Rome Pictures 6: The Pantheon

So, to wrap up our Rome picturess, here is the pantheon. Apparently it was the largest dome in europe (and it's big) until the St. Peter's Dome (I think) and now it's a church. But......it has a hole in the ceiling. Not sure what it's like to worship if the rain is dropping in.
But Aubrey and I still liked it and smiled.
I tried to bring one of the pillars with me...not so much...they're pretty big.

My favorite part of the pantheon was the violin player outside on the first night that we saw it. He was playing a tune that bordered on mournful, yet tip-toed with playfulness. It was one of those moments when I had to sit down and just soak it in...soak it in...I can still hear it and feel the crisp air and cold cement wall where we were sitting as if we were there again.

Good conversation on Brian's Blog

Hey, there's a good conversation about Driscoll and homosexuality on my friend Brian's blog.

Check it out at Brian's Blog.

Rome 5: Other Great Stuff

Here's Aubrey in front of the Borghese Gallery. What an amazing art gallery. It had one of my favorite pieces of work; a relief of a horse and rider falling. The horse was originally made by an unknown artist during the Roman empire and the horse was added during the Renaissance by Petro Benini (the dad). I love the idea that a work isn't finished and can be added to. Kinda like life...we're not done, we can build on to what was created before us.This is Aubrey eating a gelati, our 3rd of 5th night eating them. We had them every night except one. It's the italian version of ice cream. We figured with walking like 5 miles a day, we could indulge in such delicacies. And if you've had Rita's gelati's, they're nothing like the real thing baby.
And this is where we got our gelati's one night. What's crazy is that in Italy, many of their Cafe's and Bars, you have to pay a cover charge to use their tables. And lots of their seating is outside on the sidewalk (like you see in this picture). And it was cold when we were there. People were eating in the cold.
And for some strange reason, there are lots of cats in Rome. This is one in flight, landing on the ground. I'm not a cat lover, but since there's tons of them in Rome, I figured I'd put it on my blog.
And they've got water fountains everywhere. Not like our water fountains. These are constantly running and sometimes have cool designs like this one that Aubrey is using.

Miroslav Volf: Exclusion and Embrace

So, I picked up a book the other day, supposed to be good reading. And it is, but half the time when I'm reading, I'm like, "Whoa, I think what he said there is really significant, but I'm not really sure how because he uses seriously different language to describe reality."

It seems that the projection of the book is Volf's attempt to show how it is possible to openly embrace through the cross all people based on the sole fact that they are part of the creation. I think I like the direction, but will have to see if I can actually wade through the waters and actually come out able to explain it on the other side.

Rome Pictures 4: St. Peter's Basilica

Here's Aubrey in front of the largest church in the world, St. Peter's Basilica. Our church could fit in the foyer of this place. Not only is it huge, its art is magnificent. Michealangelo's Pieta (Mary with dead Jesus) is in the front part of the church. And the dome (seen to the left of Aubrey's head) is breathtaking.
A cool view of the "square" from the cupola of the dome. Apparently Peter was killed somewhere in this square. I think it looks kinda like the pinchers of a beetle or Predator.
This is Aubrey on top of the cupola. As you can tell, she is enjoying it. And I thought this was cool: the shadow of the church over the city.
Around the square there were the stations of the cross. This is station number 7, Jesus Falls a Second Time.
And what's this? It's on the wall right outside the church. Is it a bee or is it a fly? And what's it doing on the wall. I didn't see any other reliefs like it.
I kissed St. Peter's toe. Because that's what you do.

Rome Pictures 3: Coliseum

This is from across the street. This place is so large that it's hard to get a picture of the entire structure. It was amazing to be here.
I'm standing on stones that were laid in the days of Caesar Augustus. Pretty amazing stuff. The wall behind me actually extended all the way around the original arena.Here's Aubrey inside the Coliseum. If the arena was in it's original state, there would be stands on top of the gaps where her head is, and stands above the tiny people in the background. It's pretty amazing to think that they even rigged up a way to give shade to the crowd on really hot days.
This is the chamber area below the original floor of the coliseum. This is where they kept the animals and gladiators. The picture makes it look so small, and it was smaller than I imagined, but bigger than this picture. The acoustics in the place were great. We could hear people's conversations from across the way.The catholic church puts crosses like this one (if you can make it out) everywhere in Rome, somehow signifying the triumph of the church. Somewhat annoying, but cool at the same time. We actually found out that they have a service here every year to remember the martyrs who died here.

Rome Pictures 2

More pictures from Rome!











Here's Aubrey in front of Constantine's Arch. That's the coliseum on the right. This arch was huge. It seems that the Romans loved the arch, because there were all sorts of arches everywhere.





















Another arch...this is Tiberius' Arch. He had it built by some Jews to signify his victory over their rebellion. Some kind of punishment, huh? Having to build a monument signifying your own defeat.

And this is a picture of the courtyard of Vestal Virgins. The virgins (whom the Romans held in high esteem and did quite nasty things to them if they found out they weren't virgins) got to tend the ever burning fire in the Vestal Temple. If a virgin made it through life without being "violated" they would make a statue of her and put her in this courtyard. Those buildings in the background are part of Palantine Hill, where the emperors lived...the emperors had to "watch over" the virgins...

Rome Pictures 1

Well, here starts the picture highlights of our trip...

Here's Aubrey at the "Major Port". This is apparently what greeted many of the people who came into Rome in it's heyday. A wall extends off of it that used to surround the city, but now only parts of it stand.
Okay, I knew that Catholics took Mary seriously, but I didn't know how seriously. Seriously, we saw Madonna con Bambino (Mary with Child) pictures everywhere. This one is just on the side of the street. Both of our hotels had pictures set into the wall... Whew, the cars were small. This was probably the smallest one we saw. Three wheels, plastic, as short as a moped and ready to roll.
Can you say "Fiat"! These were small cars everywhere...and we stayed right across from a dealership.There were large historic churches everywhere. This is the first one we came across. I forget the name, but it was beautiful...and huge.


