Vacation

The blog has been quiet for the past few days because we've been on a family vacation. Last Friday we packed up the kids in the van and headed up to Cincinnati. We spent the weekend with the Marshalls and some other friends and then left for Minnesota on Monday morning. After a stop-over in Chicago to see Amber's relatives, we arrived at my brother's house yesterday afternoon. You might think 1900 miles with three kids would leave us on the border of insanity, but it was actually a fairly pleasant trip. How? Plenty of stops, videos, ipod, and manageable distances each day.

Our time in Cincinnati was enjoyable as usual. The Marshall's hospitality was superb and we got some extended hangout time with Amy Palmer and Micah, the Beans, and the Johnsons. On Sunday night, I sat in on the house church Chris leads with some of his former students. We talked about the kingdom. Enough said. Actually, I will say that Chris Marshall is one guy I really admire for being willing to take a lot of heat for preaching the message of God's kingdom. Not fun stuff, but what is fun is seeing the life and energy being released by those kids as they "get it". What "it" is, is laying aside the religious baggage their school or some of their parents have laid on them and learning that being a Christian means following Jesus. Chris' example has been a big part of their transformation.

Tomorrow I hop on a plane and head back to SoFla. Amber and the kids will stay here for a few weeks and then I'll fly back on the 21st to drive them home. During my time in "solitude", I plan to do some writing and give a lot of attention to what God has been doing with me internally lately. Between that and work, I shouldn't get too lonely, but I will miss the family. Pray for Amber and Alison (my sister in law) if you think about it that they have a smooth time with the kids.

Making Daddy Proud

Quote from Jackson in his preschool yearbook:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A monster truck driver.

Calvary Chapel

Since a lot of my early Christian roots (from about 12-18 years old) were formed in Calvary Chapel, I found this post by Andrew Jones fairly interesting. It doesn't surprise me that Chuck Smith would react negatively to the "emerging church", however, it does surprise me how uninformed and reactive the letter sounds. However, if you read in the comments under Andrew's post, Chuck Smith Jr. indicates that the letter was actually written by his Uncle, not Chuck Sr. Regardless, the letter is something Calvary pastors will take into much consideration and form pretty deep opinions about, just because it comes from "Chuck Smith". Believe me.

As I've said before, I'm not great defender of all things "emerging church". Truthfully, I don't believe you could ever hope to defend the emerging church because it will never be something cohesive enough to compare to anything else. So it's sad to see whole movements take such strong stands against something they don't understand and have no relationship with.

On another note, Chuck Jr's comment made me aware again of how much I like that guy. I met Chuck in 2002 in St. Louis at a conference and was extremely impressed by his humility and deep passion for Jesus. He's a seeker like the rest of us...he just happens to have a pretty famous Dad. It's also interesting to note that his church is formally disassociating from Calvary "for the very amicable reason that I (we) seek a breadth of relationships that CC is not willing to accommodate." That is precisely the reason we have withdrawn from our Vineyard association. Not because we don't love our roots and history and even the people within the movement, but because we're coming into a time where limiting our relationships to one "tribe" just doesn't make sense anymore.

Separated at Birth II

Watching American Idol...and this one came to mind...



Taylor Hicks...Alan Creech

Separated At Birth?

Mary Cheney...Dana Carvey








Steve Nash...Anthony Kiedis








Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...Michael Gross

Question

Chris' post about the kingdom of God and the stuff we've been talking about relating to the 12 steps has got me thinking. Why aren't we risking everything to proclaim the gospel that Jesus preached? Chris risked his reputation at the Christian high school he used to teach at...and lost it with a good many parents and staff. But he reaped a harvest of young minds and hearts who were crying out to discover the real Jesus and what he has to say about this life, not just what happens to you when you die.

Oh Happy Day!

Warning. This post is for nerds like my brother, my buddy Matt, and Brant. Everyone else might just want to skip this.

