Here and Now

"Churches should be places where people come to hear the story of God and to tell their own." I just read that line in a book called Chasing Francis . Is that what church is? I like the simplicity and honesty of the statement - but is that all? It seems a little...self-centered. You know - it's about me hearing and me telling. What about me serving and me sacrificing and...? So, that's not ALL churches should be. Okay - then, yes. Churches are where we hear about God and where we tell what God has done in our lives. So - yeah, that's it. I just was struck by that statement.

So I stop in a little early for my shift at the Crossing (I stopped at the hospital to visit someone and I couldn't) and there's about a half dozen teenagers sitting around the kidney-bean shaped table talking about...well, everything. And I hear (from a girl, no less) - "There was an episode of Star Trek about that..." About what? Dunno - I was heading to the other room. When I came back they were talking about Pokemon...sigh... But I'm a little comforted that Geeks still talk smack about Star Trek - and Pokemon - and all that goofy stuff. And it's not just because I'm a Geek - but because kids are still being kids - being themselves - and hanging out. This whole new virtual world scares the cr@p** out of me. Not because I'm so tragically unhip (I am, but I don't care) but because I worry about kids being more connected than ever before - and more isolated. I just had a conversation with my friend Jim (well, a couple weeks ago) about what I w...

So I spent about 10 or 12 hours working on a video that is 1 minute and 8 seconds long. I had to learn to use a brand new program (Adobe After Effects), I had to use gimpshop to edit some still images, audacity to edit audio from 5 different sources and, of course, edit it all together into something that will, hopefully, matter... I can't wait to use it Sunday - of course most people who see it won't think it took very long - but that's okay, it's almost exactly how I wanted it to be (the one minor issue is a thin blue line where I chroma-keyed an image - and didn't get the settings quite right). I got so immersed in doing the video, I almost missed a lunch appointment I had today with a friend - I was, of course, almost 20 minutes late. Jim knows me. He brought a book. But I lost all track of time doing the video. There are some things that I just so enjoy doing that I can get completely lost in them - video editing being one of them (model trains and music a...

Well, Lori gave me a hard time this morning because I haven't blogged in...well, forever. A couple things have happened that have kept me from the keyboard. The first is that I'm trying to pour all my creative energy into what we're doing at church - so I haven't wanted to be distracted by blogging and facebooking (like I've been any good at that, anyway) and the like. But more importantly, I haven't felt like I have anything to say. I mean, sometimes it's okay to take an online quiz to find out what classic movie you are (if you look back, you'll discover that I was once Apocalypse Now and once Easy Rider, go figure), but I'd rather actually have something to say. See, the thing is, at Otterbein church I have lots of opportunity to talk with real, live people the kind of stuff that I would normally have posted here. I had a great conversation about spiritual gifts and being filled with the holy spirit with Steve the other day and I started a c...

...Now? Thanks to my friend Aaron for linking this video: So that got me thinking - I've finally made the switch from desktop to laptop for most of what I do. I can't imagine going to a mobile device for most of my internet usage - so I'm a dinosaur, I know. Who knows. Fun fact from the video is that 40 million people have been rickrolled - and if you don't know what that is, check out Wikipedia . Anyway, I sort of got rick rolled (not really, since it's not "Never Gonna Give You Up" - well, it isn't even Rick Astley, but...let me explain). So here's the deal, and I say this with a hope that some of you who read this will actually comment with your opinion about my moral dilemma. Here's what happened: I own early Boston on cassette. My tape deck is slowly going the way of the buffalo but I want to get digital copies of stuff I have on cassette. So I turned to torrents - you know, peer-to-peer networks - to download stuff that I own in ana...

So we went to Innovate 2009 last week at Granger Community Church in Granger Indiana. Man - go to YouTube and look at GCCWIRED videos - 154 from the church. Probably something to offend everyone :) High points: I LOVE the children's areas of GCC - they have slides from the main floor to the kids' rooms (which are pretty awesome for adults to slide in too - heh) and they're decorated amazingly - Under the Sea, 321 Penguins, Jungle, Farm, etc. But it's not just aesthetics - we talked to them about curriculum and process and volunteers and...well, let's just say they really have Children's Ministry all together. The worship was great, of course, but not just because the music was cutting edge (okay, cutting edge for church music) but because it wasn't just about the songs - we prayed, we read scripture, we even had a time of blessing God for the way He's working in a bunch of churches in attendance. I really love the flash that they have going (robo...

