12 Witnesses

I’m at a family reunion at Heber Springs, AR. If you are looking for a good getaway, you should check out Lindsey’s Resort. They are a Christian family with a family run environment on the Little Red River, which is fed out of a dam, making the water temperature about 50 degrees. Native fish can’t really thrive in that cold temperature, so they stock the river with Rainbow Trout, and it’s good.

Anyway, here are some pictures from this morning. If you like these, you can check out my photoblog for more.

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“I like to call it ‘grajimication,’” said my love, showing her sense of humor that is heavily dosed with silly, but only when you get to know her.

My lovely and talented wife “grajimcates” tonight with a Master’s Degree in School Administration. No, she still has a semester to go in the class taking arena, but they parade across the stage with caps and gowns (that just arrived at the bookstore the day prior, no less) and they do it tonight. I mean, if you are 3/4 of the way through your Master’s Degree, why not get the thing anyway? Right? Surely, you’ll finish.

Well, we can all guess that the only thing she’ll get tonight is a folder where a degree might one day reside, but the honors go out early.

She is finishing this degree at the Tulsa location of the University of Oklahoma, where she had always intended to attend as a young lady growing up in Clinton, OK. That she attended the school loathed by almost every Sooner fan, Oklahoma State in Stillwater, is a mystery. While the Orange and Black still has something for her, the Crimson and Cream has risen to the top and OU paraphernalia is showing up around the house.

Of course, not as much as the “Jenks wear” that everyone has. I think she keeps the Trojan Shop in business over in Jenks, where she now works. That is, she works at one of the schools in one of the top rated school systems in the state, not the Trojan Shop.

Although, if she got a part time job there, she might get some discounts on some of the clothing… Never mind. She buys enough there already that she gets a bulk discount.

What can we say? She’s proud of her school.

Well, here’s to the near matriculation of my love. Congrajifizations.

For my beautiful and loving wife, the Math nerd.

[edit - Actually, my wife, said math nerd, checked him and he did miss two of the three digit numbers. It takes a math nerd to want to check the mathemagician. She says, while sitting next to me, “Accuracy is important in math.” Of course it is. That’s why she’s the best.

Pardon the interruption of the Better Blogging series, but I need some discussion here.

My wife got into a spiritual conversation with some co-workers and one asked this question: “Why didn’t Jesus write the New Testament?” Her co-worker said that it would have been easier for him to trust the Bible’s accuracy and weight if he knew that Christ had written the New Testament, rather than having it left to people to remember what He said and record it.

Bonnie’s response, off the top of her head, was that the people didn’t understand Jesus and His mission until after the resurrection, which gave validity to the claim of Godhood. Before that, His writings might not have had the weight that even the Apostle’s writings had after the the resurrection.

I thought that was not bad.

Another co-worker speculated that He might not have been able to write, as the son of a carpenter.

I told Bonnie when she related the story to me that I thought that the Bible would lead us to believe that He was educated, unlike the delineation for Peter and John in Acts 4.

My simple answer is that we don’t know “why” God does anything, but that answer doesn’t always satisfy the curiosity of those seeking. In fact, we can never fully satisfy a seeker, but the Holy Spirit must convict and draw them to the conclusion.

Still, I think this is a great discussion. So how would you answer this question from an earnest seeker of truth?

I am. Kind of, I mean. Not a total cynic. I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to many things. Some atheists would probably scoff at that thought, but that is just that I am skeptical of their lack of faith, while they are skeptical of my faith.

There is nothing wrong with skepticism. It must not dominate your mind, but without it, we would be “blown about by every wind of doctrine,” or have minds “like waves tossed about by the wind.”

Nevertheless, I am more skeptical than most. I was raised by skeptics - really good ones - and that makes me a skeptic of skeptics, a logician of logicians and a critic bred of critics. As to the doubters, flawless. You get the picture.

Now, that is the natural man in me. The Holy Spirit at work in me causes me to become more nurturing, trusting and -gulp- forgiving of those not quite up to my standards. (Yes, skeptics make great legalists…)

Well, He’s working on me anyway.