Each church had a trove of beautiful art. This is the dove of the Spirit in the top of a cupola in the church pictured above. Aubrey really liked this one.

Indispensable obedience

Obedience is indispensable. Not to a static code, however helpful it may be at times. But obedience to God, who is present with us in every situation and is speaking to us all the time. Every obedience, however small (if any obedience is every small) quickens our sensitivity to him and our capacity to understand him and so makes more real our sense of his presence.

Albert Edward Day
The Captivating Presence

Return from Italy

Well, Aubrey and I arrived safely to Newark last night at 8 PM EST (that's 2 AM in Italy) and got back to our house at 11 PM (that's 5 AM in Italy). So we're a little tired today.

But we loved our time in Italy.

I'll post more about it when I have time. We created a journal of our experience, so I'll just borrow some of that for here with some pictures. But I'll give you a preview.

Some of my favorite sites:

1. The view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Wow!
2. The amount of people sporting euro trash mullets. I actually saw a person with the razor stripes in his hair. Awesome!
3. Feeding the pidgeons in St. Mark's Square in Venice. Those things are a riot! of course, I got poop all over me, but what fun it was.

Allright, you all are great!

Now everybody do the church hop...

NYTimes wrote an interesting article about how teens are often attending more than one church.

Check it out here: Church Mixer 101. You need a free membership. If you don't want to get it, I'll post the whole article as a blog entry. Just read the entry below this.

I know that we have many students attending our church from other churches. I'd be interested to see who does it the other way.

I think this is a good and a bad thing. Good because it shows that teens understand that the kingdom of God is not limited to one place and can be experienced in a variety of ways. Bad because it doesn't encourage commitment to a particular community.

The article

From NYtimes.com...their copywrite

December 30, 2005
Teenagers Mix Churches for Faith That Fits
By NEELA BANERJEE
COLORADO SPRINGS - At 11 a.m. on a recent Sunday, Emily Hoogenboom, 14, was at church, her second that morning.

First, she had dutifully sat through a staid worship at Forest Ridge Community Church, which she attends with her family. Now she was with her 17-year-old friend and 4,000 other worshippers at an evangelical megachurch listening to six singers, backed by a band and a swaying choir of 250 people.

Like Emily, a number of Christians are regularly attending different churches in the course of a week or a month, picking and choosing among programs and services, to satisfy social and spiritual needs. They are comfortable participating in multiple churches.

The practice is particularly pronounced among young people, sociologists of religion say. Everyone in a family may attend one church for a service on Sunday, but the children then go their own way to youth groups, for example.

In a survey of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted from 2002 through 2003, the National Study of Youth and Religion found that 16 percent of respondents participated in more than one religious congregation. Four percent attend youth groups outside their congregations.

Some critics, particularly conservative evangelicals and the ministers of various denominations, decry such practices as a consumerist approach to faith.

But sociologists say it is a growing practice, a reflection of how Americans today are less attached to a historical, family denomination.

Parents also want their children to have an "authentic" relationship to faith, and "if you don't choose it, it's not authentic for you," said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina and director of the survey on youth and religion.

Emily and her parents, who are evangelical Christians, say her decision to attend the megachurch, New Life, reveals the strength of her faith and the profoundly individual spiritual course each believer follows.

"I saw that my parents' relationship to Christ and my relationship to Jesus Christ were different, and my kids aren't going to relate to Jesus Christ the same way we do," said Emily's mother, Tracy Hoogenboom, 49. "And that's to be expected because Jesus Christ is your own personal lord and savior."

It remains unclear how many Christians attend several churches regularly. Most young people who go outside their family church are Protestants, from mainline denominations and evangelical churches alike. Some are from mixed-religion marriages, Mr. Smith said, but many go simply because a second church appeals to them.

"We see it all the time, everywhere," said Jose Zayas, director of teenage evangelism for Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group based in Colorado Springs. "They gravitate to where they feel a connection. They're more pragmatic than their parents' generation. They look at what works for them. I think it's healthy."

At New Life, led by Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the youth group sessions feel like rock concerts: T-shirts are on sale outside and bands are onstage, grinding their way through screaming songs of praise for Christ while teenagers dance before them. Friends often lead other teenagers to new churches, sociologists and adolescents themselves said.

Though Emily's family had attended New Life when she was in grade school, she visited the church again in junior high at the invitation of a friend, largely because, Emily said, she was unhappy with the popular but catty girl she had become. She stayed because the youth pastor's sermons made sense to her.

"That was just the biggest thing for me: that you don't have to be perfect, that God loves you not for what you do and for this body that we have only for a short time, but for your heart and soul and who you are inside," Emily said of what she had heard.

"Every time I went to church," she continued, "I felt God loved me, that I don't have to worry about sin because he forgives me. So I looked forward to going back. I don't really understand all of it. But I have the passion to learn more."

Many children in evangelical families also see the example their parents have set, leaving the denominations they grew up in to embrace evangelical Christianity as young adults.

"I left the church of my upbringing to find Christ on my own," said Chad Wight, whose 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, attends Pulpit Rock Church here with her family but also goes to a youth group at Woodmen Valley Chapel, both nondenominational evangelical churches.

Mr. Wight said his family looked for a church that would nourish his children.

"Their spiritual health is really important right now," Mr. Wight said, "and if they continue their walk with the Lord, that's crucial."

Parents largely accept their children's choices, as long as the other churches espouse a similar theology, said Nancy L. Eiesland, associate professor of sociology of religion at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. "Many of them are happy their kids will go to anything in their teenage years," Ms. Eiesland said.

As a hub of evangelical Christianity, Colorado Springs offers many churches that preach similar doctrines, like the inerrancy of the Bible and the need for a personal relationship with Christ. But here and elsewhere, many Christians, especially members of the clergy, take commitment to a particular church seriously.

