somewhere in between.

I'M MOVING!

2005-02-21T12:31:00.000-08:00

this blog has officially moved! come on over to the new and improved blog!

(please update all your bookmarks, records, and hand-scribbled notes. thank you.)

ok, you're still here reading. stop it. go over to kaleobill.com now.

The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism

2005-02-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

Found this over on the group blog at Tim's site (still working on the followup to my first entry there), and couldn't help but share it here. Here's Tim's warning: "This is sure to offend. But please, before you begin to read it, realize that it is satire. If it was entirely true, it would not be funny. And with that disclaimer, I bring to you The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism. While not a necessary prerequisite, some familiarity with the Westminster Shorter Catechism will surely make this even funnier." Here are a few of my favorite Questions and Answers:

Q: What is the assurance of thy salvation?
A: The assurance of thy salvation is, that I know the date on which I prayed the Sinner's Prayer, and have duly written this date on an official Decision card.

Q: You ask me how I know he lives?
A: He lives within my heart.

Q: And what else hast thou got in thine heart?
A: I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Q: Where??
A: Down in my heart!

Q: Where???
A: Down in my heart!!

Q: What doth this tract principally teach?
A: The Four Spiritual Laws principally teach, that God's entire plan for history and the universe centereth on me, and that I am powerful enough to thwart His divine purpose if I refuse to let Him pursue His Wonderful Plan for my life.

Q: Who is your boss?
A: My boss is a Jewish carpenter.

Q: Hath God predestined vessels of wrath to Hell?
A: God hath never performed such an omnipotent act, for any such thing would not reflect His primary attribute, which is Niceness.

Q: What is sanctification?
A: Sanctification is the work of my free Will, whereby I am renewed by having my Daily Quiet Time.

Q: Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!
A: Praise ye the Lord!

Q: Praise ye the Lord!
A: Hallelujah!

Q. How is a person saved?
A. If you walk this aisle…”

You get the idea... some pretty funny stuff. You can read the whole thing right over here...

home sick on the couch, and here's what i'm thinking...

2005-02-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

We do not train to be merciful here.
Mercy is for the weak.
A man confronts you in the street he is your enemy.
An enemy deserves no mercy.
*****
"Sweep the leg."
[Johnny stares at him in shock]
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, Sensei."
"No mercy."

sick.

2005-02-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

i have a cold, and my head feels like its full of junk.

i hate feeling like this - makes it so hard to concentrate on anything. more update tomorrow...

new post, but not here!

2005-02-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

hey everyone. tim over at challies.com recently asked me to contribute to his community blog. what an honor - tim is a great guy and this is my first "guest blog".

please take a few minutes and read it - i really put some hard stuff out there (for me at least...). also, make sure to comment. if you don't want to register to comment over there, then come back and comment on this post. it's up to you!

HERE'S THE LINK - go there now.

real update soon, but for now...

2005-02-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

...you MUST check this out. this is seriously the funniest thing i've seen in a long time. even if you have dialup, the wait to download is worth it.

CLICK HERE to check it out!

God's lesser glory, ch. 1

2005-02-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to blog a little about what I'm currently reading... and as of now, that is God's Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism by Bruce Ware. Open Theism is a theological viewpoint that in essence claims that God does not know the future because we create reality by the decisions we make. Ware offers a pretty concise definition on p. 18:

Many readers may be surprised to learn that this very view (namely, that God does not know much of the future and has to learn what happens as that future unfolds) is being advocated by a growing number of biblical scholars, theologians, and philosophers who identify themselves as evangelicals, some of whom teach at highly respected evangelical colleges and seminaries. These scholars call the position they advocate "open theism" because they like to make central the notion that, for God as well as for us, much of the future is "open" and hence not foreknown or foreordained.

The book is structured to first examine the strongest arguments and biblical support used by Open Theists to put forth their position. Next, Ware examines the biblical support and offers an exegetical critique of the increasingly popular viewpoint. Finally, he examines some of the practical implications that naturally flow from holding an open theistic viewpoint. So far, the book is great - I'm looking forward to talking more about it here. (Anyone else read it?)

In the first chapter, Ware offers something of an introduction and asks the question, "Why should you be concerned?" He then outlines why this is such a huge issue, and how it changes most everything else you believe when you press the theology to its natural conclusions. Personally, I'm having to work to keep an open mind as I read the book. I've read a good deal about Open Theism, including much by its proponents, and I have a hard time viewing it as anything but heresy. It calls into question the very God we worship, along with the deity of Jesus Christ. In my book, those are hills to die on - not debatable intricacies on the outskirts of theology. I'll close this post with one more quote from Ware -a good one. More soon...

While claiming to offer meaningfulness to Christian living, open theism strips the believer of the one thing needed most for a meaningful and vibrant life of faith: absolute confidence in God's character, wisdom, word, promise, and the sure fulfillment of his will. The strengtehning and reassuring truth of Romans 8:28 ("God causes all things to work together for good...") is tragically ripped out of our Christian confession as it becomes an expression merely of God's resolve to try his hardest and do the best he can.

win some great stuff!

2005-02-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

tim challies is giving away some really great material - just click below for a chance to win!

an update - finally.

2005-02-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

first, let me apologize for being away from the blog for a ridiculously long period of time. i spoke every day last week, and was away from my computer most of the time. i generally just checked email and tried to keep my head above water last week. here's some of the fun...

monday through wednesday i was speaking at wessendorf middle school. it was pretty fun, but a lot of speaking. we did a parent program on monday night, and then 12 programs for 6th graders over the next two days. this was a pretty nice school in rosenberg, a little suburb of sugar land. (that's right, a suberb of a suberb). the groups were SMALL (50 or less), and the kids were really well behaved. fun stuff.

fast forward to thursday and friday - olle middle school. over in alief. rough part of town. now, at this school, they were again supposed to be small assemblies. but instead, they decided to do 200+ students all in the gym. nothing like standing in the middle of the gym, half the lights out so the projector will show up, and a set of bleachers packed out with 7-8 graders. it was interesting. the nice thing about a larger, rowdier group is that it's fun to get reactions from them. there are certain parts of the program i was doing that are pretty funny - but with a group like that i could say "camels store water in their body" and they would explode laughing. it's even more fun when you set them up perfectly and then hit them with your punchline. great stuff.

what is not great is this - schools being unprepared. i was supposed to start at 8.30 for my first program of the day. i show up at 8 - half an hour early. my contact person shows up at about 8.25, tells me to hang out for a few minutes, and then walks away. they start setting up the equipment around 8.45 - including a screen that was still sealed in the box and no one knew how to put together. finally, they were ready about 9.10 - which means i had to cut the first program quite a bit short. oh well. it was a lot of fun.

needless to say, i was pretty tired by the time friday night rolled around. i had spoken 20 times over the last four days, and my voice was feeling the effects of that. we went out to dinner with my family at olive garden to celebrate christy's birthday - yay for yummy breadsticks. then, saturday i went with eric to play basketball at this open gym. i LOVE basketball. it's the best - but i haven't played for a LONG time. i am so out of shape. after playing for a few hours, i was sucking wind, my lungs were burning, i felt like i was going to puke, and my face was bright red. what a fun feeling. and then, sunday my body felt like mush. but that's a good feeling - it only gets better from here. saturday morning basketball = new weekly routine. should be fun over the next few weeks.

sunday was a blast - great time of worship, got to talk with some people at kaleo about stuff going on with them... it's always nice to sit down, open the bible, and talk about things that people are working through. took my weekly sunday afternoon nap, and then went to the grayshons to watch the superbowl. not a huge football fan, but i like the comercials. and eating other people's food! then found my cell phone, realized tiffany had called and invited shannon and i over to watch a movie... crap. feel bad about not getting the message until too late. tiffany - we're going to come watch a movie soon - just pick a day!

this week is another busy one, but that's the norm these days. i'll try to keep up on my blogging and not be a slacker. i'll also try to be a little more theological in nature and thought provoking - rather than the teenage girl diary type post i just made above. leave a comment and let me know you're out there!

crazy week coming to an end...

2005-02-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

this week has been insane - watch for a post tomorrow about everything that's gone on. it's been a good week, but NO TIME to do much of anything but speak, study, and sleep. sorry for the lack of blogging. in the meantime...

tim over at challies has a great post about joel osteen - those of you who know me and/or kaleo know that he is one of my favorite people to talk about. ;) check out the post over at challies.com!

sorry...

2005-02-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

sorry the blog has been quiet... i've been speaking every day this week. (did twelve programs for 6th graders over the past two days.) just been swamped and haven't had time to blog. i'll try to do more later tonight or tomorrow.

nexus update - nexus was amazing. more on that coming too.

great weekend so far...

2005-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

so, shannon and i went and had dinner over at nolan and tiffany's house last night. what a great time. they are excellent hosts - all the way around. nolan made me my first ever martini - very good. i'm a gin fan, so it was a nice fit for me. tiffany made some super good chicken and i even ate baby spinach with fetta cheese. (who knew i would like spinach?!)

after dinner we moved to the living room and talked about everything from hymns to the fact that "buddy" from charles in charge is now playing "bibleman" on tv. we looked at the clock and realized it was 1am. wow. time flies (we went over at 7pm). i am so thankful for great friends. by the way, anyone of you who know nolan, ask him about his homemade hooka sometime...

tomorrow, our church is getting together for nexus. this is a fancy way of saying "church meal/meeting". everyone's going to bring some food to share and we're going to talk about our church - where we've been and where we're going. (think less of big vision casting program with slick powerpoint and "thank you for giving to the lord" playing in the background... more just family relaxing and sharing with each other). i'm really excited about it. we made a commitment that we would not ever do vision casting in a worship gathering, nor would we talk more about kaleo than about Christ. it just doesn't seem right - we're there on sunday mornings to glorify Christ and focus on Him, not on our community. that being said, we knew it would be important to provide opportunities to share the vision God has given us as a church and to give people a chance to get to know others... especially as we grow. it was easy when we were 15 people in my living room - now, it takes more intentionality. i'll blog about it tomorrow night after we finish.

today has been a long day, with lots of thinking. i listened to mark driscoll's lastest message, and wow. he really lays it out there - particularly for the women. one thing he said a lot that really struck me was "do you really trust Jesus?" being around church all my life, that is one of those auto-pilot questions. "of course i do!" but do i really? when you actually examine your heart and mind, it becomes very easy to find areas that i don't trust like i need to. the past year has been that hardest of my life. to go from a very safe, secure job in a well established church to starting with nothing and building from the ground up is a culture shock. nothing anyone tells you about the difficulty of starting a church can really prepare you - it's like getting married. you can read the books, go the seminars, but it's when you actually get in there and live it out that you discover the reality of what it's like.

now, i sound like i'm complaining. i'm not. even though this has been the hardest year, it has also been the best. i have seen God move and provide in ways i never would have had i not stepped out in faith and done this. it's when you have absolutely nothing and are somehow able to move forward that you realize what it means to depend only on the grace of God. whatever i have, whatever good has happened in my life, my marriage, my church - it can only come from God. every part of it is a miracle. God is so good and gracious - and i don't deserve it. may He recieve all the praise and glory for my life.

sorry to rant off at the end there, but hey - it's my blog, right? more tomorrow.

blogger's block.

2005-01-27T07:55:00.000-08:00

man, i am having some serious blogger's block (like writer's block, only with blogs). i want to post, but just can't seem to crank out anything meaningful. here's a question: do you blog? if yes, why do you do it - what's your purpose? if not, why not?

discuss - hopefully my brain will rejoin my soon!

random links.

2005-01-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

i'll do a more substantial post later on, but wanted to share to GREAT links i've found over the past few days. very very good stuff.

the greatest website ever.

turn up your speakers and enjoy.

goodbye, old friend.

