It Has Begun.

Yesterday. October 2nd. Christmas displays at multiple stores. *sigh*

...wait for it

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....wait for it

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......IT TWO MONTHS UNTIL THANKSGIVING! THANKSGIVING!!!CAN'T WE AT LEAST GET THROUGH HALLOWEEN!?!?!?!? THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Last year I had several posts about "Christmas creep" and it looks like "christmasblog creep" is in full effect as well. I can't even type about it right now. TWO MONTHS FROM THANKSGIVING!

"Surely We Can Change"

Here's a sample from Crowder's newest CD "Remedy". The song is called "Surely We Can Change"

when all the love in the world is right here, among us,
and hatred too, so we must choose what our hands will do

Where there is pain...let there be grace
Where there is suffering...bring serenity
For those afraid...help them be brave
Where there is misery...bring an expectancy
and surely we can change, surely we can change
something.

3:10 to Yuma and Next Week's Forcast

Last night went and checked out 3:10 to Yuma. It was excellent. Christian Bale is definitely the man. Also, the red headed guy from "A Knights Tale" had a supporting role, he was the only bright spot in that Heath Ledger chick flick in disguise. I digress. 3:10 to Yuma was not only an excellent update on the classic western genre, but also an excellent title to mess with. Ex: "Hey, let's go see that 4:30 to Ukealale" or "I'll have one ticket for the 1:45 to Yukatan Peninsula". It's probably not much funnier online than it was in person, but I got a kick out of it. I'll spare you some detailed deconstruction of the plot, if you can stand violence, you'll love it.

More on this next week, but we're looking at maybe one of the best weeks of all time here:

Friday (yesterday)- Chipotle opened practically right down the street from my house.

Tuesday the 25th- HALO 3 RELEASE. DAVID CROWDER'S NEW ALBUM RELEASE. Although at different ends of the interest spectrum, you don't have to have 3 guesses to know what i'll be doing Tuesday.

Thursday the 27th- THE OFFICE SEASON PREMIER. HOUR LONG.

Friday the 28th- My lady friend comes home for the weekend.

Doesn't get much better than that. More on those as the week progresses.

At Last

Finally some hard data. I had always wondered why everywhere I go people stare at me.

Balance

There's been lots of good comments over the "Rich Getting Richer and Poor Getting Poorer" post below. Readers who might not know everyone involved need to know that the posters are all close friends of mine and people I've partnered in ministry with. I really respect all the different views and opinions.

I think it boils down to balance.

Balance of salvation through Jesus covering the spiritual AND the physical. If you go merely spiritual, it's easy to fall into apathy and a distant, pharisaic, vague, pseudo-spirituality. However if you put all your theological/spiritual eggs into the physical basket, you're in the pit of merit based works righteousness, and that is missing the point just like detached asceticism.

Balance of reality and vision. Now, let me quantify that statement. What I mean is, a balance in discerning the way things are vs. the way things could be. Again, I believe Jesus changed the world and as his followers we are to take part in his continuing shaping of our world. At the risk of sounding extreme, you don't get crucified for keeping the status quo. So in my assessment of wealth in St. Louis county, it may seem zealous, ambitious, foolish, naive, or idealistic to think that 1. this can change and 2. the church must be the body that models the change; but I don't care if it sounds naive or idealistic, because I am filled with the hope that God will use us as he pleases for his will to be done. But we have to temper the way things are with the way Jesus calls us to live, because the hope contained in faithfulness to Christ must guide us toward a better way of living.

Balance of our community with our needs, and communities with needs around us. People in West County need love, hope, and a savior just like people in the city do. So it is more than just simple economic distribution. My church needs to be equipped to minister to people in our context. We are building a new facility which we believe can help us accomplish this in a better way. All I'm saying is that by being exposed to the way others in our own backyard live, we can be transformed and adjust our attitudes about what is important and what being blessed is like on many levels (not just physically, but intellectually, socially, etc). Downtown the problems are many- crime, inadequate living conditions, unemployment, STD's. But in West County we have tons of problems too- self worth being tied to GPA for students and "success" for adults, hyper-consumerism, and an over scheduled, over committed, burnt out culture of first place or bust. However, it's easy to say it's not just about economics or physical needs when all your physical needs are met.

Balance of what is really needed vs. what we think is needed. Here's a tough one. If we really were to get down to it, even an average income of $30,000 in St. Louis city is so much more than many of the people in the world will see in a decade. So all of you out there could say: "Well Adam, if you're so down with helping poor people why don't you sell that laptop you're typing on!" Ahh, touches! You know, part of me wants to say you might be right! Let me list other luxuries I enjoy that are not essential to physical life: car, cell phone, iPod, digital camera, dvd's, books, furniture, too many clothes, air conditioning, expensive watch, a $1500 Taylor Guitar, Nintendo wii, tv, this laptop, I could go on. So if it was simply about gettin rid of all things except meager shelter, food, and water I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. But that's too simple. The issue is much more complex than that. But I have found that "de-accumulating" is a better way to live. In case you're wondering, I have sold clothes that I didn't need along with most of my DVD's (I kept the ones I got as gifts, and the boxed sets). What I've discovered as I've shed some posessions, and have been living in a house that won't let me accumulate much more than I already have...is that I really don't need all the stuff I thought I did. It's been over a month with no cable. The more I give away, the more I appreciate what I have, and the less I have to worry about. So in our discussions about distribution of wealth, a tough part of the discussion is that we really don't need all that we think we need.

So what do you guys think about all of that? One of the reasons that radio/tv talk shows are so popular is that they're so polarizing- they offer neat answers to messy questions. They are often not designed to provide rational discourse but rather entertaining sophistry. No one would want to listen to a show where the hosts repeatedly said things like: "Ya, I see your point" or "It's really not a simple sound byte solution". Hopefully people will want to read blog posts that try!

Devotion: Martha and the Machine

I have staff devotion duties tomorrow, here it is for your viewing pleasure.


-Luke 10: 38-42

Yesterday I was able to spend a lot of time getting ready for my wedding. It’s almost exactly 9 months away. There is a lot to worry about! For good reason! It will be the single biggest day of my life thus far. It is a big deal. But I believe the same thing that happened to Martha can happen to me with my wedding and it can happen to EUMC and it can happen to the church as a whole.

But before we look at the big picture, lets stick with what I started with- weddings. Frankly, as special and wonderful an occasion it will certainly be, it can also just get plain ridiculous. Have you ever picked up a bridal magazine? You need two hands. This will probably be a gender bias question, but have you ever stepped foot in a David’s Bridal? It’s like a matrimonial wal-mart. Here’s something a little more “male oriented”: over/under 23,000 for the average cost of a wedding? Over. According to a May 2005 article on CNN.com the average wedding costs $26,327. That means in 2005 over $125 billion was spent on weddings. That’s about the size of Ireland’s Gross Domestic Product.

A little out of control isn’t it? Let’s not even get into the cultural impact of shows like “Bridezilla” and movies like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. What has been a right of passage throughout human history- two people joining their hearts for life- has morphed into a cultural and economic juggernaut. Somewhere along the line what should be “the main thing” about weddings (the bride and groom’s commitment before God and loved ones) becomes almost a footnote to the endless list of things to be bought, arranged, registered, and coordinated. It is so easy to get caught up in the pressure to have the huge cake, the flawless flowers, the magnificent string quartet, the most elaborate meals, and the most extensive guest list. But all of that is crap in comparison to the whole point of the wedding. The hype and preparations for the wedding can turn it from something simple and beautiful into a machine that monopolizes all your energy and runs on money.

So lets go back to the context of Jesus. Scripture tells us that he’s traveling, and that Martha opens her home to him and his followers. Obviously this is a big deal. There are preparations to be made! Her sister is listening to Jesus teach, giving him her attention instead of helping Martha with all that needed to be done in light of the occasion. This gives Martha reason to be a little miffed. Her sister is hanging out with the guests and leaving all the work to Martha! Martha was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” She protests Jesus “Tell her to help me!”. When my sister and I were young, that two syllable name of mine was like a rallying cry: Aaa-duuuuuuum! This is probably a stretch, but I can just hear Martha: Je-suuuuus! Tell her to help me!

