Brad's Blog

Where to find me...

2006-06-14T00:34:00.000-04:00

For those of you looking for my blog, you can find it at www.bradpalmore.com. Thanks for trying to track me down!

Moving on to WordPress!

2006-06-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

This is it. My last post on Blogger. I've really enjoyed the community that we've developed over the last few months that I've been doing this. Thanks to everyone for making this so much fun.

Just because this is my last post here doesn't mean it is my last post anywhere. I've decided it is no longer worth the risk of having you, my avid readers, come to this site to read my stuff. There is too much other stuff on Blogger that is not really appropriate and I can't control it. Instead, I'm moving on to bigger and better things for my blog at www.bradpalmore.com. Please update your links so you can find me easier.

To all of blogging friends, you, too, can make the switch to your own personalized blog using WordPress (that's the name of the software, by the way). Just visit www.theobloggers.com for more information.

Thanks for being great!

The Othercott

2006-05-27T23:39:00.000-04:00

I made good on my promise to go to the movies with the intent on seeing some decent film and purposely giving my money to some movie other than the Da Vinci Code. (See, not a boycott, an othercott.) I had chosen "Over the Hedge" with the intent on seeing it the same day that Da Vinci Code opened. Well, as most of you are aware, my dear friend and fellow minister decided to monopolize the weekend with the announcement of his impending relocation.

Anyway, Over the Hedge was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. I knew I was enjoying myself, but I didn't realize how much exactly until I suddenly became aware of the fact that I had become completely immersed in the movie. It was strange and sort of surreal. I had totally forgotten I was in the theater. This was strange because, having forgotten where I was, the only way I knew I had forgotten was when I suddenly snapped back into reality.

The thing that brought me back to reality was the odd feeling of someone looking at me. In about a half a second I re-engaged those around me and realized my wife was staring at me. The reason she was staring also became immediately noticeable, since I heard myself bellowing with laughter. Perhaps it was all the stress from the week that had found its outlet. Perhaps it really was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Whatever it was, I had a blast.

For those of you who have seen it, share your favorite part. For those of you who haven't, run out and see it real quick and then come back and post your favorite part while it's fresh on your mind. What's my favorite part? Without spoiling too much, let me say that it had to do with a modified bullet-time sequence that occurred when an extremely hyperactive squirrel downs a can of highly caffeinated energy drink. Priceless!

Me likey cookie!

Run Forrest... Part Deux

2006-05-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, I managed to calm down from my son placing second in the last track meet of the season. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, click here. My real excitement was about the potential for my son's participation in the country track championships. I was sure that he had improved through the season, but I was unsure as to whether his times were good enough to get him into the final event.

The way it works is pretty simple. They record all the track times throughout the season. At the end of the season they put all the race results from all the track meets from all the middle schools into one big spreadsheet and sort by the fastest times. They then go down the list and select the ten fastest runners from the entire season. The distance runners are lined up in order of fastest to slowest times for the lane positions on the track, with the fastest starting in the inside lane going out to the slowest in the outside lane.

After delaying the county meet for two weeks because of rain delays, we finally found out that my son did qualify for the championships by poling in as the 7th fastest out of 10 runners. It was quite exciting, especially since I was timing during the meet and was able to be right on the track with the runners. In the time since his 2nd place finish in his last track meet and this championship race, my son was able to really think about some advice relayed to him from one of our elders that used to be a distance runner. First, if you beat another runner in a challenge during a race you will beat him psychologically and never see him again until he crosses the finish line after you. Second, the trick to running is pretty easy. You start of running as fast as you can and speed up all the way around the track.

It was great watching my son apply some of these tricks as he ran an excellent race. He started in 7th, but bolted at the start to get into the 3rd position as they rounded the track. He stayed close to the #2 runner through the back straightaway and won a challenge by the #4 runner (who disappeared, never to be seen again). He challenged and passed the #2 runner on the back turn (bonus psychological points according to our elder. Turns and hills are the hardest to pass on. If you succeed it delivers an extra kick.) The #1 runner was on fire and was significantly ahead of the pack, so the race was for 2nd. In the final straightaway, with #4 and former #2 having already been defeated, my son increased his lead for 2nd place all the way to the end.

I'm still not sure what to do with this. Were we not on the field, the coach and I acted like we were going to hug and jump up and down while screaming. I find myself working it into the strangest conversations. "Oh, you just closed on a house. That's great. Did you know my son is #2 in the whole county in the 400 meter run?" I thought about putting a huge sign outside our house, but that seemed a little too much.

Some people would say that 2nd is the 1st loser. I think that's sad. All I know is when my son crossed the finish line like he did the only thing I could say was, "That's MY boy!" I don't think anyone heard me, though, since my throat tends to close up a bit when I start to cry.

Undisciplined Blogger

2006-05-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

After a spurt of regular blogging, I've been a little lazy this month. This makes me a little sad, because blogging is something I love to do. I like the comments that are left and the community it creates. I love it when someone I know talks to me about something they have read on my blog, especially when I didn't know they were reading my blog. This came to bite me a little recently when several of the ladies in the tuesday Bible class talked to me about my blog. Well, bite may be strong. I have blogged about that class a couple times, always in the positive, but never expected any of them to actually read the blog. My heart leaped a little when they brought up my blog, only because I knew I had been speaking of them. I relaxed a little when I remembered that I didn't use anyone's name and that I only said nice things. Imagine how I would have felt had I said differently...

One of the reasons for the lack of blogging is the lack of bloggable material. I like to blog about things that are important and things that are going on in my life. I also like to blog something witting and uplifting. Unfortunately, most of the important things going on are neither uplifting or witty, although someone who enjoys watching someone else stress out might find it amusing. As such, I allow the blogging cue to remain empty day after day as I promise myself that I'll return to the habit of blogging tomorrow. That, of course, gets filed on the same shelf with all the other things I'll start tomorrow, and we should all know how that works.

Now that I have made my excuses, allow me to apologize to those who read my blog for my absence from the blogging sphere. I also apologize to those whose blogs I normally read yet haven't been lately. In some strange way, I feel that I am letting you down. From this point on I am adding to my shelf of things I'll start tomorrow a promise to identify one uplifting or witty thing that I can pick out of my day that I can blog about. Please notice I didn't say I would blog about it, I'll just pick something out that I can blog about. As Bill Murray so deftly put it, "Baby steps to the elevator..."

McChristians

2006-05-18T07:45:00.000-04:00

Since my arrival here at Arlington, one of my areas of focus has been on team building. This is especially true within the youth group. The group has come a long way since our arrival, and I am not just pleased with their behavior as a group, I am starting to get excited about it. I think the biggest testimony to the way the teens feel about the environment is that they are starting to bring their friends to class.

As the environment and relationships have improved, we've started doing more activities with them that allow more flexibility. They have shown themselves worthy of the extra freedom, so we've responded by rewarding them and at the same time testing them to see where they are. They continue to respond well and show that they are putting our community based lessons into practice.

We have recently added after church trips to McDonald's on the occasional Sunday night. Nothing fancy, just sitting around enjoying the free refill policy that Mickey D's has. It was really neat the first night looking around at the 15 or so people in McDonald's that had come from our youth group and remembering that they were the same group of silent kids that sat with their arms crossed in class only 9 months ago. It was neat to watch as the evening progressed how they ignored the boundarys that the tables set on them and moved the chairs around to form an amorphous mass of conversation and laughter.

On our last trip, several of the parents and siblings joined us on our trek up the road. It was awesome to watch our community expand and include others as one of the dads (whom I shall not name to protect his image with the "adult" community of the church) joined that amorphous mass and entertained the teens with stories of how he used to make trouble when he was a kid. My favorite quote of the whole evening goes to his youngest son who, when arriving to see all the people in McDonald's, said "Wow! There's a lot of Christians here!"

He was right!

Blog on the Run

2006-05-11T17:24:00.000-04:00

I've been quite preoccupied the last couple of days and haven't stopped to post a blog. In fact, talking about not posting a blog is what I am using to quickly blog something without actually blogging anything. However, after getting to this point in this blog I realized that a fun blog might be to use the word blog as many times as I can. It is just now that I have noticed the flexiblity of the word blog. So far I have used the blog as both a noun and a verb, sometimes in the same sentence. I suppose it is sort of like the word "smurf" from the cartoon that was out a few years ago (unless you live in Europe where they have been smashingly popular since the 60's).

