I Have Switched to Wordpress

Friends, Family, and Unknown Readers,

I have been notified on various occasions that commenting on my blog can be nothing less than a chore - due in large part to the process required by the beloved blogspot.com people.

For that reason and others which would be of little to no interest to you, I have changed my blog site to http://denverkevin.wordpress.com/.

I would greatly appreciate it if you all would transfer your readership to the new site.

It's been a good ride, blogspot. Farewell.

Accountability

In recent days I stumbled across this post on Ed Stetzer's website dealing with the topic of accountability groups. The post contains various pastors' accountability questions that they regularly ask within their respective small groups. I thought I would post a few of those questions that stuck out to me as unfortunately unique here.

From John Wesley's Small Group

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously [subconsciously?] creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

8. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. Do I pray about the money I spend?

11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

From John Wesley's Band Meetings

5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

From Chuck Swindoll's Pastoral Accountability Questions:

(the final question) 5. Have you just lied to me?

From Neil Cole:

3. Is there anything that has dampened your zeal for Christ [this week]?

In $$$ We Trust

"Our currency says we trust in God,

but in reality we usually trust in our currency."

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” -- Jesus (Luke 16:13)

You Were Born a White (Wo)Man...

"You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century industrial America. You came into the world armed to the teeth with an arsenal of weapons. The weapons of privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege, economic privilege. You wanna be a pacifist, it's not just giving up guns and knives and clubs and fists and angry words, but giving up the weapons of privilege, and going into the world completely disarmed. Try that." --Ammon Hennessy

I'm not a fan of pacifism, but I think this quote speaks volumes to the church about being willing to empty ourselves of what we have "rights" to in order to reach people with the gospel. I've become especially sensitive to this of late with my church working for racial diversity at all cost.

Quotes from Work (pt. 3)

(Context: Two women speaking of a recently discovered motivational speaker they were researching on the internet.)

Co-worker #1: He seems like a really nice guy. I'd really like to be his friend.

Co-worker #2: You mean, like, on Facebook?

Quotes from Work (pt. 2)

Co-worker: Do you like Rob Bell?

Me: I don't know. I've never met him.

Co-worker: Like, have you read any of his books?

Me: Yes.

Co-worker: What did you think?

Me: I heard someone say it this way, "Some of the stuff he says is brilliant. Other stuff - he would have gotten burned at the stake for 400 years ago."

Co-worker: Yeah, so I got about 12 pages into his book before putting it down and Googling the phrase, "Is Rob Bell a heretic?" Evidently a lot of people don't like the guy.

End of February Update

Once again, time to catch up on too much time in as few words as possible.

The last few weeks have been really busy - as in, I haven't really been home much in the last 11 days and won't be home much for another few days. I sleep here, but that's about it.

The highlights of the last couple weeks:

The church I'm a part of has begun really pushing toward cultural and ethnic diversity this year. As a result, two weeks ago as part of black history month and as a way to give a taste of what's to come in the future for Providence, we had more of an African-American style service - complete with "spoken words", a panel discussion on racism in America and the church, and a sermon first preached by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. several decades ago.

Last week, we focused the service on introducing many Latino traditions: Spanish music (the powerpoint contained both Spanish and English lyrics), a panel-discussion on immigration and the language barrier in the church and America, a largely bilingual service, and a sermon from John 13.

Oh, and both services were 3 hours long. Gotta love it!

Last Friday, some friends and I went to a Switchfoot concert at the Ogden Theatre near downtown Denver. Unfortunately for me, I missed out on going to the meet n' greet before the show, but the concert was so good I'll forgive missing the opportunity - realizing, of course, that the act of forgiving, by definition, is entirely dependent upon a preceding passive condition of being wronged by a person or persons, which, in this case, was altogether absent, and the situation, therefore, is exempt from being forgiven and consequently disqualifies the latter independent clause from philosophical credibility, but on the other hand does qualify this sentence into the running for most confusing sentence of the year at a to-be-determined county fair later this year.

["Sing it out, sing it out, take what is left of me, make it a melody"]

[Mandolin anyone?]

[This is a video I shot at the concert. At the beginning, I am holding up Jon Foreman as he stands on the railing in front of me.]

Oh, the night before the day before the Switchfoot show, my car got broken into in the apartment parking lot. Apparently, someone from the community needed a slightly used car stereo and GPS unit and hadn't been able to find one on Craigs List at a fair price. I completely understand. **Note to thief: Next time you need something from my car, give me a heads up and I'll be sure to leave my doors unlocked so you don't shatter the window glass everywhere. Cleaning of the millions of glass bits was really annoying and I have better ways to spend my time.**

Those would be the highlights from the last couple weeks. I'm sure I'll think of more stuff I should have included, but the events I neglect to include will bother me infinitely more than they will any of you.

What I already realized I forgot:

:: I went to an IMAX with the kids from our after school program.

:: I put in a 14 hour day on Saturday helping renovate the church's community center.

:: The same night my car got broken into, I saw a guy sprint across 4 lanes of traffic on highway 6 in order to graffiti up a light pole.

