17 Hours, 18 Kids, 4 Bathroom Stops

Last Tuesday, I (along with 5 other adults) took a crew of 18 4th-6th graders to Knott's Berry Farm. It was a very long day - we met at 6:00 am, left Easton at 6:20 am, arrived at Knott's around 10:30 am, played until 5:00 pm, stopped to eat dinner, and then (3 bathroom stops later), arrived back in Easton around 11:00 pm.

Still, long day aside, it was a lot of fun. I've been going to Knott's since I was a very small child (there are pictures of me sitting next to the saloon girl statues at about age 4) and I have pretty vivid memories of:

• riding the Log Ride for the first time
• being beaten to death by the Corkscrew (which isn't there anymore)
• riding Montezuma's Revenge over & over
• being frightened by the miners in the Calico Mine
• singing with my high school choir in the Birdcage Theatre
• riding with my girlfriend on the Parachutes (which are also gone)

We rode most of the coasters (Ghost Rider, the big wooden coaster, was closed) and way too many of the "queasiness" rides (like Wipeout, which, as advertised, wiped me out). Xcellerator is a great (if short) "gun" coaster that fires you out of the station at 80 mph then over a 200 ft hill where you pull negative G's. Silver Bullet is a hanging coaster with a smooth ride & a lot of inversions. The aforementioned Montezuma's Revenge is a forwards/backwards loop - but it still packs a wallop for a 30+ year old coaster. The Jaguar is no big deal, but it's got some nice curves and some good air on a couple of the bumps.

The newest coaster is Sierra Sidewinder... a small-ish (100 ft high) coaster that primarily has banked turns & short drops. What makes it so wild is that each 4-person car in the four car train spins independently as you ride - it's like crossing a small coaster with the Tea Cups at Disneyland. (That's the picture at the top of this post.) I was surprised that the spinning didn't bother me much - it wasn't constant - and a couple of times it allowed us some wild views. (We went through one of the banked circles facing straight down at the ground - yowsa!) They also took video of the ride - which they'd sell to you for $20. (No thanks...) This is the first ride of this type in the U.S. - of course, Disney just opened Crush's Coaster at Disney Studios Paris, which uses this ride system on an indoor ride with some pretty cool special effects.

Speaking of Disney, Knott's is missing two main things in comparison to my beloved Disney parks:

• decent theming - while parts of Ghost Town are very nice, the majority of the park is like a state fair set in concrete... and it's esp. sad in light of what used to be. The Roaring 20's theme was used for the "back" of the park to great effect in the early 80's - and now most of that is gone, eaten by a hodge-podge of rides & stands. And don't get me started on Fiesta Village - with the obviously Viking "Dragon Ship" ride.
• pleasant cast members - our last five-day visit to the Disneyland Resort yielded one cranky cast member and a plethora of delightful experiences. 7 hours at Knott's on a less-crowded summer day with good weather, and I only saw 3 or 4 crew members smiling at guests.

Knott's does have a price advantage - it's a very cheap park for kids ($18 normally/$15 for group tickets) and their price break for adult folks in groups ($45/$23) is really good. They are also the easiest amusement park to work with for group reservations I've found ever.

So, here's what I walked away with:

• We'll probably keep taking kids to Knott's... it's the most hassle-free amusement park trip we can do to a decent park.
• I like the big coasters... but I'd rather have the total package (Disney).
• I came home & looked up whether my G4 Mac can handle the system requirements for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3... which it can't. Sigh. (Being a park which I think needs help made me want to design my own.)

Mad About Harry

Quips, quotes, thoughts & reactions about Harry Potter from a couple of evangelical followers of Christ... followed by some commentary from me:

I stand by my recommendation to be familiar with Rowling's works. This is a momentous occasion in popular culture. There have been few phenomena in modern history that have rivaled these books and the cottage industry of films, video games, and merchandise that have followed.

But beyond reading them for cultural literacy, are they also a cultural battle front?

I think not (for a full "Whitepaper" on Harry Potter, for use by parents, teachers & pastors, use the following link).

First, to think the books are evil and wrong and harmful - in and of themselves - is misguided. As Christian author Charles Colson, along with other Christian writers and thinkers such as Richard Mouw, Connie Neal, Alan Jacobs and Francis Bridger have noted, the magic used in the books is mechanical, not blatantly occultic. No more than the magical powers of Superman. It's attempting to be fantasy, not reality. There is no contact with a supernatural, demonic world in the classical form of the occult.

In truth, they are simply morality tales, and the magic is used as a metaphor for power. The overarching theme is the fight between good and evil, and that evil is real, and must be resisted. The characters develop courage, loyalty, and the willingness toward self-sacrifice. In and of themselves, the Harry Potter books are best lumped with the fantasy works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, where wizards and witches and magical potions also abound, but in a fantasy framework where the author uses them to present good as good, and evil as evil. In fact, Rowlings's appreciation for Lewis runs so deep that his writing was the primary reason for seven Potter books - she wanted to match the seven in the Narnia series. Rowling herself is a professing Christian and member of the Church of Scotland, and while she doesn't pretend the Harry Potter series are overtly Christian books, a Christian worldview is behind every page.

This does not mean that parents shouldn't talk their children through the books - they should. As with any fantasy book - or film - you should make sure that your child is old enough to know the difference between fantasy and reality. Further, the Harry Potter books are not "kiddie" books. The later books in the series become increasingly mature (in the first book, he is eleven; by the seventh, he is seventeen). Parents should also make sure they help their children contrast the mechanical, fantasy magic in the books - and the fantasy magic in all fairy tales and children's literature, from Snow White to Cinderella - with the real life witchcraft the Bible condemns, which encourages involvement with supernatural evil.

Yet the larger conversation can be more positive, for the Harry Potter books and films give every parent and child something to think about as Christians, such as the reality of good and evil, the critical importance of choices, and the nature of sacrificial love.

So I, for one, say pick up and read.

I know I am going to.

That's from James Emery White, author of some wonderful books (my favorite is Embracing the Mysterious God: Loving the God We Don't Understand), pastor of Mecklenberg Community Church, and professor & former president at Gordon Cornwell Theological Seminary. (It comes from his Serious Times newsletter/website.)

Granger has focused on her [Rowling's] language and symbolism, in large part because of his similar studies in "Great Books" and ancient languages.

"I started reading the Potter books as an Orthodox Christian father who had to explain to his oldest daughter why we don't read such trash," he said. "But once I started turning the pages the University of Chicago side of me kicked in."

Take that climactic scene in "The Prisoner of Azkaban," he said. The Latin "expecto," as used in the Apostles' Creed, is best translated "to look out for" or "to long for expectantly." And "patronus" means guardian, but can also mean "deliverer" or "savior." So Potter cries "I look for a savior" and a stag appears, one that looks mysteriously like a unicorn.

