Category: personal

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attractional & incarnational approaches

i’m almost finished with the tangible kingdom by hugh halter and matt smay and i’ve enjoyed it thus far. i may be enjoying it more because the book was recommended to me from two different people who said they were reminded of tapestry while they were reading it (thanks john & trey). the more i read of the book the more thankful i am that people think we are doing something similar. it’s a nice compliment.
 
i’m not going to write much about the book until i finish it but i thought i would go ahead and point out the differences that halter and smay and see between attractional and incarnational evangelism.
 
here’s the table they have in the book:
 
attractional approach incarnational approach
unbeliever is invited to church sojourner is invited to belong
unbeliever confesses belief sojourner confesses interest
unbeliever repeats a prayer sojourner experiences the good news
believer joins a church sojourner participates in community
cognitive discipleship experiential apprenticeship
focus: counting confessions focus: transformation
believing enables belonging belonging enables believing

i think their lists are pretty accurate. i much prefer the incarnational model, especially the idea of apprenticeship. we need let people try on faith to determine if they really believe or not.

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economics battle rap


this is a battle rap produced by planet money explaining the two divergent economic models of hayek versus keynes. in my opinion it’s a great summary. now battle wisely.

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relational gifts & the reason for the season

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it has been a wonderful CHRISTmas day. i spent the morning and early afternoon with the fam and then we were joined by a few threads for whatever meal comes between lunch and supper (lupper?) and a documentary (“the king of kong” which is a great documentary.

i hear some many people say “remember the reason for the season” and for pam and i part of remembering the birth of our REDEEMER is remembering that his parents had no place for them. therefore, we love having people over at our home who have no place to go on CHRISTmas. of course, it also makes for a great time. for example, one of the guys who came over tonight brought his boxer. boxers are very curious and full of energy. basset hounds on the other hands are not very energetic and like to be left alone. if made for some interesting dogs moments – for example the box definitely ran over the bassets several times.

the other thing i loved was the relational gifts that we gave each other. each one of us got a gift from one of the other members of the family that required more effort and time than cash. the beauty of the gifts was that they reflected knowledge of and concerning for the receiver.  for example, the photo above is pam’s gift to me. it is a football autographed by bart starr. she went through allot and received helped from an old friend (thanks bernard) to get this ball for me.

i’m not sure that many of the gifts we give each other actually honor CHRIST very much BUT i am convinced that relational gifts are much more likely to honor CHRIST. one of the guys with us today made and gave away nine handmade blankets for his friends and family. he showed me a photo from his cell phone of all the blankets underneath his “charlie brown CHRISTmas tree.” he told me about how much fun giving these gifts had been for him.

AS A SIDE NOTE – i don’t really think we do a very good job of remembering the “reason for the season” by just going to CHRISTmas services, singing songs, and focusing on family time. family time is great. there is no doubt about it. yet i wonder if we celebrate the season better by “inviting the wanderer into our home.” i wonder what CHRISTmas would be like if all the believers in JESUS focused on bringing others into their homes.

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the boys gingermen

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pam found out that the above photo is what happens when you ask an almost 13 year old and a 15 year old boy to help you decorate gingerbread men. starting from the bottom and going clockwise they are":

  • the gingernator
  • drowning gingerbread man
  • dissected gingerbread man
  • karate gingerbread man
  • picasso gingerbread man

there were others but they are nsfw.