"If families spread their loyalties around, it's been my experience that they don't benefit as well as they could," said Peter Beringer, a youth pastor at Pulpit Rock Church, which has about 1,000 adults in attendance every Sunday. "They don't seem to have relationships in the church that are as deep. From what I have seen of students who have done this, they find it easier to disengage and be the kid on the fringes."

Hannah Wight, a soft-spoken girl who deliberates over her words, stands by her choice. She said she felt more connected to Woodmen Valley after attending a series there that helped young people discern their "spiritual gifts," like the desire to serve.

"The message spoke to me a lot," Hannah said. As for attending two churches, she said, "It's not hard for me at all because I feel like my needs are being fulfilled."

Still, her parents said, people note Hannah's less-than-regular appearances at the family's primary church, Pulpit Rock. And her 13-year-old brother, Brian, does not understand her decision.

"I will defend her when necessary, but over all I'm on their side," Brian said, referring to how others at Pulpit Rock have reacted to Hannah's choice. "I don't know why she has to make things inconvenient for the rest of us or why she picked that church when she has been going to Pulpit Rock as long as the rest of us."

Emily Hoogenboom said she went to Forest Ridge largely out of respect for her parents, whose friends founded it about five years ago. But when Emily steps into New Life, she embraces a second family. Other youths come and hug her. They hug all the time, boys and girls showing affection for one another without risking trouble.

One Wednesday evening, boys in thrift-store jackets and porkpie hats, pale Goth devotees, and petite girls with the same mascara, lip gloss and tight, flared jeans, about 250 teenagers in all, streamed into New Life for their youth group. By the hall entrance, Chad Fritzsche, 17, and Esther Saforo, 15, two of Emily's friends who also attend New Life on their own, were playing guitar and singing songs they had written.

The youth pastor, Brent Parsley, entered on a sleigh dressed as a hip-hop Santa. "I'm going to break it down for you, Clarence," Mr. Parsley told an actor in the Christmas play. "Christmas ain't about presents, yo! The true meaning of Christmas is my main man: J.C."

The crowd shrieked. At this unbuttoned church, teenagers channel the roiling passions typical of their age into devotion. And Mr. Parsley egged them on. He told them in an overcaffeinated tempo that God had much in store for them. Reading Biblical excerpts on his P.D.A., he reminded them that David was young when he slew Goliath and that Mary was probably quite young when she bore Jesus. He said: "God loves to use young people. I want all of us to live our lives as if God had something extraordinary planned for us."

The music began again. The young people ran toward the stage, but Emily went by herself to the aisle behind her seat. In the darkened hall, she was freer than she had been on Sunday. The band played a simple rock song, and everybody shouted the lyrics over and over: "Bless the Lord with all that's in me. Bless the Lord. May kingdoms fall and rulers crawl before your throne."

Emily threw her head back and sang and sang. Then she fell to her knees. Bent forward at the waist, rocking, she sang into her curled body what others shouted to the rafters: "I want to give you all of me. I'm giving you all of me."

Dave's Music

I have a friend named Dave. He plays music sometimes. Sometimes he puts his music on the net. Sometimes I listen to it. You can too.

Go to his site: daveapplegate.

Two great songs there.

Hootzvah

So i listened to Ray Vander Laan today. Check him out at Follow the Rabbi.

He talked about the first thing you notice about a disciple is her hootzvah. That's hebrew for persistence and faith.

Elijah was a person of hootzvah. Jesus was a person of hootzvah.

May I be a person of hootzvah in all I do.

Larry.

My friend Larry found my site.

He's going to work with middle school guys. I think he'll be great.

Italy in...

2 days.

Aubrey and I leave in two days.

Rome for three days. Venice for three other days.

Can't wait to see the Vatican and walk the streets of Rome.

Martial Arts Hops Check it out!

Here's a video we did at retreat. Some serious talent, I think.

...to be continued...

Well, we got back from our Sr. Hi Winter Retreat yesterday.

Probably the best I've ever been a part of. Definite sense of people wanting to continue in the steps of our Rabbi Jesus.

Brad, our speaker, spoke on what it means for us to be disciples of Rabbi Jesus. And the kids got it. In our small groups after the sermons, the students really seemed to be getting it and encouraging their friends to get it.

My prayer is that now the students will continue to get it. And that they will continue the story of Christ in their own lives.

Quick Highlights:

1. Great conversations in our small group.
2. The wrestling names: Papa Rupp and Turd Burglar being the funniest.
3. The hike to the top of some mountain with 16 students.
4. Tubing with Evan and pretending we were drinking latte's while on the tube.
5. Bryce's split ride down the slope, where he stuck out his legs and held them with his hands the whole way down.
6. The conversations with kids after some of the lessons.
7. Herb snoring all night. Kept me up to 5 on Friday.
8. The warm fuzzy line (place to put encouraging notes) was sagging because it had so much encouragement.
9. All the teens got along. No serious fights or squabbles. That was huge!

Music and Memories

Aubrey gave me the new Dave Matthews Band CD for Christmas. Nice.

I was worried at first, because it wasn't the same sound he had in the past, but he's really matured well.

One of my favorite lines...from Old Dirt Hill is "the first time I kissed you I lost my legs". No, not very profound, but it is reminiscent of my story with Aubrey. Ah the joy of memories and how music can bring them back.

2006

Well.

It's 2006.

My 25th year on this planet.

My 3rd year of marriage to the most beautiful woman.

My 3rd year of paid ministry.

They say burnout is supposed to happen around this time.

I hope not for me.

Here's to life to the fullest in 2006!

Congratulations to the Nicholas'

Our good friends, Mark and Becca brought a new baby boy into the world at 11:59 last night (that's squeaking it in, isn't it?)!

And they gave him the best name possible: Joshua Sebastian Nicholas (I'm partial to the first name).

Congratulations! If I get a picture, I'll put it up. In the meantime, here's the guy who brought me into the world.

A Picture of My Parents

I love my parents.

More Pictures

Elements Christmas Party!

Well, last night we had a blast at Elements (our high school mid-week program at our church) celebrating Christ's birth with a party.

