"Houston, we have a problem"

My hard drive is busted. It makes LOTS of noise and I'm pretty sure I lost ALL my data. Brandon came by last night and got me up and running through my (recently purchased) external hard drive. So at least we have a working computer. As Brandon put it: "It's kind of like a computer on life-support."

Through it all, the blog goes on.

House For Sale

A couple years ago we sold our house on Second Street to a builder. Our old house went into a dumpster and this new "farmhouse" now stands in its place.

It is a considerable upgrade from the original home we lived in. The windows go up and down, there's A/C, you can walk around upstairs without hitting your head and (most importantly) the Great Room is about the same size as the original house. The downside is the lot seems way smaller than when we lived there.

If you're interested, the price is just over a million dollars.

Workin' on the ranch

The last couple weeks I’ve been working on a ranch. No, I’m serious. There are horses, chickens, pheasants and even bunnies all out in back of the house. It’s the only ranch I know of in this area. Fernando takes care of the animals, a nice guy with some funny stories. When I come and go I have to remember to close the gate, lest I let all the animals out into suburbia!

The house (“ranch”) I’m working on is a second floor addition, a mere 15 dormers, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, with an increase in about 2,000 sq ft. I reconnected with my former boss, he’s having me manage the job and we’ll see if it turns into more.

Working in the high-end home environment is mind blowing at times. I talked to the low voltage guy yesterday; when it’s all said and done there will be 30 security cameras. That’s more than most banks isn’t it? Oh yeah, the unique thing about this “ranch,” though, is the $225,000 Lamborghini. It’s bright orange, I’m guessing so that you can find it quickly in a parking lot (wait, I guess you don’t leave cars like that in parking lots. I guess I don’t know why it’s orange.) The thing I like is the fact that if the Lamborghini ever breaks down (or if there is an oil crisis) there’s horses available.

Maybe if the job turns out well they’ll let me take a horse for a spin.

Peaceableness toward enemies

If you are Lebanese you read this . If you are Israeli you read this. The issues surrounding the current conflict in the Mideast are complex, multi-layered and longstanding. But in simple terms, the driving force is the logic of retribution: you mistreat me, I mistreat you, so you mistreat me, so I mistreat you...and so on, and so on in a never ending cycle. What can break the cycle? Peace--as impossible and impractical as it sounds.

"Peaceableness toward enemies is an idea that will, of course, continue to be denounced as impractical. It has been too little tried by individuals, much less by nations. It will not readily or easily serve those who are greedy for power. It cannot be effectively used for bad ends. It could not be used as the basis for an empire. It does not afford opportunities for profit. It involves danger to practitioners. It requires sacrifice. And yet it seems to me it is practical, for it offers the only escape from the logic of retribution. It is the only way by which we can cease to look to war for peace." (Wendell Berry)

Church Shopping

Consumerism has affected and infected the church. This fact is made blatantly obvious when people use the phrase “Church Shopping.” There is even a website to help you as you shop for your house of worship (Bob Hyatt has a great critique of the site here, and Jason Clark has some good insights on the subject in general here).

In an attempt to help people who are trying to decide which church God is calling them into, I thought I would offer up some of things on my mind:

1. The first thing we need to do is recognize that consumerism has a hold on us, all of us, and that we unfortunately bring our consumeristic tendencies with us wherever we go. But rather than accept it as a given, let’s admit that it’s a sin. It puts my desires and preferences at the center rather than God and the wider community.

2. Having said that, it’s not bad to employ certain criteria when deciding on what church to be part of it. We just need to ask the right questions and put our focus on essentials, not matters of preference. An example of the wrong question: What can this church do for me? An example of the right question: Is God calling me to be part of this church? An example of something essential to look for: Is worship a vital part of this church’s life? An example of a matter of preference: What style of worship does this church practice?

3. Deciding which church to be part of can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it helps to keep things simple, not getting bogged down by too many issues and intricacies. I find myself telling people to look for three things:

A) Do I line up with the vision and values of this church? Given what this church is about and where it is going, do I want to go there with them?

B) Could I imagine myself forging deep and meaningful relationships with these people? This doesn’t mean: “Be part of a church with people just like you!” The point is, does it feel like a family, a family that will accept, challenge and love you?

C) Would my gifts be used in this church? If this question comes from a place of selfish ambition and a desire for recognition it will create problems. But it is important to ask whether the leadership of the church is encouraging and empowering people to actively minister in the church. Find a church where people are actively serving and stepping out in their gifts.

4. Finally, watch this video.

Suburban Spirituality

CT has a book review of Death by Suburb and an interview with David Goetz.

Here's a piece from the interview:

How can Christians in the suburbs deal with these toxins you describe?

Well, one way is to be like the desert fathers and flee the cities. I wouldn't criticize people for doing that. There are people who can do that. For most of us, though, we can't. We somehow have to bring monastic practices into the suburbs. But I don't think we have anything in the suburbs that would allow us to do that. Churches can't, because they're very programmatic. I think the monastic example is a good one to lift up and say, "This is how the monastics did it and the reason why they did it. How can we add that back into our lives?"