Yes, the holy grail of ipod listening has been achieved. I have successfully installed my own aux-line in the van. A 2004 Mazda MPV for everyone else out there. All for around $100 and minimal swearing and throwing things.

Here's what I used: this and this and this very helpful forum thread. My first attempt at installation worked, but I had occasionally buzzing and popping. After some more research, I found I had a ground problem (the adapter has no ground - and neither does the ipod when running on battery). I hooked up a ground wire from one of the RCA jack sleeves to the radio housing and voila - no buzz. Today, I snaked the wire down through the dash to a little tissue box cubby below the pull-out cup holder. Fits like a glove. You simply turn on the radio, hit the CD button twice, "EX-1" comes up on the screen, and we're golden. Sweet! Here's some photos:

Journey Inward, Journey Outward

"The person who is having the time of his life doing what he is doing has a way of calling forth the deeps of another. Such a person is Good News. He is not saying good news. He is the good news. He is the embodiment of the freedom of the new humanity. The person who exercises his own gift in freedom can allow the Holy Spirit to do in others what He wants to do." - Gordon Cosby

Our community is wrestling with things like call, gifts, mission, and how those all relate to our transformation into Christlikeness. It is not a neat and clean process. Communities like ours have a fairly diverse set of gifts and find ourselves all over the map when it comes to calling. Inner transformation is expressed differently too, and the hurts of the past have their way of effortlessly creeping into the matters of the present.

But shouldn't that be expected? Why do we always tend to think that Christian community is where everyone gets along, all the needs of the group are met, everyone is fulfilled, feels loved, and has an equal voice? The reality often looks much different. Some voices are louder than others, some feel isolated and left out, some always feel that there is "something missing", needs often don't get met, and very often, personalities conflict, there are misunderstandings, and the awareness becomes stark - we are all very different people.

"All the believers were one in heart and mind..." Acts 4:32. This is the ideal, right? This is what everyone thinks of when they say, "I want to be a part of a church like in the book of Acts!" Sounds wonderful. One heart and one mind. There were none needy among them. Breaking bread and worshipping together daily. Wow.

"Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches." Acts 15:36-41

I guess all the believers didn't stay "one in heart and mind" forever. What is so remarkable about Barnabas and Paul's disagreement is that it came directly on the heels of the Jerusalem Council, where the church navigated its most serious internal conflict up to that point - whether or not to accept the Gentiles as is.

Here's what I am discovering: disagreements, conflict, misunderstanding, personality differences - these are all a gift. They help to remind us that transparency is vital to our life together as God's people. If keeping the peace were the object, we would become stale and lifeless. Elizabeth O' Connor (I seem to be drawing a lot from COS again) says in "Journey Inward, Journey Outward", "Peace is not the object of Christian fellowship, though we have thought it was and have maintained 'good' relationships at the terrible expense of not being real with each other. When this happens, we forego being a people on a pilgrimage together."

Discovering gifts, call, mission, who we are as people, is not something done in isolation. Modern spirituality tells us to "Remember our spirit" and foster these things in the privacy of our own homes, separated from the messiness of other people. We then occasionally come together with others and swoon and fawn over our "enlightenment" and dish out gross sums of money to whichever guru Hollywood says is popular this month. But Christian community demands we slug this stuff out together, with a concrete group of imperfect people, how ever uncomfortable we feel. Christianity - real Christianity - has always been lived this way.

Relevant

Brant is working on a trendycool article for Relevant Magazine. I sent him a few additions:

Peterson's "The Message" has way too many clichés. We need more television like "The Greatest American Hero" and less "American I-Dull". The City of Orlando, which happens to have a large population of evangelical Christians, is one of most satiated, consumeristic, and therefore boring places on the planet. Rick Warren is not the problem; Rick Warren's imitators are the problem. The emerging church is like giving your Uncle BillyBob from Tennessee a bath and a haircut, calling it an "Extreme Makeover", and writing a book about the experience. Naming a magazine "Relevant" automatically makes it irrelevant to people who don't understand why being relevant has anything to do with following Jesus.