Soon I'll be offering some interesting stuff I've read about in "Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire" by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat, which is a book I've wanted to read for about a year now and couldn't find anywhere. So when I saw it at the Fuller bookstore, I grabbed it. But I am usually so busy reading school books, I've barely started. So instead, here is a quote from my favorite school book, "Postmodern Youth Ministry" by Tony Jones, which I think is actually quoting from Youthworker by Mike Yaconelli. It's all very confusing...
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Jesus: I don't like crowds.
Me: You don't like crowds?!? What are you talking about?
Jesus: I don't like crowds. Go back and read my story. Yes, I had crowds from time to time, but most of the people in them just wanted more wine, food, and power. Then - when I didn't give them what they wanted - they killed me. Nope. I don't like crowds. Besides, my best work was done one on one. You know the woman at the well, the crazy guy, the blind man, the prostitute. That's when I did my best stuff.
Me: But... um... that isn't very efficient.
Jesus: I know. I don't believe in efficiency.
Me: What?!?
Jesus: Let me put it this way. I believe in making disciples one at a time. Very slow stuff.
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If only Jesus had read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, think what he might have accomplished...
Sorry, I couldn't resist it. I'm still working on my self discipline.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Some pictures...
So every Thursday a bunch of us gather together to watch the Office. This is us all pile onto the couch. We don't usually watch the Office on the same couch, cause that would be really awkward.
Please note the Chipotle cup, the Mill shirt, the DSI water bottle, and the Relevant magazines. I still represent CO. (Ok, Relevant has nothing to do with Colorado, but I had to mention that anyway.)
But needless to say, we are all big fans of the Office tv show. So I guess it isn't surprising when two of us show up to a Halloween party as Office characters. This picture of "Dwight", "Jim", and some special jello pretty much says it all. NOTE: in the event you should ever try to encase random office supplies in jello, use either yellow or green jello, not a dark color like red. And be sure to grease the bowl before you put the jello in. Apparently that helps a lot. Also be aware that once removed from the fridge, jello formations rapidly deteriorate into slimy little piles (Jordan, that one is for you) of goo.
Also, the northeastern part of our country, particularly the region known as "New England" is really testing my commitment to not hate anyone or anything. Although I sometimes wonder if Jesus would love the Red Sox and Patriots. I guess he would, because of the whole "Love your enemy" thing, but he would DEFINITELY NOT be a fan. Jesus always sides with the broken and forgotten, not the arrogant who like nothing better than to ground the weaker into the dust, or turf as it may be. So I guess he would be a Dolphin and Royal fan...
Please note the Chipotle cup, the Mill shirt, the DSI water bottle, and the Relevant magazines. I still represent CO. (Ok, Relevant has nothing to do with Colorado, but I had to mention that anyway.)
But needless to say, we are all big fans of the Office tv show. So I guess it isn't surprising when two of us show up to a Halloween party as Office characters. This picture of "Dwight", "Jim", and some special jello pretty much says it all. NOTE: in the event you should ever try to encase random office supplies in jello, use either yellow or green jello, not a dark color like red. And be sure to grease the bowl before you put the jello in. Apparently that helps a lot. Also be aware that once removed from the fridge, jello formations rapidly deteriorate into slimy little piles (Jordan, that one is for you) of goo.
Also, the northeastern part of our country, particularly the region known as "New England" is really testing my commitment to not hate anyone or anything. Although I sometimes wonder if Jesus would love the Red Sox and Patriots. I guess he would, because of the whole "Love your enemy" thing, but he would DEFINITELY NOT be a fan. Jesus always sides with the broken and forgotten, not the arrogant who like nothing better than to ground the weaker into the dust, or turf as it may be. So I guess he would be a Dolphin and Royal fan...
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The Most Interesting Man In The World
So I saw this commercial during the Charger game today. It's hilarious. I hope you enjoy:
If you go to staythirstymyfriends.com, it has more ridiculous stuff just like this... :)
If you go to staythirstymyfriends.com, it has more ridiculous stuff just like this... :)
Friday, October 26, 2007
fires
Oh, and for anyone who was worried, the wildfires didn't come anywhere close to Pasadena, so I haven't had any problems with that. Most of the trouble was in San Diego area. The closest thing to me was in Malibu, and that's about 40 miles west. It's been really smoky and hot, and the sun and moon have been orange the last week or so, but that's pretty much all. Hopefully nobody thought I was in danger and that's why I didn't update...
a new post cause i felt like i had to write something
I guess I haven't written anything in over a week now. There are a few factors in that. First, school has been busy and I had a midterm and paper that were taking large portions of my time. Second, there has been a lot on my mind, but its not coherent enough to write about. Yeah, I know that's never stopped me before. And third, I borrowed a friend's Nintendo Wii and started playing Zelda. But that really has nothing to do with it...