2005-01-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

johnny carson died early this morning at the age of 79. wow. i don't ever think about johnny carson. don't have discussion about him. haven't spoken his name in years.

and yet, when i heard the news, it hurt. i felt like part of my childhood left me. i remember being in fourth grade or so, and thinking it was so cool when i was allowed to stay up as late as i wanted to on friday nights. i would stay up and watch johnny carson on the tonight show. most of the humor went right over my head, but i love it. i loved watching him in action. i vividly rememeber watching the last show he did and being sad that he wouldn't be on anymore. (confimed by the fact that leno is terrible and doesn't hold a candle to johnny.)

i think it's more nostalgia than anything else, but i can't help but feel a little sad. we lost a great one today.

i'm baaaacccckkkk.

2005-01-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

i got home yesterday and it was great, grand and wonderful. it was so nice to be back with shannon, see my dogs, and lay down in my own bed. (the one in the hotel was REALLY firm, felt like sleeping on a sheet of plywood.)

while i was gone, shannon finished moving furniture into our new office (we'd been working on fixing it up, staining the concrete floor, etc.) and put up a new bookshelf in the living room as well. this thing i huge - it's six feet tall by six feet wide. i moved all my books onto it and they fit! we were worried there would be too many. we even had room to display a few of shannon's antique cameras. what a great welcome home present!

so yesterday, i was in the middle of doing one of my assemblies at travis high school in austin. now, there is always at least once or twice i'll have to call a student or two out to ask them to stop talking, move them to another seat if necessary, etc. well, i'm like ten minutes into this one, and theres a girl front and center who is laughing LOUDLY every 45 seconds or so. not at jokes, but laughing. and every time she does i look at her and she's whispering to her friend next to her. well, after about 5 minutes of this i stop, tell her she needs to stop, and ask her to move a few seats down so she won't be tempted to keep talking with her friend. she says, "No."

i argue back and forth with her for a few minutes, and she keeps telling me that she's alright and doesn't need to move. finally, i tell her she can move a few seats down or she can leave. i stand there, waiting for her to make her move. she SLOWLY gets up and walks out of the auditorium. i continue, finish my program, minus the three minutes or so that all that took.

after the program, i come to find out that OOOPSS - she's a special ed student. the laughing is an involuntary reaction and she can't help it. GREAT. thank you for giving me a warning, teachers. thank you for coming up and whispering in my ear, assistant principal. oh no, wait - thank you for letting me make a jerk of myself. i'm the mean speaker guy who picks on special ed students now. great.

so i'm coming to the realization that very few people in my local realm are actually commenting on my blog anymore. i'm still getting to interact with a few great folks who live elsewhere (shout out to terry!), and once in awhile one of you will leave a comment (thanks to the couple of you who filled out the survery). but you know what? i'm ok with all that. it's a good reminder that the blog is for me, whether or not anyone comments. ah, but i do have a soft spot for those fun conversations that would be 25, 30, 35 comments long. *sigh*

so anyway - i need to go clean house, so i'll close with this. my favorite part of the trip to austin? in EVERY program i did (and there were 14 student programs over 4 days), i always had at least one guy do this. i've just finished giving an hour long talk that is encourages students to choose abstinence. we don't talk moral or religious reasons (hello, public school). but we spend an hour talking about possibe consequences (problems with the law, STD's, teenage pregnancy, etc.) towards the end of the program, we spend a few minutes talking about other forms of protection (the pill, condoms, etc.) and point out that abstinence (we define as only having sex within a marriage) is the ONLY 100% sure way to avoid the consequences we talked about. never fails though, a few minutes later the program is over. students are filing out of the auditorium. one guy (ALWAYS a guy, never a girl) yells out from the crowd, "HEY, MISTER! DID YOU BRING FREE CONDOMS FOR EVERYONE?!?!" i just shake my head, and pray that God would work miracles. my heart breaks for this generation - may God give me grace and power by His Spirit to make an impact.

this gives you a lot to think about.

2005-01-19T15:03:00.000-08:00

first of all, after tiffany's urging, i went back to the old layout. i think i just liked it better - fits me more. now on to the good stuff...

if you're a student of culture, and in particular the online expression of community that is growing at an exponential rate, i think you'll find this pretty interesting. This guy Justin has been blogging since 1994, writing about his life and relationships. Recently, he took it all down and replaced it only with this video.

two warnings: 1) it's a big file, so broadband would be helpful (either that or a lot of patience). 2) the language is a little rough, so be warned if that offends you to hear. ok, the language is a lot rough. (disclaimer: i do not endorse using some of the words used in the video. i am not saying that you should use them. i am not holding this guy justin up as an example to follow. just as a beginning point for discussion. thank you.)

you won't enjoy watching it. it's disturbing. it's unsettling. and it has huge implications for how many of us view relationships, blogging, and all that jazz. i'd really like to hear your thoughts, and if you haven't posted on the survey two posts down, now would be the time to do that.

again, here's the link

good night last night...

2005-01-19T06:51:00.000-08:00

i got to see my sister, sarah, last night. we hung out, went to dinner, and watched american idol on the big screen at the restaurant. it's amazing how bad people are at singing, and yet still think they have a chance. note to all my friends: if i ever tell you i'm going to compete in an american idol competition, please tie me up in the garage until i come to my senses!

i miss houston though - i miss my bed, my dogs, and most of all i miss shannon. the hotel i'm staying at has one of those mattresses that feels like a box made out of plywood - i want my comfy pillowtop! oh well. it's going well at the high school though. most of the students seem to be responding very well. i've also had some good down time to think and pray... now i just need to get focused and WRITE!

i have to leave to head out for the high school in a few minutes, so i need to run. if you're reading this, PLEASE look at the post below and comment on the survey. so far, i've had one person. one. uno. and it makes me sad. either no one is reading anymore, or EVERYONE is just lurking and not commenting. thats a no no around here!

a week in austin.

2005-01-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

well, i'm in austin for all of this week. i'll be speaking at travis high school every day until friday. i'm excited about the opportunity - it should be a lot of fun. you know what's not a lot of fun? having a parent program scheduled (by the school) on a holiday. so we did a very 'intimate, personal' parent program with about 9 parents. it was all good though. i'll blog more about how things are going in austin as the week progreses.

i'm staying at the "intown suites". they have a weekly rate that is pretty cheap, and it gives me a little more space to work with than a regular hotel room. (read as: i have a little kitchen i can cook in so i don't have to eat out.) checking in was a nightmare - i've filled out less paperwork leasing apartments before. honestly, it took a good half hour to finally get checked in. then i find out that when they say free internet access, they mean exactly that. the access is free, but you need to bring your own network cable. seriously, who doesn't provide that? so i had to drop 3 bucks (managed to do it all in change!) at radio shack so that i can get some work done while i'm here.

i'm looking forward to having evenings to study and pray. i HATE being away from my wife, and i miss her like crazy. however, if i have to be away, at least i get the chance to spend some quiet time in solitude to read and hear from the Lord. i'm hoping to get several messages finished while i'm here, so send a few prayers my way.

and for now, that's all. i realized i hadn't posted for a few days - sorry for the slacking. i will try to keep up this week! finally, adam is taking a little survey and i thought i'd join the fun here. take 20 seconds and leave a comment answering the questions below... thanks!

Name:
Age:
Profession:
Location:
Why in the world do you even read this blog?:
If you could take over somewhere in between for a day, what would you change? (design, content, etc.):
The topic you'd like to see Bill cover next on somewhere in between:

balance.

2005-01-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

i've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to have balance. balance in life. balance in ministry. it's such a hard line to walk, but if you don't get it right it can lead to you being really unhealthy. here's a little of what i mean:

balancing your career/calling and time with your family is so huge. it's easy if you have a job you don't like, but when you're passionate about what you do it becomes very easy to cheat your family out of not only time, but energy and passion as well. gut check question for me: am i showing and demonstrating to shannon that other than Christ she is the number one priority in my life and my greatest treasure?

balancing excellence in what you do and dependance on God is another huge balance beam to walk. on the one hand, you want all you do to be done well. you want to grow and develop as a (fill in the blank here). on the other hand, you want to be dependant on God and make sure you do all you are for His glory. it becomes very easy to slip into operating out of your flesh and for the motive of your own glory - all under the mantra of excellence and growth... you have to watch it. gut check question: am i doing everything i do so that Christ will be made much of?

i could go on and on, but you see what i'm getting at. for me, the only hope i have of balance is to pray and pray and pray and listen and read the word and then pray some more. i can't do it on my own. maybe i'm the only one who struggles with all this - or maybe i'm not. let me know what you think...

happy birthday to shannon!

2005-01-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

shannon turned 25 today! we had a great night celebrating. i just wrote a nice, long post all about it, and then the internet screwed up. and now, i'm going to bed - i will post more substantially tomorrow!

feeding my addiction.

2005-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

last night was amazing. two hours to kick off the new season of 24. and tonight, they're playing two more new hours. i am in heaven. i saw the very first 24 - season one, episode one. i was hooked. haven't missed one since. and season four looks to be incredible - so you know where i'll be on monday nights.

on another note, technology sucks. my printer is down, waiting for a technician to come fix it. the internet at the office is down also, so i'm sitting in starbucks using my tmobile. joy. but the good news is that shannon is cooking yummy chicken for me tonight - i can't wait. shannon is a great cook. and i love food, so that works out well.

barf.

2005-01-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

i saw this book in lifeway today. picked it up, thumbed through it. omg. it's like thom rainer rewrote jim collins "good to great" with a christian perspective. it made me ill. and we wonder why we have sick churches that aren't seeing God move in huge ways... but if you'd like to know how to lead a successful organization, i'm sure it'd be great book to pick up.

more response to tsunami

2005-01-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

john piper just posted another response to the calamity we've seen over the past few weeks. it's a good word, but not a popular one. any time we uplift God as soverign and admit that man is not, people get upset.

thoughts (on the article and the new blog look)?

a new year, a new look?

2005-01-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

well, i spent WAY too much time updating the look of the blog... thought i might try something fresh for the new year. do you like the new look or prefer the old one? leave a comment and we'll vote ;)

group work.

2005-01-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

so i'm about to head off to meet with my study group from school. we're in the middle of a class on the OT prophets, and we have a group assignment to complete. to portray the life of daniel in an "E, True Hollywood Story" kind of way. Somehow, we're making a video together and showing it for our presentation. My part - take Daniel 11-12 and make it happen. Yes, that's right - I get the prophecies about the anti-Christ. i get phrases like "time, times, and half a time" (which means three and a half years, apparently). i don't like group work. lock me in my office and tell me to write a 20 page paper - i'm good. make me do a creative group assignment, and blah.

that's not to say i don't like working with others. i do. i love being part of a team and pulling things together with creative people. but when it comes to school... not so much.

maybe it's because school is not so high on the priority list. right now, it looks more like this:

God
wife
kaleo
speaking ministry
sleep
friends
working out
watching reruns of seinfeld
school

oh well, i better head over there. wish me luck.

a new year...

2005-01-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

well 2005 is here. i have much to blog about, but little time right now. for some interesting reading, i highly recommend you check out challies' review of a generous orthodoxy by brian mclaren. mclaren is on the forefront of the "emergent" movement, and thousands of pastors seem to hold his opinion and writings in very high regard. the only problem? the theology is deplorable, and it makes me worry greatly for the future of the church if this is where we are heading. read. comment. discuss. disagree with me. let's talk!

how do we respond to tragedy?

2004-12-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

the devestation felt around the indian ocean has been tremendous. here on the last day of 2004, i want to post what we'll be handing to our people at kaleo this sunday. it's an artcile by dr. john piper, along with a few comments at the end. comment away.

“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me. . . This God—his way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31).

