In Memory of a Great Friend

On Sunday night I got a call from Billy Elias of my that shook my world. "Pastor Bill, Jamie's died." I could not believe the words I was hearing. "What?" Again those terrible words, "Jamie died. He died in Tommy Boyd's arms." My heart sank to a depth of pain and grief that I haven't experience in many, many years. Immediately Matt Jacopec and who had come over our house to watch "Bend It Like Bechem" and Christine began to cry and call out to God for Ellen, for the kids, for me, for the church.

Jamie Chaney was a great man. That is the only words I can use to describe him, especially after the overwhelming expressions of love I witnessed over the past few days. He was a very humble guy from a simple little house on the beach in the Seaside. He never was into power plays or politics, but his great heart toward people eventually landed him as the chief of police at Seaside Heights, NJ. He ministered the love of Jesus to that department after a terrible tragedy that hobbled the chief that preceeded Jamie. But that is not surprising because Jamie ministered the love of Jesus to everyone, everywhere he went.

Jamie and Ellen became part of our church within the first weeks of our new church plant while we were still doing informational meetings at the Girl Scout building in Toms River. There was an immediate heart connection. Although we both had been believers for most of our lives or at least raised in the evangelical sub-culture or hearts had been recently ignited by the renewal that swept through the church in the late 90's. Jamie and Ellen had been touched by God at the Toronto Airport Vineyard in the first few months of that renewal and I had been touched by God during the move of the spirit that took place at King of Kings Community Church in Manahawkin. The move at King of Kings was a couple of generations removed from the move at Toronto and I always felt Jamie and Ellen got a stronger dose of the stuff than I did. Because of what God did for Jamie and Ellen they brought an inpartation to our church that was very unique. They brought to us a blessing of peace and wholness that we have been able to give away to many hurting people. Jamie had a strong gift of healing. When he prayed for people they would come away changed. Unlike many of the TV healing ministries, there was nothing phoney or worked up about anything that Jamie did. It was very real.

Jamie was retiring from the force in about two months and had begun studies at the King of Kings School of ministry. He was going to become more involved in the pastoral ministry of our church upon his retirement. I am trying to sort out what God is doing in this whole thing.
I experiencing deep grief mixed with deep peace that God is incontrol and that his providence is a work in this whole very bad situation.


We had set the Jamie Chaney Memorial Forum for people to post their thoughts about Jamie's home-going. Maybe you stumbled by this page looking for something on the web about Jamie. If so, here's the link to the forum: jamie forum. 

Bye-bye, Blue Bus

Praise God that my son is OK! However is '74 Baby Blue VW Bus in not. Yesterday in a new driver's error in judgement, he swerved into oncoming traffic in order to miss rear-ending a car in front of him. He side swiped a landscaper's truck and slammed careened into the woods stopping inches in front of a large tree.

I am so thankful to God. When I arrived home from doing my hospice visits yesterday, my youngest son greeted me at the door with the news that Rob had been in an accident and was at the hospital. A few minutes later my wife arrived home. She was on her way home from the scene. Rob had called her on her cell as soon as it happened. When she came home she described the accident, said Rob was covered with blood and was brought the hospital in an ambulence.

As we drove through the hospital, not sure if Rob had been seriously injured or was OK, all kinds of thoughts were racing through my head and Christine and I began to talk about what we were both thinking. How would get through it if God chose to take one or more of our kids home? Would we be able to cope? How could we go on living? Being in the ministry and doing Hospice chaplancy work, I meet people all the time who are facing the end of life for themselves or their loved one. It is very hard to see a person in their 20's, 30's or 40's struggle with cancer or some other terminal illness and watch the impact on the family. I have witnessed the suffering of other and tried offer them comfort and provide some spiritual care. But faced the the possiblity of a seriously injured son I realize that coping with loss is an even more complicated process than I thought.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we got the hospital. It turns all the cuts and bruises are minor for both Rob and the friend he was driving. He is doing fine.

He is bus however, seems like a total loss. All the driver side window exploded out, as well as the front and rear. The driver side door and front panel suffered extensive damage, sheering off part of the roof and the side pillars. Both front seats came unbolted and flew around the cab. Looking at the car, I know it is a miracle he walked away. 

Bible 'Zine?

