Here and Now

Double Tuesday But Brief: Buy This Book I think it's amazing - 30 stories that are 30 of the best sermons I've ever heard...erm, read. But these are not your parents' sermons...trust me... Seriously, I got it at Ollies for like 4 bucks... Story by Steven James

I did a quick search for a story that I thought about using for staff devotions today and I came across this blog post from a think tank, I think . Of course, using an image from despair.com puts you pretty high on my list to begin with - and then she's talking about "we've always done it that way" (which was not going to be the focus of what I wanted to say, anyway...but there's some good stuff on this post anyway). But I love her closing statement Make two columns and keep track of your patterns over the next week. Label one side ‘innovative’ and one side ’stupid’ and see if you can break some unproductive, recurring, unoriginal habits. I’m going to give it a go. Yeah, I'm going to give it a go, too...hmmm, I might even keep track of 'em here... Yeah, maybe not - I can't for the life of me figure out tables...argh...

Living in a new house has brought its share of pleasant surprises. One (admittedly very minor) one for us has been having a garbage disposal in the sink. For a while we had been calling it the "sink monster" but the girls decided that the sink monster needed a name - so, our disposal is named Frank (sorry if you're reading this and your name is Frank - if it's any consolation, they named Lori's car "shiny lunch"...) Naming the disposal has made for some interesting conversations at our house: "Do you want the rest of this corn?" "Nah. Frank it." "Hey, I'm going to Frank this banana, it's pretty brown..." And so on. Yep, Frank is a verb in our house now. Got something unidentifiable in the back of the 'fridge? Frank it. A scoop of mashed potatoes left from dinner. Frank it. And we have other "code" words at home, too. If you know us well, you know about roses...and there are other words and phrases that ...

Last week I needed to replace an outlet in Rachel's room so I went down to the electric panel to shut off the power to her room...and the breakers weren't labeled... So I spent part of the afternoon with every light in the house turned on, computers and TV off, switching off a breaker, running through the house to see what lights went off, running back to the breaker box. Repeat. And repeat...and repeat... So, I never did figure out which breaker the computers were on. I thought I checked the light on the printer (which I left plugged in and turned on) every time...but I missed it on one of the runs... And tonight I was trying to rescue a harddrive (a story for another time) while the girls were watching a movie and Lori wanted to vacuum the dining room... That's when I found out "the hard way" which breaker the computers are on... Not the way you want to find out... But, all was not lost. The computers are as fine as they were before they lost power suddenly, the...

This week is about Transformation. Once in a while, when we wax nostalgic, it's easy to just gloss over the bad stuff. And sometimes, when we're in a bad place, we dwell on the bad stuff in our lives. God is all about transformation. There are things in my life that I would have done differently if I could - "if I knew then what I know now" - embarassing things that, frankly, I hope no one ever finds out about. And we all have those moments, I think. But those moments are part of what makes me, me. I may be a little more compassionate because of something painful in my past, a little more forgiving because of someone who has forgiven me, maybe a little more patient because I've tried the patience of others. I may be able to understand what you are going through because I've been through it myself. Yeah, I've been embarassed, frustrated, hurt - and I've embarassed, frustrated and hurt others, too... And God doesn't make all that go away. Yes, I'...

Elie and I were driving home from church tonight and she was playing a Ninetendo DS game called Cooking Mama. She "made" me a pizza on the way home and then she announced: "I'm making you coffee, Daddy." "Okay, I don't put any cream or sugar in mine." "Well, I'm going to put a little something in it, but you won't really taste it." "Um...okay." "Just...it will make it taste like hot chocolate, Daddy. I'll just put a little shrimp in it, and it'll taste like hot chocolate." "Okaaaaay..." Boy am I glad she wasn't really making me coffee - can you imagine it? Coffee with a little shrimp...bleah... Worship can be like coffee with shrimp in it sometimes. Here's what I mean. Everything is flowing, everything is going just right...and then, bam, something happens. Maybe it's a technical thing...a mic isn't on or something...maybe I say or do something that distracts from worship...

I was looking at my car (Honda Pilot) as I walked out of the church tonight and I should have taken a picture (heck if I know how to get a picture off my cell phone anyway...). You see, the back end of the Pilot is sitting really low - the front end is popped up - because I put about 10 or so boxes full of books in the back of it on Thursday and I've been riding around with them since. These are books that will fill the shelves (woo-hoo to the Jim and Larry and the Tuesday Morning Guys for getting my office together and getting extra shelves put up!!) in my office - and I INTENDED to take them in on Thursday...and on Friday...and today... But you know how it is - life gets busy, stuff comes up, and the books stay in the car. Just like my spiritual life sometimes - I can carry around these burdens that weigh me down but I'm just too busy to do anything about it. Life is busy (I love those "life comes at you fast" commercials...'cause it's true, and, um, they...