:: I saw a baby prairie dog running around on the road dodging traffic. The point? Baby prairie dogs are way cuter than squirrels of any age.

Ok Go Wins Again!

From the very same guys who brought you...

"The Treadmill Video"

...and "The Video of The Treadmill Guys Dancing in Their Back Yard" ...

...comes their latest music video of Mousetrap proportions.

Evidently, this video took several months to set up. I believe it.

Quotes from the Front Door

10:52 pm

*knock knock*

Me: (opens door) Hello.

Random guy holding a used buzz saw and socket wrench set: Hey man. You wanna buy a saw or wrench set? I promise the saw works. We can plug it in right now and prove it works.

Me: Uh, why are you selling?

RGHAUBSASWS: (looking around nervously) Because I violated parole and I only have a couple days before I gotta ditch town.

Me: Well, I already have wrench set.

RGHAUBSASWS: I'll throw it in for free! Quote a price on this saw - I promise it works. We can plug it in right now and I'll show you.

Me: No thanks, man. Bye. Have a good night.

RGHAUBSASWS: Ok, have a good night. Do you know who lives next door?

Me: No. (door closes)

*knock knock on the neighbor's door*

Quotes from Work

While driving kids from their school to Goals.

3rd grade girl: "Mr.! Stop. This. Bus. Right. Now!"

Me: "Umm...No, I can't right now. There are cars behind us."

3rd grade boy: "No, there's not. Michael Jackson's behind us!" [emphasis his]

Me: "Ok."

Paging Simon Cowell

Seriously, where is Simon Cowell when you need him!? This video has exploded on the internet and it might be the worst sounding/filmed/edited music video ever. Hands down. If nothing else, check out the wailing guitar solo at 2:08.

"Shine" by Final Placement from sharity world on Vimeo.

Joy Through The Cancer

Please check out the new blog of my college friend, Jason Norton. He recently found out he has stage c3 cancer and will be blogging his journey on his blog. Jason is a Godly brother and has a great perspective on this cancer. He and his wife, Mary, are also expecting their first child, a daughter, in July!

"Obviously, not a trial I planned nor wanted to ever go through, but I’m fortunate enough to know that God the creator has an even better plan for my life here on earth, no matter how long that may be. This blog is truly not to bring more attention to myself, but ultimately to proclaim the name of Christ and how He uses situations like these to reveal His grace and His greatness. I hope to use this as an avenue to share, not only my battle with cancer, but how the Lord is growing and strengthening me during this trial."

http://consideritpurejoy.wordpress.com/

An Update Buffet

This post will be a recap of an assortment of recent happenings:

Books:

I read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men last weekend and really enjoyed it. I consider it to be more of a story than a book, just because of its brevity. I've never been so caught off guard by a book's final sentence in my life.

I started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns on Wednesday. It's the second book by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner - a book I

thoroughly enjoyed reading last year. I had intentions of reading ATSS while still in Michigan, but I never got around to it (my apologies to Rachel Moen). Hopefully I can have the book finished by the end of the weekend.

For church, I'm reading Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion and Alexander Strauch's book, Biblical Eldership. These books will take a little longer to read than the fiction ones.

Piano Jazz and BJU:

On Wednesday night, my small group was canceled so I ended up hanging out with Alyssa and her friend, Seth, for a couple hours at a local piano jazz venue downtown. Seth went to Bob Jones University and we discovered that we have a few mutual friends from there. Small world.

Tiger's Apology:

You can watch the full apology here or read the transcript here.

I want to give Tiger credit for his public apology yesterday. He was thorough, accepted personal responsibility for his actions, spoke highly of his wife and children, and emphasized his priority of keeping many of the specific details between him and his wife. Here is part of the apology.

"The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame.

I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.

I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.

I've had a lot of time to think about what I've done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made. It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."

As far as apologies go from non-Christian people, I think Tiger apologized well. I was, however, disappointed that Tiger believes Buddhism to be a large part of the solution to the problem. This didn't surprise me, but it didn't give me a great deal of hope that Tiger will be successful in this life-change. I am pleased Tiger is taking steps to get his personal life in order. Few athletes would step away from the game in their prime in order to save their family. I give credit to Tiger for having his priorities in the right place.

Real Conversation Between Me and a Student at Work:

Me: So, what's up with you and [insert girl's name]?

Him: Nothin'. We're just friends.

Me: Oh ya? What do you think your girlfriend would think about that?

Him: I don't have a girlfriend.

Me: Who's that girl that's always all wrapped up in your arms after school? Would she say she's your girlfriend?

Him: (awkwardly) Yeah.

Me: One girl at a time, man. One girl at a time.

Don't Give Up

A promo video from Churchill's concert at Cornerstone University. Some random guy at the show made it and I think it's incredible!

churchill Promo from lancemokma on Vimeo.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I completed Donald Miller's newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, on Saturday. The book definitely has Miller's unique writing style but relays a more mature version than his readers have seen in the past. Miles is the 5th of Miller's books (you can read snippets of them here) to be published and I have read every one. It's weird to me, but I think he's the only author who I've read every book by. That sentence seems weird to me - probably because I ended the sentence with a preposition. Sue me.