But Jesus flips the script and tells Mary to relax, that “only one thing is needed”. To sit at the feet of Jesus. After all, what good is making all the preparations and missing out on what all the preparations are for in the first place? Mary chose what would last, which trumps even Martha’s best intentions.

I believe it’s the same with my wedding, and it’s the same with the church. Even with good intentions, we can become so focused on all the preparations that we miss the point. I can focus energy on my ego and on how I want to be perceived at my wedding instead of focusing on my love for Sarah and the celebration of our commitment to each other. Martha focused on getting the house ready or whatever she was doing instead of spending time with Jesus.

As a church we are to be building the Kingdom of God. I believe even with best intentions, we can instead be running a machine. Now the tough part becomes sorting and discerning the kingdom from the machine. So let us not forget in our effort to serve God that we must always chose to sit at Jesus feet, may we have the wisdom to focus on things that will last and gently lead others out from the machine and into the kingdom.

Book Review: Justice in the Burbs

On Adam Caldwell's suggestion, I ordered this last week and finished it up a couple days ago. The book is written in a particular flow- the author(s) Will & Lisa Samson present a fictional scenario of a suburban family who starts a relationship with the leader of a downtown mission and the courses of their life change. Following that there is a commentary by both authors (usually Will I take it) discussing real life application/theology about the things depicted in the story of Matt and Christie. After that there is a short meditation from other authors. (the meditations I didn't care so much for, part of me felt like it was just a way to get Brian McLaren or Doug Paggit's name on the cover, but that's very cynical of me, so we'll give the Samson's the benefit of the doubt.)

Frankly, I didn't think I was going to like the format but they did a really good job! I was concerned about the fictional family- a high "cheese factor" possibility, but it was very well done. Also Will and Lisa discuss "emergent" theology/ideas very plainly, with no pretentious attitudes, which was again, very well done.

In terms of depth, it was ok. There wasn't a lot here I hadn't thought/experienced myself, but I think that is kind of a good thing. It's sort of like having a discussion with a friend you really agree about something with, it's just not as exciting as a good ol' point-counterpoint. But that is a little shallow of me to critique.

All in all, I would recommend this book, especially for folks who might have a small inkling that there's more to life than their kids schedules and ralph lauren clothes and want to look into making some life style changes.

Justice in the Burbs- an excellent book to spring board lifestyle change and kingdom theology. Creative yet accessible format. Pretty cool.

(by the way, i'm blogging from a very...let's say..."non-traditional" location right now!)

Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer.

This article came across CNN today. Check it out. Here's a pertinent point for me and my community:

The list of the 10 poorest cities was filled with mostly old, northeastern and mid-western industrial locales. Cleveland had the lowest median income of any city in the nation with more than 250,000 residents; households there earned just $26,535. Miami was the next poorest at $27,088, followed by Buffalo ($27,850), Detroit ($28,364), St. Louis ($30,936) and Cincinnati ($31,103).

I live approximately 20 minutes from the 5th poorest city (or 5th poorest major city) in our country. Let me tell you, sometimes it is hard to justify spending millions on a new church building while people down the road don't have basic needs met. On a haunting side note- I recently found out from a friend in the congregation that my current home was the address of their adopt-a-family from two Christmases ago. So the need isn't just downtown.

So let's take a look at some demographics (incomes taken from here), visually this is just head shaking stuff:


View Larger Map

Ok, so part of that was me wanting to show off my noodleing around with Google maps... for another portrayal of have and have not in St. Louis county, click here. If you click on the map, you should be able to see the average household incomes. But to save you some time, lets recap:

Average household incomes of communities that primarily make up my congregation:
Ballwin $66,458
Chesterfield $99,912
Clarkson Valley $153,933
Ellisville $65,016
Manchester $64,381
Wildwood $94,006

Once again, City of St. Louis $30,936


So in the coming months I'm going to be conspiring with members of my congregation and community to heed God's call to serve the poor. A lot of times we pastor-y types get a call to help feed God's sheep, and when they're in your own back yard it doesn't seem as fun or glamerous. Yes there are AIDS pandemics, yes Darfur and much of the non-industrialized world is hurting, yes we need to build houses in Mexico, yes we need to give aid to American cities and international communities as well. But I can't stand the thought of remaining so insulated anymore. If you want to see what has messed me up so bad, read Shane Claiborne's The Irresistable Revolution, oh yea, and The Bible.

"Vision of You"

Shane & Shane's new album "Pages" came out yesterday. It's crazy. If you're a guitar player, you know what this feeling is like. You listen to Eddie Van Halen play and you think to yourself "Whats the point? Why do I even try?" Shane and Shane are like the Eddie Van Halen of Christian music. They sing notes barely within the range of human hearing. Anyways, some of their old stuff is a little odd for me but this new album really is great. I remember hearing their first song on the album at a concert in which I experienced an extended period of tingly-ness. Check out these lyrics from the chorus of "Vision of You":

Awaken whats inside of me
Tune my heart to all you are in me
Even though you're here God come
May the vision of you be the death of me
Even though you've given everything
Jesus come

Worst Band. Ever.

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from all things theological. Here is one of those posts.

I think Nickelback is the worst band of all time. Here is a list of bands/music I would rather listen to than Nickelback just so you can see how bad I think they are:

Jefferson Starship, Steve Perry's solo stuff, Hanson, that band who sang the song "This is the story of a girl", Coolio, *insert 1343 80's bands here*, Ace of Base, Five for Fighting, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, The Monkees, Ringo Starr's solo stuff/all the songs he wrote that made it on the Beatles albums, the weird guy from The Eagles- Joe something, Enya, Amy Grant, old Backstreet Boys, Rammstein, Hinder, Akon, Lil' John, AND WORST OF ALL...........MICHAEL W. SMITH. Man, that is a terrible list. But I would gladly buy any of their albums before Nickelback's.

Here's a list of things I would rather do/have happen to me than go to a Nickelback concert:
-go to the Dentist
-go to a safe sanctuary training
-have my car break down
-bounce a check
-mow a lawn
-wait in line at the DMV
-go to a family reunion (extended family of course, not cousins/aunt/uncle/grandma)
-take extensive notes on a United Methodist board of pension meeting
-watch the most recent Star Wars movies
-participate in a live action drama inspired by a lifetime movie
or worst of all...A MICHAEL W. SMITH CONCERT.

So to Nickelback, please stop making music. Your newest song about wanting to be a rock star isn't really cute or funny or creative. Rock stars singing about wanting to be rock stars isn't cool in some ironic way, it's just lame. Also, the song "figured you out" was gross. At least be consistent and make tough guy music or cheesy poprock music so we can know what to expect from you.

Case in point, a lyrical sample from Nicklback's latest single:
Sign a couple autographs
So I can eat my meals for free (and in the background "I'LL HAVE A QUESODILLA")

I defy any readers out there to come up with a WORSE band than Nickelback. You know what, here at Internationally Known on the Microphone, we haven't had a challenge like this before. So I'm throwin down the gauntlet, tell your friends to check this out.

WHOEVER CAN CONVICE ME THAT THERE IS A BAND IN EXISTENCE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE THAT IS WORSE THAN NICKELBACK WILL WIN A $15 iTunes GIFTCARD! Let the debate begin! (please respond so I don't look desperate!)

-

By the Power of Greyskull

*warning* fairly cheesy illustration alert!

So this morning Ameren UE came to reset a thing or two on our house's power. Thus, all the clocks got reset and for about 20 minutes we didn't have power. Luckily it doesn't make much of a difference in my appearance if I have light or not, but I felt bad for my sister!

But it got me thinking (as every power outage does) about how much we depend on electricity. If I didn't have a clock on my cell phone, I would have had no idea what time it was. It is only when we lose all the things we depend on so much that we realize how much we use them.

