pinakidion.*

I’ve mentioned that I look for good sermons. I’d like your help in finding good ones.

The speaker is largely unimportant, but I will say that I have a hard time hearing certain speakers that are loud.

Please, no sermons from LA or Chicago. The last one I heard from Chicago about the Power of God has God calling us ungrateful pigs because we do not appreciate how much he shields us. 1 Peter 1:5 doesn’t quite convey that to me according to various commentaries I have. The speaker is from LA, so I don’t expect much from either place. Don’t believe me, 40:19 on the recording.

It doesn’t have to be CoC or even Restoration Movement. I grew up with great Baptist preachers and my favorite preacher used to work for Pat Robertson. It also doesn’t have to be an audio file. I’ve read a lot of Puritan sermons, my favorite being Boniface.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If this works, then this is the new Anthem for 2006.

I am not always very coherent these days. I’ve spent the last three fighting a cold. My wife is nursing our first and pregnant with our second - ergo Dad does a lot of work at home. As such, I feel the need to clarify some things I’ve written that didn’t match the idea in my mind when I wrote them.

The Pregnancy
Our first child was unintentional. Only the first child was unintentional. Our original plan was to wait until 2007 to have children, save money and travel in the meantime.

Our revised plan, after having the first child, was to have the second as soon as possible. The second child was planned. We totally planned to be pregnant this year with the second child. What was unexpected was how quickly she got pregnant once we started trying.

I don’t give names for myself, wife, or kids. I usually mention names in audio segments, though. Basically I do not want someone to Google my name and arrive here. I know that makes references confusing sometimes, even to me.

Hawaii
What the response of the folks from Oahu and even LA has been to Kip’s takeover bid is largely wonderful. It’s true I think these things should have been said years ago, but the fact it is being said at all is wonderful. I am greatly encouraged by how Oahu is handling a difficult situation. I hope the rest of us follow suit and learn from how they are dealing with the struggle. I intended to mention some further refinements without bashing the folks there. Having dealt with many, many similar situations, the last thing they need is ‘advice’. It is good that folks there are beginning to see the good that God has created in them. I firmly believe that when God writes his laws on our hearts, part of the intention is to be able to look inward and see good things, not just evil.

Unity Proposal
I really am trying to get away from it.

Portal Sites and Semithoughts
Unlike here, I usually don’t post raw thoughts on the other sites. I would have a window of Flock open all day long if I did that. My boss does expect me to get work done. However, it doesn’t keep me from writing at night or in the early morning. I have a bunch of scrap paper and Open Office document fragments all over three computers with various ideas. When I get my next weekend retreat to write, I hope to post all of it.

Dialogue with Edgar
Edgar is not a real person. The ‘I’ in the story is not me. This is a dialogue format similar to ‘Dialogue wit Trypho’. I’m using this vehicle to work out my own understanding of what is going on around me. Edgar represents many I have written to from high-up leaders to regular joes like me. Ian represents others, not just me, that struggle with various tensions about our involvement with the ICOC.

The big question is always, Why do you still go if what is going on bothers you so much? I do not accept the answer of I stay because of the relationships, though I know many that do. Some of us hold on because of sheer stubbornness. Why not? Some of us suffered abuse for 10, 15, 20 years, what’s another 10 at this point? The old expression Better the devil you know that the one you don’t is all too true in these cases. Some of us really cannot overcome the fear of ‘another church’ and all the anxieties that come with it. Not only is it new people, but it’s a new dynamic and hermenutic. The other church isn’t the Bogeyman, but that’s another series of posts entirely. Others still just do not know what to do and hover in stasis. I’ve been that way, so I understand the feeling that the entire world is in flux and that it would be nice if there was just a couple of stable things to lean on.