If you're like me and you're trying to get a handle on the idea of "monastic practices," check out Kevin Rains' blog. He's the pastor of Vineyard Central in Cincinnati, OH. Good stuff.

On Pastoring

Earlier this week I installed a new door on someone's garage. As I finished up and began figuring out the bill, I could hear a familiar sound reverberating out of the house--the sound of children crying and coming unglued. When I came to the back door the homeowner was a bit embarrassed and flustered, but I said: "Don't worry. I understand!" I went on to tell her a bit about my family and my life. When I mentioned that recently I was the pastor of a church, she brightened up and said: "We need a pastor here, in our home."

I'm still thinking about what she said. Although I'm no longer the "pastor" of a church, I believe God desires for me to continue to be a pastor no matter what I do. In fact, maybe now I'll find myself pastoring in ways I couldn't, or didn't, before. And maybe this is what people need and what God desires: pastors who go where people actually live and work and then begin to love and minister to them in that place.

I guess I'm a pastor with a tool pouch.

Preaching this Sunday

I'm preaching this Sunday at Suburban Life Community Church. Pray for me if you think of it.

How Italy Won

Winning the World Cup requires practice.

(HT: Drew Moser)

TU Buddy

My good friend from college, Landy, came in town this past week from Miami. He and his wife, Manya, and boys, Landon and Luke, came over to grill and hang out. Good times. We played some Duck-Duck-Goose, and Landy introduced the kids to the dizzy bat game (a Taylor favorite). Lukas and Landon became fast friends.

I can hear Friends by Michael W. Smith playing in my head right now.

Update

Many of you are probably wondering what the latest is, so here’s a brief update.

It’s been a winding road up to this point and we still haven’t arrived. For a while we were preparing to move to Evanston to reconnect with the Evanston Vineyard. However, the job I thought was very promising didn’t materialize. We also began to have a growing sense that reconnecting to Evanston, while not a bad idea, was not the next step. As we re-sketched our plans we strongly considered relocating to Detroit to become involved in the Royal Oak Vineyard. We love the church there and have strong ties with the Pools (obviously!). When we recently visited I explored potential job opportunities, but nothing materialized…again. My strongest lead ended up being a no-show. Through it all we’re not despairing; we’re realizing that we make plans, but ultimately God determines the course.

So what now? Well, we’ve come full circle and the “new” plan is to stay put, connect with a local body here and find work here. Right now I’m spending part of my time doing side work and the other part trying to secure a “real” job. The whole process has taken much longer than we thought it would, but God is teaching us through this time. Continue to pray for us as we seek God’s will. Thanks!

End of the Spear

Heidi and I watched "End of the Spear" last night. I generally steer clear of "Christian" movies because they're so bad in both form and function, but I thought "End of the Spear" would be worth the risk. From a film stand point, it's not a brilliant work of art; however, I came away deeply moved by this movie.

The main premise of the movie is that redemption is realized amidst self-sacrifice, faith and suffering--death does not have the final word. The story is a portrait in my mind of what is possible when the gospel is enacted and embodied, especially when it entails martyrdom. It is a test case in the power of non-violence. If the missionaries would have defended themselves with force (which they could have) their message would have been undermined, yet by dying as martyrs they "acted out" the story of Jesus, a story of forgiveness, love and reconciliation. Somehow, by absorbing violence they exhausted it's power and broke it in a way that parallels and points, in an ultimate way, to the cross.

A dangerous freedom

As the word "freedom" is tossed around a lot today, I think it's important to realize how our definition of freedom has changed significantly since 1776. Below is an extensive quote from Wendell Berry:

Freedom defined strictly as individual freedom tends to see itself as an escape from the constraints of the community life--constraints necessarily implied by consideration for the nature of a place; by consideration for the needs and feelings of neighbors; by kindness to strangers ; by respect for the privacy, dignity, and propriety of individual lives; by affection for a place, its people and its nonhuman creatures; and by the duty to teach the young...People are instructed to free themselves of all restrictions, restraints, and scruples in order to fulfill themselves as individuals to the utmost extent that the law allows...as the emphasis on individual liberty has increased, the liberty and power of most individuals has declined...

...most individuals ('liberated' or not) choose to conform not to local ways and conditions but to a rootless and placeless monoculture of commercial expectations and products. We try to be 'emotionally sefl-sufficient' at the same time that we are entirely and helplessly dependent for our 'happiness' on an economy that abuses us along with everything else. We want the liberty of divorce from spouses and independence from family and friends, yet we remain indissolubly married to a hundred corporations that regard us at best as captives and at worst prey. The net result of our much-asserted individualism appears to be that we have become 'free' for the sake of not much self-fulfillment at all. (Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community 150-152)

True "freedom" releases us from ourselves, making us free for God and free for others. Freedom, in the modern sense, leads to bondage as life constricts and we are held captive to our desires--desires which destroy us and the lives of others. We need to be careful how we use our freedom; it's a powerful thing.