Each week this month we have learned about different aspects of Christ's coming to earth. The first week we learned about how God came in one of the dirtiest places on the planet, so we had our service by the dumpster of a hotel. The second week we learned about how Christmas is about giving, so we went caroling. And the third week (this week), we focused on how Christmas is about celebrating. Here are some fun pictures from the night...

Prayers

An eighth grade student in our ministry had a stroke yesterday and has been admitted to Hershey Medical Center.

Pretty scary for him and his family. He's 14.

Please pray for him.

We also have a friend of the youth group who has lymphoma and is Hershey as well. We've felt the urge to take him under our wing as he goes through the treatments and such.

Please pray for him.

Also, pray that we would be a blessing to him.

Homelessness...

Good thoughts on the chaos and confusion of homelessness.

York has a good section of this type of population. So I found it interesting.

Check it out on NYTimes.

homelessness

Great Christmas Thoughts

Check out this page on www.rejesus.co.uk.

Neat reflections and fun games. What a combo!

Corruption

So I saw King Kong and Syriana this weekend.

I think I could write much about both. But I won't. I will say that both of them do an excellent job of exploring the evolution and continuation of corruption.

King Kong was surprisingly cool and engaging. I was hesitant. Giant ape falling in love with blond girl just didn't appeal. But it plays with the themes of beauty, mystery and corruption really well. And there were scenes that took my breath away because they were so intense.

Syriana was a good political thriller. My favorite part was how they told the story, because it followed the lives of different people and brought them all together in the end. It was very complex and intriguing (isn't that supposed to be a good review word?).

My Parents

I love my parents. I think everybody should have parents like I do. I was thinking the other day that the best relationship a person can have with their parents is to know that they love you like crazy and to their best ability, but to also know that they aren't perfect.

I think two extremes in parenting are 1) parents who don't show their love for their kids and 2) parents who want their kids to think they are perfect.

I always knew my parents loved me.

I also knew that they didn't pretend to be perfect, but they did always intend to be better and to grow.

I love that about my parents.

Check out the site!

They revamped the NYC 2007 Website and it's flippin sweet.

NYC 2007

Save it in your favorites, send it to your friends, show it to your children!

It's informative and it's got a sweet fun section with games. Gotta love the games!

Wesley Style

A question that's been running through my mind...not much time to explore, but want to put it out there.

How much was the movement for the second crisis experience (entire sanctification) a cultural thing?

Could it be possible that Wesley was grabbing onto something eternal (the idea of becoming like Christ) and re-explaining it in a way that his culture would get it (second crisis)?

If so, could it be possible that as followers of Christ, we are called to take what has been handed down to us by Wesley and move forward?

These are some of the ideas for logos for our retreat...

What Jesus started is to be continued in our lives...

He didn't want to be the only one bringing goodness to others...

He wanted his way of life to be continued in ours...

Blessings

Well, tonight our high school students are going to romp around York singing to some of the shut-ins of our church.

I'm pretty excited about this.

I've been praying about ways our group can be a blessing to the world. Thinking through how Leslie Newbigin describes what it means to be "chosen" and how he traces Abe's chosenness back to God's desire for Abe to a blessing to all nations. So at the heart of being chosen is being a blessing to those around us.

So, I believe our group is chosen. I believe God has chosen us to make the lives of people around us better. I believe that God in us will work through us to do that. I believe caroling is one way we can do this.

Another way we are doing this is through caring for an friend who is going through treatments for lymphoma. He doesn't go to church and we're not really pushing him to. We just want to be a blessing.

I believe that in blessing him, he will see the goodness of God and be attracted to Him. Maybe that means he will come to our church, or maybe he will start treating others the way we have treated him. I don't know.

The Stink

When Aubrey and I moved into our new house, one of the things we noticed in our first couple weeks was that sometimes when we got stepped out of our cars to come into the house there was a smell that absolutely reeked.

Now sometimes we get good smells, because we are 30 yards from a McD’s. Sometimes we can smell their breakfast, which is pretty nice.

But sometimes we can smell a serious stink. At first we thought it might be the garbage from the daycare center behind the McD’s. Maybe it was the smell of a compilation of dirty diapers. I imagine that is one compilation that wouldn’t produce a great smell. Then we remembered Spring Grove. Spring Grove has a paper mill which produces a smell not unlike cow butt. And so we asked our neighbor what they thought the smell was. They said it was most likely Spring Grove.

When there’s a stink, you want to know where it’s coming from. You don’t just ignore it. You smell it, your nose cringes and your face scrunches up like you have to sneeze or something.

So every time we got out of the car and smelled the stank, we would think, “Geez, that stupid paper mill.”

One of those days that we got out of the car and smelled the stank, Aubrey looked down and you know what she saw?

She saw the top of a sewage line (what’s the word for it?), which was broken off. And the smell was coming from it.

The whole time we thought the smell was coming from Spring Grove, but really it was coming from our own yard. It was our stink.

I think sometimes we can sense when something is wrong and often we attribute it to other people, when in reality the problem is our own.

Think about bitterness. We think that everybody is making our life hard, when in reality, maybe it’s me.

Think about anger. We think that everybody is screwing up, when in reality there’s something inside of me that is making me so unhappy and angry.

Sad News in Australia

It is sad to see the Racial Unrest that is happening.

Christians Partnering With Jews

Well, I heard about something quite interesting.

Emergent is going to connect with a few Jewish leaders to talk about how to live out social justice and the godly life.

Check out some of the debate going on over it all.

Xians and Jews

Ah Snow

There's just something exciting about snow. I waited up last night, just so I could see the first hints of snow. and I woke up early so that i could the results. Ah, I love snow.

And I wanted to play in it so bad, that me and Andy (co-worker here at the church) went out after our lunch break to indulge in the frivolity of it all. The snow wasn't quite up to snuff for packing big snowmen, so we made a snowmen scene and then ended up using all the little snowmen as targets for snowballs.

We need to play more, I think.

In an ideal world, there would be space for fun at work. Created space.

