Midway Favorites

2006 is halfway over so I figure thsi calls for my favorite albums of this year (I'm bored). This isn't just a monologue however. Let me know what you've enjoyed this year!


Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun





Rocky Votolato - Makers






Band Of Horses - Everything All Of The Time






Centro-Matic - Fort Recovery






Josh Ritter - The Animal Years






Shearwater - Palo Santo






Elf Power - Back to the Web






Josh Rouse - Subtitulo






Syd Matters - Syd Matters






Snow Patrol - Eyes Open






Albums I did not find in time to be part of my 2005 list:


Page France - Hello, Dear Wind





Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies and Minds






South San Gabriel - The Carlton Chronicles

What's wrong with this page?

Go ahead and give this a click and see if you see anything strange. I think this was intentional. If not, it certainly is ironic.

UPDATE: I think i miscommunicated, the problem is not the picture itself but something else.

Amazon is a Friend of Emergent

Who ripped off who?????

New Pete Yorn

On August 29th Pete Yorn has a new album out called Nightcrawler. Click here to check out a new song Go With It. It has more layers than his older stuff and I really dig the sound. I loved Musicforthemorningafter. I think I listened to that album about 6,743 times but didn't really care for The Day I Forgot. I think the song Burrito warrants hating that album all by itself. Stupid song. I am much more hopeful that this album will be good.

Good June Reads

The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
I finally finished the mother of all books! This is a book you have to read at least once in your lifetime so I feel pretty good about finishing it off. The first 350 pages was interesting but pretty difficult with many long monologues (good ones however) and lots of eccentric characters which seem to define Russian literature. But once you got past the first half of the book things really pick up and you are hooked until the end. This book is worth it if for nothing else than Father Zossima's teaching, Ivan’s discussion with the Devil or the speeches by the lawyers at the end.

I was telling Kelli yesterday as we were looking at the enormous volume of Tolstoy’s War and Peace (which we will also read someday far far in the future) that it seems like Russian authors try to cover every aspect of life in their novels. Greed, lust, jealousy, murder, redemption, hope, any freaking subject you can think of they feel like they have to cover. I’m not complaining, it does make for a pretty amazing novel. Sometimes when the long monologues were dragging a little I had to remind myself that someone actually was able to write all of this! Dostoevsky was able to develop and keep up the characters of about 20 different people with perfection. Absolutely amazing! There were many times when I stopped reading this book and thought about it the rest of the day in absolute awe of such a gift that Dostoevsky had. I think I will always be in awe of him. I can’t imagine having been given this kind of imagination or writing skill. I can only attribute like this to God. I’m excited to read Crime and Punishment and The Idiot when I get a chance as well as Dostoevsky’s recreated account of when he spent four years in a Siberian prison. I highly recommend reading this.



















Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
Chris McCandless, a 24 year old college graduate from Emory University disowned his family and made his way out west to travel the countryside by foot and ultimately to try to survive out in the bush of Alaska with a 10 pound bag of rice and minimal supplies. Ultimately, he doesn't make it as many of you already know. No need to say more, Jon Krakauer is awesome and this is a must read. Krakauer does a great job of examining Chris' motives for doing this and giving a detailed account of what led up to this and what went wrong with his plan which he gets straight from McCandless' own journals.




















Pornified – Pamela Paul
This is a fascinating expose of the effects of pornography on our culture and on men and women in general. For this book she interviewed well over 100 people for their experiences or their significant others experience with pornography to examine how it affected relationships as well as a man’s view of women, etc. All the typical stuff but very well done. It is an interesting read but it is very candid so keep that in mind if you are going to read it. Some xxx language in there. I think the first 100 pages started out very strong and had some valuable information but it got pretty redundant in the last 150 pages. The people’s stories got kind of old and redundant as well. It is a tiring book to read but I definitely suggest reading the first 100 pages to really get a glimpse of what pornography has done to the American culture. It’s not an easy book to check out in the library seeing that there is a red, white, and blue thong hanging out on a clothesline. It’s much easier to order it on Amazon!

The Secret Message of Jesus – Brian Mclaren
Click here for previous review.

Jesus of Suburbia – Mike Erre
Click here for previous review.

Back From CIY

I returned from CIY on Saturday evening after a long day of being on the road. It's about 12 hours from Johnson City, TN to Tampa, FL. The students that went with us this week were great. I really enjoyed getting to know the guys and goofing off. It reminded me of what it's like being in High School. There were several hilarious, stereotypical CIY moments such as guys carrying around their guitars trying to impress the girls, which Christian College could get to the vans that were arriving to pray for them first, the amount of cheesy Christian T-Shirts, how many David Crowder songs the band "Foundation Red" covered during the week, the fact that the worship band was called "Foundation Red", or that they sang a song with this first verse:

"I'm finding myself
at a loss for words
and the funny thing is,
it's okay."

I could have sworn it was an REO Speedwagon cover but it was actually indeed a worship song.

I could go on and on. It was very funny but it was a great week to relax, get away from everything and just think for a bit without being distracted by a computer or anything else. The two highlights from the week for me was hearing Craig Gross from XXX Church speak and Kevin Greer from CIY who has been doing ministry for 20 years. They were both very encouraging for what God is doing in our world. It was also a good reminder that God has not created me to be a youth minister. I need that reminder once in a while.

I'm gone for the week.

I will be at CIY this week in Milligan, Tennessee. I'll blog about it when I get back. Peace.

The Holistic Gospel

Robert Douglas has a phenomonal and insightful lecture from a Lincoln Christian College Seminary Lectureship called, "God's Politics, Good News, and Globilization."

It really covered many thoughts I have been questioning lately about a more holistic gospel and what that means practically in our churches. I highly recommend that you listen to this lecture. If you would like it, let me know and i'll email it to you. I respect what he had to say very much and it excited me about the possibilities of what God's dream could be on earth!

The Wrath of God

I listened to Mark Driscoll’s message on the doctrine of propitiation today while I was at Starbucks. I’m still not sure how I feel about everything especially all his, “God hates you” statements. He gave plenty of verses but I’m not sure of the context exactly so I’m hesitant to jump on board. I'd like to study that idea a little further before I would cash in my chips with that. He talks about how many people think "God loves me but just hates my sin", but if sin lives inside of us and is part of who we are then God hates us as well. Any thoughts on that? Obviously there is a side of God that is angry but I have yet to understand fully God's anger. I need to read more Scripture about it. Just as a Father would only get angry with his son if he really loved his son, God gets angry with us out of love. The idea that Mark presents that "God hates us" does however make Jesus dying on the cross more powerful with that idea in mind however, that God would die to save the people he hated because of their sin.

One of the things that struck me most in this message was what he said about God’s wrath in its passive form and what that looks like in a person’s life. This is tricky territory and I am always hesitant to proclaim something as God’s wrath seeing that i'm not a prophet (unlike some people who are self-proclaimed prophets like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell who love to proclaim God’s wrath and get some kind of demented joy out of it). But he talked about Romans 1:18, 24, and 26 about God’s wrath being that “He gave them over to their sin”. Driscoll said, “When God lets you do whatever the hell you want, you’re in serious trouble because God has given up on you. He is not trying to save you, He is not trying to fix you, He has let you go so you can sin and then He can pour out His wrath”.

