My beautiful wife went away for a “girls weekend” recently and came back looking a tad different. I’ve gotta be honest… I love it! She has had longer hair for as long as I can remember and every time she thinks about cutting it shorter she has flashbacks of the ‘fro she had when she was a little kid. While I think ‘fros are awesome I was nervous to see one on my wife. So, when she left for the weekend I was a bit nervous. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. But, I think you’ll agree that it looks awesome.
Archive for March, 2008
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March 31, 2008
The Chop
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March 28, 2008
The Church & Suburbia Seminar with Al Hsu
I know this is early, but with vacations in the summer, I’m trying to get the word our early. So here it goes…On August 8-9, 2008, my church The Well, in partnership with the Ecclesia Network and C4ML at Biblical Seminary, will be hosting a one-day conference with Al Hsu, author of The Suburban Christian around the topic of Suburbia and the mission of the Church. Register online here. EVENT SUMMARY “God always shows up in the most God-forsaken places.” - Alan Roxburgh In some ways, it doesn’t get any more God-forsaken than suburban America. This seminar will take a look at two important topics: Suburbia and the Church. For some people, there is a sentiment that its impossible to really be the church...Read More →
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March 27, 2008
Friday Links – 3/29/08
I’m starting a new Friday tradition on my blog. I do a lot of persuing of the internet and come across posts and information that I think is worth sharing. So, during the week I’ll be collecting some links to share with you on Fridays. This is nothing novel here. Many others do this. But, I thought I would join the fun. This week is a little low on links cause I am just getting used to actually remembering to set them aside… Hope you enjoy. Ever wonder how to de-authorize a computer on iTunes? I needed to do this after my computer crashed last week. Here’s a little help. I needed to get my music and videos off my iPhone to my macbook pro....Read More →
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March 25, 2008
Does Your Church Really Need Jesus?
I’ve been reading Organic Church by Neil Cole. I’ll admit that when I saw the cover I wasn’t too excited to read the book. The coffee cup just kinda turned me off for some reason. Then, at our Ecclesia Gathering Alan Hirsch kept raving about the book so I figured I would give it the old college try. I’ve been really impressed so far. I love the way he talks about church and following the leading of the Spirit. It’s clear that the most important thing for him is seeing the Kingdom of God be more present in our towns, work places, cities and communities than it is to “grow a church.” While obviously these two things are not necessarily opposites sometimes it is all...Read More →
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March 24, 2008
My Four Year Old Jesus Freak
We were rocking out to old school DC Talk in our house tonight….
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March 24, 2008
Christian Contrairians
“The stickler is that Christianity doesn’t make a very good religion in this sense. Christianity is not a faith of conservation and preservation. It is a faith of creation, participation, movement, and change. For conservation to happen, something needs to be stopped. Something needs to be limited. Something needs to be ignored. And too often that ‘something’ is the unstoppable, unlimited, impossible – to -ignore activity of God at work in the world.” Doug Pagitt (From the first chapter in his new book. Read the first chapter here)
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March 22, 2008
Good Friday Service
We don’t do the massive amounts of candles thing at The Well very often but Good Friday seems like a pretty good reason to have a somber atmosphere. This service was awesome as I imagined it would. Tim, Laura, David and Amy led some very reverent and appropriate worship songs. In between there Rob shared a thought provoking perspective on Judas, Henry shared a raw perspective on Peter, Tim shared a great perspective on the two thieves (read his thoughts here) and Ginger read an amazing piece she wrote on Mary’s perspective. Gary and Alex did a great job of organizing this service again this year. Thanks guys.
