I'm up way past my bedtime. But for the first time I've spent some time checking out site meter which is that little multi-colored cube to the right over there. It tracks how many hits this page gets with just about every kind of statistical information you could think of on all viewers. I don't know why I've never spent any time checking it out, but it's really cool that people from all over have stopped in. The best part is that I was checking where people found my site from. The vast majority just typed in my URL. But there's several from different search engines where people were searching on various things that I just happened to comment on. Evidently there have been a number of people searching for the chords to Audience of One by Big Daddy Weave. So I followed somebody's search and it turns out that www.bigdaddyweave.com -- their official website -- actually has the words and chords there for several songs in Acrobat Reader. I looked it over and it looks identical to what I picked out and wrote down, but it was really cool to find it! And really cool of BDW to post lyrics and chords for some of their songs FOR FREE. Very nice! Now to sleep... Carter wakes up at 6:15 like clockwork.
posted by Steve 12:44 AM
Friday, May 30, 2003
BETA 2
Here's a picture from last fall when we had our Beta 2 Buzzards reunion. It'll be 10 years this week or next since most of us graduated. Others were on the 5-10 year track. Good times... good times. There were only a few no shows but they were all out of state. This year I'll try and throw a 10 year bash and give everyone enough heads up to make plans. But I make no promises since we're moving.
Believe it or not, this group represents Back-to-Back Intramural Champions. I forgot what years. We had t-shirts made for it though. No one fits into them anymore.
posted by Steve 1:50 PM
The Escort Saga
So I got a ticket about 3 months ago now, because my rear driver side brake light was out. I've still got plenty of time before my court date to get it fixed, but this has been a pain in the butt repair. First of all, there's plenty of other things that I'd fix on this car WAAAAY before the tail light, but since I've got a ticket that I can avoid paying for by fixing it....
Of course, as soon as I got it, I figured: that's an easy fix, just buy a new bulb, replace it, done. But no, it wasn't just the bulb. Socket was all rusty and corroded so we (me and Glenn) sandpaper it all out and clean up the contacts, put the new bulb back in (even though the other bulb didn't look dead -- ie. the filament was still intact) and voila, nothing changed. So now it must be a problem with the socket. I order one from Murray's. A week later I pick it up and it's the wrong socket. I know, if it's got three wires on the back, it'll work. BUT, it won't fit back into the light housing correctly...that would take some creative rigging. So I take it back and they say their parts supplier doesn't have this particular socket... I need to go to the dealership. Clutching my wallet tightly I walk into the dealership where they order the whole light string for me to the tune of $45.00. OUCH! The Escort is only worth about 3 times that much. But I don't want to pay for this ticket. I pick up this part this week, tear apart some stuff and replace the whole component. I stick the old light in the socket and touch the brakes...nothing. I stick a brand new light in the brand new socket...nothing. Now I'm mad. I'm not a car guy...I don't have much experience with cars at all. But if it's not he bulb and it's not the socket, it must be an electrical problem further up line. Now's where the fun begins.
I take the part back and guess what? Huntington Ford doesn't take electrical parts back, especially if they've been special ordered. First of all, I know that dealerships screw you with their prices. But I've since come to find out that they mugged me on this part since it only cost them $18.00! Furthermore, they won't take it back so I've got this wire harness thing that's absolutely useless to me and I shelled out a half a Franklin for it. Do you think there's an idiot on eBay that'll buy it from me? I'm pretty steamed about this whole waste of time and money while I'm now on my way to the bank where I need to make a deposit before closing in 10 minutes. I'm almost there, I get into the left turn lane and circumvent the two lanes of traffic that were piled up for the red light at the corner. As I'm cruising down the turn lane I get crunched over my passanger side rear tire by a big red Dodge Durango who the two lanes of traffic were kind enough to let out of the strip mall opposite the bank. No problem, it's my Escort. But I get out and go chat with the guy. Since he's stopping two lanes of traffic I tell him to pull into the bank where I'm headed. STUPID! While I'm turning into the bank he's leaving rubber on the pavement headed the opposite direction. And NO, I didn't get his driver's license. Now I'm really mad, if not because I'm a give naive dummy, then because of the turn of events that God has wrought specifically upon me. I'm not going to go into the aftermath of that entire ordeal, let's get back to the tail light.