Now it might have been because I was still groggy, but in the shower I was really thinking about this (the lights had come back by this time, don't worry). Being a pastor-y type, I look for the life lessons in these situations. How funny that we depend so much on something that (although not often) can really just vanish at any time! I didn't need an ol' reliable clock because we had electronic clocks in practically every room! But when the electricity goes, so does my knowing what time it is.

I think our world is like that. We build our lives around so much that doesn't last- and not even material stuff all the time. Whether its "success", having a boyfriend/girlfriend, being cool, or whatever; when stuff goes down it can be like waking up and having no idea what time it is.

I think this is my favorite passage in The Bible. I hear Pastors say sometimes that the verse for that Sunday is their favorite. Well, I'm pretty sure this is mine. I've just decided.

Matthew 7: 23-25:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Christ's words, his way, his life is to be our foundation. It's like having a clock that doesn't run out no matter what.

Survival of the Beardest

My friend from church Matt told me the other day he had been missing my facial hair salutes, I was flattered he would even remember, so here is a Dandy.

This one is for you Charles Darwin. I'm not sure what would take longer- for intelligent life to emerge from a primordial soup, or me coming even remotely close to competing with that big, beautiful, naturally selected beard of yours.

That beard is simply a beut. I only hope that as the sands of time press on that we humans grow more and more adapted to growing giant beards like Mr. Darwin's.

Takin' It to the Streets (thats for you Dad...)

I have some good news for all who will listen. This week a new community college is opening in our...community (allow myself to introduce...myself...). A group from my church decided to be there and welcome students. So we were (and will be) there for opening classes to hand out stuff- water, mini-highlighters, snacks, and the Red Bull girls were there to hand out energy drinks!

It was interesting to watch the students reactions. Of course, everyone also thinks there's some kind of catch, especially since we're a church. We did have a sign, but welcome students and free stuff were in huuuuge font, and our church name and location was in small font.

I guess it makes me sad that we live in an age where you can't even be nice to someone without a suspicion of some alternate agenda. The difference between yesterday and today was really cool, since they were a lot of the same students they knew we weren't there to hassle them, just to welcome them.

Just thought I'd give a report of our little part of the Kingdom today. We had a successful outreach- without giving away bibles, christian mints, or getting in people's faces. It felt good to get out of the church, out of the office, nose out of a book, and just be out there with the people, where we belong.

Our mission was not to convert, but to love.

Yay AT&T, Boo the Number 23

Greetings, I'm writing to you from my new home where both the DSL and wireless network are now installed. The absence of a home computer has provided me a good excuse for not blogging too much in the past couple weeks, but it is an excuse no longer!

Also, my sister and I (having moved in to our new place for a little over two weeks now) have chosen not to get cable. Which means...more time to blog! I know the excitement is in the air. Kudos to AT&T for a prompt service appointment today, even being a little early!

Just some advice from me to you: Do not rent/buy/view in any way Jim Carey's "The Number 23". Just don't.

Religion and Politics-Thoughts

With the election hype building, there's lots of articles on Religion and Politics. Recently, one was essentially talking about Mitt Romney's Mormon faith and how that could effect voters opinions. Some interesting polls are cited towards the end of the article:

"An earlier poll by the Pew Research Center said 30 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate that was Mormon. The negative sentiment rose to 46 percent for Muslim candidates and to 63 percent for a candidate who "doesn't believe in God."

There are many avenues of discussion you could take from this article. From this one poll, you could infer that Americans "dis trust" or are otherwise discouraged from voting for: Mormons, Muslims, and atheists gradiently in that order. You could get into a discussion about the role of the state and the role of religion. Eventually, all roads would lead to the constitution, and subsequently the intentions of the framers/founding fathers. But alas, I am aware that people will skip blog entries if they are too long, so I'll try to cut to the chase.

From this one poll, it appears as if Americans are not discouraged to vote for a person with faith. They're discouraged to vote for someone who's faith they do not share, especially if they don't have any! (a statement that could also be dissected)

My impression from debates and articles like the one above is that many people consider "one’s relationship with God is a private matter", one such person is Rudolph Juliani does because that quote is from him.

I guess to me the issue is not separation from church and state, but separation of religion and life.

I don't think that a religion confined to the "private" corner of life is very much of a religion at all. How couldn't your "religions" beliefs, which are really your beliefs about life be at the very center of what drives your decisions as an individual and even more so as a politician?

Finally Payin Off!

I received an email from Brian McLaren's folks about his upcoming tour in support of his book "Everything Must Change" which comes out this October.

Towards the end of the email it said that the first 50 bloggers to email in their "snail mail" address and blog site would receive an advanced copy, for free.

I was one of those 50!

So now to fulfill my obligation to Mr. McLaren I will be going through the book and giving a brief synopsis as well as reactions. I guess I'll have to do my best to entice everyone into buying it, luring you further and further into a web of desire to purchase this most excellent book when it comes out in October.

I guess being a tool is the price you pay for street cred!

All Time Lows

Check this out.

Don't want the hassle of going to a gym? Have it brought to you! Curbside fitness is a giant luxury truck filled with workout equipment that will pull up to your house for an hourly rate.

A couple friends spotted the bus in a luxurious area of St. Louis yesterday and alerted me to the existence of such a service. Wow.

How ridiculous a society where you don't even have to have a gym at home to get a gym at home. Why would you ever want to leave the house anyways?

What to do what to do

So it's 12:40am, and I'm still reflecting on something that happened at church tonight. Every Tuesday at church we have ultimate frisbee from 9-11pm. We use these frisbees with two different colors of glow bands. We have music, lights, drinks, and pizza. Usually about 80 kids show up, if you want to see some pics check out lwyouth.org

The cool thing about "Ultimate Tuesdays" is that probably 80% of the kids that come don't attend our church.

I don't say all that just to "brag" but rather so that you better understand what took place. So at 11pm we shut it down and kids parents are picking them up or kids are driving themselves home. We have a substantial amount of equipment to carry in, not to mention emptying trash and picking up spare Gatorade bottles and what not, so there's plenty to do. If there were only 2 or 3 of us cleaning up it would take more than an hour. Luckily we've got great volunteers who stay to help clean up even though they'd rather go home and sleep!

But tonight something abnormal happened. There were about 20 kids or so who stayed after. So we were like, "Sweet! More help!" It's always a little awkward when you ask people to help clean up, so like the cheesy youth dork that I am, I say something like: "Hey guys, I know a fun game we can play...help us clean up this junk! Who wants to play!?!?!" The crowd of kids just stands there looking at me. So I stick out the speaker wire I was holding and say to one of them- "Here man, you can play, it's easy!" He just looks at me and says, "Nah, thats ok." He was on his cell phone.

So here you have a group of kids literally standing there having just enjoyed the fruits of our labor- listened to music, ate pizza, drank Gatorade, played frisbee; and now they're actually in the way of people cleaning up, but not really taking the suttle invitation to help pitch in.

Like I said, I don't really know who any of these kids are- I can't assume they go to any church, I have know idea who their parents are, I don't know them at all. But frankly, I found it very rude.

Now as I sit here and type this out, I failing to accurately describe the audacity of the kids (is audacity the right word? i'll get to that in a sec). My question is this:

What should I have done?

Should I politely ask them to leave if they're not going to help, since the event was over at 11?

Should I yell at them and tell them how rude and inconsiderate they were being?

Should I just pretend it's not big deal?

As I'm pouring out the extra ice from our massive cooler, there's a couple bottled waters left, so I offer it to them and they accept- then just keep chatting and pretending there isn't work to do. I ask them if they had fun and cheerfully say I look forward to seeing them next week.

Was that the right thing to do? In my mind, I can't hold these kids to a standard that they might not hold themselves to- as a Christian, I believe we are to offer ourselves in service to one another, especially when whoever it is needs help has just spent time providing me with a good time!

But from their perspective, did they even notice? Were they conscious of the fact they were being in considerate? Or have they just been in such a position to be served their whole life? Remember these are suburban St. Louis kids who drive nicer cars than my Dad.

