Soul Renovatus

The power of narrative...

I'm becoming more convinced of the power of narrative in preaching and teaching...

It's initially strange to think that I'm learning these lessons teaching 5th and 6th graders.

However, we've been experimenting with our teachings.  Many times we like to talk about the story.  That is, we mention a passage of Scripture, and then we explain it's application to our daily lives. 

But what if we just told the story period? Instead of becoming good preachers and teachers, what if we became good storytellers?

Here's an example, in our latest series, we told the story of Moses and the burning bush.  How many times have we heard that story?  But what is it about the story that makes it so compelling?  What seems to be the point?

Well, in the case of Exodus 1-3, we decided that God always hears the cry of the oppressed (surprise, surprise).

So, with that in mind, we asked ourselves, How do we capture that one idea and crafted a good story out of it?  How can we let the story speak for itself with that one point in mind?"

Well, we decided to tell the story, but omit all of the characters.

We talked about slaves, and how they were slaves for a long time, about how an evil slave master killed off all of the boys.  Consistently throughout the story, we had everyone yell, HELP!!  We also had the slaves ask the same questions:

"God, can you hear us? Do you even care?"

These two questions were littered throughout the entire story.

We inserted a son, who was miraculously saved from the evil master, and eventually seeing these slaves being beaten.  They continued to cry help and ask those two questions.  The son thought it would be great to beat the slave master himself, to feel like one of the slaves.  The slaves didn't react to well to this.  The son ran away.  He saw something strange...something like a flame.  It spoke.  And it said...

"Moses, I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard their cry and felt their suffering, and I'm coming to HELP."

Now...there were some details I left out for the sake of brevity, but can you get a glimpse of the power of narrative?  All throughout the story, the vibe was, "Does God really care about us?  When we're in a lowest moments, does God hear us when we cry out?"  The end of the story says YES.  But we didn't have to tell them about that point.  We just let the story say it for us.

I remember stories much more than I remember teachings about the story.  I guarantee your students (and any age you teach) will as well.  We always remember good stories over great teachings.

We need more great storytellers. 

Chronicles [007]

September 14, 2009

Well, this is week 2 of the semester, so another early morning to rise I had to get Grace to school. Today, I was scheduling Julia to go to the massage therapist and chiropractor, which I would do when I got back with Grace.

Julia was still looking the same, and I was extremely fearful that I wasn't going to get much sleep tonight.  I still feel wiped and I know if Julia doesn't get better soon I don't know how much longer I can survive this.

Once I get Grace to school, I come back and schedule and hour appointment immediately with the massage therapist and chiropractor.  I just hoping that she has some relief when she's done.

In the meantime, I start working on some Fifty6 stuff from home for the next hour, and we're off to the appointment around 10am. 

While Julia gets her massage, I decide that I will get an adjustment.  I'm extremely due for one.  My chiropractor asks me how my week was (I start laughing).  I quickly review the week, get an adjustment and wait to see what happens with Julia.

She comes out of the room looking like a new person.  She had a brightness to her face, and almost looked normal.  They told her to come in every other week for 30 minutes to help with the muscles in her neck and back.  I also worked out a deal with the chiropractor to not pay as much considering it's extremely expensive to do this for Julia. At this point, I just need her to be better.

The chiropractor recommended an osteopath in Zeeland for Julia to see. We would look into that once we got home. 

We stopped and got some food on the way the home, and I quickly got ready to head off to work at the bookstore.  Julia said she felt fine enough to get Grace at 6:15ish, but I knew there was a possibility I might have to come home early to pick her up. I was praying that wouldn't happen because this was the first day of Monday night classes, which meant we would do a lot of business between 5-6.

I tried to study at the bookstore, but the crazy schedule was catching up to me; I would find myself dozing off immediately as soon as I tried to read a book. So I just kept myself busy with bookstore projects until I got out of there at 7:15.

Once I got home, I put Grace to bed, and saw that Julia was finally doing her homework for school.  She had basically missed a week of her class (which is hard considering it's a 7-week accelerated class), but it looks like her prof is extending grace.