So I hook up with my friend in New Baltimore who's starting a church all by himself. He owned his own garage in his previous life before he was saved out of his death wish of alcohol, drugs and hanging out with his not so quality biker friends. I drive all the way over there to see what he has to say. Do you know what the first thing he does...despite my objections that I've tried all that? He takes the bulb from the passenger side and sticks it in. Guess what. IT FREAKIN' WORKS!! Normally one might be happy to have solved the problem... not me. NOT ME!!!
posted by Steve 10:59 AM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
I've been away for too long. So here's the big summary.
We had a great time with Derek, Karise, Julia, Evie, and Meredith. Although Meredith is still quite noisy and very poopy. Derek is too, but we don't have to take care of him the same way. I love kids, especially ours, but we are soooo done after Zoe joins us.
We took off for Grand Haven on Friday afternoon. We got there in time to look inside one apartment and at the outsides of three others. We'd rather not have to go through the transition stage of an apartment, especially with a new born. But getting a house in the short time period we're looking at would be impossible. Which is actually why we're asking the One who loves to meddle with the impossible to intervene. We'll see what he works out. Either way, getting a job is priority #1. While at the "vision chat" for Watermark on Saturday, one of the guys (Ryan) offered me a job in his brick laying company. I was really appreciative. So depending on what the job search turns up, I might have a great summer job hauling brick. Then I probably won't have to worry about this silly Body for 12 Weeks program.
We spent the night with Tim and Julie Zeller -- and Drew and the baby who is due in a couple of weeks -- in Holland. We always have a good time with them. Raven (our dog) not so much. She always manages to get molested by Quincy and Blue. We watched the end of the Tigers winning like their 10th game of the season and the first win for Mike Maroth who is on pace to lose 20 games by the All-Star break. I'm not a baseball fan, and the Tigers just plain suck, but I'm always glad to see the home town team win. And now the Pistons are done. There's not a whole lot to cheer about the next couple of months.
Jessica shared with me on Sunday that she was dealing with a bit of doubt and second-guessing on Saturday. It's a little late for that, but she just basically asked God to confirm all of this for her again. So that night in where she was reading in the Bible, God began to confirm things. And then on Sunday, Lois -- a very Spirit-sensitive person -- shared a verse with Jess that she felt God gave her specificially for Jess. That was huge!
We spent Memorial Day with the Baughns. Plus we celebrate all of the May birthdays, which was Mandie, Dan, Jessica and me. For my birthday I asked everyone to contribute to the Steve Thompson golf fund. It goes to support golfers who aren't very good and can't afford to get out golfing as much as they'd like...namely Steve Thompson. I actually went out with Mark Knuth a week ago Sunday and it was a nice course and great evening. I shot a 48 with one mulligan and no uncounted shots, which is HUGE for anyone who learned golfing by approximating scores and shaving strokes that shouldn't have happened. I'm feeling pretty good about my game about now. I'll be going out with Dan on the June 7th. Maybe if I spent a little more time on the course I could do the "tent-making" ministry on the Tour. Right. That'll happen.
Anyway, Monday was a great, relaxing holiday. It's always good to get together with family. But I'll have to say that the highlight was breaking out the Monopoloy game. For whatever reason I've had uncanny luck playing against Dan and Mandie and anybody else who's pulled up to the table. Hmmm, maybe I could make my millions in real estate! Naw. Maybe I'll become a professional Monopoloy player. Where do I sign up for that?
posted by Steve 10:55 AM
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Last Sunday at the crack of dawn
Every Sunday I'm greeted by the sun and within a few minutes, these two faces break into my office and plop onto the recliner with the dog. (Cue Folger's song) The best part of waking up....
posted by Steve 12:30 PM
Derek and Karise are coming over today and spending the night with us. We spent our vacation with them last August in Erie and had a great time. As with all our friends with female children, they have suggested some form of arranged marriage with our sons. But Derek actually brought it to a new level by suggesting that if this were to play out, we could have a competition to see who were the best and most preferred grandparents by the grandchildren that would ensue. We've got $100 and bragging rights riding on it.
So it's Wednesday and I'm three days in to Body for 12 Weeks. On Monday I was severely tempted by a donut which is clearly "unauthorized." Yesterday was my birthday, so I allowed myself one chocolate chip cookie. We also went out to eat at Fran O'Brien's Maryland Crab Shack. It's a great little restaurant and they send us $20 coupons in the month of our birthday. So Jess and I had a date night and our meal was free! I had a really good Blackened Catfish on a bed of dirty rice. Mmmmmmm, dirty rice.
