Man Gathering!

Less than a week to go my fellow councilmen.

Dave and I spoke yesterday and tried to figure out some plans for this gathering. We figured that the more proactive we can be beforehand, the more productive our time will be and the less time we'll spend sitting around saying "It doesn't matter to me; what do y'all want to do?" over and over again in Dave's house. Here's the basic idea we had; everything is provisional so if anyone else has ideas just say so:

--Everyone get down to Dave's place around 2:30 or 3 on Friday. He's going to email us directions and his address.
--Dave lives really close to a park complex where we could go hang out and through a frisbee/football and just hang out for an hour or two and be outside in the (hopefully) warm sunny South Carolina winter weather.
--Grill burgers and hotdogs at Dave's place for dinner. That way we can go out to a bar afterward and be able to afford more than one beer.
--Return to the house and video games?
--Saturday morning we can lounge and maybe play a few more video games. We could maybe pick up some breakfast food on Friday and have breakfast at Dave's place that morning.
--Go out for lunch somewhere to hang out and watch the International Bowl (Buffalo v UConn) which actually might be a good game.
--From there we can head out or do whatever.

So, that's a loose plan. You guys think about it and add anything that you think would be fun/productive.

As far as my topics for discussion.......let's see...... One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, kind of going off of one of my points in my comment on the review link that Joel posted about Velvet Elvis: everyone seems to be very okay (and rightfully so) with God's grace being over our moral failures. In fact, even in the most Reformed churches that believe the most in what I would consider a right view of sin (that our problem is in our hearts and our actions are just the symptoms of the inner problem) the preaching on sin is usually focused (especially if the message is to unbelievers) on how we've fallen short of the glory of God by doing wrong things and things that are outside of the will of God. My question is, how much does God's grace extend over our wrong beliefs? I know that's a big question, but it's one that I've been trying to figure out lately. It's been an issue because since I've come back from l'Abri I've found myself more and more comfortable with vastly divergent stances on issues within Christianity. I don't want to end up watering down the confrontational aspect of the gospel, but it seems to me that God extends some amount of grace over people's wrong beliefs so how far does it go? That might be an impossible question to answer. It's kind of in the same vein of "How much do you have to believe to be a Christian?" But there it is.

I like the idea of calling and spiritual growth too. Also, with Jeremy, I'd love to hear y'all's ideas about living out your spirituality without running off to join a commune, which is what I find myself thinking about constantly.

See you guys on Friday.

Something to ponder...

"What the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies."

~ Bishop F. Allison recently preached at a new members service at St. Andrews.

You can listen to it here.

The Kingdom of God + Texas Football

It is impossible for me to fully explain to you how reading things like this story make me feel, so I will just say that when I see someone doing things like this it always makes me go, "Oh yeah, the Kingdom of God. I remember you."

Man!

Mario Kart?

So a few of us are thinking of a Mario Kart Turni tomorrow (Sat) say around 1:30? Anyone else want in. If so we need your friend codes etc...

mine is 4210 4716 7747

Topics for Discussion?

Yesssssssssssssss. Not only is tomorrow Christmas, but also there's only 9 days until the man gathering. Randy and I had a preview a couple days ago over breakfast. We thought it might be helpful if we all submitted some ideas for topics of conversation before getting down there.

So, if anyone has any articles, blogs, videos, books, etc, you want the rest of us to check out before we get down there, post them on the blog. In fact, it might be cool if everyone just posts something that they've been thinking about and we can all take a look at them and either read them all or just pick one or two to focus on.

Does that sounds good to y'all?

What you can get me for Christmas...

Update- Christmas Version

I know that one of the points of this blog originally was just to keep up to date/ in touch, so having just mouthed off on Sewell's post, I thought I would come back with something a little more grounded.

My house is down to two occupants at this point in time. Tim moved back to New Jersey to fight the good fight re: Cron's Disease a few months ago, and Alex moved out last week and is living in a hotel for a week looking for places to stay. He's very much a bootstraps kind of guy in that regard.

While trying to pay off my debts and live off of an absurdly low amount of money (I'm into my roomate/landlord for significant cash, at least for me) I've been playing the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons with some friends around here. It has been crazy fun! Everyone except for myself and Kris (who just became fully vested as an Episcopal priest last weekend) have never ever played a tabletop roleplaying game before, and the amount of emotional buy-in has been pretty astonishing. Nothing scary from a wellness/spirituality standpoint, just a surprising amount of enthusiasm. It is pretty sweet to be a part of something people actively want to do, rather than feel that they should do. Refreshing!

I'm looking forward to being 'off' from work this week, the quotes around off coming from the fact that I'm temping and I'm just sort of assuming that after my current job I won't get any calls until next week. That's not necessarily true though. I'm considering looking up a method I heard about to eat for less than a dollar a day to quicker erase my debt to the Bank of Shane, but I've heard that it is stunningly un-nutritious and makes the people who go on it somewhat ill. I will keep you updated!

ok, so here's an article about everyone favorite Liberal Christians', Rob Bell, book, Velvet Elvis.... tell me what you think...http://www.irishcalvinist.com/?p=1283

Time for some cultural exegesis

Found this full page color add in a local paper. What thoughts come up? What does this say about culture?

What's a Christian's response to it... ?

Man Gathering?

Okay guys. We seriously need to start talking about this, so please post in the comments section whether or not this would work for you.

The date that works for me is the weekend of Friday, January 2, 2009. I could also do the weekend right after Christmas (Dec 26-28) but I wouldn't be able to come down until Saturday the 27th.

Are we thinking this will be a one day/one night thing or what? That's up to Dave (ie Lisa) since we're crashing at his place so really only his opinion counts for that.

Who's in?

You don't know the power of the dark side....

I am currently in possession of a friend in need

Ok. Really quickly (because I have to run out the door and get to work): I have a roomate here in Pittsburgh who has been thinking about moving for the last four months or so, has finally made his decision, and is ready to move by (roughly) this weekend/next week. He was working on a doctorate in chemistry, got tired of the academic scene (which I empathize with) and left the program. He's been floating since last spring, just enjoying the feeling of not being tied down to meaningless responsibilities (again, school, yada yada). He's got money saved up, and would like to move to South Carolina. Like immediately. 

I understand that this is last minute, but I want to help my roomate as much as I can. His name is Alex, he's 25, following the way of Jesus, and crazily service oriented. He's looking for a place to orient himself for a week (or less'ish') while he looks for a more substantial living situation etc. If that rings anyones bells (Oh hey I know a place/a person), please let me know. I realize (again) it's last minute and Christmastime, but I wanted to put this out there to see if anyone had anything.

Help me Council of Men, you're my only hope!

Catechesis

Ok question for you…

We’re kicking off confirmation in a few months I’m looking at what topically we should walk through this year. Here’s the question what ten topics stand out as seminal to the faith?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

????

Not looking for anything super deep just what off the cuff comes to mind. In no particular order.

p.s. Man gathering my place in late December / Early Jan????

If so i might have some of my home brewed St. Andrew's Stout leftover. I'm tapping it tonight to see how it turned out.

Beyond the Goodwill - tweed jackets and salvation...

I saw this on CurrentTV this morning. Circle of Hope church has been around since '96 and looks pretty unique. It's also in Philly. The pastor interviewed said that they go into deserted parts of the city to set up churches in an effort to resurrect the dead areas of the community. He believes this reflects Jesus because he "raised the dead."

I think my favorite part is the incredibly large "human chain" toward the end of the video. (I wonder what the Guinness record is for the "human chain"?)

Choir Music

I don't know if you guys are as big fans of choir music as I am. But, this video is a great example of why this form of art and worship will never die.



I'm not sure whether my favorite part is seeing the ladies say to "Shake it like a polaroid picture", the choir leader saying "Break it down!", or the finale.

Update: Jeremy

Well I didn't intend on taking this long to update everyone on what's been going on, but I suppose that's how it goes sometime. Honestly, I have not known what to say other than to recount the mundane happenings of life, but here's a try...

