Legend Community Church

Come Together

2012-01-30T09:56:00.001-08:00

Today I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with my good friend Merrie Beth, and my advisor for my graduate degree. When I pulled up to school, Merrie Beth was talking to a woman who's son was in my class when he was an 8th grader and I was still a public school teacher. At lunch, it turns out that Merrie Beth, who has taught me a tremendous amount over the past 3 years, went to undergrad with my advisor, who I have also learned a tremendous amount from over the past 3 years. My worlds were colliding all over the place today.

How beautiful is the church when the church works like it should?

Today I sat and listened as Merrie Beth and Tom told their stories. Stories about churches, and even more importantly about people. Stories about work and life and families and friendships. I was the beneficiary of a lot of experience and wisdom. We talked about the church and going to bars and what the nature of the personhood of Jesus is. We talked about common friends how their lives all intersected.

All 3 of us have pretty different stories that have lead us to where we are on January 31st, 2012. All of us are pretty different people, who see things in some amazingly diverse and complex ways. But I loved to see how the church is connected, and how people of various ages and experiences can become connected, and can be a help and an encouragement to one another. How 3 people in 3 different places in their lives can sit at one table around a meal, and push aside all the things that the world assures us divides us.

Flame War

2012-01-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

So, I generally attempt to avoid flame wars on anything with my name attached to it. I'm really aware of the fact that I'm the pastor of a church, and I whole-heartedly believe that people of all kinds of various beliefs can come together in the church and be united by Jesus even if they're divided by anything else. And, it seems prudent to me that I avoid getting into heated debates about stuff which could divide the church. Most of my energy is spent on making the church better, so I don't need to be starting fires that I have to put out. If that makes sense.

So I was stunned this week when an innocuous post about a stupid class I'm in developed into, by far, the most commented thing I've ever had on facebook. It's about whether or not the Catholic church is a cult (really, that conversation is still happening?), and I was stunned at the ferocity of the debate. Like, if I start a war about how much I hate the Steelers, ok, fine, a flame war can erupt because that doesn't really matter. Or if I point out that Metallica is hands down the best rock band of all time, and you disagree, then it's ok for me to eviscerate you on the internet, because, honestly, who cares about a band or what I think about music?

But when the church turns on its own about who is really a christian or not, it breaks my heart. I hate to see us divided over nonsense, or even worse, divided over non-truths. I appreciate that we can have deeply held convictions and have good discussions, but I hate to see things develop to that point, where the church is busy fighting itself, and the powers and principalities rage on.

Which leads me to another thought. Am I required to now scrub my facebook or twitter feed in order to ensure that nothing controversial is on them. I mean if that topic can turn into a flame war, who knows what else can? I hate to think that we have to get to the point where we can only have sanitized 1950s-television-era conversations, but I also hate to see us destroying each other over anything. Anything.

My prayer becomes for the church to learn to disagree with each other in a civil and even - dare I say it? - loved-based way. I know, I know. I'm a radical.

Divine in the Ordinary (boat race)

2011-12-15T04:46:00.000-08:00

yes thats right. the blur in the foreground is my son dancing in rejoice as he wins the "raingutter regatta"."

and not just win, but in this particular race, he smoked that dude.

We walked in that night knowing that Grayden's boat would do pretty well, considering there were only about 4 fathers of 30 or so who did internet research as to the best model of boat to build. as you can see the catamaran is the superior model.

so Grayden won. not just a few races, but all of them. he won first prize. and not all of them were this easy, i thought for sure he was going to lose to his best friend James here:

who had a faster boat. it basically came down to who exhaled first at the last breath.

side note: we could all learn a lot from what an excellent friend James is, who could not have been more happy for his friend Grayden for winning.

so i left that night feeling exhilarated for Grayden. i was so proud of him, and so happy for him.

all night, all i could think about was how just so dang proud i was of him. just for winning a race of homemade boats. something that really has nothing to do with the grand scheme of the life. or does it?

maybe its a small victory like this that he will remember when he is older and maybe it will give him the push to pursue higher goals. who knows?

but i saw God in this situation. because if whatever we are, is just a mirror image of what God has in store for how we should really live (1Cor. 13)...then i cant imagine how this reflects how God is proud of me. of us.

how when we succeed in really anything we do, from big goals, graduations, jobs, loving people...or even when we are throwing away a piece of trash NBA style and make an incredible shot that no one is around to see...maybe in those moments God swells up with pride. because he loves his children.

its fun to know that God thinks of me in ways i think of my boys.

thanks God.

Divine In The Ordinary (Poppins)

2011-11-28T08:24:00.001-08:00

this week, our family totally got "poppins-ed." if you are unfamiliar with this term, then watch Arrested Development or see the above picture.

but when i use this term, i am not referring to being suddenly attacked in the street by a random flying Mary Poppins doll. Though that would be really really awesome. i am referring to watching the actual movie, Mary Poppins.

it had been awhile since i had seen it, and my children had never seen it. i forgot just how incredible this movie is.

in particularly this character:

Uncle Albert. a man that chooses laughter to above all else to be the best medicine. the movie sort of discourages this sort of shenanigans and balances it with Mary Poppins' quite serious demeanor. if its seriousness about silliness.

but the movie is not in to be a stodgy ol curmudgeon. it also discourages over seriousness in life. I realized for the first time that this story is not about children, or a fantastical babysitter...but its about Mr. Banks. about him finding how to be present with his family, about him trying to figure out how to enjoy life.

you get to see his metamorphosis from a cold, rigid, overly concerned with money and time management sort of person into a guy who wants to fly kites with his kids and say words like this:

i am in love with that idea. the idea that you can say a word, a super silly and a non sense word...and it can totally lift your presence. lift your countenance.

its actually my challenge to you. next time the day is gray and things suck...try saying this word.

i believe in the power of language, and more so i believe that when we search for avenues to lift our spirits, whether it be in a silly word or in a line of scripture, or a good quote, or a close friend, then God shows up and he works in our favor.

i really believe that he leads our countenance and our minds to green pastures and quite waters.

try it. or just watch Mary Poppins and feel better.

Divine In The Ordinary (love and lattes)

2011-11-15T05:15:00.001-08:00

i really like to personalize stuff. i think things to be mine and for it to be distinctly mine. above is my computer. i like to draw on things, it makes it mine. to the left is my latte. i do art on those too. although i usually use my own mug that i made:

i personalize everything. my wife rolled her eyes at me when i drew on my brand new kindle case. for her, its ruining something nice. for me, its making it my own. before i got married i used to write on all my clothes. i write on my skin (permanently and not) i would write on walls if i had the proper tools, i had a pretty surreal morning where i was on this computer, drinking from this mug, listening to my music as i was opening the store this morning. The song that came on, as i was opening, was a song from one of my all time favorite movies:

and my favorite scene when they open their store:

a very awesome, and very personalized morning.

which got me to thinking...i was wondering if i personalize God.

do i make him what i want him to be?

the more i thought about it, the more i realized that NO! i dont do that at all. if i did, He would certainly look much different.

but what i did realize is that God personalized me. he makes my life a piece of art that is distinctly me and i relish in the fact that i am distinctly his.

i dont use that kind of language often. but its true. i am his new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, thenew is here

Divine In The Ordinary (the other ginger)

2011-11-12T06:33:00.001-08:00

this is my oldest son (not the ginger i posted about earlier). His name is Grayden.

Grayden is the source of any pride that i have ever had. Grayden represents the best of me. I am in constant awe of who he is and who he is becoming.

this picture is grayden, riding his bike without training wheels for the first time. i know it looks like they are touching the ground, but they are not. it took grayden awhile to muster up the courage to really try to ride without depending on the training wheels. then....all of a sudden....in one magic moment, he just gets it. it connects...it becomes a natural part of life to just naturally balance on those two wheels and go go go.

this was a pretty big win in our family's world.

i saw the divine in him that day.

i read verses of scripture like this:

Galatians 5:1- "It was for Freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery"

to be free.

freedom.

riding your bike, with the wind blowing in your face, no training wheels.

just going.

what does this mean? we proclaim freedom. we say these words. but do we live it?

are we just being in creation, enjoying it, loving it, knowing that the creator of all things is there watching like an excited parent at the times we really do just let go and glide free.

i imagine when we really are feeling and living free from the bondage in this world,

then God is looking and clapping and thinking its a pretty big win for the family.

Blocked

2011-11-11T06:44:00.001-08:00

I have been trying for a month to write a blog that is witty or intelligent or creative. sometimes I have good ideas. they're almost always at a time when I can't do anything.

I'm not a very good writer in terms of process - I don't do a good job of the entire creative process, which leads me to half-formed ideas which could be good or interesting, but end up not being so.

Today is my last day of classes this semester, so I'm hoping that after today I can start writing and thinking more. just for the sake of writing and thinking.

Divine In The Ordinary (cool moon)

2011-11-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

if you are new to this blog, the "Divine In The Ordinary" posts are ways in which i am trying in my life to see God in everything. to not look to the extra ordinary, or the miraculous, but to see him in every step, every breath, and every interaction i have.

that, to me, is truly becoming new creation.

anyway, this is a picture of a moon i saw the other morning:

i really like seeing elements out of place. for instance, the sun at night and trees growing out of buildings, or non-hispanic people working at Chipotle.

i caught this the other morning, it was one of the first cool mornings we have had this season...i was walking out of bigs at about 6:20am when i looked up and saw this great moon.

he was just sitting there amongst all the artificial lights....being big and awesome.

i sort of taken by it at first.

then i was reminded that i was running late to make coffee and snapped out of it.

but i kept thinking about how out of the ordinary this moon was, how in about 5 minutes it would be drown out by the fast approaching sunlight.

blerg you sun!

i dont think i ever go too many places where i am way out of the ordinary.

not where you just dont fit in, or you are out of your "comfort zone."

but where you really just dont belong.

like surfers in australia

cats in antarctica

or drew carrey hosting the Family Feud.

someone asked me recently if i think this church is different from the world.

as in, its actions. does Legend really look different than the patterns of the this world.

i say it does.

i say we stand out like that moon.

i think the problem is, we should not define our "separation" from the world doing or not doing.

but about what we are being and what we are becoming.

i think, more often than not, we stick out, out of the ordinary, like that moon.

We Believe in Halloween!

2011-11-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

Halloween is becoming more and more popular. As the years go by, i feel that Halloween is not longer just a night out for kids. It is becoming one of the more popular adult party weekends. We were invited to 5 parties this year, all on the same night, and almost all of them were more than a mere get together.

Here is my costume debut this year:

yeah, i was a pretty sweet Legolas.

so....its recently come to my attention that a lot of churches, and a lot of christians are not savvy on Halloween. Some practice parts of it, some practice none of it. Some say it is too aligned with the occult or that it celebrates things we should not be apart of.

really?

i dont even care to get into the real debate here (about what Halloween really is, or things Christians have been a part of in the past), but i do care to call out bullcrap when i hear it.

our church celebrates and loves halloween. not because we are cool or edgy, and not because we support the occult (though i am a super super potter fan), hence this picture:

This Halloween i saw nothing but FINALLY our entire community was out of their houses, off their phones, away from their televisions and computers, hanging out and talking to everyone.

you, Christian, get a chance to be interactive with everyone in your neighborhood. they are coming to your house, you get to go to everyone's house.

i saw people talking, mingling, drinking, sitting, laughing together. there is no other holiday in the year that causes people to do this.

how much closer to new creation living can we get to than this?

by not supporting this, or much worse not participating in this...we are missing out on opportunities to be God's light in the lives of our entire neighborhood.

Wake up church! Wake up sleepers! we are not living in our grandparents world anymore. things of old have changed and new opportunities to change our community are presenting themselves all the time.

it doesnt take any magic words, it doesnt take any special knowledge, it just takes you....

being....

being present in the lives of others.

its just you, as a christian walking, biking, talking, drinking, eating, riding in cars, reading, making things, making art, kissing family, hugging friends, making out, loving, seeing movies, smoking pipes, going to parties, making friends, telling stories, listening to music, going to concerts, working, thinking, drawing, creating, mowing, sitting, looking, dancing, playing,

just being. and God works wonders in those things.

The Divine In The Ordinary (Jesus Car)

2011-10-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

This car was parked outside of the coffeeshop this past week:

its decorated with slogans like "come lord jesus." the license plate says "worship." i certainly saw the divine, but not in this "out of the ordinary" car. it was in peoples reaction. basically they were laughing, mocking, and making light of this car. i was right there with them (on the inside of course).

i know it may be harsh, i just dont see the sense in something like this. first, what does that even mean? when we say "come lord jesus"? does it mean you hate this world so much your ready for it to be over? if so, is that a biblical view of creation?

"Jesus is coming soon"? how does she know? The apostles certainly didnt.

I saw the divine in peoples reaction. they were not upset because someone believed in God, or Jesus. They were upset because they, just as i with a different perspective, could see the nonsense in decorating your vehicle in such a way.

now i know that she has as sincere heart in what she is doing....at least i hope she does.

but the sincere heart does not justify the damage things like this does to the movement.

i think we forget that a lot....that its a movement. its not an established institute, but a movement that has not reached its destination.

should our message be "come lord Jesus"? at least in the sense its meant here? if it is "come lord Jesus" into the hearts and minds of people to transform our world...then yeah. but if its come back so we can all get off this shitty earth....then no. thats not what we represent. thats no more love than those who quickly jumped on the life raft to escape the titanic leaving women and children behind.

but as i said, i saw the divine in the reactions of the people. i saw a people that God is so reaching out to, and i saw their minds revert further away from him because of this visual obtrusion.

"

Anti-

2011-10-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

What if the church needs more anti-pastors? Not "anti" as in opposed to or against, but anti in that it doesn't fit the mold of what is expected of a pastor.

The idea is something Justin and I have been tossing around for a while. The idea comes from the literary term antihero, and is connected for me to characters like Neo or Batman or Megamind or Han Solo. The list could go on. In a lot of ways the archetypal hero has given way to the anti hero, for a variety of reasons.

What if it's time for the idea of pastor in American culture to give way to the anti-pastor?

What are the ideas of pastor which are tied into it which need to be let go of?

What are the processes of pastors which have outlived their usefulness?

I don't know. Well, I think I do. But I haven't explored it yet. I think it's time.