That is why I roll my eyes at New Year’s Resolutions. “Oh, please!” I say. “If you are all fired up to make these changes in your life, why did you wait? Why not diet in November and December when it might actually help you?” The evidence is also on my side. These things never work out. You will do them for a while and then quit. Gym regulars hate January and February when Resolute Patrons come in, hog the machines and crowd the floor… until they are no longer resolute. It starts thinning at about 6 weeks.

I think most resolutions fail because they are impossible for anyone but the Lord, Jesus, Himself. “I will pray for one hour every day.”

Really?

Now I know people who do that. At times in my life, it has been me. But you don’t just start to do that if you haven’t been growing into it. Why not, “I will pray sincerely every day.” Let it grow into an hour or more.

So I ask you again. Are you a cynic? If so, move on. Nothing else for you to see.

If, however, you are a true believer…

If you have been a little irritated by the post thus far…

If you have made it thus far, but you don’t know quite why…

I offer you my New Year’s Resolutions.

• I am resolved to spend time alone with God every day. Unless absolutely impossible, it will be structured because the best growth I have ever experienced was a structured time and my shrugging off the legalism of it has now become a bit of laziness and the allowing of other things to distract me. It will include introspection, praise, confession, thanksgiving, supplication for my own shortcomings and intercession for the needs of others. Of course, it will also include marinating in the Word of God.

• I am resolved to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ beyond the confines of my personal comfort. This will include, specifically, at least one mission trip to Vietnam, but will also include mission trips to Lowe’s, Starbucks, Subway, the neighborhood in which I live and the neighborhood in which I worship.

• I am resolved to take better care of my body by eating less and exercising more. Specifically, I am going to moderate my calorie intake and walk as often as the weather will cooperate. No fad diets. No weights or treadmills. I will, however, need a new iPod, since my old one has bitten the dust. Think that will work with my wife?

• I am resolved to establish several new relationships that will challenge me in ministry at the church, personal spiritual growth and personal growth that has nothing whatsoever to do with church.

• I am resolved to spend more time with my family. Specifically, I will date my wife more and take my kids out on their own - just me and them. We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks before Christmas while my wife was still in school. It was awesome and we had a great time.

• I am resolved to be less cynical. I will do everything I can to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, trust where He leads and question that which stands opposed to His Word. I will allow less sophisticated offerings to God from those who are less experienced and less educated… those not quite as, ahem, perfect as me (tongue firmly in the cheek)… to be just that: imperfect offerings of imperfect children of God. Certainly they are no less appreciated than my precisely crafted offerings with flaws just as glaring to the God who receives them both, even if they are not apparent to me.

Still working on the comments, which are still down, but I can still post. I know it’s late on Friday, but here’s a couple of pics of my in-laws house last night after a snow fall. It’s late, so the shutter is open for a while and since I didn’t have a tripod, there is a hair’s worth of blur if you blow it up. Still, it’s not bad, though, given the circumstances.

I don’t have as many cool pictures as some of my friends who have also been buried in ice this week. I left my camera at the church and didn’t want to get out to go get it - primarily because of the man driving his pick up truck down the ice free street only to have a telephone pole fall directly onto the cab of the truck with live power lines dangling from it. Although he probably died instantly, the rescue workers couldn’t even attempt to save him until PSO turned of the power to those lines. Obviously, it was tragic.

It was also informative, as far as I was concerned. I had power and risking my life for the sake of having a camera nearby just didn’t make sense - so I didn’t do it. Our places looked pretty much like the others you have seen on the net over the last two days.

As debris was cleared from the streets and trees, poles and whatever else quit falling, several church members made their way to the church to open the kitchen and Family Life Center to warm and feed those in need. I am so proud of our church and the deep desire there is to reach out to those in need. We have shifts opening and closing the church and shifts of people feeding those who need a meal. The church next door is a Red Cross Disaster Relief Shelter, and we are the overflow for them.