So after graduating in May, I felt like I slipped into that place you find yourself in during transition times where you ask a lot of questions about the future. I guess the relentless four year cycle of working, school, relationship and a little music put more pressure than I realized on my mind and heart. Although it took a while to settle down, I'm starting to relax and feel like I'm actually not a robot!

Work is going well. I split my work time up between graphic design and title work for the summer and early fall, and now I'm mostly doing design. Check out our space www.coalescedesign.com. We're still working on some features of the site. I'm learning a lot and enjoying the work.

But I suppose the real story behind what's going on is the change in my approach to Christianity. When I decided four years ago to not return to ministry, I didn't know where the decision would lead. I had been jaded by what I had seen in my Charismatic exposure to faith, and was lamenting a loss in my Christianity. It seemed to me that following Christ had become a religion; not what made people, including myself, give up all and follow. What I had lost was Jesus himself. My years of service and striving were not centered around the person of Christ, but my ability to be a better human whether by psychology or discipline. I'll have to admit that in my thoughts and affections, I came close to walking away from anything Christian, but I found that the center and source of faith was in Christ, not my ability to be good. I know some of you are probably saying, "that's just the gospel," but other things were emphasized to me in my early years of faith. Performance and good behavior were exalted above truthful maturity, and I expended the lion's share of my efforts on being "good enough." I'll have to say that the real breaking point for me, the reorganization of my faith, came through Randy and I reading The Reason for God together this summer. Keller helped me realize that my questions were not only valid, but necessary if I wanted a faith and belief I could build my life on.

So that is a feeble attempt at summing up the recent months and past four years of my journey. My prayer is that Jesus will be the center, that he will affect the thoughts and actions of my life, and I pray the same for each of you.

Time to show what you can grow.

Update: The long lost Randy

May the Council accept my deepest and humblest apologies for my time AWOL. I will accept whatever (reasonable) censure it deems fit to dole out to me.

The past three weeks have been incredibly busy with work. I have been up early in the morning and to bed early in the morning just trying to keep up. For that I am very thankful. I was and am very concerned over the economic situation. But, God has reminded me that He is the provider for my family, not me. He may glorify Himself in sustaining the business in desperate times. Or He may glorify Himself in providing our daily needs and filling our hearts with joy in the midst of economic struggles. Either way, I pray He helps keep me faithful to Him and my family.

The family is doing well. Sophia is almost sixteen months old. The growth is fun to watch. She changes from week to week and month to month. The holidays should be an adventure this year. She is such a girl! She loves baby dolls, purses, and tea sets already! Fatherhood is more scary than I even realized before. But, it is rich and full of joys I never knew before.

It has been a real treat to watch Meg grow into motherhood. It's difficult to describe. But, she's so much more beautiful now than ever. And the beauty has such depth to it. She amazes me every day with the grace, humility, compassion, and hard work that being a mom demands.

We have joined an ABF (medium size group, kinda like a glorified Sunday school class) at church. I am sharing the teaching duties with one of the associate pastors. We are working through the Gospel of John right now. It has been very rewarding. I have been having more fun studying and teaching than I have in a long time.

Martin, Thanks for keeping on me about posting. I am terrible about responding to messages, especially when I'm busy. I know you have been busy, too. I can't imagine the strain, even on an intellect such as yours! I am praying for you.

Chris, you may not feel like you are doing much. But, you are investing in the most important thing in your life between now and your death - your marriage. Invest wisely over the next year. There will be plenty of time in the future to do stuff. But, during that time, the quality of what you can do will be determined by the quality of your marriage. God has not forgotten you. He has you where He wants you. He is molding you according to His plan and timing. Take it from a guy who took a VERY long time to learn that.

On a sappy note. As I read all the updates I am filled with pride, admiration, and sometimes jealousy over all that you guys are up to! I hate that we are scattered all over the place. But, as we are, I pray that we would use this forum to encourage each other and hold each other accountable to be men that reflect our King's life and character.

Spurgon Quote

I would love to be able to produce just one quote in my lifetime like the following quote by Charles Spurgeon from a sermon on Joshua 24:15, delivered on April 18, 1875:

The great guide of the world is fashion and it's god is respectability--two phantoms at which brave men laugh! How many of you look around on society to know what to do? You watch the general current and then float upon it! You study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it. True men do not so! You ask, "Is it fashionable? If it is fashionable, it must be done." Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools.

update: joel sewell of the clan sewell

Hows it goin? quick update for the deep south. Things are going well here. been crazy busy! for those who don't know i work at Lowe's full time. It's a good job but my department mng. is lazy and expects me to do everything. That's not all bad because the store mng. reads all the paper work and sees that I am doing it all. He asked me a couple weeks ago why I didn't sign up for the mng training. "I've only been here for 3 months and you have to be here a year" he said he would look past that for me. So you never know, this time next year you can call me Mr. Manager!

The family is doing well. the little one has a double ear infection and the wife is getting pretty sick too. The church (the reason we moved here) is set to launch the first week in Jan. We have been meeting since June, getting prepped and forming a good core group. We were given an "Arts" building by a private school to meet in. that was pretty cool. We are all molding pretty well together. There have been some hick-ups but all is well. It's been a good training ground for us. Showing us who we are and what we believe and what we don't believe. To be honest I have been kinda looking towards my next venture. We're kinda looking at moving on in the next 5 years. Not totally sure what that may be, maybe starting a church with some of you guys (anyone want to move to Atlanta?)

I've been listing to Mark Driscal's new sermon series "the pleasant princess" totally recommend it to all you married couples! and if your not listen to it anyways! I haven't read anything latley, just been lazy with it.

We've been talking alot about the election down here. I personaly didn't vote for Obama but i am kinda glad to see him in there. I think he is the only man avalible that can get our counrty excited to do somthing. ( just hope people fallow through.) Everyone big thing here is that they think he's a socialist ( he defently has socialist ideas). They think its wrong, i just keep on asking they if they want there kids to drive when they want too or like not having explect language and porn on tv or regulations on drug companys. That's all a form of socialism (govenment controling the privite sectore) we just need a little more conservitives in the house and senate to have a true check and balance system.

Well those are my thoughts

Getting kind of crazy

Hey guys. It's been really good to hear from everybody. Thanks for all the updates.

If y'all think about it, I could use some prayer over the next week or two as the semester winds down. Things are getting pretty crazy up here with the amount of school work I have to do and I'm at the threshold of apathy right now so I'm really having to fight to not just give up on the work. It's not that I'm not interested. It's just that there's so much work that my reaction is just to sink under it all and wait for it to pass.

Also, has anyone talked to Randy lately? I've tried every method of communication (calling him out on the blog, Facebook, email, and phone call) and haven't gotten a response from him. I'm not sure if anything's wrong, but it just makes me worried that he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Finally, as for the Man Night Reunion, it looks like the best time for me to do that would be sometime after Christmas. I've got to be back in Philly on Jan 6, but I probably won't leave to come back up here until the 5th so anytime before that is fine with me. What dates between Dec 26 and Jan 4th work for y'all?

Update: Alexander

I also have not been big on posting, not for lack of computer access but because of sheer laziness. However this is my attempt to fix that situation.

So life is good down here at camp saint christopher, for those of you who don't know I live and work there now. It can get kind of lonely out here but other than that I can't complain.

Recently I had the priveledge of going on a 30 mile men's hike with holy cross of sullivan's island. These hikes are becoming a big ministry here in charleston and after going on one I began to see why.

My experience was amazing and I would say that if you haven't been on one of these hikes before you NEED to go. It is truly powerful to here men of all ages talk about crap that they go through and there relationship with God. I have to say when a older guy levels with you about his wife leaving him and his kids, there are very few things that can be so powerful.

