Awakening the Soul

Empowered

2009-08-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

We have been going through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings at The Spoken Word. A couple of weeks ago I started off the series... well in Acts 1. As I was studying the scripture one of the biggest questions that kept floating around in my head was, "what does it look like to be empowered by the Holy Spirit?"

Acts 1:8 says that the disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit come on them, which will then cause them to be his witnesses.

I couldn't get out of my head linking being baptized with the H.S. (verse 5) with being empowered by the H.S. and then in Acts 2 they start speaking in "tongues." Now I am not charismatic, and so that image just never set well with me. Plus I believe since the beginning of it all God has been moving in a certain direction with a specific purpose, because of that, if you look at scripture as a whole you find common themes and stories. Speaking in tongues doesn't seem to be one of those reoccurring themes.

In theology there is a rule called the law of first mention, which basically you go back to the first place the word was mentioned to see if it gives any clues of what it means. So I went back to Genesis 1.

Jeff Benner has done amazing work creating a Mechanical Translation of the Hebrew Bible as well as translating Hebrew. His Mechanical Translation of Genesis 1 reads:

1&in the summit Elohiym fattened the sky and the land, 2&and the land had existed in confusion and was unfilled and darkness was upon the face of the deep sea and the wind of Elohiym was much fluttering upon the face of the water...

Elohiym (Eloheem) is often translated God but is more accurately translated Power. It comes from the root word el which means one of power and authority. With a meaning like that, its no wonder the Hebrew people designated that word to connect with God. So one could read Genesis 1:1 with all accuracy as In the summit the one with power and authority fattened the sky and land. In other words at the height of God's power he filled the sky and land with life.

When you continue on to verse 2 you read the wind of Elohiym, which we usually translate as the Spirit of God. The Hebrew word for wind is ru'ach and it literally means "the wind or man that follows a prescribed path." To the Hebrew person ru'ach came to mean the character of a person that directs their life toward a certain path. We all know that a person's character directs their life.

We find the character of God's power (ru'ach Elohyim) was hovering over the depths of the see. Why? Because God is moving in prescribed path, and he is just about to set the world in that same direction. When then read that Elohyim (God's Power) begins to create life, harmony, order and beauty on this confused, unfilled and dark land.

In Acts 1 when Jesus tells his disciples that they will be baptized (immersed) with the Holy Spirit (the character of God's power) and will receive power when He comes upon them, I think Jesus was saying the disciples will actually begin to create life, harmony, order and beauty on this confused, unfilled and dark land.

When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we begin to look for the dead things in our lives and the life that fills this earth. We look for those dead things because God's character has set us on a path to restore, renew, and bring life back to the deadness we find. When we pursue those that life we become witnesses (in Greek witnesses is a legal term for giving undeniable proof in court) that God is alive and active in this world.

May we be baptized into the character of God's Power and help in the work he started in the beginning of bringing life, harmony, order, and beauty on this confused unfilled and dark land. May we become empowered!

Good bye Dr. Notorious B.I.G.

2009-08-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Finding a good pediatrician can be difficult but Andi and I were lucky enough to find a doctor at Sea View right away. When we first met her I couldn't remember her name, so me being me, I tried to associate her name with something so I could remember it. Here is how my thought process went.

Natori, Natori, sounds like notorious. HMM. She is the notorious pediatrician... the notorious... YES! Notorious B.I.G.

Now this woman is a very petite asian/pacific islander so it works out perfectly!

Anyway, Brody had his 4 month wellness check and because we are switching insurance it was his last visit with Dr. Notorious BIG. We will miss you very much, you were a great pediatrician.

Brody came in at 14 lbs, 24 5/8 inches, and his head was 41 cm. He is almost exactly in the 25 percentile for his age, and yet everyone says how big he is and how strong he is. I am ok with him being small, perhaps he is on the way for being a professional surfer!

Trail 1 San O

2009-08-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Andi has been learning to surf this summer which I am totally stoked on. Last week we decided to go to Trail 1 San O because the waves just weren't showing at Doheney. It wasn't Brody's first time at the beach, but it was his first time at Trail 1. It was also the first long blue water wave Andi caught. Here are some pics that Andi took.

Little Squirt

2009-08-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was playing with Brody. As I was starting to get a little tired I sat him down on my lap so I could still make him smile but not have to dance around to keep his attention. As we I was making him smile he gave me the biggest smile I have ever seen. He then proceeded to let out several mighty farts. These things sounded like a man! I mean they were serious. Andi and I laughed out him and encouraged him in his big endeavor.

A few minutes passed by I thought to myself, I wonder if there was more than just farts that came out? So I opened up his diaper to check and saw the biggest mess I have seen in his diaper. I got to change him when I noticed it was all over my shirt. It had squirted out of his diaper on both sides, out the back and almost out the front.

I thought to myself, so that's where the expression "daddy's little squirt" came from.

Books I am reading

2009-08-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

We are going through the book of acts for our next sermon series at church so I picked up this book after several recommendations.

Acts by Beverly Roberts Gaventa

A couple of friends recommended this book as it seems to resonate with many people. Its a fiction story about a pastor who goes through a journey of going to church to becoming the church.

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jacobsen and Coleman

This is a great book that I started a while ago but I started school and had a boy and didn't get a chance to finish it. Mo I promise I will give this book back to you one day!

Jesus For President by Shane Claiborne

Andi and I picked this one up to be better parents. Easy read and some really good stuff in it. If you are a parent and have no clue what your doing like me, I would recommend it.

Parking Lot Rules by Tom Sturges

Fencing Life In

2009-08-02T12:26:00.001-07:00

I had a dream last night that I was going to a my 10 year high school reunion. Funny thing is, my 10 year reunion was 2 years ago. Anyway, as I got there I was surrounded by people who were stuck in the past. You know that guy that still wears his letterman's jacket, the girl who is still talking about the guys she dated, the nerd who always got made fun of and now is some successful business man with a smoking hot wife but still wishes he could have been in the "popular" crowed. You know, those sort of people.

As I continued my dream I went from being totally stoked seeing these people I haven't seen in 10 years to saddened they were stuck in the past and unable to move on. It was as if they built a fence around their life and nothing had changed. They were living their glory days as if life had peaked when they had turned 17.

When I woke up I thought through the last 10 years of my life which is sometimes a scary process because I don't always make the best decisions, and I have hurt some people along the way. But this morning was much more of a joyful experience. The last 10 years I have experienced life and as I have turned 30 I feel more alive today than I did when I was 17. I would have missed so much if I had built a fence around my life.

Remembering the past isn't a bad thing, but being stuck there can be. As Brody gets older its tough to see him move through each developmental stage in life. Andi and I both want to be able to hold him forever, have him fall asleep on our shoulder and chest, wake him up from a nap to find him smiling at us with joy to see us. We know those things wont last forever and yet we want them to, so we take photos and video to help remind us what it was like.

The amazing thing is being present in each stage because each stage of his development brings us a new joy we have never experienced. It is awesome to jump for joy when he rolled over for the first time. To hug and kiss him when he mimicked us doing zerbert noises, and we cried the first time he recognized us with a huge smile. I wouldn't trade those things for anything and I am looking forward to things that lie ahead.

Fencing life leaves you stuck in the past as if life had peaked. I think there is much more life to live.

I am back... I think...

2009-08-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Its been several months since I have posted anything and some of you have been asking why. Well, simply put Andi and I had our first child and he is a bit more important than posting. Being a new dad has been the best and the hardest experience I have ever had. There is absolute joy when that little guy smiles at me, falls asleep in my arms, and plays with me. Its also a heavy responsibility. Brody is only 4 months old and he is already soaking in everything Andi and I do, and quickly I realized that I am his example and mentor for this life.

I can not tell you how blessed I am to have such an amazing boy like Brody. I also can not begin to tell you how wonderful a mom Andi is. Little Brodles loves his mommy like I have never seen anyone love another. It is one of those things that brings such joy to my soul that I when I watch the two of them interact it almost brings tears to my eyes. I am truly lucky that God has blessed me with such an amazing family.

The Times They Are A Changin'

2009-02-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

It is 9 am on Monday morning, its raining, and I am sitting in my kitchen listening to Dwight Pryor thinking of the great words by Bob Dylan, "the times they are a changin.'" There is so much going on in my life right now that it is amazing in both an awe struck sense and a nervousness. It is because of all this change I have been unable to write on this blog. Some of the big changes have been starting school for my masters degree in marriage in family therapy, Andi is about 8 months pregnant with our first child, and yesterday was my last day as youth pastor at MVCC.

In many ways I feel completely blessed to be walking through all of these changes because it feels as if God is preparing me and shaping me to become the person he desires. I also feel like Abram when God told him just to go, and there wasnt much direction beyond trust and follow me and I will lead you. God has been faithful to us in so many ways that I cant even begin to list all that He has done. It because of this Andi and I both know that we are following the living God who takes care of those he loves.

In other ways I feel completely foolish for stepping out in different ways without knowing what God has planned and not having anything set up for our family. Its an interesting tension for sure.

I hope to be able to blog a bit more, however, with school and getting ready for a new baby and trying to find a job I dont think I will be able to post much but I will try to when I can. I am not sure who even reads this anymore but if there are a few out there, thank you for your patience.

God is faithful, and what a liberating and foolish feeling it is to follow him! But, God calls us to be faithful what ever that may look like in your life at this moment, not successful. Have courage and be faithful.

Its been a while

2009-01-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since I have blogged last. I apologize and I probably wont be able to blog for a little bit longer.

I hope to be back on blogging a bit more regularly after February.

Journal Entery 9/21/08

2008-09-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today was Sunday... Sunday's are a long day for me. I am not complaining they are often a great day! I usually get up at 6:30 leave the house by 7:20 and don't get home until about 9 and then in bed by 11.

I drove home after having taken a student home and I noticed a girl on the side of the road waiting for the bus. As I got closer I recognized the girl. She was someone that I had spent some time with a few years ago in the youth group. I hadn't really talked to her in a while. So I was faced with a dilemma that normally is not a dilemma. I had a conversation with someone that was really more like conflict resolution. Conflict and I are not good friends. Conflict usually finds a way to wipe me out, and keep my mind processing over and over all the things that I should have, could have, said instead or in place of. After 2 hours of resolving the conflict, I was done.

As I drove by I thought I should turn around and see where she is going and see if she wanted a ride. I was so wiped, and so needing to get home to safe haven that I drove right passed and then got frustrated with myself for telling students to take time for people, sacrifice for people, and put their needs in front of yours and then I plow through it. I disconnected with you and who you are God. I disconnected with the girl because I was unwilling to put her before myself.

I am sure she got where she was supposed to go, I am sure her day wasn't interrupted because I didn't stop, I live in Mission Viejo so I am sure she was fine. That is not the point. The point is being faithful.

But the leadership small group we started with the High School was amazing. Students opened up, revealed some things in their lives. I sat back as I watch them support each other and love each other through some pretty rough stuff. It was amazing to see just how much they loved each other and cared for each other. I have much to learn from them.

Journal Entery 9/20/08

2008-09-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today is my sabbath day, not because I keep a Saturday as my sabbath, no that's usually Friday. Today is my sabbath day because I am feeling good and I am making it my sabbath. So I am going to go do some things that make me... me.

Journal Entery 9/19/08

2008-09-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty low key day. Still pretty sick, still cant really sleep at night, still hoping I get better soon. A good friend of mine asked me to go paddle boarding with him, which I have always wanted to do but just havent had the chance, and today is no exception. Then he offered to meet up with me for lunch, but I just couldnt do it. I slept right through lunch. I hate missing things like that. I love to experience things and be with people so I always feel like I am missing out when opportunities pass by.

We were also just about completely out of food because we were gone most of last week because we went to our good friends Bryan and Careena's wedding in Nor Cal. So we didnt buy groceries for the week we were gone and we basically have been home for a week, so we have nothing. I decided to go get groceries which was not the best idea although eating sounded much better than not eating.

I always feel prompted to talk to people in places like the grocery store, the gym, the gas station, etc. I see places like that as a part of my community and often I feel a responsibility to engage in my community. This time around I chose to ignore it. There was a lady who was next to me looking at the gala apples. As she picked up an apple she started mumbling some things, which is usually when I would chime in and say something to engage in conversation. This time I didnt. I just grabbed my apples and left. As I walked away I felt like I missed an opportunity. I dont know why I feel that responsibility and sometimes I wish it would go away because there are times like today that I choose to ignore it and then I feel horrible missing that opportunity.

After I got home and finally ate something, I started feeling a little bit better which is a huge positive. Then I went and visited my friends Scott and Christin for a bit because it was Scott's b-day. It was awesome seeing them and having some good conversation about church and theology. They are way smarter than I am, so usually its me trying to process the deep insights they have on it all.

God thank you so much for good friends like Ashton, Scott and Christin, and all the others that I have in my life. Forgive me for the times that I dont engage with the people you have allowed me to be around.

Journal Entery 9/18/08

2008-09-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Today was much of the same as yesterday. Still feeling sick, still laying in bed trying to get rest hoping that will make me feel better. My head is still in a "fog" and I zone out very quickly. I feel apathetic and lazy but at the same time I am trying to make this rest like a Sabbath. Its amazing to me how much I define my "worth" by the productivity I create instead of my worth coming from who I am. I am loved. I am a child of God. I am unique and wonderfully made in the image of God. There is no one like me, not even one similar who has my personality, my smile, my feelings, my thoughts, my fingerprint.

Some of the darkness that I continue to wrestle through is defining who I am not by what I do or what I accomplish, but simply by being me. Is it ok that I dont own my own home? Is it ok that I dont make triple figures a year? Is it ok that I shop at places like TJ Max? Is it ok that I am an introvert in what seems to be an extrovert position? Knowing the answer to these questions and so many more is yes, it's ok because that's who I am. Yet owning it the majority of the time is a constant struggle.

