Prayer

Men,
 I'm going in for an knee reconstruction tomorrow at 8, would appreciate your prayer. It's a short surgery to fix my ACL but the recovery is going to be a best.
Thanks.

So you want to go to seminary...

"Seminary is like a religions Comic Con with out the costumes and fun"

Bottles and cans just clap your hands just...

Well crew who still checks the blog and who has ventured into namby pampby lameward land?

Think it's time for a roll call...

Name:
What's good:
What's bad:
What's hard:

Heard a quote that men are defined by what we create not by what we consumer... Sorry Axe products... So what have you created lately?:


----------------------------------


Name : Dave Libbon
Good: It's the end of a super busy season.
Bad: Tore my ACL in my right knee looking at surgery in Dec.
Hard: Making the transation from a very busy season to a season of rest.

Create: We ended this semester in the youth ministry with a great fall retreat. Jeremy P Alford was our guest worship leader. A great time was had by all. Our group really grew together and in their faith.

The Bible... Online

I thought you would all want to know about this. When you think about it, it's surprising it hasn't been done before. The Bible has not copyright; it's all open source.

If anyone wants to start a guild, or something, I could be amenable to talking about it. Good cheer, gentlemen!

Update: be prepared for slightly off English. Just, like, a little.
Now I'm dying to know where this thing originated from.

God's Calling

So I spent 6 months with a missions organization called Youth With a Mission and these are photos from that time. Youth With a Mission or YWAM runs a school called a Discipleship Training School or DTS and in this school you spend 3 months training and then 3 months in a foreign country doing missions.

People who are anywhere from 18 to 30 usually do a DTS. However the reason I love YWAM is that it gives kids who just graduate High School direction and shows them Gods call on their life. In a society where most of our kids that graduate our youth groups will lose their faith in College, I think that our kids need direction and vision most of all.

People that come out of a DTS are fired up for God and want to follow his call on their life. This is the reason I like YWAM and this is why I am going back to be on staff with YWAM.

My flight for England leaves on Sept. 4. If you want to know more about what Im doing let me know. I am sending out letters letting people know what I need and what Im doing.
My e-mail address is ab.surfer@gmail.com

Dads Dove Spot

Men...Thoughts???

For you dads out there

Video about dad life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40TNwOIn3ZY

Turtle on the grill...

It's Coming Back

I am in a class with a lady who attends Elevation in Charlotte and she directed me to her pastor's blog (http://www.stevenfurtick.com/) and this was an entry I read entitled "It's Coming Back." I found the analogy very insightful as my church in Columbia is in the midst of chaos resulting from the pastor falling into adultery, and I have also seen this evidenced in businesses when business takes off so fast you don't have the leadership in place to handle it. I hope it challenges you like it did me.

I was watching a football game this past fall and the team I was cheering for pulled off an incredible play for a huge gain. It seemed like momentum had finally swung our way and there was nothing that could keep us from moving forward and scoring.

And then I heard the announcer say, “It’s coming back. It’s coming back. There’s a flag on the play.”

Everything that had just been achieved was gone. The momentum disappeared. And we were now moving backwards.

What’s so frustrating about a play being called back is not that it means that gains weren’t made. Significant gains were made. Momentum was created. What makes it frustrating is that it is all canceled out because of an indiscretion. So much achievement is erased in an instant.

I’ve come to see this as a challenging analogy for us to make sure we’re not canceling out the big gains we have been and are experiencing by having something in our life called back because of a lapse in character.

How many ministries have made significant gains that had to come back because the pastor was caught in a moral failure? If you get the ball down the field and grow a big church but it comes back, what does it matter? Yes, lives will have been transformed. But you won’t be around to enjoy it.

How many successful business people have climbed the ranks of their organizations through the use of their God-given abilities, only to be fired because they tried to cut a corner to maintain the success they had achieved?

The same idea goes for students, spouses, politicians. Everybody.

Pay attention, because I think of a lot of us need to hear this. This is your chance to make sure that the momentum you have in your life continues and the gains you’re making remain intact.

Listen: None of your achievements are so big that they can’t be torn down in an instant by a lapse in judgment. Your talents and abilities can take you where your character can’t keep you. If there is anything in your life that has the potential to cancel out all of the successes you’ve had up to this point, get rid of it now before it undoes everything you’ve worked for.

Discipleship

I heard an interesting quote the other day that "Discipleship is the opperating system of the church."

Here's a question men...

If that is true then how do you disciple someone? How does discipleship happen?

Rules for my unborn son...

Hey men not sure if you've seen this yet it's worth spending some time looking through... http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

For you Joel...