So I'm watching TV and there's a commercial for car inusurance which says if I switch from Allstate to Progressive, I can save 418 dollars a year. But the thing is, there's an Allstate commercial that says, and I quote, If you think GEICO is the cheap insurance company, then you’re really going to be confused when you hear this: drivers who switched from GEICO to Allstate saved an average of $518 a year. Confused? Don’t be.” So, I'm looking online at a Geico quote that suggests at least 15% savings and maybe 500 bucks. Okay - I have Nationwide, so if I switch to Geico, I'll be down about 500 bucks a year, then I'll switch to Allstate to be down another 500 - then to Progressive down another 400...hmm, I should be getting car insurance for just about nothing now - wait, Nationwide suggests if I switch to them from a competitor, I could save 500 bucks. So, after all this, I'm back with Nationwide and they're paying me 500 bucks a year to be insured by the...

Really, you need to read the previous post before you read this. I'm not kidding... So - for no apparent reason the girls wanted me to read Max Lucado's You Are Special tonight for bed. So I get it - I'm a Wemmick and I don't need stars or grey dots, I just need to know that Eli cares about me and wants to talk to me everyday. So I asked Elie if she knew what that was all about...and we talked about it. And you know what - we really aren't normal after all. We are Children of God...

Shhhhh - I'm supposed to be finishing my sermon right now :) The other day Rachel was getting something - man, I wish I could remember all the details - let me try to reconstruct it. Oh, I think it was buttering toast - well, if it wasn't that's how I'm remembering it (I gotta do some posts on memory - if I remember, of course...um...). Anyway: Rachel was buttering her toast the other day - understand that when Rachel makes toast it's just barely browned at all - and she puts the butter on like some people (me) put peanut butter on their sandwiches - yeah, it could possibly be measured in cups - bleah. And I said to Rachel, "You know, normal people just put a little butter on their toast." "Daddy," she said, looking so sweet and innocent, "Don't you know we are not normal people?" Hmmm - all of eight years old and already getting smarmy (actually, she started a long time ago...sigh...takes after...me...) So, we laughed and she at...

So I was reading in Ezra this morning (my morning devotions are completely ADD - big surprise, eh?). Anyway, I was reading in Ezra this morning about the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian exile. At the beginning of chapter 4 is this: When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." It struck me as I was reading that if the narrator hadn't started this with "the enemies of Judah" I would have thought something like, "Wow, that's really cool. The people of Israel are doing this mighty thing for God and they're inspiring the "ungodly" people to join in." Or something. But it's really clear in Ezra that these neighbors of theirs a...

For those who might care and might not know already, Otterbein's sermons are now posted online here . We go back to June. You can see two things in what's posted. Pastor Steve and I are sharing the preaching throughout the series (I'll be finishing out the David Series "Good to Be King" through September) and also the number of special services we have had already (the dates missing from the list July 5 & 19, August 2 & 9).

Yesterday Elie brought home a Fundraising booklet from school - they're selling little pizzas, pretzels, that kind of stuff. She and Lori flipped through it and, of course, Elie wants to try everything in there... Later in the evening, Lori and I were watching TV, Elie was watching a movie on the computer. She came into the livingroom carrying a couple of my wrenches. She said, "Daddy, do you have more of these?" "Yeah, I have a bunch, why?" "Well, I can take some of them and sell them. For the fundraiser." So, I guess she thought the booklet was stuff she was going to get if she brought in enough money? I don't know. All I know is she was scouring the house looking for saleable things (MY stuff, of course...). It becomes so obvious when the girls don't understand something - their interpretations are often hysterical. As we get older, we are better able to interpret things - we are more equipped to understand things. Yet we still mess ...