God where are you in all of this? You are the voice that keeps calling me, giving me hope that yes it is ok to be me. You are the light that shines in those dark moments exposing the truth that you do love me for who I am. You are the stories written in the pages of the scriptures, and yet you are in the stories written in pages of my life that points to hope, healing, restoration in the midst of the chaos, brokenness, and emptiness.

Journal Entry 9/17/08

2008-09-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

I made a commitment to the students and myself that I would take the challenge of journaling as we went through the Day of Atonement preparation. So here I am finding myself starting yet another journal.

My day today was relaxing as I woke up on Tuesday morning sick with a sore throat and pretty bad nasal congestion. Seems like everyone has it. Nonetheless, I was laid out in bed for most of the day which is difficult for me because then I cant be out and about hanging out and meeting with people. In fact I think that is where I felt most disconnected and separated today. As I got on campus, my head was in a fog and I felt more like I was dreaming then I was at church, I didn't engage with the students nearly as much as I like to or wanted to. I had a conversation with a few of them, but for the most part there wasn't much of a connection. I didn't play dodge ball like I usually do, I didn't hug people like I usually do, and I didn't stop to listen how people were doing like I usually do. I just felt out of it.

I did have a few minutes to do a Lectio Divina before church started which was rad. I opened up to a random psalm and it ended up being psalm 37. I read verse one and found myself focusing on the word fret. I began to feel anxious and frustrated as I kept going over that word in my head. As I asked myself, what is it about this word, why this word God, I began to notice that you were simply saying that you have things taken care of and I need to just drop it. I realized there were somethings that I was holding onto in the youth group wanting them to go a certain way and I was worried about them and that's why I was feeling anxious and frustrated. Now lets see if I can just let them go!

Day of Atonement

2008-09-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Last night we started a 3 week preparation for the Day of Atonement which happens to fall on Oct 8-9 this year. As we all know Jesus is our atonement and we no longer have to wait each year to start over, we have direct access to God through the name and person of Jesus. However, there is something significant, something freeing when we designate some time to really wrestle with our past sins, lay them down as a sacrifice to God, and recognize that we are forgiven and clean.

We started the night at the church and then took a very short drive over to a near by school. I parked the vehicles just before the school so we had some time to walk a little bit. On our journey up to the school I stopped at 2 separate houses and asked questions like, who do you think lives in that house? What if it was a single mom, or a homosexual couple, what do you think it would be like to live in that house? What kind of God do you think they are looking for or in need of?

We then found the darkest corner we possibly could find at the school and made our way to it. I have to admit it was a little relaxing and a little scary at the same time. There were some bushes that I am pretty sure something was living in because the bushes kept moving and making noise.

Once we were settled in the corner I had everyone stop and just check in with themselves. What did they hear, what did they see, what did they notice, how were they feeling? We then talked about being "kicked out into outer darkness." I asked them what kind of people our society kicks out into darkness? I then asked them, what does that say about our society.?

I got responses such as, people who go against the grain and are individuals, people that don't conform to society get kicked out. People who aren't willing to be up to date with fashion, technology, and the fast pace of life get kicked out. They said our society is shallow, and into themselves.

Then I asked the same questions about the church. Not our church or any one church but the church in general. The responses I got were, people who didn't believe exactly what the church wanted them to, homosexuals, prostitutes, people who are different. They said church is intolerant, narrow, always having to be right, and draws lines.

Then I asked them what kind of people they personally ignore or want to kick out of their life. Most of the responses I got were family, I think they were half joking, half serious. Then they said people who are different from them, people who are intolerant of different opinions.

I then asked them to tell stories that they could remember in the bible of when Jesus spent time with the people who were kicked out and considered to be living in darkness. At first they said every story is like that. So I asked them to start recalling some specific ones. As they retold the stories of Jesus I asked them why those particular stories came to mind. I was looking for how those stories related to the person telling the story.

Then we talked about how our story collides with God's story and how if we are going to be like Jesus we have to be willing to understand what its like to live in darkness, to be kicked out and rejected. We have to be willing to recognize and own our darkness as well.

I then challenged the group to journal during this week of what went on during their day and look times that you felt disconnect, rejected, or separated and write down how that felt, what thoughts went through your mind and how you responded to it.

I committed to journal through this as well, so I will be posting parts of my journals this week as well.

Finding a Rhythm

2008-09-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

I heard Rob Bell say that the ancient Hebrews believed that breathing is a physical picture of a deeper reality. For me I haven't really noticed my breath and how it reacts and adjusts to things in life until recently.

As many of you know I have hurt my back on several occasions the over the last year or so, and from that I have begun to notice when my back is at its limit, or when I haven't been doing my exercises, or when I haven't stretched.

A few months ago I was at the dentist and they told me that I needed a mouth piece because I was grinding my teeth severely. I didn't believe them. The Doc told me that my teeth should never touch each other unless I am chewing while I am eating. I started to pay a bit more attention to clenching my jaw and sure enough I constantly bit down hard.

I have always said to people that I don't think people sigh just to sigh, usually there is something behind it, some thought, some emotion, some spark that caused them to sigh. I began to notice that my breathing had turned to frequent sighs.

My mind was constantly occupied with things that stressed me out, or that I was worrying about, and sometimes they were meaningless thoughts or day dreams that consumed my thoughts. The thoughts, of course, then drove several emotions that would then make me sigh.

Your breath has a natural rhythm to it, and often the slower deeper you breath the more it tends to calm and relax your body, mind, and emotions.

I have recently committed to gain more awareness of my rhythm of life, because of this I decided to stop listening to the radio in my car as much, and any down time I have to prayer the Jesus Prayer.

I started with breathing in saying "Lord, Son of David" and exhaling saying "have mercy on me, a sinner." As I tried to pray that in rhythm with my breathing I noticed I focused way more on trying to say all that in rhythm instead of just letting it happen. I relaxed a little bit and tried to see what came out naturally. I found myself praying "Lord, have mercy on me" on my inhale and praying "a sinner" on the exhale.

Its been about 3 days since I have started that, and though the rhythm of breathing is natural, its been a struggle to consistently pray during the down time and the car rides. I suppose that's why they call it a spiritual discipline.

Perhaps when it becomes less of a struggle to pray I will have greater insight of the deeper realities that the breath points the spirit of life, but for now it remains more of a discipline.

The Students Speak

2008-09-16T17:36:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I took in a big ol' thing of butcher paper into our Sunday morning service with Jr High and High School students. At the top of the paper I wrote adult. I then proceeded to ask the students what they think adult life is like. I was amazed at the answers.

The majority, not all, but majority, used words like responsibility, stressed out, busy, passionless, don't live out their dreams, no friends/social life, dislike their jobs, etc.

Whether adult life is like this or not, the reality is, is this is what students are seeing and believing adult life is all about, and it scares them.

What should I measure?

2008-08-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

I would like to talk a little bit about works of service. I know its out of order from what I listed a couple of posts ago, but on Wednesday night our high school group had a great conversation that fits this and if I don't share it will forget it before to long.

Every summer we go down to San Clemente Pier and have a time to hang out and then sing some worship songs and have a bit of discussion. I use to have more of a devotion but I found these almost pointless. Most students didn't listen, and really it wasn't their fault. The environment is set up for them not to pay attention. There is a fire that is mesmerizing, an ocean to admire, every 15 minutes there is the metro link that comes through, so many things that makes it even more difficult to keep focused.

What we do now is a guided discussion where I ask questions and let them dialogue through it. Sometimes this works great and other times the dialogue just isn't there.

Wednesday night, as we begin to prepare for the fall, I asked the question, "if Jesus were back on earth as flesh and blood, do you think he would come to our church?" This is a pretty dangerous question, but that's why it makes for a good discussion question.

To my surprise the students began to talk mainly about how our music is what was important to worship God. In my mind I was thinking, is this really what we are talking about, and do you really think Jesus would be concerned about the music we played? Plus I thought, I taught on worship several times and made sure to emphasis that music is a small aspect of worship but it is not the epitome of worship.

Then all of a sudden someone said that they thought Jesus would be ashamed of us if he were to walk into our church. Then others chimed in and said that we have it so good and Jesus wasn't around those who had it good, but those in need.

So then I asked them in scriptures where do you find Jesus the most? They said with the sick, outcast, the hurting, the people in need. Then they said Jesus went to secluded areas to find rest, recuperate, and to listen to God. Then they said the only time they see Jesus in "church" of their day, is when he is flipping over tables, and teaching the people how to live for God.

I asked the question one more time, and they started to say that they think Jesus would come to our church to teach us how to live for God, but we would find him more in places like the middle east, in Georgia, in Compton, and where ever else there is the biggest need.

The students made a huge shift from critiquing our church by the music we play and calling that worship, to realizing that Jesus would be in the midst of people that no one else wants to be around, the people in a great need.

Jesus was on a mission and because of that he was constantly out serving/healing people. If we are to measure our progress, we must take a look at how we are out with the people who are in need, who are unloved, who are the outcasts and sinners.

What should I measure?

2008-08-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

I had in my head that I was going to talk about all of those categories at once, but since its late and I want to get to bed, I think I will start with just one right now.

Fruit

Fruit is something that is important to measure but is difficult as well. Jesus said in Matt 7:16, and many other places, that you will recognize who people are by their fruit. So there is something inside of people that begins to be transformed and out of that their lives begin to produce some sort of fruit. But what kind of fruit?

Well there are many ways you can take this, but one way is to look at what Paul says the fruit of the Holy Spirit looks like in Galatians 5:22-23.

Are people's posture moving towards love? Do people have joy? Do people have more peace in their relationships? Are people becoming more patient? Are people more kind?

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

Are people moving in this direction. Not perfect but are they in a process or journey toward these things?

My new Rusty

2008-08-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Today I got a call from a friend of mine that he went and picked up my new Rusty Battail Quad surfboard! It looks like its going to be an awesome board. I have never ridden a quad yet, but everyone I talked to said they are amazing.

All I have to do now is wait for a swell to come in.

I would take pictures but I dont have a camera of any sort to link up with my computer yet. Until I do, I guess your just going to have to imagine what a battail quad surfboard looks like.

What should I measure?

2008-08-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

As I said in the last post, finding things to measure is key to evaluating and moving toward a common purpose. However, what you decide to measure is an important part of it as well.

I was talking with Mike Goldsworthy awhile back and he said something that I had been wrestling with, and helped put words to what I was thinking. He said "numbers only tell part of the story not the whole story."

From here its important to know what it is you feel God has called the church to be and do. My personal opinion is that we are to make disciples who can make disciples. And this process isn't just for the sake of having more Christians, but its for the purpose of teaching all that God has commanded so that we could step into and be used by God in his redemptive, healing, restorative work on earth.

So everything I talk about will come through that lens. If your desire is just to get people into the door so they hear a message and possibly give their life to Christ, you probably would measure things like, how many people came, how many people received God as savior, and how many people did we baptize. That's great and perhaps thats all that church needs, but chances are you will have a revolving back door.

However, for me it is evident that throughout the scriptures God has stepped into the suffering of the world in order that he might draw us back into relationship with him and we could join in his work on earth.

Jesus also seems to focus mainly on his 12. He spends about 3 years dedicating his life to these 12 odd, extremely less than perfect, possibly not so moral men. Jesus interacts with many and has crowds following him but most of his teaching is with the disciples, most of his healings and redemptive works are with individuals that draw a crowd. Jesus even recognizes this and says somethings to the crowd that actually makes many of them walk away. Jesus shrinks the number of people following him. Luke 9:58-62 Luke 18:18-30

There are only a few times that numbers are mentioned in Jesus' ministry. The disciples are numbered as 12, Jesus sends out the 72, the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. Which by the way, I think those numbers are significant because they retell a story about God and his interaction with people in the old testament. Paul, Peter, John, and who ever else wrote letters to people and churches never once said you are failing the kingdom because by now you should have this many people and you don't. No their letters were about character, obedience, faith, and fruit. Granted the book of acts has a couple of numbers in it as well.

Jesus said by thier fruit you will recognize that they are my disciples. Matt 7:15-20; John 13:35

Paul says in Eph that the role of the church is to equip the saints for works of service. Eph. 4:12

Its not that numbers are bad, wrong or evil, that's not what I am saying. But like Mike said numbers only tell a part of the story not the whole story, so what then should I measure, beyond numbers?

I would say a good place to start is:

Fruit

Equipping

Works of service

Stories being told

Lazy morning

2008-08-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time all summer that I actually slept in. For some reason this summer I have been traveling and speaking that it feels like I have been gone more than I have been home. But today being my day off, I finally slept in until 8. When I woke up Andi came home from her first couple of clients in the morning and wanted to take a quick nap before she had to go back in for her next few clients. Since I was still in bed lounging I obliged and fell back asleep. I didn't wake up until 9:20!

I wish I could say it felt good, but I am so use to get up early that I feel more tired instead of refreshed. It was nice to have a lazy morning where I could just do whatever though. It was some what of a sabbath morning.

What should I measure?

2008-08-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

In every organization you have to have ways to determine progression, stagnation, and regression. Constant evaluation and openness to dialogue about these things are huge ways of making sure that things are going according to your vision. In order to evaluate there has to be some sort of way you can "measure" whats going on.

I had a real hard time with this when I first got into the church (10 years ago) because how are we suppose to measure transformation? How are we suppose to measure character? This concept just didn't seem to fit into my small brain, which was probably my first issue.

I shortly discovered that in church, the easiest things to measure are the tangible. Makes sense right? Since the church is non-profit they obviously cant measure the amount of money they make. The next big tangible thing is the amount of people that come to the services, events, programs, etc. Also because of today's culture and society, typically we believe the bigger the better. (Don't believe me, look at the cars we drive, the houses we long for, the food offered at restaurants)

I spent the first couple of years of my church life trying to get more people into the doors. I had dynamic messages that were highly interactive and imparted great wisdom to the kids, games, events, I would call them all time, go to games, have sleep overs, all nighters, everything I could think of that would draw a crowd. I actually did alright at it. But then I noticed how tired I was and how much guilt I placed on myself. If I didn't call someone and they didn't show up then it was my fault. If the event only had 20 students show up then I failed.