One of the main points of the hike is to work through the father wound. And on my second day we start the hike out in silence leaving camp in silence and we do this for one hour. So I start to talk to God and in my thoughts I am thinking about mission statements for my life. John piper has one and it's to "know God and make his glory known." Chris warner the priest I work for has this same mission statement. So I start thinking that I want this mission statement. I want the one that they have so right there I decided to claim it. As soon as I made that decision (no bs) I heard a voice in my head that said "this is my son with whom I am well pleased." This was huge for me I immediately thought of Jesus's baptism with what was said to me. So I went and asked the priest that was in our group what was the significance of that verse in the Bible and he said that it was the validation of Jesus as Gods son and it was the beginning of his ministry. This blew me away because it answered the point of the hike which was to address the father wound.

So anyway believe it or not that's what I found on the hike and I recommend that every man go at least once I think I might go again in the spring. If anyone wants to go but doesn't know who to talk to let me know and I can help.

Update: Ricardo

I too have had limited access to internet due to the lack of computer. It's on my wishlist as I raise support to be in france by June of 2009. I have been speaking to small groups at my church and that is where I have had the most success in gaining prayer and financial support.

I am spending mornings working on letters and making calls and appointments. Have all but stopped sleeping in. it's amazing how much you can get done when you get up before noon. Yeah, no lie, i used to sleep til noon and then head right to work.

I work at an Afterschool Program that I used to run and now just teach the 5th grade group. Work about 5 hrs a day;don't have to be there in pawleys until 1:30. pretty relaxed schedule for this not-a-morning person.

Was in Hospital the last 2 days of August. diabetic fatigue.
But have been eating right and managing it with insulin. so well it's been normal the last 3 weeks.
Also started working out with my health nut roomie. Twice a week at 6:00. I hates it! Accountability requires I say I weigh 225 lbs and am hoping to be fit and firm by the time I leave.

Finances are tight but it's workin out. I just need to stop getttin speedin tickets.

I hope to stay involved from now on so here goes.

I always feel like a toddler when I hear what you guys are mulling and chewin on. I have been readin Phillipians and realizing I must not have paid attention many of the previous readings. Most of my reading has centered on bios of vicitms of violence/genocide in Africa. Streams in the Desert being the best and most recent. oh and Not On Our watch co-authored by Don Cheadle.

I wonder what you guys think is a good balance for how much we privately and then collectively(the body of Christ) should be doin about the genocidal vilence in counrties like Sierra leone, the Congo, Chad, Sudan..ect?

Thoughts on Social Justice.

So this coming weekend I'm teaching at a conference on Social Justice. So i thought i'd bring it to the council for your thought's on the interplay between the gospel and social justice. I'm looking for a little more then "yup it's a good thing"

my thoughts and possible direction on it can be found here.

*also Dixon Kinser who James knows will be one of the key note speakers, along with Iain Boyd.

Update: Chris

I too, like James, have not been disciplined enough in posting. It is hard for me because I enjoy talking, but have typically despised writing.

-I'm married, and trying to figure that out, especially what it means to lead my wife spiritually right now, because our schedules are currently conflicting so much, and mine changes from week to week so there's not really a way to solidify any kind of scheduled plan or anything.

-I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life, and it is wearing me out. I don't know if any of you have ever actually gotten tired from a feeling that you weren't really doing anything, but that's me right now. I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing but I have never really enjoyed doing any one thing for too long, so I know getting a job and trying to climb the corporate ladder just is not going to work for me. But, right now if anything were to happen, such as a car going kapoot or accidentally getting pregnant, it would throw us over the top as far as money goes. So trying to figure out how to provide for my wife, especially admist the tumultousness of today's economy is very stressful. Add that to the fact that we just don't know how it will get any better because of the sheer size of my school debt, and it is a tad bit overbearing.

-I'm trying to volunteer at my church with my free time but that's been shaky at best.

-I'm down for trying to make a meeting, would be best for me if it was a day actually before Christmas.

-Love you.

Update: James

     I am not (and have never been) posting as often as I would like to; a large portion of the blame for that lies with the fact that I still don't have my own computer. I am using the TV watchin' computer that's hooked up in our living room for my internetting. As you can imagine even on an HDTV it isn't an ideal solution. Both pieces of hardware, by the way, belong to my land lord and roommate Sugar Shane Siciliano. I have nothing to do with either of them, other than the copious amounts of time I spend using them (hulu.com is my jam).

     -I was in Switzerland for three months in the Spring. Did I tell all of you that?

     -I moved to Pittsburgh when I got back, and started temping.

     -I just got a part-time job which may evolve into a full-time job, working at an internet-based-but-not-internet company. More on that as it develops, but the whole thing has a "I was not at all expecting to get on this train but I am now going to try and ride it until it crashes" kinda vibe.

     -My car is still falling apart, and I am afraid to drive it in all but the most necessary events.

     -My sister moved to Pittsburgh this fall to go to art school. I am really desirious that this would facilitate us growing much closer; we live about five miles away from each other at the moment. Long story short, I am her brother pretty much in name only (half-brother, specifically), it is entirely my fault that we are not close *at all* and in the last year or so that state of affairs has become completely unacceptable to me. I don't know how to fix that, but I would really like it to be (fixed). Among other attempts at hanging out that have happened since September she is playing in my new Dungeons & Dragons campaign (!?!!), which is a remarkable act of good will on her part.

     -The biggest *physical* goal on my plate right now is month-to-month financial stability. It is much harder than I expected it to be!

     -I am currently trying to learn German (from Rosetta Stone). It is both fun and hard.

     Dave, I would love to come visit in December. I am both poor and own a crappy car, but if I can make it happen it will happen. I may even consider taking a bus, but we had better plan on having *a lot* of fun if I employ that option.

Thank you much guys.

Update : Dave

Might just be us around here these days. Possible grounds for a "man foul" surrounding the failure keep the council blog updated regularly?? maybe

Here's my update

• Having a baby: Well Lisa's having it my part is done until Feb. It is however rocking our world and I'm sure it's just beginning.
• Ministry stuff is going well. Not sure how many of you guys know Chris Madeiras (SP) he's a Conway guy black hair drives a mustang he loves. He was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks ago had to have surgery. He'll find out later this week if it had spread. Probably would appreciate some prayer. We've been having a long season in the student ministry it's hitting that time of year where i need some unwind time. Thinking of using some of my vacation the week of Thanksgiving.
  
• been processing a lot over at my blog probably the best update on current life could be found over there.
• Been really pondering how to move people to action. Not sure what that means.
  
• My latest brew is out of the bottle. It's my first attempt at a stout and unforunatly i think it's a failure. Somewhere along the line something didn't ferment properly so i'm 1 for 2 in the good beer making category. Maybe we'll take a shot at improving the "Libbon Lager" recepie. Which brings me to my next point.
  

I'd like to open my home to all who would wish to visit over the December month. I was thinking we could hold a N. Charleston Council meeting. Play some frisbee golf etc. We'd just need to get some dates throwing around. I know it'd be easier for Alex to make it if it was in this part of the state. Thoughts???

Hello?

Well, Dave says he's going to give us an update sometime soon, but what about the rest of you guys? Is anyone reading this thing anymore?

Mullet season

Heads up bag'm and tag'm Mullet season ends in 4 days.

p.s. i plan on posting a personal update in a day or two.

Thought's on a Christmas season gathering of men?

Sup erbody

I haven't posted (nor has anyone else) on here for awhile so this might be kind of long. Or it could be short. I haven't thought through what I'll actually type yet so who knows...