I, on the other hand, tried to study downstairs, and immediately started falling asleep.  I'm officially starting to get worried considering I know I have a TON of Hebrew homework to do, and I know it will take me at least 3-4 hours to get it done.  I tell Julia that I'm going to bed early and get up at 3am.  I set the alarm for 3am and go to sleep on the couch.

Worst Part of the Day: Continually dozing off when I stopped to study; is this ever going to end?

Best Part of the Day: Finally seeing Julia look better. There might be some hope.

Adam was still home, so Julia got to see him one last time before he headed back home to Ohio.

Chronicles [006]

September 13, 2009

An early rise this morning.  Obviously Julia isn't coming to church this morning so I've got to get Grace up and ready to go with me.

I am supposed to be at Mars Hill by 8:15am, by the time Grace gets ready and we're off we get there at 8:25am.  I'm already starting to feel exhausted from the events of the weekend so far.

Today is the kickoff for Fifty6, and I just decide that's what I'll focus on instead of everything else, so it's just craziness and fun for two services.  Grace went to the children's church (they call it KidsKove) for both services.

I go to get Grace to which they proceed to tell me that she wasn't very social today. She just banged her head against the wall in a corner.  They said she just wanted to be with me.  Given she had hardly seen me all week, I couldn't blame her.  I felt awful and saw what I finally had thought, this last week was extremely hard on her as well.

I kept her with me because I had a 1pm meeting with the Fifty6 team.  She was great (as usual).  I let her play on my computer the whole time (we were at Panera) and she was just fine.

After the meeting we finally went home, and I tried to take care of Julia some more. She was still feeling pretty awful, as the doctor's diagnosis wasn't satisfactory.  I spent the next 2-3 hours cleaning, watching NFL games, and trying to take care of Julia.

After a few hours of cleaning up, I put Grace to bed and decided that I would head off to play some darts.  Adam (my bro-in-law) had hardly seen me this weekend and I knew if I didn't get out there I wasn't going to see him again at all (considering I had to get out of the house early on Monday).  I went and played there for a couple to three hours, came back home, and fell asleep somewhere around 12:30am.

Worst Part of the Day:  What else? Julia still being sick and not knowing what's wrong.

Best Part of the Day: The Fifty6 kickoff.  It was great to see all the hard work pay off.

Thus ends day [006].

Chronicles [005]

September 12, 2009

The day starts early as I’m up before everyone trying to get things packed up and ready to go for Grace.  Grace wakes up, I get her some breakfast, and we’re off to Mars for Fifty6 training.  I’m already 10 minutes late, and I get the distinct feeling the others there are a little perturbed.  I get this feeling that I’m a little too self-absorbed about my circumstances or something.

I’m flying around setting stuff up, and thankfully Grace is playing with Ralphie, allowing me some time to think about what I’m actually supposed to be doing there.

I was totally out of it for training, thinking about this CAT scan at noon and wondering what the results were going to be. We leave early (and I found out I’m missing Thai for lunch L) and get home to grab Julia and head off to the hospital.

We get there, and of course, the place is dead.  It was an urgent care facility, which doesn’t find itself busy on Saturday.  There was also no access to food, which really sucked because I hadn’t eaten a blessed thing at all, just a big cup of bad coffee.  Julia had a granola bar in her purse, and I gave Grace a fruit snack that was there as well.

The nurses came out and told me we couldn’t go back with Julia, which worried all of us. They said it would take 10 minutes, which I thought originally would take an hour, so I was encouraged it would be done quickly.

It wasn’t.

It took over an hour.  Of course, no one had come out so I was beginning to worry more.  I called Adam (my bro-in-law) to tell him that I would probably miss the only dart tournament we had a chance of playing together in.  I told him I’d let him know how it worked out.

I also forgot to tell Asher about the CAT scan, and the fact that I took Grace instead of her picking her up at the church.  I didn’t know what else to say than sorry.

The docs finally come out at 1ish (over an hour later) and say, “We need to speak with you a moment.”  “That’s reassuring,” I thought to myself.  Julia is sitting in a wheelchair, looking like she went through some traumatic experience, to which the nurses told me she had tremors and recommended she go to urgent care for the extreme nausea she was feeling at the moment.

