Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Sicky
Thought I should put a brief note up for sempathy reasons. I am ill. Man, this thing is kickin' my butt. Now don't y'all feel sorry for me?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Survivor Try Out Video
Post Modern Workshop Part 3
Truth
The basic premise that I presented and most everyone agreed with was this:
1.) All of our experiences with truth are "little t" experiences. Meaning this, absolute truth exists ("Big T"), we only have the capacity or ability to experience a small portion of that absolute truth. Example: My conversion and experience with Christ is unlike anyone else's. They have similarities but in the end they are different. Just like we are all blessed with different finger prints. Now, does that make my experience right and your experience wrong. Of course not. They are both truthful experiences expressed in different ways. Remember when Peter asked Christ to compare John to himself? Christ response was, "What is that to you? Your must follow me!" Christ is concerned with our individual experiences with Him. He is concerned with our individual responses. Why do we assume that if my faith does not look like yours then it is automatically wrong?
2.) I first heard this said from Brian McClaren. How can we put a definition to Truth when Truth is an embodiment of Christ? (i.e.- I AM the way the TRUTH and the life.) We, as Christians, believe that Christ is the ultimate or absolute Truth. That is our best definition.
Just so you know...These post will come and go and may take a while to get them all in. I don't intend on putting them all in a row.
Adam
The basic premise that I presented and most everyone agreed with was this:
1.) All of our experiences with truth are "little t" experiences. Meaning this, absolute truth exists ("Big T"), we only have the capacity or ability to experience a small portion of that absolute truth. Example: My conversion and experience with Christ is unlike anyone else's. They have similarities but in the end they are different. Just like we are all blessed with different finger prints. Now, does that make my experience right and your experience wrong. Of course not. They are both truthful experiences expressed in different ways. Remember when Peter asked Christ to compare John to himself? Christ response was, "What is that to you? Your must follow me!" Christ is concerned with our individual experiences with Him. He is concerned with our individual responses. Why do we assume that if my faith does not look like yours then it is automatically wrong?
2.) I first heard this said from Brian McClaren. How can we put a definition to Truth when Truth is an embodiment of Christ? (i.e.- I AM the way the TRUTH and the life.) We, as Christians, believe that Christ is the ultimate or absolute Truth. That is our best definition.
Just so you know...These post will come and go and may take a while to get them all in. I don't intend on putting them all in a row.
Adam
Monday, February 13, 2006
"Love" Month
This being the love month I thought I would go ahead and list the top 10 things that I love.
1. God (Given)
2. Dru
3. Mom/Dad
4. Other Immediate Family
5. Friends
6. Music
POD
Blindside
MuteMath
David Crowder Band
Project 86
Etc.
7. Reading
8. Golf
9. Football
10. Vacations
(Bonus)11. No Responsibility (Goes along with vacations)
There you have it.
On a side noter, the MuteMath concert was the best I have ever seen. Granted I haven't been to many concerts but this was the best. If you haven't check them out you need to. (See my other post for a link.)
1. God (Given)
2. Dru
3. Mom/Dad
4. Other Immediate Family
5. Friends
6. Music
POD
Blindside
MuteMath
David Crowder Band
Project 86
Etc.
7. Reading
8. Golf
9. Football
10. Vacations
(Bonus)11. No Responsibility (Goes along with vacations)
There you have it.
On a side noter, the MuteMath concert was the best I have ever seen. Granted I haven't been to many concerts but this was the best. If you haven't check them out you need to. (See my other post for a link.)
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Stoked for MuteMath
Kelly, Mustoe, Jake, and I are all going to see MuteMath tonight. I am sssoooooo stoked about this one. They put on an amazing show. I will also be able to pick up their new album which is only available on tour. This has been a long awaited album for me. I first heard them in Dallas at a YS event. It was ridiculous. I would have bought their EP right then, but they didn't have them available. Fortunately Mustoe saw them with Crowder in St. Louis a few months later and was able to pick up the EP. The band is based out of New Orleans so the old hurricane put a kink in their plans I am sure.
I will let everyone know how the show was. Brad wish you could go. Enjoy that Robert Randolph.