Then I became angry because of all the work I was doing that no one else seemed to share the same passion and zeal.

Then I saw that there was no real transformation happening, kids weren't following Jesus, that weren't reading the Scriptures, they were coming to be entertained and to get out of their house.

I then began to notice how much the ministry revolved around me.

It wasn't Christ centered, it was Dusty centered.

I started going through a process of wrestling with God, wondering why he had such high expectations of me. I began to wonder if ministry was really what God called me in or if it was just me trying to be a hero or something. I began reading different books, and talking with different people that were going through the same thing as me.

This challenged me to look at ministry and the church differently. It allowed me to step back and deconstruct and reconstruct my thoughts on how God wanted me to live and evaluate what was going on.

In the next post or 2 I would like to share some of things that I have been wrestling with to help have a better understanding of some things that I can measure. And hopefully all of you will have some wisdom and experience to help me along as well.

Mechanical Translation of Genesis 1:1-5

2008-07-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

I came across this mechanical translation of Genesis 1:1-5 this morning, so I thought I would share it with you because of the last blog series we went through.

In the summit "Elohiym [Powers]" fattened the sky and the land, and the land had existed in confusion and was unfilled and darkness was upon the face of the deep sea and the wind of "Elohiym [Powers]" was much fluttering upon the face of the water, and "Elohiym [Powers]" said, light exist and light existed, and "Elohiym [Powers]" saw the light given that it was functional and "Elohiym [Powers]" made a separation between the light and the darkness, and "Elohiym [Powers]" called out to the light day and to the darkness he called out night and evening existed and morning existed one (echad- in unity) day.

This brought some interesting thoughts to my head, but the one thing that stuck out to me that I had never heard before were the words "in the summit," instead of in the beginning.

I did a little searching, and here is what I came up with. The Hebrew word for "in the beginning" is the word reshiyt, which is derived from the word rosh. Rosh can mean top, head, or beginning of time and space. Most Hebrew scholars are in agreement that Summit or Height is the more accurate translation of reshiyt because it best describes the original Hebrew meaning.

Let me give you an example of where reshiyt is also found in the scriptures that might help.

Psalm 111:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..."

The word beginning is the word reshiyt. The psalm isnt saying that fearing God is the start of wisdom, the psalm is saying that fearing God is the summit, or height of wisdom.

There was evening and there was morning.

2008-07-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the last post of this blog series, so I hope you had some fun with it.

Today we finally get to what I think an answer is to why was evening before morning.

Remember that Genesis 1 is very poetic, and its poetic form is parallel poetry. As a recap, parallel poetry is saying the same thing in different ways but the meaning is the same. Genesis 1:1-3 therefore tells the general story of God hovering over chaos and emptiness, and this chaos and emptiness was called darkness. God then filled the darkness with light. And if you remember we touched on light usually means life. So Genesis 1:1-3 basically tell the same story just in different ways.

The key to this is that darkness was first. God hovered over darkness. God was present in darkness. There was no light, or life but the earth was filled with emptiness and chaos.

In verse 3 God creates or fills the earth with Light, and he saw that the light was functional, it was good, and so he separates the light and the darkness, calling the darkness "NIGHT", and the light "DAY".

Quick side note, I think God thought the light was functional (good) for a couple of reasons. One of these reasons was because light exposed everything in darkness for what it really was.

In this poetic writing we are constantly reminded that God started from darkness which is night or evening, and he fills the earth with light or life, which brings to the earth a newness, a freshness, a new birth if you will. And this new birth of life is called day or morning.

I know that's pretty consistent with my experience with God. I wrestle through the dark areas of my life as God hovers over them, and as I name that darkness and allow God to do business with it there comes redemption and newness of life, a fresh start. Just like the morning sun rising in the sky giving a new day, so God's light exposes my soul and brings a newness of life.

I also think Jesus is pretty consistent with this as well. One example out of many would be when he interacts with a rich ruler. In this discussion Jesus discovers the darkness in the rich ruler's soul. And with one question Jesus exposes that darkness and the rich ruler begins to wrestle with his darkness. Because of his choice, the rich ruler didn't experience the newness of life.

I also think this is consistent with what God is calling all of his followers to step into. What are the dark areas in the world that are chaotic, empty, and lacking life? God is hovering over those areas longing for his people to bring light and life to those areas. And when we do step into those areas of darkness with God, we get to look at redemption, transformation, recreation and worship that is now there as a result of God and say, "this is good, there was darkness but now there is light!"

An other way of saying that would be, "there was evening, but now, now there is morning."

There was evening and there was morning.

2008-07-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

I am back from my trips, and have had some time to catch back up. I apologize for not getting this out to you earlier but its been very hectic lately so I had to take a few days away from blogging.

OK, one last thing before we answer the question we sought out to answer in the first place. When reading the scriptures, especially in big chunks like chapters, books, etc. its always good to reflect on what this is saying about who God is at His core. Many times we look at scripture and we forget that it all revolves around God.

So, what does Genesis 1 say about who God is at the core?

Even at the beginning, God at the core of who he is, is in the midst of darkness. This is huge and important to sit on for a bit. God is not a god who is outside of this world, and is only recognized when "good" things happen. God is hovering over the darkness, the emptiness, and the chaos found in our individual lives and in this world. He is certainly not detached from that.

The God of the bible is a God who is in the midst of the darkness, longing to fill it with life. Another way of saying this is God is in the midst of dysfunction, and longs to bring it into function. God loves transformation and life, and he knows how to create that in our lives and in the world.

Some of my favorite people to be around are the ones that know the darkness and depravity their lives were filled with. These people know what grace and transformation looks like and feels like because they were willing to let God be God and bring life to their dark areas.

So this chapter isn't just about God creating the earth, its about the cosmos, the world, people, us, and God being God in us, around us, and through us.

There was evening and there was morning.

2008-06-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:3-13 is the first focus this morning. In this portion of the creation story you find the first 3 days are days of separating.

Day 1 God separates the light from darkness

Day 2 God separates the waters from above and the waters from below to make sky and sea.

Day 3 God separates the land from the water to make land and the land began to produce vegetation.

Genesis 1:14-31 is the second focus this morning. In this portion of the creation story you find the 3 days of creation.

Day 4 God filled the light with the sun and the darkness with the moon and the stars.

Day 5 God filled the sea with fish and the sky with birds.

Day 6 God filled the land with animals and man.

What's interesting for me is the connections between day 1 and 4, day 2 and 5, and day 3 and 6. If you put them together you get this:

1) God separates the light from darkness and fills the light with the sun and the darkness with the moon and stars.

2) God separates the waters to form the sea and the sky and fills the sea with fish and the sky with birds.

3) God separates the sea to form dry land and the land began to produce vegetation and He fills the land with animals and man.

Busy month

2008-06-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

This month is turning out to be a very busy month for me. High School graduations are a week away, we have an end of the year party going on this week for the youth ministries, Andi and I leave for DC on Thursday and return on the 16th, and then I leave to speak at summer retreat for my friend Bryan Whiteside up in Sacramento on June 20 and return on the 28.

I could certainly use all of your prayers, and I may be a little inconsistent on my blog because of it.

there was evening and there was morning.

2008-06-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:3-5 And God said "let the be light," and there was light and God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness and God called the light "day" and the darkness he called "night" and there was evening, and there was morning the first day.

Even though this is the first time we are seeing "there was evening and there was morning," I am not going to focus so much on that right now, but don't worry we will be get to it shortly.

The focus today is on the word "first." In the Hebrew language, much like English, there are different words for first and for one, for second and two, for third and three, etc. The word for first in Hebrew is reshon, but the word that is used in Genesis 1:5 is echad. Let me give you a couple of examples in scripture where the word echad is used.

Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united together and the 2 will become one (echad) flesh.

Genesis 3:22 And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one (echad) of us, knowing good and evil."

Deuteronomy 6:3 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one (echad).

As you can see Genesis 1 is not talking about a chronological order, as in this is the very first thing that happened, but more of 1 thing making up a whole. Just like I am one person, and everything about me: my personality, my insecurities, my physical body, my thoughts, my emotions, etcetra, make up the whole of me, the first day of creation is about how all of the following verses make up the whole of God filling the earth.

Let me try to say it one other way. The writer is trying to parallel verses 3-5 with 6 following to show how the earth was in darkness and by God filling it with ALL that he did it brought light to earth. Really, verses 1, 2, and 3-5 are all saying the same thing, and verses 6 following is all about how the darkness turned to light.

there was evening and there was morning.

2008-06-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today we are going to look at our first parallel lines in the story of God filling the earth.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God filled the heavens and the earth...

Genesis 1:2 and the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The big focus is the word and. Typically I read "and" to mean verse 2 happened after verse 1, which would mean God created the heavens and the earth and after that the earth had no life on it and so the following verses were going to be a chronological order of the life God created on earth.

In Hebrew the word and joins the 2 verses together, not in an time order but in unity. In other words the word and links verse 1 and verse 2 together because they are the same thing said in 2 different ways. Parallel poetry.

Verse 1 is the condensed version of God filling the heavens and the earth,which means in order to fill them, the heavens and the earth had to be formless and empty.

Verse 2 says that the heavens and earth were formless (basically means unfilled, or empty chaotic space) and empty (basically means empty) and God spirit hovered or moved over the waters. Hovering or moving is believed to be the action of God filling the earth, and the spirit or breath of God is the sound of the action of him filling the earth.

All this is to say that verse 1 and verse 2 are linked together in unity, saying the same thing in 2 different ways. In other words, if we put the 2 verses together they should say the same thing.

There was evening and there was morning.

2008-06-06T15:31:00.001-07:00

For the second part of our discovery of why the bible says in the creation account that evening came before morning I would like to spend some time on the first verse.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

There is no word to create out of nothing in Hebrew, in fact the word we translate into create is the word bara in Hebrew, actually means to fatten or fill. There are a few scriptures with the word bara in them but here are a couple to help give an example.

1 Samuel 2:9 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening (bara) yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?

Genesis 41:4 And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat (beriya the noun) cows.

If we are to take then and translate bara as its intended meaning we would read Genesis 1:1 as, In the beginning God fattened the heavens and the earth.

Based on that alone it appears that the creation story is not going to be a specific account of how God created the heavens and the earth, but a story of how God filled or fattened the heavens and the earth.

The next question that comes to my mind is then what was the purpose of God filling or fattening the earth?

As the story of Genesis 1 unfolds and we see the parallel poetry I think this will become more clear.

There was evening and there was morning.

2008-06-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have always been a little confused why the creation account in Genesis 1 after each day says there was evening and then there was morning. In fact I don't think I have even heard someone touch upon this in a sermon.

I think my first reason for the confusion was trying to read it chronologically because if you do that morning comes before evening, at least does for me.

I think my second reason for the confusion is not reading the account in light of the big story or the "main point" its trying to make. In other words I was trying to read it that proved this is exactly how God created the world instead of reading it in such a way that allowed me to see who God is.

I would like to spend a couple of posts unpacking a little bit of the creation story in Genesis 1 to see if some of the confusion can be cleared up.

In this post to start off with let me just give some background that will help us in the days to come.

Hebrew writings tend to be very poetic, but not poetic in the way we think of poetry. In Hebrew most of everything was learned and passed down verbally before it was written, so it tends to have a sense of rhythm and flow to its language so that they would remember it a little easier. Its easier to remember the song on the radio you have heard 5 times than the biology test you took your freshman year in college, even if that was only last semester. About 75% of the old testament is written in some type of Hebrew poetry, which is sometimes the reason why we don't understand the OT, because Hebrew poetry is different than ours.

The Hebrews tend to use a form of poetry called parallel poetry quite often. The rabbis believed anything worth saying, is worth saying beautifully, and so they use parallel poetry and other forms to say beautiful things about God.

Parallel poetry is very simple but can often be over looked or misunderstood if you aren't keeping an eye out for it. Parallel poetry is prevalent in the psalms and proverbs, and it basically is saying the same thing in 2 or more different ways. Let me give you a couple of examples:

Psalm 119:105- "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." The first part of this verse is paralleled with the second part. This is not saying 2 different things, but one thing in 2 different ways.

Psalm 40:8- "I desire to do your will, O my God; your Torah is within my heart." Here we see the psalmist longing to do God's will, which is paralleled with having Torah within his heart. Meaning that longing to do God's will and learning Torah are the same thing.

All of that is the background for Genesis 1, because Genesis 1 has parallel poetry running through it. When we go through Genesis 1 we will be looking for the parallel poetry to help us discover why evening is before morning.

Books

2008-06-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

I am doing a series in September called Stop Going to Church and be the Church. We are going through what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God and how that effects us today. And obviously from my last blog I think obedience to God through scripture is very important.

So I picked up a couple of books from Tony Jones that I heard were good ones and here is the list:

Postmodern Youth Ministry

Yes I know I am behind on this one.

Divine Intervention

I am excited for this one because its all about lectio divina, and so we are going to practice that as a part of our youth service. This works out perfect too because Butch our music guy is leaving us at the end of June and if we don't find some one else we will use that time spot to practice lectio divina.

Read, Think, Pray, Live

This is for high school students, and i am going to go through it to see if our small groups can go through it together.

Soul Shaper

I am excited about this one because it has a few spiritual disciplines that we will go through as a youth group in the fall.

If you know of any books that would be good resources for spiritual disciplines and lectio divina please let me know.

What is worship really?