Some people will say, “My life is great, my sex life is amazing, I’m rich, I’ve got everything I need, I must be blessed, God must be okay with what I’m doing”. But if God leaves you alone to do whatever you want without hindrance-that is the wrath of God. Scripture says that God disciplines those He loves. And it’s so ironic that prosperity preachers teach that if people have faith they will get everything they want and will be blessed in every way and life will be perfect and happy and on and on. That goes so much against what Jesus said, or what Paul said, or the experiences of those who were with Jesus. If that happens, you may want to reevaluate things. Not that life isn’t ever good, or that you can’t go through spells of prosperity in the material sense. That doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong. But if you are doing something habitually that you know God doesn’t approve of and life is still perfect, you might want to evaluate what you’re doing.

For example Mark said that if you are out “whoring around” (he's not one to be sensitive, sometimes to a fault) but everything in your life is still perfect, it is not that God is blessing or condoning what you are doing but has given you over to your sin and given up on you and now you await God’s wrath. That is pretty frightening when you think about it. I think a lot of people view a good life as evidence of God's blessing when it might just be that God is letting you go. I can think of times in my own life where I actively choosing my own way over Gods where things in my life were great. I was succeeding in my career, I was financially stable, and life was awesome. And I realize now that God had given me over to my sin and pretty much said, “You have chosen sin over me and now you can have it”. Thankfully there is such a thing as repentance and forgiveness or I would be screwed.

My longest post ever....

It amazes me the twists and turns Christianity and more specifically Christology has taken over the centuries.

It seems every generation wants to make Jesus’ words a little more about themselves and forget the historical context in which it was spoken and written. When you read Matthew 25 or Mark 13 or for that matter, the whole book of Revelation what do you think? You automatically think that these texts are about us, about our day or the future (no help from the awful theology of the Left Behind series) even though in the historical context Jesus was talking about the destruction of the Temple and the downfall of Jerusalem. We talk about who the beast will be, who the dragon is, who the “Anti-Christ” is (an idea never mentioned in Scripture by the way). And the problem is, we already know who all of those people were because they were people that were leading Rome and persecuting Christians. The early Christians were suffering at the hands of Rome and certainly couldn’t write a book that said, “Caesar is a false Lord, he is going to face destruction.” They would certainly of died for that, but they can say, “the beast will face God’s justice.”

We’ve made Jesus’ whole apocalyptic speeches about some future day when Jesus would “come down from the sky” and take us to a far away heaven even though it says in Scripture that we will be resurrected and live on a redeemed, new earth. And we talk of how people are going to go to a fiery hell for eternity if they did not believe the right things even though Jesus said that if you don’t follow the way of the Kingdom which is grace, peace, forgiveness, etc. then you will have to reap the consequences for your actions. In that day it would have been the Jewish people waiting for the Messiah to come and lead them in a battle over Rome where they would be free from the Roman rule and could reestablish Jerusalem. Jesus said that you can fight by the sword but there are going to be consequences which there were in the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem as they knew it. This is what N.T. Wright would call faith divorced from history.

How did we go from Jesus’ message to the Jewish community about living in the Kingdom of God to a message directly addressed to us about our individual, personal salvation in where we get to escape hell and go to heaven to live on clouds and play with harps? How did that happen to the message of Jesus as he said that the Kingdom of God is here, now and if you are not living in the Kingdom of God then you will face the natural consequences of not living with forgiveness, grace, etc.? It seems that over the last few centuries Christians have really taken some liberties with the message of Jesus. For what purpose? For power? Because of fear? For crowd control?

In the tradition I grew up in the whole point of Christianity was that you accept Jesus Christ in your heart as your personal Lord and Savior so you can have eternal life in heaven and avoid hell. And now that you are saved, it is time to go get others saved so they can avoid hell. And then for the rest of your life as you wait it out, you try to be as good as you can, attend as much church as possible, be involved in Bible studies, have a bumper sticker that lets others know your boss is a Jewish carpenter. Now that is not worst thing in the world, but it’s not even close to the whole message of Jesus. Jesus Christ obviously died so that we could have forgiveness of sins but individualism certainly has taken its toll on this message. Sunday after Sunday, youth group after youth group goes by where people are guilted into accepting Jesus out of fear of eternal hell. Is that really a good reason to take up Jesus’ challenge to follow him?

I think it’s time to start preaching the whole message of Jesus. Inviting people and welcoming people into the Kingdom of God, not through manipulation, or pulpit pounding, or guilt but through love, forgiveness, and the excitement of being part of something one earth that is greater than yourself. As N.T. Wright said well, “The Kingdom of God is not a place where God rules but the fact that God rules.

Shoot, I will just let N.T. Wright sum this up:

“Many have traditionally read Jesus’ saying about judgment either in terms of the postmortem condemnation of unbelievers or of the eventual destruction of the space-time world. The first-century context of the language in question, however, indicates otherwise. Jesus was warning his contemporaries that if they did not follow his way, the way of peace and forgiveness, the way of the cross, the way of being the light of the world, and if they persisted in their determination to fight a desperate holy war against Rome, then Rome would destroy them, city, temple, and all, and that this would be, not an unhappy accident showing that YHWH had simply forgotten to defend them, but the sign and the means of YHWH’s judgment against his rebellious people.

Jesus was a first-century Jewish prophet announcing the kingdom of God, believing that this kingdom was inaugurated with his own work, summoning others to join him in his kingdom movement, and warning of dire consequences for the nation, for Jerusalem, and for the temple, if his summons was ignored.”

Ok, N.T. Wright just said all of what I was trying to say in two paragraphs. I’m thankful for his scholarship.

I write all of this on the verge of going to C.I.Y. in Milligan (anyone else?). I am thankful for C.I.Y and what they have meant to many students over the years but I am also hesitant because I know what is coming. I am assured to hear some emotion driven and guilt filled messages about how all of the students need to accept Jesus into their hearts and then go back to their schools, get other people to accept Jesus into their hearts and then wait it out until they can die and go to heaven. That upsets me. I hope that it will be different this year, that someone will preach the kingdom of God and the exciting news that God lives and God rules and that we can be a part of that dream.

More Injustice at the Political Level.

Congress Gets Another Raise, Minimum Wage Stays the Same.

Check out this story, this will make you happy.

Once again, this just leaves you feeling more and more helpless to do anything. Another reminder that there is no such a thing as democracy at a real level. We can choose which crook "represents" us but when they're all corrupted by money, what does that matter?

That may seem pessimistic but why shouldn't I be?

Thank God It's Over!

Finally, after two straight months (ridiculous) the NBA Playoffs have come to a close! I can go on with my life. There were some great games this year and I enjoyed watching the playoffs up until this series. The referees were just SO bad it makes it hard to take the results of the games seriously. You already know this, but take for example Game 5. Dwayne Wade commits an over-the-back, shoves off of an offensive player and then gets a call from a referee from half-court with a foul that didn't take place to decide the game with 1.9 seconds left. That makes sense. Isn't their a common sense rule that referees put away their whistle at the end of the game? That's the way I've always seen it. You don't end the game on a whistle, that's just wrong.