Thankfully, the urgent care rooms were right down the hallway.   I immediately starting thinking about how hungry Grace would be.  So I scrounged up some change and got her a Milky Way candy bar (which was the only options they really had in the vending machine). 

Julia looks worse than when we entered into the facility.  I call Adam and tell him there’s a 95% chance I won’t make it to the 3:15 tournament we’re supposed to shoot together in, and inform him that I might not even be there at all.  I had no idea how long we were going to be in urgent care.

The doc comes in, asks if she wants anti-nausea medication (I said yes immediately), and asks if we want blood work done to see if there’s anything else (to which I said yes immediately). 

In the meantime, I called my brother-in-law to let him know I wouldn’t be shooting with him this afternoon, and most likely tonight. I was also extremely hungry and tired, which I’m sure didn’t make me very patient with Grace, who I was trying to keep from going to crazy with all of the instruments in the room.  She was wonderful the whole time.

The doc came pack to give us the diagnosis: nothing on the CAT scan, nothing in the blood work, so they concluded…tension headache.

I’m not a doctor, but that sounded like a cop-out.  In fact, I was extremely upset.  I was glad it wasn’t anything more serious, but I felt like they knew nothing and tried to dismiss it as something else.  Granted, Julia is tense, but it has never caused this degree of pain.  We got a prescription for anti-nausea medication and recommendation to go to a massage therapist.  That was the best advice I heard the whole day. 

We got some food on the way home, ate, and I cleaned up the house a little while Julia rested.  Asher got back, and I decided I could make it for one tournament with Adam.  I ended up shooting my best game of darts ever, considering I was a little more relaxed that it wasn’t a tumor, and came back home around 10ish.

I tried to watch the rest of the Ohio State game, but fell asleep.  I woke up in the final minute to watch them choke.  I went to bed soon after.

Worst part of the day: Losing confidence in traditional medicine.

Best part of the day: Knowing it wasn’t a tumor.

End of day [005].

Chronicles [004]

Waking up at the early 6:30am time again. I had to get Grace ready for school this morning since Julia is still sick.  I already know this means I'm taking Grace to school again.  So I get her up early to get her breakfast and get started.  She also gets to eat some breakfast at the school early (yesterday she ate Lucky charms...and no, she's not supposed to eat that).

Thankfully, there's no classes today, but there will be some busy times at the bookstore, and I'm scheduled 8-2.  Julia is also up and still feeling the same.  I tell her to call the doc to schedule an appointment.

I get all my stuff together to try to study while I'm at the bookstore, and head out the door.  I arrived at the bookstore at 8am, and began wrapping up all the loose ends I didn't get to yesterday.  I thought I might have a couple of hours to get some study time in, but still wasn't sure at this point.

I was looking forward to tonight.  My brother-in-law is driving up from Ohio to play in a big dart tournament this weekend.  He was leaving around 11am to get to our place around 4.  

The bookstore got busy, and I tried to squeeze some church emails and studying in between.  That didn't really work out too well.

Julia calls in the late morning and tells me her appointment is at 1:45.  That means I'll have to shutdown early around 1pm so I can take her to the doctor. 

I leave around 1:10, fly home, get Julia, and head off to the doc.

We get to the doctor, and the nurse takes Julia’s blood pressure.  It’s ridiculously high, to the point where the nurse took it again to just make sure.  Yep. Same reading.  She rushes to get the doc. After about 5 minutes of consulting with the doc, she orders at CAT scan.  This is where I officially start to get worried.

To complicate matters, this weekend was the biggest dart tournament wouldn’t matter.  Which really shouldn’t matter much, except for the fact that my brother-in-law is over halfway in a 5 and half hour drive from Ohio to play with me.   I immediately talk to our friend living with us, Asher, about the possibility of watching Grace for some time this weekend.  She is more than happy to rearrange her schedule (to which I was extremely grateful), providing some hope of navigating all of these schedules this weekend.