The Divine In The Ordinary (Spider Web)

2011-10-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

so....i found the most fascinating facts the other day about spiders.
some of them have warning colors. they mean that they are poison and over time other species have learned to stay the heck away from these colors.
but there are also others spiders who are not poisonous, but over time they have evolved to become these colors so that predators leave them alone as well.

well done evolution, well done spider.

so after finding out about spiders....i found this great one in my yard.

so he is that big blurry spot in the middle. the iphone (RIP Steve Jobs) doesnt take the best pictures. here is another one:

he is in the yellow circle. anyway, what was so awesome about this spider, wasnt himself, but this amazing huge web that he created. it was gigantic. and overnight.

so i learned more about spiders and their webs.
this spider makes a big web, sits in the middle of it, and when things get stuck in it, it vibrates and he is immediately aware something is there and he goes and eats it.

other spiders leave little webs everywhere, then go back and periodically check them for prey.

and still other spiders pounce on prey and use their web to wrap it up (see the Shelob for details).

i cant believe i havent thought of this before...but as christians, we should be just like spiders. we should be....spidermen?

only in my dreams.

are we not supposed to ensnare people with who we are. the path of our life should be this sticky presence that, no matter how hard people try, they cant escape what they have experienced through you. is this not what we are supposed to do with love?

weather or not we are conscience of all that is around us and can sense when people are in need around us....or we leave signs of love all over the place just hoping someone will get trapped in it, or perhaps we just tackle people around us with who we are.

i think about this when i want to be cool. when i want to be rude or say just the right smart-assed thing, or talk back to someone who is rude....i should just be shooting lovewebs at people. i know...lamesauce...but how could would it be to really have love webs?

The Divine In The Ordinary (Bird Chaser)

2011-09-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is my youngest son Archer:

I had no idea, but he really likes to chase birds.

We were downtown at the fountain a few days ago and he went ballistic over these birds. It was pretty fascinating to watch as these birds, who have become overly used to people, were not phased at all by the giant toddler chasing them in a horror movie like fashion. they always kept a few feet ahead of him, but never flew off, never left, just sort of stuck around.

i dont know if i have expressed this, but the bird is my spirit animal. that is totally self diagnosed, yet true. i secretly love to watch birds and i feel like i see God in them often.

so if this bird were God, which seems likely that he would take the form of a pigeon, which is just one step ahead of a seagull, which is one step ahead of a rat, then what did i see from this scene?

this is sort of a metaphor for mine and God's dance through life. i know he has never left me, and i have never stopped seeing him. i have always seen him, right there, right in front of me. and perhaps, he wants me to stand still and admire, observe, watch, think, ponder, talk.... but i am like a clumsy child who has just learned to walk and keep running towards him stumbling around and he has to keep creating new paths and new ways to see him. in the end, it can be quite exhausting, but i am still excited that i got to chase a bird.

"dear God, thanks for always staying right there with me, even when i probably annoy the hell out of you sometimes."

The Divine In The Ordinary (Vintage Cool Chair)

2011-09-21T11:48:00.001-07:00

So, this is going to sound weird. nonetheless, its true. God sat down in this chair next to me today on a friends porch. which sort of makes sense, if God was going to come sit next to me, it would be in this cool aged modern chair.

i am having an off day. there is something hanging over my head and if you know me at all, thats not good. i like to deal with responsibility immediately, i hate having things loom. however, sometimes you dont get that choice.

i had to journey over to the other side of town today and wait for a long time. i decided to pass the time across the street on a friends porch. i sat in a chair and then i felt like talking to God. to unload a lot of crap on him. it was much easier to do this if he were sitting next to me as oppose to speaking to the dark clouds in the sky. so i talked to him in this chair. it was nice. it was so nice i wanted to steal the chair and bring it home in hopes that God would often come to visit in this chair.

i bet its real similar to Jesus coming to sit with the woman at the well to talk to her. or maybe when he came to Zacchaeus' house. better yet, how about this scene from John 21:

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

its nice to know that God comes to just sit with us sometimes. does this ever happen to anyone else?

The Divine In The Ordinary (Leaf Bug)

2011-09-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

something in this picture doesnt belong. no its not the big gross foot. no its not the weird ball-like growth at the end of my foot either. its the leaf-bug. i know i know. with modern technology i should be able to look up what kind of bug this really is and right the technical term. but i dont do that. i do know though, from my many trips to the Cincinnati Zoo that this is a but that hangs near leaves and bushes and such and its natural build makes him blend in with his surroundings. to help hide him from predators.

the only problem is, it doesnt quite help him that much when he lands on skin, in particular, feet.

i sat there staring at him and i found the divine in the ordinary. i thought about how great this bug is. i thought about how my first instinct may have been to smack him and possibly kill him, or in the very least to shoo him away. i didnt. i just watched him and thought about how much he didnt belong there.

i have never felt like that. i have always felt like i belong. i think i am supposed to feel like i dont belong, like there is something bigger or better, or different (because most heroes of the story seem to feel that way, ask Charlie Bucket). but i dont. i feel like i fit here, in my life, in this world. and that, is a comforting feeling.

however, sometimes....i feel like i should be a leaf bug on skin sometimes. i feel like i should stick out more sometimes...i maybe should be places i dont really fit in. i guess some would say step out of a "comfort zone". i think God calls us to that quite often.

Another round, barkeep!

2011-08-17T08:20:00.001-07:00

Oops - there went a month!

There's a constant, it seems, struggle within the church about alcohol and its use by Christians. As I've gotten older, I've realized that it's relegated to a particular branch of the Church, within one very particular strain of thought that thinks it's more important than it is. American Evangelicalism - whether it's talking about theology about Hell or ethical concerns like drinking - has sort of decided that they are the definition of Christianity, and tend to forget about the massive amount of protestants, Catholics and Orthodox that make up the VAST majority of Christians in the world.

Nevertheless, it's a world I find myself stumbling through at times, and it's where a lot of my ~~fights~~ discussions come from, so when someone forwarded me a link to John McArthur railing, again, about alcohol, I was gleeful.

See, this is a battle I can win. When McArthur says things like, "The ravages of alcoholism and drug abuse in our culture are too well known, and no symbol of sin’s bondage is more seductive or more oppressive than booze," he's just wrong. There certainly is alcoholism and drug abuse. There are CERTAINLY families and individuals destroyed by alcoholism in our culture. Certainly the Church should stand in the gap of people in the throes of addiction and help them be free of bondage.

But to say that people who drink are all in that, at least symbolically, is wrong. To go on to say, as he does, that the church is damaged if it's associated with alcohol, is again, just wrong. We're damaged when we're associated with name-calling and combativeness and politics WAY more than we are if we're at the local pub having a beer or three. McArthur is another Christian leader who simply spends way to much time with the Church, hearing conversations the Church is having, and then projecting those "truths" onto the culture at large, not realizing that the culture at large has by-passed them. Most people not in the church would have no ability to relate to his concerns at all. No one has ever, in my many nights at local pubs, thought anything negative about the church because I'm drinking there. Many of them are, to the contrary, quite pleasantly surprised.

So, as I said, this is a fight I can win. I like bourbon. I like scotch. I like beer. I love pub culture. Most of all, I like people, and I like hanging out with them. I think a tee-totaling stance doesn't jive with either the scriptures (what people like McArthur say about wine not being alcoholic is silly nonsense that ignores both the scriptures and history), nor with the long witness of the Church. And man, do i love winning, especially internet arguments.

But then he says this.

"This tendency to emblazon oneself with symbols of carnal indulgence as if they were valid badges of spiritual identity is one of the more troubling aspects of the YRR movement's trademark restlessness," he said plainly. "It is wrong-headed, carnal, and immature to imagine that bad-boy behavior makes good missional strategy. The image of beer-drinking Bohemianism does nothing to advance the cause of Christ's kingdom."

He's right. To do any of those things - he lists tattoos, smoking, and drinking, among others - as spiritual badges, as missional strategies. And if someone is doing any of those things as a missional strategy, as a mark of identity, they're wrong. Those are horrible reasons to do anything. While I disagree with McArthur about the default goodness/badness of drinking in general, I'm actually right in line with his "don't do things so that the kids will think you're cool."

If you drink beer, it should be because you like beer. If you get tattoos, it should be because you like tattoos. Our culture is a fickle, money-driven monster, and if you base you ministry strategies on what is cool, you'll have to change every 6 months just to be 2 months behind. It's simply naive to think that if you drink more or cuss more or get more tattoos that THEN all those godless pagans will see the light and come to your church. But they will come if you're alive - which is what Jesus promises us - to the fullest extent. If you're true and you're just and you're graceful and you're merciful. In other words, if you're being made new by the Holy Spirit, taking part in New Creation and pointing people towards something better than what they're experiencing here - even better than beer! - then they're going to want to be apart of what you're doing. Then you're not drinking "missionally" (whatever that means). You're celebrating new life with your brothers and sisters. And that seems like something to be a part of.

Know Your Role

2011-07-21T05:45:00.001-07:00

I went to see a show Tuesday night at Cincy's Southgate House (the last great small venue in the city), by mine and Kim's favorite band,Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. I stood on the balcony singing along proudly with some of my favorite songs of the last 10 years. Along with hundreds of strangers, I sang songs about love and about life and about drinking and girls and death.. I played air drums, and threw my hands up in support of great music, and listened to a genuinely thankful singer-songwriter walkabout the fans who were paying for his tour bus repairs, and who had built a true community with him over the past 10 years. He talked about people being peacemakers, and changing people's lives one life at a time, through relationship and love.

And he didn't learn a single one of those things from some latest church-planting conference or book. He actually lived out all of them, and every word out of his mouth was was achingly honest.

The world needs more rock and roll singers.

Not the crap - at the risk of sounding like a very old man - that passes for rock in the mainstream today. There was a time when singers like Bob Dylan and John Fogerty stood up and spoke truth to power. When Led Zeppelin explored how big and mysterious the world was. When the Dead showed the world what a thriving community could look like. When the Ramones stood and questioned the mainstream, when Nirvana made us realize how corporate everything had become, when Public Enemy stood and spoke about 2 Americas for people of color, or even when Johnny Cash reminded us that there's a man coming around. Rock music spoke truth, contemplated real beauty, and pondered the mysterious. We need some of them again.

It's not that no one is making good music, or writing good songs. It's that not enough people are, and the ones who aren't have way to much power, because the corporate world has bought an entire army of empty shells and put them put as legitimate art (I'm lookin at you, hipsters).

This should be the church's job. But we aren't collectively doing it either. We're supposed to be salt and light, we're supposed to be adding value. Until we do a better job of filling this role - the prophetic role and tradition old and rich in the people of God - I hope more rock singers step up and do it.

Enough already

2011-07-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

I don't do stuff like this very often. I actually hate to do it, because I know I'm just as wrong about some things and I know that I embarrass myself and the church at times when I'm wrong or I'm brash or whatever it is I'm being that day. I know this ahead of time.

This blogpost started floating around this week in response to something Mark Driscoll said on his Facebook page. I've spent the better part of the past 5 years defending Driscoll - sure he's bombastic, and a little bit offensive, but I've always thought the church has gotten a bit pretentious about himself, and I found that I could connect to a lot of his criticisms. But this year, I saw a video that hacked me off, and then this blogpost (which actually catalogues a lot of the nonsense that has come from him). And it's finally time for me to say enough.

What good does a post like that do? What's biblical about inviting the public dressing down of peole who arent even present in the conversation? Whats biblical about attacking leaders of Christ's bride? There's nothing redemptive about the way he says and does things. His caricature of masculinity is simply laughable, and marginalizes some really masculine men, Jesus among them (Jesus NEVER treats people the way Driscoll does). But none of that really matters - it's not like Driscoll gives two rips what I say. I'm worse than a non-believer, after all.

It's not that I think Driscoll and all his disciples (and people are devoted to him at an astounding level) are not Christians. I think they genuinely love Jesus, and they're trying the best they can to understand him and live that out. But in using language and personal attacks like this, he's simply wrong. He's causing more harm to the body than good, and he's doing it from a wrong place. It's not like he can take the high ground here and defend the hard position - he's wrong into way he talks about masculinity and gender all the time.

People attracted to Driscoll and the rest of the neo-reformed movement in a large part because they are growing really large churches and they always have something to say about leadership. This is not leadership. They aren't moving anything forward. They aren't talking in fresh ways or with fresh ideas. If anything, this is regressive, it moves everything backwards. The church is struggling with it's identity in the world, and the way it approaches other people, and talking about people in a destructive way doesn't help anyone, not them, not the church, and certainly not Jesus. Despite what you think of the homosexuality issue in the church, there's a healthy and Christ-centered way to respond to things. Most of the church's perception issues in the world are because we continue to react to people and things in a non-Christlike manner.

Leadership is needed here, especially for a younger generation of the church and it's leaders, disconnected from the denominations and the traditional movements of the past. We're going to have to figure out how to talk to and live with people with radically different world views than our own, and for better or for worse, we no longer get to dictate the terms of the conversation, which means we should become what we should have been all along - graceful, merciful, and life-giving.

Longest Sermon Ever

2011-06-27T08:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I preached from Genesis 1, and a friend of mine who does power point for us on Sunday asked if I'd included the entire book of Genesis in the PowerPoint this week - 8 slides is a LOT of slides for me (which probably begs a whole other conversation about why I suck at/don't use visual aids in sermons). Add to that that my manuscript, normally 3 pages was 5, and I preached one of the longest sermons of my brilliant, brilliant career.

Now, part if that is that I'm wordy. Both readers of this blog (thanks, honey!) can attest to that. But it's more than that. There is so much in just this first chapter of this first book that we could literally spend months in chapter one. We can talk about a God who creates. We can talk about a God who creates good things. We could talk about how humanity IS that good thing. We could talk about what the Babylonians worshipped (hint - it's probably one of the things YHWH created). We could talk about God's dominion over all creation (heavens and earth is VERY important when you're an exiled people), or even how the Jews actually shared a cosmogony with their pagan neighbors. And all that is just off the top of my head!

Boiling Genesis down to a 7-day creation account does so much damage to the scripture and the stories the scriptures are telling us, it's heartbreaking. It makes God immeasurably smaller than the story the original audience would have understood him to be. In a world full of chaos and emptiness, the story of a God who makes and fills is beautiful and reassuring. And we've just barely scratched the surface.

This week, let God be bigger, let go of the notions you bring to the story, leave your 20th-century, modernistic baggage behind, and come to the texts with the freshest eyes and hearts you can muster. God is waiting to blow things up, and to create, and to fill your world with good things, because it's what he does.

Facebook, and the Uselessness of Data

2011-06-20T10:02:00.001-07:00

I saw this video floating around the web this weekend, and it caught my attention, first and foremost, because it's about me. It's about how much people use Facebook.

I actually think it's really interesting. I like numbers, I like data. When I was a teacher, we tried really hard to have all of our decisions be data driven, rather than emotionally driven (which, can be a really difficult task). I think that's generally a good idea, so I try and incorporate that everywhere I go. And, we live in a data driven culture. I can instantly have access to how much music I listened to, broken down any number of ways. I know for the most part who reads this blog, who checks out our Facebook feed, who emails me, who calls, who downloads our podcast (gonna be honest, I was a bit surprised that anyone did). In essence I can find a significant amount of data anywhere I want, about just about anything.
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The problem is, people don't know how to interpret data, and secondly, not all data is meaningful. Take the Facebook video for example. What's it really mean that 48% of users check FB before they get out of bed? I suggest it doesn't mean anything - other than they don't watch morning network news like their parents do. It could tell you that FB is a wide spread influence, but that's hardly groundbreaking either. Whenever I hear people talking about FB in a negative light, it's the same way I hear older pastors talk and complain about postmodernism - as if Pandora has opened the box, and the evil that came out was people checking Facebook. And just like postmodernism, they rarely understand the "evil" they are decrying. How does this data really tell us anything? 205 million US citizens have a FB account - the only sense I can make about this is that people have Facebook like people have shoes. when that percentage of the population does something, trends are harder to spot.
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There seems to be this idea that change is bad - people lament the death of the newspaper and magazine due to electronic copies, or the change in grammar, language and punctuation as texting takes over as a dominant means of communication. There's a tendency to treat these things as an end unto themselves, and they are not. They're a means to an end.
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I like data. It makes me feel smart, and like I could be observing something cool or unfound. But we need to be careful. In a data soaked world, where everything is analyzed and trended to determine the demographics of X,Y, or Z, some data doesn't actually tell us that much. And we risk lumping people together into groups and categories they may not belong in. Good data requires better interpretation. And what the world needs desperately now is good interpreters.