While we are talking about the word blog, it seems odd to me that on a website named blogger/blogspot that the spell check that they have worked into the software doesn't recognize the word "blog". I've already decided to not run the spell check at the end of this blog, so please forgive me for any spelling errors.

In the spirit of the smurfs, I'll let you fill in the blogs of this next sentence with what you feel they best represent.

Oh, "blog"! I forgot to "blog" again. Now I won't be able to "blog". Whatever shall we "blog"? Papa "blog", HELP!

Welcome Home Randy!

2006-05-09T22:18:00.000-04:00

We had a special youth group activity a couple weeks ago to show our love and appreciation for our dear Senior Minister. While the rest of us were stuck here inside the D.C. beltway, Dr. Wray went off touring Mexico and the Pacific Coast. Not saying that we were jealous or anything. In fact, had he not gone we wouldn't have had the opportunity to do what we did. Now, he may try to tell some stories about how he reversed this on me, but he will have to admit that he was with me when I opened my office on Monday and there was nothing out of the ordinary. If he should continue to insist in this story, I only request he provide some type of proof.

Here you can see members of the youth group blowing up balloons. The teen closest to you didn't pace himself and was pretty light headed at this point.

This is a shot of some of our teens preparing the welcome home sign to be signed by all. Well, everyone except me. You don't think I'd put my name on this project, do you?

Ahhh, the finished product. An office filled with balloons. This picture doesn't do the situation justice. Randy's office is pretty big, and while the sign holder is young, she is still pretty tall. It is amazing what 432 inflated balloons look like.

Run Forrest...

2006-05-05T20:24:00.000-04:00

I have been very impressed with the athletics program in the Arlington County school system. There are always two sports for the kids to choose from, and there are enough schools and teens in the county to make a pretty nice schedule for competition. My oldest son has always been athletic, but has never had the chance to get experience in any sporting events other than baseball. This year has been filled with gaining experience.

We are now in the third of three sports seasons, and in each season we have had something to become official cheer leaders for. First came swimming and wrestling, which passed without any spectacular flair. Our biggest hopes were for him to get through the meets without drowning or being killed. The current sport, however, is different. This is track season, and apparently he has found his strength in the 400 meter. In his first meet he finished 6th out of 7. In his second and third meet he found his groove a bit and finished 3rd. In his last meet, however, he turned on the juice and finished a close 2nd after holding 1st through most of the race with a finishing time of 1:14.

I can't explain the feeling of pride and excitment watching my son blaze around the track and finish like he did. I could barely hold the camcorder still. My heart was pounding and I felt like running a couple laps myself. I sat there, camcorder in my sweaty hand, thinking, "That's MY boy. That's MY son." I wanted everyone to know. I wanted to scream it from the top of the bleachers I was sitting on. Of course, that wouldn't have been cool, so I kept it in.

It was only later that I wondered if that is how God felt when His son was baptized. The God of the universe, standing on the sidelines watching, not drawing too much attention to Himself because this was His son's moment, is suddenly so overcome with pride that he rips the heavens open to announce how much He loves his son.

It makes sense to me. My heart is pounding just thinking about it.

The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I decided it was a good idea to read Dan Brown's book. I figured that people in my church were going to read it, so I should know what was in it to be able to discuss it. I read it over a period of a week, was rather unimpressed, and waited for people to mention it or bring it up. Interestingly, no one ever did. Not people in the church, not my neighbors, not the parents or teachers at the kid's school. I never found a reason to discuss it, until now...

With the upcoming release of the movie based on the book, people have started to bring it up. Mostly church folk, and most of them haven't read the book. They want my opinion and insights. Here's what I tell them:

- As a work of fiction, you should treat it as such. I don't know anyone who went home and destroyed their books after reading Fahrenheit 451 or who quit taking their children to tropical islands after reading Lord of the Flies. Don't freak out over the book, it's only fiction. Something I found is that if you take away all the controversy, it really isn't a very good book. I found the descriptions weak and the events predictable. I even recognized Fibonacci's sequence when it was presented. A good controversy generator, yes. A good fiction book, no.
- Dan Brown has figured out a way to make money doing what the History Channel has been doing for years: simultaneously tap into the Christian market and the non-Christian market by questioning the "traditional" belief system. He's making millions off of this. If I knew I could make that much money off of something like this, I'd be tempted to write just about anything. And don't forget point #1.
- Don't let Brown's marketing tactics confuse you. It's a fiction book, but he presents a lot of it as non-fiction to generate interest (see point #1 and #2). His initial claims of truth are obviously meant to be factually misleading. The first page of his book says "FACT" at the top, discusses the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei, and concludes with the statement

"All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."

There is nothing wrong with this intro because, in fact, the descriptions are factual. The interpretations of those descriptions, however, are not. Brown conveniently leaves this out, but he hasn't lied to anyone since he never claims the interpretation to be factual. This has changed over time, however, and leads me to think Brown may be getting caught up in this beast he has created. In a recent interview, Brown said,

"I wanted to write a book that while it entertained at the same time, you close that last page and go 'Wow, do you know how much I just learned? That's fascinating.' That is really what I set out to do."

This comment is much more difficult to interpret in the either/or kind of way.

That's it. That is how I've decided to handle it. Three simple points. The burden of proof is on the Da Vinci Code and not on me, much less on Christ or God. There are others out there who feel differently, one of whom is very opinionated regarding the Christian response. When you get through the sharp language, she has a really good idea: an "othercott" of the movie. Instead of protesting or boycotting and thus generating publicity for the movie, go see another movie and talk about it. Since I wanted to see "Over the Hedge" anyway, I have just found a way to make it a moral issue.

That is it. No more talk about the Da Vinci Code. Now I can focus on more important things like squeezing the Gospel message out of the Matrix Trilogy.

Again with the Mac talk?

2006-05-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

By the time I publish this to the internet it will technically be Wednesday. I messed things up a few weeks ago by posting twice on the same day. It seems everyone read the most recent post, but didn't scroll down to read the earlier one. Oh well.

It isn't a secret around the office that I am a pretty big Mac enthusiast. We've converted the main production computers in the church over to Mac because, as Randy put it, "It's just so easy to do stuff." Seriously, the capabilities to produce with Mac far outweigh what we could do with Windows. Not to mention the stability and security. You get the idea.

I've often wondered why Apple didn't do a comparative type marketing campaign. They have been taking a "we're so cool" approach, which has been good for them. This approach, however, doesn't answer the concerns of the average computer user. Well, as if Apple could look into my head and read my thoughts, they have launched a brand new ad campaign that does just that. The commericals are brilliant. But don't take my word for it, click here to see them for yourself. I especially like "viruses", "restarting", and "WSJ".

I like that Martin Luther guy.

2006-05-02T13:40:00.000-04:00

We chased a couple rabbits in the ladies class this morning. I like chasing rabbits. The term wasn't much more than a colloquialism to me until we got our miniature dachshund. I'm just glad I don't have a leash on my neck in class when I take off after something the way Cody does when we're walking her. Of course, I think the ladies would laugh at me suddenly getting jerked back when I ran out of slack.

The class started in Ephesians looking at invalidity of works as far as salvation is concerned. Someone mentioned that faith without works is dead, which is true. Someone else commented on works without faith being dead as well, which is also true. Another person asked about people who do good works who aren't Christians and wondered where that came from. I fell back on my go to "made in the image of God" thing that took us back to creation. The plural used in that verse took us to the trinty, which took us everywhere in the Bible and eventually to 1 John 5:7-8, which is where the only reference to the concept of the trinity is found. We also looked at the fact that the phrasing is also only found in the KJV and NKJV, which took us into traslation history and eventual led us to Martin Luther and the Reformation Movement.

By this time we had run out of time for class and had stayed around for another half hour or so when one of the ladies said, "You know, that Martin Luther is a pretty good guy. What he did was a really good thing." Another one of our ladies agreed, which prompted me to ask the question, "When do we stop the refining process? Martin Luther wasn't satisified, Alexander Campbell wasn't satisfied, so when do we decide we have arrived and we can quit reevaluating and changing and adjusting?" A few seconds of silence was followed by one person saying, "I guess we can never stop."

There is an interesting parallel between this conversation and the premise in the book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Artists don't stop painting because someone creates a masterpiece. The don't stop working with new mediums and new techniques. They constantly improve, constantly explore, constantly attempt to create something artistic out of raw materials. Understanding the concept that the church is a shadow of things to come and is imperfect should put us on a quest to continuously reevaluate who we are and what we do. As soon as we stop doing this, we are basically claiming to have arrived at a point of perfection that requires no further attempt at improvement. This would be a very dangerous and arrogant claim to make.

