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A Brief Thought on the new U2 Album

March 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Like almost everyone who breathes oxygen, I love the music of U2.  And like so many who pledged their allegiance to the epic works during the days of Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby and who lived through the American reactions of Zooropa & Pop (which were brilliantly misunderstood albums not only ahead of their time but in a different dimension.  Some call it Europe but I’m not sure it’s that easily identifiable), you always have a bit of anxiety whenever a new U2 album drops.

I understand why many people despise Bono and his band.  They’re so big that they are “The Man” and we all know it’s cool to hate the man.  I will still never forget the argument I had with someone who told me that if I wanted to listen to real rock’n roll, I needed to listen to Aerosmith.  We all know that Steven Tyler has a life-size poster of Bono above his bed and we all know the best thing about Aerosmith is Liv Tyler. It’s ok, there will always be people who hate God too.   Anyway, while it is not the Achtung Baby reinvention we were promised, No Line on the Horizon is still fantastic.  

Of course so much has been written already, but here are some of the posts I’ve appreciated.

Don Miller’s post was really insightful.  (What else would you expect from Don?).  I don’t know how to summarize it without creating a  long post so you can just read it.

From a NY Times article:

“How do you puncture pop consciousness with a tune anymore?” Bono said later over a pint of Guinness in the restaurant of the venerable hotel Claridge’s. “That’s actually your first job as a songwriter.”

A conversation with Bono is a free-associative adventure. Between thoughts about the album he dispensed fascinating digressions, casual but carefully placed on and off the record. He gave a full-voiced demonstration of Italian opera vowels and Frank Sinatra style — heads swiveled nearby — and mused on cathedral architecture; he described encounters with presidential candidates and plans for his future columns on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. He spoke fondly about his band mates as characters he’s still trying to figure out, about songs as bursts of serendipity and about what he wants in a performance: “spastic elastic energy.” more.”

Filed Under: Music, U2 Tagged With: ,

Offense versus Defense in Student Ministry

March 9, 2009 by 3 Comments

A little while back, my friend Eric, told me that our youth ministry is geared more towards offense then defense.   While either/or is not my language, my initial thought was it’s probably better to be that than the opposite. Like so many (especially youth pastors), I am tired of being part of the Church that appears to be cryogenically frozen in a defensive posture.  Even worse, should they break that position, it is only to get into a mode of judgment or criticism.  

Here’s some of the greater context of what we are trying to do.  Our students know some of my passions and fears.  The passions are somewhat normal youth pastor ones like family, friends, coffee, etc. I enjoy discussions that intersect faith, culture, theology, issues and the tensions that exist within these conversations.  Add music, movies, books, wifi, and baseball, and I could live on any “island” ;-).  Following Christ faithfully in our context is a topic that I believe we I am always discussing.

My fears are somewhat normal too.  Like falling out of the Superman ride because the 16 year old who wanted to be a life guard at the Jersey shore pressed the “Release All” button when reaching for his Red Bull or drowning in the pool at one of our summer parties because someone jumped on my head, broke my neck and I stayed under the water and no one saved me because they thought I was kidding and so I drowned (wow what an awkward moment that would be).  Like I said, normal fears.  Our students also know that as youth leaders, our real fear is that our students will abandon their faith as they leave the safety of our homes and youth groups.

Because we believe that God is not afraid of our questions nor is the truth trying to hide, we not only encourage our students to ask their questions but try to provoke them.   At first the temptation is to be too provocative and do your favorite old school Tony Campolo impersonation every week.  Certainly there is a goodness in quoting a brilliant moment from a conference you attended but remember that you are at a different starting point when you hear that quote.  (Not saying to avoid it, saying to be careful.  Anyway, I digress). 

I have found that if we encourage our starting points to be honest from within our contexts and see if and how we are being faithful to Christ, then there is a relevant and worthy discussion to be had.  Those discussions ought to be sensitive enough to welcoming doubts and questions.  I sometimes voice them like “Some of you love the Lord so much but you feel guilty because the ideas of evolution make a lot of sense to you.  That’s ok, you should think that through.  God is not afraid of our questions but realize the answers take time, discipline, and work.”  This resulted in two students talking to me privately about that. 

I’m describing a starting point and sometimes I find myself guilty of rushing our students past them.  For instance we say that Christianity is the best and most unique of the world religions but if we haven’t explained the virtues and the issues from alternate worldviews, then the statement tends to lack integrity.   Does everything require an 8 week explanation?  Certainly not, but may God give us the wisdom in making the statements we make and modeling the lives we live.

