Denver and Co.

I Have Switched to Wordpress

2010-03-11T00:56:00.005-05:00

Friends, Family, and Unknown Readers,

I have been notified on various occasions that commenting on my blog can be nothing less than a chore - due in large part to the process required by the beloved blogspot.com people.

For that reason and others which would be of little to no interest to you, I have changed my blog site to http://denverkevin.wordpress.com/.

I would greatly appreciate it if you all would transfer your readership to the new site.

It's been a good ride, blogspot. Farewell.

Accountability

2010-03-08T23:23:00.002-05:00

In recent days I stumbled across this post on Ed Stetzer's website dealing with the topic of accountability groups. The post contains various pastors' accountability questions that they regularly ask within their respective small groups. I thought I would post a few of those questions that stuck out to me as unfortunately unique here.

From John Wesley's Small Group

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously [subconsciously?] creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

8. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. Do I pray about the money I spend?

11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

From John Wesley's Band Meetings

5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

From Chuck Swindoll's Pastoral Accountability Questions:

(the final question) 5. Have you just lied to me?

From Neil Cole:

3. Is there anything that has dampened your zeal for Christ [this week]?

In $$$ We Trust

2010-03-07T21:10:00.006-05:00

"Our currency says we trust in God,

but in reality we usually trust in our currency."

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” -- Jesus (Luke 16:13)

You Were Born a White (Wo)Man...

2010-03-06T00:25:00.005-05:00

"You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century industrial America. You came into the world armed to the teeth with an arsenal of weapons. The weapons of privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege, economic privilege. You wanna be a pacifist, it's not just giving up guns and knives and clubs and fists and angry words, but giving up the weapons of privilege, and going into the world completely disarmed. Try that." --Ammon Hennessy

I'm not a fan of pacifism, but I think this quote speaks volumes to the church about being willing to empty ourselves of what we have "rights" to in order to reach people with the gospel. I've become especially sensitive to this of late with my church working for racial diversity at all cost.

Quotes from Work (pt. 3)

2010-03-05T20:58:00.004-05:00

(Context: Two women speaking of a recently discovered motivational speaker they were researching on the internet.)

Co-worker #1: He seems like a really nice guy. I'd really like to be his friend.

Co-worker #2: You mean, like, on Facebook?

Quotes from Work (pt. 2)

2010-03-05T01:53:00.003-05:00

Co-worker: Do you like Rob Bell?

Me: I don't know. I've never met him.

Co-worker: Like, have you read any of his books?

Me: Yes.

Co-worker: What did you think?

Me: I heard someone say it this way, "Some of the stuff he says is brilliant. Other stuff - he would have gotten burned at the stake for 400 years ago."

Co-worker: Yeah, so I got about 12 pages into his book before putting it down and Googling the phrase, "Is Rob Bell a heretic?" Evidently a lot of people don't like the guy.

End of February Update

2010-03-04T01:19:00.004-05:00

Once again, time to catch up on too much time in as few words as possible.

The last few weeks have been really busy - as in, I haven't really been home much in the last 11 days and won't be home much for another few days. I sleep here, but that's about it.

The highlights of the last couple weeks:

The church I'm a part of has begun really pushing toward cultural and ethnic diversity this year. As a result, two weeks ago as part of black history month and as a way to give a taste of what's to come in the future for Providence, we had more of an African-American style service - complete with "spoken words", a panel discussion on racism in America and the church, and a sermon first preached by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. several decades ago.

Last week, we focused the service on introducing many Latino traditions: Spanish music (the powerpoint contained both Spanish and English lyrics), a panel-discussion on immigration and the language barrier in the church and America, a largely bilingual service, and a sermon from John 13.

Oh, and both services were 3 hours long. Gotta love it!

Last Friday, some friends and I went to a Switchfoot concert at the Ogden Theatre near downtown Denver. Unfortunately for me, I missed out on going to the meet n' greet before the show, but the concert was so good I'll forgive missing the opportunity - realizing, of course, that the act of forgiving, by definition, is entirely dependent upon a preceding passive condition of being wronged by a person or persons, which, in this case, was altogether absent, and the situation, therefore, is exempt from being forgiven and consequently disqualifies the latter independent clause from philosophical credibility, but on the other hand does qualify this sentence into the running for most confusing sentence of the year at a to-be-determined county fair later this year.

["Sing it out, sing it out, take what is left of me, make it a melody"]

[Mandolin anyone?]

[This is a video I shot at the concert. At the beginning, I am holding up Jon Foreman as he stands on the railing in front of me.]

Oh, the night before the day before the Switchfoot show, my car got broken into in the apartment parking lot. Apparently, someone from the community needed a slightly used car stereo and GPS unit and hadn't been able to find one on Craigs List at a fair price. I completely understand. **Note to thief: Next time you need something from my car, give me a heads up and I'll be sure to leave my doors unlocked so you don't shatter the window glass everywhere. Cleaning of the millions of glass bits was really annoying and I have better ways to spend my time.**

Those would be the highlights from the last couple weeks. I'm sure I'll think of more stuff I should have included, but the events I neglect to include will bother me infinitely more than they will any of you.

What I already realized I forgot:

:: I went to an IMAX with the kids from our after school program.

:: I put in a 14 hour day on Saturday helping renovate the church's community center.

:: The same night my car got broken into, I saw a guy sprint across 4 lanes of traffic on highway 6 in order to graffiti up a light pole.

:: I saw a baby prairie dog running around on the road dodging traffic. The point? Baby prairie dogs are way cuter than squirrels of any age.

Ok Go Wins Again!

2010-03-03T00:55:00.004-05:00

From the very same guys who brought you...

"The Treadmill Video"

...and "The Video of The Treadmill Guys Dancing in Their Back Yard" ...

...comes their latest music video of Mousetrap proportions.

Evidently, this video took several months to set up. I believe it.

Quotes from the Front Door

2010-03-02T01:01:00.004-05:00

10:52 pm

*knock knock*

Me: (opens door) Hello.

Random guy holding a used buzz saw and socket wrench set: Hey man. You wanna buy a saw or wrench set? I promise the saw works. We can plug it in right now and prove it works.

Me: Uh, why are you selling?

RGHAUBSASWS: (looking around nervously) Because I violated parole and I only have a couple days before I gotta ditch town.

Me: Well, I already have wrench set.

RGHAUBSASWS: I'll throw it in for free! Quote a price on this saw - I promise it works. We can plug it in right now and I'll show you.

Me: No thanks, man. Bye. Have a good night.

RGHAUBSASWS: Ok, have a good night. Do you know who lives next door?

Me: No. (door closes)

*knock knock on the neighbor's door*

Quotes from Work

2010-03-01T09:53:00.003-05:00

While driving kids from their school to Goals.

3rd grade girl: "Mr.! Stop. This. Bus. Right. Now!"

Me: "Umm...No, I can't right now. There are cars behind us."

3rd grade boy: "No, there's not. Michael Jackson's behind us!" [emphasis his]

Me: "Ok."

Paging Simon Cowell

2010-02-25T01:05:00.003-05:00

Seriously, where is Simon Cowell when you need him!? This video has exploded on the internet and it might be the worst sounding/filmed/edited music video ever. Hands down. If nothing else, check out the wailing guitar solo at 2:08.

"Shine" by Final Placement from sharity world on Vimeo.

Joy Through The Cancer

2010-02-20T13:00:00.009-05:00

Please check out the new blog of my college friend, Jason Norton. He recently found out he has stage c3 cancer and will be blogging his journey on his blog. Jason is a Godly brother and has a great perspective on this cancer. He and his wife, Mary, are also expecting their first child, a daughter, in July!

"Obviously, not a trial I planned nor wanted to ever go through, but I’m fortunate enough to know that God the creator has an even better plan for my life here on earth, no matter how long that may be. This blog is truly not to bring more attention to myself, but ultimately to proclaim the name of Christ and how He uses situations like these to reveal His grace and His greatness. I hope to use this as an avenue to share, not only my battle with cancer, but how the Lord is growing and strengthening me during this trial."

http://consideritpurejoy.wordpress.com/

An Update Buffet

2010-02-20T11:19:00.008-05:00

This post will be a recap of an assortment of recent happenings:

Books:

I read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men last weekend and really enjoyed it. I consider it to be more of a story than a book, just because of its brevity. I've never been so caught off guard by a book's final sentence in my life.

I started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns on Wednesday. It's the second book by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner - a book I

thoroughly enjoyed reading last year. I had intentions of reading ATSS while still in Michigan, but I never got around to it (my apologies to Rachel Moen). Hopefully I can have the book finished by the end of the weekend.

For church, I'm reading Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion and Alexander Strauch's book, Biblical Eldership. These books will take a little longer to read than the fiction ones.

Piano Jazz and BJU:

On Wednesday night, my small group was canceled so I ended up hanging out with Alyssa and her friend, Seth, for a couple hours at a local piano jazz venue downtown. Seth went to Bob Jones University and we discovered that we have a few mutual friends from there. Small world.

Tiger's Apology:

You can watch the full apology here or read the transcript here.

I want to give Tiger credit for his public apology yesterday. He was thorough, accepted personal responsibility for his actions, spoke highly of his wife and children, and emphasized his priority of keeping many of the specific details between him and his wife. Here is part of the apology.

"The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame.

I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.

I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.

I've had a lot of time to think about what I've done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made. It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."

As far as apologies go from non-Christian people, I think Tiger apologized well. I was, however, disappointed that Tiger believes Buddhism to be a large part of the solution to the problem. This didn't surprise me, but it didn't give me a great deal of hope that Tiger will be successful in this life-change. I am pleased Tiger is taking steps to get his personal life in order. Few athletes would step away from the game in their prime in order to save their family. I give credit to Tiger for having his priorities in the right place.

Real Conversation Between Me and a Student at Work:

Me: So, what's up with you and [insert girl's name]?

Him: Nothin'. We're just friends.

Me: Oh ya? What do you think your girlfriend would think about that?

Him: I don't have a girlfriend.

Me: Who's that girl that's always all wrapped up in your arms after school? Would she say she's your girlfriend?

Him: (awkwardly) Yeah.

Me: One girl at a time, man. One girl at a time.

Don't Give Up

2010-02-18T23:32:00.002-05:00

A promo video from Churchill's concert at Cornerstone University. Some random guy at the show made it and I think it's incredible!

churchill Promo from lancemokma on Vimeo.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

2010-02-09T00:09:00.007-05:00

I completed Donald Miller's newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, on Saturday. The book definitely has Miller's unique writing style but relays a more mature version than his readers have seen in the past. Miles is the 5th of Miller's books (you can read snippets of them here) to be published and I have read every one. It's weird to me, but I think he's the only author who I've read every book by. That sentence seems weird to me - probably because I ended the sentence with a preposition. Sue me.

The basic premise of this book, as I seem to remember addressing in an earlier blog post, is Miller talking about his learning to view his life as a story, and in the process, realizing that his life was really boring. He came to believe that if people had watched his life in movie form, they would have either fall asleep or left the theatre early. As a result of that realization, he set out to radically change his life, and thereby writing a better life story. In Miles, Miller teaches about what makes a good story and then shares experiences from his own life that exemplify successes and failures in his attempt and making his life into a good story. Some parts of the book are educational, others are hilarious (although the funny parts are few and far between, in contrast to some of his past books), and still others are utterly heart wrenching.

In reading the book, the writing hit a brief lull for me sort of early on, but then steadily gained momentum before blindsiding me with one of my favorite "book sections" I've ever read. It was at this point that I Facebooked my feelings of excitement of almost being done with the book, but also being sad because it meant the book was almost over. I got a much larger response to that post than expected (20ish comments), so it was encouraging to know I'm not the only one who experiences that tension.

I've included below some of my favorite quotes and paragraphs from the book. Read them if you'd like; if you plan to read the book, I suggest avoiding the long paragraphs I quote because what Miller says will be more powerful if you read them in the context of the book, and I don't want to ruin any huge moments for you. I could have written more quotes, but these are more than enough for one entry. Plus, I'm not sure about copyright laws and I don't want to get sued for copying the whole book onto my blog.

People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain. (p. 100)

A general rule in creating stories is that people don’t want to change. They must be forced to change. (p. 100)

Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life. (p. 108)

The main way we learn story is not through movies or books; it’s through each other. You become like the people you interact with. And if your friends are living boring stories, you probably will to. We teach our children good or bad stories, what is worth living for and what is worth dying for, what is worth pursuing, and the dignity with which a character engages his own narrative. (p. 160)

I think this [referencing a story is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world, wanting to get married, wanting to have kids and change the way people buy office supplies. But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They can’t see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses, and they go looking for an easier story. (p. 179)

Before this, I couldn’t understand why a person would commit suicide. And while I now have the perspective that only comes from distance, and the perspective always comes, I know the power a lie has to shrink time into what seems the eternal end of things. It is a true miracle I survived that hour. I wasn’t numb anymore. I was allowed to feel the brunt of it. The bones penetrated my chest in a sudden rip, emptying a body of blood down my shirt and onto my lap. The blood pooled in the lap of my pants and seeped into the carpet in my hotel room. I clasped my hand over my heart and knelt between the bed and the television and rolled onto the floor and cried out to God a lamenting demand that he would come and save me from the sorrow that, for the immensity of it, I could only attribute to him in the first place. I didn’t want to learn whatever it was he wanted to teach me. I cried out to him an angry petition for rescue. I doubted him and need him at the same time. God seem to me, in that moment, a cruel father burning a scar into my skin with his cigarette. And yet I knew he was the only one with the power to make the pain go away. (p. 195).

I don’t mean to insinuate there are no minor climaxes to human stories. There are. A kid can try to make the gootball team and in a moment of climax sees his name on the coach’s list. A girl can want to get married and feel euphoric when the man of her dreams slides a rin on her finger. But these aren’t the stories I’m talking about. These are substories. When that kid makes the football team, he is going to find out that playing football is hard, and he’s going to find himself in the middle of yet another story. And the girl is going to wake up three months into her marriage and realize she is, in fact, still lonely, and so many of her issues haven’t gone away. And if both of these people aren’t careful, they’re going to get depressed because they thought the climax to their substory was actually a climax to the human story, and it wasn’t. The human story goes on. (p. 202-203)

We don’t know how much we are capable of loving until the people we love are being taken away, until a beautiful story is ending. (p. 223)

:: Donald Miller, himself raised without a father, started a mentorship program called "The Mentoring Project" for fatherless boys in America as a result of his desire to live a better story and help others. The program has gained a great deal of attention as evidenced by that fact that Miller has had several meetings with President Obama regarding fatherlessness in America. Miller blogs here and you can follow him on Twitter if you so choose: @donmilleris.

ESL XII CCM UFC

2010-02-06T21:31:00.005-05:00

Current Listening: Ampersand - Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken

This week has been a true delight. As mentioned in my last post, Tuesday night was the first night of ESL for the spring semester. Class went without a hitch and it was fun seeing some of my students from last semester again. After class, Calla (my friend and fellow ESL teacher) and I went on a spontaneous excursion to Twelve Restaurant for a late dinner and to say hi to my neighbors who work there. I was lucky enough to try seared foie gras (fwah - grah) for the first time as our appetizer. Foie gras is a protein rich method of serving up duck liver that tastes like an oddly enjoyable meaty balloon. It was a unique experience that will find a role as a pleasant, once in a lifetime memory more so than as a regular part of my diet in the future.

Skip Wedesday. It was rather mundane.

Thursday night after I got home from ESL I realized I had left my lap top out on table in a classroom at work. This was most unfortunate because students would be using that classroom the next day and I didn't have to work. I sucked it up, hopped back in my car, drove the 15 minutes back to work, grabbed the stupid laptop (for which I am deeply grateful and under any other circumstances would never refer to as stupid), and drove back downtown to meet some friends. Crisis averted. Personal patience tank running on low. Then I was dumb and put enough money in the parking meter for an hour and a half even though parking was going to be free in a matter of minutes. Tank on empty.

So I met up with some friends from church downtown to hang out and ended up running into three other friends of mine, two of whom (Brad and Josh) are in the worship band Gungor - who I've mentioned on this blog before. Evidently they were just featured on the cover of the newest CCM magazine and their new cd comes out in the next couple weeks. Congrats to them. So I was with the aforementioned church friends at The Celtic Tavern until around 11:30 at which time we headed over a few blocks to the Meadowlark for a late night Churchill show. The show was totally worth staying up late for as they played one of their best shows to date and impressed some "important" people who were in town to check out the band. Next week the band will be on a week-long midwest tour, including shows at both Cornerstone University and Taylor University, so I'll be flying solo for a few days. I anticipate feeling a bit like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone while they're gone. Bring it on Harry and Marv, I'll straight up own you with a staple gun and ... shoot, does anyone have a staple gun I can borrow?

