Forward Wandering

Back in MN

2011-03-08T13:45:00.000-05:00

As you probably already know, we have moved back to Minnesota. Here’s a few things that have reminded me that we’re back:

- I had to stop my van at a stop sign on a back road because the snowmobile road that crossed it had the right of way.

- The AM sports radio station out of St. Cloud does a segment each day on Canadian Sports History. One day they were talking about what they believed was the greatest moment in the history of sports, and I had absolutely no idea what event they were referring to.

- My digital outdoor thermometer has stopped working every night when the temperature drops below zero degrees.

- Another local radio station does a 3 minute – “Fishing Tip of the Day.”

- Everyday I find my “oh” sounds getting longer and longer. I also catch myself saying “you betcha” 5 or 6 times daily.

Our Goofy Two-Year-Old

2010-10-24T19:37:00.003-05:00

I wanted to document a couple of funny things that Jovi has said lately. Since this is the one of the only places that I document things….I hope you’ll excuse my indulgence.

One of my favorite things that Jovi said lately is when it’s getting late, and she doesn’t want to go to bed. She combines two expressions and says, “I want to play a little minute.” (a little bit and a minute).

About a month ago, we had some music playing. I gave Jill a hug and then started slow dancing to the music in our living room. Jovi walked in and said, “Ahhhh, cute.” We busted out laughing. We couldn't believe our two-year-old daughter just called us “cute.”

Jovi is beginning to imagine a number of things. She started talking about her friends "Peeky, and Poka" the other day. I have no idea where she came up with these two, but apparently they are her friends who live in her bedroom with her.

Irresistible Revolution

2010-10-21T15:04:00.003-05:00

Hello all. I haven't done anything with my blog in a long time....maybe it's something about having two children now (and it's harder for me to hide from Jill when she needs my help). Anyway, I wrote this really long email to a few friends about Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution." Anyway, I thought I'd throw it up on my blog to fill some empty space, and to hear your thoughts in case you've read it....So here it is:

Ok, ok, I know I said I was going to type this email and send it to you guys a few months ago, but I got frustrated by the book and distracted by other books, and frankly just put it off. So, I’ve finally pushed through and thought I would share the few things that I liked and the many frustrations I had with Shane Claiborne’s book. Let me start with the Good:

The Good
I think Shane Claiborne is in some ways like a modern prophet. I don’t think that every word he says is a correct representation of God’s Word, but Claiborne’s words and even more so his lifestyle have a way of cutting through the superficiality and fluff of American evangelicalism. He does and says things that would make many evangelicals very uncomfortable. He challenges evangelicals in areas where they need to be challenged like poverty and community.

I especially appreciate that Claiborne backs up his message with his life. He has committed himself fully to the ministry that God has called him to, and in order to fully commit, he as devoted himself to chastity. This Scriptural calling has all but been forgotten in Protestant Christianity, and it certainly shows his level of commitment. Unlike so many postmoderners who wear their designer clothes to their multi-million-dollar mega-church facilities where they talk about social justice and the evils of materialism, Claiborne isn’t just giving lip service to the issue of poverty. He doesn’t gripe about homelessness, he lives among the homeless. He doesn’t just criticize the evils of American consumerism, he rejects it in the way he lives his life. I applaud his devotion to his calling. I have much more respect for Claiborne than all these other “so called” radicals, who are basically as consumeristic as the previous generation; they just talk a lot about social-injustice (and they have tattoos and really cool black-rimmed glasses).

I do want to just add one point here. Claiborne’s calling to chastity will mean that his calling is going to be considerably different than those of us who have been called to raise children. He has the freedom to do things that those who are called to be parents would be unable to do. Neither his calling nor the calling to raise children is greater than the other, they are simply different. Claiborne can travel, living among the homeless, etc…. while those who are raising children, are training the next generation of Christians. Both callings are very important.

Finally, I greatly appreciate Claiborne’s focus on community, specifically the church as the community of Christ. Without the church, Claiborne’s ideas are simply a mix of socialism and liberalism, but when the church is the deeply committed community of Christ followers, grace, love, and generosity flow from it. The answer to the world’s problems is Jesus Christ and his church. It is not political ideologies. I really liked this, “Redistribution comes from community….it is what happens when people fall in love with each other….” Generosity flows from community. It cannot truly be generosity if it is mandated by a political ideology.

The Bad
First, let me say that I just get really annoyed with all of these “postmodern” Christian leaders who use words like “revolution,” “emerging,” “radical,” and all the other language that speaks to being a “new kind of Christian.” You find these kinds of statements among so many in the “emergent church.” Here’s just a few I jotted down from Claiborne’s book:

“There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has as much to say about this world as it does about the next.” (p 24)

“The time has come for a new kind of conversation, a new kind of Christianity, a new kind of revolution.” (p 29)

“Christianity often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will be better in heaven.” (p. 17)

“I wasn’t exactly sure what a fully devoted Christian looked like, or if the world had even seen one in the last few centuries.” (p. 71)

Has the past 2000 years of Christendom been a big failure or waste of time? Has the Holy Spirit been simply waiting around in vain for the past 20 centuries hoping that this generation will finally make up for all of the failures of the previous generations? How unbelievably arrogant and historically shortsighted! It is an absolutely false notion that Christians are a bunch of people doing no earthly good while they sit around and wait for heaven (I realize that some Christians and some churches do this, and that needs to be corrected. But, Claiborne and others over exaggerate this stereotype). Christians have offered little for the world? How about these few examples, right off the top of my head: the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, doing away with evil pagan practices such as child-sacrifice, promoting education all over the world, the establishment of millions of hospitals, orphanages, food banks, homeless shelters, etc…. and this doesn’t include all of the good that has come about in the western world as an indirect result of Christian influence. It’s trendy and politically correct to criticize the failures of the Christian church (i.e. the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc…) or to throw stones at those evangelicals who are just sitting around waiting for heaven, but I believe the church has done far more good than it ever gets credit.

Also, I don’t believe that our goal as Christians should be to pursue a “revolution” or a new way of doing Christianity. I believe we should seek “reformation” and recover what it truly means to be a “follower of Jesus.” This may simply be semantics but maybe not. I should look back to Jesus and to the historic saints of the church in order to learn how to become the Christian I am called to be. I do not look forward to some sort of new Christian-Utopia that I am hoping to build with my generation. The commitment to building Christian community, to taking care of the poor, to ministering to the body as well as the soul, etc… are not “new” ideas. They are as ancient as Christianity itself. What we need is not a “new” way of doing things. We need to recover these traditions and return to the to the way God has always intended us to be. I do think that Claiborne does look back to Jesus on many points, but he also skips over so much of church history as if he and his generation are the first to apply these Jesus principles. He is simply wrong on this point.

The Ugly
Here’s my main concern with Claiborne’s book: His theology is extremely idealistic, shortsighted, and on some points unbiblical. I commend his passion and his lifestyle, but I believe he is naïve and sometimes just flat out wrong when it comes to the realm of ideas. Claiborne is resentful when people write him off as “idealistic,” but he is so imprecise in his theology that you can’t help but discount much of what he says as naïve. He’s correct when he writes, “And the answer to bad theology is not no theology but good theology.” (169). But I believe his “good theology” is just a repackaged form of “bad” liberation theology from the 1900s. His version may appeal much more to American Evangelicals rather than oppressed South Americans, but it is basically the same kind ideology.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Claiborne writes, “Poverty was created not by God, but by you and me, because we have not learned to love our neighbors as ourselves. Gandhi put it well when he said, ‘There is enough for everyone’s need, but there is not enough for everyone’s greed.’” (170). Here he quotes the renowned Christian theologian Gandhi…..oh wait….Gandhi was Hindu. Ok, so I joke, but here’s the point, Claiborne emphasizes some really important “theologies,” while completely neglecting other key points of Christian doctrine. He talks about loving our neighbor and generosity, but he says nothing at all about the key Christian doctrine of sin/original sin that brings about poverty. He talks about poverty as if it is the primary problem that Christianity seeks to solve, but poverty is just a problem, not the problem. Christian orthodoxy asserts that evil is very real and is the problem with the world. Demonic forces are real and at work to undo and destroy God’s good creation, and those forces are at work in the hearts and minds of all humanity. The primary problem of this world is evil not poverty. Poverty is simply one outcome of evil. Evil causes rich people to be selfish and hoard. Evil also causes poor people to make really bad choices that lead to even more poverty. It would be great if rich people became radically generous and shared with those in poverty. Christ commands this to Christians who are rich (not just for the sake of the poor but for their own sakes). However, poverty will never be solved simply by rich people sharing. Sin is much deep and much more destructive than this. Hasn’t the 20th century proved that no utopia will ever be established simply by redistribution of goods.

Again, Claiborne is right to emphasize social responsibility, but he seems to do so only to minimize personal responsibility. Sin has a corporate nature and a corporate effect on society, and we evangelicals should not neglect this truth. Neither should we neglect the reality of personal sin and the responsibility of individuals. The longer I’m in ministry, the more I realize that problems can almost never be solved by throwing money at stuff. For every person who genuinely needs help, there is another one trying to take advantage of people’s generosity. Every week I encounter people who lie, manipulate, steal, hate, abuse, lust, etc…. Christ and the salvation that he offers is the only solution to the world’s sin and evil. Focusing on corporate evils like poverty and war (he spent a whole chapter blasting the Iraq war without any discussion on just war theory or a proper use of Christian warfare) without addressing personal responsibility and the sins of individuals is idealistic.

Ok, well I promised a long email….so here it is. I was actually going to write more, but I’d be surprised if you made it this far in my ramblings. Perhaps I’m a little hard on Claiborne…curious what you think.

Sisters

2010-08-04T11:21:00.003-05:00

New Pics

2010-05-28T15:48:00.004-05:00

Tana Joy Borland

2010-05-24T09:04:00.006-05:00

Here's our second baby girl. She was born last night at 3:10. She's 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. Her name is Tana Joy Borland. Mama and baby are doing well.

Ministry

2010-04-23T07:00:00.003-05:00

I read this last night in "A Guide to Prayer for All God's People," originally from "Together in Solitude" by Douglas Steere. It was good for me.

"Ministers of the gospel have many occupational hazards and diseases and these have frequently been diagnosed with telling power. But all too seldom have the ministers been reminded of the unmatched spiritual opportunity that has been almost uniquely lavished on them by God, namely the opportunity of being confronted hour after hour with human problems that are utterly beyond their own strength to unravel, and which drive them back to listen for, and to draw upon a deeper wisdom and strength than they are able in themselves to supply. How often are ministers drawn back into the supernatural life of God, back into what Tauler calls 'suffering in God' by their own weakness and the sheer abysmal personal needs of those who call on them for help?"

