Great couple weeks

So these last two weeks have been fantastic. My sister got married June 20th. Sarah and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary June 21st. I also had the privilege of preaching that Sunday. If you want you can check it out in audio podcast form here or video podcast form here (links will open up iTunes).

So after being in Kansas City for the better part of a week, we turned right back around and took 17 middle school kids to Kansas City for a mission trip.

Here is our group as we left.


We painted and helped move lots of stuff at Broadway UMC. They made lunch for us both days, which was awesome. The people were so appreciative and Waldo is a cool part of town.



We also worked at ReStartInc an interfaith Ministry to homeless persons. It was very impactful and we helped fold some sheets and cleaned apartments/emergency shelters. To see all the things they have going on there is amazing, and to know all the needs that are around there is crushing.



Being a St. Louis boy I do have some experience on the West side, so we sampled some KC culture: BBQ and lunch at the plaza fountain:




The last night was a peak experience in ministry. It is so cool when the lights come on for the kids. While we were at Restart they were still being very much like middle schoolers- giggling, agitating each other, and seemingly oblivious to the realities that were literally surrounding them. But later that night it was clear that the trip had made an impact, and that the students really did have their hearts broken by what they saw. I likened the situation to what happens in 5th grade when they break up your class into boys and girls and the gym coach came in and taught us boys about sex, anatomy, etc. You don't quite know how to deal with it, so you just try and laugh it off. Same thing when we were at ReStart. Its hard to cope with where you find yourself. But time to process made a huge difference.

THEN we get back to church on Saturday, and after worship on Sunday we hosted a luncheon with Burmese refugees. It was amazing. A friend here at church immigrated from Burma in 1980 and within the last couple years has really seen a huge increase in refugees from Burma and surrounding countries coming to the St. Louis area. So our church is working to assist these folks in many ways, and the coolest part is its not just about meeting physical needs, but we have some real relationships being built. Here's a pic from my phone from the luncheon:



As much as I complain about church signs or many, many other things about church, I was very proud to be a part of my church this week.

IT's HOT

New Sermon Series on Sunday

I'll be preaching on the Prodigal Son this week, after my sister gets married!

New Addition

Someone donated a pinball machine to church!!!

No Rain=Ultimate!!!

It's on.

MCGEE AND ME!

All my sheltered Christian kids, holla back!

Bernard Gets "Fixed" : (

Todays the day. He also recently got a haircut.

Sign of the times

Alrighty! If you know me very well, you know that one of my favorite rant topics is church signs. Well imagine my delight when I saw this baby. A Methodist Church not far from my own and not much more than a stones throw away from where I live:
"One Destination, Many Paths."

What exactly does that mean?

Before I appear to be cannibalizing, I'll try and give these good folks the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps that means that God draws us to himself through different circumstances in our lives. Maybe they mean in the grand story of redemptive history that we all take different paths to reconciliation and redemption back to God. Maybe thats what they mean. Maybe someone thought it sounded vaguely wise/sagelike and intriguing enough to be noticed so they put it up there. Maybe whoever is in charge of changing the sign just flipped the page in their book of stuff to put on the church sign and they had all the letters so it worked. Shoot, its still better than "This church is prayer conditioned".

"One Destination, many paths." Universalist garbage. I would hope that this sign would upset the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu, the scientologist, the Mormon, and the whoever else all the same.

Why would you undermine your own existence so much? You're a CHURCH for God's sake! (literally!) Why would you say that it doesn't matter, because its all the same? What a self-defeating thing to say. Why not just put "Come join us for worship on Sunday. Or not. Whatever! Just do something." After all, many paths lead to the same destination.

What really kills me is that Methodism is so willy nilly that there's room for this line of thinking. I find it insulting that a church within my denomination would have this slogan representing their church. I'm not saying my church is perfect, but it is a Christian church. So here we have two United Methodist Churches. Are we really United at all if under different leadership there can be such a divergence of theology?

A famous John Wesley quote is: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity"

What could be more essential to a Church than agreement there's something particularly important and distinct about the Christian Church in the first place? Doesn't the church's worship of Jesus matter? Doesn't the church's foundation of Jesus Christ as its head matter?

