Contagion

On Sunday we hauled a boat into the theatre and I ended up preaching from the boat as it balanced on top of the lower level chairs. It was something I've never done before and it kept people on edge the whole time as they thought I was going to tip the thing over. We just started a series on Jonah so it fit great. It will stay there for the next 3 weeks as we keep adding more elements to the set that fit the theme each week. For instance, this week we will have a live beluga whale if we can successfully "borrow" one at 3am this Friday from the Vancouver Aquarium! This kind of stuff keeps everything interesting and people don't know what to expect. It contributes to the whole experiential learning environment that we are trying to create.

However, these things we are trying to use mean absolutely nothing on their own. The only thing that makes doing this type of stuff worthwhile is the fact that we are seeing people's lives changed. People are getting re:connected to Jesus and that's what we are all about. The stories of what God is doing inside of people is incredible! I really do believe that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. The places where people are coming from in their lives and finding Jesus blows my mind. It proves to me that Jesus is still relevant. People that have lived their lives with no care in the world when it comes to matters of God are suddenly having a real wake up call and starting to explore.

So if boats and whales and working harder and sweating more at 7am on Sundays is going to reconnect more and more people to Jesus...I'm all in!

I thought this conversation was funny and oh-so-true-, over on Ben Arment's blog:

Just got off the phone with a good friend who is contemplating starting a church... which is awesome cuz he'll be great at it. He's already come to understand the Holy Frustration he's been experiencing for months. But his unspoken question is "How do I get rid of the Holy Terror?" The white-knuckle-making, back-hair-raising, cotton-mouth-licking, underwear replacing plummet toward sudden death that comes with such leaps of faith.
You don't.
You just jump.

I'll just lay it all out on the line here...With planting TXC...I've had to replace my skivvies a couple of times! :)

Today is a glorious day! I know this will sound petty but it has been incredibly frustrating! I'm a self professed computer geek (don't know much about them but like sitting in front of them) and a huge part of that is internet. However, for the last 9 months we've had dialup because for that whole time we believed that we weren't able to get it. Our connection speed is 26.4kbps. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, if you have high speed internet, your connection speed is usually 100mbps. If you notice the 'k' and the 'm'...that's the huge difference and it basically means that I suck and you rock!)

Telus said no and our landlord said Shaw was also a no go. Well, the other day I lost it and decided that I would give shaw a try "just to see for myself". And to my delightful surprise, the lady on the other end made my day by saying it will be all done on the 27th!

Now, if you knew where I live, it may make more sense why this is so good. We basically live out in the sticks in the backwoods of Mission. Bek just got a new job and is now working in Abby 4 days a week and taking the van with her. This leaves me on our mountain stranded...with dialup. With trying to work from home this has been just ridiculous. I've basically been able to get to a coffee shop one day a week where I frantically try and get all of my internet stuff done as quickly as possible so it doesn't get left for another week.

I now feel normal! (almost) Bek and I love our basement suite. It was incredible that we got it in the first place but the one thing that we were both choked about was the fact that we couldn't (at least that's what we thought) get highspeed. Now this is our dream house (minus the 'our').

Anyways...it's over dramatic and over the top but for those of you that know me...it's nothing new.

Yesterday was one of those days when being a church that has gatherings in public places presented it's challenges. Last week, all our media and words for the songs couldn't be displayed because the theatre projector was pooched. When we showed up this week we were told it would be fixed...but it wasn't. So we moved over to a theatre that we thought the projector might work...when I got up to the projection room I found out that the projector was basically the size of a UFO (and looked like one too - or at least what I think they look like) and had no power button except for on a remote control. After a while of trying to get that one working, we threw in the towel, packed up our gear and moved to the next theatre over.

So now we are all sweating profusely and having to get used to the setup being reversed. Nonetheless, we got everything set up and practiced up with time to spare.

After everything was said and done, it was an awesome day. We saw new guests, the band was smokin' hot and Donovan did an excellent job with preaching. For the first time, I sat in the upper deck and it was great. I think I was a little rowdy from going nuts getting everything set up and was cheering the band and Donovan on. Bek was a somewhat embarrassed and wished I was sitting down below but whatever, it was fun. The vibe in the hall after was crazy as people were basically screaming to talk with each other. Our tradition of the 15 minute exit continues to work!

Sometimes in the moment of having issues come one after the other, it's easy to wish we had a permanent place to meet. But one of our values is life altering adventure...not that this is life altering, but it's part of the adventure. I'm learning to be more adaptable and flexible and just to roll with whatever comes our way. Last week the projector didn't work, we just had a blank screen. This week, we switched theatres and it was great. People were confused but I think it added a little jolt of change that gets people's energy back up. All in all a great gathering.

This is a great post on character and looking at Barry Bonds' new homerun record. Does it really matter if there is question about the character that got you that record? I mean, steroids or not, he can still hit the ball...can't he?

