New mic batteries

Changed batteries today in the Sure lapel mic: 5/26/08. Yesterday they died right after my sermon. The last time they were changed was 3/9/08. So, a little over two months.

On an unrelated note: I also switched back to my acoustic guitar - and played it through the amp again. I like the sound better through the amp - lots of chorus; and I seem to have more confidence in playing the acoustic - even though my hand did get sore yesterday. Lots of bar chords are a problem, but my hand was already sore from putting up the storage building Saturday.

Also... I changed the monitors around up front. I took the one from behind the tree and made it my own personal monitor, and have it on a separate channel (PRE-2). I tied Jane's and Robin's together on their own (PRE-1). It seemed to work out nice. It's the best it's sounded from my spot in a long time.

Indiana jones & the legendary shack shakers

Yesterday was the Friday that comes twice a month where Jane and I have the same day off. It started out nice. We slept in a bit and then she made us breakfast: 2 eggs o/e, bacon and toast. A nice change from the usual oatmeal.

For lunch we had movie popcorn. She talked me into seeing the new Indiana Jones (and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) movie. I had actually just read some blurbs from WP, but... to be honest... I'm not a real IJ fan. Not that there's anything wrong with any of it, but... he kinda reminds me of somebody I don't really care for, and... whatever else... I'm just not a big fan. But it was alright. Jane thought it was great. And, actually, I LOVE going to matinees. You leave the middle of the day and it's like you're transported to another time and place. But the movie, popcorn and 2 pops cost us $29! I didn't like that so much.

After that I finally took my phone in to see what's wrong with it. They said it needed the software upgraded, and might need a new battery. The upgrade was free but the battery would cost me. When we went back to pick it up I also found out I could get a new phone. But they don't just give those things away anymore like they used to. And the tech was trying so hard to get me to notice her cleavage. She did everything short of putting my phone in there.

Anyway... after supper at Logan's, my idea for the day was to catch the Legendary Shack Shakers. I had read awhile ago that they were actually going to be in Fort Wayne. I've heard plenty about them - another band heavily influenced by JATS - but have never seen them. So I'd been quietly looking forward to this for awhile. Of course, the opening band didn't start until 9 pm - which more than likely means 9:30 at least. And they were playing in what appeared to be this smallish, dive type of place in maybe not the best part of town, and I'd never been there before, and... the fact that the Shack Shakers are of the Southern Gothic/Blues Punk genre... my 45-year-old bones suddenly began to feel a little feeble. We did a drive-by around 9:30 and it was looking fairly dead - with lots of people hanging out in the street and the parking lot. So we cruised downtown a bit and waited until after 10 to head back. I don't know why but I suddenly just got a real anxiety about going in. This used to happen to me all the time, but it hadn't for a long, long time. And I always hate it when it happens. Why do I get afraid to go into places. It wasn't like I feared for our lives or anything. It was like I just turned into this big wimp, and then the more mad I get at myself, the more afraid I get and then I'm too mad and afraid to do anybody any good and... ahck... we must have driven around the block like four times and I finally just gave in to the notion that I'm too old to be doin' stuff like this. And that made me feel even more dejected. I reasoned that we didn't need to spend the $16, and it was such a tiny place, and I had to get up early, and we were too old, and... It didn't really matter. I was beaten. Foiled again. I drove home in shame at being too afraid to see the shack shakers. Maybe this is why I don't like Harrison Ford.

I really wish I'da went. Not that I needed the ear massage so much, but I really wanted to support the owner of this establishment in his efforts to bring good bands to the Fort. But... it's another day. Whatever.

Today we have a work day at the church. We're prepping ground for our new 15'x30' storage shed, and enclosing a corner of the pavilion for storage and a serving area (like a concession stand). Concession - now there's a word for you.

Support live music, folks. Peace all up in your face. Sigh.

This and that

Jane had class again last night so I decided to go all out and make my speciality: a tombstone deluxe frozen pizza. And I know you're probably thinking, "But gee, Dan, your birthday isn't until November." I know, I know. But daughter Carrie is right... when I put my mind to it I can make a frozen pizza like nobody's business. Favorites shouldn't only be for birthdays, you know.

And I was bored, so I put on these two pics of son Isaac's trip to St. Thomas. The first one is he and the lovely girlfriend Laura. I believe this is on the porch of Laura's grandmother's house - where they stayed.

This is just a random pic of the scenery there. Looks pretty nice if you ask me.