We just got a phone call from Baptist Disaster Relief and they are sending a chain saw crew to come stay with us. We’ll feed, house and research places for them to get out and clear limbs from peoples’ yards. Baptist Disaster Relief is one of the best things we do as Southern Baptists, and are glad to help these folks do service to our community.

Pray for us. The forecast is for a couple of inches of snow over the weekend and we still have many, many without power in our city and state.

These are some pictures one of our church members sent of a flag football game we had at church on last Sunday. Like many churches, we had a fellowship meal Sunday night in lieu of services. Prior to the game, the Old Men (over 18) took on the Young Guns (18 and under) in a fun game in near perfect conditions. We had a rather large crowd complete with cheerleaders of all ages. Old Men beat the Young Guns, 35-7. I think they are laying in wait for revenge.

This isn’t just a story of a concert. Mostly, it is, but there are few Missional observations as well. Just in case you are wondering if it is worth it to read the whole thing…

I survived the David Crowder Band concert at Cain’s Ballroom last night. I say “survived” because “historic Cain’s Ballroom” is a young person’s game. It is loaded with history, and Crowder even referred to it last night. Not only is it the original home of the Texas Playboys and western swing, but the Sex Pistols played there on their American tour, right before they became famous. Click on the history link on the home page, and you will find an amazing story there. The cutting edge up and coming punk rock band paved the way for a whole slew of other rock bands on their way up as well. Included in that list are heavy hitters like the Ramones, Van Halen, Nirvana, and the Police. Also included are pop bands like INXS, Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis and the News, the Talking Heads and more.

It is also still set up as a ballroom, in which there might be dancing, though it is almost exclusively used for concerts now.

Do you get it, yet?

One small room, wide open/spring loaded wood dance floor - no chairs. Just a crowd, albeit a fairly diverse and respectful one. More on that a little later, but back to the no chairs thing. Ouch!. My feet and back were killing me after four hours, and now, having slept for about four hours, my feet and back have quit hurting but my knees and hips are aching.

As I said, it’s a young person’s game to go to a concert at Cain’s.

That’s not exclusively true, though. Last night there were kids and folks in their 50’s, or even older all hanging out together to enjoy the hilarity and musical mechanizations that is the David Crowder Band. Teenagers with knit hats, thumb rings and other piercings in places I had not previously considered options for jewelery stood alongside dads with young kids on their shoulders and professionals with nice shoes, sports coats and hair that was very intentionally and immovably messy.

He brought up an 11 year old who was having a birthday and led the crowd in singing to him.

At one point, Crowder brought out a Guitar Hero game controller that had been reprogrammed by the drummer and played a song with it. That’s not to mention the constant wit and charisma with which he entertains and motivates the crowd.

During the obligatory “pump up the crowd” portion of the concert, Crowder would ask us to sing after him and, predictably, it was not a full throated roar. To this he responded, “That was… that was… very… POLITE… Tulsa, that was very polite. Polite is not what we’re going for here, though. Rowdy. Rowdy is what we need here. Pitch has nothing to do with this. We’re not looking for pitch, we’re looking for noise. This is a night for loud and souding good has nothing to do with this. For those of us who can’t sing, this night is for us, ok?” Of course, the crowd went nuts.

We took our kids to the concert because they love DCB. Being new to Tulsa, we didn’t know the set up before, or we might not have gone. We stood for a looooong time and the show started late. The warm up acts were good, I suppose, but I had not heard of them and didn’t know their music. In light of my quickly tiring body, I was not yet “in the moment.”

Bonnie went to the bathroom, and to do that, she had to go through a side room on the Cain’s - the bar. Now the bar was not doing a brisk business last night, due to the make up of the crowd, but there were a few in there who were resting from, well frankly from being old or young. My kids were a little overwhelmed by the crowd and the noise so we made our way to the bar. Not long after we were there, we noticed a few people smoking - it was allowed there, but not in the main room. Also, there were a few drinks being consumed. We had asked if our kids were allowed there, and they said they were, so we shrugged and watched the show on the enormous projection screen. This is pre-Crowder, still.