I was reading Haggai this morning as part of my quiet time and in Chapter 1, God basically says, "You are living it up while there's no temple. So I've been making things hard on you. Build a temple and things will be better." And at first I thought that was kind of...selfish maybe? I don't know. It just seems like God doesn't NEED a temple (a House, as Haggai calls it), right? But then I had two thoughts. First, the repeated phrase, "Give careful thought to your ways." Not to your ACTIONS or to your INTENTIONS but to your WAYS. Ways are habits. Ways are personality traits. Ways are the deeply entrenched things in our lives. Give careful thought to that which you do out of the very center of who you are. And that opened up realization number two - God doesn't need a house/temple/church - but WE do - we need a place to worship God. Yes, we can worship God in the living room or in the woods or driving or whatever - but we won't. We...

Lori and I just finished an episode of CSI. It was okay. But there was a great line in the episode. It was about one of the CSIs thinking she had blown a case 18 years ago and the suspect was demanding a new trial. Evidence was beginning to accumulate that suggested that the suspect might be innocent. The CSI sits down with the detective, Jim Brass, who says the suspect is a scumbag. The line: "Don't let him live rent free in your head." Usually I accuse CSI of having hack writers who are a little too attached to puns (the opening scene of CSI Miami is guaranteed to end with pun) but that was an evocative line (I know, a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters...). Do we let people live "rent free in our heads"? I think we do. Bitterness. Doesn't cost the person we're bitter with anything. Regret. Hate. All that stuff that is, well, sin, right? The most evocative definition of sin that I've found is "that which destroys" -...

Just a quick note: Pastor Steve and I have been going through the life of David in worship in a series called "Good to Be King". So I've read the life of David more carefully than I have in years. All I have to say right now is...wow. Okay, you know me, that's not ALL I have to say. But what a screwed up life. And this is the guy God says is "a man after my own heart"? I mean, there's the whole Goliath thing, yeah, and not kicking Saul's butt when he could have - even mourning Saul's and Jonathan's deaths. But then there's the adultery, coverup, murder. One of his sons rapes one of his sisters (okay, there were multiple wives and concubines so it's a little confusing, but if they all have the same father - we'll say brother and sister, okay?), that son is murdered by another son, who later leads a coup to take over the kingdom who is killed by yet another brother. When David is about to die his wife and Nathan scheme to p...

I get this email once in a while called Catalyst Filter - I signed up when I went to the Catalyst Conference last year (I get other goodies in the mail, too). Anyway, one of the articles in the filter the other day was by a guy named Tony Morgan called "10 Stupid Leadership Mistakes I've Made." It's a good (brief) article - get the filter if you want all the details. Here are the bullet points of the ten mistakes: 10 STUPID LEADERSHIP MISTAKES I'VE MADE 1 . Hiring too fast and firing too slow. 2. Trying to fix the problem rather than the process. 3. Putting the projects before the people. 4. Delegating tasks instead of responsibility. 5. Assuming it's always black and white. 6. Not following my gut (... or is that the Holy Spirit?). 7. Dwelling on the worst case scenario. 8. Waiting until there's a problem to provide feedback. 9. Staying busy. 10. Spending too much time on the details rather than the dreams. So, I read this and I ...

In lieu of an actual post - puppy pics:

So Rachel and I are watching the Disney channel - oh, let me back up - Lori got a job. She's teaching at the Christian School - 5th grade (a position that didn't even EXIST six months ago...hmmm). So - Lori's been all day at the school, Elie went to my mom's (I am SO thankful that my mom is willing to give her days off to her granddaughter - not every grandparent is, but we're spoiled that Lori's parents havae done the same) and Rachel spent the day with Lori getting her room ready. I did hospital visits and a home visit and some office work - in between letting the puppy out (oh, yeah, we got a puppy too - hey, why only deal with a LITTLE transition? Do it all at once...). So, Rachel and I were watching the Disney channel - a Lindsay Lohan vehicle called Confessions of a Drama Queen . It had some moments of dad uncomfortableness (inappropriate clothing and a drunk rock star) but most of it was resolved pretty well by the end of the movie. I had a couple ...

