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tapestry update & living biblically

alan as a crazy psycho bible guy
life is pretty exciting right now. as i posted earlier tapestry had it’s first leadership meeting three weeks ago with three committed adults, two committed kids, and an adult guest. this past sunday we had our second tapestry leadership meeting (which is supper, reading through the acts of the apostles, and prayer) with our former guest becoming a committed member (woohoo kaylyn!) and a new adult guest. i’ve also had someone else express interest learning more about what we’re doing. like i said it’s an exciting time.

right now as a group we are praying the following:

  • asking GOD when we would should launch public services.
  • asking GOD how we can best serve our community
  • asking GOD to lead us to the right people to help start the church – avoiding wolves both religious and non-religious

on a personal note i finished the year of living biblically today and i highly recommend it. as a minister i really enjoyed looking into someone’s mind as they tried to live out as literally as possible what the bible says. it made for some great moments. some of those moments were quite moving while others were funny enough that i audibly snorted in the middle of emy j’s coffee shop while reading it. it really is a good read.

SIDE NOTE – the photo is an old one of alan lusk when he worked within the great youth ministry of parkview

my run for the day
distance – 4.0 miles
time – 38:20
pace – 9:35/mile
weather – 19º/windy

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finally someone summarizes my feelings on lock-ins


ht len

as a youth minister i hated lock-ins. i loved retreats but i HATED lock-ins.

my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 47:29
pace 9:30/mile
weather – 25º/windy

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amazing

my wife is amazing. i could explain but words would never really do a good job of conveying how great she is. i’ll just say that she’s amazing.

my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 49:49
pace – 9:58/mile
weather – 34º/Sunny

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sex

a while back i posted some emails that i am sending to a couple whose marriage i am officiating. they are getting face to face premarital counseling but i would have felt remiss if i didn’t make sure a few things were covered. so i started sending them these emails. this one on sex is the last one.

the others are:

okay guys here’s the last email and in many ways the most difficult email to write. it’s not difficult because of any Victorian concept of avoiding discussion concerning sex. i don’t really have a problem talking about sex. the problem is that since i believe that at it’s heart sex should be physical manner of communication it seems very ironic to use email, a poor method of communication, to talk about it. still that’s what we have and therefore it’s what we will have to use.

so here goes.

THE ONLY LEGITIMATE REASON FOR SEXUAL INTERCOURSE IS PROCREATION!

🙂 just joking. i just thought i would try and throw you off. it was fun. at least for me.

sex is about communicating love. i don’t personally believe that sex is ultimately about physical pleasure or procreation. obviously sex does involve both physical pleasure and procreation but at it’s best that’s not what I believe it’s all about. i believe that sex is ultimately a physical form of communication between two individuals who are attempting to become one. i know that sounds rather mystical but i mean it in as literal sense as possible. when you have sex two bodies should have become one (you can start your middle school giggles now). i say “should” because it is entirely possible for the two bodies to merely be connected and not really have become one. what i mean is that in sex you can merely have two people who are into their own experience and pleasure OR you can have two people who are completely into each other and each other’s pleasure and at the same time enjoying their own pleasure. sex is one of those rare moments where you are meeting someone’s needs and having your own needs satisfied and by having your own needs satisfied you are also thereby satisfying the other person’s needs also. i know it’s a circular argument but i think the nature of sex is somewhat circular because of that “two becoming one” thing.

so here is what we would basically discuss if we where meeting for face to face premarital counseling.

