pinakidion.*

1. Boil water on the stove
2. Add boiling water to 1 gallon plastic decanter.
3. Add two family size teabags to steep. (Steeping time varies, I usually have 30 mins.)
4. Place plastic decanter in -25 degree windchills.
5. Wait 25 minutes, your iced tea will be created as one large ice cube. (Or should I say tea cube.)

Tune in next time for more Fun With Wind Chill…

In other news, I’ve been writing about Lenga these days. Sure, I could mention that a certain someone now has their own website. This is, of course, not to be confused with kipmckean.com.

I could mention that Brian Felushunko now has a blogger account. Brian is the evangelist of the Vancouver Church. I know because of DisciplesToday. I am happy that DToday produced a news item about a non-UP church.

What I will mention, with its own post eventually, is that the church I attend has been invited to join the evening worship service of another CoC in town. At the end of Feb, we will be going to the so-called “black” church of Christ in town to worship together. I am greatly encouraged by this development and I hope it leads to more such events.

Hiatus will end shortly. I’m teaching a class in March and I’ll post the notes. See you soon.

I’m driving home from a department store earlier tonight when I notice a woman on the sidewalk just ahead of me. I’m thinking about going to midweek tonight and trying to get home in time for dinner with the family before leaving. I’m also thinking about being on time and not being late.

It’s then that I notice that she is having a seizure. Not a small one, a grand mal seizure of the kind my niece used to have.

You know that for the briefest of moments, I actually thought that if I continued home that someone else would take care of this woman.

As it turns out, while I was running inside the store to get them to call 911, another woman did come to her aid. When I ran back out, the seizure was over and the two women were talking. Fortunately, the EMT’s arrived less than a minute later. This woman had been seizure for at least 2 minutes and she was lying on snow and ice two feet from one of the busiest streets in the area.

God is indeed gracious to all of us. I’ll gladly suffer bronchitis knowing that this woman is now okay. I am truly grateful for the other woman, whom I met briefly, for being there. As far as I know, the woman is doing okay.

It looks like the conference mentioned in a previous post will be happening this summer.

On August 4, 2007, the Unity Summit will commence here in town.

The tentative itinerary features speakers from the ICoC, Churches of Christ, Independent Christian Churches, and Black Churches of Christ (sic). Topics for the summit include, but are not limited to, church history, preaching and mission work. The goal is to have messages and discussion on every topic from each of the four perspectives.

Some speakers have already agreed to come. As the title suggests, sometimes you just need to ask.

August was chosen because it is between the Summer Session and Fall Session for speakers that teach in a college or university.

Keep praying as we hope to fill out all topics with speakers from all four perspectives. A lot of work remains to be done, but folks at the church I attend are committed to seeing this happen.

This is cold. Keep in mind this is after the sun came up.

Kurt, I know you hate it when I do this, but seriously, dude. This is not fun.

When I think about coming together with other Christians, my thoughts usually make their way to a basic question. That question is, “How far are you willing to go with this thing?”

I was excited to hear that the church I attend may have a joint service with another church in town. That’s right, two groups worshiping together as one. Considering the history of the city I live in, what makes it more striking is that this church is a ‘black church of Christ’(sic). (I say sic because it’s a strange and outdated term to me.)

If I were them, I would have been a lot more skeptical of us. I would have been someone saying, ‘what do they really want.’ I’m not sure that I would have been readily trusting and that speaks to my own heart, unfortunately. The fact that they are considering a joint service demonstrates to me how hungry people are for coming together in Christ. To allow a ‘Crossroads’ church to come in is a really big deal.

Maybe I’ll meet my counterpart asking me if I really care about unity or if I’m doing this for my own self-serving reasons. I’d really like that.

I read Psalm 133 and wonder what it looks like. I believe it looks a lot like a worship service where we all come together to honor God. This isn’t the answer to the question, “how far..” but it is a step closer to that answer. I pray that this will work out and that God will be honored.

In finalizing Takteek, mrtool and I had an idea to use dice to determine the outcome. Basically, there would be one die for each rank. If a 3 attacks a 2, 3 six-sided would be rolled by the attacker and 2 six-sided dice would be rolled by the defender.

The idea is a sound one that I hope we get to test tonight.

However, I thought that it made sense to give the defending piece a small advantage. The reason being that in many pre-modern battles, a weaker force could defend against a much stronger force. One extreme example comes from Rome’s conquest of Britain. In one battle, the Romans were outnumbered 10 to 1, yet emerged victorious.

One idea was giving the defender an additional die. Another idea was giving the defender eight-sided dice to use. I compared these two scenarios with the default rules using an attack by a 2 piece on another 2 piece.

