Mark & Shari's Excellent Adventure (Days 3 & 4)

Summary

In which our intrepid explorers actually, you know, explore. 

Day Three

I woke up early and went for a walk to watch the sunrise. Banff was quiet - just some folks walking to their jobs - and the sun hit a cloud perfectly. It was an incredibly peaceful way to begin the day.

However, when I got back to the hotel room, I reached up to adjust my glasses… and they broke.  The bridge snapped, leaving me with two half glasses. A trip (on foot) to a local optometrist was unsuccessful - she was kind & tried to help, but they were broken in a such a way that they could not be fixed. Thankfully, Shari had reminded both of us to bring an extra pair… so I wore my older prescription for the rest of the trip. It didn't affect driving or sightseeing, but it made reading small print more difficult.

After that mini-adventure, we went to grab lunch at Tommy’s Neighborhood Pub. We were a bit early for opening, so we wandered around some shops and scoped out more restaurants for later meals. (Turns out we are not really foodie people - lots of “interesting” choices on menus that are not interesting for us.) Tommy’s was worth the wait… excellent club sandwich. 

For dessert, I finally got to try a beaver tail, which is a Canadian thing - a fried pastry shaped like a beaver tail on which a variety of toppings can be spread. Mine had chocolate hazelnut (aka generic Nutella) with bits of brownie and white chocolate. This Canadian thing is now a Mark thing as well - I foresee more of this delicacy in my future. 

Our afternoon started well - I’d seen a picture in a shop window of the Vermillion Lakes area and found out it was just west of town. We drove along the road, enjoying the views… and then stopped at one point to take it all in. While I attempted (unsuccessfully) to get a good mountain picture from a swaying kayak dock, Shari struck up a conversation with a lovely cyclist from Canmore who’d stopped to rest her back. She gave us a number of tips about places to explore and was delightful. Her wonderful suggestions filled our afternoon. 

Shari at Vermillion Lakes

We started by driving up towards the Norquay ski area… the view from the observation point was really something. On the way up (and the way back down), we saw a young-ish bear by the side of the road… along with the usual cars stopped to take pictures. Yes, there was one guy out of his car taking photos - of course. I just imagine the bear thinking to himself: “I’m just trying to eat here, people. There is no reason to block up the road - you tourists are causing a traffic jam. And you, sir… get back in your vehicle already. I ought to nibble on you as an object lesson to others but I’m busy right now.”

Yes, the elk was this close to our car

We then worked our back across town past the Bow Falls parking lot to the loop around the golf course our cyclist friend had told us about. The road wound through the forest, up close to one of the mountains… and we drove with a window partially down so we could hear the wind rustling the trees. Eventually, we were stopped by a pair of cyclists who were pointing ahead. There was a small herd (6-7) elk lunching on the underbrush near the road… and they were concerned a bull elk was nearby. We acted as their “decoy” and drove slowly down the road. The elk moved out of the way… but they were in no hurry. Our approach didn’t phase them. 

Bow Falls

As we left the golf course circle, we stopped where we could see Bow Falls again. It’s a weird waterfall - not huge, but the way it cascades is fascinating. Interestingly, the rapids that lead up to the falls go back farther than you can see here... we didn't really understand that until our last day in Banff.

Dinner was at the Rose & Crown (yes, another pub)… followed by another trip out to Two Jack Lake near sunset. We got some nice pictures but the cold wind shooed us back to the hotel. (The plan had been to watch the sunset, but it was just a little too nippy for these two folks who've been living in the overheated Southern U.S. through the summer and early fall.)

Shari is cold and wants to get back in the car!

Day Four

Part of the charm of the gondola - exploring while sitting!

All the walking on day three meant we took it easy on the morning of day four… tired legs. Sheesh - getting older is not for wimps. 

We had been passing a pizza joint in our courtyard cut-through behind our hotel and decided to give it a go for lunch. The calzone at Bear Street Tavern was excellent - and Shari was very positive about their dipping suggestion of chili sauce and local honey. Plus we had a very nice waitress and a nifty tucked-away two person booth to sit at.