Why would you ever want to be a part of something that by its own admission, doesn't matter?

Mr. Pujols

He got new intro music, lame.

It's a rough life.

Here's where I'm sitting at the Cardinal game tonight, it's not easy
being me.

Pops Pizza: Comfort food and comfortable familiarity

Today I went to my a buddy from high schools wedding in Cape Girardeau, about 2 hours south of where I live. It was a wonderful ceremony, but thats really not what I'm going to talk about. So, Matt and Tasha, I love you and congratulations!

After the wedding I met my old Young Life director (who's now a Pastor at a church in Cape, he also officiated the wedding) at perhaps my all-time hands-down favorite restaurant on the planet: Pops Pizza. The place is like a time warp. Pretty much EXACTLY how I remember it from high school. We enjoyed off-campus lunch privileges and with a $5 pizza buffet + drink Pops was (and still is) unbeatable.

The thing about Pops is that its actually a bit dingy. I'm so spoiled in my suburban West-County ivory tower if I went there for the first time today, I might have thought it was a little gross. But what makes Pops so great is that it remains unchanged.

C.S. Lewis talks about what I'm trying to get at in "The Four Loves" with familiarity comes affection. Even something that initially strikes us as unpleasant can with time and consistency become charming. Comfort brings affection. We grow to love the familiar. So the pizza place of questionable quality (certainly questionable caloric content, and if I say that you KNOW its bad) with its smeared sneeze guard and sticky tablecloths becomes a thing of beauty. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Last year my church built a new facility. During the moving process when people would get nostalgic about the old building I would try to keep from rolling my eyes. Maybe its a little sad that I'm comparing how I feel about a pizza place to how others feel about their place of worship for so many years, but I have to say I can sympathize a little bit.

In his book "Intuitive Leadership" Tim Keel talks about what happens when God's people get sentimental and rely to much on the past. Talking about the Israeli/Philistine battles in 1 Samuel:

"...what Israel does in their moment of crisis is revert to their past...Israel could have said 'this was the pattern of God's activity in the past. Based on that, how do we discern what to do now?' But in the confusion and pain of their environment, Israel looks to her glorious past. Implicit in this move is an assumption that because God operated in such a manner in the past, he will do so again...The reality is that God's activity in the past can become a stumbling block in the present. When we refuse to engage the environment as it is before us now, we become prone to sentimentality, going through the motions, employing totems, and spouting meaningless God talk..."

So in conclusion, Pops Pizza is a great place to visit but after a fierce inner debate not a place to oft' return. Likewise, Christians need to always be monitoring our mission, our motivations, and our methods so that we don't become so sentimental that we're detrimental to God's work in the world while we sit undistrubed in our monuments of nostalgia.

Youth MiniStarz

Grandma Betsy

Many friends already know, but Grandma passed away May 19th in Kirksville. She had suffered a stroke. She lived a long, full 84 years, loved and was loved by many. She had lived in Edina pretty much her whole life and was still in the same house that they had bought in 1954! She was honored at her funeral, and I am so glad my whole family was there to grieve and go through all of that week together.

I thought I'd just put up these photos. The top one is very special. It was given to a family member only two weeks ago! It was from someone who went to high school and Grandma and was on the softball team with her. So the top one is of Grandma when she was 16. The bottom one is of Sarah, Grandma, and I at Christmastime. My Uncle told me it was one of her best days in a long time. We will always treasure our last Christmas all together. Grandma, we love you and will miss you dearly. I will close as my Dad did in a prayer at her bedside: Jesus, we reluctantly but willfully commend her into your care.

Goose on the roof!

Wii Bowling Tourney @ Youth

Youth Group + Retirees + Wii=Awesome!

VOTE FOR MY FRIEND KATIE!

Watch the video, then GO HERE to vote for her!

Cold wife

Our heat cut out, luckily our landlord is her cool and on thief way.
In the meantime since our home is 53• Sarah is warming her hands by
the steam from the dishwasher drying cycle.

What?!?!

From Houston: Before

Just getting around to posting some pics from our workcamp over spring break. Here's the main part of the graveyard when we arrived.

From Houston: After