I was at Goodwill looking for a baseball glove when I saw a used copy of Ann Rice’s book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt on the shelf for just 3 bucks. Apparently, Ann Rice got famous writting vampire books and now she’s written a couple fiction books imagining what life was like growing up as Jesus. Of course, you can through some controversy at that situation and it’s gonna stick, but I love me a little controversy!
I ended up loving this book! It takes a lot of history and context and makes it come alive. It has a really unique look at it. I love when fiction books imagine what it may have looked like when Jesus was a child, it makes Jesus so much more human and divine for me.
I didn’t underline any particular passages becuase Rice isn’t trying to create a doctrinal statement. Out of Egypt is what it is: a story about Jesus as a real live young boy who is trying to understand who he is by understanding who and where he came from. I would totally recomment this book to anyone, and I just ordered the next one in the series from amazon!
pages read= 321 ~ year to date= 4022 ~ 2009 goal=9,000 ~ (45%)
weekend in review: July! – awesome! This weekend I celebrated 10 years of being married to the indescribable Heather!! What a wild trip it has been – who would have thought we’d be where we are, doing what we do, with 2 amazing kids – our lives continue to be a testament to God’s provision and grace, which is exactly what we pray.
We also spent time with family this weekend, and with awesome friends – in a neighborhood where fireworks are taken very seriously! I’ve been and am currently sick because of what went around on the missions trip so I was a little fuzzy the whole weekend, but I do remember the fireworks landing on me!!
Probably the other best highlight of my weekend was playing catch with LJ. He’s gotten ahold of his uncle Chris’ old kids-sized baseball glove and we played catch with a regular hard baseball. It was like I was re-living memories with my Dad – what an awesome privilege to be a dad – I love every moment of it!
on my list this week: I am now solely focused on planting the Grove, so I have a “to-do” list of 21 things I wrote up this morning. When I get those done, I am going to catch up on reading through the Bible. I’ve not been on track with that lately.
current books: I’ve finished 3 books that I need to blog out. Right now I am only reading Leonard Sweet’s book on friendships called 11. It’s nice.
current writing: lots of little things, nothing too big.
culture that’s caught me: I got my GQ mag in the mail this past week and I was beside myself with embarrasment because they put that Sasha Baron Cohen buy on the front naked and hadseveral pages dedicated to advice from him. It was a total sell-out. I get GQ because I really enjoy fashion and this was just stupid. It’s time to renew my subscription and I’m not gonna bother. Losers.
how i’m feeling about this week: Awesome. I get to play softball tonight!
quote for the week: “So what is the Grove?” ~ by about 100 people on Saturday morning!!
running report: I haven’t ran in a month. Having an exercise habit when running a youth ministry and planting a church is difficult. I will have to be more intentional.
weekend in review: Good times this weekend – did the regular pattern of graduation parties. As God has grown the youth ministry here at SACC, I have more and more parties to be at. This weekend I actually missed one because I was at others. I felt bad about it, but its a great problem to have.
Also had the final meeting for the Vancouver missions team – we’ve got a great group of kids this year. It should be great for what may be my last.
on my list this week: I have a long list, stuff every night and I’m preaching this week. Should be a great week.
current books: Still reading ReJesus (close to finishing, it’s not been a lot of newness for me) and Brother Lawrence too (just 10 more pages). Finished up Church Unique, so I’ll blog it here. Can’t wait to pound out ReJesus, it’s feeling tedious.
current writing: The Grove’s website and a sermon.
culture that’s caught me: This interview with the author of The Shack, W. Paul Young, is outstanding. It’s from Canadian television, so its a bit different culturally for my American friends.
how i’m feeling about this week: Pretty good. St. Theresa’s Prayer was on a friend’s blog this morning and it’s ministering to me in a great way. Gotta love good saints with good prayers.
quote for the week: double dose!:
“I’m a Canadian, not a Republican.” ~W. Paul Young, author of The Shack, answering if he considers himself a Christian
“Martin Luther King didn’t coach t-ball; neither did Ghandi. Start a revolution if you want, but that’s not a price that I’m willing to pay.” ~Tony Jones
running report: after two weeks of a break, which sucked, I got back out this morning. It’s so good for me to run. It feels so good to be out and alone and just drive out miles. I am loving running because of what it gives me. I’m turning into an addict.
weekend in review: I am amazed it’s June! Had a blast of a weekend – taking care of all sorts of busy work this past weekend, websites and details. They are bogging me down, so it’s great to get away from them. The Grove got an address and a phone number and it’s website is just waiting a couple details, then we’ll be ready for publicity trimester!