School is going well, but I'm a little frustrated that there is very little emphasis on application. We constantly have to read and I've learned a lot of interesting stuff. And so far that is really where it has stopped; we get lots of info. It seems the only point is to be able to wow your congregational with your incredible Bible Trivia abilities. Now I love random info (it's probably most of what I know!), but I really got the impression from everything Fuller said that they emphasized WHY this piece of info, was in fact, not random but important and helps to bring light to that other seemingly unconnected piece of info. There has been some of that, but it's mostly "Discuss all the evidence that leads to a likely dating of the Exodus, from the Bible, other written sources, and archaeological findings", and nothing about why the dating is important, what it means for Joe Randomdude, and how it affects the best way to understand other events in the Bible. It's like that "practical thing" doesn't really matter, when that's really ALL I care about.
In fairness, it is mid-term time, and who doesn't hate class when you are studying for a test or writing a paper. And I had the exact same complaint with UCCS when I got my Computer Science degree there. All theory, no practical. Maybe it's just the way I'm wired, but I don't really care to just think about stuff. I love thinking about stuff and learning new things, but I get stuck there and it doesn't change me or help me live differently, and what good is that? (This is actually a lot of what I have been wrestling with lately, cause I feel like I'm not really doing what I say I should be doing, cause I'm doing other stuff first, but is that what I should be doing, and does it even matter, and will I get there either way, and...) And it really has me frustrated when all I've learned is just what I can read in a book, for about 1% of the price...
So anyway. I hope to have something more interesting or exciting next time. Miss you all a lot. Hope you are enjoying the fall (for those of you who either like for or are experiencing fall). I'm sick of it being hot, smoky and fiery, and you mountain dwellers are mad cause it's already snowing...
School is going well, but I'm a little frustrated that there is very little emphasis on application. We constantly have to read and I've learned a lot of interesting stuff. And so far that is really where it has stopped; we get lots of info. It seems the only point is to be able to wow your congregational with your incredible Bible Trivia abilities. Now I love random info (it's probably most of what I know!), but I really got the impression from everything Fuller said that they emphasized WHY this piece of info, was in fact, not random but important and helps to bring light to that other seemingly unconnected piece of info. There has been some of that, but it's mostly "Discuss all the evidence that leads to a likely dating of the Exodus, from the Bible, other written sources, and archaeological findings", and nothing about why the dating is important, what it means for Joe Randomdude, and how it affects the best way to understand other events in the Bible. It's like that "practical thing" doesn't really matter, when that's really ALL I care about.
In fairness, it is mid-term time, and who doesn't hate class when you are studying for a test or writing a paper. And I had the exact same complaint with UCCS when I got my Computer Science degree there. All theory, no practical. Maybe it's just the way I'm wired, but I don't really care to just think about stuff. I love thinking about stuff and learning new things, but I get stuck there and it doesn't change me or help me live differently, and what good is that? (This is actually a lot of what I have been wrestling with lately, cause I feel like I'm not really doing what I say I should be doing, cause I'm doing other stuff first, but is that what I should be doing, and does it even matter, and will I get there either way, and...) And it really has me frustrated when all I've learned is just what I can read in a book, for about 1% of the price...
So anyway. I hope to have something more interesting or exciting next time. Miss you all a lot. Hope you are enjoying the fall (for those of you who either like for or are experiencing fall). I'm sick of it being hot, smoky and fiery, and you mountain dwellers are mad cause it's already snowing...
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Everything is Spiritual
Last year Rob Bell and his family went on tour and did speaking events all over the country. It was essentially 2 hours of him writing on a whiteboard talking about how all of life is spiritual. I didn't get to go because the Colorado Springs stop sold out, but I heard it was pretty cool. The sweet part is that they recorded a couple of the stops, and there is a DVD coming soon! You can pre-order it at www.everythingisspiritual.com. I've heard that if you pre-order Noomas, you usually gt them before the official release date, so consider that... And don't forget that Rob is going on tour this fall. I already got my ticket for that one. YAY!
my new church!
