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Until Next Year...

I think I'm going to call it quits for blogging in 2006:)

I'll be spending most of next week making memories with my family.  Hopefully I'll have the biggest snowman in the midwest to report to you in the new year!

I also plan to get alone with Jesus and my journal.  I want to finish outlining some risky and specific goals for the next twelve months.  So first I need to finish reflecting on the past few months.  It looks like 2006 will go down as the year of transition:)  Transition isn't always comfortable.  It can involve unmet expectations and perceived setbacks.  But I also believe transition is necessary for repositioning.

So consider me repositioned:)  Repositioned for something fresh.  Repositioned to pursue the One who exceeds expectations.  Repositioned to keep dreaming for Detroit.

Thanks for logging on this year.  Really.  I'm honored that you'd share your time with me on this blog.  I'm anxious to tackle 2007.  Hope you'll be back for the journey:)

Rewind

Busy weeks sure beat boring weeks:)  I for one am thankful for mission.  Nothing against Regis, Kelly, Oprah or Dr. Phil but I don't think I'm wired for daytime TV.  I'd rather have something bigger than me to freak out about.  So here's a quick recap of the second to last week of 2006.

Worked with our team to put the finishing touches on our three Christmas Eve services this weekend.  I'm praying they'll help distracted people take a simple look at Jesus. 

Received my acceptance letter to the Coaching Cohort Masters Program I'll be starting at the end of January.  This will be a two year venture into higher learning.  It feels surreal to officially be a student again.  I'm already making a list of everything I can get discounts on again!

I kept running into prospective church planters all week.  I'm energized by my encounters with up and coming pioneers.

I started rethinking my schedule for 2007.  With my graduate work starting along with a few new hats I'll be wearing at the church, I'm definitely feeling the need to re-prioritize.  Some changes are in the works that I think will be really healthy for our church as well as my personal sanity:)  More on this in the New Year.

I hooked up with Dan Webb to see The Pursuit of Happyness.  Loved it.  Seriously, I walked out of the theater wishing I could ask Santa to give me a son for Christmas:)

Meanwhile, I just keep picking up this book.  I think I've just got to put my pen down while reading it.  I feel the urge to underline every sentence.  Definitely want to face some fears in 2007.

Flashback

I just got off a conference call with three church planters.  We spent an hour coaching a new church planter in Charlotte, NC.  I found all the intense emotions from the early days flooding back:)

I hope I never get away from active involvement with starting new churches.  I first caught the bug early in high school while visiting my Uncle's church plant in Columbus, OH.  It was a New Year's Eve gathering for his core group.  I don't even think they'd launched yet.  They were just a handful of people meeting in an office building.  But I loved everything about it. 

I loved that the story was just beginning.  I loved knowing that the future had to be imagined without any help from the past.  I loved how raw it all felt; not real polished yet packed with potential.  I loved the realization of risk; God would have to show up or else...

So that New Year's Eve I made this statement to my family as we left the gathering. 

I'm going to do this someday:)

It was more than a New Year's Resolution. 

It turned out to be a Life Declaration. 

Snowman Dreams

Just found out that my snowman-making relatives will be visiting Michigan again over the holidays.  I'm already praying for alot of good packing snow so we can build a snowman that is bigger than this last one we built.

I believe the last one to be the biggest in Michigan history.  If you have evidence to the contrary please keep it to yourself. 

By the way, before you comment saying that you will build a bigger one, think about what you're saying.  It will take extreme commitment and vision. 

If you still feel confident, go ahead and join the competition.  Just don't get your hopes up.  You will be outsnowmanned. 

Weighty

I've been teaching one of our Wednesday night on campus Life Groups through the Book of Hebrews.  Last night we arrived at chapter 6.  I'll be honest.  I've kind of been dreading our arrival at chapter 6:)  It's a heavy passage.

Weighty.

It describes a person who becomes so hard-hearted that repentance is an impossibility.  The issue is not that God is unable to forgive him.  It is that his heart has just become too hard to crack.

My humble opinion is that most teachers and scholars get lost in this passage with the eternal security debate.  Was this guy a Christian who lost his salvation?  Or was he never saved to begin with?  To me that question is a side issue.  The bottom line is he's not saved now.  He's in a dangerous position described in verse 8 as near to being cursed.  He hasn't lost it all yet, but he's close.

The perspective for this passage comes in verses 9-12.  The goal of this warning is not to cause every Jesus' follower to lose sleep worrying about the unpardonable sin.  In fact, in verse 9 he quickly says I'm confident this won't happen to you.  I think the take-aways are summed up in verses 11 and 12. 