Under normal rules, the attacking piece will win outright 44.3673 % of the time, tie 11.2654% of the time and lose outright 44.3673% of the time. In English, both pieces have an equal chance of winning or losing (where a tie is considered losing because both pieces are demoted).

Adding a die to the defender, the attacking piece will win outright 15.2006 % of the time, tie 6.9444 % of the time and lose outright 77.8549 % of the time. In English, the defending piece has a huge advantage.

Allowing the defender to use eight-sided dice, the attacking piece will win outright 27.5608 % of the time, tie 8.5069 % of the time and lose outright 63.9323 % of the time. In English, the defending piece has a big advantage.

Thinking about this, I would lean more towards the eight-sided dice option, but the advantage still seems pretty large. It makes attacking with pieces with a rank of two almost useless. If you have a piece that has little more than a 1 in 4 chance of winning, presuming it attacks a piece with a rank of 2 is pretty dismal. Then again, they would serve as useful scouts, finding out the rank of the opposing piece.

Adding another die to the defender is definitely out. That’s just too much of an advantage.

In a perfect world, I think the defender should use seven-sided dice. The advantages are smaller, but still significant enough. However, I don’t have the money to purchase seven-sided dice at 5$ each. Besides, the goal is commonly available materials. Eight-sided dice are not as common as regular dice, but not very hard to get (and they tend to be inexpensive if you forgo the 733t dice used by role playing gamers).

Anywho, just a post to let everyone know that Takteek is not dead.

Blogged with Flock

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
- Flannery O’Connor

Sometime ago, I had contacted a CoC minister and asked for help in building a good adult education ministry. He gave me some good advice and I appreciated that. He and our minister at the time met together and had a good talk.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go anywhere. I stopped writing. The two times I came to visit his church, he wasn’t there. I regretted that, and I wrote to him recently saying as much.

Earlier this week I also mentioned to him that the current minister is very interested in other churches in the area. I provided our minister’s contact information and emailed both people. I hoped something would come of it.

I did not get an email back, but he did post this message on his blog. BTW, I also passed along Alan’s blog and Doug’s blog.

As far as other efforts in unity, there has been talk about working with a COGIC, a CoC, a ‘black CoC’, an Independent Christian Church, and a Vineyard church on various things.

The COGIC is for community involvement. I went to a sponsored dinner various church leaders held over a year ago and met all kinds of people doing real good for the community. The RM churches are for conversations and more. The Vineyard church is because we rented the same building for years. In fact, they still let us use their new building for free and one of our deacons has a key. We’ve had a wedding or two there. (We’ve also had a wedding at the CoC I mentioned earlier.)

You Ready for Some Football?
More concretely, me and another guy are hoping to promote unity and save our football league at the same time. We’ve started now contacting other churches and trying to put a league together. The good news is that we have an extra $50 for referees for the league next year. At $15 a person and eight church teams, we could even get new uniforms. Of course, there have to be changes in the football league, but that is easily overcome. The challenge will be whether or not enough people participate.

To provide some background, what usually happens is that we have members + a team of college students. Over the past few years, fewer and fewer people participate because of flare ups and disagreements on the field. It got really ugly this year with disagreements and with certain issues raised by non-members. I, myself, walked off the field during the first game.

So there’s no guarantee that this will work. However, I do know that it can be a least interesting to others, if we are organized well-enough. The 2007 season may not have eight teams, but if there are four, I think it will be worthwhile. Maybe by 2010 we can realize a league that invites others to join.

One can hope.

Okay, I finally finally figured out what is going on with me.

It turns out that I am allergic to just about everything except food. Everything means dust mites, dog dander, cat dander (I have a cat), cockroaches, molds, grass (except Kentucky Fescue), etc. You name it, I am probably allergic to it.

Congestion + CPAP machine = No Sleep. No Sleep means declining health. Declining health means other bad things.

Ugh.

So, now I have a prescription for the allergy symptoms and wonder of wonders, I feel much better. Three nights of sleep in a row. I have energy, again. Yay!

Our son, BTW, made a full recovery. He is back to his playful self. Of course, he is a hairbreadth away from walking (IE sprinting), so the fun has just begun.

My wife, though, is beginning to feel the third trimester. The first trimester was really scary and it was a big deal. This is less of a big deal, but serious enough to get checked out. Considering how absolutely cold it is now, I’m not surprised she’s feeling off.

More later, just felt the need to tell everyone that, like everyone else that moves here, I have developed several allergies I didn’t have before.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I’ve heard about Syracuse. It is actually one place where I don’t know anyone (though I have a friend in MN that knows someone a part of the iCoke there.)