Back to the point, Edgar is going to address an issue that is brought up by conservatives in the ICoC. The issue is that people who are hurting over how things are going are 99% of the time, not reading their Bible. I believe the intent is to say that those with problems are not getting anything from their Bible Study. The underlying assumption is that if they were strong in their relationship with God, they wouldn’t have these issues. This assumption leads to another supposition that God’s spirit is talking to me through the Bible and I do not have issues. That leads to a conclusion that if the same Spirit speaks to you through God’s Word that speaks to me, you shouldn’t have any issues either.

Ian’s answer at this point will reflect some of my own struggles as of late, namely that I do not ‘get anything’ from my Bible Study recently. Every time I read, I hear old paradigms that I believe are wrong. When this happens everyday for several weeks, it gets difficult to want to read at all. I do read, but I can’t say that I ‘get’ much from it. At this point, I rely on non-ICoC sermons I can find on the internet, or sermons from our new minister. I can’t read the Gospel of Mark without thinking “Disciples obey immediately” and the implication often preached “Disciples follow without thinking about it, first”. I read Hebrews and keep redefining who the ‘circmcision’ group is in my life and hearing that missing one church meeting is a cardinal sin. I bailed out of Ephesians when I could not separate unity as mentioned in Ephesians and the UP mentioned by the Nine. Other bad associations follow like:Titus and Timothy is about raising up young evangelists. Revelation is a motivation to work harder for time is short. The prophets are the radical examples of how to live NT life. Exodus is the only definitive work that describes God, Nehemiah and Ezra are about building up the Kingdom. The list goes on. So far, only the Psalms, Ecclesiates, and some Proverbs feel safe, but even that has the association that those are the books that only weak people read. As such, it is difficult to see myself as weak in a godly sense (I can do nothing without God) as opposed to weak in a wordly sense (I am nothing and should do nothing until I feel better). The former says that nothing is impossible with God, the latter says nothing is possible even with God.

How this relates to the dialogue is that some critics are weak. Even if they are weak according to the horrible way the ICoC defined weak over the years, that weakness is not justification for dismissing the problems they see. I struggle to see God, others do, too. We’ve had enough pushing aside the weak because they interfere with the so-called Mission. Now we’re pushing aside ‘the weak’ because they interfere with so-called Unity. This is not right.

Other Bits
Acutally, that’s about it. As always, I don’t delete comments and I usually leave things I’ve written and make edits pretty obvious. (Ergo, this post.)

By now, I’m sure those that care already know about Kip’s grab for Hilo and Honolulu. I also imagine that some have heard the other side of the story from Oahu. It’s the eighties all over again with the reconstructions and ‘calling out’ of the truly dedicated from the lukewarm.

Hearing Oahu’s side of it, I was struck by the humility of one speaker and how he talked about healing. Sure there have been apologies, but there needs to be healing for what was done to the churches in Hawaii (and worldwide for that matter). As he spoke about being able to see good in himself and others, I was encouraged. It seems that the folks over there are in good hands.

However, it does strike me that it took listening to Kip in person in Hilo to figure out what Kip was doing there. He read the letter from the 85 to Kip written almost two years ago to the congregation, but where was this letter last week? It feels weird to say that they have done well for being two years late. We all should have been talking about Kip and worked through that and done so publically. Waiting until he arrives is far too late - it makes it look like its about him and not his doctrine.

Is Kip a threat? Long term, no. In the short term, however, there is a desire by some to ‘be allowed’ to be zealous. A masquerador, like Kip, can come in and manipulate that desire. Our brothers and sisters that desire to ‘be radical’, however grating it may be to me, need to be loved and accepted as well. In this regard, it’s good to talk about Kip and what he represents, especially as some think that his mission, purpose, and zeal are good despite his bad doctrine and lack of repentance.

There was also a part of the recordings that mentioned the UP. I don’t believe that it was an intentional promotional plug, but it does bother me. Unity won the day, but not because of the agreement. Did the relationships grow fond overnight after signing or were they there because of 10+ years of relationship? I believe the latter is true, the first speaker (I forget the name) being baptized by one of the folks from LA. Everyone else involved seemed to be a part of the mission team in the 80s. I don’t think the UP brought them together to deal with Kip, I think their long history together did. I would hate to think that no one would help Chattenoga, if the same thing were happening to them.