What is the Christian response? Frankly, I'm convinced that part of being a Christian IS being taken advantage of. But am I providing these kids with a dis-service by not pointing out the err in their ways? Or was it right to still treat them kindly. Was it right for me to fake kindness when inside I really wanted to yell at them?


What should I have done?

(If this seems like a melodramatic post, I'm sorry. If you would have been there the situation would have had more magnitude than reading it on the blog! I also apologize for the many spelling and grammatical errors in this post, it's late.)

Post #200!

It's a bicentennial of sorts for IKOTM! I first titled the blog from a rap line P. Diddy does on Usher's 2002 hit "I need a girl". Since the blog started I've gotten engaged, moved to St. Louis, and am not about to settle into a rental house!

So to commemorate this occasion, I've swapped the colors and template, added a "Current Reading" section, changed the description, and basically copied whatever else Andy did. So, here's to many more posts and even more comments!

The New Crib (probably)

So I think I've found a house to rent for the next couple of years. Not buying yet. The owners are really nice folks and are putting a ton of work into the place. So here it is for your viewing pleasure. It's not quite done yet, but this will give you an idea. 3 bedroom 1 bath, giant backyard,cozy little place.

Unrelated Thought.

Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" is still a great song.

When In Rome

So this article was on Yahoo today.

Basically, The Pope is endorsing Latin masses again. Apparently in up until the 1960's it was the norm. From the article-

"Before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Catholic mass was an elaborate ritual led in Latin by a priest with his back to the congregation. Vatican II reduced the formality and had the priest face the faithful to pray in their local language.
Traditionalists rejected the new style's sing-along hymns and guitar music. Many missed the Latin rite's sense of mystery and awe and the centuries-old Gregorian chant that went with it."

Now, to me this seems like a no-brainer. A service in Latin? Yikes. No body can understand it! If that's what "mystery and awe" means then to each his own, but I'd at least like to hear about God in English so I can then ponder the mystery and be in awe- because I don't understand God... NOT WHAT LANGUAGE THE SERVICE IS IN.

Obviously my protestant bias and gross lack of Church history is showing here. But this got me thinking...

Does protestant Christianity do the same thing? Think about it- don't we have a language all our own? Fellowship...Narthex...Sacristy...Transubstantiation...Epistle...Abrahamic Covenant...Sanctification...I could go on.

I think a lot of times theres a "lingo" that unless you've just been around a long time you won't understand because no one stops to explain things. So although our services are given in English, consider the following being mentioned in the service:

"Today's scripture lesson is from Paul's second Epistle to the church in Corinth." Now, what all does this phrase assume?
1. That you know what an epistle is
2. That you know who Paul is
3. That you understand the inherent connection between Paul and the epistles
4. Basically that you have enough Biblical and Ecclesial knowledge to translate into: 2nd Corinthians

I would guess that many folks sitting in the congregation wouldn't be able to articulate those 4 things, and why should they unless they've been taught or given the proper tools to discover it for themselves? If you haven't taken bible classes in church or in college or you haven't been raised in Sunday school where do you get to know all the fancy phrases?

My pastor calls it "church-eese" or "christian-eese" and we need to be mindful that we articulate such specialized language. The church can't be so presumptuous to just assume people either know this stuff or will have the where-with-all to go figure it out themselves.

If we don't give consideration to issues like this, we might as well give the services in Latin.

4th of July

The 4th was always one of my favorite holidays. I remember going to the gas station as a child, and getting a bottle of JOLT cola to shoot bottle rockets out of. Here in St. Louis county you can't shoot off fireworks, but at the county line on I-44 into Jefferson county it's like the Las Vegas Strip of Fireworks stands, hillarious.

So, for all who care to read, here's some 4th of July favorites:

Music-
Jimi Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner
Ray Charles, America the Beautiful
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA

Movies-
The Sandlot
Independance Day

Fireworks-
Smoke Bombs
The Lil' Green Tanks (my personal favorite, see above)

Food-
Brats
Homemade Ice Cream

Not-So-Favorite Things About 4th of July:

Barking Dogs
Burning your hand
The cheap wicks fireplace stands give you

So here's to a happy 4th of July to everyone, especially folks overseas who can't be with their families.

John Mayer Concert

I didn't really do this justice on the blog yet. Almost two weeks ago some friends and I saw John Mayer at Verizon Amphitheater/UMB Bank Pavilion/Riverport. It was nuts. Brett Dennen and Ben Folds opened up, who were also very good.

It's time to revisit my John Mayer theory.

I don't know how much longer he can hold up. I think Continuum is one of the best albums ever. The dude can sing, play, and write all EXTREMELY well. He could be a great solo artist just on his guitar playing alone. He's dated Jennifer Love Hewitt and the magazine covers have tagged him with Jessica Simpson.

I believe there's no way a relationship between John Mayer and any celebrity will ever last. Why? It's too much. No single man can be THAT awesome. What do you think fuels a lot of his songs? Problems with love. You can't come out with a blues album if you're dating Jessica Simpson. No one will believe you could ever be blue. The only thing that allows him to keep his street cred is the fact that he's unhappy in the love dept. So he's doomed to either keep being awesome musically or give up his material in exchange for love.

That being said, a highlight of the show was impersonating John Mayer's guitar face. You can see Jimmy Fallon's impersonation here about halfway through.

So here are me and my friends best impersonations:

The Secret

Secrets don't make friends.
Secret is a woman's deodorant.
James Taylor says "The secret of life is enjoying the passing of time".
"Gnosis" is secret knowledge.
"The Secret" makes a funny book.

From the introduction: "As you travel through its pages and you learn The Secret, you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want. You will come to know who you really are. You will come to know the true magnificence that awaits you."

Well, I guess I'll just read this book, imagine myself kickin back on an island somewhere and hang out until it happens! Why didn't anyone tell me about this before!?!?!?

Oh man, this ought to be good. Lately I've been enjoying finding out "what else is out there". Right now I'm got the God Delusion and The Secret going, and earlier this year read "The End of Faith".

I'll let you guys know how "The Secret" suits me. It's going to be fun.

In ______ We Trust

Check out this news story about a Gallup Poll whose findings included that only 46% of people surveyed "had either a 'great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in the church"

So, what are we to make of this?

Is it like when a health scare hits a fast food restaurant and no body wants to eat there? Recently the Ted Haggard scandal could have been a case for folks to distrust the church- how could a prominent preacher have a double life?

Do people not trust the church because of money? Are the televangelist fiascoes of the 80's still lingering in people's minds?

It would be interesting to me to see how the survey was framed and what questions were asked and by what criteria people were selected. But to me this is could be telling about what the church is facing.

Unless you live in Springfield MO (with like, 12 huge churches on every block) the church isn't the center of the community. No longer can we just assume that people have had a basic Judaeo-Christian worldview or have "been raised" or "been around" church. Ministering to people who have been raised in church is like, step 3. We have to start at step 1- ministering to people who are a little suspicious of "religion" or "church". This is accomplished by individuals in congregations building relationships with folks outside of the church. Not like people who "don't go to church" are our labrats or something, but loving folks is what are job is, regardless of whether they go to church! Step 2 is gaining trust through honest care for the person, getting to know their struggles, their needs, their perceptions of the church. That's the challenge of 21st century ministry, which probably isn't a new challenge at all, showing people that the church is the body of Christ charged with doing his work and building the Kingdom of God. So really...not much has changed...just go do God's work and the "trust statistics" should hopefully climb!

But that leads me to another thought. I would like to see what percentage of folks surveyed identified themselves as "Christian" or more vaguely as "religious". What if the 46% are the ones who are Christian and the rest aren't? Then does the burden of "trustyness" fall on the church? Or is it simply people don't want to have to change their lives as a result of the Gospel? Maybe you don't want to trust what you fear will make you confront your thoughts about life and the ways you live it?