I was also scared knowing that studying was probably going out the window this weekend as well, and knowing that I have a ton of work to do in Hebrew in Greek, doesn’t make it sound very encouraging once Sunday night/Monday morning comes.   I drop Julia off at home, pick up Grace at school, and an hour later greet my brother–in-law as he walks in.  I tell him of the situation, informing him that we’ll probably miss the first tournament of the night so I can wrap up some things.  Julia doesn’t want me to go at all.  I’m not sure how to navigate, but I take care of everything I can before I go and off to go to darts.   Of course, I shot the worst darts in 6 months.  All I was thinking about was the CAT scan that got scheduled for 12 noon tomorrow.  I was thinking the worst.  I know Julia was too.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  If I didn’t play darts tonight, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be seeing my brother-in-law at this weekend, and he’d be by himself, not knowing anybody playing darts.   It was too much.    I ended up getting home around 11ish, giving Julia some massages and letting her fall asleep.  I was also making preparations for tomorrow morning, because we had Fifty6 training early in the morning.  I had to take Grace with me, which made me worry even a little more.   I tried to study some Hebrew, but found myself dozing in and out.  These vowels are going to kill me though. I’m hoping it gets a little easier once we get this down.

Worse part of the day:  Hearing we have to get Julia a CAT scan. What if she has a tumor?

Best part of the day: Not much, other than seeing my brother-in-law and Grace for some more extended time.  

So ends day [004].

Chronicles [003]

Another day in what's going on in my life.  You can follow the Chronicles tag on the sidebar for other installments.  I don't expect you to.  This is more so I can have record of what happened in this season of my life.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

I woke up before my alarm went off this morning again.  Maybe my body is preparing itself for the crazy day that's ahead.

I know right away that my plate is full today.  I'm going to be driving all over the place, running to meetings, and working the bookstore at various hours throughout the day.

Once Grace got up, I knew immediately that it was very likely I was taking Grace to school this morning.  This is the first time this week I've had to do this, and I got worried quickly.  My morning routine did not include getting Grace to leave earlier than she was used to. Julia was unable to even get out of bed, so it was up to me to get her dressed, make breakfast and lunch for her, and try to make her hair look presentable, while packing her backpack.

This didn't include the fact that I had to pack my stuff too.  I decided that I was going to go out to eat today.  Making lunch will take another 5 minutes I didn't have.

I finally got everything ready (Grace included) and we were out the door by 7:35am, 5 minutes past what I usually do.  I dropped Grace off quickly, and was off to try to make my Hebrew class by 8:00am.  Traffic was nuts, but I made it to class with 2 minutes to spare, giving me time to run upstairs and grab some coffee from the holy shrine (see Chronicle [001] for an explanation). 

Hebrew was overwhelming. Not only did I feel like I don't have the alphabet mastered, but also the transliteration of that alphabet.  Dr. Lawlor just moved on to combining these letters together, introducing us to more forms, and giving us a monster assignment over the weekend.  I really wouldn't fret over this except my weekend is entirely booked.  I have to study tonight to get ahead and not feel the brunt Sunday night when I sit down to tackle it some more.

About 5 minutes before class ended, Julia called me to let me know Grace was in the nurse's office.  Great.  I don't need 2 sick girls!  I was worried about how this will impact the upcoming weekend, knowing that I'm booked through the whole thing.  Julia was still unable to get out of bed, so I had to book out of there, go home and grab some medicine, and head over to the school to give it to her and see how she was doing. Oh yea, and I have a 10:30 meeting, a very important one at Mars.

I knew I was going to be late.  I called Jim, and he made a impromptu decision to meet at the Biggby near the school.  Great call!  I fly home, get the medicine, go to the school, see that Grace is fine, give her the medicine, and head off to Biggby.

The meeting lasted an hour-and-a-half. We planned the specifics of the arc that I will be co-teaching with Mike Edwardson in October and November.  The meeting was important because we would presenting this before the Formation team, which meets at 1pm.

I called Julia on the way to let her know Grace was okay, and see how she was doing.  Not any better. I'm starting to get worried now.  I told her I will pick up the farm food (we are part of Trillum Haven Farm's Co-op) and bring it home before I had to work at the bookstore.

