I Feel This Way On Mondays...

...thankfully, not every Monday. Now, here's hoping our new worship & youth pastor doesn't take this wrong. (He he he... hi, Aaron!)

The Not-So-Amazing Race

Shari & I became hooked on The Amazing Race a couple of years ago... couples racing around the world, traveling, running, doing crazy stuff. So we were intrigued when they announced the Family edition this summer.

Unfortunately, the newest season hasn't been nearly as enjoyable as previous seasons... lots of the tasks seem pointless and there's a greater reliance on completely random elements to determine who wins a particular leg of the race. Sigh.

In addition, one of the families is very forward about their Christianity. Now, normally, I'd think that was a good thing - I'm kind of partial to people who love Jesus enough to talk about Him and live their life according to His principles - but the Weaver family? Double sigh. (In all fairness, you need to know that this family is made up of a mom & three teenage kids - Dad was killed in a racing accident a couple of years back.)

What follows are quotes from one of my favorite websites, Television Without Pity. Let's listen to someone who isn't "inside the Christian bubble" and see how they perceive these Christians.

In maybe the creepiest off-the-mat talk ever, one of the girls explains, "We've been raised since we were born not to trust other people, but to trust your family and to trust God." Wow. Not to trust other people? I mean, I would have gotten it if she said they were raised not to worry about what other people think, but to have a girl that age saying she's been raised not to trust anyone outside the family is really...an unhappy thing. It explains why they relate to other people in a manner reminiscent of the Coneheads, but it feels sad. Anyway, there is more talk about how they can't control other teams talking about them, and then the other daughter, I think, adds, "We're all Christians, and we're above that." Well, I can't argue with that. Jesus did speak extensively about the importance of crowing and placing oneself above others. I think that's what all the stuff about how you're more important than the birds of the air and the lilies of the field was about. It's like I finally understand the Book of Matthew...

Oh, and then Rachel prays, adding at the end, "And let us beat the other people if it's your will." My sense is that she wants to pray for God to make her win money, but some part of her is conscious of how cheap it sounds. She sort of wants to hedge her bets because maybe God and anyone watching might be offended by her asking for straight-up monetary gain at other people's expense, but she holds out hope that maybe God will make her win if she asks and won't make her win if she doesn't ask. Just in case it's an order-fulfillment system like getting books off Amazon, she doesn't want to miss her shot. So you get that (ironically) a**-covering prayer where we ask to win, but only if God wants us to win. Ick...

Back at the Yield, the Weavers are still b***ing. Mama explains that they're "responsible to a higher authority." (God: "[Looking around.] Me? Oh, don't bring me into this....")

The Yield sand runs out in the Weaver hourglass, so they are into the coffee bean Roadblock, where Tammy still has no bean. Boo! Rachel goes, starts into her pile of beans, and is ordered by her mother to begin praying. Gross. I'm sure they only want their bean if it's God's will. Boo, boo!...

My two cents: you can read this snark-y recap as an attack on Christianity & Christians - you know, "Look how persecuted we are." But I think you'd be missing the point.

We are our own worst enemy. When we casually toss God-language and God-behavior around without following it up with authentic Christ-lives, the stink causes people to recoil in horror. If we're supposed to "let our light shine before all men" (Matthew 5:16), then we could certainly do with a little more shining & a little less pointing at how nifty our light is.

And it's not just about the Weavers - as if them being eliminated from the race would somehow advance the cause of Christ. It's about each one of us - where are we "the ugly Christians"?

Look, I'm not talking about perfection. None of us, follower of Christ or not, can stand up to 24-7 scrutiny without breaking down. But there is a graciousness & contentment that bubbles up in people who've genuinely experienced the grace of God that echoes throughout their lives - both through the good behavior and the "I wish I could take that back" kind of stuff.

So, what's bubbling up out of you?

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45 (NIV)

Far Away But Weirdly Close

I didn't know Kyle well... I met him when Shari & I visited UBC in Waco, TX back in 1997. I'd talked to him a couple of times at emergent church leader gatherings. But that doesn't change that it was freaky to hear that he'd died as a result of being electrocuted in the baptistry of the church during a worship service Sunday morning. (You can read the basic story at Baptist Press. For the church's reaction/response, you can see their website.) A flurry of reactions have gone through my head/heart over the last few days:

• Man, I hurt for his wife & kids.
• What in the world are the folks in the church thinking? They just watched their pastor die.
• Note to self: Don't EVER touch anything electrical while you're baptizing.
• I wish I had an easy answer for the question "Why does God allow stuff like this to happen?"
• Remember to pray for the rest of the staff - you've been through the loss of a pastor (due to his adulterous affair, in my case) and you know how traumatic it can be for those left behind.
• I've been to that church - it feels weirdly close to me.
• Ditto because I graduated from Baylor - and this was Homecoming Weekend.

For another take on this story, check out Dan Kimball's blog, Vintage Faith.

The One Hundred

Nearly a year ago, my friend, Stephen Glenn, came up with this wild-eyed idea. He'd poll a private mailing list of rabid game players that he & I both belong to about their favorite games... and come up with a Rolling Stone-like list of The Top 100 Games of All Time.

I volunteered to put the list up on my website - and the work began. After much starting & stopping (Stephen opened a game store, Shari & I had Collin, etc.), we finally were ready to go in early August.

And then something went horribly wrong with the software (Freeway Express) and computer (aging iMac) that I use to upload to Game Central Station. Insert immense sigh of frustration here - I have this huge update (which includes much more than just The One Hundred) that I have been unable to upload.

Anyway, after much futzing around, I suggested we create a blog to publish the material. Stephen agreed, and that blog just went live this morning (Thursday, November 3rd). It may or may not be of interest to you - some of you don't read this blog for the games - others of you are pretty ambivalent about the 'spiritual' part of this monster - but if you are interested, you can find it at

The One Hundred

Over the next three weeks, we'll be counting down the games from #100 to #1. Might make a nice Christmas list for someone in your family. :-)

BTW, Stephen is not just a nice guy, he's also the designer of the Spiel des Jahres nominated game, Balloon Cup, which you need to play at some point!

A. Vacation: Reply

I'm confused. This person, who is not a believer, attends a Christian worship service. Despite being an admitted liberal who listens to popular music (such as Van Halen), she criticizes the music of a Christian choir for not being conservative enough? I don't follow the logic of her statement.

You got all the details right but didn't listen to what she said.

• Yes, Sarah Vowell is profoundly liberal.
• Yes, she's not a believer (in fact, she's essentially turned her back on church/God, which she does get into at other places in the book).
• Yes, she thinks the CCM mid-tempo pop ballad is insipid (she's not alone on that one).
• Yes, she wants music that feels root-sy & authentic...

...which is her point (and mine). We in the church often assume that we KNOW what seekers want - but we don't actually listen to seekers to find out. Much of what the emerging church has done right is because they've tapped into the authentic desires of folks seeking a real & vibrant faith, rather than simply creating our own Christian subculture hermtically sealed against corruption.