Tonight Dallas played poorly, no question about it. But what about that last foul that was called on Nowitzki when Dwayne Wade drove down and threw a forearm at Dirk's chest almost knocking him over? That was another classic call. These referees are just horrible. I honestly don't understand it. And these are supposed to be the best!

I'm honestly believe the refs are paid to keep the games close, always try to draw the series out (because that makes the most money for everyone!), and usually has the home team winning. They have decided so many games this playoff series, it's ridiculous. I'm not sure I really want to watch the NBA playoffs after this year even though the games were entertaining, it just doesn't seem fair. After several games this year I honestly thought I was watching professional wrestling.

Anytime a player shoots as many free throws as the other team you know it's not being officiated fairly. The NBA seriously needs to reevaluate their referees and make some changes in the off-season. I think the NBA will continue to lose fans if this continues.

Thank God for college basketball. More exciting atmosphere, better games, more passion, and players not yet corrupted by money. It's hard to beat!

Sangria

Kelli and I both love good Sangria. It's such a refreshing drink. Our favorite Sangria place was on the corner of 11th and 1st ave right next to my old apartment in NYC and it was called Xunta. No idea what that means but had amazing Sangria. So right away our standards are pretty high. We don't expect a lot, just some sweet wine with a bunch of fruit in it. That's all.

A few Sundays ago, we went out to eat at a spanish restaurant to be unnamed because we had a few gift certificates there and Kelli ordered a Sangria. When they brought it to the table I thought the fruit looked strangely familiar and it was a few moments later that it struck us. It was Fruit Cocktail, straight out of the can! That's right, Dole Fruit Cocktail from a can!!!! In the Sangria! Can you believe that??? They didn't even have time to cut up a few pieces of fresh fruit? They open a can and dump it in! I still can't get over that one. I know this is random but definitely blogworthy.

The Secret Message of Jesus

From the first time I read a Brian McLaren book (A New Kind of Christian) I knew that he understood something that I did not at the time: the Kingdom of God on earth. I had been baptized into the idea that the whole purpose of Jesus coming to Earth and dying on the cross was to save me and several others from an eternity in hell and that one day after this torturous life was over I would get to go home with God in a fluffy heaven period.

As I grew up however I started to get a little tired of just waiting around to die and innevitably started asking the question, "well, what do I do in the meantime?" Unfortunately, I think I missed the fact that the "meantime" was what Jesus was talking about when he said that the kingdom of God is among us, right here and right now.

McLaren's works in the vein and with recognition of Dallas Willard (who I can still only read one page at a time) have helped me to understand that idea much clearer in theory and in practice and The Secret Message of Jesus is no different.

Many of the ideas in this book have been ideas present in his previous works but communicated in a new light and with different language. That is not a negative thing-in fact even though I didn't gleam a lot of new insights on the Kingdom of God (not because i'm very smart, but becuase I have read about this before) I have been inspired to live in the way of Jesus more wholistically and that has made this book worth it. I have been given a challenge and an inspiration for what the Kingdom of God could look like on earth and how it can be communicated in the same inspiring way that Jesus communicated it to his followers.

For instance as (a) the dream of God; (b) the revolution of God; (c) the party of God; (d) the network of God. I love to think about the Kingdom in these terms and it has gotten me excited for future church planting opportunities. There are many valuable ideas that will inspire you and your vision of the "meantime" . I would highly recommend reading this.

One of my favorite ideas that McLaren covered was why Jesus was so cloudy in communicating with people. Why wasn't he more clear if this was such an important message for the salvation of souls??? I have always wondered that myself. Here is how McLaren poses it:

“What could possibly be the benefit of Jesus’ hiddenness, intrigue, lack of clarity, metaphor, and answering questions with questions? Why risk being misunderstood-or not understood at all? If the message is so important, why hide it in evocative rather than technical language?”

The fact that Jesus communicates this way really makes me question my own style of communication. Jesus never gives a five step plan to living a stress-free life but he manages to talk about anxiety in a way that captures the mind and heart through stories and parables. I could give more examples but I don't really need to, you get the point.

By the way, thanks to my pal Drew Moser for sending me a free copy! I've been wanting to read it forever but of course it's impossible to get at the library and i have no money for books anymore.

Forgiveness Vs. Justice 2

Here is some thought from Brian Mclaren's book "The Secret Message of Jesus" on the subject of justice/forgiveness that we talked about a few days ago. Thought this was helpful. It's easy to always look at the U.S. as the good guy, but as McLaren says below, the same evil is at work within this country as it is in Iraq.

Martin Luther King Jr.
“Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate.
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.”

“Every warring nation emphasizes the evil of its enemy; few resist the temptation to minimize their own evil. Fewer still realize that the same evils are at work in both “them” and “us,” and therefore pose a common universal enemy-and it is this universal enemy that the kingdom of God fights with its weapons “not of this world.” Pg. 156

Friend or Foe?

Who do you trust in an all out fantasy baseball battle? What happens when the commissioner goes corrupt and has been known to accept bribes to approve trades and better his own team at the same time? What happens when there is a commish with ultimate power and no accountability who doesn't even comply to the standard two day waiting period on trades?

After an epic 24 hour battle on the Yahoo fantasy baseball message boards, sheer chaos has been unleashed on the Big League Chew division of Yahoo.
This all started with this trade between the commish and Chuck Norris' team.


6/16 T. Jones (Det - P)
Trade "my pitchers suck"

for

6/16 A. BurnettDL (Tor - P)
Trade Feel the Roundhouse my pitchers suck



Team "COUP D'ETAT" (whatever the hell that means, what is this a French league?) started the protest with the message: "I'm alerting the league to a potential trade going through. Todd Jones, possibly the worst reliever in the game today, and certainly the worst CL, for AJ Burnett. I don't care if Burnett is on the DL or not, Jones isn't worth Seth McClung. I've sent my protest to the "commissioner" but wanted to make this public. What a joke. Please join me and prevent this, what can only be described as a con. I’m not sure what Voll said or did to convince this man that Todd Jones has any value what so ever, but it must be prevented. Vote No on TJ for AJ!"

Team "Thatsahelavaidea Temp (not to be confused with Thatsahelavateam)" chimed in with his wisdom "Beware of trading for pitchers with a team named "my pitchers suck". Good call.

Team "No Name Yet" who really just needs to get a friggin name already since it's almost the all-star break concurred with "Coup D'whatever" saying, "i agree on the NO vote for the trade. it's a bunch of malarchy."

"I've never seen Fantasy Baseball tear apart a friendship like this. It's a shame" says part-time fantasy baseball player known as "Feel the Roundhouse" He adds, "But who cares, I'm going to finish in last anyway, I didn't even know that pitchers had an inning limit!"

What will happen when all of this is over? It's hard to say but one thing is for sure. A picture like this will never again be snapped.


Tyler and John's Friendship
RIP 1999-2006

Today's Questions

• Why does nearly every female on Myspace have to have at least one pseudo-seductive picture in their profile?

• Why do people feel a need to let others know when they put new pics of themselves up?

• Why does everyone fall for the "You can track who views your profile" routine every single stinking time?

• How neurotic do you have to be to want to continually know who's been looking at your profile?