2008-06-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

In today's church we tend to think of singing a few songs with the band as worship. We also tend to call the person leading that time the worship leader or pastor. These things aren't necessarily bad, but its important to know what God's heart is.

Dwight A. Pryor is an all-star with Jewish roots and background, and I recommend listening or reading his works.

The Hebrew people don't really have a word worship, so what we have to do is look at a few words and then put them together to see how they "worshipped" or gave worth to God.

Exodus 8:1 God is speaking to Moshe (I love saying Moses' name in Hebrew, its fun) telling him what to tell Pharaoh in order to begin the exodus. God tells Moshe:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me'"

The word worship there is the Hebrew word avad and worshipers were called avadim. Avad means to serve and avadim means servant or slave. When God pulls them out of Egypt he has a very specific calling on the Israelites, and that is to worship Him through serving him. It is of no coincidence that the first place they stop is Mount Sinai where God then gives them the law and Torah so that they might properly avad him.

This is why the Jews studied scripture so much, because they wanted to worship God and they knew Torah was the way to God. They studied not to have more knowledge but to know God in an intimate way through obedience to his word.

Worship then is knowing God's will through studying his word and acting on it, or simply put serving God.

Which by the way is also why Paul in Romans 12 says not to be conformed by this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind so that we can know and test God's will or purpose. and all of that is said in the same breath of offering yourself as a sacrifice which is all worship.

The next word I hear is worship is praise. So lets unpack that one.

The word praise in Hebrew is the word halel. What some people may not realize is the word halel originally meant shining (Job 29:3) as in the North Star. The north star was a constant shine that people looked for to give direction so they would know where to go. So if you look at the ancient pictograph of the word halel you find a man with his hands raised with 2 shepherd's staff next to him. Scholars translate this as meaning looking toward something great for direction or guidance.

The question is then raised where to do you look for guidance? One might answer the Law and Torah.

Looking for guidance and direction from God the Jews would look to the scripture for God's wisdom to act in obedience to his will. So here we find ourselves in the same situation as before, being searching out the scriptures for the purpose of being obedient to God's will.

Halel or praise is looking toward God for the purpose of being obedient to his will which was found in the scriptures. Simply put its being obedient.

The last word I want to look at is the Hebrew word shehhah. Shehhah means laying yourself down face first in the dirt to show respect for someone. This wasn't specifically meant for God alone but for anyone you should great respect for (Moses bowed before his father in law in Exodus 18:7) and was a very common practice.

Time and time again you can read in the scripture of when God's was interacting with his creation and someone fell prostrate heard his words and then got up to be obedient to what they were called to do. When they fell prostrate the word used is shehhah, worship.

Here worship is falling prostrate to listen to the words of God so that you can be obedient to what he is calling you to do. Simply put worship is responding to God's word.

All 3 words are very similar in that the result is giving God worth by obeying his spoken word.

If people are responding to God's word by being obedient and living it out, God is being worshipped.

If our worship leaders are leading people to dig into the word and respond by being living out what God has called them to do in the scriptures, God is being worshipped.

If our songs we sing cause us to fall prostrate in the presence of God and draw us to become obedient to the words of God, then God is being worshipped.

But if we are just coming and singing a few songs to get us in the mood to hear a message we don't plan on responding to by being obedient to the scriptures, then chances are God is not being worshipped.

restful weekend... Sort of

2008-06-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

There always seems to be seasons in life. Some seasons last a little longer than others but for the most part life seems to be in a season of growth, excitement, and joy.

The last few years there has been something that has been always in the back of my mind that I have been waiting for it to come to a head, and it seems like the last few months it has. So I find myself in a season of chaos, confrontation, and busyness.

When Wednesday hit I had determined that I was going to take a sabbath on Friday and journal through this time, pray through this, and just spend some much needed time with God. To start off my day I met a couple of my friends at Salt Creek to go surfing, which to me is a sabbath because I get to just be. I was in the water for about an hour and only caught a couple of waves when I had this pain hit my lower back.

I got out of the water immediately laid their on the sand and stretched out my back as good as I could. Walked up the hill and tried to get my wetsuit off. I got my wetsuit around my knees and realized I could no longer bend over to take it off. This was extremely awkward. My chiropractor Paul Stately (he is an awesome guy and becoming a good friend) was kind enough to let me come in on his lunch break since he had no availability for the day.

Turns out I jacked up my SI joint in my hip, so my right hip is higher and somewhat twisted from my left side. Needless to say I have been laying in bed just about everyday since Friday afternoon not able to really walk or move around.

Was this week restful? Yes I was able to do some thinking and praying, as well as some studying. However, I have been so much pain and I absolutely hate just laying around all day for several days so I am going crazy.

All in a day

2008-05-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well, its just about 11 at night and I am finally sitting down to get some things done before I head to bed. I had a good day I would say.

I went to the gym this morning and met a couple of guys that I am going to teach how to surf. Met with a couple that I am excited to walk along side of them as they wrestle through some things, and then had some lunch with them. While having lunch saw some high school kids that I knew and chatted with them. Called in and found out I had jury duty... ok so that part not so good. Had a great date night with my wife, went over to the Quick's house to watch the second part of House, it was a good episode, and now I am just about to do some reading on Matthew 10:34 and Micah 7.

Its been a good day, even though this is what I look like at the end of it.

Its Here!

2008-05-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I walked into my house after our High School Service and saw a brown box sitting on my table. It was new mac book that had arrived earlier that day! So I naturally ripped into the box with the anticipation of a 5 year old opening up Christmas gifts, to where I finally got the brown box open and off, and there sat Mac's clean sleek white package.

I tore into that and opened up to see a very unique and fun Styrofoam "egg crate" looking thing. When I read Sex God by Rob Bell I thought he was joking about how you could spend hours even looking at the "safeguard power cord" but there I was staring at the power cord.

And then I pull out my nice new black laptop to find its not glassy, its flat black! YES! My wife already wants to pin strip it! How cool is a flat black laptop with a white apple sitting in the middle of it. I have waited about 5 years for this moment and its finally here.

Tomorrow the cable guys come out to turn on the cable and run a line to our modem where we then be hooked up to the internet. 4 years in MV and we are finally getting internet at the house. And I get to go surfing tomorrow! Life doesn't get much better than that! Well...

Button up/down

2008-05-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was obviously mother's day, and as I was getting ready to head to church I asked Andi to pick out a nice shirt for me to wear not only to church but to a brunch on the Queen Mary we were heading to right after the services to celebrate moms in our family.

Andi mentioned that it should be a button down shirt, to which I curiously responded, button down shirt whats that?

Apparently my wife buttons her shirts starting from the top and working her way down. I on the other hand start at the bottom of the shirt and work my way up trying to avoid that last top button that seems to choke me every time I have to use it.

So we had a friendly discussion on who buttons their shirts which way... Is it a bottom up (where you start at the bottom and work your way up) or a button down, which is quite ridiculous if you ask me :).

Rock-N-Water

2008-05-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a summer retreat for high school or jr high, I would suggest checking out Rock-N-Water. http://www.rocknwater.com/

Yesterday we spent the day there and had great food, an incredible time white water rafting, and the staff is very friendly, knowledgeable, and genuine. We got on this raft and our guide was named Jansen, who was completely out of his mind but the best guide ever. He ran us into rocks, nearly bumping people out of the raft, and putting us into the best pockets of rapids. Every time we would look back and watch the other rafts do similar things they never really did them with as much intensity as we did. Thank you Jansen you were the best!

Also they have a beautiful camping area underneath the trees right next to the river, so you are away from the city and the grind, and out in the middle of God's creation.

Most of the time people who live out in the middle of no where seem to become kind of like carni's... if there is anyone reading this from the middle of no where, obviously I am not talking about you! I was concerned that they were going to be a little odd in their theology and a little too "christian culture" for our group. But when we talked to everyone they just have a passion to get kids out away from the computers and the indoors, and get them to experience all of what creation has to offer.

Even though they are a little crazy on the admin side (needing big deposits way in advance) I am real excited to bring my high school to this place in July. I really think they are going to love the beauty, the creation, and the atmosphere is great.

Unfortunately I forgot the camera and my cell phone went dead so I don't have any pictures to post. It was good fun though, and I highly recommend it. Sorry Scott and Christin that you werent able to come, you missed out but I am sure you are having a great time in Orlando instead.

Good ol' Sac town

2008-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Last night Andi and I took a 9 PM flight out to Sacramento to go to a place called Rock-N-Water, where we will be going for our High School Summer Retreat this year. I have never been there so we wanted to make sure we are getting ourselves into an weird or compromising situations.

On the flight we sat next to this cool lady named Julie. She use to be an attorney but it now working for what she calls "the power plants for the capital." However, I asked her what crazy cases she has been in, and she replied with this story.

The railroads own a certain distance of land that the tracks are on, and so anyone walking along the tracks is on private property therefore it is illegal. She continued with a man was walking along the tracks at some distance away but within the illegal limit. A train came by hit a cow that was trying to cross the tracks, the cow was sent flying in the air and it landed on the drunk man and killed him. The family of the man then took the train company to court and one a ton of money even though he was doing something illegal.

How crazy is that though? Not to many people can say they were hit by a flying cow!

I also found out the she was a Christan and she was struggling through what she called "waiting well." She has been waiting for the right man to come into her life, but she has determined that she is going to be obedient to God, and not get bitter or angry because she doesn't have a spouse. So Andi and I got to encourage her and talk through some of that with her. In the midst of our conversation the plane shook 2 quick times and it startled us because we didn't realize the plane was landing.

Today, we get to go and check out the facilities at Rock-N-Water and they are going to take us white water rafting. I have never been but have always wanted to do it. I hear they are also going to give us wetsuits and booties because of how cold the water is! Its times like these I wish I wasn't bald.

Apologetics and World Religions

2008-04-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

I am going to start studying for a series I would like to do next school year teaching the high school students some healthy and nonjudgmental ways of engaging with people who do not believe but also may believe in something other than Christianity.

I came across this book called "I want to believe" by Mel Lawrenz that seems to be writing from the perspective of everyone longs for a belief in something bigger (God) than they are.

So far that's the only thing I have really come across other than a website www.str.org along those lines.

Do any of you have any thoughts or suggestions that you have come across that would be worth diving into?

New Mac

2008-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have blogged, and I apologize for that. It has been proven to be difficult to blog with no home computer or internet and only having access to that at work, though it does have its perks.

Tonight Andi and I are going to order our first Mac book. Soon enough I will have a lap top and internet so I will finally be able to blog, read, research, and watch/listen to sermons and vids. YES!

7 New Deadly Sins...

2008-03-11T14:26:00.001-07:00

Apparently the Pope has noticed less and less people coming into the catholic church for confession, and on Monday March 10th the Vatican News issued a report on the "New 7 Deadly Sins"

The Pope recognizes that sins in the past were primarily individual, but now have social due to globalization. This does have some validity in it, but primarily it seems like its a way to guilt people in coming back to the catholic church for confession.

What is on the list of the new 7 Deadly Sins?
Drug Pushers
Obscenely Rich (isn't the Vatican fairly wealthy?)
Environmental Polluters
Manipulative genetic experiments
Abortion
Social Injustice
Pedophilia

How does it match up with the 7 deadly sins of the old along with their punishments?
Pride Broken on the wheel
Envy Put in freezing water
Gluttony Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger Dismembered alive
Greed Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
SlothThrown in snake pits

I wonder what punishment the new 7 deadly sins will be? Also those sins are very important to recognize, some of which I think the Catholic Church is dealing with head on (i.e. pedophilia). I think its great that Catholic Church is recognizing that culture has changed since the middle ages, but it seems like a message of hope and of love is better than a message of death and eternal damnation of hell.

Who Am I?

2008-03-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

I grew up having a passion and a dream to change the course of history. I don't think this is that odd or crazy, when you're young its expected that you dream big, and have an imagination that is beyond the seemingly possible.

It just seems that as you get older those dreams are left at childhood, and we are given to the mundane and mediocricy of life. I was talking with a friend the other day that said he had already done the big things in life. He has created a few very successful businesses, almost went pro in his football career, is happily married, and a wonderful child, and lives in South Orange county. But the passion and the dreams have faded from his eyes.

The most important aspect of life, I am discovering, is knowing who you are, your gifts, your talents, your personality, and soul. Most people lose their way, or never discover a passion in life because they are trying to be someone they are not, in other words they want to be someone else. This will only lead to confusion, frustration, depression, and lack of drive and passion in one's life. Please surround yourself with people who will speak into you and help you discover who you are, and then own that, be content with that, and stop trying to be something your not.

Knowing who you are allows you to put a practical context to pursue the dreams and the passions that make life worth living. Without our dreams and passions we are lost, desiring more out of this life but coming up empty every time. We have to hold on to our dreams, we have to pursue our dreams, because without them we have nothing worth living for and dying for.

As you grow up, and grow older, may your dreams become bigger, and may they usher in a life that you have always desired to live. And may you surround yourself with people who will help you discover who you are, and keep you accountable to pursuing your dreams.

We can change the course of history, we all bear the image of the one who created history and then changed the course of history. All of us long for beauty, love, community and harmony. My prayer and passion is to help people discover who they are and their place in beauty, love, community and harmony that will bring God's will on earth, as it is in heaven.

Paradise Thought

2008-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been thinking about Jesus hanging on the cross turning to another hanging next to him, he tells him "Today you will be with me in Paradise." Luke 23:43

This is the only time Jesus says the word Paradise, and because of this many people have come up with ways of trying to explain what paradise means.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:4 gives us a little bit of a hint by saying "this man was caught up to paradise" which makes me think it has something to do with being in God's presences.

The biggest hint I think we have is found in Rev 2:7 which says, "He who has an ear let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

There seems to be a lot to unpack there, but for the sake of my thoughts and the length of this blog lets focus on the tree of life which is found in the paradise of God. The only other time the Tree of life is mentioned in scripture is in Gen 2:9 "... In the middle of the garden (garden of Eden which the aka Paradise) were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
And Revelation 22:14 which you can read on your own if you would like.