Indeed, some times it is an ideology or a passion that hinders us in our faith journey and we get to the point where we have to sacrifice it in order to worship our Lord.   This is part of the process of life long discipleship that we need to do our part in allowing the Spirit to work through us so their faith be take root.  

Finally, our students know that we love God and we pray they too will love Him with all their hearts mind and soul.  Coffee, books, traveling, even family and great friends are secondary upon coming to an understanding of what Christ is asking of us.  To go back to my friend’s language, it is in this way, that I find Jesus to be the most offensive and so, may we be Spirit-led and model this life.

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You Should Attend an Emergent Cohort Gathering

March 5, 2009 by 3 Comments

Like so many in the emerging church conversation, I read a few Brian McLaren books, read Tony’s Post-Modern Youth Ministry, heard that Doug Pagitt was really pushing the envelope with this re-imagining thing, etc. Like so many, I was getting disenfranchised with the traditional way of doing, thinking about, and being the Church.  Like so many, I know that I didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of certain well-intentioned, sincere-hearted people because I was witnessing not only a mass exodus of young people leaving the church, but on a different level, the possible extinction of their Christian faith as well.  It was no longer about finding a relevant, younger, cooler worship church, but about discovering/imagining/creating perhaps a new and different way of doing things.  We needed something much, much different.  In Church on the Other Side, McLaren, writes in the opening, “When you have a new culture, you need a new church.  You have a new culture.”   Hmm, where could I go to continue these conversations?  Eventually I found my way into a cohort.

The cohort experience has been a much-needed and welcomed time for me.   It was through the Philly cohort that met in the home of Scott Jones that allowed me to appreciate the “now what?” discussions that much of my reading has sought.  Even better, I made some great friendships with people like Scott, Todd Hiestand and I even met John Franke which is significant because eventually I found my way enrolling at Biblical Seminary.

In 2006, I moved to the north Jersey (and the Philly cohort was never the same.  Who knew is was the keystone to the whole thing? – just kidding).  I started attending the one in NYC and have made some beautiful friendships there as well.  But between the meetings, the distance, and the business of life, I was not able to participate as frequent as I would have liked.  Fortunately inniative-taker extraordinaire Thomas Turner began the North Jersey cohort and it’s been a good thing for several of us.

It’s here that I would like you to pay attention again.  The emergent church thing has been described as a “friendship” or a “conversation” and it’s in the cohorts that you get to appreciate the reality of that.  It is not a recruitment time, nor is it a time of bashing fundamentalists, nor is it cheap training of emergent propaganda.   Rather it’s a time and place to enjoy conversation with generous minded people that may or may not be very different from you.  As a post-conservative, I have really appreciated this space.

If you live in the north jersey area, our next meeting is March 12th at 7.00 at the Allendale Bar and Grill.  Let me know if you need directions or a ride.  If you live outside this area, you can look for the one closest to you here.  And if there isn’t, consider starting one with a few friends. It’s a very, very good thing.

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Monday Morning Brief 3.2.09

March 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

(once again posted on Tuesday)

Highlights of the Week Will Now Be Called Brighter Moments for this Week … yeah for Lent I gave up pastoral exaggerations and highlights just seems to overstated. 1.  There were some good moments and among them was celebrating my mom’s first birthday as a grandmother.  If I being objective, Nathan hasn’t always been kind to my mom.  We don’t hold that against the 10–monther but on Saturday, they had a ball together.    2.  Had some real solid conversations with several people throughout my church. 3. Spoke to a different youth group about worship this past Friday night.  It was well-received.  4.  Lost – brilliant.  4.5. 24 has been pretty entertaining too.

 

Disappointed by … nothing personal that I can remember.  I think lately, I’ve just been burdened by my family/friends who live in fear of being laid off or have been laid off and now job hunting.  God’s grace to them.

Listening to … U2’s New Line On the Horizon (available thru Amazon mp3 store for $3.99).   As part of Lent, I’m trying to spend money on only essentials.  But I’m pretty sure that the Lord Himself will be buying this tomorrow (that is assuming He hasn’t already downloaded it, legally of course, since God’s Ipod exists beyond the time-space continuum).  2. Heard a great Mars Hill Podcast by Jeff Manion called a Life that Shines available here.