All in all, I pray for the folks there, like I pray for the folks in Wichita and elsewhere. I hope folks can come together, not in fear, but in recognition of the need of each other. This does not excuse the need for help outside the Church of Christ paradigm, but it goes a long way to keep people together for reasons other than some artificially created zeal over saving the world in six years. I really hope that the good of what was said is indeed true.

Introduction
I was in Chicago flying east. I had hoped to see family soon, but stuck at Midway with a very long layover, I made the best of things making a phone call. Talking to someone, I mentioned my email address, which happens to contain the name of the church I attend in it. I finished up the call and began thought of lunch when I noticed a man standing nearby. When I saw him, he said, “Hey Brother, how are you doing?” and he came close so that we could embrace.

“I am well,” I said, “but forgive me as I do not remember you at the moment.”

“You may not know me at all, but I recognized the name of the church you mentioned on your phone call. Forgive me if that seems rude, but I couldn’t help but overhear. My name is Edgar, by the way, I’m actually heading to the big conference, but my flight doesn’t leave for some time.”

“Neither does mine,” I said, “so let’s talk for awhile over lunch. My name is Ian.”

“Lunch would be awesome, Ian,” said Edgar.

Talk of the Conference, Edgar defines Unity
Edgar began by sharing his excitement about the conference. “The conference will be inspiring,” he said, “because of the unity that it will build. Do you know who you’re roommate is?”

“I’m not going to the conference,” I said, “I’m going home to see family.”

“Oh, okay. I bet you’re disappointed to miss the conference, though. It’ll be great to see thousands of disciples singing together again.”

“I’m not disappointed,” I said, “but I hope you and everyone else has a good time. I admit that it would be great to hear over a thousands people singing together. I’ve always enjoyed that. But I assume there will be other conferences I can attend. To be honest, some of the classes don’t sound very interesting, but maybe that’s just me. I’m excited about seeing my family as I haven’t seen them in a couple years.”

“Well, Ian,” he replied, “I guess I understand where you’re coming from. I’m just excited to see the church get back to what is important and come together in unity. We haven’t done well in keeping about our purpose or about being unified over these past few years. It just means a lot that people can look past debateable issues and come together for what’s truly important.”

“What do you think is truly important?” I asked.

“Unity,” said Edgar, “Without unity, the rest doesn’t really matter, except for matters of salvation of course. I mean, we have to be unified on more than just the fundamentals. We need to work together as one man to contend for the Gospel of Jesus.”

“I’m not trying to be cagey, but you’ve said something interesting, especially the part where contending for the Gospel as one man is mentioned,” I said. “What exactly is unity to you?”

“Unity is loving your brother, first and foremost,” Edgar said, “Loving God is the greatest commandment, but the best way to show it is loving your brothers and sisters. Loving your brothers and sisters means working out whatever divides you from them. If I am not loving my roommate, a fellow disciple, I need to get together with him and work things out until we are unified again.”

My wife is expecting with our second child.

I abhor secrets and I am terrible at keeping them. Sitting on this for weeks has been well-nigh difficult. I think everyone knows anyway, but just in case we’re going to tell everyone Sunday. I’m telling my family in a few hours later today, so if you know them, please wait a few minutes more.

In any case, this one was planned (not that I love our son less because he wasn’t) although we were only trying for two weeks when she got pregnant.

This, of course, means that our son will have a sibling only about 17 months younger then him. Unlike Archie Manning, I’ll only have to wait *one* year for our second son to be drafted by the NFL.

But I’m ahead of myself. I’m talking about our second child, not our retirement plan.

We won’t know the gender until birth. I’ll be happy no matter what, but I hope for a girl.

Needed a place to write this down, but the desk is covered with work-related stuff.