I concluded my day by watching the Pistons blow it in the 4th quarter again. I don't think they're going to make it past New Jersey. Oh well, Lions pre-season is only two months away.
posted by Steve 11:03 AM
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Things are pretty crazy around here. We've got to find a house or apartment in Grand Haven, but in order to do that you have to have provable income. We might be able to get an apartment based on what we currently make, but definitely not a house. We're going to be raising support, but we have no idea how this is done, we've never done it and we've never thought of doing it. It's actually quite awkward really. I'd rather go George Mueller and do it all on faith but without the vow of poverty aspect -- but that's not going to happen. God would pretty much have to audibly speak to us on that one... especially with a wife who's 7 months pregnant. Anyway, all that to say that we don't know what kind of income we're going to need from a job. And any job I take isn't going to be a career move, it'll be totally pragmatic to pay the bills and take care of the family while we start a new community of Jesus followers called Watermark. I have a feeling I'm going to be really good at crafting cover letters by the time this is all over. Oh, and the kicker: I'M NOT TRAINED TO DO ANYTHING! A Bachelor's in Psychology and a Master's of Divinity? Not terribly practical my friends!!
Spring Arbor University held a regional alumni luncheon in Troy on Saturday. And since I was on the planning committee I had to skip soccer and check up on my alma mater. As it turns out, the only people who show up to these things are from the satellite campuses... which is great, just don't plan on seeing anyone you know. Anywho, I got a chance to talk with President Gayle Beebe for a while afterwards. We were chatting about Richard Foster since he has been a mentor to Gayle since college. I'm just wondering, does he go by Gayle? What do his friends call him? Since the odds are slim he'll ever read this, I'm gonna call him G. So I'm talking with my friend G, whose passions lie in the area of teaching and spiritual formation, and this question pops into my mind that doesn't reach any barriers on its way to my mouth. So I ask G, "As a busy man with a non-stop job, how do you keep up your spiritual disciplines?" Then it occured to me that at such an occasion one doesn't normally ask or even hear a question like this. Oh well, too late now. But G was great. It was good to hear what he does. I'm genuinely interested in what people who have exceptional walks and lives do for spiritual formation. I'm convinced it's the key, so I want to know what they do, how they do it, when they do it, why they do it and how often. Of course, he then turned around and asked me the same question, but that's ok because I'm a pretty convincing liar. JUST KIDDING! It was a great conversation. It's like you cut past all the superficial crap and jump right into knowing somebody when you ask significant questions like that. And he didn't seem to mind since he invited me up to the presidential palace the next time I'm in town for some beer and cigars. Man, would we ever get in trouble from Everett... or whoever the dean is now. That'd be like a suspension or something.
I turned 32 today. I might just have a problem with getting old. I'll be the 60 year old who's dressing like the "kids" and in the process will look like a complete goof. Dan and Mandy sent this great card. Father Time is on the cover with a huge disturbing grin on his face. On his right hand is a rubber surgical glove and in his left is a leaking tube of lubricant. Two words on the inside: bend over. Could someone call and explain what this means?
We had a great time in Grand Haven yesterday. We dropped the kids off at Grampa and Grandma Thompson's on the way over. The trip and conversation were less than fun and we gradually hit rock bottom just past Lansing when I managed to get a guy to flip me off and tail me for several miles. But we spent a lot of time with Steve and Vicki Deur and got to meet a lot of other people who are signing up to be a part of this movement called Watermark. They've got a great vision and passion to see Jesus do some huge things in Grand Haven and the surrounding area. And now their vision if our vision. They even had a spontaneous time of prayer for just us...actually a couple of people were praying for Scott and Jennifer...but they had their hands on us so I think God knew who they were talking about. That was really cool.
We pulled out at midnight, so I stopped to fill up and get a can of Red Bull for a little instant energy. The stuff tastes like a mixture of red pop and cough syrup...not very good. I didn't have any instant burst of energy, but we got home somehow. While Jess started working on her 5 hours of sleep per night (her average recently), I listened to the Body for Life book/program on tape. So now, I'm all pumped up to get lean and buff. Not that I'm not all that right now... but you know... more lean and buff. I even had Jess take a "before" picture, taken right as I rolled out of bed in my underwear with my gut pushed out about as far as I could get it. It's supposed to be motivational, so now it's my desktop background... lovely. It's definitely motivating.