But I've gone off-topic - you questioned the logic of her statement. Being a political liberal does not define your musical tastes, any more than being a theological conservative does. What she expressed is a desire for gospel music - that to her, like many of the senior adults in my congregation, there's a particular sound that rings true to them as "professing Christ".

I'm not saying that every church should do Johnny Cash's "Man in Black" each Sunday (though it wouldn't hurt if we played One Bad Pig's cover of it every once in a while). :-) But I think we must listen carefully to those in the culture around us to hear how our attempts at communicating the most important message ever is coming across. Not so we can change the message (cue dope slap) but so we can make sure the way we're communicating doesn't speak louder than the truth of Jesus Christ.

Assassination Vacation

If you're an NPR junkie, you know who Sarah Vowell is... esp. if you like This American Life, which is offbeat, liberal, and a majorly intriguing way to use radio to re-examine the familiar. (I still think the This American Life show on a youth mission trip should be required listening for every church leader...)

Chances are, though, the only time you've heard Sarah was in the role of Violet in Pixar's The Incredibles. (Not my favorite Pixar flick - that's Monsters, Inc. - but it's very, very good.)

What all of you may not know is that she's also a fine author... just finished her book, Assassination Vacation, in which she combines travelouge, history, political commentary & personal journal into a compelling mix. Her fascination with history (and esp. dead presidents) is a jumping off point for a very interesting read.

Now, don't say I didn't warn you: she definitely did NOT vote for George Bush in the last election. If that's going to make you grind your teeth, stay away.

Whether you go & read the book or not, do finish this post... I'm typing an excerpt on her view about a evangelical Easter sunrise service (from a decidely non-believeing perspective) that those of us in "professional" Christianity need to listen to...

...I get a look at the choir. Thirty singers and from where I'm sitting it looks like only two of them are black. It's not like I'm saying suburban white people shouldn't sing. Because I love Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher." But as I suspected, at six-thirty sharp the choir does stand up to perform the first of their competent renditions of generic, mid-tempo pop ballads that sound like they were written by a computer using a database of Easter vocabulary. In fairness, I should mention that other people here love the choir. The crowd is clapping & swaying and raising their arms. For me, however, where gospel music is concerned, my taste is more conservative and narrow-minded than a Reverend Falwell commencement address at Oral Roberts U. Unless it's an old holy-roller hymn Johnny Cash would have learned from his mama back in Arkansas, I'm not interested...

Question: how much of our musical choices are driven by people outside the church? If music communicates deeply to people's souls, then shouldn't we make sure it's connecting with people who need the love & grace of Jesus Christ?

Gulf Games: Sunday

This is majorly weird, recapping this weekend in late July here now in October, what with the devastation that was wreaked on New Orleans. For more on my jumbled mind about Katrina, see a previous post, so succinctly named Jumbled.

Actually, it feels better to have waited this long to do this - I'm now enjoying the memory of my time with the Gulf Gamers rather than worrying about if they're still alive. (Sigh.)

Sunday morning always starts for me with a non-denomational prayer service that I lead - we've done it in a number of places, my favorite still being in the ballroom bar in Birmingham. (I actually sat on the bar to lead the service.) In New Orleans, we used one of the alcoves leading to the pool and gathered chairs around to share life & God together. As usual, a primo experience.

From there, I asked Joe Huber to teach William & I Pompeii. This game got negative early response when released last year - but I think much of that negative response was the All-Consuming Devil of Misplaced Expectations. This is not a slow, deep game of wise placement & movement... this is Midnight Party for adults. (It also has a lot in common with Escape From Atlantis/Survive... either way, the game is primarily about running while screaming from the lava and/or cutting off your running/screaming opponent with lava.) We had a great time playing and in the end, Joe & I tied, but he had less guys in the volcano, which won him the game. BTW, I'm on the prowl for a copy of this... it's growing as a game people enjoy and is getting more difficult to find.

Next, I taught the Schloesser's & Shanna Konig Salomons Schatzkammer which I had played earlier in the weekend. I liked it better with four players (less downtime, a bit easier to plan) but it's not one I'm going to run out & buy. Shanna smoked us.

Sunday morning means a lot of "catch a quick game before I have to load up" and that's what we did with Jim Fairchild & Leon Hembee. This time, it was Knizia's Jumbo Grand Prix, a quickie filler card game that really is a filler. I've always likened it to Lost Cities for Multiple Players, but it's not even really that deep.

The scores were amazingly close, however - I won with 56, Leon was at 55, Jim at 53, and William (the newbie) managed 51.

Next up was the much-touted Oltremare (whose new high-quality production just released looks mighty nice). The early buzz sounded like it was Bohnanza with teeth... in reality, it reminded me more of Meureter with trading added. Either way, it's a solid game, but it didn't light my world on fire. I wouldn't refuse to play it agina, mind you - I'm just not having the Pavlovian "must-buy" response.

It was, however, the only game Anye Sellers & I got to play together, which was a highlight. So was finishing in front of Derk. (Anye won, I was second.)

More new games for me (since I've been out of the "new game" loop, what with no Gulf Games or Gathering for the past two years)... I got to play Ingenious (aka Einfach Genial). Whoop-de-honkin'-doo. The production is very nice, but it's just an abstract game you can play with 4 people. Play - count yer points - wait while others play. Sigh. I'm not understanding the love that's been lavished on this game.

It probably didn't help my opinion that Jay Bloodworth BLEW the rest of us out of the water. 3 points from a perfect game. Well-played, but it holds no interest for me.

My run of new-to-me games continued with Pickomino (aka Heckmeck am Brautweck... am I the only one who thinks the old name sounds cooler?) It's a pretty simple dice with some fun decisions, a major bit of "take that", and cool components (the worm "dominos" are tres nifty.) William actually won this, but we all had fun.

The same crew of William, Peter McCarthy & Eddie Bonet got in my last "official" game of Gulf Games as we dragged out the Haba classic, Karambolage. Cross billiards with Carabande and you've got a rough idea of how the game works. I was doing great (in fact, almost ready to win), but choked, and Eddie passed me by.

And that was it for Gulf Games. William & I went to Mother's for Po Boys (extremely yummy, highly recommended) then headed back to the hotel for a night of gaming ourselves: the Game of Life Card Game, Samurai, Duell, Crazy Chicken, Coda, That's Life, and Galloping Pigs. Man, I love having a nephew who loves games almost as much as I do.

Don't know when I'll get back to Gulf Games - but I certainly do miss it. And I miss my friends there... which are as important as the games.

Surely, You Can't Be Series, Us

Yes, I am... and stop calling me "Shirley".

One of the best things about subscribing to Netflix (shameless plug for which I do not get paid) is the ability to watch entire seasons of TV shows in great, glorious whacks of TV viewing. No cable here in Easton (you either buy a dish or go with the old fashioned antenna thingie), so I would have missed Band of Brothers entirely without Netflix. (Say what you will, but I'm not plopping down $90 for a series I've never seen...)

