Palmer II

This is a year of accelerated growth.

Graham Cooke wasn’t kidding.  Holy cow, he wasn’t kidding.  There is so much happening all at once and so fast that I literally am starting to wake up expecting something significant to happen every day.  Of course, it doesn’t, this is a process…a marathon of transformation.

In the midst of change, Palmer dies.  There is incredible sadness in the loss of someone like Mark Palmer.  What he meant to his wife and son.  The fact that his son has lost both of his parents to cancer in less than three years, and he has only lived for barely four.  What he meant to his closest friends and comrades.  What he meant to the community of faith he fathered.  But in the midst of this sadness, I feel an incredible surge of hope.  Mark lived well.  He fought well.  He died well.  He was a warrior and a prophet.  What I loved about him most was his sneaky theological acumen.  The man read like a fiend and was incredibly intelligent.  But here’s the key…he lived what he thought.  His ideas were not theory; his musings did not rest on a shelf or sit in a classroom.  They breathed and cried, laughed and loved.  They still do in the lives of that young community in Columbus, Ohio called The Landing Place.

Just a little over two weeks ago, I stood in Mark’s living room and prayed with his community.  We prayed for wisdom, peace, hope.  We asked God for his leadership as they began to ask the very difficult questions about their future without Mark.  I know He will give it and they will build on the foundation Mark laid.  

In less than a month since I heard Graham Cooke utter the words, “I declare a season of accelerated growth over you,” we have lost two fellow kingdom workers and friends.  This is not exactly what I had in mind, but I’m not God.  The hope I feel right now is not some far-off hope in a place called heaven where things won’t have to hurt anymore.  I do hope in the resurrection – Chad and Palmer will one day rise again as Jesus did with new bodies in the fullness of Christ’s kingdom.  That is a glorious hope.  But the hope I have is more anchored in the reality of the kingdom now.  I am seeing its evidence everywhere.  In the lives of people in our local community, in Amber, in our children, in our far-flung friends who are recklessly throwing themselves into this thing that none of us can describe all that well but just feels so right.  I told someone today that I am having more fun as a Christian than I ever have my entire life, and I have been following Jesus since the age of five.  That doesn’t mean everything is easy, just an incredible rush.

I’m getting a taste for this, and I want more.  There is so much work to be done in our area.  There is also so much work to be done in me.  Pray for Amber and me as we are actively looking at our lives and the way we make decisions about what is important.  Holding your life up to the light of the Spirit can be awfully revealing and scary, but the time is now for that type of thing.  Also, please do pray for the Landing Place community in Columbus, and Mark’s wife Amy and son Micah.  

The other night at our gathering, God gave me this passage from Psalm 24 to read:

“Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
    Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

Who is this King-Glory?
    GOD of the angel armies:
    he is King-Glory.”

Come King, come.

If You Haven't Heard

Palmer is in the presence of the King as of 9:15 this morning.

Please say a prayer for his wife Amy, his son Micah, his community, and for all that God will do during this time.

More to come...

Cuttin' Down Some Nets

Uh...Did someone say something about the SEC being a weak conference? That the Gators didn't have the firepower to make it far in the Big Dance?



ACC? Big Ten? Who dat?



Young Gators Not Acting Their Age

Vision, Intention, Means

Those three words wreck me. (I hope they continue to wreck me throughout this life and into the next). When you start to look at your life through that sieve, things can get pretty ugly. I am not even talking about your theology necessarily. I am talking about how you live your day in and day out life with your family, and how you look at your finances and how you raise your children...Taking your whole life into account.

I am a doer. I like lists and I like to check them off...Twice even and I like to feel like I am doing something. The Achilles heel in all of that, is that I will make a list and check it off and feel better about myself for doing it, without even realizing that I may have made the wrong list. Whoops! Time out.....I am Turning 32 this April and I have just realized that I have been going about this list thing all wrong for 32 years now. At least I am not 62:-) What my dear husband has helped me see is that making a list without having the accurate vision and philosophy before hand just becomes a way for me to feel safe without really moving forward in a tangible way. Gulp!

Here is to one major do over.

Vineyard

You may have noticed that below our names to the right that "The Vineyard Community" link is gone. You may have also tried to go to our old community website and been redirected back here. More than likely, you noticed nothing of the sort and have no idea what I'm talking about. Whatever the case may be...I have an announcement.