Today the girls were on a float in a parade for the Corn Fest here in Youngsville. They were in the Children's Summer Theater production of Jungle Book . Now, there were maybe twenty kids in the production, only six were on the float (Rachel actually ran beside the float carrying a sign - boy was she tired...). But this isn't about Corn Fest of Children's Theater. It's kind of about the parade, though I have a history with parades . This parade? I didn't get to see it. Here's the problem: X is where I had to drop the kids off for their float Z is where I had to pick them up after the parade RED LINE is the parade route (which was completely shut down by the time I got out of the snarl of dropping the kids off - ten minutes later than they were supposed to be dropped off and they were the first and second kids there...). Look carefully at the map. So, tell me, how do I get from X to Z? Heh, join the parade, right? Thought about it... Here's how I end...

One of my favorite verses: Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Anybody else singing Tomlin right now?

Just saw this looking for something else for worship: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html I was thinking about whether or not this is a representation of church, too. 90%lurkers, 9% kind of involved, 1% heavily involved... Now, I've been indocrinated by the 80/20 "rule" (that is, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people, or 80% of the ministry is funded by 20% of the people or...well, just about anything in ministry). But I think, like my friend Michael has said, that 80% of statistics are made up on the spot (including that one). I can say that I'm at a church right now where it doesn't feel like it's 90/9/1 or evn 80/20 - but we've got about 90/75 (that is about 90% of the ministry stuff is done by about 75% of the people - and the other 25% are the sometimes contributors). At least that's what it looks like from the outside - we'll see how that plays out over the next couple years...

So I got this email from a friend and it has all these outlandish origins for words and phrases, none of which are probably accurate, but they're funn nonetheless. When I got to "Mind your p's and q's" though, it was an explanation I had never heard before: it's from English pubs and means "Mind your pints and quarts." Huh? I don't get it... I had always heard that it was from early printers who would be looking at the letters backwards and would easily mix up the lower case p and q. So, this is discredited all over the internet by the following logic: lower case b and d look alike, too. So, neener, neener to the printer arguement. Okay, I can accept that. So I pulled up a page from the Gutenberg Bible (you know, an EARLY PRINTING PRESS PROJECT) and sure enough, lower case p and q look strikingly similar. Lower case b and d...um, not so much. The d and o look more alike that the b and the d. Now, did ALL printers use d's that look li...

So here I am working at the Crossing again (Lori says they need to put a bed in here for me) and it's almost tomorrow. Three people are playing a game at one of the table - they look to be in their 20s. Third Day is on the radio, ESPN News is on the TV. How do you spend Friday Night? These late shifts aren't a hardship on me (though to close on Saturday can be harder on me - impossible if I'm preaching the next day). Lori found out yesterday that she didn't get the job we've been hoping and praying for. We're disappointed, of course. But one really great thing came out of the wait for me, at least. Elie and Rachel have been praying differently the past couple weeks. Often we pray the Lord's Prayer - you know, I want my kids to know some of the fundamentals of faith (we'll get to the Apostle's Creed in the not too distant future, at least with Rachel). Anyway, they're praying for people now. Elie, the other day, ended her prayer (which she's b...

Just a quick note as I'm eating breakfast.... Yesterday to open worship, Ray read the very same passage the I wrote here yesterday morning. Yesterday was Youth Sunday and he made a connection between the disciples pushing people away from bringing the children to Jesus and us disconnecting from our children by how we spend our time at home (watching TV, reading the paper, whatever - NOT connecting with children, and connecting our faith with our children). God moves in neat ways...

Well, I woke up early this morning with a song running through my head. That's not unusual, really - I always have a soundtrack running through my head that's often affected by what goes on around me. Anyway, this morning it was the Hooters singing "Where Do the Children Go?" What? Not a Hooters fan? (the band, not the bar/restaurant, of course) Here's a video that somebody put together of the the song and posted it on Youtube: "Where do the children go, between the bright night and darkest day? Where do the children go? And who's that deadly piper who leads them away?" I don't know what Hyman and Bazilian intended when they wrote these words, but in my mind this morning I'm hearing a lament for the loss of innocence, a longing for our kids to stay kids and not grow up so fast... But that's probalby just me. So I get up and I'm reading the Gospels this morning (Matthew, actually) and I read this: 13 Then little children were brough...