I just got back from my weekly breakfast with two guys from church. One of them was reading the new york times magazine article on a new format for the Bible called revolve. This new is a new format for the Bible targeted for teenage girls that has the look and feel of something like Seventeen Magazine. The publishers must have struck a cord because the 'zine ranks #68 today on the Amazon.com sales rank list. That's pretty amazing. It was kind of interesting. I was just telling my kids the other day about how every respectable Jesus Person had a copy of the Way . . . a soft cover edition of the Living Bible with pictures of Hippies in it. That what I had in High School. Maybe "Revolve" will be the Way for this generation's girls. Now they need to come up with something like it for the guys.

The NYT Magazine interview is interesting read by the way. I think the most priceless exchange, betraying the fundamental ignorance that our culture has of the gospel story is this:

But Mary Magdalene, who was Christ's girlfriend, favored low necklines
and loads of jewelry.

Mary was a friend of Christ. From the Bible, we have no indication that there
was any sexual relationship with her.

You could argue that Christ was drawn to her precisely because of her
flamboyant clothing.

Christ was drawn to everyone. I think he loved Mary regardless of her
clothing.

But he does not love girls who call boys, at least according to
''Revolve''! It's positively regressive for ''Revolve'' to suggest that God made
men to be the leaders in romance.

There's no indication from Scripture that Mary Magdalene ever picked up the
phone and called Christ.

There is a Christianity Today review entitled ten things you should know about the new girls' biblezine that is a pretty interesting read as well. The author is upset at the conservative orientation of the writers of the side bars, especially in regards to their traditional slant on gender roles. The author is also upset at the embedded marketing in the 'zine.

It will be interesting to see if 'zine is a trend or just a flash in the pan. 

Hurricane Watch

Well, sometime around 2 PM tomorrow we should be experiencing what for us will be Tropical Storm Isabel. Being an almost life long shore resident, either for the summers or for the past ten years year round, I have lived through many Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. I kind of find them exciting and love to drive up to the beach and watch the awesome power of nature. It reminds me of how small we really are when I see 10 to 15 foot high swells crashing into the jetties and piers. Of course the fact that I live on the bay side rather than the ocean front gives allows me to view the impending weather with excitement rather than fear. Earlier this week my wife and were walking at the beach and folks were scrambling to nail up their 25 dollar a pop sheets of plywood to their ocean side windows.

The worst storm I lived through was a few years back. It was actually not a hurricane but a nor'easter. In fact it was the storm that was written in the book, The Perfect Storm. I was staying for a few days at my folks place in Avon-by the-Sea. The ocean had come up so far that it was washing on their front lawn which was a block west of the boardwalk. That storm depostit the beach on the road that runs along the Ocean for most of our area. It took out he Ocean Grove fishing pier and the Belmar boardwalk. 

Well, since this storm is supposed to make landfall in South Carolina, far south of New Jersey, we will just experience lots of wind, rain and big waves. I'll be driving to the beach later to take a look. Here are a couple of beach cams to keep an eye on things from the safety of the house:

• Bahr's Landing
• Belmar Beach
• Avalon
• Long Beach Island
• Monmouth Beach
• Point Pleasant

I'm Back

I'm back. Well it has been a long summer and I have completely neglected my blog. Two of my most loyal readers, Marc Richter and Jake Rinard probably think I'm dead.

Actual Marc knows I am still alive since I go to church with him every Sunday.

Speaking of which, an exciting thing that happened over the summer was Marc's talk he gave in church on Christianity in the Matrix. He talked about using online communities forming around online games as a way of developing relationships for Christ. So far only one person in our church has church has declared him a heretic.

Speaking of which, I am waiting with great anticipation for the release of Middle Earth Online. I am going to play a kind of maverick Hobbit named Olo Brambleburr. Can't wait.

Now to more serious matters. Over the past two days I had conversations with two different groups of people that were quite striking in their similarity. Aesthete I met with two guys who I fellowship with on a monthly basis who are in my church and collegaues in ministry. Today I spoke with the pastor from the local YUCCA church who is part of the Greater Toms River Ministerial association to which I belong. The common thread to both these conversations was about clergy and their need for spiritual friendships. It amazed me because my two friends from yesterday are of a clearly evangelical bent (although pretty progressive) and the person I was with today self identified herself as very liberal however to Christian to be a Unitarian universalist. So it is amazing to me about how this needs transcends theological and denominational orientation. 

