Elated when I heard the news that Paste was stealing a page out of Radiohead’s playbook by naming your own price for a subscription. This is one of my favorite magazines to read at Border’s.  At $6 an issue it’s pricey.  Don’t know what the subscription price but I signed up for $11.  A dollar an issue – let’s see if i get hooked (I think the regular price is $20 anyway).  FYI – Ryan Adams is on the cover this month.    Subscribe here.

I do not have the higheset of appreciations for Driscoll. That’s not a polite way to say that I don’t like him. Just unsure about him.
That said, this is an interesting article (although lengthy) that gave me both a better appreciation and validation of my mixed feelings.
Even so, I’m glad he’s part of the Kingdom.

Pastor Provocateur by Collin Hansen
Mark Driscoll looks no different than he does any other day. He’s wearing the hip pastor uniform—blue jeans and an untucked shirt with the top two buttons undone. Yet he speaks in a subdued tone that hints at wear and tear.
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He begins his talk about lessons learned as a church planter with common-sense advice about how pastors can blow off steam. Driscoll, 36, plays T-ball with his three sons or feeds ducks with his two daughters. Hardly the stuff that provokes raging blog debates and church pickets. As Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church in Seattle has grown to 6,000 members in 11 years, quiet moments like this with his family have preserved some of his sanity.

“I’m playing hurt right now,” Driscoll confesses to prospective church planters at a March meeting of Acts 29, his network of 170 churches around the world. “I wore out my adrenal glands at the end of last year, just living off adrenaline too much. My sleep has been really jacked up for some months.”
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From a Border’s (in New Jersey) drinking Seattle’s Best listening to Peter Bjorn & John’s (who are from Sweden) Writer’s Block maybe read by you – wherever you are. Wow, this new internet thing is going to bring people together (mark my words skeptics)

So, there’s this great pressure to resume blogging with something profound. A great realization has entered your life and has inspired you to share with the world this new-found cure of purpose and fulfillment.

I’m afraid this post will not be able to live up to that expectation – at least not today.
Just trying to get back in the habit.

So here’s some of what’s going on.

1. I joined a fantasy football league that I really wanted to do – two years ago. A couple of friends were in their leagues, I was going to get some great advice, we would have something more to talk about. Problem is I don’t live there anymore and when we talk, doubtful we will talk about the details of fantasy football.

But I also wanted to join this league because these guys crack me up. Though I do not know them as well as I would like, they are the boys you want to watch the game with. And they’re Egyptian and so you know besides Israel, they are the only people group that God calls, “My people” in the Bible. (Isaiah 19. Read the whole passage because the first half looks pretty bad for my countrymen – but like all great stories – it ends well.)

Where was I? Oh, great league. However, I am realizing that it takes time to be good at fantasy football. It appears to take a lot of time in fact. So, we’ll see about that.

2. More importantly, I am trying to get prepared for the fall ministries kicking off. Truth is, I’m sincerely excited and anxious (which most people say and truly feel). Like most pastors, I believe in what I do, frustrated by the things that pre-occupy so much time and energy that are not part of the “big picture”, working for the potential of things, over-joyed at seeing God work through our shambles of plans, programs, words, and even our fancy keynote presentations (I’m a mac-user and so I find powerpoint functional, but ugly. I’m a guy – looks and personality and intelligence and charm matter. You will find that I’m pretty consistent with this. I really hope my wife reads this one day …)

So I’m getting ready for the fall.

3. I’m getting ready to hopefully begin a Master’s of Divinity LEAD program at Bibical Seminary. For years, I’ve wanted to return to school. I know I’ll regret it half-way through the semester and towards the end of the semester and pretty much most of the time, but three years from now, it will seem like a good idea again and I’m a big-picture guy so I’m in.

There will be a lot of sacrifices though. One is that I will have to really read again. I enjoy reading but there’s a different type of reading when you are required to do it. It can be not as enjoyable. Hopefully I’ve matured in the past couple of years. TV (except for Lost and the Office), concerts (that I love to go to), X-Box, will all have to take a back seat.

And then the other important things like family, ministry, friends, yeah, what am I thinking? May the good Lord give me wisdom and may I be disciplined to follow.

So I guess this is a good start to resume blogging.
See you in a couple weeks.

I believe very strongly in student missions. At the same time, I understand why some are skeptical about it. Some are skeptical if students are spiritually and emotionally able to serve in this capacity. Some see it as a too high a financial expense. Some do not see the justification of the need to travel so far when there are a mission opportunities available to us in so many cities and other communities close to our area and throughout our country. Among many other questions one classic one is wouldn’t the money be better used by giving to real missionaries?

My intention is not to answer each question point by point but to point the bigger picture of student missions. So here it goes. It’s been demonstrated, written about, discussed, etc., that the American Church is shrinking. Many local churches are as well. It’s not just that the Veterans Generation are dying nor is it due to the Boomer Generation giving up on the church. It’s that many of the X’ers (born between 1968-79) and older Millennials (born after 1980) have given up on church and the fear is the younger Millennials will as well.

There are a lot of reasons. Pick one, breakdown of the home, a more individualized society, a church no longer relevant, the failure of youth ministry, a combination of many factors.

Regarding the failure of youth ministry, maybe that sounds a little dramatic but I say that being a youth pastor, I think I have a small handle on it. For too long of a time, the state of student ministry has been in a state of damage control. “Get these kids saved and make Christianity fun so they stay in the church”. The problem is that mentality will not demonstrate the power, understand the purpose, or create a passion for the Gospel.

Now back to student missions. I am not implying that this is the answer that Barna is looking for. But I do believe that experiences like these are more significant then some may realize. The success of mission trips are due to stepping outside your comfort zone in a completely different culture and system that forces an individual to confront what they actually believe and what is actually essential in life. Many issues are confronted on these types of trips. Pick one – taking Christ and His message for granted, a new appreciation for church, a deeper understanding of meaning in life and about ten thousand other things.

Cross-cultural student missions has its place in a healthy scope of ministry where we are serving our own church, our community, and our world. Year round, we as youth workers should create an attitude of service that says as Christ taught us, we need to care and show love to the Father and those outside of our inner circle.

So much more to say, maybe I’ll update this post in time but I feel very strongly about this.

Grace and peace to you.

Well, here I am. Sitting on the floor blogging while my leg is being extended and flexed slowly in this Continous Motion Machine. The surgeon said that I need to do this about 8 hours a day. I thought, “8 hours!! Where I am going to find 8 hours?” Turns out, it’s pretty easy when you cannot walk/stand/move too well. I’m going on 10. I figure I’ll be jogging by the end of the week.

Thankfully, the pain is pretty bearable. I have percocets but I have only taken a couple so far. (Though everyone has warned me not to get addicted but I am taking only a few to send a message to the drug companies. And that message is umm, … “thanks don’t stop making these entirely, but don’t make too many either. And could you add some sugar so they taste a little better?) That’s right, one person can make a difference.