A New Discussion: Church Revitalization

I mentioned to a friend on Tuesday that I was waiting for someone step up and really begin a significant conversation about church revitalization. It may have happened this morning.

Kevin Smith, associate professor of Church History here at Southern, preached a powerful message earlier today in chapel about ministering in difficult contexts. In a Christian culture where church planting and guaranteed salaries for pastors are becoming more and more prevalent, are young ministers willing to sacrifice security and comfort in order to revitalize dying churches full of difficult people?

I have often wondered if I am called to such a field. I am beginning to think maybe I am... I pray that I will be willing if the call comes.

Please watch this and pray that pastors will hear the call and begin a significant church revitalization movement in America.

(If you are viewing this post in a feedreader or on Facebook, you will need to click though to the original post to view the video.)

Y'all

I am utterly ashamed. I started using "y'all."

It's just so convenient and linguistically efficient. I can't help myself.

I am a hypocrite.

Future Kids Say the Darndest Things

Yesterday in my Leadership and Family Ministry class, as my prof was talking about his children, I daydreamed a dialogue that my future kids might have in fifteen years.

Son 1: Dad is so lame.

Son 2: Why?

S1: I asked for a robot for my birthday, and he said that he would "think about it."

S2: Lame.

S1: I know. We have to be the only family in all of Cloud City that doesn't have a robot.

S2: Yeah. And every time we point that out to him he says, "money, responsibility, blah, blah, blah."

S1: For real. He doesn't know what's cool anymore. He thinks the internet is still relevant.

S2: Yeah. And no one who thinks the internet is still relevant has any idea the benefits of a robot.

S1: Seriously.

S2: I mean, we wouldn't have to mow the cyber-lawn anymore. Wait, why do we even have a cyber-lawn if we have to maintain it?

S1: I tried to manually uninstall the cyber-lawn application last week, but I couldn't figure out Dad's password.

S2: It can't be that hard. He still thinks the internet in relevant, remember?

S1: Yeah.

S2: Hey. Go grab your hoverboard and we'll ride over to Lous Diner. 

S1: Sweet idea.

[END SCENE]

Vacation Images

Last week Rebekah and I took a vacation with her family.

We traveled by plane and automobile from:

• Louisville, KY to Lexington, KY 
• Lexington, KY to Orlando, FL
• Orlando, FL to Brooksville, FL
• Brooksville, FL to Tallahassee, FL
• Tallahassee, FL to Plaquemine, LA 
• Plaquemine, LA back to Louisville. 

Here are some of my favorite images from our time away. 

An Anniversary Card

Rebekah and I will celebrate our second anniversary on Monday. This is the card my sister sent us...

I won't argue. We love each other; get over it.

Ode to a New Fridge

It needs no fiery dedication,
It has no moldy insulation,
No sealing issues with a door,
Hooray! Our new refrigerator.

A Past Link, A Current Friend

My mind has officially been blown. Check this out.

In May 2008, I sat down at the computer in my soon-to-be in-laws' house and checked my feedreeder. I found a link to an interesting list and decided to post the link on this very blog.

A year passed and Rebekah and I found ourselves married and in Louisville at a new church. Soon we began to get to know some people in our Bible Fellowship Group. One of those individuals, Derek, stumbled upon this blog and told me that in some unknown way he was familiar with it. The breadth of my readership is not all that far-reaching, so I didn't put a whole lot of thought into how he might have come across my blog. He brought it up a couple more times, but my response was the same.

Then, last Sunday, Derek approached me and told me where he had seen my blog before. Over two years ago, when I sat at that computer in Fargo on a Saturday morning, I linked to his blog. A man that I had never met before, who lived nearly 1,000 miles away, wrote a list that I read and desired others to read as well. As far as I knew anyone could have written that list. Anyone. I had no idea it would be someone who I would call a good friend.

That's how my mind was blown.

Thanks, Derek.

Kinda Hard to Sleep Through This

Like, Twenty Hours

Imagine two miniature people in car-seats, one of whom was just picked up from daycare and awoken from a nap. Now imagine them saying this:

Six-year-old: Were you sleeping?
Four-year-old: Yes.
Six-year-old: How long did they make you sleep?
Four-year-old: Like, twenty hours.
Six-year-old: Twenty hours?! What the heck?!

Dear Louisville: Winter Driving Isn't Hard

In the past week we have had three snow days. Louisville has accumulated about a foot of snow.

I used to make fun of the South for canceling school every time a snow flake threatened to fall, but now I understand why: they cannot remove snow. I have yet to see a snow-plow in Louisville. That's insane. But what's more insane is the way people react in their vehicles when snow is falling.

So here is my advice to Louisville drivers: don't drive into the snow, don't tailgate, and clean all of the windows off on your vehicle. That will prevent all of the problems I saw on the roads today.

We're all in this together. You can do it.

Reality and Hope

I never battle against melancholy; I embrace it.

The world is a real place with real people with real problems. Why are we sometimes quick to keep that hidden? I mean, it can be cliché, but do we know it?

When my thoughts dwell on sad things, my heart goes to God. Reality is hard, but brushing off hard things doesn't keep us going. Hope in God does.

Merry Christmas

Storm Chaser

You know those jobs that when you were a kid you thought were sweet but never pursued because they just didn't seem viable?

Storm Chaser falls in that category for me.

Kevin and Jill vs. Jim and Pam

No offense to the folks who thought this up; it's incredibly creative. Personally though, I thought it was really lame.

Then I watched this rendition and I cried.

My 401k

I decided to retire. I cashed out my 401k and bought some books: BDAG, 1-3 John, Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek, and Adopted for Life.


A sound investment. And money left over to help with rent.

