What to do.....

Rex Grossman's Last Six Games:
4 Interceptions, 2 Fumbles
0 Interceptions, 1 Fumble
3 Interceptions, 1 Fumble
1 Interception, 1 Fumble
0 Interceptions, 0 Fumbles
3 Interceptions, 1 Fumble

Total - 17 Turnovers

Sure, Rex can have some good games and started the year well but in the last six games has 17 turnovers! Count them! Grossman is the one thing holding the Bears back right now.

So what do you think? Is it time to give Griese a chance???

from the coast...

My Mom visited us for Thanksgiving. Here we are at the coast at Seaside.















Another pic from Seaside.















We went to the Aquarium in Seaside. We love aquariums large or small and this tiny little one held some nice surprises like this octopus that is just in an open tank of water that allows you to get as close as you dare! We also fed the seals whom all had their own unique way of getting our attention so we would pick them to feed. Very entertaining.




















After Seaside, we drove up to one of my personal favorite towns on the coast, Astoria. This is the Astoria Column which has 164 steps inside you can climb to the top which Kelli and I did but immediately regretted. Tougher than I thought, but then again I'm probably more out of shape than I care to admit. This hill that it's on has an amazing overlook of the coast and the town.


































Kelli and I at the top of Astoria Column.















One of my favorite pictures from today. We were in the mountains and stopped where there was some snow and snapped this cool shot.















Finally, here is the house from Goonies in Astoria! Yup, that's the real deal!

"Pelosi and Hoyer repeated that in the first 100 legislative hours of the new Congress that convenes in January, they will try to pass bills that directly affect the pocketbooks of working-class and middle-class people, including raising the minimum wage, cutting interest rates for student loans and allowing the Medicare program to negotiate lower drug prices." www.cnn.com

You mean the new congress aren't going to lower taxes for the rich? Who knows if this will happen or not, but thank God, finally someone with some sense!

I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry!

Hahahahaha. To read more go to HERE.

Thanks for the heads up Christian!

This reminds me of that one time people left the church I was preaching at because I made a joke about Joel Osteen. The person sought me out afterwards and handed me a picture of which consisted of them with Joel Osteen in person! Oops.

a taste of the Kingdom

Here's proving that the large church is legitimately advancing the Kingdom of God faithfully! It's easy to rip on large churches for being inwardly focused and sure, sometimes it's true. But not all large churches are! I talked to my friend Josh Peigh yesterday who is a pastor at Manchester Christian Church in NH and he told me about something they did this weekend for the African refugees in their community. Sure enough, he wasn't lying. You can see the story HERE.

Congrats Josh! This is really awesome. Seeing something like this totally makes my week.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Here's an interesting study on happiness. Click HERE.

Crucial Issue #1

I read the first two articles today for that Erickson class. They are conflicting views on evangelicals response to postmodernism. Grenz thinks that postmodernism is around to stay and finds that we should respond primarily in community. Read the article if you want that fleshed out. Note one thing however! Grenz neither accepts crowns Postmodernism king, nor accepts unwittingly the tenets of Postmodernism as D.A. Carson assumes. He clearly states that while Postmodernism negatively rejects the tenets of Modernism he still finds validity in truth claims and science! But then again, if you already disagree with him, you will probably not see that. Or at least that is what I have experienced from opponents of Grenz.

Parker rejects the validity of postmodernism in general and thinks it will die off soon like any other fad. Unfortunately, as you will see in the article he has very little proof of this. I don't feel like he takes this issue very seriously and his article reflects that. He also believes that a new shift is happening that he is coining Transmodernism which is more wishful thinking than it is a visible reality. His proof for that is even more mediocre. I think he is just trying to get credit for coining a term in case it actually happens! However, like Parker I would also like to take the best aspects of both modernism and postmodernism but I do not see that happening on the large scale. I hope it does but his article gives little evidence of that. I agree with Parker that we should challenge postmodern thought more instead of just submitting to it and I think Grenz does this. Anyway, read the articles and decide for yourself.

The first is an interview with Stanley Grenz

The second is an article from James Parker III.

OH NO, A TEN PAGE PAPER

I'm excited to be taking an intensive class with Millard Erickson in January. The only problem is, all the work has to be done BEFORE the class! Ahhh. Each of the four days we have to turn in a 5-10 page paper analyzing the current theological issue discussed that day.

Thankfully turning out a 10 page paper isn't the difficulty it used to be. It can be done in a few sittings. Kelli and I were thinking back to high school tonight when our senior year culminated in the writing of a 10 page paper and we all thought that it was impossible! She remembered how we had to make notecards (for us it was 50) to document our research and collect information and then we would use them to write our paper! The dreaded 10 page paper was feared as soon as you heard the rumor of it your freshmen year. Funny to look back and think how easy things are that used to be difficult. Now we have to write 40 pages in a week! Anyway...