Picture courtesy of nice British tourist

Our real adventure for the day was a trek to (and up) the Banff Gondola… which included our own personal guide in the empty shuttle bus. The driver was a transplant from Luxembourg… so we managed to talk about all sorts of things (history, our adjustments to kg/kmh/Ca$, the politics of Luxembourg, the Gimli Glider, etc.). It was a great conversation.

The gondola ride was smooth and the views were amazing - as were the views at the top of the mountain. The four-story summit building has multiple viewing platforms, a couple of restaurants, a few museum-like exhibits, and a snack bar - as well as a series of boardwalk trails over to the weather/cosmic ray research station on a slightly higher nearby peak. (We did not hike out to the aforementioned station.) The wind was impressive as well - I have to face the fact that I would not last 20 minutes as a mountain climber. 

I did, however, take a picture with a bear... granted, a statue of a bear. Or maybe an actual bear who had stood up there in the wind so long that he was frozen. Who am I to say? I'm no scientist.

My favorite historical tidbit for the day: Tunnel Mountain (which is a small mountain right next to Banff) is named that for a failed project by the railroad company to put a tunnel through it. 

From Wikipedia: "In 1882, a team of surveyors led by Major A.B. Rogers, of Rogers Pass fame, was surveying for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Rogers, likely in a hurry, assumed the easiest path for the railway to take would be to simply follow the Bow River. On account of the difficulties that would be faced with river crossings and the steepness of the cliffs between the northwestern edge of Mount Rundle and Tunnel Mountain, Rogers' team suggested the construction of a 275 m (902 ft) tunnel through the tiny mountain. CPR General Manager William Cornelius Van Horne was furious at the suggestion, exclaiming "Are we going to hold up this railway for a year and a half while they build their damned tunnel? Take it out!" An alternative route north of the mountain was found, which incidentally shortened the railway by a mile, and avoided two long hills, saving the CPR millions of dollars. Surveyor Charles Shaw described the suggestion of a tunnel as "the most extraordinary blunder I have ever known in the way of engineering." The idea of a tunnel was scrapped altogether, but the mountain is still called Tunnel Mountain to this day."

Tunnel Mountain is the low "hill" in the middle of the picture.

We came back down and shuttled back to town (seeing more elk just wandering in front of the bus like they owned the place). Dinner was at the excellent Maple Leaf Grille - we shared a perfectly cooked steak. 

Bow Falls selfie!

Game: Conservas (great little solo game)
Candy: Cadbury Dairy Milk w/Mini Eggs (excellent choice!)

This is a quintessential Banff picture.

Mark & Shari's Excellent Adventure (Days 1 & 2)

Two Jack Lake

Summary

In which our intrepid travelers leave the United States and depart for our neighbor to the north, experiencing the joys (ha!) of modern air travel and the wonders of the Canadian Rockies.

Day One

The first of many selfies on this trip.

Our two hour flight from Nashville to Toronto was relatively uneventful - and featured an empty seat beside us! Upon landing in Toronto, I had my first experience with Canadian border customs which was uniformly pleasant. (Key note: this is my first trip EVER to use a passport - my previous trips to Canada and Mexico were in the late 1970s/early 1980s when border control was less intense.)
 

The second flight was four (4!) hours long... because there is a lot of Canada between Toronto & Calgary) I know that some of you reading this blog travel internationally on a semi-regular basis... but for Shari & I, four hours in those oh-so-roomy coach seats is a very long time.

I'd planned for us to pick up our rental car (we ended up with a VW Taos, which worked well) and crash at a hotel near the airport after a long day of airline travel. The Homewood Suites near the Calgary airport was very nice - and even though our first pizza joint choice had a line out the door (Seniore’s), our second choice (Bow Tie Pizza) was great. 

I'm a big fan of candy you can't find (easily) in the U.S., so I tried a Cadbury Crunchie bar… which was like a toffee-flavored Butterfinger with less candy shattering. I’d have one again but it definitely wasn't the best candy I had during our vacation.

Day Two

We left Calgary mid-morning to drive to the town of Banff - which is in Banff National Park. (This can be confusing when I try & write about the things we see. I apologize in advance.) I can’t do justice to the drive across the plains as the Canadian Rockies loom ahead of you… it’s kind of stunning. 

Of course, that just amplifies as you actually get into the mountains. The thing that’s hard to explain about the town of Banff is how it’s surrounded by these amazing mountains that seem to change in appearance depending on the time of day. 