The basic premise of this book, as I seem to remember addressing in an earlier blog post, is Miller talking about his learning to view his life as a story, and in the process, realizing that his life was really boring. He came to believe that if people had watched his life in movie form, they would have either fall asleep or left the theatre early. As a result of that realization, he set out to radically change his life, and thereby writing a better life story. In Miles, Miller teaches about what makes a good story and then shares experiences from his own life that exemplify successes and failures in his attempt and making his life into a good story. Some parts of the book are educational, others are hilarious (although the funny parts are few and far between, in contrast to some of his past books), and still others are utterly heart wrenching.

In reading the book, the writing hit a brief lull for me sort of early on, but then steadily gained momentum before blindsiding me with one of my favorite "book sections" I've ever read. It was at this point that I Facebooked my feelings of excitement of almost being done with the book, but also being sad because it meant the book was almost over. I got a much larger response to that post than expected (20ish comments), so it was encouraging to know I'm not the only one who experiences that tension.

I've included below some of my favorite quotes and paragraphs from the book. Read them if you'd like; if you plan to read the book, I suggest avoiding the long paragraphs I quote because what Miller says will be more powerful if you read them in the context of the book, and I don't want to ruin any huge moments for you. I could have written more quotes, but these are more than enough for one entry. Plus, I'm not sure about copyright laws and I don't want to get sued for copying the whole book onto my blog.

People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain. (p. 100)

A general rule in creating stories is that people don’t want to change. They must be forced to change. (p. 100)

Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life. (p. 108)

The main way we learn story is not through movies or books; it’s through each other. You become like the people you interact with. And if your friends are living boring stories, you probably will to. We teach our children good or bad stories, what is worth living for and what is worth dying for, what is worth pursuing, and the dignity with which a character engages his own narrative. (p. 160)

I think this [referencing a story is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world, wanting to get married, wanting to have kids and change the way people buy office supplies. But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They can’t see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses, and they go looking for an easier story. (p. 179)

Before this, I couldn’t understand why a person would commit suicide. And while I now have the perspective that only comes from distance, and the perspective always comes, I know the power a lie has to shrink time into what seems the eternal end of things. It is a true miracle I survived that hour. I wasn’t numb anymore. I was allowed to feel the brunt of it. The bones penetrated my chest in a sudden rip, emptying a body of blood down my shirt and onto my lap. The blood pooled in the lap of my pants and seeped into the carpet in my hotel room. I clasped my hand over my heart and knelt between the bed and the television and rolled onto the floor and cried out to God a lamenting demand that he would come and save me from the sorrow that, for the immensity of it, I could only attribute to him in the first place. I didn’t want to learn whatever it was he wanted to teach me. I cried out to him an angry petition for rescue. I doubted him and need him at the same time. God seem to me, in that moment, a cruel father burning a scar into my skin with his cigarette. And yet I knew he was the only one with the power to make the pain go away. (p. 195).

I don’t mean to insinuate there are no minor climaxes to human stories. There are. A kid can try to make the gootball team and in a moment of climax sees his name on the coach’s list. A girl can want to get married and feel euphoric when the man of her dreams slides a rin on her finger. But these aren’t the stories I’m talking about. These are substories. When that kid makes the football team, he is going to find out that playing football is hard, and he’s going to find himself in the middle of yet another story. And the girl is going to wake up three months into her marriage and realize she is, in fact, still lonely, and so many of her issues haven’t gone away. And if both of these people aren’t careful, they’re going to get depressed because they thought the climax to their substory was actually a climax to the human story, and it wasn’t. The human story goes on. (p. 202-203)

We don’t know how much we are capable of loving until the people we love are being taken away, until a beautiful story is ending. (p. 223)

:: Donald Miller, himself raised without a father, started a mentorship program called "The Mentoring Project" for fatherless boys in America as a result of his desire to live a better story and help others. The program has gained a great deal of attention as evidenced by that fact that Miller has had several meetings with President Obama regarding fatherlessness in America. Miller blogs here and you can follow him on Twitter if you so choose: @donmilleris.

ESL XII CCM UFC

Current Listening: Ampersand - Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken

This week has been a true delight. As mentioned in my last post, Tuesday night was the first night of ESL for the spring semester. Class went without a hitch and it was fun seeing some of my students from last semester again. After class, Calla (my friend and fellow ESL teacher) and I went on a spontaneous excursion to Twelve Restaurant for a late dinner and to say hi to my neighbors who work there. I was lucky enough to try seared foie gras (fwah - grah) for the first time as our appetizer. Foie gras is a protein rich method of serving up duck liver that tastes like an oddly enjoyable meaty balloon. It was a unique experience that will find a role as a pleasant, once in a lifetime memory more so than as a regular part of my diet in the future.

Skip Wedesday. It was rather mundane.