And since I just announced to the world that I'm doing this, I have to also footnote that I'm well aware of what "diets" are all about. In fact, this is supposed to be a lifestyle change and you should eat and exercise this way for the rest of your life. No matter how much we all know that looking a certain way demands a commitment to eat and exercise a certain way, but no one wants to change their whole life. We just want to get back to what things used to be like and then relax again (which eventually leads back to where we currently are right now). So, instead of Body for Life, this is probably more like Body for 12 weeks that hopefully lasts through the summer. And then October rolls around and it's high time to start packing on the insulating blubber coating for the winter. Mmmmmmm, blubber.
Here's something I'm waiting to hear back on: I meet my friend Aaron for lunch at Taco Bell (an "unauthorized" food group in Body for 12 Weeks), as I do every Friday. But this week he brings along two Mormon friends from work. I don't have anything against Mormons... they need Jesus just as much as you and I do... but Aaron was up to something. I'm waiting to find out what that was all about. Mmmmmmm, Mexican Pizza, aaaaahhhhhhhh.
posted by Steve 2:22 PM
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Today's my honski's birthday! She joins me in the realm of "old"... meaning 30 and over. And "honski" is our pet name for each other. Honey was too common and for some reason I just don't like it, so we wanted an original one. Honski is our polish-ified version, I guess. It stuck.
We're headed over to Grand Haven this afternoon. It's time to start looking for jobs and housing. Plus they're having a little vision casting thingy tonight and we wanted to be there for that.
I want to blog our journey for the past year, but I'm having to go back and read over a year's worth of my journal. Last night I read through May and it's really cool to see how all of this started. I had spent a three day silent retreat at Manresa (Jesuit retreat center in Birmingham) ending on May 1. That's technically where I started my blogging. When I got back I sent out an edited version of my journaling -- to all my friends and family who knew about it and expected to hear how it went -- so as to avoid repeating the same thing over and over. At any rate, it's really amazing how God's been doing stuff in our lives over the past year.
Before I go, I just have to throw out that God answered prayer in a really cool way a couple of days ago. We've also been interviewing at a church in Janesville, WI and we wanted to see where this process was going to end up. But more and more as both Jess and I felt like Grand Haven is where God wants us to be, we both started praying (without telling each other) that God would close the door on WI and have them choose the other candidate that they had narrowed it down to. On Tuesday afternoon, I talked to the pastor there and he told me that they were going to bring in the other candidate. I must say, that was one of the most exciting rejections I've ever encountered! I was pumped. So, God continues to guide us in very tangible ways. Now we've got a ton of details to work out over the next month and half. It should be interesting.
posted by Steve 11:30 AM
WEEKEND RUNDOWN: Will I ever blog on the weekends? It doesn’t appear to be likely.
Busy weekend. Friday night, the boys and I went up to Grandpa Thompson for the evening. The Clarkston FMC was having a Mother/Daughter Banquet for Mother’s Day at Deer Lake Racket Club. Jessica’s Grandma, Mom and sister all came over for it and attended with my Mom, sister-in-law and nieces. We had nachos followed by ice cream and Brazilian coffee. Dad’s always got a pot brewing. He smuggled like 50 kilos back into the States. My brother Mark and nephew Bryce were there too, so that was fun…just the guys hanging out.
Saturday Jessica had an open house for this little business she’s been involved in (Tastefully Simple). She had been cleaning and cooking all week, and she got lots of help from the ladies who spent the night. I took the boys out and we stayed away for the three hours. We got back and it turns out that like 4 people showed up for the whole thing. That was a huge disappointment! Then I had soccer, and we left promptly at 3:00 for Ann Arbor for Jessica’s nephew’s birthday. We also stopped at Dan and Mandie’s since Dan’s sister, Debbie, was in town for the weekend.