After the loss of his ten children owing to a “natural disaster” (Job 1:19), Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job’s understanding of what happened. He says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). This has several crucial implications for us as we think about the calamity in the Indian Ocean.

1. Satan is not ultimate, God is.
Satan had a hand in Job’s misery, but not the decisive hand. God gave Satan permission to afflict Job (Job 1:12; 2:10). But Job and the writer of this book treat God as the ultimate and decisive cause. When Satan afflicts Job with sores, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10), and the writer calls these satanic sores “the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). So Satan is real. Satan brings misery. But Satan is not ultimate or decisive. He is on a leash. He goes no farther than God decisively permits.

2. Even if Satan caused the earthquake in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, he is not the decisive cause of 100,000+ deaths, God is.
God claims power over tsunamis in Job 38:8 when he asks Job rhetorically, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb…and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” Psalm 89:8-9 says, “O Lord…you rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” And Jesus himself has the same control today as he once did over the deadly threats of waves: “He…rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm” (Luke 8:24). In other words, even if Satan caused the earthquake, God could have stopped the waves.

3. Destructive calamities in this world mingle judgment and mercy.
Their purposes are not simple. Job was a godly man and his miseries were not God’s punishment (Job 1:1, 8). Their design was purifying not punishment (Job 42:6). But we do not know the spiritual condition of Job’s children. Job was certainly concerned about them (Job 1:5). God may have taken their life in judgment. If that is true, then the same calamity proved in the end to be mercy for Job and judgment on his children. This is true of all calamities. They mingle judgment and mercy. They are both punishment and purification. Suffering, and even death, can be both judgment and mercy at the same time.

The clearest illustration of this is the death of Jesus. It was both judgment and mercy. It was judgment on Jesus because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was mercy toward us who trust him to bear our punishment (Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24) and be our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Another example is the curse that lies on this fallen earth. Those who do not believe in Christ experience it as judgment, but believers experience it as, merciful, though painful, preparation for glory. “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Romans 8:20). This is God’s subjection. This is why there are tsunamis.
Who suffers from this fallen world of natural disasters? All of us, Christians included: “Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). For those who cast themselves on the mercy of Christ these afflictions are “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). And when death comes, it is a door to paradise. But for those who do not treasure Christ, suffering and death are God’s judgment. “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

For children, who are too young to process mentally the revelation of God in nature or Scripture, death is not the final word of judgment. God’s commitment to display his justice publicly means that he does not finally condemn sinful people who could not physically construe natural or special revelation (Romans 1:20). There is a difference between suppressing revelation that one can mentally comprehend (Romans 1:18), and not having a brain sufficient to comprehend it at all. Therefore, when small children suffer and die, we may not assume they are being punished or judged. No matter how horrible the suffering or death, God can turn it for their greater good.

4. The heart that Christ gives to his people feels compassion for those who suffer, no matter what their faith.
When the Bible says, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), it does not add, “unless God caused the weeping.” Job’s comforters would have done better to weep with Job than talk so much. That does not change when we discover that Job’s suffering was ultimately from God. No, it is right to weep with those who suffer. Pain is pain, no matter who causes it. We are all sinners. Empathy flows not from the causes of pain, but the company of pain. And we are all in it together.

In the merciful hands of Almighty God,
Dr. John Piper

NOTE FROM BILL:
As God’s people, I believe our response must be that of Job: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1.21). While you and I may not understand what God is up to many times (especially in tragic times), we have the great promise of Scripture that, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works (Psalm 145:9).

My prayer is that the body of Christ would unite to mercifully share the love of Christ with those who have had their lives turned upside down by these recent events. What can you do to help?

1. Pray. Call our to God and ask for His comfort on those who are mourning. Ask Him to awaken His Body, the Church, to both live out and verbally share the Gospel with those who have been impacted, and that they would find comfort and joy in the Lord.

2. Give. While we can’t all travel across the world, we do have resources that can help those who are in need. Pray and ask God if He would have you contribute financially to those who are on the front lines. We encourage you to consider utilizing World Vision for these means.

May God be glorified by the faith and actions of His people in response to these tragedies.

2004 is almost over...

2004-12-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

i can't believe this year is almost gone - what a crazy ride. so far (there are still a few days left) shannon and i have...

* celebrated our first new years and valentine's day together
* resigned from a church that we loved so we could follow God's call to start a new one
* been asked to leave that church three months sooner than expected
* gathered a core group for a new church
* celebrated our first year wedding anniversery (looking forward to MANY more!)
* travelled to seattle twice - once for church planting bootcamp, once for theological conference
* got to meet john piper and sit under his teaching
* become really good friends with mark driscoll
* become part of the acts 29 network
* gotten screwed out of church funding from a particular church
* seen that church remove itself from the a29 network (crazy politics never seem to go away)
* launched KALEO and seen God do AMAZING things in our midst
* discovered the joy of BEING the church and living in community
* discovered the joy of not worrying about numbers, but simply being faithful in glorifying God
* known the joy of having friends to call us on it when we forget those things...
* been to the emergency room four times (twice for bill's kidney stones, twice for shannon)
* seen all kinds of family changes and drama
* bought a new car for bill (goodbye, my old grand am)
* moved into our VERY FIRST HOUSE
* added a new member to our family (scout, our beautiful lab puppy)
* made some really great new friends (joel, are you reading this?)
* lost contact with other old friends
* become intimately aquainted with the evil corporate coffee world that is starbucks
* started BLOGGING!

i'm sure there are many more, but my brain hurts now. it's crazy how much one year can change your entire life, isn't it?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2004-12-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

well, it's christmas eve. i'm pissed because my printer is super jammed (read as: i have to come back on monday with a freakin screwdriver.) but that's ok - because it's christmas eve!!! schedule forthcoming:

3.30 - kaleo christmas outreach
7.00 - dinner with family
8.00 - christmas gifts with streger family
11.00 - hang out with shannon
SLEEP TILL TOMORROW
9.00 - christmas festivities at our house with delong family
1.00 - christmas dinner with streger family
4.00 - sleep.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

mmm... yummy.

2004-12-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

just in time for the holidays - a very tasty treat!

click here to check out the yummy goodness - now in menthol!

i want this.

2004-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

click the picture above and you can create your own ipod image... crazy cool.

"we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams."

2004-12-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

last night, shannon and i went to the midnight movie at the river oaks. in case you don't know, every week they play an old movie at midnight on friday and saturday. we'd been before and seen moulin rouge, goonies, ghostbusters, and office space there. last night - willy wonka and the chocolate factory. that's right - the 1971 acid trip of a movie starring gene wilder. it was great.

everyone sang a long, laughed at all of the great lines, and shouted out lines. it was a great way to see the movie. they also showed the trailor for tim burton's remake, coming out in July 2005. burton titled the movie correctly ("charlie" and the chocolate factory. the first one was called willy wonka to try to market the new candy bars) and is more faithful to roald dahl's book - not a musical, much darker (imagine that from tim burton!). it looked amazing. you can go here to watch the trailer for yourself.

today is full of fun - lots of stuff to catch up on. i love the cold weather, and can't wait for CHRISTMAS! as i go, here's the survery of the day - favorite song from the original wonka movie?

junior high pastor's favorite verses, part II

2004-12-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

He said to her, "Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there anyone here?' that you shall say, 'No.'"

But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.

And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking." And he entered with her, and behold Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.

(Judges 4.20-22)

had lunch with joel today - found out he reads this. hey joel, what's up? logan's roadhouse is quite good - i am all about the rolls. and throwing peanut shells on the ground is a big plus too.

i'm having lunch with my friend rich tomorrow - i haven't seen him in months. he's a young guy - early 30's - and just took over as pastor of first baptist church heights (read as: elderly, declining congregation). it should be exciting to talk to him... i think his calling is probably harder than mine at times (although the steady paycheck must be nice!)

i also have school tomorrow. my study group decided to meet at 3pm before our 6pm class... so that's right, kiddos, i get to be at school from 3 - 10. seven hours. joy. rapture.

tonight is community group, and that's always fun. i'm looking forward to it!

monday, monday...

2004-12-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

yesterday was one of those days...

shannon sprained her ankle, and i got to take care of her (bad that she sprained, but fun taking care of her). i made her lunch (grilled cheese) and dinner (chicken and rice with fresh asparagus). we watched like 1000 seinfeld episodes on the dvr, as well as national lampoons christmas vacation.

today we're going to the doctor to make sure it's not broken...

oooh, and saturday was the kaleo christmas party - tons of fun. lots of food and good friends. the only downfall - party on saturday night = tired (or absent) congregation on sunday morning...lol.

i can't believe we're halfway through december.

check this out.

2004-12-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

What would you give up to get what you’ve always wanted? Click here for More.

last night was good...

2004-12-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

last night, i cooked for shannon and i (i don't cook very much, so this was kind of a big deal). on the menu? glad you asked...
* almond crusted chicken
* parmisan crisps
* dinner rolls
* corn on the cob

it was super yummy. the night before, shannon cooked for us. we're trying to cook at home almost exclusively now (save money and eat healthier foods)... and so i've been brown bagging it at the office to. i'm enjoying it. and eating breakfast too - mmm, total raisin bran...

on a side note, we went to bed at about 8.15 last night. i was sceptical, but ended up passing out in like ten minutes. glorious sleep!

fun with the bible...

2004-12-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

Another time, Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out from the town and taunted him, "What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way, skinhead!" Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the name of GOD. Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about, ripping them limb from limb--forty-two children in all! (2 Kings 2.23-24, the message)

ah, the aging junior high pastor's favorite text!

tired.

2004-12-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

i'm tired. i miss my wife. and now i get to go to school until 10pm. somewhere, justin timberlake is crying me a river.

post thanksgiving state...

2004-11-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

so i was talking to some people at our church's worship gathering this morning. i was tired this morning. but all i've done for the past few days was relax and do fun stuff like eat a turkey and decorate our new christmas tree (YAY!). and i've gotten to sleep in. i should be totally rested and refreshed. and then it hit me - i've lost all inertia and laziness has set in. ah, lethargy. does this happen to anyone else?

on a side note, this morning was great. i was afraid that it would be a very low attendance week because of the holiday, but it turned out to be just the opposite. (question - why are the higher attendance weeks the lower offering weeks? or is that just me and just today?) anyways, it wa a really great morning... God was lifted up and the Gospel was proclaimed. we closed out matthew 7 today - the end of our first series. next week, we start matthew 1 (the geneology section - but it's going to be fun). today was about building your house on the rock so it will stand when THE storm comes. it was great - i got to talk about judgement from Christ against sin (which really is the context of the passage), and got to tell people that "Jesus was not a white, middle-class, suburban pastor with an inspirational message about getting through the storms of life... " it was great.

shannon is closing tonight, and that sucks. i'm thinking about going to logos over at second baptist (i haven't been to that in like 5 years, so should be interesting). either that, or fall asleep reading on the couch - only time will tell.

my thanksgiving day...

2004-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

*slept in late with shannon (oh, the joy of sleeping past 10am!)
*went and bought foil so we could transport food
*lunch at my parents house (MMMM FRIED TURKEY!)
*played 90's trivial pursuit with shannon and sisters
*helped get christmas decorations out of attic
*went home for awhile and chilled
*saw bridget jones: edge of reason with shannon
*went home and watched the apprentice on dvr
*watched the seinfeld story on dvr
*thanked God for dvr
*watched cool runnings on tv
*went to bed

tonight we get our christmas tree... YAY!

i'm a dork.

2004-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

i know i'm a dork, but i still love magic. and i got these yesterday - and they are beautfiul. the bicycle black tiger deck - bormal bicycle cards, but with a reverse "negative" image, even the box. so beautiful, and they handle really well too.

so much to do/say/read...?