First, thanks for your prayers for my family. Things went exceedingly well down in Atlanta with the memorial service for my grandfather. It was a time that I think will affect everyone in our family for the rest of our lives because of the realization of how blessed we are by our grandfather/father/husband's example of a life lived loving God and loving others. Fortunately every single person on that side of the family was able to make it to Atlanta for the service which was amazing considering there are 30 of us total. The fact that my grandfather was a believer and that most of the family are believers changed the whole atmosphere considerably. It's hard for me to describe how drastically different it would have been if it weren't for the hope we have in Christ and also the joy and pride we have in seeing a life well lived. To give you an example of the kind of impact my grandfather had on those around him: we went to scatter his ashes at a golf course where he played gold 4 days a week for the last 20 years, and half of the maintenance crew (including a guy who no longer works there but came back just for this) was there to say a last goodbye. They were there because every day my grandfather played golf there, he would arrive an hour before his tee time and bring all the maintenance guys and cart guys a box or two of Krispy Kreme donuts and shoot the breeze with them before he went out to play his round. Another example: my mom was given the job of going to the grocery store where he shopped each week and telling the deli workers that he had passed away and when she did, they all stopped what they were doing and actually teared up out of sadness for our loss, again because he would go in and make sure he had enough time to sit and ask the workers there how their families were and what was going on in their lives. We heard so many stories like that while we were down there, and it was amazing to see the reality of how a godly example of marriage and respect for others has impacted our entire family, all the way down to the grandkids. We're a big family, and very diverse, but every time we all get together there's never any stress or drama. Everyone has a good time; everyone respects everyone else. And after hearing more and more about my granddad's life, I realize that we have him to thank for that.

Enough sappy stuff. Last night I got to go to a debate on our campus between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson. It was okay. Not great but not a waste of time. Here's a blog post that a friend wrote about the debate. I disagreed with some of his conclusions and so I posted a pretty lengthy comment that you can read to get my take on the debate.

What else...I'm dating someone, which is nice. She's from Richmond, VA. She went to William and Mary and then interned with RUF at Stanford for the past two years. She's at WTS to get an MDiv in counseling. It's been great so far. Really laid back but intentional at the same time. Low stress, which is great considering my previous relationship and also the amount of school-induced stress I've got going on right now.

Speaking of school, I still haven't heard back from Princeton, but I've made up my mind to stay here at Westminster either way. I've found a group of guys that are in the same place that I am theologically and I'm really enjoying learning and discussing what we're learning with them. I'm not sure that I would find as many people with theological similarities at Princeton as I have here considering the type of people the school seems to attract (very very liberal) so the idea of leaving this behind is tough. I've started to interact more with the profs here and that's been really fruitful as well. There's a lot we don't agree on, but one of the benefits of coming in right after the controversy of last year is that the whole faculty is on high alert for student dissatisfaction so they're all going out of their way to meet with students and discuss issues, which is great.

I miss you guys. We'll have to find sometime to get together when I'm back in SC over Christmas break (Dec 12-Jan 3). What are you guys up to now? Let's get a roll call here. Post what's going on in your life and give us an update. Not in the comments section of this post, but on your own post. It doesn't have to be long.

All of life is Repentance

This article came across my life yesterday. It's caused me to stop and ponder for a little while. I hope it blesses you. The letter from Whitfield near the end is mainly what has hit me...

“It is important to consider how the gospel affects and transforms the act of repentance. In ‘religion’ the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means that ‘religous repentance’ is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom. But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union in Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God’s heart.”

Read the rest of the article by Tim Keller here

Prayer Request

Hey guys. My family needs prayer right now. My grandfather (dad's dad) died yesterday. It was pretty unexpected. He went in for knee replacement surgery last week and the pain medication they gave him afterward reacted poorly with his system and basically swelled his GI tract up and then shut it down. The doctors were able to stabilize him and he recovered mostly from that, but then they found some internal bleeding which they also fixed. He started to recover, then got worse, then recovered, then got worse and finally just told his wife and the family that he was too tired to fight it and died last evening around 5:oo pm. The whole family is just in shock. I mean, he was perfectly healthy and went in for knee replacement surgery expecting to be back on the golf course in a month or so, and now this. He was a Christian so he's in a much better place now. My grandmother is the one who really needs prayer. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 8 months ago, and even though there aren't really any symptoms right now, I know that besides being grief-stricken and heartbroken, she must be very scared of the thought of dealing with that disease without her husband. My dad said that he's pretty sure she's not a believer so please pray for her salvation and for God to comfort her through this. Fortunately two of my uncles live within 30 minutes of her and another is only an hour and a half away so they were with her in Atlanta all yesterday and last night. My family is driving down there today and I'm going to catch a flight down tomorrow. Westminster is very understanding about these kinds of situations so I've been able to get an extention on all of my work.

So, pray for:
--my grandmother's salvation and her emotional and physical well-being
--my dad and his three brothers and one sister, that they would comfort each other and their mother
--there are about seven Christians on that side of the family, so pray that we would represent the love, divinity, and humanity of Christ well while we're there

Thanks guys.

Stay-at-home Dads (SAHD)

What do you guys think about it? Here's a video from Mars Hill in Seattle where Mark Driscoll says that if a guy in his church were a SAHD, it would be an issue of church discipline:

http://theresurgence.com/should_husbands_be_stay_at_home_dads

And here's a couple of posts from a guy who is a complementarian and a SAHD asking whether or not it's a sin to be a SAHD:

Part 1
Part 2

Here are just a couple of my thoughts. I like Mark Driscoll. Sometimes I think he hits the nail right on the head. Other times, he seems to be more worried about being a foil for the girly-man culture that he sees in America than he cares about being careful with his words, gracious, and biblical. He and his wife's comments in that video made me sick just thinking about all of the young men he's influencing with those kinds of comments. Church discipline for being a SAHD?!? Are you kidding me? Maybe if a guy is just being lazy. Sure, I can see that it would be hard for a woman to respect a man who's not willing to provide, as Driscoll's wife says, but that's an interior issue, not an exterior one. If a guy isn't willing to provide that says something about his heart. But when we take a verse where, I think, Paul is trying to warn us against an inner condition by pointing out its outer consequences (the same as I think he is when he talks about how women dress and how men wear their hair) and then say "See, if you ever have these outer consequences, then you're not being a good Christian." Nevermind that we're living 2000 years later. Nevermind that we're living in a comletely different cultural context. Nevermind that, as the author of those posts points out, the Bible talks more about women's headcoverings than women staying at home.

There's my rant. I think I've got a sore spot for those kinds of teachings because I know that those are the types of "this is how a Christian has to act" shackles I used to put on guys I mentored, and I feel terrible about it. Praise God for his grace for those sins of mine and for his providence of other, wiser men to straighten out the rough edges I left some of those guys with.

Interview, etc.

Hey guys. I've gotten a couple messages asking me to update y'all on how the interview at Princeton went. It went well. I got up to the school around 8:30 am on Friday and went to a couple of classes. The classes were good, but honestly, not all that much better (as far as quality of teaching, not necessarily content) than the classes at WTS. After the two classes I went to chapel with a student host who they hooked me up with. Chapel was led by a Japanese student who gave a testimony of how God had provided for her over the course of her time at Princeton Seminary. The chapel service itself was great, very lively with everyone singing and clapping; it had way more 'soul' than the chapel services at WTS, which tend to be sparsely attended and boring as all get out. The student speaker, though, basically preached a name it claim it type of theology. "I couldn't get my visa b/c they kept telling me I didn't have all the forms filled out. So, I went home and I said, 'God I know you brought me here. Why aren't you giving me this visa?' and then I realized that I wasn't having enough faith in him and so I said, 'God, if you give me this visa, I will testify about it to everyone I see,' and when I went back to the embassy I got my visa!" Wacky.
After the chapel service I got a tour of the campus and had lunch with the host student. Campus is beautiful. Then came the interview. I was interviewed by a female pastor (PCUSA) who asked me pretty simple questions. What drew you to theological education? What took you to and what is taking you away from WTS? Why Princeton? Those questions gave me a lot of time to talk about my story, L'Abri, what my goals are, etc, and she loved that stuff. She asked me how I felt about the ordination of women, and I told her I don't have a problem with it. I explained that my stance on that wasn't necessarily one coming out of a developed theology but mainly a stance of conscience and just not being convinced by the arguments against it. She seemd fine with that. Those were the main things we talked about. It lasted about 40 minutes.
I'd say that it wasn't a good enough interview to make me absolutely sure that I'll get in, but there wasn't anything negative about the interview. I think I've got a better chance than most of the WTS guys of being accepted there mainly because of all of the life experiences I've had, and they're looking to bring people into that school who are coming from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Having said all of that, going up to Princeton has made me question whether or not I'll actually transfer away from WTS. Don't get me wrong, I'm still dissappointed by the direction WTS is moving, but after talking to my advisor (Dr Bill Edgar, one of the leading voices against the actions of the board in firing Dr Enns last year) I'm not so sure that the outlook is as dark as some people are making it out to be. I still think that the administration and the board are on a crazy conservative kick, and they are liable to do something in the next year or so that would make me definitively want to leave this school, but I don't know if I can make that decision right now. I've calmed down a bit from my anger at the board and administration for basically changing the direction of the school overnight, and now I'm just trying to be as open-minded as I can with the situation. I'd say that right now, I'm right on top of the fence as to whether or not I'll transfer out at the end of the year. Princeton seemed great, but not great enough to make me want to leave all of my friends here to go somewhere where I'll probably be one of the most conservative people on the campus. I'm just not sure. So I could use some prayer on that.