  • read “celebration of sex“. it’s top notch and will do a ton better job than i can do in one email.
  • sex is nothing like what you’ve seen in the media – movies & television sex scenes are jokes. i personally think that this is one of the reasons that pornography is so dangerous for relationships – people begin to think what they see on the screen is reality. it’s not. your sex won’t be like the scenes you have seen in movies and that’s a good thing. it means it’s real.
  • talk a lot – you’re partner will not naturally know what you enjoy and don’t enjoy. you have to “coach” each other. this means talking things through. hope fully you will get better at this the longer you are married. this is why when done right sex gets better the longer you are married (at least up to the 17th year of marriage – i can’t talk from experience past that). for a natural act sex is an incredibly unnatural thing to figure out well. if you’re going to figure it out you both have to learn to be comfortable talking about it. going back to the unreality that is presented in the media i would like to say that nobody just knows what to do and how to make their partner feel good.
  • laugh a lot – odd things are going to happen. when the odd things happen don’t think something is wrong because it’s not. just laugh about it. enjoy that you’re figuring this all out together. that’s part of the process of becoming one.
  • practice makes perfect – sex should get better as you have been married longer. you have to get more and more comfortable with each other. good sex means being vulnerable with each other. vulnerability takes trust. when things go right the longer you are married the more you know each other, the more you know each other the more you love each other, the more you love each other the more you trust each other, the more you trust each other the more you are able to be vulnerable with each other.

i could say a lot more but those are the things i feel most strongly about. i guess this is it for our emails. i’m truly glad y’all are going to face to face counseling. it’s much better than emails. of course, if you have any questions i can be of assistance with just give me a call and i’ll gladly help. my cell phone number is (XXX)XXX-XXXX.

i have no doubt that you will do wonderful in marriage. i am looking forward to your wedding day and seeing you guys hitched.

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i am bob woodward

okay maybe i’m not bob woodward but i am interviewing a lot of people. earlier this week i thought it would be a good idea to start interviewing people concerning what they would like to see a church within the stevens point area do. my goal is to interview 40-50 people that i randomly meet within our community. i struggled over what question to ask everyone. i was worried that simply asking “what would you like to see a church in the stevens point area do?” would end up with answers that had more to do with programs rather than things concerning the actual nature of the church. thus far that hasn’t been true. the people i have interviewed have offered some wonderful insight.

i’ve only interview three people thus far (one church member, one person who says she only goes to church because she is payed to play the piano, and one person who is agnostic about churches) and the discussions have been wonderful. i try not to direct the person i am talking with but i do try to make sure i understand what they are saying. this means i try to let them ramble a great deal but i also ask the same question over and over. the question is “what do you mean by that.” basically i play stupid. even if i think i understand what they mean i try to get them to explain it a couple of times so that i can make sure. everyone has been wonderful. even after the church starts i think i’m going to have to make this a regular part of what i do.

i am typing my notes from the interviews into a google document so as to be able to share my notes and also invite others to contribute to them. if you would like to contribute something please email me (my name @ gmail.com) and i will send you an invite. if you just want to look at the notes as they are recorded you can go here.

SIDE NOTE – the other day we had 5 deer bounding through the snow of our backyard. it was quite pastoral.

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the deadlies

this is a pretty cool graph on which cities in america rank the highest on the 7 deadly sins. new orleans and birmingham rank in the top ten in a couple of times. interesting.

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web space

if you’re like me you need a little storage space on the web every now and then. i usually use a directory on the tapestry website for doing this. not everyone has that option. today lifehacker posted about windows sky drive that allows you 5 gigs of space for data. i’m not usually the biggest micro$oft fan but i am trying this out. i’ve tried box.net, another data storage facility, but i decided that i preferred my directory on the tapestry website. i’m intrigued by the rss option that sky drive offers and thus i’m going to give it a shot (in spite of it being micro$oft). the rss feature could come in handy with digital stuff for tapestry.

of course, i’ll probably swap to google’s version once they have one.

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d.min

after searching through my options i have finally started applying to new orleans seminary to be a part of their d.min program. i would actually prefer to work on a ph.d because of it’s focus on research rather than the d.min’s focus on practicality but i simply can’t find an option that is viable with the amount of work required to plant tapestry. the closest ph.d program is two hours one way, would require me driving down to madison at least twice a week, and would cost us $10,000 a year for a minimum of two years. all the other ph.d programs i have looked into are completely on site and to far away. that’s not very realistic for for the reasons that i am wanting to further my education. i really enjoyed my seminary education. my years at southwestern seminary were wonderful. if you wanted it there was always an opportunity to go deeper. i don’t have any desire to try and teach at a school (for that i would need a ph.d) because it would take me away from doing what i really feel called to do – planting and pastoring tapestry. i just want a little more education and the d.min’s nature of 24/7 class for a solid week.