Could it be that when Jesus says today you will be with me in paradise, he is refering back to the garden of Eden before the fall?

Conflict Exhuastion

2008-02-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

I am not a confortational person at all. If something needs to get done I can do it but I find that I am usually exhuasted at the end of it.

A few months ago our water heater started to malfunction and by the time we took a 10 minute shower we were taking a luke warm shower. We asked our landlords to fix it but because of the holidays they couldnt get it done. This leads up to last week where they finally get someone out to look at it.

The first guy comes out and looks at it and he doesnt know much. Fortunately for me I happen to know a bit about plumbing and home repair thanks to my dad. Because of this, we told our landlords that this guy was just trying to take us for our money and that he wasnt worth it. They send another person out that they personally used, and this guy was much better.

But after some time he tells me that our landlords want us to just "turn up the water hearter."

Now its at its hottest setting which produces about 130-140 degree water and if not careful this can burn someone with a first degree burn.

My wife gets up at 5 in the morning to go train her clients (she is a personal trainer at a gym). Well, at 5 AM those luke warm showers turn into some what cold showers, which isnt the best way to start your day.

Now its on. You are personally effecting my wife in a negative way, and I cant tolerate that especially since we already tried their method of "turning up the water" and it didnt work, we were still taking luke warm showers.

I basically told them that if they didnt fix the water heater, I was going to personally call them everyday to let them know we were still taking luke warm showers. I have never in my life been accused of threating someone until that day. Our landlord's husband came by the house to personally tell me to never threaten his wife again.

I stopped and had to think of why I was so fired up about this. I realized it wasnt about the water it was about not being valued or treated as human. They have been promising to fix some pretty bad things on the house for the last 3 years that havent got fixed, but I was as fired up because those things dont devalue me or my wife. Forcing us to take luke warm showers because they want the cheapest way out makes me feel less than human.

Memorial Service

2007-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening I helped perform the memorial service for Taylor Grant. The parents were thinking about 100-150 people max would show up. There ended up being 470 people who came to support the family and show their love.

It was amazing to see so many teenagers, and people who are in rehab and AA come and be a part of this service. There weren't enough chairs and people were literally standing outside looking in through the windows and glass doors.

Losing Life

2007-12-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

I received a call on Friday night from a Student of mine that I hadn't heard from in a couple of months. Receiving a call from students normally has no reason for concern, but this one immediately for some reason I knew wasn't going to be pleasant.

After doing the small talk stuff, the conversation quickly moved from light hearted to tragic. There was a student named Taylor Grant who was a part of our youth group for about a year. He struggled with drugs and alcohol, and he was also bipolar. Taylor was well supported by his friends and even though he went to a few rehabs, was meeting with a psychologist, and had a loving mom and dad, he just couldn't seem to make very much progress.

His mom and dad decided to send him up to Utah where they admitted him into a school/rehab program. He was on the up and up, doing well and even made some plans for when he got out and was on his way home. Then on Friday night he committed suicide.

I recently found out that when people struggle with bipolar and they seek help, there is a 2 week period when they are beginning to balance back out that they are more susceptible to committing suicide than when they are not balanced. The reason why is because they tend to be so depressed that they don't have the energy to actually go through this, but when they become balanced that changes.

Tomorrow, Wednesday December 19th at 4 pm is the memorial service, and I am honored to be a part of it. Taylor was loved by many, and he often struggled with wanting to start a fresh new life, one that he wasn't on drugs and alcohol, a life that he was truly alive.

Taylor Grant, may the torment that you felt on this earth give way to the peace and harmony the new life you have found in the presence of the One who gives life. And may all of his friends know that the support and love that they gave him while he was on this earth was one of the most Christ like things that they could have ever done for him. It was only because of you that he found any relief from his struggles, you helped give him that rest.

Books the last couple of months

2007-12-06T14:48:00.001-08:00

I have never been much of a reader, but I recognize to stay sharp and continue growing I have to read. This is a list of books I have read the last couple of months, and recommend to read if you are interested in church growth, leadership, and following Jesus.

The Struggle by Steve Gerali
A book about masturbation and finding liberation and freedom in following Christ. A good read.

For Parents Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa Rice
A book for parents on how to discuss topics and issues with your teen. Its a good book if you struggle to understand your teen, and your looking for ways to interact and connect with them. Simple read but pretty practical.

Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Intro for Christians by Lawrence Kushner
A good read for understanding God and spirituality beyond our "traditional christian" views. Light read but Kushner does a great job at allowing you to think as deeply and as long as you want to go. My wife and I read a chapter together before we went to bed and then discussed it. I recommend reading this book with at least one other person to really see its beauty.

Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
It is a pretty ok book if you are looking to help bring simplicity into your church. I don't know if it was just me but many times I thought to myself "well... duh" but I think its the simplicity of following Jesus that we sometimes over look. This book also helps bring focus if you are an idea person that speaks in abstracts and generalities.

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
I really enjoyed this book perhaps because it spoke to my situation very specifically. If you are interested in becoming a missional church, where you are more organic, and you are using your gifts and talents as a church (not ran specifically by 1 dictator) so that your church becomes the incarnation of God, then this is a great book.
"The church is the journey of a group of people that find each other only in a common pursuit of a vision and of a mission that lies beyond itself. Its energies are primarily directed outward and forward. Me for the community and the community for the world."

Sex God by Rob Bell
Great book about how sexuality and spirituality are connected. This is a great read for anyone who desires to have relationships with other people.

Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
This is an absolute must read! If you haven't picked it up please stop wasting your time reading this blog and pick up this book. It will inspire you, make you think, and place in you a desire to live your life for God. Get this book, I pass it out to everyone I get a chance too.

Big Waves

2007-12-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Wednesday Dec. 5, we had a large westerly swell hit California's coast. For those living in Northern California there were reports of waves coming in at 50 ft. Those living in San Diego there were some reports of waves coming in at 20 ft.

I decided to try to paddle out at Salt Creek in Dana Point, which was consistently getting waves 8-12 ft. A 10 ft waves is just about considered double over head (DOH). We rarely see waves like that, but in all my attempts I couldn't paddle out due to the extreme currents in the water. In a mater of minutes I was dragged about 150-200 yards and when I noticed I was getting close to the point I decided to call it quits.

The humbling part of my journey, is I went out with a friend named Kip who is a really good surfer who just so happened to break his wrist a couple of days before Wednesday. With a water proof cast, he paddled out and caught 1 wave by popping up on his for arm. Unable to duck dive, he just took that wave in and said it was good enough for him.

So to try to redeem myself I decided to paddle out again today. Though it was a bit smaller 6-10 ft waves, there were still sets coming in at DOH. Paddled out no problem but was still pretty scared sitting out in the line up with these monster waves.

The Struggle

2007-12-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

Just got done reading a book called The Struggle by Steve Gerali.

The reason I picked up this book is because we are starting a sexuality series with the High School called "And God Said It Was Good." We are taking a look at the way God created us and how that effects us both spiritually and sexually (taken from Rob Bell's SexGod).

Well, with every sexuality issue one that often doesn't get addressed and is often a very common issue is masturbation. Steve Gerali is a professor at APU and he does a great job at talking through this issue by taking a look at the myths and misconceptions, the history of these misconceptions, biblical understanding, and how to find freedom in following Jesus.

Let's face it, the bible says nothing about masturbation and the scriptures people use to call it sin are out of their original context. So how do we deal with this issue? Where do we stand? Is it sin or not? These are all questions Steve goes through and helps us wrestle through the questions and discover more of what we believe God is speaking to us about this issue.

If you struggle with this, or if you are a pastor, small group leader, or a parent I think this is a great resource to have.

New Books

2007-12-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of new books that I am excited to read.

1) The Meaning of Jesus by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright
Here you have 2 guys who are friends and have similar backgrounds in education but have different theological views. They share their journey of discovering the historical Jesus.

2) God was in this place and I, I did not know by Lawrence Kushner
Kushner is very interesting to read because he is into Jewish Mysticism, so he challenges me to think and understand in new ways.

3) Forgotten Among the Lillies by Ronald Rolheiser
This book, I haven't heard of, but a friend of mine named Ian DiOrio gave it to me. I am excited to read this one because I respect Ian, and if you ever get a chance to sit down and have a cup of coffee (or in my case a tea or steamer) with him, take it he is a great guy.

I almost purchased a book called The Resurrection of Jesus by John Dominic Crossan and N.T. Wright. This book is taken from a dialogue they had a few years ago I believe at a university (but I could be wrong on that) and the discussion was all based on whether or not the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. The reason I didn't purchase this book was because I was hoping to find a MP3 of it somewhere, but I am yet to find it.

Restoration by Adoption

2007-12-03T16:47:00.001-08:00

Andi and I were talking the other night, and I don't even know how this came about, but I had a thought... yes it does happen now and then.

I wonder what it would look like for us to begin to house foreign exchange students from 3rd world countries that have no opportunity for further education, provide an education for them, and then send them back into their countries with skills and intelligence to help improve living conditions?

This is just a thought, and I haven't heard of anyone doing this so maybe its not a good idea or feasible, so I thought I would throw it out here and see what you all think.

Sell Everything... or not?

2007-11-29T17:07:00.000-08:00

On Sunday mornings we have been going through the book of Mark, which has been a great series for me. We finally got to chapter 10 where Jesus interacts with a rich man (we often call him young though there isn't anything in scripture that indicates he was young).

As we talked through what our theme for our message was going to be, it seemed to be a quick jump into the "Jesus isn't really telling us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor, its about being sold out." Is this what God is trying to communicate?

Often times we don't look at the context with what Mark is trying to communicate about Jesus, what Jesus has been trying to communicate and accomplish with his life, where this individual is coming from, and what God has been doing since the beginning of time.

This man has a fever that even I don't have many times, running up to the feet of Jesus falling before his knees, and asking the ever important question, what must I do to have God's rule and reign become ever present on this earth, so to bring the renewal of all things. The way the Jewish people referred to this renewal was "the age to come."

There was their present age which was filled with injustice, oppression, exile, lying, murder, adultery, and sin. The age to come was the great event that God intersected our world and it brought peace, harmony, justice, freedom, and restoration and a judgement on all the evil in the world. The age to come also brought the righteous who were dead back to life and the world was anew. This rich guy wanted to make sure he was a part of this. Wouldn't you?

Jesus does what every rabbi would have done at that time, begin to quote Torah, because if you want to follow God you follow Torah. But don't read through this too quickly, notice what Jesus does. He starts by quoting the 6th commandment (murder) then moves to the 7th (adultery) then moves to the 8th (theft) and then the 9th (false testimony). Then he adds one that isn't even in the commandments (defraud), then ends with the 5th (honor parents). These deal with how we treat people, but he does it in almost a flippant way.

Jesus also totally omits the first 4 commandments that deal with God (other than the sabbath which deals with God and self), which are God first, no idols, not taking God's name in vain, and sabbath rest. But he also omits the 10th commandment which is coveting (I heard a sermon from Rob Bell about the 10 commandments that was awesome, but that is perhaps for another day).

I love Jesus' reaction to this guy when he says he has done all of this since he was a boy. V. 21

"Jesus looked at him and loved him."

Jesus tells him to put God first by removing his idol, just like God has told Israel all through the old testament, "sell everything that you have." It seems like the word everything means everything.

Next Jesus works on his coveting, give it away to those who need it. Don't burn it, don't put it in the bank, but give it to a person/people that need it.

A few questions:

How is it that we can desire the age to come, and yet not use the resources God has given us to help usher it in?

Is safety and security the goal God desires for our lives?

In a consumeristic society is our #1 idol money, and because of that do we covet what others have?

Would selling everything you have show that you are "sold out" to God, and if so what is the responsible/good steward thing to do with your "stuff"?

Personal Update

2007-11-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

It's thanksgiving and 3 years ago we started a tradition, where Andi and I fly up to see my sister and brother-in-law in Citrus Heights which is just outside of Sacramento. It seems to me that a couple of days to relax and enjoy family is long over due.

I have been working hard at trying to meet with a high school student to go through a restoration process with, and the couple of times that we had talked it was just circular arguments, which I do like. Last Tuesday night we met and I felt like we finally made some progress. This has been an absolutely painful and draining process for me, and I am very hopeful now for this student.

Tonight we are having our small group over for a grilled cheese party. We got this idea from Doug and Ellie, so we thought we would give it a try. We have 2 George Forman Grills, and 2 frying pans to grill on. I am going to get 3 different cheeses, 3 different types of meets, 2 different spreads, and several veggies for what ever options they would like to create.

Monday night Andi and I had a long discussion about whether we are healed and ready to start trying to have a kid. Physically she is healed and the doctors said by November she would physically be ready. Emotionally is what I was concerned with. Going through a miscarriage is not easy especially when your wife is empathetic and feeling based by design. It was good to talk through all of it.

Over all I am feeling a bit worn out, and constantly on the move but a part of that is just the season right now. I have been waking up around 5:45 every morning and walking my dogs. I have had some of the most refreshing and beautiful times in prayer as I walk, which have been very good for me.

There is so much to write about but it will have to wait until I get back.

I have turkey bowl tomorrow morning and then off to Citrus Heights.

Have a great thanksgiving everyone!

Parking Ticket

2007-11-15T17:41:00.001-08:00

The other week, the waves were just incredible. They were coming in at 5-6ft with 7-8ft on the set. For those of you who don't get as stoked on wave sizes as I do that's about head high to 1 ft over head (5-6ft) with 2-3 ft over head waves (7-8ft). So my friends and I went down to Salt Creek to surf on a Wednesday morning to enjoy God's blessing of good surf.