Can't Text Me Love

2010-03-20T10:20:00.005-05:00

Cell phone salespersons are the “used-car” salesmen of the technology age. Why is it that every time I speak with one of them they spend 1% of their time actually listening to me and 99% of their time trying to convince me how much I need the latest, greatest device? I went into the store the other day and said straight out, “All I want is a cell phone for making calls (there’s a novel idea!). I use it primarily for business. I don’t need a lot of extra minutes. I want as basic of a plan as possible at as low of a cost as possible.” So, the guy decided to totally ignore all of this information, and take me to the latest fancy all-in-one phone/internet device. He told me that we can package stuff together to get me a really good deal. He said that if we bundled certain things with my home phone and internet service, it would be equal to what I am currently paying. His sales pitch sounded pretty good and reasonable, but unfortunately he wasn’t listening to me and was trying to sell me a techno-lemon. After a few clarifying questions, I discovered that the only way the cost would balance out is if I dropped my home internet service in favor for the internet service on the phone. I then asked him, “So, what you’re telling me is that I would have to do all my internet work on this 3 inch screen and with this 3 inch keyboard?” He paused, silently, to consider my question. “Yeah, I suppose so,” he responded nervously as he realized he was losing the sale, “but if you add this thing and this other additional cost, you can hook your computer up to your phone, etc, etc….” I said, “Thanks for your time” and walked out of the store, never to return again.

Have you seen the latest cell phone commercials? AT&T is trying to convince us that we need their phone because we can talk on that phone while at the same time surfing the internet on the same phone, and apparently you can’t do this with Verizon. Is this a helpful tool? How many times are you on the phone making an appointment with someone thinking, “Man, I wish I could be watching a youtube video for the 45 seconds I’m spending scheduling this meeting.” But the guy at the store believes that my life is somehow incomplete or lacking without all the new bells and whistles that will be obsolete one year from now.

The Real God

2010-03-13T13:37:00.002-05:00

Do I see God for who he truly is, or do I see God for how I would like him to be? Is God real; is he truly other, or do I worship a God who is shaped in my image, crafted in my head by all that I wish Him to be? Even when I pray and study Scripture, am I encountering the Living God, or am I simply attempting self-improvement through these rituals of discipline?

I have been thinking about God’s reality these past few days, which oddly enough, is something I don’t often think about. I’ve always believed in God. I’ve always known that He is real, at least theoretically. God is real, even more real than I am, but, while I know He is real, I do not always live with an awareness of His reality. Not that I deny His existence or doubt His truth, but I do tend to treat Him as if He is there in order to serve me or to fulfill my desires. Perhaps I have focus too much on God’s imminence and not enough on His otherness. I meditate on His love and compassion but much less on his Lordship and sovereignty.

God longs for and expects my devotion, yet I often get this turned around. Rather than submitting to the will of this very real King of Creation, I seek to bend His will to mine. I ask Him to serve me, to bless me, to transform me. He becomes the means to my ends. I treat Him as if He exists to fulfill my life. How egocentric! How corrupt is my thinking!

Today I recognize that God does not exist for my pleasure; I exist for His. I am created by Him and for Him. While He does desire union with me, He does not need me. I, on the other hand, would cease to exist if it were not for his constant, sustaining reality. All that I am rests completely on His Being. I am only because He Is.

Today I am thankful that God is a real and loving Father. He understands this perversion in my thinking, but He still calls me His son. I may often be the son who thinks His Father’s only purpose is to make his son happy, to give him his inheritance whenever he wishes to receive it. I may forget that I would not even be here if it weren’t for the will of my Father. Yet He still loves, as a patient Father loves his children. He is longsuffering with my self-centeredness. He blesses me even though I don’t deserve it. He gives grace, even to those who selfishly seek it.

Wedding Pics

2010-03-11T22:38:00.002-05:00

Bleaker than Fiction

2010-03-11T22:10:00.003-05:00

I lost a lot of sleep back in January because I picked up a book that I had a hard time putting down. I don't read a lot of fiction, but I would highly recommend "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy to anyone who is interested (it was recently made into a movie but I haven't seen it yet). I'd start reading in bed at 10pm, and would read well past midnight, which is much too late for me. Thankfully it's a short book, and I was able to quickly get back to my usual sleeping schedule.

"The Road" is the story of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic America, and despite the books devastatingly bleak picture of the future, it also gives glimpses of beauty and hope. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that it's definitely worth your time.

Because I enjoyed "The Road" so much and because I was getting ready to head out on a trip to MN with about 1,800 miles of driving, I recently picked up and listened to McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" on audio CD from our local library. It's another dark and deeply disturbing story. McCarthy personifies evil in a manner that is both fascinating and unsettling. Both books portray the battle between good and evil, but most of the time the evil is so horrendous that it far outweighs the good. Yet, in the most bleak circumstances, I found myself hoping against hope for the salvation of those who were good. In the darkest of stories, the small flicker of goodness, perhaps even grace, shines through.

Ready for March Madness

2010-03-11T21:58:00.003-05:00

A Sign of Things to Come

2010-03-09T17:00:00.003-05:00

Jill’s sister’s wedding was on Saturday, and she and Jovi were in the wedding. I couldn’t help but think while watching Jovi come down the center aisle that perhaps this is foreshadowing of some sad yet joyful day not so many years from now. Anyway, both my girls did great. Weddings are always fun. Here’s the quick video I took before grabbing Jovi as she made it up to me in the front of the church:

Hard Time Keeping Up

2010-01-17T14:48:00.003-05:00

Hello Folks,
Well as you can see, I'm having a hard time keeping up on my blog. Everytime I read a book or see a movie, I think, I ought to write something about that, but it just doesn't seem to happen. This has been low on my priority list lately. So, I do at least try to remember to post on Jovi's progress every now and then.
We recently got a video camera, so here's my 1st attempt at posting a video from it. We celebrated Christmas a few days late with my family back in Ohio. Jovi was modeling her "silly smile" in which she crinkles her nose really big. It's lots of entertainment for Jill and I.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2009-12-22T17:13:00.001-05:00

Less of a Man

2009-11-17T18:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I felt like I needed a change....felt like I needed to mix things up, so I shaved my beard completely off for the first time in about three years. I'm afraid this might hurt my image as the scraggly young pastor. As a clean shaven man, I feel somewhat like I'm less of a man. I wonder if Jesus would agree with me on that.

Halloween

2009-11-10T13:48:00.003-05:00

Jovi was ladybug for Halloween. Jill made the costume, and it looks like it will fit her for the next 3 or 4 years. The night she first put it on, she was pretty proud of herself. We had music on, and she started doing her latest Jovi-dance. See the video below. Lately she’s also found it very amusing to stick an ice-cream bucket on her head and walk around….strange kid…gets it from her mom.

Latest News

2009-11-10T13:25:00.003-05:00

Haven't posted in a while. I'm sure most of you have already heard our latest news, but if not, Jill and I are expecting baby #2. Everything on the ultrasound looks good. The due date is May 24. We'll try to keep you updated.

Against My Better Judgment

2009-09-25T10:30:00.002-05:00

Well, today I sold my soul to the technological evil of virtual relationships otherwise known as social networking. As I begrudgingly signed up for a facebook account today, I felt a little something inside of me die. Sure, by finally giving into peer pressure and joining the rest of my generation on facebook, I probably haven’t received the “mark of the beast,” although I bet there’s some TBN preacher making that eschatological interpretation. But I do have serious hesitations:

1.Our culture is increasingly becoming virtual. People are replacing real, personal, physically-present relationships for an e-reality. It takes time and energy to make real friendships, but with a few clicks of a mouse I already have dozens of facebook “friends.”

2. Facebook feeds on our celebrity-driven narcissistic culture. Now, I’ve already admitted that this blog is semi-narcissistic and self-indulgent, but my primary reasons for having it are to give me an avenue to update friends and family on Jovi’s life and to occasionally write my thoughts on culture and theology. I’m not concerned with how many people read it, and I’m not attempting to gain friends or influence through it. Facebook seems to me to be a world in which everyone gets to be the star of their own little virtual world. Of course, not everybody uses it for this, but it does seem to promote this mentality.

The one and only reason I have joined facebook is to be able to communicate with a few people who seem to only use facebook as their means of communication. There is specifically one organization that I am trying to stay in contact with, and I’m realizing that it’s very difficult without facebook. So, there is my justification for going over to the dark-side.

Latest Pics

2009-09-17T22:07:00.006-05:00

Logic and Football

2009-09-12T19:05:00.002-05:00

All none football fans might as well just skip this post.

I’m sitting here anticipating another big Buckeye loss to USC tonight. Yep, I’ve become that pessimistic. If we somehow win, I’ll be super excited and surprised. If we lose, I’ll see it coming and won’t be overly disappointed. So, here I am in my basement, watching Michigan v. Notre Dame and thinking football.

So here are my thoughts on a rule in football. I think the dumbest rule change I’ve seen in a few years was last year when the NFL and college both changed all face-masking penalties to a mandatory personal foul 15 yard penalty. Both leagues said that they changed the rule in order to protect players, but I think this is the most illogical thing they could have done. Sure, it sounds good, but let’s think about this for a minute.

Before last year there were two separate penalties for face-masking. A five yard penalty was given for minor infractions, and a fifteen yard penalty was given for more severe infractions. The referees had to make a judgment call. Now the minor infractions are done away with. From what I understand, the minor penalties were given for face-masking infractions that met two criteria: 1. The grabbing of the facemask was accidental/incidental (sometimes a defender accidentally makes contact with the runner’s facemask in the course of tackling him) and 2. The defender released the facemask as soon as he makes contact. So, if a defender accidentally grabbed a facemask in the course of tackling a runner but let go of the facemask immediately, his team was given a 5 yard penalty instead of a 15 yard penalty.

Doing away with the 5 yard penalty does not protect players. I would argue that it actually endangers them more. Here’s why. By definition, criteria #1 cannot be avoided since it is accidental. Increasing the penalty for something that occurs unintentionally should have no effect on how often the accidental contact occurs, and thus, not make the game any safer for the one whose facemask is grabbed. And now that all facemask penalties are given the major 15 yard penalty there is no reason for a defender to quickly let go of a facemask, even if he grabs in accidentally. He might as well finish tackling the runner by trying to rip his head off. Once one touches the facemask, why let go? Therefore the rule change actually gives a player more reason to hold onto the facemask for longer, putting more players in danger.

Perhaps the only other argument to change the rule is to take the judgment call away from the refs, but 90% of the calls the refs make are judgment calls.

Michigan just beat Notre Dame….bummer…not that Notre Dame lost, just that Michigan won. That makes my day even worse if the Buckeyes lose. Oh well, still got the Steelers.

Mmmmm

2009-08-24T18:21:00.000-05:00

8-Track Guy in an iPod World

2009-08-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

I’ve noticed that I’ve apologized a number of times on my blog for failing to post more often. Sometimes a month goes by without me ever logging onto my site. I do feel bad because I wish I spent more time and energy writing and posting, but unfortunately it’s normally low on my priority list. I also know that my infrequent updates may cause some people to lose interest and stopping checking my blog. I hope that’s not the case, but I guess that’s just the world we live in.

Rather than apologize again, I want to defend my infrequent posting by saying, at least I don’t twitter or post insignificant details of my life. I could sit down for two minutes daily and write a bunch of inconsequential drivel that nobody cares about, but I’d rather remain silent than to bore you with the tedious details of my everyday. For instance, I could write that I got a gallon of milk for $1.59 at the grocery store the other day. Yeah, I know, that’s pretty cheep. But here’s why I don’t write things like that: unless you live in the Lansing area and want to know what grocery store to go to, this information is useless to you (or unless you’re my father-in-law who is a dairy farmer that cares very much about the price of milk). Our world is increasingly saturated with nauseating amounts of frivolous information and I don’t want to contribute the self-indulgent culture of texting, tweeting, and facebooking. Ok, maybe this post is a little self-indulgent, but don’t worry, it will probably be the only one this week.