Loving … that some of my friends started blogging over the last two weeks.  My favorite youth pastor, fellow brother in Christ and in the Yankees, Tim Nye just started blogging. Also there is my seventeenth favorite seminary cohort member KJ (also a youth pastor) is blogging again and my favorite prodigal son story of 2008 Jeremy Stephens who was delivered from being a car salesman and is now serving the Lord as an underpaid youth pastor and bivocations at a board game company.  I think his job is manufacturing the top hat game piece in the classic game Monopoly.  I know what you’re thinking, don’t they just outsource that to a like a steel company?  He told me otherwise and a former car-salesman doesn’t lie.  Hey check out their blogs.  

 

Reading … a little of everything.  No class this week at school so I got back to Pete Enn’s Inspiration andIncarnation.  Also reading Cross-Shattered Christ by Stanely Hauerwas as part of my Lenten reading and …  Also the new Relevant magazine just came in.  I urge you to subscribe, it’s the best $12 you will spend all year.

 

Watched …  Slumdog Millionaire finally.  Loved it, was beautiful but not sure if I can ever watch it again. There are some movies that are too moving for me to sit through again.  Saving Private Ryan comes to mind. The first hour, I was just so broken by the poverty, abandonment, violence and exploitation.  Further, it’s not just a movie, this not only happens but it’s happening.  Beautiful movie that takes these terrible circumstances and offers some redemption and a great love story.  They deserved all their awards. Speaking of awards, still have yet to see the “Mickey Rourke was robbed” in the Wrestler.  Some people are angrier about that then the bailout.  Also watched on the dvd documentary “Escape From Suburbia” which deals with energy and the American way of life.  I ended up watching it twice.  Here are my two cents.  Good info, I agree with the crux of it, but the documentary was not that well done, way too many interviews, and while I know they were intending on waking people up, it was a little too over-stated.  I’m curious in knowing if there are better documentaries that do a better job with this issue.

Youth Ministry Update … Our Video Series They Like Jesus but Not the Church (by Dan Kimball) is still going real well.  Small groups have been lively and this past week we discussed the issue of women in the church.  Controversial huh?  Not really.  Dan does a real good job cutting to the issue.  Here was his point, “The church has been charged by some by being male-domineering and oppressive to women.  How do we as Christ-following Christians respond?”  We can discuss women in ministry, interpretations of passages like I Timothy 2, remind each other the role women played in Jesus’ ministry and in Paul’s but we have to agree that the we need to affirm and encourage our sisters in Christ. 

Looking forward to …  Playing fantasy baseball with my friends.  I just registered and my team name is “I Am Wolverine!”  

Filed Under: Reflective

What I Am Doing for Lent

March 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Almost every year since 2001, I have given up coffee for Lent.  I remember the first year I did it, I honestly didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep my commitment.  As you probably know, part of the idea of giving up something for Lent is remembering the sacrifice of Christ throughout your day.   Though it may sound odd to read that, I always liked it. I remember one moment in particular when I wanted to stop at Starbucks on my way to something and then realized, “oh yeah…”.  I drove to my destination reflecting about some worthy things with nothing in the cupholder. 

Anyway, giving up coffee wasn’t so bad.  It was cool, the one year, this gentlemen from my church and I gave it up together and our deal was to meet at Starbucks on Easter Sunday at the break of dawn.  It was the best Easter Dawn service I’d been to – lol.  Anyway, it turns out, my addiction to coffee is more psychological then physiological.  It’s true, I’m a coffee snob and if there isn’t good coffee (like at church before I brewed my own), then I’ll drink tea, or water, or rain water from the gutter. 

Throughout the years, I’d add various devotionals, readings and every year I’d read the gospels through.  I noticed last year, these practices started growing stale for me.  Giving up coffee was getting easier.  I don’t really eat that much chocolate and I’m not a big dessert person but I added that to the list.

Technological fasts never made that much sense to me.  I use email the way a carpenter uses a hammer.  If I was still playing Jetman on Facebook, then I’d consider it but it’s about relationships for me and now that all my worlds have collided on there, it’s not as fun as it used to be.  Those that give up Facebook, Twitter, etc. God bless them, it just doesn’t connect with me.  

So what am I doing?  It’s hard to explain but it looks something like this:  Reflection, People and Responsibility  (I admit I was tempted to use ‘P’ alliteration of Perspective, People and Prosperity but the latter one has more to do with the idea of being more  responsible). 