The latest series I'm enjoying is Veronica Mars... I'm only eight episodes (two discs) into it, but it's odd & charming & intriguing. (And PG-13 in it's content - this one's not for the kiddies.) Best as I can describe it:

1 part teenager show (think Everwood or The O.C.) + 2 parts Buffy the Vampire Slayer (minus the supernatural stuff) + 1 part Alias (minus SD-6 and the constant running through corridors)

Anyway, I'm having fun. Nobody spoil it for me by telling me how the season ends, ok?

Tuneage For A Postmodern Pastor

Here's what's been in my CD player... the links, btw, go to Amazon where you can actually hear samples!

Actual Miles - Don Henley (greatest hits)

He's a cynical son of a gun, but I love the grooves he lays down and the intelligence of his lyrics. Favorites include "Sunset Grill", "New York Minute", "I Will Not Go Quietly", and, weirdly enough,"Garden of Allah".

Voices From Heaven - Soweto Gospel Choir

Heavenly voices singing gospel music with a decidely African vibe... first heard these guys on NPR and promptly drove around looking for the album. A couple of the songs are in English, but most are in a variety of South African dialects.

Slow Burn - Kaiser/Mansfield

Acoustic blues with a decidely faith-based tinge... and when I say "acoustic", I mean guitars, harmonica & stompin' on the studio floor. Very root-y... it feeds my soul. Glenn Kaiser is one of the"grand old men" of (I hate this term) Christian rock'n'roll - Resurrection Band's first album is 1973, and the dude is still recording music. (If you like solid 3-piece Chicago blues, the Glenn Kaiser Band is an excellent blend of rock & blues.)

Classic Disney Volume 1-5

Braeden is seriously into the Disney music, as is his old man, and these collections are primo. The later discs (4 & 5) are a little weaker, drawing more from Pocohantas (only good thing about that movie was the music) and other "slight" films, but they're a great overall view of Disney classics. There's a good smattering of theme park classics ("Pirates Life For Me", "Grim Grinning Ghosts", "Main Street Electrical Parade"), some crazy old stuff ("Monkey's Uncle", "Let's Get Together", "Ugly Bug Ball") as well as odd new stuff ("Oogy Boogy's Song", "On the Open Road", "I Will Go Sailing No More").

Extra points for identifying which songs go with which movies... :-) [withOUT looking at the liner notes...sigh]

Over My Head

First, thanks to zionred that I even know this song. And, in case you're wondering, I do realize that "Over My Head" is off Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, but I like Faith Hope Love better. So sue me.

over my head i hear music in the air over my i hear music over my head it's loud and clear it's going to my head music music i hear music music i hear music music music oh! oh! oh! lord music over my head i! i! i! hear it so clear i! i! i! hear it so dear i know i know i know i'm not crazy it's going to my head grandma used to sing grandma used to sing everynight while she was prayin' over my head over my head i hear music oh lord

Interesting how the world works, eh? I'm sitting here in my office, totally overwhelmed by what's coming up in the next couple of months here at my church, and my brain shifts over to Kings X.

It's really a two-step process... the first is a kind of stream of consciousness brain explosion that runs something along the lines of:

The Get in the Game capital campaign starts Sunday and I'm freaked out by the responsibility of asking for $300,000 from our folks without being a total guilt-inducing jerkweed and I'm not getting enough time with my family but that isn't likely to clear up for the next six weeks... and then there's the associational meeting I promised I'd speak at on Saturday as well as attending Braeden's last soccer game and helping get Aaron moved into the new house and spending time with Shari & the money we're wasting on Netflix because we're holding onto DVD's too long because we don't have time to watch them...

Really, it's lovely being inside my brain. Join me, won't you? :-) What flashes through my overloaded synapses is that I'm in "over my head."

The second step is to go from "I'm drowning in my responsibilities" to humming "Over My Head" by Kings X. (This is the same brain function that had me spending 1/2 my time during worship this weekend at Promise Keepers trying to figure out which U2 riff they were ripping off.)

And then, to do this post, I looked up the lyrics again - and heard the voice of God. More than my circumstances drowning me, I'm swimming in the music of the goodness of God. And that's all right.

Or better.

Pig Quotes

In The Tale of The Pig, I told the story of The Pig & his autograph book. Just thought I'd share with you some of the other signatures & some random thoughts.

Hokus Pick

To The Pig,

We are more than excited to start this book for you. You better behave because we really like bacon.

P

Hey Pig,

Keep God #1. Love His Truth!

Ricky

When Ricky realized that exactly what The Pig was, he complained to me that he'd really signed the wrong thing. "I coulda been funnier!"

Pig,

Cleanliness is next to godliness. But that's not actually in the Bible. So stay dirty!

Matt

Pig,

P- Peace of God

I - God is incredible.

G - God, God, God, God, Good.

D

Steve Taylor

To The Pig,

I think you're gonna be a big, big star...

Your friend, Steve Taylor

This is one of two Steve Taylor autographs I own. The other is on a postcard he sent the youth group after we sent him a copy of a music video we did of his song, "Bannerman." It reads: "You guys have a great future in film and/or in jail."

DC Talk

To a smelly animal, that has no style.

Michael Tait

I was privileged to spend an afternoon with Tait in Chicago... what a classy guy. And walking through a hotel lobby with him gave me a closeup look at the scary nature of being a celebrity. He was stopped at least 4-5 times for autographs & pictures... dude, how would ever have time to yourself?

Adam Again/Lost Dogs

Hey, it's The Pig!!!

Gene Eugene

This one is pretty poignant... as Gene died a couple of years back. I remember thinking how short he was. And how it was cool he stopped for a minute and took time to sign the book for me.

Renee Garcia

To The Pig:

How about putting an apple in your mouth and making a home in my oven? See you at the dinner table,

Renee Garcia (of Bliss Bliss)

I'd always liked Renee's "Living in the Vertical" album, though I thought the stuff from Bliss Bliss was so-so. What I really loved about Renee is the way she took time with 2 of my junior high girls after a concert in Houston (she opened for David Meece) and spoke into their lives.

DeGarmo & Key

To The Pig,

Thanks for being so ugly! It makes me feel good about myself.

Eddie DeGarmo

God bless "The Pig"

Stay out of Memphis in May.

Dana Key

This was on their final acoustic tour... these guys had been around a long time (15+ years) by this point and were kind of like elder statesmen for CCM. Yet they were the least egocentric musicians I've ever been around.

Live It Up

From one Ham to another,

Where's the beef?

Sir Loin, Loiny Donoho

Lanny Donoho is the head honcho behind a series of camps & events in the South that I loved to use... his heart for God is only slightly larger than his insane sense of humor.

Next Time I Fall In Love

To The Pig,

You are my hero - round, a whiner, and a perpetual runny nose. May you bring bacon to my table, and ham to my hungry soul!

Chap Clark

Chap was one of my youth ministry heroes... and a very funny guy. He & his wife, Dee, led a youth ministry & marriage seminar that made for some major breakthroughs for Shari & I.

Sixpence None The Richer

To my sleak pink fuzzy little friend I've never met - May you never find yourself on a Grand Slam Double Plate at Denny's.

Matt Slocum

True to form, Matt wrote more in the autograph book than he said to me in person. Watching him talk & play guitar, I finally understood the term "shoegaze" music.

