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What’s Not to Love About This?

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Categories: What the heck was THAT?

I delivered these all day to happy mothers all over town.

I will deliver more of them tomorrow.

Every so often I moonlight delivering flowers for a local flower shop. This weekend I am extra help for Mother’s Day, one of the busiest weekends in the flower biz.

It’s a great extra job. What’s not to love about delivering flowers? Everyone smiles at you when you’re holding flowers. Everyone is glad to see you when you’re holding flowers.

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City for God

5 comments

Categories: changing mindsets, church, food for thought

So I’ve been tagged again, this time by Abmo…and this time it’s a bit less frivolous.

Abmo asks, with all the rhetoric that goes on in the church about “taking the city for God”–what would that look like if it really happened? What would a city look like when it’s completely won for Christ? Abmo asks that we write about it and then tag two people.

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Hark! Ye Olde Six Worde Memoir

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Categories: fun

I like fun games like this.

Heather tagged me for this meme.

Write a title for your memoir.

You can only use six words.

Here are the actual meme rules:

  1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
  2. Post it on your blog.
  3. Link to the person that tagged you.
  4. Tag five more blogs.

So without futher ado or delay…

Here is my six word title:

ONLY SIX WORDS? ARE YOU KIDDING?

Dang, I just wasted six words.

I’m very very very very bad.

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Why God Shows Up Where We Don’t Think He Ought To

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

Heather started it…

She wrote this post a few days ago sharing her disillusionment with the quasi-charismatic hype she used to buy into. That inspired me to write this post about how I recognize God is moving in the ongoing revival meetings in Lakeland, Florida, but I have a hard time stomaching the churchy hoopla surrounding it.

Then yesterday, Barb wrote about how she got all troubled about this dilemma, and how God helped her to reconcile it. And that has inspired me to write this today. WILL IT EVER END???

There isn’t one particular quote in Barb’s post that sparked me (you should go read the whole thing); but just reading her process rekindled some thoughts that have gone around in my head for awhile.

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My Favorite Poem…

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up)

(…has even more meaning for me these days…)

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Photo courtesy of Claudia Meyer
(St Germain en Laye) France
http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=gallery&l=claudmey

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A Pragmatic Approach to Disenfranchisement (Whatever That Means)

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

So in the past few months, as I’ve processed my own thoughts on this journey outside of the parameters of organized church–and as I’ve read what others are going through–I see that this has become a journey shared by a lot of people who have come to this place for a variety of reasons. I tend to call this group of people the “disenfranchised”–those who no longer feel they can connect with current church systems. Some of these have left institutional Christianity (IC)completely; others still attend IC, but they are unsettled, and at best hold a loose connection to it.

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Mile Marker Reflections

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, Meanderings (look it up)