In the Middle Ages, noted Granger, stags were Christ symbols, in part because of the regeneration of their antlers as "living trees." A cross was often pictured in the prongs. Lewis uses a white stag in this manner in "The Chronicles of Narnia." Unicorns were also popular Christ symbols, portraying purity and strength.

Rowling repeatedly links Potter with creatures - a phoenix, griffins, centaurs, hippogriffs, red lions - used by centuries of Christian artists. Her use of alchemy symbolism taps into medieval images of spiritual purification, illumination and perfection.

And Harry's snowy white owl? It is interesting to know that Saint Hedwig is the patron saint of orphaned children. And the final product of that spiritual, alchemical discipline? The goal was to create a symbol of salvation and eternal life, something called "The Philosopher's Stone."

And that last quote is from the folks at GetReligion.org, as they quote John Granger. Look, I'm not sure I see everything that Granger sees (and I have a B.A. in English Literature and did some particularly deep study of the works of C.S. Lewis) - but stuff like this helps me to see that there's more going on in these books than a simple yarn.

Here's my recommendation for dealing with these books & kids: read them WITH your children and talk about the Christian truth evidenced in these stories. They are, whether you like it or not, a huge part of the cultural conversation (over 2 million copies of the final book were pre-sold online... and the first printing in the U.S. alone is 12 million copies). Rather than bury our heads in the sand, why don't we see how we can pull an Acts 17 moment with these well-written works of fiction?

This post is adapted from an article published in 7/19/07 edition of the Grapevine, the newsletter of NewLife Community Church.

While Daddy Was Gone

While I was in Paso Robles, Shari & the boys ended up playing in the backyard. Add a sprinkler... and this is what you get.

7 Hours & Change...

...that's how long it took me to read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows today.

Some of you are aware that I have a 2 year old & a 6 year old and are now wondering how in the world I carved out 7 hours to read. Ah, but you are unaware that I had to go to officiate an out-of-town wedding without my family & thus had lots of time on my hands.

Enough time, in fact, to join the line outside the Paso Robles, CA, Wal-Mart right around midnight last night in order to pick up a copy. I read for 3 hours (until I was having trouble concentrating on the story), went to bed, woke up around 8 am and kept reading until right around noon. (Such is the joy of having a hotel room to yourself.) Then, because I am a connoisseur of fine culture, I watched the American Gladiators marathon on ESPN Classic while I got ready for the wedding.

Some (NON-SPOILER) thoughts on the book:

• It made me cry - two or three different times. Some sad, some happy. (Man, am I over-invested in these fictional characters or what?)
• It's the darkest (appropriately) of the series... while there isn't anything in here that kids wouldn't here and/or see on network TV, it's still not for the youngest 'Arry Potter fans.
• It's going to make a stunning movie in a couple of years - there are some amazing set pieces (action sequences) that will be overwhelming on the screen.
• Don't wait for them to make this into a movie - each book the films have been able to get less & less of the story onto the screen... and this one has more stuff "stuffed" into it than all but Goblet of Fire. You should read this one.
• In fact, you should read all of them... more on that tomorrow when I post my Grapevine (church newsletter column) from this week.

Do everyone else a favor - no spoiler comments in the comments, OK?! (And congratulations, Josh & Crystal - "Mwarriage. Mwarriage is what brings us together today. Mwarriage that blessed arrangement. That dreawm within a dreawm...")

OR is OK by ME

Greetings & salutations from the Great American Northwest... the family & I are on vacation here in Oregon, staying with my mom & dad. (This, somewhat obviously, explains the dearth of blog posts this last week.)

So, here's a quick highlight reel so far:

• watching fireworks on the 4th over the Columbia River
• seeing Ratatouille in the Columbia Theater in St. Helens, OR... a great little small town theater! (This was Collin's FIRST "in the theater" movie.) BTW, the movie itself was delightful.
• going to OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) with my dad & Braeden... the picture above is taken in the Chemistry lab
• having lots of time to read & relax, thanks to my sister (Aunt Liz) and mom & dad being able to help take care of the boys
• having lots of time to hang out with my sister & folks, thanks to being in Oregon
• spending time with my best friend from high school, Keith, his lovely wife Melissa and HIS mom & dad who were up here visiting from SoCal... while we chatted, Braeden played with Keith's daughters (all three of them!) and two neighborhood girls. (Keith commented that the overload of estrogen was his day-to-day existence - Braeden was just getting a taste.)
• Braeden & I got to make stops at Rainy Day Games (what a great store!) and the Lego Store in Washington Square.
• And, thanks to that visit to the Lego Store, I found the missing set of our Castle Duplo Legos... and an extra armored dragon! (Yes, small things make me happy.)

We're headed to the coast today... so no posts again until late in the week. If everything works right, however, we should come back with pictures of sand castles!

This Blog Is Rated...

Fight The Disease

If you are involved in church, either as a volunteer or as a staff person, please help Anne by taking part in the survey & spreading the word.

I know I say this a lot, but I plan to write more about this later. For now, let me just say that "Better to burn out than to fade away" is a horrific way to live & minister... yet I've watched too many folks inside the church do just that. And this isn't just a "professional Christian" problem - volunteers watch the stupid way we choose to live & follow us right over the cliff like lemmings. It's time for this stuff to get out in the open.

BTW, I found this thanks to the guys at Church Marketing Sucks... as usual, they're perched on the bleeding edge of ministry issues.

43 + 2/365

My birthday was Wednesday... and the Under 30's small group at our church came over after Vacation Bible School to hang out, eat, & play our favorite board game, Smarty Party.

Thanks to Mr. Bo (hi, Jim!), my birthday cake was... well, you can see it in the picture. The icing on the cake for the evening? My team (go, Morgan!) won Smarty Party by 10+ spaces - sweet.

Wild Horses & Yetis

While it's been painfully obvious to any reader of this blog that I'm a huge Disney fan, those who remember my life pre-small fry also know me to be a lover of great roller coasters.

And one of the best coaster parks in the nation (though pretty weenie when it comes to theme & atmosphere) is Cedar Point. I've had the privilege of spending the day there two different times - remind me and I'll tell the "tiny bullets" story (visit #1) and the "I think my best friend may be dying at an amusement park" story (visit #2). Of course, story #2 bleeds into story #3, wherein Chris & I get hyped up on Jolt Cola and torture Buster about his dating life in front of his mother.

But that's not why I'm writing this... instead, I want you to check out this video of the newest coaster at Cedar Point, Maverick. Seriously... I'm sorely tempted to hitchhike to Sandusky just to ride this thing. A 95-degree first drop and a nifty surprise right in the middle of the ride... yowsa.

The only other coaster that's got me this excited is Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Due to all the special effects & darkness, it's much harder to get a feel for this one, but here's one video (from YouTube) that might give you a clue about why I want to ride it.

Finally, A Movie I'm Really Excited About

All I'm going to say is that you're looking at the Pieces of Ate Dinner Theater... and we have to wait until November.

Sigh.

More info available at the film's website.