Our Vain Child

2009-07-28T10:29:00.005-05:00

Jovi is going through a stage in which she whines a lot more than she used to when she doesn’t get her way. She wants her mama most of the time, and it’s been harder to keep her happy and entertained. Her fussiness is partly due to her going through the weaning process….and partly due to the fact that she’s a girl. I recently discovered that she loves watching these videos of herself, so I’m posting them in order to keep her occupied. Every time she watches one, she gives me her sign for “more.” Jill is working tomorrow, so I may find myself sitting at the computer with our vain little girl.

She's learning her body parts but does much better when there is no camera pointed at her.

She's also learned a few animal sounds. The cow sound is getting pretty close to "moo." The sheep clears its throat rather than saying "ba ba." The lion used to growl, but now the lion just says "mama."

Having fun with her favorite person.

Learning to Walk

2009-07-04T09:52:00.005-05:00

Sorry for posting so rarely. We've been gone for almost half of June and had VBS another week. I'll try to keep up a little more often the second half of the summer.

Jovi is learning to walk as you can see in the video. She's still too much of a chicken to venture off on her own. She's only brave enough to try if someone is waiting for her to catch her.

She continues to be a tiny little thing. At her last doctor's appointment (12 and 1/2 months) she weighed in at 15.3 pounts.

1st Birthday

2009-06-04T20:44:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that Jovi is one year old. We had a little party for her with a few friends over, and Jill made this sweet duck birthday cake.

First Taste

After the Party

2009-06-04T20:39:00.004-05:00

Waving goodbye to her friends.

Trying on the new clothes.

Dance, Dance, Dance

2009-05-11T10:11:00.001-05:00

On Jill’s birthday, my brother got her the largest birthday card I’ve ever seen. When you open it, it plays the “Peanuts” theme song. We’ve gotten more use out of this birthday card than any card in the history of greeting cards. It sits under Jovi’s crib, and she likes to get it out every week and have a dance party.

I Win

2009-05-11T10:04:00.002-05:00

I can turn just about anything into a competition. Not long after Jovi was born, I would always tell her, “Say Dada.” Of course, Jill would always tell her, “Say Mama.” While I certainly know that Jovi love her Mom more than her Dad, I at least won the battle for the first word.

The Passion of Sophie

2009-05-03T16:21:00.003-05:00

I keep a list of movies on my fridge so that when I go to rent one, I don’t spend 30 minutes at the movie store trying to figure out what to get. I update my list every few months, normally based on reviews. I don’t always like the movies that the critics like, but if the majority of critics hate a movie, I find that it’s a fairly good indication that it won’t be worth my time. So, over the last month or so I’ve rented Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. Both were pretty good, but I didn’t love either of them. I didn't find either of them inspiring, and in a few months I will have forgotten much about them.

The best movie I’ve seen in a long time was one that has been buried on my movie list for several years. It’s a German film entitled “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days.” I’ve been thinking about it over and over again since I saw it a few days ago. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that it’s a very simple movie (not action packed at all). It is inherently Christian without being preachy, and it is deeply moving. I want to write a bunch more, but I hate spoiling movies. Two thumbs way up!

American Idol

2009-04-29T20:13:00.004-05:00

I try to keep politics out of the pulpit and for the most part out of my blog, but tonight I just can't resist. I came home from the church this evening and flipped on the old "boob-tube," and there was President Obama answering questions at a prime time news conference. The caption at the bottom of the screen read "First 100 days," and I thought is this his 100th day in office or the 100th time he's holding a prime time press conference? I mean, he's on the TV more than Ryan Seacrest, but I'm sure he doesn't have much else to do being the leader of the free world and all.

So, I looked it up and figured that this is his 4th prime time speech since taking office (3 press conferences and the state of the union address). Assuming this rate continues and that he wins re-election in 2012, we only have 113 more prime time President Obama specials to go!

Rational Faith

2009-04-28T11:59:00.002-05:00

You’ll have to excuse my failure to post over the past month. It’s been busy with Holy Week, Easter, and family visiting. I’m also realizing how much less time I’ve had this year compared to last year, before Jovi was born. That darn kid sucks up much of our free time.

Anyway, I still have found time to read (perhaps this is because I’m a pastor and really only work one day a week….haha), and one of the best books I’ve read in a long time is Timothy Keller’s “The Reason for God.” If you are a person who questions whether or not Christianity is true or if you deal with people who are skeptical of Christianity, I highly recommend this book.

Keller is a pastor in New York City, and his book was written from the perspective of the many conversations he has had with skeptical New Yorkers about faith. While Keller’s primary role is as pastor, he is extremely well versed in philosophy. What is great about his book is not the originality of his ideas and arguments. I’ve come across all of his arguments in other books of philosophy or theology. But, what is great is how logical and accessible his book is. He covers the most common arguments that skeptics use to attack the Christian faith, and responds to those arguments with great precision and clarity. He brings together some of the best arguments Christian thinkers have to offer (the book is well documented, repeatedly quoting C.S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, Soren Kierkegaard, and a wide variety of authors from across the spectrum), and he does it in a way that I think most serious-minded laypeople could understand. This is an excellent introduction to apologetics and would be the first book off my shelf that I would give to skeptic of the Christian faith.

Bustin' a Move

2009-03-31T19:24:00.002-05:00

Home Alone

2009-03-08T13:50:00.005-05:00

Jill went off to a women’s retreat this weekend, leaving Jovi and I to fend for ourselves at home for three days. Surprisingly it has gone really well. Jovi’s been a good girl for me. But, we are looking forward to having Jill back later this afternoon.

Here’s a quick video to show the latest of Jovi in action. And I know what you’re wondering, are those Tristan’s famous chicken legs in the video? Yep, that’s them. I wanted to have my producer photo-shop me some big bulging calf muscles, but due to budget cuts at our production studio, we had to stick with the raw footage.

Death of an Icon

2009-03-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

For most of my life I have had my eyes fixed on the future. I always seem to be planning for what is to come, worrying about what might go wrong, and preparing myself for the joys and sorrows that lay ahead of me. If you were to ask me what I have going on next week, I could tell you my schedule in great detail. If you ask me what I did last week, it would take me five minutes to pull that information from my memory banks, that is, if I could remember at all. The very title of this blog speaks to the way I approach reality – driven by the future, quickly forgetting the past.

With that said, I’ve been reflecting about the past more this year than I ever have before. Perhaps it is because I am now a father. Perhaps it is because I’ve entered my 30’s. Perhaps it is because I serve a congregation with a large number of elderly folks and have had to minister to people facing disease, death, and the end of their lives. Whatever the reason, I’ve been thinking a little less about what is to come and a little more about what has been left behind. This was especially true when I heard this weekend that radio legend Paul Harvey died on Saturday.

There are few things that remind me of my childhood more than the voice of Paul Harvey being broadcast over the air waves. My father’s father died when I was only five years old. I don’t remember much about him, but one of my distinct memories from childhood was visiting my grandmother and him in their house in Carrollton, Ohio, drinking sassafras tea, eating cinnamon toast, and hearing Paul Harvey on the radio. On the days that I would follow my dad to work as a kid, we would eat our sack lunches at noon sitting on a couple of five gallon buckets while listening to Paul Harvey report the news on my dad’s little AM radio. My last year of college, I had a class that dismissed at 11:45, and I would listen to Paul Harvey everyday as I drove back to my apartment for lunch. Throughout all the phases of my life, I have memories of hearing Paul Harvey on the radio.

In our world with rapid changes in culture, technology, and worldviews, Paul Harvey was an icon who seemed to transcend many of the boundaries of age and opinions. I imagine that if my grandfather was alive today we probably wouldn’t share a similar taste in music or fashion. I don’t really like Lawrence Welk, and I doubt that he would be a big fan of U2 or Pearl Jam. I’m sure he would be a lot better at working on cars, but I would be more skilled in working with computers. He would know a lot about the political issues that affected his life during the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. I would speak to the issues that are currently shaping our world in impacting my family. My grandfather and I would be divided in so many areas because of time and trends. There are so few things that link my generation to his generation. When Paul Harvey died this past weekend, I feel as if we lost one of those few links.

I’m not sure what this world is going to be like when Jesus comes back to fully establish his kingdom. I’m not sure if there will be radio when the dead in Christ are resurrected and Christ makes all things new. But, if there is radio, I hope Paul Harvey gets some airtime. And I hope my grandfather and I have a chance to once again sip on some sassafras tea, eat some cinnamon toast, and listen to the news from a radio legend.

Deal Me In

2009-02-28T18:37:00.001-05:00

I’ve come to find that churches are the worst places to clean and organize. The reason for this is because nobody ever throws anything away, and the reason nobody ever throws anything away is because nobody owns the stuff at a church, and nobody feels that they have the authority to get rid of it. So, things that haven’t been used in 20 years in a church get put into a box and tucked away into a corner closet because you never know, somebody might use that stuff someday. I and a few other folks at the church have been trying to clean the place up and get things better organized, and we’ve found boxes and boxes of files, decorations, and all kinds of other weird stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since the 80’s. Don’t tell anybody, but much of that stuff has finally found its proper place in the dumpster.

Above is a picture of my favorite discovery so far. I know what you’re thinking…that is the sweetest deck of Jesus playing cards I’ve ever seen. That’s exactly what I thought when uncovered several packs of these babies. I was ready to call up the boys and have a sanctified game of Texas Hold’em right there in the church. I hoped in this deck that the King, Queen, and Jack have been replaced by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I hear a Holy Flush is the new highest hand you could have in poker.

To my dismay, the above cards weren’t actually playing cards. The other side is totally blank. I have no idea what they were used for. I’m thinking about drawing in all the appropriate numbers and symbols and making my self the sweetest deck of cards ever.

The Shack

2009-02-25T11:07:00.003-05:00

A friend recently asked me if I had read "The Shack" and what I thought about it. So, I figured I'd post my response to him:

Dear friend,

Back in October a lady from our church came up to me and said, "Pastor Tristan, you have to read "The Shack." I want to know what you think about it. I loved it so much that I went out and bought a second copy, so take this one and let me know what you think.”

My first thought was, oh great, now I have to read some poorly written Christian fiction book (not exactly my favorite genre). But I did want to read because I really appreciate the lady who gave it to me. She's only been a Christian for a few years, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and suffer through some cheesy Christian novel in order to connect with her.

A few pages into "The Shack," I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was fairly well written. Also, I was relieved to find that its plot didn’t center on a dispensationalist view of the end times…I’m amazed at how many of those the Christian press can publish in a given year! When I finished reading it I had a lot of thoughts on the book, but I’ll try to limit them here to a few positive ones and a few negative ones:

Here's what I liked: 1. Young at least attempted portray God as Triune. All attempts to write about the Trinity in fiction will fail because the Trinity is intrinsically mysterious and beyond our understanding, but I found it refreshing that Young emphasized God's 3-ness. Most popular writers tend to write generically about God, and their writings unintentionally assume God’s oneness. The Trinity is central to all we believe about God, so I commend Young’s attempt to bring the Trinity into popular Christian conversation, even though his attempt falls short at times.

2. The book is about suffering and the problem of evil, and I think it does an ok job of addressing the question of how a Good and All-powerful God would allow people to suffer. I believe this is the hardest questions that Christians have to answer, and Young does an adequate job of speaking to this question in the form of popular fiction.

