pinakidion.*

The house I rent is for sale. I thought it would be a good thing. My landlord is nice, but I hoped a new landlord would invest more money into the house. The house is 101 years old and is very drafty.

One potential buyer had a professional inspection done. He was quite alarmed at what he found. Liability laws prevented him from telling me exactly what he found, but he was willing to ask the potential buyer if he could tell me.

The potential buyer agreed and I discovered that the furnace was in serious trouble - of the emitting CO2 kind of trouble. The landlord sent an HVAC, but he did not find this crack. I paid to have a different HVAC come and they red-tagged it and shut it down. Last night was chilly in the house despite a high of 65 yesterday. We have offers (yes more than one) to stay with friends until we find a new place to live. Life is good.

My landlord let me out of my lease, and we are quite glad. As my son gets older, we had no way to really secure the house for a toddler. Again, we’re calling folks today for places to stay for up to a week.

My wife is hitting the classifieds pretty hard. Yesterday, an hour after the HVAC left, we were looking at a townhouse built three years ago. Cookie-cutter? Ugh, yes. Garage in front with narrow entryway? UGH,UGH,Yes. Good price? Oh, yes.

I called two apartment places myself that will let us move in today. I guess I’ll be coming to you from a different address in a few days. Now, where did I put all my computer equipment….

I had mentioned the following in a Split of a Split

Chicago International Church of Christ - Jay and Denise Chiappetta.

It seems that Chris Broom is moving from Syracuse to Chicago to ’start’ the Chicago International Christian Church. Folks are coming from Syracuse, Madison, and from a previously unknown ‘International Christian Church’ in Florida. Chris appears to see this church as a base of operations to ‘evangelize’ the Midwest.

Chris also notes that he has asked the leadership of the ICC Chicago Church how the two organizations can peacefully coexist. I do not think that will be a problem. I honestly believe that there will be no reaction or statement made. In three months or so, a carefully crafted response will appear in the Chicago Bulletin or DisciplesToday.com.

In any case, I am begining to believe what Chris says near the end:

To those that will claim we are dividing our fellowship of churches I say, “We’re already divided.” To those who say we are confusing disciples by planting churches in cities where there is already an ICOC church I say, “There is already much confusion because of autonomy. The ICOC churches have splintered.

I hate that we are split, but we are. Some of us want the ‘discipling’ of old, some of us do not: most do not really care one way or the other and just want to trust God. I dunno. It just seems to be that we are reaping what we have sown and that all of this drama is a natural consequence. I want to remain hopeful, but as a whole, we are not interested in working with other members of the Restoration Movement (much less anyone else). ICC Leaders seem to believe that they can deal with Kip and the other ICC. They believe that they can preach return to the glory days, re-engage our original mission, reignite the dreams of old, re-establish our former governance, resume seeking and saving the lost without teaching reform from the past, repent from corporate sin, refuse to lord authority, or remove the yeast of the Pharisees. I have seen the teaching I mention. It is not a panacea - folks still stop attending my church. It does, however, begin to change old ways of thinking. It makes us a safe place to be, even if we still have large problems to overcome. I’ve seen it because outside help (meaning outside the ICC or the other ICC). It really does work.

As far as the other ICC, it will mushroom for awhile. The Kiev International Chrisitian Church started this Sunday as well as the new and reproved Chicago ICC. I really do not know who is next. I would suspect a church in Asia or SE Asia.

I honestly am not sure what to do about Kip, now. It’s too late to preach against him - it was too late in 2004 when he returned to Portland. Ignoring the other ICC will not make them go away. It seems there is nothing we can do except pray. Pray I will.