• Have you ever read one person's bulletin where they post answers to a 600 question survey?

• Who are these people filling out 6 surveys a day and posting them thinking other people care?

• Has there ever been a time where people have been more self-involved than right now?

• Are 60% of the people on myspace child predators?

• Why am I still on Myspace?

• Am I too cynical?

Here's a positive

Obviously it's easy to talk about the failures and mistakes of President Bush as there have been many in the previous years but here is something positive. You rarely hear positive news but at least it's something. This is a good move for our environment. I'm excited to hear a Republican take an interest in the environment that we've been given the mandate to take care of by our Creator. Normally the Democrats are a little more likely to understand that mandate.

(Before anyone attacks me, I make that comment as neither a Republican or a Democrat. I would also make a statement like, "Great news to hear a Democratic care about the family) But of course both are kind of silly, generalistic, most likely untrue statements. Why am I critiquing myself here before anyone else has had a chance to?

I don't know.

Check out the story HERE.

Thanks to my lovely wife Kelli for sharing the story with me!

Forgiveness Vs. Justice

We talked about this idea briefly last night in our Bible study and it's a tension that really bothers me. I can't figure it out. As followers of Christ we are called to forgive people who have wronged us even if they don't deserve it yet some whole-heartidly believe in the death penalty citing "an eye for an eye" and determining that they deserve death because they killed. Some os us cheer and celebrate because a man in Iraq that is associated with a terrorist organization is killed. A position that has already been refilled and will always be refilled. I'm not sure there is much to celebrate politically, but even less so as a follower of Jesus. But at the same time it is good to know that there is one less person on earth that will ruthlessly kill innocent people. Where's the balance?

Do we as humans have a role to play in justice? Is justice solely God's domain? Or has he called us to be a part of instilling justice on the earth and on other humans? And if so, how does that correlate with what Jesus says about forgiving our enemies?

Any ideas?

I guess I need a good definition of justice. Many churches are talking about justice as a core value of their church. I think in their definition it about serving the poor and oppressed and taking measures to ensure that people are not trampled by the system which is a key aspect and is something that I want to be a part of but what about the other aspect of justice such as "bringing people who are guilty to justice" or punishment or self-protection? Obviously we can't just forgive everyone who murders someone and let them go, but is killing them really justice? I don't really know, it's confusing. It seems almost like this aspect of justice (being punishment for actions) and Jesus' call to forgiveness are adamantly opposed.

June is Jesus Month!

It's funny because I didn't plan this but I just realized everything I've been reading is about Jesus this month. Probably never a bad thing to have a refresher and rethink the very point of you entire existence. I get so caught up in the "Christian" religion sometimes that I forget that a religion is not why Jesus came. In pursuing this religion I am missing the point. So in that respect these books have helped to refocus my life on what is important: that being the person of Jesus and being obedient to the life and movement that he has called us to as a community.

The Secret Message of Jesus - Brian Mclaren
-just got this mailed to me yesterday from my generous friend Drew Moser. Thanks man! He has like 15 websites or something right now so I'll just direct you to this one so you can link to the others when you have time. Read a few chapters of Secret Message, very insightful as you would expect from Mclaren. Much simpler than his other books which is a plus for simple minds like myself! He really clarifies in a simple way what he is talking about. Only a great communicator can get such strong points across in such little space. I appreciate that. Reminds me of Buechnerr. More later after I finish the book. Also I would love to hear other thoughts on the book so post away.

The Challenge of Jesus - N.T. Wright
-haven't started yet but how can you go wrong with N.T.?

The Meaning of Jesus; Two Visions - N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg
-how do these guys remain friends??? I've read some Marcus Borg stuff in the past and have enjoyed it although I don't agree with much of his ideologies about who Jesus was and is. I do however appreciate his passion and his scholarship. N.T. Wright is a little closer to the conclusions I have come to, but much more in depth. I love to hear them talking things out. Gives you a great vision of each side and I'm glad they did this book together. If only more people from Orthodox Christian faith could dialogue with Jesus Seminarians (made that word up) and people of completely other faiths.

Jesus of Suburbia - Mike Erre
-phenomonal book which I talked about briefly in a previous post. Check it out!

And of course I'm reading through The Brother's Karamazov which I have really enjoyed. The length of the book is overwhelming but when you are enjoying something you don't want it to end anyway. Pride seems to be the big theme woven throughout the book. Really shows the destructive nature of pride. I don't know much about Russian history but I've heard that is a reoccuring theme in their history as well. Great book!

Also just realized that I probably need to start looking over some Greek stuff soon. I've got to test out of Greek at Western so I don't have to take it all over again. 80% will give me the credits which is awesome. The problem is, I don't really remember any Greek. I'm hoping it will come back to me as I start to see the materials. Three years of Greek and I can't remember jack. That's not good.

We're Moving to Portland, OR

I made the announcement this morning at church that we would be moving to Portland in a few months. We've had a great year in Tampa working with Journey and Impact and wouldn't have traded it for the world but we've known all along that this was a temporary stop along the way to something else. As most of you know we made a trip to the Northwest in March for vacation but really with the motive to see if that was the place that we wanted to be in the long term. Out of all the places we went Portland really stuck out to us as a phenomenal city with great potential and need for new churches and a place that we would love to live.

We're going to be leaving Tampa July 26th for Illinois where we will spend most of the month of August. Brad Prunty is getting married near Chicago, we're going to see our families and then fly out to do a wedding in Seattle and find a place to live in Portland and then once we're back in Illinois we'll start our drive out west. We've got all kinds of stops along the way. It will be a long but adventurous trip. We'll be...

-visiting Jerry, a friend of Kelli's in Leavenworth, KS.
-visiting with Mark Silvers, a friend in Cache, OK to talk about church planting.
-visiting with Doug, a new blog friend and his fiance in Fort Collins, CO.
-visiting all of the Mormons in Salt Lake City
-visiting Boise, ID for no apparent reason. Anyone know what's in Boise???
-Finally arriving in Portland on August 27th.

Why am I telling you all this? I have no idea. But I know there are some friends who still do not know this information and while we wish we could tell you all in person, it's a little difficult to arrange so I apologize for letting you know over the blog world.

So what are we doing in Portland?
-Kelli got the job as the business manager at the Salvation Army which is SWEET!
-I am going to Western Seminary
-we're going to be hanging out with The Evergreen Community to learn an organic way of planting a church and God willing will be planting a church in the coming years in Portland.

Needless to say, there are a lot of opportunities for us in Portland and this is the time in our lives to take off and start over so we jumped on the opportunity.

I can't say how faithful God has been in this whole thing. When Kelli was laid off from her job a few months ago we didn't even know how we would pay our bills not to mention the thousands of dollars it costs to move but God has provided every dime in very strange ways!

For all of those in Tampa, let me just say that I've had a blast in the last year with Impact and at Journey and with all the people I've met since I've been down here. Wouldn't have traded it for anything so thank you! We will miss you much.

a few new reviews....

on the beer blog. check it out.