Take a vacation

2011-06-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Been over a month since I posted - exams and an extra class got the best of me. Luckily, that plays exactly into what I'm thinking about today, so there you go.

My wife and I just got back from a very low-frills vacation at Brookville Lake. Money's a bit tight with school and all, so we decided to do something pretty low key, so we rented a cabin and borrowed my friend Paul's boat, and spent 6 days cruising, wakeboarding, sitting, reading, drinking and hanging out in all the best that south-Central Indiana has to offer. It was a beautiful thing - some of our really good friends popped in for various nights or days on the boat, or at the cabin, and sometimes it was just the two of us hanging out, listening to the Reds on the radio, sleeping in and just getting to be with each other. I may have just decided that this was better than sort of the big-deal, fly to a beach somewhere sort of trip, but I'm still pondering that. Anyway, it was nice to be away, and nice for us to be together.

Then, of course, we came home. Kim has had a crazy week at work trying to get her feet back underneath her making up for all the stuff she missed. Same for me, though I don't get up at 430 am like she does. It turns out that going on vacation is simply just procrastinating a whole bunch of stuff for a week, and then coming back to find now you have two weeks of work to do. Which may be why Americans don't take vacations. It's a lot of work.

I think, though, that I might just have decided that this is where I'm going to plant my flag of cultural change. The fact is, people work too much. I heard a guy on the radio talking about how men live their work, have their identity in their work, and how that's a good and natural thing. It's not. EVERYTHING we know is that it's destructive; it makes you a worse employee, and I'd imagine a worse friend, spouse, neighbor and everything else. You really aren't called nor designed to be centered in your work. You're better, and bigger, than that.

While we're all guilty of ignoring most of the Bible most of the time, this maybe one of the areas where we really are destroying ourselves by not recognizing how God created us and what he's given us. The call to sabbath in the scriptures is, as Jesus says, for us. It is to benefit us. We need it. We need to rest, to tone it down. One of the things in that article talks about how good it is for our brains to see other places, and see new things. Kim talked about running while we were on vacation and how she intentionally noticed the trees and the cows and dirt road and the rest of central Indiana, which she doesn't normally see. Here's the deal - you NEED a day off. You need to reset, or reboot. Regularly - one of the things church planting organizations have told me is that I need to take 10 day vacations because it'll take me 2-3 days just to unplug. I'm a little tightly wound.

So go take a break. Take your sabbath, rest. Heal. Be made new. This is built into every natural thing there is - cycles of birth, growth, and death, cycles of sleep and rest. And we, as the summit of God's creation, as the redeemed people of God, have been called to sabbath and to rest. Even if it's just in central Indiana. You will thank you. Your coworkers will certainly thank you. And it may become one of the most profound acts of worship you have had in a long time.

All things are new

2011-05-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

We've been studying and thinking about and reading about and working to apply this idea of resurrection for a couple of months now. If I'm really honest, I've been trying to do this for all my life - i mean, this is the central and ridiculous claim of the church, correct? The idea that someone could die and come back from the dead is crazy. The idea that that person was also God is also pretty crazy. And yet, that's the claim. It's the claim of the Bible, and it's the claim of millions and millions of people in the thousands of years sense then.

So what does it mean?

In the book of Revelation, John the Seer is having a vision of all sorts of crazy things. At the very end, God says this to him.

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

At the end of a book about dragons and prostitutes and beasts and horns and sacrifices and death and pestilence and seals and judgement, is this line about what it is that God does.

God makes all things new.

What does "all things" mean? What does "new" mean? What does make mean? We're actually going to get John and the book of Revelation at the end of our Resurrection series, which will be the beginning of our Genesis series, but for now, I'm hung up on this idea. Does all things include even those who reject God now? Does all things include the maple tree I just planted in my back yard? Does it include my attitude, or the way I treat my wife and my kids? Many of those things could use some "being made new." Could it be I'll understand them in ways I never could have before? Could it be I'll be better at those things than I ever have before?

In my never-ending quest to think about and understand more and more, I'm convinced that this idea is central. Should you stop sinning? Yes. Should you be a better person? Yes. Should you pray more? Read your bible more? Serve the poor more? Yes, yes and yes. But all of those things are simply side effects of being made new.

This week, I'm trying as hard as I can to put myself into the process of being made new. I believe there's an ultimate end date to this, a finalized scenario in which the making new is complete. And I also believe that everyday I move in that direction. Here's to all my all things being made new.

World Ending

2011-05-19T15:57:00.001-07:00

Apparently the world is ending this Saturday. I'm sort of relieved - it means I don't have to get up early Sunday morning and move the trailer, which will be nice. I'm also a little ticked, because I just sat through a demoralizing year of biblical Hebrew for school, and to think that the God wouldn't have the common decency to deliver me, his most faithful of all people, from that, hurts just a bit.

So, all joking aside, I'm sort of morbidly fascinated by this whole thing. First off, it's very rare that I will publicly criticize or say something about another Christian leader. The more unbalanced they get, the more likely it is for me to say something, but in general, I try to refrain from really mocking or even talking about other believers - God has called me to something, and it's all I can do to get that right. I'll let them do their thing. Plus, one of my underlying theories is that most of us probably have some things profoundly wrong about Jesus, even if we try our best. I'm willing to assume that the people making these doomsday prophecies are faithful people who love Jesus, and they whole heartedly think they're right. I haven't seen them be mean, or evil or divisive, just a bit out-there. And I definitely think they're wrong, but we're all wrong about something.

But in the back of my brain . . . what if this is one of the things I'm wrong on, and one of the things they're right on?

I dunno why, but I have always feared the rapture, the second coming. I've always "known" that if that particular interpretation of scripture is right, that I simply won't be one of the people rapture out, and I'll have to stick it out through the tribulation and I'll probably end up in the lake of fire.

Not good.

Now, logically, I don't think that. I have a whole host of reasons for thinking that John's vision in Revelation or Daniel's vision in the book of Daniel were written for a specific audience with a specific agenda that has much less to do with me than that interpretation assumes. I know in my brain that Jesus says no man knows the end times, so for him to say he does is silly. and Logically, I know that the creator God of the universe, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of the trinity, who died upon a cross for me, I know that that God has redeemed me, and I am well within his good graces, simply because he is good, and gracious.

But there's this remnant of fear.

Culturally I've been conditioned that this is how the world will end. Emotionally I fear not being good enough. Theologically I'm overwhelmed by everything I read in the Bible. The fact remains, that no matter what I know, there is still what I feel, and part of me has to make sense of that. I have to be honest with it, and confront it with the reality of who God says and shows that he is. And to rest in that.

So, Saturday, enjoy the rapture parties - steal your neighbors stuff, if you're left behind. And, spend some time investigating what it is you really think about God, what drives your interpretation of events like this, figuring out your biases and blindspots. Because if the world doesn't end, that info might come in real handy.

When the zombie-apocalypse hits.

Run Well

2011-05-02T17:39:00.001-07:00

It seems as if the Flying Pig is always going to give me something to think about. I mean, what else does one do while torturing themselves for hours? I shouldn't have run the half marathon yesterday. I hadn't trained - I got sick in Feb and stopped running until last week. I hadn't eaten well in a month (back to my 6 mountain dews a day diet), and I hadn't rested at all that week (in fact, I'd probably gotten less rest than normal, which is saying something). But, I like this event, and my wife was running and it seemed like a cool thing to do together, and I thought, why not? Last Saturday I'd pulled an 8-mile run relatively easily, how much harder could 13 miles be?

A lot

I finished the race. I even finished it in respectable time, given my utter lack of training for 2 months, on what is pretty difficult course. I kept pace with Kim, and in that respect it was a very cool thing for us to do together. But, is that the goal? To simply finish?

A friend of mine was texting me yesterday as I ~~suffered~~ recovered after the race, and said, "Well, you finished. That's what matters." And I suppose to an extent, that's true. But the more I thought about it, the more I don't really want to settle for living that way. Running just to finish wasn't fun. I wasn't accomplishing anything - I hadn't worked hard for months to see that pay off. Sure, I willed myself to put one foot in front of the other for 13.1 miles, but what does that get me? Last year I worked, and struggled and accomplished something. Last year, I trained well, so I ran well. (or, at least better than this year) This year, I just sort of existed. I may have made it to the end, but I did so poorly, and then was in a lot of pain for the rest of the day.

Runners - because they have hours to think about abstract stuff - can become a bit metaphorical about things. I have - I want my runs to be run well. And I want my life to be lived well. In many ways, I limp through life - not training, not improving, but simply willing myself forward one day, one step at a time. I don't think that is what God has called us to. I want to be the guy running fast and strong, and to be the guy living boldly and purposefully. Both of those take the right amount of training, the right amount of attitude, and the right amount of work.

I'm sore today - my back and knees hurt. It's a good reminder that you pay for not training well. I also want for that same lesson to make it's way over to my spiritual life and really every other aspect of my life. It's time to train, time to work, time to stretch myself farther than I have, and time to get better.

It's time to run well

The Darkness is Passing

2011-04-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

On Holy Saturday, the world is dark. For the disciples everything had come undone. Rome, the beast, they had won. Peter had said they had nowhere else to go, but to Jesus, and now even Jesus was gone, victim to the violence of Rome, the corruption of the High Priests and the temple and the cowardice of his friends.

For the disciples, Saturday was indeed a dark day

in The Lord Of The Rings, I always struggle through Sam and Frodo's journey across Mordor. The darkness and dryness of the land infects the reader. It's oppressive. In one passage, they're resting as best they can, the weight of their journey and their burden crushing them more each day.

Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

Hope is a powerful word. It is manipulated by corporations and political structures - we begin to seek it in things which can never deliver it. But when it is grounded in reality, it becomes sustaining. For Sam, it was the perspective on the fleetingingness of Sauron's power. Post-Easter, it is the utter meaningfulness of everything.. Without the resurrection, there can be no higher meaning. After the resurrection, every single moment is infused with meaning.

Today, we ponder the darkness. Ponder what exactly Jesus did. And is doing. And will do. That, like Sam's star, guides us, and pushes us through Saturday, and every "Holy Saturday" of our lives.

Right into Sunday.

What I'm Reading

2011-04-21T15:38:00.001-07:00

This week, I decided to take a break from school reading (well, my schedule took a break for me - nothing was assigned), and focused on a daily devotional reading. I settled upon Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth, part 2: Holy Week." It's an entirely different kind of reading for me, if for no other reason than he's very Catholic - for a while he was the theological defender of the church, tasked with rooting out heresy and dealing with it. He's very conservative for a Catholic (so I've heard), so it's a different perspective for me.

This book breaks into 9 chapters, really one or two for each day of Holy Week. He starts with Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and ends with his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. He follows a fairly traditional timeline of holy week - starting with Jesus in the temple, Jesus' "end of the world" speeches (eschatological, for fun), the Last Supper (with a lengthy discussion of the Eucharist), his arrest, his trial, his crucifiction, and his resurrection.

A couple of take aways so far. First, Benedict is a theologian's theologian, but it's not boggy. He is always fair and honest to the debate, where it exists, within the biblical texts. He acknowledges when there are inconsistencies in the stories (and there are), he points to both sides fairly, and talks about which he thinks is the fairest solution to any stated problem. In a refreshing manner, he's not anti-intellectual as some within the protestant church can be, and he's not scared of the various debates about the scriptures which are going on in the scholarly world - in fact, he seems to keep abreast of all the debates, to be knowledgeable about them and their impact upon the Church's deeper theology. And his stated goal really comes through here - he wants the reader to come to know Jesus better.

And that absolutely happens. While this book should fit into any academic conversation, it really functions well (and primarily, for me) as a devotional book. He gives the reader things to think about - perhaps new ways of understanding what Jesus was saying, what the biblical authors were illustrating by their choices, or maybe even refreshing us or reminding us of some truths of Jesus and Christianity that we had forgotten, or taken for granted.

It's an easy and deeply engaging read. There's no piousness here - it's approached as much as a historical telling and survey of the 4 gospels (and he says that he's doing that explicitly), and reminds you of the amazing intentionality of Jesus during Holy Week. Benedict also, perhaps most thankfully, really seems to be excited about some genuine ecumenicism, of a genuine Church where we're all related under Christ. In that, this is one of the most encouraging Christian works I've read in a long time.

You should pick this up. It's a good introduction, a good reintroduction, a good challenge, a good affirmation, and a good telling of who Jesus is, from a historical and critical perspective. It has helped me walk towards Good Friday and Easter with new thoughts about Jesus, about this story I've heard a thousand times, and that has made this Holy Week a good Holy Week.

Family Traditions

2011-04-18T16:00:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my family had our picture taken together by my fantastic sister, who is practicing photography as a hobby and maybe side job (has anyone else noticed that photography is this generation's version of selling tupperware?). It gave us a chance for the first time really to have pictures taken of our complete family (Our second son Lucas is 18 mos old). I think my wife is beautiful and my kids are cute, so it also gives me a chance to show them off.

It also has given me reason to revisit our church's website. When we launched a couple of years ago, I had given up alcohol for Lent (a major sacrifice for me!), and of course St. Patrick's day falls during Lent. St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays, and to give up hanging out with my friends, at my favorite bar was really a good spiritual process for me to go through as a Lenten discipline. That year was also a Whiskerino year, so I was in the mode of taking pictures everyday of my glorious beard, so instead of doing St. Patrick's day, I had some fun with my 7-month-old Leo, showing him "drinking" (it's obviously empty) and celebrating what I was denying, and myself in the appropriate state of doldrums.

About 6 months later, our brand-spanking-new Church has a brand-spanking-new website, and we have to make a decision about how to represent ourselves. My esteemed colleague, behind my back, I might add, decided that the best picture to represent me to the Church-curious public was one with my 7 month old child drinking.

Now, for me, being in trouble is a terrifying prospect. And all I could think was, "this is definitely doing to get me into trouble." What would people think? How would people judge us? or Me? Were 241-Kids on their way to my house? I almost took the picture down.

But I didn't. Here's the deal - it's obvious to anyone who knows me or my family, that the picture is just silliness. And, it's the sort of silliness that happens around here a lot. One of the constant remarks that I hear about Legend from visitors and friends, is that we are not what you expect from a Church. And, the more I thought about that, the more I liked it.