One recurring problem that the Hesberian Republic faces in administering its eastern lands is that enemies of the Republic are able to use magic for gathering intelligence. At first, when the Republic discovered that magic was used to eavesdrop on a persons’ thoughts, local administrators began sending important messages in Ikan, or using the ancient Hesberian Script, or using another language. The military has a shorthand language used historically to enable all the conquered peoples serving in the infantry to quickly understand orders thought there were as many as 20 languages spoken. However, the problem with using a different language was that the receiver of the message usually needed a translator. The translator was vulnerable to magic eavesdropping, even if the recipient of the message was not. Using the miliatary shorthand language limited what could be said and was not uncommon enough for any real secrecy. The critical weakness, though, was that wizards were usually the ones that knew dead or unused languages better than anyone else. They could use non-magical means and simply intercept the message and read it for themselves.

Ciphers had been in use by the ancient Kings. Most of them were simple subtitutions. The most famous cipher shifted each letter up three positions. The use of ciphers did not seem to help very much. It thwarted to mind-reading magics, but an intercepted message could usually be decoded fairly quickly. One foolish general believed that forcing message to be written in six letter blocks and encoded with the ancient ciphers made his messages invulnerable to magic.

EXWWKD WZDVQR WVXFKD JRRGLG HDDIWH UDOOAA
BUTTHA TWASNO TSUCHA GOODID EAAFTE RALLXX

What evolved was a series of ciphers called the Tigirian Code. A good cipher needed to be simple, but not so simple that it could be easily deciphered by the enemies of the Republic. The first Tigirian Code simply added a letter at the beginning indicating the shift required. If the first letter was F, then all subsequent letters needed to be shifted ‘down’ six letters to decode.

KESTDHZCVPOQZCLHSTWP
KTHISWORKEDFORAWHILE

The Republic began requiring everything to be enciphered using the Tigirian Code. The person that received the message was vulnerable only after decoding. Securing a person, however, was considered to be much easier than securing a message.

More complex variations of the Tigirian Code have been developed. The second code was like the first except that letters were encoded forward ranging from one letter to the number of letters indicated by the code letter. For example, if the first letter was I, the pattern of incrementing letters would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 repeating.

IUJLWBUYSNEHRVFCOQUFVRS
ITHISWORKEDFORAWHILETOO

The final version included a random series of letters at the beginning to indicate how to increment letters. This code was ultimately harder to decipher magically and by philosophers that favored mathematics. However, it was also usually deciphered incorrectly and required quite some time to decode. It worked like this:

If the first part of the message was encoded with a key marked by the first repeated letter. The repeated letter shows the length of the key, the proceeding characters determined the sequence used for encoding. For example, EACDBE, shows that the increment order is five positions long, and would progress as +5 (E),+1 (A),+3(C),+4(D),+2(B). Another example would be a message that begins BDEFJAGICHJ. The key is ten positions long (repeated J) and the sequence would be 2,4,5,6,10,1,7,9,3,8.

There are some administrators, though, do not rely on Hesberian ciphers to send critical messages. They use the Mavinian Traders or the Ganarii to cipher and send messages. One important weakness of any of the Hesberian ciphers is that if a message is sent by magical means, it becomes much easier to break the code. The Ganarii in magical lands use magic, so they understand this principle better than anyone. The Mavinian Traders simply use a cipher that is difficult to break, and so are secure more by accident rather than understanding how to foil magical decoding attempts. (It is true that there are a few traders that use magic, but their understanding of magic is not as structured and mathematical as the Ganarii.)

Awrelius is credited with asking a Ganarii to devise a way to send secret messages resistant to magic. It is unlikely that Awrelius actually commisioned such a thing as magic was still novel and used primarily for warfare during his reign. It is likely, however, than another consul or senator commissioned a code. In fact, it is quite likely that different senators or consuls have independently commisioned such a code - only the Ganarii know of the existence of multiple coding schemes.

It is not known how the Ganarii cipher and decipher secret messages. Some believe that they have a machine that does this, especially as the Ganarii helps construct the Great Mill and other machines. Others believe they use some kind of magical cipher in combination with their complex language. Still others believe that they do not cipher the message at all, but simply transmit the message somehow and the written code is just random numbers.

