Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.

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Quick Update

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Categories: random stuff

Updates from yesterday’s updates… 🙂

I mentioned how cold it was here yesterday, and how the Rockies’ playoff game would be the coldest in their history. Well…I guess that record will have to wait to be broken. They postponed the game to Monday.

Cowards. (Just kidding…)

The family is improving some–still some mild fevers and obviously some fatigue, but I think they are over the worst of the flu. I started feeling a lot better yesterday myself. I’d already made arrangements to take Sunday morning off from leading worship for The Neighborhood Church (Mike and Eugene’s congregation), so I get to rest, anyhow. And the family’s resting.

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First Snow, Odds and Ends, and Some Linkage

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Categories: link love, random stuff, weather

Snow!

It’s already threatened the Denver metro about three times this fall (without much follow-through), but this morning it’s accumulating here in Arvada. Nothing too serious for this area. I do find it interesting because this is my first fall/winter season here, but apparently this stuff is happening pretty early, especially in the mountains. Loveland ski resort is already open–the earliest in the season it has ever opened. This morning we had a record low temp (17 degrees F), and they’re saying the Colorado Rockies’ playoff game today will be the coldest Rockies game in their history.

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God, I Love You Because…

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Categories: moments of truth

This past weekend, as I worshiped with friends, I had a bit of a moment of truth.

Two moments of truth, actually. One right after the other.

During a prayer time, the leader invited people to speak aloud in prayer, starting with the phrase, “God, I love You because…” Voices spoke up from around the room, with things like:

“God, I love You because You forgive me.”
“God, I love You because You loved me first.”
“God, I love You because You are faithful.”
“God, I love You because You are with me always.”

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Random Randomness That Has Nothing to Do With Anything

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Categories: fun, random stuff, What the heck was THAT?

This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything…but have you ever noticed the quirky little ways we solve common problems, the little remedies we create to fix little annoyances?

Take ketchup bottles, for instance. Have you ever noticed how many different techniques people have for getting the ketchup out of the bottle?

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Re-thinking the Foundations of Faith (part 2)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, theological questions

In my previous post I began looking at the huge amount of importance we believers tend to put on our theological views–our beliefs about God–to the point that we treat them as foundational to our faith. And I said that I was re-thinking this concept, that I was pondering a faith that was deeper than “correct” belief, based more on relationship than on specific beliefs or a theological creed.

I’m not saying theology isn’t important; rather, it’s a matter of prioritizing. I’m just saying our theology is maybe not as critical to our faith as we’ve made it out to be, and perhaps other things are more important. Consider the following points:

This is a preview of Re-thinking the Foundations of Faith (part 2). Read the full post (1001 words, 1 image, estimated 4:00 mins reading time)

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Re-thinking the Foundations of Faith (part 1)

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, theological questions

I have a feeling that this post title is going to rattle the religious.

Good. 🙂

What I’m about to say, I’ve been pondering for awhile. This past nearly two years interacting in the blogosphere has been the first time in ages that I’ve had contact with people who think differently than I do, on a lot of different issues. I come from a culture that pretty much insists that you hang with those who believe the way you do, because anyone outside that framework can potentially corrupt you. It’s a fear thing, really.

This is a preview of Re-thinking the Foundations of Faith (part 1). Read the full post (758 words, 1 image, estimated 3:02 mins reading time)

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Here’s Some Irony to Make Your Brain Hurt

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Categories: food for thought, What the heck was THAT?

It’s been awhile since I’ve made your brains hurt–at least a couple of days or so–so here’s Nugget #591 from the Official Collection of Proverbs and Random Thoughts from Jeff the Twisted, Slightly Off-Center Philosopher:

“We Christians tend to evaluate whether someone else is a Christian–whether someone is “in” or “out”–using a completely different set of criteria than what the Bible teaches, or what Jesus Himself modeled for us.”

Care to unpack this one for me? What does it mean? Is it true, or not? And why?

Pass the aspirin.

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Unneccesary Weights

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Categories: food for thought, Meanderings (look it up)

This post sort of ties in with the Church as Business Series I did recently, although I’m not going to talk so much about the business aspects of church, but more about the intangible more intangible personal effects it has on people.

I’ve now had ample time and experience on both sides of the institutional paradigm. I remember how passionate I used to be about majoring on the minors, and the pressure I felt to “succeed”–whatever that is. And in trying to come up with some sort of analogy to describe the difference between the two–nowadays, I feel….lighter.

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An Anomaly of Sorts

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Categories: random stuff, Things I Should Probably Not Be Telling You

There’s an interesting development connected to our recent move to Denver, one that’s a bit of an anomaly to me, and one that I haven’t brought up here thus far–mostly because I wasn’t sure how to explain it. But here goes…

I’m leading worship on Sunday mornings. In an institutional church.

Considering the many criticisms I’ve made of institutional church structures on this blog…perhaps I should unpack that last statement. 🙂

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You See? This Is Why I Usually Post in the Mornings Instead of Late at Night

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Categories: What the heck was THAT?

In response to my Exciting Update a couple of days ago…a brother pointed out that the hyperlinks for The Oomph blog were actually pointing to my Examiner page. So chances are none of you made it to The Oomph.

It was late. I was loopy. Dang it.

So I fixed the links on that post. But in case you don’t want to go back there…here is the link to The Oomph blog. Please go read it.

And subscribe to it.

And share it with your friends.

In case you missed it…here is the link to The Oomph blog one more time.

This is a preview of You See? This Is Why I Usually Post in the Mornings Instead of Late at Night. Read the full post (149 words, 1 image, estimated 36 secs reading time)
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