Grandmama

My Grandma Dilyard passed away this morning around 2 a.m. I was thinking about some of the values that I can attribute to her. Here goes...

Compete with all you've got. - My Grandma taught me how to play checkers when I was probably in first or second grade. She was ruthless. I've never seen someone light up after triple jumping a seven year old the way she did haha. But that competitive spirit challenged me to get better and work hard. Growing up, she always played games with me when I asked. Whether it was checkers, 31 or Pass the Trash, we always had a good time.

Persevere- This woman went through 8 decades of challenges, both worldwide and personally. She buried a daughter, a son, a husband, a grandson and a son-in-law. In some ways, I think the dimensia at the end of her life was a blessing, allowing her to forget some of the many heartaches throughout her lifetime.

Laugh Often- I think the greatest thing I appreciate about my Grandma is that up till the end she had a wry and witty humor about her.

In the midst of my grandma's passing, I've had some time to reflect on my own mortality. What is it that I want those around me to remember about my life? Am I living in such a way that these things will come to pass?

Enjoy the weekend!

aww snap.

MYSTERY ROAD TRIP 2008

*7:00 a.m. is kinda early.

*Cedar Point is sweet.

*Even if its 60 degrees, you can get sunburnt.

*Mapquest's 'shortest distance' option can be a pretty stinkin' hilarious route to take.

*In a group of 10 or more, expect bathroom breaks every 15 minutes.

*Don't let Evan hang out with 8 year olds.

*Burt Bacharach and Raffi are not as popular as you'd think.

*125 miles per hour is fast.

*The Mine Ride is not meant for chubby folk. (Can I sue them?)

*In a group of 10 or more, birds will poop on 20 percent of your group.

*I'm working with a fun group, who needs to find some new 'line games' other than the initial game. haha.

Prince Caspian

Shaina and I went with our church to see Prince Caspian tonight. First of all, kudos to the team that put this together! $6 for the movie a popcorn and a drink...felt like I was back in the good ol' days of 1994.

The movie was really good. I don't know if I had my theological thinking cap on or what but there were some really powerful things in this film. There is a line when Lucy and Aslan are reunited where Lucy says "You have grown" and Aslan (God) responds, "I grow as you do." I really had to think about that. I think as I have matured in my faith, my childlike trust and understanding of God's vastness has lessened. I have seen God work in certain ways and so I conclude that "God must be like this..." Maybe it's important to take another line out of this dialogue in which Aslan says that he does not work in the same way twice.

Anyways, the movie is better than the first...better action...more gut-wrenching scenes, all while including the same deep spiritual metaphors as the original.

Well that's enough for now. Suffice it to say that I really encourage you to watch this movie, though there are a couple parts that might not sit well with younger kids. If they do watch, just make sure to have dialogue with them to make sure they understand that in the end, God wins.

Church Planting Days 3 & 4

To my avid blog reader(s?),

I am really intrigued by this notion of reaching the nations through church-planting. I think many churches experience plateaus or moderately small growth because they lose their desperation.

We can say the same thing about our own spiritual journeys. I cease to be shaped and empowered when I lose my deep, gut-wrenching desperation.

I led a devotional meditation this morning and God smacked me in the face with something that I had not really seen. Psalm 51, definitely one of the top ten Psalms around, David's psalm after Nathan called him out for his sins with Bathsheba...David says, "Grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." I said something in passing without much thought..."Our surrender is the only thing that leads to our sustenance."

I felt the Lord whisper as I said this aloud to the group, "Did you hear what you just said?" Only when we are willing will the Lord's hand uphold us. Do we believe this? I'm not sure...I think I see my sustenance through the lens of having a place to live, health, drivable vehicles, etc. If God will bless me I will be sustained. While this is true on a basic level, it is not true when we understand that blessing does not lead to satisfaction. Some many people (especially in an American context) are SUSTAINED but largely UNSATISFIED.

Our deepest satisfaction comes from surrender. What dreams, idols, and excuses need to die in your life?

Church Plant Day 2

For all who are interested...Here's some more processing from this seminar. (It is called INTENSIVE for a reason...My brain hurts.)