33 bags of mulch later...

2006-05-01T18:54:00.000-04:00

My wife and kids did an amazing amount of work on the house this weekend. Our yard never looked really bad, but it did suffer from a bad case of unattended flower beds. It appears that someone several years ago took an interest in the yard, planted some things that needed to be taken care of to keep them looking good, and then someone dropped the ball. The story I heard was that it was supposed to be a surprise for me when I came back from El Salvador. At that time, the project was just three bags of potting soil and some wildflower seed, which I moved into the shed hoping they would be forgotten lest I get sucked into the work.

Fortunately, I had to fill in for Randy this Sunday so I didn't have the flexible schedule that was required to participate in this activity. I did, however, observe the progress through regular breaks to go out and advise and through watching the dirt line crawl higher and higher on my kids as they got into the mix. For some reason, my youngest likes to take his shoes off outside but leave his socks on. Not sure what that is about, but it definitely gets his socks dirty. When everyone else was taking their shoes off to keep from tracking in the dirt, he was putting his on.

The best looking part of the work is the mulch that they put down. It is a beautiful red wood and is identical to the mulch the guys used next door at the church building. I noticed they made several trips to the store while the worked, which I assumed was just for McDonald's breaks. Turns out they had to make that many to get the 33 bags of mulch home. There are two things I have to say about that. First, I'm glad I didn't have to deal with it. Second, the yard looks great!

Good job family!

When Things Go Good...

2006-04-28T08:35:00.000-04:00

I went to bed last night almost exited about how good the day was. Every day has its upside, but there are very few times when I get to the end of the day and feel like everything went just as good as it possibly could. Yesterday was one of those days.

Here's a bullet list of what was so great:
- My flockfinder invitations were emailed. If you don't know what that is, check it out at www.flockfinder.com.
- I got to have a relaxing breakfast with just my wife after having family visiting consistently since April 13th. They weren't all here at the same time, but there wasn't a day that someone wasn't here. Now they have gone home until next year.
- Randy didn't take the extra key to his office out of the key box so I got to have a little fun.
- I reviewed my quarterly budget for my ministries and found almost $300 that didn't belong in my budget but needed to be reassigned to other ministries. It was almost as good as finding a bank error in your favor in Monopoly.
- My son placed 3rd in a track meet yesterday in the 400 meter event. He would have placed 1st or 2nd, but he got a cramp in his quads at about the 250 meter mark. Still, he powered through to take 3rd. There were, in fact, 6 runners.
- My wife started her spring gardening. In a couple weeks we'll have beautiful flowers. As it is, we have beautiful, brown flower beds, which is better than the alternative.
- I got to relive some great movie quotes thanks to http://intentionalwalk.blogspot.com/.
- I had a great meeting with my ministry leaders last night. It had the potential of not being very enjoyable, but it was really good.
- I got a compliment from one of the parents about how much the youth ministry had turned around. That probably made everything else seem even better.
- I got the go-ahead to develop plans for a playground on our church grounds. Just another step in my plans for world domination.

There were lots of other things that made the day good, but I'll spare you the details. When I got home last night I began telling my wife about my day by saying that I am amazed at what a great God we serve that he can work things out to his glory like he did. My middle son overheard me and agreed and suggested I run upstairs and tell the youngest in our family the same thing. He wanted me to get there before he fell asleep because he really thought that was a great thing to think about just before you go to sleep. While I didn't sprint up the stairs, I personally thought about it as I went to sleep...and had one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long time!

Who's fault is it?

2006-04-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

We've started a new series in the youth group on Wednesday nights based on the questions that the kids were asking. It started with one question from one of our regular visitors, and has exploded into a long list that will take months to go through. It is sort of like a basic theolgy class, because the questions are deep and have to do with things like God's nature, salvation, the problem with evil and suffering, and a host of cultural related things like tattoos, piercings, and violent video games. When questions come up in our discussions, we write them down and come back to it when we can dedicate a week to it. I'm really excited, and the class was one of the best we have ever had.

Last night we were discussing the providence of God, with all the little things rolled into it like predestination, free will, etc. This was the question brought up by our visitor. As she explained her confusion over the issue, you could see the other teens suddenly understand where she was coming from and begin to compound the question with application of their own. One of the big ones was, "If God knew _______ was going to happen, isn't he sort of responsible for it happening?" Tough class, but a lot of fun.

Someone took it all the way back to the fall of man and asked, "If God created man knowing that they would fall, who's responsible for them eating the fruit in the garden?" As soon as the question was asked, one of our teen boys yelled out, "Women!" I laughed pretty hard, not so much at what he said or at the out of context reply, but at that fact that he was almost immediately assaulted by all the girls in the room. Good times!

What to do while Randy's gone.

2006-04-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day for me. While it is a bit lonely with Randy being out of the office, I have been able to entertain myself with all the extra work of filling in for him this weekend and with a visit with a great friend. Filling in for him wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that he is such a great speaker. It doesn't help that after last Sunday's sermon one of the elders told me, "That was one of the best sermons I have ever heard." I just hope everyone doesn't associate my inability to deliver a sermon with my performance in other areas. Tis the story of the behind the scenes minister...

I was honored to have a friend of mine drive up to have lunch with me today. We both went to Harding School of Biblical Studies together to prepare for ministry. We both had families and were changing from fairly successful careers to pursue full-time church work. The sad part of this story is that we have lived in the same area for about 3 years and have only managed to get together three times. Despite the sparse nature of our meetings, I have always been very enriched by the time I get to spend with him. What more do you expect from a guy who ends his emails with "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." from Proverbs 27:17?

I am Coco Butt.

2006-04-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

I have always thought it was cute when little kids would call people special nick names because they couldn't say the real words very well yet. I think it is even cuter when they continue to say those words even though they have learned to say them the right way. This was, of course, before I became the subject of one such nick name.

Our two-year-old niece has been staying with us for the last several weeks. She really is one of the cutest things in the world. Being a father of three boys, all of whom are 7 years old or older, this is very weird for me having a little girl around the house. When she first got here, she treated me like I was a big scary monster, which in some ways I sort of am. No matter what I said or did, she would cry and run hide behind "Nee-nee" which is her pet name for my wife.

I am very impressed with how verbal she is for a two-year-old. She talks non-stop. While at times this is irritating, it is very cute to hear her reveal her central Arkansas dialect when she says words like "cup" and "truck". I can't really reproduce it, but the best attempt would be something like "coo-up" and "troo-uk". Because of our response of amused laughter to these phrases, she will often sit around and say "My cup, my truck" and then laugh.

Within the last week or so she has finally warmed up to me. Before this point, I don't think she had ever tried to call me by name, which led to a greater surprise when she finally started talking to and about me. Since my wife has always called me "Uncle Brad", my niece followed suit. The only problem is that she has trouble with her n, r, and d sounds. Because of this, I am affectionately referred to as "Coco Butt", which is the best she can do with the words she's working with. For now it is okay, but if she keeps it up when she becomes a teenager I might have a problem with it.

The Real Meaning of Vision

2006-04-19T13:10:00.000-04:00

Those who know me will tell you that purpose and vision play a major role in my ministry. I admit it, I really bought into the whole "Purpose Driven" craze, mostly because I think it is good. I've read The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life and have even led a 40 Days of Purpose Campaign, which has entitled me to be listed as a Purpose Driven Pastor with Purpose Driven Ministries. That basically means that I get emails from them asking me to "partner" with them in various projects or campaigns that will only cost me X amount for the resources.

Another of my major themes in ministry is being sensitive to people's "system". This comes from a book by Mike Armour called Systems Sensitive Leadership: Empowering Diversity without Polarizing the Church. Who wouldn't love a book with that subtitle? Mike's work in that book has really shaped the way I work with individuals in a church setting. So much so that I have even signed up to receive his LeaderPerfect newsletter that comes out occasionally that, unfortunately, sits in my inbox until I finally delete it for not having the time to read it.

A new edition of said newsletter came out yesterday, and for some reason I actually took the time to read it the instant it came in. What he said in his newsletter completely changed the way I view the importance and role of vision in a congregation. This revelation came to Mike as he was contemplating the effects of the fall of communism in Russia and the absence of a new purpose to fill the gap that was left. Mike writes:

Thinking about that as I watched throngs of people at a bus stop in Novosibirsk one day, it suddenly struck me why Russia's quest for a "national idea" is so extremely urgent. Why vision is so vitally important in any culture, whether it's the culture of a company, a political movement, or a society.

