A Prayer (for the great grandchildren)

The timing of capturing Grandma Marge's prayer could not have been better as I was preparing to teach on Judges 1-2 at Veritas. Judges 2:10 is probably the saddest verse in the Bible... what is worse than the next generation missing God? I used this video as an example for what we hope to be about as a church. There are over 30,000 young people about to converge on Iowa City this week...

God, help us to make it difficult for them to escape your mercy. Give us this kind of passion to pass on authentic faith to all who are to come.

The Plague, Cousins, Advice

We had the plague hit our house a couple weeks ago. If you were to walk onto our back porch, you would be instantly attacked by these little specks you can see on the tape...

They almost completely covered our kids, looking like mud moving up their bodies, biting and embedding themselves in the skin. It was terrible. Under a magnifying glass they looked like baby ticks. But our doctor sent them in and an entomologist at Iowa State concluded that they were bird mites.

Lesson: Never let a bird's nest anywhere on or around your house.

After spraying and getting rid of the nest, the plague cleared right before we welcomed family visiting from the other side of the globe. First time together in 2 years!

The cousins loved meeting each other for the first time...

Makai wears his baseball glove at all times. It comes in handy for such a time as this...

The garden is ripe...

Our connection group went to help out a family in our group clean up from the wind storm that swept across central Iowa and hit their town with 130+ mph WINDS. It looked like a tornado hit Vinton...

What would a blog post be without evidence of kids sabotaging a perfectly good batch of banana bars? Imagine me looking down to see this and then yelling, "JETT??!!!!!!" We then go on to play out the scene from Genesis 3:9-12...

Who knows how long this headless star wars figure has been riding with us? Good thing we didn't rear end anyone. He would've been dead...

I mentioned before the challenge of where to find Rob Bell's new book at Barnes&Noble, but the truly formidable task was finding a home for it on my book shelf. I think I'm happy with my decision...

...Lodged between Idiot's Guide to World Religions and Jesus Under Fire. And yet not too far from church history, as a reminder of the nugget of wisdom my friend David Churchill bequeathed upon me the summer of '98...

"When I was a teenager, I never listened to anyone over 30. Now that I'm over 30, I don't listen to anyone under 300."

Words

This year my blog has been mostly neglected. Here's the pathetic stat... 12 posts in the last 5 months.

For the first time in a LONG time I felt like I had some "creative" space. No visitors, nice back porch weather with a perfectly placed breeze, and a thought provoking book (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln) are the ingredients that led to this epiphany...

I love ideas, and I love the words needed to communicate them.

In fact, that's what inspired the metropuritan blog a few years ago. I started blogging to sharpen my writing skills, share excerpts of my life, and hopefully bring a little encouragement to others on the journey. I'm sure there was a little narcissism mixed in. Me and everyone else with a blog, FB and Twitter account.

As I read on this utopian day, some phrases jumped out at me, renewing my desire to read and write more...

"[Lincoln] read and thoroughly read his books whilst we played. Hence he was above us and became our guide and leader." (a childhood friend's recollection of Lincoln) p. 49

"Books became his academy, his college. The printed word united his mind with the great minds of generations past...It was through literature that he was able to transcend his surroundings. He read and reread the Bible and Aesop's Fables so many times that years later he could recite whole passages and entire stories from memory... With remarkable energy and tenacity he quarried the thoughts and ideas that he wanted to remember...once he obtained paper, he would rewrite it and keep it in a scrapbook so that it could be memorized. Words thus became precious to him, never...to be lightly or indiscriminately used." (p. 51-52)

In Lincoln's own words, in some advice to a law student, he said, "Get the books and read and study them...The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places...Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other thing." (p. 54)

Well, hopefully I've found enough inspiration to churn out a few more than 2.4 blog posts per month for the rest of 2011.

In other news related to "words"...

I got my tweeterfeed updated and therefore these blog posts will be synced to my FB and Twitter (not sure why it ever stopped...). I had to tell the world on FB about this important news and nearly hit "send" when I noticed the "w" missing from "twitterfeed". As a pastor, I could've been fired for a status update with "ti..." Nevermind.