Hopefully daughter Carrie will oblige us with some pics from her and Drew's trip to Texas next week. ;)

Out of shape(ing)

I finished The Shaping of Things To Come. That's probably the quickest I've read a book in awhile (other than on vacation). Two quotes towards the end that really jumped out at me were:

(p.187) One of the best working definitions of poverty is not just the lack of money but the lack of a dream, a vision, hope. Darryl Gardiner, the director of Youth for Christ in New Zealand, believes that one of the core missional tasks when working with the poor is to help them to begin to dream again. The poor, in Darryl's view, are people without a dream. It is the missionary's task to rouse the imaginative abilities that lie at the base of the human soul in order to awaken the possibilities for a new gospel future and to access the deepest sources of human motivation - faith, love, pleasure, and hope. It is to awaken a sense of purpose, of mission, in life. No less is needed to help birth and nurture the missional church in the West. We need to dream again, and to do this we must cultivate a love for imagination. Before we can do it, we need to dream it.

Wow. Yeah. I could apply this in so many different situations and directions. It is so true, but also so troubling (to me, personally). Maybe not as much as this next quote on p. 223. They share a parable from Soren Kierkegaard about how when the wild geese fly overhead, the tame geese on the ground run about flapping their wings trying to imitate them...

The twist in this tale is this: that while it has been observed that wild geese have become tame... it has seldom been observed that tame geese can become wild again. We need to beware of the anesthetizing and stultifying effects that Christendom, the tame, nonmissional church, and our safe middle classness have had on us.

You know, I'm no good at book reviews and things like that. But I'll just say this about this book: It has pissed me off, but at the same time it ticks me off partly because it seems to be saying the exact things I was THINKING when I first had inklings to plant a church. And... this is a leadership-type book, and I am pretty much going to react negatively to any leadership type of stuff. But that doesn't always mean I don't agree with it. It's just how I am. I don't like it, and I don't exactly know why I do it. But it happens.

On the one hand, I think I reacted negatively to some of this stuff because it pointed out how I have been "tamed." I don't dream anymore. The fire's been dampened. I mean, though, it's not like I agreed with everything in the book. But overall I agree with what they're saying.

On the other hand, as I kinda said, it was nice to read stuff that's been in my head for years and years and have it put down into charts and graphs and paragraphs. My mind isn't able to be quantified as such, but this is the kind of movement I've been stirred by since early on in my spiritual journey. And sometimes it's irritating. I mean, I felt I was thrust toward ministry by nothing short of a driving passion for a particular group of people. It was never to be a "pastor" or anything like that. When I went to seminary I had no idea where it would lead... but I knew who I had a heart for! And I can remember talking with church planting people and they kinda steered me away from the notion because... you know... I'm not the most dynamic of personalities, and I had no real visions for how to "grow" the thing, and all the baggage I seem to carry on my shoulder (is that a chip on your shoulder or are you just glad to see me). So sometimes I think I've sold out, you know.

The truth is, though... life is long. And sometimes God takes us on these journeys, and it's not without good reason. I don't particularly know what the reason is... and maybe it doesn't matter. But I believe Jesus can redeem and restore anyone and anything... And sometimes things aren't the way they appear. And sometimes our ways are not his ways. And maybe waste is only something seen in human terms, not in God's economy.

Reading this book reminded me of the days when we had the Friday Night Freaks Bible Study back home. I was all into the Jesus People thing, and going to C-stone, and thinking about communal living, and I'd go to work in the chimney factory and talk about the stories I'd read in the Bible and how cool it was, and... Glenn Kaiser and Darrel Mansfield and Larry Howard... and...

Dang, my office is a pigsty.

Summer schedule - roughly

Some things I need to remember about the summer - so far:

• Sunday, June 1 - no s.s.; and Jr. Worship the entire am hour.
• Sunday, June 15 - Father's Day concert & cookout at 6 pm with Tommy Womack and Andrew Camp (pavilion).
• Tuesday, June 17 - Thursday, June 19 - Midwest Region Conference in Decatur, IL.
• Sunday, June 22 - maybe do Lectio Divina am worship.
• Sunday, June 29 - Dave Frincke concert 6 pm (pavilion).
• Sunday, July 6 - Dave Moser to preach am.
• Sunday, July 13 - Ryan Hirschy concert 6 pm (pavilion).
• Sunday, July 20 - Water In2 Wine concert 10 am (inside). 3rd week of vacation for '07-'08.
• Wednesday, July 23-Saturday, July 26 - Impact in Findlay, OH.
• Sunday, July 27 - Donald Miller's "The Market Driven Jesus" am
• Sunday, July 27 - Doug Molgaard, missionary to Sweden, 6 pm (pavilion?).
• Sunday, August 3 - Donald Miller's "The Market Driven Jesus: pt. 2" am
• Sunday, August ?? - Earthsong concert 6 pm (pavilion)