3. Young also stresses freewill. I’ve read a few scathing critiques of “The Shack” by popular evangelicals, but almost all of them were from a Calvinist background. I could see why a Calvinist wouldn’t like this book because the characters are free and God’s sovereignty doesn’t infringe upon their freedom.

Here's what I didn't like: 1. I have to agree with you that Eugene Peterson’s statement was laughable. I think we need to give “The Shack” a few hundred more years of assessment before we put it on par with “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

2. There was one passage that I found particularly troubling in which Jesus says something like "it doesn't really matter if a person is a Christian or not. If a person really wants to seek me, they will find me. All ways lead to me" (that's not an exact quote, but it was something like that). Anyway, in this one passage, the Jesus character seems closer to being a Unitarian than a Christian. Because Young focuses so much on the Trinity, it wouldn’t be fair to label him as a Unitarian, but I did have big problems with that one passage.

3. Along the lines of the last point, one of my friends thinks that “The Shack” implicitly affirms universalism, and I can definitely see what he means. The book consistently paints a picture of Jesus as Loving and Good but fails to recognize him as the Coming King and Judge. In Young’s defense, the book isn’t about judgment, but any hint of judgment by Trinity seems to be missing.

Curious if any of you have read it or have any thoughs?

Latest on Jovi

2009-01-28T10:25:00.004-05:00

They say that weight training works because it stresses out muscles and breaks them down. Then when your muscles get rest and protein, they recover and become stronger than they were before you worked them out.

I think our stressful travel must have been the equivalent of weight training for Jovi’s mind and development. When headed out on Christmas, she was able to roll over and only in one direction. Now, just in the past few weeks, she has gone from rolling, to crawling, to pulling herself up into a standing position. I figure that if we take her on few more stressful trips, we can probably get her walking, talking, and maybe even writing my sermons for me by next year.

The Trip from Hades

2009-01-28T10:17:00.001-05:00

It’s been quite some time since I last touched base with the blogging world. Forgive my absenteeism. Jill, Jovi, and I were traveling over the holidays. We returned home for one week before heading out again for meetings with my denomination in Ohio. The last couple of weeks I feel like we’re just trying to catch up with work at the church and around the house, so my blogging has been on the back burner. But, it is good to be home.

Do you ever feel like God is just messing with ya? I’ve never really thought this, but by the end of our trip, I was beginning to wonder. We headed out Christmas morning to fly to Minnesota for few days to celebrate with Jill’s family. Our first flight was canceled. We showed up at the airport for the next available flight, and it was delayed for about 3 hours. We finally boarded the plane and took off. We landed in Chicago and were supposed to have a brief layover, but they didn’t have any gates open for us to get off of the plane, so we sat on the runway for over an hour, causing us to miss our connecting flight. We hung in Chicago for quite some time....our next flight was delayed, but eventually we finally made it to MN.

While in MN Jovi got sick and pretty much hated everybody but her mom for those few days. The following Tuesday morning we got in the car to drive from Jill’s parent’s house to the Twin Cities to catch our flight home. We set out really early because it was snowing hard. A drive that normally takes about 2 ½ to 3 hours took us about 5 ½ hours. We were stopped for over an hour at one point because of an accident. We finally arrived and stood in line for over an hour waiting to get our ticket. All the flights were delayed. Eventually we boarded the plane at about 8 pm. After boarding the plane we sat on the plane for over an hour before taking off….familiar story. Remember all of this was with a 6 month old baby! We finally got to Chicago. Our next flight was delayed again (making it a perfect 4 out of 4 for delays). We tried to drive to see my parents in Ohio, but the snowy roads nearly killed us, so we eventually stopped at 2:30 in the morning. What a nightmare!

So, what did I learn from all of this? 1) While part of me wants to say a big “Bah Humbug” to ever traveling again over the holidays, I came to realize that my experience this Christmas was much more an authentic representation of the first Christmas than my usual Christmas rituals. Rather than waking up Christmas morning to a big breakfast with family, laughing together, opening presents, and celebrating, this Christmas I was stressed, traveling, dealing with circumstances that were beyond my control, and trying to appease a crying, tired baby. I can imagine that Joseph must have felt the same way about the Roman government forcing him to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife as I did about the airlines this Christmas.

2) True joy is most apparent in the midst of suffering. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we really “suffered” on this trip, but the lack of sleep, the stress, the crying kid, the bad weather, and all the delays can certainly steal one’s Christmas spirit. After our second miserable day of traveling, while we were sitting on the plane on the runway, most people’s tempers were getting hot. You could hear people on the plane rustling in their seats, complaining to one another, and being very short with the flight-attendants. I was just like everybody else, getting very frustrated, but then I prayed and God spoke to my heart and reminded me how blessed I was. In that moment I couldn’t help but smile. I began to think that God was just messing with me this whole trip, like some cosmic practical joke, and it made me laugh. I realized that joy is so much deeper than our circumstances. I chatted and joked with the flight-attendant and let her hold Jovi. Jovi eventually started crying, and the flight-attendant asked me what’s wrong with her. I said, “She hates your airline,” and the people in our section all started laughing. Things really weren’t that bad. I don’t want to be happy; I want to have joy

Grace

2008-12-09T15:53:00.003-05:00

I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly blessed lately. There are so many things in my life that bring such joy, and I know that all of these things are graces given by the Father. In no way do I deserve the life and blessings that I have been given. I have an amazing wife who is one of the most loving and genuine people I know. I have a beautiful daughter who makes me laugh and fills my heart with joy. I have a church that reminds me daily of God’s love and challenges me to be a better man. I have the privilege of serving Christ’s body as my occupation and vocation. I have been forgiven and am loved by God. I have been blessed so much, and sometimes I’m not even sure why. This is grace.

Another Fine Piece of Journalism

2008-12-04T23:07:00.004-05:00

What makes a man a man? What makes a woman a woman? Maybe I’m just a rural simpleton, but I’ve always assumed that being a man or a woman had at least something to do with the kind of reproductive organs you have. I know I’m naïve, and forgive my being blunt, but I always assumed that the fact that I have a penis qualified me as being a man, maybe not a manly man, but a man nonetheless. Apparently I was wrong….at least according to the major news organizations in our country.

Have you seen the story of the person in the above picture? Barbara Walters had “him” on her top ten list of fascinating people of 2008. Several months ago ABC News reported the headline, “Pregnant Man Weeks Away from Giving Birth.” CNN reported just over a week ago, “The pregnant man who gave birth to a daughter earlier this year says he is expecting a second child.” These aren't tabloids. They’re supposed to be reputable news organizations. The pregnant man has been on Oprah and Larry King, and the buzz and absurdity goes on and on.

Can I just say something to help clear things up for anyone who’s confused? Here’s my headline….this just in…“The Pregnant Man Has No Penis.” That’s right. This is not a story of a modern biological miracle. The pregnant man in fact has a vagina, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes…yep, the whole female reproductive system which according to my very basic understanding of gender make him not really a him but a her. There is no real earth shattering story here. It’s a simple case of a woman who feels that she is a man, so she has taken hormone treatments, had some cosmetic surgeries performed, and has begun to act as if she were a man. But, she still has all the raw materials of being a woman.

This story is only a story because the news media has been sensationalizing it and manipulating ignorant people by reporting vague details about the person’s true gender. Most reports, like the ones above, refer to the person only as a man. A few reports say that he was actually “born as a woman,” but even this comment leads one to infer that she had an actual sex change operation. The story just isn’t a real story.

Now, if someday they figure out how to truly impregnate a real man, that will be a story worth reporting. I for one, look forward to that day, because then we men can finally dispel the myth that childbirth is so painful. I mean, come on, how bad can it be?

Just kidding, ladies.

Merry Christivus

2008-11-25T12:19:00.001-05:00

So, Jill and I were decorating for Christmas yesterday…I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet; but what can I say, we love Christmas and we’re going to be out of town for Thanksgiving anyway….and as I was putting up our fake Christmas tree, I discovered this perfect blending of the symbols of Christmas and Festivus. It’s part Christmas tree, part Festivus pole. You can put your presents under it Christmas morning, and then air your grievances next to it in the evening. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, you need to watch more Seinfeld.

The First Supper

2008-11-21T14:14:00.002-05:00

Last meals can be pretty important. I think it must be one of the highlights of the whole death-row experience. Jesus had a pretty important last supper with his disciples, but I've never given much thought on first meals. Well, here's Jovi's first experience eating solid foods (if you can call them solid). Anyway, she's doing a pretty good job with it. You can tell that she enjoys it by the death grip she gets on that spoon.

Parable on Tax Cuts

2008-11-13T17:38:00.004-05:00

Most of the time when Jesus taught, he used parables. Why? I think it was because we can all relate to stories and see truth that we might not otherwise grasp. Somebody sent me this modern parable yesterday regarding our current tax system. It illustrates the absurdity in what so many people argue about taxes and economics. Hope you enjoy:

A brilliant explanation of our tax system, the impact of a tax cut, and the public reaction -

Every day 10 men go out for a beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would look something like this:
The first 4 men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth (richest) would pay $59

So that is what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. "Drinks for the ten now cost just $80."

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would pay their "fair share?"

They realized that $20 divided by 6 was $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everyone's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so - The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)
The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings)
The eighth man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)
The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)

Each of the six was better off than before and the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got $1 out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10." "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I." "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get back $10 when I only got $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man did not show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beer without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money among all of them for even half of the bill!

And that my children is how our tax code works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most dollar benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas or in Mexico where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Everyone's Biased...Except Me and CNN

2008-10-31T20:54:00.004-05:00

If you've read my previous post from a few days back, you'll already know that I'm not overly excited about any candidate this year. But, I am still following all the news as close as the next guy. I may be a pessimist, but I'm at least a well informed pessimist. I'm typically on the conservative side of political issues, and one thing that drives me nuts is the blatant bias shown by most of the media. The above was the picture for the headline story on cnn.com which read, "Wall Street ends one of its scariest months." Now, let me just make a few obvious observations. 1.This is the headline on a day in which the Dow Jones closed up over 144 points. 2.The election is just over three days away, and does anybody notice what button this dude happens to be wearing? I wonder if the people at CNN noticed and picked this picture for a reason.

This is an ongoing pattern for CNN. They use so much subtle manipulation in what they do that I can't imagine anyone being bamboozled by it, but of course they claim to be the "unbiased" media. I don't care if they are liberal....please just admit it and stop pretending to not have an agenda. Everybody has an agenda, just tell us clearly what we already know.

Just over a week ago, I laughed out loud when I read three different headlines for the day's main story. The first said "Gas Prices Drop 30 Cents." The second said "Largest Single Day Drop in the Price of Gas in History." CNN's headline said "Gas Prices Drop; Still Higher than Last Year." No agenda there....totally unbiased.

A Brisk Fall Walk

2008-10-28T16:49:00.003-05:00

I'm getting excited for the time that Jovi can actually do more than crying, eating, sleeping, pooping, laughing, and the latest...rolling over (but only onto her belly, then she's stuck and begins to crying again). I try to do stuff with her all the time, but she never really seems to be to interested. So, I took her for a walk yesterday, and I think you can tell by the expression on her face that she was pretty excited about it. It's gotten much colder here the past week or two so we bundled up and hiked around for about 1.5 miles. She did pretty well. She didn't cry at all. She didn't do much of anything....just chilled with her daddy. One day I hope she enjoys it.