Thursday night after I got home from ESL I realized I had left my lap top out on table in a classroom at work. This was most unfortunate because students would be using that classroom the next day and I didn't have to work. I sucked it up, hopped back in my car, drove the 15 minutes back to work, grabbed the stupid laptop (for which I am deeply grateful and under any other circumstances would never refer to as stupid), and drove back downtown to meet some friends. Crisis averted. Personal patience tank running on low. Then I was dumb and put enough money in the parking meter for an hour and a half even though parking was going to be free in a matter of minutes. Tank on empty.

So I met up with some friends from church downtown to hang out and ended up running into three other friends of mine, two of whom (Brad and Josh) are in the worship band Gungor - who I've mentioned on this blog before. Evidently they were just featured on the cover of the newest CCM magazine and their new cd comes out in the next couple weeks. Congrats to them. So I was with the aforementioned church friends at The Celtic Tavern until around 11:30 at which time we headed over a few blocks to the Meadowlark for a late night Churchill show. The show was totally worth staying up late for as they played one of their best shows to date and impressed some "important" people who were in town to check out the band. Next week the band will be on a week-long midwest tour, including shows at both Cornerstone University and Taylor University, so I'll be flying solo for a few days. I anticipate feeling a bit like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone while they're gone. Bring it on Harry and Marv, I'll straight up own you with a staple gun and ... shoot, does anyone have a staple gun I can borrow?

Friday I slept in and spent the day reading and prepping for the all night church prayer meeting that went from 10 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. I had the opportunity to lead the singing for the meeting and do some brief teaching from the book of Ezra for a section as well. For part of the meeting we walked a mile to the capitol building at about 2 a.m. in order to pray for the city and its leaders. While standing on the front steps, we witnessed a car crash at the corner intersection so some of the group ran over to check on the drivers while one guy called 911 to notify the police. No one in the accident was hurt, just a little dazed and in shock.

[The Denver capitol building.]

So I just received a phone call from my friend Dwight inviting me to go watch the UFC fights tonight. I can't really say no to that. I could, but I'm not going to. Peace out peoples! In my next update I hope to talk about the book I just finished reading today.

Fu Man Chus and The Great Peanut Butter Cookie Conundrum

Thursday night was an elders meeting for church. I've been able to attend the last couple meetings as part of a group of guys who are looking to begin an "elder-in-training" type internship. This would involve reading various books and presenting summary papers, attending elder meetings, and getting heavily involved in various ministries. It's kind of a discipleship on steroids for guys who want to be elders in the church someday.

Friday I went to the aquarium for a field trip with the kids in our after school program. Sometimes my job is really tough - driving a school bus and then dissecting a squid and walking around the Denver downtown aquarium. I totally got to pet/touch/momentarily graze my fingers on a live sting ray. Unlike Steve Irwin, however, I survived the encounter.

[This was the original shark who tried out for the lead role in Jaws.*]

[The Goals group in front of the shark tank.]

[Some of the students and I attempting a group shot in front a unusually long fish laying on the bottom of the tank...too bad we blocked most of it.]

Saturday I did some reading and prepped for leading music at Providence on Sunday. This was my first time getting to lead the singing and I really enjoyed the opportunity. Because Saturday was such a beautiful day (around 50 degrees and sunny), I went for a walk downtown after dinner. I popped in my headphones and listened to a sermon and a half during my walk. I can't wait for the weather to really warm up because a couple guys had set up an artwork booth on 16th Street, and they told me that when the weather warms up they are there quite often along with a bunch of other vendors. Their paintings were cool - a unique combo of bright colors, robots, and planets. Upon reading what I just wrote, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it; the paintings were cool.

On Sunday, the message was about prayer. The meeting place is really starting to fill up on Sunday mornings and some guys had to set up some extra chairs so everyone could have a place to sit. I guess that's a good problem to have. After the service, a bunch of friends came over for lunch before heading out to the Genghis Khan exhibit at the history museum. They all, girls included, wore felt fu man chu mustaches to the exhibit. One of the guys, Jeremy, had actually shaved his goatee the night before so he was rocking a legit, home grown, fu man chu. For the record, I didn't go to the exhibit, but Greg helped me fix my car hood after everyone left so not going was totally worth it.

[Genghis Khan. The great father of the fu man chu.]

I did have a couple free movie passes so Mike and I went and saw a movie that turned about to be a cross between "The Bourne Identity" and an old Bob Jones University movie about smuggling Bibles that I saw in high school - I don't remember the title. Eh...

Tonight was dinner and a movie. Greg cooked up his famous chicken bruschetta (I just spelled that word correctly on my first try. Raise the roof.), and I made the peanut butter cookies. I even pressed the criss-crossed fork grid pattern into the second batch so as to make them look official. Why do we do that? The pressing of the fork so as to create a criss-crossed fork grid pattern on peanut butter cookies. I think we should stop. It makes me feel like I'm eating fattening pieces of graph paper.

Tomorrow is another day of work and the first day of ESL for the spring semester! I can't wait! I love teaching ESL. And I'll get to see my friend Calla again who also teaches ESL. I haven't seen her since before Christmas. Twill be fun.

Hasta luego y buenos noches.

*Not true

Jessa Anderson - Back in the Musical Saddle!