Relevant Magazine Online

I think everybody should check out this website: Relevant

And they have a webTV program here.

Good thoughts on God, Life and Culture.

Recent Movies I want to see

So, since I've gotten out of college, I've noticed my intake of movies has dropped. Drastically.

So I thought I'd put some of the movies that have come out recently that I haven't seen but want to.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Syriana

Chronicles of Narnia

Walk the Line

The Constant Gardner

Sweet: Plowed Over

So, we got tired of the Sweetness and decided to just plow through the last 3 chapters and put our thoughts down on those.

So here are my thoughts on the final three chapters. Since he reads like proverbs, I'll list these things as proverbial thingies...

1. Listen deeply. Complaints often hold wisdom or misunderstandings that need to be addressed.

2. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.

3. We all need rest. Sabbath. Peace. Too often we run run run, so that we cannot hear the heartbeat of God, because we are consumed with the running than the reason for running.

4. Find ways for your team to be creative. I have a hard time with this. How do I create space for my youth workers to be creative?

5. There is a difference between planning and preparing. Planning lays out a distinct order of how things are going to go and then is surprised when things don't go that way. Preparing figures out all the possible scenarios and is ready for whatever comes. It's mostly a difference in attitude. Because planning is needed for preparation. You have to plan to be prepared. You have to prepare to plan. But I want to run with this one. What does it look like for me to be prepared in ministry? What does it mean for me to prepare my youth workers? What does it meant to prepare my students? if it is all preparation (not H), is there any direction?

Those are my final Sweet thoughts...

Current Books

Well, I usually like to write a little review of the books that I have read. But I've neglected this duty and have read several books while not reviewing them...so that's what I'll do right here.

Generous Orthodoxy by Brian MClaren
A journey through his brain, going through his thoughts on different aspects of his Christian faith. He goes thru different traditions and brands of Christendom (Calvinism, Methodism, Catholicism...etc.), pulling out the strengths of them while warily pointing out their weaknesses. My favorite chapters were on being Biblical, Missional, Incarnational and Emergent. Each chapter presented a new angle on each topic that I hadn't totally considered.

A Long Way Down by Nich Hornby
A tale of four people who meet on top of a building where they had each planned on killing themselves. Hornby does an excellent job of showing the despair of each of the characters and also the hilarity of each of their situations. There were several points where I laughed out loud. Major tone of the book was how much humans need each other.

The Travelers Gift by Andy Andrews
An interesting journey through history, gleaning quality wisdom from different characters. The ending was close to, if not the worst ending I have ever experienced. This guys learns all these tidbits of wisdom and then launches into the future where he sees how wildly successful his life will be if he follows them. I liked that it was a modern parable, using a story to teach timeless truths, but the whole book lost any merit to me, because the end fed into a consumeristic success story where success is defined by power and money attained.

Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch
This is the final of Howatch's Starbridge series, which follows characters through the life of the church. This final book portrays Charles Ashworth dealing with his attachment to the Absolute Truths, and finding that the only thing that will always be with him is the only absolute, God. He had trusted in his previous understanding of God and country, when in reality those things had served as a pacifier for his deep desire for control. Honest and poignant.

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
Interesting. Mostly stuff from his sermons. But I liked it again. He writes like he speaks. What I took away from it was his take on Jesus coming to offer the best way of life, not a new religion.

I recommend all of these save Travelers Gift.

Sweetness

Alright...I'm plowing through the last couple chapters of Sweet's book.

Here's what I am thinking. I'm thinking that this books reads more like a collection of proverbs than a story or regular leadership book (which usually builds on itself).

Patience means Salvation

Peter talks about God's patience in his second known letter to the Church.

He says that God is patient and not desiring that any should perish (3:9).

Then after a brief description of the terrible nature of the end times Peter urges the followers of Christ to strive to be spotless with the reminder that "our Lord's patience means salvation" (3:15).

I want to dig into this a bit more. Because at first blush it looks like Peter is saying that because of God's patience salvation comes to us.

I ask these following questions.

With what is God being patient? Followers of the Way? The Second Coming? non-followers?

Does his patience always mean salvation?

By salvation does Peter mean entrance into eternal life?

Could grace or mercy or love be inserted where "patience" is found? Could it be said that God's grace means salvation, that God's love means salvation, that God's mercy means salvation?

If God's patience means salvation, what does that say of our patience? Does our patience bear a potency like Hers?

If our patience means salvation, what does that look like?

Does that mean when I am patient with a child, that I am creating space for salvation? Obviously, the only person who can accept salvation for me is me. Others (as our friend Morpheous from the Matrix says) can only show us the door. So, when we are patient with others, perhaps we are showing people the door to salvation. First by granting them grace to screw up. Second by continuing in their life and not abandoning them. Third by modeling the way of salvation, the life of God.

Congratulations to Sam!

Well, I must say a word of congratulations to my friend Sam. He just went through the ordeal of a Master's presentation at the University of KY. I believe it was on some bridge thing. He could probably explain it better that me. But he has a Masters in Engineering!

You can check him out on his blog.

I personally think he's a great guy. I try to talk with him and our good friend Nate at least once a week to encourage each other and laugh at each other. They are part of the caulk of my existence, helping hold my life together.

So congratulations Master Sam.

Possible Retreat T-Shirts

Well, we were thinking of having the theme of our Sr. Hi Winter Retreat be "Breathe". So I had Andy (our church's media/tech/whatever guru) come up with some t-shirt designs for the retreat and here is what he came up with.

I like them...they're a little silly...but I like them.

But our intern, Laura, hates it. She says no way. And it was vehement.

But it's funny because when Brad (our speaker for the weekend) and I talked last night, we realized that where we were headed originally is taking us further. And it's taken us to what it means to follow Christ as our rabbi. So, he's going to spend much of the time going into the life of a typical disciple, and then is going to bring it over into today. So we don't really have a theme, per se, but it might be something along the lines of "follow the rabbi" or "Who's your rabbi?" Here's a design that Andy spanked out...