Did I Really Just Do That?

I just had a "did I really just do that?" moment:

I took the trash out wearing socks and flip-flops.

The Testimony of God's Work in My Life

Some of you may know how I came to Christ and others may not. And since I recently had to write up my testimony for class, I thought it would be a good opportunity to let you all know how it happened.

Although my personal testimony is not particularly riveting, I have come to understand that it is only by the grace of God that my conversion ever could have happened. All testimonies speak to the power of God because humanity is rooted in sin and not one individual is able to choose God unassisted. The inward condition is manifested differently in each person. My depravity was so radical and my rebellion so great, yet God raised me and gave me new life. That is the miracle of my conversion and all others.

I struggled greatly throughout my early life, desiring to be accepted by those around me. I was loved deeply by my family, but I was a social outcast at school. I found some acceptance at church, but unfortunately through people. I was born into the Lutheran Church, but my family began attending an Evangelical Free Church after my parents got saved. Here I had friendships that waxed and waned, but always seemed to end in a flippant manner. Nevertheless, it was the most acceptance I had outside the home.

It was then that my family experienced probably our greatest trial. My parents decided to separate for a time while they addressed some issues. I saw the security that I felt at home melt away. I only saw my dad on weekends and my mom was less than stable. Also during this time we left our church. My dad began attending another Evangelical Free Church while my mom took my sister and me irregularly to a Baptist church not too far from our house. I did not enjoy either church as I was frustrated with my life circumstances.

By the grace of God my parents rejoined. I started middle school and my family began attending the Evangelical Free church my dad had connected with while my parents were separated. I longed for a new situation to maybe find some security and acceptance. I was disappointed. I began looking for acceptance in different places; in sports, academics, and music. I did not find it.

I started high school and it was more of the same. I was successful by worldly standards. I had a good number of friends for the first time in my life, I played three different sports, I was gifted musically, but I was still empty. I got frustrated and became more and more prideful. If I was good at the things the world said I should be good at, why was I not accepted by it? I determined that it was not me who had the problem, but everyone else. The roots of pride grew deep into the recesses of my heart during this time.

From that point forward I did everything out of selfish pursuit. I found a girlfriend. She liked me and I liked her, or at least I liked the way that I felt around her. I felt accepted, but it was a façade. She hurt me deeply multiple times, but I returned repeatedly to this broken cistern.

I graduated from high school still empty, thinking I had found something in my current relationship. I moved away from home and began attending North Dakota State University. Shortly thereafter the relationship that I had put so much stock in ended. I was broken and stripped of what I thought was fulfilling me. It was then that I was positioned to experience the life-giving power of Jesus Christ.

My conversion was a simple realization. I was utterly wretched, there was nothing good in me, and I needed to be saved. Earlier in life I had heard the gospel, but I never really responded. I had prayed a prayer and rededicated my life multiple times, but never had I grasped the gravity of it. It was here, on my own for the first time at college, that I knew there was never any security or acceptance in the things that I had sought. The wrath of God was on me and I deserved to be separate from him. My heart was rebellious and I needed reconciliation. I cried out to God and he saved me. Christ’s work on the cross meant acceptance by God and eternity with him. Christ became the most beautiful thing to me.

After I experienced conversion my freshmen year in college, my life was transformed. Jesus Christ changed my life in so many ways; I will give but a few.

Firstly, my life has been marked by a love of Scripture. I have a passion for God’s Word. Before my conversion I saw little need for reading a really old book that did not seem to be relevant to my life circumstances. After my conversion I began to see that Scripture is the primary way which God speaks to us.

Secondly, my life has been marked by a love of people. The relationships that I experienced prior to my conversion where mostly geared at fulfilling a need that I had. Now the relationships that I have with my wife, my family, and my friends are in the fellowship of Christ. The gospel changed the way that I view the others in my life.

Thirdly, my life has been marked by a removal of self. I went to college seeking a good job with an inflated salary which included comfort and an early retirement. In Christ my life has taken a whole new direction. I am seeking education to be a full-time minister of God’s Word, which does not pay well, will not be comfortable, and will not allow for retirement. There is no other option. God has given me so much; I want my life to proclaim him, not me.

Finally, my life has been marked by joy. Fighting for joy has been one of the biggest struggles in my new life. I am naturally cynical and somewhat cold. But as I continue to study Scripture and understand the weight of the gospel, joy comes more and more easily. How could I let anything rob the joy that comes with the knowledge of redemption?

I am so grateful that God plucked me from my situation and gave me new life. The compassion he showed me and continues to show me is unfathomable.

Inadequate

Inadequate. That is how I feel. There are so many questions and I have so few answers.

Good thing my adequacy is non-existent; otherwise I might fall victim to self-esteem.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

-1 Corinthians 1:26-31

"So God's grace is the source of every blessing that we have as Christians. Truly, as Jesus said, "apart from me you can do nothing." We have nothing that we have not received. Even our response to his grace is given by grace. When God saves us, he takes way every possible ground of boasting. All the praise and glory belongs to him."

-John Frame, The Doctrine of God

Think you have something to boast about or possess some form of adequacy apart from God? Take a look at him and think again.

September 12, 2001

Everyone remembers where they were on 9/11/01. It was a day that altered history. But I remember 9/12/01 almost as vividly.

It was the day when the questions that I was too numb to form the day before began to take shape in my mind. Who would do this? How could something like this happen? Is this reality? It was the day I began to seek understanding.

Nothing earth-shattering happened on 9/12/01. It was just the beginning of a slow digestion process that we still feel the effects of today, eight years later.

The front page of the New York Times, 9/12/01

After One Month of Seminary...

... I now know for certain that I know nothing.