Great news, friends! My friend Jessa Anderson is back in the studio recording her second album - due out in late spring. Her first album, Fundamentally Broken, is one of my favorite albums and maintains a regular place in my listening rotation. It's available both through her website and on itunes. Jessa and her husband, Jordan, have been touring full time and playing their music literally all around the world for the past year and a half. Jessa has enjoyed recent success on the European Christian music charts landing a #1 single ("And You Love Me") this past fall thanks to steady radio play and a ministry related tour throughout Europe alongside her husband and Ken and Jinner Rudolph. If that's not enough, as a result of winning a new artist competition last summer, she'll be playing the main stage in June at Alive 2010 in Ohio. If 2009 is any indicator of what 2010 will bring, Jessa is definitely worth keeping an eye on, and I highly recommend buying her new album the day it's released.

This video gives a preview of one of her new songs "Not Myself Anymore."

More videos can be seen on Jessa's YouTube page.

P.S. Jordan and Jessa are expecting a baby, their first, late this summer. Congratulations, Jordan and Jessa!

Counterfeit Gods

I just finished reading Tim Keller's newest book, Counterfeit Gods, last night. I would highly recommend it to anyone - Christian or not. I have referenced Keller and included video clips of him teaching various times in my blog, so at the risk of beating a dead horse, I will repeat my recommendation that you all should read any or all of his books and listen to anything you can by the guy. I came across this site today and it seems to be a gold mine of resources from Keller. I also found this very official looking photo of Keller on Google images.

In Counterfeit Gods, Keller sets out to expose the empty promises of sex, money, and power - a message that is particularly timely in light of America's current economic recession. He starts the book by addressing the despair that has overcome many Americans today and convincingly argues that this despair is the result of idolatry. Quoting De Tocqueville, Keller defines idolatry as "taking some 'incomplete joy of this world' and building your entire life on it" (p. xi). In expanding on this idea, Keller later observes, "We take more and greater risks to get an ever diminishing satisfaction from the thing we crave, until a breakdown occurs" (p. xiv).

In the main body of the book, Keller demonstrates himself to be be well read and culturally discerning - a quality that doesn't surprise me due to the fact that he's the pastor of a large and growing church in the heart of New York City. He relays the Biblical stories of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Rachel, Naaman, Zacchaeus, Nebuchadnezzar, and Jonah in fresh ways - exposing in each story the idolatry that God brings to light. Keller comes out firing with both barrels, congently and graciously pointing out the frivolousness of making money, sex, power, or anything else ultimate in one's life. In each case, he presents Jesus as the the true solution and only Savior.

In conclusion, the best part of this book is that Keller does not have an agenda to write a book for "church people" pointing out how all the "non-church people" are all terrible people. His agenda is actually to point out how equally bad "church people" and "non-church people" are and, in turn, to present Jesus as the only hope to both groups. Keller writes, "The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you" (p. xxiv).

----

For those interested, the book is for sale on Amazon.

Pictures of Haiti

The best pictures coming out of Haiti can be found here. Thus far, four albums have been posted:

Album 1: Earthquake in Haiti

Album 2: Haiti 48 Days Later

Album 3: Haiti Six Days Later

Album 4: Face of Haiti

American Idol, Five Iron Frenzy, and a Carnivorous Lobster

[I saw this truck in Michigan over Christmas break, but I forgot

to post it before. I just thought it was kinda funny.]

Monday night a group of friends came over for the traditional "dinner and movie" but the night turned into "dinner and sit around and talk and play with Kaden" night. This was totally cool with me because my friends are great and Kaden is fun to play with. Kaden is Krystol's son and he turns 4 later this month. I spent a lot of the night playing with him and activities included him jumping back and forth from my bed to Mike's while I laid on the ground between the beds and played the role of carnivorous lobster, teaching him how to have a pillow fight, running around putting ice cubes down each other's shirts, holding him upside down above my head so he could walk on the ceiling, and having a strobe light dance party in the bedroom.

[Kaden discovered that shining a green laser pointer into the toilet

gave the bowl a stunning alien green glow.]

[Mike and Kaden making scary ghost faces.]

Tuesday night consisted of watching American Idol (3 cheers for random good singing girl from West Des Moines!) and reading Calvin's Institutes. I hope to post some quotes from that and Counterfeit Gods possibly this weekend. Tonight I went to small group for church and now I'm going to bed. Switchfoot is on Jimmy Fallon tonight, but I'm too tired to stay up and watch it. I'll be seeing Switchfoot here in Denver February 26th. I can't wait. Last time I saw them was in fall of 2007 in New York City.

Lastly, I found out last night that the band opening the Churchill and The Still City (cd release show) show on Saturday night is comprised of former members of Five Iron Frenzy - a old CCM ska band that sold close to 1,000,000 records during my junior high age years. Their new band name is A Mouthful of Thunder. It should be a great show - it's expected to be sold out.

MLK 2010 and the Solution for Racism

The speech that defined a movement (transcript available here):



Sadly, the most segregated institution in America today is the church. This article from 2008 is very insightful in pointing out many of the obstacles faced by churches who desire to be multi-ethnic. I found the following statements from the article to be very helpful/challenging:

"Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States."