Sunday I announced to our congregation that we’d be moving. I worked it into a sermon called, “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.” That was based primarily on a book by the same name by John Ortberg. It’s a great title, but it’s way too long. But that went over about as well as it could. There was too long of a wait at The Macaroni Grill – Jessica’s favorite restaurant – so we did take out. Jess went and picked it up while I made the boys mac ‘n cheese. That had to be one of our least expensive Mother’s Days! After naps we spent the evening up at Brian’s, my oldest brother’s house. Our boys love it there since they’ve got 10 cousins to play with, and tons of toys that they don’t see very often. It’s actually cool for us to bring the kids there and while in the same house, not see them again until it’s time to leave. We ended up celebrating 5 May birthdays all at the same time. Between our two families we celebrate 8 May birthdays.
Monday was officially Mother’s Day at our house. Jessica celebrated by being liberated from any and all motherly responsibilities for the entire day. So me and the boys spent the day hanging out at the park, the library, the mall, etc. We finally came home for their naps and wrapped up the day with a great dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. The boys love throwing their peanut shells on the floor. But this time Spencer ate most of his peanut shells. I guess he liked how salty they were. Plus it was kid’s night (their dinners are free!) and they had balloon figures, ice cream sundaes and face painting. It was pretty cool.
That’s the run down. I’m too tired to put more into it than that, but felt too guilty about not updating after the weekend. So, now you know.
WOW! I stumbled across this site by David Dark. Here is an excerpt from one of his articles: Hazarding the Infinite...or you can just go and read the whole thing for yourself. (It's always fun to run into people who are dealing with the same thoughts and world views that I am, and to find that not only have they probably spent a good deal more time thinking about them, but they happen to be really articulate as well. Pretty soon I won't have to do much thinking at all, I'll just hyperlink to the people that are doing my thinking for me. That's a joke, btw.)
Jesus was born into a tribe which, from long before his birth and long after his death, existed in a state of "freedom under attack". He was a second-class citizen. In the jargon of "good vs. evil" he'd have had no trouble recognizing the "evil" ones, namely Rome and its puppet governments which, in his case, took the form of Herod and his cronies. He was born under a death sentence. He would have seen and heard of numerous insurrections performed on behalf of his people violently put down and often leading to numerous crucifixions. In an effort to create a familiar context for my students, I've suggested that Jesus lived in a situation similar to that of Mel Gibson's characters in both Braveheart and The Patriot. And the opportunities available to him were, in a similar way, limited.
It was in this context that Jesus announced his "good news" or, in more familiar terms, his "gospel." When Americans refer to the gospel, they might be speaking of the idea that, if you believe a certain list of true propositions, you'll go to heaven when you die. Or they might be suggesting that, if you accept Jesus as your "personal savior," you'll find it easier to overcome addiction, guilt won't be the problem that it used to be, and you're now the bearer of a secret password ("Jesus") which will keep you out of Hell. From the Left Behind point of view, the good news of the gospel can mean that when you give intellectual assent to the claim that Jesus is God, you become one of the people who'll disappear before the trouble starts. While all of these understandings of the gospel gain ground throughout America and the rest of the world, it's important to note that none of them would have made the slightest bit of sense to Jesus' hearers. They were under the foot of an oppressive regime, and Jesus' announcement meant, if it was deserving of the title of "good news," that things were about to turn around, that the kingdom (the rule) of God was at hand. They understood that he was inaugurating a movement which, for starters, was "good news for the poor." (Lk 4.18)
It bears summarizing that the American gospel has Dark describes it/them, is/are only half-truths AT BEST. The end result is they miss out on the most crucial, essential, salient factor:
Jesus' way IS the gospel, the good news for all nations, for every tribe, now and forever. And the Body of Christ is a new nation, a royal priesthood which embodies the more excellent way. When the church is the blind, uncritical endorser of whatever the nation decides to do, it has renounced its vocation as the Body of Christ. It is neither the salt of the earth nor a light to the nations. And it has traded its worship of the crucified Jew for a devastatingly tribal idolatry.
Oooooh yeah. Can I hear an "ouch, that hurt!"
posted by Steve 1:31 PM
I just watched an interview with Aaron Ralston (thanks to AOL broadband) -- the climber who sawed off his own arm to free himself from being caught by a bolder for several days. Yikes!! He said that he tried to cut into his arm several times, but his knife was too dull. He finally did it, but I'm not quite sure if that was before or after he started wrenching his body and arm in order to break the bones just above the wrist. He calmly reported how he was swing for like 5 minutes before the radius finally broke. Then it took some more jerking and swinging to break the ulna. He said that it was painful but that he "dealt with it." He then repelled down the mountain face, applied a tourniquet, and hiked for several miles before happening upon a couple of hikers who carried his pack, gave him some water and two Oreos. He concluded with the hope that he'll soon be released so that he can go get a nice crushed Margarita. Mmmmmmmm, Margarita.