Other Tag lines might be:

"Can your rabbi do this?"

"Is your daddy a rabbi?"

"Do you do what your rabbi does?"

High SchoolQuestions

So, I taught the 11-12th grade group this past weekend and we had a Q & A session. I thought the questions were pretty good, so I am going to put them on here.

1. What makes Christianity better than any other religion.

2. If you're born in another religion that's not Christian, how will you know if it's wrong?

3. Is it okay to date someone who isn't dating?

4. What kinda music can I listen to that isn't really bad?

5. If God is God than why would he allow so many different divisions of Christianity?

6. In the Bible somewhere it says, "I am the highest in the house of gods." Are there other gods?

7. Why are the French such A-holes?

8. I'm sick of liberal wackos and I don't know what to do.

9. Why do Christians get treated differently?

10. How do we really know if the type of church we're going to is really where God wants us? So many people, like Catholics/Buddhists think they're in the "right" place: what if we're not?

11. Why do people get pissed off when you have no intentions of pissing them off? It's like you didn't try to do anything.

12. After the flood, Noah's sons split off into separate areas. Yet our populace is a great size! Does this mean that I could technically be dating my sister or other relative? Please explain.

13. Why do people take God for granted?

14. I don't understand why any school can have other religions like Jewish in their school events, but when Christianity comes up it is kind of pushed off? (Such as singing in a concert, can sing about Hannacka but can't sing about Christmas...the church-state idea)

More Llama!

Nothing like some good llama shots to fill the time. A youth group friend sent these in...

Summoned to Lead-Chapter 5

Well, Sweet has certainly learned the power of repitition. He goes over the idea of being humble and having confidence, of listening to others...he gives more sound facts...

But other than that, I think there were some quality points in this chapter.

1. Difference between skulls and ears. Skulls think they have it down. Ears are ready to grow and learn more.

2. We can complain about the past systems and their failures, or we can move on and adjust to current problems/issues. this is big for me, because it's easy for me to nit-pick and not try to improve the overall scenario.

3. "The Jesus School is not a school we graduate from quickly." There's always room for growth, always room for change and adjustments.

4. Tips for listening (finding direction?) better: My two favorite were detox and play. Important to have times to stop and sift through the sounds that have been banging into us. And it's important to have fun and ask stupid questions. I love stupid questions.

5. Three types of stories with a group. Tradition stories, vision stories and map stories. Tradition says where we've come from. Vision says where we're going. Map says how we'll get there. this is helpful for me in thinking of how I can convey the story of Jesus to the students and youth leaders.

So here are my questions to Len Sweet after this...
Can you be a learner and not really learn? Meaning, can you consume yourself with learning and then become consumed with learning and not living?

How do you determine what it is you need to learn? this may be a stupid question...

Thanksgiving!

Aubrey and I are heading down to VA to be with her family and my family. My sister and Nana are down there...

We're excited about the possibility of resting.

Also, it's my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Susan!

It's always good to reconnect with family...this past weekend, we went to Allentown to be with my Uncle Jeff, Grandma Joan, Aunt Elain, Jonathan and Linda. I love being with them. Jonathan and Linda are brilliant kids who always beat me when we play chess. And they love to wrestle. They tell me that I am like a walking ferris wheel, b/c I spin them around so much...that's fun!

Summoned to Lead-Chapter 4

Following up on how to go about choosing people for our organizations/communities, Sweet takes the next chapter down a very appropriate passage: understanding our mission.

You can have the greatest people, but without direction, without a common mission, nothing comes of it. Yeah, maybe there are good feelings, but nothing substantial.

In the past, the mission of organizations was often “growth.” And Sweet suggests that mission isn’t about “growth” as we have come to understand it.

Growth used to be this ideal that was touted by leaders and CEO’s. (Believe it or not, it still is touted in the church.) But Sweet points out that “growth-oriented companies are now treated with more than a measure of suspicion; a growth obsession is now seen as a liability, not an asset” (104). Often the mission becomes more about getting bigger than actually providing the world with a better way of life.

Mission “has to be bigger than ourselves—certainly bigger than ‘growth’” (104).

This fits with a certain discomfort I have had with the “church-growth” movement…

Some of my favorite thoughts of Sweet’s on mission:

“We can’t control missions. Circumstances will change. Plans will fail. Instead of planning our missions, we must compose them without plans. We must schedule in the serendipity and improvisation.” (105)

“Mission needs to be related in narrative form. Narrative flair and rhetorical prowess go a long way in persuading people to join the mission.” (107)

Rob Bell had a sermon recently (part of his directions 2 series still available for download) where, for the first 20 minutes of his sermon, he told stories of people in their community reaching out to others. Rob did an excellent job of laying out the mission of their church through a narrative form.

“Great leaders also invite participation…None of us is as smart as all of us. The mission depends on everyone.” (107)

I'm not big on plans that say that there are people who are dispensable. The only people who are dispensable are the people who are against the mission, who somehow find ways to undermine the goodness of what is happening. But even then, our mission should include how to reincorporate those people when they want to return...

He points out that there has a been a false dichotomy between work and spirituality. Instead we should work at our jobs with a “mission”. Not totally sure how to work that one out.

He never points out what the mission is. He just says that we all have it. I like how he left it openended.

Sleepy Squirrels

So I was in bed the other day and Aubrey shouts from downstairs, "Josh, come down here quick! There's a sleeping squirrel."

Now, it's not everyday that you get to see a sleeping squirrel. So, I put on some clothes and rushed downstairs to look out my kitchen window. Right outside the window, in the nook of a tree, was a squirrel with it's tail over it's head and it's eyes closed. And sure enough, it was sleeping.

Anyway, I made some coffee and while I was making it, I saw his eyes open. So I watched a little more. I've never seen squirrel morning rituals, so I watched.

First he looked around.

Then he started washing his body by wetting his tail and then rubbing his tail on his body. But he did it really fast.