Bite-Sized Reviews

Games

My Father's Day gift from my boys was Pirates: Quest for Davy Jones' Gold, which is a board game version of the CCCG (constructible collectible card game)... so far, with only one playing under our belts, I'd have to say it's a decent little game. It's miniatures combat, but the limit of one order per ship (move, shoot, explore or repair) leaves you with some interesting decisions. I'd like to try this with 3 or 4 players and see what happens.

We've also picked up 4-5 packs of Pirates: At Ocean's Edge... I hope to get a game of that in tonight.

Burg Appenzell continues to be enjoyable & fast-paced as a 2 player game - I'm curious how it will do with more players on the board.

Books

Ridley Pearson has written some very good thrillers (I particularly liked The Seizing of Yankee Green Mall)... but The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark isn't particularly thrilling. It's an attempt to cross the streams ("'Scuse me Egon? You said crossing the streams was bad!") of Disney fandom & Harry Potter - but the writing is boring & there's very little Disney feel to the story. Except for the extraordinarily cornball legends about Walt & The Stonecutter's Quill (don't ask... sigh), this could be any amusement park. (BTW, despite my tepid review, there are multiple sequels planned.)

Of course, it doesn't help that I'm re-reading the Harry Potter saga (I'm currently starting Book 4) in preparation for the release of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallowsas well as reading the Chronicles of Narnia to Braeden a chapter at a time as bedtime stories (we're in the real Book 2, btw - Prince Caspian - I still think the more recent publishers are complete numbskulls for re-ordering the stories into chronological order.)

Films

Continuing on the Narnia vein, I am officially NOT excited about the film version of Prince Caspian While Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe had some spectacular moments (Lucy meeting Tumnus, dinner at the Beavers, Aslan's sacrifice), it added silly battle sequences & majorly downplayed the Christian symbolism.

OTOH, Shari & I saw Ocean's 13 on Saturday night & really enjoyed ourselves. It's not Oceans 11 (possibly the best caper film since The Sting) but it's quite good. Part caper movie, part film school experiment (it's Steven Soderbergh directing), part Rat Pack flick as reimagined by Clooney & Pitt - the thing works like a charm. Adding Al Pacino to the mix only makes it sweeter.

DVDs

We also saw Stranger Than Fiction, which is a very thought-provoking & delightful small film. I recommend it highly to those who don't mind odd-paced dramatic comedies that are more interested in making you grin than guffaw. (No plot spoilers here - part of the charm of the film is approaching it with very little idea about where it's going.)

Paging Dr. Yu...

...Dr. Yu, you're needed in the game room, stat! (Can you tell I watched a lot of ER in the first couple of seasons?)

Dale Yu is my Gathering of Friends/Gulf Games buddy - and we have oddly similar tastes in games. What's really weird is when the two of us order the same games at the same time - just check out my post from earlier this week (Birthday Gaming) and his column from Boardgame News (Some New Games With Kids). Freaky deaky...

With three games of Burg Appenzell under my belt now, I'm convinced that this is a real gem - enough meat on it's bones for gamer-y types, enough luck & memory to make it enjoyable for kids. Primo.

Looking For A Metaphor

Dan Kimball is in search of a metaphor... and I'm no help. (Seriously, I've been thinking about this for a couple of days with no idea what to suggest.)

OTOH, his post (with the convoluted title of What to use for a metaphor for "core" or "non-core" beliefs) on his blog, Vintage Faith, is thought-provoking & important reading. I'm including a couple of of his slides here to wet your appetite.

Strategery

This is not just a problem for businesses creating widgets... I've been around too many churches that live here, as well.

In fact, I wonder how many churches over the past 20 years declared their allegiance to the 7 Step Strategy or the 5 Purposes or the Emerging Conversation... and still do things pretty much the same way covered up with a thick layer of denial & bluster?

Sigh.

Find this cartoon at dilbert.com

Pathos (Entry 24)

I've thought long & hard about whether I should post this... an entire chapter from someone else's book. In the end, I decided this was the best way to inspire a number of you to saddle up & head to your local bookstore to purchase Erwin McManus' Soul Cravings. So, don't let me down.

In the meantime, soak in this for a little bit...

For better or worse, for richer or poorer - that's the commitment I made back in 1977 when I first saw Star Wars. I've been there through them all. If Star Wars was the honeymoon, then Attack of the Clones nearly caused our divorce. I was with a gorup of my friends in line at midnight just to be a part of the opening. But it hit me most fully at the Revenge of the Sith. We had flown all night from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia. We were exhausted, jet-lagged, and committed to finding our life-long colleague Obi-Wan Kenobi and bringing our journey with him to completion.

I have always been very much aware that Star Wars carries at its core George Lucas' Hindu view of the world. Certainly over the last thirty years while God has been going down in the polls, the Force has been steadily climbing. It's not hard to understand what's so attractive about the Force, an untapped source of power that enables us to become more than we ever could alone. Our attraction to the Force is just further proof that our souls long for God. At our core, we know that something is missing, that there's more to us than just flesh & bone.

The challenge is, Which side of the Force will you choose - the good or the dark side? So far so good, right? Of course, you're going to choose the Jedi way. Which one of us would even want to be a Sith? Well, in a world of metrosexuals, the Siths do have better costumes. I mean, Darth Maul had by far the best mask. But as the story unwraps, it all starts to become so clear. I found myself torn by Anakin's dilemma. Anakin, we discover, becomes the infamous Darth Vader. He is training to be a Jedi knight. The way of the Jedi is a life of honor but also a life of detachment. You must give up your right to love, to feel, and even to be loved. You must learn to live a life absent of desire. This is the way of the Jedi. This is what it means to choose the good.

The way of the Sith is the only other option. There is darkness there, and this is where your passions will lead you if you do not relinquish them. Anakin, of course, has a dilemma. He was in love with the young Queen Amidala. This presented a problem. Given, he had lots of other problems too. But really this was the choice before him - live a life of detachment or live a life of passion. How can you disagree with this? Our passions have left an endless trail of devastation. Left to ourselves, it seems, desire leads us only to the dark side. I understand how this view can be compelling, but Jesus gives us another way.

Let him change you at your core, then let your passions fuel your life.

Spirituality & desire are not in conflict from the perspective of Jesus. In fact, he teaches that a genuine spirituality results in the passionate pursuit of life. I'm convinced one of the reasons so many have given up pursuing genuine spirituality is that they didn't know what to do with their desires & passions. No one ever told them that they were placed there by God, that they were intended to be the fuel that would drive them to pursue their dreams & visions. At the same time we must heed the warning of the Sith, that unrestrained passions, passions lacking a moral compass, will lead us to a life that is self-destructive and will hurt anyone who chooses to come near us.

Our greatest danger is living for whatever we can take & devour now and destroying our future in the process. Sometimes we find ourselves seething in anger because our desires cannot be satiated. When our dreams seem out of our reach, it is easy to simply choose apathy. Our worst-case scenario is taht we become enemies of hope. We have to come to grips with the longing of our souls to become something that requires a metamorphosis, which is why no matter what we become, it is never enough. Our souls always crave more. It's not because they're insatiable, but because we know there's more to be had.