Peace
I will let everyone know how the show was. Brad wish you could go. Enjoy that Robert Randolph.
Peace
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Postmodern Workshop Part 2
Yesterday I said that I was going to run us through some of the thoughts on postmodernism that I have and our group had this past weekend. Before I get into the bread and butter of the conversation I want to share with you two pieces that I shared with the group before we began our discussion. The first is the first track off of the new Blindside Album. The title is the Great Depression. Here it is:
"We are the sons and daughters of a revolution. Revolutionaries walking us out of oppression and into a mobile promised land, and this leaves us with this great sense of sadness growing inside our souls. No one can explain where its coming from or where its taking us. We just know that something is lost, that somewhere we are lost...lost, and this my friend is the great depression."
The second is a line from the social commentary film Fight Club. Tyler Durden says this:
"We are the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no great war, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we are slowly learning that fact. And we are very...very...[angry]."
Using these two quotes helped us to frame our conversation. If someone were to ask me, "What is your definition of Post Modernism?" I would point them to the piece by Blindisde. Particularly the second sentence.
Explanation: We have chosen to leave behind the "death" offered by modernity, but that makes us eternally sad because we were comfortable with what we knew about modernity. Knowledge made us feel comfortable. It made sense to us even if we knew that ultimately it would lead to death. Now we are mobile...Searching for our new "Promise Land" to settle and live in. Just as Tyler Durden says, "we are the middle children of history," we really don't have something that defines who we are. We feel that we have been lied to our whole lives and that makes us "very"..."very"...[angry].
The objective now is to get past that anger and search out truth.
That's what we will talk about next time. Truth, Knowledge, and Absolutes. Should be fun.
Adam
"We are the sons and daughters of a revolution. Revolutionaries walking us out of oppression and into a mobile promised land, and this leaves us with this great sense of sadness growing inside our souls. No one can explain where its coming from or where its taking us. We just know that something is lost, that somewhere we are lost...lost, and this my friend is the great depression."
The second is a line from the social commentary film Fight Club. Tyler Durden says this:
"We are the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no great war, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we are slowly learning that fact. And we are very...very...[angry]."
Using these two quotes helped us to frame our conversation. If someone were to ask me, "What is your definition of Post Modernism?" I would point them to the piece by Blindisde. Particularly the second sentence.
Explanation: We have chosen to leave behind the "death" offered by modernity, but that makes us eternally sad because we were comfortable with what we knew about modernity. Knowledge made us feel comfortable. It made sense to us even if we knew that ultimately it would lead to death. Now we are mobile...Searching for our new "Promise Land" to settle and live in. Just as Tyler Durden says, "we are the middle children of history," we really don't have something that defines who we are. We feel that we have been lied to our whole lives and that makes us "very"..."very"...[angry].
The objective now is to get past that anger and search out truth.
That's what we will talk about next time. Truth, Knowledge, and Absolutes. Should be fun.
Adam
It's Over and Finished
Dru and I decided to take a walk last night. It was nice. For some reason earlier in the day I was thinking about what song I would sing if I tried out for American Idle. So of course, during our walk Dru and I were picking out and practicing the song that I would sing. (We decided on Somewhere Over the Rainbow because it shows range and the ability to jump from note to note very well.) This got us thinking about how last night was the last night of the only good part of American Idle. You know before they narrow down to the people that can actually sing. The part where you get to see and hear the people who, and I will be nice here, can't sing. Anyway, when we returned from the walk I turned the t.v. on to watch the ensuing train wreck. I turned the T.V. on and then turned the VCR on because our cable runs through the VCR. All I got was a Blue Screen. Some of you might make it equivalent to the Blue Screen of Death on your computer but for me it was a welcome relief.
"The Cable is gone!" I shouted.