Cold pizza - still good!

Getting our Discovery Pass took a bit of waiting… luckily, we had the leftover pizza from the night before to have for lunch while we crept towards the entrance to the park. (The pass is good for twelve months at any Canadian national park.)

We couldn’t check into our hotel until 4 pm - so we drove through town over towards the Banff gondola . Since it was Sunday and the weather was wonderful, their lot was full - but the young woman who stopped us recommended heading down to Bow Falls and out to Lake Minniwaka. (She also suggested booking gondola tickets online and using the shuttle - she was very helpful!)

A lone larch tree next to Two Jack Lake.

Both of her suggestions were excellent - though what blew us away was Two Jack Lake (on the same road as Lake Minniwaka). Before we got out there, we also toured the Cave & Basin historical site - the sulfur hot springs that gave birth to Banff and Canada’s first national park. 

We also drove up around Tunnel Mountain which had great views as well. 

My wonderful wife at Three Bears Brewery

We ate dinner was at Three Bears Brewery in the main/downtown part of town. (The restaurant was actually less than a block from our hotel if you know which courtyards to cut through… but we wouldn’t know that until the next day.)

-----

While I originally wrote a Facebook travelogue "on the road" while Shari & I were vacationing in Alberta, I decided to move it over to my personal blog so I could edit/polish the writing and put all of the pictures and memories in one place.  

Sometimes our selfies are joyous… and sometimes I look like I'm contemplating life as a criminal. This is a joyous one near Bow Falls.

Reconstructing My Faith: "Not Every Doubt is Departure"

I have a lot of books on my list of "need to read" volumes - many of them focused on the current state of evangelical thought & theology:

• Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
• written by Kristen Kobes du Mez
• I actually wrote about her earlier book as a part of this blog post series
• In Defense of Evangelicalism: A Response to Its Cultured Despisers
• written by Bonnie Kristian
• What Hath Justice to Do with Righteousness?: Reclaiming the Intersection of Protest and Prayer
• written by Charlie Dates
• Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal
• written by Matthew Martens
• In God We Trust: Was America Founded As a Christian Nation?
• written by John Fea
• the book actually releases today!

I feel like I have so much to unpack... still. Sorting through what about my faith in Jesus is Biblical and solid versus what is cultural and a product of being ensconced inside the evangelical bubble is not a short-term project.

So it was really nice to see this drop into my social media feed last week. I don't know the author, but I absolutely resonate with his words and the jpeg which I've attached to this post.

We’ve gotten pretty comfortable calling any serious questioning of inherited faith “deconstruction.”

But not every question is demolition.

Not every doubt is departure.

Ask your questions.

Keep opening the Scriptures.

Listen to voices outside the little corner of Christianity that formed you.

Stay in community, even when it’s complicated.

And above everything else, always, always, always, keep coming back to Jesus.

Ian Simkins

Amen.

This is the tenth post in a series... if you'd like to read the first nine, here they are:

#1: Reconstructing My Faith: Rocks, Dross, and Almonds

#2: Reconstructing My Faith: Syndrome, Mars, and the "F" Word

#3: Reconstructing My Faith: Cheaters, Ice, and Déjà vu

#4: Reconstructing My Faith: Flywheels, Smokescreens, and The Medicine

#5: Reconstructing My Faith: John Wayne, Straight Lines, and the Benefits of Being a Nerd

#6: Reconstructing My Faith: Pedigrees, Car Crashes, and Saying Goodbye

#7: Reconstructing My Faith: Worst. Church. Service. Ever.
#8: Reconstructing My Faith: A Question, The Rapture, And Dreaming of Escape

#9: Reconstructing My Faith: Postmodernity, Bullies, and Uncle Carl

aka preaching archive (September 2026)

As some of my long-time readers know, I spent nearly 15 years as a church planter & pastor (after 13+ years in youth ministry)... which came to end in early 2013. (You can read more about that on my posts aka former pastor guy and Kenny Rogers, Toffee, and a Hatmaker.)

For nearly ten years, I didn't preach. (That's not entirely true - I officiated at funeral services for friends and former congregation members - but I didn't deliver the message for a Sunday morning service.) 