Birthday Gaming

It's not actually my birthday... it's Braeden's birthday. But, since he's the son of a gaming "addict", his birthday had plenty of game-related stuff surrounding it.

The pictures above are from his party, where we played Jewels in the Attic, a game published by Discovery Toys back in the early '90s. It's a little difficult to describe, but it's essentially a cooperative text adventure without a lot of text. Using circle-shaped "tools", the players attempt to find the best item among them to help solve the problem - whether that be avoiding a swarm of bees or trying to get out of an overstuffed chair. The notch on the tool card is lined up with the notch on the "problem" card and a small hole in the tool card reveals a letter - which corresponds to a result on the problem card. Many times, you defeat the card & get to claim a reward (which is a more powerful tool, usually)... though sometimes the problem causes the group some trouble. (Most of the group ended up asleep on the floor at one point; another time, they were all stuck to the walls of the room they were in.)

Eventually, you have enough purple (reward) cards in order to try & enter the Attic to defeat the Jewelkeeper... which, of course, requires you to defeat his minions first. (I didn't mention at the start that the game is played in five rooms: a Main Hall - denoted by a large placard - and four rooms - denoted by door hangers with the room name & description.)

As you can see, we played at the church gym - the second picture shows the intrepid band of adventurers (and their guide, me) running through "the Main Hall" on our way to "The Library" (which was actually our senior adult Sunday School classroom.)

The game works very well with ages 4-8 with an adult guide... part of the secret of making something like this really "sing" is to get the kids involved in making spooky background noises, roleplaying the various troubles, and helping them celebrate their victories. This was, according to the kids & parents I talked to today, the highlight of the party for most of the kids.

In other birthday gaming news, Braeden got three games as presents:

• Cranium's Pirate's Passage, which is a part of their Squawkbox series, where the game box is tells you what play you can make each turn. It's a pretty simple race to the center of the maze game, with some opportunities to hose over your opponent. Still, you're at the mercy of the box - if it keeps telling you to flip cards when you need to move, you're in trouble.
• Haba's Der Schwarze Pirat (The Black Pirate), which takes the air pump action of Akaba & turns it into a pretty interesting little game. Players roll dice to see where gold is added to the map & whether they'll be moving their own boat or The Black Pirate. Good control of your ship is necessary (which has frustrated Braeden so far) as well as planning how to cut off other players from the islands you're trying to get to. Less frenetic than Akaba (there's no timer - simply a limit to the number of puffs you can make per turn) but a bit more of a game.
• Finally, Braeden's favorite: Kiki Ricky from Ravensburger (which goes by the American name of Chuck-It Chicken). This is a "king of the mountain" game where you climb a 3D board with three chickens (each wearing a different piece of headgear: pith hat, baseball cap or football helmet) attempting to be the first to reach the top & subdue the nutty rooster who keep throwing down eggs to knock you back. It works OK with two players but really shines as a goofy kid's game with 3-4.

And, in unrelated gaming news, I get Burg Appenzell in the mail tomorrow (yippee! Zoch-ish SdJ-&-Bruno-Faidutti-recommended silliness!) along with Lost Valley. And I played Midgard, which is El Grande with extra chaos thrown in. Eh.

Tire Swing

From left to right, that's "Little" Robert (once known as "Baby" Robert - but now Braeden thinks Robert is too old to be called a baby), Eve (the daughter of our worship/youth pastor who is almost as rambunctious as Collin) and Collin himself. Collin, btw, calls Robert "Bobert" sometimes.

They all three enjoyed the tire swing very much - thanks to Zoe & Evie for inviting all of us to their birthday party!

peppermint-filled pinatas

OK, I'm going to try my level best to review this book as objectively as possible... but that's an uphill climb considering that I've known the author since he was a teenager. (He & my lovely wife, Shari, were actually in the youth group at Shady Oaks BC at the same time.) It also doesn't help that we share an alma mater (Baylor University), a background in youth ministry, and a deep respect & admiration for the community of faith known as Mosaic. (Eric is a Navigator there - which is the rough equivalent of "lead pastor" - along with Erwin McManus & Chad His-Last-Name-Ha-Been-Flushed-From-My-Memory-Banks... sorry, Chad.)

One of the things I like best about peppermint-filled pinatas: breaking through tolerance & embracing love is that feels like there's a real person behind the book. I've read way too many books on sharing the love of Christ that are peppered with what I can only call "airplane" stories: "I was sitting next to this person on the airplane & we started talking & by the end of the flight they gave their lives to Jesus... and I've never seen them again. But doesn't it make a great story?!" (Eric's only "airplane" story in the book is in the chapter about stereotyping - and involves the Bryant family's panic flying with nervous Arabs a couple of weeks after 9/11.)

Instead, Eric illustrates the principles he's trying to teach with self-deprecating humor & personal stories that feel very much like you're sitting across the table from him drinking coffee & scarfing down biscotti.

One of the most convicting passages for here is... well, rather than try & summarize his thoughts, I'll just quote 'em for you:

In our attempts to become holy or "set apart," we have mistaken a call for "living with a different standard" with "living in a different place that has a different standard." We want to live in an enviroment where the laws or policies enforce our beliefs & morality rather than engaging a lost & broken world where they live. And is we are to be "set apart" to be "apostles," in a broad sense of people who are "sent out," then we are to be "set apart" in how we live, and we are "sent out" to the world. Too often we reverse these two concepts. We live away from the world physically, but our behavior matches that of the world.

Another thing I appreciate about the book is Eric's willingness to tackle difficult topics: how do you build relationships with those who hold radically different beliefs from you... whether it's their sexual identity, their religious affiliation, or their ideology. Rather than simply saying "go & be friends with people," Eric offers specific stories & thoughts about how that works out practically in his life... and in our lives.

It's not a perfect book - they are some slow moments & I wonder if I'm able to "connect the dots" a little easier because I've known Eric for so long. But even with those caveats, I found myself reading this book avidly and wanting to read sections to my wife - both silly stuff (like the Darth Vader & Spiderman obsessions of his son) or the serious stuff (like some of the passages in the section entitled "Love is the New Apologetic.")

Disneyland 1968

I think what you're looking at is my first visit ever to Disneyland... of course, you're not looking so much at me as you are at the head of a blond child (me!) and my mom & dad.

What's With All the Disneyland Stuff?!

Regular readers of this blog will have astutely spotted that the number of posts about Disneyland has increased over the past few months... and, though absolutely no one has asked this question, I feel compelled to explain why the flood of Disney memories & pictures.

The main reason is that we are now in the throes of planning our next expedition to Mouse Country. We've been racking up "points" on our Disney Visa for over four years... and that, coupled with the cash I'm pulling down from my consulting gig for the folks at Klutz Press, will pay for 5 days at Disneyland & California Adventure. As well, this is the last year we can take Collin "for free" - once he's 3 years old, we have to buy him a ticket, too.