"... the first-century Christian church grew so rapidly precisely because it was so inclusive. ...the church inspired wonder because its leaders were able to form a community that cut across the rigid class and ethnic divisions that characterized the ancient Roman world...Biblical precedents, though, may not be enough to make someone attend church with a person of another race. Something else is needed: a tenacious pastor who goads his or her church to reach across racial lines, interracial church scholars say."

[One pastor speaking of his own experience said...] "Some parents talked about the importance of a multiracial church, until their kid became attracted to someone from another race within the church."

"Only when ethnic groups no longer feel compelled to abandon their entire culture on Sunday morning can a church claim to be interracial...An interracial church isn't one in which all the black members act, dress and worship like the church's majority white members to make them feel comfortable...Interracial churches resist 'taking one dominant identity and forcing everyone to fit into it.'"

As part of a local church that is pursuing racial diversity, I found this article surprisingly helpful (It is not too often CNN has a decent article on Christianty - in my opinion.). The neighborhood in which I live is predominately black and my job has me working with about a 95% hispanic population. Growing up in Iowa, going to 98% white Bible college, and living in a suburb of Detroit (not to be confused with real Detroit), I was never confronted with the need for racial diversity. By the grace of God, I don't believe myself to be racist, but I find myself so comfortable within the white culture that I don't realize the arrogance that can lie beneath the surface. That being said, here are some questions to ask yourself today as America reflects upon the life of Martin Luther King and the cause he represents.

1. Do you ever find yourself making "we"/"they" distinctions within the church based purely on matters of race?

2. How much would it bother you if the service didn't start "on time"? (I've learned that this is a "white person" mentality and that making this a huge priority can communicate a message of cultural superiority within the church.)

3. When is the list time you referred to something as being "flesh colored" because it matched your own skin tone?

4a. If your music on Sunday mornings didn't sound like old school Maranatha, Coldplay (aka Chris Tomlin), or...I guess there isn't a third option within white churches, would you still be able to engage in the singing? Hint: Look through your worship cd collection and try and find one cd that reflects music of a different culture...can you do it?

4b. Do you secretly hope the music in heaven doesn't sound like Latin Salsa or Hip Hop?

5. Do you have any friends at all of a different race? (Note: I'm not recommending you go out to find a token black/hispanic/Asian friend just so you can say you have one, but does the fact that you might not have one reveal the exclusive circles you run in?)

In conclusion, I don't believe the ultimate solution to racism or segregation in or out of the church is a charismatic, motivational pastor or spokesman. I believe these people simply are to be the communicators of the solution, namely the gospel. The gospel that boldly preaches that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek (Gal. 3:28) and that one day, people from every tribe and tongue will surround the throne worshipping Jesus together forever (Rev. 7:9). It is only through the cross of Christ that we can be set free from our pride and sin of racism. Those who reject Christ need the gospel so that they can be made alive and set free from their slavery to sin, and religious people need the gospel to reveal that their love of racially diverse people will never save them or earn them merit with God. We worship a Jesus who never committed the sin of racism, but on the cross became a racist on our behalf 1 Cor 5:21 and absorbed the wrath of God for that sin so that those who believe in Him might be saved (Romans 3:23-26).

Those are some of my thoughts today. I encourage you to think on these things as well. Comments/criticisms are always welcome. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, especially if you disagree with me or have questions. Lastly, it's very possible that I've included something here that is subtly or explicitly racist and I didn't even realize it because of my own blindness. For this I apologize and will gladly receive correction.

Dragon Twister!

This is well worth 6:28 of your life. It's incredible all the way to the end!

If you don't have time to watch it all, I recommend highlights at the 3:08, 3:50, 4:23, 4:35, 5:04 and marks.

Update to Favorite Things

Here is my roommate Tyler's "going out on the town how do I look" outfit mentioned at the end of this previous post:

Avatar

Question: What cost 387 million dollars , brought great joy to millions of people, and sent others down a spiral of depression? Answer: Avatar.

If you haven't heard of it by now, chances are you don't get on the internet much. Or read newspapers. Or go outside. Or have friends. This movie has already grossed 1.4 billion dollars and is well on its way to becoming the highest grossing movie of all time. For James Cameron, the movie's writer and director, the only movie standing between him and #1 is the last movie he made. You might have heard of it - it's called "Titantic."

The big push behind this movie, as you probably already know, it's the visual gluttonous feast that it provides. I was able to see the movie in 3D on Monday night and pretty much sat there dumbfounded at how cool everything was. Several times I sat there with my jaw wide open while simultaneously grinning and whispering, "Wow!" The closest way I can think of to talk about the movie is to say that James Cameron has done for film what C.S. Lewis did for literature. Lewis created other worlds on paper, and Cameron brought his to life on the screen.

This movie was not without it's critics, however. For starters, critics clam the story line is essentially that of the Disney hit movie, Pocohontas (not to be confused with the actual, historical account of Pocohontas). To this I say, "Yes. It is. But I don't care. Essentially every chick flick has the same story structure but no one cares about that. Gorgeous guy meets beautiful babe. Usually one plays hard to get. Then they fall in love. Then one does something stupid and they part ways. Then they realize they are too perfect for one another and get back together. I don't even have a specific chick flick in mind, but I'm guessing this plot summarizes at least a few of them."