TOP 10 WRONG WAYS TO INITIATE YOUR SON INTO MANHOOD

10. Teach him the secret male ritual of leaving the toilet seat up and the toilet paper roll empty.

9. Have a ceremony where you give him his own remote control.

8. Lead him through an afternoon of rigorous physical training in the back yard while you sit in a lawn chair with a half-gallon of ice cream.

7. Eat until you're about to burst and then ride the Screamin' Hurler roller coaster.

6. Put cream on his face and let the cat shave him with its tongue.

5. Walk behind him through his school halls yelling, "You da man!"

4. Send him to the local discount store to buy mom's "personal things."

3. Give him Grandma's lime green Ford Pinto with personalized license plates that say, "TUFFGUY."

2. Send the womenfolk shopping, then get out your secret Old Yeller video and have a good cry together.

1. Shot put catching.

the newest member of the council

Introducing my son Abrahm Alexander Sewell

QUIET please

Dear men please keep the chatter on this site to a minimum.  It gets very distracting with all the daily posts and discussions.



~ on a different note I think we should try a council conference call to check in and see how everyone's doing? how many people can be on one video chat? or something like skype?

Man Council Meeting - Summer

Ok so we need to start planning a reunion for the summer....any ideas?

Updates?

What have the rest of you been up to??

Also a prayer request or several...
  My dad called me last night from the hospital in Joplin MO.  He blacked out while driving through and intersection. An off duty fireman pulled his truck in front of my dads drifting car to stop it and then proceed to preform CPR. My dad actually woke up which from having no pulse is anything short of miraculous. Actually it is miraculous. He's having heart problems and is having and angioplasty today. I'm not sure my role in all this as of now it's to pray. I know that.

Second one is that my assistant Liz has taken a job in Jacksonville Fl. I'm looking to fill her spot with someone who is called to youth ministry long term to develop a ministry to grades 6-8 and their families. I trust this groups judge of character and would welcome any suggestions of candidates you might have.

Why not rather be wronged?

I ran across this blog post a week or so ago, and it's been in my mind ever since then.

"Why not rather be wronged" (at Storied Theology)

The author (a WTS grad and now professor at Fuller Seminary) riffs on the verse "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1 Cor 6:7). He is mainly speaking about the way that Christians act toward each other when it comes to possessions, but I've been thinking about it in all sorts of situations when I feel my pride start to rear its head as someone wrongs me.

Also, there's a really great story someone posted in the comments about a church who willingly gave up their property when their denomination refused to let them keep it as the church left the denomination. Obviously, not every situation can be handled like this--and I think there are situations where because of the complications of modern life legal action is required--and I won't think negatively of you or your church, Dave, if you fight a legal battle to keep your land as your church withdraws from the denom, but it's refreshing to see such an obvious act of self-sacrifice from a church.

Any thoughts on how this might play out in your (all of you guys) church situations? Personally, after living with two youth pastors who are constantly on guard about getting sued and have been threatened with it several times by crazy congregants, this message seems like one that should be preached over and over again.

Lastly, something I just thought of as I was writing this. The most obvious exception to this that I can think of would be in a case of sexual misconduct towards a minor. I would say that that's a situation where no one should think "You know, if I want to be really Christ-like, I should just let this go and try to be self-sacrificial."

The Rules of Gentlemen

Hello everyone,

I haven't had the chance to draft my update post yet. The main news is that big change is around the corner for me as the wedding is swiftly approaching. March 20th is now but a month away. My mind has been full of thoughts about the future and what it means to step into this new role. I may be asking questions of the council...would that be called "council counsel"?

A guy I follow on Twitter posted this link today. I thought it was a good site to share:

www.therulesofagentleman.com

-ja

Prayer request

Dear men,
   
So friday of last week i woke up with what felt like a sore stomach. Like id been doing sit ups kind of sore. Thought it strange and headed out to a retreat that weekend. I got back Sunday taught confirmation class came home sat on the couch and fell to pieces. I've been running a 102 fever and this nagging in my stomach has grown.  Monday I went to this urgent care place which took some blood, gave me a bag of iv fluid and ruled out some things. Today i went back for more blood (sorry james) and have had to drink some of the most disgusting stuff on the planet and get a CT scan.  Long story short i've been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. Laymen terms are that my pancreas is pissed at me to get back on speaking terms i need to not eat for a few days and see a specialist.  If that doesn't work then it's a cozy room at the medical university hospital for several days and some more iv fluid.

Please pray i'm going stir crazy and need a good night sleep. Lisa's been awesome and is taking that sickness and health things super serious. But we would value your prayers. Thanks.