The four issues are as follows:
1. Methodology: How Postmodern should our christian faith and our theology be?
2. Doctrine of God: How much does God know about the future (Open Theism)
3. Doctrine of Salvation: What about those who never get a chance to hear the gospel?
4. Doctrine of the Trinity: What is the real relationship between the Father and the Son?

These are obviously not new issues but are four issues Erickson picked to be of crucial importance today. In writing these papers we are to read certain journal articles and respond to the articles and other sources. So basically I guess I won't be having a Christmas break! I feel good about it however because it's a cool thing to get to take a class with the dude that is a theological giant!

The other good news is that I turned in my papers today to confirm that I tested out of both semesters of Greek! Well, I didn't really test out of them. The professor had me explain my Greek experience and afterwards said, "well, i don't really see a need to administer the test so I'll just sign off on your papers!" Praise God from whom all blessings flow! (in singing voice)
I shouldn't have to take it however after five semesters! How much I still know is debatable but I did my time!

Why didn't I hear about this???

Calvary Chapel Rejects Purpose Driven
and Emerging Spirituality
The following news alert is a follow-up to our recent Special Report on Calvary Chapel.

June 16, 2006 - Costa Mesa, CA: Last week at Calvary Chapel's annual pastor's conference, founder and Senior Pastor Chuck Smith announced that Calvary Chapel was rejecting various movements and practices that have been taking place within the Christian church at large as well as in some Calvary Chapel churches. According to a number of pastors who spoke with Lighthouse Trails this week, Smith asked that those Calvary Chapel pastors who were going in the direction of the emerging church would no longer call themselves Calvary Chapel churches.

This week a notice was placed on the Calvary Chapel Distribution website recalling Chuck Smith Sr's book, When Storms Come (which had been tampered with). The notice also stated: "The teaching and positions of Rick Warren have come into conflict with us at Calvary Chapel. Pastor Chuck has directed us to discontinue this product effective immediately."

Both Purpose Driven and the emerging church promote contemplative spirituality, which is a belief system that is contrary to biblical Christianity. Popular authors such as Richard Foster, Brian McLaren, Rick Warren, Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning and many others teach contemplative spirituality (also known as spiritual formation)

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/recall.htm

Wow! What's wrong with contemplative spirituality? I've seen this getting ripped a lot lately and I'm not sure how it's heresy. Anyone understand this? I love Nouwen and Manning. Not sure exactly how McLaren or Warren fit in with contemplative spirituality however. That seems strange.

Thanks Chip for emailing this to me.

Congratulations

...to my little sister who is getting married in the spring.

District Attorney Carson

I just read my post from yesterday and that was pretty harsh! I must have been hungry.

Speaking of harsh i just got done reading D.A. Carson's "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church" which should have the subtitle "Why I despise Brian Mclaren and why everything he thinks is wrong." That is the basic premise of the book. While there is some truth in some of what Carson says, most people disregard those truths because of all of the cheap shots he took throughout the book. But then again, most of the accusations posed in the book are simply untrue or are statements Mclaren has made that Carson has manipulated and taken out of context. I don't even have a "Friend of Emergent" button on my blog and it was still infuriating to read. Carson completely and purposefully (it seems) misrepresents most, if not all of what Emergent is about and accidently confuses Emergent with The Emerging Church througout which is a primary indicator on what you are about to read is very uninformed. Anyway, I could go on, but it wouldn't do any good I suppose.

I read this for a seminary class. I'm not exactly sure as to the purpose yet because we haven't discussed the book but it made me want to transfer to George Fox!

Orthodox Sexism

We have a winner! This is currently the most ignorant thing Mark Driscoll has ever said! It's always a tight competition because we've been getting so much it's hard to decide. But this is one of the most asinine quotes to date. I have always thought of Mark as a very smart man but being smart and being wise are two very separate things and unfortunately this is not being either. I just keep asking myself, "Where are his elders?" Isn't anyone reading this and saying, "Mark, dude, this is completely unnecessary and is just ripping down the body of Christ." But then again, I guess proper sexual roles is part of Mark's nine non-negotiables for orthodoxy so this ridiculousness would be par for the course. Apparently part of the non-negotiable of proper sex roles is for pastors wives to keep in shape so the pastor can have satisfactory sex. Sure I'm putting these words in his mouth but come on. Is this really a sex issue? Aren't there just as many fat pastors whose wives don't want to sleep with them?

"Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either."

I wish I had the spirit of generosity that Brian McLaren has when this sort of stuff is said but this just ticks me off. We've all said really dumb things, and hopefully Mark will come to the realization that this is dumb, i'm afraid otherwise however.

I do want to make this clear however, whatever team you are taking one for, I don't want any part of.