This Sunday we'll be talking about connectedness. Scott Phillips is a great singer/songwriter - and I highly recommend his newest album (I believe I've said that before here...lemme check...yep...) so go to iTunes and get Next Stop Willoughby or check out http://www.scottphillips.com/ . One of my favorite songs on the album is called "It All Comes Down" and it's about connectedness - or the lack thereof: It All Comes Down Well I’m up and I’m down and I’m all around But I’m okay if you ask me ‘Cause we don’t really have the time to care like we could I could trip, I could fall, you won’t know at all ‘Cause your busyness is blinding And we don’t really take the time to love like we should Chorus:And it always comes back down To the way that we love And it always comes back down To the way that we love I’m in a hurry to grow, to grow up so fast Just to miss my youth and to chase my past If I keep looking forward to the day that my ship comes inI ’m gonna work ...

Yesterday my in-laws stopped by to celebrate Elie's birthday. We did a little running around, but ended up at Half Price Books. Now, I've said before, I'm cheap. So cheap books are a great thing in my eyes... I scored Only You Can Save Mankind (the first of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy by one of my favorite - oh, sorry, he's British - favourite authors, Terry Pratchett) for like 3 bucks and The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing But the Seuss - a biography of, yeah, Dr. Seuss - for about 10 bucks. Love cheap books.

Well, my stuff has been in Bethel Park for one week - so, even though we went back to Warren last weekend, we've kinda been officially here a week... Highlights... Um, Home Depot is getting to know me by wierd request, if not by name... Best Buy got a big chunk of our "stimulus" check...HDMI is still a bit of a mystery to me... The internet here at home is flaky (or my computer is flaky - it's Vista, so...) We have a boat load of boxes in our house...and about 1/3rd are unpacked. The bedrooms are up, the kitchen, the living room (sort of). We can do laundry, but we can't get in our back door (!!) The church has been wonderfully welcoming. The morning we arrived to watch the movers carry in our stuff we were welcomed with a big basket of great stuff - breakfast foods, bread, peanut butter, a dozen roses, stuff for the girls to play with - and a list compiled by the staff of places to eat, get our hair cut, doctors, dentists, etc. It was really great. We have...

In 36 hours I'll be heading home. Not that I'm counting. Well, not much... Got a call from the movers today - we will be loading all the stuff of our lives on Wednesday. Boy that seems really strange. I don't like packing - I have too much stuff. Rachel and Elie have been reluctant to throw or give anything away. I kind of get that. A lot of the stuff that we accumulate through the years has STORY attached to it. We have an ugly green lamp in the basement that we bought to light the attic. When we moved to Warren, there was only a tiny pop-up to get into the attic. We put in a drop-down ladder and floored the attic so we could, yep, store more stuff up there. Steve Beach and Erik Larson helped me put the flooring down and for about three years after that there was a perfect size 13 crack in the plaster of the ceiling of our bedroom. Story matters. And, to some extent, that's why some stuff matters, too. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't really have...

Believe it or not, we did NO work today at the Pittsburgh Project. There was a miscommunication and our homeowner wasn't home today - and the work we need to do on her house is INSIDE. So, we watched another group do siding (actually, we helped a tiny bit) and I took the kids out to lunch at Permanti Brothers (the ORIGINAL). They were unimpressed. So, today was kind of a complete waste of time. Now, I'm not bitter about it, just a little annoyed. I really don't like it when plans fall through. Now don't get me wrong. I know that stuff happens all the time and I have absolutely zero control over it. And sometimes the stuff that happens is really, really, I mean REALLY great stuff. Last night Lori and the girls surprised me and showed up here at the Project. It was awesome! We hung out for like an hour and half and then they came in to worship with me for a little while. I was really feeling blue yesterday and that really took the edge off (I don't do away from my fam...

I know I've been quiet for a month now... Sorry. Getting ready to move - and still pastoring - is really time consuming... Spent most of last week at Annual Conference. For our non-Methodist friends - that's the once a year meeting of all the United Methodist pastors (and lay representatives) in Western PA. It's held at Grove City. Except for an unscheduled drive to Warren, I had a great half-week at Grove City. Nothing really earth shattering took place. But I was taken aback, again, this year by how quickly and...un-messily we pass the budget. I mean, it's ten million dollars - yeah, that's a one with six zeroes after it. And we spent about 15 minutes talking about it - and THAT was only on a tangental issue... I'm not complaining, per se. It's just hugely shocking to see that kind of thing just go by with barely a nod. All in favor, wave your green card (yeah, I know how weird that sounds...but that's what we do...) So, now I'm at Pitt...

My good friend Steve borrowed my copy of Kansas' Point of Know Return CD a couple weeks ago - which caused me to pull out all my Kansas stuff (yeah, I have just about all of 'em) and start listening again. I had Point in the CD player in the car and was listening to it when Rachel got in. "What's this?" "It's a band called Kansas from when I was a kid." "Is that a violin?" "Yep." "This is neat." Rachel has a very open mind, musically. Yeah, she loves Hannah Montana (bleah) but she also likes classical and some singer/songwriter stuff (like Scott Phillips) and, well, Kansas now. She sings along with me (heh, she doesn't know the words yet - and sometimes the lyrics on old Kansas stuff can get...um...obscure, so it's fun listening to her sing) "How far...to the point of know return...to the point of know return?" Of course, when I showed her this video yesterday she thought they were all wearing wigs - ...