Site you might wanna check out

Hey, check out:
http://biblicaltraining.org/index.php?page=speakers

Found it through Bill Mounce's Greek website. Bill Mounce is one of the most recognized scholars in Greek today and this is something he and several other top theologians have put together as a free training resource for anyone, for free.

Prayer for Jon

Men-
Some of you know my brother, others don't. He's an really fun guy and I wish I had more contact with him. I got word from my mom that he hurt his back (which is a big part of his job) He was in the ER with breathing problems but seems to be doing OK.

He's out of the hospital and back at work which is both a good and bad thing. He works as an archeologist excavating potential construction sites. So swinging a shovel is hard on his back all day. Plus his gear was stolen out of his car recently which put the company he works for through the roof.

I just know he's hit a rough patch. So please be in prayer for him. Both for his back, his job, his faith, and he's trying to get into grad school so that's some added stress. Thanks men.

Mull #1

* I moved your post to the official Mullet count post. So far you are tied with Martin at one each.

Remember me?

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing well. I've been a bit slow getting involved here. I never was good as regularly posting...Anyway, I just read a review of Prophetic Untimeliness by Os Guinness that Randy sent over, and was hoping to get some suggestions for reading from the wise minds of the council. The author quotes C.S. Lewis as saying, “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of history blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.” My inquiry to everyone here is what books would you consider in this category that are sound reading? I don't want to be so far removed from where the church has been, if I am at all involved in where it is going.

Thanks for any input you have, and I pray that you all have a blessed week.

Hunting Season opens Wed. the 8th.

Dear Men,
As I sit here on my back porch enjoying a tall glass of sweet tea I'm drawn to ponder the manly event of the hunt. Stalking ones prey, waiting for the opportune moment, discipline, patience, perseverance, under often unbearable conditions. Thrilling.

So might I inquire of the council to join me on a hunt of the most illusive game?

The Mullet.

As weather turns cooler the mullet seem to become much more vibrant and daring in their outings. They frequent the feeding grounds of waffle houses and wal-marts making their capture on almost effortless.

I caught this one earlier today...

Mullet Hunting Season Rules.

1. Must be a live mullet. No pictures taken out of hunting seasons or photo shop mullets. A Mullet is defined by hair that is noticeably longer in the back of the head than in the front.

2. Must be posted to this post with picture. We all should have access to edit posts. Not left as a comment. (can't leave pictures)

3. 1 point for one mullet. Multi mullet shots (MMS) or if you are able to be in the picture with the mullet extra points will be awarded.
- 1 extra point will be included if any of the following apply...

• The man is shirtless
• if there is beer in the picture
• if there is a visible farmers tan
• if there is any mention of NASCAR in the picture

-3 extra points will be included if you are touching the mullet.

4. Person with the most points will win dinner at the next council gathering.

5. Season runs for one month from Midnight Oct. 8th until Midnight Nov. 8th in case of a tie the between two people the contest will be decided by a battle between a claymore and samurai sword in Dan Eady's old living room.

6. These rules can be amended by a majority vote of the council.

Above all be careful the mullet is unpredictable. Happy hunting.


Chris Martin - it's the coach of the DeSales University field hockey team; went there to watch my cousin play. boo yah.



Joel-

Well I work at Lowes. I might as well be standing in the middle of a zoo hunting wild game. Here is Mull #1.










In Food Lion I found this Spanish Mullet notice the craftsmen ship and detail shown by it's length... Dave

The Idol of Relevance

I thought this blog post by C.J. Mahaney reviewing a book by Os Guinness was so insightful that I would just copy the whole post here. I would love to hear what you guys think about Guinness' point and how we can shape the church of our generation accordingly.

The Idol of Relevance
by C.J. Mahaney 10/3/2008 9:47:00 AM Since we’re talking about Os Guinness, I pulled my stack of well-worn copies of his books off my shelves. And one of the most dog-eared, check-mark-littered, and highlighted copies is the book Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance (Baker, 2003).

The book is a piercing critique of the church’s uncritical pursuit of relevance for the sake of relevance. His argument: “Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant” (p. 12). Guinness explains it like this:

By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching commitment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant. (p. 11)

This is because, as Guinness writes, faithfulness to eternal truth is the means to genuine cultural relevance. In every generation, our goal is centered on the proclamation and advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the local church. Only because of the gospel’s continued relevance is it rightfully called the “good news.”

The gospel is good news. In fact it is “the best news ever” because it addresses our human condition appropriately, pertinently, and effectively as nothing else has, does, or can—and in generation after generation, culture after culture, and life after life. Little wonder that the Christian faith is the world’s first truly universal religion and in many parts of the world the fastest growing faith, and that the Christian church is the most diverse society on planet earth, with followers on all continents, in all climates, and under all the conditions of life and development. Of course, Christians can make the gospel irrelevant by shrinking and distorting it in one way or another. But in itself the good news of Jesus is utterly relevant or it is not the good news it claims to be. (p. 13)

Escaping the Cultural Captivity

The strength of Guinness’s book is not only the insightful criticism, but the constructive vision he presents to the reader. Chapter six, “Escaping Cultural Captivity” (pp. 95–112), was especially helpful. Guinness writes,

Without God, our human knowledge is puny and perverse, limited on the one hand by finitude and distorted on the other by sin. That said, and that said humbly, three things can help us cultivate the independent spirit and thinking that are characteristic of God’s untimely people. In ascending order, they are developing an awareness of the unfashionable, cultivating an appreciation for the historical, and paying constant attention to the eternal. Each is crucial for effective resistance thinking. (p. 96)

Guinness then develops each of these points:

1. Awareness of the Unfashionable: Because the cross runs across the grain of human thinking, the faithful choice is often not the culturally popular choice. Guinness introduces the countercultural actions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. While the Führer demanded complete allegiance, Bonhoeffer was stressing the cost of discipleship and allegiance to Christ alone. In all generations, the church needs to cultivate an awareness of the unfashionable to avoid being captured by the popular or “relevant.”

2. Appreciation for the Historical: Americans, Guinness writes, seem to know everything about what’s happened over the past 24 hours, but little about the past 600 or 60 years. “Essential for untimeliness is appreciation for the historical, for no human perspective gives us a better counterperspective on our own day” (p. 100).

Guinness continues,

Mere lip service to the importance of history will not do. We each have to build in a steady diet of the riches of the past into our reading and thinking. Only the wisdom of the past can free us from the bondage of our fixation with the present and the future. C. S. Lewis counseled, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” (p. 104)

On the next page, he quotes Lewis again: “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of history blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books” (p. 105).

3. Attention to the Eternal: “Essential for untimeliness is attention to the eternal, for only the eternal is eternally relevant” (p. 105). The way to remain relevant is to stay on the path of eternal truth. Guinness asks us to consider, if we are seeking to be relevant, why? To what end are we seeking relevance? “Nothing is finally relevant except in relation to the true and the eternal….Only the repeated touch of the timeless will keep us truly timely” (pp. 106, 112).