Continue working on getting Josh Garrels for a Sunday night concert, and maybe one or two more. It'd be nice to find someone to do a children's show type of thing sometime in August too. At some point this year I need to attend another leadership conference of some sort. No idea what, when, or where. I'd like to read: 'The Forgotten Ways', 'Just Walk Across the Room', 'Beyond Smells & Bells', 'Everything Must Change', and reread some Nouwen, Yancey, and Lucado books (now I'm just dreaming, I know).

Uncooked

Man, I'm beginning to think I can't do ANYTHING. Last night Jane had class and I thought I would just eat something we had around. I was hungry for tomato soup, but we didn't have any. There was a leftover potatoes/carrots/onions thing in the fridge, and there was a bag of what looked like meatballs in the freezer. I thought, "Hey, I know there's a defrost button on the microwave; and who can't warm up veggies." So, I put the meatball-looking things in the microwave and put them on whatever setting I thought would unfreeze them. I had to do it several times before they started to soften up, but they didn't look so good. So finally I cooked them with the regular setting. Um... I've never put a piece of chocolate in the microwave and melted it, but that's what the meatballs started to look like. It was gross. Jane told me later that they were, in fact, meatballs, but they had never been cooked. Anyway, I pitched them, and ate the veggies raw. Also had a thing of pudding and some cheez-its. It was a quiet night. At least the Bulls got the top pick in the NBA draft (not that I'm a Bulls fan, necessarily).

Order of worship re-order

Hopefully beginning sometime in June we will change the routine of our Sunday morning gathering. We will not be having Sunday School from June - August, and kids in K-5th grade will be in Jr. Worship for the entire hour (10-11 am). We are using two VBS programs for summer Jr. Worship, and holding it outside under the pavilion. So... what I would like to do for everyone else is something like this (though it's not set in stone):

• Greeting, announcements, and sharing of info/news
• Maybe a song (maybe from the hymnal, or not)
  
• A scripture reading (from someone)
• A prayer
• The message
• A time of meditation - during which we will pass the offering plates (not sure about passing the offering plates. I would like people to bring it when they get up to receive communion, but I'm afraid maybe not everyone will partake in communion. I dunno yet)
  
• Prayer
  
• Several songs - during which people may come forward and receive communion
• Dismissal - with the Lord's Prayer
  

Flight tracking

We learned something new last night. Son Isaac was returning from St. Thomas and Jane got on the airport website and you can actually track where the flight is at in progress (like this one taking place right now from FW to Detroit). She tracked his flight from St. Thomas to Atlanta - where he had no problems. But then they were stuck on the ground for awhile in Atlanta before being able to start back to Fort Wayne. They ended up being about an hour late, but since we could see in real time where the plane was (and we could see the reason for the delay - weather), we were almost able to see the entire Spurs/Hornets game before heading to the airport. Of course, if the bypass didn't cut our road off it would only take us 5 minutes to get there. Instead it's like a whopping 15 minutes.

I don't know why, but I like hanging out in airports. Maybe someday I could get a job there. I think that would be interesting.

APEST is a pest

So I've started reading more about the APEST test to see if I'm more of an Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd (pastor), or Teacher. The Shaping of Things To Come calls it an APEPT, but it has apparently now been changed to APEST, so as not to have two "p's" - Shepherd replaced pastor. I did find it helpful when they compared them sociologically as:

The entrepreneur = the apostle
The questioner = the prophet
The recruiter = the evangelist
The humanizer = the shepherd/pastor
The systematizer = the teacher

But, I don't know... Basically the whole thing has me depressed now. I am debating about whether to spend the $10 to take the test, but I've taken so many of those stinkin' tests and being a bit on the manic side I can test out so differently depending on my mood at the time. And I actually think I am more of a prophet-type than anything, which is depressing in and of itself - nobody likes a questioner. Plus, it just seems that sometimes I am a little bit of all of them, and sometimes a little bit of none. I always thought that's what made me the perfect small-church pastor. Sort of a renaissance-type who could do a lot of things a little bit, but didn't do anything real well. But now I'm told there is no place for people like me, and that people like me are the cancer of the church at large. Yeah, that's about right. Of course, the truth is probably that I just don't understand it correctly. Which seems to be more true of more and more things anymore.