Audio Adrenaline

To The Pig,

Take care, and take it easy. (P.S. Stay away from that breakfast table.)

Bob

Pig Rules!

Will

To The Pig,

Oink!

Barry

To The Pig,

Man, I hate bacon!!

Mark

Geoff Moore & The Distance

To Pig-O-Rama

Geoff

Oink On!

G

I love ham

R

Don't cast your pearls before swine!

L

Ham & bacon rules

C

I'm not sure Geoff understood the whole Pig thing, but the band hooted & hollered.

Rebecca St James

Pig,

Hope you're on fire for God!

Rebecca

Rebecca definitely didn't understand it... still, I remember seeing her at an industry showcase before her frist album came out. Her DAT tape broke and she just kept singing - strong voice & all. She nailed it. At that point, I knew she was going to be a big deal.

The Tale of The Pig (and How His Influence Still Touches My Life)

Many moons ago, I was a youth pastor. (For those of you who need more precise numbers, I resigned my last full-time youth ministry position in March of 1997, so it's been eight & a half years ago.) While I never particularly liked lock-in's (the idea of staying up all night with a bunch of highly caffienated youth still sends shudders up & down my spine) or some of the other unpleasant duties that went with the territory in the traditional church I served (searching the Sunday School classrooms during evening service to make sure youth weren't hiding out), I loved assisting teenagers in growing closer to God.

And playing with them - man, I loved playing crazy games. Jenn & Aaron played "Ultimate Octopus" with our crew here at NewLife a few weeks ago, and I found myself grinning ear to ear. (For the uninitiated, "Ultimate" is a high speed cross of basketball & soccer usually played with a Frisbee. Instead, they used a six pound dead octopus. Hilarity ensued.)

It wasn't the best game I ever came up with, but we decided to play touch football on a retreat with a pigskin - in this case, a fluffy pink stuffed animal pig. About 1/2 way through the game, his tail was ripped off during an aborted pass attempt. We laughed and played and went on with the retreat.

Well, as often happens to youth pastors after retreats, all of the leftover junk, debris, and lost & found ended up in my office, with The Pig perched on top of the pile. Sort of as a joke (and I'm not sure whose idea it was anymore), we made The Pig our youth group mascot. One of the youth sewed up the bad spot where his tail had been and he began traveling with us to youth events & concerts. His usual position was in the church van, rolled up in a window with 1/2 of his body sticking out. He even was featured prominently in our music video of Steve Taylor's "Bannerman."

Enter Mark Pittman, my odd but wonderful friend who worked for interl'inc, a Christian company that connected youth ministries with Christian musicians. It was his delightfully hare-brained idea to get The Pig his own autograph book. When we'd go to a show, rather than have our youth work so hard to get autographs that they'd lose and/or idolize, we send a group up with The Pig and his autograph book... presto, instant silliness.

The Pig stayed behind when I left youth ministry... I have no idea what happened to him. (He's probably in the organ loft at Dalewood Baptist... that's where literally everything else ended up when someone didn't know what to do with it.)

OTOH, the autograph book came with me. Over the three years that The Pig went to concerts, he managed to collect some pretty great autographs: DC Talk, Sixpence None The Richer, DeGarmo & Key, Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, Rebecca St. James, Church of Rhythm, Joy Electric, Geoff Moore & The Distance... basically a "who's who" of mid-nineties CCM.

I still have very fond memories of the very first night we took the autograph book to a show... a group of 10 of us headed out on a school night for the middle of nowhere TN (the name of the town escapes me, but it's where the Scopes Monkey Trial took place) for one of the best concerts I've ever attended. The headliner was Steve Taylor (one of my favorites), with Hokus Pick (another favorite) and Guardian opening.

Which brings me (finally) to the point of all this. (Sometimes, I wonder why you people are willing to read my ramblings - but, you do. So I'll keep writing!) While I was a huge Steve Taylor fan (and still am) and saw enough Hokus Pick shows that the band knew me on sight, Guardian was just a group of guys who played loud metal-derived rock'n'roll. And then they signed The Pig Book.

Pig, you'll make a great BBQ sandwich.
Jamie
To The Pig, I love how pink you are!
K
The Pig - God bless you! Thanks for being the other white meat.
Tony Palacios

So, it was meeting them and glimpsing their sense of humor that allowed me to slow down and really listen to their music.

And that brings me to a song that's been running through my head this week: "The Lion's Den".

Once upon a time in churches of old
The velcro age had yet to unfold
Flannel was king and Sunday School knew
How to make those Bible heroes stick like glue
How to make 'em stick with you

Flannelgraph lions, mounted and mean
The prophet Daniel in between
Head toward heaven, sturdy and true
A man of God who did not fear the gods of men
He didn't fear the lions' den

Every age at every stage
Lions rage
Pray, stand your ground
They'll lie down

Dumb struck, I was shaken and stirred
He wouldn't kowtow, he kept God's word
Teacher said, "Son, this could be you
If you put your trust in God and not the praise of men
You won't fear the lions' den"

Chorus

And if we play by lions' rules
We start lionizing fools
God wrote the book, he'll fortify
And like the eagles we will fly
We're gonna fly

Late one night in a fever dream
The prophet Daniel came to me
"Sir," I said, "I've lost my nerve
I lip serve God and put my faith in Godless men
I fear the lions' den"
Then he said, "Who says I'm not a feline-phobe?
Who says I wasn't ready to wet my robe?
Faith is tough, boy, but God gives grace
So take deep breath, head up, set your face like flint
And stop being a wimp"

words: Steve Taylor music: Tony Palacios & Jamie Rowe copyright 1995 - from Guardian's album "Buzz"

"Faith is tough..." Gosh, it's good to hear that this week. It's "all too easy" (props to Darth Vader for the quote) for me to buy into the lie that faith, if it was "real", should be easy. That if I was really a "good little Christian", my feelings would fall into line and I'd be relentlessly & digustly cheerful in the face of everything that comes my way. Kind of like, for those of you who got forced to read Voltaire in college, Candide, only with an iPod filled with tunes by Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith.

Instead, faith isn't about how easy my life is... or how good I am at faking a complete lack of fear & anxiety. Faith is based on the goodness of God, not the goodness of me. And that's incredibly freeing. (Even typing it makes me feel better - like saying it aloud makes it more real.)

So, a shout out to The Pig (whatever dark closet he's hiding in at Dalewood Baptist). Thanks to your fluffy pinkness, I'm reminded again of God's power and love for me in the midst of stuff that feels like it's gonna eat me alive.

Obviously, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ's servant.
Galatians 1:10 (NLT)

This post originally appeared in the 10/5/05 issue of The Grapevine, a publication of NewLife Community Church.

Lovely Rita, Meter Maid

Well, not gonna be able to listen to that Beatles song again without flashing back on last weekend.

What follows is a random series of stories & impressions post-Hurricane Rita.

- I'm thankful that the storm skated east of Houston... Shari's family was holed up in Conroe (north of Houston) and fully expected to lose the barn/apartment on their new property as well as see their unsold former home flood if Rita hit them full force. As it is, they're without power and running the fridge & some fans off a borrowed generator, but there's no major damage.

