsessed with verbal correctness that we never go beyond the words to the ineffable reality which they attempt to convey.

I read this and immediately thought of our doctrine and how we hold on to our doctrine often times with more passion than we hold on to God. Our love of doctrine and having the "right" formulas has trumped the purpose of the formula to begin with. By being so "obsessed" with being "correct" we have forgotten why we even care to be correct...to know God and to be "in God." Maybe God is trying to tell us that our doctrine is wrong and he is trying to give us a fresh revelation, but we can't hear it because we can't bear to admit that we have actually been wrong all this time...that maybe we didn't hear Him correctly...maybe we don't have it all together afterall...Maybe all of the doctrines of the different denominations are correct all at the same time...maybe none of them are...maybe it doesn't even matter if they are ultimately causing us to run hard after God.

I understand that there are creeds of our faith that cannot be called into question without changing the very nature of what it means to be a Christ follower, and I'm not suggesting that short list of things is open to debate...I'm just suggesting we stop obsessing so much about who and what is the most "correct" for the sake of being right and embrace the God given diversity of the church.

the band

things are going well with the band...we had a great practice thursday night and worked on 3 of my songs. It is nice to be able to collaborate on these songs together, it is also nice to know that someone besides my wife thinks my songs are good. I mean Sara is my biggest fan and she likes almost all of what I've done musically, but for the guys you're giggin' with to be into them is pretty cool. We have a couple of gigs lined up for the next few weeks and we're always looking for more...preferably a paying gig would be nice...at least for gas money on top of the free food...but I guess that will come eventually(I hope anyway)

Dan is currently working on a website and hopefully we'll have all these songs done by the end of the summer so I can send them out to be mastered. We're working on a packet of stuff we can begin to hand out to get some more gigs lined up...sometimes it all seems pretty slow, but things are definitely moving...slowly but surely.


I bought Macee a ball and bat the other day. I made a "Tee" for her to hit it off of and she is loving it. We have had a great time the past few days going out to hit a few balls. Today involved some batting practice, some swingset time, and some sidewalk chalk art. We had a ball and I am enjoying life...even if it is supposed to be 90+ degrees for the next week straight...

Macee Donna

The tests came back negative...she doesn't have lupus...Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!

life...and a song

I'm sure most of you know what is going on with Macee by now. If not, she has had a rash on her face that resembles what a person with Lupus would have. She has had some tests run and the first one came back looking good, the second test will be in on Monday. We are refusing to believe that it is anything serious and that there is just some kind of allergic reaction happening here. We have been praying and we believe that if our God can heal the sick and raise the dead then we don't have any doubt that He is working on behalf of our little Macee. Thank you to all that have joined us in prayers of faith. We'll keep you all posted.


On another note...I have a song that I was writing a few months ago...let me know if you have an opinion on it lyrically anyway, good or bad(honesty is good, I can take it)

Human race for understanding
Stacking bricks and blocks surrounding
Walls with windows made of sand
Broken glass has cut my hand
My head is slowiy spinning 'round
Drops of blood now hit the ground

Waking up from sleep
Open my eyes to see
Rapture of the deep
Finally I'm free

See myself in a looking glass
Trying so hard to forget my past
Floating 'round and lost at sea
Storms are closing in on me
Will I float or am I going down
Drops of rain now falling all around

Waking up from sleep
Open my eyes to see
Rapture of the deep
Finally I'm free

gone...and home again

We just got back from Geneva on the Lake. We left on sunday after church and pulled in just after 9:30 tonight. It was good, but it is even better to be home. some of the typical things we do just didn't happen this year...no winery...no eddie's...and no trip to the park for the live band...oh well.

I love my wife and daughter...and we had fun...

Did I mention that we have awesome neighbors that took care of Cole while we were gone? They're awesome...seriously...

When we got home I was able to catch the end of a Bob Dylan documentary that I've actually seen before on PBS...I love that guy...what a creative genius...underrated and misunderstood...

Tonight so far I have kicked the recliner without shoes on, I'm having those shooting pains again in my head, and I cracked myself in the head with a little porcelain angel hanging from Macee's ceiling fan...I think it's time to go to bed. At this rate I'll probably trip and fall up the steps on my way...good to be home.