David Dark

I have been wanting to read this for a while now. It's been on my Amazon wishlist forever but we haven't been able to afford anything as of late so I haven't read it until I recently discovered a genious little thing called the library! I think i'm going to start using it more. I don't have room for any more books. I'm tired of carrying them around. So in any case, I have only read the introduction of this book so far and I'm challenged in my thinking in a very real way. I normally don't recommend books after only reading the intro but this is VERY good and very timely. There are about 10 quotes from the intro that I could give you but this one was the most challenging to me personally so I thought I would share it. I love this dude. He's a high school English teacher, he's brilliant and he has a super-cool name.

“In my household, we were taught to pray especially for anyone with whom we found ourselves in passionate disagreement (notably for people in power) and to make every effort to be at peace in our relationships. But being at peace has never meant that there were some things we could never talk about or that disagreement had to end a conversation. You wouldn’t know it if you only listened to the shouting matches between pundits on television and radio, but it is still possible to like someone while noting something problematic in their choice of words. You can affirm many good qualities in another person, wish them well and pray for them, and still hope that they’ll never be (or will stop being) the president of these United States. We can disagree with someone’s speech and practice without being anti-them.”

Rogue Wave/The Stills

Last night a bunch of us including Rick, Jon, Natasha, Kelli and I went to see Rogue Wave and The Stills perform at The Orpheum. First of all, let me say that The Orpheum is tiny which is GREAT to see a show but on the other hand, it was about 600 degrees inside. I was swiping sweat off my face all night long, it was disgusting. The venues in NYC were small but I NEVER lost 30 pounds sweating. Unless it was someone awesome like Rogue Wave again I wouldn’t see a show there again. I would REALLY have to want to see someone to sweat that out again.

Rogue Wave – Awesome! I thought their set was great and their sound was incredible as well. I liked their first album Out of the Shadow but I loved last years release Descended Like Vultures. They played a mix off of both. “Publish My Love”, “California”, “Every Moment”, and “Love’s Lost Guarantee” were the highlights for me. I enjoyed Rogue Wave much more than The Stills last night which I will tell you about now. They were the redeeming factor of the evening.

The Stills – I saw them in New York at Bowery Ballroom after Logic Will Break Your Heart came out. Great album, decent performance although a little boring but I enjoyed it for the music and wouldn’t have changed a thing, definitely not the front man. But things have changed dramatically in the last few years as they have been recording Without Feathers including their musical style. I was caught a little off guard at this since I hadn’t really heard much of Without Feathers yet. But suddenly the post-punk Stills turned into Fountains of Wayne with their poppy O.C. sound and new electronic styling. When they played the old stuff I was happy, when they performed their new stuff I was annoyed and disappointed with the direction they are taking.

The major change that took place was Dave Hamelin being pulled out from behind the drums and made the front man! At first he was okay, but as the night wore on he got a little more annoying until finally at the end of the night I just didn’t like the guy and I don’t like his voice. What happened to the droning Tim Fletcher? When Tim Fletcher was singing it was awesome. He is clearly the quiet, mysterious rocker that put The Stills on the map. Tim Fletcher IS The Stills! But now they pulled this tool out from behind the kit and expect people to like him??? That’s not what brought people last night which was clear by the way the room cleared out half way through the show. Rick said it well last night when he said, “this band will be broken up by the end of the year.” Unfortunately The Stills that I loved have already broken up. The Stills were right when they sang “Changes Are No Good.” There’s only one solution to this problem if I am ever going to really like The Still again and it is this:

Doesn't this guy just look like a tool?














The Almost Bar Fight – After the show some of us went over to New World Brewery and were sitting down talking when out of nowhere someone throws a pint glass in my direction and a part of it hit me and Kelli’s foot as it shattered around us. I was in shock for a few seconds wondering what happened. I looked around trying to see who threw it and it didn’t take too long to figure out who threw it at me. It was the guy who could barely sit down without falling off of his chair. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone so drunk. One of the staff at New World and Jon’s friend Jeff came over to make sure nothing was going to happen and to clean up the mess. I was staring this guy down and asked, “Did you just throw that glass at me?” in the most threatening way I could. (Normally I’m not one to raise trouble but he did throw something in our direction plus I knew Jon had my back). Jeff tried to calm me down a little bit and this guy got up and staggered around apologizing in his drunk way about 20 times. It really only made me more angry, him doing this because it was kind of in a mocking way. If the bottle would have hit Kelli I would have pulverized this guy without thinking about it, but seeing that we had just gotten out of a Bible study before the concert about grace, I didn’t think it would be the best thing to do considering it only hit my foot.

“I think it’s time to leave” says Kelli. Jon instantly replied, “I think it’s time to start something.” Jon has been wanting to get in a bar fight his entire life so I think he looks for these opportunities. Heck, what I am talking about-I look for these opportunities. I think I’ve seen too many Chuck Norris movies. But this kind of fight wouldn’t really be satisfying anyway. As Jon said, he was so drunk you would almost feel bad after you beat him up. Maybe next time Jon, maybe next time. That is if Kelli lets me hang out with you anymore. It was definitely a blessing Kelli was there holding my arm or who knows what would have happened with Jon's encouragement!

Meow

Lioness in zoo kills man who invoked God

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an "animal island" protected by thick concrete blocks.

You hate to laugh about something like this but geez! Reminds me of something that God once said about not testing Him or something. The Message version is, "Do not test the Lord your God or you will be eaten by a lion."

Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre

I just finished reading Jesus of Suburbia by Rock Harbor pastor Mike Erre so I could right the cover copy for TN. I wish I could give you some quotes from the book but I think that is probably highly against the rules since it doesn't come out until October. But I wanted to tell you about this book because it is PHENOMENAL! The book isn't so much a critique on suburban culture as it is about the false Jesus that American Christianity has created and worships every Sunday in thousands of churches as compared to the Jesus of Nazareth we find in the gospels. Very insightful. If you are a pastor, this is a MUST read. Click here to check it out and put it on your wishlist. Or you can just send me 5 dollars and I will send you the manuscript. Just kidding Mike or Thomas Nelson or anyone else who is looking for a reason to fire me! I would NEVER do that. But seriously, maybe for like 30 or something. On a serious note I'm not paid or solicited in any way to pump up this book, I'm telling you because I think it is an excellent read and very helpful as I think through ministry in our culture.

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

I've been wondering as of late why so many activities in the church are about learning something or studying or being taught. That seems very unlike anything Jesus told us to do as the church. Why is such a high percentage of what many churches do include sitting in a classroom taking classes on "discipleship" instead of doing what Jesus told us and actually being a disciple? That is hard for me to say because I love to learn and I love reading but it seems a little bit skewed.

Why do you think American Christianity is so caught up in learning as the basis for discipleship? Do you think studying theology is the most important aspect of discipleship? Does knowing our Bibles better or reading our Bibles more make us better disciples? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Strange Appetite

On Fear Factor you've all seen people eat disgusting things of which I could never bear to put in my mouth. Just couldn't do it. Why do people do it? Because at the end of each show there's a fat check for 50,000 dollars with the winners name on it. That I can understand in some ways. 50g's could really help you out. But what happens when someone you knows eats something disgusting just because they feel like it?

