Outside the Pigeon Holes

I don't, as a rule, make new year's resolutions. But I think a list of Dreams (big and small) is never a bad thing...My friend Lori has one that she keeps. And I have gotten to see her cross things off of it. That is really cool. This dude, John Goddard has a list of 127 of them that he began in 1941. I have some goals. But I never really wrote them down...The message at church tonight was a challenge to dream BIG and small with God. So here goes...In no particular order (save for #1). To keep it simple, I will write down just the things I'd like to accomplish in 2009. 1 - Produce Sleeping with the Past utilizing an eclectic group of talented people. 2 - Finish one knitting project. 3 - Learn how to repel. 4 - Ride the Zip Line - and survive! 5 - Be a part of a radical, obvious and undeniable miracle of God. You know, a cancer healing, dead raising, early New testament church kind of thing! 6 - Walk the Flying Pig half marathon with a bunch of awesome friends. 7 - Dye my ...

Can we call off the usual Chrstmas this year? I don't mean not to celebrate the day Jesus was born. I mean the whole commercial fake cheer scene. Maybe it's because it started with a man being trampled to death by greedy shoppers at a Wal-Mart store. That it has continued with the death of an actress from Crossroads Community Church wh0 fell to her death during a performance, followed by the death of a musician from Vineyard Community Church in a car accident. Just tonight there are more people who have died in car accidents because of the ice. In my own family there is division and brokenness. On comments about the Crossroads tragedy I see fellow Christians ripping this church for having large theatrical productions instead of "simple ones". Rather than embrace a hurting community a spirit of religion and blame has reared its ugly head. I'd like to be "happy clappy" as Tim would say and suggest that we pay no mind to the Grinch and go on with our joyous...

Most people at the Gift-wrap outreach last night were open to receiving something for free...Others were suspicious...Others ignored me as I stood there with my sign saying "Free gift wrap and hot chocolate! Just because you're you!". You could tell by the expression that they were certain there was a catch. There truly wasn't. We even had trouble deciding if we even wanted to put the Vineyard Westside name on the outreach. So we kept that part small on the postcards that read "Showing you God's love in a practical way". I admit if I had been on the other side of it and had never heard of churches that did this kind of thing, I'd probably ignore me too. One man you could tell was just broken and hurting. When I said there was free hot chocolate just because he was him he said "I doubt that" and walked away...Then he came back. And he said "Who is doing this?" I told him and he asked where we had services. I told him that too...

Jesus loves.... And... And... He loves each and every one.... ...at no point ...does He ever ....stop loving them. Sick to your stomach yet? Yeah...Me too. God's love is offensive. I'm down with God loving people with minor sins. As long as he loves those that I think He should I am OK with it...But the minute I judge that someone is not worth the same love that God has shown to me, I want to wiggle and squirm and protest. I mean, Jesus, look at that guy! He's sick! He's a pervert. He's a killer. You can't offer your salvation to that! Me, now, I'm not so bad. I've never hurt anyone. I am nice to people. I go to church. I read my Bible and I pray. I share with my friends. I work with special ed kids...I'm a pretty good egg if you compare me to some people. Right? I mean if you forget about that one thing... Uh...No, I didn't know that my exasperated tone with that student would contribute to her self-loathing. My failure to hold up my end of the...

This may well be the most controversial blog post I have ever done!! But my brave friend Dan posted a blog about this subject which has been on my mind probably over the last few Christmases. He states in regards to Santa: At what point did tradition trump morality? When did it become acceptable to lie for the sake of fun? Right and wrong isn't determined by the out come of a situation, family tradition, how fun it is, or what everyone else is doing. He then recounts stories of people who still remember being traumatized by learning that Santa wasn't real - that in fact their parents had been lying to them for years. He tells of people who have struggled in the area of faith in God. Before I cause an uproar and get accused of being a spoil sport or a fanatic...Lemme premise by saying: 1 - I don't hate Santa 2- I am not about raining on other people's parades. 3 - I don't think people who play the Santa game are evil. That said, I really do question why this tradi...

Here's the video I slapped together! Thanks again to Steve, Melanie, Theresa, Teresa and Leah for a fun day!

I was invited to teach the book of Acts at the survey of the Bible class at church. Acts is a great book because it talks about the beginning of the New Testament church. And all the things the first apostles did we are equipped to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. I only had 30 minutes to teach on it. As I prepared, I started by trying to go through chapter by chapter and summing up what happened. Or summing up the main idea. There's so much interesting stuff that I was getting caught in the minutiae. Being the kind of weird-o that I am, I joked with myself that maybe I could write it into a series of Haikus. Or teach it in sign language or something else off the wall. Then I'd get back to the summary. Then I think I saw a commercial that quoted "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and I couldn't get the meter or the cadence out of my head. And I started to wonder if the book if Acts could be told in poetry form. Risking my pride at being an intellectual ki...