Victoria

Posted in General, Travels on November 18, 2008 by stunningman

Today Bailey and I took a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia. It was foggy the whole way, so we couldn’t see any of the cool mountains and islands on the way up from Seattle. Victoria is a cool-looking town with the British influence fairly obvious and Bailey and I had a pretty good time walking around, but overall it didn’t do all that much for me. I mean let’s be honest; museums, gardens, and shopping just aren’t my things. But all that changed when we got to do this…

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Ok, just kidding. I really was wanting to splurge for the floatplane flight - it has always been a dream of mine - but the fog killed that possibility as well. Maybe next time…

Tomorrow we are headed home… can’t wait to be back with all my friends and sleep in my own bed!

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Seattle

Posted in General, Travels on November 17, 2008 by stunningman

Today Bailey and I spent the whole day in Seattle, which was great! Here are the highlights:

  • Pike Place Market - cool place, lots of character
  • the original Starbucks (nothing exciting, just a different logo)
  • the Space Needle - WOW, what a view!
  • REI Flagship Store - thankfully, we both resisted the urge to spend lots of money here :)
  • amazing seafood dinner at the waterfront - fresh halibut!

Tomorrow - Victoria, British Columbia!

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Olympic

Posted in General, Travels on November 16, 2008 by stunningman

After 2 days in Post Falls, ID for a discipleship conference at this church, Bailey and I drove to Seattle last night for a few days of exploring. Today we drove out to Olympic National Park, which is an awesome mix of mountains, forests, and beaches. We only had time to hit the high spots and logged a ton of miles in the car, but it was well worth it. The first pic is the amazing view from the top of Hurricane Ridge Road. The highlight of the day however, was definitely Rialto Beach, (2nd pic) with its black sand, amazing rock formations, evergreens, and tons of drift logs. Very north pacific.

Tomorrow - Mars Hill church and downtown Seattle.

hurricane-ridge

rialto

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Real Faith

Posted in God and Life on November 9, 2008 by stunningman

Hello again, blog! It has been so long since I posted I had a hard time remembering my password. (yikes!) I have thought about posting many times over the past couple of months, but haven’t because I have felt like all my thoughts and emotions were stuck on repeat. Anything I might have written or talked about would just have been a recycled version of things I have written before.

Having said that, God has recently been revealing some things to me. Sometimes by his silence as much as by his speaking. His silence (previous post) and my reaction to it has brought out how self-centered my relationship with him is. As long as I am feeling ok about my life and what I can see him doing, my “faith” is fine. But when things begin to get tough or not make sense I fall apart. I have come to realize that what I call “faith” is not really faith at all. It is just a series of ideas about God and the world and how they operate. Faith might be a component of that series of ideas, but until those ideas are challenged that faith is only theoretical.

Real faith comes into play when God is not visible, when our series of ideas don’t make sense or can’t explain what is going on in life. Real faith is the person who still believes in his goodness even when terribly bad things happen to them; they lose their job, lose a loved one, or are abused by another person. Real faith is the pastor who keeps leading the church that God has called him to when it doesn’t grow and people never seem to “get it,” when lots of other pastors’ churches are vibrant and growing. Real faith is sometimes making decisions based on what God is saying that don’t make financial or logical sense. (Abraham actually raising his arm to kill his ONLY son, when God has promised him a long line of descendants through that son)

For me, faith has been trusting that God has a plan for me. And that it is for good. (Jeremiah 29) Even when it seems like my life is sometimes just a series of disconnected random events. Multiple career paths that all seem to fizzle out in dead ends. Seemingly “wise” decisions that end up disastrous. Passions and desires that I believe are from him that never seem to be fulfilled. 

The sad part about all of this is that I have realized how weak my faith really is. Instead of trusting him and living in the confidence and security of that, I have become self-centered and whiny, grasping at straws trying to fix and control the course of my life. How futile is that? What ability to I have to control anything? Instead of trusting and bringing glory to him I have made it all about me. God, please forgive me for thinking that this life is all about me. Help my weak faith to grow strong.

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Silence

Posted in God and Life on September 16, 2008 by stunningman

Ever feel like God is working in people’s lives all around you, but not in your own? That is how I have felt for most of the past 3 years since I moved to Columbia. I am continually (even today) amazed by all of the lives that I have seen changed by God in and around our church. I sincerely consider it a tremendous privilege to witness and be a part of it all. But there is down side. The more God moves in the lives of those around me the more aware I am that he does not seem to be in my life.

How many times have you heard or read the verse that talks about God’s thoughts and actions being higher than ours? If you are like me, you know the truth of those words but they are often just salt in the wound. They make us feel like God is a judge sentencing us to community service or jail time for our “own good,” which we know hardly ever does any real good.

But thats not how it really is. God is so much more like the loving dad who disappears after dinner every night for weeks, seemingly neglecting his children, all the while building that dollhouse in the garage for his daughter or treehouse in the back yard for his son. In fact the more I look in the Bible, the times when it doesn’t seem like God is working are often the ones that he is up to something big. How did Abraham and Sarah feel when waiting for years to have children? How about the Israelites in slavery in Egypt? What were Jesus’ followers thinking while they watched the man they had put their faith in die? God sure seemed to be absent. But in fact he was the complete opposite of absent. He was putting things together on a whole different level. More than the people (or we) could ask or imagine.