These conversations are leading me to reflect on the question of what is the point of fellowship for clergy of various denominational and theological orientation. I believe issue also goes to the question of how the church is to do ministry and mission in a post-modern culture. At our clergy association meeting this morning one of the questions that was asked is what is the point of our being together and related to that -- why those clergy from a more conservative theological orientation find no value in being together with other clergy from our community. I have to believe that based on these two conversations that a common experience of pastors is need for other pastors to be their spiritual friend.

Anyway, a pretty blog in response to a pretty random two days.

Rediscovering the Joy of Gardening

For years my house has looked like the house that Malcome lives in in Malcome In the Middle. . . overgrown, underepaired, shutters hanging off the windows, etc. However, we have been slowly chipping away at stuff inside the house, making it a warm and cozy place for our family to come home to. We have finally reached the point where we can start paying attention to the exterior and so we have been having fun putting in shrubs, planting flowers and vegetables and all the rest.

Things really started to get serious when we put a lawn in. I used to watch my across the street neighbor sitting on his front steps, watching his lawn grow, putting down fertilizer, watering and mowing and laugh under my breath that I was not in such bondage. However, I have now become a slave to the lawn. We put in sod, just a small patch, because we didn't want to have to irrigate our entire 75x100 lot. The landscaper instructed me to water it deeply everyday for two weeks, give it its first mowing, and then fertilize it. Now, about a month since the installation, I understand the subltle joy of looking out your front window or from your front steps at a lush, living carpet of green. I get excited that the lawn is so healthy it needs to be cut once a week. I get thrilled when the stipes my lawn mower leaves in the grass remind me of Yankee Stadium. I breath deeply as walk up the front path and take in the pleasant aroma of growing things and good dirt.

From the lawn my interests turned to putting in shurbs around the house. I have made a little border of birds nest spruce and seasonal flowers up the path. I have made a little woodland on the grassless side of the path of Rhodadendrons and Hostas. I have started putting foundations plantings on the grass side the sweeps along the house climaxing in a arch around a new Dogwood I put in. It is taking shape beautifully. I've now started making a little utility garden in the back yard of fruit bushes, herbs and vegetables.

Yesterday my wife commented to me over breakfast, "Remember how when we first moved down here all we would do is watch our Senior Citizen neighbors work together on their yard? I wonder if that means we are becoming Senior Citizens".

I wonder

My kid got his license yesterday and is driving himself for the first time to school to play trombone in the pit for the Drama Clubs production of Camelot. I am pretty nervous. A new quandry I am working through . . . should I let my son spend 1000 bucks on a 1978 VW Bus. It supposedly runs. Shades of The Brady Bunch and Gregs first car. 

Yesterday my son's band kid go home played at the Surf and Skate Fest at Asbury Park. When he got home from the gig at around 11 PM Christine and I spent some time talking to him about his day's experiences. Surf and Skate is a 3 day festival of music built around the surfing, skating and BMXing youth culture of our area. One of the features is a battle of the bands put on by East Coast Concerts in which local bands play and the top rated bands over several nights get to play at the fest with all these well known bands. (I have never heard of any of these bands, but the kids around here love them). Anyway, Rob's band got one of the coveted spots. They reportedly had a good gig. They are going to get reviewed by a zine and two radio stations talked to them about playing some of their songs. I was happy for him. I am not happy with certain elements of the scene my son is into, in particular, the bands all have foul mouths. But there are some aspects that are quite alright. The music he plays is fun stuff the kids like to dance to, not the dark stuff I know some of the kids are into. That's a good thing. A lot of the kids in the scene are what Rob calls "straight edge", which means they don't smoke, drink, or do promiscuous sex. Rob claims to be "straight edge" and he has never given me a reason not to believe him.

Anyway, as I was reading through the program he brought home last night, I was struck again by what a mission field the kids of today are. There are so many different sub-cultures that are kids find themselves in. The sad thing is that I think being a church kid might be just another youth sub-culture that is in its own little bubble. The particular sub-culture my son occupies seems to have a spirituality, and an inner longing, however I don't know to many people who have figured out how to tap into that spirituality and point the kids to Christ. I think what is needed is another Jesus Revolution, like what took place among the hippies in the 70's. If a person called to the mission field of today's youth could figure out how to cross the cultural divide and bring Jesus to these kids, we could have a revival on our hands.