Our plan right now is to go either the week right after Thanksgiving or the first full week of December... the parks are beautifully decorated, there's a Christmas parade each night (as well as fireworks when the winds are favorable), and both Small World & the Haunted Mansion have their seasonal "makeovers" in place. Most importantly, the time between Thanksgiving break & the beginning of Christmas break is the lowest attendance time of the year, particularly during the day. (During the evening, local Annual Passholders show up, which increases the numbers somewhat.)

There's another reason for posting the trip reports... not long after our last trip to the Disneyland Resort in 2003, I posted to an e-mail group about the trip & hinted that I had taken notes to do a write-up. Susan Rozmiarek replied that she would be very interested in reading them - and as she & her husband, Ed, are regular readers of this blog - consider this a belated birthday present. Or whatever.

Disneyland 1970

The cute kid in the glasses is none other than yours truly - aka pastor guy. The lady next to me is my mom... and the guy taking the picture from the Dumbo in front of us is my dad - which is weird, since we have a picture that looks just like this one, taken in the same way some 33 years later. Man, I feel old.

The Latest Whatever

Some capsule reviews from the "media" intake in my life:

Books

Stephen Lawhead's Hood is a wonderful beginning to The King Raven Trilogy. In it, he reimagines the legends of Robin Hood & sets them in Wales after the Norman invasion of England. As usual, he mixes Christianity with mysticism & high adventure, evoking a sense of place & character that makes his books a delight to read.

My only frustration is, of course, that this is the only book of the trilogy that's been published. The next book, Scarlet, is due sometime this year.

Games

Reiner Knizia's Blue Moon City finally hit the table when I was playing - and while I think it suffers from "theme disconnect" (this could literally be about almost anything), the gameplay itself is a lot of fun. I esp. liked figuring out how best to use my cards in creative combinations. I also really liked the way timing plays such an important part in the game - when you do something is almost as important as what you get out of it. I'm not sure I need to own a copy, but I'll happily play it again.

My first play of Battlelore: Call to Arms was great, even if I lost to my 5 year old son & his evil Giant Spider. More details on that later.

Music

Derek Bell's The Ringing Bell is probably my least favorite of his albums... of course, that's a bit like saying that Big Thunder Mountain is my least favorite rollercoaster at Disneyland - dude, it's Disneyland. The music & the writing is still strong here, esp. so on "I Want To Marry You Again" and "This Too Shall Be Made Right" - but they don't (for the most part) pack the same punch as "Wedding Dress" (from his first album, she must & shall go free) or "The Strong, The Tempted & The Weak" (from his second album, the brilliant i see everything upside down). It's short, as well... just about 35 minutes. On the plus side, the limited edition graphic novel presentation of the lyrics is very nicely done.

Chris Duran's EP, More Than I Know, is a 4-song collection of music written for the worship gatherings at Mosaic. It's not your standard rock'n'roll praise/worship tuneage, though - it feels like it would music that's friendly to someone on a search for God while also expressing the cry of the hearts of Jesus followers. I know it does that for me.

Movies

Spiderman 3 was quite good - but not as good as Spiderman 2. Shari & I got to see it at the Imax, which was great. The action sequences are splendid and there are some wonderful moments in there - but it all fit like they tried to stuff 10 lbs of potatoes into a 5 lb sack.

I finally saw Casino Royale... I think this will do for James Bond what Batman Begins did for Batman. It's a complete reboot of the franchise with plenty of sly in-jokes & references for those of us who've been watching for a long time. It's not a "nice" film - the torture scene still has me wincing in sympathetic pain - but it manages to raise real questions about what doing that particular job can do to your soul. I look forward to the next installment.

I also watched Deja Vu, which benefits immensely from the gravitas of Denzel Washington. As in most time travel films, the plot will fall apart if hit by a strong breeze, but with Denzel to anchor the story, along with the nicely done SFX, it works. One caveat: the opening terrorist attack is filmed in order to play mightily on your emotions - frankly, it's pretty manipulative. If you can get past that, there's a decent film here.

TV

It's season finale season... and I'll weigh in on a few of them before posting this.

• The Amazing Race - All-Stars: the only good thing is that Charla & Mirna didn't win. Otherwise, it was just sad... particularly since the last challenge basically was "how much gossiping do you & your partner do on the race?" Sigh.
• Survivor - Fiji: Go, Earl... of course, I'd have picked Yau Man in a heartbeat, but Dreamz & his struggle with integrity/$ put everyone's favorite contestant out of the running.
• Heroes: Just like the rest of the season, this focused more on character development than on SFX, which is a major part of what has made this show so wonderful. The epic battle we were all waiting for turned out to be inside Nathan rather than between Sylar & Peter. I can NOT wait for next season!
• Veronica Mars: What a horrible way to go out... with a pair of splendid episodes that set up all kinds of interesting plotlines for the next season. Unfortunately, the show is cancelled. (Yes, the CW has learned that more people will watch women compete to be the next Pussycat Doll than will watch an intelligent show that deals with ethics & morality with humor & intelligence... go figure.)
• American Idol: No matter who wins tonight, Melinda Doolittle got cheated. That girl can sing.
• 24: I'm planning to catch up on iTunes this summer - so don't anybody tell me anything that happened after Jack started out after Audrey.

Rules Lawyer - continued

Here Collin cheerfully points out my error. (For more errors from me & others, check out my Lost & Found page on my website.)

Rules Lawyer

Collin decided he needed to check out the rules to Buddel-Wuddel for himself... probably to make sure I was teaching them correctly.

Disneyland Resort: Christmas 2003 (Friday)

Last day - sigh. I hate the last day of a vacation, and none quite so much as the last day behind the Mouse Curtain. (There's a certain "the world is extra far away" quality about Disney - which they cultivate, as it's part of the appeal of the Disney experience.)

We loaded up the minivan & drove over to park in the Garage of Infinite Size (they call it the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure) - seriously, Disney has built a parking structure that has such mass that, when full of tourist vehicles, evidences enough gravitational pull to affect the tides at the Port of Los Angeles. (Don't believe me? Check the following picture from Google Sightseeing - the giant rectangle to the NW of Disneyland is the parking structure! It is, according to a couple of places I referenced, the largest parking structure in the world.)

Side note: if this thing is called Mickey & Friends, I'm assuming that Timon & Pumbaa did something shady to get their names assigned to the two overflow lots - Timon, which is pretty close to California Adventure, may have simply forgot to RSVP for the 50th birthday celebration. Pumbaa, OTOH, possibly questioned Minnie's parentage... it's over a mile away from the parks and they don't have tram service. Trust me - if they want to park you in Pumbaa, you should NOT be going to Disneyland that day.