I have absolutely no idea what I would do in a similar situation, but I'm sure it would involve dying of dehydration while waiting for a miracle. That's just insane!
We had our indoor soccer playoffs last night. It's a one night tournament with 25 minute games. You win, you move on. You lose, you go home or sit and have a beer. (WARNING: dramatic re-enactment follows!) We won our first game easily. Our second game we tied with the second place team 1-1. It's decided by penalty kicks... two guys and one girl from each team. Andreas, a German guy on our team nails the first one low and away on the right. Their first guy gets his too. Our girl, Lisa shoots hers off the left post. It was a good shot just a couple inches outside. Their girl makes theirs. Now it's up to the anchor person to keep it alive. For whatever reason, that was me. Time stood still. I felt nothing. All noise fades into the background. All I can hear is dramatically slowed down breathing... heart beating... cue Rocky theme song... no wait... no music, just breathing and heart beat. I was going to go right and high. I stared at the goalie. He was clueless... it's a free throw... he's totally at the kicker's mercy. I move toward the ball and he starts to go left... no worry. I go high and to the right... ok, not quite far enough right, more like straight down the freaking middle where any good goalie would have been standing BEFORE he dove. He didn't dive. He gets his hand on it and tips it over the goal. Game over. I love situations like that. It just sucks to strike out.
On a related note, did I ever mention that I played Charlie Brown in Spring Arbor College's musical production "Your'e a Good Man, Charlie Brown?"
posted by Steve 10:19 AM
Thursday, May 08, 2003
I'm adding a new hyperlinked blog over on the right, there. It's Todd Hunter's blog. Originally, I was thinking that I'd just put the blogs of people I've met -- who I know and who could say they know who I am. But there's too many people out there that I'm running into who have no clue who I am or that I read their blogs, but they continually have good stuff to say. Todd was most recently the President or top head honcho important guy of the Vineyard, successor to John Wimber who was also his mentor. His blog grapples with the emerging church as it relates to those he is going through the process of emerging with (Allelon). So the subject matter is pretty focused, but it's all the stuff that I think about, but don't always write about because I like to comment on all aspects of life.
Anywho, there's the introduction, go and check him out.
posted by Steve 10:16 AM
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
I've always said...ok, I've said for the past couple of years...alright, I've never said it...but frequently thought, that if I ever started a church or network or churches, I'd call it The Journey. The reasons? 1) Journey was a great rock band of the 80's. 2) The first followers of Jesus were called The Way. 3) The Way kind of sounds like a cult now, but the Journey conveys the same kind of meaning. 4) Following Jesus is all about life together...doing The Journey together.
That sets up this quote from UnLearning Church from Tom Morris, lead pastor of Westside King's Church in Calgary (pronounced: Cal - ga`ry) for all of you non-Canadians.
"We feel like we've had to unLearn everything about doing church. We had to start over and strip off the cultrual baggage that was stopping people from entering in the journey with us. The statistics are alarming: A high percentage of people in our city believe in God and Jesus, yet a low percentage attend any community of faith. Instead of church and faith being reduced to an event, we saw that it was inviting people to a journey. With this paradigm shift, worship is no longer a service but a lifestyle. The journey is a major theme for us, and at the deepest level, the shift is from the event of doing church to the journey of a Christ-centered faith and becoming church. Our vision is to be a church for people who do not go to church. We want to do church in such a way as to be a safe place for people to do the journey."
Yet another one of my wonderful ideas stolen. My other name for whatever it is that I may start is The Church. But I'm sure that's not new either.
I'm ranting about names, but I'm pumped by the idea of a Jesus community, a spiritual tribe, people doing life together. And again, nothing's new under the sun, even in the postmodern era. Bonhoeffer wrote about it. Schaeffer was doing it. The Jesus People USA pioneered in it. And now the emerging church is rooted in it.