Friday I slept in and spent the day reading and prepping for the all night church prayer meeting that went from 10 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. I had the opportunity to lead the singing for the meeting and do some brief teaching from the book of Ezra for a section as well. For part of the meeting we walked a mile to the capitol building at about 2 a.m. in order to pray for the city and its leaders. While standing on the front steps, we witnessed a car crash at the corner intersection so some of the group ran over to check on the drivers while one guy called 911 to notify the police. No one in the accident was hurt, just a little dazed and in shock.

[The Denver capitol building.]

So I just received a phone call from my friend Dwight inviting me to go watch the UFC fights tonight. I can't really say no to that. I could, but I'm not going to. Peace out peoples! In my next update I hope to talk about the book I just finished reading today.

Fu Man Chus and The Great Peanut Butter Cookie Conundrum

2010-02-02T00:23:00.008-05:00

Thursday night was an elders meeting for church. I've been able to attend the last couple meetings as part of a group of guys who are looking to begin an "elder-in-training" type internship. This would involve reading various books and presenting summary papers, attending elder meetings, and getting heavily involved in various ministries. It's kind of a discipleship on steroids for guys who want to be elders in the church someday.

Friday I went to the aquarium for a field trip with the kids in our after school program. Sometimes my job is really tough - driving a school bus and then dissecting a squid and walking around the Denver downtown aquarium. I totally got to pet/touch/momentarily graze my fingers on a live sting ray. Unlike Steve Irwin, however, I survived the encounter.

[This was the original shark who tried out for the lead role in Jaws.*]

[The Goals group in front of the shark tank.]

[Some of the students and I attempting a group shot in front a unusually long fish laying on the bottom of the tank...too bad we blocked most of it.]

Saturday I did some reading and prepped for leading music at Providence on Sunday. This was my first time getting to lead the singing and I really enjoyed the opportunity. Because Saturday was such a beautiful day (around 50 degrees and sunny), I went for a walk downtown after dinner. I popped in my headphones and listened to a sermon and a half during my walk. I can't wait for the weather to really warm up because a couple guys had set up an artwork booth on 16th Street, and they told me that when the weather warms up they are there quite often along with a bunch of other vendors. Their paintings were cool - a unique combo of bright colors, robots, and planets. Upon reading what I just wrote, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it; the paintings were cool.

On Sunday, the message was about prayer. The meeting place is really starting to fill up on Sunday mornings and some guys had to set up some extra chairs so everyone could have a place to sit. I guess that's a good problem to have. After the service, a bunch of friends came over for lunch before heading out to the Genghis Khan exhibit at the history museum. They all, girls included, wore felt fu man chu mustaches to the exhibit. One of the guys, Jeremy, had actually shaved his goatee the night before so he was rocking a legit, home grown, fu man chu. For the record, I didn't go to the exhibit, but Greg helped me fix my car hood after everyone left so not going was totally worth it.

[Genghis Khan. The great father of the fu man chu.]

I did have a couple free movie passes so Mike and I went and saw a movie that turned about to be a cross between "The Bourne Identity" and an old Bob Jones University movie about smuggling Bibles that I saw in high school - I don't remember the title. Eh...

Tonight was dinner and a movie. Greg cooked up his famous chicken bruschetta (I just spelled that word correctly on my first try. Raise the roof.), and I made the peanut butter cookies. I even pressed the criss-crossed fork grid pattern into the second batch so as to make them look official. Why do we do that? The pressing of the fork so as to create a criss-crossed fork grid pattern on peanut butter cookies. I think we should stop. It makes me feel like I'm eating fattening pieces of graph paper.

Tomorrow is another day of work and the first day of ESL for the spring semester! I can't wait! I love teaching ESL. And I'll get to see my friend Calla again who also teaches ESL. I haven't seen her since before Christmas. Twill be fun.

Hasta luego y buenos noches.

*Not true

Jessa Anderson - Back in the Musical Saddle!

2010-01-26T23:24:00.007-05:00

Great news, friends! My friend Jessa Anderson is back in the studio recording her second album - due out in late spring. Her first album, Fundamentally Broken, is one of my favorite albums and maintains a regular place in my listening rotation. It's available both through her website and on itunes. Jessa and her husband, Jordan, have been touring full time and playing their music literally all around the world for the past year and a half. Jessa has enjoyed recent success on the European Christian music charts landing a #1 single ("And You Love Me") this past fall thanks to steady radio play and a ministry related tour throughout Europe alongside her husband and Ken and Jinner Rudolph. If that's not enough, as a result of winning a new artist competition last summer, she'll be playing the main stage in June at Alive 2010 in Ohio. If 2009 is any indicator of what 2010 will bring, Jessa is definitely worth keeping an eye on, and I highly recommend buying her new album the day it's released.

This video gives a preview of one of her new songs "Not Myself Anymore."

More videos can be seen on Jessa's YouTube page.

P.S. Jordan and Jessa are expecting a baby, their first, late this summer. Congratulations, Jordan and Jessa!

Counterfeit Gods

2010-01-25T00:15:00.006-05:00

I just finished reading Tim Keller's newest book, Counterfeit Gods, last night. I would highly recommend it to anyone - Christian or not. I have referenced Keller and included video clips of him teaching various times in my blog, so at the risk of beating a dead horse, I will repeat my recommendation that you all should read any or all of his books and listen to anything you can by the guy. I came across this site today and it seems to be a gold mine of resources from Keller. I also found this very official looking photo of Keller on Google images.

In Counterfeit Gods, Keller sets out to expose the empty promises of sex, money, and power - a message that is particularly timely in light of America's current economic recession. He starts the book by addressing the despair that has overcome many Americans today and convincingly argues that this despair is the result of idolatry. Quoting De Tocqueville, Keller defines idolatry as "taking some 'incomplete joy of this world' and building your entire life on it" (p. xi). In expanding on this idea, Keller later observes, "We take more and greater risks to get an ever diminishing satisfaction from the thing we crave, until a breakdown occurs" (p. xiv).

In the main body of the book, Keller demonstrates himself to be be well read and culturally discerning - a quality that doesn't surprise me due to the fact that he's the pastor of a large and growing church in the heart of New York City. He relays the Biblical stories of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Rachel, Naaman, Zacchaeus, Nebuchadnezzar, and Jonah in fresh ways - exposing in each story the idolatry that God brings to light. Keller comes out firing with both barrels, congently and graciously pointing out the frivolousness of making money, sex, power, or anything else ultimate in one's life. In each case, he presents Jesus as the the true solution and only Savior.

In conclusion, the best part of this book is that Keller does not have an agenda to write a book for "church people" pointing out how all the "non-church people" are all terrible people. His agenda is actually to point out how equally bad "church people" and "non-church people" are and, in turn, to present Jesus as the only hope to both groups. Keller writes, "The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you" (p. xxiv).

----

For those interested, the book is for sale on Amazon.

Pictures of Haiti

2010-01-23T13:46:00.003-05:00

The best pictures coming out of Haiti can be found here. Thus far, four albums have been posted:

Album 1: Earthquake in Haiti

Album 2: Haiti 48 Days Later

Album 3: Haiti Six Days Later

Album 4: Face of Haiti

American Idol, Five Iron Frenzy, and a Carnivorous Lobster

2010-01-21T01:23:00.004-05:00

[I saw this truck in Michigan over Christmas break, but I forgot

to post it before. I just thought it was kinda funny.]

Monday night a group of friends came over for the traditional "dinner and movie" but the night turned into "dinner and sit around and talk and play with Kaden" night. This was totally cool with me because my friends are great and Kaden is fun to play with. Kaden is Krystol's son and he turns 4 later this month. I spent a lot of the night playing with him and activities included him jumping back and forth from my bed to Mike's while I laid on the ground between the beds and played the role of carnivorous lobster, teaching him how to have a pillow fight, running around putting ice cubes down each other's shirts, holding him upside down above my head so he could walk on the ceiling, and having a strobe light dance party in the bedroom.

[Kaden discovered that shining a green laser pointer into the toilet

gave the bowl a stunning alien green glow.]

[Mike and Kaden making scary ghost faces.]

Tuesday night consisted of watching American Idol (3 cheers for random good singing girl from West Des Moines!) and reading Calvin's Institutes. I hope to post some quotes from that and Counterfeit Gods possibly this weekend. Tonight I went to small group for church and now I'm going to bed. Switchfoot is on Jimmy Fallon tonight, but I'm too tired to stay up and watch it. I'll be seeing Switchfoot here in Denver February 26th. I can't wait. Last time I saw them was in fall of 2007 in New York City.

Lastly, I found out last night that the band opening the Churchill and The Still City (cd release show) show on Saturday night is comprised of former members of Five Iron Frenzy - a old CCM ska band that sold close to 1,000,000 records during my junior high age years. Their new band name is A Mouthful of Thunder. It should be a great show - it's expected to be sold out.

MLK 2010 and the Solution for Racism

2010-01-18T15:58:00.005-05:00

The speech that defined a movement (transcript available here):

Sadly, the most segregated institution in America today is the church. This article from 2008 is very insightful in pointing out many of the obstacles faced by churches who desire to be multi-ethnic. I found the following statements from the article to be very helpful/challenging:

"Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States."

"... the first-century Christian church grew so rapidly precisely because it was so inclusive. ...the church inspired wonder because its leaders were able to form a community that cut across the rigid class and ethnic divisions that characterized the ancient Roman world...Biblical precedents, though, may not be enough to make someone attend church with a person of another race. Something else is needed: a tenacious pastor who goads his or her church to reach across racial lines, interracial church scholars say."

[One pastor speaking of his own experience said...] "Some parents talked about the importance of a multiracial church, until their kid became attracted to someone from another race within the church."

"Only when ethnic groups no longer feel compelled to abandon their entire culture on Sunday morning can a church claim to be interracial...An interracial church isn't one in which all the black members act, dress and worship like the church's majority white members to make them feel comfortable...Interracial churches resist 'taking one dominant identity and forcing everyone to fit into it.'"

As part of a local church that is pursuing racial diversity, I found this article surprisingly helpful (It is not too often CNN has a decent article on Christianty - in my opinion.). The neighborhood in which I live is predominately black and my job has me working with about a 95% hispanic population. Growing up in Iowa, going to 98% white Bible college, and living in a suburb of Detroit (not to be confused with real Detroit), I was never confronted with the need for racial diversity. By the grace of God, I don't believe myself to be racist, but I find myself so comfortable within the white culture that I don't realize the arrogance that can lie beneath the surface. That being said, here are some questions to ask yourself today as America reflects upon the life of Martin Luther King and the cause he represents.

1. Do you ever find yourself making "we"/"they" distinctions within the church based purely on matters of race?

2. How much would it bother you if the service didn't start "on time"? (I've learned that this is a "white person" mentality and that making this a huge priority can communicate a message of cultural superiority within the church.)

3. When is the list time you referred to something as being "flesh colored" because it matched your own skin tone?

4a. If your music on Sunday mornings didn't sound like old school Maranatha, Coldplay (aka Chris Tomlin), or...I guess there isn't a third option within white churches, would you still be able to engage in the singing? Hint: Look through your worship cd collection and try and find one cd that reflects music of a different culture...can you do it?

4b. Do you secretly hope the music in heaven doesn't sound like Latin Salsa or Hip Hop?

5. Do you have any friends at all of a different race? (Note: I'm not recommending you go out to find a token black/hispanic/Asian friend just so you can say you have one, but does the fact that you might not have one reveal the exclusive circles you run in?)

In conclusion, I don't believe the ultimate solution to racism or segregation in or out of the church is a charismatic, motivational pastor or spokesman. I believe these people simply are to be the communicators of the solution, namely the gospel. The gospel that boldly preaches that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek (Gal. 3:28) and that one day, people from every tribe and tongue will surround the throne worshipping Jesus together forever (Rev. 7:9). It is only through the cross of Christ that we can be set free from our pride and sin of racism. Those who reject Christ need the gospel so that they can be made alive and set free from their slavery to sin, and religious people need the gospel to reveal that their love of racially diverse people will never save them or earn them merit with God. We worship a Jesus who never committed the sin of racism, but on the cross became a racist on our behalf 1 Cor 5:21 and absorbed the wrath of God for that sin so that those who believe in Him might be saved (Romans 3:23-26).

Those are some of my thoughts today. I encourage you to think on these things as well. Comments/criticisms are always welcome. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, especially if you disagree with me or have questions. Lastly, it's very possible that I've included something here that is subtly or explicitly racist and I didn't even realize it because of my own blindness. For this I apologize and will gladly receive correction.

Dragon Twister!

2010-01-18T10:03:00.002-05:00

This is well worth 6:28 of your life. It's incredible all the way to the end!

If you don't have time to watch it all, I recommend highlights at the 3:08, 3:50, 4:23, 4:35, 5:04 and marks.

Update to Favorite Things

2010-01-16T15:32:00.003-05:00

Here is my roommate Tyler's "going out on the town how do I look" outfit mentioned at the end of this previous post:

Avatar

2010-01-13T14:58:00.010-05:00

Question: What cost 387 million dollars , brought great joy to millions of people, and sent others down a spiral of depression? Answer: Avatar.

If you haven't heard of it by now, chances are you don't get on the internet much. Or read newspapers. Or go outside. Or have friends. This movie has already grossed 1.4 billion dollars and is well on its way to becoming the highest grossing movie of all time. For James Cameron, the movie's writer and director, the only movie standing between him and #1 is the last movie he made. You might have heard of it - it's called "Titantic."

The big push behind this movie, as you probably already know, it's the visual gluttonous feast that it provides. I was able to see the movie in 3D on Monday night and pretty much sat there dumbfounded at how cool everything was. Several times I sat there with my jaw wide open while simultaneously grinning and whispering, "Wow!" The closest way I can think of to talk about the movie is to say that James Cameron has done for film what C.S. Lewis did for literature. Lewis created other worlds on paper, and Cameron brought his to life on the screen.

This movie was not without it's critics, however. For starters, critics clam the story line is essentially that of the Disney hit movie, Pocohontas (not to be confused with the actual, historical account of Pocohontas). To this I say, "Yes. It is. But I don't care. Essentially every chick flick has the same story structure but no one cares about that. Gorgeous guy meets beautiful babe. Usually one plays hard to get. Then they fall in love. Then one does something stupid and they part ways. Then they realize they are too perfect for one another and get back together. I don't even have a specific chick flick in mind, but I'm guessing this plot summarizes at least a few of them."

The movie contains also political, social, and spritual threads woven subtly and explicitly throughout. The line, "We fight terror with terror" kind of stuck out to me. The whole cowboy and indian genocide theme was pretty explicit - complete with the Avatar warriors riding horses (the Pandora equivalent of), wearing war paint, and shooting bows and arrows. Additionally, there was a whole bunch of mother earth mumbo jumbo hogwash thrown in. Something about all of creation sharing the same spirit and connecting through fiber-optic ponytails. Finally, the movie presented creation as being the mediator between man and the divine. It clearly had a divine "other" that was separate from but involved with creation, but it/she/he was accessed through creation.

I don't want to really rant about this movie because I think pretty much every movie has its own pagan message and to single this one out is unfair. I just wanted to say that the movie was super cool and entertaining but should not be viewed without discernment. Watch it through your eyes but with your heart.

P.S. The whole depression deal going on simply points out that people recognize that something in our world is broken. People long to be in a reconciled relationship with creation and the Divine, but fail to see that Jesus makes this possible. Avatar just made this super obvious.

Favorite Things

2010-01-09T23:11:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted a "Some of my Favorite Things" list on here.

For what it's worth, here it is:

Music:

In Your City - Phil Wickham

Grounds for Divorce - Elbow - super cool sounding song.

If You Wanna Go - Joy Williams - co-written by my friend Tim's cousin

Hello Hurricane (the whole album) - Switchfoot

The Civil Wars (What I've heard of them so far, at least.)

Oh For That Day (the album) - Enfield

Books:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller

you can read an excerpt from the book here

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power,and the Only Hope that Really Matters - Tim Keller

I bought this book with a Christmas gift card. Thanks Dan Rudd!