I grab a quick bite to eat to go, fly over to Mars with 10 minutes to spare, get my bearings, and go through another meeting until 2:30pm. After a quick follow-up with Josh I headed off to the farm.

I get to the farm, grab all of the food, and fly home.  I drop off the food, sit with Julia for 5-10 minutes (pretty much just holding her as she sobs...I feel awful for her), and then head back to the seminary to work my bookstore shift.

Bette (my co-worker) was surprised and relieved to see me.  She thought she had to work until 7 (she started at 10am and was in my Hebrew class at 8am).  I informed her that she's scheduled till 5pm, to which she called me "her hero" and gladly got me some Qdoba for dinner. :)

The bookstore was busy as expected, but I had enough time to separate my Hebrew vocab cards for the next two lessons so I didn't have to rummage through them.  I decided to but a pre-made set of them because I was afraid of my Hebrew writing skills.  I figured I'll already be writing enough of it so it'll be nice to have a good set of vocab cards.

I closed up shop and got out of the bookstore at 7:20pm.  I get home, told Grace to get ready for bed, and immediately headed outside to mow the lawn.  Once I did that, I chopped up the vegetables (we share them with another couple in our house church) and got Grace into bed.

Thankfully, Asher (she is living with us and part of the FIfty6 Formation team) was doing the massive pile of dishes on the counter that I hadn't touched in 2-3 days.  That was my next task after getting Grace to bed, so I was extremely grateful to her for diminishing the pile.

Julia was still feeling bad, and asked for a neck massage.  This meant I sat on the couch, gave her a massage, and watched the US Open and the NFL game.  At first, it was nice to actually sit down and relax.  At the same time it was awful because I suddenly remembered that I only had two-and-a-half hours of sleep, and this was the first time I slowed down.

Wouldn't ya' know, I fell asleep and woke up at 11:45, which blew away all of my intended study time.  There was no way I was going to start now, and figured for the sake of the weekend I better go to bed now to get some semblance of sleep.

Worst part of the day: Feeling like a human ping-pong ball, going back and forth between class, meetings, and work, and missing my study time at night I desperately needed.

Best part of the day: Being called a "hero," and Jim adjusting to my unplanned opportunities.

And thus ends day [003].

Chronicles [002]

Well, I'm already a day behind, but I've started a rhythm to chronicle what's going in my life.  The only purpose is for me to look back and reflect, hoping to find God in it.  Every post is tagged under "Chronicles."

Wednesday, September 9th [002]

Woke up later than I wanted at 6:55am, which meant I only had about half-an-hour to get Grace's lunch, my lunch, and all of things packed together, including a shower.  Not a good way to start off the morning.

Julia has been pretty sick with migraines and other achiness, so I tried not to get up earlier than what her alarm was set for.  I succeeded, but now will pay the price later.  She still is not feeling well.  I feel awful that I can't do much for her this week except the occasional massage; there's just too much going on this week.

Grace's alarm had went off at 6:45am, and she wasn't moving too well.  Julia had a rough night with her on Tuesday while I was away at darts.  After I got Grace breakfast I had a few words with her about her behavior and why she needs to go to bed on time.  I also reminded her about the promise she made to me not to give mommy a hard time last night, to which she didn't live up to.  A few hugs and kisses later she was off to get dressed for school.

The morning was a blur. Julia felt awful, I got Grace's and my lunch together, books and things, amongst getting Grace ready to go.  All this time I was dreading my class today, New Testament 1, my Greek class.  I am so behind from starting late this summer, and having no idea what to expect, am afraid of my potential embarrassment by not remember more Greek than I should.  I'm hoping I can study at the bookstore this morning.

I was off to get to the bookstore by 8am, and my idea of studying when out the window when I had to fix the closing of the cash drawer from the night before.  We had out biggest day in a while yesterday, and I had to account for where money was missing from. It took me 2 hours to figure it out. The rest of the day was scurrying helping customers, wrapping up a million errands I had to do, and all of the other general busyness the bookstore brings.  I didn't even touch my Greek stuff the whole morning.