I envy the animals that only require spit to wash themselves. Such an easier existence.

Then he climbed up the tree a little and turned to face the ground. And as he was facing the ground, he extended his front paws in the air towards the ground in a stretch, and then balled the paws up like he was punching the air. Never seen that before.

Then he scratched himself profusely.

Then he licked himself...

And then he tried to copulate with a not so cooperative female squirrel.

It was at this point that I thought I should probably give him his privacy.

So I did. I pulled out my camera...no, I took a shower.

Anyway, that's the morning ritual of a squirrel. Much like his human counterparts, except for the saliva bath and licking ourselves and sleeping in a tree.

Summoned to Lead-Chapter 3

Well, I'll just say that I didn't really like the last chapter. I thought he had already said everything he was trying to say in that chapter. But thanks for keeping the "sound" analogy going.

Now, I thought chapter three blew the last chapter out of the water. Mainly I loved it because he was emphasizing how things sound better when there is more than one.

So there are like three things I will walk away with from this chapter (I chose three, because that's the perfect leadership number but I might actually have two or four).

1. The test of an organization is not the mission statement, but instead the spirit of the group. (78) Now, there might be a bunch of good people with great spirits doing the wrong things, though, so I think this has to be thought through. You don't want to put somebody in a place where they are doing something that they're not good at. But I like the idea of when searching for somebody to do something, you look at the heart before you look at the massive skills.

2. The best spirit is confidence and humility.

3. A team needs inspiration more than guidance (87). I think about this in light of my youth worker team. They don't need as much training as much as they need somebody to encourage them and give them hope for what they are doing. Remembering some of our youth staff meetings, some of the best ones were when we created space for me to tell them the possibilities and then to have them tell stories of victories that they've seen.

4. Difference is good. We don't want everybody on the same note. Difference produces harmony. So, on my youth worker team, I don't want a bunch of hyper 20 somethings, or a bunch of laid back parents.

5. Confidence in the leader is needed. not cockiness, but confidence that says, "I think we can do this, and I believe in the people who are doing this."

Shackleton's Story

1. He brought a banjo. he made sure there was a musician and that everybody could sing.
2. He took risks. He knew they couldn't stay where they were.

Second Weekend of November

What a good weekend this was.

1. Thursday Night with Richard. I have an across the street neighbor who moved here from Montana with his wife in hopes that she would recover from the cancer that wracked her body. But when they moved here she died. And now he's here by himself. He's a self-proclaimed hermit, actually making a sign above one of his doors that says "The Hermit".

He caught me coming into my house on Wednesday night. He wanted to talk...I think he just wanted to be with somebody. He showed me all of his amazing model airplanes and ships and trains. Somehow in our conversation, I found out that he hardly ever has anything good to eat, and I suggested that we eat together on Thursday night.

So I came over and we ate stuffed shells (aubrey made them...but was at class) and watched the first half of "The Greatest Story Ever Told". He got choked up several times during the movie and said that there are days when he can't stop crying when he thinks of how wonderful his wife, Mary, was. He said they were lovers till the end.

After the movie he played some big band music on his CD player and we talked about the war (WW 2) and his history. Then I went home. I like Richard. I wish he didn't have to live all by himself and never see his family.

2. Friday Night with Randy, Lorena and Brendan. Aubrey and I hung out with my good friend Randy and his family. We went to a viewing of Joann's father and then out to Red Lobster for supper. Aubrey and I were thankful we had two gift cards for the place, b/c it's stupid expensive there. But we had a great time talking with them. I mostly joked around with Brendan, Randy's son...he's a funny guy.

3. Saturday hike with Aubrey. Aubrey and I went to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Geez, it's nice to get away and relax with the most beautiful woman in the world. She's a quality lady. A deep thinker and a compassionate heart. And the weather was beautiful. The hike culminated in a breathtaking view from the top of a cliff that jutted out above the treeline, giving us a perspective on the lake and valley below us.

4. Sunday lunch with Doris and friends. Doris, from church, invited us and other pastor's over to her house. Wow, she is a great cook. My favorite was the smoked pork and the corn pudding. I walked out of that house feeling like it was Thanksgiving or Christmas.

5. Sunday supper with friends, Amy and Jeremy. Aubrey new Amy from Messiah. They are a fun and deep couple. We laughed, we talked about what matter, we laughed some more, we enjoyed Aubrey's great cooking.

Darkness Tuesday

Well, Tuesday night was the firts night for pain at Elements. It was a special night, designed so that students would face their pain, name their pain and hopefully see God's hope in spite of the pain. I think it was a great time together.

We started off with the lights completely off and the chairs separated from each other.

In the dark we talked about the similarity between darkness and pain.

In the lament Psalm 88, the last verse says, "the darkness is my only friend". The last word in Hebrew is "darkness".

The Jewish conception of pain and darkness is that God is not absent during those times, but that he will do something with those times.

Gen. 1:1 says "darkness covered the deep". God created out of the darkness.

So God desires to create out of the darkness of our own lives.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, "You were once darkness, but now you are light..." So we have the choice to live in the darkness of our pain, or start moving toward the light.

As Christians we don't try to avoid the pain. We name the pain and find God beside us in it. And in that we choose whether or not we will be bitter or better (to borrow a Rob Bell phrase).

This isn't necessarily a fast process. It takes time.

As I spoke about the light, I lit candles for every aspect of light I could think of (comfort, joy, peace, understanding, lack of bitterness).

Then we played David Crowder's "Come Awake" as an invitation to examine our own pain.

After the song, they could use the candles under their chairs and come to the candles as a symbol of accepting light into their darkness.

Then they could write their own lament Psalms or talk with an adult.

It was a quality experience for many of our students and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it.

It is my prayer that our students will continue to wade through their pain and find God right there beside them in all of it.

Sweet: Chapter 2

Well, I am not finished with the chapter, but I will be soon. But I want to get out of the office, so I am going to finish my thoughts and put them on here on Monday (no internet at the house).