Some of these are hard to explain and I don’t think I’ll be able to articulate through blogging.  In “Reflection, I’m using various books, prayer guides and devotionals throughout.  It’s a bit.  But whatever I have to give up for the extra time for the reading and reflection becomes what I am fasting from.  I think this will bug me more and thus be more sacrificial than my previous fasts. 

Regarding “People”, in short, I need to be more intentional with spending more time and showing more love to those that I do not normally.  It’s hard to describe this on this type of forum without sounding either snobby or self-righteous but here’s how I came to it.  Christ sacrificed his life for people and I feel convicted that I need to sacrifice more of my time with people.  This includes strangers, old friends, those hurting and many others.  Also, I want to be more intentional with the quality of my relationships, this includes the repairing and reconciling of a few of them.

The last one, “Responsibility” is a weird one.  I’ve described in a journal entry as, “being faithful with the opportunities that I’ve been given in the most Christ-like way”.   During Lent, I want to be more intentional in what I consume, what I give towards, what I complain about, and what I celebrate.  Vague enough?

To be truthful, I am not real sure exactly how this will look like.   But it’s what I want to do and throughout Lent, I want to explore, struggle, pray, repent, respond, celebrate, give and hopefully by Easter, be closer to my Savior.

Feel free to comment on what you’re doing.  In the meantime, may we reflect on the cross.

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How I Came to Appreciate Lent

February 26, 2009 by 3 Comments

Here we are in Lent and I am among the heathens who did not go to any formal Ash Wednesday service, still drinking coffee, eating meat, and listening to U2’s new album non-stop.  Later, I’ll post on what I am doing for Lent.  

As most of my friends know, I come from a conservative Protestant background.  Lent was deemed a “Catholic thing”, and we all knew what that meant.  Well, actually we didn’t, that’s why we are so interested in it now.  There are many beautiful aspects of the way the Catholics (and main-line churches) celebrate their faith.  And while there are reasons why I am not Catholic (and fewer of not being a main-liner), among them, you don’t need to be Catholic to observe the practices of the Church prior to the Reformation, I am grateful for the many beautiful traditions they celebrate and practice.  Among my hopes is that they too would be blessed by many of the Protestant aspects as well. 

I think some of my evangelical Protestant friends believe that Lent was invented just 10 years ago with this emerging church thing.  It came right along with Lecto-Divina, Henry Nouwen, and the Holy Spirit.  For some, they just won’t get it.  That’s fine, there are a lot of things that I don’t get (like country music), and I am content that they practice their faith the way that Spirit leads them.

The first church I began working at observed the Advent-Lenten seasons.  It was an independent, conservative, Protestant church and its doctrinal statement is virtually identical in terms of belief to where I serve now.   Combined with the emergent books that I started reading then, it’s not that great of a mystery that I haven’t given up these traditions.  That’s interesting to me but I’ll move on.  Each year, we would have an Ash Wednesday service where we would actually perform the imposition of ashes.  We even used the palm branches from last year and mixed them with oil that was from a catalog that had a picture of the Holy Lands on it (we weren’t complete suckers).  Truth be told, it was one of my favorite services and one year, the senior pastor was too ill and I had the honor of leading it.

It is clear to me how observing Lent has blessed my celebration of Easter.  In all honesty, I was glad to leave that church but God showed us a lot during those 5 years.  Combined with the great friendships we made, the experiences we had, and connecting with some of these traditions were a great blessing to me and I am grateful to continue in some way.  An example includes the worshipful moment of doing Ash Wednesday in our Senior High youth group last night.  (Maybe I’ll mention that later.)

If you haven’t, I’d like to encourage you to do something for Lent, even if you begin today or next week. Whether it be reading a devotional, giving up something or serving in some new capacity or the many other ideas, I think you will find it beautiful in connecting it to this time where we reflect on the cost of our sins and the resurrection of our Savior.

 

Filed Under: Christianity, Reflective Tagged With: ,

Monday Morning Brief 2.23.09 (on this fine Tuesday)

February 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

I know it’s Tuesday, but it still has the spirit of a leftover Monday.

Highlights of the week –  All is well, I suppose.  The family is healthy and happy, Wed. night youth group went well, Lost was great, learning a lot in the Pete Enns class (I really do love my seminary).  I even enjoyed the Academy Awards this year.  Good call giving it to Heath (I was one of the 30 million people to call that).  I’m thankful things are ok.