- Being thankful for the hurricane not hitting my in-laws makes me feel guilty - because it isn't like the hurricane just fizzled out and did no damage. It actually came ashore in my old stomping grounds, southeast Texas. Back in 1987-88, I was the minister of youth in a little (smaller than NewLife) Baptist church in Silsbee, TX - Good Shepherd Baptist Church. I went into Beaumont every week to see a movie, pick up the new comic books, and just hang out. Seeing the pictures from Beaumont & Port Arthur are disconcerting, to say the least.

- I've been trying to get in touch with the pastor of Good Shepherd this week - but the phones are down & the power is out. I can still see the church in my mind's eye, and then I try to imagine what kind of damage they sustained. (The church sits in a bit of a hole, kind of like NewLife, and I have this sick feeling that they have a combination of wind damage & flooding.)

- My memories of Good Shepherd are really positive - it was my first full-time church position and the folks there were incredibly kind to me. I was hired as the summer youth minister after my first year at seminary... and things went so well that they invited me to continue on through the school year. They even gave me one work day a week to attend seminary (in Houston).

- I learned how to do hospital visits in Beaumont. Bro. Fred (our pastor) drug me along & had me watch him. Then, the next person we visited, he had me pray. By the end of the day, he was letting me do most of the talking. (Can't say enough good things about Fred Raney... he was a gift to me as a young minister.)

- I'm a little ticked that the news media is so focused on New Orleans & Houston. It feels like natural disasters really aren't that bad unless they happen to big cities.

All of this reflecting takes me (of course) someplace spiritual...

In the film, "Three Amigos", Steve Martin's character (Lucky Day) gives a short speech, meant to be encouraging as the little village gets ready to face down the bandit king, El Guapo:

I suppose you could say that everyone has an El Guapo. For some, shyness may be an El Guapo. For others, lack of education may be an El Guapo. But for us, El Guapo is a large ugly man who wants to kill us!

For some, your El Guapo may be a hurricane. For others, it's the storms of life. (Most of us don't have to worry about a large, ugly man wanting to kill us.)

I can't control the weather. I can't make a storm stop in it's tracks or change direction. If a hurricane is coming my way, I can either run or board up my house & ride it out.

I can't control most of the storms in my life, either. Oh, yeah... I know there's lots of storms we bring on ourselves (bad financial habits, insufficient courage to do the right thing, etc.) But many of the things that hit us are due to the mistakes & sins of others.

So the question is: how do I react to those storms? Have I properly prepared my life to deal with disaster, or am I pretending that "nothing bad will ever happen to me"? Look, if someone promised you that following Jesus would protect you from bad stuff, they obviously didn't pay attention in Sunday School. The Bible is filled with stories of bad things happening to people who love God: stonings, beatings, murder, natural disaster, shipwreck, flood, etc. Christianity is not a magic talisman to ward off difficult circumstances.

Instead, followers of Christ are spiritually prepared for the storms of life... armed with the peace of God's presence and the call to live out what they believe.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Philippians 4:6-8 (The Message)

So, I'll ask again: are you ready for the storm? It's coming.

The waves crash in the tide rolls out
It's an angry sea but there is no doubt
That the lighthouse will keep shining out
To warn a lonely sailor
And the lightning strikes
And the wind cuts cold
Through the sailor's bones
Through the sailor's soul
'Til there's nothing left that he can hold
Except a rolling ocean

Oh I am ready for the storm
Yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm
I'm ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams
'Cause every confrontation seems to tell me
What it really means
To be this lonely sailor
And when the sky begins to clear
The sun it melts away my fear
And I shed a silent weary tear
For those who mean to love me

chorus

The distance it is no real friend
And time will take its time
And you will find that in the end
It brings you me
This lonely sailor
And when You take me by the hand
And You love me, Lord, You love me
And I should have realized
I had no reasons to be frightened

chorus

"Ready For the Storm", written by Dougie MacLean (recorded by Rich Mullins on his Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth album)

This article originally appeared in the 9/29/05 edition of The Grapevine, the newsletter of NewLife Community Church.

Enter Pastor Man

I promised earlier in the week (two weeks ago - sorry!) to tell my own story about the whole "sacred vs. secular" thing... esp. as it applies to music. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, start by reading Enter Church History Man (and the connecting link to Scott's story).

Anyway, back to my personal corner of the Cultural Wars.

I grew up listening primarily to classical music (my folks bought a lot of classical records), show tunes (my mom loved musicals) and jazz (primarily Dixieland, with a bit of Dave Brubeck mixed in.) It wasn't until I went to work for my dad the summer following my sixth grade year that I heard much of that crazy animal the kids call "rock'n'roll".

For ten cents a bottle, I cleaned & sterilized glass bottles by hand... and at the end of the summer, I had enough money saved up to buy my own stereo. It had a turntable, a AM/FM radio, a cassette player and an 8-track tape player. (Anybody else remember that "ka-thunk" noise every time an 8-track changed sections?) My mom bought me Eddie Albert's Greatest Hits (still wonder what she was thinking).

One of the guys who worked for my dad gave me some old 45's he had... so my formative years were spent with the Doobie Brothers & the Steve Miller Band. Mike, the older kid across the street, let me listen to his favorite albums - Led Zepplin, Kiss, and the Beach Boys. K-Earth, L.A.'s longtime "classics" station, played a steady diet of the Beatles, Yes, Moody Blues, ELP, and the like.

Mom didn't particularly like the music I listened to, but as long as I wore the headphones and didn't irritate the rest of the family with it, it wasn't any big deal.

My first "Christian rock" albums came courtesy of my friend, Keith, who gave me his copies of Petra's Come & Join Us and Keith Green's "So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt." (Ba-manna bread!) I played these albums for my mom, who responded to Petra's cover of God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You with an exasperated sigh and a crack about the difference between God's perfect & God's permissive will. (Evidently, Bill Gaither is God's perfect will, Keith Green less so, and Petra was "right out.")

That was the beginning of creating a very large collection of primarily (but not exclusively) "contemporary Christian music." At the same time I was soaking up stuff like Whiteheart, Sweet Comfort Band & Leon Patillo, I was also buying albums from ELO, Rick Wakeman, and Jethro Tull. (I still have a very strong memory of listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for the first time in my good friend's bedroom... all of us very serious and deep as only teenagers can be about "we don't need no education.")

I managed to avoid the whole "backward masking/subliminal message" hoo-ha that permeated some conservative church circles in the late 70's/early 80's... oh, I heard about it, but it didn't really make any difference to me. Frankly, it didn't (and still doesn't) make sense... Something that's played backwards goes into my subconscious backwards. What good is that to Satan or anybody else for that matter?

College brought a whole new set of bands to my attention. I traded a Sandi Patti tape to a guy in my dorm for the 77's "Ping Pong on the Abyss"... and the same guy is the one who first let me hear Prodigal (a long extinct art rock group with some excellent ideas.) Meanwhile, my roommate was introducing me to Alan Parsons Project, and one of the Christian magazines I got was breaking the news about this cool new band from across the Atlantic named U2.