Okay, I couldn't find the link to the "what movie is your personality" test I took once before, so here's the new one: I'm Easy Rider (heh) What Classic Movie Are You? personality tests by similarminds.com And from the same site, I'm Einstein...yeah, I knew that...heh What Famous Leader Are You? personality tests by similarminds.com And, I discovered that the 18 question test and the 45 question test provided the same results for me (on the movie, that is...)

I was wandering in a discount CD/DVD store last week and I picked up a couple of things - Everlife for Rachel (though I kind of like it, and they do cover "What I Like About You" which I always think is a Kinks song, but it's the Romantics...) and I got the first Galactic Cowboys CD (self-titled, though it's a reissue). And I picked up this: Now, I like Switchfoot. So I saw this CD by Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot, on the rack and I thought I'd give it a try. Foreman is clearly trying new things. I didn't really expect it to be Switchfoot-esque or anything, but this is waaaaaaay on the other end of the spectrum. Each CD has 6 songs - they're very intimate and quiet songs. Foreman is more introspective on these CDs than on anything with the band. The weakness of the songs, for me, is that they all kind of sound alike - like a guy sitting in his bedroom late at night fooling around with looping his guitar and some quiet percussion and meandering som...

I know that when spring comes our minds all turn to the things that are going on around us - robins singing, flowers blooming - if you're a United Methodist, then you start thinking about pastors moving. So...I can officially announce (well, I HAVE officially announced - but this is for all of you far away) On July 1, 2008 I will be one of the Associate Pastors at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, PA. www.christumc.net I will be leading the 11:01 and the 6:00 contemporary/modern/non-traditional/emergent... well, whatever adjective we use... worship services. It is difficult to leave Warren. This has been home for 6 years. Elie was born here. Rachel went to kindergarten and first grade here. This church has been an amazing blessing to us and we are so loved. We are stepping into...well, we don't know what. So stay tuned. I know one thing for certain: God is leading us to Bethel Park so I know that God has amazing things in store for us, for Christ UMC and fo...

Lori and I were somewhere the other day and she saw a billboard just like this one: And she said to me, "Do they have ANY idea what that means? Really, who wants the red shirt treatment?" Now, Lori's not a trekkie, but she's been around me enough to know what a redshirt is. Here's a video that pretty much sums it up: So, I was thinking. Do they REALLY have any idea what they were saying? Redshirt isn't just a Star Trek thing, either: Here's a listing from wikipedia (okay, not exactly a high credibility source, but you're reading a blog after all...) Redshirt or Red Shirt may refer to : Redshirt (college sports) , a term referring to delaying a college athlete's participation in order to lengthen eligibility Redshirt (character) , a stock "cannon fodder" character in fiction, particularly in Star Trek: The Original Series Red Shirt, South Dakota , a small Lakota village in South Dakota, United States Red Shirt School of Photography , a tr...

Okay, you have to take this awareness test, it's only a minute of your life you won't get back... Okay - how'd you do? Pretty cool, huh? You got 13, right? Did you see it? Yeah, me neither. Today I was driving down Conewango Avenue and I was thinking about...well, you know...stuff. Nothing important, but I was on autopilot. The thing is, in the other lane was a school bus with the red lights flashing - and I was completely oblivious to it. I jammed on the brakes in time to stop (without squealing, thank you very much...) but only JUST in time to stop. Awareness... I can go through a whole day in a kind of a self-absorbed fog - missing so much that happens around me - at work, in town, with the kids. I can miss really important things, too - 'cause I'm just too much in a "me" moment. I'm looking down too much lately. I used to walk looking at the sky - seeing the clouds, the tops of buildings, birds, planes. I'd stop for a rainbow, a helicopter - he...

So I was over on one of my favorite sites ( Church Marketing Sucks ) looking at stuff I missed somehow (what I'm about to talk about was posted there last November!?) - I came across this: Lessons In Not Sucking: 9 Must-Read Books (Filed under: Reviews) This is part nine in a series on Lessons In Not Sucking. Today I give you nine books that are must-read when it comes to not sucking. I admit, it is not a definitive guide, but you try narrowing down a list of nine. If you have your favorites--or if you disagree with mine--feel free to tell us in the comments. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Church Marketing 101 by Richard Reising Purple Cow by Seth Godin Mind Your X's and Y's by Lisa Johnson A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink Getting Real by 37signals The Long Tail by Chris Anderson Good To Great by Jim Collins Thinking for a Living by Joey Reiman So - I'm thinking - I haven't read ANY of those books (though Tipping Point has been "on the corner of my desk...