ADDED LATER: Yes, this is a whine (if you don't know I'm a whiner then you haven't read here very much). The thing is, I'm not saying the APEST ministry model is a bad idea, or unbiblical. I'm just not sure how it works in church leadership, and that it will work in each and every local church out there. So if you have some light you can shed - shed away.

"Shaping" quotes (random)

I'm reading The Shaping of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission For The 21st-Century Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It's okay. I didn't realize it was so old (2003), and I've heard most of the stories in it already. But I'm not complaining. I guess it's good that I'm reading a church leadership type book. Whatever. Anyway... here are some random quotes I've read so far that I want to remember:

• p. 47 "The missional-incarnational church... is a centered set. This means that rather than drawing a border to determine who belongs and who doesn't, a centered set is defined by its core values, and people are not seen as in or out, but as closer or further away from the center." Yep.
• p. 73 "In a world where many non-Christians assume God hates them (presumably because they gain the impression that God's people hate them) it is important to make one of the goals of incarnational church planting to help people connect with the God who is seeking them and desiring their friendship."
• p. 77 Robert Banks writes, "The church is described as belonging not to the people by whom it is constituted... nor to the district to which they belong... but rather to the one who has brought it into existence (that is, God) or the one through whom this has taken place (that is, Christ)."
• ***p. 77ff - Commitments for the church: COMMUNION (in relationship with Christ) - God's Word; worship. COMMUNITY (in relationship with One Another) - learning; fellowship/friendship. COMMISSION (in relationship with the World) - serving/giving; Gospel telling/sharing. ***
• p. 104 "In the second century, Diognetus wrote of the fledgling Christian Community in the following way: They dwell in their country, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country and every country of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred."
• p. 125 "It reminds one of the old rabbinical saying that one day we will all stand before God and he will judge us for all the possible pleasures he gave us to enjoy, but we failed to enjoy."
• p. 126 "The Hebrew word 'Torah' has traditionally been interpreted as "law," that is, a set of rules or legal codes. This is a somewhat misleading interpretation as it implies the rigid approach to life that distorts the inner intention of the idea of 'Torah.' A truer translation is that of "instruction" or simply "teaching." A better way of lookng at it is to see the Torah as an orientation course in the ways of God... When reading the Pentateuch, one is immediately struck by the radical non-linear logic associated with it. One verse deals with the Israelite's approach to God in the temple. The very next verse deals with what one does when one's donkey falls into a pit. The next might well deal with the mildew in the kitchen, the next with the female menstrual cycle. It seems to be radically discontinuous and generally lacks the sequential reason that we look for in a text. What is going on here? How can we comprehend this meaning?... We suggest that there is indeed a rather profound logic going on in the Torah, a logic that attempts to relate ALL ASPECTS of life to God. Therefore, everything - one's work, one's domestic life, one's health, one's worship - has the same significance to God. He is concerned with every aspect of the believer's life..."
  
• p. 144 "Whoever can no longer desire the impossible will be able to achieve nothing more than the all-t00-probable" (Martin Buber, On Judaism, p.35).
• p. 159 "There's a riddle in the Talmud that goes like this, 'If God intended man to live on bread, why didn't he create a bread tree?' And the answer is that, in fact, God could have created a tree that produced crusty loaves of bread, but he prefers to offer us a grain and invite us to buy a field and plant the seed. He prefers that we till the soil while he sends the rain. He prefers that we harvest the crop while he sends the sunshine. He prefers that we grind the grain and knead it and bake it while he gives us air in our lungs and strength in our arms. Why? Because he would rather we become partners with him in creation."
  

Guys with guns and the beautiful people

I am currently really ticked off at some people (not anyone in my church), so to avoid ruffling feathers I'll just show some more pictures from our vacation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

On the morning Jane and I went down to the beach to see the sunrise we were happened upon by two guys carrying automatic weapons (that's Jane on the lounge chair - not lounging). There were only a few people around, and out of the blue two dogs came ambling around the corner of the beach from the wild. We thought that was weird. The resort security guard headed toward the dogs, and then we see these two guys with guns appear. They weren't in military or any other type of uniform, so we're not sure what the deal was. But... after a chat with the security guard - in which hands were shook and smiles were shown - they continued their early morning stroll down the beach.