Another word debacle came when Ava kept leaving the "r" out when she was telling me about this new book she was reading, "Little Britches". She had no idea what she was saying, and I was left wondering what kind of books Leatha had put on the kids' summer reading plan.

Speaking of bad words...I'm determined that my kids hear every bad word in the book from my mouth before they hear it on the playground. That's another blog entry for another day...

For now, I'm resolved to get back to the basics... reading and writing.

Errrr...wait a minute... the NBA finals start tomorrow. Shoot. Go Mavs.

Veritas Kids- Thankful Dance!

The apple doesn't fall far from the apple tree... Sorry Arant boys, you got your dance moves from dad.

Untitled from Veritas Church on Vimeo.

Vacation, Naked Barbies, and Sex Talks

It was a long, cold January. And a challenging one for us, so I did what I haven't done in 11 years of marriage...

I took Leatha (without kids!) on a vacation. It was a week of sun, ocean, reading and relaxing. I was working my way through Leviticus and didn't expect it to be the oasis for my soul that it was. Leviticus 25 reminded me that it's my pride that keeps me from not resting. Workaholism is another manifestation of self-reliance and idolatry. God seemed to think there needed to be a rhythm to rest- 1/7 days, 1/7 years, 1/50 years, and a few extended vacation/parties in between.

I almost didn't post anything about our vacation because it's easy for people cooped up their rooms reading this to struggle with jealousy and perhaps get the wrong idea ("Why can't I...?"). At least that's what goes through my mind on occasion. But I went ahead and posted this because I think in general we need to hear that it's not a sign of weakness to rest...
There was something really funny that happened on the trip- you can read about it (click here for iloveshelling.com). There was a popular shelling blogger that stumbled upon me stumbling upon this treasure on my first ever shelling exploration... (Don't get distracted by my muscles- I'm getting ready for a body building competition)
This sums up the last day of our trip, "Awesome...best day of the year"
Here's downtown Chicago from our plane. I was singing Rich Mullins in my mind, "We are not as strong as we think we are."
Last night Troy Nesbitt came to speak to Salt Company in the bar. The topic- "Sex". As always, he did an awesome job. You can find it here (it should be up sometime today on the saltiowacity.com website- click media). I also just finished listening to the brilliant Peter Kreeft on the topic of "Sex in Heaven". This is exercise and worship for the mind. Here's Troy at the Blue Moose...
I guess my kids could've used a sex talk. This is our junk drawer. At least someone colored a (Janet Jackson) bra on Barbie. She's getting ready for a half time show or something.

Troy joined us for our "Elders in Training" meeting this morning. Here's Troy in all his glory at 5:45 a.m. Troy is in a competition with a Cornerstone staff guy to see who will cave first on getting a hair cut. I guess we'll all get an idea of what Samson looked like (minus the muscles)

Here are the elders in training, minus Jeff Allgood and me (L to Rt: Jeff Thune, Aaron Hill, Dave Graber, Eric Bodin, Dale Mullikin, Rod Reinertson) on our first retreat.

Only 16 days between blog posts. I'm getting back on track to my 5x/week pace!

What we've been up to

I haven't posted in awhile, mostly due to a combination of business and laziness.

Here's some of the busyness: keeping up worthless life skills, like getting a skateboard over a ladder.

This was the last nice day of November...

Anthem song writing retreat...
There are some more good worship songs slow cookin' in the studio...
Unsupervised kids.
I put off getting my axle fixed- it broke as I rolled in to the shop. The van asked me to move and I said, "Sorry, my car won't move." They had an open spot, pushed me in and 45 minutes later I was back on the road. Thinking of all the places this could've happened reminds me that God answers the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread..."
The last Salt Company of the semester. A view of the bar from the stage.
Thiessen's gives out free popcorn. They regret it every time they see me rolling in with the five kids. I was there buying bullets, license, etc for hunting. I got skunked, and I'm wondering if hunting just isn't my thing. It's going to take the encouragement of all my redneck friends to keep my head in the game. Stan, you out there?
Makai said there were some big birds in the tree in our backyard. We said, "That's nice Makai" but didn't believe him. He was right- 2 bald Eagles! More of God's goodness to us.
Christmas at Papa Jack and Grandma Linda's. Who knows what the kids will find in the basement?