In a word, vision is what gives meaning to the sacrifice, dedication, and commitment that leaders ask of their people. Vision is more than merely providing a dream that gives us a sense of direction or that provides a reference point for aligning priorities, as vital as these functions may be. Vision's greater power is its ability to address our deep need to have meaning at the core of our existence. A "why" for pressing on.

No one likes "busy work," because it has no purpose. No meaning. Yet, in the absence of vision, all action quickly degenerates into busy work. Motion without meaning. Vision is therefore the first step toward a life filled with meaning, and meaning is essential if life is to have fulfillment.

This insight simultaneously elevated the importance of vision in the life of a congregation and emphasized the importance of not settling for a cheap vision or mission statement. A vision statement that doesn't give us the meaning behind what we are doing is nothing short of trendy. Any vision statement that doesn't have a role in every decision that needs to be made and every activity that needs to planned is a lame duck.

When true vision is communicated, people will be willing to worship with people they don't agree with, teach the 3rd grade class again, and sit through serving after serving of Sister B's Tuna Surprise. Without the vision behind these activities, everything becomes busy work, and that is very easy to give up. The last remaining question is, "What should that vision be?"

To read the full text of the LeaderPerfect newsletter, click here.
You can check out more of Mike's stuff at www.leaderperfect.com.

Winner of the blog suggestion

2006-04-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

I am disappointed in the responses I got. Nothing, whining, and elders are fairly uncreative suggestions. The idea about the bbq place was good, but I don't like bbq. Instead, I'll blog about something my brother alerted me to.

apparently, one of the mayoral candidates in the New Orleans election has used a bogus poster of her in the French Quarter in her ads on the internet. Here's the original picture, courtesy of Cory @ boing boing:

This was posted on her website for awhile until someone with much better vision than I recognized the trash can (look for the small red circle) as being from Disneyworld's simulated French Quarter in New Orleans Square. Apparently, Disney's attorney's found out about her and sent a nifty cease and desist letter. Her response was to photo shop the trash can out and leave the photo on the web site. Now, instead of a Disney trash can there is a fuzzy looking bush. Seems pretty cheap for someone running for office in a place that has been so devastated by the flooding damage. Probably the funniest thing to me is that the shadows in the pictures don't match. The people in the background have light shadows that move toward the camera. The shadow from the wall the candidate is leaning on is dark and moving from left to right. Pretty obvious to me that, not only is she not in the actual French Quarter, she isn't even in the Disneyworld mock of the French Quarter either.

To see the candidate's web site, click here.

Nothing to blog...Help!

2006-04-18T11:34:00.000-04:00

I don't really have anything to blog about today. I don't know why. I'm typically pretty creative. I'll leave it up to those who read this to tell me what to write on today.

I really want to be a Nationals fan...really!

2006-04-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

I'm trying hard to get behind the local teams in our area, but it is really hard to do. That is especially true of the new baseball team, the Nationals. I've never been a big baseball fan. When my oldest son started playing, I started getting into it. I've lived near several major league teams (St. Louis Cards, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nats), been to several major league games, and used to watch the Braves with my grandfather on TBS. The Orioles really won my heart when we went to Camden Yards for the first time. The field was beautiful (especially when compared to old Busch Stadium in St. Louis and RFK), and they did a much better job of involving the fans in the game through interactives and promotions. But, what about the baseball...

The Orioles haven't been good for awhile, but they managed to win most of the games we went to see. The Nats, on the other hand, have lost both of the games we have seen. I even told the guys before we got to the game that I hoped they would win so that I could start to like them. There was something about watching the Mets hit 3 home runs in the first inning that sort of took the wind out of the sails. The comments went from hope to "If the Nats come back this will be one exciting game" to (after the Nats hit a home run in the 7th) "Well, only 9 more of those and we'll be back in this".

Needless to say, after watching a 13-4 crushing at the hands of the Mets I am not all that impressed. Would I go back? You bet. Despite the play of the Nats, it was still baseball. There is just something special about being at the ball park. Maybe it is the contrast of the brown dirt and green grass. Perhaps the mingling aromas of hotdogs, pretzels, and dippin dots. Whatever it is, it is a nice way to spend a few hours hanging out with friends and family.

Heritage in our Bulletins

2006-04-12T10:26:00.000-04:00

I heard someone tell me a few years ago that when they do marriage counseling with a couple that they always ask them to bring their wedding photos to the first session. My reaction was two-fold. First, what if they don't have wedding photos? I know that I don't have any wedding photos. Not real ones, anyway. We have a couple that friends and family shot, but that is about it. There was a video, but one of our relatives borrowed it and ended up recording over it. My second reaction was "What a great idea". Start the counseling off by taking them back to the dream that started their relationship. Remind them of the good times and then build from there. I thought that was pretty clever.

Churches operate in a way that is similar to personal relationships. There has been a predictable life-cycle of churches that has been identified that progresses from dream upward to ministry and then downward to drop out. I use this life-cycle a lot when working with churches, both mine and with others. The biggest point that needs to be made about falling over into the downward cycle of the life-cycle is that they only way to fix the situation is to return to the dream that started it. It may mean developing a new dream, but returning to the dream to generate momentum is essential.

I am currently working on an evaluation for our congregation that involves identifying fluctuations in attendance. One of the things I always do for churches when I perform this evaluation is to read the last five years of bulletins. It takes a lot of effort to go through the process, especially if the church keeps weekly bulletins. It is almost always worth the effort, though, because you are able to join with the congregation and begin to share the heritage that they have made over the last half decade.

I completed my task of reading the bulletins yesterday. This experience was different for me than others because this is the first time I have done this for a church I am actually on staff with. As I read through the bulletins, I identified more closely with the announcements because I have known the people for the last 8 months or so. I was trying to describe the experience to one of our ministry leaders today and came up with a perfect (although weird) comparison. It was like I had been in a coma for five years and while I was out the people I knew kept a journal about what I had missed. When I woke up, I was able to experience what they had been through by reading the record they left behind. I read about marriages, births, deaths, illnesses, and all types of other experiences that go together to make a church into a family. I felt like the backstory behind all the people I have known for such a short period of time was being filled in for me, much like a person waking up from a coma might experience.

I wonder if, much like the wedding photos for the marriage counseling, reading through the bulletins when people are frustrated with the church would have a positive effect and help them remember the dream they once had for the church. I can almost hear the "Look, here's where (insert name) placed membership", "Here's the listing for that mission trip we participated in", "Oh my...I remember when this accident happened and how much it affected us as a family". I know it had an effect on me.

If you have time, reach back about a year in your church's records and read a few months worth. Let me know how it made you feel.

Kids today...

2006-04-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

Within a week from my return from El Salvador, I sponsored a lock-in for our kids in the youth group here at ACOC. They had earned the privilege by filling up a large container with cotton balls. We had a problem with the language the kids used to speak to each other. There was a lot of making fun, tearing down, and correcting their grammar in a really condescending manner. We put a sign on the outside of the container that read "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs" from Ephesians 4:29. The rules were simple. When you complimented someone or said something to build someone up, you put six cotton balls in the container. When you said something that tore someone down or that was generally critical, you had to take six cotton balls out. It took them about 2 months, but they finally filled it up.

The biggest surprise I experienced was how much difficulty the kids had staying awake. I am a part of the Atari/Nintendo generation, which meant that peers and I developed remarkable over night stamina from playing video games for hours (and sometimes days) on end. Apparently that concept is old news to these kids, because all but three of them fell asleep during the night. Some of them were having difficulty staying awake past 11:00, and we were still at the laser tag place.

I told the kids that the only lingering effect I had was a sore trigger finger from the laser tag games. That wasn't exactly true. While I did make it all night without sleeping, I was feeling pretty rough the next day. In the Army there is a regularly assigned duty that is a 24 hour shift. You receive the following day off for your 24 hours of work. Not wanting to waste a day off by sleeping, I would stay awake until the early evening the second day and then sleep it off in one night. Those days are long since gone, since I could barely keep my eyes open past 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Oh well, at least my wife had the wisdom to wake me up at 5:00 p.m. so that I would be able to sleep Saturday night, which I like to call Sunday Eve.