In March of 2023, that changed - thanks to the leadership and encouragement of Aarron Schwartz and our church family at Restoration Church Nashville. It's been humbling and wonderful and a bit scary to be back "in the pulpit" (even if we don't actually use a pulpit). The Restoration Church family has been so supportive. (A special shout-out to Bethany and the worship team... it's a privilege to speak after they've helped us prepare our hearts and minds.)

I need to also say "thank you" to a number of folks who encouraged me to take Aarron up on his offer to be part of the preaching rotation - including my wife (Shari Jo), my sons (Braeden & Collin), and even some of the folks I know through my "day job" (thank you, Teri & Denette.)

I decided that I needed to pull those messages into a single place... so that's what this post is for. I'll update it as needed. I'm putting the time stamp for the start of the message - but you're missing out if you don't get the worship team as well.

September 6, 2026 - Matthew 17:1-11 - Awe & Response

• message starts at the 32 minute mark
• the sound issues with my introduction prior to that are my own fault - didn't hit the mic button correctly (sorry!)
• "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. (John 1:14 MSG) 
• I highly recommend Charlie Peacock's song "Monkeys in the Zoo" - although I don't mention it anywhere in the message, it was an inspiration for the direction of the sermon 

January 11, 2026 - Joshua 3 & 4 - Upstream Faith

• message starts at the 31 minute mark
• the video quality is not as good due to WiFi issues at the church (the A/V team had to use the old system in order to stream the service)
• "Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]." (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)
• Managed to name-check Disney parks, Star Wars, and my Romantic poets professor at Baylor in the process of telling Joshua's story.

February 23, 2025 - 2nd Samuel 6 - When The Ark Comes to Town...

• message starts at the 40 minute mark
• I left out another 80s reference from my notes to the 1984 film "Footloose"
• Eugene Peterson quote from his book, Leap Over A Wall

God will not be put and kept in a box, whether the box is constructed of crafted wood or hewn stone or brilliant ideas or fine feelings. We don't take care of God; God takes care of us.

September 1, 2024 - Exodus 35 - More Capable Than You Realize

• message starts at the 35 minute mark
• "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy." (Psalm 33:3 NIV)
• C.S. Lewis quote I use is from his classic book Mere Christianity

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like.

It is like a small child going to its father and saying, "Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present." Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child's present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction. 

May 5, 2024 - Luke 22:31-38 - When You Turn Back

• message starts at 31 minute mark
• book I reference: Saving the Bible From Ourselves
• "I have prayed [especially] for you [Peter], that your faith [and confidence in Me] may not fail; and you, once you have turned back again [to Me], strengthen and support your brothers [in the faith].” (Luke 22:32 AMP)

March 17, 2024 - Luke 20:27-40 - Jesus & the Theobros

• message starts at the 38:30 minute mark
• balloon illustration is borrowed from N.T. Wright's Luke for Everyone
• Yeah, I somehow managed to combine Narnia, levirate marriage, and Admiral Ackbar into the message.

September 24, 2023 - Luke 14:25-35 - Counting the Cost

• message starts at the 38:30 minute mark
• my personal notes call this message "The Symphony Bar"
• “Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33 MSG)

March 26, 2023 - Luke 8:22-25 - Master of the Storm

• message starts at the 33 minute mark
• The message here is NOT “Jesus will calm all the storms in your life”… it is “Jesus will not leave you alone in the boat”.
• "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." (Psalm 139:9-10 NIV)

Reconstructing My Faith: Postmodernity, Bullies, and Uncle Carl

Well, you knew we'd eventually get to Mark Driscoll if we started talking about deconstructing and reconstructing my faith, right?

[insert heavy sigh here]

Postmodernity

In the spring of 1997, I attended the GenX church planting conference at Mount Hermon (a Christian retreat center in California). One of the speakers there was Mark Driscoll, who spoke passionately about the collapse of modernity, the rise of post-modernity, and how both of those would likely affect the way leaders taught & led their church communities. At the time, I reacted pretty positively to Mark's "in your face" style of speaking.  (For more personal context on my experience at the conference, you can see my post from 2006 entitled 9 Years Ago.)