If you're the kind of person who thinks that joking around like that is out of line - we totally respect that. A whole lot of people have a whole lot of reasons for a whole lot of views on alcohol (or any other controversial issue within the Church). We believe that God leads your conscience and that you have a responsibility to follow that. But, if those are trigger issues, then my hope is that people will come talk to us - that it opens the doors to conversations, conversations about who we are and why we are that way. And the alcohol issue is a minor one - the questions we should be talking about are why we do communion every week, why we go to Habit's, why we serve at Oakley After Hours, why we have bible studies at people's houses. And maybe in the conversation, you help me, or us, to understand things in a better way than we do now. Maybe we really are wrong about some things (I promise, we are), and we need some help in figuring things out. Maybe that same thing is true about you.

Primarily, though, that picture was and is a good representation of who we are as a community - a group of people who know each other, and put the things we see into the context of those relationships, and hope to withhold judgement of people until we get to know them. Sometimes we're irreverent (well, I'm not, but the rest of these heathens...), and sometimes we're very silly. I'd argue about really important things, that we're very serious (or very joyful, or both), and work very hard at being the people God has called us to be.

Anyway, it's time to change the picture. My family has changed. I've had a haircut, and 6 beard styles. Hopefully, though, some of those things remain true. Hopefully we continue to do things which encourage people to ask good and healthy questions in good and healthy ways. And, most importantly, hopefully that involves you.

What I'm Reading

2011-04-14T18:31:00.001-07:00

I haven't made any big secret of my appreciation and admiration for N.T. Wright. I fell in love with his online sermons a couple of years ago, have read a few of his books, and really appreciate his methods for studying the scripture, and the way he applies them to the life of the Church. He makes me think a lot, and always in a good way.

I'm currently in the middle of reading his book "Justification," which is a response to John Piper and Piper's criticism of Wright's view on Paul. Normally, I'm not excited about Theology books, and I would certainly not sell them to you as awesomeness, because they're normally dry and boring and caught up in the dry and boring arguments that dry and boring people have in their dry and boring towers.

Wright has some fantastic popular level writings and sermons, which has fundamentally shaped my Christianity.He came highly recommended to me from a pastor I REALLY respect, so I was completely caught off guard by the fact that there was any disputation about Wright and his theology. And, the disputation is pretty vitriolic. Such is to be, sadly, expected within American Christianity lately.

Anyway, this is a great book about a pretty foundational topic, that most people have opinions about, but probably haven't thought through how or why it works like it does. I don't know a Christian who thinks they won't stand justified before God, probably definitely through something Jesus has done, and after that it gets murky. This book I think takes some of the more complicated theological wrestlings, straightens it out and most importantly puts it into a framework of why it matters - it teaches how accepting this stance on this doctrine should then play out in real life. In that sense, it's a good template for what theological work should be, and it's done by someone qualified to do it.

What are you reading? Or, do you have any thoughts on justification?

Co-opted

2010-12-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

Every holiday season means a new spat of must-have video games (I'm currently OBSESSED with a game from like 5 years ago, Fallout 3, which is just mindblowingly good). This year's game is the latest in a string of first person shooters called "Call of Duty: Black Ops," where the player follows clandestine anti-terrorist missions around the world and gets to shoot all kinds of bad guys, mostly Russian and middle eastern. Check out this trailer from the game:

The song in the background is "Gimmie Shelter" by the Rolling Stones, an anti-war, anti-Vietnam protest song from '69. Yesterday I was talking to someone, and I wondered if anyone but me noticed the irony of using an anti-war song to promote a game that is decidedly pro-war. That doesn't mean that I think the developers of the game like war (I think the developers of the game just want to make money, given the way they just keep churning out re-hashes of the same game every year at $60 each), but the story the game tells is that war and violence is an acceptable or even the preferred way of handling things, and that particularly, the United States and Great Britain are the people to handle this.

And while this COULD easily turn into a pacifism discussion, what I'm interested in is how art that originally meant one thing is co-opted and then used for something else. The Stones were a threat to the establishment in the 60s. The pro-war faction of people in the 60s hated the stones, hated what they said, and saw them as a threat to any number of things they deemed "traditional." And, conversely, youth culture grew up and loved the stones. And somehow the Rolling Stones went from being anti-establishment threats, to the soundtrack for video games that support the establishment and its projection of what it does to "keep us safe."

This is America at its absolutely most amazing. Rather than go to war outright with forces it deems dangerous or subversive, American culture subverts the subversive! American culture takes a song that warned about the impact and devastation of war and uses it to promote violence and war! And this is hardly an isolated incident. You can buy t-shirts with Che Guevara on them, taking an avowed anti-capitalist, commoditizing him, and then selling him! And best yet, selling him to people who have no idea that they're the kind of people he hated and would have orchestrated a violent overthrow of. Rage Against the Machine is popular amongst rich white kids all the while they rage against those rich white kids and their culture. Hip hop has been almost completely de-fanged, and is now used to sell racist stereotypes of African-Americans on TV. Where as open warfare on culture by the establishment would certainly be lost (watch what happened when they tried to shut down Elvis), co-opting that culture is hardly noticed, and it's even more effective.

Now, all of this could simply be an interesting point to consider. Except that the job of the Church is to be subversive to the dominant culture around it, to take that culture and redeem it. And I think in some powerful ways, I could make the argument that the Church has been co-opted by American culture, and used by American culture to sell not Christian ideas, but American ideas, to the point where many people have trouble telling them a part (this is true both here and abroad - Muslims portray American action overseas as Christian action, and go into a family Christian store and see how many books there are by Palin, Bush, et al). I think we as the church are going to have to be real careful about this - why we do what we do, and to be careful to say that simply because something is American doesn't mean it is Christian. It also doesn't mean that something is bad because it's American. It just means we need to be careful not to be co-opted, not to be de-fanged, and to remain true to our mission, and loyal to our calling as followers of Jesus.

Intersection

2010-11-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

So I've wrestled with this thought for a long tome, and figured id put something down here. If it offends you, I humbly submit, that it's something I'm working through on my own, so don't take it as a final thought or some dogmatic statement (you know, we make so many of those).

Anyway, I'm sort of irritated at the political discussion going on in our culture right now. And as someone working with a church, I'm intrigued by how the church intersects with politics, because I do believe that the church has been called to work for the betterment of the world here and now, to be forerunners of resurrection and grace and mercy and truth. If that's true, an intersection with the political systems is inevitable, and we should know what that's going to look like.

So this picture is one I took at my Christian University yesterday. I could take it any number of places, as it is following proper flag etiquette. Here, we see the American flag on top and the Christian flag below it.

Now, we could just look at it, see it as a simple observance of proper flag etiquette (who knew there was so many rules?), and move on. I'm SURE that that is how it was intended. My question is, should we be going along with etiquette? That etiquette means something right? You put the American flag first as a matter of demonstrating priority and loyalty, yeah?

This begs a bigger question. Can we affirm a higher honor to country than to Christianity? Is it ok for us to give that deference? This isn't a blog about America or patriotism in general, because my thoughts on that are even less well formed. But it seems to me that if we who are loyal to Christ above all else - and especially above the powers and principalities of the world - then for us as followers of Jesus, we would intentionally place the American flag below the Christian flag in order to communicate the things we deeply hold true to the world - to say that true patriotism comes in recognizing one nation under God, even on our flagpoles.

My half-formed thought is that I have more loyalty to my identity as a Christian than to my loyalty as an American. I have more in common with a Christian living in Afghanistan than I do with an agnostic living in Oakley. I owe more to Jesus than I ever will to any president, and anything demanding my deepest loyalties simply loses to Jesus and his church. So, at times, I have to discard etiquette, not disrespectfully, but in the most respectful manner possible.

I know it's a small matter. But for me, our walk with Jesus is going to be a series of small steps that reveal some underlying big truths, so we should be both careful and intentional about what we say. The cross sitting beneath the stars and stripes doesn't sit well.

Done with the labels

2010-10-19T10:01:00.001-07:00

Someone called me a liberal today. It hacked me off, for a couple of reasons. Just yesterday, someone had insisted that I'm a dyed in the wool conservative. And neither of those labels were compliments. It seems that in either our collective labeling options, or even worse our categories, neither side wants to claim me. Which is probably just as well, as I'm not particularly fond of either of them.

Also interesting, is that those labels within America apply to discussions of politics as much as they do religion, and the sides are even the same! I think that should be profoundly worrying, that our politics and religion are so culturally intertwined, but that's another issue.

So today, and lately, I'm wrestling with what those things mean. I'm going to use an example, but only as an example, as it doesn't contain any of my finalized thoughts. I've been thinking lately through having women in places of church leadership. I'll not hide my cards here - I think women are clearly called into ministry and that means they can be leaders in churches. I think the Bible shows it, and I think the proof-text verses which are thrown out against women in ministry are horribly translated and taken out of context. I come from a tradition where women did serve in leadership (Presbyterian) so that of course influences my background, but I think the biblical evidence is abundant that women were leaders in the early church. If you wanna fight with me about that, let me know, and I'll buy the beers.

Anyway, the interesting subtext of this debate for me, is that because I take that position, I'm automatically written into "liberal" category, regardless of whether or not that category fits me. Nevermind that in attempting to understand this issue, I'm going to what the Bible says and shows us (when Paul calls Junia - a clearly feminine name in the Greek - an apostle in Romans, those against women in leadership have a mountain to climb biblically). I'm doing my best to understand what the bible says, and I'm instantly written into the category of "liberal" (which in conservative circles, almost always means "doesn't believe the bible," or some such nonsense).

What do we do when our labels and our categories are broken? Because I'd take that stance (and, again, remember that these are simply my own thoughts - Legend Church hasn't taken a stance on these issues yet), people will assume that, for example, I'm pro gay-marriage, or pro-choice, or environmentally concerned or any number of other things. Why does my biblical examination of an issue force me into a myriad of other opinions which i haven't even had time to examine biblically yet? Are we really going to be that lazy about our labels?

I think it's time for something new. I think we need to have the freedom to examine one issue at a time, exhaust it, study it and not be burdened with the other assumptions that will be placed upon us for even asking the question. Many of us are going to have to unlearn things we've learned, where what looks like Christianity has simply been a repackaging of American civic values under a Jesus banner.

I'm not here proscribing what anyone's stances should be on issues. Quite the contrary, actually, in that I think we should be able to have different opinions on hard issues and come to the table in love and respect and hammer those issues out. But let's be done with the lazy labels, let's be honest that many of our assumptions about important things - even about how we read the Bible - are not objectively arrived at, and could in fact be wrong. And let's do all that because we take seriously the Bible seriously, and most importantly because we love Jesus, and we love each other.

Who do you worship?

2010-10-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

I ran into an interesting article at USA today, talking about how various segments of the American population view God - which attributes they assign to him, what they see as his characteristics, and most importantly, how that view drives everything else they think. For example, they say that the most common view is of a God who is angry and waiting to dole out punishment to wrong doers. (Any student of history won't find this terribly surprising as the Europeans who brought Christianity to America largely agreed with this view). This is the view that leads folks like Glen Beck to have the political outlook that he does.

The article was interesting, and I'll probably pick up the book. But here's the rub - this is why what we think about God really matters. Who or what we think God is is what we'll react to. If our views of God are out of balance (hint, they are), then our lives will be out of balance, because we're going to start seeing the world through that lens. It becomes critically important for us to move always closer to who God is, even as we acknowledge our own inability to grasp how wide and deep and big God is. And the secondary impact, is that as people who believe in God act in various ways, it will confirm or deny other people's suspicions (especially those who don't believe) about what believing in God means.

I'll confess that I don't understand why God would choose to leave his reputation and his movement in the hands of people like us. But he did, and it's time we started looking at who we think God is, and whether that's healthy and true or not.

I'm only nominally a sports fan.

2010-09-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'm only nominally a sports fan.

though I do love sporting events. The last couple of years around here have been great actually - the Bengals have been consistently on the verge of being good, which makes NFL season exciting. The Bearcats were great at basketball and then football, and while I'm not an alum of UC, it's been fun attending those games. But all the while, the Reds have stunk to high heaven. Baseball season ends around June or July for most of my lifetime, and then we move onto football or sometimes basketball. But at the end of the day for me, sports is just one other option in my vast array of entertainment choices, and sometimes I'll spend my money there and sometimes I'll play Halo for hours.

But last night, when Jay Bruce hits a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th to send the Reds to the playoffs for the first time since I was in high school, something changed here. My facebook feed went nuts. The local television stations cut in for 3 hours of coverage of people drinking and celebrating, and then picked back up where they left off at the 6 am news today. One friend of mine described the scene at the stadium last night as "life-changing," and I don't think there was any hyperbole involved. Cincinnati a. has been waiting for a winner for a long time and b. is and always will be a baseball town. And a winning baseball team in this city is a recipe for a fantastic fall (fall is the best season Cincinnati has to offer anyway, but that's another story).

What I DON'T know, is what that tells me about Cincinnati. Last week I preached through Acts 17 and Paul's speech at the Aeropagus. How Paul knew about the non-Christian culture in which he moved, and how he was able to articulate the gospel through that culture. Which is all well and good, and important. But what I want to know, is what does Cincinnati's absolute love affair with baseball tell us about Cincinnati? What does it allow us to know about the city that maybe even the city hasn't articulated yet about itself. I have a theory that conservatives will tend to love baseball and liberals (both terms used in the lame current political sense because I'm being lazy) love professional basketball. Cincinnati as a relatively conservative town (the drunks going crazy on Fountain square last night not withstanding), but what is it about a more conservative point of view and baseball that connect (that theory is absolutely not full proof yet, so don't complain at me about it)?

I don't really have an answer for my question. But I love when my city comes alive, and I love to be a part of it. I love to be able to have conversations with people at UDF and at my son's preschool about the Reds. I love shared experiences. and I love, even in my not knowing, that my city last night in some way played one of its hands. There's something about baseball that connects almost everyone in this city. What is that thing, and how, if it is good and right and true, is it from God, and how can we be a part of it. Something profound happened for our city - for most of my neighbors and most of your neighbors - last night. Now it's time for us to engage in that.

Storytellers

2010-06-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

When I was attending Northstar Vineyard, I picked up this habit that they had and brought it to Legend - on months when there are 5 Sundays, the 5th Sunday is an "all-worship" Sunday, which focuses on music and on time with God reflecting and meditating and worship. Ignore, for now, the awful implications of the way in which the Church world uses the word "worship" to mean "singing," and you get a fairly accurate descriptions of that time for us. We also cancel our Sunday school on that morning, inviting the kids to come in and worship with us as a whole family.

And, while I love it, it's been a difficult concept to execute well. Engaging our kids, most of whom can't read, in an hour of music has proved difficult, and even for (I think) some of the adults, it's simply an hour of singing. So, while committed to the idea, we have struggled with how to make it something more than just a gimmick.

This past Sunday, I think we hit upon something that really worked, and I think it has some larger ramifications for how the church "does" worship.