Victory in Defeat

2008-10-27T09:34:00.002-05:00

I have a good friend in Minnesota who is a big sports fan and loves the Minnesota Vikings, but as a Vikings fan it hasn’t always been easy. A few years ago, the Vikings had the best record in the NFC and were highly favored over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game. The winner would have to go on to face the Denver Broncos the previous year’s Super Bowl champs. My friend told me that he secretly wanted the Falcons to beat the Vikings, because he figured the Vikings were going to break his heart again if they made the Super Bowl, and he didn’t want them to become the first team in the NFL to lose 5 Super Bowls. Now, that my friends is true pessimism and cynicism. When he told me this, I laughed. How could any true fan secretly hope that their team loses the big game? Well…now I might understand.

My beloved Buckeyes have played in the past two National Title games and has lost them both. The media has been brutal on the Buckeyes. I’ve heard them referred to as the Buffalo Bills of college football, despite the fact that they won the National Title game back in 2002. Over the past 2 years they only lost 3 games, they just happen to be really big games. Anyway, Saturday, the Buckeyes lost a close game to Penn State, assuring that they have no chance of playing in this year’s title game. I cheered for them throughout the whole game, but at the end, I had to breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘at least we won’t lose three straight national titles.’ So, Tom, if you’re out there, I feel your pain, buddy.

War, what is it good for?…Destroying evil regimes and establishing human rights.

2008-10-24T18:48:00.003-05:00

I find myself becoming increasingly frustrated and cynical as I follow politics this year. With the election only days away, I keep asking, are there any good options? I’m not so sure. I watch the debates and find myself screaming at the television, “Please, tell me what you really believe and stop clouding everything with your jargon! Let’s get rid of all the red herrings, straw men, and shallow appeals to emotion, and give me your clearly defined system of beliefs and plans for action.” Yeah, like that’s actually going to happen. I feel as if America is drifting into the abyss, and the political options we have aren’t really going to change anything other than the rate at which we travel to the abyss.

With that said, I’ve also been wondering if democracy is really as great as everybody in our country seems to think that it is. I know that doesn’t sound very P.C. or even very American, but hear me out. I’m not anti-democracy (or a democratic republic in our case). It does seem to be the best form of government in our modern political world. Freedom is intrinsically good, but without all the other virtues, the inherent value of freedom is quickly diminished. If the hearts of people become selfish, hateful, greedy, and evil, then it doesn’t really matter whether they are ruled by monarch, a dictator, or a freely elected corrupt government. Evil people within a democracy will produce evil and corrupt forms of government. We tend to think of Adolf Hitler as a classical case of dictator, but he rose to power in a Germany that held free elections. Just because a society has fair and free elections doesn’t guarantee that the people are going to make the right kinds of decisions. I suppose democracies are better than autocratic forms of government because if democracies become evil and corrupt, the people have nobody to blame but themselves.

I think a discussion on democracy is particularly relevant when we think about the war in Iraq and any other wars in which we end up occupying a country for a long period of time. I’m certainly not one of these “anti-war” people. I have no problem with our country defending ourselves and our national interests. But, I do have one question. I have heard over and over again that our goal is to establish democracies all around the world. The popular myth seems to be that if we simply establish fair and free elections all over the world, the world will become a utopia of freedom. Not only does this goal seem impossible to truly accomplish, it seems to me that even if it were accomplished, it would not bring about the results that we desire. For example, if we were able to overthrow a dictator in a country where the majority of people have a worldview based on radical Islam…simply giving them fair and free elections wouldn’t really do much good. If the vast majority of people in a society believe it is virtues to murder infidels in suicide bombings, to enslave minority groups, and to oppress women, then a democracy will produce no better results than a dictator.

What needs to happen for our military to be successful is not simply the establishment of a democracy, but the conquering of destructive worldviews and the enforcement of inalienable human rights. Freedom is great, but freedom without virtue is hollow. Evil dictators need to be defeated, but they must be replaced by governments that have a better worldview than the dictator they are replacing.

Pipsqueak Update

2008-10-21T08:37:00.001-05:00

Jovi had her 4 month checkup today. She weighed in at a whopping 11.05 pounds, which places her in the skinniest 5% of babies. Jill attributes this to her skinny Borland legs. Just before getting weighed, she spit up a bunch…kind of like my high school wrestling friends who spit in a bottle all day trying to shave a few more ounces.
She also got her series of immunization shots, so she’s a sad little girl today. If it’s anything like the last time, she’ll be pretty sad all day…I’m glad I’m busy working.

Seasons of Life

2008-10-19T18:43:00.001-05:00

I am a Midwesterner, raised in Ohio, spent three years in Minnesota, and now reside in Michigan. I never realized how much of a Midwesterner I was until I spent six months in Brazil. Up until that point the Midwest weather, lifestyle, and change of seasons were all I ever knew, and when I lived in Brazil I missed that reality. I remember how depressing it was being in a tropical climate in October. Sure, the beaches were breathtaking and the sunshine was beautiful, but I’ll take a crisp breeze and some falling leaves any day of the week. I love the fall.

I was thinking about seasons and how much they affect my spirit, and I realized that my natural cycle of life doesn’t have four seasons. It only has two: football season and movie season. Jill and I were talking the other day, and we couldn’t remember the last time we watched a movie, and we love to watch movies. I figured out that the reason we hadn’t was because it’s football season…no time for movies. But, as fall turns to winter, as the college bowl season winds down and the NFL playoffs come to an end, my season will change from ESPN to Netflix, from Beanie Wells and Ben Roethlisberger to Russell Crowe and Steven Spielberg.

The Amazing Jovi

2008-10-11T20:41:00.003-05:00

I don’t really want to be that dad. You know who I’m talking about…the guy that thinks that everything his kid does is exciting and thinks that his kid is infinitely better than every other kid in the world. The guy that goes on and on about his kid and will never shut up about her.

With that said, I think I have the most gifted daughter in the world. Watch her…she’ amazing. She was thinking, “I want to play with that darn parrot, but I can’t reach it.” So, what’s she do? She grabs it with her feet, and pulls it to her hands. Unbelievable!!! I bet no other 4 month old could've figured that out.

Rookie Mistake

2008-10-08T19:48:00.003-05:00

So far I’ve done two weddings since being in Eagle and will be doing a third soon. I’ve really enjoyed this aspect of ministry. I didn’t know any of the couples before they came to me and asked me to do their weddings, but I require that each of them go through at least six pre-marital counseling sessions before the wedding, and I’ve gotten to know all of them through the counseling time. Even though most people my age don’t go to church, they still want to get married in a church for whatever reason. So, I see weddings as a great opportunity to witness to and influence young couples who are beginning their lives together and I sense that God has used the times of couseling to help them spiritually and to help them prepare for marriage.
With that said, I made a big-time rookie mistake as a pastor. I set my wedding calendar long before I checked my football calendar. I have a wedding on October 18th at 3pm. We live about 15 miles from East Lansing, the home of the Michigan State Spartans. My beloved Ohio State Buckeyes will visit East Lansing an average of once every three years, and guess what….they’re here October 18th at 3:30pm and I have tickets to the game!!! I’m still trying to convince the couple that they really don’t want to get married….but, it hasn’t worked. Would it be wrong if I conducted a two minute ceremony in my Buckeye's jersey to try to make the game?

Jesus is My Friend

2008-10-01T08:35:00.003-05:00

My brother has been sending me links to some seriously cheesy Christian music. I don't know if you'll be inspired, but you'll certainly be entertained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iUU6jTqB6k

Finding a Home in Simplicity

2008-09-27T08:21:00.002-05:00

I’ve pretty much resolved in my heart that this world is not my home. As C.S. Lewis describes in his chapter entitled “Hope” in Mere Christianity, I used to be very much like the “foolish man” chasing one thing after another, thinking that the next thing would bring me true happiness. I realize that what my heart was longing for was something deeper than what can be found in this imperfect world. I was created for another world, and my heart will only be fully satisfied after the resurrection in the world to come.

With that said, I am finding joy more and more in the simple things of life like reading early in the morning with a cup of coffee or spending an evening with Jill and Jovi. I’ve also found a couple of other simple pleasures in the last month that are filling some of the gaps that I’ve had since moving to Michigan. First, a few of weeks ago I found a group of guys to play basketball with. I played ball for the first time in over a year last week, and it was a surprising blessing to my soul. They play Saturday mornings at 7am, which is a great reason to get out of bed in the morning. Second, I recently made a friend with a local guy about my age who happens to be Christian. In the midst of our conversations I discovered that he is a thinking Christian who has a passion for apologetics and likes to read and engage in the same kinds of conversations that I have a passion for.

This world is not my home, but I’m finding joy in the quiet moments of life, in time with my family, in exercise, and in friendship. I’m truly blessed.

A Message From Jovi

2008-09-24T15:47:00.003-05:00

This is my first attempt at putting a video on this blog, but I figured all our family in MN would want to see Jovi in action. Let me know if you have a hard time viewing it or not.

Grace in the Midst of Conflict

2008-09-02T23:08:00.001-05:00

Ministry certainly has its share of situations that can become frustrating. Being in the public eye and being a leader of an organization has opened me up to criticism and conflict, neither of which is enjoyable. I’m finding that when I am faced with criticism or conflict, I can quickly become combative....rather than stopping, praying, and doing my best to show grace to those who are critical or bitter, I often quickly strike back. I argue with them, try to convince them that they are wrong, but most of the time I’m not very successful.

God is beginning to show me another way. I recently read an account of Mother Teresa in a book about her ministry entitled “Faith and Compassion.” The author recounts a situation in which Mother Teresa is faced with an angry crowd of lepers whom her sisters have been trying to serve:

“The crowd that surrounded Mother Teresa at Seemapuri on a hot summer afternoon in 1993 was angry and resentful. They were full of complaints, which they hurled at her in rapid succession. Was Mother Teresa aware how bad the dal (souped lentils, a staple ingredient of the diet) tasted? She would never be able to eat it herself, said one. But she had just had it for lunch, and it was fine, she replied. Don’t eat it again he retorted, or you’ll fall ill. We are not allowed to smoke in the dormitories, objected another. “Try not to smoke at all,” said Mother with a smile, “or, if you must, step onto the verandah.” Look at my hand, said a third, it’s been bleeding and the Sisters have not done anything about it. “We’ll show it the doctor in a little while,” replied Mother, and the man lapsed into a somewhat satisfied silence. Look at my shoes, remonstrated another, the rehabilitation unit had made them so badly that they hurt. “We’ll get them to fit you into another pair,” she said. It continued in this vein for 20 minutes or so, until everyone seemed to have had their say. To each she replied calmly and gently. Finally, silence descended. As she prepared to move away, they rose and, one by one, came to touch her feet. She restrained as many as she could, for she doesn’t encourage this practice….it is, however, a battle she invariably loses, for in India this is a custom that signifies respect for an elder, and is a daily, commonplace occurrence. As they turned away, Mother Teresa said to me, “Each of them has suffered so much pain and humiliation. Once in a while their bitterness overcomes them. Sometimes the Sisters have a very difficult time calming them. Yet when we ask our young Sisters who would like to go and work with the lepers, every hand is up.”

What a gracious spirit! Mother was not unreasonable in the way she responded, but her capacity to reason was not what won over her critics. It was her patience, gentleness, and goodness that turned the situation around from an environment of conflict and criticism to one of grace and gratitude.