Life Stuff:

My roomates Tyler Rima and Mike Morter

The Packers making the playoffs

Twitter

Iowa Hawkeyes winning the Orange Bowl

Colt McCoy's speech after getting injured on the 5th play and watching his team lose the national championship game. A true class act.

Chick-Fil-A

Providence Bible Church

Watching Mike walk out onto our porch, stretch out his arms, and yell, "This is my city!" at the top of his lungs - for no reason at all.

Having Tyler just walk up to me dressed in a plaid shirt, black skinny jeans, a tie, and suspenders, and ask if he looks like he's dressed for a night on the town. I told him he looks like he's dressed for a barn raising.

Christmas Break, New Year, and The Break

2010-01-09T22:32:00.006-05:00

I'm lucky (blessed) enough to have a job that provided me with two weeks of Christmas vacation this year. I flew to Omaha on the Saturday before Christmas where my dad picked picked me up and we drove the 2 1/2 hours to Des Moines. I was able to attend the church where I grew up on Sunday and see a lot of friends there. Monday night I went out for wings with some old youth group friends and leaders. Tuesday night my sisters and brother-in-law and I planned a family night with my parents where we had dinner and played the Wii and my sister and brother-in-law's new(ish) apartment. Wednesday we decided to leave early to go to my grandparents' house in order to beat the incoming snow storm. We attended the beginning of the Christmas Eve service at church because my family was scheduled to read the Christmas story and then left early to hit the road. We spent the next few days with family and had a great time eating too much food, playing board games, teaching my grandparents to play Wii bowling, and just spending time together. It was the first time we had all been together since last Christmas. My family, with the exception of Gerty and I, left on Sunday to go home and Gerty and I stuck around till Monday morning before leaving to go visit friends in Michigan.

Monday night Gerty and I stayed with my super-awesome friends, Bob and Charissa Karr, near Lansing, MI. I had the opportunity to travel on a ministry team with Bob during the summer of 2006 and then be in Bob and Charissa's wedding back in the summer of 2008. I'm pretty sure they are two of the coolest people ever. Tuesday morning Gerty and I drove to Detroit to visit all my Cornerstone friends. I interned at Cornerstone for 1 year before moving here to Denver in August.

A bunch of students came and hung out in the gym on Tuesday afternoon. We ate pizza and played basketball, volleyball, and dodgeball. I miss hanging out with the students and bunch and can't wait till they're old enough to take a road trip to come visit me in Denver (hint, hint).

[Devin and I have a tradition of him picking me up in pictures. He's huge like that.]

I spent the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday seeing as many Cornerstone friends as possible. I am forever grateful for the relationships I have with so many incredible people there.

Gerty and I left Detroit around 5:30 on Thursday morning to head up to Lake Ann Camp for The Break, a college-ish age retreat over the New Year holiday. It was Gerty's first time at Lake Ann and we had a great time seeing old friends and making new ones. One of my campers from 2 summers ago is now a college student and so it was fun to catch up on life at little bit. Gerty and I had the opportunity to help lead the music with Mike Morter and Gibby Fingers and Brian the Drummer. New Years was ushered in with a Shawn McDonald concert and I got to sit front and center for the show. Last time I saw him live was in 2006...I think.

[It snowed pretty much the whole time we were at The Break. Happy New Years!]

[Photo Bomb! Cherise and I..."05!" and Mike.]

[Gibby Fingers, Mike, and I doing the gangsta beat down pose. We bad.]

After The Break finished on Saturday, Gerty and Mike and I drove back to Des Moines. Then Mike and I drove the rest of the way to Denver on Sunday. There, I think I've officially caught up on the blog. I'm only 1 week behind now...which more or less negates my previous sentence. I'm over it.

Gibby Fingers!

2010-01-08T00:47:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine, Mark "Gibby Fingers" Gibbons, recorded this version of "The Grinch" with some of his friends. They performed the song in reverse, recorded the audio normally, and then played the video backwards for a really cool effect. Check it out!

Mark is the guy shooting pool and the one playing the acoustic guitar.

Mark is also a genius piano player. This is a home recording of one of his original piano compositions in 7/8 meter. It gets REALLY interesting shortly after the 03:00 mark.

For those interested, he has a video tutorial for the Coldplay song "Yes" on his YouTube page.

2010-01-05T22:09:00.002-05:00

My roommate, Mike, is up and writing again on his blog as well. Check it out here: http://mikemorter.wordpress.com/.

Attempting to Catch Up (Part 2): Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

2010-01-05T22:05:00.006-05:00

As far as work is concerned, I’m still enjoying it and look forward to going back to work tomorrow. One funny work story is that one of the 6th grade students decided to stick his tongue to a metal pole while walking to the after-school program one day. It was about 5 degrees outside. His reasoning: “I saw it in a movie one time and I was curious.” Yeah, he was all by himself standing on a street corner and just licked the pole. No one dared him. No one was with him. He just did it. It took about half a second for him to realize his tongue was stuck and that he was also very alone. He proceeded to rip his tongue from the pole and stuff his mouth full of Kleenexes as soon as he got to program. I asked him if he’d ever do it again. He said he wouldn’t. But he did convince his little sister to do it the next day. Classic.

[Three of my students...the shortest three in the class!]

I completed my first semester of teaching ESL and enjoyed a graduation/multi-cultural dinner the week before Christmas. Second semester begins in the beginning of February and I’m looking forward to having many of my students in class again.

For my own schooling, I’m one paper short of completing my second 8-week course. I need to work on it and try and get it done by the end of this week. Then I’ll be taking a break for a couple months. During one of the final weeks of the course, I was pretty overwhelmed with a bunch of reading I had to do and not enough time to get it done. I came home from work in a Monday night with the intention of cooking dinner and sitting down at the kitchen table to read until I fell asleep. Lo and behold, there on the table was a bowl of hot food that my friends had dropped off for me so I could get right to my reading and wouldn’t have to spend any time cooking my own dinner. It was totally awesome. I have great friends. The best, actually.

Since I met these friends through church, I’ll catch you up on church. I’ve now been attending Providence Bible Church since late August and had the privilege of becoming a member the week before I left to go to Iowa for Christmas. I’ve been able to help out on Sunday mornings by playing guitar with the music team and, in recent weeks, have begun attending a Wednesday night small group. The other big church happening for me was the Night in a Box event that happened in early December. I’ll devote an entire post to talking about that.

That's it for now. More writing will occur in the ensuing days. Thanks for reading.

Attempting to Catch Up (Part 1): My Thanksgiving

2010-01-04T02:20:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the year “twenty-ten” or “two-thousand and ten,” if you so prefer. As both of you might have noticed, I have taken a hiatus from the blogging world for a while. I have several excuses for the said hiatus, but I’m learning that we can always have excuses for why we do or do not do certain activities. Usually, these excuses are weak attempts at getting out of having to confess to our own laziness or poor decision making. My failure to blog is due to a combination of all of the above. Much of the time, I haven’t had time to blog, but when I did have time, I was either too lazy to write anything, felt I hadn’t been up to anything too worthwhile, or chose to do something instead. That being said, for those of you who enjoy reading this, I apologize for my negligence and plan to be more faithful in my updates.

Starting briefly back with Thanksgiving (It’s the holiday that should be called “Christmas Decorations Eve”), my parents drove out to Denver to visit me and see my new life out here. They surprised me by arriving earlier than I expected on Thanksgiving Day and arrived in time to watch me play in the 2nd annual Providence Bible Church Thanksgiving Day Football Game. I learned two things during the game. First, athletically speaking, I haven’t really gotten better with age. I’m still slow on my feet and struggle to be the quarterback I imagine myself to be in my mind. Secondly, I have become even less competitive with age. I’m pretty sure my team lost, but I’m also pretty sure I didn’t care.

After the game, my parents and I ran to Wal-Mart to grab some holiday foods for lunch. I hadn’t planned on them arriving till the afternoon so I didn’t have anything planned for lunch-for-three. Thanks to my mom, we put together a pretty good lunch. That night we went to my friend Alyssa’s house and played games with her family.

My parents spent the whole weekend with me in Denver and were able to see much of downtown, visit friends up in Boulder, go to a Hmong New Years celebration with one of my ESL students and her family, and go to church with me on Sunday.

That’s my Thanksgiving in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T23:14:00.001-05:00

Romantic Language in Hymns (Pt. 2)

2009-11-23T15:28:00.001-05:00

Just One Touch of You, Dear Lord

Just one touch of You, dear Lord,

Just one look into Your eyes,

Just one kiss from You,

You're all I need, my Love.

Let me hear again Your voice.

You are now my final choice.

Speak in love to me.

I'll waste myself on Thee.

Chorus 1:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, I love You, my only desire!

O Lord, I just love You.

2. Let me touch You as before,

Craving for You more and more,

You're the very best!

I'll drop the rest for You.

Oh, the kisses of Your mouth

Make my lips to praise and shout.

Lord, You're full of grace,

Oh, what a taste, my Love!

Chorus 2:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, my first Love, oh, set me on fire

For You, my only desire.

3. Just infuse me with Your eyes.

Oh! This union satisfies!

As I gaze on You,

I'm filled with You, my Love.

Only You alone will do.

I can't make it without You.

Keep me close to You,

Just joined to You as one.

Chorus 3:

Nothing and no one can satisfy me

But You anymore.

Jesus, I love You, my only desire.

Oh, set my heart on fire.

4. I repent and now return,

Grant my heart for You to burn.

Flame in me this zeal.

Lord, be in me so real!

I repent and now return.

Grant my heart for You to burn.

Flame in me this zeal.

Lord, be in me so real!

Chorus 4:

Jesus, my first Love! O Jesus, my best Love!

I now return to You.

Jesus, my first Love! O Jesus, my best Love!

I love You. I just love You!

Romantic Language in Hymns (Pt. 1)

2009-11-23T15:26:00.001-05:00

With the Kisses of Your Mouth

1. With the kisses of Your mouth,

Have You kissed me, Lord.

From Your kisses flows a fountain,

From a depth unknown.

Gently tempered by Your touching

Of my deepest chords,

My heart’s renewed with gladness,

And my love o’erflows.

2. Let me kiss You, drink You deeper,

Fully satisfy

All the longings deep within me,

For Your presence nigh,

And a deeper, sweeter union,

Of Your life with mine

That our natures fully mingled,

Would our hearts entwine.

3. Ever increase,Lord, within me,

My desire for You.

Let Your kisses ever kiss me,

And that I’d kiss You.

Dear Lord Jesus, may I ever be,

So betrothed to You.

May I love You, always love You,

And respond to You.

Video of Church Raid

2009-11-22T10:06:00.001-05:00

From "Voice of the Martyrs":

Just as we put the finishing touches on our November newsletter about Vietnam, we received this video footage of a small house church being raided by Vietnamese police. This church had been raided before. Local officials told the house church they did not have official permission to meet, so they could not have religious meetings.

Church members reported:
On Sunday, August 23, 2009, we were still gathering together for service meeting since this is necessary spiritual need. At 3 p.m., many district security officers came into my house. At that time, we were having service meeting, they came and stopped and dismissed us. We stopped and explained to them we had made the application of permission already, but they still blustered. Several of them towed Brother --- out to the house and had him sit on their motorbike. They did the same way to ---. They oppressed him ruthlessly and towed him; they did not allow for him to speak a word. And other women were towed away also. They did take away one guitar but they did not make a report to taking away guitar. After arriving at the district police station, they made the report with the accusation: “They are gathering together illegally.” They used the abuse words and threatened Brother ---: “If you came back this place again; you will be beaten.” … and at 6:30 p.m. they released us.

See video footage of the raid here. Continue to pray that our Vietnamese family will not succumb to the pressure against them. Pray they will continue to meet together and encourage each other, so they can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Excerpts from a Book (pt. 3)

2009-11-16T14:34:00.003-05:00

"The greatest thing any person can do for another is to confirm the depest thing in him, in her--to take the time and have the discernment to see what's most deeply there, most fully that person, and then confirm iut by recognizing it and encouraging it.

Each of us has contact with hundreds of people who never look beyond our surface appearance. We have dealings with hundreds of people who the moment they set eyes on us begin calculating what use we can be to them, what they can get out of us. We meet hundreds of people who take one look at us, make a snap judgment, and then slot us into a category so that they won't have to deal with us as persons. The treat us as something less than we are; and if we're in constant association with them, we become less.

And then someone enters our life who isn't looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what's really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weaknesses or attact our strengths, recognizes our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what's deepest within us. A friend."

Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians - Eugene Peterson

Excerpts from a Book (pt. 2)

2009-11-16T14:25:00.002-05:00

"Parents encourage these explorations and discoveries by presenting their children with toys. Toys provide a safe, or at least safer, means of carrying out experiments on the world than wandering out into the streets and forests. Instead of sending our two-year-old down to the fire stations to climb all over the fire trucks and pester the firefighters with questions, we buy a small fire truck and let him rescue people from under the dining room table. Instead of sending our three-year-old to the woods to look for bears and badgers, we buy her a few stuffed anmials that will give her a feel for these creatures without the danger of her becoming a meal for them.

In the process of this exploration we learn that there's more to the world than size and shape, color and texture; there's meaning and purpose, good and bad. There's someting just beneath the surface of everything, something invisible and inaudible but just as real, maybe even more real, than what we're seeing and hearing and touching. Stories are our primary means for exploring these beneath-the-surface, behind-the-scenes relalities that are as present and immediate to us as anything we have access to through our five senses. Stories are as important as toys."

Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians - Eugene Peterson

A Word to Bible College Students and Graduates

2009-11-15T18:09:00.003-05:00

I'm posting this here, if for no other reason than to have access to it in upcoming years when I need a good slap in the face. The last 13 minutes or so are some of the most convicting words I've heard preached in a while.

Matt Chandler speaking in chapel at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

My Paper for Class

2009-11-13T16:58:00.002-05:00

For those interested, this is the paper I wrote for class about a month ago. It's not lengthy as far as papers go, but it is lengthy for a blog post. Read it if you'd like. Comments are always appreciated.

-----

The Divine Design: Gender, Marriage, and Authority

Few issues have consistently sparked as much controversy over the course of human history as has the topic of human gender rights, roles, and responsibilities. Hesiod, a Greek poet and foundational source of Greek mythology, gracefully recorded his two cents worth concerning the matter when he wrote, “Trust a woman – you might as well trust a thief” (Theogony 375). In more recent history, famed author and journalist Rebecca West wrote, “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” (219). Indeed, such matters that flow from the heart of human sexuality and relationships are of pressing concern - especially in the 21st century world of sex-saturated media, growing global divorce rates,1 and the rising popularity of so-called gay marriage.

The topic of gender roles was addressed heavily, yet in my opinion insufficiently, in the first week of class and in more roundabout ways in the ensuing weeks. Therefore, I would primarily like to explain more fully my understanding of YHWH’s design for the male and female marriage relationship as established before the fall of man in Genesis 3.2 Included in this explanation, I will contrast YHWH’s and Zeus’s motives for creating the genders; and I will juxtapose Genesis’s outlook on gender equality with Aeschylus’s depiction as presented in The Oresteia.

The Bible makes it clear that the creation of the first male and female was “exceedingly good” in YHWH’s eyes and that the purpose of the woman was to be man’s helper (The Five Books of Moses, Gen. 1.31; 2.18). This stands in shocking contrast to Hesiod’s account of the creation of the first woman. In his Theogony, Hesiod speaks of woman as being “an evil for men” (45). He speaks again of this mythical event in Works and Days when Zeus says, “I too will give them a gift, an evil one…in which all will delight in their hearts, as they embrace their own evil” (73). Whereas YHWH creates the woman to be a helper to the man, Zeus creates the female as a punishment to the male.

Not only does Genesis record the creation of male and female as being “exceedingly good,” it also implies an equality of essence as manifest through the fact that male and female are uniquely and equally created in the image of God (Gen. 1.26-27, 31).3 Consequentially, neither gender is to be celebrated as intrinsically better. This equality differs greatly from the explicit favoritism shown toward the male gender in The Oresteia. One such example is found when Clytemnstra announces the victorious end of the war in the beginning of Agamemnon. Whereas she claims that in her boldness and honesty she “speaks as a woman,” the chorus responds with the compliment, “She speaks like a man.” (Hughes 22). The attributes considered virtuous in the text continue to be identified as masculine throughout the trilogy.