Rather than have one person lead the entire morning - assembling the musicians, picking the songs, leading the songs and the prayers and the meditations, et al - we assembled all of our worship leaders (minus Sara, who had to be out of town) and had everyone lead together. And rather than have an hour of un-interrupted music, each worship leader (Eric, Joel and I) picked their favorite worship songs, and explained why those songs means something to them. Eric talked about how one song in particular was there and perfectly described events going on in his life. I talked about "Be Thou My Vision" and how it connected Legend as a brand new church to the ancient church. Joel talked about how he sings like a girl sometimes. (:D)

Each song performed Sunday has been performed a million times at Legend. But on Sunday, each of those songs took on a new life, because it had been re-interpreted within the framework of a real story and real experiences of real people. All the sudden, the words to these songs aren't just Christianese strung together within the comfortable packaging of bland pop-rock, they were real and because the worship leaders (all friends and familiar with every person in the room) had real experiences with them, people could open up their own experiences to the songs in new ways.

The other thing that Sunday did well was to bring all the worship leaders together. Joel and Eric certainly have much more talent than I do when it comes to singing - but one thing I hadn't seen before from them was their ability to sing harmony vocals. it was outstanding. Chris and Laura Cooper, as ALWAYS were amazing musicians who created a pocket to sit in for the other guitar players, and because there was so much instrumentation, I was able to play one of my favorite electric guitars for the first time at Legend - an instrument where that I am really comfortable on and able to do the style of guitar that I really like to play. Everyone coming together in community was something special, I think.

The Church in America (I assume other places as well, but I can't speak to them) has done some horrible things to worship. We've commoditized it, we've split the Church over it, and we've made it about us and what we prefer. My hope is that with days like Sunday, Legend can begin to be a small part of making worship a healthy, and life-giving thing again.

How the Flying Pig almost made me an Atheist

2010-05-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday I ran the Flying Pig Marathon which was the culmination of 4 and a half months of grueling work for me. It was emotionally and physically destructive - today I'm hobbling around the house like an 80-year old man wondering why anyone does this to themselves.

One of the real highlights of the Pig in cincy is the amazing crowd support. The monsoon we got yesterday put a damper on the dozens of bands and entertainers along the route, but even with the rain, there wasn't a section of the race where people weren't out cheering for you. Mariemont had DJ's spinning records on loud PA systems out of their garage. Some guys in Fairfax had a beer-for-runners table set up. Everytime I felt like giving up, some stranger told me that I could finish and that they believed in me. This organization has figured out how to really encourage people and how to create a community out of this grueling activity. Legend, of course, joined in with dozens of other churches along the route to provide music and encouragement to runners (this pic is me hitting the 12 mile mark, at Legend's booth) since the race came right through our community. If nothing else about the pig was worth it, watching the community - the whole community, including churches and businesses and families and groups and, well, everyone - come together was awesome. And I like being cheered for.

So, you get the picture right? the 4,000+ people running the full marathon, the nearly 11,000 running the half and another 2,000 in the relay are engaging in one of the most significant physical activities of their lives, oftentimes in adverse weather. And to keep them going, thousands and thousands of members of the community come out to cheer, to give them food and drink (a fresh orange at mile 22 is heavenly) and to keep pushing them on. Well, as I get between mile 5 and 6, I'm feeling really good, enjoying the scenery (even with the rain), hitting my stride and ahead of my pace, and I've just started the longest and hardest hill in the course. I'm mentally preparing myself for this grueling 3 mile climb. And then I see him.

He's a guy. He's not, from the look on his face, happy to be there, which can be forgiven due to the rain. And he's holding a sign, bold enough that it grabs my attention. It says, "Calvary was a real hill." And right then and there, I almost became and atheist. I wanted to go across the barrier, smack him in the head, and make him run to the top of this hill with me.

It's not that i disagree with him. Of course as a pastor, I recognize the amazing work that was done at Calvary. But what is the point of his sign? At best, it says, "this difficult thing you're going through isn't really hard," which is disheartening and infuriating. And, my real question is, what does the sign accomplish? Who, at mile 6, stopped and made a decision to become a follower of Jesus because of this sign? Who had that life changing epiphany? And, if I as a Christian and someone who agrees with him wanted to punch him in the nose, what does someone who has nothing to do with Christianity think about it?

Why is it that for some folks, the chance to love people and encourage them and serve them isn't enough? Why is it that they have to attach some guilt or something else to their 'encouragement' or love of people? I don't understand the motivation (what they get from doing it) and I don't understand the payoff.

Thankfully, this wasn't my experience with the race. The church groups were loud and loving and having fun in the rain and muck with all the runners, being beautiful examples of what it means to love people. It's a good reminder, though how we have to be careful how our messages can be taken in multiple ways, and always to be mindful of our audience, maybe even more so than our selves.

Demographics

2010-04-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

This conversation keeps coming up. It comes up with new people who come to Legend. It comes up with people I go to seminary with. It comes up with church planters (it comes up with Church planters a LOT). Everyone wants to know who our target audience for the Church is. Who are we trying to "reach."

The answer is everyone, and no one. We wish, and want, and pray for, more people to come to our church. I believe in this church - this community - and would happily recommend it to anyone who was looking to become a part of a community. And because that is true, we aren't trying to reach anyone, in particular anyway. We believe the community is true when it is real, and that means it includes everyone. I know a lot of how the church does work has been influenced by people who are business people and advertising people and that those things are important. Or at least, I'm told that good business and advertising principles are important. and I know that many people buy into them.

But what if they're not?

The church did just fine for thousands of years without market research and demograhpics. The church did just fine without identifying its community's 'felt needs' and trying to position itself to meet those needs and then lure people into the church after you've done something for them. What if all these advertising techniques - which ultimately will constantly be failing as societies develop immunities to them - are actually harming the Church?

Today, I went to pay Legend's rent at the Oakley Community Center and I got to talk to Ms. Harris, who is always working the front desk there. The Community Center doubles as a senior center which serves a lot of the folks who live in the retirement center behind there. Ms. Harris is constantly telling them how much she likes us and our church and encouraging the senior citizens who come into the center to go to Legend on Sunday morning. Well, 2 folks have started coming every week. And they're probably 40 years older than the other folks at Legend. But, according to Ms. Harris, they love coming to church here and she is beyond excited that they're coming.

IF we were a "smart" church, with all our demographics work done, and if we were a "smart" church with all of our advertising geared appropriately and if we were a "smart" church reaching out to our demographics' felt needs, these two other women (and, I believe, the others who will come with them) would a. be an after thought at Legend and b. probably not really be at home here. These two people would fall between the cracks of marketing and advertising which have so engulfed the church that everything we build is organized around demographics and the public's fleeting tastes.

But we're not. And assuredly, there are consequences we face for not doing that - we aren't growing as "fast" as we "could." We aren't as organized as we should be. But in some profound ways, I think, we're building a community that is true and real because it reflects a real community, where 20-something hipsters regularly interact with 30-something yuppies who are interacting with 70-something senior citizens all of whom are watching out for the 3-5 year olds who are running around getting into things on Sunday mornings.

And I'd much rather be a part of that, than of a constructed group of people based around some demographic interests that wall street created.

Hills to stand on

2010-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

That was 3 months without a blog entry. Nothing drives up blog readership like posting 4x a year. What can I say...

Anyway, So I'm in seminary at Cincinnati Christian University, which is sort of a surreal experience. Legend has a sort of complicated relationship with CCU, as many people here have gone to school there, or worked there, but if I'm being really honest, I really enjoy my time at Seminary. I hate studying Greek with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, but that's a small wrinkle in the overall experience. I get to study and read and practice how to think critically and much bigger than I think I was doing as a pastor, and so it's good for me and I even feel like it's good for Legend.

This semester, I'm in a class called "Issues in Biblical Interpretation," which has been the embodiment of what I wanted to experience at Seminary. We're reading through the Church Fathers - people like Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, and Iranaeus - and studying how people in the the 1st and 2nd centuries - people 3-4 generations after Jesus' original disciples - studied the bible, how they used the texts, and how that relates to how we in the church today study the bible, deal with inspiration, use the text and all the other questions that the Bible raises. I love it - these men are brilliant (and flawed) and reading them is stretching me both intellectually as well as theologically.*

This week, as we're studying Origen's De Principiis, a debate comes up (is orchestrated by our very capable professor) over the nature of inspiration (the role of God in the creation of the scriptures) and how we make sense of really difficult passages of the Bible - what, for example, to do with the creation account, or with stories that look like they couldn't have happened. Origen makes the point, and I agree with him, that sometimes, the point of those stories aren't the details - the creation account isn't written as a scientific textbook, it's written about God - the who, more than the how, so to speak.

This student in the class tells me, then, pointblank, that I am calling the Holy Spirit (the source of inspiration), a liar. Which is a fairly serious charge within Christian circles. A debate ensues, which is one part fun, and one part vicious with the class fairly evenly split. This is what the Christian scholarly world can be like sometimes.

I bring it up, though, because the way it became for each "side" to treat the other "side" amazed me. These are all people who claim to be forgiven, and who claim to be forgiving. and Loving. and open. This isn't a debate over a settled understanding or point of doctrine within Christianity - this is an area in which there has been debate (thus the point of this class!) since the very beginning of Christianity. Christians have always wrestled with the bible, always wrestled (even gone to war over) with doctrine. It's hard. It should be hard! We're attempting to articulate not simply a set of intellectual truths for people to agree with - we're attempting to articulate the entirety of truth - all of it wrapped up in God and who he is.

And sometimes, we're going to be wrong.

I know there are things that I've done and said at Legend that are wrong - things logistically, things theologically, all sorts of things. I will guarantee you that I will do them again. Probably before today is out. The Church has always been in tension between what it "knows" and what it's learning, and how to better articulate both of those things as we go forward.

But if we enter into the debate in such a way where we fillet each other - this is before we even get to the serious objections of atheists, Muslims, or followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster - then the battle is lost. My professor was kind enough to articulate for me, in the case of another debate, that for me it is Christology - who Jesus is, what we make of him - that I see as defining the boundaries of the Church. If we really have unity - and thus true community - in him, then these kinds of debates can be healthy, and productive and good for everyone. But if we base everything on doctrine, on our particular understandings of finite points of detail, then there is no unity except for with those who already agree with us. Anyone who disagrees with our doctrine, if that's the most important thing, becomes our enemy, an obstacle to be overcome. I don't want to be like that.

So, let's have at it over doctrine and understanding of the harder things. Let's get into it. But, and I mean this literally, For Christ's sake, let's remember what it is that brings us together, and keeps us together. And, thankfully, it's not about you or I being right all the time.

*(On a side note, every church, and especially Protestant churches, should force their congregations to study the Church fathers. We owe as much to men like these as we do to the authors of the scriptures for what Christianity looks and feels like today. Churches divorced from tradition and history (as most Protestant churches are - even the oldest protestant churches are a mere 500 years old) are simply missing out on an incredible richness and witness to what the story of God has been. This is one of the things I deeply appreciate about the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of the Church)

Black Friday

2009-11-23T06:54:00.000-08:00

You may have heard about Legend's ambitious Black Friday plans this week, and we were wondering if you'd like to help!

The plan is to meet somewhere Friday morning around 3:30 am. Yes, that says AM. as in the morning. We're going to buy 10 or so boxes of Dunkin Donuts coffee, and then go to the major shopping centers around Oakley and give out coffee, and maybe donuts, to the people who are waiting in line for the doorbuster sales. The plan right now is Target/Meijer's/Sam's Club with one group and then Rookwood with second group.

What I need to know is how many people are available to help out? We should be done by 5 am at the latest, so you'll be already out and you can buy me early Christmas presents.

Those are the rough plans - if anyone has any ideas about how to make it better, we'd love to hear them, and if you'd like to help out, let me know ASAP, so we can get our planning nailed down.

thanks so much!

Right and Wrong

2009-11-18T09:25:00.001-08:00

This week has been an interesting week as I traverse the world of Christianity. A couple of weeks ago I was part of a discussion amongst good friends about ideas of right and wrong and of sin. In the conversation, someone had the opinion that this activity was obviously sinful, and someone else was of the opinion that it was not, and I was actually asked to step in and "solve" it for them. I thought then - and still think now - that I come down on the side of the "not a sin," but it made me stop and think about how we define such things.

Then, Sunday night, my wife and I got to go see Dane Cook in Northern Kentucky, and after that a conversation ensued about the "inappropriateness" of Dane Cook. And before we go any further, I should be very clear that OF COURSE Dane Cook is inappropriate. It's a part (not the whole) of what makes him as funny and as influential as he is and has been. But the conversation centered on his use of the dreaded "F" word. The idea was that good or moral or ethical people wouldn't use that word, and aren't comfortable hearing that word. The conversation was civil and good, not an arguement or a debate, and I'm thankful for that.

But it got me thinking, and I was talking to Justin about this this morning, what is it about that word - and there are maybe 3 or 4 words left in all of the English language that still have the punch that the dreaded magical "F" word has - that gets people so riled up. And why is it that Christians in particular are so jazzed about that, and other, "curse" (a complete misnomer) words?

I'm more and more convinced that the church has defined things as moral and ethical standards that have little to nothing to do with the Bible and what it teaches. I think we've made Christianity about being this good and upstanding citizen - defined culturally, and not biblically - and we hold up as models people who fit that. Can the F word be in appropriate and/or sinful? Absolutely. As can calling someone a jerk.

I want the church to be about more than regulating people's use of slang language, or how much (or how often, or what) they're drinking. All around me, I'm surrounded (and often included in this group) by people who are lonely and broken and needing to be loved and shown mercy and grace and they refuse to come to the Church, because their ideas about Church is that the Church is more interested in "fixing" their behavior issues (whatever they are) so that they can be considered good people. I'm not saying that we don't need to be the people God has called us to be, rather, that the Holy Spirit can do that job, and that it's not my job to fix someone's language, or drinking, or the movies they watch.

Celebrate!

2009-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hello!

If you're reading this, you've probably been a part of over the past year! Legend Community Church family. Just letting you know, that this coming Sunday marks one year exactly that Legend has been meeting as a community corporately together on Sundays. We are going to have a party with lunch provided after we meet on Sunday (10am at the Oakley Community Center) at Lauren Coyle's house in Oakley. You should come and hang out and celebrate with us and invite anyone you know who has ever experienced the community at Legend.

Hopefully we will see you Sunday.

Help out!

2009-09-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been derelict in my posting! Stupid school.

I met a couple of weeks ago with the person who manages the Oakley Food Pantry, and she's very excited about Legend helping. There are a couple of immediate needs:

First they need some people who can operate the pantry on Tuesdays, from roughly 9:30 - 11:15. they need people who can volunteer on the 2nd and 5th Tuesdays of the month, and then people who can serve on a "will call" basis. If you're interested in this, you'd need to go to some real basic training with Judy (the person who runs the food pantry) on a tuesday morning. it takes 3 people to run the food pantry, so 6-12 folks for this would be great.

secondly, i need some people who can go down to the free store foodbank (on Liberty in OTR) and do food runs 1-2x a month for the food pantry. if you have a truck or access to a larger vehicle, that'd be great, or you're welcome to use my truck if you're available to do this. She wanted 4-5 people to take over this.