Cutest Kid in the World

2008-09-02T23:00:00.003-05:00

Perhaps I'm a little biased, but I happen to think Jovi is the cutest little girl in the entire world....but I suppose most daddy's feel the same way.

I wanted to show ya'll my new favorite picture. Our sister-in-law Jenny is a photographer and took some awesome pics for us when we were up in MN at the beginning of August. She did a great job, and this one is my favorite. Excellent work Jenny!

Thoughts on Shots

2008-08-22T13:38:00.003-05:00

Friday was a very, very sad day. We took Jovi in to get her first vaccination shots. The nurses came in the room and had me lay Jovi on the table. One of the nurses held her legs. The other two nurses took out their needles prepared to give her 2 shots at the same time in both of her legs. I had to hold her arms. She looked up at me as the nurses finished their prep work. I told her, “Hey Jovi, look at that mean nurse over there.” I didn’t want her watching me as she was inflicted with pain.

She got a total of three shots, and it went pretty fast. But despite being fast, it was a painful experience, not only for Jovi but for Jill and me as well. She started crying hysterically. I picked her up immediately, and she looked at me as if to say, “Why did you let them do that to me?”

Let me just say that I am the stereotypical guy. I haven’t cried in years. It’s not that I think crying would make me less masculine. I would love to cry if I could, but I was beginning to think that my tear ducts had simply dried up years ago. For whatever reason, I just don’t cry….that is…until I saw Jovi with her sad eyes looking up to me from the midst of her pain. I didn’t fall down to my knees and weep, but my eyes were certainly moist. Seeing her in pain and having no capacity to explain it or make it go away was enough to bring my tearless streak to an end.

As I looked at Jovi through moist eyes, I thought about God’s love for us. It may sound a bit clichéd, but I thought about how God allows us to go through pain sometimes because he knows it is what is best for us. As much as I hated to see Jovi in pain, I’m rational enough to realize that I would rather her go through this brief pain than to develop Polio later in her life. I have a bigger perspective than she does about what is best for her, but that doesn’t diminish the ache that I feel when she suffers.

Well, five days and counting on my new tearless streak….

All Smiles

2008-08-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

Reentering the 21st Century

2008-08-14T15:27:00.001-05:00

WE HAVE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET!!!!! Praise the Lord! So, hopefully I’ll be able to post again more regularly. This post was able to go up in seconds compared to the usual 10-30 minutes to upload anything with dialup. Ahhhh, this must be what it felt like to go from having a latrine to indoor pluming.

Sleepy

2008-07-07T19:37:00.003-05:00

Here's a few more of our recent pictures of Jovi

Smiley

2008-07-07T19:20:00.003-05:00

Jovhawk

2008-07-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

My Girls

2008-06-10T09:53:00.000-05:00

New Pic

2008-06-10T09:47:00.001-05:00

Our Daughter

2008-06-04T13:48:00.002-05:00

Well, as you can see, our baby girl has arrived! She arrived Monday morning at 5:31, weighed 6lbs. 9 ounces, and measured 20 inches long. Her name is Jovi Grace, and she and Jill are doing well. We are truly blessed.

Mom and Baby

2008-06-04T13:27:00.001-05:00

Our Family

2008-06-04T13:17:00.001-05:00

Pic 6-4-08

2008-06-04T13:06:00.001-05:00

It's a Girl!

2008-02-14T13:48:00.002-05:00

We had our ultra-sound on Monday, and it's a girl. Here's a really cool picture of our baby.

Movies 2007

2008-01-13T22:51:00.000-05:00

Here’s a list of the most memorable films I saw in 2007. Not all of these films were released in 2007, but I just happen to have seen them sometime during the past year. These aren’t necessarily all of the “best” movies I saw last year, just the ones that had the biggest impact on me.

1. Once – This is a low-budget Irish musical with a very simple story. When I say “musical” don’t think “Guys and Dolls.” It’s about a folk singer and a girl he meets and they sing songs together. The actors actually wrote and performed all of the songs; it’s actually the most realistic musical I’ve ever seen. Let me just say that this movie is great! It’s beautiful, simple, and very moving.

2. God Grew Tired of Us – See previous post

3. The Pursuit of Happyness – I’m sure most of you have heard about this one. I thought it was a great movie about suffering, purgation, and the love of a father.

4. Amazing Grace – This probably wouldn’t be on my “best” movie list, but I have to give it props for being a “Christian” film that was really well done. I think if Christian film studios made more films like this one, they would have a lot bigger impact in the end. (I’m not sure that Amazing Grace was produced by a “Christian” studio, but I know it was promoted by a number of Christian organizations).

Our Big News

2008-01-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

Well, the big story of our New Year is that Jill is pregnant again. We’ve known for just over three months but wanted to wait to break the news until Jill was into her second trimester. We’re pretty excited but still somewhat hesitant to get too excited because of the miscarriage Jill had last winter. Anyway, the New Year is picking up where last year left off, with big changes for us. A new state, a new church, new jobs, and now a new member of the family. We’re excited, nervous, and praying a lot these days.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2007-12-23T15:58:00.000-05:00

Jill and I are preparing to head home to Ohio on Christmas Eve for my family’s Christmas celebration. It’ll be good to get away for a few days and relax.

I had a funny experience today regarding Christmas that I thought I’d share with you. Do you ever feel the pressure to keep Christmas sacred? You know keep the “Christ” in “Christmas” and all of that. As a pastor, I’m certainly trying to do my best to celebrate Advent and prepare my heart for the coming of our Lord on Christmas. In that spirit Jill and I asked for a Nativity Scene this Christmas to refocus our otherwise pagan Christmas décor, and Jill’s parents got us one. It’s one of those Willow Tree ones. We really like it.

Anyway, I thought we were doing the “Christian” thing until I walked by it and saw that we set it up in-between two giant snowmen. You remember the story: the shepherds, the wise-men, the two enormous snowmen that Joseph built while waiting for Mary to deliver…I guess we just can’t win.

Hope ya’ll have a very merry Christmas!

Celebrities to the Rescue

2007-12-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, I just watched the first two minutes of the most ridiculous television event ever. It was the “Celebrity Skifest” on CBS. Apparently this event was designed to raise awareness and money to help save the world’s water. That’s right, a bunch of celebrities skiing to save the world’s water. Does this make any sense to anyone else?

What was even more absurd than the event itself was its introduction. It featured a number of B-list actors and a skier who made brief statements about the importance and necessity of “saving the water.” Apparently global warming is causing the world’s water supply to dry up. Doogi Houser opened the segment by talking about the dangers of greenhouse gasses and the potential of our planet running out of water (without really connecting these two thoughts in any logical way). Then the guy who helped create Seinfeld said, “We need to make sure we all have good water…full of oxygen.” Next was some lady who asked, “If we don’t protect our water, how will the fish continue to swim and spawn?” Another said, “Water is our most precious resource, it’s so much more precious than gasoline." Finally, the skier said, “The world’s water supply is in danger…So, what can I do? I can ski.” Praise the Lord for that brave skier, I was really starting to get worried!

How are we supposed to take any of this seriously? I actually thought I was watching some absurd SNL skit, but these celebs were as serious as a heart-attack. They truly believe that global warming is going to wipeout the world’s water supply, and even more crazy than that, they actually seem to think their ridiculous ski event is going to make a difference. What’s next, a celebrity billiards tournament to help prevent the earth from losing its supply of dirt? Because without dirt, we’ll have no place to plant crops…I think it’s a pretty serious potential problem, and I’m sure we can figure out some way to tie into the whole global warming issue.

A Meditation on Meditation

2007-12-16T18:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a while. I’ve just been really busy at the church, trying to get a bunch of stuff done before Christmas, and my blog has been low on my priority list. When I do get the chance to blog, it seems that I’ve only been posting on movies. It’s probably because I spend most of my time consumed with the work and issues of the church that movies become my one escape and therefore an easy thing to write about.

The latest film that I would recommend is entitled “Into Great Silence.” It’s a documentary filmed at The Grande Chartreuse Monastery which is somewhere in Europe (I think France). It is a foreign film, but you will hardly know it when you watch it since there are all of about 10 words spoken in this two hour long film. Yeah, it’s over two hours long with hardly any action or dialogue, and I found myself being pretty bored at times. But, I think that was one of the points the film was trying to make: that the lives of these godly men are so quiet, simple, and beautiful that it is even hard for a modern viewer to watch them for two hours, let alone imagine entering into that kind of life with them! Day in and day out these monks silently pray and experience the depths of God’s presence. The film forces the viewer to be still and to think about life in a monastery. I couldn’t help but think that these silent and holy men know much more about God than I may ever know in this lifetime. It made me want to meet them and learn from them, but at the same time I thought, “I could never live like that; I’d go crazy.” God may not have called me to the vocation of meditation, but I am glad that there some holy people out there like these monks who are silently praying for us and living in such purity that I know that God hears their prayers.

God Grew Tired of Cheesy Films….

2007-11-16T13:27:00.000-05:00

….so He inspired some folks to produce one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. So, stop whatever you are doing right now, and go rent “God Grew Tired of Us.” It is the inspirational story of a bunch of Sudanese boys who escaped the Islamic genocide of Christians in southern Sudan. They made a grueling journey across the desert when they were young boys and spent the rest of their childhood in refugee camps. None of the boys have seen their families since they were little, and many of their families have been brutally murdered during the ongoing Muslim jihad. Now that the boys are grown, the world is trying to figure out to do with them because they cannot safely return to their homeland, and life in the refugee camps offers no future for them. A number of the boys have been chosen to come live in the U.S. to work and to finish their education, and “God Grew Tired of Us” follows several of them during their first few years in America.
This film aroused so many emotions in me when I watched it. It made me angry that the world has stood by and done nothing as the Muslim jihad continues. It mad me cry that these young men are faced with the reality that their families and homeland have been decimated and are forced to live as strangers in a very strange land. It made me feel a deep joy as I watched them adapt to American culture with innocent and open hearts. The first time they all try to go up an escalator in the airport is hysterical. Anyway, all I can really say is GO WATCH THIS FILM!
(There is a similar documentary to this one called “The Lost Boys of the Sudan,” but “God Grew Tired of Us” is considerably better)

A Tough Loss

2007-11-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

Well, all my fellow Buckeyes are in mourning tonight after a disappointing loss to Illinois in The Shoe. I keep telling myself that sports would get boring if all my teams won every week. Oh well, there’s always next year.

On a more cheery note, I heard a quote tonight that I thought was great. We were watching the movie Almost Famous and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character says, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” How true that is….

