We made it back - sorry about the long lapse in blogging!

This morning I felt like I could’ve been in one of those cheesy Christmas specials.

I lift weights with my friend Slade each Tuesday and Thursday morning. Since the summer time we’ve been meeting to pump iron, and I think only two or three people have ever even nodded acknowledging us or anyone else. Now, I don’t expect a fitness center to be bustling with communal life at 6am, but it has kind of humored me that people can be so grumpy in the wee morning hours! (I MUST be a morning person!)

This morning was different. The hulking coach and owner of the gym busted through the front doors and drug in this giant Christmas tree setting it upright near the entrance to the gym. His tire-sized arms that have pumped more iron than you could eat in your breakfast cereal proceeded to delicately place a gold star at the top of the tree. It was hilarious to watch. Another nameless jock grabbed a few red plastic plates, and placed them all around the tree to work as “ornaments”. As a final touch, I watched as the coach grabbed the bucket of white resin bags and sprinkled the tree with “snow”.

This was a man’s Christmas tree. Who says you can’t build community at 6am?

I was playing some chess in a local Laundromat earlier this afternoon and overheard a talk-show of Jerry Springer ilk screaming on and on about something, so I spent a few minutes listening in.

Apparently, the show’s (Maury) episode was entitled, “Are you the Father?” and was showcasing several individuals who were seeking to know the truth about themselves or their child through DNA testing.

One such lady had been on this show 7 previous times, each time proposing a different suspect as father of her young boy. They showed the previous clips of each of the seven men as Maury read from the DNA results, “You are NOT the father” over and over again. Each and every time, the man would jump up in joy, screaming and jumping up and down - thrilled with the freedom that comes from not being tied to a child. The mother was a different story, almost each time, she would crumple over in the seat, crying or run off the stage screaming in despair. I was honestly appalled on multiple fronts - the woman’s promiscuity, the men’s irresponsibility and disregard for the woman’s well-being, the audience’s cheering and jeering real life tragedy, and worst of all, Maury and his production staff, for “inventing new kinds of evil all the time”.

Who will take the case for the unwed mother? For the fatherless child? Who will see past the glitz of television to feel the pain so intertwined with every fabric of our lives? I am hungry for relationships with people I can bring hope to. I am on the brink of the church’s walls - I’m ready to meet the lost face to face. How can I “be the Father”, the heavenly Father in some small way this week?

Leonard Allen is keeping me and the MRNA crew busy this week. He is a major church historian and theologian for the Restoration Movement, and his goal while we have met for Mission Alive’s Church Planting Lab is to fill eager church planters in on the common pitfalls of reactionary church planting.

There is a growing number of people interested in starting new little communities of faith all over this country. What is dangerous is forgetting that we don’t only plant a church, but we plant a little bit of ourselves too. The good and the bad DNA from our previous church experiences will be made evident in every church we plant.

Gotta go!

The semester is over! Sunday’s are always great because we have the whole morning and afternoon completely free! Since Katrina and I have both been AM church goers for our entire lives, we really don’t know how to fill our schedules up on Sunday’s, which makes things even better.

This morning, I slept in and was still pretty groggy when we left for grocery shopping at around 9:45pm. Afterwards, we stopped at our favorite bookstore and spent about an hour just checking out some of the latest books. Today specifically - we looked at books about Chicago, a city we plan to spend a day “prayer-walking”, trying to discern if this is where God wants us to be after Abilene. We ate an early lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse - it was completely empty, which made for a nice relaxed meal. This afternoon has been pretty quiet too - and I like it like that.

This is the time of year when rest and quiet usually go out the window. We can’t find “peace on earth” any easier during the Christmas holiday than any other time of year. In fact, there is probably more anxiety and depression floating through the air right now than all the rest of the year combined. (Excluding April 15!)

I believe God made us for work, and for rest. Our culture shouts at us that if we are not producing or consuming, we are not “spending” our time well. Christ can be seen clearest when we lay down our pick axes and credit cards, and simply see his act of death and resurrection as a means of selfless love. Neither producing, nor consuming - just a presence of love.

Maybe I’ll go sit on the front porch for awhile…