Third, we need brown paper bags from the grocery store.

Finally, we need people running the same nazi-coupon scheme kim is running. it'll help us be able to give donations of whatever you get for free to the food pantry. This isn't a set need or anything, but more of a, if we can get this stuff for free, we can donate it, and they can do whatever they need to with it.

i think that's it. let me know how you're interested in helping!

Practicing Generosity

2009-08-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a good friend of ours moved apartments, and asked some of us to help. This person's in a small group here, and it was awesome to see people from both small groups show up to help her move. It was a blistering hot day, and i truly hate 3-story houses now, but the chance to hang out with my friends and help another more than made up for it.

At the end of moving, I said to the person moving, "thanks for letting us serve you." I think she thought I was kidding, because she kind of laughed at me. But the more I think about it, the more i really was serious. Justin and I run into people in the Church all the time who refuse to let us serve them. Whether they feel bad for taking resources from the Church, or feel like they should have to deal with their own problems, or whatever, people have a real aversion to receiving help. And so when this person allowed us to help them move, it allowed the Church to practice being the Church. A lot of times, I think churches can get filled with people who are for the most part self sufficient, and people who can live their lives in a quasi-isolation (=Americans), and so a church like that forgets how to be the Church, and then when it's time to be the Church with folks who don't have anything to do with us, how do we know how to do that?

A couple of weeks ago some of us helped someone completely unrelated to our Church move, because they needed it. When we got there, a bunch of people from that person's home church were there helping her move. And some of those people went out of their way to make this person feel like a burden. It was so painfully clear how generous they were being, and how much this was costing them. And the whole thing made me furiously angry. This person was in a bad situation, had to move last minute, and now was being told by their Church that they were a burden. And I simply didn't understand - this is what you do as a Church. it's the reason you exist - to love and to serve people. And if that's an unwieldy burden to you, then the issue is you. It is me. It is us.

So, tired, sore, hot, I was really thankful for the opportunity to serve and love a good friend, with good friends. I pray for more opportunities like that.

Overhead

2009-07-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

Having come from a church where the building itself was a big deal, and the money to pay for the building may have been an even bigger deal, I've always had some anxiety about Church buildings. As part of planting in Oakley, a building isn't really practical from a space perspective, especially if you want to be part of the culture of the square, and from a cost perspective it would simply bankrupt almost any church, not to mention a new church (the old Baptist church on Madison wants approximately $8,000 per month, just for the building).

So, I'm not really a building guy. If Legend ever got to be in the place where we could afford a Church building, I'd like to see us buy the Community center a new building, something that could be used by all of the community, and something that neither I nor anyone associated with Legend would have to staff, or insure, or clean, or manage or any of the other irritating things that come along with owning a building. Why not foist that responsibility off on the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, who has never been anything but fantastic to us :D

So, when I saw this story, there was something really compelling in it for me. I love it. And, not because I don't want my church (or honestly, most churches. Catholic churches should have buildings, I think, because of their theology of their buildings and worship services, but I don't see a need for most protestant churches, if they're being true to their theology, need buildings) to have a building, but because here's a church who's demonstrating in a powerful way how much they love the people in their community. More of that, please.

High Stress

2009-07-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little high strung. That probably surprises you, especially if you ever see Justin and I together, you probably think Justin is the high strung one, and Jason is the laid back one. For those of you reading this from afar, that's what we in the business call sarcasm, because I wear my high strunged-ness on my sleeve. And while that's generally always true, it's even more true on Sunday mornings, and as more and more new people begin coming on Sunday mornings, it's going to continue to be even more and more true.

Well, this past Sunday, due to a scheduling-snafu at the Community center, no one showed up to unlock the doors. Which means there was no one to let us in. Which means, on first observation, that (again, for the same reason) there wouldn't be a worship service happening. And as Justin and I sat on the folded-down trailer door, trying to figure out what to do in this situation, my high-strungedness reached new levels. As we made the decision to have church outside - it reached new levels. how do we have power? if we don't have a projector, how will people see the words? if they don't see the words, how do they worship? what do we do with our kids? what if new people show up. what if. what if. what if.

You see, I'm a mess. Almost all of the time, I'm a mess. I worry and I stress out. And, of course, Sunday went fantastically. How many days do you get in July where there is no humidity and it's only 80? how many times had we planned to only have a couple of acoustic instruments anyway? And of course, new people showed up, and instead of a high strunk freak out on my part, what they saw was a Church that was laid back, that could roll with the punches, that loved each other and was just having fun with it. And they loved it, enough that they came to our picnic afterwards to hang out.

So, when do I stop being a mess? When do I remember that these stories always, ALWAYS end with "of course things went fine?" I'm fairly dense, so it'll probably be longer rather than shorter in terms of how long it takes me to remember. But things always go well, and many times, go better than I ever could have planned, when I simply step out of the way. church planting has taught me and continually reminds me that my plans will always only be the second best plans. That my job is to be reactionary to the movement of God, and to celebrate that God is moving and that I have the privilege of being reactionary to that, and that there's so much freedom in being pushed along God's current, letting him set the pace, and in not being tied to any plans that I have. Not that I don't make them, but that I'm free to set them down when God has something much better in store.

And, as an addendum to this thought, how do we react to the situation, where the community center has dropped the ball - do we flip out and demand a pound of flesh? Will that get us anything we want? I don't think so - and so instead we got to have a great conversation with the Community center working for a way forward on how to avoid scheduling snafus, but also about how God is blessing us with things like great weather in situations like this, and also how much the center likes having us there. everything involved in this ended up working out for the best.

of course.

Dang

2009-07-17T05:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the podcasts for the last two weeks - for some reason things aren't firing up and our recordings aren't working. This week we're heading into a new series called "God is Dead" and looking at the book of Daniel for the next 12 weeks. We hope you can come along with us to study, and that if you can't come along, hopefully we can get the podcasts working again!

JerkFace

2009-07-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

So, as some of you may know, we frequent Habits every sunday night at 10pm to about 1am. Its great fun, lots of people to meet from the community, and we get to see Jason preform superb open mike night bar songs (i.e. his own cover of "Gin and Juice"). This is a great opportunity for us as a church to meet, love, and hang out with people.

ANYWAY, every sunday night, sometime within the night, i usually have to go to the bathroom sometime. And EVERY sunday night, i see the above picture staring right back at me.

someone wrote Jerkface on the top of the flushing mechanism.

You may be thinking, how rude, how crude, why would you say that to people you do not know.

WELL, as someone who super appreciates bathroom graffiti (and have been known in the past to make my own) i look forward to this message every week.

It just reminds me that i am not always a good person, and in fact, yes sometimes i am a "Jerkface." As we all are. Its a good reminder for me. To keep myself in perspective.

A OK

2009-07-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

His name was Donald. He was an angel in disguise. He showed up, helped load, and was awesome!

Hoping Craigslist Comes Through

2009-07-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend we needed a truck to haul our trailer (our entire pool of trucks had run dry for the 4th). Home Depot did not come through for me. So i resorted to Craigslist. I put an add on Craigslist with the title "NEED HELP $50 to use your truck for an hour." You can see the post HERE. I found a guy who can do it....so, in about 10 minutes i am going over to Crossroads to see if he will meet me there. There is a huge chance he may not show, since i have no idea who this guy is....then again...he could totally be awesome....i will let you know the outcome later.

PS not knowing whether or not he will show (because we would be screwed if he didnt) is totally fun. Jason would be going crazy.

Monday Check In

2009-06-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is where I tell you what happened last week, and what we are doing this week.

Monday through Firday was the first time i have kept church office hours in 5 years.
We are pretty much working from the RedTree art and coffee gallery here in Oakley. You should definitely check it out.

For the longest time i thought co-leading a church could easily be a part time job, or get a third of my time and the church would still thrive. This was a wrong assumption. Though its super scary, because we are not making the "in's", its been a great week, filled with purpose.

Last Sunday went okay. There was a dude who showed up with his wife and children who used to work at a large church in Cincy, but now moved to our neighborhood. I am excited to get to know him better.
Habits was really fun on Sunday night, Jason got to rock out with Monty and it sounded fantastic. We had a good Legend crowd there too.
Monday night we prayed for everyone in the church (as usual).
Tuesday night we had our Mission Groups meet (we have enough for 4 groups really)
Friday was Oakley After Hours... so far we have sponsored three of these this summer and everyone has been absolutely great!
This past Sunday, Jason's teaching was fantastic!
Here is a video from this week:

This week, nothing big planned, i will be working from home more often than not, Cristin hurt her back so i gots to watch dem kids.

Drunk Driving

2009-05-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday Night, my friends who all have real 9-5 jobs, and as such can't do silly things like be out at a bar on Sunday night, were able to go to Habit's Cafe with me for part of open mic night. We had celebrated a friend's birthday, and went to Habit's to close it down. (You really should come to open mic night - the talent level, when I'm not playing, is simply fantastic). So we picked a corner table and sat and talked - it was a blessing for me to be able to hang out with some friends I don't normally get to see.

About 1:45 am or so, there was a rather large guy who got into a pretty noticeable scuffle with someone at the bar. Needless to say, he was (rightfully so, btw) kicked out of the bar, and we watched him wander around Oakley Square for awhile. I saw some of the people who were inside go outside to make fun of him, because he was for all intents and purposes out of his mind. It was a sad scene, though repeatable at every bar in every community.

Well, we get ready to leave at 2:15 am, and I'm going to drive home (I had hardly drank anything) and get my 5 hours of sleep before my son wakes up. Well, as I am driving home, I see same dude stumbling from sidewalk to street - and it's clear he's not going to make it far. So I stop, offer him a ride home, and off we go. Well, that turned into an hour and a half long ordeal. My new friend said he lived in Oakley, but he really lived in Mt. Washington - no big deal, an extra 10 minutes. Except we miss the turn in Mt. Washington and make it all the way down to the Ohio River in Newtown. Along the way, he:

wants to know if I wanna go score some Heroin with him
says I'm "soft" and a "p!#$&" for not wanting to
grabs the steering wheel a couple of times
wants to stop and buy more beer
wants to stop and steal some beer
wants to drive to Columbus

and that's just the stuff I remember. I was pretty tired by this point

Interestingly, though, he launched into this tirade about how he's a priest in the Church of Satan (like I said, homeboy was hammered), and also the "Church of the Nonbelievers." I couldn't tell if they're the same thing or not. But it got me to thinking - what's my role as a member of a church that cares about this community and the people in it. Should I have "witnessed" to him (you have no idea how much I hate that verb)? Preached to him? Asked him to pray with me? Maybe walked him through the 4 spiritual laws? What could I do that was going to really make a positive impact on this guy's life? It was hard to tell which parts of his story were the copious amount of alcohol and which parts were true, but dude was going through a rough stretch.

So I just drove him home. He'd have gotten arrested, or worse, if I'd had just let him walk, and I'm sure someone's sleep would have been disrupted as he fell asleep on their lawn (b/c there was nothing peaceful about this guy). I prayed for him as we drove, I prayed for him yesterday and today, and I hope that something good happens in his life. But it's really gotten me to thinking about what role the Church has in "witnessing" to people. I was reading John 5:1-14, as Jesus heals a guy, and it's not until later that he deals with the sin in his life (which is never really even an issue - we don't know what the sin was, or what caused Jesus' statements. Jesus healed him long before his sin was ever an issue between them.

My hope is that this guy, for a while sunday night after being made fun of and kicked out, felt like someone cared for him. my prayer is that God raises up other people in his life to keep caring for him after this, that this was just first entry into his life. And I hope and pray that God gives me the words, and the opportunities to use them, for more people like him.

How much does Geography matter?

2009-04-20T13:16:00.001-07:00

so, this is a simple google map of Oakley. I did a search of "church 45209," and this is what came up. There are a couple of interesting trends here for me. First, the Churches in Oakley all (or almost all) sit on Madison road. that sorta makes sense, because that's the business district. But if you scroll out a bit (Google is freaking awesome) it'll show you with dots (no letters) where there are other churches in other neighborhoods - Norwood, or madisonville, etc etc. what do you see?

there's a gaping hole in the center of that map that is Oakley, and to a lesser extent Hyde Park. Now, we're not on that map, given how new we are, but how does it come to be that this huge hole of churches exist? if you look at Norwood, there are tons and tons of churches. I was doing some poking around, and simply can't figure out what causes this gap in the Church community here.

is it that people from here go to other churches?
is it that Oakley only needs a couple of churches?

or, could it be, that this community is simply fine without many churches.

I don't know. anything I say about this is going to be said without a lot of facts or research to back it up. But what does it mean to us, to be starting a church in the middle (and we are smack in the middle of the big empty church spots) of a community, when all their churches have been in other locations?

Calendar

2009-04-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

So today is April 7th. It's the day after Reds Opening Day - and yesterday was the first time I hadn't been in a seat at opening day in 4 or 5 years. For those of you who don't live in Cincinnati, you probably can't fully appreciate what opening day is here. We have a parade, the city shuts down, (except for a school which I happen to attend which has professors - immorally, I say - giving exams on opening day), for one of 5 days a year, the downtown bars open at like 8 am and are filled with people (it's rare to see a crowd downtown for anything), and of course we have a baseball game. Now, given yesterday's abysmal weather, I'm glad I wasn't there. For some reason, I could sit through 4 hours of 30 degree rain for an NFL game, but I'm not sure I could put up with it for a baseball game. Especially a baseball game where the Reds only get 3 hits.

And here I am today, my mind trying to wrap itself around the fact that spring has clearly begun - the Reds are in last place in their division (which, coincidentally, could be a sign that we're in July or August), and it's cold outside. I am disconnected from what my environment says and what my calendar says.

I was thinking about that this past Sunday at Legend - this is the first time in my entire life that I haven't been associated with a Church that in a big way celebrates Holy Week - the series of days in this week that mark Jesus' passion and resurrection. It's not that Legend doesn't like Holy Week, or thinks it's bad - quite the opposite, actually. We have a lot of people with strong Methodist, Presbyterian, Non-denominational and Catholic background and I imagine most of them grew up with at the very least Palm Sunday experiences and Easter celebrations, with some of them also celebrating Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The Church has for a long, long time recognized and celebrated this week as the central point to the Christian calendar, the events around which all other events within Christianity revolve.

Part of me worries that we miss out on something by being disconnected from the traditions of the ancient Church. That those experiences - be they festivals, or fasts, or holidays, or liturgies, or prayers - anchor us to something profound, and that they recognize that Christianity didn't originate in Palestine, 2,000 years ago, sort of kick around for 300 years and then become solidified in stone. Rather, the Church has grown and expanded, new thinkers and new perspectives have emerged and pushed us, and the Kingdom of God, "further up, and further in" as C.S. Lewis puts it.