2004-11-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

so i updated my currently reading section over on the right, for those of you who check that out. as i did, i realized that my stack of "to read" books is bigger than i like i to be. and then i think about all of the writing i need to do - and then i get overwhelmed a bit, feeling like i did in college when you had to read 700 pages and write a 20 page paper by the day after tomorrow.

and then, i think about the people i need to call, the emails i need to right, the (fill in the blank here) that i need to plan... and i realize i have two choices.

1. i can be one of those people who talks about how busy i am, how much i have to do, how i don't know how i'll get it all done, how stressed i am, hoe little time i have...

or...

2. i can step up and do them. no complaining. no whining. i can realize that EVERYONE is busy and that EVERYONE has lots to do. i can remember that there are many people who have much more to do than i do, and that we all have 24 hours in a day. and i can discipline myself to keep balance and remember to BE what i'm supposed to so that i can DO what i need to (BE - good Christian, good husband, good pastor... in that order.) and then i can do the work that i have and be envigorated by pursuing the calling God has called me to.

i guess i'm just ranting - and i'm not talking about anyone in particular - but i just get tired of people who tell me how much they have to do. they probably have a TON to do. so do i. so do you. that's life - that's being an adult. and i LOVE it.

ah, but there are days that i wish i could be 3 again... just run, laugh, and play in the sandbox. and worry about what mom would make for dinner. mmm... spaghetti!

rain, rain go away...

2004-11-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

i hate this rain. i want my dogs to be able to play in the backyard again.

enough said.

2004-11-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

it came today.

2004-11-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

it's finally here - my logos scholar's library. bible study on crack. i am a huge bible nerd, so this is SO exciting to me. they did a demonstration at the reformission conference, and i was sold. message prep just got a LOT easier. here's a screenshot of what i can do with the original languages (you might have to click it to get a clearer view)...

because i'm a student at college of biblical studies, i was able to get it for less than 50% of retail... and they even let me make it in payments. i have like 8 cd's to load, so off i go. i'll update later on how it's working!

someone has a case of the mondays.

2004-11-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

well, not really. i'm sick. i threw up most of yesterday. i don't feel well. boo hoo.

shannon doesn't feel well either. nor does mark. i think we may be passing stuff around. crappy way to begin the week.

do you ever get overwhelmed when you start thinking of all the things you need to be doing? that's me today. tons to do - no energy to do it. i'm going to go watch seinfeld reruns on the couch now. i need to feel better by tomorrow.

more seattle...

2004-11-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

mark is just messing around! this is actually in the terminal at the las vegas airport - crazy 20 minute layover!

mark driscoll getting up to speak. amazing message.

john piper at the beginning of one of his messages.

sorry the photos didn't come out too well from the sessions - we didn't want to use a flash (how distracting!), so it was hard to get a great shot. but you get a little of the idea. by the way, if you haven't already make sure to read last night's post for a bit more description.

just got home...

2004-11-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

well, we just got settled back at home, and i thought i would update you to how the conference ended out. i apologize for not updating daily - it was just crazy trying to find time - we literally went all day long. more pictures to come tomorrow.

first, i mentioned that i still wasn't 100% sure of my thoughts on chris seay's talk. chris said some really great things - including reminding everyone that it's not about "being cool", but about faithfully living out the gospel. i guess what was hard for me to deal with is that he spent some time up front talking about how it's important that we not just ask ambiguous questions and speak with certainty and conviction. then, he spent the majority of his time asking ambiguous questions with little more answer than "we need to have wisdom". chris also appealed very little to scripture and didn't say a whole lot about Christ. but i must say, he did a good job and it was one of the most focused talks i've heard him give.

mark driscoll talked through the entire book of genesis, talking about the different things we have tried throughout history to deal with the problem of sin - great stuff as usual. one of the highlights of the trip for me was getting to hang out with him at dinner one night and then spending about half an hour up in his office after the last session one night.

john piper was freaking amazing. it's so strange - i got to meet him and talk for a few minutes... he is SO laid back and quiet in person, but then you get him in a pulpit and he just jumps to life. he is so passionate and animated, and very bold in preaching the glory of God. he dealt with the knowledge of God, refuting open theism very well. he also spoke about the power of the cross and the glory of God being the focus of the gospel. it was really great to get to hear the gospel proclaimed and preached so powerfully. if anyone's interested, let me know and i'll put some rough notes i took up. mp3s should be available on the reformission website pretty soon.

great week - praise God for allowing us to go. it will be friday morning tomorrow, and tons of catch up to do. how has everyone else's week been?

reformission conference, day one.

2004-11-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

great place we got to visit in downtown seattle - called archie mcphee. imagine any random thing - like old phone headsets - they were on sale. it was like taking the novelty section of urban outfitters and expanding it times a million... very interesting shopping!

how do you like the wig on shannon? i have never seen so much random stuff in one place...

here's a quick shot of the band setting up on the platform at mars hill.

we had a great flight in... not a lot of turbulence, which is good for me since i don't like to fly. got in, got our rental car, found the hotel, found the church - all without any problems. finally got to eat around 3pm seattle time (which is 5pm houston time, which my body is still on!), but it was really good food that hit the spot.

we had the opening session of the conference tonight - should be an amazing few days. chris seay, the pastor of ecclesia (great church in houston) was the speaker - he talked about what it means for us to keep learning and continue the dialogue. i'm not sure about how i felt about what he said, but i need some more time to process. in the meantime, here's a few questions that he threw out that might be good to think through...
* how can we continue the quest of gaining knowledge without lusting for knowledge that makes us like God?
* if faith is a journey, and my job is to be a guide, what does that look like?
* how do you remain sure of your beliefs and live as a continuous learner that engages in genuine dialogue?
* what if intelligence is more about creativity than the ability to retain data.

tomorrow morning - john piper on "the whole glory of God." can't wait - more tomorrow!

great start to a great week...

2004-11-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

this morning was amazing. God is so faithful and shows up in such powerful ways when we get out of the way and simply proclaim the Gospel. i love pastoring the church God has called us to! it has been an uphill climb, and promises to continue to be, but i LOVE the people God is bringing us and more importantly i LOVE the God we serve. in everything from the singing, to being able to preach God's Word, to celebrating communion together, to watching people be broken of sin and call out to God on their knees, to the community enjoying lunch together afterwards - God is so good.

we leave tomorrow morning (EARLY) to fly out to seattle for the reformission conference. this promises to be a great week - we come home on thursday. mars hill has wifi throughout, so i should be able to update pretty frequently. my pledge: take lots of pictures and lots of notes so i can update at least once a day (i'll try for more) and share the experience with you. so check back in often!

also, quote of the week updated. good stuff from an amazing preacher. talk back at you soon!

oh my gosh...

2004-11-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

today is absolutely gorgeous. i can't even explaion how beautiful it is right now - sunny, cool breeze blowing, temerature is nice and crisp. and here i am at the office?!?!

not for long. i'm heading to the waterwall with my bible and a legal pad to get ahead on some message writing. if you're inside reading thie - GET OUTSIDE and enjoy the one nice day of Houston weather!!!

congratulations, mr. president!

2004-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

the big day.

2004-11-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

well, it's here. election day. go out and vote!

it would be really nice to actually know the results tonight, but somehow i doubt that's going to happen. this is supposed to be extremely close, and that could mean a long, drawn-out process. i'm praying that it won't be, but we will see.

on a completely different note - next week i get to go to the reformission conference at mars hill, seattle. i am so exicted - it is really refreshing to have a purely theological confernece. no "here's how to grow your church fast" seminars. just us and God. mark (driscoll) told me we should be hitting some pretty big issues like new perspectivism, egalitarianism, and oh so much more.

the best part? john piper is the main speaker for a lot of it. he is such an amazing guy - i really admire him as a pastor who is also a theologian. it is so rare to find someone who is both - and that is what i think we who pastor are called to strive for... it should be great. not only do i get to hear him preach, but as an acts 29 church we get to have dinner with him. that is really exciting for me! i'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and post a lot throughout that week.

the rain sucks - makes me not want to do anything but sleep. it was amazing falling to sleep last night to the sound of a thunderstorm... very nice. in the meantime, you gotta love this...,

upgrades or no?

2004-10-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

well, i made some changes to the overall appearance of the blog. i even added a profile. you guys let me know what you think!

contest over.

2004-10-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

jessica wins the prize. she was the first to email and tell me she saw my little note in the "what i'm reading" section. she gets a new book from me. (maybe recovering biblical manhood and womanhood by john piper and wayne grudem? it's a good one!)

now the reading list is updated - i'll try to stay on top of that. you can know what i'm reading these days. let me know what you've been reading too!

need your help!

2004-10-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

ok everyone - i need your help on this one. i think for our kaleo christmas series, we are going to do that "anti-series"... we're going to call it something like "the worst christmas series ever" and really play off all the cheesy christmas series that are out there.

here's where i need your help: what is the dumbest, cheesiest, most dorky christmas message series you've ever heard of a church doing? i'm already including every one i've ever done, including "the x-mas files", "behind the manger", and "the greatest christmas present ever". but i need more - so please help!!!

a real post.

2004-10-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

sorry for my lack of posting this past week - and even my last post was kind of a sell-out. (although the quiz made its way around... very cool to see.) for the record - i like luther. think he was a brilliant theologian. now the lutheran church these days resembles the teachings of luther's follow, philip melanchton, more than they do luther... and i can do without that. but luther = cool with me. his book "bondage of the will" is freakin amazing.

so we had staff retreat last week on monday and tuesday. there is something refreshing about getting away from it all and spending time with those closest to you. we were out and shannon's lakehouse: no tv, no internet, no telephones... just us, nature, and God. we got a lot done - talked about building ministry teams and talked through what "the win" for each of our ministries was. (that's an andy stanley phrase - basically it means "how do we know we've been successful?"). it was a good thing for us... we are so not about just counting nickels and noses, but instead want to make sure the community as a whole is functioning in a healthy way - believing that when it does then it will grow naturally... and GOD will provide the growth, not us.

on the retreat, we got to eat at this place called rudy's in college station. it's an amazing bbq joint. really, really great food... and they serve the meat on sheets of butcher paper with a stack of bread next to it. no plates. it's the best.

the rest of the week has been a blur of not feeling well, going to the doctor, not feeling well some more, and then trying to catch up from being out of the loop most of the week. almost there.

worship with kaleo was great this morning... i can see signs of God working in really neat ways. new people bringing more new people. a couple that is very new in their faith standing during a time of singing when most around them stayed seated, and then raising their hands as they sang! (i know that's not a marker of true worship, but for this couple to do that is a BIG step for them...) we were supposed to do a family picnic at the park kind of thing, but rain and mud caused us to postpone that.

i'm sitting in my office right now, getting ready to teach foundations class in a little while. we have a really great group going through the class right now - i learn something new each week (and i'm the leader!) right before we started, chris seay gave me this advice about starting a church: "if you can do ANYTHING else, then for God's sake go do that instead." i knew we couldn't - this is where God has led us. now that we're in, i'm learning to feel the full weight of those words. life is full of more ups and downs than ever before. each week i run the range of emotions from happy to wanting to do nothing more than lay on the couch and watch old episodes of the cosby show. some days i am angry, other days i think "it doesn't get any better than this." it's wierd how something can be the most amazing, rewarding, satisfying thing you've ever done - and at the same time be the biggest challenge. there's not a day that goes by that i don't thank God for kaleo.

ok, enough rambling. i promise more updates for this week!!!

who would have ever thought? ;)

2004-10-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

"Sin is incurable by the strength of man, nor does free will have any validity here,so that even the saints say: 'The evil which I do not wish, this I do.' 'You are not doing the things which you wish.' 'Since my loins are filled with illusions,' etc."

You are Martin Luther!