As I wrote somewhere else, is Bruce Williams going to fly up there and tell them that no one can sign the UP? (It’s near the bottom of the page entitled The Syracuse Story.)

Yes, I’ve heard about Northern Virginia where I did know folks, including one of the sweetest women I ever knew. I visited her and some friends a few years ago. I was trying to get her to marry my buddy Neil. Guy who leads the south wanted to take over, so now he is. There’s a lot of conjecture that I’ll keep that to myself. I want to be able to be unified with someone that thinks that we need to move back toward some of the practices we used to hold sacred. Key phrase, move back, not reintroduce wholesale. I don’t think we can have the old practices without the old abuses (AKA the kinder,gentler ICoC), but some believe that they really can have ‘accountability’ and ‘discipling’ and ‘evangelistic goals’, but be nicer to each other. In some ways, embracing a brother like this is like embracing a Calvinist as my brother in Christ whom I will see in Heaven. I can embrace my Calvinist brethren, I hope to be able to embrace my conservative brethren as well.

I didn’t finish the thought on Middle Paths last week, but one of the points is that the space halfway between two opposing sides is not always right. In matters of unity, the challenge is call another ‘our brother’ or ‘our sister’ that has the opposite viewpoint, as I said earlier.

However, the other point I hoped to make is that sometimes one side really is wrong. When it comes to Kip’s churches, he is wrong and those that ally themselves with him are wrong. How can I say that? It’s simple, Kip’s churches are all about Kip. He is the star, as he has said himself. This isn’t a disagreement about Scripture or doctrine. As can be abundantly proved, conservative ICoC’s and Kip’s churches are theologically the same. The issue is Kip. Those that disagree with him are excommunicated. This includes the ICoC which he helped build.

But if someone wants to be one with others, like Salt Lake, then there needs to be understanding. When Salt Lake reaches out to the ICoC, it is not the time to thunder against Kip, or their association with Kip. It is time to say, “Thank you for wanting to be a part.” When the small group from Syracuse wrestles free of Kip, it is time to say, “We are here to help you heal.” Not ask them what they were thinking when they followed him in the first place. More of this is going to happen in LA, New York, Chile, Hawaii, and anywhere else that Kip has a church and we need to be there for them.

Anyway, in passing, I heard about the two events.

PS: iCoke is an acronym, but you’ll have to guess what it means.

God meets us halfway?
I grew up being told that God will always be there to meet you halfway. This was a corollary to the expression, “God helps those that help themselves.” For a long time, this was how I understood the tension between works and grace. It wasn’t that God didn’t have grace and love me just as I am, I just figured that I needed to be about the Lord’s work to provide him opportunities to help others. In retrospect, I guess that I was determined to somehow make the Christian life about me and what I am doing instead of Him and what He is doing.

It’s still a difficult question, especially in light of Scripture that urges the idle to be warned.

It is tempting to say that the answer lies somewhere between all works and all grace. After all, we know that relying on all works will not earn us anything. Then again, we also know that grace has limits - to some it is limited salvation, to others it is losing one’s salvation: either way it is a limit to infinite grace to all men. James and Galatians seem to be complete opposites, in fact, James seems to be paraphrasing Galatians throughout. I’ve often thought, which book is right? I’ve also thought, which book is more right?

I may not know a perfect answer, but I do know that the arguments in James and Galatians are both right, even if I do not understand how that is possible. Trying to find a middle ground between the two is saying that each book of the Bible is saying something that is not entirely true. James reads that faith without deeds is dead. It cannot be partially true. There is no provision for ’some deeds’, and even if there were, would it be considered half-alive or half-dead?

Paul says in Galatians that if obeying the law could impart righteousness, Jesus died for nothing. Again, no room for partials here. Can someone obey part of the law and get partial righteousness? If what we read in the rest of Galatians is true, the answer is no. There’s no such thing as partial credit under the law.

It could be argued that there is no partial credit under grace, either.

Meet each other halfway?
The point, though, is not a examination of the role of grace and works in Christian life. The point is that a middle path is not the way to understand the roles of grace and works. American society values compromise and meeting someone halfway, but there is no compromise allowed here. This could make the Bible very distasteful to modern (post-modern?) sensibilities.

Let’s take another example. I’ve read about various Biblical teachers that are very conservative and claim that the best path to God is through being a real conservative. I’m thinking in Restoration Movement terms, here. This means a conservative is dedicated to, among other things, the idea that silence is prohibitive. Others claim that a liberal path is better by staking a claim on the mantra, “Free in Christ”. In terms of silence, it means that silence is permissive. Can a happy medium be reached by saying that silence is sometimes permissive? Better yet, is silence permissive with caveats? No, there is no medium. The restriction of silence is an extreme position and there is no room for compromise.