The danger in this can be a quite a nice self-fulfilling prophecy. I was in a discussion with a friend once and they remarked: "Well the only true bible preaching churches are going to be small, because the gospel isn't popular". Hmmm. Isn't that a cozy justification for a stagnant community. (Insert comment about how 'it's not about the numbers here') I'm just saying this is tricky stuff. How can the church be inclusive of folks who are distrustful but still faithful to our mission and the Gospel of Christ which transforms hearts and changes lives?

Say It Ain't So

If Rosie O'Donnell replaces Bob on the Price Is Right, I will lead an angry mob all the way to L.A. to start another riot. This simply cannot be allowed to happen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_en_ot/people_rosie_o_donnell

Fantastic 4/The Dawkins Delusion

Saw Fantastic 4 on Sunday. It was a lot better than the first, which is great news considering the first F4 was right up there on the movie scale with Judge Dredd. The action was continuous and the movie didn't take itself too seriously. So, definitely worth seeing, but wouldn't be upset if I never saw it again.

Also, yesterday I bought The Dawkins Delusion. It was a short read, only 100 pages. Um, I guess it was "good". I was hoping for some entertaining stabs at Dawkins and really granular explanations of why his writings were crap. But, the author (Alister McGrath- one of the coolest names ever) was very courteous and relied on very masterful ways of dissecting Dawkins "God Delusion". So now it's on to "The God Delusion" which is thicker, and looks a lot cooler. I hope they'll be some good discussion out of that.

Sermon Pt 7

(sorry it's so long, but here's the conclusion)

7. The Conclusion/So What?
You see my friends; Jesus went to where he was needed most. He came to call those who needed his help, not those who were happy to stand in line at the movies and ridicule middle schoolers who don’t know any better. You see those girls are EXACTLY the ones that need to be shown you don’t have to show off your body to be accepted. Those girls need to hear they have worth beyond what they wear, and that they are not defined by how much attention boys pay them. What’s more, those girls need to be not only TOLD but SHOWN they need to EXPERIENCE the love of Christ, simply for being them. Those girls need to hear and be exposed to those things within the context of love, not judgment, out of mercy, not under stiff religion. The Pharisees mistake was they depended on their legalism to save them. Outwardly, they were righteous. Inwardly, they were sick, but did not know it. As followers of Christ, I pray that we can keep from falling victim to the same thing.

The people hardest for us to love are often the ones who need it the most. It’s easy for me to love well behaved, appropriately dressed, mature youth here at this church, as almost all of them are. THAT’S EASY. But what about the rude and obnoxious youth? What about the ones who dress like they’re going out to the club? WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF THIS CHURCH? What compassion do I have in me if I don’t show it to them? Do I really love Jesus and love his people, if I’m only loving towards “the nice ones”, only compassionate to the ones who “go to church”, and judge everyone else? Jesus spoke about this too, earlier in Matthew’s gospel in chapter 5 verses 46 & 47 he says: “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles (the people of the land) do the same?” In my own words, LOVING THOSE WHO ARE EASY TO LOVE IS NO BIG DEAL.

Sometimes the most “religious” people can be some of the biggest jerks. In keeping our rules, they can quickly become chains if not they don’t start with compassion. The call of Christ to the sinner means for those who follow him it will be hard. But we can forget that we too, are sinners. We too, are sick. Too often we can be quick to diagnose others. Because in our minds we have a list don’t we? A list of behaviors that “Christian people” or “good people” just don’t do. A catalog of sins we don’t do that allows us to shame others if they do. Once again, isn’t the sin of pride a sin just the same?

Christ went to where he was needed, and this was shocking to the religious authorities at the time. Jesus enjoyed the company of “tax-collectors and sinners” (verse 10). Stop and think about this. What would you think if you saw McIntyre’s Honda Civic outside of a bar? How would you react if saw your youth pastor hanging out in the Steak N’ Shake parking lot at 1 in the morning? You would probably think, oh snap, or at least that would be cool if you could add that to your vocabulary. If you saw those things I’ll bet you would be shocked. The Gospel is shocking my friends. The love of Christ is not what we expect more often than not, because it’s hard, and it’s counterintuitive to us. Much like the Pharisees we can quickly evolve into “holy huddles”, insulated “churchy people” who sneer and point fingers at people who don’t do some things we do and DO do some things we don’t do. By that I mean, we can scoff and be dismissive of people “don’t go to church” or “don’t read the bible” or “don’t know Jesus”, or people that “do drugs” or “do have sex” or “do have tattoos” or “do go to bars” or do or don’t do whatever other lists we want to make. But now we’re already read handed, because we’ve separated us from them, we are we and they are they. We are healthy, they are sick. We are righteous, they are sinners. Let us go once again to verses 12 & 13: Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…For I have come to call not the righteous but the sinners.”

My friends the love of Christ calls us to love those who aren’t easy or convenient to love, because that’s how God loves us. When we lose sight of that, we might as well break out the Pharisee costumes so we can dress the part too, and at least people can see us comin. The love of Christ goes to those who need it the most, often hardest for the religious folks to love. The church is the only organization on the planet that exists EXCLUSIVELY for those that aren’t a part of it. Let me say that again: The church is the only organization on the planet that exists EXCLUSIVELY for those that aren’t a part of it. Let’s not forget that. Let’s not forget that we are a hospital for sinners, of which I am the first one. Let’s not forget that Jesus came not for the righteous but for the sinner. That Jesus is like a doctor, who has come to heal the sick, not tend to “they that be whole”.

I had to choose a title for this sermon, and sermon titles often have an element to cheesiness to them, so I fittingly chose a cheesy Ronald Palmer song from the 80’s. Doctor Doctor, Gimme the News:

The bad news is, we’re all sick. The good news is, Jesus came to heal the sick. The good news is, we can know the remedy. Jesus Christ, the good physician will heal us and help us to heal others if we only admit we’re sick and let him do his work. It’s hard, long, painful road to recovery. The diagnosis is not up to us, I’ve tried to spend a lot of time showing how that is a bad, bad, bad thing. Someone can only know they’re sick when they experience the love of another who shares their illness. The call of Christ demands that we go and help heal the sick as we ourselves are being healed through him who ate with tax-collectors and sinners, he who looked upon people not with judgment but with compassion. My friends, the people hardest to love need it the most. The people hardest for us to love is whom Jesus calls us to love. The people hardest to love are people just like you and me, in fact, they ARE you and me. Let us not be puffed up in our churchy clothes, our churchy music, our churchy programs, our churchy words- none of these bad things in and of themselves- but let us seek out the sick as love them as Jesus did, not shake our heads at the sinners as the Pharisees did. Amen.

Sermon Pts 5 & 6

5. The Proud
You see the Pharisees were all mixed up. The were so focused on their own Orthodoxy they failed to see that was their very stumbling block. Their assent to righteousness ultimately led them into the sin of pride. Their priorities were backwards:
-More concerned with preservation of their holiness than with the helping of another’s sin
-Were interested in condemning rather than forgiving, with criticism than with encouragement.
-Focused on outward orthodoxy rather than in practical help.
Can you see why Jesus quoted Hosea 6: 6? The Pharisees in their self proclaimed holiness had made access to God exclusive. They thrived on a “who’s in, who’s out” mentality. The problem is, they were making the rules and not God. Hosea 6: 6 reads- “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Closely paraphrased we could say: “It’s compassion I want, not religion”. The Pharisees were too proud to admit they were sick, and so arrogant in thinking they were to diagnose everyone else, not God.

6. More Bad News
My friends, I’ve tried to spend some time expounding on the history and context of this one conversation in Jesus’ life. I’ve tried to show you that we are all sick, and Jesus has come to call everyone, but only those who can come to know they need him will listen. I have ripped on the Pharisees for a while now. Jesus railed against the Pharisees for their self-righteousness. In verse 13 when Jesus says “I have come to call not the righteous but the sinner” another translation reads: “I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” Let me read that again, imagine Jesus saying to the most “religious” people on that planet: “I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.” (The Message) My friends how often do we create an insider and outsider scenario for those we encounter in the world? How often to do we pass judgment upon people we’d rather condemn than love? As the church, as “religious” people, can we not be guilty of the same sins of the Pharisees? Let me show you what I mean.