So after 3 years of struggling, I am still waiting and listening. For anything. And desperately trying to trust that he really is up to something. And sometimes I even allow myself to be excited that it might be something big.

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This is Not a Game

Posted in God and Life, Midtown on August 25, 2008 by stunningman

This week I heard some news about a fairly new church in South Carolina that knocked the wind out of me. The details are not important, but suffice to say that there are some differences of opinion among the leaders of the church that appear to be unresolvable. First of all, I am sad whenever people who claim to be following Jesus cannot resolve their differences. I do not think that is what Paul means when he uses the words “one body” to describe the unity that we should have. Second, I am sad about all of the people within the church that will get caught in the crossfire. People will have to “choose sides” on the issues, which leads to all sorts of confusion, gossip, and bitterness, and can literally wreck lives.

But the thing that weighs the heaviest on me about this situation has nothing to do with this other church. It is the seriousness of my own role in helping pastor a church. Contrary to many of the attitudes in the “church planting” world, this is NOT a game. This is not a contest to see who can come up with the “coolest” church and get the most people to show up. People’s eternal lives are at stake. And as I have written before, that scares me to death.

As much fun as we like to have at Midtown, I hope that we will never be flippant with or cheapen the name of Jesus. I pray that God will continue to use us simply to point people in Columbia towards him. That He will give us unity and protect us from the many pitfalls that could destroy our church and damage people’s lives. And that I and the other leaders of our church will be the kind of men that are worthy of leading others in this mission.

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Oops

Posted in General on August 22, 2008 by stunningman

Ever try typing (or doing pretty much anything) without using the thumb on your dominant hand? Well that is apparently what you get to do when you tear a tendon in your thumb. Tonight I was playing ultimate at a Midtown hangout on campus and dove to knock the disc away on a defensive play. I made the play, but when I got up and grabbed the disc to throw it my thumb wasnt working properly. It was bent at the joint and would straighten if I moved it with my other hand, but not under its own power. After having a doctor friend look at it, it seems that I have torn a tendon. The good news it that it probably wont require surgery. The bad news is that it will require a splint for 6-8 weeks. The thumb doesnt hurt much, so I am going to try and get an appointment with a hand specialist sometime tomorrow. Let the age jokes begin….

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I Almost Forgot…

Posted in Midtown on August 21, 2008 by stunningman

…to update you on our church’s building situation. Most of you Midtown folks know by now, but the option that we were pursuing appears to have fallen through. There were some zoning issues that could not be resolved so we are back to square one. Although it seems like a really bad thing to us, for whatever reason God apparently wants us to be at the SC State Museum a little longer. In order to accommodate as many people as possible, we are doing 3 services and have set up an overflow room. The room worked well in its first use this past Sunday, having multiple video screens, a solid sound system, and even refreshments. The atmosphere and overall feel of the service in the overflow room was surprisingly good, and we have asked people who have been around Midtown for a while to sit in there if at all possible to free up seats in the auditorium for new people. It will be interesting to see what God does with all of this in the coming weeks and months as we continue to look for a new location.

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Communication Unplugged

Posted in General, Loneliness on August 18, 2008 by stunningman

Like most guys, I love technology. As an extroverted, social type of person I especially love technology associated with communication and relationships such as Facebook, blogs, and texting. I love knowing what people are up to and being able to share thoughts, pictures, etc. But recently I have been thinking about how all this continual “connectedness” also has some backlash.

It seems that many of our relationships and friendships are being reduced to a series of sound bites or headlines. Instead of calling someone to ask how their day was or to make plans, we e-communicate. And why not? It is convenient and efficient. But is that always best? A 2 minute phone call can cover more ground than 20 minutes of texting, and with far more ability to convey tone and emotion. Real relationships are built on face time or at least verbal dialog, but we seem to be using them less and less. Technology has dramatically increased the number of people we can keep up with, but if we are not careful it may do so at the cost of depth in some of our core relationships.

We are more connected than ever, but ironically we are also more lonely than ever. As I wrote in a previous post, the cure for loneliness is authentic and available relationships. Unfortunately, e-communication has a tendency to be neither. It is often not authentic in that it is too condensed and lacks emotion and tone. It is often the opposite of available, since it allows us to initiate or respond completely at our convenience.

So what is the answer? Quit using facebook? Stop texting? I dont think so. But I do think that we should be aware of and careful with how we use e-communication tools. They should definitely be supplemental rather than primary methods of communication, used for minutes a day rather than hours. Go grab coffee with someone. Call that friend in another part of the country instead of writing on their wall. I guarantee you will both be glad that you did.

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New Favorite Picture

Posted in General on August 13, 2008 by stunningman

Mom and dad found this picture in some old stuff the other day and scanned it for me. Love it.

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