Ministry Update

2007-11-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

I don’t want to get into too many details about life and ministry in Eagle, but I did want to give y’all a general overview on how things have been going in my first six or seven weeks here. So, here are a few updates and thoughts:
1. I’m feeling more and more confident that God has called us to serve here. Ministry certainly has its challenges, and I’ve been busier this past month than at any other point in my life. But, the business has been good. I’m working hard, but I’ve really enjoyed the work. I take this to be a sign that I’m pretty well suited/gifted for this ministry. I still have many times when I feel like the challenges are pretty big and I’m not sure what I should do next, but I’m actually enjoying the challenges and feel inspired to attempt to overcome them.
2. I’ve been spending a lot of time just building relationships. I’ve realized that in ministry I must overcome my fear of taking the initiative to call people, visit them, and begin to build relationships with them. When I served in MN, I know that I became too standoffish. I’ve been trying to call and visit a lot of people here, and the more I do it, the more I see how essential this aspect of my ministry is. In fact, it can seem so important that I can easily understand how some ministers end up neglecting their families, prayer lives, preparation time, and study time in order to spend all of their time “out there” trying to participate in Christ’s incarnational ministry among people. I know that I must continue to take the initiative to call, visit, and connect with people, but I also must guard against neglecting other essential aspects of life and ministry.
3. God has been giving us hope. Everything is not perfect, but I really believe that God is working and leading us. He is helping me to see things not as they currently are, but as he desires them to be. I am seeing that people and church structures are flawed, but he is reminding me that his Spirit is at work building and expanding his kingdom through Christ’s transformational grace. Everyday I am reminded of his grace. His grace is giving me great hope.

A Tale of Two Christian Movies

2007-10-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

Jill and I watched two Christian movies this week. I’m not sure if either movie was produced by a Christian company or not, but both films were overtly “Christian” in their content and were marketed to appeal to a Christian audience. Yet, the two movies could not be more different in the stories they tell and the morals they convey.

The first movie was “The Ultimate Gift,” and it played like a cheesy after-school special. I knew it was a "Christian" movie because all of the music in the film was from popular "Christian" artists. The only song that wasn't was Bob Dylan's "You're Going to Serve Somebody," which is the one Bob Dylan song that every Christian seems to know about. Anyway, the movie is the story of a grandfather who dies and leaves an unnamed “gift” to his rebellious grandson, and the only way the grandson will inherit the gift is if he completes certain tasks that are meant to teach him moral lessons. Yeah, the storyline is pretty hokey, but don’t worry, it gets much worse. The characters are so one-dimensional that they become caricatures. The plot takes so many absurd twists and turns that it reminded me of Forest Gump, but unlike Forest Gump, we’re actually supposed to take the plot seriously. It’s a good thing that I didn’t see this movie in the theater. I would have been one of those annoying people who was laughing in all the places where you aren’t suppose to laugh, but I couldn’t help myself. In the end this romantic-comedic-tragic-action-drama mess of a movie teaches us the fundamental Christian moral that if we all live good moral lives, we too will be blessed with great wealth and riches.

The second movie was “Beyond the Gates” which is the story of a priest and a school teacher serving in Rwanda when the genocide broke out in 1994. The Christians in this film must face the reality of great suffering and injustice, and they must decide what they will do in response as they attempt to live out their faith. I found it to be both a faithful portrayal of the Christian faith and a scathing critique of the UN’s handling of the Rwandan genocide. I won’t say much more about this film because I don’t want to ruin it, but I would highly recommend it.

If you couldn’t tell by what I wrote above, I wouldn’t recommend “The Ultimate Gift.” It may be an alright movie to show Jr. High age kids. But, if you rent it expecting an enjoyable movie for yourself, you will experience the ultimate disappointment.

3rd Place Ain’t Bad

2007-10-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

I’m not much of a baseball fan (I grew up a Pittsburgh Pirate’s fan, so you can understand my lack of interest), but the Cleveland Indians just fell one game short of making the World Series. In doing so they ruined my prediction that they would lose in the World Series and complete a full year of Ohio teams finishing in 2nd place in nearly every major sporting event. The only exception would have been a 2nd place in the Super Bowl, but let’s be realistic, the Browns and the Bengals make that feat pretty much impossible.

Even though the Indians finished in 3rd place, they didn’t let their fans off of the hook. Their collapse in the ALCS with a 3-1 series once again raised the hopes of Ohio sports fan, only to break their hearts in the end.

Well…the Buckeye’s football team is once again #1….knock on wood….

Sanctification and Sinlessness

2007-10-15T19:28:00.000-05:00

I have wrestled with the holiness doctrine of “Entire Sanctification” for a number of years, and I am still not resolved on the issue. The difficulties I have with this doctrine are not so much based on theological issues but on the way the doctrine is often preached and lived out. I do believe that God calls his people to be holy. I believe that the salvation Christ offers is fundamentally transformational in its nature. I believe that Christians are to be filled with the Spirit and empowered to live holy lives.

The problems I have with the doctrine of entire sanctification arise from those who emphasize the instantaneous act of “entire sanctification” to the exclusion of progressive and continual sanctification. To such people, entire sanctification seems to be a state of sinless perfection that anyone can attain simply by asking the Holy Spirit to sanctify them. Don’t misunderstand me. I do believe that God desires to and does sanctify his people. However, I believe that those who overemphasize the crisis event of sanctification have turned sanctification into a kind of “name-it, claim-it” experience and have actually watered-down the true holiness message. Here are two difficulties I have with this kind of “name-it, claim-it” sanctification:

First, I believe an overemphasis on the initial act of sanctification tends to divorce sanctification from the need of continual sanctification through discipleship and ongoing communion with God. We implore people to receive the grace of sanctification, but once they finish praying at the altar, we send them back into the world without taking the time to disciple them and walk with them in their experience. We preach at them to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, but we fail to teach them how to live and grow in the grace they have received.

Second, I believe that the emphasis on initial sanctification often leaves people believing that they are entering a state of “sinless-perfection,” and such a belief can actually be counterproductive. If sanctification is a state of sinless-perfection, then those who are sanctified either cannot or do not sin. Once such a state is reached there seems to be no more need to confess one’s sins or to search one’s heart to discover attitudes that are contrary to God’s will. I’ve heard a number of “sanctified” people give testimonies like, “I was sanctified fifteen years ago, and I haven’t knowingly sinned since then.” This doesn’t impress me! In fact I think it sounds spiritually arrogant and contrary to true holiness. I’m not saying that all Christians must sin everyday; however, people who are truly holy do not have to toot their own horns regarding their personal sinlessness. I believe that most people can conform to a superficial form of legalism and claim to not sin as long as they narrowly define sin as the things that are easy for them to avoid (like drinking, smoking, cussing, etc…), but is this true holiness? Does this mean that they love God with their whole heart? Does this mean that all of their hidden slothfulness, bitterness, pride, selfishness, hatefulness, lust, and jealousy have been cleansed and that they are now perfected? I doubt it.

I read something in Dennis Kinlaw’s book “Preaching in the Spirit” that is truly helpful. He writes: “Some people think the sanctified life is one in which a person never errs; but when we seek God’s grace to live a holy life, we know that’s not so. As much as anything else, the sanctified life is one sensitized to error” (46). (By the way, Kinlaw is a man of such love and grace, that if he claimed to be utterly sinless, I would believe him). I think Kinlaw’s words are very helpful. Those who are truly holy are those who constantly allow the Holy Spirit to probe their inner life and who confess and repent of errs and sins that are revealed. They do not settle for a false sense of sinlessness, but continue to grow in sanctification until they are completely perfected in Christian love.

Minneapolis Bridge

2007-10-07T19:16:00.000-05:00

I don’t have a lot of time to write right now, but I figured I’d post this pic from the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Jill and I were there at the beginning of September with her siblings. It was pretty crazy.

Tech-nol-oh-geeze

2007-09-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

I have come to the conclusion that as our society advances technologically, we decrease in intelligence. We may have vast amounts of information at our fingertips, but our minds have become mush in the process. Here’s a story that confirms my theory:

I was looking to buy a cell phone the other day. Being the new pastor, I figured I should finally enter the 21st century, break down and get a cell phone so that people could get in touch with me whenever I’m not in the office. When I told a salesman that I was a minister and new to the area, he jumped into his extensive pitch about me needing a combination pda/high-speed internet browser/turn-by-turn voice navigation/cell phone/etc…thingy, and it would only cost a small fortune. He told me that it would literally save me hours everyday, and this is important since a minister’s time is so valuable. I must admit that the phone was pretty cool, but he never really had me convinced (mainly because I’m so cheap!).

But if my frugality didn’t fully convince me not to take the technological plunge, the end of our conversation solidified my decision. I was looking for a few things for my guitar, so I asked the salesman if there were any music stores nearby. He told me that he played guitar in his spare time and that the best place to get what I needed was online at www.musiciansfriend.com. I knew I wasn’t going to remember that, so he said he’d write it down for me. He started to write, and I could tell he was struggling. He said, “please forgive my poor spelling,” and handed me the paper. It read “musistians frend.com” Apparently he doesn’t do much reading or writing in the countless hours that his cell phone saves him each week. I immediately went and got the cheapest/simplest phone I could find!

The Dialup Blues

2007-09-24T22:25:00.000-05:00

I’m sure by now that the two or three of you who actually did read my blog at one time or another have ceased to read it due to my lack of posting over the past month. I hope to rectify this problem soon, now that we’re settled in Michigan, but I have one huge hurdle to overcome: my painfully slow dialup connection!!!! Apparently, there is no available high-speed internet in the Eagle area, so I’m forced to go from super-fast cable to tying my emails to carrier pigeons, and sending them out in the hopes that one day they might find their destination. I know my Carrolltonian readers can relate to this problem. Anyway, this post is kind of a test-run to see how long the process is going to take. If it takes more than 10 minutes, my posting may continue to be very sporadic.

Going Off-Line

2007-08-31T09:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we’re packing up all of our stuff and are getting ready to move. Jill and I are heading to Minnesota on Sunday to spend some time with her family, and when we return, we’ll only be here for a little over a day before turning around and heading to Michigan. My internet will be disconnected as of tomorrow, so I’m not really sure when I’ll be able to post again. It’ll probably be at least a couple of weeks. So, if you’re one of the two people who actually read this blog, be sure to check back in a few weeks and I’ll start posting again. Take care.

Final Thoughts on Potter

2007-08-23T20:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I finished the final Harry Potter book. I liked it better than the 5th and 6th books, but it didn’t change many of my previously mentioned views. I’ve already written a lot on this topic, so I’ll only make two comments:

1. I think that the final Harry Potter book has several distinctly “Christian” elements. I won’t say much more than that because I don’t want to give anything away, but there are aspects of the book that make me think it is much more Christian than it is pagan.

2. I still don’t think HP will go down as great literature. One further reason why I think this is Rowling’s annoyingly incessant need to explain every-last-detail of the books and her manner of tying everything together into a neat little package. The earlier HP books each included one clever twist which was easily explained at the conclusion of each book, and Rowling’s style worked well for these books written for children. Her later books are geared for a more mature audience, but rather than developing depth and nuance, Rowling simply adds more twists. The final three books include so many twists that Rowling has to spend much of her final book unraveling and her convoluted tale so that every point of the story fits together. Rather than letting her readers to make their own judgments, she spells out all aspects of her story in laborious detail.

This isn’t to say that the books still don’t have their charms, but I think the books would have been better if the final books had been more like the originals.

Our Big Move

2007-08-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

For all of you who haven’t heard, we will be moving to Michigan in mid-September. I have been assigned to pastor the Eagle Wesley Chapel which is located about fifteen miles west of Lansing. Besides the fact that we’re being called to Michigan (which I believe is a reflection of God’s ironic sense of humor), Jill and I are excited and nervous as we prepare to move. We’re excited because we sense that God is calling us and believe that he will stretch our faith and use us for his ministry. We’re nervous because we are stepping into the unknown and don’t know what lies ahead.