IKTZXTIVMFQP
GANARIICODES

The Mavinian Traders, of course, use their trademark deck of cards to send secret messages. Watching a trader decode a message looks like he or she is playing solitare. No one has quite figured out how they do it. The one disadvantage of using the Mavinian method is that decoding can take some time. The other disadvantage, as compared to the Ganarii, is that not all traders can be trusted. Then again, they have to know something in order to use a deck of 60 cards with three suits to send messages. They claim that they use a cipher, but since each card has a meaning in their own trading language, no one but the Mavinians themselves know for certain.

Of course, the wizards of the magical lands use diverse means to protect their messages from other wizards. No one, even a wizard, knows if their secrets are safe from other wizards.

I went to see Saint John’s Bible this past weekend. If you do not know, it is a Bible hand copied from the NRSV in calligraphy with pictures called illuminations.

Talk about beautiful, the picture for the creation was wonderful. It was seven columns with each column representing a day. It included a picture of the Ganges river delta from space as well as the use of gold to represent the sabbath.

Psalms was by far the most captivating. Threaded throughout were scores of various Gregorian and eastern chant. I say scores because it was the notes only, not the words. These little golden notes culminated in Psalm 150 written entirely in shining gold ink.

The illumination of John 1 really moved my wife. It was quite striking but I feel like I cannot really describe it. Let me just say it captures the idea of Jesus’ divinity quite well.

If it comes to your town, go see it. It is great.

It is important to me abide by the principles or thoughts I share here as part of my diary.

With that in mind, I went to get professional help with my inability to handle stress well and a lack of an ability to assert myself well. In short, I worry too much and cannot let go. I have been known to literally worry myself sick.

The idea first came up in my Family Dynamics class about five months ago. My wife and I agreed on a way to proceed - we also agreed that if it wasn’t working that I would get outside help. So, last Saturday, I went to visit my doctor and we discussed particulars that would help us to know if we were a good fit for each other. To my relief, we were. We share similar beliefs about using medication (last resort) and the importance of honesty. He is not the visit every week kind of therapist, but someone that works with someone once or twice a month with homework. My homework assignment this time is to get a complete physical.

I feel it is important to share all of this because it is what I think about a lot these days. I enjoy my son and family. I want to learn how to handle important issues in our lives without stressing myself out. Practically, this tends to show up in my infamous aversion to the telephone. It’s moved beyond the normal, “I hate the phone” and screening calls - I do not talk on the phone.

There’s more to it, but I hope to share it as I go along. I believe in the value of outside help and I look forward to how it can help me and my family.

Looking at our history of understanding the Bible, I went looking for what our various authors have said about Bible Study. It’s clear fairly early that there is a difference between the teachings of the former ‘Kingdom Teachers’ and the average evangelists. By and large, I’ll stick with the writings of the Teachers with one notable exception.

Advanced Christian Training
In 1986, the Central London Church of Christ published this book as a tool for training. It covered several topics from counseling to preaching to study to difficult challenges and more. Although not widely distributed, this book offers a look at how the Bible was studies and understood at the time.

There are two short expositions; Romans written by Gordon Ferguson and Ephesians by Tony Coffey. It would appear the Romans starts with great detail in the early part of the article, but ends with an entreaty to study the rest on your own. Tony’s outline of Ephesians is quite practical and avoids telling the reader what they should understand from Ephesians. Both articles are notably deficient in Kingdom jargon. Both spend much time on exegesis - basically providing more detail about the book and what it is saying rather than looking for how it should apply in the lives of the listeners. Both articles are good reads.

Deep Convictions
Before 1992, the only puiblication dealing with the Bible is A.C.T. First Principles taught what a person must believe to be a member of the Internations Churches of Christ. Second Principles was an outline of the Old Testament. In 1992, a book was commissioned to teach the ‘basics’ to young christians. In chapter 13, there is a week devoted to understanding Colossians.

More later.

Alan has posted an article on his site that discusses the conservative Chuch of Christ hermenutic. In short, it is called CENi and it stands for Command, Example, and Necessary Inference. Most people agree on obeying direct commands of the Bible, but the other two present some contention. I had a perfect example yesterday, but cannot find the link. So, here is a different paraphrase:

In Matthew 26:26, we see Jesus breaking the bread for the Passover.