Technology in Ministry

2006-04-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

I had to take a 1 hour course while working on my degree that was titled Technology in Ministry. Appropriately, it was an online course. Unfortunately, the greatest lesson from this course was how varied the definition of technology actually is. When I think of technology in ministry, I think of web sites, podcasting, blogs, networking, file sharing, instant messaging, and multimedia presentations in various formats. While this class did try to teach us to build a power point presentation, the major components were writing letters with a word processor and using a spreadsheet to make a budget. Since we had a little free time at the end, the professor even threw in a unit on making a bulletin and using mail merge. How exciting.

I am amazed at how much technology now plays a role in my work. Even a few years ago I was limited to just using email. Now, however, there really isn't anything I do that doesn't involve some from of current technology. The biggest problem is that there is so much available that you could spend hours and hours of extra time just on the technology side of the work. I've become a sort of resource person for people I know. They want to do something buy don't know how, so I try to help. I enjoy it. I enjoy it more when I don't have an immediate answer. That always means I get to play with the new toys until I figure it out.

Yesterday, Randy and I went to look at the new Macs in the Apple store near where we work (and live). The new toys are very enticing, and are constantly calling to us to go ahead and upgrade ahead of schedule. During this visit, the salesperson kept setting off the alarm each time he wanted to show us a laptop. It was quite funny. The alarm is blaring and no one was even looking around to see what was going on. A few minutes later, I was talking to Randy and used the word "problem". Immediately, every sales associate within 20 feet froze and looked. We found it quite humorous.

I thought again of the integration of church and technology, except in this case it was more of a comparison. How often to people see the warning signs that something is wrong or not working and still do nothing to fix it? Start talking about all the "problems", however, and you'll get a captive audience. Perhaps it is just a pattern of human tendency.

The real way to lead a discussion class

2006-04-04T16:13:00.000-04:00

I figured I would try to make up for being late to my Tuesday morning Ladies class by wearing my machete that I brought back from El Salvador. Nothing like walking in with a huge knife to make people keep their negative comments to themselves. I jokingly told them that I was tired of trying to force discussion out of them and that I was going to use this to threaten them. They all laughed.

Something was working, though, because it was one of the best classes we have had. My typical procedure is to teach up until time to leave, dismiss everyone that needs to go, and then stay as long as others want to continue the conversation. Today, everyone stayed an extra half hour and two ladies stayed for an extra 2 hours. It was a great discussion about preferences, change in worship styles, and how we can handle ourselves when our comfort zones are infringed upon.

Seriously, my Tuesdays with the ladies class are becoming the highlight of my week. They have proven to be genuinely interested in open minded Bible study. What a great privilege it is for me to be a part of this group.

201 New Emails

2006-04-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

The thing I love about traveling and not having access or time to check email is the number of emails that are waiting for me when I arrive home. I've heard other people talk about it as though it is some sort of status indicator. I, of course, would never stoop to such a shallow form of self-identification.

It is pretty cool, though, to watch the mail number go up as the program downloads them from the server. It's more fun now that I have high speed access. All 201 took just a minute or so to download. I could almost hear the chants of "go...go...go...go" as the numbers went higher and higher. It was sort of like checking the connection speed of my internet connection. (My last numbers were 5397 down and 349 up, if you want to compare.)

The downfall of the excitement came when I realized that, thanks to a great anti-spam program, these were all valid emails and they would all need to be addressed. Perhaps I'll just hold off and wait for the "I haven't heard back from you yet" emails.

When is a shower worth a million dollars?

2006-03-30T08:43:00.000-05:00

I had the most amazing shower this morning. It was an incredible experience. For the first time in a week, I had a hot shower. The first few days I had only cold water, which was tough in the morning but great in the evening after these amazingly hot days. The next couple of days I had water that had sat in a tank in the sun, so it was warm enough to take the edge off of the biting cold. But today was...HOT! I had trouble getting the cold up high enough to keep it from burning my skin, but I didn't care. I just stood there as the filth melted off my skin as I was held up by the pressure of the water vapor in the air. It was absolutely awesome.

I noticed the hot water heater earlier this week when we visited this house on our way to San Miguel. It was the house of cousin number 1 if you are counting. I even pointed it out to the family and my fellow traveling companions, and every one broke out in laughter, which was normal when the gringo tried to say something that trailed off to finger pointing and primate-like grunting.

We also stayed here the night before last, but I didn't get a hot shower that day. They asked me how the shower was yesterday and I replied that it wasn't cold, which was true. It still wasn't hot. Last night we were joined at this location by our other traveling buddies, and I overheard them explaining to them how to use the shower. She explained that the hot was on the left and the cold was on the right. This was exactly opposite of what I had tried. I explained that if that was the case, the knobs had been installed on the wrong sides since the "C" knob was on the left and the "H" knob was on the right. My companion who is supposed to be translating for me told me that "C" was for caliente (sp?), which is "hot" in Spanish. He then translated the story for the Spanish speakers, only with much more enthusiasm, hand gestures, and a bunch of things I never said. Apparently it was a better way to tell the story since they all seemed to enjoy it better than my English version.

Then commenced several minutes of laughing at the gringo. As I said, that was normal, especially with my translator's help.

One Surreal Experience

2006-03-29T01:29:00.000-05:00

The last two days have been very surreal. Occasionally I find myself in a situation where the events force me to step outside myself and view things from the outside and think, "This cannot be happening!" One such event that I remember was at my sister's wedding. My father had recently passed away, and I was in Florida, where I had never been, eating lasagna in the basement of a church while sitting across the table from my soon to be step-father. I remember very clearly saying to myself, "Who would have ever thought..."

The last two days in El Salvador have been very similar, only magnified by about 100 times. It started with us going to see a piece of land that the father of one of my traveling partners wanted to give to the church for a mission effort. I figured, "Great, a three hour drive to take some pictures of some land, spend then night with people I don't know (and probable a few chickens and cows), and then drive three hours back the next day." Let me defend my poor attitude by saying that I had taken some medicine earlier in the day that clearly said "TAKE WITH FOOD AND PLENTY OF WATER" which I interpreted as "wait 8 hours after taking before eating the first meal of the day and never drink the local water". I was also feeling pretty closed in to my English speaking world, since I don't speak Spanish and my travelling companions prefer it.

Back to the surreal experience. We drove for about an hour and then stopped to wait for a cousin of one of my traveling parteners. With as many cousins as I met over the next two days I could swear that the whole country was related. We were early, so we waited for an hour. Then, the cousin decided to join us for the next couple days for our trip, so we split up into two vehicles to complete the rest of the drive. Upon arriving in San Miguel, we stopped at a place that I thought was the piece of land we were going to look at. Turns out it belonged to the cousin and wasn't what we were looking for. It was there that I met cousin #2, who decided to join us for the rest of our journey. That led to a series of stopping at property, only to find it belonged to a cousin who then joined us on our trip. All the time, they chose to speak Spanish and exclude the cute gringo from the conversation. I was happy for my friend, but was starting to get cranky.

After a late lunch, looking at more houses that belonged to relatives, and being excluded from all the goings on, I began to assert myself and force people to translate for me so I could participate some. I was not prepared for what I found out and who I met. One cousin was a recently retired super high ranking general for the El Salvadoran Army who lost a leg fighting the guerillas and brought a rare plant back from Iraq to plant in El Salvador (I understand the potential environmental impact, but it was still cool). Another cousin was the head of all immigration for the country of El Salvador (I was asked if I would like to be a citizen. I told them I didn't know how that would affect my taxes, so I better not). Another one owned several grocery stores (big ones, not just the little "tiendas" that were in front of the houses). Another one invited me to sit in on a multi-million dollar land transaction and asked my advice on what Americans would like since he is building a "resort" type thing to market to Americans. Another one spent 10 years working construction in Boston during the El Salvadoran civil war (not as impressive as the others, but he spoke English so that far outweighed the initial impact that the others could muster). You get the point.

The greatest thing was that these guys adopted me as part of their group. I'm sure it had something to do with the novelty of the American (one guy said to a friend on the street, "Look, I have a gringo in the truck." Then he ducked out of the way so his friend could see.) Whatever it was, they showed amazing hospitality to a grumpy, culture shocked American, and I felt convicted over my previous attitude. They took me everywhere they went and would let any of us pay for anything. In fact, I am using one of their laptops now to post this amazingly long post that is nothing more than my chance to process the whole "This can't really be happening" thing.

For those who read this far, I'll buy you a cup of coffee when I get back to Arlington, which should be this Saturday. Don't expect any more postings until I return. I have kept a pretty detailed journal, which I will probably turn into its own "El Salvador Blog", at least the parts where I'm not cranky. Until then...