I flew to eat lunch at 12:15pm, and as soon as I was done it was 12:30 and off to Greek class. I walk in right at 12:30, to which we proceeded to go through the syllabus.  The professor immediately handed out the assignment sheet (I had really hoped he would have got this into my hands before class started...like 2 weeks ago), to which there was a collective sigh as we realized we were already 120 pages behind on reading assignments today.  After a very long walk-through of the syllabus, the reality hit of how much work this class will be, which is much more than I originally anticipated (and I anticipated a lot) and a lot different than I had thought.  Now, I'm semi-excited for the class because it is more an exegesis/study on the books of Colossians and 1 Thessalonians, and less on Greek grammar.  There's still a lot of grammar to do, but it will be more discussion on the books than the grammar.  All in all, a bittersweet feeling once class was done, which was better than the bitter feeling I was expecting.

Once class was done, I headed up to bookstore to work a couple more hours, trying to wrap up a few ends from the morning.  Thankfully, my co-worker was there (which I didn't know was going to be there), and I left an hour earlier than I had scheduled, which meant I was going to be home before 5pm. :)

I got home, checked up on Julia (who was laying in bed with her computer writing a paper for her class), and started cooking dinner.  Taco salad was on the menu tonight since I had some leftover ground beef from my Labor Day meal.  Once that was all cooked, I flew up to the school to pickup Grace at 6pm.

Once Grace got home, we sat down to eat.  Since our table had accumulated many items in the last 2 days, we decided to sit in the living room and watch Chopped, which we had on the DVR.  Grace didn't eat much since they feed her at the school, and she was off to play with her friends until bedtime.

After the show was over, I got Grace ready for bed and got her in there on time, which I was excited about because the night ahead was going to be long.

Once Grace was in bed, I checked on Julia and realized I had to give her a neck massage if she was going to function the rest of the night.  I know she needed it, and realizing the long night ahead, what's another hour anyway?

After semi-helping Julia's neck-muscle situation, I sat down in my cubby downstairs ready to start the long night.  First up on the docket was Fifty6 stuff.  I had some content to get ready for September 20th that was due yesterday.  I was hoping to finish it on Monday, but hadn't even had time to sit down to touch it until now.  Everything was just in my head and scattered on a few notes. 

I finished all of it at 1:15am and sent it off.  I had some complications with the Mars Hill server which added another 30 minutes.  Thankfully, I had already started a pot of coffee to which I was siphoning to my brain most of the time.  I still felt pretty alert at this point. 

I was dreading what was next, Hebrew, to which I haven't even touched until now.  Let's just say it's much harder than I expected.  Tonight was learning the alphabet and doing exercises out of Lesson 1.  I knew it was going to take away.  I decided to divide and conquer so I didn't feel overwhelmed. I think it worked.

I felt good enough about it at 3:40am to stop and get ready for bed. My alarm was set for 6:30am, so I was looking at 2 hours and 30 minutes of sleep for another long day.

It took me 10 minutes to get to sleep, but once everything stopped it was FINALLY the end of day [002].

Worst Part of the Day: Staying up until 3:45am studying.

Best Part of the Day: That I actually got to come home at dinnertime and that my Greek class might be enjoyable.

Chronicles [001]

I've decided to write again as a breather to the end of my day.  So I begin with the first day of school.

The purpose is to chronicle my day. It may not be eventful for you, but it's a rhythm I'm trying to develop to remember what in the world went on during my day.

My plate is way too full and I have no idea how things will work out the next few semesters, but hopefully this flame will not die.  So here we go.

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 [001]

I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm at 6:30am, and immediately jumped out of bed.  I feel pretty exhausted, given I've been hibernating all weekend studying Greek.  It's my own fault.  I didn't touch the stuff until a week ago.  My procrastination here will probably get the best of me.  We were warned several times to spend all summer doing it, and now I'm fairly certain I will be the class dunce in our Greek class.  I'm hoping to study enough to not feel TOO stupid.  I know when tomorrow's class rolls around I'll feel really dumb.

