my new digs

Planting a church is a very weird thing.

One of the weirdest parts is not having an office. I spend some days entirely at Panera Bread in front of my lap top. Other days, I'm driving from one meeting to another. Oh the meetings...at this church, at that church, at this Starbucks, at that Starbucks, on the disc golf course (my favorite kind of meeting, by the way), in the car, at this person's house, at my house.

Then there are the days when I feel like a I'm multi-tasker on speed. I have 10 people to contact about 12 things. There are infinite deadlines. I leave voice mails and e-mails. I hurry up, as fast as I can, just to wait. At night, Betsy asks me what I did that day and I don't know what to tell her. I feel like I was busy all day long, but don't have anything tangible to show for it...except an empty tank of gas and a lot fewer minutes on that month's cell phone plan.

I'm not complaining, though. Okay...maybe just a little. But isn't that the point of blogs?

No, being a part of this church plant has been one of the biggest blessings of my life, even if it has, at times, been one of the biggest challenges as well. And truth be told, I do have an office of sorts. The pics below are my new digs...my new office space (a.k.a. the couch in Mark's office). Pretty sweet, huh? By the way, my desk is the one that is a chair.

this land is my land...

Betsy and I went with some friends to Virginia for Thanksgiving. Yesterday we did nothing but a) eat, b) watch football, c) sleep and d) various combinations of all of the above.

To work off some of the turkey, we spent today walking around historic Yorktown. Lots of history, lots of cool buildings, lots of canons. It was very cool.

Betsy was a little annoyed, however, because being in important and historic places gets me all wistful and stuff. I start saying things like, "Hmm. This soil is moist. Moist with the blood of ten thousand revolutionaries slain for the freedom of our children." That really is a direct quote of mine from today.

One time I got lost in the moment, looking out to shore, and when asked what I was thinking, all I could say was, "This is what its all about. You know? Our forefathers. Our heritage."

I don't even know what that means.

This is what Betsy has to put up with, though. I'm sure her eyes are sore from rolling them all day long. But she never lets me see her do it. Yet another reason why I love her.

Tomorrow we are going to Colonial Williamsburg and I can't wait. Pray for her.

story time

Last weekend, while in Naperville, IL, my friend Alan and I ran across a bargain bookstore. It was a little hole in the wall place that, quite frankly, was one of the most unimpressive bargain bookstores I've ever been in. They didn't even have shelves. They just had piles of books on folding tables.

After skimming through the 'Religious' and 'Art' sections, I was ready to leave. But Alan was still making his way through the 'Childrens' section looking for a new pop-up book for his daughter. I was patiently thumbing through a photography book of Las Vegas, killing time, when I heard Alan say, "Bill...check this out."

I was unprepared for what I saw next.

Alan was holding in his hands a thin book with an illustrated picture of a man whose curly head of hair was as black as the night. The title of the book:

"Carman Presents: No More Monsters (A Storybook for Kids)"

We had struck gold. I didn't realize Carman wrote children's books.

There is so much I could tell you about this book. It is based off of his hit song of the same title. The premise is that a 10 year old Carman watches scary movies on TV. When he goes to bed, he gets scared by demons pretending to be the monsters from the movies. Also...a little fun fact...the illustrator's name is no where to be found on the book. I can't imagine why he would want to remain anonymous.

Here is an excerpt:

On TV there's this creepy guy, the Alligator Man.

I watch him while he chases and hunts this peaceful family through the woods with only one thought in mind...

He wants to eat their little kid for lunch!

I got so weirded out I couldn't sleep. Then it happened...an evil spirit floated by my bed.

I got righteously indignant! I was gonna make that demon pay! I could hardly believe the nerve of this little punk demon. I thought, Heyyyy...all right! That's it, you're dead! The anointing came upon me. I chased it out when it heard me say, "Don't want no monsters in my house tonight! Don't want no monsters in my house! You won't get me screamin', you're nothin' but a demon! Its time for you to go now!"

I don't want to be picky, but isn't the thought of an Alligator Man who wants to eat little kids just a tad frightening for a children's book? Also, I'm not sure little kids understand the phrase "righteously indignant". I'm not sure I understand the phrase "righteously indignant".

Either way, this book was an absolute find and I'm sure it will be haunting the dreams of children in my family for generations to come. Thanks Carman.

Here are a few illustrations for all of you to enjoy...

stranger than fiction

Mark has reviewed it. Betsy has too. So let me be the third to tell you...go and see this movie. It is superb; one of the best I've seen in a long time. It is wonderfully written and incredibly well acted. Seriously, go see it.

IMDB (Internet Movie Database) does not yet have quotes for this film and IMSDB (Internet Movie Script Database) doesn't have the script. It just came out this weekend, so I'm not that surprised. But I do want to share with you a couple of my favorite quotes from the movie. So bear with me as they might not be word for word.