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i love the world, except for all the people

running the sahara

i recently watched “running the sahara,” which is a documentary about three ultramarathonners running across the sahara desert. it really is an impressive accomplishment and a pretty cool documentary but that is not what i want to talk about. instead i want to talked a quote from the movie.

toward the end of the documentary one of the runners says that they wanted to run the sahara because they “love the desert and the love the people.” this was a pretty ironic statement because it came right after he tore into his two remaining support team members. the group had started out as six and slowly the team began to disintegrate because of one of the runners who continually chewed out anyone he thought had not met his unstated expectations. the irony was that this came from the same runner who said he was running the sahara because he loved the desert and the people. of course, i don’t know the whole story but from what i saw in the documentary it appears that he loves all the people he doesn’t know and not the people who were actually helping him run across the desert. i haven’t run an ultramarathon yet (hopefully i will in spring) let alone across a desert but i do know from my marathon experiences that you don’t make it that far on your own. it’s a team effort. you may be running but other people are providing for your needs.

it is far to easy to love “people” in the generic sense rather than actually loving specific individuals. when we love specific individuals it must be accomplished in actions. when we love in the generic sense it can be reduce to nice words and platitudes.

this reminds me of two quotes.

  • the first is from men at work’s song “dr. heckyll and mr. jive” it says “he loved the world, except for all the people.”
  • the second is from deitrich bonhoeffer’s book “life together” page 27 – “he who loves his dream of a community more than the CHRISTian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions my be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”
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pam kicks butt on birthdays

it’s my birthday tomorrow but as has been our family tradition for the last 15 years pam and i will be in two different places on my birthday. the ASHA convention is always on my birthday and when i was a youth minister our fall retreat was always on my birthday. it was just the way it was. this is a long way of saying that since pam will be gone tomorrow for the ASHA convention tomorrow the family celebrated my birthday tonight. i had mash potatoes, fried chicken, and FRIED DILL PCIKLES! mhmm! my stomach is now making room for a piece of homemade chocolate chip pound cake. double mhmmmm!

best of all pam bought me a BAMA hoodie which had to be special order because we don’t have many of them around wisconsin. oh yeah, i love this woman. she also bought me an electronic knife but that has more to do with her growing up than it does my birthday.

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curling season has begun

SWEEP!!!

curling season began last night! woohoo! we didn’t win but i am on a team with one of the best skips in the league and we lost last night on the last end by one point to one of the other great skips of the league. it was a really good match. it should be an excellent year.

also, adam holte decided to join the league and learned how to curl last night. woohoo!

btw, if you need family photos you should talk to adam. he is an amazing photographer. here’s the link to his business.

adam learning to curl

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following in my brother-in-law’s steps

zune

jim posted the podcasts that he is presently listening to. i realized it was something i hadn’t done in a while and thought i would do so now. the radio antenna on my car has been broken for a year but i’ve been too lazy to replace it because i basically just listen to podcasts. so here’s what is on my zune at the moment.

  • advent conspiracy podcast
  • catalyst podcast – i’m not a big fan of leadership stuff within the church but i do like the interviews they have on this podcast
  • tips from the top floor – my favorite photography podcast
  • ecclesia church – a great church in houtson
  • espn football today – i have to keep up to date with what’s happening in the “no fun league”
  • fly fish radio – makes me dream of a river runs through it while i listen to it
  • imago dei church – a wonderful church in seattle
  • mars hill bible church
  • new yorker poitical podcast
  • npr: talk of the nation
  • npr: it’s all politics – my favorite political podcast
  • npr: story of the day
  • npr: wait, wait don’t tell me – a fun, news game show – SECOND FAVORITE
  • orvis fly fishing podcast – i can’t afford their equipment but i can steal their ideas.
  • dan small’s wisconsin outdoors radio – hunting and fishing in wisconsin
  • pri: to the best of our knowledge
  • q podcast – q is a butt kicking conference and the podcast ain’t bad either
  • stuff you should know – the title says it all – this one is a lot of fun
  • tapestry messages – yes i relisten to the tapestry messages -  you got a problem with that?!??!?
  • TED talks – great ideas and thoughts
  • the economist
  • the moth podcast – a different story for every podcast
  • the ring community church – a group of friends down in baton rouge and a wonderful church
  • the skeptics guide 5×5 – 5 minutes with 5 skeptics
  • this american life – you need to listen to this – MY FAVORITE

that’s the regular line up that i listen to as i am driving or running. any other recommendations?