Dru decided to surprise me with cable around the time of my birthday. (10-30-81) Since this was the height of football season I was very grateful. I have to admit. It was nice having all of those channels to veg out on. I could flip to the golf channel and get my golf fix at any time of the day. I could put ESPN on and get my sports fix. I could even put SPIKE T.V. on at lunch time and get my Star Trek: Next Generation fix. (I know I'm a nerd) I began to notice that I could satisfy all of my T.V. fixes, but in order to do this I had to sacrifice many other things that I love to do. For instance, the number of books that I read in relation to owning cable drastically dropped. The number of evenings that I spent in quiet talking to my wife drastically dropped. The amount of time I spent pondering and reading and thinking theology drastically dropped. Cable soon became the weight that was dragging me to the suffocating depths of the ocean floor.
Admittedly I liked it, but not enough for my marriage or my spiritual life to suffer. So we canceled it. On January 9th, we stopped payments. It has taken the company this long to shut it off. A part of me misses the "options" that cable provides, but a much larger part of me is relieved to know that am now "free" to swim to the surface and take a breath again.
Adam
"The Cable is gone!" I shouted.
Dru decided to surprise me with cable around the time of my birthday. (10-30-81) Since this was the height of football season I was very grateful. I have to admit. It was nice having all of those channels to veg out on. I could flip to the golf channel and get my golf fix at any time of the day. I could put ESPN on and get my sports fix. I could even put SPIKE T.V. on at lunch time and get my Star Trek: Next Generation fix. (I know I'm a nerd) I began to notice that I could satisfy all of my T.V. fixes, but in order to do this I had to sacrifice many other things that I love to do. For instance, the number of books that I read in relation to owning cable drastically dropped. The number of evenings that I spent in quiet talking to my wife drastically dropped. The amount of time I spent pondering and reading and thinking theology drastically dropped. Cable soon became the weight that was dragging me to the suffocating depths of the ocean floor.
Admittedly I liked it, but not enough for my marriage or my spiritual life to suffer. So we canceled it. On January 9th, we stopped payments. It has taken the company this long to shut it off. A part of me misses the "options" that cable provides, but a much larger part of me is relieved to know that am now "free" to swim to the surface and take a breath again.
Adam
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Postmodern Workshop Part 1
This past Saturday we had a Pony Express District Training event at our church. For those of you who don't know the Methodist church is split into conferences and then districts. Our conference is Missouri and our district is the Pony Express. (Funny side note: I always made fun of the people who had to sit under the Poney Express Banner at Annual Conference. Now I am one of them. I'll be the guy with the dark shades on.)
Anyway, these events are usually a waste of time. What ends up happening is everybody sits in a room and says, "Here's how we did a harvest festival and it worked great!" "Well here's how we did ours. What about you?" And so on and so on. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at this particular event. Well, at least the postmodern workshop. Yes, it is true that it was the workshop that I was asked to lead. (Even though I felt very inadequate at doing so.) But that's not why I say it went so well. It went well because we were able to get beyond the mind set of "what I do at my church is destined to work at your church!"
I began the workshop by saying, "If you came to this workshop expecting to learn how to attract young adults and students to your church, then I am afraid you will be disappointed." Truthfully, if I had that figured out then this church would be full of them already. I also told them that we were not there to discuss worship style either. Not because postmoderns don't care about how they worship but because at the heart of it the style is not as important to them as the relationships that are established in the course of worship.
So, in the next few posts I will outline and discuss some of the main points that we covered and give some of the questions that were raised. I don't claim to be a postmodern expert, but I do my best. My hope is that this will generate discussion and it will allow some of Ashland's students to better understand the topic. (That's for you Makayla.)
Stay Tuned
Adam
Anyway, these events are usually a waste of time. What ends up happening is everybody sits in a room and says, "Here's how we did a harvest festival and it worked great!" "Well here's how we did ours. What about you?" And so on and so on. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at this particular event. Well, at least the postmodern workshop. Yes, it is true that it was the workshop that I was asked to lead. (Even though I felt very inadequate at doing so.) But that's not why I say it went so well. It went well because we were able to get beyond the mind set of "what I do at my church is destined to work at your church!"
I began the workshop by saying, "If you came to this workshop expecting to learn how to attract young adults and students to your church, then I am afraid you will be disappointed." Truthfully, if I had that figured out then this church would be full of them already. I also told them that we were not there to discuss worship style either. Not because postmoderns don't care about how they worship but because at the heart of it the style is not as important to them as the relationships that are established in the course of worship.