One short tram ride later, we were on our way to our final day in the parks... it's a little weird, of course, to ride along the berm as it goes by the Haunted Mansion, Pirates & Indiana Jones show buildings. (They don't look like rides on their exterior, but that's where you go after you drop down the elevator in the Mansion or go down the falls in Pirates... or walk 10+ miles through the maze that is the line for Indiana Jones.) And when I say "weird", I mean "funny weird", as in "that's the area I walked through when I got kicked out of Disneyland many moons ago."

It's A Small World: One final ride through the Doll's House for all of us... we managed to average one trip per day, which may seem like a lot for those of you who want to "borrow" a weapon from the Frontierland Arcade & start taking pot-shots at the singing "kids of the world" dolls, but it's actually a lot of fun to watch a child enjoy it. (In fact, that's a major theme of this trip - I'm a huge Disney parks fan, but there's nothing like watching your son laughing & playing & enjoying himself in a world you already enjoy.

Matterhorn Bobsleds: When we wandered by the Matterhorn, I realized that the line for the bobsleds was tiny. (For those of you who know Disneyland, it didn't even extend 1/2 way through the Alpine hut at the bottom of the mountain.) Shari & Braeden went to ride Small World again while I managed to make a round trip run through the line, up the mountain, down the mountain & back to them BEFORE they could get through their ride. (Important Matterhorn tip: the Submarine/Tomorrowland side feels faster than the Fantasyland side... but the Fantasyland side has more "outside" views. Ride 'em both!)

Man, I love the Matterhorn... it was the first rollercoaster I ever rode - and I remember riding it with my dad. That was "back in the day" when the interior of the mountain was open. You could see the bobsleds going in & out of the tunnels, as well as the Skyway cars going through. (The new enclosed lift pull is cool, but not as scary.)

Enchanted Tiki Room: More than any other attraction at Disneyland, this one is a trip down Nostalgia Lane for me. What I mean is that I don't really go to enjoy it in the here & now, but instead to enjoy the time-travel back 35+ years to when I enjoyed it as a kid. Braeden was OK with it - he really liked the singing & drumming totems - but compared to many of the newer rides, this one is kind of pale. (At least they left the Disneyland version in it's original form - don't get me started on how badly they screwed up the one at WDW by having Iago & Zazu take over the show.)

As you see from the picture above, Braeden's favorite part of the Tiki Room was the fountain in the outside waiting area.

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train: We then trekked back into California Adventure to ride Heimlich for the 10th & 11th time. (Seriously - I kept count.) It's funnier the first few times you ride it.

And with that, we bid adieu to the parks - Braeden was finally worn out enough to be cool with getting something to eat & driving 4 hours back to Fresno.

Downtown Disney: Disney's answer to your local shopping mall is probably the least interesting part of the resort, particularly to those of who have small children. (Well, there is the Lego Store, but I'd go in there even if I didn't have kids.) We ate at the House of Blues (which has pretty good food, though the food we ate at the House of Blues in New Orleans some years back was much better).

And even with five posts worth of stuff, somehow I missed two other rides that I know we "did" - so I'm adding them here:

Pirates of the Carribean: Braeden was nervous about this - what with the talking skull above the door & the darkness - but Shari & I pushed on, not remembering just how scary the caves full of skeletons could be. Brilliant parents, that's us. He toughed it out - but for a couple of years was pretty clear that he wouldn't be riding that again. Recently, he's talked about fondly remembering the classic "dog with jailhouse key" scene and thinks it might be OK to try again.

Alice in Wonderland: One of the "lightest" of the dark rides - there's no real story and nothing terribly menacing in the ride... Braeden tolerated it (I like it - but it's one of those "if nobody's in line" kind of rides. If you have to wait more than 4-5 minutes to ride it, you're wasting your time.)

The Brothers Grin

I took this picture of Braeden & Collin last week - here's what it looks like to be 2 and "almost" 6 and a Jackson.

More Yelo

Some specific quotes & thoughts that popped up during this very cool one-day seminar... for more of my reactions, check out my post, Yelo, from last week - or the Yelo website.

• Someone asked Erwin a question and used the phrase "a strength overdone will become a weakness." I don't remember what the question was, but Erwin quickly quashed that kind of thinking. "A strength overdone will not become a weakness... a strength overdone will become a greater strength. A strength informed by bad character will become a weakness."
• In fact, that was a key teaching of the day - your character is more important than your strengths. A charismatic leader with good character turns out like Billy Graham; a charismatic leader with bad character turns out like Adolf Hitler.

For those who are interested (and have some background with StrengthsFinder), my strengths are (in order):

• Input
• Learner
• Belief
• Maximizer
• Responsibility

I think Input is clearly dominant (I'm not sure if it's my ability to remember where to find information in books and/or online, or my 2000+ volume personal library, or my game collection of nearly 800 board & card games that tipped the scale), along with Belief (which, I think, is probably a nice thing for a pastor to have.) The other three are supportive or lesser... I'm not sure in which combination.

Coupled with the StrengthsFinder results was some very interesting conversation about having a "strengths culture" in your enviroment - in my case, NewLife Community Church. One of the big questions I have to answer for myself & our community is "what strengths do we over- or -under-value?"

If Everyone Jumped Off A Cliff

I wrote this on Thursday morning at Ethos (the last part of the Origins Experience)... it sums up my experience very nicely.

"All of the cool kids are doing it" -- could be a come-on for illicit substances ("first one's free!")... unfortunately, it's the knee-jerk "conference" response. And I hear it echo in my heart: "I want to be as cool as Mosaic."

But when I slow down & talk to You, Jesus, what I really want is to be as contextualized as Mosaic. I want to be who I am, who I was created to be... and to be radically effective in changing lives. I feell like I'm spinning my wheels in so many ways... and I want to stop.

Jesus, I wan to enjoy gaming without it owning me. I want to be a bit more organized. I want to eat & live in a healthier way, both for my family & for my ministry.

I want to be bold -- asking to pray for others, sharing the truth, not obsessed with finding simple fixes for people's lives and/or the challenges of church leadership.

Gasping

On the way home from The Origins Experience on Thursday (yes, I'll blog lots more about it later), Aaron & I were trading boyhood "war" stories - I told the story of how I sprained my ankle and he told about (among many other injuries) tripping over an 8 foot fence and doing a belly flop onto hardpan dirt.

We both agreed that the bad part about stuff like that is not simply getting the wind knocked out of you - but the feeling that no matter how hard you gasp, no matter how many parts of your brain scream at your body to intake oxygen, you can't get any air.

Today is kind of like that emotionally. I'd sure appreciate your prayers.

Origins Experience: Tuesday

Again, just a short post to tide my loyal readers over until I can blather on & on.

Today, it was Erwin's description of maturity that blew me away...

Maturity is the gap between understanding & obedience. It is not measured by Biblical or doctrinal knowledge - you can know a lot & do nothing. It's not measured by length of service... by how long you have been a follower of Christ.

Someone asked an excellent question - how do you help people become mature followers of Christ?

You have to remember that human beings are enviromental... they don't do what you tell them, they become what they experience.