Blessed to be a part of this crew.

Embrace Your Inner Selleck

Embrace Your Inner Selleck

"It is my hope that many of you who struggle with your hairy lot in life will learn to accept, and even embrace the man that you are. Being hairy isn’t something to be ashamed of – if it’s the way you’ve been made, it’s part of what makes you, you. Part of the decline in manhood so often documented on this website stems from our willingness as men to let culture tell us what kind of man we’re supposed to be."

Was thinking of you James when I read this.

Of Faith and Inadequacy

Lexie just sent me this article to read and I think it might be one of the best short articles I've ready in years. Maybe there's nothing groundbreaking in it, but to me, when I first read it, it felt groundbreaking. Here's the intro to get you to go read the actual article:

I am sitting in a tiny Mexican cachina in midtown with a student. It’s a different meeting than the sort I am used to because he is a vocal and self-conscious skeptic of all things Christian. For some reason, he has been attending our Bible studies regularly and wants to meet for lunch. He has been sucking down margaritas for about a half hour now, and he announces that he has a question.

“Why is God hiding?”

“Okay, I’ll bite…why is God hiding?” I say confused.

“I mean, if God wants people to believe in him so badly, why doesn’t he make himself more obvious? Why all the cloak and dagger? Why not just come out of hiding and let everyone know that he is absolutely here?”

He goes on to answer that question better than anyone I think I've ever heard. The article's so short that it doesn't do any good for me to summarize it for you. It'll take you five minutes to read it. Once you do, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Update: Libbon

As with all of these not really sure where to begin. I will say that I enjoy reading the updates and that I really do value and am encouraged by this band of comrades. Here's the abriviated update from team Libbon...

• Abbie's one year old which is mind blowing. She'll be baptized this Sunday at 9am if you're around the internets and would like to see it'll be webcasted at http://live.chriswheat.com check in then. Lots have changed for me this year and I wish i could say it's been all roses. Really the addition of a child has been the second hardest thing I've ever done. The first being marriage. It's caused me to grow in ways i've never dreamed of, caused me to run on so little sleep that i never dreamed possible, caused me to worship in ways I've never conceived of, taught me the meaning of sovereignty, and has had a horribly wonderful galvanizing affect on my marriage. I say that because being a parent had really drudged up some toxic junk in mine and Lisa's life that we thought was locked up. However now more than ever I'm convinced that God has providentially moved me and my family to Charleston to be part of this community not to have an wonderfully successful youth ministry (whatever that means) but to deal with specific issues in our past. It's like hernia surgery. It hurts like hell sometimes but in the end it's health.
•  My job at St. Andrews is going well. The team I lead is wonderful. The ministry has seen much fruit and it's share of challenges. One aspect on this front is that our church has completed a discernment process and parish wide vote to leave the Episcopal Church and realign ourselves with the newly formed Anglican Provence of North America. That's big for the biggest church in the Diocese of SC to take a stand. It's been interesting to see some of the cracks others have lobed at this church. I won't get started but let's just say it's been a time of full contact communication which has resulted in undercover police in our services now. 
• Personally Lisa and I have joined a small group about a year and a half ago it's been so vital for us in this time to be surrounded by community. The group actually has birthed another group a few weeks ago because we were getting to large for a living room. It's been fascinating to be part of that kind of a process. Usually groups split due to life change or division but this one did because of a earnest desire to share the gospel with our neighbors. We'll meet as a big group once a month but then three times as smaller ones. It's always been a dream of mine to see this process up close and not just hear about it. 
• There's a ton of other stories I'd love to share with you. I've been using my own blog more lately for a bunch of stuff...www.davesdeal.blogspot.com one thing is for some income. There's some new adds that have been added every time you click on them it generates some change into an account for me. When it reaches a limit Google sends me a check. So help a brother out and check out the blog when your done go crazy clicking adds and picture me feeding my family. just kidding but really every bit helps as I'm sure you know. Speaking of blogs one of my kids has started blogging so show her some love too. http://emilyguerry.blogspot.com/ 
•  This is youth group last week...
  

Just kidding




Well that's it and so much more. We've set up skype a while ago and would love to catch up with you all if you've got a moment. Look us up. 


You all are dear to me.

Update

Well, since Chris did it, I suppose I will provide an update on here as well. I finally got out of the restaurant industry after a little over two years at Ruth's Chris. I am now working as a designer in the media department for a company called Ellett Brothers based out of Chapin, SC. We are a wholesaler for the sporting goods industry. The job was an answer to prayer in that we were desperately trying to get out of Ruth's Chris after some horrible management moves there and just because Megan is a school teacher so our schedules were exact opposites. Now, we see each other every night and have every weekend together, which is absolutely fabulous. I am very discontent though with the job, not nearly enough people interaction, and I am the most qualified designer in the department doing the least important work, so that's slightly frustrating.