When I got there I got my wetsuit on and ran over to put $3 in the parking meter. It spit out my ticket and I ran back over to my truck and threw the ticket on my center consul (the arm rest in the middle of my bench seat), grabbed my surfboard locked my truck and ran down to surf.

I had an incredible time surfing but when I came back up I had a parking ticket on my windshield. I was in awe, how could they give me a ticket if I paid the meter. So I took a whole bunch of pictures of my ticket next to the clock in my truck to show I still had 30 minutes to prove I paid my fee.

Then I look a little closer at the stub and it says my pay stub must be on the dashboard and upright. So I paid $3 and got a $30 ticket for my stupidity. No wonder there are simple directions printed on everything these days, for people like me who don't take time to follow directions. Oh well, I had a good day of surfing.

Everybody Wants to Change the World

2007-11-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

I am excited to read the new book I picked up by Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman. Its a book on practical ideas for for social justice. We are planning on going through some of these topics in the high school group and then do the practical ideas.

Some of the topics are:
Poverty
Evangelism
The Environment
Prisoners
The oppressed
The Elderly
The Sick and disabled
Immigrants
The World
Take Action

This will probably start in March when our Sexuality series is done. I thought it would be a cool transition to go from Sexuality to Social Justice which in some ways they are very much connected.

Asset-Building

2007-11-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

I just met with a lady from CSP that wants to help us inform and educate our students about drugs, alcohol, and sex. She was a very lively lady from the Philippines probably in her 60's, she walked with a cane and said things like, "we have a lot of cool stuff going on right now..."

She handed me a packet that she gives out to parents on who to look at their teens not as trying to fix their problems but as encouraging and developing their strengths. They did this research project and found that there are 40 Developmental Assets (there are more but it gets pretty overwhelming if you try to talk about them all) that help a teen grow, thrive, and become healthy, responsible, caring people.

I am not going to through all 40 of them but they are broken up into 2 categories

1) External Assets which includes subcategories of support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and constructive use of time

2) Internal Assets which includes subcategories of commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity.

The interesting thing to me in all of this is that the #1 and #2 biggest influence in developing these strengths or assets as they call it is the family. If adult figures in a teen's life (parents, mentors, teachers, community) do not encourage the external assets it is highly unlikely that a student will develop the internal assets.

Here is where it puts it all into perspective. Their studies have shown that 61% of students that have 0-10 assets developed are involved in substance abuse and/or violence, and only 8% finished school. While only 3% of students that have 31-40 assets developed are involved in substance abuse and/or violence, and 89% finished school.

My initial take away is this, it is no surprise that the family has the biggest influence in developing a young person. Parents are the key to making sure their kids feel supported, and empowered. Many parents we deal with drop their kid off and never engage and the CPS encourages parents to do simple tasks throughout the day like smile with your kid, personally have a conversation, say hi to them. Its no wonder we are having so many broken and hurting people come in, the parents aren't even saying hi or smiling at their kids.

Its just one more reminder at how important it is for us to get to know students, know when they are their and not, and allow them to begin to lead in some areas. It is also another reminder that youth ministry is just as much about the parents as it is about the student.

the gods arent angry

2007-11-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

I took 4 of my high school leaders and my wife to go see Rob Bell at the Wiltern last Tuesday. He is doing a series called "The gods aren't angry" and here is the description of it:

Part anthropology, part history, part deconstruction - this is new material that Rob hasn't taught before, exploring how humans invented religion to make themselves feel better.

It was amazing. If you get a chance to go see it (the few of you that I know live outside of California) I highly recommend it. Rob speaks so intelligently but also very personally. He does a great job and giving you information but then making you feel a part of something.

Anyway, I wish I could describe it to you but I would just recommend you going to see it or buying the dvd when it comes out.

Anti-Gay Church ordered to pay millions

2007-10-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in CNN about a "fundamentalist" Church in Kansas that seems to think the war in Iraq is God's way of punishing the US for being tolerant to homosexuality. Which makes me think that maybe the fires we had in Southern Cali were a result of many churches allowing women to lead... sorry that wasn't really funny but I had to say it.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

Its hard for me to see how our God who calls us to restore, rebuild, renew this broken world to harmony and beaugty could be involved in such hatred, anger, and disharmony in tearing people down. It seems as if it is our foolish choice to go to war, and create violence, just as much as it is our choice not to be the peacemakers God calls us to be. Perhaps it is our decision that kills the innocent and God is grieving over it.

My heart truly breaks when I read things like this.

Blink

2007-10-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

Just picked up this book a few weeks ago called Blink. Its about rapid cognition and how we can make incredibly good decisions in a split second. They say that when you walk into a room, or meet someone for the first time, there is something beyond intuition that our brains process things in just a matter of seconds. I think I will post some of what I read so you can get an idea of what the book is about.

But after reading a few chapters on it, I have been trying to focus in on my rapid cognition. Its been pretty tough. So my sister and brother-in-law came down from Sac this weekend and they are looking to buy a VW camper to travel through Cali, South and Central America, and Europe in. As they were talking about whether or not they should purchase this, I asked my sister what was the first thing that went through her mind when she went to look at this bus. She said it was nice.

Before reading this book I would have thought, well that didnt help, but there is a lot she didnt say. She didnt say I hate it, felt uncomfortable, made me sick, felt uneasy, etc.

They didnt end up buying the VW, and quite frankly I dont think my rapid cognition tactic helped but if nothing else it has got me thinking in a new way.

unChristian

2007-10-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

I just spoke with a father at our men's breakfast last Saturday, who said he has a young girl in his neighborhood that is from a very broken home. This young girl is now dressing scantly and is trying to get attention. He feels burdened to have her come to know Christ so he asked me if there were any materials I recommend that he could give her.

I proceeded to say yes but asked him what he would do as a young teen if someone handed him information. So then he asked me what he should do, realizing that wasn't the best approach. I asked him if he was ready for my answer. He said probably not, because he knew what was coming.

He wanted the quick fix that didn't get messy, but a young girl with no dad living with a single mother who is not concerned with her daughter needs a healthy home environment to help heal, not a book or article. She needs a real relationship not a 10 step guide to a successful life.

Just read a pretty interesting post (that relates to the above) from Scot McKnight about a book called unChristian, so I thought I would post it here for you to read.

One of the beefs non Christians have with Christians is their perception that Christians want them to “get saved!” So, Kinnaman and Lyons, in unChristian, study this in chp. 4. This chp, however, is less about the perception that Christians want others to get saved and much more about the lack of transformation in the gospel of Christians.

1. Mosaics and Busters don’t like being cornered into spiritual conversations and they are suspicious and savvy about the motives of others.

2. Mosaics and Busters are not likely to be pushy about their faith; they are less likely to share their faith; they believe one can live a life without Jesus in a meaningful way; less likely to believe in a “once-saved-always-saved” mentality.

3. 64% of Christians think they are sincere in evangelism; their audience is only 36% convinced.

4. Major myths and realities about evangelism:

4.1 Best evangelism is that which reaches the most people; best evangelism is relational.
4.2 Anything that succeeds is worth doing; 3-10x more damage done by mass [evangelism kind of] stuff.
4.3 No need to worry about offending others; respect is a key factor in evangelism.
4.4 Logical arguments are very important; very few respond to logic: individualism, loyalty to peers, emotional/experiential.
4.5 Everyone has an equal chance; vast majority respond before adulthood, often before adolescence.
4.6 We need to help outsiders find a connection with God; most are fiercely independent.

5. Alarming conclusion: the majority of those who are evangelized have already tried on Christianity and walked away.

6. Survey of Americans: 65% made a commitment; 29% absolutely committed; 3% have a biblical worldview.

7. 1 out of 7 Americans think Christianity is genuine or real.

8. Transformation is not central enough to gospel.

They believe the secret to shifting from the get-saved! problem is to establish genuine relationships.

Texas

2007-10-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

Texas was a blast. We stayed on this ranch called Rough Creek Lodge that was 11,000 acres and just beautiful. We were definitely in the heart of Texas because you could hunt, shoot clay pigeons, atv ride, hike, paintball, and tons more.

The wedding was awesome and beautiful as well. I talked to one guy who was with a Methodist church, and he told me that he was praying for the "left coast" because of how evil we are. He then proceeded to tell me that what we need to do here on the "left coast" is extreme worship. He said, "what you gotta do is get yourself a rock band, and have extreme worship." I wanted to ask him what he is doing to help restore his community, what needs his church is meeting in the community, and how many homes does his church go to, to connect with his community. I refrained though not wanting him to take it the wrong way.

We danced all night, and watched this 80 year old Jewish man get so drunk he couldn't walk. He and I had a great conversation and he kept calling me Rabbi which I didn't mind. It will probably be one of the only times anyone calls me Rabbi.

The wedding ceremony was short. My part of it was done in 15 minutes because the the bride and groom are both afraid to be in front of people so they requested a short ceremony. Funny thing is, I has so many people come up to me after and tell me what an awesome job I did. They kept saying, "you like, spoke from your heart about them. You didn't speak at us, you kind of like talked to us." It seemed like they were starving for authenticity and genuineness.

We then hung out with Chad, Christina, and Autumn. It was so good to see them because I miss the conversations that Chad and I used to have.

All in all, Texas was a blast and some of the best food I have ever eaten! I really think Chad is going to do a great thing with Eikon in Texas. It seems as if people are dying for real community and relationships.

The Kingdom

2007-10-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

If you havent had a chance to see the movie The Kingdom, I highly recomend it. It does a great job at portraying a common theme that has plagued us throughout history. It also does a great job at portraying that even terrorists and the enemy are human too.

Andi and I saw it last night, and I just thought it was a good movie that brought in some history, humanity, and the need for a different type of revolution, and of course there was the drama side to it as well.

Good movie go see it.

Texas this Weekend

2007-10-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

I am excited and nervous at the same time. This weekend Andi and I are heading to Texas because I am doing a wedding for one of Andi's old clients who turned into a good friend. They are pretty dang wealthy but very down to earth. I haven't met the family or the groom yet, and the only conversations I have had with the groom is through email.

This isn't the first wedding I have done but it will be the first wedding that I am unfamiliar with the families involved, and really how the couple has come together and their commitment to each other. I like to be able to tell stories of the couple, and really make this more of a celebration than a service and that's why I am nervous. I dont do well when its more formal and less personable.

We are leaving on the 19th, the wedding is on the 20th and on the 21st we are planning on staying with Chad and Christina, and then 22nd we will be flying back home. I am really excited to see Chad and Christina, I do miss them a lot.

MS Bike Tour

2007-10-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back and done with the MS 100 mile bike ride. It was a very intense and fun ride. We started in Irvine Saturday morning with the rain, and by the time we got to New Port the rain had some what subsided. The rest of the time we had some beautiful weather besides the wind we had the last 8 miles in San Diego that made it feel like we did another 20 miles.

Andi's mom made the entire bike ride with no problem, except she didn't ride up Torrey Pines. Andi and I passed about 34 people heading up Torrey Pines, and John stopped counting after he passed 50 people (he is on an electric peddle assist bike because of his polio).

It was amazing to see some people who were on the streets cheering us on who had MS, and to see some people actually do the ride who had MS. It was truly an amazing experience that I hope many of you will decide to ride next year.

As I was riding I couldn't stop thinking about what it would look like if our church decided to show people that we care but shutting our doors for one Sunday (or just have a very significant presence) and showing up to support, help, and love people in need. What if once a year 1,000 people from our church decided that this was important and showed up to do the ride? Maybe its just a dream that a church would be willing to do something like that.

Anyway, my bum is sore, my legs and back are sore but the experience was incredible and I cant wait for next year.

By the way we were staying at the Hotel off of Palomar Mountain Road, the one with the windmill. Well, John was sitting in their Jacuzzi and when he got out it had turned his big toe nail green! So if you ever stay there look out.

100 Mile Ride To Finish MS

2007-10-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last year Andi's mom went through quite a lot of health issues. Doctor's thought she had strokes, high blood pressure, a weight problem and other things going on. She started to get symptoms of being weak, and she would really bad headaches to the point where she would almost pass out, and she would bruise real easily and badly.

After doing several tests by several doctors they finally diagnosed her with MS (multiple sclerosis).

After discovering that we found out a way to help. There is a bicycle ride every year that helps bring awareness of MS and raises money to help find relief and a cure for MS. The ride is 100 mile ride and it starts in Irvine and finishes in San Diego (which is German for...). Last year Andi and her Step-Dad did the ride, but because of the timing of it all I wasn't able to participate.

But this weekend Oct. 13-14 I will be riding 100 miles to help those with MS.

We have been training for the last month trying to get ready but we have only been doing 20 miles a week, which obviously isn't much. And the second day we ride we hit Torrey Pines right away so that will be interesting to see if I can make it up that hill.

Well, since all of this has been going on with Andi's mom, most of the doctors have changed their views and they cant figure out what is going on with her and most of them say she doesn't have MS. All of the doctors just want to give her medication to help "relieve" her but nothing they give seems to help.

A few months ago she started going to a homeopathic doctor and hasn't had an episode or any issues yet. So she has decided to join in on this ride as well, which is quite an amazing thing.

Book Recomendations

2007-10-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Two Books that have recently came out, that I have not personally read yet, but I really enjoy both authors and plan on getting both these books are:

Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
Brian McLaren

and

A Community Called Atonement (Living Theology)
Scot McKnight

Also I just picked up a book that seems really interesting, but I will let you know how it is as I read through it. Its called:

How to Read the Bible
Marc Brettler

Basically this book is written by a Jewish scholar who looks at scripture with a "historical-critical" method, which means he walks you through that method and then goes through historical periods in the Hebrew Bible and places context with the stories. Its a pretty thick book but I am excited to read through this slowly.

Freedom

2007-09-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting quote from Rob Bell's "Sex-God" the other day (I finally started reading it) that said something along the lines of, freedom is typically thought of as being able to do anything you want. But true freedom is being content with who you are and what you have.