As we prepare to move, I’ve been thinking about the final words of the Great Commission, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And surely I am with you always, to very ends of the age” (Matt 28:19-20). In these words I remember that we are not called to build our own ministry. We are called to be a part of the ministry that belongs to Christ. I am not called to change people through my own wit and ability. I am called to be witness to the resurrection and a mediator of God’s grace. I am also reminded that we do not go alone, but Christ goes with us. This is a very comforting reminder.

The Call to Ministery

2007-08-15T21:04:00.000-05:00

Jill and I just finished watching a mini-series documentary called “God or the Girl” that we borrowed from the library (it’s produced by A&E Television in case you’re interested in looking it up). It follows four young Catholic men as they wrestle with the decision to enter seminary and join the priesthood. I highly recommend it for all my seminary brothers out there. I could relate to the men as they try to discern God’s will for their lives. What I couldn’t relate to was the fact that if they entered seminary they were also committing to the celibate life.

My favorite guy in the story is a charismatic young fellow named Dan from Columbus, Ohio (he’s the long haired guy second from the left in the picture above). As part of his discernment process, Dan and his friends build an 80 pound cross, and Dan carries it 22 grueling miles across the city. It takes him two days to complete his journey, and the suffering he endures helps him focus on his calling and on Christ’s suffering. I think the coolest thing about Dan’s exhausting expedition is that his friends walk with him the whole way, reading Scripture to him and praying for him. They ended up sleeping in a field overnight using logs as pillows. Now that’s true friendship! It reminded me that the call to ministry is not a call to be loan gun. Following God is best done in community, and ministry is most effective when multiple people are carrying the load.

Loving Jesus Above All Things

2007-08-09T17:34:00.000-05:00

I’ve been reading “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis as part of my devotional reading. It’s one of the best books ever written! Everyday his words challenge me to pursue a life devoted to Jesus through simplicity and purity.

Here’s a bit from today’s reading:

“Blessed is he who appreciates what it is to love Jesus and who despises himself for the sake of Jesus. Give up all other loves for His, since He wishes to be loved alone above all things… Love Him, then; keep Him as a friend. He will not leave you as others do, or let you suffer lasting death. Sometimes, whether you will or not, you will have to part with everything. Cling, therefore, to Jesus in life and death; trust yourself to the glory of Him who alone can help you when all others fail….Be humble and peaceful, and Jesus will be with you. Be devout and calm, and He will remain with you.”

Potter Mania

2007-07-30T22:50:00.001-05:00

I’m going to be heading out of town for a week, but before I go, I wanted to leave a few posts about the Harry Potter books. I just finished reading the 6th book, which for all of you non-Potter readers is the next-to-last book, so I’m about two years behind the current craze. I’m trying to reserve my final judgment of the books until I read the last installment, but I will give you a few of my thoughts now that I’m 6/7 finished. Don’t worry, I won’t include any spoilers for those of you who haven’t read the books, and I ask that anybody who posts comments remains ambiguous enough to not give away any major points of the plot. Also, if you’re interested, a few of us got into a rather lengthy debate on Sean Scribner’s blog a couple of years ago. You can find that discussion posted here.

I'll be sure to respond to any comments when I get back next week.

My Impressions of Harry Potter…

2007-07-30T22:49:00.001-05:00

1. For the most part I think the books are pretty well written and are not an affront to Christianity. In many ways the books actually uphold a Christian worldview. They are filled with virtues like love, self-sacrifice, courage, and friendship. Rowling creates a fantasy world with a distinct contrast between good and evil. I have heard some Christians attack Rowling because they claim she blurs the line between good and evil, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. It is true that there are points in the books where Harry and other protagonists fail to do what is right, but the books never glorify their failure. Rowling uses such occasions as a means of revealing true goodness and allows her characters to repent of their wrong actions and recommit to what is right. Perhaps some Christians think that Rowling blurs the line between good and evil because they think that all magic is evil. I’ll address this view in the post below.

2. Despite my favorable opinion of the Potter books, I think the books fail in a number of areas, and I don’t think that they will go down as great works of literature. I really enjoyed the first three books, and if the rest of the books were more like the first three, I think the books would be highly regarded for years to come. There was an innocent charm about the early books. The world Rowling created was full of joy and delight. I thought the tone of the three books was in some ways similar to the tone of the Chronicles of Narnia, but books four, five, and six lose much of the joy and the delight. I know that Rowling wanted to develop her characters as they grow up through adolescents, but I have found that the coming-of-age elements really detract from the joy that was present in the first three books. Her characters repeatedly act like typical modern teenagers. While this may appeal to a vast number of her readers who are teenagers and can relate to adolescent behavior, I think that it strips the books of the timeless nature that most good fantasies possess. In books four and five, Harry Potter’s constant whining may be an accurate portrayal of a 14 or 15 year old kid, but I don’t really want the hero of the story to act like a typical kid. Books five and six focus way too much on teenage dating relationships, which includes numerous references to the main characters dating other characters, making-out with them, breaking up with them, etc… There were times when I thought I was reading a teen magazine, not a great work of fiction. I think Rowling could have included romantic elements if she really thought it was necessary, but the way she developed the teenage romances was simply tacky.

3. Two years ago, I made the comment on Sean’s blog that if I had kids, I would have no problems with them reading the Harry Potter books. After reading books four, five, and six, I would amend my previous statement. The later Harry Potter books are not children’s books! I don’t think I would let my kids read the books until they were teenagers and able to handle the darker and more mature elements of the later books. I think younger children could handle the first three books, but the later books are pretty serious and scary, not to mention all of the annoying relationship stuff that is geared much more for teenagers. I think Rowling wanted the children who read the books to grow up with the books, but now that kids won’t have to wait two years for the next book to be published, I don’t see how her objective will be accomplished. Would you purposefully read each of the Lord of the Rings books in three year intervals if you were able to read them all at once? I wouldn’t have much of a problem if I had a nine year old son who wanted to read the first Harry Potter book. The problem is that kids tend to be curious and would want to know how the story ends, and I think the later books are way too mature for a nine year old.

Potter and Evil

2007-07-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

The reason I first picked up the original Harry Potter book was because I kept receiving forwarded emails from Christians who claimed that the Harry Potter books promote Satanism, witchcraft, and all sorts of evil. Rather than ignorantly forwarding those emails to other Christian brothers and sisters, I decided to read the books to see if there is any credence to these attacks. While I do believe we ought to be very careful to monitor what our children are reading, and as I mentioned above, I think the late Potter books are too dark for younger kids, I do not think that these books promote evil. It seems to me that too many Christians have adopted the methods of protest and boycott as their only means of engaging society, so they quickly apply these methods to the Potter books. I’m sure such Christians are well intentioned in their attempt to avoid compromising their values and to protect their children from evil, but I am yet to hear a convincing argument for why the Potter books are so evil. Here are my main reasons for saying this:

1. Most Christians who attack the Harry Potter books simply because they include witchcraft, wizardry, and magic often fail to criticize so many other books and stories that include these same elements. The same people who preach against Harry Potter for all of its magical aspects are typically the same people who praise stories like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings which include magical elements themselves. My point here is not that Harry Potter is in the same league as Narnia or LOTR; I’m simply pointing out that they need to do a better job of explaining why the magic in Harry Potter is so much worse than the magic in all other fantasy books that they tolerate.

2. I tend to think that the witchcraft/magic in Harry Potter is only a plot device that isn’t supposed to be taken seriously or seen as being in any way real. Some Christians have responded to this “plot device” argument by saying that witchcraft is in fact real, and they quote Deuteronomy 18:10-14 to back up the grave nature of its reality. Let me just say that I do believe in the reality of evil spirits, Satan, witchcraft, etc… and I don’t mean to make light of any of it. I will also readily admit that occult practices are real and should not be dabbled in. However, I don’t think the magic in Harry Potter resembles real witchcraft and occult practices. From my limited knowledge on the subject, it seems to me that true occult practices involve real spiritual elements like worshiping some form of spirit or interacting with spirits through séances, weegie boards, etc… The magic in Harry Potter includes none of these spiritual elements. It is not grounded in any spiritual reality at all. It includes things like invisibility cloaks, flying brooms, and the ability to transform into animals, and I seriously doubt that any of these are supposed to be taken seriously or are supposed to resemble real occult practices.

Of course, the seventh and final book could reveal that Harry Potter does in fact worship Satan, and if this is the case, I will certainly have to change my opinion.

New Tunes

2007-07-29T17:35:00.000-05:00

I’m digging a new CD that I picked up last week. It’s the first album released by a fellow Buckeye named Joshua Radin. If you’re into mellow/acoustic/modern-folk music, you may want to check it out. You can listen to four of his songs on his myspace page here.

My favorite song so far is “Winter” which begins with the words:
“I should know who I am by now; I walk the record stands somehow thinking of winter. Your name is the splinter inside me while I wait.”
Anyway, the song has a sentimental quality that fits my general mood of late.

How Much is your Body Worth?

2007-07-25T18:28:00.001-05:00

$4840.00
If my body is only worth $4840, why is health insurance so expensive?

A God Who Suffers

2007-07-05T18:08:00.001-05:00

I just finished my final course for seminary, so I now feel an incredible freedom to read any book that I choose to read! Yippee! I ordered a few used books off of Ebay, and I just finished the first book to arrive: "Night" by Elie Wiesel. It’s one of the most captivating and haunting books I have ever read. "Night" is Wiesel’s autobiographical account of living through the holocaust as a young teenage boy. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It is difficult to stomach, but it is also inspirational and deeply moving.

In the most interesting passage of the book, Wiesel recounts a story of a likeable and sweet Jewish boy who is brutally hung to death by the Nazi SS. He writes:

“But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light was still breathing…And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me I heard the (a man) asking, ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows.’”

As a boy Wiesel passionately believed in God and even desired to become a rabbi, but the holocaust made him lose all faith in God. I wonder if his experience would have been any different if he had believed in a suffering savior, a God who descended to human form and suffered an atrocious death on a cross. I cannot pretend to imagine the horror that Wiesel suffered in the midst of Nazi oppression and the horrors of the concentration camps, but I wonder if his faith in God could have survived if he was a Christian and knew the suffering of Christ. It seems to me that the only faith that would have had a chance of surviving such a horrendous experience is the Christian faith.

Theology Quiz

2007-06-28T07:31:00.000-05:00

Here's another fun quiz to determine your theological tradition. I was actually a little surprised how strongly mine turned out. It worked better than I expected:

You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan - 96%
Neo orthodox - 82%
Roman Catholic - 71%
Emergent/Postmodern - 54%
Reformed Evangelical - 46%
Charismatic/Pentecostal - 46%
Fundamentalist - 43%
Classical Liberal - 32%
Modern Liberal - 11%

A Prayer

2007-06-26T22:08:00.000-05:00

I was reading and praying tonight and came across this prayer by Thomas Merton. I was moved by his words. I need to pray his prayer:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” (from “Thoughts in Solitude” p. 89).

Are You a Heretic?

2007-06-26T18:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a test to determine if you're a heretic. I scored 100% as a Chalcedon compliant, so obviously this test failed to pick out my specific heresies. Oh well, no test is perfect.

Anyway, I got this from Sean Scribner's blog. It's pretty fun.

My Sweet Hair

2007-06-25T16:50:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I haven't been blogging much lately. I hope to post more over the next couple of weeks, but one thing I have been doing is letting my hair grow. I figured you might enjoy this pic from a few weeks ago. Jill and I were bored on a Sunday afternoon, so I let her do my hair.