I say all of this because I remember a specific time when myself and a few guys from LCC were camping. I really don't remember where or the circumstances or very much about that night. What I do remember is that as we we sitting around the campfire one of us which I will leave unnamed until he chooses to reveal himself caught a frog. Next, he killed the frog and finally stuck him on a stick and began to cook him. I thought he was just being a little demented but little did I know that he was hungry. After the frog was medium-well this individual took out his knife and cut off the frogs' legs and started chewing on them and sucking the meat off of them. Was there 50,000 dollars involved? Absolutely not. Were we in the middle of nowhere for days with no food on the verge of starving? Nope. We had only been there for a few hours and had plenty of food. Why would this human choose to cook a frog and eat it's legs? I will leave that up to you to decide.

May Book Reviews

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

The one word that comes to mind to describe this book is dark. A very dark view of God, and a dark view of humanity. A synonym to this could be: Catholic. Most of these concepts of man and God come from Catholicism. This novel is in the line of Edith Wharton which should at least tell you this book describes a man with a tragic flaw: Pity.

“The word ‘pity’ is used as loosely as the word ‘love’: the terrible promiscuous passion which so few experience.”

Let me give you a few more quotes.

“People talk about the courage of condemned men walking to the place of execution: sometimes it needs as much courage to walk with any kind of bearing towards another person’s habitual misery.”

“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of good will carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation”

“any yet he could believe in no God who was not human enough to love what he had created.”

“What an absurd thing it was to expect happiness in a world so full of misery. Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, evil- or else an absolute ignorance.”

I really enjoyed this book and it’s discussion of the nature of God and man and look forward to reading “The Power and the Glory”. I’m sure it is probably just as dark but yet very revealing into many Catholics view of God. This may sound stereotypical but it’s a stereotype for a reason. Check this one out!














Gall by Pete Gall

I already talked about this in a previous post. If you would like to hear more about this book click here. But I really enjoyed Pete’s thoughts and I have enjoyed getting to know Pete a little more through our email conversations. Thanks also Pete for the critique of my sample chapter for my book! I appreciate the help. Check out his blog here.














Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I would have to say that this was the read I enjoyed most this month. I flew through it and it fascinated me the entire time. The story (which is non-fiction) focuses on the Lafferty murders in Utah. They were men who caught a revelation from God that they were supposed to kill their brother’s wife and child and carried it out calling it the “removal revelation”. It is a scary and intriguing book about religious fanatics gone completely bonkers. The book isn’t as much Mormon bashing as it is fundamentalist Mormon bashing which is a completely different ballgame. The FLDS has had quite the scandalous history. I think some people read this book and think that all Mormon’s are crazy. I am certainly not one of those people. I don’t think that all Mormon’s are wacko’s just like I don’t think all Christians are sane. I think more than anything this was a realization that you can’t just go around saying “God told me to do this”. That statement gets very dangerous especially when you place unrestrained authority on the ones making those statements. History has certainly proven that. Anyway, if you love Mormon history or early American history you will enjoy this. Thanks Doug for recommending this book to me. I think this summer in August Kelli are I are going to be going through Utah on our way to the Northwest but more to come on that. I can't wait to visit Provo! Doug have you been around those parts??? Where should we go?














The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Finally broke down and read it! I wanted to read the book to see mostly what all the fuss was about. As a book it was entertaining and Kelli and I both flew through it in a few days. Very choppy, fast moving book. It’s not the greatest piece of literature in our history but it was a fun read and a good change of pace from the classics. It’s nice to read some current fiction once in a while.

After reading through the book and some of its critics it has become clear that the time Brown was studying history he must have been on crack or some other hallucinogen because history clearly contradicts about 80% of the book. For instance, Constantine’s deathbed conversion (he spend his final years going nuts building churches, why would he do that if he wasn’t a believer?) The Priory of Sion beginning in 1099 and Da Vinci being a part of it (unfortunately in 1956 it was started by a man who under oath testified that he started it and wrote all of the documents claiming Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus.). Oops! And then there's the other gospels which Brown claims number about 80. Unfortunately there are not even half of that number. Also Brown says that the Council of Nicea decided which books to put in the Bible (once again, that council had nothing to do with the books that were in the Bible). Also he claimed that they picked the books that would show Jesus’ divinity and left out the ones that showed his humanity. Unfortunately the “other gospels” show just the opposite. The gospels we have are the most human based side of Jesus that can be portrayed. If you read the Gospel of Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene you get quite a different picture of Jesus. A side of Jesus that is more than divine and supernatural, in fact quite crazy! My favorite is when a little boy touches Jesus so he strikes the boy down dead and tells the crowd to never touch him. I love that story. That certainly sounds reasonable compared to the rest of history.

So in any case, the book was less than a threat theologically and more just ignorant of history. I’m certainly not offended as a theologian, I would be pissed if I were a historian though! If you are interested you should read some history by people who are theologically neutral and you will understand how misguided Brown has been in his studies. Fun read though, didn’t mean to go nuts there. I have nothing against Brown and am not picketing anything, he's just a little unstudied in the history department.














The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen

I started this quite a while ago and finally finished it off. I have always been fascinated by the idea of the monastery and the sacred life. I love reading about their lives and work. If I weren’t already married, I might join a monastery myself. Nouwen was also quite influenced by Merton and Kierkegaard so I love seeing how those ideas play out in his life.














Telling the Truth; The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner

Buechner being Buechner. Fabulous. No need to say anything else.


I read a few other books this month that aren’t worth mentioning. One was for the publisher I work for. It was quite a beauty! It’s funny because after reading the book I still had no idea what the title meant. Is that bad? Actually the theology was a little shaky to say the least. My favorite was, “you should stop trying to attract more people to your church and try to start attracting more of God.” What in the world does that mean? Does that mean God is only in certain places at certain times and if we are holy enough maybe God will join us on a Sunday morning? Wow. Go ahead spell it out with me: H-E-R-E-T-I-C-A-L. Now say it aloud!

I had quite a bit of time to read this month which was nice. I’m trying to read as much as I can before I start Seminary in the fall! My reading list will change substantially or most likely cease to exist! Darn.

The next month I will be reading The Brothers Karamazov, by far the longest book I have ever read. Weighing in at around 900 large pages with small print. I’m scared but this is probably one of the most talked about books in history and from what I understand is the full gospel shared in human form! I always just keep going back to, "If Oprah can read it, so can I!" I have no idea what it means but in my mind it helps me. I just reread that statement and I'm almost sure that someone is going to accuse me of being a racist but I can promise I don't say that because she is black, i say it because she's a woman. Ok, just joking again, calm down! A threat on my life is imminent.

Fire Dusty Baker

Cubs are horrible and I'm having a hard time finding someone to blame. Everyone is playing pretty poorly. I think the thing that bothers me about Dusty Baker however is that as many games as they lose and however bad they play he just doesn't seem to give a crap. He always seems bored and completely unconcerned with anything that is going on during his postgame interviews. Not to mention his history of ruining young pitchers. I also hate to say this but I think it might be time to get rid of Kerry Wood. He's taking up 12 million dollars and is injured every year. He's the Chad Pennington of baseball. Maybe we can get a few offensive players seeing that we have none as long as Derek Lee is injured. They suck bad. Very, very bad. Yesterday's loss to the Braves was pathetic.

Does it get any cooler than this?