My musical tastes continued to range across the map. Thanks to another roommate, I was introduced to the incredible writing & music of Stephen Sondheim. Around the same time, I found and bought all 4 releases from a new Word label - Broken Records. (That would be Youth Choir - later the Choir, Ojo Taylor, Altar Boys - whose lead singer would later lead worship for my mom & dad's Sunday School class, and Crumbacher. Man, I miss Crumbacher... talk about your 80's synth-pop bands. Of course, when I went hunting for a link for this post, I found out that they've not only released a demo/b-sides album in the late 90's but they also just played a live reunion show with the rest of the Broken Records bands in August!)

I found the Talking Heads one evening when looking for someting to try out on the campus library's new CD listening stations. And this was about the time that...

...but my musical history isn't really the point, right? So we'll fast forward to 1991, as I struggled with how to teach kids to make wise decisions about what they put in their heads musically. As a part of that process, I decided that it was time to ditch my non-Christian tapes... and so we sold 200+ tapes in a yard sale. I'm not sure what it said to the kids (that was a pretty turbulent period in my ministry), but it was a big step for me to walk away from the music that I enjoyed. For the next few years, I didn't buy any non-Christian albums... not out of hatred of "secular" music, but in an attempt to walk closer to God.

Over time, I realized that the primary reasons I'd chosen to renounce "secular" music were others-based... sometimes the healthy thought of the power of my influence, sometimes the poisonous stew of people-pleasing & faking church that's so easy to do when you're paid to be a professional Christian. When Shari & I finally chose to buy a CD player and begin replacing my extensive tape collection with CD's, I rather cautiously began buying non-Christian CD's again.

Oddly enough, the book that inspired me most during this re-acquisition phase was written by one of my favorite fiction authors, Stephen Lawhead. Back in 1985, he wrote a book on engaging pop culture entitled Turn Back The Night. (I'd link to it, but it is so seriously OOP that no one even has a picture of the cover.) In it, he proposed four "boxes" to use in sorting out art:

• good art, good message
• good art, bad message
• bad art, good message
• bad art, bad message

Good art, good message is the sublime intersection of talent & timing & the breath of God that results in albums like Steve Taylor's Squint, Charlie Peacock's The Secret of Time, U2's The Joshua Tree or Rich Mullins A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band. (This is the easy one to define: both the quality of the writing, production, and performance is high as well as the message lining up with the life & word of Jesus Christ.)

Good art, bad message is that odd & difficult place where the incredible skill of the artist is used to say something that does not reflect the truth of God... Prince (the artist formely known as) is a classic example of this for me, as is much of Stephen Sondheim's work on the Broadway stage.

Bad art, good message is, unfortunately, where much of CCM (contemporary Christian music) lives... welding the Gospel of Jesus Christ to poorly produced rehash of what was popular last year. Cheesy writing, inadequate production, overblown performances... you get the picture. I'm flashing on "Dear Mr. Jesus" and "Touch of a Master's Hand" right now. (Now, I don't intend to tar & feather all of CCM with this indictment... just that all too often, the excuse "The message is good" acts as a cover for mediocre art.)

Bad art, bad message is also pretty easy to spot. The message is bad and so is the quality of the production. Most of this kind of stuff disappears quickly - anybody besides those guys doing "rock'n'roll is evil" videos actually remember Black Oak Arkansas?

And, of course, the grid isn't just for music - it works great with any kind of pop culture/art piece.

A short note on truth: a good message (well, a "true" message) does not have to be evangelistic and/or explicitly reference God or the Bible. Truth is true even without a chapter & verse reference. The question is, "Do these lyrics reflect Biblical truth?", not "Do these lyrics sound like they were written by a Southern Baptist preacher?"

Well, that's where I live now. Most of my non-Christian additions to my collection now are either:

1. highly recommended artists with profound things to say (David Wilcox, Ben Harper)
2. 80's music I remember fondly (the Hooters, Asia, and, yes, even Go West's greatest hits)

Party on, dude.

Twister!

Fasten your seatbelts... I'm going to ramble through a lot of territory today. For those of you who've been wondering when I'd post about games again, this may help. Or it may not, because I've got a lot more than games on my mind.

I got sick Friday night with the same evil stomach flu thingee that sidelined Shari earlier in the week. I spent Saturday in front of the TV set, watching college football (the UT-Ohio State would have been much more fun if I was feeling better) and the last few episodes of the first season of Lost. I also spent some serious time worrying about whether I'd survive Sunday.

You see, Sunday was one of those "heavy load - use your back, not your legs" days in ministry. I started a new teaching series (entitled EPIC) which uses a lot of video clips. Right after services, I led a training meeting for the capital campaign leadership... then I got a 2 hour break. Actually, not a break as much as "some time where I wasn't at the church". (Shari & I had to plan for the experience we were leading that evening.) Then back to the church to lead Church Council, followed by "Church: a hands-on experience", which is the aforementioned thingee Shari & I are doing to help get our folks ready for ministry in a postmodern culture.

By the time I went to bed, I had a 102 fever. It broke some time during the night... but was back up to 101 by the morning. Needless to say, I didn't go into the office on Monday. Instead, I did a bit of work from home via computer and got to watch Shari & Braeden as they homeschooled. (Which was cool... Shari's an incredibly gifted teacher and Braeden's like a knowledge sponge.)

This week, Braeden is learning about himself - Monday was about the body. So Shari picked up a copy of Twister, which wasn't previously a part of the family game collection. And I, as The Sick Guy, was designated referee, which means I got to spin the spinner.

For the first time in my life, I read the rules to Twister. (Really - there are rules.) And there's a bit more of a game there than what you grew up playing. (Like Monopoly... sigh.) I didn't realize you could move a hand or leg and return it to the position as long as you let the referee know beforehand. And it became obvious quickly that there are some board position issues (it pays to stake out a lot of real estate so you don't get cut off) if you're trying to win.

For the record, Braeden wasn't all that fascinated with Twister, but he's actually a bit young (4 when the box says 6+) to enjoy it. I think he might like it better solo or with his buddy Canaan. Playing against Mom is a bit of a mismatch.

My reaction to Twister? I found myself surprised that I didn't hate it. Now, that may seem a strongly worded shot at an American classic, but that's what came boiling up when I took the lid off my feelings. With nothing better to do than lay on the couch & stare at the ceiling fans (Monday Night Football wasn't on yet), I decided to unpack those feelings a bit.

Here's what I think. Twister, along with it's "cousins", Funny Bones (sadly out of print) and Octopus (so obscure I need to add it to the Geek database), are very "body-conscious" games. I discovered Funny Bones at my ACTUAL cousins' home in Missouri (and played primarily with them) as an elementary school kid. Shari & I didn't buy Octopus until after we were married. Twister, OTOH, entered my life during junior high.

Think about it... at a time in a young man's life in which he has the worst possible body image (because his puberty-driven growth betrays him with broken voice & clutzy ineptitude) as well as the most heart-destroying social scene, get him to play a game like Twister in front of people he hopes will think he's cool. Recipe for freakin' disaster.