I decided that I’m gonna switch this blog over to a new one for pastoring the Grove on July 1. I’m feeling change in the air, and I figured this would be a good time to get a new blog too.
I published a book. It’s on lulu.com, self-published. Don’t buy it. If you’re interested I can get you the content for free. I just thought it was fun to do that.
Had a stellar Grove Launch Team meeting last night. Prayed together for a super long time. Aaron led an excellent concert of prayer, especially for his first time leading that. I can’t wait to see the kingdom expand through the Grove!
on my list this week: Graduations, graduation parties, and (sigh) details. we are into the grind part of planting a church. I can’t wait to get to the part where people start getting saved.
current books: Still reading ReJesus (close to finishing) and Brother Lawrence too. Finished up Church Unique, so I’ll blog it here this week. Can’t wait to pound out ReJesus, it’s feeling tedious.
current writing: systems for the Grove. Details for the missions trip.
culture that’s caught me: MTV – they’ve lost their ability to know what the front edge of culture is. They just reach straight for the offensive jar. They aren’t pushing culture, they are pushing offense. It’s sad.
how i’m feeling about this week: Good. I need to get back out in my sneakers though.
quote for the week: “The Christian is a Holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God. Satan never knows from where the danger will come.” ~Tozer
running report: only 1.9 miles last week. weak sauce. gotta get it together.
I’ve noticed that I’m not blogging as frequently and was trying to figure it out. Here’s what I can come up with:
It appears my blog is a pour out – meaning, I take things that are poured in to me (like books, culture, people, etc.) and I pour out for whoever reads these.
Right now, I am pouring out a lot. I am spending a lot of what is poured into me into the transitions at South, the new church plant, a couple side projects (top secret!) and into people who are rising as leaders. So, while I am still pouring in (Brother Lawrence shook me to the core this morning), my pouring out is not taking place here.
I do anticipate a return though, because I love blogging just for the way it becomes a way for me to pour into others. So, I will return, just maybe not as frequently.
weekend in review: It’s Victoria Day today, so I’ll spend more time and energy praying for the Queen than regular days (And yes, I pray for the Queen of England almost everyday and also for the future King – you don’t?). The weekend was fabulous too! Friday we helped out some friends by caring for their kids, taking them to the park. I love being a part of a group of people that “does life together” – these friends have done the same for us, and we love being the village that’s raising our kids together. It sounds like we are hippies, but, hey – we’re left coasters! Friday night the kids slept over at Grammi’s so we got to go to Starbucks, waste time driving around and see Wolverine, It was awesome. I love the questions that the mutant-human relationship bring up in my mind.
Then on Saturday we hosted a spiritual gifts workshop for Grove launch team members. It went really well and the participants really appreciated it. Then I spent Saturday night doing prep work for Sunday.
Sunday morning I preached in both services at SACC. It went well, I avoided saying, “whore bread”, even though I thought it. Think that’s weird/offensive? You can listen to it online if you want to get it… Then after lunch we did an extended team building/vision growing meeting with the Vancouver missions trip team. We’re leaving one month from now and the details are coming together well, I appreciate God’s work behind the scenes in that.
on my list this week: I’ve got a whole night of meetings today and then more preparation work this week. Lots going on, so it’s easy to fill the day.
current books: Still reading ReJesus (close to finishing) and Brother Lawrence too. Also started Church Unique by Will Mancini. I should finish this today.
current writing: nothing…
culture that’s caught me: The details involved in being a non-profit organization is amazing. The history of the 501.c.3 in America is interesting and would probably change the thoughts of many church leaders.
how i’m feeling about this week: Great! Getting back into the running habit and the hole where my tooth was is finally going away.
quote for the week: “Burt Reynolds? Where did you come from?” ~Will Ferrell was on SNL’s season finale this week and they brought out the Jeopardy sketch. I laughed so much!
running report: ran zero this week because of getting my wisdom tooth out. getting back out this afternoon.