Some of you also know that I am a distributor for a nutritional beverage company called Monavie. January 30th marks one year with them and it has been the coolest experience of my life. I have learned a lot about nutrition and wellness as I have gone on, and the business model (one which is highly misunderstood) allows me to choose the people I want to work with, so I have been able to partner with a lot of friends and help them succeed, so that's been really cool. We also just launched a product called M(mun) for immune health that one of the the world's leading immunologists basically said has the potential to change the world health outlook, mainly because of a molecule we have in it called Wellmune which is the most studied molecule in existence, so it's really cool not only to be able to work with your friends but also to have a product that can truly change people's lives, because chronic disease in America is sickening. I am hoping by the end of the year to be able to do that full-time if I choose to, though I don't know if I will. The amount of good that can be done with a residual income bewilders me.

Anyhow, we are also contemplating moving. I guess I should say that desire is probably a little more on me than Megan. I spent New Years in Austin, TX and my best friend is there so it made me really want to move there, probably the coolest city I've ever been to. We just spent this weekend in Charlotte, NC however, mourning the loss of Megan's former roommate, Aimee Powell. Aimee is the closest person to me I have ever lost, so it's been kinda weird, even though I mourn more for my wife's pain, I have still mourned over her loss. The girl had a huge impact for the Lord in her short lifetime, and her family are missionaries in Taiwan, and her dad has probably the best perspective on their loss that I can imagine. The church Aimee was a part of has probably during this time exhibited more of what community means to me than I have ever experienced, and it made Megan and I both very interested in moving there and becoming a part of that body. So....we are thinking maybe of moving to Charlotte, though I need to find a job, and really the only two things I WANT to do are Monavie, and teach Bible, but job-wise I am most qualified for design work, so keep that search in your prayers please. I don't know..all of our friends have moved away and neither of us are really satisfied with Columbia, so we will see.

I also miss you guys and think often about how I don't keep up with any of you nearly well enough. We are all busy and unfortunately we allow that to be an excuse, so bravo to Chris for rekindling this blog potentially. -Goebel

Update: Chris Martin

Hey everybody. Been talking to Goebel online a bit more lately while we're both at work, and the other day he asked me, "Chris, what are your goals? What do you see yourself doing in five or ten years?" And I said, "Chris, my boss just walked into the office so I should probably not be chatting on gmail, but I'll post on the blog."

Then, Dave sent me an email a few days ago asking how things were going with wedding planning and the rest of life. And I didn't respond because when I don't have time to give a good answer I usually just ignore the question and then the longer I go without answering the question the worse I feel about how long it's been since the question was asked and then it gets harder to write/call back and catch up.

But I'm nipping this one in the bud. So here's my update blog post. Hopefully some of yours will follow soon after.

Things are going pretty well in my life right now. Not necessarily fun and exciting but in the grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about. I think most of y'all know that starting in September I was working as a temp at the school district that I live in. I don't know how many of you know that I was hired as a full time employee there at the end of December. I am now the official administrative assistant/bookkeeper for the before and afterschool care program in the School District of Cheltenham Township. It's a great job. Not exactly what I want to be doing, but I get paid more than I deserve and my boss is a nice middle-aged Christian lady who's easy to get along with. My main duties are to take payments from parents, talk to them about our program, schedule staffing, and make sure that our program is meeting all of the requirements set by the three or four oversight agencies that give us money. If I thought I'd be doing the job for the rest of my life, I might dislike it a little bit more, but as it is, I enjoy having something to do and there are usually one or two moments each day that I feel like I'm doing something that matters to someone besides the bureaucrats in the school district. And that's a nice feeling.

The day before New Year's Eve Lexie's mother was diagnosed with aggressive stage two breast cancer. Her doctors have told her that they don't think it's spread beyond her right breast so that's a huge blessing in this situation. She's having a lumpectomy on Monday, Feb 1. Lexie has taken it pretty hard. I think the main thing that gets her is the knowledge that her mom is scared and depressed about the situation. Lexie already has a lot on her plate with wedding planning and classes and this has just adding one more thing that is on her mind when she has some rare down time. We could really use your prayers for 1) healing for Lexie's mom (Debbie) whether it's miraculous or otherwise 2) perspective and faith for all of us as she starts treatment and 3) peace for Lexie and some sort of God-given distraction from worrying about this all of the time.