• We are commanded to eat of his body.
• We follow the example in that he reinstituted Passover (which we call communion) for NT Christians.
• By necessary inference, communion most have one loaf of bread that is broken by each participant.

Using this logic, it is therefore a command of God in the Scriptures to perform Communion with only one loaf of bread.

Our hermenutic was quite a bit more pragmatic, mainly because we believed silence in the Bible was inclusive, not exclusive. A working definition I have in mind at this point would be EPSAY:

Example, Pragmatism, Structure, Authority, and Youth.

Using this hermenutic we would take David and Johnathan relationship and make it an example of discipling relationships, make sure that the person in this relationship was in a bible talk with you because you see them most often, confirmed the need for a discipling relationship, demonstrated the authority of the discipler, and much was made of their apparent youth. I knew of several men that pledged this kind of friendship to their discipler every time they switched. (A couple of them even did the grabbing of the other man’s thigh in imitation of Johnathan.)

Before going further, I want to look at our history of understanding the Bible. More in the next article.

Zdras!
One is that our former fearless leader is heading to Kiev, Ukraine on the 26th of this month. Heard a report about it and then read it in Russian. I guess that Steve Johnson will be giving the sermon in two weeks. This would put Churches of Kip on every continent except Australia. Considering that Shawn Wooten, one of the gang of 85, was recently appointed by the European Missions Group to be an ‘evangelist’ there, sounds like he may have his hands full.

Speaking of Working Together
The 12th Annual Great Paperchase has been planned. They key book, by F. LaGard Smith, talks about five levels of fellowship with those professing to be Christians. I have not read it,yet , but I hope to have it read soon. From what I have read so far, I see a lot of similarities between the author and me.

Mr Smith receives tremendous criticism for some of his views, especially from more conservative sections of the Churches of Christ. Lest you believe that he is weak (yes it is in italics) on doctrine, he recently added an appendix criticizing Max Lucado. In case you do not know, Max Lucado takes some heat within the Churches of Christ for his ‘evolving’ view of baptism. Both men have been marked as false teachers.

The reason I mention this at all is the fact that some number of folks from the Churches of Christ and Christian Churches will be in attendance. It’s almost tempting enough to go myself. I mean that seriously. Even if I do not attend, I would encourage others to do so. It is the beginning of something that should have happened years ago.

An Aside (with spleen)
I am beginning to wonder if the former ‘Teacher Group’ is beginning to have Little Man Sydrome. What I mean is the unhealthy perspective that you are perpetually small, ineffective, persecuted, or placed in the role of the underdog. More later…

The Good News Is…
I still encourage people to go - the event will allow for all kinds of connections to be made in a unique setting. It is also a challenge to the status quo of saying that we have brothers in other denominations and actually doing something with them. We need the outside perspective and help. We need to come home and enjoy our family again. Here are folks from other parts of the Restoration Movement that are friendly to us coming to our event. (Why wait until next year? Let’s go to their events this year. I couldn’t make ACU, but the NACC is nice.)

If I decide to go, I’ll let you know about it. I wish it was still a part of the big Evanglical shindig as originally planned, but this is the next best thing. I pray God blesses this effort.

Pegus, the Titan of strong drink, is the central figure in a popular Hesberian cult. Officially outlawed, no one publically claims to participate in the various Pegian festivals. Despite this, thousands attend the events known for drunkeness and inhibition.

Another popular cult, especially among the Mavinian Traders, is the cult of _______. The central figure of this cult is much like a Robin Hood. He gives gifts to all ken that the Gods will not give and/or participates in ‘wealth redistribution’ from the rich to the poor. This Titan’s avatar is usually a simple traveler with nothing but a staff as a weapon.

I had never been to the Lake of the Ozarks. It was beautiful. More beautiful was scoring a room that normally goes at $227/night for $75. Great facilities and views with a unique layout.