And, since those lovely images from the Turner Classic Movie Channel of my mind came rolling back, right next to them are the two times I played Spin the Bottle. (Yes, there is a Spin the Bottle entry on the Geek... but we all know that's not what I'm talking about.) The red-faced embarassment, the meaningless kisses, the agony of watching the girl I liked kissing another guy, the sound of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack playing in the background...

And there I realized that I wanted to make sure that Braeden & Collin, when they're old enough, understand how precious it is to kiss a girl. What a privilege it is to have that kind of physical contact with God's creation... and how sad it is to waste it on a circle of junior highers. I can't stop my boys from doing painful things - but that doesn't mean I shouldn't let 'em know how empty it can be... or how a simple kiss can be filled with meaning.

Whew... pretty deep for a Thursday morning. And all started over a game of Twister. Imagine how nutty I'd have gotten if the memory train ran past Gnip Gnop or Which Witch? :-)

Supernatural Disaster

Joe McKeever is the director of missions of the New Orleans Baptist Association... as you can imagine, he's had an insane couple of weeks. (Which, of course, you can read about over on his website.) Mark Puckett, my Canadian pastor buddy, called the following post to my attention and I just wanted to pass it on. It's incredibly cool to here someone seeing the incredible opportunity for the body of Christ to re-tool because of something this horrible.

HERE'S MY DREAM FOR WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER.... Over the past 16 months as I've gone in and out of churches all over metro New Orleans, I've been struck by how alive and vibrant some are and how sickly and needy others seem. Some are healthy champions and others practically on life support. And the poor pastors of the sickly churches, it's all they can do to get up the strength to re-enter the pulpit for another Sunday.

Our people in New Orleans have heard it from me time and again that our churches are ISOLATED and therefore our people are INSULATED. The members of one church do not know the members of another, leaders do not know other leaders, and everyone feels alone and lonely. Whenever a prophet arises and speaks up and calls for God's people to break out of their cocoons, their shells of isolation, and get into the community and get to know their neighbors and to minister in Jesus' name, he is met by stares of despair that seem to say, "You don't know my situation. I'm so busy with my committee meetings and church programs and classes. I don't have time for my family now, and you're trying to put more jobs on me."

So, what does the Lord do? He shut the whole business down. Closed all the churches in the New Orleans area, every last one of them. Then, He sent the pastors home to rest and be quiet and pray. It's as though God is giving them time to reflect on what they would do if they could start their church anew, from scratch, from the ground up.

Here's a good question for every New Orleans pastor: "If you could start from scratch with your people, what would you leave off? What would you start? What would you do different?" Because this is precisely the situation you have been handed. God has given you a burden for ministering in your neighborhood in ways that really make a difference, don't ask anyone, pastor, just start doing it. If you've had dead programs that refused to lie down and go away, then simply do not restart them. Now, pastor, don't use that terminology. Just tell your people, "We'll get to that later as the Lord leads." That's not a fib; if God leads, you will get to it. But not until.

When we re-enter the city, we are going to have the greatest window of opportunity most of us have ever seen and may ever see again in our lifetime. If we are foolish, we will piddle this time away with planning meetings and discussions and forums. We will neglect the hurting people who live around us and convince them that we are irrelevant to real life. The greatest tragedy of Katrina, THE REAL SUPERNATURAL DISASTER, will be if our pastors and our churches miss this opportunity. Let's don't mess this up.

The Church Part

Every Sunday night through the summer, NewLife hosts what we call "Cool Summer Nights" at the home of one of our families. It's combination worship service/potluck dinner/pool party. Of course, Braeden loves it. Though he was very clear a few weeks ago that he wished "the church part didn't come first." Here he & his friend, Canaan, are waiting "patiently".

BTW, y'all realize that this is the same look I get from some adults on Sunday morning - those who've come in for their weekly "Zombies for Jesus Convention." Makes preaching/teaching ever so fun. :-)

Jumbled

As in, "My thoughts are jumbled."

A short tour of my mental landscape...

Last Sunday

Braeden & I arrive home from camping with church folks (much fun was had). I crank up the e-mail and find a blizzard of posts on the Gulf Games list... warnings from Warren Madden (hurricane hunter w/the Weather Channel & Gulf Gamer) about the potential severity of Katrina, questions asking the whereabouts of Lenny, Henry, the Moore's, the Cortazzo's, the LaBranche, Jim & Erin and others. I'm usually pretty cool about natural disasters (positive spin: I'm objective; negative spin: I'm cold as a fish) but I break down trying to tell Shari that we're not sure everyone is accounted for.

By late evening, it appears that everyone I know in New Orleans (admittedly, a small number of folks) is safe. I'm relieved and begin to realize that the "want to watch a train wreck" part of my brain is kicking in... I'd like to see what the hurricane does. Since I'd just visited the city in late July for Gulf Games, I think I have some perspective.

Monday

We don't have cable or satellite, so I rely on the Web and network news to figure out what's going on. Evidently, California stations are more interested in how Katrina will affect our already outrageous gas prices, so I don't get much info until watching Nightline late that night. I was heartened to see a reporter standing in front of Harrah's on Canal Street (where William & I got off the trolley to find Mother's - Home of the Most Excellent Po'Boy) with only palm trees down.

There's a part of me that feels guilty about thanking God for sparing New Orleans, because Biloxi & Gulfport end up taking the bullet. Mostly I'm relieved that most of the Gulf Games family looks like they'll come through this with minor damage & some good stories to tell.

Tuesday

While I'm asleep, the levee breaks and water pours into New Orleans. A little voice in my head does the whole "it wouldn't have happened if you'd kept watching the news" which is stupid but a pretty normal response, I guess.

By Tuesday night, the same reporter on Nightline is standing in the same place as Monday night, only now he's standing in 3 feet of water. That means our hotel (the Park Plaza) has to have water standing in the lobby. A couple of thoughts run through my head: "Could I have ridden out the storm in the upper floors of a hotel?" "I am SO glad this didn't happen during Gulf Games."

Things are getting rough in the Superdome, which has become Grand Central Station for news media. Braeden asks me if the Rescue Heroes can help, and I tell him that there are lots of heroes helping, but it's not like his cartoons - they can't stop the storm.

Wednesday

I find myself having difficulty working... as the scope of the disaster becomes clearer and clearer in the light of day, I start worrying about the future for friends like Lenny & Greg. It's not even my future... but I'm feeling long-distance empathy that immobilizes me.

We give to the North American Mission Board, which makes me feel better for about a minute, until I realize again how monstrous the need is.

I write a Grapevine (church e-newsletter) article about Katrina - including the proclamation of the Day of Prayer by the governor of LA, a great story about Sarah Lohroff (a Gulf Games kid), and my own comments about judgement & the love of God. I don't put down in the article that it seems presumptous to call Katrina "God's judgement on the sinful city of New Orleans", as Bourbon Street & the Quarter (aka Land of 100 Live Sex Shows & on-the-street drinking) looks like it's only going to suffer minor damage while huge swaths of poor neighborhoods are flooded.