In addition to these similarities, the Genesis account presents clear distinctions between YHWH’s intended purposes for the two genders – specifically as it pertains to the marriage relationship. As stated in the previous paragraph, these distinctions do not serve to present one gender has being superior to the other but rather to present the genders as necessary4 compliments for one another.

One primary distinction worth addressing is the headship5 of Adam within the marriage relationship. This is evidenced in the text both before and after sin entered the world. First, Adam is said to have named Eve (Gen. 2.23). Regarding this point Wayne Grudem says, “The original readers of Genesis and of the rest of the Old Testament would have been familiar with this pattern, a pattern whereby people who have authority over another person or thing have the ability to assign a name to that person or thing, a name that often indicates something of the character or quality of the person” (28). It is important to point out that this act of authority happened before Adam and Eve had sinned.

A second evidence of Adam’s headship in the marriage was his accountability before YHWH for the moral behavior of both him and his wife, Eve. The Genesis account makes it clear that even though Eve was the first person to transgress the law of YHWH by eating fruit from the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil, Adam was the first person confronted by YHWH about the sin (Gen. 2.16-17; 3.6; 3.9). If there was not an elevated status of moral responsibility for Adam within his marriage to Eve, one would find it peculiar that YHWH initially confronted only Adam about the sin (Gen. 3:9-11). Moreover, the entire account of the fall of man demonstrates an inversion of the divine design for authority in that an animal addressed only the woman, who then proceeded to address the present, yet passive, Adam (Gen. 3:1-6). This progression is juxtaposed with the account of YHWH’s confrontation of the man, woman, and serpent regarding the sin. YHWH here addressed the man first, the woman second, and the serpent third (Gen. 3:9-14).

Lastly, an important part of the curse placed on mankind in Genesis 3:16 involved a sinful inclination of both genders to both pervert6 and invert their God-ordained relationship roles. As a result of sin, Eve now possessed a natural desire to rule7 in her relationship with Adam, while Adam was now naturally inclined to be passive in his involvement and abusive in his headship through physical domination. A relevant objection to this point would be that the consequences of the curse don’t require the pre-fall headship of Adam. I would agree with this objection and echo the words of Wayne Grudem when he says, “…Genesis 3:16 should never be used as a direct argument for male headship in marriage” (35). I am not intending to use the curse to independently establish Adam’s headship in marriage, but rather to make it most clear that a dramatic shift towards relational conflict happened as a result of the fall. Consequentially, I would argue that the first three points (naming, moral accountability, and dialogue progression) establish what the previous roles had been; and that in partnership with those points, the consequences of the curse assist in presenting a strong argument for the pre-fall and post-fall headship of Adam in his marriage relationship with Eve that would have been understood by the Hebrew people.

Based upon this brief surveying the depictions of gender as presented in Genesis, The Oresteia, Theogony, and Works and Days, it is safe to say that, of the four works, Genesis provides women with the highest degree of dignity and value. Therefore, in a world characterized in large part by the objectifying and devaluing of women, it is imperative that those who submit themselves to the authority of the Bible put forth great effort in preserving this dignity and value and showcasing it to an unbelieving world.

Notes:

1 http://www.womenofchina.cn/focus/marriage_and_family/5166.jsp.

2 Because of the limited length of this paper, this explanation will be far from exhaustive in its support of this argument. Hopefully, however, it will be sufficient in presenting a solid case.

3 The creation of mankind is unique from the rest of creation. Its uniqueness is expressed literarily in various ways. One such way is seen in Genesis 1:26 when God says, “Let us make…” when referring to mankind (Ware 72). For all other created things God said, “Let there be.” Both the creation process and the product are seen as unique.

4 I include the word “necessary” in an effort to emphasize YHWH’s recognition that “it is not good for the human to be alone” (Gen. 2.18).

5 Although this exact term, “headship,” is not used in the Genesis account, for sake of consistency and for lack of a better word, I will use the term “headship” when referring to Adam’s authoritave role in his marriage with Eve.

6 Grudem’s comments regarding this point were helpful when he said, “…Genesis 3:16 should never be used as a direct argument for male headship in marriage. But it does show us that the Fall brought about a distortion of previous roles, not the introduction of new roles. The distortion was that Eve would now rebel against her husband’s authority, and Adam would misuse that authority to rule forcefully and even harshly over Eve.” (35).

7 In order to best understand the meaning of the Hebrew word for “lust” in Geneis 3:16, one must look to Genesis 4:7 where the word is also used. In Geneis 4:7 the text speaks of sin’s “lust” to control Kayin. It can be assumed, then, the word “lust” does not speak of the sinfulness of a wife’s sexual desire for her husband, but rather a desire to “rule” or “dominate” in her relationship with him.

Churchill on the Deuce

2009-11-12T01:39:00.001-05:00

Letter from Prison

2009-11-11T14:40:00.002-05:00

I read this on Kevin DeYoung's blog today. Great stuff.

---

This is a portion of the letter Guido de Bres, the author of the Belgic Confession, wrote to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Brunain for his Protestant faith.

My dear and well-beloved wife in our Lord Jesus, Your grief and anguish are the cause of my writing you this letter. I most earnestly pray you not to be grieved beyond measure…We knew when we married that we might not have many years together, and the Lord has graciously given us seven. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he could easily have cause it to be so. But such was not his pleasure. Let his good will be done….Moreover, consider that I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God….All these considerations have made my heart glad and peaceful, and I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to be glad with me, and to thank the good God for what he is going, for he does nothing but what is altogether good and right…I pray you then to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to him, he is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless, and he will never leave you nor forsake you.

On May 31, 1567, Guido de Bres, 47 years old, was publicly hanged in the market square of Valenciennes. He was pushed off the scaffold as he exhorted the crowd to be faithful to Scripture and respectful to the magistrates. His body was buried in a shallow grave where it was later dug up and torn apart by wild animals.

I thank God for de Bres’ example of courage and steadfastness. Here is another man “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:38). I’m thankful too for the Belgic Confession. And whenever I read this heartwrenching and inspiring letter, I’m thankful he wrote to his wife in prison.

Long Overdue

2009-11-11T11:34:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I updated what I've been up to. I honestly haven't had time to update this too much, but I have today off of work and so I am without excuse.

[A couple weeks ago, we (my job) took the after school program kids to a corn maze. These are two of the leaders (Joe and Cody) and one of the students.]

[Also, in the not too distant past, I went with some friends to the Denver Nuggets' season opener. We literally sat in the furthest possible seats in the whole arena.]

[For Halloween, a bunch of us went to the Meese concert. It was a costume party of sorts and all the Meese guys dressed up like "Thriller" zombies. One guy in the crowd wore a legit "Balloon Boy" hat and passed it up to the front for Pat to wear during one of the songs. He did. After the show we went back to the Meese's house and hung out with all the bands who played that night: Meese, Ludo, The Northern Way, and Ha Ha Tonka.]

[The following day was Sunday and so I went to church. After the service we walked up the street to the local community center because 5 people were getting baptized that day. We all stood around the swimming pool and sang and listened to the people's testimonies. After the baptisms a bunch of us went out for lunch and then ended up hanging out at a coffee shop until 6 o'clock. Great day.]

[This pic is out of order, but thse are some friends of mine who went to the Friday night show - Megan, Alyssa, and Ashley. They are part of the newly established Monday night "Dinner and a Movie" tradition.]

[The next weekend Churchill played a couple shows...including their biggest one yet! They played with these bands on Friday night at the Marquis: The Rouge, The Still City, and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake; and with these bands on Saturday night at Everyday Joe's in Ft. Collins: Andrea Ball and SHEL.]

I had to post this one because it's Ashley talking to our friend, Emily, on the phone while cooking the chicken for Monday night "Dinner and a Movie." It's crazy all the connections I have with people in Denver - a lot of mutual friends.]

So that about wraps up what I've been up to of late. I've been working on taking more pictures so as to have something to post.

Today I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading for class and doing some generic apartment supplies shopping. Tonight Churchill is playing 2 songs live on the local news and so I'm gonna watch that. Hopefully I can find the video online later and post it. Ummm...Saturday night I'm going to a Colorado Avalanche game with some friends and helping out with a local food drive (or something like that). That should be fun. That's about it. Have a great rest of the week. Happy Veterans' Day!

Churchill "Miles"

2009-11-08T04:18:00.003-05:00

A new song by my roommates' band. The quality isn't great, but I was in the back of the room at the merch table and was filming with my digital camera. Once again, the blog format chops off part of the video. Click the video to watch it on YouTube, along with a couple other songs from the evening.

Africa and the Prosperity (Non) Gospel

2009-11-06T11:43:00.000-05:00

Very Disturbing

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Excerpts from a Book (pt. 1)

2009-11-04T23:38:00.004-05:00

"The David/Goliath story is a great children's story because it conveys an important meaning. It's not an obvious meaning, but all children must learn it if they're going to make it in the world.

But once we've learned the story and assimilated the meaning that goes with it, the story isn't over and done with. Learning stories isn't the same as learning the multiplication tables. Once we've learned that three times four equals twelve, we've learned it and that's that. It's a fact that doesn't change. The data is stored in our memory for ready access. But stories don't stay put; they grow and deepen. The meaning doesn't exactly change, but it matures. Having learned the meaning of love, for instance, we don't for a moment suppose that we've passed that course and can now go on to other things, deciding perhaps to sign up next for computer science.

No. We keep on telling stories, the same old ones, over and over and over again, in away quite different from saying the multiplication tables over and over again. The stories keep releasing new insight in new situations. As we bring new experience and insight to the story, the story gathers that enrichment in and gives it back to us in fresh form.

And so it turns out that the David/Goliath story is as important for adults as it ever was for children. One of the great impoverishments of many adult lives is the absence of children's stories, whether read or told or listened to."

Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians - Eugene Peterson

First US Official to Resign Over Afgan War

2009-10-30T10:39:00.003-04:00

The war is painful for everybody involved, including the leaders.

Here is the last paragraph from Matthew Hoh's resignation letter:

I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask you to excuse any ill temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices made by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved ones deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures, upheavals and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made. As such, I submit my resignation.

Sincerely,

Matthew P. Hoh

Senior Civilian Representative

Zabul Province, Afghanistan

Let Loose Your Inner Nerd

2009-10-29T11:56:00.003-04:00

5 rational realities that science cannot account for. The nerd side of me loved watching this clip of one nerd getting absolutely OWNED by the other nerd. Check out the look on the dude's face after each point at 1:42, 2:11, and 2:22.

1. Logical and mathematical truths

2. Metaphysical truths

3. Ethical beliefs about statements of value

4. Aesthetic judgments

5. Science itself

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Tim Keller @ Google

2009-10-29T11:52:00.003-04:00

If the other Tim Keller post intrigued you, here is a lecture given by Tim Keller which includes a question and answer time regarding his New York Times best seller The Reason for God. The video is lengthy but well worthy your time if you watch the whole thing.

Tim Keller's New Book

2009-10-29T11:40:00.005-04:00

My next series of posts will include various articles, videos, and who knows what else that I have found helpful, interesting, and who knows what else over the past few weeks. Here's a video of Tim Keller introducing some thoughts about his new book Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope that Matters.

Here's My Week in 60 Seconds

2009-10-28T09:56:00.004-04:00

[This weekend I went to a Black and White costume party.]

[We totally didn't plan this, but there were 3 "Mormons missionaries" there. I lost my name tag somewhere in the Safeway parking lot during the photo scavenger hunt.]

Sunday night I went to a "Slam Poetry" thingamajig down the street with some new church friends. I learned that the audience is supposed to raise their right hand when the poet has 10 seconds remaining and that the polite way to encourage a poet who is struggling to remember his or her words is to snap your fingers.

I'm doing homework each night this week. Friday night and Saturday morning I'm attending membership classes for Providence and then on Saturday night I'm going to the Meese show. I have to go shower now and then go to work.

One in a Million Flu Shot Reaction

2009-10-22T22:56:00.002-04:00

Picking Up Steam

2009-10-18T19:09:00.003-04:00

[Mutemath]

This past week was pretty packed full of excitement. Wednesday night, Mike, Aaron, and I went to a Mutemath show at the Ogden Theater downtown. Here is a video I took of their hit song "Typical."

I spent much of my work week last week training for my CDL test tomorrow morning. Having my CDL will allow me to drive a school bus for work to help transport students.

If you haven't had your head buried a hole this weekend, you've probably heard news about the "balloon kid." Yup, that's Colorado for you. The family involved in the "hoax" as it's now being called lives about an hour north of Denver.

In recent reading, I was directed to this article online. It's written by one of my favorite song writers, Jon Foreman, and addresses the craziness of America and our heroic treatment of celebrities who are anything but heroic. Here is a paragraph from the article.

Let's face it. Mother Teresa doesn't look that good in a negligee. And Team Hoyt won't sell beer commercials to the networks. But when the ball players and the supermodels end up in rehab, we end up asking esoteric questions about what makes a hero. In the movies the good looking actor who gets the girl is easy to point to. But after he gets the girl, then the house, and then a few kids and then a divorce and then another girl. Then what? After all of the special effects are gone, we're left with an aging mortal who looks a bit awkward on the talk shows. Perhaps we've set our goals too low. Or perhaps we've got it backwards. (read more)

Friday night Mike, Greg, and I attended an all-night (10 p.m. - 6 a.m.) prayer meeting at church. We attended the 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. shift. I was later told that 50% of the church participated in the event. That's great participation for an event like that. These prayer nights occur quarterly at Cornerstone. We spent time singing together, praying together, praying alone, discussing Scripture, and distributing care packages to the homeless people in the community.

Church has continued to make me uncomfortable, in a good way. There has been a steady increase in homeless people attending the church. As one raised in a comfortable setting, this is an unusual experience for me. In fact, one guy has been sleeping in his car outside the church for weeks and that's how he learned of Providence Bible Church. Another guy parked his shopping cart in front of the church today and attended the service. It challenges me to see our pastor put his arm around a first-time visitor homeless guy after hearing him share a testimony about how he has had AIDS for 23 years (as a result of a life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll) and pray for him in front of the congregation.

After church, a group of us walked to the 16th Street Mall downtown for lunch. I met a lot of new people today and am looking forward to attending membership classes at the end of the month and possibly getting involved in the music ministry.

That should be enough for now.

P.S. Hawkeyes are 7-0 and Churchill is recording 2 music videos for Comcast on Tuesday.

Jesus in "The Washington Post"

2009-10-16T01:31:00.004-04:00

No 'Best Case' Way to Present God, but Many False Ways

Q: What makes the best 'case for God' to a skeptic or non-believer, an open-minded seeker, and to a person of faith and Why?

Answer
Jesus.

Christianity is not first and foremost about a sacred place to pilgrimage to, a philosophical system to ponder, a moral code to live, a religious tradition to honor, or an impersonal god to experience. Rather, Christianity is about a person who claimed to be the only God and said he would prove his unprecedented claim by living without sin, dying for sinners, and conquering death through resurrection.

So, as Christians, our aim is not to convince people of some god in general, but to introduce them to Jesus in particular. And since he created us with the ability to communicate, think, love, and experience, Christians have always valued using every means by which the truth and love of Jesus can be revealed.

Helpful to this end is using the evidence for a personal Creator who handcrafted our world for human life by explaining the principles of intelligent design and such things as the fine-tuning argument and the argument for irreducible complexity. These show that our world is a gift to be enjoyed worshipfully and stewarded wisely.

It is also important that people learn to understand how God speaks uniquely and authoritatively through the Bible. Acts that can aid in this include giving away Bibles (along with helpful Christian books) as gifts for people to simply read, bringing people to church to listen to the Bible preached, inviting people to small groups and classes to ask their questions about the Bible, and recommending good podcasts that would bring the Bible into the daily rhythm of their commutes, exercise workouts, and the like.

On a more practical level, acts of truly selfless compassion--done not for fame, notoriety, or to merit God's approval, but done out of love for someone--help to reveal a small measure of God's loving, merciful, compassionate nature. In a world where people use one another far more frequently than they love one another, these kinds of acts can be signs pointing to the God who is altogether good. As one example, in our church filled mainly with young people, we have put much effort into weeping with and serving the hundreds and hundreds of victims of molestation and rape.

Thus, informing the mind about Scripture, explaining the world and our place in it under God, and extending a hand of loving compassion all help to give people a framework by which to interpret their life experiences. They can begin to see that God has made them, wants to speak with them, and desires restored relationship with them, relationship that otherwise remains broken through sin.