So I'm sitting at the Crossing right now - we were really busy when we opened and then everybody left all at once... So it's just me and a guy sitting at his laptop with his iPod - no community building right now - just two guys sitting twenty feet from each other...worlds apart. But that's kind of the nature of this kind of place, isn't it? I mean, go to Starbucks (heh, not around here...but, let's see, go to Fresh Cup or to Mugs in Youngsville or...oh, yeah, Starbucks in Jamestown) anyway, what you see are mostly people either alone or in small isolated groups. We're connected only by the fact that we're sharing the same air and wi-fi. And I see that everywhere. But we're made to be connected - not by blogs and emails and cell phones - but real, look into my eyes and see that it's not a very good day face-to-face communication - communion... Of course things picked back up - couples came in, little groups of people. Still, not a lot of interact...

"If you think doing your job to a level of continued excellence sounds like too much work, perhaps you need a different job."

...to no one there. And no one heard at all, not even the the chair. Really? Who would write such drivel? Um...it was a hit... Anyway, I am now who I am. It seems that I forgot to change my blog profile info when I moved but now, as I said, I am who I am...

Just because I'm going to say this in three days: "Perhaps" might be one of the most powerful words in the Kingdom. It's something Jonathan said when the Israelites were pinned down by the Philistines (I Samuel 14) and Jonathan can't take it anymore so he tells his armor bearer that they're going to cross enemy lines and he says "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf." No assurances written on the sky. No pre-confirmation of God's providence. Just Jonathan saying to himself, "We've been doing nothing and nothing has happened. So I'll do SOMETHING." If it's the right thing, God will confirm it, if it's just me and my imagination, well, God will confirm that, too, right? Gamaliel in Acts 5 says something similar about the Apostles (though, like Pontius Pilate and the High Priest, his statement which is intended to be critical or mocking, ends up being a Divine irony) after mentioning some other revolutionaries who cam...

Now, I didn't mean to give the impression in my last post that there's anything wrong with our yard - or that, somehow, I hate mowing THIS yard, or whatever. It's a general grumpiness I have with anything that feels like a "waste of time that I have to do over and over again." Ask Lori how I feel about getting my hair cut or even making the bed. It's like that. What I WANTED that to be about was "redeeming the time" - you know, praying while mowing - which doesn't make me enjoy the mowing, but my whole attitude about the process is better. I think. Okay - that's enough of that. Let me tell you about my daughters who can now be called Monkey Girls. There's this great week-long drama camp here in town and they're putting on the Jungle Book. Now, the girls came kind of late to that party (I think) since we just moved up here, so we didn't really expect they'd be much more than "extras" in the play. But Rachel got...

Okay, still not in tune with re-starting the Monday Update...we'll put that one on hold for another week (at least!). But, as a bit of an Update ABOUT Monday, er..., I was mowing the grass yesterday. Now in Bethel Park, mowing the grass was often something I did on my lunch break - I'd come home, push mow the grass, grab a sandwich, and still be back in a little over an hour or so (including the 10-15 min drive each way). Not so, here. Now, don't take that as complaining - we LOVE the new yard. We have lots of space for the girls to play - next summer we're hoping to put some fencing in and maybe get a dog. So we're really happy with the yard...except. I hate mowing. Now, I have ALWAYS hated mowing the grass - one of the reasons that I would mow on my lunch break in Bethel Park was because I didn't want to waste any "important" time (that is, family time or work time) to mow. So I'd use meal time... I said once to a guy that I hate mowing and ...

In less than 12 hours, I'll be listening to Mike Roe of the the 77s and the The Lost Dogs live at the Crossing. Can't wait. Be there or be...um...somewhere else...