Nebr. State Christian Convention

The 2006 Nebraska State Christian Convention will be November 3rd and 4th at the Ramada Inn in Kearney. This year’s theme, Jesus-Centered Life, will feature inspiring main sessions with Bob Russell, former senior minister at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky; uplifting praise and worship, led by Ron Leach, Director of Worship Arts at Nebr. Christian College; adult workshops; children’s programming; and junior high events.

Registration fees are $5 for children, K-6th grade; youth $10; adults $20. Senior high youth are welcome, but are encouraged to attend Turning Point at Nebraska Christian College the same weekend. Registration may be sent to NSCC, c/o Lydia Shaw, 1200 N. 13th St., Norfolk, NE 68701

Special convention pricing for rooms at Ramada Inn is $59 per night, available November 2, 3, 4, and 5.

As a Homestar Runner fan, I consider it important to impart a sense of fashion chic to the rest of the world. I know, I know, everyone wants to be a fashion template like me, but …

Okay, you can stop laughing. That milk through the nose looked like it stung a bit.

In any case, I own this very cool and eye-catching t-shirt:

(Trogdor the Burninator Black Tee, with Majesty)

I hope to purchase this matching shirt for my son:

(Baby Trogdor with High Cuteness Factor)

However, it is important to point out that the following shirt, while also cool, is not the same as the first shirt I mentioned:

Snakes On a Plane

Here endth the lesson.

The UP group has spoken.

And all I could think was, “Resistance is futile, you will become assimilated.”

Mid-summer vacations, distance, translations, internal challenges and other complications have slowed the pace of affirmations. However, we believe more churches will agree with and commit to the plan in the next couple of months.

We will continue to make every effort to reach out to the congregations that have not affirmed the Plan for United Cooperation, and we pray they will cooperate.

Cooperation provides regular, faithful encouragement from sister congregations (especially within a region) helping to protect congregations from heresy, lukewarmness, and fruitlessness.

Quotes from the article

On another topic, I’m glad that they recognize some issues with regional representation.

God has an ability to work in the darkest moments. I don’t think it’s overdramatic to say that this is a very dark moment for the churches that formerly made up the ICOC. Those that were in charge before are going to put themselves back in charge again. The positions stated are just as extreme as ever, though buried in the gooey sweetness of political correctness. In a time when more and more people see less value in demoninational distinctiveness, we push harder and harder to codify our distinctives. In the end, we’ll have the same leaders, the same plan, with the same doctrine and the same message. Is it no surprise that we will acheive the same result?

I start the day at work with a browser open to my personalized Google home page. In the top-right corner, I see the weather for four cities I care about.

Fun, eh?

Saturday doesn’t appear, but we went from 89 to 55 while keeping 70% humidity. That is some cold air moving through.

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.

1 Peter 4:7

I’ve thought a lot about resolving conflict lately. My wife and I have worked through some recently and I am continuing to work through conflict with church. At the center of each conflict are two sides that are unwilling to change. At that point, the options are compromise, tolerate, or accept. A compromise attempts to make both parties ‘happy’. Toleration means that each party will allow the other party to hold their position, even if they do not like it. Accepting means seeing the other parties persepctive as valid. Not valid for them, but valid for anyone.

Another aspect of conflict is the emotional energy spent. It amazes me that so many of us believe that humans are rational creatures and that being rational will ultimately solve conflict. We’re not. Conflict ends much sooner when the emotional aspect of the conflict is worked through. Sure you can keep yourself from being controlled by your emotions, but you’re feeling them during the conflict. I’m not talking about losing control of your emotions during a conflict. I’m simply saying that conflict generates emotions and those emotions must be taken into consideration to work through the conflict completely.