This poem is posted in commeration of the tremendous events that took place today in the center of Bagdad:

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822

God Bless America!

A follow up to Liz Smith's revelation about the elite's hatred of religious faith. I especially love the president"s perspective on prayer. I am glad to see he has not fallen into the "God on our side" error.

Sweet Hour of Prayer

By Lawrence Henry 
Published 4/7/2003 12:02:00 AM 

Another Perspective

The first time I got together with Ron Crews, the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, we started talking about Attorney General John Ashcroft, whom we both admire.

"I see the hand of the Lord" in Ashcroft's being Attorney General, Ron said. He cited the plane crash that killed Ashcroft's Senatorial opponent Mel Carnahan, the sympathy vote that swung toward Carnahan's widow, and Ashcroft's own forbearance in campaigning after the crash and then in declining to challenge the election's result. "God put him where he is today for a reason," Ron said. 

This, of course, is the kind of talk that drives secular liberals batty. They interpret it to mean: Ashcroft thinks he has God on his side. Ashcroft is trying to impose a theocracy on the United States.

And it gets worse, of course, when that kind of talk applies to the President, George W. Bush, another born-again Christian. I have heard absolute spitting contempt of President Bush expressed on National Public Radio and on the BBC by Europeans who regard religion as the cultural companion of NASCAR and the Big Mac. Gore Vidal, speaking with gossip columnist Liz Smith a few days back, said, "Mr. Bush is a 'come to Jesus' kind of fellow who believes he is doing God's work. And it explains why Tony Blair has gone along with him. He, too, is a crypto Roman Catholic and a secret Jesus lover. Together they are very dangerous."

Sorry, Mr. Vidal. There's nothing "crypto" about it, and it's no secret. The website Pray for George W. Bush has been organized since September 17, 2000. The Presidential Prayer Team (my wife has joined this one) provides a weekly Internet newsletter, radio broadcast segments, flags, mailers, "prayer reminders," an "adopt a troop" section, and links to news articles. 

Neither organization claims any official endorsement, sponsorship, or link with the administration or any part of the government. Yet the connection between George Bush and his Christian supporters is very real. He signals it from time to time, with a twinkle in his eye. In the last State of the Union message, as the President began to describe funding for his faith-based initiative, he said, of faith, "There is power…" And then he paused. "Wonder-working power," he added. This is part of the chorus of an old gospel hymn. Those of us who knew, knew. 

Prayer, and the connection to Godly power, is widely misunderstood. And it seems that it doesn't matter how often we believers explain it, it will be misunderstood. But I'll try again.

The essential prayer is, "Thy will, not mine, be done." I'm not sure if this formulation goes back to the pre-Christian Jewish tradition, but for Christians, it's clear where it comes from: Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, before his crucifixion. Matthew 26:39: "…He threw himself on the ground and prayed, 'Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want."

We pray -- and George W. Bush prays -- not for God to help us to victory, but for knowledge of God's will for us and for the power to carry out that will.

Bush himself described the relationship of the United States to God and to prayer this way: "Since America's founding, prayer has reassured us that the hand of God is guiding the affairs of this nation. We have never asserted a special claim on His favor, yet we've always believed in God's presence in our lives…Prayer reminds us that a great people must be humble before God, searching for wisdom -- constantly searching for wisdom -- from the Almighty."

Those of us who live by prayer know the experience of God sending his power to us, the feeling of having our lives on a rocket boost of joy, and having things done for us that we could not do for ourselves. We also know the feeling of going wrong, of feeling alienated from God, or even of having God rather pointedly showing us where we've gone astray.

And we wouldn't ever again trade this experience for its opposite number, the life of the ego, of panic, of social striving, of anxiety, of dread, of fragile achievements temporary as castles in sand.

We do occasionally give in to the sin of teasing unbelievers. Like when Rush Limbaugh says, "Talent on loan from God!" in his biggest, most stentorian carnie barker's voice, we know how liberals take it. Yet Rush just states a simple truth. All talent -- even Gore Vidal's -- has only been loaned, never owned.