So this week, I've tried to center my devotional life around Holy Week. One of the tools I use is Sacred Space, a website run by Irish (!!) Jesuit Monks, which walks the reader through a 10-20 minute devotional, and is connected to the Church calendar in the readings it picks and the meditations it focuses on. I gave up meat for Lent, and I'm trying to make a concentrated effort at every meal to notice the Salad instead of the hamburger, the fruit instead of the fries and the soup instead of the...ok, well, i get soup a lot even when I haven't given up meat. I hope you, and I, and we can take time this week and connect, again, with what Jesus did, what he has done, and what he is doing right now.

Hey there!

2009-02-24T07:30:00.001-08:00

You know, we're still around. Even if we don't update this very often. And, we're what-for awesome. you should totally check us out :D

But seriously, sorry about the long wait between posts. It's been a busy season. A quick reminder about some things coming up:
1. our small groups are going to split and grow after this week! Starting next week we'll be meeting on Tuesdays at Jason's house and Wednesdays at Justin's House. To celebrate this we're going to have a fantastic Fat Tuesday celebration tonight. Come to Justin's at 6 pm, it's pot luck, and should be great fun!
2. Ash wednesday service at Jason's tomorrow at 7 am. Low key - we'd love to have you come and enter into the Lenten season with us!
3. Jason's birthday is next weekend - we're celebrating at Molly Malone's (in Pleasant Ridge) Friday night. You should definitely come.
4. Mickey Rourke got robbed by Sean Penn. End of story.

Podcasts

2008-12-23T06:29:00.001-08:00

I wanted to apologize to those of you who check out our podcasts - December was a wierd month. With the 7th being cancelled, and the 14th being all video intensive, this was the first week we'd gotten back to the podcasts, but never fear! Nate's sermon from sunday - which was fantastic - is now up and we're back on schedule.

until Dec 28th, you know, when we don't have church :D

We hope you have a great Christmas, and a fantastic new year! We'll see you guys on Jan 4th.

(oh, and I just figured out that all our videos were taken down. I'll try and get those fixed today)

Letters to Legend

2008-12-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

This past week was our final sermon in the series on Revelation. Many, many people have said we were nuts for starting out with Revelation, but Justin and I both feel like we don't understand that sentiment. I'll leave it to smarter people than me to figure out why there's such hesitation to get into revelation, but for us, it's been a great experience. We had a bunch of ideas on how to end our study, and I'm personally really glad we went the direction we did.

Sunday we had 7 letters written to Legend. Letters written by people who have various views on the church, various experiences with the church. It was a chance for us to dream and think and imagine and examine what and who Legend has been, is and will be in the future.

The entire thing was done through videos Justin made. If you missed Sunday, or are observing Legend from afar, I thought I'd put the videos here for you to enjoy. Thanks for being a part of this, and a part of what God is doing here.

Video 1: Letters to the Seven Churches

Letter 1

Letter 2

Letter 3

Letter 4

Letter 5

5th Sunday

2008-12-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend was a little different for Legend - instead of doing our normal Sunday morning set up, we didn't set up any Children's ministries, and invited our Children - all of them, from 14 mos to 6 years - into our worship space to sing songs and love Jesus as a family. This week's podcast is up (to your right), and you can listen to Justin and I talk about what that means, and how we do that. The time of extended worship was a good thing yesterday, and it was good to have our kids - complete with talking, laughing, running and trying to get on the stage - with us.

It made me think a lot about family and what that means. For so many people, especially within the church, family is always equated with good. Family is a backbone for most of what the church considers right and good, and I see where that comes from. But it also made me think about people for whom family is anything but a good word. I know of at least 3 people who were in the room yesterday who come from VERY dysfunctional families - so dysfunctional that they're constantly causing wounds and hurts in people's lives. I had a student once who had been abused in horrific ways by her father - and so words like family and father are horrible and destructive words in her (and many others) life, and offer no comfort, and no connection to God. And I remember yesterday standing in the middle of the tension between those ideas - of how God is good, and God has called us into this new family, and how a lot of people live with tension about the idea of family, some of them done with the concept all together.

So, this morning, I hope your family is well, and a source of strength for you. I hope that you find comfort and love and acceptance there. And if that's not your family, then I hope that you can find those things in this family, as a part of God's extended family.

It's been a month

2008-11-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

so it's been a month since we've updated. well, that's only REALLY true if you don't count the weekly podcast update, which is so brilliantly executed it should count as 10 updates.

The big thing we're working on right now is getting our mission groups up and running. A lot of churches have small groups - and they're critical parts of those faith communities, and we're excited for them. But we want our groups to be a little different - we want our small groups to exist for a purpose. So this past weekend, we sent Justin to Texas to do some research with some of the world's premier small group leaders.

With counsel like this, how could we possibly go wrong?

Stay tuned - we'd love to get you plugged into one of our groups!

Family Fall Festival

2008-10-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

This week's podcast is up now! You listen to it on the left, or you can download it from itunes! That should happen every monday!

Sorry about the delay in posting - the days sort of disappear recently, in both good and bad ways, and sometimes i just forget that I should be talking here as well. I've been thinking a lot about the purpose of this blog - should it be something that serves simply as a place to do announcements, or something that furthers the conversation that Legend is having with itself and with its community, and I haven't come up with an answer to that question.

While I continue pondering that, I am super excited about our first opportunity to serve the Oakley Community this week! The Cincinnati Recreation Commission is hosting a Family Fun Festival this Friday night, and they've asked us to come help staff some trick or treating for local kids, to hang flyers (click pic to enlarge) this week, and to help them clean up afterwards Friday night. With so many churches being hostile to the celebration of Halloween, I think it's exciting that they know they can reach out to us for help staffing this GREAT event for the community.

We need volunteers from 3-7 pm on Friday, and volunteers throughout the week to help get the word out about this event. If you're available, please send me an email letting me know what your schedule is. If you're not available or interested in helping volunteer, please bring your kids and your families to the party and just hang out with the people of Oakley! The people at the CRC said they'd love to see us, and this is a GREAT and VERY easy way to show the community that we want to be involved in the life of Oakley!

Secret Crowds

2008-10-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

What Day is it

2008-10-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's already Wednesday - just last week, I was fretting about having enough "stuff" for our opening day and now it's come and gone and half a week has gone past. Sunday's launch was a huge success - thank you to all of you who came out to hang with us and we hope it was a great experience for you as well! This week's podcast is up - you'll be able to get them here each week in our cool sidebar box that says "podcast" or you can subscribe to them at itunes and they'll download automatically each week. Sorry about the audio quality of this one, Jason jacked up the recording setting on his mac, so we had to use the camcorder feed. eek.

Kim took some great pictures of the day, hope you enjoy them, and we'll see you sunday!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

18 hours and 11 minutes

2008-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

and Legend Community Church opens its doors for the first time.

our big blue truck is packed.
sermons have been written
rent has been paid
City Q has been booked

we're gonna have some church!

It ain't easy, being brown

2008-09-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Many of you won't get this. And that's a crying shame.

podcast

2008-09-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

The podcast is up, but apparently itunes is having trouble updating new feeds. if you manually subscribe (go to Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast>http://legendchurch.podbean.com/feed it should update, but it's having trouble finding it in the itunes browser.

here's a direct link

Only 5 years behind now...

2008-09-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

so, every once in awhile we take a gigantic leap forward into what's new and exciting in the world of media. Today, made a massive jump to about 5 years ago, with the creation of our first podcast. soon, you'll be able to point your itunes to an address which will automatically download our weekly sermons, rants, raves and cooking shows (how sweet would a cooking show be), and your ipod will automatically pick them up for your listening pleasure.

Itunes takes a day or two to recognize new things, so until then, you can check us out at podbean, and you can subscribe there!

The Retreat

2008-09-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Check back here soon for a recap of this weekend's retreat.

For those of you who can't wait . . .

Weekend Retreat

2008-09-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the details for this weekend's retreat:

Arrive around 7 pm on Friday night (it should take you at least one hour from Oakley). Friday night will be some social time, and hanging out around a bonfire!

Saturday morning will be a time of fasting and silence. We'll break our fast with a meal and spend saturday night, again, hanging out around a bonfire

Sunday morning we'll have a time of prayer and worship and head back to Cincinnati around 9 am.

You won't need much for the weekend - we'll be providing the food (though, if there is something very specifically you want, you might want to bring that), and the "materials" for the retreat part. You will need to bring camping equipment - sleeping bags, cots, tents, clothes, bug spray, sun screen, folding chairs, etc. anything you need to sleep rustic (there isn't any electricity here, and the cabin is fairly small). You'll also want to bring a bible and a notebook.

We're really looking forward to this weekend. We hope it's a time of renewal and just time with God, and with some good (and new!) friends. If you have any questions, call Jason or Justin or Nate.

oh, here are Directions, and a SPECTACULARLY drawn map, courtesy of Patrick Doyle (click to enlarge):

I-275 West to I-74 w/N
Brookeville Exit US 52
Thru Town
Left on Resevoir road
Up hill turn right on keller
Turn right on gravel road before cell tower
At house veer to left follow gravel road
Note that it is not the house you pass on the gravel road, it is the cabin further on down.

Legend Community Church

2008-09-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

will soon be the proud owners of this coolness. awesome

Retreat

2008-09-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

As the time comes for us to begin, we've been thinking alot about the best way to prepare for our "soft launch" in October, and Nate came up with the idea of doing a retreat. Practically, it gives us a chance to go away and have a common experience (and with so many people from so many places, that's a needed thing for us) and spiritually, the way it's being constructed, it gives us an opportunity to sit and be quiet before God.

I don't have all of the details, but here's what I do know:

We're going to a cabin property of Patrick and Audra Doyle near Brookville Lake in Indiana, for the weekend of September 19-21
Friday night will be a time of fellowship and just hanging out, unscheduled and just for the fun of it. Saturday will be an 8 hour time of silence and fasting, with various activities designed to help people focus their time and thoughts. At the end of that time, we'll come back together and break our fast with a meal together, and then spend saturday night hanging out together. Sunday morning will conclude our time with a worship service.

Ok, so that's really all I know as of right now for details. if you have any questions, let ahold of me, and by then I'll have every answer imaginable.

I can't keep up

2008-09-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

So, it's been two and half months since we posted anything here. Which may lead some of you (does anyone read this?) to wonder if anything has been going on. Things are actually moving so fast that we can't hardly keep up with them, which is a good thing! Here's a rundown of all the stuff that's been going on.

We finalized a deal with the Oakley Community Center to begin meetings there on Sunday, October 5th. We have the building from 8 am to Noon, and it's a huge blessing - it's significantly cheaper than what a comparable space would do anywhere else, and we really like the people we work with there. we think it's going to work very well.

our Tuesday night bible studies continue to go very well - Lauren has joined our team of people leading the bible studies as we've studied Nehemiah together, and things are going very well. The group is growing and we'll begin working towards multiple small groups very soon!

We finalized our Board of Directors which sets us on the process of being a legit and official organization. At least in the Law's eyes ;)

We contracted with Okee Doke to finish our website. Expect that to go live sometime in November

We've been steadily rehearsing our worship teams, and we're reallyexcited about how that's going so far. We ended up scoring a sweet V Drum Set, a not so sweet, but CRAZY cheap projector ($45!!!!!!), and a free (freaking free!) PA System. The last two, compliments of Craigslist. I love the internet.

We've been in conversations with a local church who is, potentially, going to donate their entire portable church set up to us - trailer, bins, stuff, etc. This is a HUGE blessing, and we're really excited about the relationship that's forming there.

Playing at Habit's continues to go really well - this week Emily, Matt and Zach joined me and we had alot of fun getting to know and hang out with the people there. It continues to be one of my favorite things we do, and I can't wait to see how it helps us to be better musicians, but also helps us to build relationships with the people of Oakley.

Metallica has a new album coming out for the first time in 5 years and Jason's so giddy about it he's going to pop.

oh, and the Bengals stink so bad this year that the only logical conclusion is that God is a steelers fan. how can one team be this bad?

I think that's it. We're moving at about 1000 mph, and it's really exciting, and it's also alot of fun. If you all would be praying for and with us, we'd appreciate it. And, no more 90 days without posting. I'll try and update this weekly, at the very least!

spiritual attack

2008-06-20T10:36:00.001-07:00

so, i have read a lot about spiritual attack and church planting. and how they go hand in hand.

we have really been experiencing it hard here at Legend.

there have been many people who are dealing with depression, self-worth, sin. its been pretty heavy. some people are in a funk of dark thoughts, its actually quite serious.

i have not experienced anything like this in my own personal life.
but today it hit me.

while the evil one may be tempting and walking in others thoughts and deeds here at the church plant, he has taken an entire different approach with me this week.

read the FIREBALL incident first.

then read the ANT problem second.

once you have read those, you will see that the enemy's attack on me is physical. he has fire and insect coming down on me.

nature itself is against me.

the sad thing is, it may be funny, but i think its kinda true.

Yikes (JW)

2008-06-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

so I love Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I don't think it's good social commentary or incredible satire or anything like that, i just generally think it's so absurd it's funny. Completely inappropriate, and those of you with refined tastes should not watch. So when ATHF starts taking off on faith, esp Christian faith, i take it with a grain of salt. South Park, conversely, almost always nails it, so you have to be wary when they start cracking on the Church, because they're normally right. And the Simpsons are always right.

but I digress.

So this clip has David Cross portraying a Banana that has been invited over and turns out to be a Christian evangelical in every bad sense of the word. And the thing that caught my eye was just how disinterested in frylock the banana really was. he didn't care about him, didn't want his life to come to completion or redemption. He wanted to win this one, to be right. Frylock wasn't really all that important in the transaction to him.

This is a topic that keeps coming up within our Legend discussions. How do we maintain constantly loving people for the sake of loving people, loving them as Jesus does and because Jesus does and with absolutely no chance or hope of ever seeing any fruit from it. Why does the broken nature of my heart constantly veer back to seeing my success as a Christian leader in terms of numbers, which is where behavior like this comes from (let's be clear, the creators of ATHF didn't create this scene out of thin air. i'm sure there are a ton of people who can relate to it).

How do i stop from becoming a struggling, ex-alcoholic, a-hole banana?

Outreach 101

2008-05-27T07:43:00.001-07:00

So Justin and have been getting bombarded with a list of the books we need to read if we're going to be church planters (guess which book is never recommended? The Bible. hmmmmmmmm) - and the books are full of all the things you have to do - advertise, put on big events, target-demographic everyone to death, etc etc. Seriously, it's a bunch of business principles from the world around us. Which should scare anyone to death, because all we'll end up creating is little businesses who happen to sell Jesus.

but I digress.

this past sunday night, Rodney and I discovered the greatest tool in the history of outreach for local churches, maybe even rivaling the Holy Spirit in terms of effectiveness (i keeeed, i keeeed).

The Accordian. Awesome. It makes every song, esp lame bar covers done by a guy who can only kinda sing, 10x cooler. It is the new secret to all outreach events. With an accordian, 3 chords, Jesus and the truth, we can change the world.

possible new legend logos?