Da Vinci Hedge Frappucino Needle Cash

I never really talked about what I thought of the Da Vinci Code. I guess in summary I can say that the book was much better and much more entertaining. I just don't think this was a good "turn into a movie" book. Tom Hanks performance was flat and didn't fit the part. The movie was slow moving and boring most of the time. A real disappointment from my end.

Things didn't start out well as the trailer for World Trade Center began. I don't care who disagrees with me on this so save your fingers from typing, this movie is TOTALLY unecessary and ridiculous. I'm angered by seeing this garbage and I can only imagine how angry my friends in Lower Manhattan are who had 3,000 people burn up in their backyard as one of my friends said. It absolutely disgusts me to see this exploitation of a tragedy. Flight 90 whatever it was is one thing, but this is crossing the line. So right away I was in a bad mood and wanted to punch Oliver's face in.

The best part of the night came later when Kelli and I did something that we haven't done for years. We snuck into a second movie! What a rush!

This movie was very very very good as compared to the Da Vinci Suck.




















Over the Hedge was awesome! It was smart, it was funny, and the characters were great. Steve Carell's character was hilarious. This movie was a very funny commentary on suburban life. I highly recommend seeing it.












In other summer news, I found a drink I think I like better than a Frappucino as hard as it is to say that. The Frap and I have had an amazing relationship over the last four years and I am thankful for all the work I was able to get done by drinking one of these little guys. But I had a coffee drink today that was incredible! It was from The Coffee Beaneryand it is called a Caramel Crunch. Ok, so it is a copy of the Frappucino but it tasted wonderful, plus the girl made it very well. One of the problems with the frappucino is that sometimes they put too much ice in it before they blend and then you spend the whole time crunching on ice instead of drinking it like a liquid. If there is a Coffee Beanery around you I highly recommend picking up one of these jewels!




















In more news, Kelli and I will be going to Seattle once again in August because I am doing a wedding for a friend of one of Kelli's relatives, all expenses paid. The rehearsal dinner is in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle! Plus he works for Samuel Adams and he said there will be and endless supply of Sam Adams Summer Ale there! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below. Kind of got carried away there.

In even more news, Kelli got a temp job that will start next Wednesday. She has to be there by 8 and it's a little further away but it's hard to complain when your main salary has been out of work for two weeks and you have no way to pay bills! Thank God for that too! It has been unbelievable how God is providing right now. We have sold some books on Amazon, my friend Kelsey has gotten me two new jobs for Thomas Nelson Publishers, my friend Jon got me that acting thing at Channel 8, a few people have sent money! Thank you by the way for doing that! Our friends are awesome! I wish we could all live in one city. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news.

GALL Day #3

”So what are we supposed to do with our lives, then?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s enough to live as though life were for real, not just a metaphor or a trial run in which we are only killing time before the headliner of Heaven comes on stage. Imagine all of the evangelicals deciding that life was worth actually embracing, not just cramming into Jell-O moulds so they’d come out shaped like every other Promise Keeper with a ten percent tithe and a minivan to pull into their vinyl-clad house every night, while most of the world shivers in the dark, muttering confused curses of betrayal about Americans and the God they sold to the whole village. Imagine if being a Christian were about life, and not about mastering the formula for Christian living. And why, by the way, is there a difference between living and Christian living?” Pg. 209

My Channel 8 Debut!

Da Vinci

Going to see the Code today at 2:35! I'm excited. The reviews were definitely not in it's favor but critics are obviously looking for something different than I am. I just want to see an exciting movie that puts into picture what I read in the book. I'm going in with low expectations as far as the critical elements of the movie (which I rarely care about anyway) and going in with high expectations for it to entertain the crap out of me for 2 1/2 hours. I'll let you know how it is.

I Want To Be Left Behind!

This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. Ever.

Thanks Junkyard!

GALL Day #2

“I think the real question Christians need to ask is whether they’re called to be salespeople or witnesses. A salesperson knows the features and benefits matrix, and can show you the chart where the “Heaven” column is checked in Christianity but not Judaism, or where “Eternal Individual Existence” shows up for Baptists but not Buddhists. A salesperson enters every interaction looking by definition, to sell something. They stand for something outside of themselves, some product they want other people to want. But the problem is that the salesperson selling Christianity can’t ever sell the faith on the chart alone. Like the car salesperson, Christian salespeople rely on the new car smell, or on how a new convert will look driving Jesus (complete with a little silver fish on his butt). The sale only comes when the salesperson can answer one question more than the consumer is willing to ask, or when the consumer gives in to a desire to buy for some reason beyond pure empiricism.

The other option is to be a witness. Witnesses don’t have to explain what they’ve experienced, at least not beyond the best of their understanding. They only have to be able to talk about what they have experienced. Where a salesperson represents something beyond the salesperson, a witness will speak of something beyond the witness, but represents only the witness. The Bible is full of talk about witnesses. Seminaries are full of salespeople in training.” Pg. 48-49

the business model........

A good new Out of Ur blog post....

"In the interview Andy Stanley says:

One of the criticisms I get is “Your church is so corporate…” And I say, “OK, you’re right. Now why is that a bad model?” A principle is a principle, and God created all the principles.

Honestly, are we really to believe that the mere existence of a principle is the same as God advocating our employment of it? The flawed logic here reminds me of Greg Fokker’s assertion that “you can milk just about anything with nipples,” and Robert De Niro’s rebuttal, “I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?”

Jesus said, “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.” That is a principle of leadership, and a very popular one. But Jesus then emphatically declares, “Not so with you!” Simply because a model exists or is popular does not make it accessible to the church. Jesus calls us to lead his church in a manner that reflects his own servant method and the counter-culture reality of his kingdom. In other words, Jesus believes that truly Christian leadership is revealed in both its function and its form. The two cannot be divorced."

Check out the rest of the article HERE.

I'm an Actor

...well sort of. Today I worked with Channel 8 News in Tampa most of the day acting for their piece about having energy for work. Basically I played this businessman with shots getting ready, leaving my fake house and waving good-bye to my fake wife and kid. Getting ticked off in traffic, running errands all over town and then finally going to work exhausted and falling asleep in a boardroom meeting and being woke up by the news anchor Irene. It was fun to do. Thanks to my friend Jon Irvine for hooking me up with it. It was funny because Colin, the camera dude said he also works for an organization that always needs actors to do reenactments of crimes and stuff and said that if he got anywork he would call me because alot of the other actors were terrible. I've always wanted to do one of those reenactments. Maybe i'll get to play a terrorist or something. I guess that's not funny anymore. Anyway, it was fun to see the news station and get a glimpse of how everything works. Hope to get to do it again, i need the money!

So anyway, if you live in Tampa, watch Channel 8 News all weekend and there will be teases of the story which will be on Monday night. Don't forget to watch! Should be funny to see how bad I did.

GALL Day #1

“We’re completely blind to the fact that the people to whom we do ministry are little more than blank slates upon which we seek to write our own legacies. It’s the way power has always hidden itself in the guise of love. What’s worse is that we’re trying to sell our own twisted take on God to these guys, too.” Pg. 211

This is one of the quotes that I was talking about when I said there were some things that struck me upside the head and made me think. I wonder how true this is of me and my "ministry". I wonder to what extent this was in the back of my mind as I've been serving God in the last four years. It's certainly something to think about.