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March 22, 2008
NT Wright on Preaching the Resurrection
“So many people think preaching the Resurrection means doing a little bit of apologetics in the pulpit to prove it really is true. Others simply say, “Jesus is raised, therefore there is a life after death.” This isn’t the point! Those types of sermons may be necessary, but there’s more to it than that. To preach the Resurrection is to announce the fact that the world is a different place, and that we have to live in that “different-ness.” The Resurrection is not just God doing a wacky miracle at one time. We have to preach it in a way that says this was the turning point in world history.” NT Wright (thanks Bob for the link)
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March 21, 2008
Easter at The Well
Easter Weekend at The Well is fast becoming one of my favorite weekends of the year. Not only do we get to remember and celebrate Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection but we get to do it together. I have come to believe that our service tonight (Good Friday) is our most worshipful and best worship gathering of the year. Mostly, that’s because I don’t do much for it. It’s totally lay-led (for lack of better term) and is usually very reflective and meditative. This year those who are sharing will be focusing on four different perspectives of the resurrection. If you are in the area and are looking for a place to worship this weekend, feel free to join us. Here’s what we’ve got going...Read More →
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March 18, 2008
Pastoring Like It’s 1989…kind of
For the last two days I’ve been with out a computer. My MacBook Pro is on a little vacation for some R&R. Okay, it actually had a bunch of problems all at once and I finally broke down and sent it off to get fixed. I should have it back on Thursday. I am writing this post from my wife’s 12″ Powerbook. Now, if you know me you’re probably wondering if I am breaking into a cold sweat or something but I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed not having my computer with me all the time. Here’s why… I’ve spent more time thinking and reflecting. The thing with having my computer around all the time is that it makes it hard to just...Read More →
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March 15, 2008
My Moleskines
I was inspired by Joe Thorn, another suburban pastor, to share with you all (whoever you are) how I use my Moleskines. If you have one, you know why these things have a little cult following. If you don’t have one…well… you just aren’t very cool. I have spent the last 7 years of my life since graduating college trying to figure out the best way to keep my tasks and thoughts organized. Somewhere along the way I was introduce to the wonderful world of the Moleskine. Here’s how I use these things: Large Cashier Squared Notebook: I use this brown notebook to take notes, brainstorm and think through things. I have learned that I am often able to brainstorm new ideas, sermon outlines and...Read More →
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March 14, 2008
Environmentalists in the Church
No, not those kind of environmentalists. Not the ones who talk about caring for the earth. I’m all for that. But, I’m referring to leaders who create environments that give room for people to change as Joe Myers talks about in his book The Search to Belong, “Environmentalists” practice restraint when it comes to controlling the results. They are primarily concerned with creating a “healthy” climate for spontaneity to occur. They develop simple environmental parameters and then sit back and see what happens. “Programmers” on the other hand, take control. If we are to allow people full opportunities to belong, we must switch from being group programmers to becoming group environmentalists. It starts with giving up control. Too often we press our good intentions to...Read More →
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March 12, 2008
Death by Meeting: Why meetings suck (the life out of you)
If you are part of any kind of organization or team, there is a good chance that you don’t look forward to the meetings that come with being a part of this team. This may especially be true if you are part of some kind of board or leadership team. Meetings seem to be the necessary evil that comes with any type of leadership. Most of us hate them and we usually want to get them out of the way so that we can get onto the real parts of leadership. This has been often true for us at The Well. I lead alongside an amazing group of people. This group is highly gifted and I’m honored to be able to lead with them. But,...Read More →
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March 12, 2008
Life Together Quote
“It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians.” Dietrich Bonhoffer in Life Together
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March 7, 2008
Privatizing the Faith
“The community that confesses that Jesus is Lord has been, from the very beginning, a movement launched into the public life of mankind. The Greco-Roman world in which the New Testament was written was full of societies offering to those who wished to join a way of personal salvation through religious teaching and practice. There were several commonly used Greek words for such societies. At no time did the church use any of these names for itself. It was not, and could not be, a society offering personal salvation for those who cared to avail themselves of it teaching and practice. It was from the beginning a movement claiming the allegiance of all peoples, and it used for itself with almost totally consistency the name...Read More →
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March 4, 2008
Subtle Site Changes
If you are paying attention, you’ll notice that I’ve made some changes to the copy on my site. I’ve edited the subtitles to the major sections and edited and added some quotes to the top bar. I’m not sure if you even read these parts of my site but I sure do have fun writing them… i am also re-creating my blog roll on the right sidebar. If you don’t see your blog there I either don’t like you anymore or I just haven’t added it yet. Hopefully its the latter rather than the former!
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March 3, 2008
Don’t
JudgeDraw Final Conclusions On A Church Based on One VisitFor whatever reason, we have a lot of people who visit our community on Sunday mornings. This is all fine and dandy. But, a thought occurred to me recently. I often want to tell those visitors that you can’t judge draw final conclusions about The Well (or any church for that matter) based on one Sunday morning visit. A few reasons: We have a team of people who preach. I preach maybe twice a month. Because of this team approach to preaching, you can’t come once and draw specific conclusions about the preaching style of our community. I am more emotional/big picture. Gary, our other pastor, is more of an intellectual and “rubber meets the road” kind of guy. David, a seminarian, preaches about once...Read More →