Yelo

Well, we've got one day under our belts here at Mosaic. "Yelo" (I don't know how to put the funny accent mark over the O) is their way of doing "Network" (Willow) or "S.H.A.P.E." (Saddleback) in their context... I have some reactions:

• I'm more addicted to "spiritual" language than I thought - even though the leaders & the content are clearly Biblical, and the desire is obviously to enable people to lean into their God-given uniqueness for the good of the Kingdom, they very specifically make this open to those who have not yet chosen to follow Jesus. I could tell you intellectually how cool I think that is... and yet, I still find myself wanting more "spiritualized" talk. (I don't think this is their problem - it's mine. "Hi, I'm Mark, and I'm addicted to sounding like a pastor." "Hi, Mark!" "It's been 12 hours since my last...")
• It's really sweet to get to do something like this with Aaron (our worship pastor). I'm growing in appreciation for the way he's wired and how God made him to function.
• The Clifton Strengths Finder (administered by Gallup) is impressive in how it both helps you see your own strength "themes" and in how it informs the process of working together, inside or outside the church.
• My Myers-Briggs, as usual, comes out INTJ. (Yes, there are lots of pastors who are introverts - trust me on this one.)
• The key piece of Yelo is that "character determines how you use your strengths" - and the stuff they use for that is based out of Erwin's book, Uprising.

More on this later... I need to mull a lot of it over. (And figure out how to help the leadership at NewLife grab on to these concepts.)

The Origins Experience: Looking Foward, Looking Back

In just a few hours, Aaron (our worship/youth pastor) & I take off for sunny Southern California to participate in The Origins Experience, a "conference" led by the folks at Mosaic. My plan is to blog about this (a) from Aaron's laptop while we're there, and (b) when I get home.

Yeah, they'll be plenty of time for play: we're going to a Dodgers game and plan on hanging out at least one night with some of my gamer buddies... but I don't expect this to be a "comfortable" experience - despite my profound respect for Erwin McManus & Eric Bryant & all the folks at Mosaic. I expect this to be a challenging experience, as I struggle with allowing the Spirit of God to fan the flames of my calling into ministry and as Aaron & I use this time to connect deeply as friends & compatriots in the work of the church. Stuff like that doesn't happen easily.

Here's part of a summary I wrote 3 years ago about The Origins Experience 2004.

The Origins Experience is not your typical ministry/leadership conference - this is not about process or programs or strategy or structure. Practical teaching (how-to's) were primarily found in the breakout sessions.

Instead, the focus of the Origins Experience is on the issues of culture, community & spiritual passion.

Challenges

• What endeavor could we undertake that would be so reflective of the heart of God that even failure would be success?
• Are you managing or catalyzing?
• Are you leading from biblical or business principles?
• Are you leading from a spiritual center or a strategic center?
• Are you more like an architect, designer, or artist? How do you grow in all three?
• Are you leading up to the level of real turbulence (but leaving the real battles unfought)
• Are you hearing the voice of God... or is your Christianity a series of rumors about God?

Powerful Quotes

• It is significant that the history of the first-century church is called the book of Acts, not the book of truths.
• If those who prepare for leadership are looking for the safe place, who will lead the church into the dangerous places?
• The ultimate goal of American Christianity should not be to make us good citizens, but to make us revolutionaries in the cause of Jesus Christ.
• It's hard to believe that a movement born of visionaries and dreamers would have dominantly known for its traditions and rituals.
• We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good.
• I know this may sound like heresy, but it is more important to change what people care about than to change what they believe.
• If we can do it without God, it doesn't count.
• If our hearts don't burn for unsaved people, there is not much evidence of us being a church.
• Human beings are far more environmental than they are informational. Spiritual leaders are called to create environments.
• The battle is not about style or structure. It's about infusing the values of God. Which begs the question: does the value system of your community reflect the values & passions of Jesus Christ?
• You've got to be willing to lose your job in order to do your job.
• My job is not to feed the sheep, it's to make people hungry for God.
• The limit of leadership is who you are in the presence of God.
• You must become the person you long for your congregation to be.
• Non-negotiable: if in fifteen years, my kids have left the church, but I love it, I have failed. On the other hand, if they are still a vital part of the church, but I hate it, I've succeeded.
• The Gospel came to you on the way to someone else.

Gulf Games 18: Friday (Part 2)

I started writing this back in August of 2006... about a month after Gulf Games 18. Then it got shuffled to the bottom of the virtual pile of "to be written" stuff on my virtual desk. So, some 8 months later, here it is. Sheesh.

My Gulf Games Friday continued with a "GG-only" game - Pick Two. (By GG-only game, I mean a game that I only end up playing at Gulf Games.) Pick Two is a bit of a Gulf Games institution, what with Gail Schloesser & Vicki Watson both being "word sharks"... and it doesn't hurt that the game easily accomodates 6 players (or 8 with the new deluxe edition). This was my opportunity to play a game with Cassie Berg & her "friend", Adam - as well as Bill Hembee, Kevin Rozmiarek, and the shark herself, Gail Schloesser.

Pick Two is a real-time crossword game - you get 8 letter tiles to begin, quickly attempting to fit them into a crossword-like format. The first person to do so howls out, "Pick two!" and everyone at the table grabs two more tiles from the pile in the middle. Of course, unless you've set yourself up correctly, these tiles may do more harm than good, as they must be fit into the grid as well. This goes on, usually for 5-10 minutes, with cries of "Pick two!" followed by grumbling, moaning, and an occasional "whoo-hoo" as the right tile falls into someone's lap. When the tiles are exhausted (not to mention the players), the first person to finish calls "Done!" and play stops. The game is scored based on the tiles you didn't use - each tile has a point value. You play 5 rounds (I think?) and the lowest score wins.

This was an esp. good Pick Two GG for me, as I not only won this game over Gail (thanks to her drawing both Q's in the final round) but I also managed to win in an 8 player game later on Saturday, this tim with BOTH Vicki & Gail at the table. (My discovery - there are two odd words that are very helpful in Pick Two: "queue" and "valve".)

Possibly the least successful gaming experience of Gulf Games followed my euphoric Pick Two win: I talked five other folks into playing Fat Messiah's Lifeboat. Note: this is NOT what many Eurogamers call "the Lifeboat game" - that's actually Rette sich wer kann (which is also about lifeboats & negotiation, but is a completely different animal.) This is a role-playing card game, with each person taking on one of six preset characters: the Captain, the First Mate, Sir Stephen, Lady ?, Frenchie & The Kid. Players are also dealt a Love card & a Hate card - at the end of the game, they are rewarded for the character they "love" being alive and the character they "hate" being dead... and yes, there are rules for if you love or hate yourself - or both.

Normally, this game is a boatload of silly fun... but something weird went wrong here. Despite the joys of playing something like this with Craig Berg, James Miller & others, it fell completely flat. And when I say "flat", I mean like a pancake that was crushed underneath a brick that was then leveled by a steamroller. I won - but, youch, we managed to create negative fun space in the room.

