Connexus

I wanted to give you blog readers the inside track to a new publication we are coming out with on Sunday, August 5th. It will replace the current program and be a monthly magazine with the purpose of connecting people to the events taking place here at ECC.

The staff and I came up with the name Connexus because of the sound of the word (sounds like "connects us") and its meaning: "a connecting structure, a union of elements or things."

It will inform you to all the happenings during the current month and beyond. On the following Sundays we will hand out a smaller page to inform of the week's events. We are really excited to try out our new publication strategy. Please let us know what you think.

On the inside cover you will read a short article I wrote titled, "Faith for Now." I have been inspired lately by the Old Testament character Caleb and the story of the 12 spies that went in to check out the Promised Land that God had already given Israel. Of the 12, only 2, Joshua and Caleb returned with a positive report. In Numbers 14:24 Caleb is declared to possess a "different spirit." Because of this God rewarded him in a way no one else (including Joshua) was. The different spirit included the obvious trait of believing and expressing that in a way that went against the flow of the multitude. He stuck out from the crowd in the not so obvious way of having the faith to see as God sees. Caleb saw what all the other spies had seen, he just saw it through a perspective of faith.

There will be mountains to climb and obstacles to traverse in the days to come. My prayer is that afterwards it will be said of us, "they had a different spirit."

It is God's power and Spirit that connexus.

Miscellaneous World

In a fascinating book about business and culture, Everything is Miscellaneous captures the imagination with its byline; "The Power of the New Digital Disorder."

Inside the front flap you get a taste for what is ahead.

"Information is most valuable when it is thrown into a big digital "pile" to be filtered and organized by the users themselves.

Instead of relying on experts, groups of passionate users are inventing their own ways of discovering what they know and want."

In the digital world, we've lost our ability to neatly and succinctly place specific things into specific categories.

All of this makes for some pretty intense approaches to life, business and information. I can see where the church is affected in positive and not so positive ways. There is already a movement of churches called Emergent that has a tendency toward faith in faith and therefore any one's spiritual experience is valid no matter how it syncs with Scripture. The Emergent church in its extreme expression does not believe there is one META-NARRATIVE that we all have to adhere to or that captures all of our lives.

That is the point where Miscellaneous and the Emergent movement loses me. The Word of God, the Bible, Holy Scriptures provide the META-NARRATIVE that we all can and should base our lives on. It is not miscellaneous nor is it random. It is truth!

It is living in the power of a new order.

Ultimate vs. Immediate

For staff devotions today Pastor Dan Olson took a few moments to remind us of the tension between the Ultimate and the Immediate. I cannot speak for you, but my tendency is to lean toward what the immediate offers me instead of reaching for the ultimate. God is my ultimate source and yet I want the immediate resources around me. The struggle of the ultimate plan God has for our lives and the competing immediate options placed before us. If we live for what the immediate will provide we will never experience what the ultimate can deliver.

This obviously applies to our series on Sexual Revolution. The MO of our society is to indulge in immediate pleasure rather than to invest in ultimate joy. Studies show that when sexual and moral boundaries are crossed before a couple is married, there is a reduction in the respect the two have for each other. That lack of respect can be a hurdle down the road. If only there was a desire for the ultimate rather than the immediate.

Dan closed with a quote that got me thinking: "The last thing one knows is what to put first." If we are not careful, it will only be when we get too old to live life that we truly grasp what is important.

Live for the ultimate.

Home Again

We just arrived home tonight. We had one of the best vacations ever as a family. We had relaxing and refreshing times.

As we were at Brett and Jamie Schreiber's house in St. Paul, Jamie asked Dawson about some of the highlights of the week. One of his top 5 moments was his first bit of a White Castle hamburger. It was the very White Castle that Joni had gone to as a girl when her father pastored in Minneapolis and the very one I had gone to countless times as a college student. Somehow, they had the same classic taste.

In the wake of a wonderful week away, it sure is nice to be home.

Family

What a wonderful and relaxing time we are having on vacation. It has been a family vacation in light of our opportunity to spend time with my family.

My brother-in-law and sister (Greg and Joanna Kalyvas) pastor a church in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. They are doing a wonderful job building dynamic faith family there. Their fellowship is the most effective it has been in its long history. Way to go Greg and Joanna!

The time that we have had connecting with others on this trip was captured by Greg in a thought he shared Sunday morning. You know how you can see someone for the first time in a while and yet it is a reunion of true joy and happiness? That feeling is the feeling we can have when we reunite with God. The same sense is ours.