So, last Sunday Forest Pointe Church (which meets at the YMCA in Belmont, N.C.) decided to give away an offering instead of taking an offering. Here’s what their website says:
On Sunday May 10th we at Forest Pointe Church in Belmont, NC displayed the love of Christ in a radical manner. Rather than take up an offering from the congregation, we, the church GAVE an offering to the congregation. Rather than do the expected, we chose the UNEXPECTED. Rather than talk about love, we reflected the LOVE of CHRIST.
The usual offering Forest Pointe receives in two services averages $16,000 weekly. So, we chose to give $16,000 back and not receive an offering! The only catch… we asked those receiving the money to agree to the following:
1. Can’t give it back to the church.
2. You can’t keep it, you must bless someone else with it.
3. You have to tell your story.
Our desire is to infect the community and beyond with the radical, life changing, heart transforming LOVE of CHRIST.
You HAVE to go and read the stories that people wrote after using their money. It’s outstanding! The church is the church!!
The final section of A Community Called Atonement brings the atonement into a missional framework. McKnight works of the Scripture that calls Christians to be ambassadors of reconciliation and calls all followers of God to spread the atonement after they have experienced it.
“Atonement is something done not only by God for us but also something we do with God for others…God provides atonement in order to create a fellowship of persons who love God and love others, who find healing for the self, and who care about the world.”
There is a daring discussion on the different definitions of liberty and justice that occur between Christianity and Americanism. During the recent series on Jubilee at South Albany, this has been a challenge to communicate, not helped at all by the strong and often polarized political views many people currently hold. The American church is at a time in its history (and it’s not the first time!) when it is having to rethink its relationship with culture and politics. How we define justice is a large part of that discussion.
And as if that isn’t enough, McKnight spends some time discussing wether the church owns the Bible or the Bible owns the church. It’s an interesting thought, one which seems to have different answers depending on how much history one considers.
So, finally, I thought this book was so amazing that I broke it into 4 different blog posts. McKnight went so far beyond my expectations – and this book has become instrumental in the growth of my thinking on the atonement!
pages read= 170 ~ year to date= 3701 ~ 2009 goal=9,000 ~ (41%)
weekend in review: Had a wonderful weekend. Sunday afternoon was a blast as the kids and I planned a mother’s day out surprise for Heather and then LJ started to ride his bike completely on his own. He hasn’t had that big wipeout yet, where he gets cut and bleeds. I’m hoping he does soon so he can learn early and often to keep getting back up when He crashes. Bikes are wonderful for teaching that life lesson. For me, it was a bike, a curb, spokes, my head minus a helmet and a visit to the hospital that taught me.
on my list this week: Preaching this weekend on Mark 6:30-44. Interesting stuff, so all my spare time will be dedicated there. Also working towards the Grove spiritual gifts workship this saturday for the launch team members. We’ve got 120 people on the launch team, so this stuff is important.
current books: Still reading ReJesus (close to finishing) and Brother Lawrence too. Also started Church Unique by Will Mancini. It’s really really good. I’m loving the way he just gives it straight!
current writing: a teaching for the weekend.
culture that’s caught me: Dana White is doing a lot of publicity for the UFC, interesting that he considers their reality show to be the best thing they’ve got going for them.
how i’m feeling about this week: Fantastic. Hoping my tooth hole heals up.
quote for the week: “You’re tired?!? Then give me a push, I’m GOING!”
running report: ran zero this week because of getting my wisdom tooth out. not sure how much I’ll get out this week. Hampering my hopes for the 5 mile trail run at the end of this month.