Sunburned in El Salvador (dang white skin!)
Brad

Leaving for El Salvador - From Miami

2006-03-24T11:36:00.000-05:00

Leaving for El Salvador - From D.C.

2006-03-24T05:19:00.000-05:00

Farewell Post...for now

2006-03-22T23:25:00.000-05:00

I'm cheating by writing my "I'll be back" post a day early. I leave for a trip to El Salvador early Friday morning, and figure I can save some time by blogging tonight instead of tomorrow. I'm not sure about internet access in El Salvador, and I know that I won't be taking my computer with me. I might take Randy's computer, but that is only if he asks me to.

I'm a little nervous about going to El Salvador. First, I hate, and I mean HATE, being away from my family. I know of families that spend very little time together or where the spouse travels 75% of the time. I don't know how they do it. When my wife and I were fairly newlyweds and our children were very young, I was stationed at Ft. Riley, KS in the Army. We would regularly go out to the field (that's camping for big kids) and stay out for weeks or a month at a time. We did this about every three months. When we went to a certain part of the range (the place where big kids camp), I could see our street lights at night. Some nights I was sure I could see my porch light. There I was, within sight of my house, but separated from my family. I couldn't stand it. I think that has something to do with it.

The other reason I am nervous about going is that I am a control freak. I tell myself it is because I am so busy that I may never uncover myself if I go away for a week and a half, but the truth is that I am afraid of things falling apart while I am away. Randy initially said he liked this in me when I painted my office 8 times to get it just the right color. He may have changed his mind by now.

Keep us in your prayers while we travel over the next couple of weeks.

Meditations on a child's game

2006-03-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy listening to my kids when they are playing well with each other. It sounds so peaceful and creative. One of my favorite activities they do is when we are in the car and they start to play pretend. One will start telling a story about what they are doing, then the other one says, "Yea, and then...". After a couple of ideas, the other one comes back in and says, "That's cool! Then we...", and the other will say, "Yea, then we", and it quickly becomes a game of "then we..." ping pong as they bounce the ideas back and forth, creating some major production out of their shared imaginations. It inspires me and reminds me of a time when I was able to just let go and have fun and not worry about the logic of it all. Seriously, at what other time can a lollipop stick, a McDonald's Happy Meal toy, and a song book become the main characters in a gripping adventure story?

Sometimes Bible study is like that for me. I'll be studying a certain section, and all of a sudden the back of my head excitedly interrupts and says, "Yea, and in (insert scripture here) it says..." so I'll flip over there and read for a bit and then the excited little boy blurts out, "Ooh, ooh, and then we could look at (insert scripture here) cause it says...". I've heard there are medicines to control these interruptions, but I find them so enriching and helpful.

The latest string of thoughts I am on started about a week ago and has been running through my head since then. Sadly, since I have been so busy, I haven't had the time to flesh out the full connection between the scriptures. In fact, I haven't even verified that there is a connection. Since I obviously don't have any answers, I'll throw out the scripture chain and you tell me what you think the connection is. These are listed in the order they popped into my head. There is an obvious connection of the invisible or the unexpected, but what more is there?

Scripture 1: Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Scripture 2: John 3:8 - The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
Scripture 3: 1 Kings 19:12-13 - (current context is Elijah waiting on God to pass by. A great wind and an earthquake had just passed by, but God was in neither of them). After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

I'd write some exciting conclusion, but the voice in the back of my head just interrupted me.

Lessons from the Ladies Class

2006-03-21T13:31:00.000-05:00

I am fortunate enough to be able to teach the Tuesday morning ladies class that meets at our building each week. It is sort of a weird position since I also teach the youth class each week as well. Sort of like an age inclusio on a weekly basis.

We are studying Ephesians, and I have successfully kept us on the first five verses of chapter 2 for the last four weeks. It isn't really my fault, they keep asking questions and delving deeper into the text. I'm very impressed at the heart and spirit that they approach this class with. The last few weeks we have covered original sin, God's love and mercy, Paul's attempt to unite all people in a common heritage of sinfulness, and God's grace. I was particularly worried about the grace topic, since it has been so controversial in our brotherhood and the demographic I was dealing with tended to lean towards the easily upset variety.

There are a million things I could write that came out of that class, but those are really nuggets that wouldn't make a lot of sence apart from the context they occurred in. I will tell you that we had a great discussion about why we have avoided topics like grace historically in our group. What hit me the most was the response of one of the ladies in particular. She looked like she was going to fall out of her seat wanting to make a comment, but said she wanted to wait until after class and talk to me directly because she didn't want to upset any of the other ladies.

Before that, I have to let you know that there has been a bit of a fuss the last couple days over something that someone did that wasn't lock-step traditional and someone complained about it and now there is a small storm brewing. In the middle of this whirlwind, whose latest chapter was unfolding two minutes before I was supposed to go to class, I had to somehow compose myself enough to go teach a class on God's love, mercy, and grace. Just the topic I was in the mood for.

At the end of class I sat and listened to this wonderful woman's comments about God, grace, salvation, and how she was beginning to feel that her presuppositions up to that point may not be an accurate reflection of what God intended. She was moved to tears when she shared that it hurt her to think of the damage we may have done by laying sole claim to salvation among believers and by bashing others over issues of instrumental worship or even having power point projectors. It was beautiful as she asked questions to lead to her statements so she could maintain a protective barrier around her lest I attack her for her disrespect of tradition. She asked about why we don't talk about fasting and why we are more concerned with instruments in worship than we are about a relationship with God.

I was amazed, and still am. Here I was, thinking I was the only one asking these questions, struggling with why we put such a major emphasis on minor things. God's rescue for me came in a loving, honest, seeking servant of his that embodied the group we typically blame for dragging their feet. My frustration in dealing with the current storm subsided a bit as I realized that, despite what I see on the surface, God is continually working in and through those who seek him. Somehow the dark veil that fell on my eyes before class was lifted. Through God's teaching another, I, too, was taught a great lesson.

I feel like I should end with, "while we stand and while we sing", but I know if I did I would have to be the first one down the aisle.

Earworms, rough days, Harris Teeter, and Driving Restrictions

2006-03-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

You may be able to tell that I couldn't decide what to blog about today. My head is kind of in a big blurry mix. I suppose that describes the day I have had. In fact, the title kind of serves like a bullet point list of my day's activities.

I wanted to blog about earworms today. Instead, I'll just give you a link to some earworm info. Earworms are songs that get stuck in your head. I've had a couple songs floating around in my head since the wonderful concert on Saturday night by the Praise Band With No Name. Usually my earworms are something irritating (click here for an example). This time it was something beneficial, sort of like a meditation that wouldn't stop.

The earworm was interrupted by a pretty rough day. Lots of people have rough days, and you didn't come here for me to dump on you, so we'll move right along.

At the end of this day, I had to make an emergency run to Harris Teeter for some supplies for the company that is coming in today that was supposed to get here two days ago. Harris Teeter is probably the most expensive grocery store I have ever shopped in, but I think it is also the coolest. They use stainless steel in their decor and their signage is always snazzy looking, especially compared to other stores. I'm not sure why they spell their frrozen section with two "r"s, but it looks cool on a sign.

The only tough thing about going to Harris Teeter is getting home, especially if it is in the early evening. Any left hand turns are difficult, and the one that is the most direct route is illegal between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. However, a great thing happened while I was standing in line. The lady in the front of our four deep line was challenging a price of an item. It took a small eternity for them to check the price, decide to give the discount, and then key in about 6 million keys to unlock the secret code for the fifty cent discount. Just as I was about to reach the boiling point of impatience, I looked at my watch and noticed a glorious thing. It was 7:10 p.m. That meant I could turn left at Pershing. That was awesome.

And then, the earworms started to sing...

Saturday Starts with Legos

2006-03-18T08:44:00.000-05:00

I'll confess, I'm a pretty bad morning person. I'm not sure what it is, but I don't wake up well. When I do wake up, it takes me some time to get the gears moving like they should. I'm just the opposite at night. I always have been. I can stay up as late as I need to, whether I'm working or playing. My wife is just the opposite. She seems to be able to snap to consiousness whenever she needs to. I honestly don't know when she wakes up, as I am never awake to experience it. For all I know, she may never sleep. She just fakes it until I go to sleep and then gets up and does all of that stuff that wives/mothers do that makes us husbands/fathers feel like we can never do enough because our wives do so much. While that is an entertaining thought, the reality is that she starts to crash around 9:00 p.m. and can barely keep herself awake to watch television.

