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So we had an all church dodgeball event on friday, we had youth, college, and young married folks, and people who had never been to our church, but were invited by friends. It was awesome to see all these people getting together to play on of the best games ever.

I hope that we have more and more events like this. I think this is one of the keys to helping students make a transition from youth group to the entire church. We can’t just keep all our ministries holed away from each other. We have to find ways to integrate the different ministries to make the whole church stronger.

These events don’t have to be difficult either, we can just open up the gym and play a game that everyone knows. We don’t have to spend a ton of money, we just have to do something. Pretty stinkin’ cool.

I love easter. It’s probably the best day of the year ever. This is the day when Jesus was raised from the dead, and if it wasn’t for this day then I would really have no reason to be, I would have no hope, and I would have no life. But good thing Jesus was raised.

I didn’t eat any candy or chocolate and I didn’t see a single bunny, all in all, I think it was a successful easter on that regard.

Church was hopping this morning too. We had tons of folks, new faces aplenty and I love seeing that. It shoots adreneline into the soul of the church and reminds us what we are here for.

Easter Rocks

last night I was unable to attend transit because there was a church leadership community at the same time. I was a little nervous because transit is in my house and my wife was going to be there alone, and I had heard that one of the couples that usually attends wasn’t going to be there, and it’s easter week so i thought we might have a low number. But I was wrong. We had our usual attendance (12) with three or our regulars gone.

I talked to some folks afterward and they said it went well. My wife said it went well too. I got home at 8:40 and people were still hanging out which is pretty cool. The community that transit is building is something that I thought would happen but I didn’t reallly expect it to be this strong. It’s amazing what happens when people get together and hang out and talk about the Bible and worship and pray. It’s almost like church. Wait a minute that is what the church is supposed to be.

Pretty cool, I’m really jazzed about transit. I get a lot out of it. Partially because it forces me to really focus on what I’m saying because people look up my references and ask questions. It’s really causing me to get into the word and dig a lot more.

If you’re reading this and you are college aged (18-mid 20’s) we would love to have you check us out, go to the transit blog.

So I’m trying to figure out effective ways to invite people to different events and one of the methods that I am using is the Myspace Events invitation. So I’ll see how effective it is, and maybe, just maybe I’ll utilize this myspace feature more often. I did however send 3 different invitations to 3 different events so I hope people don’t get super annoyed with me.

Myspace.com is a great resource and a great fear. So I hope that I can utilize this tool effectively. But we will see what happens.

If you want to check out my myspace, here it is

I have been reading the book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, by Eugene Peterson. I gotta say, it’s a great book. Peterson has a professors mind with a pastors heart. And that really comes through in his writing. He really communicates that he loves people and he wants people to love Jesus and experience Jesus in everyday life. If you have never read the Message paraphrase of the Bible then I highly suggest you check it out.

Anyways, I was reading last night at the Gym, I went to the gym twice yesterday as pennance for eating pizza with my wife. As I was reading I came across this section where Peterson was talking about Jesus in the Gospel of John. There is this part a couple of days before the Crucifixion where Philip has an encounter wiht greeks who are in Jerusalem for the Passover and they want to meet Jesus. Jesus denies them access during this time because he was focused on his mission.

Peterson said that Philip was acting as a sort of spiritual tour guide trying to take people to Jesus so they can say that they met him, and go home and tell all their friends. This quote really hit me, “Jesus doesn’t pose for photographs.” Jesus isn’t looking to be a tourist attraction, or even a spectacle. He came with one purpose to bring grace and forgiveness to the world. The crowd, the spectators, the tourists were all distractions from that purpose. Yeah Jesus taught to the multitudes and he fed the multitudes out of compassion, and he did miracles that drew a crowd. But the crowd wasn’tthe purpose behind all of those things. The Purpose was to provide signs that Jesus was who he said he was.

I think we are all guilty from time to time of trying to be spiritual tourist or tour guides. Pastors often settle with just getting people to see Jesus, but really we need to work to be change agents not just tour guides. And Christians, myself included can find times when really we just want to visit Jesus like we would Mikey Mouse at Disneyland.

We are in a season right now when we are going to have a lot of Tourists. Easter is the biggest sunday of the year (and it should be). My hope is that during this season churches will be able to capture the hearts of the tourists and compell them to move into the neighborhood with Jesus.

So I reconnected with a friend from highschool through myspace. He took me to a Pho place up on capital hill. It was the first time I had ever had Pho. It’s really good. But my friend, Kevin Lee Swann, hence the Kwann Lee reference, was one of the major influences in my life. He helped to teach me how to play guitar. He’s the man. It was really great to connect with him again.

We talked about everything, and he actually brought up talking about religion which is pretty cool. He wanted to talk about religion w/ someone who is religious. We talked about church and how he perceives it and how it should be, and stuff like that.

This connection was a great ending to a bummer of a day because my computer is poop. But That’s why I’m at the apple store jacking their internet, checking out the Mac mini. Good times.

I love being around people who don’t go to church and who actually like to have good conversations. Kwann Lee is the man and I look forward to getting together with him again soon.

This morning I was at the gym, which is my regular routine. Today was legs day, tomorrow Abs. After my workout and shower I was packing up my gym bag and for some reason I can’t explain I started thinking about time and God and sin.

I had read some where I think it was in A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren (great book, interesting thoughts, don’t agree with everything he says though). But one of the things that is talked about in this book is how God is outside of time, but instead of God creating the world and letting everything work on it’s own. God is actually at the end of history pulling it into himself.

So all things come back to God in the end, and that’s when the judgement happens. I was thinking about the nature of sin then being that people resist against God’s drawing us back to him.

Now we can keep fighting and keep sinning, but when we submit to God’s drawing and start trusting him. Then we can find peace and mercy because we are cooperating with him instead of running from him.

Just a thought. And a disjointed one at that. But whatever I just needed to write it down so I could start processing it.

Yesterday I was given the opportunity to speak in our morning service. I talked about Bezalel and Oholiab, and I talked about spiritual gifts and how just because our gift isn’t on Paul’s lists, doesn’t me it’s not a spiritual gift. We can’t put limits on Jesus and who and how he wants to give gifts too.

The important thing though is that we need to use our gifts for the kingdom of God. We all need to build this church. We all need to be faithful and not bury our gifts.

Sunday afternoon I fired up the BBQ after church for the first time this season. AWESOME!!! I love summer, and BBQ season. IT’s the best time of year. I love it.

Then sunday night we had a great evening Matt McCleary spoke about Luke 6:12 and following. He did a really great job. Matt’s come a long way in the year that I have been here at tNC and I really look forward to what he’s going to do and who he’s going to be.

All in all it was a good day even if I did lose an hour of sleep.

* Jack Bauer’s calendar goes from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Jack Bauer.

* If everyone on 24 followed Jack’s instructions, it would be called 12.

* If you wake up in the morning, it’s because Jack Bauer spared your life.

* Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

* There have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since Jack Bauer appeared on television.

* When someone asks Jack Bauer how his day is going, Jack replies, “Previously on 24…”

* Jack Bauer doesn’t speak any foreign languages, but he can make any foreigner speak English in a matter of minutes.

* When Google doesn’t know the answer, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

I just finished this wonderful book by the Bishop N.T. Wright. Wright, is a brilliant scholar and clear communicator. Wright loves the Bible and desires that the church would bring the Bible back to a place where it has authority in the church and in the lives of Christians. He does a great job of breaking down the different views on scripture and how it has been used and abused throughout history. The Whole book is a really wonderful study and I would recommend that anyone who is interested in the scriptures pick this one up. Wright also writes a really great commentary series, that I uses for my studies regularly.