(So, yes, Glenn at re-dreaming the dream just happened to schedule this synchroblog on my birthday. This post is part of that synchroblog.)
Glenn asked for a basic assessment of the latest chapter in our stories, and it seems fitting to do so on a day that is a mile marker for me.
Here are the questions Glenn asks:
_____________________
How are you doing?
My family and I, after a long season of trials and struggles, found ourselves in the hands of God, and He has given us a season of rest from our struggles. Last year was probably the happiest season we have had in a long time. But since the beginning of this year, a divine unrest has come on us, a deep stirring of the soul. It has been quite unsettling at times, but we feel very strongly that it is of the Lord. We don’t know yet all that it means, but it has brought a strong sense of anticipation that He is up to something good.
What are you doing?
We hold house church in our home, which we’ve been doing for about 8 years now. We also are working on developing a creative community of worshipers and holding monthly public worship events, and looking for ways for our community of faith to be more missional in our approach.
Part of this holy stirring has been a personal conviction that we need to be focusing on our God-given passions. This has prompted my wife, The Wild One, to begin a course in professional photography. It has also prompted me to jump-start the musical aspects of my life, so I am learning guitar to sharpen my writing skills, promoting my music a bit more on the Internet through MySpace, and will hopefully be going into the studio soon to record some new demos.
What are you learning?
I am learning a whole new way to look at ministry, church, and the kingdom of God. (Pretty cool, huh?) In the past year I have read more books than I have in the past 10 years. I am also learning more intangible things, like the value of living in the moment, the value of relationships, as opposed to the driving goal of being a “ministry success.” In the past few years, terms like “church”, “ministry”, and “success” have all been completely stripped back and redefined for me.
What are you dreaming about?
I still have some deep desires to do contribute something meaningful in the field of music and worship. I have a heart for worship, and have experienced some amazing things in the corporate church worship setting, but lately I have grown–I hate to say it–bored. I don’t want my music to be defined as just providing a musical backdrop for existing “worship addicts.” I get a real sense of satisfaction in seeing the light come on for someone when God encounters them in a life-changing way. I long to see more believers come into the heart of worship, but I also have a heart to bring not-yet-Christians into a place of encountering God. I know this desire is going to fuel much of the endeavors we undertake in the future.
I am also dreaming about missional community–about seeing a group of people deeply committed to one another, yet engaged together in bringing the love of Christ to people who haven’t yet experienced it. I envision this happening without the religious trappings so common to ministries today; I want it to be such that people do not readily recognize it as a spiritual endeavor, yet infused with the truth and love of Jesus. In other words, I want people to see Jesus not by how we structure it, but by our deeds and the fruit of our lives. For me, it looks like some sort of creative community, something that attracts artists and musicians and enriches their lives as they share common interests.
SUMMARY
When I crossed the threshold of age 40, like many my age, I began to take a serious inventory of my life. Today I am 41. So I recognize some of this stirring might have something to do with what some call mid-life crisis–although I think I’m steering this feeling toward God and not away from Him (I’m not buying a motorcycle or trading in my wife–I like the wife I have, thankyouverymuch). What I do feel is a deep desire to make a difference, and to fully redeem the time. I want to shed things that aren’t that important and focus on things that are.
A lot of my journey out of institutional Christianity has been about wanting to shed things that I think are losing their effectiveness–things that don’t work anymore–and find more creative, more effective methods. I don’t have time to waste on building another typical churchy construct, something that will compete with other churches for membership, when all I’d have to show for it is a reputation for having built something “successful” in the eyes of the church. I’ve grown up in that setting, and I know I could either create that kind of thing, or be part of something like it–if I’d just “play ball.” But there has to be more to it than that, and I want to find it–I want to find what that looks like for us. And that is leading us down less-traveled roads.
So that’s where I’m at. 🙂 Thanks, Glenn, for asking.
OTHER SYNCHROBLOG PARTICIPANTS
Alan Knox: You Are Here
Barb: One Year Check Up
Erin Word: My Turn
Glenn Hager: Feeling Free
HW: May Synchroblog
Jeromy Johnson: Our Story- Chapter 10
Kathy Escobar: It Stinks Down Here, But I Really Love The Smell
Lyn Hallewell: Your Turn
Mike Victorino: Lost Or Found (Depends On Your View)
Sarah: Glenn’s May Synchroblg
Tera Rose: May Synchroblog
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If I Could Have a Talk with Bono

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Categories: fun, music, What the heck was THAT?

(This is a sequel to the post “People Who Want to Talk to Bono“.)

HOW I’D LIKE THE CONVERSATION TO GO:
Me: Hey, Bono, howzitgoing?

Bono: Great, Jeff, how are you?
Me: Awesome. Say, I’ve got some great new ideas on eliminating third-world debt. What say we get together sometime soon and talk them over?
Bono: That would be amazing. By the way, I’m having trouble with a lyric to a song I’m writing. I wanted to run it by you and see what you think.
Me: Sure, Bono. Let’s take a look. (I pull out my guitar as Bono fumbles for the lead sheet.)
(And so the conversation goes….)
HOW THE CONVERSATION WOULD PROBABLY GO:
Me: So…you’re a rock star in a band.
Bono: Yeah, guess so.
(awkward silence)
Me: Get a lot of people at your concerts?
Bono: Pretty much.
(awkward silence)
Me: Nice weather we’re having.
Bono: Yep.
(awkward silence)
Me: So…you guys need a keyboard player?
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