There are times when these schedules conflict with each other. There are times when she is ready for bed and I am just getting into a television show or something. The worst of all of them, though, is when she is up for the day and assumes I should be up as well. Saturdays are always the toughest because two of our children are like her (up at the crack of dawn, hardly able to keep themselves from waking daddy up) and one is like me (dead to the world, still asleep as I write this post). This means that there are three times as many people anxiously pacing in and out of the room in the morning, waiting for me to flinch so they can say, "Are you awake?"

As time has gone along and our kids have gotten older, I have started to resist the wake up call and have even begun to share my honest opinion about those who insist on waking me up. In response to this, the opposing army has developed new tactics that involve bribes and temptations in order to wake me up. Sometimes it is breakfast. "Are you awake? I've just finished making your favorite breakfast. Do you want to get up or do you want to eat it cold?" Grumble...grumble...OKAY of course I want to eat it!

This morning they stooped to a new low. My oldest son and my wife were having a conversation "around" me. They were actually talking to each other about me so that if I "accidentally" woke up, they wouldn't have directly caused it. Not only this, the were talking about some surprise they had gotten that they had to wait for me to wake up to show me. Now that's a tough one to resist! There was this part of me that expected something like "Surprise! We straighted the magazines on the coffee table. But now that you're up..." That was not the case, as they had purchased Lego Star Wars for GameCube. We've been talking about getting that game for months, and here it is.

I only have to bring myself to climb out of my nice warm bed to play it.

Audio Blog Test

2006-03-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Kingdom of Beggars

2006-03-16T15:05:00.000-05:00

Okay, so Blue Like Jazz may be the best book I have read recently. It was recommended by our senior minister, and I had it laying on my desk for about a month before actually reading it. I must admit that I am amazed at how well the author captures what is going on inside my head. I read about 7 chapters yesterday and wanted to read more when I finally put it down.

The part that spoke loudest to me was the inability to receive God's grace because of our pride. We need, and desperately want, God's grace, but there is a big road block of pride that keeps us from getting it. The author compares it to watching someone use food stamps to purchase groceries. While using food stamps is nothing to be ashamed of, it is obvious that there is some discomfort on the parts of those involved in the transaction. It is because the people using them actually need them. The author talks about wanting to buy the person's groceries for them, but realizes that he actually wants to buy their dignity.

Having to go to God for His grace is similar to giving in and accepting assistance from churches or government agencies. It forces me to acknowledge that I need the help. Accepting the assistance means that I acknowledge that I fit into a group that meets the standards to qualify for the assistance. In the case of God's grace, I acknowledge that I am a somehow broken and can't fix myself no matter what I try.

For a person like me, that is something hard to do. Fortunately, God's grace is really big!

Tour Guide Evangelism

2006-03-14T19:27:00.000-05:00

After putting the Velvet Elvis book aside for a week or so while I buried myself under other work, I finally pulled it out again today and read a good bit. I must admit, Rob Bell says some pretty crazy things. Not crazy in the sense of hearing voices and not making any sense at all, but in a way that I think is hard to justify. In fact, it smacks of circular reasoning. The case he is making for interpreting the Bible and Christianity the way he does is the only thing that enables the interpretation that he is using. Maybe I'm just not postmodern enough.

One thing that he does very well is illustrate. I shared the one about having a trampoline faith a few posts back. The one that stood out to me in this reading was the one of being evangelistic by being a tour guide. Instead of teaching or instructing, use the knowledge and experience you have to show others how God is working in their lives. In this sense, you walk along with people and reinterpret the things they experience through the eyes of one who sees God's hand in the world.

I suppose that easy "tour guide" examples would be those that fall into the category of God's general revelation. This is the type of revelation that isn't specific about who God is and how we should relate to him, but instead are just general things that point back to God as the creator of the universe. My favorite of these types are relationships that we enjoy with other humans. People in the world enjoy the benefits of interpersonal relationships every day. Part of this enjoyment comes from the fact that God is a God of community and we are created in his image. Enjoying community with other people is experiencing just a shadow of what God has in mind for people through a relationship with Him. A tour guide approach would would show people this connection.

One of the benefits of the tour guide approach is that it enables a relationship through a journey. It isn't a list of things that others need to know to be a part of the Christian faith. Instead, it is a relationship that is ongoing, continually exploring and re-evaluating as we move through time together. If I could find a church that was doing that, I'd be tempted to join!

Table Tennis

2006-03-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

When leaving my son's wrestling tournament a few days ago, I ran into one of our church members playing table tennis at the local rec center. There were a couple guys up there that were just amazing players, and he was one of them. It took me back to my days of table tennis playing. Ahhhh...the memories.

I have won several tournaments in table tennis. The one I am most proud of was at Ft. McClellan, Alabama where I beat all players in the 82nd Chemical Battalion. There was substantially more competition in that setting than others because of the number of people who learned to play in parts of Asia where table tennis is significantly more of a sport than it is in the U. S.

These memories were the ones that prompted me to say, "Next time you go play, give me a call." I also told him it had been about 5 years since I last played. I told my wife I may play table tennis again but I was nervous since it had been 5 years. She chuckled and said that it had been about 11 years. She was right.

After a couple rounds of play, my friend beat me 6 games to 0. Fortunately for me there was a teenage guy there that wanted to play so I got to beat someone. Maybe with better practice...or my own paddle...or a training robot...then I can be great again!

Rescue 911

2006-03-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

I've had opportunity to use the 911 service twice in the last couple of weeks. I always feel weird about calling 911. It's for "emergencies only". Who is it that sets the standard of what an emergency is? What if I call 911 and they laugh at me? Will I get in trouble for blowing something out of proportion?

I was coming home from a meeting last night and drove through what looked like steam or mist. I thought it was from a manhole, but didn't see one around. I smelled the smoke about the same time I saw the small flames burning on the side of the road. Someone had thrown their cigarette onto the median and it had smoldered in the mulch. I parked the car nearby and went to stomp out the flame. It had apparently been smoldering for some time because when I stomped on it my foot sank into a hole about a foot deep in the mulch that was filled with embers. It was clearly a bigger job than my foot could handle, but was a 12 inch smoldering hole in some mulch worthy of calling the fire department? I decided it was, and the operator and firefolk were very friendly.

A couple weeks ago Lisa and I witnessed a motorcycle accident near our house. I think the motorcycle got a flat tire. There were sparks everywhere and then suddenly you see this guy rolling and rolling down the street into oncoming traffic. I was surprised that the guy had the clarity of mind to roll out of the way of oncoming traffic after coming to a stop. I called 911 from the cell phone and told them it was at the intersection of 50 and Montague. A few minutes later the 911 lady called back and said that 50 and Monticello didn't intersect and asked for better directions. I told her it was MONTAGUE not Monticello. She thanked me and hung up. A couple minutes after that another operator called telling me the same thing: 50 and Monticello don't intersect. I again told them it was Montague, and that I had just told the other operator the same thing. They didn't call back again. I assume they either found it or gave up.

God's Personal Ad

2006-03-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

Our senior minister presented a message this Sunday that I found especially well done. It was informative, but it also caused me to stop and think about some things. One thing in particular was the idea of God posting a personal ad to attract his creation back to him. One of those "loving God seeks intimate, long lasting relationship" kind of things.

The reference came from James 4:8 that says, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." The imagery is beautiful. A loving, compassionate God that wants a relationship with his creation but needs to be welcomed into our lives asks only that we move toward him so that he can move toward us.

There was some additional application that I think people in our community can really relate to. A young, single lady that has been attending recently told me that I was lucky to be married because the dating scene was "vicious". I can only imagine how tough that must be. How do you know where to look for quality people to date? When you find where to look, how do you screen out the quality dates from the undateable? How can you ever really be sure that the person you are meeting is actually that person and not some presentation of themselves that they have made up for you to see? Scary!

The idea of God's want ad should speak loudly to this group. No background check necessary. No wondering if the stories you are hearing are true or just made up. No irritating habits to find out about. No strings, no baggage, just pure relationship. That is what people need, and that is what God can provide.

Faith of a trampoline

2006-03-04T16:02:00.000-05:00

I am reading a book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. It is a great read filled with lots of illustrations. One of the greatest is the comparison he makes between faith and a jump on a trampoline. The springs are the things that hold our faith up, the specific things we believe about various issues and our experiences that we have had. The great thing about viewing these things as a trampoline is that we can constantly reevaluate where we stand on these issues without sending our faith into a tail spin. Since the weight of our faith is equally distributed among the springs, they can flex and bend without us losing a firm support.