I enjoyed seeing things become more Southern as I made my way east and south. I did get unsweetened tea when I ordered “iced tea”, but it had a spoon in it without asking. Alas, no Chik-Fil-A, but good food was not the reason for this getaway.

Just to get it out of the way ahead of time, there were things I did not like:

• Check-In was at 3pm and the conference began at 1pm.
• A very juvenille attitude towards sex.
• The lesson for couples married up to six years was read straight from this book.

I would have listed the sermon, but I only heard the last few minutes. It was so bad, my wife got up and left. She gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, and I do mean everyone. This is the same woman that talked me through the lesson about “having your weekly discipling time with your wife”. In her take on the sermon, she talked about using a bad hermenutic for 2 Corinthians 5 and prooftexting to force an agenda. Had I not known better, I would have thought that I am having a bad influence on her. Since I actually know better, I remember that she knew how to use the words ‘hermenutic’ and ‘exegesis’ properly in a sentence when I met her.

Anyway, the good things are many (sans bullet points and in no particular order). We went away together for the first time since my son was born. We used to do some things in the brief few months before he was born that we stopped doing. We spent more time together *not* talking about issues, but we talked for hours and hours. We saw friends from Kansas City and made a couple of new friends that also disagree with the present administration on domestic policy. We delighted in how we are different. We renewed our committment to have no area ‘out-of-bounds’ for discussion. We spoke to each other in poetry. We walked. We ate in too many resturants. We took a road trip, a bona fide road trip. We discovered areas of our marriage that need more attention like discussing the messages we are sending each other with our non-verbal communication. We laughed a lot. She and I had a discussion on Dira in addition to God, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and a bunch of other things.

Had a great time. Really. Time, greatness: these two words work perfectly together to describe the weekend. The qualities of the past 48 hours were better than good. We’re talking Tony the Tiger, here. Making a comparison of this past Saturday and Sunday to others demonstrates a marked enjoyment of the latest Saturday-Sunday combination.

Dude, it was great.

Our son is being particularly happy today despite the events going on around him.

My house is being purchased and the buyer had an inspection performed before settling on a price. Turns out that we have a gas leak, a cracked furnace, a fried electric wire, and, oh yes, the sewer system cannot handle all the water from our washing machine. Other than that, the house is cold, but pretty much in good shape.

So, I rush home yesterday to comfort my panicked wife, but I decide to stop by the store first.

My car is still at the store, the starter died.

So, I call my friend to come get me from clear across town. He is good for those kind of things. After I get home, I decide to use my other car to get things done - it is dead as well. I guess that is what happens when you do not drive it for months. You just have to love a Cadillac.

Our son’s reaction was to smile at us and demonstrate that he loves us. He really had a lot to say and went to great effort to tell me. He used all kinds of syllables and sounds. He smiled mostly. Sometimes he had this expression I wear sometimes when I am in a concerned mood and trying to explain something difficult to someone else. That’s when he used the most varied sounds.

I wanted to explain it all to him, but I decided it was no use. He was just happy that his mom and dad love him. (And he is beginning to recognize me since cutting off most of my hair.) That is all the important things in his world.

My wife is now happy and playing with him. I played with him this morning and his reaction was the same as always: BIG CHEW TOY! YAY!

I have to laugh at yesterday - my wife says that it is source material for my own version of Pat McManus stories. I’m sure that I will enthrall future generations with some magical realism version of events. In my retelling, I think I’ll have more mechanical ability with gas appliances and automobiles. I’ll also have less money in this story, though I do not know how to pull that off. It’s hard to have less than zero when you do not own a credit card. Maybe I’ll have a gas card with a $50 charge. Still working on that part.

Oddly enough, I began to think that God really is a Republican - all of this started happening two days after I officially registered as a Democrat. I guess I should have known when my name was mispelled despite several edits on my part.