Yet again, it’s worth quoting him directly:

How then do we lift ourselves above the level of the finite and the mundane to gain an eternal perspective on what is true and relevant? The biblical answer is blunt in its candor. By ourselves we can’t. We can’t break out of Plato’s cave of the human, with all its smoke and flickering shadows on the wall. We can’t raise ourselves above the level of the timebound and the earthbound by such feeble bootstraps as reason. But where we are limited by our own unaided efforts, we have help. We have been rescued.…God has broken into our silence. He has spoken and has come down himself. And in his written and living Word we are given truth from outside our situation, truth that throws light on our little lives and our little world. (p. 107)

Conclusion

I highly recommend Prophetic Untimeliness, especially for pastors. We would do well to heed Guinness’s call to faithfulness: “It is time to challenge the idol of relevance, to work out what it means to be faithful as well as relevant, and so to become truly relevant without ever ending up as trendy, trivial, and unfaithful” (p. 15).

C.J. Mahaney's blog can be found here: http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/

Ministry Interviews

So I emailed the guy in the of the position I applied for at CIU recently and he told me that the board was meeting this weekend, and with their approval, he would begin conducting interviews next week.

This is somewhat good and somewhat bad news. Good that I will likely be having an interview soon for my dream job. Bad that the thought of sitting in a room being interviewed by this man is one of the most intimidating things I can think of. I have never interviewed for a ministry job before. This job is working with first-year students overseeing their spiritual, academic, and social growth in their transition to CIU.

Any ideas on how to prepare myself for what might be asked would be great from you wise pool of ministry experienced men.

Thanks.

Lord's Prayer

Jon Foreman from switchfoot wrote a song that incorporated the Lords Prayer. I thought it was cool check it out for yourself.

Man play

I'm not much for sports as some of you may know but this is worth some man points...

A little reading anyone?

I was just given a book called "Why we're not emergent" By Deyoung and Kluck. It seems interesting enough to devote some time to and comes highly recommended. Since we all have loads of free time I was wondering if anyone wanted to read thought it with me? I feel that if I read it solo then I'm going to end up just digesting it with out chewing on what the authors are saying? Plus I think we have a wide enough, opinionated enough crew that it would spawn some good conversation. Anyone up for it?

We can hash out the details of how it all works later.

Speaking of books...

Here's some theological excersise from the youth min world. I received several pamphlets lately pushing this new book. What two things are wrong with the title?

A great review of Rob Bell's new book

Here's a review of Bell's new book "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" (or something like that) by probably the smartest guy I've met at Westminster. The review is insightful and you'll learn a few things about theology and biblical studies just from reading the review. Check it out.

Is He your friend too?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

A formal request

I would officially like to petition the council to admit one Mr. Alex Baker and one Mr. Lucas Hugo Waschkowski to our most hallowed ranks.

What says ye?

Humanism

This is a thing I heard!

I am at work, and this is not a good time for me to put my first post down on the Council. I know this. As a result, this will be pretty quick.

But anyway: I really think you should hear this. It's called 'Black and Gold', and it's by a guy named Sam Sparro.

He's 25, gay, Australian, and an MK. Discuss?

Update: To be clear, I'm not posting this because it's a new song that I like. I'm posting it because it's a piece of pop media (!!) dealing with classic questions about the intersection of meaning, value, and the existence of God. I am always amazed when I hear anyone dealing honestly with faith and what it means (or doesn't mean) to us, and even more blown away when it's someone who is coming from outside "the club", which Sam almost certainly is.

I come away wondering, why can't 'Christian' artists and writers be this honest? Why do 'God-fearing' people always feel like they (we?) have to toe a party line whenever they're out among the unwashed masses? I don't mean to imply that this song is hopeless or depressing, because its neither, it just doesn't have it's theology wrapped up neatly in a bow. Man I appreciate that, because my God doesn't come that way either.

I don't believe that God can be tied down by a 'system' anymore. If he's there, I believe that He can only be lived and lived with. Anything else is a joke, an attempt to reduce a living, perfect, infinate Person to a math equation.

Since all of us (I think that's right) are at least former youth workers, I think this especially relevant since it's theistic media that a) comes from outside the Christian music farm and b) is honest music without a mission/ulterior motive other than being a part of the discussion of experiencing God. Oh, and c) it's really catchy.

When was the last time you heard something like that? Hearing this song reminds me of what my cultural life is missing.

My Daughter...

Introducing my daughter.... click here for pics



Dave, congratulations! My phone is being mailed to me (eventually) or you would have received a phone call way before this. This is so awesome. I love the both of you.

Dave: Thanks buddy *gives big hug.

Bored

I am bored. With life. I need something to do, and I have no clue what to do. The restaurant industry is nowhere in my long-term plans, and I am ready to be done with it now. To have a primarily day-time job so I can actually see my wife during the week. Some of you guys know me really well. What should I do?

What's up

So here I am up in Philly. Right now I'm sitting in my room in the mansion after having just been to a pretty good church. It's called City Church and it's downtown by UPenn. It's a PCA church plant (planted by a guy who used to be on staff at Redeemer in NYC) that's been around for about 3 years. What did I like about it. . . . . it had a strong liturgy which was really nice in contrast to the community church type of service I went to last week. They have a philosophy professor in the congregation who writes the liturgy each week based on what scripture they're using. It's based off of the structure that the Anglican church uses, but since they don't go by the church calendar they decided to tailor the liturgy a little more for their own congregation. Another thing I liked was the music. I know, kind of shallow, but the music was really good. They had a small jazz band (upright bass, guitar, drums) playing rearranged hymns and they just sounded good and fresh. It's nice to hear something besides Passion-style or singer-songwriter-style worship music. The church is a little far from school (about a 30 minute drive) but I was able to talk to the pastor after the service and he let me know that there's a small group that meets about 15 minutes from my place and the pastor comes out to our area about once every other week to have lunch with the people in this area of town. I'm pumped about going back next week and getting more of a feel for what the church is like from week to week.

In other news, I could really use some prayer about school. I think most of you heard me talk about the controversy with the professor that just got fired from the school a few months ago. Well, that has turned out to be a bigger deal than I even thought it was going to be. A couple of professors left after last year because they didn't like the direction the school was heading in and they've replaced them with guys who are definitely "company men". My New Testament Intro prof is one of those guys. In our first class he told us that he'd help us figure out which of the publishing houses were not worth our time and which ones had left orthodoxy (including Eerdmans, for publishing books with "Catholic sympathies"). From what I've heard around campus, a few more professors are planning on leaving in the next year or two (the professors that are leaving are the ones with PhDs from Harvard, Princeton, U of Chicago, etc and the ones that are coming in are guys who got their PhDs--if they have one--from this school mostly), and a handful of members of the board of trustees left after the prof was fired (I'm not using names or even the name of my school b/c there were a couple incidents last year where students who wrote about what was going on at the school on their blogs were called in and told to stop disrespecting the adminstration's authority or else; I don't think they would do that to me for just writing this, but the thought that someone could search the internet and find out that I was talking about the situation is a little disconcerting). The adminstration has been pretty triumphalist so far, basically saying at our convocation "People said if we got rid of that professor, even if it was to protect our standards, that our school wouldn't survive. Well, we lost a lot of money and some respect, but we're still here and we're setting a new theological direction for the school that will be nice and conservative. If anyone doesn't like it, then they can go somewhere else." After the prof was fired all but two of the PhD students at the school left to go to other schools. People who are in there last year here are saying that the school is in the process of becoming a completely different place, one that is more devoted to being conservative and Reformed than it is devoted to good and progressive scholarship for the glory of God. Long story not-so-short, I'm having a really hard time deciding whether or not to stay up here past this semester. I already know that if I knew before what I know now, I wouldn't have come here in the first place. I'm just not really sure where else I would go to get a good, rigorous education and also a place that is actively seeking to stay within a general label of orthodoxy.

Anyway, I'm having a tough time trying to figure out what to do. Stay for the whole year? Most places I would transfer would only take about one semester worth of credits from another school. What would I do if I left school at the end of this semester? I think it might be tough to transfer somewhere for next semester so I'd have to wait until next fall. I could use some prayer and/or advice if you've got any.