Friday, June 3rd I went to go see Spider Man 3 on opening night. Not only was it opening night of what was the biggest opening weekend in history, but I had obtained tickets to the showing at the Galaxy Theatre in the Valley on THE MEGA SCREEN, which I’m pretty sure you can see from space. For someone like me, Spider Man 3, on the mega screen, opening night, is a big deal; especially when you consider that I ordered about 20 tickets ahead of time and there were a group of us from church who all went together. Now, some of you parents might know this, but Friday nights at the Galaxy Theatre feels like a Middle Schoolers Convention. I mean kids are being dropped off, picked up, talking on their cell phones, talking to their friends, talking on their cell phones to their friends friends, it’s like an industrious colony of bees, really quite a spectacle to see. So there I am in line with all my church buddies, when I spot one group of middle schoolers in particular. Now keep in mind I’m only 23 years old, so I’m still shocked and disgusted when I have thoughts or speak words that sound like something my Dad would say. But I had one of those parental moments, a wave of “old-fashioned-ness” came over me, and I thought: “Goodness, I can’t believe what those girls are wearing!” I mean here was a group of 14 year old girls dressed like they might have stage names. I sat there; shocked at how their parents let them leave the house looking like a floozy, and how much of their bodies they were revealing to everyone at the movies. It was ridiculous, I even made some head shaking comments to my buddies with me.

Do you see what happened? There I was with my “church friends” looking down and shaming these girls in my mind. Since I was so righteous and thought that anyone who dressed like has got to be a heathen, I put those girls in a different category than myself. There tiny skirts were on my mental “no-no” list and so I condemned them. Where is the compassion in that? Isn’t my pride and loveless-ness worse than their short skirted-ness? If you think about it, the latter is a lot more easy to fix. Changing your clothes is a lot harder than transforming your heart. I was as guilty as the Pharisees.

Sermon Pts 2, 3, & 4

Things went ok on Sunday! Woo Hoo! Here's a longer chunk....

2. People of the Law vs. People of the Land
Enter the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a sect of elite teachers. They differed from the other Jewish priests chiefly in their strict observance of religious ceremonies and practices, adherence to oral laws and traditions, and belief in an afterlife and the coming of a Messiah. (dictionary.com) The Pharisees adhered to a strict and exclusive code of conduct. Generally speaking, in Jesus time people were divided into two sections. The first were “The Orthodox”, the religious people. Orthodox is Greek, meaning “right, or correct practice” so the orthodox folks rigidly kept the law in every detail. The Pharisees were part of this division of society. We can thus call the first division People of the Law. The second were classed as the people of the land; they saw the law as petty regulations used by the religious elite to exploit those who are “beneath” them. The orthodox were forbidden to associate with the people of the land in any meaningful way: would not go on a journey with them, do any business with them, give anything to them, or receive anything from them, much less entertain them as guests or be guests in their houses. (Barclay) Again, the people of the law not only obeyed their scriptures, but also followed traditions and teachings of ancient rabbis. One of these teachings was “Keep far from an evil neighbor and do not associate with the wicked”. (Interpreters Bible) So can’t you just hear the uppity tone of the Pharisees, seeing the ilk of people who Jesus had surrounded himself with, scoffing and challenging him in front of his followers saying in verse 11: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The King James version of the Bible reads: “Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?” The New Living Translation reads: “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” By spending his time with “tax-collectors and sinners” Jesus was committing a very bold act in the eyes of the holy Jewish priests, he was doing something the pious Pharisees would never do.

3. Jesus Response
Now in verses 12 & 13 we see Jesus responding, fully aware of the political offenses he was making. When we think deeply about Jesus response to the Pharisees, it is an “oh snap” situation. Now, for those of you who don’t speak the vernacular of the young people, “oh snap” is a slang expression used to convey shock or surprise, particularly after a stinging rebuttal in confrontational circumstances. In verse 12 Jesus says “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” The King James Version reads: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” I like the sound of that. Jesus continues to make quick work of the Pharisees by telling them to “Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus quoted from Hosea 6: 6 (which I hope sounds familiar, as it was used as our Old Testament lesson). Jesus is telling the supposed experts that they are not experts. The Pharisees challenged him, trying to embarrass him in front of his followers, and he responds by telling them to go back to school! I’m sure the Pharisees were shocked and surprised indeed. Oh snap. The end of verse 13 contains the crucial element to Jesus message: “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Now, let’s read that last part again: “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” What? Are we to infer that Jesus meant there are some that don’t need him? Is he saying there are some of us that he’s not worried about, because we’re already good enough? Certainly not. “He was not saying that there were some people who were so good that they had no need of anything which he could give; nor was he saying that he was not interested in people who were good…Jesus was saying ‘I did not come to invite people who are so self-satisfied that they are convinced they don’t need anyone’s help; I came to invite people who are very conscious of their sin and desperately aware of their need for a savior” He was saying ‘It is only those who know how much they need me who can accept my invitation.” (Barclay) How do I dare put words in Jesus mouth you may ask? Just think about what he said a few words earlier; he compared himself to a doctor: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

4. We’re All Sick.
Think about it. Who here likes to go to the Doctor? If you’ve seen Farris Buehler’s day off, or if you’ve had children, or if you’ve ever thought about faking sick yourself, no one would choose going to the doctor’s office when they’re home sick, that’s worse than going to school! Recently I had some foot problems (probably due to my excessive flip flop wearing). A lot of the staff here at church would see me limping around, and ask if I had seen a doctor. I would answer in the excuse voice, “nah, just hopin it wears off” or try to come up with some lame reason “might just be the weather” or whatever. I made excuses to not want to go see the doctor. Why? Well, 1. it’s expensive and 2. it’s a pain to make an appointment and miss work or get up early or whatever. But really, deep down, the reason I didn’t want to go see a doctor is I was afraid something was wrong. My Dad is diabetic. So I’m genetically pre-disposed to diabetes plus being overweight doesn’t help anything. One of the symptoms of diabetes is foot problems. I didn’t want to go to the doctor because I was scarred I’d have to face some hard consequences and even harder changes. I don’t want to admit that I have problems. So I put off going to the doctor and pretend that everything is fine. That realization made Jesus words so real to me: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” IN ORDER TO SEE A DOCTOR YOU MUST FIRST ADMIT THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU. If not a full admission, at least you have to be open to the possibility of there being something wrong with you. You see in the Pharisee’s world, they’re self-righteous. They are teachers and keepers of the law, so their pride insulates them from the reality of their sin. The Pharisees don’t want to admit that they are sick. They might even be so delusional to think that they’re no way THEY COULD EVER BE SICK. The truth is, we’re all sick. So when Jesus talks about not healing the healthy and not calling the righteous, it’s tongue in cheek. To accept the call of Jesus you have know that you need him. You have to know that you are sinful; you have to know that you’re sick and he is the remedy. Jesus calls everyone, but the “righteous” (or really, self-righteous) do not heed his call.

Sermon Pt. 1

Here it is....comments encouraged.

Matthew 9: 10-13. “Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News”

In three verses there sure is a lot to talk about. These words of Jesus are powerful, but once you begin to grasp the historical and political contexts, the message of Christ is all the more scandalous. I’m going to explore the historical context first, then, I’ll bring us right up to today. I hope you don’t get too bored, but I plan to show you how people really haven’t changed in 2,000 years, how we’re still fighting the same fights, and that Jesus words are still as true today as they were when they left is lips. So here we go.