Disappointed by 1. still stupid Aroid.  I knew when he started talking about his cousin and getting the substances from the Dominican that this would not be good.  Did you not listen to Andy Pettite?  Come clean, be done with it. 2. The Office reruns.  Are the writers on strike again?  Because even the new ones aren’t that great.  By chance, are these the same writers who were on Heroes last season?

Reading: Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament by Christopher Wright.  Like Evan said on his post, it’s pretty good.  I may blog about it but I always say that and never do.  There’s a bunch of books, magazines, and blogs that I have either a bookmark in or a link for.  

Listening to: the new U2 cd No Line on the Horizon.  March 3 cannot come soon enough.  You can listen to it on myspace.  It’s one of the few reasons to go on that site. So far one of my favorite lines is: 

“Can stand up for hope, faith, love

But while I’m getting over certainty

Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady” in “Stand up Comedy”.  That Bono!

Also listening to Homebrewed Christianity podcast with Walter Bruggeman from back in October.  Oh, and the new Paul Coleman cd is growing on me.  The first track “If I was Jesus” is pretty good.

Laughed a lot About:  1. I was sitting at Border’s doing some work and a dad was helping his son with his homework.  The son was a little frustrated and said, “Dad I can’t read too good.”  I thought to myself, “Of all the days to leave my business cards of Derrick Zoolander’s School For Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Do Other Stuff Good Too”.  I’m an idiot for forgetting them.  I forgot my 4 Spiritual Laws tracts too so I hope they don’t say, “What must we do to be saved?” .  Oh wait, I have those Testamints.  I hope we’re lucky enough to get the Romans Road out of them.

2.  Jaquin Phoenix on the Letterman show. Is it in act?  He’s a good actor but just because Mickey Rourke recovered from drugs and oblivion doesn’t mean he may recover from looking like a weirdo.

 


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NYC Cohort Luncheon with Jay Bakker and Vince Anderson

February 23, 2009 by 1 Comment

A few days ago, I attended a luncheon meeting of the New York Emergent cohort (led by Peter Heltzel).  With the pace of life, we do not meet often enough but when we do it’s special.  We were fortunate enough to have Jay Bakker and Vince Anderson from Revolution NYC come and share with us about their work in Brooklyn, what they are focusing on, what they’ve found challenging, and they shared a bit about themselves too.  Jay did a lot of the talking but I’d like to begin with Vince. 

Vince felt called to drop out of seminary (something that God has probably called others to do but few are willing to obey), and ventured out to discover what God was leading him towards.  Eventually, he played piano and sang at a bar in Brooklyn.  His use of spiritual songs landed him the name “Reverend Vince”.  This is the best part, upon getting to know him, people figured out that this “reverend” title was more than a stage name and so they started asking him spiritual questions, sought counseling, and asked him to perform weddings, funerals and some brought him into their lives. He’s been doing that for 15 years. While I know there are some pastors who stay that long, we know it’s becoming increasingly less.  Today he serves as one of the pastors at The Revolution, he’s an activist, works at the Salvation Army and is involved in his community in a variety of ways.

Then there is Jay Bakker.  What I like about Jay is that he talks about his parents and is proud of them.  He told beautiful stories of his dad and his late mother.  As one who grew up in conservative circles, I knew about the tragic time that Baker family went through.  What I love about them, is that like me, they were flawed, but like me, they were/are redeemed by God’s grace.  If you want to talk about redemption, talk to Jay Bakker, he’s got a great story.  

I appreciated Jay’s openness with us.  There seemed to be a time when he could have written his own ticket, cashed in, played the game, and probably been on the cover of more magazines, had more books, and who knows what else.  But it seems that he is unwilling to compromise what some of that would have cost him and while he still may erupt on to the mainstream (whatever that means), it looks like it will because he went in a direction more true to himself.  I love these stories for the same reasons why I like a lot of independent music (and movies), they’re great stories of struggle, hope, and pardon me for repeating myself, but they are great stories of redemption.

They’re doing good work at The Revolution.  It’s not easy and I don’t think many people in their neighborhood know who Jay Bakker is, which is probably refreshing for him. It seems that they are not well-funded, they had a combination of blockbuster and a few poorly attended events, they are not bursting at the seams with people, but they are an active church.   They have many regulars and many visitors each week and while more people could potentially ruin the intimate season they are in now, they are studying Scripture, praying together, and seeking God’s Kingdom.  Sounds like a beautiful ministry to me.