As of this past Monday, our community is no longer formally affiliated with the Vineyard movement. It was a complicated decision and one we did not make lightly. The decision was not made because of differences in values or pressure from the corporate side of the movement. We simply came to the conclusion that many of our relationships locally and outside of our area are with people and groups not associated with the Vineyard. In order to fully engage with those relationships and with the calling God has for us in Palm Beach County, we felt it was time to drop our formal association. We are still "Friends of the Vineyard" and will always acknowledge our rich heritage and wisdom we've received from people like John Wimber, Todd Hunter, and Don Williams. But we cannot deny that we spend most of our time and have the deepest relationships with people outside of the movement who represent a diverse cross-section of the church.

So here we are again. Our fundamental structure as a community of faith will not change, but this is a wonderful opportunity to take a fresh look at who we are and what we're about. In a gathering the other night where this decision was discussed, we all had a strong sense of God's provision for this new time. I know I'm looking forward to what he has in store for us over the next few months.

If anyone has questions about our decision, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or send me an email at mike at rgdengineers dot com.

Florida Does Not Get Ripped Off...Reaches Sweet 16

Brant sez...

Illinois Got Ripped Off By Refs Who are in Cahoots with the Refs Who Ripped Off Illinois Against Arizona in 2001

Florida did not get ripped off by the refs. Florida won by 22 and advanced to the Sweet 16. The number of fouls that get called on the winning team usually does not matter.

A Huge Awakening

Mike and I felt like 2006 would be a huge year for us in many ways. I can say it feels like an awakening for me. Little things like the fact that I am actually sorting the laundry again instead of desperately throwing everything into the washer at once is… well…. HUGE. So many things have been going at lightening fast speed with us ever since our little trip to Gainesville a few weeks ago. Our pilgrimage to Brown house to be with our extended family was another shift for me as a person.

The past 5 years have been a time of waiting. Our family has been growing, our thinking has been stretched, our faith practice has been detoxing and all of our dreams seemed to vanish into the thin air of everyday life. I started to feel the shift when I posted what seemed to be a silly little post about Hudson going down the slide by himself. But it was the day I felt the winds shift in my everyday life with young children. Good friends have told us that it got easier as our children grew and I knew that would be true, but I just didn’t know when.

Relationship is the word of this season. Pursue it at all costs. Good has been the enemy of best for too long.(Thanks Kim and John for that quote.) I am killing the good for the hope of the best in terms of deeper relationship with those around me. I can say, I feel huge things afoot. It is like the residents of Narnia who would whisper about Aslan being around with joy and hope and fear in their voice. For me the ice is melting, green life is growing and Aslan is afoot. He is not safe, but he is good and I am excitedly terrified to watch him do his work.

The Chad 100

Kevin had a wonderful idea on his blog for something intentional we can do in light of Chad Canipe's untimely death last Friday. Here's an excerpt:

"I've been praying Luke 10:2 everyday for a number of months now. It is a prayer Jesus told his followers to pray about God raising up workers for a harvest of souls. There are many others praying it as well. It was a movement started by my friends John White and Kenny Moore in Denver, CO. We pray it at 10:02am (from Luke 10:2) everyday. It has just taken on a much deeper meaning and focus for me in Chad's death. I literally want God to AVENGE Chad's death by raising up 100 workers to replace him in greater Cincinnati; 100 new kingdom minded people who will plant "grass roots communities of faith in the city" (Chad's words) over the next 2 years. Will join me in this daily prayer at 10:02am and 2 year goal?"

Over the past few months, my desire to see and encourage people in our area to network with other kingdom-minded people has grown considerably. At one point in my life I used to pray Luke 10:2 so we could have more children's workers or someone to help with lawn maintenance at the church building. Certainly God answers those prayers, but what is in my heart, is in Kevin's heart, and what I believe was in Chad's heart is to release God's people into the world to live and minister incarnationally and form little groups to worship and support each other in this work. If anything, Chad's death made me even more convinced that small tight-knit communities can accomplish enormous kingdom good with very few resources. Go and ask Chad's family about this. They were literally dumbfounded by Vineyard Central and the other local communities in Cincinnati who pitched in to support them last week.