*Most Church Plants that fail, fail because of a lack of financial backing...(Go figure in the 21st Century global empire of North America where spending money is our greatest talent, we can't sustain a church start.)
*If a denomination is not annually planting 3 % of its total number of churches, it is guaranteed to decline. (If it plants 2% it will likely remain plateaued.) Keep in mind that this 3% is successful church plants only...It does not count the attempted plants that fail (as we learned yesterday, 60% will fail.)
*If an existing church of 400 sends 100 of its people to start another church, the average return of investment is to end up with 200 newcomers. This must be something about reaping and sowing...didn't Jesus talk about that somewhere...I could've sworn he did.
*The average number of hours that a church planter must invest in the first 3 years of a new church plant will be around 75-80 per week. Even then, the success rate is solely determined by God.

We need to be in prayer for church planters and we need to seek to be in partnership with them, to encourage them, support them and bless them.

Thought for the day...Does God desire us to grow in numbers and build to accomodate these numbers or does God seek to cultivate Church Multiplication (a sort of divide and conquer approach?).

Church Plant

Today's blog is not about the giant fern that we have near the sanctuary. It's actually about a seminar I am taking at Ashland Theological Seminary this week. I am on lunch break of the first day and I am just wrestling through some crazy thoughts. I have not given church planting a huge deal of thought but I have imagined from time to time and Shaina and I have had multiple people speak into our lives about this topic.

Everything is sort've rising to the surface this first day as I begin taking in the very challenging task of planting a church. It has to be a God ordained business or it will fail. Here are some stats covering the first half of the first day.

*3 out of 5 church plants will fail.
*Most churches die around 50 years after their birth (25 years in-they usually experience the climax of their ministry.)
*Evangelistic outreach in the first year of the church is the most effective and oft-used...Every year after the first, evangelism declines.

I am challenged and really yielding to God on this topic. One intriguing twist. My mentor has a blog (www.johnmulpas.com). I happened to visit his site, click on one of the members of his blog roll (this was a couple months ago), and it turned out to be one of his former mentors who had helped plant a church together. The day I visited that site, he had posted a blog saying that he believed the person who would plant their next church would read that blog. The one time I visited the site, I read that post...hmm.

Help me God.

War and Peace

As Christians we are supposed to love our neighbors...Yes that's right Jesus wasn't joking. So how does neighbor love take place in the context of war? Is it possible? It's funny to me that people throughout history have attempted to determine what is ethical, honorable, or acceptable in the context of war. This suggests that there is a proper and appropriate way to kill. Does this make any sense? Is there a humane way and and inhumane way of killing?

Don't hear me totally wrong. The courage that is often displayed in times of war by soldiers is to be honored. That someone would give their lives for something they believe in is a message that we as the church could learn alot from. Yet I look at the aftermath of war and cringe. Soldiers forever scarred with post traumatic stress. Nations devastated and oppressed with sanctions.

So my question is what is the role of the Christ follower in the context of war?

I haven't actually brought up the current war in Iraq, but I will say that some of the actions of the United States are completely and totally unjust. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8PlJVhogs

What do mustard revolutionaries make of statements like "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword" and "Blessed are the peacemakers." etc.?

"Those whom the Son sets free are free indeed." John 8:36

"You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." Galatians 5:1

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." Isaiah 42:6-7

Have you been set free? I'd love to hear about it.

Amidst the junk

It's funny how God works.

Ok you could probably insert other words than funny there...Frustrating, Annoying, Inconvenient are a few that come to mind.

This morning in worship, I had this brilliant idea (yes, for those unaware, I often perceive myself to be a genius.)...we used paper handcuffs to symbolize how many people are in some way imprisoned and consequently unable to worship the way God desires. So as the service is beginning I get up to explain whats going on and I totally zone out. I said about half of what I wanted and probably unneccessarily repeated half of that! Then as I close my 2 minutes (felt like an hour), I go to pray and instead of saying "Will you pray with me?" I say, "Will you pray for me?" (Which might be the more appropriate question now that I think about it.)

So, I sit down, frustrated that the eloquence in my head becomes jibberish from my mouth. The service continued with people wearing these chains throughout worship. After the sermon, we were to all take part in the Lord's supper which I was pretty excited about. Everyone would come up for intinction, break their chains and have communion. Prior to this however, there were a few more gliches in the service. Nothing huge, but noticable things that caused me to say to myself "this moment is ruined...we made all those stupid chains for nothing!"

Then after all the mistakes, errors, flaws and bloopers, people started coming forward and dropping their chains. We sang through Chris Tomlin's "My Chains are Gone" (Amazing Grace) and I started to realize this was so little about me and the others involved in the service. People came up afterwards and spoke of how meaningful this was and how God had in someway pricked their hearts.