Despite all of that, I've met some really great people up here and it's been fun being back in classes and learning things with a group of people instead of just myself.

Jeremy, I like the new header.

Chris, any news about the job?

Lastly, here's a couple of links about the controversy at school:
--An interview with the professor who was fired (he actually agreed to cancel his tenured position and the school agreed to pay him two years' salary) on a local radio show: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=7789c5a104bea4a0d2db6fb9a8902bda
--A page with pretty much everything available on the internet about the controversy (this is one of the sites that got the author in trouble): Art's blog -- the blog itself is really good as well if you're looking for another one to get addicted to.

Hannah Surf Cam

For anyone interested here's a surf cam from IOP. Hannah is supposed to pass 40 miles east of us today around 8pm. Right now at 8 AM there is blue sky with some clouds over North Charleston.

New Header

Hey guys...hope all is well. Excuse my silence on the blog. I've had a few busy weeks, so I haven't been able to respond/post. I made a new header. Let me know your thoughts on the revision...

I have many thoughts on the Charismatic conversation going on, but I will add those to that posting. Hope everyone is doing well...

Rage Againt the Machine

So recently I heard a quote from a member of the political rock group Rage Against the Machine:

"When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart.^[8] "


It made me ponder what would this mean for the Gospel of Christ and the channels we use to reach culture today? Does this have bearing on the "how"? I know RAGtM and Chomsky are probaly not the best examples but the point that is made i believe is valid. How does one reach out with out selling out? Or is this quote giving the green light to selling out?

Job Update

Hey guys, got an email from the director of student life at CIU today, where I am applying for that first-year experience coordinator (working with first-year students in their transition to CIU) and he told me I made the first cut, and he was planning on starting to setup interviews soon, but he was honest and told me there were other applicants with more life/work experience relevant to the position. I can only get work experience relevant if he gives me the job :) Please continue to keep this in your prayers, I would really like to get out of the restaurant and into the college age ministry of some sort.

Charismaticism

So I'm interested to hear you guys' thoughts about the "revival" going on down in Lakeland, FL led by Todd Bentley. I first heard of this during my honeymoon and saw this guy preaching asking God to change people's silver cavity linings to gold, and was pretty skeptical. But I mean supposedly like 13 some people have been raised from the dead, people are growing new limbs, all sorts of crazy NT kinda-stuff, that we typically only hear about happening in third-world countries, is now happening here in America.

Of course you have the traditional naturalists and secularists of our day doing everything they can to discount him and mock him, and you have the conservative evangelicals (of which I would most likely be placed if placed in a grouping) that use hermeneutics to make the things he does look somewhat ungodly, if not for any other reason than the bizarre methods he is known for, such as kicking people in the face or kneeing them in the gut.

The thing that really started me thinking about this was recently when Megan and I were at her home in Pennsylvania, her dad (who is into healing) and I started talking about this, along with her mother (who is not really that into healing). They told us how several members of their church (which is barely even an it's allowed to raise your hands during worship kind of church) traveled down to Lakeland to see what this was all about. Those members have, according to the witness of Megan's parents, come back from the Lakeland meeting "annointed" (whatever that means) and have been the vessels of numerous healings.

I am split. Part of me says it's all non-sense and the guy is crazy. (One of the things he says he was told by God was not to preach Jesus, but to preach the angels, because everyone believes in Jesus, but no one believes in the supernatural. Kinda makes sense, kinda is iffy, in my mind.) The other part says what if I am missing out on experiencing God in a way like I've never experienced him before. Charismatics seem to experience God so intimately, and Christianity Today recently had an article entitled "Teaching a Calvinist to Dance" which was about a Reformed Charismatic. The link is below, but it has just made me wonder if there is a better balance to the Christian life than I am living, is it possible to have the theology of a Calvinist but the experience of a Charismatic? I have never been close to Charismatic in my relationship with God but I used to note hesitate at asking God to heal people and even seeing them healed (much lesser things than regrowing limbs) but now I feel as if I have been so educated in my faith as to have shut that part of me off, and I want it to turn back on in the most Biblical way possible.

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/may/25.42.html

I want to hear your thoughts on this, and if anyone wants to take a weekend down to Lakeland, let me know, could be interesting.

Mepkin Abbey

Well, I've been back from Mepkin Abbey for a week now. Mainly I've just been packing things up and getting ready for the big move tomorrow to Philadelphia (I'm not sure how long I have to live there to be able to call it Philly without being a poser). The parental units came up yesterday and loaded up all of my furniture to take it back to Conway so now I've just got to pack all of my clothes and books into my car and make the 11 hour trip up to Glenside, PA and move into my mansion. I kind of feel like the Fresh Prince.

About the abbey. It's an amazingly beautiful place. If I was going to be a monk, I would definitely go be a monk there. It feels like an awesome summer camp for adults. If you could swim in the river there, it would be absolutely perfect. I went down to the abbey with my friends Jeremy and Jeff who I led in a Bible study when they were freshmen. They're two of my favorite guys I've ever had in a Bible study, and now they're two of my closest friends. We decided to go down there to spend some time for ourselves as individuals (they started their last semester at USC on Thursday, and I'm starting grad school in two weeks), and also to spend some time together since we won't be seeing each other for awhile. I think it was successful on both fronts. I was able to read a lot, pray a lot, and spend a lot of great time with those two guys. We didn't do much in the way of monk stuff; we mainly just used it as a place for personal time of reflection.

What did I learn . . . One of the main things I was thinking about was Randy's question about how we keep our private worlds in order. As luck would have it, there was a really helpful chapter in The Reason for God that gave me at least one way to answer that question. In his chapter on the problem of sin, Keller says something to the effect of this: one of the problems of sin is that we build our identity on things other than God and our relationship to him, and when we build our identity on temporal and non-universal things, it inevitably leads to pride, exclusion of others, and anger at those who don't meet our expectations or the expectations of our group. Of course, Keller had much more reasoning and examples to back the statement up, but if you haven't read the book you'll just have to trust me when I say that his argument was convincing. So, I spent a lot of time thinking about who I've been bitter towards and cynical about and what that might tell me about what I'm building my identity on rather than God. As I get ready to go to a relatively conservative school that's way more reformed than I am, it's been really helpful to realize that my cynicism towards people who I think are unreasonably conservative stems a lot of times from the fact that a big portion of my identity is seated in being opposed to the unhealthy aspects of the type of person I used to be (unwaveringly, unthinkingly conservative and really really naive as a result). It's not a bad thing to be opposed to some of the unhealthy aspects of the type of Christian I used to be, but if being opposed to something is what I'm basing my identity on (instead of positively being rooted in Christ, and then being secondarily opposed to that which Christ is opposed) then I'll always tend more towards exclusion than embrace.

I'm getting tired of writing right now. I hope what I just wrote made at least a little bit of sense. It was sort of stream of consciousness so it might not be organized very well. Oh well.

Keeping up in busy times...

Just put out a bigger post on my blog about all that is happening in this busy season feel free to swing by and catch up.

Mr. Martin i'm interested to hear how your time at Mepkin was?

Job Possibility

Hey guys, so I am applying for this new position at CIU called the First-Year Experience Coordinator. Basically I would be responsible for building relationships with first-year students and helping them in their transitions to CIU and helping out with first-year classes. This is pretty much my dream job but there are 30 other applicants so I would really appreciate your continued prayers about this over the next two weeks.

Thanks!

My world...

This is the kind of things i have to deal with in youth ministry...

Yes it's a cat... well was a cat... and yes that's it's brain.

the back story is I have a really smart girl who's in AP Bio she posted this after her first day back at school. Pray for me.

hello Men. Just got signed one! this is a great idea

phone

hey i just got a new phone so i need all you guys' numbers

A little housekeeping.

Hopefully after another week or so, I'll stop screwing around with things on the blog, but for now here's a little note.

I changed the permissions on the blog so that anyone can see it. When I changed it to "Authors Only" it stopped being sent to my feed reader (Google). So, if you haven't been getting updates on your reader, that's why. I had to delete the feed and then resubscribe to get all the updates that were supposed to be there.