i have to admit that this has actually been a bit of a struggle for me because my pride is such that i actually want the harder more prestigious degree. plain and simple a ph.d. is viewed more favorably than a d.min. in truth it should be. my problem has been that i have a tendency to view professional degrees as “ego” degrees. yes, i know this is my problem. my masters is a professional degree (an m.div). my issue with professional degrees is that they are usually not as academic as their mainly teaching/research focused counterpart degrees (m.th). professional degrees are obviously focused on practice rather than theory. an example of this are the m.d’s and ph.d’s found at medical schools. the m.d.’s are for people who want to practice medicine while the ph.d’s are focused more on research (though m.d’s are involved in a great deal of research also). of course, the purpose of professional degrees is to help practice and therefore they should be inherently more practical. i know this but it’s always been a little bit of an issue for me. those of you who know me know that i can be a prideful guy. this is one stupid example of that pride.

i’ve finally reached the point where i’ve realized that my pride on this issue is stupid. my desire to study in a theological environment again is more important to me than the abbreviation of the degree. so i’m now in the process of applying to new orleans seminary to be a student in the fall trimester.

if some of y’all are interested i may try something different during my application process. i love the collaborative of so much of what happens on the net. i have to write a couple of things for my application. i haven’t read everything yet so i can’t say i can really do anything with the help of others but if i can i think it would be fun to try. so be ready, i may ask some of you to join me on google documents in writing some stuff together. it would be fun to try something new.

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jubilee

one place
the biblical concept of jubilee is amazing. of course, if it was done within our present economic system it would throw it into chaos. a little chaos though is a good thing so i thought i would throw jubileeUSA everyone’s way. it’s an organization that was developed by two CHRISTian evangelists who saw the biblical lifestyle of jubilee as an excellent way of dealing with extreme poverty within the world. the jubilee act was spawned from this and is presently seeking co-sponsors within the house and the senate. the act basically would forgive debt owed to the united states from some of the poorest nations. i called my representatives today asking them to co-sponsor the act and i would encourage you to do the same. jubileeUSA has a page to walk you through what to do here.

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lies and the lying liars who tell them

i’ve been listening to al franken’s audiobook “lies and the lying liars who tell them: a fair and balanced look at the right” and it’s been pretty funny. of course, it’s by no means “fair and balanced.” he pretty much does the same thing that his opponents on the right do – take something, consider all the “facts” that support their case, and then present it as though it is the only sane way of interpreting things. as a moderate i find myself enjoying franken the same way i enjoy rush limbaugh – i laugh at what’s funny and then laugh at him when he is just being partisan and stupid. thankfully franken is funny a good bit within this book. i didn’t think that franken was very good when he was on air america radio (in fact, i quit listening to him because i thought he just wasn’t very funny) but he really was funny in this audiobook. it wasn’t as enjoyable as stephen colbert’s “i am america … and so can you” but it was still pretty good.

the most ironic thing for me within the book was the chapter in which franken tells about his visit to bob jones university. the entire visit is a farce and franken and his colleague have come up with an entire back story so as to effectively coordinate their lies concerning why they are really at bob jones university. i’m no fan of bob jones, in fact i think many of their believes have been embarrassments to my LORD, but i do think it’s pretty low to go and lie to a group just so you can make fun of their religious beliefs (even if they are misguided). i think jehovah’s witnesses and mormons are off base on their beliefs but i would never go into their churches just to make fun of them. anyhow franken ends the chapter by saying how beaten down all the lying he had done during his visit and he wondered how all the “real liars” (he means by this “republicans”) could handle doing it. i guess this is supposed to show that he’s not really on the same level with them.

even with the lying chapter it was pretty funny overall.

two other chapters stood out:

  • supply side jesus versus new testament JESUS was money. i’ll probably end up using it sometime because it was really good.
  • imho, the story of franken doing a “w” impression and “joking” that he would lose the election to barabara bush while on a place together is just plain rude. if someone, even jokingly, trashed on one of my sons in my presence i would quite possibly punch them in the face. i’m a little surprised mrs. bush didn’t.

there are a few chapters with some pretty serious language in them that i would have been very happy if he had left out. the language that is.