Off the Map

Just returned from the Off the Map Conference in Seattle. Brian Mclaren and George Barna were the main speakers for the event. Mclare of course is always a highlight but the other highlight for me was the workshops by Joe Meyers. I hope his second book Organic Community comes out soon because I think it will be fantastic if what he was speaking about was any indication. His first book, "The Search to Belong" is a must read, especially for all my small group or community pastors (that means you Josh Peigh, Nick Plassman, and Brad Prunty and others i am probably forgetting ((i'm not leaving you out Drew, you've already read it)). Drop what you are doing. Come on, get up, and go buy the book. Or just order it online.

There were three frustrating things about the conference:
1. We noticed that all of these conferences seem to be "beginner" conferences to the world of the alternative or missional church. I'm ready to go more in depth of what that actually looks like in practice more than just the philosophy behind it. The guys I went with and I have read most of the books and have been a part of this conversation for quite some time now, i wish they had something more in depth.

2. George Barna's negativity. I agree with what George Barna is saying in principle which is basically there needs to be new communities and expressions of faith for our future generations and the effectiveness and theological focus of many of the consumer/seeker sensitive churches are not going to work forever. That is true. But, listening to him was such a downer because of this statement: "Life change in these seeker churches are at about one half of one percent. There is NO life change happening in these churches." That's a bunch of crap. I have been very critical of the mega/seeker/consumer, whatever you want to call this kind of church and I will continue to be critical because it is a must, but I do not want to fall into the negativity, anger, or ever make the statement that NO life change is happening in the corporate church. That's simply not true. I hear stories of people submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in authentic ways in these churches and being a part of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is clear that the Bible is not prescriptive on how the church is supposed to look in every way shape and form. I'm excited that we have the freedom to practice church in many ways and look forward to seeing unchurched people connect with these new forms.

3. The church that hosted us tried to rape us for every dollar we were worth. Coffee was 2.75 and a Latte was 4.50! That's more than Starbucks. Besides being WAY too expensive the latte was horrible. It was like drinking warm milk, i think they forgot the espresso. What is more disturbing is the fact that those are the same prices people pay on Sunday morning! No wonder their building is huge!

My favorite parts of this conference were probably more about the people I went with.
1. We got to watch and sing R. Kelly's Hip Hopera 'Trapped in the Closet' way too much. (seriously, check these out! Funniest thing you'll ever see.)

2. Chip informed us that there is a car wash in California called Hand-Job.

3. We ate Mexi-Nuggets and deep friend burritos at Taco Time.

4. And of course, Brian Mclaren. Chris said it well when he said, "I like what this guys theology does to him, you can see the fruit of the spirit in this guy." Some people's theology makes them angry, hostile, crass, prone to cursing, and disparaging others, but not Mclarens. This is a guy you can respect.

For a more thorough synopsis of the content go to Bob Blog.

www.next-wave.org

I got to do a phone interview with author and pastor Mike Erre last week whose book Jesus of Suburbia was recently released. Click the link above to check it out. I thought the interview went great mostly because Mike said a ton of great stuff. That alone makes it worth listening to!

Proverbs 31 Husband Justifies Beer Habit

MINOT, N.D. — Jack Crocker, a beer-loving machinist and "part-time Christian," finally agreed to read Proverbs with wife Reanna. He's glad he did.
"I'm a Proverbs 31 husband all right," says Jack, then quotes Proverbs 31:6-7: "Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more."
"That's my permission to crack open a cold one," Jack says, having a Coors after dinner.
But Reanna, a new church member, is pushing Jack hard to stop drinking. She insists he is neither "perishing" nor "in anguish." But Jack researched the Bible on the Internet and found 2 Corinthians 4:16 and 5:2 which say, "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day," and "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling."
"Everyone is perishing and in anguish," Jack says. "Until we're delivered from these bodies, the Bible says to drink up."
As part of the escalating family tension he created a "Proverbs 31" category on their weekly budget and listed "beer" under it. He also wants to start a Proverbs 31 Men's Group with his buddies.
"We're trying to find where the Bible talks about buffalo wings," he says. •

I love when the new Lark News comes out. I look forward to this day every month!

Fantastic New Music!

The Lancaster Orchestra - Never Cried Once When I Could Have

Beautiful album, even better than "With a Little Help From Absent Friends." Check out the songs, "I Wish We Had Never Met" . Unfortuntely this is only half the song, but it gives you a good idea of the sound.




The Pernice Brothers - Live a Little

Check out their Myspace page to listen to some of the album.
These guys have been around since 1995 and just keep getting better. Great British pop stuff.





Hem - Funnel Cloud

Not California

This is for fans of Over the Rhine. I wish I could find the song We'll Meet Along the Way because it's beautiful! It really showcases her voice. Check out their Myspace page for more music.




Damien Jurado - And Now that I'm In Your Shadow

What We're The Chances
Damien Jurado is pretty much Damien Jurado, this time just some funky electronic stuff thrown in here and there. Still good.