Looking over at a few people who were drinking and smoking, my wife and I exchanged eye contact and she leaned over and said, “This is where church OUGHT to be.” I nodded. I thought about the statement made not long ago in a sermon where I had said, “I am the church. You are the church. The church is not here, it is where we are. We have to quit doing church and start being the church outside these walls.” Apparently, Crowder has begun to speak to many people outside of “church.” Bonnie told me of a conversation with a co-worker who is not a believer, but who knew of DCB. It may have been that some of these showed up to a concert attended by the otherwise very wholesome and sanctified crowd. I thought to myself that my wife had never read a book about being “Missional,” but I am pretty sure she “gets it.”

When DCB came out, we went down the hall to a side door that deposited us just to the side of the stage. We had a great view and everyone was re-energized.

After a while, the security guard saw my kids and invited them to sit just inside the security rail in front of the stage. They had a bench for kids all the way across the front so that they could see. Bonnie led my kids in. When I saw where they were sitting, I asked if I could go sit by my family. The security guard said that adults weren’t supposed to be there, only kids, but he thought my daughter wouldn’t go without someone. My wife kept waving me over, and I finally was able to explain to her that he had said, “no.” I was able to put my hand on the security guard’s shoulder and tell him not to worry that he had not broken any directives. My wife is the biggest kid you’ll ever meet.

When it comes to concerts, my wife will race, push, shove, stand and wiggle to get to the front, if she can. So here is my last camera pic of the night. It is my wife and 40 other kids sitting just inside the barrier with the best seats in the house.

That’s her in the middle of the shot - closer to center than my daughter and son. They are wearing ear plugs, by the way. That is, my children are wearing ear plugs. My wife is just soaking it all in.

One of the final things that I will mention is that DCB has called for folks attending the concert to bring socks and towels to every show. They are taking them to the local homeless shelter. The up front statement was that we didn’t want to just all get together and have a warm, fuzzy feeling as the end result. “We want to actually DO something,” they said.

Crowder told the story of the Houston concert where they had this enormous pile of towels and socks. The shelter came to pick them up and brought a couple of men who were living there to help. When they saw the stuff donated to the mission, they began to cry. Crowder spoke of being touched to the core at seeing the impact of ministering to people in the name of Jesus.

He said that when the people of God gathered in a place, there ought to be something that impacted the people among whom we live come out of us getting together, no matter where or when. That’s good stuff.

I am not blogging the Spiritual Disciplines today - in spite of starting a sermon series last Sunday and inviting my entire congregation to check my blog on Tuesday for the SD posts.

Frankly, I am at the busiest point of my ministry career - that is EVER in ministry - and I haven’t had time to think through the discipline of Guidance. I will throw a link to all the other posts on Spiritual Disciplines, and one to Joe Kennedy’s blog where the full list of the SD bloggers can be found.

Meanwhile, today is my daughter’s 11th Birthday. Happy Birthday, Hannah. Daddy loves you more than life.

Meanwhile, I am reading a bit more and meeting with other pastors in the area more as well. This has helped me think through some of our church issues and has sharpened me considerably.

I am headed down to Georgia to pick the collective brain of the staff of New Bethany Baptist Church in Buford, pastored by Marty Duren. That’s next week.

Finally, I have created a Facebook page, which you can see by clicking the picture on the placeholder at the top of the sidebar. I know that I am late coming to that game, but I can say that I beat Marty who created his own page, sans picture, merely a few hours after I created mine and put the placeholder in the sidebar of my blog. Coincidence???

I have procured the audio of Frank Page’s Q&A with Tulsa Metro, and hope to have it up later in the week. I have to rip it to an mp3 and then find a good plugin to use with Wordpress, so that you can listen in. If anyone has a suggestion for a plugin, I am open.

Now you know what’s going on in my world.