Yeah, you have a way of letting everyone know how you feel, usually with Bible quotes attached, and will think your way through the issues, although sometimes you make no sense! You aren't always sure of yourself, and you can change your mind about things, something you actually consider a strength. You can take solitude, especially with some music.

What theologian are you?

i get tired of coming up with clever titles.

2004-10-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

had a good weekend, except for the fact that shannon was sick. my poor baby - she was pitiful. i felt so bad for her. she ended up missing kaleo on sunday - which is a good indication of how crappy she felt.

we started a new round of foundations class this past sunday - the people going through it are amazing... God is really bringing some solid people to kaleo! i got to watch the astros lose that afternoon, but they redeemed themselves last night. also, the rockets preseason opener was great - looks like we should have a good team this year - can't wait for the actual season to start.

tomorrow evening, the missions board from spanish river church in boca raton, florida is voting on whether or not they will fund us... this is HUGE for us right now. funding = good. non-funing = not so good. please pray that God would give us favor with them as they meet and that he would give them a GENEROUS spirit in awarding funding to us.

on a side note, for some interesting conversation - how do you integrate generations into one authentic community? how do you get teenagers, kids, twentisomethings, adults, etc... to all feel like part of one community. with adults, we're doing really well. the hard part is making sure that children and teenagers are valued and feel just as much part of the community as everyone else. we don't want to do the whole "give them their own department and seperate them out" thing that the church has done in the past... so how do you connect a ninth grader and an empty-nester? are we dreaming the impossible dream, or can it come together?

couldn't resist.

2004-10-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

scott had this on his blog, and i had to throw it up here too... great stuff!

good week.

2004-10-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

this has been a really good week. not sure why - just been really good. a couple points of notice, and then i'm getting to work:

the discussion for Radical Reformission has been moved to the new and improved kaleo website. if you haven't seen it - you should check it out!
tonight is date night. date night = my favorite night. i have the most amazing, beautiful, loving wife ever. i love getting to take her out and spend the whole night talking with her and looking into her eyes. she is the best!
we got cable this week (the rockets start playing this sunday and i don't want to miss that. we got the cable box with dvr built in, which means you can digitally record up to two shows at once, and program it to record a show anytime its on. oh, man - this is great. i've recorded my so called life (comes on at 3 am on some weird channel up in the 300's), seinfeld, the apprentice, and even stevens. so great! you can even pause and rewind live tv. freakin awesome.
the element brown cd just came out - it rocks my face off. those guys are so amazingly talented, and we have two of them as part of our worship team. (i thank God every day for blessing kaleo with such an amazing worship team - they're the best!) you should get in touch with mark and buy a cd... they should be up on itunes pretty soon too...
next wednesday, kaleo is being presented to the missions board of spanish river church in florida for the possibility of funding. they have the money, we need the money. please start praying now that God would give us favor with the men who will be voting.
i've been having one of those odd cravings lately... you know the kind where you want something really bad, but know the reality that as soon as you eat it you'll feel like trash? my craving - long john silvers. i dont' know why. i'm insane. but the good news is - i've learned my lesson. i'm not giving in... because i know the feelings of ickiness that come afterward. ahhh...willpower.

ok, so there was the random, bullet point updates for today. off to work on stuff now!

wow. that's all i can say.

2004-10-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

i just got my copy of Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll in the mail. simply put, it looks amazing. i skimmed throught he whole thing (a good practice before you start reading any book), and i can't wait to dive in. short description: Mark Driscoll is the Pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, WA and is also the cofounder of the Acts 29 network that Kaleo is proud to be part of. Radical Reformation calls for the continual reforming of the mission of the church to reach out to others in a way that acknowledges the unique times and locations of daily life, carefully navigating between the pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally relevant that you’ve lost your Christian message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you’ve lost your Christian mission).

i can honestly say, mark appears to have done a solid job laying out the call to engage our culture with the gospel. from what i can tell so far, he has managed to avoid the two extremes out there relating to the "emerging church":

"That postmodern stuff is all a bunch of garbage. It's just a big fad. We'll keep doing things the way we've always done them. And besides, I've heard young people are turning to traditional worship again... someone hand me my hymnal and turn to page 15 with me."
"Alright everyone - try to join yourself with the grand narrative that is unfolding as we enter the dialogue of conflict and mystery by participating in this multisensory experience through drawing icons that represent our own story in this huge sandbox. Message? Preaching? *laughs under breath* Um, no. Those are SO modern... we're emerging. Now here, recite this celtic prayer while you rub your neighbors shoulders as a symbol of our unique journey towards the cosmic story of our becoming..."

Sorry for the rant. And sorry, my blog keeps adding a number 3 to the list. (Insert your rant here, i guess). Anyway, pick up a copy of the book if you can. You're welcome to join Kaleo in our discussion of it - we'll begin next week and it all happens right over here. Just come on over - everyone's welcome!

it's official.

2004-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

i might as well come out and say it. i'm an avril lavigne fan. there it is. out in the open. it's weird, because i hated her music from the first cd. but the new stuff is muy bueno. i don't listen to the radio much, but when i do i must confess - i'm usually hoping to hear "my happy ending" while i'm in the car. i like avril lavigne.

let the verbal beatings commence.

date night.

2004-09-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

mmm.. date night. shannon and i have endevoured to have a weekly date night for the past six months or so, with varying degrees of success. it's supposed to be on friday nights, but with her working at starbucks and us launching this church things have been a bit crazy. we've managed to do some form of date every week, but not always on friday. well, this friday we got to go out and it was glorious.

we had coffee at taft street coffee (ecclesia's coffeeshop). then, we had dinner at barnaby's cafe - this little hole in the wall place i found online - great food, by the way. really nice people.

we went to the bookstop over on shepherd and alabama that used to be a big theater - it's always fun to walk around there.

and then the highlight - midnight movies at river oaks theater. this week's pick: ghostbusters. that's right - the original with bill murray, dan akroyd, etc. it was so great. "when there's somthing strange in the neighborhood, who you gonna call? ghostbusters."

three words for you: stay puft marshmellows.

great preaching.

2004-09-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

i've been listening to some amazing preaching in the car lately. it's a three week series that cj mahaney did when the passion first came out in theatres. it looks at the cross of christ and what happened there and why it matters.

we take so much for granted. it's been hard not to cry at points as i've listened to these - and it makes my love for Christ burn deeper and stronger than ever before. if you want to check it out, go here, and scroll down to the messages from the end of february. you'll see them.

stop dating the church.

2004-09-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

in a discussion over on jessica's blog, we're talking about what the church is, should be, etc. i had mentioned a book coming out in october by josh harris called stop dating the church and fall in love with the family of God. in it, josh takes a look at why people tend to "date the church", but are afraid to make a passionate commitment to the body of Christ. i think it's going to be a good one - here's an outtake of the first chapter... what do you think about what he says?

Can you spot what I'm calling a church-dater? Here's a quick profile. Do you see one or more of these characteristics in yourself?

First, our attitude toward the church tends to be me-centered. We go for what we can get - social interaction, programs, or activities. The driving question is: "What can the church do for me?"

A second sign of a church dater is being independant. We go to church because that's what Christians are supposed to do - but we're careful to avoid getting involved too much, especially with people. We don't pay much attention to God's larger purpose for us as a vital part in a specific church family. So we go through the motions without really investing ourselves.

Most essentially, a church-dater tends to be critical. We are short on allegiance and quick to find fault in our church. We treat church with a consumer mentality - looking for the best product for the price of our Sunday morning. As a result, we're fickle and not involved for the long-term, like a lover with a wandering eye, always on the hunt for something better.

you can get the entire first chapter by clicking here.

this is a fun one...

2004-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

hey everyone - i've been following a great conversation about the Gospel (what is it, what does it mean, how are we saved, etc...) over at virusdoc's blog. go here and check it out - it should stretch you a bit.

(lots of good examples of how postmodern and modern thought process and worldview tend to clash...)

hobbies...

2004-09-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

so i was given so good advice recently: i need to find a hobby or two. i spend a lot of time (read that as "all my time") right now doing one to two things: ministry for kaleo or spending time with my wife shannon. both of these are really good things to do, but they don't tend to lead to a well-balanced life. let me explain a bit...

first, i don't plan on cutting back on my time with shannon - we don't get as much as i'd like anyway (but then again, does anyone get as much time as they'd like with their spouse? i think that was called the honeymoon, when i could be with her 24 hours a day like i'd love to now). any chance i get, i'd like to be able to spend with her - talking, playing, relaxing, napping, snuggling... you name it. i love the chances we get to spend together, and i think quantity of time is just as important as quality when it comes to building a relationship.

now, with all that being said, there are times when i am at home and shannon is not. she might be hanging out with a friend or at good old starbucks working late. i am home alone. what usually occupies my time in moments like these is either sleep (when i'm tired) or work. there's always another book to read, message to prepare for, strategy to think through, etc... and i'll find a way to bring it home and do it. sometimes, i've heard people talk about this habit and encourage it... they call it "redeeming the time". i'm learning that i call it a recipe for burnout. i can't be focused on my ministry all the time. when i do spend time at home working, it makes it hard for me to "turn it off" even after shannon comes home, and i end up cheating her out of time with me.

so i'm going to take the advice and get a few hobbies. here's what i believe i'm going to focus on:

developing my spiritual life. now, i know what you're thinking - isn't that work. isn't that ministry. well, if i don't watch it, it could slip into that. what i have in mind here is reading scripture, prayer, reading good theology, listening to great preaching, etc... things that draw me closer to God, but NOT with the intent of using it for my ministry. (i.e. i'm just reading scripture to grow, not to write a message. i'm not reading "ministry development" books, but rather works on the character of God or good biography on guys like spurgeon, edwards, whitfield, etc...)
basketball. i used to play, and i miss it. i am going to start shooting around at the local park, looking for pick up games at open gyms, maybe even join a league (once i get back in shape). that's one of the benefits - i can work off some of the, um, excess baggage that comes from sitting down ALL DAY. not only playing, but i have vowed that i am going to be an avid rockets fan this season. i'm going to watch every game i can, read the sports section articles, and try to make a game or two. (if you want to go, let me know and we'll hook up!). i'm excited - we're going to have a good team this year and i want to be up on what's going on with them. (and of course, i'll feel nice and manly watching sports!)
tv collecting. okay, this is dorky, but i am such a huge fan of 80's and early 90's tv shows. particularly dorky teen stuff - i think it brings back the nostaligic feelings of growing up. thanks to modern technology and the internet, you can track down either dvd's or vhs tapes (that someone taped off of tv, complete with old commercials and all!) of old shows. i'm going to start collecting this stuff and watching here and there (as funds allow - this is the hobby that could be expensive, so i have to ease into it). so far i've got seasons 1-4 of saved by the bell, and it is GLORIOUS. oh, the joy. i'm looking into getting episodes of (in no particular order): more saved by the bell, my so called life, dawson's creek, salute your shorts, fifteen (anyone else remember that show?), you can't do that on television, the adventures of pete and pete, boy meets world, hey dude, seinfeld, cheers, don't just sit there, out of control (dave coulier pre full house), full house, welcome freshman, alf, and anything else i find... oh - childhood memories.
magic. i used to do a lot of this, and was getting pretty good. and then i got busy starting a church. i might take some of this up again - if nothing else it's fun to do on little kids.

so there you have it - hobbies. i feel like a dork, but that's ok. there not your hobbies - they're mine. and i'm pretty sure they'll help relieve some stress, which is really the entire point. so anyways, if you want to come over and pray, play a little basketball, and then watch an old nickelodeon sitcom while doing card tricks - give me a call.

this is too wierd!

2004-09-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

i was looking for a message illustration online, and somehow i found this. it's a true story - bizarre.

update on shannon...