In context he is writing about lust and how lust starts in the mind and consumes us to the point of not being present in the moment because we are thinking about something we want. Rob says this is slavery not freedom.

But I have recently had to discipline some students because their actions effected the group as a whole, and in doing that I have had to place a few boundaries on the group to make sure this doesn't happen again. The kick back from the students were murmurs of feeling like they don't have any freedom. In all reality they have it pretty good but as soon as you start putting boundaries to something that wasn't there before people feel like their freedom is being taken away.

As I read this quote it makes me realize that really they aren't content because they cant do what ever they want (i.e. go to Royals, walk out of the service to get a soda, smoke pot and drink alcohol before coming to service, have sex in the worship center) which all of these things lead to chaos and destruction not contentment and freedom.

Which is Worse?

2007-09-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

I was reading a blog from Scot McKnight who basically asks the question, "which is worse for the kingdom — the generous, kind leader whose thoughts sometimes wander from the traditional or the brash, abrasive, mean-spirited leader whose theology seems straight as an arrow? What do you think and why?"

I am interested in hearing what you think.

My personal thought was that it appears as if Scot's question is more character (generous, kind) vs. knowledge (theologically "straight"). If this is the case you can look at the 12 disciples who know nothing about the theology Jesus would teach them, yet Jesus chooses to build his church with; verses the Pharisees who had their theology locked down and were pretty abrasive and brash.

Also theology is something that cant be 100% determined. I know that seems like a loaded statement, but think about it. Theo means God; ology typically means the study of or understanding, so you get the study of God in Theology. How can we fully study God and know 100% everything about it him, He is GOD!

With that said, I think we can begin to know God's heart and tendencies by experiencing Him on a regular basis but we will be learners of God for our entire lives and not know everything about God. Personally my theology has changed in the last 3 or 4 years, this is why there are things in theology that we hold loosely, as some like to call "non essentials."

Well, I have a few more thoughts on this but I don't want to make this to long, plus I would love to hear what you think.

Clearity or Chaos

2007-09-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

Poor Leadership is kind of like this:
Say your family decides to take a vacation, you all pack your bags and head over to the airport. Upon arrival you realize your dad (traditionally the leader in the house) never decided on a destination. So your family is standing at the air port with no where to go.

You get frustrated so you find that there is a seat open to Fiji, so you take that flight. Your mom always wanted to go to Spain so she goes there and drags your dad along with her. Your younger brother notices everyone is gone so he catches a cab back home where he spends 2 weeks partying because no one is home, and is able to clean up so no one knows what he did.

After 2 weeks your family comes back from vacation and all of you have experiences to share but none of you have a shared experience as a family.

All of this stems from lack of clarity.

I am always looking for ways to become a better leader because I feel like I can always be growing in this area.

Usually how I learn is by reading various articles, books, blogs, etc. and then try to apply some of the things that resonate. However, lately I have been learning through God placing me in places that I don't think I would be in otherwise.

Many of you who lead, and lead well will probably read this and realize why I try to always be growing in my leadership, and others of you I hope this helps.

It has become very evident in my life right now that when a leader leads, either by team or the "dictatorship" style, clarity is a must. If there is no clarity in where you are going, you have no way of evaluating anything, and if there is no way to evaluate then people aren't held accountable. Furthermore if people aren't held accountable then they do their own thing, which often times is different than what the leader or the team is wanting and it leads to chaos.

I read an article that actually spurred some of these thoughts on from Rev. Magazine called "Overcoming the 5 dysfunctions of ministry team."

Wii

2007-09-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have hooked up the Wii and played a couple of times. It took me just a few tries to get use to the bowling, since I am going to waste no time going right for the scores!

I was surprised that the next day at the base of my index finger, where the finger connects to the last knuckle, was soar and hurt! Man my hands are weak or something.

So I have a long way to go, but so far my high score is 158. Mike, you are right it is addicting!

But on the flip side, my brother-in-law came into town and he wanted to play golf on the Wii since he is a professional golfer. I spanked him! It was the first time playing golf for the both of us, but he is a pro.

Wii.... Would like to play!

2007-09-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

So its official, I finally got the Wii.

Goldsworthy and Presley look out because I am coming after your bowling scores... Even though I have never played this thing yet.

You are all welcome to come over and play the Wii with Andi and I!

Finding Balance

2007-09-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday mornings, I typically try to make it to the gym and take a yoga class. Not because I am all into the spiritual side of yoga, although I do seem to learn some things about my faith in God from yoga, but more for the exercise and stretching (which I would argue that is spiritual as well).

This morning we were doing our balancing poses and we did this one called the "tree" and you basically stand on one leg with the other leg bent placing your foot on the inner part of your thigh, and your hands straight up. It's not a real tough balancing pose but one thing you have to do is not focus on anything, its called "softening your gaze." Or if your really good you can close your eyes.

As I was softening my gaze during this pose and realize I have been wrestling finding balance at the church. This conversation popped in my head that I had with Doug Otten a couple months back as I am balancing on one leg.

In this conversation Doug said, "some churches aren't ready to change." This emerging generation is crying out for something more than what some churches offer, and some churches just aren't ready to hear those cries. Then he said, "it wouldn't be healthy for us to cause division, dissension, or anything of the sort by trying to persuade them."

I have been wrestling through this issue for sometime. I struggle when the appropriate time is to create some tension when its not. When do you realize that the church is not going to change, and when do keep calling out for revolution. I feel like the prophets of old at times, and some days I think church is going to change and other days it seems as if it went back 10 steps.

This is what I am praying through right now. I am wanting to find balance so I don't hurt the church that exists but helps her become beautiful.

Come to Church??... I think.

2007-09-04T15:37:00.001-07:00

I spoke for the "main" services this last Sunday, my second time in the 3 years that I have been at MVCC, and I always seem to learn something about me and the church when I speak.

We are currently going through the book of Mark and my topic was Mark 6:7-13 where Jesus sends out his 12 disciples. As I was studying this it seems as if Jesus knows that his followers become "admired with Jesus without doing what He did," as Shane Claiborne wrote in Irresistible Revolution (which is a must read if you haven't picked it up yet).

So I spent some time thinking about this and doing some reading through scripture, and there are some very specific times that Jesus tells people to come to him. For example when Jesus calls the 12 disciples he says "come follow me." In these times it seems that Jesus does this specifically to teach and build these people up to DO his work, or as I would say to BE the church.

There are other times that Jesus comes in contact with people either them coming up to him, or him going to them and Jesus specifically says not to follow him around but to stay where they are at. You see this in John 4 with the woman at the well, Mark 5 with the demon possessed man, and Matthew 15 after the feeding of the 4 thousand Jesus sends the crowd away. There are some others as well but those are just a few. Here it seems that Jesus interacts with them with the anticipation that they will DO what is right and just (as in matt 6:24-27 and many other spots in scripture).

Lastly it seems there are times when Jesus says "go" and this actually seems to be the most predominant stance Jesus takes.

I tried to find a time that Jesus told someone to go to the synagogue to find God, I couldn't find it other than in passage of scripture Jesus heals 10 Lepers (Luke 17:11-19) and 1 of them does what Jesus asks him to do which was go show themselves to the priests so they could be proclaimed clean and let back into society.

I also searched for a scripture of when Jesus tells his 12 to go out and bring people to him so that he could heal them and preach to them and what ever else to them. I am still searching but I am yet to find that scripture. If you know of one please let me know.

Yet the common stance on the church is go and invite your neighbors to come to church, which takes the congregation out of the discipleship process, and it robs them of the joy of being obedient to Jesus.

So as I preached 1st service I mentioned this to our church, and right before I went up to preach 2nd service I was asked not to say that. Hmm.

I submitted to my authority of course.

Beard and Moustache Champions

2007-09-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

You all of have to check out the awesome beards and moustache's on TIME!

Mo you have to keep it going so you can enter in the contest!

Wal-Mart vs. Apple

2007-08-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Apparently Wal-Mart is going to challenge Apple at selling music by undercutting Apple's price for music and waving the digital rights manufacture fees for music. So instead of $.99 for a track Wal-Mart is selling it for $.94 and $9.22 for full cd's instead of Apple's $9.99.

Apple is already making some adjustments setting up a $.30 premium for high quality files back in April.

I dont like Wally World (Wal-Mart) very much so even if they are $.50 cheaper I am still buying my music from Apple.

SHH... Our bridge collapsed

2007-08-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

On the way to the office this morning, I was listening to Kevin and Bean and I heard a story that I had to check into it.

Apparently in China there was a bridge that collapsed that had left 47 people dead so far. The interesting thing about this story is that communist government has banned any media from reporting this incident, and on top of that officials were caught punching and chasing reports away from the scene! (And if you listen to Kevin and Bean at all you can imagine the fun they had with this story.)

Some other things they mentioned that I have not been able to find yet were the government hushing poison being in kids p.j.'s, toys being recalled because of lead in the paint and kids dying, and cardboard being cooked in many of the foods bought in restaurants. And again the interesting thing about this is the communist government not allowing people to talk about this or report this.

Christians supporting Jews

2007-08-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

There is an article in CNN News about Christians supporting Jews.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates 85 million evangelicals believe God tells them to support Israel -- more than six times the world's Jewish population.

Jewish people are trying to gain support to show government that ALL the land of Israel belongs to the Jews. Is this a fight we need to engage in, is what I am wondering? After all I thought the land belong to God, and even though I know there is a deep history that runs between these 2 competing nations both claim to follow a God of peace. By us saying we support them it almost feels as if we are saying the Jews are right and the Palestinians are wrong, and it just doesn't seem like that is a very wise war to step into at them moment.

Thoughts?

Why Girls Like Pink

2007-08-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Why Girls Like Pink is an article I read in Time trying to discover if women are programmed biologically to like pinkish colors.

So the neuroscientists at Newcastle (isn't that a beer? Perhaps herein lies the catalyst behind this study?) University got 208 volunteers between the ages of 20-26. On average, people generally prefer the color blue. NOT EVEN PINK!! But, girls did choose more of the blues with red tint in them like the purples and the boys chose more of the blue with green tints in them.

Now these guys are finally starting to get smart (just joking I know they are far more smarter than I am, I just like to tease) because I am reading this article I am thinking to myself, "maybe its because of the way we raise or kids that they pick the colors they do." So they took this study to China, where I know nothing about being raised in the Chinese culture!

Turns out they had pretty much the same differences although most Chinese like the color read because red is a color of prosper and success. It sounds like to me that the reason for the colors we choose is because of our culture. American's are so stressed out they choose blue to sooth them, and the Chinese so desperately want to prosper from their dictatorship they choose red.
Who knew?

10 Weeks and 1 Day

2007-08-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a total emotional roller coaster for Andi and I, and just getting back from our House Boat trip with the High School didn't make it any easier.

A couple of months ago Andi and I found out that she was pregnant! We were both really excited and called into the doctors to make our first pregnancy appointment. We were told that we had to wait a couple more weeks until we were in our 8th week of pregnancy before they would see us. So we made the appointment and waited the couple of weeks.

At 8 weeks we went in and did all the testing and check up's and family history you have to go through. The told us that we both looked very healthy, the baby looked very healthy, and we shouldn't have any complications because of our health and no major issues in our families history either.

Week 9 we were on our houseboat trip so we decided to tell our students and leaders (since we had already told our family and close friends after our doctors appointment) that we were pregnant. After all it would seem weird that Andi was constantly sleeping, some what sick, and in the air conditioned boat the whole time, that just isn't who she is.

After a great week at Lake Mead, we came home on a Thursday, had one good night sleep and my mom, sister and brother-in-law came into town, which was awesome to see them. That Saturday night Andi began to have some symptoms that were not normal. By Sunday she wasn't doing well, and by Monday we had made an emergency appointment with our doctor to find out we miscarried the baby.

Our pregnancy only last 10 weeks and 1 day, but even then its difficult dealing with the loss of something you loved so much before it even had a chance to exist on its own. Even before I knew this kid, I had hopes, dreams, and excitement for its life.

It feels so much like a dream, because it was so real and then gone so quick that it almost didn't seem real (you got that?!) as if I had just woken up from a dream.

So after one week of people knowing we are now having to deal with talking to them about how we are no longer pregnant. The most comforting thing to see is how people genuinely care and want to help, in that I see the image of God. At the same time its so difficult for them because what do you say to someone in those situations other than I am sorry and if you need anything I am here.

In the midst of the awkwardness of telling people, talking through this whole experience with Andi, trying to support her and love her through all of this, we received meals, phone calls, cards, flowers, visitors, and many hugs that have helped so much. These are the times that reassure me that God is still alive in people and the church is still about people.

The thing that I am now struggling with is the very well intentioned expression "God has a perfect will." I know the hearts of the people that say this and even the awkwardness of not knowing what to say, so maybe say something spiritual, for this I love and am grateful for these people. But the expression itself is what gets me going a little.

God's perfect will as much as I understand it to this point of my life is about love, restoration, justice, wholeness, and life to the full. It seems to me that God's perfect will would be for us love, be restored, and bring and give life to all of his creation, not take away life. And though I do think Andi and I will be able to use this to bring life and restoration to someone else's life, and I do think that out of this we have connected with people on another level which has been invaluable. I just dont see God saying, "Nope. This one isnt going to be good enough, or amount to much so lets stop this now before its too late. "

And again I know the people who say this expression dont mean this, and I am not accusing them of that, this is just where my head goes when I hear that expression. Perhaps our experience is just a reality of life, and God's perfect will is the connection and love we have experienced by all those who have decided to live following Jesus.

When it's good to be a heretic

2007-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

I came across this in reading a Jewish Literacy book and thought it was quite interesting.

