Hello Again

Well it’s been a while since I posted.  Couple of factors went into that, 1)busy 2)sick.  So that’s that.

But some pretty cool and exciting things have happened.  our student ministry hosted an event called beyond::afterhours.  And that went really well.  We had 30 students show up and we had a great ole’ time.  I’ve heard a lot of very positive feedback on the event itself, both from students and parents. So Rock On!

Probably the highlight from that evening was the chance that I had to talk to a student who had a lot of great questions about God, Jesus and the church.  Any time I can have a real honest conversation with people about faith matters it’s a reminder for why I am in youth ministry.  There is nothing greater than changing someone’s perceptions of Christians.  :o)

So Friday night was great.  But on Saturday I started feeling pretty crummy with a cold and I’m just now starting to feel better, dayquil helps.  But Judah and I both have the same cold, so I’m hoping we can both kick it quickly.

Speaking of Judah he has learned the High Five-Pound It Combination.   He automatically goes to the Pound it after any kind of high five motion, so be ready, don’t leave him hanging.

I’ve set up a place outside of my house where I can work.  It’s at an undiclosed location, so don’t ask me where.  But just having that place brings joy to my life, I feel like I have a little bit more seperation between my home and work which is really valuable for my sanity.

And last night I got an early Birthday, Valentine’s Day, Anniversary, LaborDay, present.  Thanks to my parent’s contribution and kathy’s permission I was able to get an iPhone.  And it’s pretty stinking awesome.  I’m still learning how to make it the better tool for me to get stuff done, but I love the SMS conversation feature, visual voicemail, and mail and internet.  The recent updates where you can customize your home page are great too.  So I’m in geek heaven right now.

Something odd happened too recently.  I denied my first comment.  I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe in courtesy.  And I received a comment that was just mean for no reason.  And I just couldn’t leave it be.  It felt weird, but at the same time like it was the right thing for me to do.  As the creator of this blog I feel like I should create a culture around it and part of that culture is respect for other people.  Especially groups.  So I hope I haven’t come across as disrespectful to anyone, but in the future I hope that we are all civil and respectful.

On the plus side, both Matt Casper and Jim Henderson have left comments on my book review for Jim and Casper go to Church.  And that was cool.  It’s always neat to have the author respond in some way to your thoughts.

So that’s a lot of stuff but I had to get it all out there.  Have a great day

Jim and Casper Go To Church – Review

Jim and Casper Go To Church is written by Jim Henderson of Off-The-Map and Matt Casper, an Atheist.  Jim is the dude who bought a soul on eBay and sent that atheist soul to Church, for their honest responses to the church.

This is a follow-up project, where Jim and Casper actually went to 12 churches together and reviewed each church.   Some of the churches made both Jim and Casper angry, and the question that keeps coming up throughout the book is, “Is This what Jesus called you guys to do?”

When they encountered the churches with light shows, and fog machines, Casper thought the production was cool, but he did feel the connection between faith and flashy lights.  On the other hand when they encountered churches that were more involved in the community, and actually changing lives through service and engagement.  Those churches seemed to get rave reviews.

This book is definitely worth the read.  It’s a short quick book, written as a conversation.  I said in a previous post that every church leader should read this book, and I still feel that way, especially the church leaders who lead these churches.

They Like Jesus But Not The Church – Review

So far so good on my read one book at a time resolution. With the writer’s strike on really the only thing to watch in the evening is Reality TV and I despise most so while Kathy watches Project Runway I read (for example).

So last night i finished up Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church. This book is a good compliment to UnChristian, which I recently finished as well.   This is a less formal, less scientific study of outsiders feelings about the church.  It is chock-full of personal statements from people that Dan knows personally.  And I found myself agreeing with a lot of the statements people were making and I also found myself upset by other comments.

The best chapter in the whole book is “What They Wish the Church Were Like”.  In this chapter Dan outlines some different dreams and ideals that people wish the church would be. And I think there are a lot of great lessons in this.

What Dan Kimball has done in They Like Jesus But Not The Church, is not write a heady and impersonal book on outreach.  Instead he asked the people that he knows personally to shape this book, instead of telling people what they think, he asked what they think.

This is a great book, and if you want to get a pulse on outsiders views of the church, then  this and UnChristian are both great resources.

My Next Book:  Jim and Casper Go To Church

telling people what they think

I was quite surprised by the New Hampshire Primaries last night.  Two underdogs came out the winners. Clinton instead of losing by 10 like some polls showed actually came out ahead by 3 percent.  Pretty incredible.  It’s funny how the media tends to pick a front-runner and tell everyone they are the front-runner, but then wham-o the people tell them something else. 

The lesson to learn from all of this is that you can’t tell people what they think.   This applies to everything in life not just politics.  Instead of telling people what they think, tell them what you think (be honest), but most importantly listen to what they think, and then talk about what they think.

I am finding more and more that people will listen to what I think as long as I am willing to listen to what they think first. 

when we preach are we talking about what people think about?

Ben Stein, Bill Maher, Mike Huckabee, Darwinism

Various folks have directed me to two videos.  The first features Bill Maher talking to Mike Huckabee about Creation vs. Evolution.  I saw Maher talking about the republican field on Conan and many of the same sentiments are in this video. The other video that I found incredibly fascinating is an extended trailer for a documentary from Ben Stein (“Bueller, Bueller, Anyone).  The Documentary is called expelled and it looks at how scientist are basically blacklisted for doubting darwinism. This documentary looks interesting.  the trailer is below.All of this is very interesting.  And I wonder what will come of this documentary. <p>There are two points that I find incredibly interesting in Ben Stein’s Documentary.</P>1) Belief in darwinism may be dangerous. It’s the superior race thinking that led to the holocaust, to genocide in Africa, to racism in general. Ben Stein seems to want to put words to it though. The reverse argument of course from a darwinian point of view is that the Bible is filled with all sorts of dangerous ideas and violence. And that is something as believers we need to be aware of.2) Proponents of darwinism are afraid when people question their beliefs. The responses from people like Richard Dawkins are so angry towards people of faith that I believe they are response to fear. Could the rise of Neo-Atheism be a reaction from fear? I wonder.</P

Not to be Political or Anything

But I am really starting to dig Huckabee. I was among those who thought that his name would be a big factor in keeping him obscure, but with a candidate named Barak Obama then I don’t really think names are going to be a problem.

One of the things that I like about Huckabee is his record of being a pastor, and having watched him on Leno tell his story of why he went into politics it was quite inspiring.  Huckabee wanted to be a doer instead of just a critic.  And having served in a non-profit non-governmental role he really did have a chance to work with people.  And as a side-note has a pastor ever been president before?