Grace's alarm goes off at 6:30am (which we just got her yesterday), and she is very excited to get off to her first day of school.  In fact, I'm also excited she's going to school.  This is the first day of establishing a rhythm that we can predict and depend on for the next four months.  Grace also starts an after-school program, Team21, which doesn't dismiss until 6pm Monday-Thursday.  While this is very convenient to our schedules, it doesn't give Grace much time to be at home.  We're going to give it a month to see how we like it.

Thankfully Julia has packed lunch and picked up clothes the day before, but has woken up with a huge migraine headache (which would last until the late evening). I spent most of morning wondering if she was going to be able to take Grace to school.  I know if I did I would be late to my first class, Hebrew.  I was willing, but somehow Julia willed herself to get her to school so I could leave by 7:30am.

I arrive at the seminary with 5 minutes to spare, and fly up for a quick coffee from our Starbucks machine. I call it the "holy shrine" of the seminary.  It is the Mecca for our building, and that machine is used often (and I'm pretty sure much prayer is going on while students wait for their coffee to be brewed).

This machine grinds the coffee and brews a hot cup on the spot.  You hit 3 buttons and voila, there is fresh, hot, Starbucks coffee.  I used the spill proof mug today because I'm sure my half-conscious body would knock it over during Hebrew class.

I get into Hebrew class and realize that I will work harder learning this language than Greek.  Knowing that I'm already feeling like a dunce in Greek, combining it with Hebrew makes me wonder how I'm even going to function this semester.  Many have said this is the hardest semester for MDiv students at the seminary, coming back to our first Greek exegesis class while starting Hebrew.

If I just had those two classes and no job, I think I would still have a hard time getting on top of these.  Add a residency, a job, and another class, and...oh yea, a FAMILY, it's hard for me to see how this works out.

The only way I can look at it is...this is only a short time.  It's still an entire school year.  One thing for sure, it has forced me to regiment my schedule.  If I had to cut anything it would be my dart league on Tuesday night, but I feel it's going to be one of my few outlets.

Once class was done, it was off to Mars Hill for my bi-weekly meeting with Jim Kast-Keat, Fifty6 Director and friend to talk about upcoming Sundays and pairing LifeGroup leaders (adult volunteers who lead our 5th and 6th grade small groups).  After a quick assigning, reviewing, and discussion of the schedule that awaits me, I'm back to the seminary to work the bookstore until the evening.

Today is New Student Orientation, which means the bookstore was very busy.  Thankfully two of us were working today.  There was a steady flow of students along with the several tasks and projects I had to get done today.  I had learned I must stay past my original 4pm time, and ended up staying until 5:50pm.  I immediately headed straight to the school to pick Grace up, and called Julia on the way to see if she was feeling better.

Tonight was also our first week of the dart league.  I had grabbed food from the seminary cookout, picked up Grace, and got all of my stuff together for darts and was out the door in 20 minutes.

Darts went okay tonight.  Didn't shoot like I had hoped but had some great moments here and there.  There is a big tournament in town this weekend and my brother-in-law is coming back up from Ohio to shoot with me.

I've got stuff to do for Mars that was supposed to be done tonight, Greek vocab and paradigms to review and memorize, and Hebrew to practice.  After this is done, I'm going right to bed.  I have nothing left.  I'm setting the alarm at 6am tomorrow to hopefully tackle the Mars stuff before I head off to the bookstore at 7:30am.

It's only one day and I already know that even with a severely discipline schedule this is going to be a trying time for all of us.

Favorite moment of the day: Watching Grace jump happily getting ready for her first day of 3rd grade.

Worst moment of the day: Being home for 20 minutes today and not able to help Julia with her migraine and Grace.

End of day [001]

Mike

What would I do without Mars Hill?

Yea, I know it's been a couple of months, and some of you have been buggin' me to write.

I attended a camp last week in Keansburg, NJ for Group Workcamps, which I've been emceeing for around 10 years. It's always fun connecting with hundreds of high school students all over the country, and seeing God do some amazing miracles during the week.

However, there is one aspect of it that makes me grateful to be where I am...what the American church chooses to complain about. 

Many of the themes in this year's program dealt with the poor and oppressed, and many adults were saying that it was "too deep and intense for kids to understand." 