So, in the next few posts I will outline and discuss some of the main points that we covered and give some of the questions that were raised. I don't claim to be a postmodern expert, but I do my best. My hope is that this will generate discussion and it will allow some of Ashland's students to better understand the topic. (That's for you Makayla.)
Stay Tuned
Adam
Friday, February 03, 2006
Insert Hallelujah Chorus Here
I don't know if you have noticed, but my site seems to have "fixed" itself. I didn't do anything. It just popped up that way. What a blessing!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
I Too Got Tagged By My Uncle Matthew
Four jobs I've had in my life:
Office Max Sales Associate
Painter/Pressure Washer at Gulf Coast Community College
Casey's General Store (I made the Donuts)
Youth Minister at Ashland UMC in Saint Joseph, MO
Four Movies I could watch repeatedly (and have):
Spinal Tap
Waiting for Guffman
Best in Show
A Mighty Wind
Four Places I have lived:
Vandalia, Ohio
Panama City, Florida
Fayette, Missouri
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Four TV shows I love to watch:
Lost
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
Friends
Four Places I have been on Vacation:
Grand Canyon, AZ
Washington D.C.
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PN
Four Websites I visit daily:
www.Yahoo.com
www.Juno.com
www.Hotmail.com
www.Mail.com
Four Favorite Restaurant Foods:
Corams (Panama City, FL) Heavenly Hash!!! OH SOOOOOOOOO GOOD
Shakespeares Pizza (Columbia, MO)
Spinnakers (Panama City Beach, FL) Great Burgers!!!
Chik Fil A
Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
Another Honeymoon With My Wife
On the Golf Course (Any Golf Course)
Visiting the Holy Land
Touring Europe
Four People I'm tagging:
Adam Mustoe
Andy Bryan
Brad Bryan
Kansas Bob (if he reads this)
Office Max Sales Associate
Painter/Pressure Washer at Gulf Coast Community College
Casey's General Store (I made the Donuts)
Youth Minister at Ashland UMC in Saint Joseph, MO
Four Movies I could watch repeatedly (and have):
Spinal Tap
Waiting for Guffman
Best in Show
A Mighty Wind
Four Places I have lived:
Vandalia, Ohio
Panama City, Florida
Fayette, Missouri
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Four TV shows I love to watch:
Lost
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
Friends
Four Places I have been on Vacation:
Grand Canyon, AZ
Washington D.C.
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PN
Four Websites I visit daily:
www.Yahoo.com
www.Juno.com
www.Hotmail.com
www.Mail.com
Four Favorite Restaurant Foods:
Corams (Panama City, FL) Heavenly Hash!!! OH SOOOOOOOOO GOOD
Shakespeares Pizza (Columbia, MO)
Spinnakers (Panama City Beach, FL) Great Burgers!!!
Chik Fil A
Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
Another Honeymoon With My Wife
On the Golf Course (Any Golf Course)
Visiting the Holy Land
Touring Europe
Four People I'm tagging:
Adam Mustoe
Andy Bryan
Brad Bryan
Kansas Bob (if he reads this)
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Off-The-Map
Wanted to let you guys know about this web-site. If you are interested in the post-modern conversation in any way shape or form then you will want to check this out. It's a great resource to get conversation going.
There are several lectures that deal with evangelism, the great commission, a new kind of Christian, missional living, etc.
I would encourage you to first watch the lecture by Brian McLaren explaining the paradigm shift that he and others believe we are going through. You can watch that here. It is under the title A New Kind of Christian. They're not too long so they won't take up your whole day.
They also have some intriguing interviews with individuals that "we" would consider "lost," definitely conversation starters.
Check it out. Let me know what you think.
Adam
There are several lectures that deal with evangelism, the great commission, a new kind of Christian, missional living, etc.
I would encourage you to first watch the lecture by Brian McLaren explaining the paradigm shift that he and others believe we are going through. You can watch that here. It is under the title A New Kind of Christian. They're not too long so they won't take up your whole day.
They also have some intriguing interviews with individuals that "we" would consider "lost," definitely conversation starters.
Check it out. Let me know what you think.
Adam