Don’t worry, I know that everything in the universe is not cause and effect in this way. I’m reaping what I sowed in moving into an old house. Cars break down - it could have happened when I was in Missouri this weekend, at least it’s in town. The landlord is sending folks here today to fix things.

Still, it might be worth a call to the Election Board…

Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.

Gene Fowler

Thanks to Andy Flemming, there is some real data on what is happening with support worldwide. Still digesting it, but if the editorial content is disregarded, it seems that Australia and SE Asia are in need of the most help. Australia is not being helped directly by anyone and contributions have dried up from churches that used to support the Pacific Rim World Sector.

More later, but this is the kind of data needed to make some decisions. As the ICoC we can get together and figure out how to help our already existing churches overseas. This would be a great way to get help from various Christian Churches and Churches of Christ.

I’m all for Let’s Start Talking and other ministries, but we do owe our support to our own churches, first. As long as their staff isn’t living an American lifestyle, we should be able to pool together and help out.

More later.

I never realized how little I used to laugh.

I was amused many times. I could claim to be entertained and could even describe certain things as funny. However, outside of a very few comedians or occasional spots on Morning Radio, I never really laughed. (Unfortunately, my area doesn’t have a decent morning show. )

My son, though, has no problem laughing. He enjoys it. My wife and I can be having a discussion about various things and he is in her lap just laughing and giggling. We can be consumed with what each of us is sharing, he just thinks we are connecting funny sounds together. In retrospect, he is probably right as it pertains to me.

Honestly, I have laughed almost every day for the past three weeks. He laughs and squeals and giggles, so I just join in. At first, it’s because I want to encourage him to be happy. After a while, though, I am laughing because I enjoy laughing. I have no problem raising him to believe that we are happier because he is in our family - I would be more concerned if I tried to say that we were as happy before he arrived.

I’ve heard people say that they’ve give all the money in the world for certain things. I feel like I’ve given all the money I had for him - and it was more than worth it. I do not think about the money. When I do, though, I usually do what my son does: I just laugh.

I avoid politics for my own health. I worked for a college newspaper writing editorials - ulcer city.

However, computer stuff raises a few of my hackles every once in a while, so I had to link to a commentary from Distrowatch. Skip down to the part about Google.

*Insert Pause Here*

I used to read Slashdot, but lately everyone has been posting about the lateset Google rumor. This year there have been two separate rumors about Google Linux. The spate of rumors emerging lately entitles Google to its own subdomain on Snopes. (Snopes is the website that debunks/verifies commonly held rumors). On a side note, a comment on Slashdot noted that Google was out to create its own religion. I thought it was hilarious.

On a further tangent of a tangent (yes there’s a term for that), I’m surprised that the Hal Lindseys of the Evangelical world have not declared Google as part of the rise of the Anti-Christ. First it was the Soviet Union, then it was the European Union (10 founding countries, ten horns of the beast…). Google was started with a ten point philosophy, maybe they are the incubator for the anti-Christ. (Fear Google Italy.)

A good quote:

Never confuse movement with action.

Ernest Hemingway

While sitting today, my son heard my voice and turned to look in my general direction. He calmed down in order to focus on me.

Key facts to know are that infants have only about six feet visual acuity and I was fifteen feet away.

My wife pointed out that God appears blurry and with an indeterminate shape to most of us. Yet, she continued, we turn and focus on His voice when we hear it. This voice is calming.

I love my wife.

I’ve been asked when I have time to write. The answer is pretty simple:

1. I do not watch TV or movies very much.
2. I think too much.

TV and Movies
I’m not criticizing anyone who does, it’s a good thing to enjoy a mindless action flick or simply see a great story unfold one chapter at a time. I do watch a show, Crossing Jordan. I’ve been known to watch The Planet’s Funniest Animals. I realize that this is a far cry from my past when I had actually memorized every episode of M*A*S*H* and Law & Order.

I believe that me and J.E. (name withheld) are the ultimate M*A*S*H* trivia champions. We had the distinct pleasure of being unemployed together. I had a ton of time to write then and chose to goof off.