I think a possible translation might be, "It's too deep and intense for you to wrestle with."

Or maybe, "The more you bring it up, the more we'll have to seriously talk and do something about it."

What some of these adults may find surprising (which I don't) is that tons of students LOVED talking about it.  Not only that, they were inspired to do more about it.

My friends, this is why I love Mars Hill.  This is why I love being here.  I believe this is a church which cares about such things. 

I sat there on Friday night in the wee hours thinking, "Where would I go without Mars Hill?" I really have no idea.  I'm grateful that I get to do my residency here, helping 5th and 6th graders live the best kind of life.  I'm grateful for a place that wants to hear the cry of the poor and oppressed.

I'm grateful they've accepted our family into theirs.

I really have no idea what I'd do without this place.  Moving our family here almost 3 years ago was the smartest decision we ever made.  I know I've healed so much as a result of the incredible people who call this place home.

So, please, rest of the American church, your teenagers WANT to talk about this stuff.  And they're waiting for YOU to see if you'll join them.

Maybe the problem is that YOU don't want to talk (and do something) about it, not our world-changing teenagers.

Review: Don't Stop Believing...

This post is part of the "Don't Stop Believing" blog tour.

    My journey for years has been filled with legitimate questions about theology, the church, and beyond. Many of the churches I served didn’t receive these questions well.  I had no vindictiveness, no animosity, just honesty.  These were questions I was encountering in talking with everyday friends in and outside of the church. They might not have expressed these questions verbatim, but it was rooted in the very questions I was wrestling with.

    My journey was encouraged by Brian McLaren’s book, A New Kind of Christian.  It was here, for the first time, that I had not felt alone in my thoughts and questions, and furthered a quest to discover who I am.  Not only that, but to honestly dialogue with others asking the same questions.

    What I was pursuing was what I heard Brian saying as a “third way;” somewhere in the middle (or beyond) the two polarities of conservatism and liberalism. Lately, I’ve felt that much of Emergent Village (and maybe the emerging church movement in general) has been floating toward liberalism.  While there is some good postures liberalism promotes, there are some that don’t. 

    So what now?  Will it forever be this way?  Is there any hope?  Michael Wittmer’s, Don’t Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus is Not Enough is the “third way” that Brian McLaren is looking for. 

    Wittmer addresses critical questions postmodern innovators (his term for those in the emerging church movement with a liberal bend) raise; questions such as the relationships of belief and practice, salvation, atonement, hell, and the inerrancy of Scripture.  What will surprise many is that while Wittmer proclaims to be conservative, his conclusions will invite conservative and liberal firing squads. They will be challenged at the questions he raises.

    Even more, Wittmer proposes a third way in each of these questions. For example, with the atonement, Wittmer combines Christus Victor, Penal Substitution, Moral Influence, and Example theories in a way that makes sense.  This is not as ambiguous as Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement; it is an explanation that reveals the beautiful purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection.

    Another strength of the book is it’s meticulous use of Scripture, tradition, and research.  One would expect nothing less from Wittmer; he is a professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.  The book gives enough footnotes for further research and study, delving into the process of Wittmer’s conclusions. 

    Finally, I have had the privilege of sitting under Dr. Wittmer in two of his theology courses.  He is known as the “both/and” guy.  Not only does he articulate a third way to express these questions, he truly lives it.  Wittmer has been integral in addressing my questions, vocation, and postures.  He is man who truly lives what he preaches.

    Therefore, I wholeheartedly recommend Don’t Stop Believing.  Wittmer is a theologian with the talent of communicating deep truths to the everyday person.  This, along with his other book Heaven Is A Place on Earth, is on my top 10 must read books of all time. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t read each of these books.  Even more, there is an opportunity to further the discussion on Wittmer’s blog and the Koinonia website.

    My hope is that these texts will bring some clarity, and continue to push the church to be Christ to this broken world that so desperately needs Him.

   

A final note: you can buy DSB relatively cheap (under $11) in the GRTS seminary bookstore if you live in the Grand Rapids area. Check our site for hours of operation, and hopefully I'll see you there!