I have set an alarm on my phone to pray this prayer every day at 10:02 am. I am praying it for Palm Beach County, not to build the Vineyard Community, but to build the kingdom of God. I am also praying it for Cincinnati, Columbus, Lexington, San Diego, Vermont, Lakeland, Gainesville, Minneapolis, and other places where grass-roots communities of faith are being birthed. Will you pray with me?

"He gave them this charge: "What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands."

Relationship

I am completely ripping this off of Tom Ponchak on his blog about ash Wednesday. I am getting back in the saddle. The humm and chaos of my pregnancy years is giving way to a sweet gentle rhythm of three young children. No more sleepless nights, no more nursing, no more daily nausea from 4 hard pregnancies(one miscarriage) back to back , just three little kids who I love to be with. My work situation is evening out now that I am able to work Arbonne and not do as much with my music business. I had no idea how stressed I've been with jumpin' jingles until I've had the opportunity to slow down. Not only that but doing taxes this year and really seeing how much I made for working so hard at that little business really puts a lot of things in perspective. This statement below is what I want to spend my life working at. Building into relationship. After Chad's death and Plamer being so sick, I am reminded how short this life is and how little time we have to do things that really matter.

There's another Latin saying that I also remember to keep myself in check. Tempus fugit, memento mori--Time flies, remember your death. All that I can accumulate, all the stature I can gain, all the wealth & toys I can store up will turn to dust just like this shell of a mortal body I inhabit. The only things that truly last are relationships; my relationship with God, with my wife, my children, my friends, my neighbors and my coworkers. Those are the only lasting legacy any of us can lay claim to, and they have eternal impact, but how much of my day is devoted to developing and deepening those bonds? Not nearly enough.

Thanks Tom for keeping things in perspective!

Chad Canipe

I just returned from a very long, very sad, yet very joyous and encouraging weekend with my friends in Cincinnati. More about the weekend later. One friend, who I did not know as well as I would have liked, passed away from this life on Friday morning. This post (permalink) from last May on his 34th birthday represents what kind of man he was and the kind of man and follower of Jesus I want to be:

34

Yeah, today my odometer flipped over to 34. I guess I can finally put to rest my messiah complex. 33 passed and I didn't save the world. (Didn't even get crucified, either.) I say all of that with tongue in cheek, of course. Though I must say, this birthday feels somewhat different than the last one. Last night, Renee and the boys were shopping for my birthday present in TJ Maxx while I spent the better part of any hour in Joseph Beth Booksellers -- by myself. (That's probably the real birthday present right there). Anyway, as I was scanning the shelves for the next must-have book that would change my life or help me be successful, I hear that still small voice.

"It's time."

It's time to lay aside timidity, to push through the fear. It's time to grab a hold of the confidence, to blow up the excuses. It's time to do all of the things that you have dreamed of doing. There is nothing holding you back except yourself.

I felt a surge of excitement in that -- a shift in my attitude, my countenance was lifted, my head was raised. This was more than "the giant within" Tony Robbins-speak. This was more than positive thinking. I sensed that this was the Counselor, the only one who can empower me to accomplish all that I've dreamed.

I'm not going to apologize for sharing this, though the enemy of my soul wants me to. There is a latent creative force in every human being that is groaning to be released. 34 is not the time to stifle it. Neither is 4 or 104.

It's time.

For me. And, I dare say, it's time for you.

Intention

I have been working on not putting on the TV in the afternoon when the kids start getting out of hand. We call it the bewitching hour. They are all hungry and tired and it is easy to just put on a video. I am forcing them to use their minds and find something to do if it kills me. Why do I bring this up? They just started buidling a fort in their room and all three of them are putting Bob the Builder to shame. The down side is this. "Mommy, we made a ginormous mess. Can you come and help us clean it up." A simple "no you made the mess you clean it up" really doesn't play out in practice for a 4-2 and 1 year old. I figure if I keep saying it one day it will actually happen. I guess I can hope.

Playing the Office Love Doctor

So my co-worker Todd is a single guy, about 30 years old. He lives in a condo down in West Palm and has a new neighbor upstairs who happens to be a single girl, mid-20's, cute, and just moved here from Cuba three years ago. She's in school (dedicated), works at a bank (self-sufficient), and had enough means to buy the condo (resourceful). Now Todd is a nice guy, a little shy, but honestly wants to find a girl he can have a real friendship with and not just go out on awkward dates. So, the question for the Love Doctor is, what's his first move?