 

Filed Under: emergent, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , , ,

You Saw it Here … Second Last

February 20, 2009 by 3 Comments

U2 to take over Letterman Show for a week starting March 2.  I tell you, if they took over Fox News or The View or even Hannah Montana, I’d tune in.

The other week Chrisitanity Today interviewed Derek Cooper who wrote  So You’re Thinking about Going to Seminary: An Insider’s Guide.  Derek is one of our adjunct profs at Biblical Seminary and ridiculously brilliant.  Here’s an exert: 

What is the biggest misconception about seminaries?

There are generally two. First, those who attend seminary assume that one of seminary’s main purposes is to provide the answer to this or that great biblical or theological question. Instead of understanding seminary or theological education in terms of a mathematical formula to be solved, however, it is more like a tension-filled narrative that is to be lived out. Seminaries, in other words, are better at asking questions than answering them.

Second, those who do not attend seminary assume that only people called to the pastorate or some other full-time Christian ministry are encouraged or even eligible to attend seminary. The truth is, however, that seminaries are filled with students who will pursue a variety of professions after graduation. (more)

The other week Jen from our cohort emailed this youtube clip.  Meant to post it sooner but I forgot it in the draft folder.  I know you are inundated with a “million must see this youtube clip”.  This is only “must-see” if you are interested in the future … of the world.  If you live in the past, or you if you are an incredible optimist, don’t worry about it, you can click here for a rerun of the Saved By the Bell.  Otherwise, click below.

 

Shane Claiborne posted “When Jesus and Justice Kiss” at the end of January on the Sojourners site.  

“I just got back from a trip to Australia where I was saw folks fall in love with Jesus, the real Jesus, for the first time… and with the innocence of a kid at the altar in a big tent revival, fell on their knees with tears going down there cheeks for they found had found their Lover. It was a revival.”    

“(We) …set up a shanty-town, cardboard slum on the steps of Parliament to bring attention to the folks being displaced around the world …”

“Can you imagine if our North American Christian conferences had a witness on the streets like that? In the middle of it all, I had one person come up to me and say – “if this is what Christianity is, then sign me up.” In this notoriously non-Christian country, I was proud to be part of a witness that showed folks a Christianity worth believing in, good news they could see and touch and feel.”

I think I’m find some more service project weekend ideas here.

Filed Under: Reflective Tagged With: , ,

The Monday Brief 2.16.09

February 17, 2009 by 2 Comments

Highlights of the Week– 1.  Going out for Valentine’s was fun.  Nathan likes our babysitter and Susan and I went out for dinner and a movie.  It’s not a cliché if you never go.  2. Started our new class with Pete Enns.  I am only a novice at theology but I love that my seminary brings these great profs.  3.  Connecting with my senior pastor  4. Grateful to be on this staff.  5. For those interested, the sermon I preached last week is available here (Thanks Eric).  If you are in my seminary cohort, you heard most of this message before.  I did take a number of suggestions and “softened” some of it  Thanks.  6. Loving Lost.  7. Pitchers and Catchers reporting but though I am excited to play fantasy baseball this year, I’m growing increasingly frustrated with …

Disappointed by – 1. the A-Roid Scandal, the other 103 names on whatever that list is, Mitchell Report, Bud Selig, the government, and almost everyone connected with MLB.  2. The stimulus package.  Sounds unimpressive to me but I don’t know economics. 

Enjoyed listening to – Homebrewed Christianity Podcast interview of musician Bill Mallonee of the Vigilantes of Love.  I only remember him because my friend and true indie artist Andy Zipf mentioned that he liked him and they were both in a Paste music contest last year.  Last week’s relevant podcast.  Went back and grabbed some Ray Lamotagne.  I love Trouble but have been listening to Till the Sun Turns Black.  

Reading – Preaching the Whole Bible as Scripture by Graeme Goldsworthy, a handful of magazines and a bunch of blogs. 

Youth Ministry Update –  1.  Week 2 of our They Like Jesus But Not the Church went well. Excellent discussions but we can’t fit it all in.  2. So far we have 8 students for our mission trip and 4 adults.  This year we are going to be building cabins for a camp that hosts those with HIV/AIDS outside of Nassau, Bahammas.  Prior to which, we will be headed to YS’ DC-LA.  We have a lot of work and fundraising ahead of us.

Looking forward to – 1. An easier couple of weeks (or so they seem from this perspective). 2. Going to the Amidst the Powers Conference in Toronto with Evan and … who else wants to go?  

Filed Under: Reflective