What I didn't internalize back in 1997 was that Mark Driscoll had only been leading a church for a year or so. Mars Hill Church (Seattle) was growing rapidly, but he was relatively new to church leadership. His forcefulness, his charisma, his passion, and his humor masked his inexperience... and his tendency towards autocratic leadership.

Gosh, guys, I love what I’m doing. I got charged by a demon-possessed guy in my pulpit, the night we launched I had to exit counsel one of my key leaders, 10 minutes before the sermon, I kicked him out of the church. My worship team left three months ago. We moved six miles in the first three months, and it is… I love it. (quote from that message) 

In fairness, lots of the folks involved in the GenX church movement were pretty young... including me. (I was 33 years old in 1997 - man, that seems like a long time ago.) But you can still hear the echoes in that quote of the "pile of dead bodies" attitude that would overtake Mark D. and Mars Hill in the years ahead. 

There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus. Those are the options. But the bus ain’t gonna stop. This is what we’re doing. (quote from Church Planters Boot Camp, Oct. 2007)

With 29 years of life since that gathering at Mount Hermon, I find myself questioning how completely modernity has collapsed while facing pretty clear evidence that post-modernity has become a bigger & bigger part of our cultural conversations. Mostly I see a mish-mash - a sometimes toxic stew - of beliefs and theories about how the world works (or should work) that borrow from both strains of philosophical thought.

And I struggle with the support I gave Mark Driscoll's teaching & writing. What was it about Mark, about myself (also Mark - heh), that drew me in and convinced me to ignore red flags?

I have some thoughts - but, per the usual here on the akapastorguy blog, that's going to require me to tell you some stories.

Story #1: Bullies

I'd experienced bullying off and on in elementary school and junior high... but it kicked into high gear as a high school freshman. I was a small and not very strong guy with glasses - and an invisible target painted on my back. I particularly hated P.E. class and the whole "locker room antics" where weaker folks (like me) became targets for bigger guys trying to prove just how macho they were. (Looking back at this, I realize that those behaviors were more than "I'm big & dumb & mean" - that those guys had their own aches, pains, fears, and wounds that they were struggling with - but at the time they were simply dangerous people I tried to avoid.)

I had basically two strategies to dissuade bullies:

1. invisibility - try to do as little as possible to attract their attention
2. stiff upper lip - no matter what they did, maintain a stoic face (no crying, no complaining, no taunting, no reaction)

But my salvation from being bullied came not from my strategies - instead, it was a friendship with a much larger acquaintance who firmly noted that I was his friend and he didn't want anyone to mess with me. (God bless you, Tony V.)

Story #2: Uncle Carl

My Uncle Carl was actually my great-uncle Carl... he and my Aunt Beulah married late in life and I only met him once (I think) at about age 5.

I don't remember much about him - if it wasn't for family pictures of him with Aunt Beulah, I probably wouldn't even recognize him. But what I do remember was that he was a tremendously skilled amateur magician who specialized in close-up magic. (Close-up magic is sleight of hand tricks - cards, coins, silks, etc. - performed in tight proximity to your audience.) The wonder of seeing those tricks happen, of things appearing and disappearing, of his tremendous command of fan decks to make beautiful patterns... that's never left me.

When he passed away, my Aunt Beulah made sure that my dad & I got his magic books and paraphernalia. (Dad quickly confiscated his marked card decks - but I was left with the fan decks, the rope tricks, and a library of books on magic.) What I discovered is that performing magic isn't, well, magic - it takes confidence, a great deal of dexterity, and a lot of practice to make it seem easy and magical.

Point of Information: My Peculiar Media Intake Habits

I'm a news addict who doesn't like news shows - particularly those in the "let's get a bunch of supposedly smart people together to yell at each other" mode. 

I watch a limited amount of YouTube - mostly things like Rodney on Watch It Played (game explanations), WDW tips videos (hats off to DSNY Newscast, Touring Plans, Ear Scouts, and Disney Food Blog), and smatterings of the Holderness Family and Legal Eagle.

I seldom if ever watch sermons (including my own) - as much as I love truth and hearing God's word preached, I'd rather be forced to watch unboxing videos shot without a tripod than suffer through most church services (my current church is an exception, of course).