My first thought was to pull a Pedro..."Build her a cake or something." But he can't bake. And the cake didn't work very well with Summer Wheatly. But then I thought, what about a plant? Just something that she could put on the counter and remind her of that nice guy who brought her a plant downstairs. Yeah, a little dorky. My father-in-law (this has become a little office side-project) suggested he should throw a party with a few other people from his building and invite her. Not bad.

Any other ideas for the Love Doctor?

Not Your Average Shop Class

Just another group of at-risk inner city kids sticking it to the man:

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car

The Vineyard Community

Tonight there was a gathering of people in my house. It was not a ‘church service’, although the people present constitute a church. Simply by the fact that we gather together in the name of Jesus you could say that the church is present, and he is present with us. Our purpose is not to advance the cause of an organization, or plan events to promote our way of doing church, or create a space for a spiritual pick-me-up. As followers of Jesus, we belong to the people of God. We are Israel, from whom salvation has come into the world through Jesus and who are now carrying out God’s charge to be the “light of the world” and “a city on a hill.” This is not something we do in our spare time.

This group of people in my home are my friends, my companions on the kingdom journey. I have waded knee-deep in the shit of life with some of them; I have also rejoiced with them in their greatest victories. For others our relationship is just beginning, but God is quickly binding our minds and hearts together. What we all have in common is a desire to live out this thing called Christianity in our real lives, with real people. We’re generally done with church as an institutional mechanism. We are not expecting any pastor or leader to tell us what to do or give us a spiritual boost so we can make it for another seven days. We’re not looking for the next great 40-day program to finally deal with the problems in our lives. We don’t consider our jobs and businesses to only be what God uses to financially support the “real ministry”. No, we are all in the ministry. We are all missionaries. We are all pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists, and apostles to those around us.

This is the first reality I believe we can say with assurance after five years of asking questions like “What is church?” and “What does it mean to be an apprentice of Jesus Christ?” The only context for ministry that matters and the place where we can most experience the kingdom of God is in the actual lives we are now living. The phrase, “I’m thinking of going into the ministry” is impossible. The minute we decide to follow Jesus, we enter the ministry. With that reality firmly in view, we now have to determine what that looks like in practice. How do you live as an apprentice of Jesus as a father, husband, and engineer? Or as a DHL driver? Or in network marketing? Or as an attorney? How do you live as a community of faith when the status quo in our culture is to insulate and isolate yourself from everyone else? How does Jesus affect our economics, our plans for the future, the way we treat our extended family? These questions begin to (and should) affect every area of our lives, and will continue to preoccupy us for the rest of our lives.

That being said, what is it that we are to do when we gather together? Of course, there are many answers to that question and they all carry some weight. But if we had to choose only one thing, it would be worship. Praise, worship, and thanksgiving are the bread and butter activity of God’s people. Pretty much everything else we do together – learning and teaching, praying and listening, sharing and eating – only make sense in light of worship. We know that worship doesn’t just happen when we sing or play a guitar, but we acknowledge the value and importance of coming together as Paul said, to “speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” In a very real way, worship is our language. It’s how we learn our way around the faith, around the community. Through praise, we see who God really is, and who we really are as his children. Through worship, we begin to get that God-vision out into our ordinary lives. Through thanksgiving, the kingdom remains real to us in the worst of circumstances.

Finally, we have discovered as a community the value of true friendship. Friendship is an indispensable part of uncovering what it means to be an authentic church. You cannot pray hard enough, study the scriptures hard enough, think and discuss things hard enough, or minister hard enough to make up for lack of true friendship within the community. Being friends does not mean you necessarily like everything about each other or even have all that much in common. It just means that at the end of the day, you can look at each other and know that you are on the same team. Out of that security comes the freedom for honesty, grace, healing, empowerment, encouragement, and hopefully love.

After almost five years of process, we are still a very young community. Every year I feel that all that we have learned up to this point becomes smaller and smaller compared to all that we need to learn. Thankfully, we have laid down the need to prove anything to anyone regarding our size or growth or influence. That being said, my heart slowly and continually swells with desire to see the whole church experience the beauty of the kingdom life lived simply, in community, in the nooks and crannies of everyday existence.