While each of these ways of informing someone's understanding is important, none is alone sufficient. That is because what they leave us with is knowledge about God by revealing what he has done (creation), how he communicates (the Bible), and what he seeks (relationship). But we still do not enjoy that relationship.

This leads us to Jesus.

Christianity has always held, based upon the teachings of Jesus and the prophets of the Old Testament and apostles of the New Testament, that in Jesus, the Creator has entered into creation on a rescue mission for the restoring of relationship, in fulfillment of Scripture. For making the three most unprecedented claims in the history of the world--that he was without sin as the only God and the only path to salvation--Jesus was treated without compassion. He was lied about, arrested, falsely tried, beaten, whipped beyond recognition, nailed to a cross, and lifted up for a crowd to mock, jeer, and spit upon. Jesus our Creator then, with bloodied lips, spoke the word "forgive" for his murderers. Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin as the greatest act of compassion the world has or will ever

witness; the Creator died for his creation, to make enemies friends.

Three days later, Jesus rose, conquering sin and death and vindicating his claims. Subsequently, if Jesus is dead, so is Christianity. If Jesus is alive, so is Christianity. And so while there is no "best case" for presenting God, there are false ways of presenting God: as anyone in addition to or other than Jesus Christ. As Christians, our goal is never to lie to people by only telling them what they want to hear, or manipulating them to feel what they want to feel. Instead, we want to respect them enough to tell them the truth, and love them enough to do so in a way that is compassionate. We care more about the truth and the love than having the "best case." We believe that there is power in the truth about Jesus that can unleash new life in people as they agree with the truth about him.

- article by Pastor Mark Driscoll

A Helpful Interview

2009-10-11T18:42:00.002-04:00

This interview provides helpful advice for progressing on one's personal walk with Christ.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

2009-10-11T17:46:00.003-04:00

So this past week contained a little bit of everything. I filled in teaching some morning ESL classes at work. It was a lot of fun but a little trickier at times because I normally teach an advanced class and these morning classes were beginner level. That means that many of the students speak little to no English. Nevertheless, I had a great time and would happily teach the classes again.

One semi-funny moment was teaching the students to clearly pronounce the "r" in the word "party" as to not confuse it with the word "potty." It was kind of a you-had-to-be-there moment but I explained to the students what "potty" meant on the board by drawing a picture of a toilet. As the students recognized what I was drawing, they started laughing and realized that the student had told me that she and her family went to the potty together over the weekend.

I wrote my paper for class this week and turned it in yesterday. That's the first paper I've had to write in almost 2 years. Crazy MLA format, takes a while to remember how to site all your sources and such. If I get a good enough grade on the paper, maybe I'll post it on here for those interested in reading it. It deals with gender equality and headship in marriage. Not the least bit controversial.

Friday night I came home from work only to get invited to go to a Manchester Orchestra concert. I've never really listened to the band before, but figured sure, why not. Mike, Aaron, and I made the trek up to the University of Colorado for the show but the tickets sold out (they were only available at the door) when we were 7 people from the front on the line. Rats. If only we hadn't wandered around campus looking for the venue we would have gotten in. We ended up meeting up with Greg at a Starbucks and headed over to Aaron's house to chill.

Yesterday afternoon I did laundry and watched Fair Fight - a documentary about the filming of The Fray's newest album. Last night was a house warming party at the Meese's. Greg, Joe, Nate, and I made a killer fire pit* in the back yard. It was fun hanging out with a bunch of new people. I was gonna take a few pictures at the party to post but I forgot my camera at Aaron's Friday night because I had also intended to take some pictures at the concert. 0/2.

This whole upcoming week at work I'm taking classes to officially get my air brakes CDL so I can drive the Goals school bus. Twill be exhilarating, I'm sure.

*The fire pit was a large cement flower pot that we put some logs in. We found out later that you're not supposed (read: it's illegal)to have fires within city limits. Oops.

2009-10-08T10:00:00.001-04:00

This blog has not been abandoned, I've just been very busy of late. I'll update this on Sunday -- hopefully.

You've Got to be Kidding Me

2009-10-03T13:34:00.000-04:00

It's stuff that this that makes Christians easy targets.

Officially Settled In

2009-09-27T17:49:00.006-04:00

This week was pretty routine with work being during the day and ESL (I have about 15 students), wing night, and homework happening during the evenings. Churchill played a show Friday night and I went to that. Yesterday I read all day and then went to a church dinner in in the evening. Today I'm finishing my homework and keeping a periodic eye on the football scores.

My classes have been a lot of work and a lot of fun. As a class we are comparing the Greek account of the origin of the gods and a trilogy about murder, conspiracy, family, and justice with the Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy) and Joshua. Two things I've learned is that I tend to read my own ideas into Bible stories and that it takes a long time to read through Genesis. Seriously, it's a really long book. We have three weeks left before taking a week off and beginning the next 8 week course.

For work on Thursday and Friday I attended a training seminar on teaching abstinence. My understanding is that I'll have some opportunities to teach this periodically in various schools in our school district. The class was very informative and helpful and I even made a few new friends in the class.

Oh, and the Iowa Hawkeyes are 4-0 and that makes me happy.

Church this morning was 2 1/2 hours long. No Sunday school. Just the main service. 2 1/2 hours. But it was great. Testimonies took about 45 minutes and the sermon was great. What I like about the church is that it's full of new believers with really messy pasts (some people's lives are still a mess) who have been radically changed by the gospel. The testimonies I've heard in the past two days include testimonies from multiple single moms, at least one homeless guy, a husband and wife who have left everything for the gospel and found out they are now losing their house, a former prostitute and stripper, a church elder, a guy who recently finished a 20 year prison sentence, and many others. The church is less now a year old and has about 175 attendees. I'm really looking forward to the mens' prayer breakfast this upcoming Saturday morning and since the church is four blocks away, I can just walk to it.

That's enough for now. I'll try and have some pictures for my next post. Without all my awesome students around, I don't have as many opportunities to take pictures.

The Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen

2009-09-20T17:30:00.001-04:00

Cops, Robbers, and the DMV

2009-09-17T17:55:00.002-04:00

Current Listening: "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (I am listening to the first song I've ever heard by them for the first time.)

I'm currently on a slight break from work...I have to go back at 4:30 and work till 10:00. Tonight is "chill night" which is basically a hang out time for the students since they don't have school tomorrow. There will be video games and board games and food and who knows what else.

So here's some random stuff from the week so far. Sunday afternoon I helped the Meese's move into their new place. Sunday night I watched the Packer's game with Tyler because we are both big Green Bay Packer fans.

Monday was work and then homework.

Tuesday was work and then wing night. **Story time: Last week none of the crew went to Wing Stop because we threw a surprise party for Tim's birthday. This might have worked out for our own safety though, because that night Wing Stop got robbed and the girl who works Tuesday nights got pistol-whipped in the head. I wonder if it looked suspicious that the one night we don't go, the place got robbed. It probably also looked bad that this week we ignorantly all dressed up like bank robbers for wing night. False...but the place really did get robbed and we weren't there to make any citizen arrests.

Random thought: is there an Air Bud movie where he is a cop and arrest criminals? If not, there should be.

** Second story time: This week at wing night a certain someone (not me) attempted to climb up the side of Aaron's minivan and in the process accidently smashed in his side window. Oops.

Yesterday some guys from work and I went out to lunch for all-you-can-eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. I ate 24. Then today for lunch the staff went out for employee lunch to, you guessed it, Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm glad I love wings and potato wedges.

I spent the first hour of my break today on the phone trying to sort out my car registration. I literally got transferred enough times to enough new places and people that I went full circle all the way back to the first place I had called. Somebody needs to do something about better educating the Denver Motor Vehicles people. Every person said something like, "I'm not sure, I think you need to talk to these people." After at least 7-8 transfers I ended up speaking to a police sergeant who was like, "How did you end up talking to me about this?"

Now it's time for me to go back to work to learn about the wonders of teaching ESL. Classes officially begin next week. I'm really looking forward to it.

Hasta luego.

Denver. One Month After Arrival.

2009-09-13T22:30:00.004-04:00

This week was fun. Monday I went to Greg's house to grill out for Labor Day. Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of work and homework. Thursday was another full day of work and then a non-official Churchill show at night. My roommate, Mike, was at Lake Ann for the weekend leading music for a ladies' retreat so some friends got together and played a gig originally booked for Churchill.

[L to R: Nate Meese, Tiffany Meese, Tim Bruns, Joe Richmond, Tyler Rima]

Work has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed getting to know my co-workers and getting to work with the students in the after-school program has been great. So far we have done skits and played a game of Jeopardy to teach the rules, worked on homework with the students, spent time playing basketball and such for free time, and went to a skating rink on Friday. One of the students who I have helped a lot during homework time drew these pictures for me.

[The picture on the left was intended to be a "funny" picture and the one on the right started out as serious, and then she added pig tails and earrings.]

During my first month in Denver, I have made a lot of new friends, moved into a great apartment, gotten a great job, and found a new church (I'll post more on in when I get a chance) where I think I'm going to attend full-time. Sounds like a good month to me. God has really been good.

Now, if only the Packers would get their act together and stop losing to the Bears (It's currently CHI 12 - GB 10! As soon as the game is over I have to spend time reading for class.

Farewell.

The Inevitable

2009-09-05T23:30:00.002-04:00

So here it is folks - the dreaded "I worked all week and did homework at night but found time to go buy some kitchen towels and set of pots and pans" post. Really, if my life this week was a TV show, I doubt that even Lifetime would have picked it up.

I don't even really have exciting news about work. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to have a job and have enjoyed it thus far, but I spent the week in lesson plan meetings, studying a driving manual for 4 hours in order to get my CDL, and watching 4 hours of "Love and Logic" (a dvd of a woman lecturing on a particular disciplinary philosophy). That, my friends, is nothing to write home about.

I spent my Friday night at home reading for class (but the book was really good so I didn't mind). I arose at the early hour of 8:45 this morning with the intention of going out to breakfast with Mike and Greg, but that fell through and turned into Mike and me tag teaming the cooking duties and making us some killer sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffins.

See, I told you the week was exciting. If your heart can handle the excitement, please read on to hear about Mike and I going to a bike shop, buying some supplies, and then coming home and replacing the flat tires that each of us had on our bikes.

So after breakfast, Mike and I went to a bike shop, bought some supplies, and then came home and replaced the flat tires that each of us had on our bikes.

**Warning: upcoming blood reference**

During the process, we had our bikes propped upside down on their seats and handlebars. Consequently, Mike's kick-stand was protruding from his bike and I bent over to pick something up and dinged my forehead on it - drawing blood and leaving a small gash on my forehead.

Moments like that make you really think about the important things of life, you know? Like "Do I have a up to date will?" "What's my stance on cosmetic surgery should this gash cause small children to cry and pretty women to run away?" "Could I sue Mike? It was his kickstand." Seriously, the important things of life.

Most recently, I went shopping for for pots and pans and some other dishes and some kitchen towels today. I had no clue what I was looking for, so I texted my friend Em and, upon her advice, I think I got some decent stuff. I also bought a small floor rug for the apartment, but I don't know if it matches. In fact, I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I'll check with Mike when he gets off work.

Cheers, folks. Greg just got here!

The Weekend

2009-08-30T15:33:00.003-04:00

Current Listening: The Swell Season

I believe I left you all last time with the promise of me attending my first Churchill show shortly thereafter. Well folk, don't call me a prophet, but I did indeed attend said Churchill show.

The opening gig was this guy named Ian Cooke who was rated #1 act in Denver this past year. He does some pretty cool stuff with his cello and I talked with him afterward for a while and he's a really nice guy. Here's a relatively blurry image of Ian playing and singing....

[Ian Cooke]

...and a video of him playing live from his solo dvd. *Due to the format of the blog, the video is kinda chopped off on the side. My apologies.*

Here is a picture of Churchill owning the stage. They brought out the biggest crowd of any of the four acts and got asked by a few attendees, including Ian Cooke, about booking some future gigs. Nice.

[L to R: Tyler, Bethany, Mike, Amy, and Tim]

[And because he wasn't in the last picture ... dummer, Joe Richmond everybody!]

So that was Thursday night. The last two days have been spent reading and hanging out with friends here and there. I should find out tomorrow if I get the delivery job I interviewed for last Wednesday.

Now it's time to drink some hot tea and read. Cheers.

P.S. Having a roommate who works at Starbucks is incredibly practical. We have essential unlimited free coffee and tea in the apartment. And a french press. Oh ya.

Meese: Forward Motion

2009-08-27T18:39:00.003-04:00

This is a video posted online today of my new friends from the band Meese performing their song Forward Motion while on tour with The Fray this summer.

Meese - 'Forward Motion' - Director Rod Blackhurst from Rod Blackhurst on Vimeo.

My Week: Structured Numerically (A.k.a. Home Alone and Temporarily Sick of Homework)

2009-08-27T00:27:00.004-04:00

#1 I didn't go to the Rockies game last Friday. I helped Greg and his brother-in-law roof their house instead. I helped out Friday night, all day Saturday (which happened to be 100 degrees - the hottest day of the year), and for about an hour and a half Sunday afternoon.

[I have an idea.]

#2 Sunday night I went to an official Churchill show at a church called "Bloom." For those with more of a church background, you'll understand what I mean when I say that Bloom leans toward the emergent side of things. A lot. For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, I'll just say that the guides of the spiritual community of Bloom were really nice and hip and that the wine, cheese, and fruit bar was a nice compliment to the evening's art show/music and poetry open mic. Also, singing in the dark while standing in a semi-circle around the cranking loud band was also pretty cool, and I learned new songs about the earth and having Jesus' blood flow through my body.

[Michael Gungor (banjo) and friends playing some tunes after the art show.]

I don't say all that to bust on the place, I just find it hilarious when all the stereotyping jokes I've ever heard all come true in one place. On a positive, slightly more serious note, the dangling light bulbs aesthetic was cool looking and most of the art would look sweet in my apartment (the notable exception being the the paper mache decapitated pig head) and I did enjoy eating free cheese and crackers and fruit (Wine? No thanks. Sweet tea? Yes, please.) and the worship band was really good (a couple of the guys in the band come to Wing Stop with us on Tuesday nights) and I appreciated getting one of the band's cd's for free just for filling out a guest card and the people I met were very friendly and the "talk" given was a solid "theology of creativity."

[Churchill]

Oh ya, but I went to Bloom for a Churchill show. Churchill was asked to play an acoustic concert while people walked around and looked at the art.

#3 After the Churchill show, some friends came back to our kickin' apartment to hang out for a while and eat the worst Little Caesar's pizza and Crazy Bread I've ever had in my life (Note to self: Hot N' Ready pizzas purchased 30 minutes before closing time fail to live up to either of aforementioned advertised qualities.). I did get the Crazy Bread for free though so it was totally worth it.

#4 Monday was uneventful, as was Tuesday (the exception being Wing Stop, but it's dishonest to write down "We all hung out and talked for a couple hours." and still promote your blog as either worthwhile or engaging reading).

#5 I had a job interview this morning. I'll find out tomorrow if I am offered the job I interviewed for last week, and I should find out Friday afternoon if I am offered the job I interviewed for this morning.

#6 Tomorrow night is my first official, full-band Churchill show I get to go to (Bloom was minus the drummer and bassist). They will be rocking the Larimer Lounge at 10:00. Come if you can.

My Exciting Life

2009-08-21T13:27:00.005-04:00

[Hello from Apartment 203!]

Once again, I have procrastinated in updating this blog. I believe I left you off last time with my drive out to Colorado. There hasn't been a ton of exciting stuff that has happened out here...yet.

I spend my first few days staying in Mike and Tim's apartment while I waiting for our application for the new apartment to go through. In the meantime, I filled out job applications and Mike, Ryan, Tyler and I went to Eldorado Park one day. We hiked for a few miles and took some good, Colorado-ish pictures. Then we drove home.

[701 28th St. Denver, CO 80205. Our unit is in the middle on the middle level.]

Around that time, our application went through and Tyler and I moved into the new apartment. (Mike is moving in too, but not till the end of the month). A couple days later I found some sweet furniture on Craigslist (see, I told you my life here has been exciting!). Then I applied for more jobs. Then I did homework for the first time in a year and a half. Then I applied for more jobs. Oh ya, and Tuesday nights are "wing night" at Wing Stop so I've gone there a couple times now with the crew (a bunch of Mike's friends).

[Some of the Craigslist furniture. I bought it from a guy who is

moving back to Michigan to go to law school.]