So me and my oft-self-centered worldview got a reality check from the Lord. Amidst my junk, God still brings glory to His name. Hallelujah. When has God shown up in the midst of your humanness?

Happy Mothers Day

clip of the day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShf2VuAu_Q&feature=related

TODAY'S MYTHBUSTER: Everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time.

SATURDAY NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA

???

SEVEN OPTIONS (REPLY TO THE POST AND PICK THE ONE YOU LIKE!)

1. GO TO FAIRLAWN AND PLAY "THE BOOKSTORE GAME"

2. ULTIMATE GUITAR HERO TOURNAMENT (WINNER TAKES HOME THE PRIZE)

3. HANG OUT AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD BAR AND GRILL

4. ROUND TWO OF STUPID NINJA (GAME NIGHT)

5. BOWLING NIGHT...WE COULD EITHER GET A COUPLE GAMES IN AFTER BIBLE STUDY OR GO TO THE LATE NIGHT BOWL.

6. WATCH THE CAVS VS. CELTICS GAME 3 SOMEWHERE.

7. WRITE IN YOUR OWN CHOICE

"Backstreet Boys" LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzwv057GPs

Shaina and I have been ending our nights watching you tube clips in bed until be wind down. We used to watch Whose Line Is It Anyways all the time, so we found a ton of clips on you tube and just watch a few each night. This one had us both laughing to the point of crying. Up until the last few weeks, it seems like it had been a long time since we'd laughed hard like that. Not that we're unhappy...but there is something strange about the "Real World". Joy and laughter seem to disappear.

Here's my commitment to laugh regularly. I'm gonna play dorky games like stupid ninja, watch you tube clips, enjoy friendships and if all else fails, I'm going to watch Mary Poppins and sing "I love to laugh."

What has stolen your joy? What keeps you from laughing? It's not that we shouldn't have moments of seriousness, but daggone, I'm gonna lighten up. There are funny things in life and I'm going to indulge. hahahahahahahaha.

Weekend Extravaganza

Thursday afternoon, Shaina, Shadow and I left good ol' Smithville for Dayton. We stopped off in Columbus and met our friend for dinner at Los Margaritas. I had my usual "Cherry Coke with Cherries in it"...and got laughed at by the hispanic waiter haha.

We spent Thursday evening through Saturday morning with my sister and brother-in-law and their two kids. They are absolutely nuts, which makes visits pretty entertaining. We also wii'ed (can that be a verb?) We played mariokart and some brain/intellectual game that I was horrible at.

On the way back to Smithville Saturday we met up with Ben and his wife Erin in Columbus for some Texas Roadhouse. Ben and I are in seminary together and I am slowly whittling down his defenses so he will become a pacifist. Shaina and I both commented that we wished we lived closer to them. It seems like a continual story for us that couples who love the Lord and long for deep friendship are either non-existant or too far away!

Saturday night we had the Edge. A couple things we hit on were the importance of being distinctly Israelite and also the themes of sin and grace in Genesis. Sin does matter. The repercussions of sin can be long lasting as well. We looked briefly at Lot's daughters and how their sinful act births the Moabites and the Ammonites, who are people groups that seem to be a thorn in Israel's side throughout the OT.

After Bible Study, we just hung out at the church and played a couple games. Shaina and I introduced Stupid Ninja and we also played some telephone pictionary. Laughter was abundant and for the second week in a row, my face hurt from laughing so much. This is truly just a good group of young men and women.

Sunday was the youth service at our church. They did an awesome job and worship took place. Afterwards they held a picnic for the community, although most of the attendees were church folks. After basketball, cornhole, ultimate frisbee and hotdogs, Shaina and I came home and crashed. Then we took Shadow to a park, ate some taco bell and I ended the weekend in the gym playing some bball. Whew.

Livin' on the Edge

This Saturday we're going to be studying Genesis at 6 p.m. at the church and then afterwards we're going to hang out and play some games. I think Guitar Hero is in the mix, but I'm also thinking about introducing the life changing game of Stupid Ninja.

It's probably the funniest group game I've ever played as each ninja has their own 'ninja move', many of which were adapted from the classic Sega Genesis game, Mortal Kombat.

It is part of my life goal in coming to the Edge to bring Stupid Ninja to the Wad. If you think you can hang, then bring your nunchuks Saturday nite!