But I will have to say that I am kinda peeved so far with this chapter. He seems to be saying the same thing over and over and over and over. He keeps saying that leaders listen, that listening is the best thing, that there is noise everywhere, that leaders listen, that listening is the best thing, that there is noice everywhere. Come on, Sweet!

My favorite part was when he said that leaders need to listen to others more often. Yes!

If you read Bonhoeffer's (a revolutionary German pastor who was part of a group who tried to overthrow Hitler) "Life Together" you will find that listening is one of the best things you can do for your brother, because you are acting on behalf of God, the Great Listener.

Turtle X-ing

On my way to church yesterday I was in a long line of cars driving down Church Road. It runs by Cousler Park which has a creek and a pond. As the line of cars was driving past the park, the lead car swerved to the right, and then the following car did the same until I came to the same spot and I saw why they were swerving. Right next to the double yellow line was a huge snapping turtle trying to cross the road. It had it’s huge head sticking out looking around trying to figure out which way to go. Something in me urged me to stop and help it across the road. So, I quickly pulled off the road and ran back to the spot where the turtle was. Guess what! It was still there (yeah, it’s a turtle).

So when I was right beside it I pointed it out to the cars coming by so that they wouldn’t hit it. But there was one guy in a little Japanese car who was barreling down on it. His driver’s side tire was in line to run over it. Horror creeped over me as I realized that he was going to hit it. But at the last moment he swerved into the middle of the road so that the middle of the car went over the turtle. So, what did I hear? I heard a huge KAH-NICK! I was worried that it would be majorly hurt…but I couldn’t even see where the car nicked it. The turtle’s shell was so thick.

I had to do this fast, because there were a bunch of cars on the road going to different churches. So I dashed out there, grabbed it between it’s front legs and back legs. As I grabbed it, it’s head went into it’s shell (as far as it could go…which wasn’t very far), and it hissed. And he dug at my hands with his claws. He dug at me until I put him down on the other side of the road.

But he was safe.

I would take the clawing if it meant he would be safe.

It made me think of being with in community. Sometimes I get hurt when I am trying to help my friends. And they dig at me and dig at me the whole time I am helping them. It’s not until the end that they realize what was happening. And they might not even realize it then.

Summoned to Lead-Chapter 1

Well, let me warn you. This is long.

Chapter 1: The Power of Voice

“The church has it all wrong. It is trying to train leaders. Instead, it ought to train everyone to listen and to develop their own soundtrack. Only when you find your voice will you harness the God-given power to truly lead.” (35)

What I love about the idea that leadership is more about the ears than the eyes is that it takes time to listen. You have to stop to really do it. You have to turn down the CD player to listen to the birds. You have to turn off the heater to hear the creak in your stairs. Being who we are called to be takes time and is not sudden. You must stop to hear your soundtrack and then live in tune with that. What a mess life is when you are trying to live to another person’s beat.

Sweet suggests that in order to hear your own “soundtrack” you should be committed to four things.

The first is a commitment to truth. Truth about today, truth about what tomorrow can be. In naming the truth as it is and can be, we participate in making beauty out of ashes. This means being honest about ourselves. Sweet even says, “A good leader is different than a leader that looks good.” (36)

The second is a commitment to social justice and spiritual vibrancy. He goes on to say that leaders should be committed more to values which work themselves out through virtues than the shiftiness of self-interest. “What matters is not the products you make, but the virtues that make you.” (38) If it’s about results, then Hitler was great.

Being committed to values is probably a lot like being committed to truth. Values are truth statements. Virtues are truths lived out.

The third is a commitment to originality. I loved this section, because Sweet didn’t push for innovation, but for going back to the what has already been said. “True originality is homecoming.” (39) Again, it’s back to truth. Truth is the most original. Sweet points out that “the striking thing about Jesus is not his originality. It’s his derivativeness.” (41) It’s not about being new. It’s about being in tune with what God’s doing.

The fourth is a commitment to experiencing the breadth of what life offers. This allows a person to really find truth in all it’s various forms…

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
Than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.”
e. e. cummings

It’s about teaching others how to sing, not how not to do something. It’s about positive motion, not negative reinforcement. We are showing other people that they have a voice. It sounds like a Barnabas thing if you ask me. It’s about coming beside people and hearing their voice and pulling it out.

So this looks like what? Paying attention to our friends. Commenting on the strengths we see in others. This takes way more commitment than I think we realize. Is anybody able to see the gifts of others? I find it’s easier to see the gifts that I have in other people. Or if I have a good friend who has a particular gift, I see that gift in others too.

The continued story of Ernest Shackleton is inspiring to say the least. It makes me want to get on a boat and push myself out to see with some friends just to get lost and experience life at sea. But then I think to myself…that’s stupid.

Anyway, Shackleton’s survival story makes Survivor look like a cruise. But what it took to get through the ordeal was optimism, integrity, idealism and endurance. We must take note that not one person died on his journey. Even though their boat wrecked and they floated aimlessly for hundreds of miles and were in the depths of freezing weather for months.

My complaint is this. If this is an anti-leadership book, why does sweet use the word leader so much?

Halloween Tricks

Well, this was the first halloween for Aubrey and I to be in our very own house. We were so excited that we went (when i saw we, I mean "me") and bought tons, I mean tons, of candy for the trick-or-treaters. I came home and put all the candy (like 10 different types) in a cauldron that we have. And it was almost overflowing. And then I waited for all the little kids to come in their costumes. And I waited. I waited. I waited.

No kids showed up. Probably one of the most disappointing nights of my entire life (okay, a slight exageration, but it was a downer). I sat in the living room with hopes that they would show up. I even went out onto the front porch and shouted to all who could hear me that we had plenty of candy left. I would have let any kid take as much as they wanted...

I think everybody went to the rich neighborhoods. And you know what!? As soon as the time limit went by, all the lights in my neighborhood came on. They had been waiting until the time was up to turn on their lights. Humbug neighbors.

So, if anybody wants to stop by and get some candy...

Make sure you're dressed up.