"Everything in God's creation has a purpose," a Hasidic Rabbi once told his followers.
"In that case," asked a disciple, "what is the purpose of apikorsus (heresy), of denying that God exists?"
"Apikorsus is indeed purposeful," the rabbi replied. "For when you are confronted by another who is in need, you should imagine that there is no God to help, but that you alone can meet the man's needs."

Sacred and Secular

2007-07-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book called "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch, and so far its been a pretty interesting book, although I am only in the 4th chapter about discipleship.

Alan Hirsch hits a topic about the sacred and the secular, that was very interesting for me to read and think about. He calls this a "Dualism that distorts our experience of God, his people, and his world."

Hirsch continues to write that, "If the world and all in it belongs to God, and comes under his direct claim over it in and through Jesus, then there can be no sphere of life that is not radically open to the rule of God. There can be no non-God area in our lives and in our culture."

The result of this dualism is we create church to become this sacred place where we worship God, experience God, encounter God in such a way (which none of these things are bad) that we actually begin to believe that God only has rule and significance in the sacred places. In other words family, work, hobbies, recreation, conflict, etc. God has little to no effect on these areas of our lives.

Hirsch says, we have a tragic problem to points to a dualistic church when people come to experience a god on Sunday and by Monday they disconnect with that god because "this is the real world, and things work different here."

Hirsch writes, "Dualistic expressions of faith always result in practical polytheism. There will be different gods that rule the different spheres of our lives, and the God of the church in this view is largely impotent outside of the privatized religious sphere."

Hirsch doesnt go into this, at least I dont remember him saying anything about this, but I think also what happens within the sacred/secular dualism is also the dispensational idea of God destroying the world (heaven is sacred, earth is secular), dont watch R-rated movies, dont associate with the secular, etc. It seems that it just draws a seperation of us and them, even though we are all God's.

I think Hirsch is deffinately on to something here.

Sometimes Talking Scares Me Part 2

2007-07-26T15:50:00.001-07:00

I am suppose to be meeting with this kid who has been called a "problematic teen" but the ironic thing is they didnt show up.

So with some free time before my next appointments this evening I thought I would take a few minutes and spit out a blog or 2.

Chad being the great guy that he is, respond back to my first blog and he had such a deep question to ask (truthfully I read it thought it was a no brainer and the more I thought of it the deeper my thoughts went) that made me think about not just in my life but the church in general.

Here is what Chad had to say:

God had children. He didn't need to, but he did. It has been his greatest
success and his greatest failure. The question you need to ask yourself is,
how
much do you want to be like God?

At first glance the response is easy, "well of course I want to be like God, duh." But as I started to think about it I couldnt honestly respond with that answer. Not because I dont want to be like God but because I dont think a worded answer is worthy.

It seems like to me in my life, and what I find the state of the church in is the idea of following Jesus but not actually following Jesus. Jesus gets his disciples to move right away with the statement, "come follow me." The 3 years (or whatever your stance is on the length of Jesus' ministry) Jesus was mentoring his disciples to live a certain way that reflected his character. Jesus therefore, took them on a journey to develop them, to allow them to ask the questions, to peer into the mystery of the Kingdom of God. All of this was very intentional and very active, and Jesus even leaves his learners with the challenge to be even more accurate by going to the nations and making them learners of everything they went through the last 3 years.

Today it seems as if we people call themselves Christians because they go to church and do little with their life outside of a Sunday morning and possibly a small group. Yet it appears that Jesus calls his disciples the church after they have been on the journey some time and they have already done much with their life.

Brilliant question Chad and I don't know if you meant it to go this way but this is going to be a question that haunts me... perhaps challenges me because yes, I do want to be like God, but I think the journey that I choose to live will lead me to that place along the way.

So am I scared to have kids one day, absolutely. But in all this I am learning that its all about the journey, and one day I will be able to look back at this and see where God has lead me to be more like him.

Sometimes talking scares me

2007-07-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Andi and I have been married for 4 years (it will be 4 in August), and we have talking more and more about having kids. And frankly the more we talk the more I have these mixed emotions of nervousness, scared, excited, and this love for my wife that is on a different level than what I have felt before.

In my mixed emotions I decided to sit down with a few people that have had kids and talk through some of it with them. I come to realize that sometimes talking with them scares me more.

Everyone has basically said that I will hate it and love it at the same time. There is so much sacrifice that you have to give, you rarely sleep for the first several months, the kid is always screaming its head off and you wonder if its because something is wrong.

Then after going through all that and I am nearly convinced I will never have kids, they share the love you can explain or imagine, and a different side of life that brings an awareness of who you are and how good God is to us.

I must say after all this I still have all the mixed emotions of the unknown.

Today is a great day

2007-07-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

Today has been a great day, and I think I would like to share it with all of you because days like this only come around... well, I don't really know but I really enjoy life and today I seemed to enjoy it a bit more than normal.

We have a staff prayer meeting every Tuesday morning at 9 am, and though this sounds like it could be the best recipe for disaster and boredom, it really isn't. What we typically do is do a short devo that challenges us to reflect how we interact with people since God calls us to show others who he is by how we interact with... others. Then we take some time and just ask questions to discover who we are, what needs need to be met, and where we are at personally. This part is usually lead by Darcy.

Today we had a great discussion about men's roles in relationship with a few people on staff who are female, and what it looks like for people who are grace givers vs. people who are truth tellers and what that looks like in relationship dynamics. Ok so it sounds like a seminar but really people were open, honest, and vulnerable. How many churches can say that about their staff?

Then I went to go get a good surf in. There hasn't been very much surf lately (almost all summer) and I have been putting in extra hours the last few weeks so I decided to go surf, and try to meet some new people in the water.

I had one of the best surf days ever, and I may bore you with this but I am supper stoked on it so I am going to tell you. I caught this wave that was about head high, and I had determined it would be my last since I still had some things to get done. I dropped in on it, and did a sharp turn at the bottom of the wave, drove back up it and snapped off the top throwing a pretty good spray (which I rarely do). I came back down did another bottom turn came up and did another snap off the top and had a good spray. Then I pumped down the face of the wave and picked up a good amount of speed, and the wave is about chest high at this point. I saw it closing out and came up hit the lip and actually caught some air. It was my first time I had ever got my board and my feet in the air (which is called an air). I didn't land it, didn't even come close but I have been trying for 2 years to do that, and today I did.

Now that I got some stuff done in the office, I am heading out for some home made pizza, freshly cooked in a brick oven with a bunch of the young adults! Then after that its yoga time!

All in a days work.

Party Evangelism

2007-07-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

When I hear the word evangelism it seems to raise some irritation in me. I think it's because the word makes me feel like I need to go up to a random stranger, and try to make them "confess with their mouth and believe in their heart," and some how they will come to a deep meaningful relationship with Jesus.

I do think people like Greg Lori, Erwin McManus, Billy Graham, Mike Maiolo, and others have the personality and the gifting to be able to do that, however I am not one of them.

Because I do believe that evangelism is a good thing and it is the very beginning of discipleship, I have been trying to come up with different ways of getting to know people who would not be "churchy" people. Plus I really like to hang out with people who swear, drink beer, and walk around their neighborhood with shorts, no shoes, and no shirt (don't worry its just the males not wearing a shirt) who wouldn't necessarily walk into church. (I also like to hang out with christian people as well)

So we decided to get to know some people by having a BBQ at my neighbors house, not mine because that still means they are coming on my ground, for the sole purpose of meeting people and building relationships with them. Not inviting them to church, but getting to know them, and possibly make a connection with a couple of people and inviting them over for dinner to get to know them more. (I have read a few sources that call this Party Evangelism)

We tried it and we were planning on having about 30 people come, I invited all my neighbors, and the chiropractic office that Andi and I have been going to (because I am old and keep hurting my back). Then Andi invited a couple of her clients as well. Plus everyone at Awakening was around 30 people total.

We had it set up that we would do all the preparations, the decorations, the cooking, cleaning and what ever else needed to take place so that the family could just hang out with us. It turned out that 3 of our neighbors out of the seven houses we invited, and 2 of Andi's clients came. So we had a great time getting to know those people even more. It was a great night, a lot of fun and we made some good connections. Since then I have personally felt closer to my neighbors and they had said they really enjoyed everyone and that we could have a party in their back yard any time we want.

Not to mention they had a great rock water slide that left all of us a little bruised and cut!

Its difficult to chip away some of the teachings that have been planted in my life, as I still find it difficult to gage if this was a success or a failure. None the less I think we will do it again, and hopefully sometime in the next couple of months.

Invisible Children

2007-07-19T09:37:00.001-07:00

I might go to this, is anyone interested in coming with me?

I tried to find this online but the only place I could find any info was on a bulletin they sent me on myspace.

If you cant read the flyer its an art and fashion show in downtown SD on July 28th from 7-10:30 PM at the Artist Lofts. Its totally free and its just to help raise awareness of the cause.

I also found this great news:

The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, has declared that there are no LRA fighters or rebel activities in northern Uganda. “We are beginning to reap peace dividends. There has been no LRA soldier or activity for a whole year. We have also ensured that there are no more ambushes on the Nimule-Juba road,” the general said at Mubende UPDF Casualty Unit. He was overseeing the upgrading of the 38-year old barracks to a rehabilitation centre for wounded soldiers. The centre is headed by Col. Livingstone Kateregga. “Now that peace has returned, we are reorganising these barracks and turning them from a casualty unit into a fully fledged rehabilitation centre. We are retraining the patients, with the view of either re-employing them in the army or ensuring them a profitable living as civilians.” The New Vision

Invisible Children

The Buddha Quote of the Day

2007-07-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I dropped my sister off at John Wayne this morning. It was so great to see my sister, and thank you for making her feel so welcomed and loved here. She lives up in Sacramento and I dont get to see her very often, so it's a really good thing for me to see her.

This morning I came across this Buddhist Quote of the Day and decided to share it with all of you.

The true holy person who follows their practice and the words of the Buddha, who
applies that teaching to their everyday life, will light up the world with their
beauty. (The Holy Person, v381-382)

Its amazing to me that so many people would get their "panties in a bunch" if
I were to say this, say at a church, or with some "conservative christians."
However, if you substitute the name God for Buddha it becomes ok. I am
not suggesting to follow Buddha instead of Christ, I am merely saying that there
seems to be a truth that transcends petty arguments. The way of the Buddha is to
bring peace to yourself and your surroundings, and if you read the whole story
of God it seems he has the same desire, perhaps that's why they pursue that.

Jesus' message contains the same message as the one above, that you will not understand God or become the person God has created you to be, unless you follow/practice the teachings found in Torah and in Jesus.

Perhaps when you discover truth, this truth transcends religion, thought, or even "enlightenment" and in that truth you discover a God desiring to bring peace, wholeness, and restoration to his creation. Even if others dont get it all "right" and they have some things that are pretty far fetched, can we find the truth, can we find God in the midst of it?

Scot McKnight

2007-07-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

I was just on Scot McKnight's blog and found a couple of interesting things.

First Scot wrote about Eugene Peterson's new book Eat this Book, which is all about how to read the Bible. You can check it out on McKnight's blog: Jesus Creed

Second he talks about a new thing called Wikiklesia, check it out at:
Jesus Creed

Global Problems Tackled?

2007-07-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Nelson Mandela is at it again! 89 years old and still trying to "solve" global issues. Read more of the article at Nelson Mandela

The Mysteries of God

2007-07-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

This morning I was suppose to go meet Butch at the Ladera Skate Park to skate a little, but he called me on the way down there to tell me it doesn't open until 9 AM (it was 7:50 when he called) and everyone has to have a Ladera Community Pass to skate there (which he has because he is house sitting for one of Andi's clients and they gave him theirs). So I turned my truck around and decided to come in and write a short blog.

This has been on my mind lately, and yesterday I was reading a book called "The Parables" by a guy named Brad Young. Basically its all about the Parables of Jesus and it takes a look at them in the Jewish context and historical context before trying to give them any meaning.

I came across a passage in Luke 8 where Jesus tells his disciples that He tells them the "secrets of the kingdom of God..." Come to find out this is a term that the Jews commonly used not to describe that God was so mysterious they could never understand certain things in Torah, and in this particular case, the teachings of Jesus, rather it was an expression that people used to say the secrets or mysteries of God are revealed and understood through the practice of Torah. Basically Jesus is saying that he revealing the mystery of God through the way they are living.

I remember coming out of college with a degree in youth ministry. Good ol' Hope prepared for everything I thought I needed to know, and very little that I really needed to know. I came out with this attitude of I have the knowledge and understanding of the secrets of God, but little experience to back any of it up. It seemed I was more enthralled with the idea of following Jesus, rather than actually following Jesus.

It seems like I am back at that place in life once again, not because I am not trying to follow Jesus but because people all around me are in that place. I realized this is a tough thing to work with and through. Many people like the idea of following Jesus especially in the future tense (heaven, earth destroyed, no pain, no tears, etc.) but they aren't sure or unwilling how to actually follow Jesus.

This is my challenge at the moment, trying to bring people to a place that they no longer like the idea and lack the practice so that they too can have the secrets of God revealed to them through their life actions.

2007-07-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

Attempting to have a conversation

2007-07-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

So blogs have been out for several years now and this is my first attempt to try this. I have been very apprehensive for many reasons:

1) I really enjoy dialogue and I completely understand blogs to be more of all of you reading and less dialogue, due solely on the fact that you probably have a bunch of blogs you read from and don't have time to respond to every ones.

2) I don't have Internet at the house, or a laptop, so if and when I blog I have to do come into the office and do it then.

3) I dont want my blog to be a representation of anything that goes on at MVCC. Meaning I have some different thoughts, thoughts and beliefs that MVCC may or may not hold. I would hate to see my blog become a means of dividing anything that God is doing with the leadership of MVCC.

So I am going to try this and see where it takes me. For me its a way to open my life and my ministry up to the world and I hope have enough dialogue that it will help me grow as well as help anyone who reads this grow.

I hope you all enjoy.