Lawrence Henry is a writer in North Andover, Massachusetts. 

I thought this was interesting read from Gossip Columnist, Liz Smith in the April 4, 2003 New York Post. It is interesting to see how the cultural elites view devout faith.

April 4, 2003 -- 'YE SHALL hear of wars and rumors of wars," says the Good
Book in Matthew 24:6. 

Unfortunately, sometimes we hear more than just rumors. But speaking of that,
ever since the Oscars happened in L.A., there have been rumors having to do with
Michael Moore's anti-war, anti-Bush speech. This won kudos from peaceniks
and boos and hisses from many, many others. But the story going round is that
none other than Gore Vidal himself wrote or masterminded the speech given
by Moore, the winner of the Best Documentary "Bowling for Columbine." 

Famous author Vidal has his own book out from Avalon and The Nation, titled
"Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta." He tells me it is doing
well and has sold 100,000 copies. But when it comes to the Michael Moore rumor,
Gore has this to say: "I'm flattered. No, I didn't have anything to do with his
speech although I did see him recently." When I inquired why and where they had
met, Gore, who is living quietly in Los Angeles for the nonce, told me the
following:

"Some of us, a group of like-minded souls, got together just to discuss
informally who we might back to be president in the next election. We want a
leader who won't lie to us. Mr. Bush is a 'come to Jesus' kind of fellow who
believes he is doing God's work. And it explains why Tony Blair has gone
along with him. He, too, is a crypto Roman Catholic and a secret Jesus lover.
Together they are very dangerous." (Vidal loves the excessive statement!) 

I asked Gore if his group had indeed come up with anyone to run against
George Bush in 2004? He said, "Well, we don't believe anyone currently in
political life is electable. I'll tell you who is electable - don't laugh
- Oprah! Now I don't know how she'd do as a leader, but surely it would
be an improvement."

A friend of mine sent this story to me by e-mail. Very inspiring . . . .

Martin Savidge of CNN embedded with the 1st Marine battalion was talking
with 4 young marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had
been telling the story of how well the marines had been looking out for
and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the
many hardships the marines had endured since the war began and how they all
look after one another. 

He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders
and they could use his video phone to call home. The 19 year old marine
next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call
to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in
three months. A stunned Savidge who was visibly moved by the request
shook his head and the young marine ran off to get the sergeant. 

Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young
marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to
call home first, the marine closest to him responded with out a moments
hesitation " Sir, if is all the same to you we would like to call the
parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key,
Florida who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriya to see how they are doing". 

At that Martin Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All
he could get out before signing off was "where do they get young men like
this". 

Those wacky Russians . . . you never know what they are going to come up with next.

13:47 2003-01-31

Is Hussein Owner of Crashed UFO?

An UFO-related incident that occurred 
four years ago poses a troubling question whether any kind of cooperation is 
possible between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and extraterrestrials,” UFOlogist 
Joseph Trainor declared in his review UFO Roundup (issue 51 of December 
17, 2002). “On December 16, 1998, during Operation Desert Fox against Iraq, a 
video clip aired on CNN showed a UFO hovering over Baghdad; it moved away to 
avoid a stream of tracer anti-aircraft fire. At that time we all thought it was 
another UFO sighting, although captured on videotape. But now, ufologists think 
it was much more than a mere incident.

link to rest of article on pravda.

Hey all, I again must beg your forgiveness for falling down on the blog. I resolve to do better.

I must confess, I have been preoccupied with images of war on the T.V. and listening to commentary from all different positions on the subject.

I have been very disturbed by those in our press who seem to be cheering for the failure of this enterprise and report with seeming glee every casualty and obstacle to our success. How these individuals do not see that this conflict is on the same level of so many others in our history that have been fought to preserve and extend liberty I will never understand. I believe our President spoke a profound truth when he said, "Liberty is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to mankind".

It just so happens that I am in the midst of preparing for a spring concert with the Ocean County Chorus. We are singing a program of patriotic music. One of the pieces we are doing is Randall Thompson's Testament of Freedom. It is a setting of texts by Thomas Jefferson. One of those texts is from The Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 6, 1775). As I am working on this music, I am struck by how relevent the words penned by Jefferson over 200 years ago are for our current circumstances:

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtably attainable. -- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, *declare*, that exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. 