I was also greeted to the state with a big bear hug full of expensive general maintenance car repairs. I felt like a champ calling a couple places and having them fight back and forth in order to provide the best quality at the lowest price and thereby getting my business. Now my car is in full working order.

Some friends from Iowa were in town for a wedding and brought my bike out for me. I hadn't ridden my bike in years but I've been riding it around lately. It's fun. And healthy. And cheaper than paying for gas.

Yo! Speaking of cheap stuff, 2% milk out here is like $1.50 a gallon! That's so cool.

I had a job interview yesterday (Thursday). I haven't found out if I got the job, but it's the best lead I have so far so I'm praying it works out. It's for a social-worker type position. I'll give more details if I get the job.

This afternoon I'm going to help my buddy Greg do some roofin' at his sister's house. The sun is out and the weather is warm, so it should be fun.

Tonight I might be going to a Colorado Rockies game (Gerty, that's baseball). After spending a year trying to be a Tiger's fan (Go Cubs!), I now get the opportunity to pretend to cheer for the Rockies. Don't get me wrong, I loved going to the Tiger's games each and every time I went, but I didn't know a thing about the Tigers until I moved to Detroit. Too bad Cecil Fielder was hurt all season, I would have loved to see him play.

Ok, homework time. Peace out, America!

Better Late Than Never

2009-08-16T20:26:00.005-04:00

I finally have a few minutes to update this here blog. My farewell time at Cornerstone was incredible (with the exception of a certain “whipped cream bowl to the face” incident). I am very grateful for every moment I was able to spend with my friends at Cornerstone.

My parents came out for the farewell weekend and stayed until Wednesday morning. We spent Monday packing up the remainder of my belongings from the Rudd’s house and cleaning out my office. Believe it or not, we were able to fit everything into my Civic and the trunk and back seat of my parents’ Buick.

On Tuesday my parents and I went on the tour of the Ford plant in Dearborne. The tour was pretty fascinating and included my first experience with a 3D theatre. We sat in a room on swivel chairs with screens on all sides of us. During the video, the action would happen in all directions and even the temperature in the room would heat up during the boiler room scenes! Like I said, it was pretty fascinating.

My parents and I also met a guy (read: Ford Nut) who was touring the plant for the first time while he was in town on business. Guess where he was from. You guessed it, Denver, Colorado. We (read: He) chatted for a while about the new Ford Raptor truck and then gave me his business card. I’m gonna give him a call one of these days just to let him know I have officially arrived in Denver and have every intention of taking over the whole city.

After leaving Detroit on Wednesday I stopped by Perry, MI to visit my friends Bob and Charissa Karr. They got married last summer. I was in their wedding. I wore a tux. A black one. I think I look good in black. At least I did last summer.

Thursday morning I arrived in Grand Rapids for my friend Eric’s wedding. It was also Jessica’s wedding, but I don’t know her as well so I will here refer to it simply as Eric’s wedding. A bunch of us in the wedding party played badminton, went tubing, and jumped on the diving boards on a floating dock out on the lake. It, the dock, was covered in bird poo. I think they should put a fake owl out there to war against the lesser birds.

Thursday night was the bachelor party. My friend, and Eric’s best man, Mike, had made a video that gave Eric various challenges to accomplish in order to pass the over threshold into manhood land. Some of the activities included drinking 12 Mountain Dews over the course of the night, swimming a lap in a public fountain, and taking a dip in a stranger’s pool.

On Friday the wedding party guys went golfing. Most of us stunk, but it was a great time of male bonding. Friday night was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun seeing Eric and Jessica’s friends from across the country have a great time hanging out together like old friends. One girl, Bethany, was nuts. She straight up barehanded her entire piece of cake into her mouth in an effort to win her self-initiated, “Let’s see who can eat their dessert the fastest!” contest. I think she started laughing so hard that she didn’t even win...although I’m not sure she had any competitors to begin with.

The wedding was great on Saturday. We did the wedding thing and then went for a ride in a limo to get pictures taken downtown and then got back in the limo to ride to the golf course for more pictures and the reception. Each of the couples in the wedding party got a golf cart to drive around in to the various photo locations. It’s a good thing the golf carts didn’t go very fast and that we were held financially responsible for any damages done to the carts or else there would have been a greater degree of mayhem than what actually occured (Read: Zach intentionally went full speed through every puddle and mud hole on the course).

Sunday morning Mike, his brother Ryan, our friend Greg, and myself hopped in Greg and my cars and drove to Iowa stopping overnight as my house on our way to Colorado.

For sake of length, this post has assumed the status of: To Be Continued.

Goodbye, Roseville. Hello, Denver.

2009-08-11T01:07:00.003-04:00

I just arrived in Denver. It is late at night now. I know this because the sky outside the window is black and has been so for a while now. It feels even later to me because my body is still functioning on Michigan time (two hours later). Tomorrow I am going apartment hunting and job searching. I'll also try and update this by filling you all in on this past week. There is much to say. Stay tuned.

Viginti

2009-08-01T14:28:00.003-04:00

[My friend from college, Dan Nichols has written his first book, Viginti, this year. He told me this past week that his book was featured on BBC's website and that I was in the picture with him on the page of the article. I'll let the article tell you about the book, but I wanted to give him a plug here on the blog because he's a super guy.]

[The pre-beard days look weird to me now.]

TLC 2009

2009-08-01T13:43:00.006-04:00

This past week I attended Teen Leadership Conference at Baptist Bible College with some of the high school students from my church. The theme this year was "Step Up" and most of the messages challenged the students to rise above what's accepted and be leaders. From what I could tell, many of the students were challenged and got out of the week as much as they were willing to put into it.

Doc Harris and the band led a bunch of new songs including "At the Cross" by Daniel Renstrom and "Not What My Hands" by Aaron Keyes.

[Tuesday night I was able to go out to Pastel's for dinner with some of my old work friends. I worked with them all at Patsel's between November '07 and July '08.]

[Some of the guys played in a 3 v. 3 basketball tournament on Wednesday. The Cornerstone guys are Ben (the big, big guy down low in the blue) and Michael (the guy up top in the red shorts and white shirt).]

[Joseph Peterson, who got to play guitar in the band this year, and I wore matching cardigans on Wednesday night for chapel. As you can tell, we looked really good.]

[Late Thursday night after chapel I caught up with a few other Patsel's friends at JJ Bridges. Joe, Julie, and Bridget became great friends during my time at Patsel's. Nothing like good friends and buffalo wings at 11:30 p.m.]

[Johnny left Patrick with a little pizza surprise on the bus windshield. Since Patrick refused to drive the bus until the pizza was removed, Jen climbed up, took the pizza from under the windshield wiper, and took a big bite right in Patrick's face. Classic moment.]

My Name is John Daker

2009-07-30T17:40:00.000-04:00

VBX Pictures and the Farewell Party

2009-07-29T14:29:00.005-04:00

Here are some VBX pictures:

[Nothing beats jumping in puddles on a rainy day.]

[O.G. -- Outback Gangstas

Matt, Rachel, Me, Kathryn]

[This won mega points for the blue team on Friday.]

[One last group shot.]

Saturday night the middle schoolers threw a farewell party for me at the Wasil's house. We ate good food, played volleyball, tetherball, and "cowboy, chicken, conquer," the some of the students and leaders gave me some wonderful cards and gifts. It was a fun night for all of us, and I am really going to miss all the students and leaders and Cornerstone friends.

[One girl got me a duck hat as a farewell gift. When you pull the chin strap the wings flap up and down. I will refrain from the using the term "cute" to describe the hat, even though that that would be the best word for it. (Back row: Ashley, Hannah, Kayla. Front Row: Haley, me, and Olivia)]

[For dessert we had a cake comprised of a bunch of cupcakes. With a lot of frosting. Amen]

[The students all signed a big yellow duck baby bath and gave it to me. It's totally unique and much appreciated. I will find some way to hang it from the ceiling in my bedroom in Colorado.]

[Patrick, Parker, and I]

As I said in my last post, I'm spending this week at Baptist Bible College for TLC. I'll have another post coming soon with some pics.

VBS Week

2009-07-25T13:05:00.002-04:00

This week was VBS. I worked with the 6th grade program called VBX. VBS had 220-230 kids each day including 28-30 kids each day in VBX. From what I could tell, everyone had a great time. I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful crew of leaders who each did a phenomenal job with their respective responsibilities.

Here are a few highlight moments from the week:

When talking about the garden of Eden, I mentioned that Adam and Eve were naked and weren't embarrassed about it. One kid raised his hand and asked, "Does that mean we'll all be naked in heaven?" Awkward moment.

-- Answer: Revelation 7:9 says the multitude is wearing white robes. Any other good answers to this question? --

During the singing time (especially on "In Christ Alone") the kids were singing as loud as I've ever heard 30 kids sing. It was awesome.

After successfully staying completely dry throughout the water balloon toss contest (the key is having a good partner and using a water balloon roughly the size of a golf ball), Jenn Peck (aka game leader and previously referenced "good partner") yelled, "Everyone grab a water balloon and go get Kevin!!!" I've never ran (read: swiftly and aggressively limped) so fast in my life. I couldn't avoid all 30 pursuers so I ended up getting soaked. I did manage, however, to catch a few water balloons that were thrown my way, so I had a chance to return fire at a few kids.

On a positive note, the water from the balloons hid the tears that were streaming down my face as a result of my soul's anguish brought on by being betrayed by my now ex-friend Jenn.

On Friday, the VBX crew gave me a volleyball signed by all the leaders and students to expression appreciation for my ministry this past year. They then all circled around me and prayed for me and my future ministry as I move to Denver. This was a moment I'll never forget. Very cool and totally unexpected.

Each night during the VBX week I did something different. Monday I packed, Tuesday I went to a Tiger's game, Wednesday I went to the McGoldrick's house, Thursday I went to Greek town with Dan and Sarah Schnepper, and last night I hung out at the Moen's. Tonight is my middle school farewell party since I'll be gone this upcoming week at TLC. It (the party tonight) is going to be awesome. I'll post pictures.

The Week that Was

2009-07-20T13:45:00.008-04:00

Wow, I just realized this is my 102nd post. Sweet.

I can't recall all I did since last post, but here's what I recall off the top of my head: Henry Ford Museum, church, party at McGoldrick's, swimming at Devin's, graduation open houses, church,Lighthouse, and day one of VBX (6th grade VBS).

Here are some pics from Wednesday and Thursday.

[I went with Ron Campbell and his grandson, Conner, to the Henry Ford Museum. The place was incredible. I'll post more pics on Facebook. Conner and I made cars out of some toy set (I don't remember the official term).]

[After the museum, we went to Miller's Bar, home of the #8 ranked hamburger in America, according to GQ*.

Here is the restaurant's entire menu:

Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Fries, Onion Rings.

*Before tasting the burger I would have questioned a fashion magazine's ability to evaluate a burger properly, but they nailed this one on the head. It's the Krispy Kreme of burgers.]

[My rapidly growing duck collection (thanks to a certain few middle school students and their siblings). Complete with Shy Sarah and Exuberant Parker.]

[I'm not sure why I'm compelled to post this pic.]

[The party at the McGoldrick's house began with a rousing game of "washers" between Parker and me. It's like a bean bag toss, only with big washers and little boxes. Hey Parker, who won?]

[I was wondering why the frisbee kept getting bigger and bigger, and then it hit me.

P.S. Parker is like a human Air Bud.]

[So that I don't get slapped, please leave a comment supplying your own caption for this photo.]

Today is the beginning of VBS. I'm leading the 6th grade VBX program. Please pray for the many kids who will attend. We had around 26 6th grades attend today, and hopefully we'll have more throughout the rest of the week.

Peace out.

Maybe I Shouldn't Wait so Long to Update

2009-07-14T15:12:00.005-04:00

Nothing big or highly unusual this past week, except that last Wednesday I forgot to mention that the clock hit its once a century mark of 12:34:56 7/8/9.

[Wednesday night a crew went over to the Wasil's to play

some volleyball and sit around a fire. We successfully

accomplished both. We also got eaten alive by mosquitos.]

On Thursday I joined a crew of people at the Mahloy's for more volleyball. I didn't take any pics however. Some of us did stick around to watch the space station travel overhead. This will never happen again in my lifetime (the being able to see it pass overhead) because the space station will probably be going out of operation soon. R.I.P. Space Station.

[Friday was Devin's birthday. I took my shirt off in the pool and, as you can see, left it off during the taking of this picture. One can never quite appreciate how pale they are until they are exposed by the flash of a camera. I rank somewhere between an albino polar bear and cup of half-and-half.]

[Tangentially, I did hold my own at pool basketball.]

Friday night and Saturday I "dog sat" for the McGoldricks. Saturday afternoon I had coffee with Ross Stevens and Saturday night I went with Maclane to Starbucks to shoot the breeze and catch bugs. Upon further reflection, it would have been more impressive had we been able to catch the breeze and shoot bugs.

Sunday I taught on Jonah during the morning, took my annual nap during the afternoon, attended a VBS meeting in the evening, and then played volleyball and freeze tag at Mo-Mo's house at night. In order to unleash my tremendous foot speed during freeze tag, I cast off my sandals and ran barefoot. Now I have a cut on the bottom of my right food. **Please do not send meals or get well cards.**

Yesterday I was in the office and then went with Paker to Devin's house to go swimming and hang out. I learned two things while there: 1) A 19-8 lead (playing to 21) at Corn Hole is not a big enough lead to guarantee victory and 2) I am not as good at Guitar Hero as I once thought.

Today I drove a couple minutes down the road to check out the Obama frenzy at a local community college where he is speaking today. Needless to say, in a city with the highest unemployment in the country, he didn't have a lot of supporters holding up signs.

[This was the "Obama is ruining the economy" fan section.]

[I missed a chance to get pictures of the larger Pro-Life signs

further down the street, but I did manage to get a picture of these signs.]

Alas, I'm Back at Home

2009-07-08T15:22:00.007-04:00

Currently Listening to: Derek Webb "Stockholm Syndrome"

A quick updates for ya'll.

Sunday's preaching went well. I received a lot of encouraging feedback from both friends and people I didn't know well. Some of the college students led the music and did an incredible job. After church I ran (drove) home for lunch and then went and played some street hockey for a couple hours before going to Eric Fatfield's house for swimming, pizza, and a movie.

Monday I was in the office for the first time in 3 weeks before attending Maclane's baseball game with Parker that evening. Afterward, the three of us went back to Maclane's house and went for a late night swim. **Warning: Never trust those guys to give an accurate description of the water temperature in the pool. Unrelenting goosebumps and shivers is a tell-tale sign of chilly waters. I guess I'm too trusting.**

Tuesday I was in the office in the morning catching up on random stuff before heading out to another of Maclane's baseball games. In his first inning of relief pitching he picked off 2 runners trying to steal third. He's got a killer pick off move. Oh ya, and the game went 3 hours! Wow, long game. Too bad this didn't happen at his game:

Today is Wednesday. I hit up some Cracker Barrel for lunch with Ruth and Val. We had a fun time and I beat them at the triangle peg game. I had to mention that because we* were talking serious trash about who would win.

* I don't recall if "we" were talking trash of if just "me" was talking trash. "Pride cometh before great victory" is what I always say.

Tonight is Oasis and then a bonfire at the Wasils.
Tomorrow night is Volleyball at the Mahloy's.
Friday night is Devin's birthday party.
Saturday is activities TBD.

Be sure to check out the CBC mission trip blogs from Jamaica and Manitoulin Island.

Lincoln Lake

2009-07-04T12:40:00.002-04:00

Currently Listening To: Matt Haeck: Western States EP

Happy 4th of July!

This past week I was the speaker for their Junior High Wilderness Week at Lincoln Lake Baptist Camp. There were 19 campers, 3 counselors, and 2 program staff involved in the week and my responsibilities consisted of the typical “speak once in the morning and once in the evening” format.

[The Wilderness Campers at our last chapel of the week.]

The week was cold and occasionally rainy with the exception of Friday. Friday was beautiful. Lucky (Providentially) for me, I had requested a room in the lodge about a month ago, so I didn’t have to spend the week out sleeping on the ground in a damp tent. I did try and spend a good bit of time out with the campers and counselors, however, be it sitting around the fire or running through the woods playing Capture the Flag or playing Camouflage or fishing on the dock.

[The climbing wall.]