Given that there is no real compromise on the interpretation of silence, how does fellowship work?

Halfway through the article
These first two ideas may be oversimplified. It could be said that the faith/works issues and the meaning of silence in the Bible are very complex issues that cannot be stated in terms of black and white.

Let’s go into an oft-quoted passage and get to the matter at hand:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
…
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.

Romans 14:1-6;14-20

One man eats meat sacrificed to idols. Another will not. Our modern sensibilities would try to convince the ‘weaker’ brother is eat just a little meat. We’d tell the ’stronger’ brother to eat a little less meat. What it halfway between meat is okay and meat is not okay? Halfway is that ’some meat is okay’. Isn’t abstaining from meat an extreme position? All kinds of Scripture can be quoted to the ‘weaker’ brother that all food is clean, Jesus himself declared all foods clean. But that is not what Scripture says to do.

From the same passage, one man holds one day holy, another treats everyday the same. What is the compromise in this situation? A suggestion that each man hold three days holy. Is this really tenable for either brother?

Why is it, then, that when we encounter a brother that believes differently than us, that our first urge is to seek a compromise?

Halfway, Half the Time
It’s easy to quote the last part of Eccl 7:18 from the NIV, “The man who fears God will avoid all extremes”, however we do not quote the first part that says that this same man will grasp both extremes. Many other English translations do not even say “avoid extremes”, but it appeases our modern (postmodern?) sensibilities that the middle ground is best. We like centrist candidates in politics. We strive to live somewhere between rich and poor and generally consider ourselves middle class.

Still, it is much easier to make a rule that the middle ground is best and just leave it at that. Who wants to think through the extreme positions anyway?

Consider that the basic tenets of Christianity are rather extreme. Jesus is considered God. Jesus claims that he is the only way to God. It’s extreme to believe that 2/3 of planet earth is not saved because they believe something other than Christianity.

Does this mean that a compromise is always wrong? Absolutely not. Replacing a rigid rule with the opposite, yet equally rigid rule is no better. Consider that conference in Acts 15. When all was said and done, Gentiles believers were encouraged to follow some of the cleanliness laws. It certainly was a compromise to enforce anything less than the entire Torah, yet they did not get away totally free, either.

The first step in any journey is the toughest.

F. LaGard Smith spoke to a few folks in the ICoC, as well as CoC and Independent Christian Churches. I would be surprised that any of the ICoC attendees could host a conference like this at their home church. I’d be surprised if it would receive much positive coverage at various conferences.

Still, it would be good to have such a conference sponsored by an ICoC church. Abilene and Pepperdine have made overtures to us. We attended the conversations, but not much happened after that. It’s our turn to reciprocate, no matter how few have any real desire to do so.

Individuals have done a lot of work, but imagine what would happen if an entire church would embrace reconciliation.

So I am going to help bring such a conference into existence. If you want to help, email me or comment here. What do you think is necessary for such a conference?

Weakest month in terms of writing

A new serial started on PrairieComber. Other than that, all other posts have been here. The month began with the a pretty large case of denial and the family was sick most of the time. Here and there, some bright glimmers of family and gratefulness peaked through.

And that was December 2006.

Year End Notes
As I always do at year end, any draft or fragment is changed into a Semithought and posted. Semithoughts are completely unrefined, that’s all I’ll say about that.

Otherwise, it’s been a prolific year writing about various things. As is my perchant, however, none are finished. Lenga is very-well defined whereas a year ago it was a string of ideas. I wrote the rules of a few games and my friend mrtool created boards and pieces for one of them. (I need to bring them with me Friday, as well as dice to play the dice version.) I began a serial and enabled my wife to post pictures of the family and her poetry.

All in all a good year.

The Future
I added a new category about Unity called Bring Us Back. I feel hopeful and inspired for 2007. Most of this is believing that some good things can happen for churches to come together and do something for God. What has sparked this? A conversation with a fellow dreamer with the connections to make something actually happen. More on this later.

Otherwise, I will probably remove the Advocate site. There was a lot to post, but it is all in handwritten notes, or forgotten sources for information. I will work more on the Study Hall site and finally finish Lenga. As far as the Computer Biz goes, I hope something will happen this spring. As of right now, I want to use a Slackware derivative, but compiling it with dbus, hal, and other things to enable thumbdrives is proving to be difficult.

Thanks to my friends for reading. It was a great year fraught with sadness, difficulty, despair. It was a tough year filled with joy, celebration, grace, and peace. Thanks again.