Gall

About two weeks ago I received a package from Amazon which I was a little surprised at since I had not ordered anything of late due to absolutely no money. But I opened it up and it was this book, Gall; Five Years of Unfettered Christian Exploration Somewhere Between Youth Group and the Rest of Life. Apparently it was sent to me by the author Pete Gall who had seen it on my wishlist. That has never happened before so I was very pleased!

I read it over the past few weeks and can't tell you how much I appreciate Pete's honesty as he tells his story as he attempts "tremendous things for the Lord" as he says. This book is not for those who have nothing better to do in the church than police it for innappropriate language and such. I assure you that there is plenty of that! There are things in this book that I would never say aloud but have certainly thought more than once. I wish I were as honest and transparent as Pete is in this book. I wouldn't want him to say it any other way. There are parts of this book that are very powerful and has awakened me to the call of Jesus to be alive and active in this world and not hide behind classroom doors and think that is where discipleship takes place.

So as thanks to Pete for sending this book and because it was quality, for the next three days I am going to have a few thoughts from Gall that smacked me upside the head and made me see things I hadn't really seen before. You should check this out.

Poseidon

Last night my mother was in town and wanted to see Poseidon while she was here. Kelli and I didn't really know anything about the movie and didn't have very high expectations from what we had heard about it. It was a pleasant surprise however. If I had to describe the film in a word it would be intense. I enjoyed the non-stop action of the movie and never really got bored.

There were a few scenes that were very disturbing and will stay with you. They show that people will do ANYTHING to preserve their own lives regardless of the consequences for other people. Very very disturbing. But it also shows there are some people amongst us who are willing to give their lives up for other people. What is the difference between these kinds of people? Why is one human a selfless hero while another can be completely selfish and do whatever is possible to save themselves? Strange.

As a person who has always had a fear of drowning and has never really liked water all that much after failing beginners swim lessons twice this film pretty much secured the fact that I will NEVER take a cruise. The scenes where they were underwater for long periods of time made me want to vomit. I would have died in 15 seconds. If you are also not a fan of water this movie will freak you out. I'm glad I saw it however, despite the disturbing things in the movie it was entertaining nonetheless.

Personal Update

As many of you know Kelli got laid-off from her job last Friday. In many ways this was an answer to prayer, an odd one, but an answer nonetheless. She was not happy at her job as many of you know and this was an easy way out. Unfortunately Kelli is making the majority of the salary since I work part time for a church, part time for a campus ministry in which I raise a small (very small) bit of support, and write cover copies for Thomas Nelson Publishers which has been great about getting me work (Thanks Kelsey). So obviously I am not making the kind of money that will pay our bills and therefore in two weeks we will pretty much be out of money and unable to pay our bills. In fact I would be surprised if any of you made less than I do. I make about ¼ of what I did in New York and basically haven’t pursued anything else because it gave me time to work on this book that I’m about 28,000 words into.

It’s a strange place to be. I’ve never been in a situation where I could not pay my bills before. I’ve been in tight spots but it’s always worked out somehow. Looking ahead however I have never known what it is like to not have any means of income and know the due dates for the bills are getting a little closer everyday. My parents knew this place and I guess everyone knows this place at some point in their life. It’s where all the “when we were just married we ate peanut butter on spaghetti for six months” stories come from. Well here comes our story!

I joked with Kelli earlier that we were going to have to move to Illinois to live with her parents while I worked with her brother on the railroad and she worked at Subway. Not the way I foresaw our future going.

But nonetheless we have a dream for the future and we are not letting it go. We can see God working in the background to bring these things together and maybe this is His way of getting us to hurry up a bit and not continue to wait around for everything to be perfect before we take a step of faith.

It’s hard to say what is going on or what is going to happen in the next few weeks. Things will definitely be tight financially and we have no idea how we will pay our bills at the beginning of the month or even pay rent but I am confident that God will provide for us like He has provided for us our entire lives even in times when I did not realize it. I guess this gives us the chance to recognize God’s work in our lives once more before we start making some even more important decisions about our future.

Please don't pity us. I hate pity! We've had it well for a while now and have been blessed by God in unbelievable ways. I'm certainly not complaining in any way, I just want to be able to pay bills and eat! So please pray for us!

Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun

"I believe in a better way." Me too! And I think Jesus does as well. I can't help listening to this album and thinking about the Kingdom of God. I got chills watching Ben perform "Better Way" on Carson Daly last week seeing his emotion as he cried out for humanity. I have been listening to the first CD of his double disc for the last four weeks almost everyday and it's beautiful. I've always loved Ben Harper's acoustic songs and this is some of the best he's recorded. I got to attend his cd release party when Diamonds on the Inside came out. As a guy who has seen a few hundred shows I have to say that this one ranked up in the top five easily. If you have a chance to see his live show, GO! And if you haven't listened to Both Sides of the Gun make sure you check it out. This is one of the best records I've heard this year.

Good April Reads

The Missing Gospels; Darrell L. Bock

Good timing for this book as gnostic inclined scholars such as Bart Erhman (author of Lost Scriptures and Misquoting Jesus) are getting more attention from the common man about the Gnostic gospels including the Gospel of Judas. This is a quality resource if you would like to get an overview of some of the more important Gnostic gospels, where they came from, and how they compare with the scriptures we have in our canon.

Whistling in the Dark; Frederick Buechner

Another dictionary style book but very entertaining and enlightening to read. Buechner just speaks my language. He's cynical but still optimistic. I like that. Very insightful and humorous.








Practitioners; Several Authors

I remember the first time I started reading this, i think I was in a bad mood because what I first thought was, "how pretentious can these people get?" But a few weeks later I was in a much more generous frame of mind and really enjoyed the thoughts of several pastors who are more than just making statements such as, "wouldn't it be cool if the church could be like this?" but they are actually putting into practice (hence the name of the book) what they are discussing in the book which is encouraging. Good thoughts and you could really get a sense of their passion and zeal for the church in this book.

Ender's Game; Orson Scott Card

This was recommended by a friend of mine Tristan. He said it was one of the greatest science fiction books ever so I figured I should probably read it. This is a whole series but this is a stand alone book written by a devout Mormon. Mormom theology is pretty well hidden in this book but if you look you will find it. That certainly doesn't take away from an excellent story which brings up some great questions about how we can be manipulated or conditioned into becoming someone that we might not want to be. I highly recommend this book as did Tristan.

New Seeds of Contemplation; Thomas Merton

Oh how rich this book is! There are pages, paragraphs, and sentences you need to read and reread to soak in the depth of what he is saying. Merton seems to understand man and his journey of faith more than anyone I've ever read. Like I have said before, Merton speaks straight to my soul. A former professor always said you need to find mentors in your life who are living but some who have also passed on that can mentor you from their writings. Thomas Merton is my mentor.

On Tap for May:
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Gospel According to America - David Dark
The Sacred Way - Tony Jones
To a God Unknown - John Steinbeck
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

Dustin and Kelli

Create your own South Park characters here.

Here is what my friend Nick created. This is Nick and his wife Lisa.

And here is Keith Chandler, the pastor I work with at Journey. What do you think Journey guys? Is there a resemblance here?