For the most part, I think the speaking went well. As expected, there was a moderate range of maturity levels and Bible background amongst the students and a definite range of attention spans. Speaking a lot in the woods didn’t help those with shorter attention spans. Oh well. I did my best to accurately teach the Scriptures in a way that makes sense and now I’ll leave it to the Holy Spirit to change lives.

One cool side note was that one of the counselors, Alex, had attended Faith Baptist Bible College, near where I grew up and where my sisters attend(ed), and Saylorville Baptist Church, so we shared many mutual friends.

Now it’s back to Roseville where I’ll be leading music for the students Sunday morning and then preaching from Amos 6* in the main service at 10:45. Your prayers would be much appreciated.

* I wasn’t fully aware of how bold and in your face this text was until after I had committed to preaching it. It certainly ruffled my feathers and I hope it will do the same for others on Sunday. My goal is that Scripture, not me, will be what offends people.

My Saturday

2009-06-27T20:49:00.003-04:00

Currently Listening to: Meese [Friends of the guys I'll be living with in Denver.]

Currently Drinking: Blackberry Izze

Before I head out to Lincoln Lake Baptist Camp next week to speak for their Jr. High Wilderness week, I wanted to give an update of today and preview of tomorrow in order to save having to do that with my update after Lincoln Lake.

Today was the Cornerstone church picnic. There were food stations, childrens games, police people, military people, a Craftsmen Village, and live music. Some of us guys tried our hands at the Marine pull-up challenge. I tried the wide grip and got 8-9 and then pooped out at 12 doing the narrow grip. I won a water bottle. Thanks, Uncle Sam. I also got to play guitar with a group of college students for some of the live music. We played about 45 minutes worth of worship music.

[I broke two strings. Why, oh why must I always break

strings during the most crucial moments!?]

[After playing music at the picnic, I went with some peeps to Matt Bietel's graduation party.

Matt is a great guy and is fairly new to Cornerstone and is attending Asbury College in the fall.]

[Matt.]

[Maclane's (in the maroon shirt in the previous picture) house almost got destroyed by a tree in the storms this week. The tree narrowly missed hitting the house but did take out a window. The fork in the tree fit perfectly around the corner of the house. Praise God for His sovereignty over trees falling during storms!]

Tomorrow is a day of church and doing laundry and packing for Lincoln Lake. I'm hoping to watch some of the USA vs. Brazil championship soccer match during the afternoon before heading to the middle school pool party SNAC at the Mahloy's at 5:00. Pray for me during the week at LL that God will use my His Word to change the campers lives.

Hmmm...the guy next to me here at Starbucks is reading a Bible. I think I'll talk to him.

BASIC 2009

2009-06-26T21:00:00.004-04:00

This past week was BASIC. It was a missions trip consisting of 102 high school students from New Jersey, Alabama, Ohio, and Michigan. I'll walk you through the week with these pictures.

[Mornings and evenings consisted of teaching sessions taught by various leaders and pastors on the topic of the gospel and evangelism. Pictured here is Chip Dean, former intern under Patrick and current youth pastor at Capshaw Baptist Church in Harvest, Alabama.]

[After the day's activities on Tuesday, we all (except Jersey people) went out to an Arabic restaurant for dinner. Yum, yum.]

[On Wednesday, Cornerstone students held a car wash at Cornerstone while the other churches hit the malls in an effort to have conversations with people and share their faith. Cornerstone students went to the mall the next day.]

[This picture is a shout-out to a loyal reader of the blog, Matt Brown (left). He was the guy giving me a hard time about not posting an entry during the 26 hours following my week at Lake Ann. The other guy is Matt Klein, but he's not a faithful reader. However, he was the sound guy for the week, and for that I am grateful.]

[Wednesday night we took the BASIC crew to a Detroit Tigers/ Chicago Cubs game. I'm a Cubs fan, so it was fun seeing them play for the first time. Too bad they lost. Can you spot me in the picture?]

[Thursday's lunch provided the students and leaders with an opportunity to serve one another. For example, I assembled Patrick's lunch and he did the same for me. I asked him if he would like his sandwich cut in half. He, Patrick, requested that go above and beyond and cut his PB & J into twelfths. I obliged. Evidently, he, Patrick, was only joking. I wasn't.]

[Thursday afternoon while Cornerstone students went to the mall, the other students went to God's Helping Hands. This picture's purpose is twofold: First, it provides an example of some of the work that was done that day, namely, organizing the food storage. Second, it proves that for at least 5 seconds I worked hard, just like my mom taught me to.]

[Here are students sorting clothes. Piles and piles of clothes.]

Lake Ann 2009

2009-06-22T23:04:00.005-04:00

Currently Listening To: The Champion and His Burning Flame

Currently Awkwardly Staring At (unbeknownst to the recipient of said stare): Dave Kaynor fast asleep in the other hotel bed

Current Degree of Weariness: Approaching Moderately Extreme

As Brownie has emphatically and graciously reminded me this week, I haven't posted an update in over a week. This was because I was at Lake Ann Camp all last week and have spent the last couple days on the BASIC missions trip. Somehow updating my blog didn't make it into my list of top priorities during my 26 hour break between trips. Things like "doing my laundry so I had clean clothes for this week" and "going to church Sunday morning" and "running to the mall to buy a new pair of sandals so I didn't look like a hobo" and "going to Weishaupt's graduation open house lest she hate me forever" ranked slightly higher. Oh, and I also devoted lesser amounts of time to eating and sleeping.

Concerning my week at Lake Ann, I counseled on Fresh Start which is the 9th grade age group. We spent 3 days rafting down the Pine River and sleeping in tents, and while we were back at main camp we spent much of our time in Teepee Village.

The week was a tremendous success as I believe all the students who attended had a lot of fun, met some new friends, created memorable... memories, and made life-changing spiritual decisions. All in all there were 55ish students from Cornerstone who attended camp, with ages ranging from entering 4th grade up through entering 9th grade.

Like I said, I counseled 9th grade guys, including 2 from Cornerstone and 5 were from various other churches in Michigan. Also, Patrick was the speaker for the week so it was a Cornerstone hotspot in the woods of NW Michigan. I'll explain various parts of the week in the captions for the following pictures.

[An oft-attempted yet rarely achieved semi-necessary right of passage

for boys becoming men: a successful three-tiered pyramid.]

[While camping out on the Pine River, we had chapels in a grassy

knoll.All the campers would form a large circle for singing

and the teaching time. Notice my group's orange tent in the

background.]

[These were my guys for the week. Maclane (next to me)

and Parker (third from right) are Cornerstone guys.]

[Here is a picture Patrick took of one of the rafts coming into

the landing area. Notice the smiles on their faces.]

[The full Cornerstone crew out at Fisherman's Point Thursday morning.]

[A classic Lake Ann camp experience is the low ropes challenge course. Here the guys work together as a team to tightrope walk from Point A all the way around to Point B without touching the ground. Later I had them achieve the same task with two guys "blinded" and only allowing one member to speak.]

[The high adventure activity exclusive to Fresh Start is Jacob's Ladder. Campers hold the base of an 18 ft. ladder and then one student climbs to the top and has to leap off the top rung and ring a bell suspended above the ladder. This picture is of me demonstrating* my confidence in the campers holding the base of the ladder.]

[Some of the crew with Sr. High speaker Ken Rudolph.

Ken also speaks for the combined Friday night chapel.]

[Glory Bowl happens Friday night after the final chapel of the week. It is a chance for students to publicly share with each other the decisions they made during the week. It was a blessing to hear many of the Cornerstone students share about what God did in their lives during the week.]

* I do have a license to carry those guns. It's a small fire arms permit.

Hockey Town

2009-06-11T15:41:00.005-04:00

Hockey Town Cafe

My last post was on Saturday afternoon, so I'll catch you up on the action since then. Sunday was a typical day at church. I spent the afternoon attending a student's baseball game. Then Sunday night I went to a college age/graduating high school seniors SNAC at the Schnepper's house. We ate food and played football and some people went swimming.

After the SNAC I went with a few friends to a karaoke night at a local restaurant. I felt like William Hung in the midst of American Idol's top 12 because there were some mighty fine singers in the house that night.

Monday night I was at the office all day and then attended an elders' meeting at night.

Tuesday night I went with some guys down to Hockey Town Cafe (see above picture) to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals out on the patio.

[Evidently there is some level of historic significance to this

zamboni machine that I was not, and am still not, aware of.]

We arrived at Hockey Town at 6:00 for the 8:00 game. We still ended up sitting near the back but we definitely had better seats than these people [people were lined up four levels high during game time]:

According to an article I read, for those who didn't arrive as early as we did, there was an hour and a half wait to get in and a line that stretched down the block of people hoping to get a seat! Some people even tried hopping the fence and/or climbing through the dense wall of shrubbery trying to get in. Security, for the most part, was on the ball and more or less gently escorted the late arrivals back outside the venue.

[As you can see, the crowd outside was pretty dense.]

[Devin had the "brilliant idea" of using the free pom-poms

as a wig. You just can't take the O.G. out of an O.G. though.]

Oh ya, and the Wings lost 2-1. Game 7 Friday night. Go Wings.

Yesterday was a typical Wednesday: office during the day, KFC for dinner, and Oasis at 7. For the summer there is a college student doing the speaking so I no longer have that responsibility on my metaphorical plate.

Tonight I have a missions team meeting at 7. Then I'll go home and go to bed. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Probably laundry and the beginning stages of packing for Lake Ann.

Saturday Faturday

2009-06-06T16:37:00.005-04:00

It's Saturday and I'm sitting in a big comfy chair at an unfamiliar Starbucks (corner of Gratiot and Masonic). I felt like a boy scout a few minutes ago because a girl, with laptop and car keys in hand, walked in the door looking like she needed help with something. As best I could tell, it also appeared that she felt uncomfortable asking me, a stranger, for said help. Her unsettled countenance probably would not have been directed exclusively toward me had I not been the only patron in the joint, but alas, here I sit in this big comfy chair directly facing the front door, the only patron in the joint.

I looked up at her doing my best to communicate a "I think you are hoping that I look at you and ask if you need help, but I feel I am at risk of talking to you, a stranger, before you even have both feet in the door." (I have always felt that it is best to wait until a complete stranger has entered a room with both feet before initiating conversation with them.) My look must have communicated well because she timidly asked me, "How do you get the wireless to

work?". I told her that you have to buy a stranger a drink before it will work. False.

I explained to her the process and in a matter of minutes she was surfing the web like a (insert intelligent simile here). As she left, she mouthed a "thank you" to me since I was on the phone. I threw my empty cup at her. False. I waved. It feels good to be a boy scout.

As for this weeks activities, I went to the Owens's (I'm still not sure how to properly make a singular noun that ends in "s" a possessive. Any help?) on Tuesday to watch Madagascar 2 before going to Maclane's baseball game. We didn't finish the whole movie but we did watch all of Maclane's game. In baseball terms that's batting .500. Not bad.

[Doesn't Maclane look tough in his uniform?]

[Sometimes Maclane blows at the ball to try and get it

to slow down as it approaches home plate. Cheater or genius?.]

Wednesday night was the first Jr/Sr High combined Oasis of the summer. It was different being there and having zero responsibilities. The guys who did lead did a great job with the announcements, game, music, and teaching.

Thursday night I went to Devin's baseball game and then to his house to watch the Red Wings game. On the way to his house after the game, we swung in to McDonald's to grab some ice cream. I ordered a Triple Thick Strawberry shake. They gave me Orange Creamsicle. Oh well. I guess I just got extra Vitamin C.

Friday night I went with a group of student's to another of Maclane's baseball games. Then we all went out to Dairy Queen and to the church league softball games.

Today I went with a couple guys to Mo-Mo's soccer game. Her team won 3-2.

[I barely missed a perfect shot of Mo-Mo doing a header.

She's not a fraidy cat like the girl behind her.]

[Teddy at the game.]

[Terminator Trevor, myself, and my water bottle at the game.]

In a little bit I'll be heading to Devin's house to watch the Wings' game. Until then I need to hammer out a few details on what I'll be teaching for VBX (6th grade VBS) later this summer.

Outstanding

2009-06-01T07:24:00.006-04:00

Friday night I went with a group of students to see Up, the latest Pixar sensation, in 3D . The movie was outstanding - especially the long-necked, lanky, limping bird character named Kevin.

After the movie we went to Brooke's house for food and a fire. That too was outstanding.

Saturday I went to Jordan's baseball game and then two a couple graduation open houses and then to Devin's house to watch the Red Wing's game. Outstanding, outstanding, and outstanding.

Sunday night was a SNAC at the Hait's house. You guessed it, it was outstanding. We ate chili dogs and played 500 in the back yard. Here are a few pics.

[Hannah, Becca, Logan, Susanna, and Ashley
at the church before we left.]

[Did I mention the chili dogs? And the punch was really good too.]

[Jackpot!!! You can't see it in the picture,
but Maclane was actually riding on a magic carpet.]

[Kevin = Parker's launching pad.]

[Somehow nobody ended up catching this one.]

[Ashley and Logan right after he knocked over a glass of water.
Go easy on him though, it was an accident.]

[The Psycho Sarakun Siblings.
Please notice the subtle use of consonance devoid of extended alliteration due to the inert letter "p" in the introductory endocentric digraph.]

Would You Say I Have a Plethora of Pictures?

2009-05-26T13:04:00.006-04:00

[This is an older picture I have of me and my new singing duck, Elvis.
Thanks, Hannah.]

[At Brooke's (left) track meet last week watching her run her personal
best mile time of 6:26. The girl on her right didn't stay with her for long.]

[On the bus going to Cedar Point on Memorial Day.
Check out Anna's crazy eyes! and Savannah's crazy face.]

[Waiting in line for our first coaster of the day, the Millenium Force!]

[We ran across a couple thugs in line...oh wait, do thugs
wear "Fraser Singers" t-shirts?]

[Fatfield in line for the Maverick. He was kind enough to pick me up
from the airport on Sunday. Thankfully the Red Wings were up 5-1 by
then or I would have had to wait for a while so he could finish watching the game.]

[Part of my crew for the day ready to ride The Maverick.
also captioned: Hey! There's those two thugs again!]

[Nothing speaks to a healthy dinner like a Giant Elephant Ear.]

[Haley made an ambitious attempt at eating an entire Giant Elephant Ear all by herself. She didn't know that it was going to bigger than her head. I, on the other hand, saved 70 cents and ate 4 ounces of ice cream pieces.]

[As our last ride of the day, we rode front row on the Top Thrill Dragster. Sarah had never ridden it before, and she was in for quite a ride. 0-120 mph in 4 seconds. At least we didn't get stuck at the top for 15 minutes like some other people earlier in the day.]

These are some wedding pics that I have received since the wedding.

[Aunt Leslie, my younger sister Gerty (birth name: Krisanna),
and my big sister, the bride...Katie Wooster.]

[Dad and Katie.]

[Being introduced to the reception as "Mr. and Mrs. Ben Wooster!"]

[The only close up of the bride and groom and I have found so far.]

Sitting at the Airport

2009-05-24T18:13:00.004-04:00

I’m currently sitting in the Des Moines International Airport (terminal: C1) waiting to board the plane back to Detroit. I supposed I’ll type what I can until that time.

I had a full load last week in Michigan before heading to Iowa on Thursday for my sister’s wedding. On Monday I attended the funeral of a student’s grandma, Tuesday I enjoyed being the guest speaking at a Sr. citizens’ luncheon at Old Country Buffet, and on Wednesday I helped with some extra responsibilities for Connect (Connect set a new record of 194 students!).

After church on Wednesday night I attended a parents/students meeting for this upcoming BASIC missions trip. Immediately afterwards I raced home at legal speeds to catch the remainder of the American Idol finale. I think Adam will become the new lead singer for Queen.

Thursday morning at 6:00 I got a ride to the Detroit airport in order to catch my flight to Iowa for Katie and Ben’s wedding. The flight went well and I sat next to a friendly lady whose husband teaches at West Point. My seat was in the last row and therefore directly across from the bathroom. That resulted in there being a good deal of traffic going on by my seat.

Mrs. West Point and I chatted for a few minutes until we received our complimentary beverages from the flight attendant. We then non-verbally and unanimously decided to redirect our attention to our respective literary interests – hers an article on the Obama family in the latest copy of a celebrity magazine and mine the last few pages of my Tim Keller book, Ministries of Mercy.

I finished my reading before she did so I whipped out my laptop and tried my hand at a few games of chess against the computer. Either I’ve gotten really bad at chess over the years or the computer is a digital version of Bobby Fischer. My heart casts its ballot for the latter, but my mind sensible votes for the former.