1. Setting the Scene/The What
Matthew’s gospel informs us that Jesus was sitting and eating dinner with other guests. Some translations use the word “reclining”. (interpreters bible, New American Standard Bible) That word reclining gives us a bit of a different picture- Jesus wasn’t having a power lunch, he and his disciples were guests- he was hanging out. And with whom? Tax-collectors and sinners. Today, the IRS isn’t a very popular institution and taxes really don’t make much sense to me, but at least they’re under the guise of honesty. In Jesus’ context, tax-collectors were some of the most hated people on the planet. Here in the Roman system, called “tax-farming”, rights to tax over a certain area were leased out to individuals who could afford it for a flat fee. Local aristocrats who obtained the rights would then try to collect more than the fee in order to profit by the arrangement, with an obvious potential for abuse. (New Oxford Annotated Bible) The actual TAX-COLLECTORS were sort of like underlings who were faced with lots of pressure to bring in as much money as possible and were thus despised by the populace. These are the people Jesus kept company with, verse 10: “And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting (reclining) with him and his disciples”

Thoughts

1. My buddy Jeremy got married this past weekend. I'm starting to catch myself thinking about reception decorations, help! Seriously, it was a lovely weekend and i'm happy for the Ventresca's.

2. Saw Pirates 3. Basically, see my Spider Man review below and substitute pirates for super heros. Too much too much too much, ugh. They just added plot elements and expected everyone to know what they were (like the pieces of 9, what is that?) I couldn't keep up with all the backstabbing. Whats the deal with trilogy's man? The matrix- 1st one, one of the best movies of my generation. The other two? Bad news. Same goes with Pirates. Spider Man 2 suffered the same fate, I hope Shrek doesn't.

3. I'm currently reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whew, it's tough. Makes me feel like a weenie Christian.

4. Thats all for now, more thoughts later this week hopefully.

5. Oh ya, i'm preaching on Sunday. I'll post my sermon in sections, comments welcome. I'm also hoping to post some questions after Sunday for my congregation to check out. Aren't I trendy!?!?!?!?!?

Updates.

-last weekend confirmed 27 seventh graders into our church. yes!
-last weekend, moved out of apartment as our lease was up.
-this weekend, attending former roomates wedding in Camdenton, MO.
-tomorrow, summer intern starts.
-tonight, picking up best friend from the airport, as he's been teaching in France for a year.
-preaching at our church, June 3.

i'm pooped. not much room for blogging right now, sorry.

New Project

2 things.

One, head over to www.espngod.blogspot.com to see something new, join me!

Howie, i've got a reply waiting in the the "edit post" section, and I just want to do a good job with it. Hold tight!

Later.

Spider Man 3 Review

(warning: quasi-spoilers ahead)

I'm proud to say I was part of the biggest box office opening weekend in history, and at $11 for a ticket, I certainly did my part. I was pretty excited about Spidey 3, and the entourage of friends from church and other various acquaintences totaling about 20. We went to the 10:10pm showing on "The Mega Screen" that our Galaxy theatre has. I'm pretty sure you could see this thing from space, so that was awesome. The line was literally to the parking lot, it was insane. I'd like to reccomend www.fandango.com for ticket purchasing, very convienient.

Ok, onto the movie. All in all, I was entertained and glad I saw it. That being said, I do have some thoughts.

Part of what made Spider Man 1 and 2 so great is that even though comic book movies are ridiculous, they treated them seriously. Dr. Octopus was one of the best villains ever, because they gave him dignity by showing more than him scaleing buildings and robbing banks (although that was really cool).

But Spider Man 3 doesn't do that. It has developed similar strategies as the latter Batman Movies, or as I like to call it: X-Men syndrome. IT'S ALL TOO MUCH. Rather than having 3 villains with 3 plots that didn't really get the proper time spent on them, why not have one AWESOME main villain, like Doc-Oc with Harry Osbourne as an ongoing sub-plot? I just thought that Sandman, Venom, and Hobgoblin were all too cool to have just thrown them together, and not really do any of them justice. Also, this movie is a little too self-effacing, and the cheese factor was just too high. There's one montage that spoofs "stayin alive" and Peter Parkers looks exactly like the dude from Brighteyes.

Ultimately, there was no way I wasn't going to like this movie. However, it's definately my least favorite of the Spider Man's so far, and I hope they do at least one more to redeem this cheesy effort. With record setting weekends, you know they will.

The latest Beard Salute

In what is I believe our 3rd or 4th installment, i'd like to salute Baron Davis' beard. The Golden State Warriors point guard has worn a goatee for a while, but really is lettin the beard rock this year, and it's working. The Warriors are in the 2nd round of the playoff's, and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NBA history beating the 1 seed Dallas Mavericks as a number 8 seed.

Good job Baron, and keep the beard lookin fresh.

Quote

In my post below, I hope I didn't come off as one of those "got it all figured out guys". I'm reading "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton and I think he has a great example of Christian SUPERnatural thought, vs. the naturalist explaination of the order of things:

"All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption: a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork...Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"' and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhpas God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy seperately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

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The Problem

Hello blog people. I know entries have been a little spotty, but this should be a little thicker than posts of late. Last night John Drage from The Rock spoke at our High School youth worship, and he really put the capstone on lots of things that have been floating around my head, mostly from books i've been reading, which in the following paragraphs I will blatently plunder and pass off as my own thoughts.

In America, we've got phrases like "culture war" in our vocabluary. You can use that phrase for all sorts of trends/cultures/beliefs in our country, but I will present the "war" between Christianity and Naturalism (which we will define shortly). Just look at the litigation in recent years over curriculum in schools and separation of church and state, the whole "In God We Trust" on our currency, the battles over "one nation under God" in the pledge of allegiance, the recent "Lost Tomb of Jesus" stuff in print and on Discovery channel, TIME/People magazine going to the well for another "God vs. Science" coverstory every 3 months...I could go on. There's clearly a division among worldviews in our country. I will attempt to outline 2 in my meager way, and then reveal that we have the same problem on both sides of the spectrum.

I will define a Christian as one who believes in an eternal, personal God who is the author of creation, who revealed himself through the inspired holy scriptures (i'll leave what scriptures are included as scriptures and how they are interpreted up to the reader for simplicities sake) and ultimately in his begotten son Jesus Christ, and continues to reveal himself through the holy spirit. The Christian believes that the universe IS ordered and that there IS a moral/ethical absolutre and his name is Jesus Christ. I've tried to make this definition pretty generic, as most Christians couldn't agree what exactly a Christian is, which is kind of funny and sad at the same time. Anyways, moving on.

I will define a naturalist as one who does not believe in the existance of an eternal, personal God. The universe is a mysterious result of time + chance, yet this mystery can be "unlocked" or observed through impirical, observable evidence and rational reasoning. Mankind arrived through natural selection and therefore through his rational thought, progress, and advancement can make his own parameters about his past, present, and future with no absolutes other than whatever is existential.

Obviously, you can sense my bias towards the former, but here a goes.

The problem is this: Niether the Christian NOR the Naturalist REALLY believes what they say they believe. (or at least, not to the extent that they think they do. Read that last part again and see if it makes more sense the second time.)

The Christian is too lawless and the Natuaralist is not lawless enough.

As Dallas Willard points out, you can have a Christian family and a secular family living on the same street and you wouldn't know the difference. I'm not just pointing the finger here, i'm right up there with everyone else. If we REALLY think that Jesus REALLY existed and the story is not just a story with a nice moral code but a call to REALLY live wholly/holy and participate in the Kingdom of God then we are not doing a really good job, at all, across the board historically, and currently in every arena of American life- economically in our giving and stewardship, socially in our compassion, corporately in our churches, and MOST IMPORTANTLY personally in our relationships. We are too lawless- we are not living by Jesus command to love God and love neighbor, period. (is it neccessary to put an actually period after the emphatic word period that ends a sentance? Interesting digression...)

On the other end of the spectrum, the naturalist has not adequately dealt with his claims either. For if there is no God, no order from whence we were created, and as the naturalist doctrine claims- we are just a different configuration of natural elements, then there is no order or reason by which they can substantiate their very championing of reason and rationalization. Chaos does not move towards order. In less confusing terms, if we have no higher reason to think about any one but ourselves, then there is no absolute good and evil other than whatever we rationalize for ourselves. Therefore, whatever is immediately good for me and only me according to my "natural" instinct is how I should behave. Naturalists cannot claim that man has no higher purpose but then appeal to a higher purpose of reason in defense of man living for "the common good". The naturalist is not living as lawlessly as he contends the nature of the universe is.