I've been visiting a few churches out here, trying to find a good fit. It's been tough. I really want to be a part of a community that values worship. I'm finding that often worship has been reduced to 3 happy songs where everyone stares blankly at the worship leader, and maybe sings. Everybody has the full band and sounds great, but passion, awe, humility and, er, worship, seem to be missing. That was really hard for me.
Then I visited a church called Origins on Sunday night. It is in Long Beach, which is about 40 minutes south of me. Ben is the one who pointed me in there direction, and after checking out their site I figured the church was aimed at 20-30 years old crowd who are looking for a more organic, community-focused expression of church. That is really exciting to me, but part of me is still a little skeptical about it as well. There are many people trying to wrestle with these ideas, and how they put it into practice can be drastically different (which is part of the point...). So you never know what to expect until you are there.
To say it simply, I absolutely loved it. Before I could get in the doors they welcomed me and connected me with a guy who is gonna be at Fuller next quarter. We talked for about 10 minutes, and I could see genuine humility and hunger to love God and people. Worship was simply an acoustic guitar and 2 singers, and we started the service with 10 minutes of quiet reflection on our week and allowing God to enter into those times, healing and refreshing us. The worship time was so simple and raw, it was so easy to connect with God and re-orient ourselves around Him.
AJ, the pastor, is a really great guy. He spent some time in the Sermon on the Mount, really digging into Jesus' teachings on anger. He took it a lot further than I'd heard before, asking hard questions and refusing to stop at superficial answers. Then we split up to talk about it in small groups. We immediately were talking about serious issues, like "People close to me are lying about me to discredit Christians. How can I not be angry with them?" As we opened up and shared, we all were able to help each other see a different point of view, to understand more about forgiveness, and how hard but necessary it can be to love others.
After, they invited me to Chipotle. It's a weekly tradition. How can you not love that? (BTW, I thought you should know that Chipotle is widely loved by everyone I meet from all over the country, and they ALL understand quite well that imitators like Qdoba fall far short. It saddens me that in Colorado, Chipotle's home state, there is far more disrespect for Chipotle's loving gift to us.) AJ spent the whole time talking with me. We had a great time sharing stories and backgrounds. I already feel like I'm part of the community!
So that's really great! I'm excited about it. The only downside is that it is a good distance from Pasadena, so it will be a little harder to build friendships. But I think that will take care of itself in time.
Then I visited a church called Origins on Sunday night. It is in Long Beach, which is about 40 minutes south of me. Ben is the one who pointed me in there direction, and after checking out their site I figured the church was aimed at 20-30 years old crowd who are looking for a more organic, community-focused expression of church. That is really exciting to me, but part of me is still a little skeptical about it as well. There are many people trying to wrestle with these ideas, and how they put it into practice can be drastically different (which is part of the point...). So you never know what to expect until you are there.
To say it simply, I absolutely loved it. Before I could get in the doors they welcomed me and connected me with a guy who is gonna be at Fuller next quarter. We talked for about 10 minutes, and I could see genuine humility and hunger to love God and people. Worship was simply an acoustic guitar and 2 singers, and we started the service with 10 minutes of quiet reflection on our week and allowing God to enter into those times, healing and refreshing us. The worship time was so simple and raw, it was so easy to connect with God and re-orient ourselves around Him.
AJ, the pastor, is a really great guy. He spent some time in the Sermon on the Mount, really digging into Jesus' teachings on anger. He took it a lot further than I'd heard before, asking hard questions and refusing to stop at superficial answers. Then we split up to talk about it in small groups. We immediately were talking about serious issues, like "People close to me are lying about me to discredit Christians. How can I not be angry with them?" As we opened up and shared, we all were able to help each other see a different point of view, to understand more about forgiveness, and how hard but necessary it can be to love others.
After, they invited me to Chipotle. It's a weekly tradition. How can you not love that? (BTW, I thought you should know that Chipotle is widely loved by everyone I meet from all over the country, and they ALL understand quite well that imitators like Qdoba fall far short. It saddens me that in Colorado, Chipotle's home state, there is far more disrespect for Chipotle's loving gift to us.) AJ spent the whole time talking with me. We had a great time sharing stories and backgrounds. I already feel like I'm part of the community!
So that's really great! I'm excited about it. The only downside is that it is a good distance from Pasadena, so it will be a little harder to build friendships. But I think that will take care of itself in time.
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