2008-05-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

before i start, LCC meets at Jason's House on Tuesday. dont forget. not justin's. if you need directions call 513.252.5853

we have had a quasi logo for awhile now. but based on recent conversation i have been playing with a few things. what do you think of these two:

whatcha thinks?

thoughts...

2008-05-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

so this past week, we had a whole lot of people show up. more than one bible study can hold. this is a good thing. its time to start thinking about splitting the group. i have NO idea how this really works to the better health of the church.

i had a couple thoughts about this past week. about bible study. i think we easily forget that we are white americans trying to read first century literature. as westerners we constantly try to conclude everything and package bible texts into nice pretty thoughts. that isnt right. i saw us quickly jumping to conclusions in Eph. chapter 2...but thats not a concluded thought. Paul will conclude (later in chapter 4 when he says "therefore") but a lot time we are trying to see how this makes us feel and what we can do with this and we miss what is being said. its an easy hole to fall in. it just reminded me that as a church, bible study is a top priority, and we need to do it faithfully and right. we need to put a lot into it.

so this week we had some thoughts on core values. jason frequently asks what makes LCC different from other churches. we always say that we are not really trying to be different, but we are. our core values is one reflection of that. as i think about the 5 things that are at our core, in this church, they are more than just "core values." usually core values are things that define what you are unbendable on. things in which you will not flex on. ours are not that. ours are things that are fundamental to our success, health, and growth as the body of christ in oakley.

one of our core values is Creativity. thats not something we wont bend on, but its something vital to the growth of the church.

another is being good Bible Readers. thats not unbendable, but it is what will make this body of believers grow.

other core values are Community, Reaching those who are yet to be followers of christ, and the last one is really being the church.

thats enough for now, as this is still being thought out.

the Acts 2 Church (JW)

2008-05-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I had the privilege of teaching during a special service at Crestview (in case you wanna download it :D) to celebrate our confirmands, and b/c it was the sunday that the church celebrates Pentecost, I taught from Acts 2. The scriptures contain an interesting, albeit contradictory, interpretation of what the ancient world thought about the young church. At the beginning of the chapter, the people of Jerusalem see the Church, in the throes of the Holy Spirit and assume they're drunk. at 9 am. I hope that never happens to us :D. But at the end of that chapter, Luke tells us this:

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

One of the questions I asked was about that phrase in v. 47 - that the church enjoyed the favor of all the people, and I was forced to ask the question, would you say that the church of today would be described that way? I think at best, the sum total of "all the people" are indifferent to the church, it has ceased to matter to them. At worst, the people have become hostile to the church. I went for a run tonight through Hyde Park and there are signs all over Hyde Park reading "Honor Your Promise" - I'm not taking sides on the issue of whether that church should expand or not, but in that one Cincinnati neighborhood, there's a lot of animosity towards at least that particular church. I think one would be hard pressed to argue that the Church today enjoys the favor of all the people.

So, it made me glad to see this story over at the Cincinnati Enquirer's website. Here's a community that in some profound ways honors their church. 2.5 million is not chump change, and the fact that this community has chosen to invest that into a church is a cool sign that this church is doing some things right in its community (I know nothing about the church, other than what I read in that story). In some way, this church has impacted this community in a way that the church receives blessings from the community.

I want to Legend to be viewed like that - I hope that the people of Oakley will see us as a blessing, and be glad that we are here. Even the folks who don't care about the Church in general, or who don't come to Legend or anywhere else, I hope that they look at us and see a group of people who love, and are good for, the community of Oakley. There are alot of hints in Acts 2 about how we can get there, and I'm already encouraged about what Legend is, and excited about what it's going to be.

story...

2008-05-01T16:52:00.001-07:00

the other day we had a meeting with someone who is going to be on our Management Team at LCC. it was really good. i actually took a friend with me who will also be attending LCC. Jason, who is my partner on this journey, usually always comes to meetings of clout such as these. however, he could not make it. so here i am sitting in Frisch's with a my friend waiting to talk to this guy. here is how our conversation went:
me- i wish jason were here
friend- why
me- because jason always picks up the tab for things like this
friend- you should probably pick up the tab
me- yeah i know, but, i dont even know if i can pay for myself
friend- it would really look good if you pick up the tab
me- i know....i know.....but, oh well, im not.
----we eat, we talk, its great, bill comes------
friend- one check please
----friend picks up the tab for all of us-----
later on
me- thanks for paying for that
friend- thats what i am here for, i am here to make you look good.

"i am here to make you look good"

that phrase stuck with me all day and has been haunting my thoughts, in a good way. i realized that most of the people in my life are there and they have taken up the job of "making me look good." where would i be without these people? its totally the job of everyone i work with. its totally the job of my wife. and most of my friends. i am nothing without the people around me. nothing.

thats why the church is beautiful.

thanks friends for making this guy look good.
you will really never know how much i appreciate and love all of you.

Update

2008-04-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

so we haven't been great at updating this, for that I apologize. Justin and I are both caught up in a really crazy busyness right now that, in all likelyhood, isn't going to change until well after Legend launches. But, things are going really well right now, so i thought I'd drop you all an update on where Legend stands.

Management Team - one of the things that CPAC really urged us to do to move forward was the creation of a management team. It's a group of folks who have church planting or church management experience who can serve the role of elders around Justin and I as this gets off the ground. Two weeks ago, we met with Dick Alexander at Lifespring community church in North College Hill, and he reccommended some folks for us to talk to. One of them is Larry Holmes, from Christian Evangelical Fellowship in Cincinnati, an organization that partners with and plants new churches. Monday, he agreed to serve on our management team and help us with our fundraising and church plant work, which is very exciting
Coach - the other management sort of piece we were looking for is to hire a church planting coach. We hired a guy named Walt Hastings, an experienced church planter who makes a career out of getting new churches off the ground. Weekly we talk to him on a conference call, and he helps not figure out what to do, but helps us figure out how to do what we already know what to do. That process is just now getting off the ground.
Core Team - probably the most exciting thing for us has been the gathering of our core team around bible study on Tuesday nights. Justin and I take turns leading through a study of Ephesians and building a group of people around this. This has been a really good time, because it really feels like the true work of this church is finally starting to happen, and the group of people who have come around in this group have just been a huge blessing. God is assembling some cool people for this, the right people, and we're really thankful for that. If you'd like to come to this group - and if you're going to be at Legend, this is a group you want to be at, let us know. we have plenty of room, and we anticipate sometime soon that we're going to split into two houses. and then hopefully 3. :D
Building - in early April we secured the Oakley Community Center as a place for us to start meeting in October. We got two great rooms for a phenomenal price and the building is just perfect for what we need. The man who manages the center for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission is really excited about what we're doing and I can't wait to start meeting there. Even if our "sanctuary" is covered with jazzercise mirrors.
Networking - we've started having sort of weekly grill outs with folks who may be interested in Legend, or who may not but may know someone who is interested in Legend at either my house or Justin's house. This has been the slow part of the process right now, as people are either busy, or committed to other churches, but we're excited about the chance to sit and talk to anyone who will listen to us. We have a grill out at my house this Saturday night, if you'd like to come!
Outreach - we're still meeting on Sunday nights at Habits for open mic night and a chance to really connect with some of the people of Oakley. The guy who hosts the open mic night has become pretty good friends with us, as has his sister who just hangs out there. We're definitely starting to fit in there and hang out and it's been really really good. It's probably my favorite part of this whole thing, but that's as much because I really do love bar culture as anything else :D

so, that's a bit of it. As I'm winding down my minstry at Crestview and Justin is hitting a busy season for admissions folks, it's a crazy time of year. But everytime Justin and I turn around, God is opening another door and in alot of ways (good ways!) it feels like we couldn't stop this train if we tried at this point! We'd love for you guys to be praying for us!

Poor Justin

2008-04-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

Justin's mad becuase I keep owning him in debates.

First, he got into this debate about music with me where he kept insisting that sublime was the greatest band in the history of performed music. really, by the end of the debate, he was arguing as if sublime had actually invented the electric guitar and then wrote every good piece of music ever played upon it. needless to say, i crushed him in that debate.

tonight, he argued that if you go on short term mission trips you are actually a servant of the devil and probably responsible for cancer in third world children. again, i destroyed him.

poor, poor justin :D

Why Oakley

2008-04-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

So it's been an insane month. i don't know how else to put it. Justin and I have been through alot. good, but alot. There's a ton of news and stuff to update here, but I really feel like i need to start with the most important stuff.

So people ask all the time why we have decided to plant a new church in Oakley. there are a ton of reasons - i really feel like God has called us to this neighborhood, we love the time and the place and the people here. We love our street. Everything about it is right.

But tuesday night, we went to the Oakley community council meeting, and i got the end-all-be-all reason to plant in Oakley. Seriously. while looking through Oakley Voice, I found this fascinating article. Look at this snippet from page 9:

we have this opportunity - apparently being radically ignored by other churches in Oakley - to create a whole new ministry for GYPSIES! How fantastic is that! Freaking Gyspsies! Like, the kind that come with music and myrth and laughter in the night who sing songs and wear cool clothes and cook and live in covered wagons and steal your children! Those gypsies! and they're in Oakley! I have never been so excited!

West Chester, you can have your Ikea. we're building a gyspy hut.

We're Back (JW)

2008-03-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back from CPAC. It was an incredibly long and really difficult week. I think that all 4 of us are still processing and debriefing and wrestling with everything we went through. I think it's going to be really important for us to come to some terms with everything that was said, so be patient as we come up with a good and thorough way to talk about what last week was.

So, when I try and think of a way to describe the week, this about sums it up

overall, though, it was good. we were affirmed. we got a ton of work done (we'll show you soon) and we are definitely on a positive path forward. 8 mos and counting...

Connections

2008-03-05T05:19:00.000-08:00

So tonight, I went to the Oakley Community Council Meeting. I'll confess that going there gave me a little of the creeps, because it was just like a committee or session meeting at the Presbyterian Church. Same rules of order, same ability to say something in 45 minutes that should have taken 10, etc. It doesn't scare me because something's wrong with the way the Community Council does its stuff - it scares me b/c the church relies on this sort of structure. All it does is hinder and limit the work of the holy spirit, I think. Now that I wrote that, I'll probably get in trouble somewhere.

But, my time there was actually really cool in terms of the long term opportunities:

Parking in Oakley is apparently a huge issue. there's a new building going in where the old Hader hardware was on the square, and the businesses around there came out huge to talk about parking. It gave me some pause to think about the idea that if we meet on the square and have any kind of success, parking is going to be an issue and has a chance to put us at odds with the people on the square, something we want to avoid. The other discussion around the building expansion was how much can we make this look like what's always been here. There's a sense of nostalgia and history to Oakley, especially on the Square.

There is a serious lack of volunteers to help take care of the community. They are sponsoring another "Clean Up Oakley" day as part of Beautify Cincinnati, and last year they could only get 12 volunteers. Interestingly, when I went to talk to the guy who is organizing it, he said he went to the churches last year and was sent packing - no interest whatsoever in helping out from any of the churches in Oakley. April 26th is the tenative date for clean up Oakley. Anyone who wants to be involved in Legend should plan on coming to that.

August 6th is a 'Take back the Night' sort of event that needs both volunteers and people to set up booths representing the community. being within 2 mos of our launch, this should be a must attend for us

Oakley After Hours is an event they run all summer to keep the square open at night and get people to come down and shop. They need volunteers to staff booths, hand out balloons and be involved. Again, noone from the community or churches was interested in helping out

Citizens on Patrol needs volunteers - these are people who work with the Cincinnati Police Department and walk the streets of Oakley to be an extra set of eyes and ears and deal with the issues that are on the streets of Oakley. I think this is an AMAZING opportunity, especially for people in leadership at Legend. In this position, we'd be able to not only get to know folks who are in a position where they feel they need to make criminal decisions, we'd also get to be a part of Police-community relations which is one of hte biggest social justice issues in the city of Cincinnati.

that's from one meeting. This community is really in need of someone who wants to care about it. And I couldn't turn around without someone else asking me to volunteer for something. Justin and I are also getting connected to Give Back Cincinnati and People Working Cooperatively - two more organizations who are doing what the gospel calls them to do without being Christians. There are some ways that the Church is being shown up in its mission to the world - and so we're going to just go do it with them.

The other really interesting thing in the meeting was that a reporter from the Eastern Hills Journal who wants to do a story on us, which is awesome. And, probably the biggest deal for me, is that the guy who manages the The Oakley Community/Rec Center was at the meeting and wants to meet with us to talk about us using that building as a place to meet for the church. That's a huge, huge answered prayer and i'm really, really excited about it.

Check These Out:

2008-03-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

First Impressions

2008-03-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

I know Justin's going to post an update here later, so I thought I'd log in and do one now, just to trump him. Though, if I were thinking, i would do it after his post that way mine was on top for the rest of the week and that would awesomeness. This is going to be the theme of Legend. Justin and I constantly trying to one-up each other in a totally unhealthy way. It should make for goooooooood readin'

Last night I think we had our first really good connection in Oakley. Justin and I have been hanging out at Habits Cafe, on Oakley Square. It's a cool place, good atmosphere and is even rumored to be haunted. On Sunday nights they have an open-mic night hosted by a couple of really talented guys so we go in, get some food and drinks and listen to the guys play.

Justin's friend decided to sign me up to perform which was a bit of a stretch for me. I love to play, love live music, but I don't sing particularly well, so I wouldn't normally do an open mic night. But as Justin was out being Justin - connecting really well with some of the guys who are there every week. And as i kinda hung out with Daniel and Kees, I realized that I'm never going to be that guy. I'm not overly outgoing, not particularly social if you're outside of my normal circle of friends - in a lot of ways I can be a real introvert. Rodeny, and some Myers-Briggs Test, told me I was and ENFP, but I sometimes definitely feel like an I. So anyway, I got up and did "The Ballad of Lupe Montosa," by Roger Clyne, "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle, and "Passin Thru" by Johnny Cash (though, it was the Randy scruggs version) and had a really good time doing it. I stayed within my range vocally and had fun with the guitar.

More important than any of that, we left and the people in the bar knew us. It was the first time I felt like we had established some real connections to people in Oakley, and I think will be the way that Legend is going to grow. We won't have or do massive blitzs, i think, but would rather spend our time and resources really building into real relationships. If it keeps happening like it did sunday night, I think things are going to go well.

Updates and such....

2008-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome

2008-02-25T20:23:00.000-08:00

So there's something about this clip that speaks volumes to me. In it, is the perfect view of what happens when the Kingdom of God confronts the Kingdom of the Worlds - though, just for Irony's sake, it is the one who views himself as a human who lives out the message of the kingdom of God, while the living God in the scene is perfectly how we understand the world. In it we are confronted with pride versus self sacrifice, about what true leadership looks like, about what it would mean to believe in something so much bigger than yourself that it consumes you - swallowing whole fear and worry and doubt.

This isn't a Legend Community Church belief statement. It isn't a crafted public relations document, designed to communicate to you in one pithy post what LCC is. It's a gut reaction to how I see the world. I think that LCC is coming into a direct confrontation with the world. And it's a fight I'm spoiling for.