Wedding planning has been going well lately. We've got just about everything set up for the wedding and the reception. The only things left are to nail down the photographer, pick out suits for me and the groomsmen to wear, and think of all the little things like favors to give out, where to get whatever it is people throw at you when you leave, etc. I'm getting excited about the wedding although I don't think about it all that much on a day-to-day basis. I'm just ready to not have to drive/walk home at night, to not have to think about find new roommates at the end of each year, to be able to feel like I've really got a home with someone, and of course, to have more time to spend with Lexie since we'll be going to sleep and waking up beside each other every day. I am feeling so fortunate and blessed to be able to marry her, and I realize the extent of God's blessing more every day. It's going to be awesome to be married to her.

On a quick marriage note: we've been reading through a book that I think is the best marriage book I've ever heard of and certainly the best one of I've read. It's called "As For Me and My House" by Walter Wangerin, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's more of a narrative type of book than a topical book. The author goes through his relationship with his wife from courtship to marriage and beyond while making observations and making important points about what makes marriage a unique relationship and what can make it or break it. I seriously have not read a more helpful non-fiction Christian book in my life (Chronicles of Narnia will probably always be my go to books for inspiration and faith boost). Lexie and I have been reading it together either out loud to each other and stopping to talk about things that are interesting or reading chapters separately and getting together to talk about it. It seems like the type of book that would be helpful and interesting even if you're already married so for those of you who are in the trenches already, give it a go. You will not regret the $12 you'll spend on this book.

So, on to Goebel's question. What are my goals and what do I see myself doing in the future? That's a tough one. In the immediate future my plan is to keep working my job at the school district until Lexie graduates next May with her degree in biblical counseling. After that, we haven't quite figure it out. Actually, the other night she and I talked about our goals and ideal futures (premarital counseling homework) and I guess I'll just stick with what I said to her. Before I start, though, a disclaimer. It's always been a little hard for me to think of what my goals and hopes are for the future in the abstract. More than anything else, I enjoy being around my friends and family. Really, if I have friends around me and working with me, it's easy to imagine doing just about anything. For most of my life I've been able to pick up just about anything I put my mind to, so lots of times when I think about my future, I think about it in terms of who I'd really like to be around and then I think that I could just find something to do wherever that might take me.

Having said that, here's my current future plan. Lexie graduates next May and then we'd take off and go up to Vermont to this school to learn some skills and get out of our normal schedules for a little while. I think I'd like to learn woodworking and furniture-making. I'm probably romanticizing it a bit, but I think that my anal-retentive attention to detail and appreciation of design would go well into working with wood and making furniture in the same way that it goes well into doing web design. So, we'd go up there for a month or so. I'd take woodworking classes and Lexie would probably take some classes on gardening/farming. After that we'd move somewhere down south. Maybe South Carolina. Maybe North Carolina. I think it'd be great to move back to Columbia and buy a house, but Lexie doesn't quite like the idea of going back to a place where I already have so much history. She's worried that she'd just become an add-on to my old life instead of us creating a new life together. So I'm not totally sure where we'll settle. Wherever it is, we want to be able to have at least a large yard and maybe even enough land for a small farm. We'll have to find a place where Lexie can be a counselor. Ideally that would be in a church (I'm looking at you, Dave; go ahead and start greasing the wheels), but if she needed to join a counseling firm/group she'd do that too; it would just take longer because of all of the certification processes. Once we found a place to settle down, I'd love to be able to make a good chunk of my income from doing web design or media design. I don't have much of a portfolio at all right now and I've still got a lot to learn, but we're talking in "ideally"s here so it's okay if I shoot for the stars a bit. On the side, I'd love to get some shop equipment and be able to maybe do some furniture-making to supplement our incomes.

I'd love to live in a college town where Lexie and I could work with college students in our church and act as a home-away-from-home for people who are new to the area and looking for community. I'd love to live near at least a couple of you guys so we could hang out more often.

So that's my ideal. Obviously some of that may never happen, and some of it may only happen after several years, but its the ideal.

It's taken me a long time to write this and now I've got to get ready to go over to Lexie's for lunch and then church this afternoon. I've been thinking about y'all a lot lately and how much I enjoyed those summers and breaks when we'd have man night. I'd love to hear how y'all are doing. What are your updates? Where are you now? Where do you want to be in the future?

Final note:

Reading: Inspiration and Incarnation, As for me and my house, Mouse Guard
Listening to: The Avett Brothers, Vampire Weekend, NPR investigative report on the bail industry and American prisons (Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3)

The Fall of Eve

Laugh today men.

props to http://churchcrunch.com/the-fall-of-adam-and-eve-interwebs-style