We quickly jumped over to play a hard fought match of Tumblin' Dice, where I snaked out a 7 point win over Craig. (If you've seen Tumblin' Dice, you realize that this had very little to do with skill.)

I'm not sure how the transition worked, but I found myself invited into a 6 player game of Iliade (the English version is Iliad.) With six players, you play in partnerships, so I was matched up with Dale Yu against the teams of Alan Moon/Valerie P & John P/Tyler P.

Ilide reminded me a bit of Taj Mahal in trying to decide when to drop out & take points and/or cards - but the partnership aspect helped to keep some of the "futility of hope" sentiments I feel during Taj Mahal at bay. (Others say it reminds them of Condotierre, which I've only played once and didn't particularly enjoy.) I don't think I'd buy a copy of Iliade... but I'd gladly play it again.

Dale & I made a valiant effort to catch up standing on John & Tyler, but it was to no avail. Alan & Valerie had built too much of a lead.

My notes become a bit iffy here... I think I ate dinner around this time. I know this was the same afternoon that the storm came roaring down the river - one minute you could see downtown Louisville across the Ohio (it is the Ohio River, right?!) and the next minute the rainstorm was blowing so hard that the city was gone. I mention this primarily because living in Fresno, I miss summer storms. Heck, I miss summer rain - it dries up in late May & we don't see another drop until late October.

And then, whatever I ate & wherever I went, it was back to the gaming. I had the privilege of playing Volle Hutte, a game I was introduced to at my first Gulf Games (GG2/Panama City Beach). I don't remember which bar I had (I'm usually partial to the Black Pig) but both Matt Albritton & Theresa Vander Ark managed to attract more paying custormers than I. (Thankfully, the other Vander Arks in the game - Dave & Sam - were eating my dust. Esp. Dave... whose score was 1/2 of Sam's!)

Then came a game of Expedition with the newest version of the game: the National Geographic edition. Imagine my surprise when we found that the rules were different and so was the map. My memory is very fuzzy on the rule changes - it'd be nice if someone did a comparison over on the Geek - but I do remember being irritated by them. Curt won, with me only 2 points behind him. Doug & Shelly, Rob Wood & Anne were also a part of the fun.

Next up was a personal favorite, Viva Pamplona. This "running of the bulls" game is lots of fun, and playing it with a Gulf Games crew (Elaine, Larry, Dennis, John P & Peter) only makes it better. I stayed in the middle of the pack, with John playing the coward (11 pts!) and Larry taking the win (37 pts).

Somehow I ended up with the Atlanta contingent at this point in the evening... not that that's a bad thing, but the final four games of the night all involved one or more folks from down Georgia way. The "Peachtree Street" (there are, btw, 17+ Peachtree streets in Atlanta) gaming began with Around the World in 80 Days - the new one. (The older one by Wolfgang Kramer is very good as well - I'd recommend folks give it a try. In fact, you could make an entire night of "around the world" gaming, what with the Krismus card game & Parker Brothers The Magnificent Race.)

I think my only real beef with Around the World in 80 Days is how many times the blue "reshuffle" cards mess over my carefully laid plans... but that's a randomness that you can foresee, so I'm not sure it's a problem with a game. We played with five players (Jack, Jim, Anne & Maria) and the order of finish was very interesting:

1. Me (77 days)
2. Maria (84 days)
3. Jim (66 days)
4. Anne (78 days)
5. Jack (DNF)

As you can see, my early finish was eclipsed by Jim's superior use of time - a feature I really like about this game. (It's also one of the things I love about Jenseit von Theben... which is coming out in English in time for my birthday, people - hint! hint!)

I was then initiated into the cult of Gemblo... dang, that's a weird-shaped box & a very large board. I'm pretty good at Blokus, and some of the same skills (recognizing spatial patterns) are essential in this game as well, so that translated into a win for me against players with more experience. (Note: I also got lucky I wasn't getting messed with - another vital "skill" in Blokus.) It's a little harder to see the patterns in this one, but it's still enjoyable. I think the real attraction of Gemblo is that it will play well with 3, 4 or 6 players, whereas Blokus is really only good as a 4 player game (or 2 player with the travel edition). Jack was only one gem behind me, followed by Peter & Maria tied, Mike Green, and finally Anne.

Then the Atlanta crew introduced me to Dancing Dice... a game I liked enough that I've since picked up my own copy. It's a dice game with no down time - amazing! - but it does have a "arrange your dice in secret" element that would make me nervous playing with people I don't know. (The ability to cheat is pretty much unlimited.) Anne went from worst (Gemblo) to first here, outlasting Warren, Shana, Jeanette & myself.

Finally, we played another game of Pizza Box Football... this time Warren & Sheldon (I _think_ it was Sheldon?!) led the Patriots to victory over Curt & I playing the hapless Bills. We were just behind by 3 point lead at halftime that turned into a 13 point lead by the end of the 3rd quarter... but, because the dice in this game HATE ME WITH A PASSION THAT MAKES TELENOVELLAS LOOK LIKE A STEPHEN WRIGHT COMEDY GIG, we managed to score 13 points in the fourth quarter and still lose 43-33. Sigh. (Good thing I enjoy the experience, because I think I've only won one game of this EVER.)

With that defeat, I trundled off to bed.

Required Reading

They like Jesus...

Winston: Hey Ray. Do you believe in God? Ray: Never met him. Winston: Yeah, well, I do. And I love Jesus's style, you know. Ghostbusters (1984)

...but not the church:

Christians are hard to tolerate. I don't know how Jesus does it. Bono

I hate when people do stuff like what I'm doing right now: "If you read one book this year, make it this one." (Actually reminds me of a great Steve Taylor quote from the advertising from I Predict: 1990: "If you buy one album this year, buy mine too.") I tend to ignore it on purpose... as if to say, "Obviously you are in throes of some kind of mania and need to be brought down a couple of notches."

Look, I'm not condoning my behavior - I've managed to miss plenty of very good books, movies, albums & games this way. (If it wasn't for the kind persistence of Matt, I'd have missed Yspahan with this kind of dumb-butt snobbery.)

So, when I tell you that every person in leadership in a Christian church ought to read Dan Kimball's new book, I don't want you to blow me off. Go pick this up & let it mess with your head & heart. Give it the chance to burrow under your defenses & get you thinking about what kind of impressions those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers leave with the way we "do church."

This may sound odd, but quite honestly, I don’t blame people in our emerging culture for what they think about us. If I weren’t a church leader or if I weren’t friends with Christians who really are following Jesus in a loving and balanced way, I would probably judge Christians and Christianity based on what I could see from the outside. And it isn’t a pretty picture.

Based on outside observations of Christians, there’s no way I would want to become one of them. I wouldn’t want to become an angry, judgmental, right-wing, finger-pointing person. I wouldn’t be saying that out of rebellion against God or the church; I would simply conclude that from observations of Christians and from not wanting to change into something I wouldn’t want to be like. Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus But Not The Church