The comparison is also made to those whose faiths are more analogous to brick walls. They are inflexible, with every piece of their faith being structurally connected to the others. One brick falls, the whole faith stands the chance to come tumbling down. What appears to be solid and strong is actually at risk of collapse.

The greatest thing about the differences between the two types of faith is how they are shared. One says, "Hey, look at my wall. I've got it all figured out and can defend it." The other says, "Hey, wanna come jump on my trampoline?" I know which I would rather do. Anyone up for a bounce?

Patriotism

2006-02-13T13:58:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday I went to a district chorus concert for one of the kids in our youth group. The final song they sang was a medley of all the different anthems for the different branches of the U.S. military. As they went from song to song, they asked those who had served in those branches to stand up. I've had a couple opportunities to do this since moving out to this part of the country, and am really beginning to enjoy it.

One thing that stands out is how many more veterans there seem to be here than in other places I have lived. It could be the proximity to the nation's capitol. I developed a habit several years ago of asking church members who had served in the forces to stand and be recognized on Veteran's Day. In Arkansas you had maybe 10-15 in a church of about 500. Here we have had that many in churches that only have 60 people. At the concert I went to, there must have been 100 or so from each branch. I find this saturation very interesting.

Snow Day

2006-02-13T13:53:00.000-05:00

For a brief moment, I remembered what it was like to be a kid waiting for school to be canceled because of snow. We had a nice storm come through on Saturday evening that dumped about 12 inches of the white fluffy stuff on us. We did, in fact, cancel church services for Sunday, but unlike when I was a kid there was still work to be done. We had to notify everyone of the cancellation, which was much easier than in times past because of our new automatic phone dialer. There was also snow to be removed from the sidewalks. Last time, my son did it as a service. This time he was sick, so I decided to take his place. You don't realize how much sidewalk it takes to get around church property until you have to sweep or shovel. This morning I am sore from my shoulders down to my hamstrings. Next time I'll make sure the snow blower is working and do it that way.

Again with the changes...

2006-02-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

I've reformatted this blog once again. Seems I never can just settle down and go with what already exists. For those of you Systems Sensative Leaders out there, that is the 5 in me. Always looking to innovate and improve. I suppose eventually you have to settle down and go with what works.

During the posting hiatus, I decided to try out Apple's new iWeb software and see if it would work for my blog. It is crazy easy to set up a web site with iWeb, but some of the features that are essential to a web presence aren't there. For one, there is no mechanism for comments or feedback. Basically it is look but don't touch. I'd like something a little more interactive.

That being said, this edition of the blog should stay around for awhile. Until Apple comes out with something new, anyway.

And now...the artist

2006-01-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

Bragging on my middle son earlier made me think of something that my youngest son did recently. The younger guy is an artist in all ways possible. He has been responsible for using all of the computer paper for his creations on more than one occasion. We try to offset this by purchasing him notebooks for him to draw his art in, but even the largest ones can be filled in a matter of days. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out drawings at a rate of 50+ per day. In addition to drawing, he sings all the time. He doesn't sing anyone else's work, though. Every one of his songs is a unique creation, athough he does have a few themes that he follows.

In an effort to save the rainforest, I decided to introduce our little artist to the world of computer drawing. Appleworks has a basic program that will let you draw and paint, similar to the basic paint program in Windows. What we found, however, is that paper usage was then coupled with ink consumption as he began to print multiple copies of this high color works. We also found out that our Epson printer will not print anything if only one of the six color cartridges is empty. Stupid light cyan!

After getting the "low ink" warning light on the printer, I showed the little guy how to print to PDF and save it to his documents file. This way he can sort them and email them to friends and family. Just as good as printing without the use of paper and ink.

My wife and I came in from a meeting the other day and found found this piece of art in the final stages of design. I was amazed. My youngest son is 7 years old, but was able to create this type of stuff with just a basic paint program.

He calls it "Silent Night" (he named it himself as he saved the file). It is a water scene at night with mountains in the background. It is probably some of his best work, and he has saved it as his desktop. Very impressive.

My Boy Has Wicked Smarts

2006-01-12T09:59:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know, the title is an obscure quote from the movie Good Will Hunting. In this case, however, the quote applies to my middle child. Let me make this clear, all my kids are awesome. In this particular case, however, the middle guy sort of stood out. At the beginning of the school year all of the 4th graders had to take a benchmark test to determine where they fell academically as far as math is concerned. We got an email from my little guy's teacher that said, "I've never had a student who got a perfect score on the math part of the benchmark test before, but you son has done it!" That was sweet.

We got a similar note home the other day after they took a unit pretest on geometry. This time he scored a perfect score on the pretest of the material that they were about to study! The teacher decided to give him a special independant study project on geometry instead of having him work with the rest of the class. When the new GT teacher gets here next month, he is going to go to her for math.

My boy has wicked smarts!

Where do we keep the elbow grease?

2006-01-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

I love idioms and colloquialisms. I especially love talking about them with people who know other languages, especially if the other language is their native tongue. Oh, how I bothered my secretary in Columbia with questions like "How do you translate "there is more than one way to skin a cat" into German?" Recently I tried "We'll party till the cows come home" with a friend of ours from Honduras. She said that it would be worse for people who lived in Peru! HA!

We recently had a little family confusion within our family when Lisa used an idiom that Chris didn't understand. Chris was trying to clean up some paint off of some fabric (latex paint, water clean up). He asked Lisa what to use on it, and she said "Elbow grease." He kept scrubbing, but was getting frustrated that it wasn't coming off. After about a minute he asked again, "what can I use on this?" Lisa replied, "Elbow grease." In a tone of voice that can only be described as desperate, Chris blurted out, "Where do we keep the elbow grease?" Lisa and I nearly died laughing.

Intro to Cody

2005-12-27T09:56:00.000-05:00

As some of you know, before we relocated to Arlington, VA we added a miniature dachshund to our family, whom we call Cody. Cody seemed like a western name to me, and was an appropriate name for a dog whose coat resembled that of a horse (strict dachshund people call it "wild boar"). Getting Cody has turned out to be one of the best things we have ever done, and her energy and excitement and goofy antics add a great amount of entertainment to our family.

Cody is a cuddle bug. She loves to join us on the couch and sit in our laps, behind our backs, under our legs, on our shoulders, etc. She especially loves it if we have a blanket in our laps. When we are up and moving around, she will follow like a short, brown shadow. When she gets tired of this, she either jumps on the couch for nap or curls up in her toy basket that she has turned into a day bed.

Sometimes, however, her desire to cuddle and her curiosity get the better of her. Occasionally she will follow Jessie into her kennel and inadvertently get locked in. Jessie is not exactly the cuddling type, however, and typically responds with growls, nipping, and barking. Cody, however, seems to be greatly fond of Jessie and never grows tired of trying to get her to play with her. Apparently you can neither teach an old dog to play or a new dog that they old dog doesn't want to. In this picture, Cody worked her way into Matthew's coat sleeve as it laid on the couch. She could get her head through the opening for the hand, but nothing else. She didn't make any noise. She just laid there until we found her.

Another one of Cody's favorite things to do is to smell Jessie's mouth. Never mind Jessie, she likes to smell everyone's mouth. It is common for her to jump up in your lap, put her paws on your chest and start sniffing away at your mouth. Her policy is that the closer she gets, the better, so we don't dare open our mouths, smile, or even talk to her when she starts. If we do, the next thing we experience is wet dog nose on the tongue, which is a disgusting sensation. She seems to be especially fond of morning breath and after dinner breath. While we think it is cute, we acknowledge that is also very irritating. Jessie, however, doesn't think it is cute at all, as is evidenced by the picture on the right which was taken shortly after the picture on the left. Yikes!

Cody's playground is underneath the dining room table. I believe she has chosen that for several reasons. First, she is very low to the ground and can maneuver underneath the table and chair legs to avoid being captured by those who may need to put her in her kennel. Second, it is the only area of our house where the hard wood floor is covered by an area rug. It is difficult for her to get traction on the hard wood, and she walks very carefully across it (she probably learned to do that after not being able to stop and sliding into Jessie, whose reaction was similar to the picture above). On the rug, however, it is no holds barred as she flies round and round the table, sometimes playing chase with us, sometimes for no apparent reason at all. She often drags her toys to this area so she can give them and extra good chewing.

Cody is now six months old, and has brought us great joy. I am sure we will have many Cody stories to tell and that she will become quite the star of our family blog.