(gap here)

In a conflict, I ask myself, ‘why?’ I want to know if I’m just not giving in to the other side because I’m upset or because I really believe what I’m saying. I try to form a sentence, I’m not seeing your perepctive because…

To the members of the Unity Committee:

Composing a list of concerns for an entire church, even a small one of barely 100, is a daunting task. The only consensus that can be suggested is an ambivalence to the proposal and a focus on local concerns. In asking various members about their thoughts, it became clear that there are members that have little concern with the Unity Proposal as written. It would be unfair to them to present a list of concerns without presenting their list of accolades for the Unity Proposal. In short, it does not appear that there is one list of concerns or one list of accolades that can be written to represent the Omaha Church of Christ. In lieu of this, this document will attempt to express the range of concerns and accolades expressed by members and former members of our church in response to the Unity Proposal. Read more…

but it might save you.

How to dissaude yourself from creating a Blog.

I had this great idea - let’s take the new minister to a movie. It will be great. I’m not much of a movie guy, but it’ll be fun.

You’ve seen Invincible? And World Trade Center? Okay, let’s go see Hollywoodland. It’s supposed to be kind of like LA Confidential. Could be fun…

For those that do not get the joke, you must realize that Hollywoodland has zero redeeming value. ZERO. There is no way to pull a good thing out of this movie. No, the ending doesn’t even come close, though it is the most positive part of the movie. Ugh! Over 2 hours of continuing misery that just leaves you feeling grimy. Seriously, this movie starts depressing and sinks into some worse-than-life cesspool of 50s era Hollywood gone awful. I think Holywood is sleazy and depraved in places, but really.

So let me tell you what I really think about this movie.

The minister was good about it, though I felt really badly.

The talk we had afterwards, though, was encouraging to say the least. I think I had just wanted to thank him for the sermon on Sunday and thank him for the ILC 2003 in Dallas. The first I enjoyed as probably the best thing I’ve heard from a pulpit in quite a long time. The latter because it gave me an opportunity to talk to some people that I really needed to talk to, thus starting my journey to make sense of my ICoC experience.

After that, we talked about family and some common church experiences. We shared about a lot of things, really. I had expressed a real interest in going to Abilene for the conference, but I cannot afford to go. He offered to let me room with him. Maybe we can go to another conference in the near future, he said later. We talked about some things that have happened, but also just about what it means to be here in this city and part of this congregation.

I left feeling very encouraged. Not because I was heard on some crucial issue, my windmills are obvious to most everyone, but because I had to have a good conversation with a minister. I wanted to have a conversation with the right amount of spirit, frankness, levity, and divulging to build respect for someone concerned about the spiritual health of the church I attend.

Like I told him, it’s just good to have a good story every once in a while.

Over 70% sign

They list 324 churches, about 30 that do not exist on the church locator. They should publish the list of churches that they are using because verifying their numbers is almost impossible. In my attempt to do so, I cannot match the Church Locator exactly, or even all the churches that are undecided. For statistical purposes, however, it only affects my numbers by less than 2% plus or minus.

Aside from that, the percentage of CHURCHES signing is now 56%, regardless of whether or not you count Kip’s churches. I still find the ‘members signing’ grandstanding distasteful at best, manipulative at worst.

It’s one of those things that can slip the mind on days like today.

• 168 People Killed
• 19 Children Killed
• 1 Rescuer Killed (Rebecca Anderson)
• 850 People Injured
• 30 Children Orphaned
• 219 Children Lost at Least One Parent
• 462 People Left Homeless
• 7,000 People Left Without a Workplace
• 19% of the population in the city attended funerals for bombing victims

Where was I on April 19, 1995? I was sweating out one last final before finally graduating from college. It was Shakespeare, whom I loved, but having a class at 8am, I was in danger of not getting the ‘C’ I needed to pass.

I was wistful about the future as the King of Bagwell Dormitory. I was about to put aside the crown. I thought about joining the real world and about a woman I was in love with at the time. I thought about visiting home for the summer.

I was also dealing with the excrutriating pain from my busted ankle. I had a temporary handicap sticker and I enjoyed being able to leave my dorm 10 minutes before an exam and still make the exam on time.