I will see you this weekend and I will have that same feeling. I cannot wait.

Triple Espresso

Last night we went to the quaint Music Box Theater in Minneapolis to see Triple Espresso, a comedy show written by some really creative people. Two of the three I am familiar with because of their writing of Christian musicals and speaking at events.

It was a "dinner and a show" night. We had a wonderful time with the friends we went with - Bruce and Maria Hanson and their family and Brett and Jamie Schreiber. Hard to imagine how the evening could have been better.

I love making memories.

Family Vacation

I am on vacation with my family in Minnesota. We are based out of the Twin Cities and before the week is up we will have travelled hours both east and west to visit my family and great friends.

Did you see or hear the reports that men gab as much as women? The study says that both men and women speak about 16,000 words a day. The ironic thing is that whether I saw the news being reported or read about it, it was coming by way of a women. Hmmmm.

Based upon my recent unscientific research of observation on airplane conversations (as well as other public places), I would have to respectfully disagree. I could go on and on about this, but it is late and I have already spoken my allotted 8,000 words.

Happy trails.

We got off to a good start to our new series called, "Sexual Revolution." All of the feedback (so far) is very positive.

I contend that it is imperative the church discuss this. The Apostle Paul made it a priority to confront the societal norms of his day. We are doing the same. A week ago in our local paper there was an article that addressed the challenge of pornography addiction in the church.

Here are some stats from the article:

• Fifty percent of all Christian men and 20 percent of all Christian women are addicted to pornography, according to a 2006 poll by ChristiaNet.
• Thirty-three percent of pastors and 36 percent of laity admitted visiting a sexually explicit Web site, according to research published in 2006 by Christianity Today.
• Fifty-seven percent of pastors said pornography was the most damaging sexual issue affecting their congregations, and 36 percent of congregants said it was the most damaging sexual issue affecting them personally, according to a 2005 survey published by Christianity Today International.

I didn't need more motivation, but this served me well as affirmation that we are on the right course.

Lincoln Memorial

As we are about to celebrate Independence Day, I have a new appreciation for our country having just returned from Washington, D.C.

It was late one night that I went with a small contingent to see the Lincoln Memorial. It is spectacular and scarcely visited at 1 AM. Arriving as late as we did, mostly by foot, I was feeling a bit weary. That faded into inspiration as I walked into this wonderful Chamber honoring Abraham Lincoln. Straight ahead you see him (it has to be more moving at night with the contrast of light) seated with a compassionate and intense look on his face. Then you look to the left and, inscribed on the wall is his Gettysburg Address.

This address was not really a speech; it was a dedicatory statement for a cemetery where thousands of Union soldiers were buried. Lincoln was not the main speaker of the day. That was reserved for one of the most noted orators of the time, Edward Everett. He spoke for about 2 hours. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863 lasted just over 2 minutes (he must have really been deliberate because when I read it out loud slowly, it took me 90 seconds). Amazingly, Lincoln expressed disappointment in his remarks initially, yet these well thought out 269 words have become regarded as one of the most elegant and referenced speeches in American history.

His purpose was to present a broad statement about the larger significance of the war. He invoked the Declaration of Independence, and its principles of liberty and equality. In his brief address, he continued to reshape the genesis of the war for the American people—transforming it from a war for the Union to a war for the Union and freedom.

Here is the Address if you care to click on it to read:

A Small World

Thanks for your patience with me to post. I have a lot to blog about regarding my time in D.C. this past week.

On Wednesday, I went with Trinity Jordan (missionary/pastor to Utah and a person I am honored to call my friend) to make a connection with Representative Todd Tiahrt from Kansas. His office set up a tour of the Capitol. On that tour we went to the Senate Chamber while they were discussing the Immigration Bill. Because of that we were able to see almost every Senator. That is a rare day. Pretty cool.

After the tour, I spent some time conversing with Rep. Tiahrt's Receptionist. I learned rather quickly of what a godly lady she is. The more we talked the more we realized that we knew some of the same people. Then she mentioned a church she used to attend while living in San Diego of which I am very familiar. Not only did she know one of my better pastor friends here in Washington, she is great friends with a family in our church here in Olympia.

Who would have thought? A person that I had met earlier in the day that I would not have imagined I had any particular connection with, becomes a person that enters my circle of connections.

Who knows who you may meet this week that if you will take a few moments, you will find you are connected. Make a new friend this week.