We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death. 

In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the agressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before. 

Check out this very provacative e-zine called killing the buddha. It describes itself as follows:

Killing the Buddha is a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good reasons are not and do not. If the religious have come to own religious discourse it is because they alone have had places where religious language could be spoken and understood. Now there is a forum for the supposedly non-religious to think and talk about what religion is, is not and might be. Killing the Buddha is it.

I put a link to it in my blogroll, and I hope to keep up with it. One more link in the chain of those trying to figuring out how to be authentic people of faith.

I came across a pretty cool website called method x, it's focus is spiritual formation and is sponsored by Upper Room Ministries. They have an interesting on-line test you can take to determine your spiritual "type". I came out as a "Sage". Others famous sages include:

Mr. Spock | Dilbert | Elrond
Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Maya Angelou | Linus (Peanuts)
Yoda (Star Wars) | Andy Griffith | Mr. Miyagi
The Buddha | Rodin's The Thinker | Moses
Ross Geller | Matthew (the Gospel writer) | Tiger Woods

I fell pretty flattered.

I haven't been posting for the past few days becaue I have been busy at work updating sonrise's website. I am pretty happy with how it is developing. In addition to the site, I have a created an online community at ez-board so people can interact with the stuff that is published on our site and also post prayer requests.

We are having a board meeting tonight. I hate board meetings. Partly because I feel somewhat incompatent as a manager/administrator type, and partly because I was traumatized by board meetings at my first three churches and cannot believe the peace and joy that we experience at our meetings is really real. I expect I am going to wake up any minute and discover the last 6 years have been just a dream. When I get back, if I have survived, I hope to post a little more here.

I received a very sad e-mail from our district office today informing us that my friend and colleague Pat Conolly died. He was only 37 years old. I am going to the viewing tomorrow. I am so sad for his wife and his church. (He is one of the founding pastors of New Life Fellowship in Little Falls, NJ. Sometimes God's ways are very strange to me.

On a happier note, I am really happy I joined the Ocean County Chorus. We are doing some beautiful pieces including the Testament of Freedom by Randell Thomson and the John Rutter patriotic piece. The concert is going to be really great.

Recovering a Translatable Church

There are many groups today trying to "design," "produce," even "reinvent" a "postmodern church." But is the idea of a "postmodern church" any better than a "modern church"? Do we really want to start another millennium-and-a-half cycle of culture dominating the church? Trying to be "postmodern" is sure to be self-defeating. We must move beyond postmodern mission and postmodern church. 

So says Jonathan Campbell in an article entitled postmodernism: ripe for a global harvest—
but is the church ready? in the Evagelicla Missions Quarterly. This is another article that supports my reticence about the "pomo" church movement.

Came across a great article by one of my favorites, John Piper, entitled, "brothers we are not professionals" . It is an exerpt from the book by the same name. Here is a sample:

"We are fools for Christ's sake. But professionals are wise. We are weak. But professionals are strong. Professionals are held in honor. We are in disrepute. We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but we are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless.
JOHN PIPER"

It is a passionate appeal to clergy to abandon the professionalization of the ministry that is one step along the path that has lead us to the discouraged, discontent and ineffective state the church in North America finds itself in. Read and let me know what you think.

I'm in the midst of a 3 part semon on called the "Church on Mission". It's my attempt to rearticulate for the many newcomers at SonRise the orginal vision of our church--that we will stive to be a "church on mission with God", (a.k.a. a missional church). We have talked from the beginning of our church about the need to avoid what I call "better burger christianity and the need to be mission driven rather than market driven. In my research I came across a great newletter on the gospel and our culture network website. It outlines the move of a typical modern evangelical church from the "seeker model" to a "missional model". It is well worth a read, expecially the narrative by the pastor who seeking to lead his congregation in this shift.