The movie contains also political, social, and spritual threads woven subtly and explicitly throughout. The line, "We fight terror with terror" kind of stuck out to me. The whole cowboy and indian genocide theme was pretty explicit - complete with the Avatar warriors riding horses (the Pandora equivalent of), wearing war paint, and shooting bows and arrows. Additionally, there was a whole bunch of mother earth mumbo jumbo hogwash thrown in. Something about all of creation sharing the same spirit and connecting through fiber-optic ponytails. Finally, the movie presented creation as being the mediator between man and the divine. It clearly had a divine "other" that was separate from but involved with creation, but it/she/he was accessed through creation.

I don't want to really rant about this movie because I think pretty much every movie has its own pagan message and to single this one out is unfair. I just wanted to say that the movie was super cool and entertaining but should not be viewed without discernment. Watch it through your eyes but with your heart.

P.S. The whole depression deal going on simply points out that people recognize that something in our world is broken. People long to be in a reconciled relationship with creation and the Divine, but fail to see that Jesus makes this possible. Avatar just made this super obvious.

Favorite Things

It's been a while since I've posted a "Some of my Favorite Things" list on here.

For what it's worth, here it is:

Music:

In Your City - Phil Wickham

Grounds for Divorce - Elbow - super cool sounding song.

If You Wanna Go - Joy Williams - co-written by my friend Tim's cousin

Hello Hurricane (the whole album) - Switchfoot

The Civil Wars (What I've heard of them so far, at least.)

Oh For That Day (the album) - Enfield

Books:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller

you can read an excerpt from the book here

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power,and the Only Hope that Really Matters - Tim Keller

I bought this book with a Christmas gift card. Thanks Dan Rudd!

Life Stuff:

My roomates Tyler Rima and Mike Morter

The Packers making the playoffs

Twitter

Iowa Hawkeyes winning the Orange Bowl

Colt McCoy's speech after getting injured on the 5th play and watching his team lose the national championship game. A true class act.

Chick-Fil-A

Providence Bible Church

Watching Mike walk out onto our porch, stretch out his arms, and yell, "This is my city!" at the top of his lungs - for no reason at all.

Having Tyler just walk up to me dressed in a plaid shirt, black skinny jeans, a tie, and suspenders, and ask if he looks like he's dressed for a night on the town. I told him he looks like he's dressed for a barn raising.

Christmas Break, New Year, and The Break

I'm lucky (blessed) enough to have a job that provided me with two weeks of Christmas vacation this year. I flew to Omaha on the Saturday before Christmas where my dad picked picked me up and we drove the 2 1/2 hours to Des Moines. I was able to attend the church where I grew up on Sunday and see a lot of friends there. Monday night I went out for wings with some old youth group friends and leaders. Tuesday night my sisters and brother-in-law and I planned a family night with my parents where we had dinner and played the Wii and my sister and brother-in-law's new(ish) apartment. Wednesday we decided to leave early to go to my grandparents' house in order to beat the incoming snow storm. We attended the beginning of the Christmas Eve service at church because my family was scheduled to read the Christmas story and then left early to hit the road. We spent the next few days with family and had a great time eating too much food, playing board games, teaching my grandparents to play Wii bowling, and just spending time together. It was the first time we had all been together since last Christmas. My family, with the exception of Gerty and I, left on Sunday to go home and Gerty and I stuck around till Monday morning before leaving to go visit friends in Michigan.

Monday night Gerty and I stayed with my super-awesome friends, Bob and Charissa Karr, near Lansing, MI. I had the opportunity to travel on a ministry team with Bob during the summer of 2006 and then be in Bob and Charissa's wedding back in the summer of 2008. I'm pretty sure they are two of the coolest people ever. Tuesday morning Gerty and I drove to Detroit to visit all my Cornerstone friends. I interned at Cornerstone for 1 year before moving here to Denver in August.

A bunch of students came and hung out in the gym on Tuesday afternoon. We ate pizza and played basketball, volleyball, and dodgeball. I miss hanging out with the students and bunch and can't wait till they're old enough to take a road trip to come visit me in Denver (hint, hint).

[Devin and I have a tradition of him picking me up in pictures. He's huge like that.]

I spent the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday seeing as many Cornerstone friends as possible. I am forever grateful for the relationships I have with so many incredible people there.

Gerty and I left Detroit around 5:30 on Thursday morning to head up to Lake Ann Camp for The Break, a college-ish age retreat over the New Year holiday. It was Gerty's first time at Lake Ann and we had a great time seeing old friends and making new ones. One of my campers from 2 summers ago is now a college student and so it was fun to catch up on life at little bit. Gerty and I had the opportunity to help lead the music with Mike Morter and Gibby Fingers and Brian the Drummer. New Years was ushered in with a Shawn McDonald concert and I got to sit front and center for the show. Last time I saw him live was in 2006...I think.