The common thread is what Francis A. Schaeffer refers to as "Personal peace and affluence". We've all got it made. As Americans, and particularly where I live in West St. Louis County, we're comfy. Do I REALLY depend on God for "daily bread"? NO! Literally i've got bread thats probably to old to eat in my crisper drawer, and figurativley i've got all these plans and then try to include God somewhere in there. Other scholars (and this is what prompted my mention of John as he did a great job of outlining this for us on Sunday night) point to a historical period referred to as panem et circenses, or bread and circuses. Basically, as long as our needs are met and we're entertaining ourselves, we don't realize the rut we've gotten ourselves into, neither the Christian or the Naturalist.

So all of this "culture war" between religious/Christian and secular society is really just silly because both of us are in bed with our own comfort. As Christians, we will verify our claims to truth by the difference we make in our communities and the world (or rather, the difference God makes through us because of the difference God makes in us). So who cares if you're arguing about creationism vs. big bang vs. evolution vs. intelligent design if you don't LIVE LIKE YOU WERE INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED (fearfully and wonderfully made!). Who cares what your kids are learning at school if you don't model it at home. For the Christian- we have a higher calling and we better act like it. For the naturalist- why do you really care if we all just die anyway?

But the problem is the same for both, we don't really behave like we believe. Jesus addressed this in his life on Earth, and perhaps we can have a nice discussion around this subject because i'm tired of typing and pretty much out of things to say right now. Peace.

Cards Game

Got some sweet tickets to the Cards game last Saturday. 17 rows behind home! It was freezing and we payed way too much for hot chocolate, but it was still a blast. They're above .500 now! In other news, i've finished Rob Bell's Sex God. Despite the provocative title, it's a really good book.

23

Is it just me, or does Don Imus look like Magneto's grandpa?

In other news, i'm 23 years old today. Kind of a lack luster birthday. One of the only real implications is whether i'm in my early twenties or my mid twenties now. I contend that i'm in my late-early twenties. Car insurance will drop at 25, so I guess i'm looking forward to that!

Phonezoo

Enjoy.


Create free ringtones at Phonezoo

Easter Eve

It's about the 3rd post in a row i've started off with a "gosh I haven't posted anything in a while" mindset.

If you'd like to check out some devo's and something with a little more depth, check out www.lwyouth.org

If you'd like to hear some random thoughts i've had, read on.

People I think are creepy/annoying:
-The guy from the UPS "whiteboard" commercials
-The Dyson vaccum guy
-Joakim Noah (Florida Gators basketball star)

Stuff that i've recently found (or continue to find) awesome:
-www.phonezoo.com
-men's wearhouse
-Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs
-power tools (i've recieved a drill for my upcoming birthday)
-dual meat dishes (chili dogs, chicken cord-on-blue, etc. I think i've went over this a while ago.)
-no easter sunrise service
-lo-carb energy drinks

Other thoughts:
-blades of glory was hillarious
-remember when raising the roof was cool?
-Easter should be the same weekend as passover
-turning 23 isn't that cool, can't wait until 25 when the car insurance drops
-the more I learn about taxes, the more I learn i'm getting screwed. although, here's something I do...i know that the US gives foriegn aid to Africa and other places. I just imagine that all the money out of my check goes there! it makes paying 30% of your check almost fun!
-the Cardinals need to raise the payroll, geez. 1-4. awesome.

Well, I guess thats all for now. I hope everyone has a blessed Easter.

Back in the Motherland

We made it home from Mexico, to check out photos/videos go to lwyouth.org

I'm pretty tired.

Finished Dan Kimball's "They Like Jesus, But Not the Church". About 1/3 through Sam Harris' "The End of Faith". Whew.

Also was able to keep up with ESPN's Pardon the Interruption through podcasts. Sound good cause they free!

More, later?

Mexico

What up guys.

I'm in Mexico, with my computer and wireless internet! Cool!

Check out the youth web page for blog entries from south of the border, and some pics. As I write this they are taking a long time to load.

Again, sorry for the lack of posting, i've been busy boy. Who isn't?

Peace.

New stuff

Hey gang.

Check out:

http://www.lwyouth.org

Thats what i've been doin the past couple days.

Leavin for Mexico on Saturday. I hope to have kids post things from there, maybe throw some pics up. More later.

Air Guitar

A month or so ago, the Blue Note in Columbia MO held an air guitar contest. I'm friends with the dude featured in the story, pretty hillarious. Check out the story here.

Customer Service

As a young male, it really bothers me when I walk into a store and am ignored by the employees who have obviously sized me up and deemed that I won't be a "big spender" and am therefore unworthy of courtesy. The worst examples of this are probably music stores. Where the dudes working treat you like an idiot and try to sell you some Fender Squire if they even talk to you at all. Arg!

Other exhibits include the odd glances and glassy stares of the cologne-perfume-behind-the-counter-ladies at Famous Barr/Macy's/Dillards/etc. As an "unkept" looking indvidual I often get passed over, or perhaps they're just intimidated by my man-size beard. I recall being at one of these stores as a child with my Father, trying to purchase some perfume for my Mom for her birthday or something. After no sales associates were of assistance my Dad literally got out his gold card, waved it above his head, and loudly proclaimed "I'VE GOT MONEY!!!"

Classic Brent Mustoe. I love it. Clearly a disdain for poor business practice is in my genes.

So, there's some background. Today I get on the phone with a guy from "Mac Headquarters" to ask them about whats wrong with my powerbook. After answering my query about how late they were open (which I asked in a very friendly tone by the way) I said: "So I have a couple more questions for you, can I just tell you whats going on with my Apple?" or something like that. He responds with some non-intelligable noise and then retorts in a demeaning tone "Uh....I guess". So I say: "I'm sorry, am I bothering you? I just want to buy some memory". Sensing my agitation, he makes up for it with: "Ya, I said I guess." Whatever.

The point is I hate when I.T. or computer dudes get all high and mighty as if you're an idiot. As a customer, I don't think I should get the impression that i'm inconviencing this guy when all i'm trying to do is drive half an hour to his store and buy a really expensive piece of plastic and copper. I can't stand indignant techies who are so mortified by the pleabians who can't do anything computer related for themselves.

The point? We can't do this as the church. "We" can't be like snobby Apple guy and get all high and mighty using our big fancy words and then scoffing when those who are new to the fold (or have made up the fold for quite some time for that matter) don't possess the same knowledge and passion for "our" terminology, history, and particular, granular theology. This certainly needs to be tempored with education, discipleship, and a call to conviction as sinners but let's not pretend that we're above that mentally or practically.

People in the church aren't customers and we shouldn't discriminate like the people at retail stores according to socioeconomic status...or even worse judging people's hearts and sinfull tendancies by outward things.

I hope my church models the value of every individual simply because they're created in God's image, not because we want another tither in our midst or a number to my attendance chart at youth group. Nothing repels a person more than being treated like they don't matter or maybe worse like they only matter because of their possible benfits.

Thats how people get treated in the economic realm, not the ecclesial one. (killer last line huh!?!?!?!)

Back in the saddle

Hello all my blog people.

Well, this officially ends my longest blog drought to date. Much like my friend Adam, I don't think i'll come up with some big apology. I haven't really had the muse upon me to blog, there's been a period of trial and sickness both in our congregation and my family, plus, I just got my laptop fixed today (more RAM, system re-install...UH, YOU'RE WELCOME!).

Also, I came to to the realization that not much of what I say matters. The blog is a great way to function, communicate, vent, ponder, share, etc. All of those good things. But at the same time...if I don't post for a month the world somehow soldiers on. That being said, i'm back!

I just finished "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" and it was a good read. I also have been emersed in C.S. Lewis and got back my Sam Harris book from whom I leant it, so I've got some pretty good material lined up I think.

So, hopefully more will be coming. Thanks for checking back.