I remember when Barry Bonds was THE christian in baseball...him and his silver cross around his neck. As a kid I remember being so proud to be a Christian like Barry..now...like this post says...he's just an arrogant jerk. Who cares if you're on top of the world if your character is in question because there is always the question "Did he/she cheat to get there?"

Unfortunately...Barry has to live with this for the rest of his life. The question is what will you and I decide when it comes to choosing a life of integrity? What do we want our legacy to be?

I'm really enjoying reading the Bible in The Message paraphrase. I'm quite a simple guy and need things to just be told to me straight. I read a lot of books but I usually only get through the ones where the author isn't some dude that thinks he's smarter than he is and uses big words to confuse all of the idiots! So The Message makes sense to me. I know it's not a literal translation and shouldn't be used for studying, but I think it's great to get the general themes. Because the writing is much more simple and uncluttered, I've been noticing some of the stories more, where before, I probably would have just skimmed over it. A few of my favorites so far:

#1:
Genesis 29. Jacob is arriving at his uncles place and comes up to a well where all of the shepherds give their sheep water. Jacob asks why they aren't giving their sheep water and they let him know that the stone is so heavy that they need to wait for all the shepherds to show up and give a hand in order to take the stone off. Well lo and behold, who should walk up, but the hot babe Rachel, who is also his cousin (Yes I know...it's gross...but this was pretty standard at this time) and the shepherd of his uncle Laban's sheep.

Now here's the hilarious part! As soon as Jacob sees Rachel, he single handedly rolls off the stone that would usually take a bunch of shepherds, and waters his uncles sheep that are in Rachel's care. He then kisses Rachel and breaks into tears!

This is just so typical of a macho man - taking on the stone by himself - look at me. I am strong. *Flex* And then he breaks into tears. Mama's boy.

Onto the next story...

#2:
Genesis 34. One of Jacob's daughters, Dinah, goes into town and ends up getting raped by one of the local boys. The guy falls in love with her and wants to marry her. Jacob hears about this and tells Dinah's brothers. They end up telling the sicko pervert rapist that he can marry their sister if every male in their town got circumcised. The guy and his dad agree and convince the rest of the town to follow along...so they all get circumcised. That's some pretty hard core "love" if you ask me!

Here's the hilarious/twisted part! While the whole male population is "healing back up" from having their schmuck chopped off, two Dinah's brothers roll into town with swords, as if they owned the place, and murder every man there! Then when the rest of the brothers show up on the scene of the slaughter, they loot the place and take everything, including wives and kids as captives. Jacob is ticked that his sons would do something like but they reply, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it." This is perhaps the craziest story of revenge I've heard of...kill 'em while their down!

Maybe I'll end up seeing the spiritual value of these stories in the future but what I'm excited about is that they are jumping out to me instead of just being read over in an attempt to read the bible. I just love the way The Message is written...it just makes sense to me. I don't really have a strict schedule for when I read or how much I read...I'm just trying to read and learn. God's word doesn't change your life just because you skim read it in order to say you've read it. The principles need to be applied (not sure if killing freshly circumcised dudes is principle to be applied...). Action is required. The Message is helping to bring a new freshness devotional life and I'm looking forward to continuing to read, no matter how slow I may be!

We are starting a new series in 3 weeks and we are looking for some equipment. If you have any of the following stuff and are willing to let us borrow it, please let us know!

• A small aluminum fishing boat
• Oars
• Life jackets
• Hand held Fishing nets
  
• Fishing nets (The kind that drag behind a boat - not too huge though- maybe just a section of old net that you aren't using anymore. How can you tell I don't fish! Haha!)
• A captains wheel

That's all that is coming to my mind right now but maybe you have some other ideas that we could use...let us know!

Read this post this morning and I couldn't agree more! However, the awesome thing about this is that I haven't had to deal with this at all.

What I'm not saying is that I'm the most amazing speaker and have incredible insight into God's word and the ability to convey it in a way that will keep the people in TXC "fed" for a whole week until the next time we meet.

What I am saying is that our experience so far has been that the people of TXC have been feeding themselves. They haven't been relying on me to be their primary source of "getting fed". Their commitment to pursuing community outside of Sundays has been awesome to see and it's so vital if we are to be any more than a Sunday morning church. They've been meeting together to pray for each other and others our church. They are studying the Bible on their own time, "feeding themselves". That is just the tip of the iceberg but I'm stoked!

TXC...I couldn't imagine being able to pastor a more passionate group of people that have one goal...reconnecting people to Jesus. There is an expectation and anticipation inside so many of you and I want to encourage you to continue to pursue Jesus in your everyday lives. Don't let a few words on Sunday be "the meat" of your spiritual life. Continue doing what you have been doing up until now and see what God is going to do in your life