The video from N.O. is painful to watch... I can only imagine how much worse it is for someone who likes the city. (I feel vaguely guilty today about my attitude about New Orleans after Gulf Games... I kept mumbling about how it was a dirty, smelly city that I didn't particularly enjoy. Gulf Games was wonderful, but I couldn't care less if I got to visit again.)

Gulf Games folks have begun talking about how to help each other rebuild... if this kind of conversation is going on in a lot of other places, the situation is a bit more hopeful.

Thursday

Today somebody starts trolling for political discussion (in other words, bash the President for how screwed up everything is) on one of my gaming lists. Amazingly enough, the majority of folks weigh in with a hearty "shut up", which makes me feel better.

At the same time, I find myself wondering why help hasn't arrived. I know that Southern Baptist disaster relief crews headed out almost before the storm was done... why isn't something being done, and how can any self-respecting politician let the things happen at the convention center & the dome ON TELEVISION and not throw something at the problem?

I try to explain my theory to Shari, which I'm not sure really holds water (unfortunate pun): sending a small squad of Guardsmen into a crowd of 10,000+ starving people with food & water would certainly set off a riot. The only way to stop that is to give them "shoot to kill" orders, which would be political suicide. So, you've got to wait until you can move massive assistance & food all at once, along with big numbers of troops (who really won't shoot unless they have run out of options). My explanation makes me feel better, but it doesn't explain all the problems.

Greg is beginning to wonder if his business (insurance) will survive - while he moved to TN, all of his client's are in New Orleans, and it's beyond my abilities to wrap my head around what he's going to go through over the next few months. It'd be easier if he was a son of a you-know-what, but Greg's an honorable man who's deeply in love with Jesus, not to mention he's a man who feels deeply for people & esp. friends. I remind myself to pray for him & Gail & Lindsey.

Lenny, typing away from a hotel room in Sulphur, TX, is the voice of reason & information for us all. My mind wanders to Lenny's job change in the last few months... and whether or not the coin business will be survivable. His generosity to me has been so huge...

This is also the day I begin to wonder about places I've been before... how is New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary? (I was there back in 1997 for a mini-conference of GenX church planters.) What about Gulfshore Baptist Assembly, a retreat center just outside of Gulfport? (I took kids there for summer camp back in '89.)

Friday

I'm numb. Too many pictures of disaster. Too many times reading the lead story on Yahoo News only to find that all they've done is simply add a few more horrific details about conditions at the convention center.

I find myself more & more irritated by the finger-pointing... and yet, at the same time, amazed & hopeful by the way churches, esp. in TX, are stepping up to the plate and caring for people. I'm blown away that people are acknowledging that they'll need to think about "the long haul" in how to help these folks, not just feed 'em for a week and send 'em on their merry way.

New Orleans Baptist Seminary is under water... well, not completely, but enough so I'd guess fall classes are cancelled. I wonder what my nieces & nephew (William) are thinking - they stayed there last summer & did missions work in the community around the seminary... which is all underwater, too.

There's no word about Gulfshore Assembly online... the only scrap of info I find simply says that no one can get there because the roads are blocked. (When I was there in '89, we rode out a small storm one afternoon, and that was scary enough. Something like Katrina could wipe the place off the map.)

Saturday

I wake up & once again check online for information. Kayne West needs to sit down & be quiet... for the difficulties of the disaster response to be a plot against African-Americans would require a plot of X-Files-ish proportions. I'm the first to acknowledge that it's awful and a tragedy and that the lag time in responding seems nuts, but it's not some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy.

The Purpose-Driven churches are already trying to figure out how to help churches in the affected areas rebuild... which is cool. I start praying about how we can do that here at NewLife... is this our next mission trip? I dunno... I ponder how much of my response is God's "still small voice", how much is "hey, kids, let's put on a show", and how much is guilt and/or "all the other cool churches are doing it"? Definitely need to keep praying about this.

The seminary is figuring out ways to do classes even with the seminary underwater... how cool is that?

OTOH, Gulfshore Baptist Assembly is almost certainly gone (due to the storm surge) and the 3 workers who stayed behind to ride out the storm are missing.

I'm beginning to wonder why New Orleans gets all the footage? Is it easier to take pictures of a mob of refugees and inflate the situation than it is to focus on the less-popular states of MS and AL?

Today (Sunday)

Braeden & I talk before I leave for church - last night, he went to Toys'R'Us with allowance money he'd saved and bought a Micro Rescue Heroes playset. This morning, he watched the videos that came with it and told me that one of them had a storm "like New Orleans." Then he asked me, "Dad, what's New Orleans like?" I tried to explain that much of the city was flooded and everyone had to leave their homes. He then wondered if scuba divers could rescue people who were trapped. I proceeded to tell him about the helicopter rescues that I'd seen on TV (we've kept the boys from watching most of the footage). Then we decided we needing to keep praying for people.

This morning in the shower I had a sick thought - I blew off a chance to go to the D-Day Museum back in July because I was sure I'd get to N.O. again... so, no D-Day Museum for me? I feel like a total heel for this running through my head.

This morning I've been working on my sermon... the primary focus was to be a "preview" for our capital campaign (which starts in mid-October), but that seems wack in light of what's going on in the South. The theme (Get in the Game) fits, but the application is a little weird. Looks like this morning will be one of those "fly by the seat of my pants and keep throwing up prayers" kind of messages.

Like I said earlier, my thoughts are jumbled. God, use this jumble to your glory.

Apologetics is not the study of Battlestar Galactica

Though I am watching the Battlestar Galactica miniseries (the new one) on DVD and while I'm put off by some of the "look, we're doing something naughty on TV" element of it, so far it's a brilliant re-imagining of the original cheeseball series. Plus, Edward James Olmos has some serious gravitas.

But, to quote "Airplane", that's not important right now. What I do want to do is point you toward an incredible post on someone else's blog: Thank You Josh McDowell (sort of) on Dan Kimball's Vintage Faith. (You may recognize Dan as the pastor of Vintage Faith Church or as the author of one of the best books on the emerging church, aptly titled The Emerging Church.) His blog is as thoughtful & graceful as his books.

Apologetics, by the way, is a "theological big word" way of saying "how to intelligently defend our belief in God."

Every Once In A While...

...I get reminded of why I'm a Southern Baptist.

Still not proud of our history (for those who don't know, the Southern Baptist Convention was started primarily by those supporting slavery), still not proud of our yearly bouts of goofiness (like the Disney boycott)... but there are some things we do right.

And disaster relief is one of them. By this weekend, SBC Disaster Relief teams will be feeding 300,000 people a day (wow!) in response to Katrina. For more on this, you can check out the story over at the North American Misson Board's site.

As well, if you want to donate to hurricane relief, one of the coolest things about donating through NAMB is that 100% of the money goes to disaster relief, as the administrative expenses are already being taken care of SBC churches. You can use this link right here.

I know a lot of folks who read this blog aren't believers... and even fewer of you are Southern Baptists. If you choose not to give through my denomination, that's no sweat off my back. Just choose to give in a way that can make a difference.