While I was pretending to study, I heard that some alien landscape had been hit by a terrorist. It was the first time I remembering hearing that word - it wasn’t until years later I thought about what that really meant. I wondered who would attack a building in Oaklahoma City. It was a federal building, according to the news, but no one was really certain of its signifigance.

I wasn’t scared much until they found McVeigh and his accomplices. I thought, “This guy looks totally normal.” and it made me shudder a bit that I expected someone grotesque. McVeigh is grotesque, but his appearance is not. I guess I wanted his outer appearance to match the crime.

Over time, I went back to my normal life and didn’t think much of it until the Unabomber became media-popular some years later. I do not believe I respect their memories less because I have chosen life and continue to pursue it. I did not know any of them, but if I were one of them, I would want people to grieve for a time and then choose life and get about theirs.

Five years ago, I watched in horror as the second plane struck the other tower on live TV. I ran to my computer and tried to identify the one plane reporters said was still in the air. Minutes before it was announced, I found Flight 93 and watched the blip on my screen that corresponded to its approximate location. When it disappeared, I marveled at why the hijackers decided to attack a field in Pennsylvania. (I know it’s weird, but I really thought that.)

I felt numb for three days afterwards. I wrote a poem about it three months later that is now lost.

Today it appears that the events of five years ago are being used to launch a presidential bid, validate a flagging presidental term, and to point out many presidential errors. The entire country appears poised to remember a pivotal moment in time…

and yet it all feels artifically generated to me. Certainly the families and friends of victims are still suffering genuine loss and will continue to do so. It’s not them, at all. It’s the news coverage and the presidential speech and the cynics saying that it is great that Monday Night football has moved to ESPN because the president cannot interrupt the broadcast. (Irony of ironies, the first game is near Washington, DC!) It’s the coverage of Gov. Pataki and an attempt to paint him as a political opportunist. It’s seeing the videos show over and over and the Discovery Channel dissecting the crashes detail by detail.

Is it me or have we forgotten the people while remembering the event?

Don’t normally post links to good sermons, but this one was just too good to me. I’m subjective, I know, but it’s only 21 minutes long. (Good and short!)

Fools for Christ

Need a sermon that is not so good? Sure, just for old time’s sake.
Jesus Church

Sycarion:
Playtested a game called Tactique or Tactical March. It is similar to Stratego(R), but based more on Chinese Chess. Thanks to tool for the Duct Tape pieces. The game is modular with six different sets of ‘add-on’ rules to make the game more challenging (and longer). For example, you could play with rankless pieces and use dice to resolve the winner. You could have different attack/defense numbers. You could have a different sized board (or a hexagon board). You could have all three. More details forthcoming.

Also provided a draft of Greed, akin to Monopoly(R). Not tested, may be discarded.

Also also provided a Geography of Lenga. Some browsers may not display the name of the third country correctly. It is Il-Zehar (spelled eye-ell dash zee-e-aich-ay-ar). The Ogdan have been renamed the Gruyet (groo-YAY), but the change has not been made to the website.

Work continues on Lenga, but it is slow due to other considerations I cannot post about. It is also why I have posted little here.

Prairiecomber:
Power to the People serial stalled as the details of the exploit mentioned became problematic to explain or even make reference to. The story wasn’t going to focus on the technical aspects of the crime, but on the central relationship. However, the premise of the hack only works if I don’t explain it - I am not a network guy.

I figure the serials would do that from time to time, I just want to writing exercise.

Another story set in Lenga called Barat is in draft form - it is a story of how a young spellcaster discovers himself.

Also, the theme presented problems in some browsers, so it has been changed.

pinakidion.*
A couple of My Life posts, more on the Unity Proposal, communion, and good teaching from the new minister. Not a bad month, even if I say so myself.

The forum idea didn’t take off, so I’ll probably take them off. Besides, I miss my old permalink structure.

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

- W. Somerset Maugham

Here is the communion I gave on August 27th.

Signs.mp3