Also, I've added all of our emails to the "Notify after comments" list so when someone comments on blogs, you should all get an email about it. I figured that would help us keep up with the conversations.

Last, I looked far and wide for a good picture of dark beer, but alas, there were none to be found. Dave, if you want to take a picture with our fancy camera like the one in our header but with dark beer, you can send it to me and I'll switch it out.

I think that's it. Pretty uneventful post. I'm going to Mepkin Abbey this weekend with two friends and I'll be trying to finish up "The Reason for God" by Keller and "The New Testament and the People of God" by Wright, so hopefully I'll have something interesting to say after that.

Hope you guys are doing well.

Very last thing: Mr Conley, we're all waiting for your first post.

prayer...

I'm off tomorrow to spend a few days teaching and being with students at the Growing Leaders Camp at St. Christopher on Sea Brooke Island. I'm looking at Luke's account of Peter in his gospel and then tracing it through Acts.

The problem is i'm kind of jumping into the middle of this camp so it's going to be really hard to just drop in and hit the ground running. Would appreciate some prayer for Lisa too, she'll be alone here at the house.

PS

PS - Any other changes you guys think should be made to the blog? I can make it so that we all get emails every time one of us posts a comment. Right now I've got it set so that only authors of the blog can access the blog. Should it stay this way? Also, the little slogan thing under the blog title is just a line from a cheesy rap song. No significance whatsoever. If someone wants to change it, go for it.

I don't have to wait til I get to heaven to have a mansion

Literally. I don't have to wait until I get to heaven to have a mansion. I get to live in one when I go to PA for school. Due to the best set of coincidences ever, I'll be living in the South House on the historic Milmoral Estate in Wyncote.

I looked for apartments in Philadelphia last week and all I could find were one-bedroom places that were going to cost at least $1000 a month once you included utilities. That is just too much to pay for any kind of dwelling that you're not going to ever own so I called a friend of a friend who goes to Westminster and asked him if he knew of anything. He sent an email out to all of his friends and heard back from just one guy. This guy is the manager of the online bookstore for Westminster and his wife is a Hebrew professor there. They are the caretakers of this mansion on a 6-acre estate and they rent the other five rooms in the six room house to Westminster students. It's a 6-bedroom, 6000 sq ft house that is fully furnished and is basically set in a private park. Best of all, the rent is only $450 a month with all utilities included and free laundry. It's amazing.

Personal Reflection

OK, I admit it. I've never done this blog thing before. I am a blog virgin. Let me know if I violate any international blogging codes.

The weight of responsibility of being a godly man, husband, and father has been tugging at me lately. It's awakening me further to the effect that my life will have on my wife and children.

Meg and Sophia took a last minute trip to Florida with my Mom and sisters. So, I have the house to myself this weekend. I'm going to take advantage of this evening alone by trying to take some time to reflect on my life. To see how I'm doing in all the different areas of my life and how I can apply myself better. I ran into this quote last weekend in a book Meg and I are reading through: "If my private world is in order, it will be because I make a daily choice to monitor it's state of orderliness."

Is there any resources or methods that you guys have found helpful in regularly watching your own souls and ordering your private world?

Answered Prayer

So I just wanted to let you guys in on some good stuff. While I was at home, on Saturday night I received a call from an old friend of mine, Norris Cartrette.

(This guy was the first and last guy I ever did drugs with, and he has continued using and abusing his body even after losing a leg as a result of a partying accident. Ricardo and I used to cry out to God for his salvation, and nothing ever seemed to phase him.)

So I get a call and he and his girlfriend, Jessica, say that they really want us to come down to the beach and hang out with them. Megan and I do, and end up chilling with them until around 2:30am, just listening because they have a lot they need to say. Long story short, they make it sound like they have decided to pursue the Lord and I am all at once excited and yet skeptical just because I know Norris and the people that know us best are the best skeptics of us sometimes. I get a phone call from Norris on Sunday asking if Megan and I would be back in town the following week, because they wanted us to go to Christ United with them. I'm somewhat suprised. Then, on Tuesday, I receive a call from Norris telling me that his new articial leg is giving him serious problems and so he had to come to Columbia to see his doctor. He then proceeds to tell me that on the way up there, "I was praying that God would give the doctors wisdom in what to do with my leg, and give me wisdom in how to deal with the doctors." That's not something people tend to say when they are not prodded to or when they are trying to play church, that's something people who are learning to be dependant on God and not on themselves say.

(Yes Dave, I know I'm breaking the rule of succintness, but I'm ok with it.)

Norris calls me yesterday (Wed.) to ask if Christ United has anything going on that night or the rest of the week that he can attend. He called the church and left a message, but never heard back, so he ended up doing a Bible study with his girlfriend and her mom (who are pretty charismatic). I call Ricardo and find out that the Leadership Summit (whatever your feelings about it are) is going on today and friday and that he happens to have access to free tickets. Well since Norris' leg is acting up he has some time off work, so it is possible for him to attend. You guys don't really know Norris so it might be hard for you to appreciate this, but numerous people have been praying for this guy for years, and God has finally breached his heart, and it is going to be crazy. I mean, can you imagine, a week into following the Lord attending the Leadership Summit?

I know it's not holy to rank Christians and stuff, but I'm telling you, this guy has major satan wrecking potential. So the point of all of this is, pray for Norris. He told me that he feels like ever since he has tried to change his life that the devil is just throwing all these things at him, and I think we can all attest to how hard those times are. Norris needs a new group of friends, he needs people as passionate as he will be, he needs love and support through anytime that he might struggle, and since we are all not around his area, the best way for us to do that is to pray for him.

Daves suggestions about blogging...

These are some basic principles that have helped me...

1. Blog forcefully : I shoot for once a week. If i don't aim for anything i end up not pursuing it.


2. Blog purposefully : I use a blog as a place to get teaching ideas out of my head, summarize books I've been reading so i can remember them better, jot down random thoughts to come back to, and update family on what's going on with Lisa and I.


3. Get a "reader" I use google reader and added it to my home page. It automatically tells me when a new post has come up and eliminates the need to keep checking back.


4. Short and sweet beats long and rambling. They don't all need to be super deep. Remember the reason for this is to keep each other involved in each others lives despite the fact we all live hours apart.

I'm excited about this new dimension of community. Chris the template looks good, a little bland maybe some pic in the header.

Any thoughts on reading through a book together in a few months?

Any thoughts on including the James Conley experience or Joel Sewell in this mix?

The First Post!

Well, men, here it is. The first post on our blog. I'm a little intimidated.

First things, what do y'all think of the theme? Keep it, change it, add more to it? Should we have a slogan up there at the top? Let me know. I'll give each of you admin privileges as soon as I can so you can change things about the theme, etc.

You guys can post whatever you want here. I'm not sure what I'll post; probably a mix of serious questions or comments and just update type stuff. I may just link to update type stuff from my other blog if I end up writing on that again.

I really enjoyed hanging out with y'all the other night. I've been up in Philadelphia since Sunday night and I've realized something that I don't think I ever would have thought back in my more self-assured (arrogant?) college days: it's going to be hard to move up here and leave all my friends, family, and familiar places behind. A year or two ago, I probably would have scoffed at the idea of being scared of moving somewhere new, mainly because I would have thought that anyone who has dedicated their lives to God should have so much faith that it overrides fear. I know the verse about not having a spirit of fear or timidity so you don't have to quote it to me; maybe in a perfect world that would be the case all the time. But, I think I used to believe that having faith in God overrode your humanity, and the best way to handle things like being afraid of doing what you're pretty sure God has called you to do is to just push those feelings down and pretend you don't have them. I'm glad that now that I'm actually doing something that is already and is going to be very hard for me (seriously, I majored in Media Arts, what kind of education training do I have to prepare me for the type and amount of work I'll have in seminary?) I'm more secure in my understanding of God, Christ, and myself; secure enough to engage and acknowledge my feelings of fear and inadequacy rather than just ignoring them or even regarding them as evidence that I'm not a Christian after all.