The plane’s descent was rocky at best, but the landing was smooth so I was happy. I prefer to have problems happen in the air and not when we are hitting the ground. I bid farewell to Mrs. West Point and welcomed myself back to Iowa soil.

Later that day I had lunch with one of my high school youth leaders and enjoyed catching up on the last 6 months. That night the groom and groomsmen got together at a hotel and stuffed ourselves full of Papa John’s pizza, Little Debbie’s, Doritos, and Mountain Dew while watching the end of the Lakers/Nuggets game and playing video games.

We slept in on Friday morning and then went and played paintball at a friend’s place in Indianola. I got more mosquito bites than welts but had a lot of fun.

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went without a hitch and the dinner food somehow managed to trump the previous night’s menu.

I joined my family at our house that night so as to spend one last night together, just the 5 of us. I slept in my old bed (which is now coupled with its top bunk counterpart) and somehow managed to sit up and drill my forehead on the underside of the top bunk during the middle of the night. Here’s the wound resulting from the accidental altercation:

The wedding on Saturday was beautiful. Katie was stunning in her dress and Ben looked sharp in his black tux with white vest and tie. I’ll do my best to post some pictures as soon as I can get them. As I type this, Ben and Katie are in the air on their way to Maui for their honeymoon.

In just a couple minutes I’ll be boarding the plane. I’ll post this as soon as I get back to Detroit and have a wireless connection.

Keep It Current

2009-05-16T13:32:00.004-04:00

And I'll throw this update out there just for kicks and giggles.

Current Music I Really Like:

Coldplay - Left Right Left Right Left (link to free download)

Sandra McCracken - Live Under Lights and Wires (link to free download)

Churchill - new songs posted but no album yet

The Fray - The Fray

Current Books I'm Reading:

Ministries of Mercy By: Tim Keller

The Cross of Christ By: John Stott

How to Read a Book By: Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Lincoln Van Doren

Track Meets and the End Times

2009-05-16T13:02:00.003-04:00

[Thursday afternoon I went to Teddy and Sarah's track meet.

Teddy ran really well and finished second in the mile with

a time of 5:58 behind the speedy little guy in front of him in the picture.]

[Sarah ran the something-meter hurdles (1st place), the

70 meter dash (1st place), and the 800 meter race (1st place).

I think the socks give her some sort of bionic power.]

Rewinding back to Wednesday night, we had a packed house in the Middle School room because we inherited some of the high schoolers. It was great fun. In light of only having 3 more times together before we combine with the high school for the summer, I gave the students slips of paper upon which they could make requests for teaching topics to address in the last 3 sessions. 14 students submitted requests and 10 of them requested that we discuss the book of Revelation (or topics relating to end times). The other four dealt with "Theological Terms", the Archangel, the book of Ruth, and basic evangelism.

I was blown away by the interest in the end times and someone suggested that the interest might be a reflection of topics that are being addressed in the home in light of events in the Middle East and such. Needless to say, I think I might teach a session on "Why I Don't Want to Teach on the Events of the End Times." My guess is that the students want to hear about dragons and earthquakes and the number 666.

This is not bad, I just think we should focus on making sure we're not around when all of that (whatever "that" turns out to be) happens and living as Christians while we are still here.

Upon reflection, I guess I was ignorant for anticipating requests like, "Please teach us how we can honor our parents better" or "I struggle loving my enemies. Please teach me what the Bible says about loving people who hate me" or "I have a lot more stuff than I need. Does the Bible have anything to say about sharing my stuff with needy people?" Dragons and earthquakes are a lot cooler.

A Fun Week

2009-05-13T09:08:00.005-04:00

[Cinco de Mayo was Val's birthday. Val isn't on staff at the
church, but she puts in a tremendous number of hours working
with the children's ministries. Val is in the blue v-neck sweater.
For future reference, Applebees has free chips and salsa and a
discounted menu for Cinco de Mayo. Quesadilla Burger for $5? I'm in.]

[Last Friday night I went to Sarah's birthday party. Someone
(not me, I promise) gave her a birthday cake facial. Well done,
whoever you are.]

[Every birthday party needs a good group picture of everyone
making a pyramid. Ours failed.]

[Since the pyramid was a disaster, they opted for the
"huddle together and have Brooke do an obscure gymnastics
move while still managing to look at the camera and make
Devin lie on the ground in front like he's trying to be cute" approach.
It was much more successful.]

[Saturday morning I went to Devin's (guy trying to be cute
in the previous picture) baseball game. He got to pitch for the
first time this season. He also played center field and left field.
His team crushed.]

Sunday was Mother's Day and I ended up going to the Essian's house after church. We played catch, feasted on sweet foods, watch some of the Redwings game, played ultimate frisbee, watched stupid YouTube videos (like this one about Fainting Goats), and watched a Tim Hawkins comedy DVD. I dont' care who you are, that guy is funny.

In related news, I found out that the Essian's oldest daughter's husband's college roommate married my cousin, Donni-Anne. Pretty cool, huh.

Monday I went with Pastor Bob and intern Bill to Indianapolis to attend a funeral and then got back in time to eat dinner and go back up to church for an elders meeting.

Tuesday I was in the office and then watched American Idol at the Owens's house.

Today I'm in the office and then have some meetings this afternoon with a college marketing guy. Including tonight, there are only 5 more Middle School "gatherings" before we are combined with high school for the summer. Wow, time flies!

Turtles, Tigers, and the 80's

2009-05-07T15:42:00.008-04:00

Monday night I went to another Tigers game. This time it was with a couple guys from church and some of their friends. The Tigers got beat, but we didn't really care. We had a good time because it was 80's night at the park so there was some sweet 80's themed entertainment going on.

[Although I wasn't allowed to watch the show as a child,
I did have some Turtle slippers and maintain a great deal of respect
for all creatures trained in martial arts, whether they be human or reptile.]

[Did someone say "flux capacitor"? There were 7-8
DeLoreans parked out front of the stadium...]

[...and they were parked right next to a couple
of Ferrari's. I didn't exactly fit. And no, I'm not asking
for my cell phone in the picture, I'm displaying my
Charles Kirby "hang loose" tribute wave. ]

[Friend of Joe, friend of Darth Vader, Tom Selleck.
Maybe one of those Ferrari's out front was his.]

[Friend of Joe, Joe, Luke's dad, and a Storm Trooper who
volunteered to blast the photographer for cropping me out
of the first picture.]

[The new TMNT video game. I essentially just hit
a lot of buttons as fast as I could and was victorious.]

Gotta Love the Dead Guys

2009-05-05T14:23:00.006-04:00

Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven - David Clarkson (1621-1686)

This is a sermon (?) that I read in preparation for tomorrow night's lesson entitled, "What is sin?"

I found it very insightful and convicting, and I would highly recommend that you read it when you have time, as it will probably take about 10-15 minutes to read (5 pages in a Word document). Because the sermon is almost 400 years old, the language is a little outdated at times, but I don't believe it is so difficult as to make it impossible for the reader to be able to pick up the main point of what he is trying to say.

In the sermon, Clarkson outlines 13 forms of soul worship (secret idolatry). Here are a few quotes to wet your appetite:

Concerning Mind Idolatry:
"If either you do not think of God or think otherwise of Him than He is...this is to set up an idol instead of God."

Concerning Intentions Idolatry:
"When our chief design is to be rich, or great, or safe, or famous, or powerful -- when our great aim is our own ease, or pleasure, or credit, or profit and advantage -- when we aim at, or intend anything more, or anything as much, as the glorifying and enjoying of God -- this is soul idolatry."

Concerning Hope Idolatry:
"And thus [committing the sin of secret idolatry] do others among us, who make their prayers, their sorrow for sin, their work of charity (love), or any acts of religion or righteousness, their hope -- when men expect hereby to satisfy God's justice, to pacify God's displeasure, and to procure heaven."

Concerning Zeal (passion) Idolatry:
"...to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled; but manifest no indignation when God is dishonored, His name, Sabbaths, worship, profaned; His truths, ways, people, reviled -- this is idolatrous."

"Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!" 1 Cor. 10:14

Gospel-Centered Leadership

2009-05-02T20:45:00.009-04:00

Last night and today I attended the Fellowship in the Gospel conference put on by several area pastors and hosted by Berean Baptist Church in Livonia, MI. There were a couple hundred men in attendance ranging in age from a sixth grader and a couple of my middle schoolers to upwards of 70 years old. The theme of the conference was "Gospel-Centered Leadership." The keynote speaker is from a church about 20 miles south of where I'll be living in Denver, CO after the internship. I wanted to post a few of my favorite quotes and thoughts from the conference.

---

"It’s profoundly difficult to lead your people to God when you substitute yourself as God."

"On a balance, breath outweighs any merit of my own." (Ps. 62:9)

"A father’s heart burns with rage when his son is offended. God took his rage toward those who offended His son and poured it out on his son."

"The role of the husband begins at the atonement, not the altar."

Speaking of the need for dads to understand that their children will sin, one speaker joked..."While your wife is pregnant, you pray for a normal kid. Then after he/she is born, normal is no longer good enough."

"Destructive criticism is like someone puking on you. It makes them feel better, but it stinks for you."

"By making other people feel responsible for your happiness, you build a barrier that makes it difficult for them to feel comfortable offering you constructive criticism."

"If God's perfect leadership was rejected (in the garden), how much more should I expect my imperfect leadership to be rejected and criticized."

One speaker referenced this quote by John Piper, "It is a great sadness when sufferers seek relief by sparing God his sovereignty over pain. The sadness is that this undercuts the very hope in aims to create ... Whatever Satan's liberty in unleashing calamity upon us, God never drops the leash that bins his neck." The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God

"Unforgiveness is the poison we drink hoping others will die."

"How I handle criticism is a current gauge that reflects how much I am believing and applying the gospel at that moment."

"When receiving criticism, expect more. There is always more."

Anti-Alliteration Assorted Artifacts, Articles, and Activities

2009-04-30T10:57:00.013-04:00

Not to start the blog on a sad note, but for those who read this and weren't aware, Patrick's mom passed away last Friday morning after struggling for a long time with many health issues. The funeral was Tuesday morning in Pennsylvania, and a group of us from the church were able to make the drive in order to attend. The funeral went really well and the gospel was preached clearly, yet sensitively, in light of the fact that it was not clear whether or not Patrick's mom was a believer. Paige did an incredible job sharing some memories about her grandma on behalf of all the grandchildren. Here is a picture of Paige, Parker, their grandma, and her dog from their trip to see her a couple weeks ago:

--

Change of subject, filling in for Pastor Bob on Sunday night went well. I spoke for 65 minutes on "The Spiritual Discipline of Corporate Worship." I find it difficult to evaluate my own speaking, but the feedback was encouraging and only a few people fell asleep (not lying).

Monday I was invited to go to the Tigers vs. Yankees game with a group from church. I went with the Owens family, minus Shannon, (I go over to their house almost every Tuesday night to watch American Idol.) and was able to take a few pics with my new camera that I bought with my birthday money. The old 3.2 megapixel camera just had to go.

[Ron, Trevor (busy at work), me, and Brooke. While the logo is
cropped out of the picture, it's important to notice that I'm wearing
my Iowa Hawkeyes hat. Gotta represent.]

[Brooke was really into the game! In fact,
this picture wasn't staged at all, more or less.]

[My view of the game, featuring the heads of Sarah and Chad Holmgren. I was suite mates with Chad in college, which is how I heard about this internship, and now he's a youth pastor at a local church a couple miles from Cornerstone.]

[I was experimenting with taking zoomed in pictures by pointing
my camera through the lens of a pair of binoculars. It worked
pretty well, all things considered.]

Lastly, oh yes, there's more. I've really been enjoying this new flavor of gum I discovered at Wal-Mart. It's like the Gushers of gum. So good.

P.S. I bought some cheap Strawberry scented air fresheners for my car, thinking that since I really like this gum, I would like what the smell did to my car. Now my car just smells like cough syrup. The down side is that my car smells like cough syrup. The plus side is that I haven't coughed in my car in 4 days. Nice.

[I'm curious how a piece of gum could be considered,
"Not a low calorie food," especially if it's sugar free,
but I will still be a faithful consumer.]

The Midday Meal

2009-04-27T15:46:00.005-04:00

Patrick, Ruth, and I went to lunch last week and I forgot to post these pics.

[Keeping it real at Jimmy John's.]

[The J.J. Gargantuan. A true beast of a sammich.]

[As advertised...it still tasted incredible though.]

My Day Off

2009-04-24T14:08:00.003-04:00

[Baby Logan and Momma Ashley. I took this Wednesday night.]

[I'm stealing this video from Josh's blog because it's hilarious.]

Today is my day off so I arose at 5:20 and ate me some breakfast. Then I went to the gym but had to ride the bike because all the elliptical machines were taken. The seat on the bike ranks in the top 3 of my non-existent "most uncomfortable things I've ever sat on" list.

I went to the bank this morning after the gym only to find that their servers were down so I couldn't complete all my desired transactions. Then I went to the post office in an unsuccessful attempt to track down a lost letter. I sat in line for almost 30 minutes in order to hold a 30 second conversation. Bummer.

Then I came home and started doing a spring cleaning in my room and getting rid of old clothes that I haven't worn in a couple years so I evidently don't need them. I also did some laundry and swapped out my winter sweaters for my summer shorts...a bold move, but I did it. It's done.

Still to do on my existent list of "things to do today since it's so nice outside" is:

1) vacuum the car

B) run to an as of yet to be determined store to pick up a couple of previously determined items.

Third) Do a small load of laundry

IV.) complete the cleaning of my room

Last night I helped out with a science fair type event at Kaiser Elementary and saw a number of my students who I work with at Connect. Tomorrow I'm going to Ann Arbor to hang out with my incredible friends, Bob and Charissa Karr.

Last thought: Does anyone else love that first day of the year when you are able to open the windows of the house and let the breeze blow through?

Other last thought: I'm filling in for Pastor Bob Sunday night and teaching on "the spiritual discipline of corporate worship" so if you think of it, pray it goes well. It's a new topic for me to teach on.

Easter Pics

2009-04-20T17:15:00.002-04:00

A couple of our middle school leaders handed out these pics yesterday morning. They were taken in the middle school room Easter morning to capture the students in their Easter "pretties." We didn't get all the students in the pics but we did get most of them. Oh ya, and we got a group shot of most of the leaders as well.

[Hannah, Susanna, Jaclyn, Gina, Erin, Becca, Savannah, Grace, Brooke, Haley, Sarah, Hannah, Abby, Gina, Kayla, Sarah, Ashley, Zak, Andrew, Teddy, Kadin, Bug Man, Ian, Parker, and Maclane.]

[Clendinindinin, T.I., Snackerman, Geer dog, Luuuuuzod]

[Ray, me, Keith, Dan and Sarah, and Jessica and Joe the Fireman.]

Work Week at Michindoh

2009-04-19T15:06:00.005-04:00

[The whole group, minus Jack, because Patrick cropped him out.]

This past week the middle school and high school students piled in a bus and headed out to Camp Michindoh to spend a few days volunteering at the camp. We left church Wednesday morning and got home Friday night.

[Do work, son.]

[The crew cleaning up the grounds around the water slide.]

[Rachel, Arianna, and "The President"]

[I didn't know they took this one.]

We spent a few hours raking leaves and picking up sticks during the afternoon on Wednesday and then again during the mornings and afternoons on Thursday and Friday. The skies were clear and the sun was shining so the 65 degree weather made it enjoyable to be outside.

[I believe this was right before I said to myself,

"I hope they don't dive in."]

After working hard all day on Wednesday group of students jumped into the lake to cool off, and cool off they did. The week before we arrived the camp had been blitzed with 9 inches of snow so the lake was FREEZING cold. The girls all screamed after they hit the water, but they still enjoyed themselves and were talking about the adventure at church this morning.

[The girls felt like chasing after the "duck." Unfortunately, this

was not allowed, and we were notified of this by a woman

dressed in 1800's clothing who yelled at the top

of her lungs, "Ladies!!!! Leave the goose alone!!!!!"]

Wednesday night after dinner we spent some time as a group reflecting on the day and discussing the topics of complaining and laziness before heading over to the gym to play dodgeball. Thursday night after working we piled on the bus and went to Arby's for shakes and then hung out around a bonfire enjoying the beautiful night sky.

The trip was a great experience and many of the students are looking forward to attending again next year.