One of the exciting things I did during the snow was walk over to the movie theater and see "Dare Devil". (One of the great things about living in my neighborhood is that I can walk to just about everything.) I thought it was a fun movie, well worth the mantinee price for a couple hours of escape from cabin fever. My son's review was, "it was cool, but not as good a spider man". I am not familiar with "Dare Devil" in the Marvel Comics series, so I didn't have that comparison, and maybe not going into the film with any expectations added to my enjoyment. The movie had a dark look and feel. Most of the action takes place at night in the back alleys of Manhattan. It also has a spiritual element to it. The movie opens in a church, with an interaction between a priest and "dare devil" who appears to be mortally wounded. The charachter's life begins to flash before his eyes and the retelling of his life story up to the point of the encounter in the church makes up the bulk of the film. The charachter's spiritual struggle is about the tension between revenge and justice. In the end he side's with his priest, who tells him that "vengence belongs to the Lord". Of course he comes to this conclusion after an hour and a half or so of exacting vengence on all his various enemies. The film ends with a set-up for the coming sequal(s). Don't walk out at the beginning of the credits, or you'll miss one piece of the set-up. christianity today has exepts from various citics, both pro "Dare Devil" and con. If your interested in what the secular media has to say check out my favorite--rotten tomatoes, who's Tomatoe Meter rating for the film is 47%, putting it in the rotten catagory.

Well, it's been a few days since I posted anything here. We have had a "snowstorm of historic proportions" to quote the emergency notice on the municipal access channel on TV. The snow started on Sunday and continued until Tuesday mid-day. We have had over two feet of snow. I got the car dug out by Tuesday morning and was relieved to get my wheels back. The kids have not gone to school at all this week. We are waiting to see what happens tomorrow. They are worried about the roofs collapsing under the weight of the melting snow, so we will know after 4 PM if there is school.

We finally got our mail today. So much for "neither rain, nor snow, blah, blah, blah will keep the mailman from his appointed rounds". We spend yesterday digging out the mailbox because the mail carrier can't get out of his truck, nor can he back up his truck, according to our local postmaster. Anyway, things are seeming to get back to normal.

The snow storm is here. Blizzard warnings have been issued for our area. I just got back from picking up my son from his girlfriends house. The roads were passable, but you could hardly see. It's good to have a nice warm house.

I went to the release party for the CD my son's band made. It's call "a classical triumph" . I am pretty happy with it (except for the explicit lyrics). It was a pretty calm crowd. Three were about 300 people there. Only a few of them had blue spiked mohawks. One kid got arrested for moshing. It was the most exciting thing that happened the whole evening apart from the music. I was struck by the "tribal" feel of the whole thing---especially when they make a big circle and the boys "skank" in a big line around inside it. They almost look like the lost boys prentending to be indians from the old Disney "Peter Pan" movie. I was also struck with how far removed the church--any church church--not just ours---is removed from these kids. I just found out that the Charile Wear stated his web site and "pomo" ministry in response to the spiritual disconnect he was feeling with his kids.

On another note--I'm watching a cool war movie on DVD, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. I love war movies. I didn't finish it so if we get the twelve inches of snow predicted today, I'll finish it then. 

I'm following an interesting fight that the "cutting edge" people are having about the whole idea of the "pomo" church. CT has an article entitled nomo pomo---a post modern rant by Kevin Miller and Charlie Wear has responded with an article entitled nomo leado . . . I think it's so beautiful when Christians fight . I'm contributing a little mischief of my own by posting to a question raised about whether "emergent" churches are actually adding to the net growth of the church or are they just a hipper way of recirculating the saints here . . .

Well, I have been trying to figure out this blog thing and I think I am getting the hang of it. I'm still having trouble figuring out how to put archive links on this page. Since I am probably lost in cyberspace, will robinson, I don't think anyone will be coming along who can show me the way. Maybe the blog rings i signed up will help someone find me.

I'm so confused. I guess it all started when my kid turned 16 and joined a punk band. I know I am not the only clergy with a kid who is punk. (Hey, I always heard that Alice Cooper's dad was a rev. but maybe that's just an urban legend). Anyway, here I am the pastor of what I think is a hip church that I planted 6 years ago and all of the sudden I am staring out at a congregation sprinkled with kids who seem absolutely bored--bored--bored (including my punk kid). So I have begun thinking . . . how are we supposed to do church anyway? are we all doomed to be one generation churches that thrive for 20 years and then go into decline? are we captives to the sociology of organizations, or can we break out of this bondage to the way things have always been (at least for the last 50 years). So I am going to start thing out loud through this journal about figuring out the future and what it really means to be the church, to be a person who follows Jesus, to bring the kindgom of God to the culture we find ourselves in.