In the picture below you can just barely make out the leg of a lady in one of the chairs reading a book. I dubbed her and her husband "the beautiful people." They were probably older than us, and for some reason I think they were Russian or something - we didn't see them ever talk to anyone. Jane talked to him, but said the woman couldn't speak English. Jane called them "GB" and "HG" - for "green bikini" and "hairy guy" (I know, we're terrible). Anyway, every single day they were across the pool from our room, and they did nothing but read books (big ones too) and occasionally get in the pool. At one point she was reading "War and Peace" while I was reading "Of Mice and Men." They always seemed to eat at the same time as us, and usually at the same place, and they almost always held hands whenever they went anywhere. They were very polite and cordial to one another, and when she walked... lemme tell you... it was like a tall glass of champagne - with the slightest of sway. I mean, I'm thinking she was either a supermodel or actress or something. Anyway, it was innaresting, because they just always seemed to be 'there.' And they had this 'look' about them like they were famous or really wealthy.

I guess that's the kind of thing you do when you lay around a place for a week and don't do anything. Man, I wish I were there again.

Being Christ-like

From Frost and Hirsch's The Shaping of Things To Come, p. 107:

Theologian Harvey Cox once told of speaking at a conference for Christian healers and therapists. The audience was full of pastors, doctors, nurses, counselors, and psychologists, all committed to bringing healing as an intrinsic part of their Christian faith. Cox says he retold the audience the story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead and how along the way he healed the hemorrhaging woman. This story occurs in Luke 8:40-56 and is a wonderful episode that shows Jesus' compassion for both the religious leaders, Jairus, and the scorned woman. Having recounted the story, Cox then asked his listeners to identify which character in the story they related most strongly to. Was it the bleeding woman, abandoned, suffering, and defeated? Or Jairus, anxious and grief-stricken? Or even perhaps the disciples who observed these fantastic miracles in wonderment and awe? Sections of the audience identified with different characters. Then Cox asked them how many identified with Christ. Six out of six hundred raised their hands.

When confronted with a story about Jesus the healer, only one percent of an audience full of healers related to Christ himself. How many teachers relate to Jesus the teacher? How many of us identify with Jesus as a person we aspire to become like? Of course, he is divine as well as human, and therefore we can never hope to fully emulate him. But we are called to live Christlike lives. We need to recapture our focus on Jesus and live like him, adore him, befriend him again.

On a related note, I saw this in a comment on one of Scot McKnight's posts. You can read the post here, but I liked what one commenter (#4 - Jim) said:

Michael, here’s another viewpoint that author Bill Johnson helped me to see. Jesus said of Himself, “The Son can do nothing by Himself” (John 5:19). The Greek word here for “Nothing” has a unique meeting—IT MEANS NOTHING. He had no supernatuaral capabilities whatsoever!
While He is 100% God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man would face once He was redeemed. He made that point over and over again. Jesus became the model for all who would embrace the invitation to invade the impossible in His name.

Acts 2:22, “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst…”

He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God…not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. Recapturing this simple truth changes everything…and makes possible a full restoration of the ministry of Jesus in His Church (John 14:12-14).

So, the stories of Jesus in the Bible are not the record of what God can do, but the record of what a person can do rightly related to God.

Hmm. Innaresting stuff.

Which should I get?

I could use some advice here. I think I may finally take the plunge into this century and move away from getting my music on 8-track tape. Well, okay... cassette. Well... yeah, I have some cd's. Like an idiot I gave away all my albums.

Anyway... so... what's the best thing for music and podcasts and such - keeping in mind I don't have much throw-around cash? Are ipods the best? What about Zune - they look pretty cool to me? Or is there something else that's just as good or better? And... what size do I need - will 4 gig do me fine, or 8, or do I need 80? I would like to download some sermons and conference material, plus music (if you can even do that - I don't know anything).

Both my kids have ipods, but they're also both mac users. I'm not tied to any brand, but I don't want to spend a little bit of money only to have to re-spend more later. And... I just thought of this... I am also do for a new cell phone. Is there a phone that would make just as good of an mp3 player (other than the iphone - I would feel like I was trying to be too hip; plus the $ thing)?

Yeah, well, I know my comment box is going to fill up fast (ha ha)... but I really would appreciate any input or info anyone might have to offer.

Life is fragile

Sometimes we have great ideas about changing the world, when all some people really need is a thank you, or a phone call, or a smile. Sometimes even just our presence.

My thoughts and prayers today are with those who are grieving the loss of their six-year-old son, grandson, cousin, friend, etc. in an ATV accident; and with my friend Tom who will be doing the funeral. You would think after you had done so many of these it would be easier. It sucks.