I simply decided what I love to do and did it. In the time that I used to spend in TV, I spend reading or writing.

Brain Cramps
Those that know me have long known that I think too much. I am always trying to figure things out - sometimes it’s a mathematical thing, somtimes it’s a theological thing, sometimes it’s a spiritual thing, and other times, it’s a family thing.

Some people build, I think. Most of the time, I enjoy it. Sometimes, though, it is a real nuisance. Real life likes to intrude upon the platonic world of ideal forms in my mind. As my wife says, it keeps me on my toes.

Now you know. The only two things I can add are that I don’t write at work and I type about 100 words a minute. I usually email a text file to myself and cut-n-paste. On a few occasions, I am waiting for PeopleSoft Global Support, so I have been known to open a text file at work.

I generally type about as fast as I speak, but not without spelling errors. (And grammar issues and omitted words - it’s the dyslexia coming back. Yes, I am midly dyslexic, no stretch.)

A year ago, I wrote 26 questions as a semithought. The list wasn’t composed by me, but it seemed appropriate.

Two years ago, I didn’t even mention it.

Three years ago, I was afraid that my new congregation would throw me out.

When asked, the leaders of the Circle City Church of Christ said that it took them five years to “figure everything out”. We are over halfway there. What have we really changed in three years? I read Honest to God again last night and thought about what is different now.

• The heirarchy is gone. Some people want it back, but it is most definitely gone. The Delphites believe that it somehow exists akin to the Mafia. Oh well, they’re entitled to their opinion.
• The Discipling paradigm was gone, but has come back. It is back to stay.
• KNN Reloaded is less propaganda and more informative. All important issues with it aside, I subscribe because it is informative. It is the only universally agreed upon vehicle of information, except ICOCInfo.
• There are the beginnings of cooperation with others, meaning other denominations besides ours. Dr. Olbrecht has books advertised on DPI. There’s attendance in Abilene, and the ICoC even has four speakers this year. Local ministers are meeting with other ministers within their city and forming relationships.
• Kip has been publicly denounced. His theology hasn’t, but he has.

In the next two years, I hope to see many things. Unfortunately, some of them are too late to happen now, though with God, anything is possible.

• I hope to see our former and present theology repudiated. This means the discipling paradigm repudiates as biblical mandate and demonstrated as a tool. This means a repudiation of “the means justifies the ends”. This means a repudiation of “back to the glory days”. This means a repudiation of growth = spirituality. This means an end to the irrational fear of the internet. This means an end to the idea that we are somehow some special and set apart group to whom God pays particular attention more than other Christian groups. This means a repudiation of the many things that brought us to the point of being torn down in the first place.
• I hope to see an end to using unity to quiet different perspectives.
• I hope to see cooperation with our brothers in the Restoration Movement to help strengthen us and share the Gospel with others. (This is in the next two years. Going outside the Restoration Movement will take a bit longer - sorry Scott and bobber).
• I hope to see us come together and work out a plan to help our sister churches within our denomination without having to be in authority over them.
• I hope to see an end to the American arrogance that we are somehow more spiritual and should be the ones managing affairs worldwide.
• I hope to see Hope Worldwide continue to reform and replace the Gempels as President and Vice President. Replace means that they have nothing to do with the organization except volunteer. Along those lines, I hope for non-ICoC board members by 2009.
• I hope to see the various incarnations of the LA Unity Plan irrevocably defeated. This includes elements of the preliminary proposal of the Unity Group.
• I hope to see an end to my posts lamenting the lack of change in the ICoC.
• I hope to see our groupthink treated by truly outside perspectives. This means outside the ICoC and CoC.
• I hope to see and end to the efforts of some to silence dissent amongst current members of the ICoC.
• I hope to see members talk of real spiritual change and share with a real honesty, not a manufactured American-businees type of honesty.

I hope for a lot of things and I think we are poised to do it, even with our set of current leaders. It is never time to move on, but it is time to do something. I hope that we move ahead and not look backwards. I hope that my fears do not come true.