Thoughts of a Contemplating Guy who Loves Jesus

Well... my post last July said that I was going to run a 1/2 marathon w/ my brother. HAHAHA! That's not going to happen. Not because I haven't gotten into better shape, but more for the fact that I HATE running! I've run a little bit, but nowhere near the amount I'd have to to be able to run a 1/2 marathon. But I am now in a lot better of shape and still have a long way to go. So far, I've lost slightly over 50lbs! But I'd still really like to lose another 50lbs. We'll see what happens. Here's a pic of my face to give you an idea of the progress. I didn't take a full body 'before' pic, which I now regret. But this is better than nothin:



On another note... we are having a baby! Hannah is due July 20. We're both really excited. We had the ultrasound yesterday and that was awesome. We had the ultrasound lady write down the gender of the baby and place it in a sealed envelope. Hannah and I are going to go out tomorrow on a date night and we'll open it then. But that way we get to spend some awesome time with one another and celebrate. The ultrasound yesterday was between her getting out of her high school day and then going to the night class she teaches at the local community college. So we wanted to find the gender out when we had some time to hang out and celebrate. And if you're curious... we aren't sure yet if we're going to tell anyone else. Kinda fun to keep secrets from everybody else ;)

So that's what's going on lately. Hope that this finds you doing well!

so... one thing i really suck at is writing in this blog! i need to try to do a better job w/ this. i just looked on the traffic my blog gets, and it gets more than i thought. every day, some people are checking it out either b/c they saw something on my blog that turned up on a google search they did, or more people are checking it out by clicking on the link posted on my facebook and twitter accounts.

so... i'm sorry i've let you down. i havent written since july and that was all the talk about me potentially running a 1/2 marathon. HAHA! Well... a lot has changed since then. i'll write that in a separate post and get that up soon. and i really mean that (i think), so hopefully it won't be another 6 months between posts. anyways... i'll put that up in the next week or so.

so... since we're on the topic of 'sucking at ________' (among other things, one of mine is updating this blog), what goes in your blank? no... i'm serious... tell me something that you suck @.

so i got a call from my brother today. he's 20 and goes to Johnson Bible College and is interning this summer at our home church Center Pointe Christian Church in West Chester, OH. last week he was out visiting and we decided that we were going to have our own 'biggest loser' challenge at the wager of $50 (he's a college kid and can't afford to lose more than that).

so then this week he went to CIY Move with the high school crew from church. last night at the conference they handed out envelopes to every student at the conference. they were told that inside the envelope there was a challenge and before opening their envelope, they had to commit to accomplishing the task before next summer. so those who decided they were going to do whatever was in the envelope had to commit to doing it before opening it. brad didn't take one of the envelopes, but the other intern, joe, did. so brad said that he would do whatever joe had to do. joe opened up his envelope after he and brad committed to doing whatever was in it, and inside was the challenge to get healthy and run a marathon!

so on there way home today, brad gave me a call and told me the story and asked me to run in the Flying Pig 1/2 Marathon in May in Cincinnati. the reason for the 1/2 instead of the full is that both of us are way out of shape and are really big guys. the 1/2 is more realistic for us. but we also have 10 months, so we if we get to the point around December or January where we feel we can do more, the we'll do the full marathon.

but anyways... brad had already committed to it before he even saw the piece of paper, but i had nothing forcing me to do it. i hate running... seriously. i don't just strongly dislike... i dread. it's a pure hatred. the hatred may stem from football days where all the running we did was for punishment, but nevertheless, i really really really hate running.

that being said... i told brad that i'd do it. that was like 3 hours ago or so, and i'm already having second thoughts. i really want to get in shape, and my first week of working out and eating better went really good, but the thought of running 1/2 a marathon is a lil intimidating. but... i've told him that i'm going to do it and i better hold to my word.

so it looks like i gotta start building in some running to my workouts in addition to my time on the bike

Recently someone gave me an article to read to get my thoughts on it. The article is titled "The Emergent Church Could Submerge Yours!" by Jan Markell.  Here's the link:

She seems to be in attack mode and I wonder how well she has really looked into the guys that she lists on her "bad guys" roster. I've read books by a few of them, including Bell, and I've listened to many of their teachings via podcasts. Definitely more Bell's than the other guys, but none the less, I've still heard Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, and Tony Jones. And she's making some drastic accusations that I don't think have much ground (at least not enough to write about).

When Rob Bell teaches, he's very biblical. He usually spends 45 mins to an hour teaching a very small portion of scripture. It's very biblical and he definitely does not downplay hell, sin, repentance, or the word of God. And churches have to do things differently now if we are going to reach the culture of today. Traditions aren't necessarily bad either, you just have to ask if they're effective. If not... give it the 'axe'. I seem to recall Jesus sharing a few words with guys who were locked in on ineffective traditional practices. It's been proven that people retain more when their senses are engaged (sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, etc.) so why not use people's senses to create an engaging teaching environment? They're not being different just for the sake of being different, they're being different because it works. And they are not getting away from the Bible.

The least churched age bracket across the country is the 18-30 years old bracket. What a lot of those guys are doing are engaging that bracket. You look at their churches and the majority of the people involved are in that bracket, where other places it's the smallest group. The churches that are doing things differently are reaching people that most churches are not. And they are in fact getting sound biblical teaching and the focus is still Jesus.

Now granted, I do disagree with the stances some of those guys take with certain issues. I disagree with McLaren more than any of the others, but I still believe that he loves Jesus with all his heart and he is my saved brother in Christ. And even Bell; I disagree with some of the things he says, but that doesn't discredit him. He's a child of God and a student of His word, and his desire is for people to know Jesus.

She states in the beginning of her article that leaders came out saying "we need a new way of doing church. That old time religion wasn't good enough. So in came new gimmicks, replacing the solid gospel." I agree, but not with her. You can't do church like it was done in the past, it has to change with the times to relate and reach out to the people living in those times. What worked 50 years ago, is not going to be effective with todays culture. And to correct her, those guys are not replacing the gospel. They are coming up with creative and innovative new ways to communicate it. And those are not gimmicks. If ministries don't change with the times, they will for sure die over time. And you can be creative and innovative and experiential and engaging and emergent and still be focused on Jesus and the gospel.

Do know that I definitely have disagreements with some of those guys and the "emergent church" thing, but I do believe they are still God's guys doing God's work. Most of the things that I disagree with them on are things they don't take a stance on. For instance, McLaren won't make a stance on homosexuality and has some weird beliefs about hell... like it doesn't exist or something like that. Now granted those are the big ones. And there's nothing that I've heard from Bell that I disagree with in the same magnitude I disagree with McLaren on those issues.

But I wouldn't bash them or the church like she does. Those guys are still doing amazing things and are playing a huge part in sharing the gospel and showing people Jesus.

Anyways... those are some of my thoughts. I could talk about this kind of stuff forever. I love having conversations like this.

You haven't told me what you thought yet. So what do you think?

I was reading in Exodus last week and I got to thinking about Moses and his journey with God.  It's ridiculous how Moses saw God (through the burning bush) and talked to God audibly, but when it came down to God telling him to do something (go to Egypt and save the people) he came up w/ all these excuses about how he wasn't equipped for the task. He made excuses about his ability to speak and had a hard time trusting that God was going to be with him through it all. Anyways, it got me thinking.