2004-09-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

shannon is feeling much better today - which is GREAT! she had really been struggling the past few days. if she didn't take the medecine, her abodmen hurt really bad. if she did, her abdoment got a bit better but she felt nautious (is that how you spell that?). today she woke up feeling much better, so thanks for your prayers! keep them coming!

i, on the other hand, feel like crap. i have a headache that just won't quit, and a ton of work to do! i just want to go lay down at home and watch the original muppet movie... but that's not happening.

on a side note: i cound this via scott hodge... it's quite scary. check it out.

weekend update (with jimmy falon)

2004-09-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

First of all, to everyone who reads this: thanks so much for all your prayers - they have definitely made a difference. Yesterday was amazing. It was one of those days I had to keep pinching myself - when you talk about and prepare for something for so long it's hard to believe it when it's actually happening. The gathering went great - no major glitches (which is a miracle for being the first time we'd set up all our stuff in the theatre!) Of course, we learned a lot and will be working over the next few weeks to iron out logistical kinks to make things smoother and easire for setting up and taking down. But the gathering itself went really well - God was really lifted up.

We had about 127 people attend (which was great for a church with a core of 35-40 that had been meeting and did no marketing), and we're going to have to work hard to keep that momentum going after the initial dip next week (although I'm praying we'll be an exception to the rule and beat the odds and attendance will go UP instead of down on week 2 - that's something you can pray for). What was really great was to see the variety of people there - our core, some old friends (I had a family that used to attend the church I grew up at that has fallen off into "nowhere" come out - got to see there 9 year old son who was 2 when I tought him in daycare... made me feel old!). We had probably at least 15 people who came that were not invited by anyone in the core, but just heard about it by word of mouth, friend of a friend, or on the internet. THAT was a cool feeling. All in all, there were a lot of good prospects that came - people who aren't currently plugged into a church.

The one downfall of the day was that Shannon and I both were running on fumes all morning. She had to go to the emergency room on Saturday night with intense pains in her lower abdoment... they did a series of exams, bloodwork, two ultrasounds (none of which are comfortable exams or tests for a woman) - we didn't leave the hospital until about 2.15 am and had to be up at 5.30 am. They think she might have a cervical infection or a cist that ruptured on one of her ovaries... gave her some pain medecine, antibiotics, and told us to keep an eye on the pain for a few days and then report back. Please be praying for her health and that the pain would go away - it's been rough for the last few days for her. (She did a GREAT job on Sundaymorning though - God was definitely faithful and got her through.)

So overall, please be praying for:

All the people that got invited by our core who couldn't make it this week but have said they are coming on the 19th - please pray that they actually come and that their hearts are softened to the Word.
That many of the people who worshipped with us yesterday will continue to return, primarily those who are not plugged into a church right now. Please pray that they would come to feel at home at Kaleo, and become part of the faith community here.
That we would "beat the odds" and not see numerical decline after launch (statistically most new churches level out at about 60% of their launch number in the month followint). Pray that we can continue to grow and not see that decline, but rather that more and more people will be led to be part of what God is doing.
Pray for Shannon's health.

If I had to sum it all up: God is amazing and faithful - to Him be the glory!

three days away...

2004-09-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

guys - i'll come out and say it. i'm nervous. i fell like a guy about to pick up his prom date. i feel like i did when in the back at the church about five minutes before i got married. it's that feeling where nothing is wrong, and you know what's coming is SO right - it's just hard to believe after waiting so long that it's finally here. it's that nervous/anxious/scared/hopeful/joyful/so ready and so not ready at the same time kind of feeling. but in three days - kaleo is officially launched.

we've been praying since last fall, took the beginning steps in december and january, started gathering people in april, prepared all summer - and now here we are. God is so faithful and so amazing. i can't wait to blog about it on monday - not about how many people were there or what the offering was... those are secondary issues (that most chuch people use as the two biggest measuring sticks) - but about how God showed up and people experienced His presence... about how Jesus Christ was glorified. please continue to pray for us and come join us if you can!

on a side note - i watched Masters of the Universe the movie last night (He-Man rules the world). all in all, it really was a good movie. you get to see courtney cox as a late teen/early 20's, good action, and skeletor (can't believe i just typed that) was played AMAZINGLY by frank langella, who is actually a pretty well respected actor. good stuff.

in honor of megan impero:

2004-09-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

update.

new kaleo website!

2004-09-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

hey everyone - the foundational parts of the new kaleo site are live! there is definitely more content to come, but this gives the basics.

mark (our pastor-in-training, missional living minister, creative director, amazing at everything guy, etc...) blows me away - thank God for talented people like him.

GO HERE to check out the site. now. really, go on.

my dog is crazy.

2004-09-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

scout is insane. she is running laps around the house, skidding around on the hardwoods. i think she found some crack and smoked it while i was gone ;)

shannon worked at the river oaks starbucks tonight, and then went to see goonies at the river oaks theatre at midnight. i hate that movie, so we figured it is better not to spend $7 for a movie ticket for me. so i'm here chilling with the dogs - cool beans.

went out with my parents tonight - they bought shannon and i a washer and a dryer. it was just going to be a dryer, but then we got there and they decided they were going to buy both - and i couldn't talk them out of it. jeremy and jessica were going to give us a washer, but now we have a little matching set... my parents are pretty cool like that. one more step to making our house feel like home.

got a lot to do this week - we launch in 8 days. crazy. much to do... btw, new kaleo website launches tomorrow. i'll post a link as soon as it's up!

can't think of a title.

2004-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

hey everyone! shannon has an interview in about half an hour for a job she's pretty interested in, so if you read this before then make sure to say a prayer for her.

not sure exactly what to update about, so i guess just a few random things:

thanks for all the encouragement we've gotten from so many of you. we are excited about kaleo launching on the 12th. for clarification, in case you were wondering - there are quite a few more than six people that are part of our core. (heard that one yesterday, that was a new one!) we haven't really been trying to grow numerically for the past few months - in fact, it's been more the opposite. the purpose of gathering our core was to have a group of rock solid believers that were committed to helping start this new church... so we set the bar REAL high and have seen a few families realize that they were not ready for that level of comitment. (jro, we whittled it down to the stump!) that's really ok - it's what we wanted at this stage. now as we launch, we shift our focus away from gathering believers to reaching out to people who are not in a passionate relationship with Christ (i refuse to use the phrase "unchurched" because that really isn't the point of mission...) anyway, just wanted to clarify out loud - more for myself than anything else. satan has brough an onslaught of negative feedback and little verbal jabs over the past few days to try and bring my focus down... not working though. :)
my dogs seem to find it necessary to wrestle all the time! they are biting at each other right by my feet right now, and every once in a while they miss and bite my toe - and then i yell at them.
can i just say i LOVE working from home once in awhile! i have to work at the office to get most stuff done (message preperation and study while two dogs play WWF all over the house just doesn't work), but this morning i was catching up on some email, some reading, etc... and it's nice to be able to spend extra time with my beautiful, amazing wife while she is at home.
i just got a cut under my fingernail from a piece of paper. gosh, that hurts.
going to have lunch with steve zeal from veritas academy in just a little bit - i love that guys. awesome man of God, great leader, and a really cool accent he got from growing up in whales!

ok, that's enough random junk for now.. maybe some more later on!

ouch. (please comment).

2004-08-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

i got a pretty scathing email tonight. i won't say who it's from - but i will quote from it here for you.

Please remove me and my family from your mailing list. I am not interested
in attending Kaleo worship services. I think it is in very bad taste that
you are trying to sway *their home church name here* members in your
direction. If God is going to bless your "church" it won't be with
deceiving tactics.

wow. i was a little shook up at first. didn't see that one coming. (the last email i got in this tone was months ago when a gentleman told me that it was wrong and selfish of me to ask people to pray for our new church). here's the background on this - i sent a letter out (on the advice of guys i trust who have planted churches in the past) inviting people who have been supportive of our ministry in the past to join us and help us celebrate our first ever public worship service. this is a big thing for my family and everyone involved, and we wanted to have people who have been a part of shaping our ministry in the past there th help us celebrate the milestone. in the letter i sent (to a few hundred people who attend several different churches or don't attend andy church at all), i even said "i know that many of you are active and serving in a great local church... we're not asking you to leave your church, but if you're able it would mean a lot to shannon and i if you were able to help us celebrate at our first service."

i wrote the sender a reply email, using all the pastoral tact i could muster. i thanked them for their honesty and candor, and apologized for for offending them. i tried to explain where we were coming from and that our intent was not at all to be deceitful. here's the thing - i don't believe i was being deceitful. i don't feel like i did anything wrong. and what i REALLY wanted to say was, "who do you think you are? why would you go to the level as to put the word church in quotation marks? had to point out that you don't think we're really a church? had to get that little jab in? well, take it and..."well, you get the idea. i didn't say those things. i apologized, explained our position, asked for the respect of not having "church" in quotation marks in the future, apologized again, and thanked them one more time for their honesty.

here's what i want to know: am i crazy? were we way off base to invite people we know to celebrate this with us? or am i just being thrown off base by the upset venting of one person? please comment on this one - i need some correction or reassurance from you guys on this one.

boasting only in the cross...

2004-08-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

i was reading this from john piper today, and it was a great affirmation of how i want to live my life... let me share.<>

You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them...O may God grant us to dream and plan and work and give and teach and live for the glory of Christ and him crucified!

wow. that's it. that's me. that's kaleo. i can't say it any better than that - God, give us a dream and a plan and a passion to live for the glory of Christ. help us to make Him famous by our words, our lives, our actions, our ministry... in all we do. set us on fire with a consuming obsession for the cross to be lifted up... and then draw all men to yourself.

new developments of the bog.

2004-08-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

so i discovered that instead of ads at the top of my blog, i now have a seachbar. very cool feature - way to go, blogger. i love blogger. so much better than all of that XANGA crap! ;)

i also changed my sidebar - not instead of random links, you can keep up to date with what i'm reading... if you don't see it change week to week you should yell at me... that means i'm either a) being lazy and not updating the list or b) being lazy and not reading as much as i should (goal is at least 3 books a week).

anyways, not much else to say right now. i still miss shannon, but she comes home tomorrow, which means YAY.

changes...

2004-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

so, i've noticed that the once frenzied comment exchange on my circle of blogs has died down. life got busy for everyone, i guess. maybe i should post some sort of controversial statement we could discuss... hmm.

on a side note, shannon is out of town on a band retreat - the kaleo worship team is getting prepared for our launch coming up in a few weeks. i miss her - she's the best, and i hate it when she's not around. more later...

it's coming so soon!

2004-08-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

wow. kaleo officially launches in two weeks and five days. that is coming sssoooo quick! it's exciting though. we have finally found a location. (it is not 100% official in that we are waiting for the final signature on the contract on their end, but the woman i am working with says it is a done deal - there's my legal disclaimer). on september 12 at 9.30 am we will begin worshiping together at the edwards marq*e theatre!!!

it has been such a long road trying to find a location. we had one that we thought was really good, and God shut the door on it. he did exactly the opposite with the theatre - everything has gone smoothly and in our favor (i.e. - our first bill isn't due until six weeks after we move in!) the location is great (off of two major freeways in a busy shopping center), it's a venue that most people in Houston are familiar with, the seats are comfy ;) , it gives us room to grow (the largest theatre is 450 seats - we could go to two services and worship 900 before we HAD to move)... oh, and it has onsight storage. which is good in two ways - we don't have to buy a trailor and it makes set up and tear down MUCH easier. the thing we're going to have to work hard at is building a community feeling before and after (theatres don't lend themselves to that, but gathering outside the theatre and lunch at red robin (right outside our front door) do. also, we are going to have to work hard to create sacred space and ensure that God is lifted up through people's participation in worship... this is NOT like going to a movie where you can just sit back and watch.

so there is much to do to get ready! i led a group at the Grayshon's house last night, and everyone was very excited to hear the news. it is so exciting to see everyone fired up about the vision God has given us - we have spent all spring and summer preparing, and now we get to open the doors. we celebrated the Lord's Supper together as well - around the kitchen table (coming out of years of lutheran stigma i can't tell you how great it is to celebrate that meal as a family in an intimate setting - amazing). we also talked about the importance of living on mission - we all have people that God has called us to share the Gospel with. now we have to step out and begin to do that.

please pray for our chuch - that we would continue to lift up Christ and be a God-centered community. pray that we would live as missionaries in the world around us, boldly standing for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of God's Word.

also, why not join us on September 12? i know many of you have other church's that you are faithfully serving at (leading worship, several of you!). if you can get away for a sunday, it would mean a lot to shannon, mark, and the whole team if yoiu could help us celebrate what God is doing in our community. also, pass the news along to anyone you know - help us get the word out! thanks everyone.

ok, gotta go break up a wrestling match between scout and cody now - they're biting each other's faces...

great weekend!