I read - a lot. A good bit of stuff on the Internet but also actual physical books - either from the local library or my own bookcase. Weirdly enough, most of my online reading is not about spiritual matters - even as I'm currently reading physical copies of two different devotionals, a couple of books (Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around & God, the Science, the Evidence: The Dawn of a Revolution), and have a stack of commentaries sitting at my feet.

Back to the Question At Hand: How Did I Get Drawn In?

This post has been "under construction" for almost two years because answering that question is... complicated. The disconnected stories you just read are my best attempt to give you some context and metaphors for the musings that follow.

• As I already told you, I don't listen to recorded sermons. So my interaction with Mark Driscoll's teaching was filtered simply through what he was writing. That means I got less of the "Chris Rock goes to church" vibe he liked to lay down in preaching & speaking but still all of the Teflon-coated certainty that was part and parcel of his writing about church leadership.
• I've been a summer missionary, a church staff member, a church planter, and a lead pastor of various churches over nearly thirty years. I cannot emphasize enough how much appeal there is to someone telling you "this is the way to do this" and "it's OK to be taking flak - that means you're over the target". Because the two things that are common to all of those ministry positions are (1) not feeling confident about what you're doing and (2) taking flak (criticism, hostility, attempts to fire you from your ministry position, etc.).
• For a kid who was bullied, congregational church ministry can feel an awfully lot like you were just magically transported back to junior high. I never experienced the physical intimidation I had as a teenager when I was serving a church, but emotional and spiritual bullying were par for the course. 
• For a minister who was bullied, Dricoll's "damn the torpedoes" attitude toward opposition was incredibly attractive. It wasn't that I wanted to be Mark Driscoll - I could sense the potential problems in leaning into that persona - it was that I liked hearing about someone standing up to the bullies.
• Here's the problem inherent in that: Mark Driscoll is, at best, an unreliable narrator of his own story. 
• For a very deep dive into the Mars Hill story (and, by extension, the ministry journey of Mark Driscoll), the podcast series The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill from Christianity Today is excellent.
• I wanted certainty - the bedrock assurance that I was doing the right thing and that my position as a pastor/church leader put me on the side of rightness and goodness. In exchange, I was willing to gloss over elements of Mark's message that were disturbing or problematic.
• I also wanted desperately to be able to do magic (grow a church, see people cross the line of faith, etc.)... ignoring that no single pastor has ever grown a healthy congregation. It takes not just personal confidence but the confidence of a group of believers in the presence and power of Christ. It requires flexibility to react to the moment rather than simply putting a plan in motion and running the bus over anyone who won't get onboard. And it's a marathon, not a sprint - a "long obedience in the same direction".
• Interesting aside: I first came upon long obedience in the same direction as a title of a Eugene Peterson book on the Psalms... but Peterson borrowed the quote from Friedrich Nietzsche.

And Then I Woke Up

I don't specifically remember what caused me to push Mark's books aside - it was probably the plagiarism scandal. Any residual goodwill was crushed by the choices that followed the death of Mars Hill Church. 

I'm not really sure how to end this wandering post. I've tried three or four different ways to approach it and all of them end with too much finger-pointing at broken people and too little self-examination on my own part. In the case of Mark Driscoll, that seems really easy for me to do. 

For me, the important thing wasn't to stop listening to Mark Driscoll - though that certainly wasn't a bad idea. The key was to start listening to what was bubbling out of my heart & mind that would cause me to ignore and/or excuse unhealthy and unChristlike teaching because it "felt good". 

And that's bigger than getting rid of books by "the cussing pastor".

This is the ninth post in a series... if you'd like to read the first eight, here they are:

#1: Reconstructing My Faith: Rocks, Dross, and Almonds

#2: Reconstructing My Faith: Syndrome, Mars, and the "F" Word

#3: Reconstructing My Faith: Cheaters, Ice, and Déjà vu

#4: Reconstructing My Faith: Flywheels, Smokescreens, and The Medicine

#5: Reconstructing My Faith: John Wayne, Straight Lines, and the Benefits of Being a Nerd

#6: Reconstructing My Faith: Pedigrees, Car Crashes, and Saying Goodbye

#7: Reconstructing My Faith: Worst. Church. Service. Ever.
#8: Reconstructing My Faith: A Question, The Rapture, And Dreaming of Escape

#1: Race for the Galaxy (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Race for the Galaxy

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 94
• rating: 7.7
• published: 2007
• designer: Tom Lehmann

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• After you climb the iconography mountain to figure out the game, Race for the Galaxy is an amazing adventure in hand management & reading your opponents' mind - made even better by clever card design & interaction as well as great sci-fi art.