Quote number one:

Harold - "Who would choose pancakes over getting to live?"

Professor Hilbert - "Well that depends on the life being lived, and of course the quality of the pancakes."

Quote number two:

Narrator - "Often in life, the significant moments and mundane moments are, to us, indistinguishable."

I love that second quote. Without giving too much away, that is kind of the underlying theme of the movie. It reminded me a little of something that I read recently in N.T. Wright's Simply Christian:

"Think about it. The moment of birth; the moment of death; the joy of love; the discovery of vocation; the onset of life-threatening illness; the overwhelming pain and anger that sometimes sweep us off our feet. At such times the multiple complexities of our human-ness gather together and form one simple great exclamation mark, or (as it may be) one simple great question mark - a shout of joy or a cry of pain, a burst of laughter or a bursting into tears. Suddenly the rich harmony of our genetic package seems to sing in unison, and say, for good or ill, THIS is it."

"Little did he know..." was an important phrase in the life of Harold Crick. The narrator choosing those exact words was a turning point in the movie (I promise I'm not giving anything away). Most moments in our lives seem to us to be trivial or insignificant...so much so that we often overlook them or at least quickly forget them. A simple kiss from your spouse, a friend's laugh, a really good movie. But 'little do we know' that in the big picture, in the actual reality of life...those little moments are working together to bring harmony to the symphony of God's Kingdom. Those little moments are actually big moments. They are significant and they are sacred. They are the make-up of our lives.

So what do you do with this knowledge? Well, cherish those moments. And live a life so full and so abundant that you would always choose it over even the best of pancakes.

live at new city cafe

It has been entirely too long since I last endulged in a bit of self-promotion here on this site (before you say anything, I am aware that blogs in and of themselves are innately self-promotional, but I'm choosing to ignore that fact...just go with me).

With that said...I am going to attempt to tip-toe near the edge of the cliff, telling you just the facts, without faultering and plunging head first into the sea of self-promotion:

Tonight I am going to be in concert at New City Cafe here in Knoxville.

The concert starts at 8:00pm and costs $5.00 at the door.

Okay, I really don't want to slip any further down this slope, so let me give 5 reasons, that have nothing to do with me, why you should get off your hind-end and come to the show tonight...

1) the one and only Heidi Gilson is opening

2) mandolins, violins, accordians, loop tracks...lots of cool instruments

3) with the extra stuff mentioned in #2, there is the increased odds that something or someone will screw up and that always adds a degree of danger

4) Greg "Mr. the Greatest Musician in the World" Adkins (someone actually referred to him as that one time, and I love reminding him of that) is hosting and will be playing with us on a handful of songs.

5) what else are you going to do, go and watch "Santa Clause 3"?

Actually, I wouldn't blame you for going to watch "Santa Clause 3"...that Tim Allen is one funny dude. But you can always go Saturday night. So come on out, if not for me, for yourself. Because I can promise you this much: this will be the most blessed night of music that this world has ever seen, from a man who is closer to the heart of the Lord than any priest or holy man who has ever lived.

Dang it. I was so close.

thoughts on mars hill

After spending last week at the church planting bootcamp known as CPAC assessment, I now know what laboratory mice feel like...and it ain't fun.

But it's over. And that makes me happy a school girl. Exhausted...but happy.

This past Sunday, I attended Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, MI. I was told before hand that 1) the building is hard to find because they aren't into signs, 2) they aren't image driven, thus their building isn't all that cool, and 3) they don't do anything too out of the ordinary as a part of their service.

I took all of that to mean that I should go with relatively low expectations (except for the sermon). So I did. I went expecting very little. Yet even with low expectations, I was still extremely unimpressed. And I really, really liked that.

It was simple...but not 'Mac' simple. 'Mac' simple is hip, still visually appealing, still very much about an image. Mars Hill was just simple.

They were given an old shopping mall as their meeting place. It is big and kinda cool. But they didn't renovate it nearly as much as you'd think. They even had ugly old wood-paneling still on the walls.

The 'Welcome Center'/Cafe area had tables and chairs, but no cool paint on the walls. No signs. No posters. No throw rugs or paintings or light fixtures.

The worship area was an empty warehouse. Boring paint, a simple stage (granted it is a "theatre in the round" set-up). No cool stage lights, just a simple wash. No moving backgrounds for worship, just white words on a black screen. They didn't even use MediaShout or Easy Worship. They use Powerpoint! This is a church of 10,000 and they use Powerpoint. I couldn't believe it.

The music was very good. Quality musicians, quality sound, great songs. And I didn't feel like I was in the presence of rock stars...that was nice.

Rob Bell spoke. It was good. Duh.

And that's it. There's not really anything else to say. It was so much less than what I expected. And because of that, it was so much better.