2004-08-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

wow. i haven't posted in awhile - sorry for the delay. so this weekend was a lot of fun. friday i went up to the woodlands with mark, michael, and brandon to see dave matthews band. then we stayed in the hotel across the street (there's even a skybridge that takes you right to the gate of the woodlands pavillion!). then, we saw them again on saturday night. amazing.

the opening band wasn't good at all - sounded like everything you hear on the radio right now. but dave was amazing. he played almost two and a half hours both nights, and i think there were maybe three songs that he played both nights. totally different set lists (which he changes for every show). the level of musicianship was beyond description, and the live energy was amazing. thanks to michael brown for making it all possible!

i got home to find out about shannon's not so good weekend. new puppy with diahrea (did i spell that right?), overflowing toilet, messed up schedule at work, and then we found out his morning that her grandmother had a mild stroke yesterday. so say a prayer for us - we're over at my parents right now so we can take a shower (the plumber can't come until tomorrow). i'll try to update more regularly this week - forgive my tardiness!

so tired...

2004-08-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

well, we did it. we moved. and i am wiped out. we spent all day thursday packing, then all day friday moving, and then saturday was moving and unpacking. very exhausting, but very much worth it. shannon and i are in our first house ever now! it feels really great. (favorite part of moving: discovering that when they sanded the floors and refinished them the day before we moved in it left a layer of dust on EVERYTHING. nothing like scrubbing walls with a big sponge!) shannon blogged about it over here, so go check that out too.

on a completely other note, seth godin just launched his new initiative. i think this could have some really amazing possibilities for the church - we've just got to figure out how to utilize it. go over the new site and check it out for yourself.

the emporer has no clothes!

2004-08-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

every once in awhile, i find an article that is such a breath of fresh air i have to share it. you know the kind - you're saying "amen" as you read every other line, wondering how the author got into your head and wrote your thoughts. if found one today. here's a preview:

Warren's first book was a popularization of the Seeker Sensitive principles that now live, like a virus, in the mind of thousands of formerly sane pastors. The book's success was attributable to a mild word-of-mouth and Warren's success in making the various premises of Willow-Creekism more palatable to established, traditional churches. With his missions and "soul-winning" backgrounds, Warren's PDC was a book you could give to the chairman of deacons to explain why it was really important to offend the senior adults, retire the organist and let the local rock-band play those Skynard licks in morning worship.

you can read the rest of the article here. check it out and let me know what you think...

meet scout.

2004-08-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

scout is the newest member of our family. you can check her out over here. she is the best - except she still hasn't figured out that you can go potty outside and get it all out there... there really is no need to save some to deposit around the house. lol

seriously though, she is great. she loves to play with cody, and he is loving having a little sister. we move later this week - OMG!!! so much to do... must pack tonight. can't wait to get into the house though - it's going to be very cool. we spent a lot of yesterday working on it - painting our bedroom, installing some light fixtures, etc. the floor guy is coming today to start working on the floors - the house is all hardwoods, and he's going to sand them down, restain them, and then seal them. cool stuff - we'll have to get some pictures online soon of the progress!

praying from the bottom.

2004-08-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

i don't usually share journaling from time I'm spending with God, but thought I might with this... not to offer advice or to teach any form of lesson... but rather to admit that I struggle with this. a lot. like i say below, it is very easy for me to be God-centered when He does what I like. but when he allows things that I don't particularly enjoy, i gets a bit more difficult. so i guess, here you go... listen in as i preach to noone but myself.

scripture:
For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, "I have been expelled from your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward your holy temple." Jonah 2.3-4

observation:
Nothing in our lives escapes the divine, sovereign control of God. No matter how terrible things may seam, God is still on the throne and in control. Nothing can happen to us without him giving his permission. Jonah calls the waves that are crashing over him "your breakers and billows" - he understood that sometimes even the storms in life come from God. Too often we are quick to blame Satan for everything that we consider "bad" in our life - which is usually anything that inconveniences us. Jonah felt completely isolated and seperated from God ("I have been expelled from your sight."), and yet he makes the choice to worship. He calls out to God with all that he is, fixing his attention on the greatness and the holiness of God. This is a choice. It is not our natural state, but rather a conscious decision that we must make each moment by the power of God's grace at work within our lives.

application:
This comes at such a hard time to deal with this subject. I don't like it, but it's where I'm at in Scripture right now. I have some friends who are going through an unimaginable storm right now - their family is completely turned upside down because of someone else's sin. (I HATE that we have to pay the consequences for other people's sin - and I am still praying that this person will be broken by the Spirit through the consequences they will have to pay soon.) As I read the text this morning and think about it, I can't help but be convicted by it (and by their faithfulness). As I sat with them Tuesday, they talked about making the choice to worship in the midst of this situation. Wow.

Do I believe God caused their family to go through this - no. Not at all. Do I believe He allowed it to happen? Yes. Daniel 4:35 says, "[God] does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What are you doing?'" And Paul says, in Ephesians 1:11, that God is the one "who works all things after the counsel of His will." These are easy Scriptures to reflect on and to give comfort when things are going our way. When we get a raise or an extra blessing in our life, we are quick to praise God for it. I believe the true test of our faith is whether we truly rejoice in the sovereignty and glory of God in the midst of difficult times - I thank God for the faith of my friends who have done just that.

At times, I struggle with this... isn't this just fate? I was reading the other day, and came across this quote by CH Spurgeon that really puts it into perspective for me:

What is fate? Fate is this – Whatever is, must be. But there is a difference between that and Providence. Providence says, Whatever God ordains, must be; but the wisdom of God never ordains anything without a purpose. Everything in this world is working for some great end. Fate does not say that. . . . There is all the difference between fate and Providence that there is between a man with good eyes and a blind man.

The encouragment for me? It took Jonah being close to death and rescued in the belly of a great fish before he realized this truth... may God continue to give me wisdom and spiritual guidance here on dry land. ;)

prayer:
Father, you are a great God. There is no one like you. I rejoice that you work all things for the pleasure of your good will. I confess that I don't understand that much of the time - I would rather that you worked for the pleasure of MY will. Forgive me when my pride and desire for my own glory overcomes my worship and desire for your glory. Father, I pray that you would continue to show yourself to be great even in the midst of times when we feel that we are so distant and fainting away. I pray that just as with Jonah you would "bring up my life from the pit". I praise you that "salvation is from the Lord", and that even in this corrupt world of sin and evil, you work for your glory. Even though we are all wicked people, you have chosen a people for yourself and have brought them to You. Thank you, Father! May I continue to rejoice in You - and when I don't feel that I can praise you because of the circumstances around me - by the power of your Spirit and grace, work the heart of Jonah and Job in me. Give me the strength to choose to worship, regardless of my surroudings and circumstances. Thank you for your great love for us - for me.

i'm tired.

2004-08-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

it's 9.43 am, and i should have been hard at work for several hours... but i just started up the computer. i'm lacking energy and motivation right now - it's been a hard 24 hours. shannon and i celebrated our anniversery on monday night, and apparently didn't hear the phone ring around 10.30 that night. i had shut the cell phone off. we went to bed.

i woke up the next morning to find a few messages from one of our best friends, saying there was an emergency and to call. that was at 10.30 monday night. so i called them at 7am on tuesday morning, only to find out that one of their daughters, who is 5 years old, had been molested the night before. my heart broke, right then and there. 5 years old. a little girl that i love with all my heart and would do anything for...

we went over to their house about 1.30 yesterday afternoon and left at about 12.30 am... i'm glad we could be there with them. we talked. we cried. we prayed. we cried more. i am having a very hard time dealing with the anger that i feel. i KNOW the 8th grade boy who did this. i never would have thought he would do something like that. never. but he did. he knew what he was doing was wrong, and did it anyway. as we prayed for him last night, i had a hard time not breaking down. i am still SO ANGRY with him, but am continuing to pray that God would break his heart with repentance, and that he would be completely broken over what he did to this young girl.

i know this has pretty much been catharsis for me, so bear with all the crap you had to read. but i had to get it out there. i've got to work now - to try to focus. i feel dumb, like i shouldn't be so torn up over this... it didn't happen to me or my child. shouldn't i be able to think about other things and funciton normally? well, i'm not yet - so whatever. jeremy, jessica, o., l., and h. - shannon and i love you guys. we're here for whatever you need - just call.<>

Happy Anniversery!

2004-08-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

To me, that is! Today is Shannon and I's one year anniversery. Hard to believe, isn't it? I've been married to the most wonderful, beautiful, amazing woman for 365 days now - and each one is better than the last. I could never have dreamt that God would give me such an amazing gift - I have the best wife in the world.

We both took off from work today, and we've spent the entire day together. We slept in, cuddled, went and did domestic stuff (picking out lightswitch covers for our new house - fun!), took a nap and snuggled more - so great. Right now she's in the other room getting dressed so we can go out tonight. Here's the plan: drinks at Hotel Derek (where we spent our first night together), dinner at Pappadeaux on Richmond and Kirby (where we had out rehearsal dinner), then coming home to watch Moulin Rouge (where a lot of the music for our wedding came from) while we drink champagne and eat our wedding cake topper. I am so excited (and maybe a little nervous about eating one year old cake)!

I have to run, but wanted to tell everyone hello and thanks for being such great friends to Shannon and I. We love you all (even those of you who read this that we've never met)... goodnight!

what kind of church is kaleo?

2004-07-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

That's a question I here a lot. Last night, a friend of ours was talking to Shannon about denomination affiliation, theology, etc. So I thought I'd post about that and see what ensues.

First, we are not part of a denomination, but instead are an independant local church. However, we recognize the benefits of accountability and partnership with like-minded churches, and have therefore become a part of the Acts 29 network. (All the benefits of a denomination, none of the beurocroacy or politics).

Second, we are what some would call "Reformed Baptist" when it comes to our theology. I know these can be confusing terms, so here's a brief exlanation written by James White...

What We Mean By 'Reformed'
We have used the term 'reformed' purposefully and for two reasons. First of all it helpfully explains something of our historical and theological roots. There is a body of theological beliefs that is commonly referred to as the Reformed faith. Such biblical truths as sola fide (justification by faith alone ), sola gratia (salvation by God's grace alone), sola scriptura (the bible alone is the basis for faith and practice), and soli deo gloria (the fact that God alone is to receive glory in all things) are the hallmarks of the Protestant and Reformed Faith.

The Reformed Faith is perhaps best known for its understanding that God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen certain sinners for salvation. Eph. 1:3ff is a prominent text which underlies this biblical conviction. The Reformed Faith teaches that in time Christ came and died for the sins of God's people. It teaches that in conversion the Holy Spirit works in harmony with the decree of the Father and the death of the Son by applying the work of redemption to the people of God.