Tips & Tricks

• Learning Race for the Galaxy can be a bit of a chore - of course, since I've ranked it #1 on my list, you know I think it's worth it - but there are some things you can do to make it easier.
• First, don't add any of the expansions.
• Second, the first time you play, play two games in a row.
• The first game should be open-handed & use the preset hands from the base game.
• The second game can be "normal".
• Third, don't get obsessed about winning your first few games. Use them (they're short!) to explore the gamespace & see how cards can work together.
• There are five (almost 6!) expansion sets available for Race for the Galaxy, all of which add numerous cards to the deck:
• The Gathering Storm (which adds a fifth player, goals & a robust solitaire system)
• Rebel vs. Imperium (which builds on the previous expansion, adding a sixth player & rules for takeovers)
• The Brink of War (which builds on the previous two expansions, adding prestige & the prestige/search action)
• Alien Artifacts (Alien Artifacts does NOT build on the previous expansions but instead is meant to be combined solely with the base game. It adds a fifth player & a new mode of play in which you explore the Alien Orb.)
• Xeno Invasion (the newest expansion - again, a stand-alone addition to the base game that adds the potential for a non-player adversary attacking all players.)
• Xeno Counterstrike is releasing soon (this week?!) and I couldn't be more excited.
• Between the iOS app powered by Keldon's AI, the version of Keldon's AI online, and BoardGameArena, I'm comfortable estimating that I've played Race against an AI and live players over 5k-6k times.
• My favorite way to play is 2 player advanced with goals & prestige... and no takeovers.

Extras

• I'm surprised how little I've written about Race for the Galaxy - evidently, I've been too busy actually playing the game to blog about it!
• Long-time followers of my top 100 games list know that Race has been #2 for a quite a while - but this year it traded places with Memoir '44. (They are both amazing games.)
• This is the seventh of seven (7!) Tom Lehmann games on my top 100 countdown!

#2: Memoir '44 (Mark's Top 100 - 2026)

Memoir '44

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 222
• rating: 7.5
• published: 2004
• designer: Richard Borg

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• The best (and best supported!) of the Command & Colors games... it combines a wonderous toy factor (plastic army men & tanks!) along with remarkably evocative recreations of WW2 battles. This is the perfect collision of all the eras of my gaming life: it's got enough warfare &; tactics for the chit-pusher in me, the gorgeous plastic bits remind me of the day we cracked open Axis & Allies for the first time, and the speedy gameplay fits my current lifestyle. The plethora ("si, Jeffe") of scenarios is a definite point in favor of Memoir '44, as well as one of the cleverest 'fog of war' mechanisms ever - the command deck.

Tips & Tricks:

• Memoir '44 is splendid right out of the box... though the first couple of scenarios are probably the weakest and don't show off the game as well as they could. (They do a good job of getting players used to how the game works.) Don't give up on it until you've played some of the later scenarios.
• There are a LOT of expansions... and I personally own at least one or two of each of them. (Point of fact: my Memoir '44 collection weighs over 30 pounds now.) There are no duds in the set... though probably the least valuable to a casual player is the Terrain Pack.
• BoardGameArena has an excellent implementation of Memoir '44... which explains why I've played so many games of it in the few years. (I've been in an ongoing "war" with a good friend in Australia - hi, Fraser! - for nearly three years now.)
• My favorite way to play is 2 player Breakthrough (using the Breakthrough deck included in the Winter Wars expansion). Close behind that is playing in Overlord (multi-player team) mode or playing a campaign (using one of the Campaign Books).

Extras

• I've written a number of reviews (review copies provided) of Memoir '44 expansions over the years:
• Breakthrough
• Winter Wars
• Campaign Book Volume 2
• Equipment Pack
• Memoir '44: The Chattanooga Open
• Here's what I wrote about it for The One Hundred - both personally & for the group.
• This week was the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. We must not forget all of those who gave their lives to end Nazi tyranny and genocide.