Show diligence or earnestness (verse 11).  In other words, don't take faith for granted.  Strive for growth everyday. 

Don't get lazy or sluggish (verse 12). 

For what it's worth, I think a regular dose of self-examination is the best way to guard against spiritual laziness.  The problem is I often lean toward turning up the TV or making a phone call.  I create distractions.  After all, if I quiet down enough to look inside; to really look inside, I might not like what I see:)

What if passages like Hebrews 6 are better felt than debated?  What if we took a moment to acknowledge the tension with eternal security and jump off the theological merry-go-round.  We might allow ourselves to feel the weight of this warning? 

That would be a vulnerable position.  What might Jesus say to us then?

Open your eyes.  Look in your heart.  I've already seen it.  Let's wash you and make you whole:)

A Movements Christmas

Last night we wrapped up our first three months of Movements with a Christmas party.  Movements is the church planting training initiative I launched this fall.  The past three months have been rich.  We've read through Acts several times and felt a little of the passion of some first century pioneers.  Now the radical work begins:)  In 2007 we'll start studying various local contexts in Metro Detroit with the goal of identifying a place to focus our mission.

Today Katie posted an exciting recap of our late night efforts to capture a digital record of Movements 2006:)

Rewriting Our Story

One of my personal values that I hope is becoming a corporate value in our church is diversity.  I believe that every city has the potential to be renamed.  In our case, Detroit is named for racism.  Race riots are a part of Detroit's story.  Blatant color lines have been drawn in our region between communities like Redford and Livonia.  So one of the most obvious opportunities for the church to incarnate Jesus here is by confronting racism and modeling healing through blended Jesus communities.

My own opinion is that racism is America's original sin.  We like to think that slavery is history.  I guess technically it is.  But for anything to be history it has to first of all be included in the story.  And no matter how far we advance socially our story as a country begins with racism.

Maybe that's why comments like the ones that Seinfeld's Kramer recently made continue to elicit passionate reviews.  And if you've got some time, check out this post from Malcolm Gladwell exploring how these kinds of comments muddy the waters of racism. 

But there's a lesson in the media firestorm.  While our story is history it is also just one offense away from being revisited. 

That's why it's not enough to simply point out the problems with the old story.  We can't stop until we've written a new story.  And who could possibly be more qualified to write it then devoted followers of a revolutionary Savior who demolished social, gender and racial barriers?

If becoming a church that looks like heaven connects with the Jesus' imprint in your heart I encourage you to check out the blended church network.  It's still in the formative stages.  My friend Scott Hagan is one of the voices influencing this movement to informally connect churches with a heart to be blended.

Eddie the Elf

Hang on a minute.  Doesn't this look like Eddie Galindo dancing as a dressed up elf? 

Go here to elf your own friends!

Thanks for the link Scott:)

Wondering

Just finished writing my teaching for tomorrow.  This thing is living in me.  I can't wait to get it out:)

Tomorrow's teaching is part 2 of our December series Wonder: Re-Imagining Christ this Christmas.  We're studying my favorite topic. 

Jesus.

Some of the words that Webster associates with wonder are astonishment, awe, surprise, curiosity, and adoration.  Here's the catch.  It's tough to be astonished by someone you think you have figured out.  It's even tougher to rub your chin curiously because of someone you think you have figured out.  But even angels, who have been with Christ for thousands of years, still scratch their heads when they consider His incarnation.

Are you still curious about Christ?

If you missed part 1 last week (Why Angels Wonder) you can either subscribe to our podcast, view a written version, or download the audio. 

Here's to hoping Jesus will capture your imagination this Christmas:)

The Recipe Explanation and Masculine Withdrawals

Some people have expressed concern that I have been posting cooking stories without also including the matching recipes.  Please let me explain.

First, I did not know it was important to include the recipe.  Actually, I wasn't aware that anyone would be interested, probably because I've never been interested:)  The truth is, I'm brand new to this whole world of cooking information sharing.

Second, now that I do know sharing the recipe is the appropriate thing to do, I still will not be able to do it.  I'm walking a fine line as it is.  The day I actually post a recipe on this blog I will also just go ahead and subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens, resign from all of my fantasy football teams, and start calling my hair gel "product." 

At the risk of typing too much, the thought actually crossed my mind this week to add a cooking category to my sidebar.  I was ashamed of myself:(

And I didn't think I would share this, but to stay with this theme of full disclosure...this week I bought a membership at Costco so that I could start buying more groceries.

Please pray for me as I learn to navigate this new way of life:)