Friday night we got together with our closest friends here in Auburn Hills. It was the makings of a great evening -- Hungry Howie's pizza, good stories, a game of Cranium, and the kids all watching 321 Penguins. But we had to go and ruin it by telling everyone that we'll be moving this summer. We've been in the process for over a month now of exploring all of our different opportunities and praying through where God would like us to be. I won't go into the details, but it was becoming pretty obvious to Jess and I that we couldn't in all good conscience stay here another year. There's nothing wrong per se...no problems...relationships are healthy. But God's been doing something in our spirits for the past year, if not two, preparing us for something. Details will be forth coming, but not today. It just put a damper on an otherwise great Friday night.
Saturday morning Mark Knuth and I had tee time for 7:00 at Rackham, right next to the Detroit Zoo. I golfed a respectable 48, and was pretty happy with it. We could only do 9 holes because I had a Clawson Manor board meeting. The meeting was probably the shortest in history, so we went to lunch early. I figured I'd eat light since I had a soccer game. But no, the prime rib was far too good to stop at half. Plus it's never as good warmed up. Mmmmmmmm, beef. Ran off lunch chasing a ball for a couple of hours and then spent the evening with the Bruhns. Then I always go to work after the boys are in bed.
Sunday morning was good, but had the board meeting after service and announced that we'd be leaving. Again, news like that is tough to deliver and always sucks any fun or happiness out of a room in a matter of seconds. This has experience has brought back memories of my parents announcing to the church in Clarkston that we'd be moving to Brasil. That was in 1986, I was 15 and had spent my whole life there. The rest of my family and all my closest friends were there. I went downstairs in the basement bathroom of the church after the service was over and cried like a baby for a good long time. My other 15 and 16 year old friends just stood around looking at the floor. Teenage boys don't usually cry like that, I don't think. That hurt.
The Pistons romped through game 7...that was good to see. Now let's see what they do with Philly and Iverson.
After the game we had a telephone interview with a church out of state. Don't ever do a telephone interview if you can help it. They were on speaker phones. Jess and I were on our two cordless phones. There were problems on one of the ends, and it made a difficult situation even more difficult. But we wrapped up the evening with an hour long Simpson's and the Alias season finale. Not a bad way to end a day.
I don't remember if I talked about this a couple of months ago or not. But even if I did, it bears repeating. I was reminded of the potential of house churches today by this little article.
France: "If the people don't go to church, we'll take the church to them" "Many French people would never visit a church service, or even watch the Jesus Film in a cinema," says Sam Catoe, an American missionary in Paris. He decided to distribute leaflets offering to lend the Jesus Film to people in his neighbourhood, thus establishing a personal contact. He was more than surprised to receive a mountain of requests. French-speaking volunteers delivered the films, and every person who reacted positively to the film was asked whether they would be willing to organise a meeting of people in their block who had also seen the film. Almost everyone was willing, so nineteen house groups were quickly started, a number which has now grown to sixty. The participants are most moved by what the Bible says about Jesus. "Very few of them have ever visited a church," says Catoe. Source: Sam Catoe, Paris
Europe is completely post-Christian and the US is following but haven't quite arrived yet. At any rate, in church circles, at least in leadership, there's plenty of talk about "churching the unchurched." But church has become an institution/organization with a building that we go to, instead of the dynamic movement of people that Jesus left behind. Granted there are plenty of churches that meet in a building and they're growing and seeing the miracle of life transformation. But increasingly people have to make a huge jump to enter into, and especially participate in, American church culture. So why not forget the hoops and leave the cultural barriers behind and just take Jesus to people's native environment -- one such place: the home.
I don't feel much like ranting right now, so I leave that subject alone with that.
On another note, we were walking to the park last evening and I stooped over to pick up some play money -- a Canadian five dollar (pronounced: doe-ler) bill. I told my wife, "look it's fake money." Not knowing that I'm a little more intelligent than that, she was about to explain that it actually had value. Of course, I already knew that it's about the same as picking up a quarter off the ground...well, maybe $2.50.
To any Canadian readers, trust me, I harbor no ill will towards Canada. I was just in your country for a couple of hours last Saturday and it was very nice. And yes, your money is very pretty and ours is very monochrome. Actually, I might be able to get and forth across the bridge with that 5 spot. I think I'll keep it.
posted by Steve 2:11 PM
Wing's new PR guy
I had linked to a site with this picture before, but I just got permission to put it on my site. As it turns out, it's basically public domain. At any rate, I think the Wings made the right move here. Every organization needs a PR guy with this much talent.
posted by Steve 12:23 PM
