Links

What happens when Newfoundland smashes into Africa? You need a new name...."In looking for a name, "I tried Bagelea or Donutea but figured that would trivialize the whole experience. A friend suggested Pangea Ultima — classy, like a fancy car. It implies that it's the last Pangea, which certainly isn't true, but it's the last one I'm going to come up with."" link


I always liked Scooby Do as a kid. The creator of the show passed away yesterday. Somewhat odd that it happened so soon after the death of Joseph Barbera.

BCS

Florida beat Ohio State....who would have thought. This is the last time I root for a Big 10 team over a SEC team, I should know better! I think this game just intensifies the need for a play-off in NCAA Div I football. I wonder how USC is feeling this morning! I know that the schools make a lot of money with the bowl games, but it seems like every year there is more and more controversy. If Ohio State would have won they would have deserved to be the National Champion, but I'm not so sure about Florida (forget USC...how do you think Auburn feels, they beat Florida. If only they would have beaten Arkansans!) Florida only got to the game because no one wanted to see a Michigan Ohio State rematch. I realize that Florida proved everyone wrong....but there are still way too many questions out there and there are still a lot of one loss teams. Perhaps the real National Champs should be Boise State (the only undefeated team in the rankings). It doesn't seem fair that they won every game on their schedule but didn't get a shot at the big prize. Bring on a play off!

The telephone is ringing.....

I think I'm starting to spiral. I had to deal with something that I was dreading. Our landlord called looking for the rent. I know that this is God's church, I know that it is his bills, I know that it is his electric and his utilities....but this is starting to get tiring. November's offering was pathetic. December was better, but it did not make up for November. Sunday was good (almost 65% of what we collected the entire month of November), but we are still playing catch up. I know that these are God's bills, not mine, that it is his responsibility, not mine, but I still wonder if there is something that I did wrong that is causing us to have these issues. Now I'm thinking too much; now I'm starting to get self critical (doesn't help that today we get a Christmas letter from a family who left the church in November telling us how much they love their new church, how they are all plugged in and there kids are doing great in the new youth group, etc). It seems like the enemy has me figured out and is just pushing all the right buttons to get to me. God Help! There have been so many things that I have been praying for, for the church, for our friends, for my family. It just seems like none of it is happening right now. Like everything is so close but at the last minute the rug gets pulled out, or we are a day late, or a dollar short, or something. Everything is just right out of grasp. It is getting to me. I think I'm starting to spiral. I need to stop that. I need something good to happen.

I guess I'm just tired.

Christian vs. Christ Follower

Links

Values from the Church of the Exiles. Interesting...not just ideas, but what they look like if they were to be walked out.

New Year

It is 2007, and it's time to start talking about want I want to do differently this year. Like usual, I'm hoping to blog more this year then in the past. I seem to get a good start going but then things happen, I get busy, I forget what I want to say, then six months go by...ugh. I also want to journal more this year. I went out yesterday and got a new Moleskine with the hope that it would motivate me to fill it up...time will tell. I also want to spend more time in my office. This may seem silly, but I've been hiding from it over the past few months. All the junk gong on at the church, all the financial issues, all the everything, I just did not want to go in. I tended to do all my work and study from my house.

This is going to be a good year, there is so much going on right now, and I am feeling very optimistic. Things are changing at the church, we are tweaking things, we are moving things, we are changing out methodology. Finally, it feels like we are going to do the things that we were called to do three years ago. I'm hoping to talk about some of this in future posts, because I really need to work out some of these ideas...stuff on community and what it means, stuff on alt.worship and prayer, stuff on church....you know, stuff.

Enough of my babbling....Happy New Year.....here's to the end of 2006 and a better 2007.

How 'bout them Dogs!

Georgia 31 Virgnia Tech 24

Go DOGS!!

Heretic's Guide to Eternity

I promised several months ago to do a review for Spencer Bruce's book "Heretic's Guide to Eternity". Although I read the book back in the fall, I never got around to posting the review (I never really got to posting anything! Sorry for the delay on this Spencer). Spencer is the creator of The Ooze and I was honored to get a copy of the book to review as well as looking forward to reading it.

I really did not like the book. I thought it was written somewhat sloppily and dropped statements more for effect and reaction then for true scholarly debate. I was frustrated that is seemed to be written to criticize some of the more traditional / popular branches of Christianity then to say something fresh and relevant.

I agree that following Christ is supposed to be radical, and that at times the Church gets too caught up in keeping tradition then in keeping up with Jesus. But I disagree with what appeared to be Spencer's desire to make the path to Christ so wide that belief does not matter. I thought his original proposition of "Opting-Out" instead of the Church's traditional approach of "Opting-In" was interesting, I just thought his development of that thought was sloppy, unconvincing, and disappointing.

I feel that Scot McKnight had the best review of the book. You can see his reviews here, here, here and here.

Fufilling the dream...

of the person you love who always wanted to be a monorail driver....priceless.

Third Space

I know, long time no post. I will post some updates later....but for now, a thought. Cindy and I have been talking about "third spaces" for years (although we never really called it). Take a look at Jordon's post as well as the link on his post.

Here is the question. We spent some time this fall looking at the building next door to open as a coffee shop, but we had no money. What if we just opened the church up during the week. What if we made it a third space, serve good coffee, open it up during the day or in the evening. We have wi-fi running through the building already. What if we pumped in some music, brought in some couches an tables, and opened the church up through-out the week. I know we would need to change some stuff and secure some stuff, and have more people "working" at the church, but we could be a place for people to come, hang out, and look into things that are more "spiritual". I think that we would see some fruit from this...plus we could begin to be salt to our community, a safe place to go and hang out.