It seems that bad habits are easy to slide into, but good habits are just as easy to slide out of...argh. I'm so out of the groove in blogging, that I hope you'll bear with me (if anyone is still reading this thing) as I try to get back on my blogging feet. In other words, what follows for this and the next several (probably) posts might not be as stunningly coherent and insightful as usual...or...um...maybe moreso, not sure... Anyway...deep breath. I was reading the other day (okay, I was skimming ) an old H. G. Wells book called In the Days of the Comet . Here's a link to the full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3797/3797.txt And a link to the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Days_of_the_Comet Okay, back in the day (like, when this thing was published, a hundered years ago) were I alive, I would have snapped this thing up and devoured it over a couple days. I don't find Wells super accessible (I HATE first person narrative - I hate it, I ...

I've been reading Jeremiah lately because Jeremiah 29:11 keeps poping up on my radar ("For I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a fuutre.") which I will probably deal with in tomorrow's returning "Thursday Theology". But today a thought struck me. Jeremiah 30:22 says, "So you will be my people and I will be your God." And I thought, "That's a great verse - I need to tuck that away in my heart." And that's true, it IS a great verse...but I want to hold on to it in isolation. As just that verse, and not the whole of this part of the book of Jeremiah, where it really matters. You see, Jeremiah has just been telling the people that they're in exile because they really sinned against God and God warned them and warned them but they refused to stop. So God took some drastic measures. And even in exile, they're starting to listen to other voices than God...

Not ready for the Monday Update, yet. But here's some bits and pieces from the past...sheesh...four weeks or so... We moved our stuff to Pittsfield June 15th and 16th - geez, it seems so long ago not, what, 3 weeks? It's now...July 6th and Lori has most of the rooms unpacked - but the house is still pretty disorganized. We downsized going to Bethel Park, downsized again moving here...and now we're downsizing some more (sorry to the 20+ people who helped us move!!!). Oh, yeah, it was AMAZING how fast and careful the folks from Otterbein church were in loading and unloading our stuff. We're so thankful for all of the help. If any of you are reading, you're a blessing that we won't forget. Elie spent one of the past weeks at grandma's and Rachel spent one week at grandma's - but this week they're both here and both avoiding unpacking/organizing/cleaning their rooms (take after Daddy on this one). Elie has two new obsessions: the trampoline her pap...

Okay - so it's been a month (almost) - but I have a good excuse, of course... You know we've been packing - well that went into high gear about three weeks ago - and then this week has been move week (the new house has no internet or TV yet - so we've been plugging away on unboxing our stuff - in between meetings...). So, a quick post as I wait for the wedding rehearsal that I have this afternoon... At the new house we are surrounded by boxes. Yeah, no surprise, I know. Those boxes are almost all labelled (I say almost, because I packed a few that I forgot to label and so we're discovering them all over the house...) The labels were helpful for the folks who helped us move - which room this box or tote goes in, etc. We only had to really give direction on the furniture, and a lot of that is pretty self explanatory (you know, there's only one living room so the end tables are likely to go there and not, say, the bathroom). So, unloading went pretty quickly. Un-PACKIN...

It's just sad that I forgot that yesterday was the 32nd anniversary of the release of Star Wars... Yeah, that's the sad part of this post...

Monday update the weekend that was: Yeah, Yeah, it's Tuesday. Yesterday was Memorial Day when we remember people who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country with...um...Barbeque. Okay, really there were some GREAT remembrances yesterday, I think - parades, of course, but NASCAR paused at 3:00 - seriously, they all stopped their cars and shut off their engines...in the middle of the race, for a moment of silence, a silent opening pitch at a baseball game. Lots of great remembrances. I spent too much of it on the road...but I digress (or, actually, I got ahead of myself, so I guess I, um, PROgress...er?) So - Friday Rachel's school had a "family picnic" for her grade level - so we ate hamburgers and hotdogs outside her school at lunch time then we drove to Kane and stayed with my grandmother. Lori and I went to my dad's grave and my grandfather's grave after dropping Rachel and Elie's at my mom's for the night. Saturday was a trip to Pittsfiel...