[It snowed pretty much the whole time we were at The Break. Happy New Years!]

[Photo Bomb! Cherise and I..."05!" and Mike.]

[Gibby Fingers, Mike, and I doing the gangsta beat down pose. We bad.]

After The Break finished on Saturday, Gerty and Mike and I drove back to Des Moines. Then Mike and I drove the rest of the way to Denver on Sunday. There, I think I've officially caught up on the blog. I'm only 1 week behind now...which more or less negates my previous sentence. I'm over it.

Gibby Fingers!

A friend of mine, Mark "Gibby Fingers" Gibbons, recorded this version of "The Grinch" with some of his friends. They performed the song in reverse, recorded the audio normally, and then played the video backwards for a really cool effect. Check it out!

Mark is the guy shooting pool and the one playing the acoustic guitar.

Mark is also a genius piano player. This is a home recording of one of his original piano compositions in 7/8 meter. It gets REALLY interesting shortly after the 03:00 mark.



For those interested, he has a video tutorial for the Coldplay song "Yes" on his YouTube page.

My roommate, Mike, is up and writing again on his blog as well. Check it out here: http://mikemorter.wordpress.com/.

Attempting to Catch Up (Part 2): Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

As far as work is concerned, I’m still enjoying it and look forward to going back to work tomorrow. One funny work story is that one of the 6th grade students decided to stick his tongue to a metal pole while walking to the after-school program one day. It was about 5 degrees outside. His reasoning: “I saw it in a movie one time and I was curious.” Yeah, he was all by himself standing on a street corner and just licked the pole. No one dared him. No one was with him. He just did it. It took about half a second for him to realize his tongue was stuck and that he was also very alone. He proceeded to rip his tongue from the pole and stuff his mouth full of Kleenexes as soon as he got to program. I asked him if he’d ever do it again. He said he wouldn’t. But he did convince his little sister to do it the next day. Classic.

[Three of my students...the shortest three in the class!]

I completed my first semester of teaching ESL and enjoyed a graduation/multi-cultural dinner the week before Christmas. Second semester begins in the beginning of February and I’m looking forward to having many of my students in class again.

For my own schooling, I’m one paper short of completing my second 8-week course. I need to work on it and try and get it done by the end of this week. Then I’ll be taking a break for a couple months. During one of the final weeks of the course, I was pretty overwhelmed with a bunch of reading I had to do and not enough time to get it done. I came home from work in a Monday night with the intention of cooking dinner and sitting down at the kitchen table to read until I fell asleep. Lo and behold, there on the table was a bowl of hot food that my friends had dropped off for me so I could get right to my reading and wouldn’t have to spend any time cooking my own dinner. It was totally awesome. I have great friends. The best, actually.

Since I met these friends through church, I’ll catch you up on church. I’ve now been attending Providence Bible Church since late August and had the privilege of becoming a member the week before I left to go to Iowa for Christmas. I’ve been able to help out on Sunday mornings by playing guitar with the music team and, in recent weeks, have begun attending a Wednesday night small group. The other big church happening for me was the Night in a Box event that happened in early December. I’ll devote an entire post to talking about that.

That's it for now. More writing will occur in the ensuing days. Thanks for reading.

Attempting to Catch Up (Part 1): My Thanksgiving

Welcome to the year “twenty-ten” or “two-thousand and ten,” if you so prefer. As both of you might have noticed, I have taken a hiatus from the blogging world for a while. I have several excuses for the said hiatus, but I’m learning that we can always have excuses for why we do or do not do certain activities. Usually, these excuses are weak attempts at getting out of having to confess to our own laziness or poor decision making. My failure to blog is due to a combination of all of the above. Much of the time, I haven’t had time to blog, but when I did have time, I was either too lazy to write anything, felt I hadn’t been up to anything too worthwhile, or chose to do something instead. That being said, for those of you who enjoy reading this, I apologize for my negligence and plan to be more faithful in my updates.

Starting briefly back with Thanksgiving (It’s the holiday that should be called “Christmas Decorations Eve”), my parents drove out to Denver to visit me and see my new life out here. They surprised me by arriving earlier than I expected on Thanksgiving Day and arrived in time to watch me play in the 2nd annual Providence Bible Church Thanksgiving Day Football Game. I learned two things during the game. First, athletically speaking, I haven’t really gotten better with age. I’m still slow on my feet and struggle to be the quarterback I imagine myself to be in my mind. Secondly, I have become even less competitive with age. I’m pretty sure my team lost, but I’m also pretty sure I didn’t care.

After the game, my parents and I ran to Wal-Mart to grab some holiday foods for lunch. I hadn’t planned on them arriving till the afternoon so I didn’t have anything planned for lunch-for-three. Thanks to my mom, we put together a pretty good lunch. That night we went to my friend Alyssa’s house and played games with her family.

My parents spent the whole weekend with me in Denver and were able to see much of downtown, visit friends up in Boulder, go to a Hmong New Years celebration with one of my ESL students and her family, and go to church with me on Sunday.

That’s my Thanksgiving in a nutshell.