When we say that we are reformed we are saying that we embrace as biblical that system of theology known as the doctrines of grace. Truths which speak of the total depravity of man, the unconditional nature of election, the particular nature of the atonement, the irresistibility of the effectual call, and the perseverance and preservation of the saints. In this 'Reformed' tradition are the great names of Church history. John Calvin, John Knox, John Bunyan, John Newton, Matthew Henry, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, and a host of others held tenaciously to the Reformed Faith. We must underscore however, that we hold to these truths not because Calvin and these other great men of church history held to them, but because Jesus and the apostles so clearly taught them.

But we also use the term 'Reformed' in a second way: We are seeking to reform ourselves and the churches of our generation back to the Bible. It seems that much of the change in the church in recent days has been to move it away from its biblical and historical roots to that which is man centered. There is a reformation going on in our day. It is an attempt to change the nature of the church from the House of God to the House of Entertainment. Sinners are being coddled rather than convicted. God's power and majesty are things of a by-gone era!

Reformed Baptist make it their aim and ambition to come more and more in line with the Word of God. In this sense Reformed Baptists are not static churches. We do not claim to have arrived. We want to go back again and again to the scriptures. We do not want to do things because our heros of the faith did them or because other churches do them, we want to do what we do because we see it in our Bibles.

As modern day reformers, we are calling on all churches everywhere to repent from their man-centered ways, their man pleasing worship, and their shallow theology. We will, if need be, stand as a lone 'voice in the wilderness' calling the church of Jesus Christ to its biblical beauty and uniqueness. We say with no sense of carnal pride that much that goes on in the name of church growth and innovation is an insult to the Spirit of Grace and the Word of God. It is our desire to see all churches have a passion for God and His glory consume them entirely.

What We Mean By 'Baptist'
The name Baptist is a form of verbal shorthand for us to convey certain truths. Generally, we are stating the biblical truths concerning the subjects and the modes of baptism. When we speak of the subjects of baptism, we refer to the truth that baptism is for believers only. By 'mode' we are referring to the fact that baptism is properly and biblically administered by immersion. (If you'd like to discuss the baptism aspect more, we can certainly go there...)

So there you have it. A really long post. You may or may not know what we stand. You can check out our website for our official statement of faith, vision, core values, etc... Thanks for listening!

manifesto, anyone?

2004-07-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

seth godin's new project is really exciting. go here to check it out. here's the question: how can christian's take advantage of this? how can we be on the front end, rather than having this conversation ten years from now? any ideas? scott has started a blog for his church (have a look, if you haven't already) scott, how is this working out for you - is it building some discussion?

i think this is such a key tool that the church could utilize, although i'm still formulating how that would all work. information and ideas can be spread so quickly, and there is an entire community that can happen online - how do we utilize it?

on a side note, my friend jessica is in buenos aires for a few months now, living in an apartment with ten other people (like the real world i guess). jessica, we love you. we miss you. have a complete blast!

i hate computers.

2004-07-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

especially my computer. it sucks. i managed to get a virus, i think. i never know with my computer though - sometimes it just randomly stops working. as soon as i can afford it, i'm making the switch to mac. (anyone want to contribute to the fund?)

fortunately, i had backed up everything yesterday when it started acting wierd. so the good news is, i didn't lose anything except some old email. the bad news is, i just spent all morning reinstalling windows and EVERY software application i own. i think the computer is finally back to how i like it though.

however, while i was waiting for all the software to load, i got to start reading a book i've been meaning to get to. it's called building leaders, by a guy named aubrey malphurs who knows his stuff. so far it's excellent - very quick read with lots of good leadership development strategy.

i got to hang out with jro yesterday, which was great. i always enjoy getting to see her face to face, rather than just talking online. jro, i'll miss seeing you while you're gone - but i'll be all over your blog... so make sure to update regularly!

slept in a bit this morning (read as: until almost nine) - that felt great. long day today - work all afternoon then class until 10pm. should be fun though. ooohhh... i almost forgot. my grandma sent my birthday present yesterday: it's a silk robe with "super bill" and the superman logo on the back. words cannot describe this robe - i'll have to take a picture soon.

happy birthday to me!

2004-07-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

well, today is my birthday. i'm 25 years old - halfway to 50. 5 more years and i'll be 30. not sure what all that means, but today's the day.

so i went on a week-long blog fast. that was hard. i can't tell you how many times i was tempted to "sneak a peak" at what was going on. but it was also refreshing - it's good to be reminded that there is an outside world, and that not EVERYONE reads blogs every day. but i think i am back for now, in a lesser extent. i just have to watch myself, so that once a day blog updating and reading doesn't become five times a day. (how often does everyone reading this check other blogs for updates or to see if someone responded to your comments?)

so shannon and i went shopping and picked out a light fixture for our dining room in our new house. i am so excited - we're moving to a house in bellaire on august 13. it's so much fun - we'll be doing a housewarming party pretty quickly after that - just need time to get everything set up and settled in.

on a random side note, david domasch showed up at kaleo last night. that was random and out of the blue... haven't seen him in forever.

hello, my name is bill...

2004-07-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

and i'm a blogaholic. it's official. i am addicted to blogs. i write in mine. i read other peoples - several times a day. i think i have upwards of 13 blogs that i check consistently now. some of them more often than others. i know what happened with rebecca at jro's party last night. i know what former students from SM2 did last weekend. i know what's going on at kidventure. i know what the onyx is (ok, well not really - but i have a few ideas that i won't share).

i need a break.

as i've been praying the past few days, i really have felt a strong conviction that i'm in a bit too deep. it would be one thing if every few days i made the rounds to see what other people were up to - but that's not what i do. there are days i've spent more time looking at blogs than i did praying - and that has to change. so i'm going on a blog fast.

all this week, i won't be updating. i won't be reading. i'm even going to try to limit checking my email to twice a day. i need to spend some focused time with God. i need to write. i need to listen. so, no - i'm not dead. just away from blogland on vacation. leave me a comment and i'll get back to you when i return. OR - give me a call.. you have the number. see you all soon...

well, i did it.

2004-07-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

due to popular demand (by which i mean jessica saying i should), i switched my comment function on the blog. you can now leave really long comments, without having to chop them up. it's good, great, and wonderful. let me know how you like it.

also, i ended up losing old comments, except for the last discussion which i cut and pasted to the previous post. go back, read the comments, leave your own take.

okay, i've been playing on the computer too long. time to leave for dallas :)

another great discussion...

2004-07-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

blogs are great. they allow a form of community to happen that i believe is unique to the online enviornment. we can have amazing interaction with people we've never met face to face, but are still able to reap the benefit of their knowledge, experience, and opinion. (or we can interact with people who live ten minutes away that we see all the time...)

i'm taking part in a really good discussion about sin and the christian life over at jessica's blog - so go check it out and join the conversation.

let it be known: soon i will post a great topic, and the discussion will make its way back here.. oh yes, the good discussion will be mine once again. muah ah ah ahhh...

great article to read...

2004-07-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

this article was linked in our newsletter from acts 29 - the network of churches we're a part of. take a few minutes to read it and tell me what you think.

it's a pretty eye-opening (and right on) description of how people view the christian subculture that we've created. read and comment away - i want to hear about it!

great weekend!

2004-07-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

wow - this last weekend was very cool. here's the quick rundown:

friday: friday night shannon and i got to go have dinner together. we went over to fridays (which i hate) and got to see von. von was our favorite waiter at casa ole - he made good margaritas and had a habbit of hooking shannon and i up (as in only charging us for half of the margaritas we order). so the good news is that von will be going back to casa ole this week - said the volume just wasn't enough at fridays. which means we'll be there to celebrate with him! tuesday, thursday, saturday - home of the 99 cent margarita!

then, we went over to jeremey and jessica's house. we haven't gotten to hang out with them in a LONG time, so it was great to sit and talk. helena is walking all on her own now - she's a little speed racer. and she gets more cute by the day. we also ended up taking home a kitten (they had four kittens and were going to take them in to get adopted, but one was a runt and two little still.) so shannon and i took her home to find her a good home - and enjoy the company in the meantime. we named her daisy - and she is SO cute. she's tiny and likes to cuddle. BUT... she is not staying. i can't handle nights with her - she has too much energy. she sleeps during the day, but then decides that while we try to sleep is a good time to want to play - including trying to stand on my face and paw at me until i get up. not good - she must find a new home...soon.

saturday: saturday night we got to go out to the wallace's river house. what a great night - i won't give you all the details, but here's the highpoints: cookout, watch fireworks, set off fireworks. it is so beautiful there - i want a weekend house on the lake, with the nearest town being a tiny little hick texas town with an old school grocery store and a dairy queen. that would be so fun - but i'll have to keep dreaming on that one... probably need to buy our regular city house before we by vacation property... probably need to start saving now, and maybe by the time i'm 70...

sunday: 4th of july, baby! slept in, hung out on the couch with daisy and watched rocky 3 (the one with mr. t - i pity the foo that doesn't watch that movie), and then had our kaleo barbeque that night. that was a ton of fun - there were lots of people there, and the people who aren't a part of our church outnumbered those who were (which was one of our goals) - it really was a lot of fun. then a bunch of people came back to our place and watched movies... oh, and shannon got to shave mark's head. it's weird - i haven't seem him with no hair for awhile. but mark is cook enough that i think he could pull almost any hairstyle off (except maybe the trump combover).

this week is a busy one - we start 101 on wednesday (bible survey class for kaleo), have a dessert at our house on friday for potential core group members, then it's office space at midnight (wear your flare and meet us and the landmark theatre in river oaks!), and then on saturday morning we're going to dallas to visit matt chandler. should be a fun blogging week!

good conversation...

2004-07-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

i just left the longest comment ever on jessica's blog. she asked about church government - a subject i tend to feel pretty strongly about (because i think the scriptures speak very strongly about it). for me, it's one of those guilty pleasures - most people don't find it to be a very sexy topic, but i can't get away from it!

go here to read and join the conversation.

"Who wants to get saved?"

2004-06-29T07:29:00.000-07:00

Shannon and I went to go see the movie Savedlast night. It was actually pretty good, for a couple of reasons.

1. I'm a huge Mandy Moore fan (no, really. i am. i know i'm not a teenage girl - i just like her movies. anyone want to watch a walk to remember?) so that was a plus.

2. Macauly Culkin. All grown up. ARRRRGGHGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

3. The movie was (unfortunately) dead on for the most part. I don't think they were trying to mock Christians (at least not in the "Hey, EVERY Christian is like this - don't be a Christian" sense). However, they did pretty accurately portray the Christian sub-culture that can emerge - especially around teenagers. As I watched the movie, all I could think was "Wow. This is Teen Mania. Pastor Skip is just like Ron Luce - old guy trying to be a teenager. He even used the word "phat".

Two scenes that I loved: First, there was an opening chapel at this Christian high school, where Mandy Moore's "band" played (they were called the Christian Jewels - how classic is that?). After one cheesy song by them, and then some pep-rally "who's down with G-O-D" from Pastor Skip, he procedes to bust out with: "Alright, who wants to get saved? Who wants to give their heart to the Lord right now? It's been a long summer with lots of temptation - I'm sure some of you gave in... who wants to recommit themselves to Jesus right now?" It reminded me of the time we has a church picnic when I was at FBCB (while I was in college) and the pastor gave an altar call... that's right - we had an altar call on the lawn of the church. Nice.

Scene Two: Actually this is more of a one-liner. One of the characters in the movie reveals that he's gay, and his parents send him to Mercy House - a Christian place where they "fix" problems like that. The pastor's son in the movie says: "Mercy House really isn't for the people they send there. It just helps the people who do the sending feel better about themselves". Wow.

Anyone else seen it - any thoughts?