My life

I'm just checking in with some pictures from the last couple weeks. These are some snapshots into my world...

Anthem was a couple weeks ago in Ames. It rocked. The new CD has some killer songs on it, and it really inspired young people to give Christ all their worship. This picture was from the acoustic set in the middle of Anthem. Mark your calendars for November 17th... the first ever Anthem in Iowa City!

For the first time in 11 years of marriage, Leatha and I have a consistent date night (Thanks to Carrie and Mikaela). This was taken in the Ped Mall in Iowa City- we enjoyed the piano skills of fro-man.
Makai got the Sharpie permanent marker and decided to turn himself into Spider-Man.
The whole crew together...
Cameron, our little artist.
Beck
Reminder from Ava, "No Texting"
Mint in the tape deck, nobs pulled off... who knows what kid did it? Probably Makai, but maybe Jett.
I took our staff to Davenport for a morning of time alone with God. I decided to spend some time walking through the Casino, letting my heart get broken. The crowd was mostly over 60- people who cash their social security checks then waste away in front of the slot machines.
I took the boys hunting for rocks. Ghetto.
Jeff and I had a meeting in Ames about starting a church planting network here in the Midwest. One of the guys attending let us jump in his plane since Iowa City was on his way. It offered some amazing aerial views- the fall colors were beautiful from the sky!
Jeff started a group called the "Gentleman's Academy." The thinking behind it is that most young men are boys with arm pit hair, and there are so many things they need to be taught... how to be gentlemen. So this week, we taught them how to change oil, all while sporting our navy blazers.
We went out with the Thune's the other night and ended up meeting a homeless guy, Willie, who took us to his house- under the bridge.
One interesting thing is that homeless people still tend to be very proud- in this case, Willie didn't want to stay in the homeless shelter because they made him "check in and tell them what he did during the day."
Well, there you have it- a few snapshots into my life for the last couple weeks.

News from Iowa City

Last night Salt Company got bumped from one bar (Blue Moose) to another (Third Base/Fieldhouse). We went in on Tuesday to set up, and it was dark. Literally and Figuratively. This picture was taken with all the lights on. One of the highlights was standing in a circle on this checkered floor, begging God to bring the light of the gospel into this place. We felt like God led us to Matthew 5:13-16, and that He was in this. We ended our prayer time singing "Holy, holy, holy". I got chills when singing the line, "though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see..." How many times has this hymn been sung in a sketchy bar? At least once, now.

Over 150 people packed in, and Jeff did a masterful job with 46 verses in Mark 5. There was a great vibe to the night. You can see Jeff is on a make shift stage, looking down into the checkered dance floor area, with people packed in way to the back.

After Salt last week Spaid and Laugerman decided to stand outside the bar and lead some worship.

After a late night of Salt, I joined some of our freshmen who are meeting EVERY weekday morning for prayer and fellowship at... brace yourself... 5:30 AM. Put this on the list of things to love about college ministry. They will change the world because they don't know any better. Ahhh I love the passion.
Makai got a bunny.
Here's a video we showed last night at Salt. Incredible testimony and great job by Lance, who filmed the whole thing on his iphone 4. Not bad at all. Cale, I love what God has done and continues to do in your life- this was just 6 months ago that you gave your life to Jesus then followed him to Iowa City. Stay on the Psalm 1 path, my friend.

This is my God story - Cale from Veritas Church on Vimeo.

The next few pics chronicle my morning last week (or a couple weeks ago?... it's all a blur) setting up for a typical Sunday morning at Veritas.

5:15 am- Leave my house in the cold rain.

5:33 Arrive 3 minutes late and help load the trailer. The faithful set up crew beat me there, so they had most of it loaded already.

6:00 Carry EVERYTHING (Stages, Sound, Lights, Instruments, Children's Ministry totes...) into the hotel

Empty room. We can do this!

Everyone has a specific job. Like ants, they all go to work.

1:00 pm: Fast forward to the end of the day. It's sunny and the nameless servants (they wouldn't have it any other way) are on the home stretch. All that's left is to head to the office storage unit and unload everything.

I'm humbled to work with such amazing volunteers and humble servants of Christ.