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What do you think? It's total bare bones...no pics...no nothin'. What are some things that you think would be cool for our church's blog? Does anyone want to make it really cool and show me how to do a word press site? That was a huge hint Ian if you weren't picking up on it...but I'm not going to use any names.
Jesus Manifesto is keepin' it real. Great voter guide. I'm goin' with Jesus in '08!
Isaiah 42:1-9
5 God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out.
He created the earth and everything in it.
He gives breath to everyone,
life to everyone who walks the earth.
And it is he who says,
6 “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.
I will take you by the hand and guard you,
and I will give you to my people, Israel,
as a symbol of my covenant with them.
And you will be a light to guide the nations.
7 You will open the eyes of the blind.
You will free the captives from prison,
releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.
8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to anyone else,
nor share my praise with carved idols.
9 Everything I prophesied has come true,
and now I will prophesy again.
I will tell you the future before it happens.”
...and two didn't show up. I guess I should watch how excited I get when I talk about community...people are taking it seriously! I think our group is going to be rad. People seem excited to go over the Book of Luke. We are going to go through The Voice of Luke which ties in a lot of context and background to the scriptures. We also talked about this last weekend when I shared and thought of ways that we can include the least in our family. I got a tent for the two homeless women I ran into on Monday. We have someone that helps with a free dental clinic at the shelter twice a week that we might be getting involved with, and we are thinking of ways to contribute to our art and film festival that is raising money for Cypress school (an under resourced elementary school in downtown.) Not bad for two meetings together. I'm really excited about the direction our group is heading. I just hope we can fit everyone in our house!
Today was great. I was exhausted from last night and Alyssa let me sleep in...she's awesome. Hung out with the kids till it was time for Zeke to go to school. We went to our weekly Monday lunch at Chipotle. He eats rice with a couple bites of chicken and I usually get a chicken bowl. He spilled his water everywhere which was awesome. I took him to school. Went to work out. The whole time I was working out I saw these to homeless women holding signs outside a McDonalds. As I left I asked them if they'd had lunch...they hadn't...we had some lunch. Dawn and Holly. They were sleeping in a tent. They said it was so cold last night that they woke up this morning with wet shoes that had actually frozen to their feet and they had to pry them off with tent stakes. I asked if there was anything specific they needed and they said a sleeping bag. I told em my buddy TJ is collecting bags for people that need them, so I hooked them up with him. I got two big stinky hugs as I left. Came home...took a nap while Sofia was sleeping...went to pick up Zeke. Made our first trip to the mall to exchange some Christmas stuff. Came home for nachos...We're about to put the kids to bed. It's been a good day of rest. Ready to get at it tomorrow!
When God dreams is the series we're in. My message in a sentence is...When God dreams he sees everyone in families...especially the least. I'm showing God's plan for family throughout the story...Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the Prophets, the Psalms, Jesus, the early church, Paul, James, and Revelation. Then I'm contrasting God's dream with the American Dream. The question after all that is what would it look like if God's dream for families was a reality in Redding? I've got two questions at the end of the night: 1)Do you have family? 2)Are you inviting others into that family...especially the least?
I'll let you know how it goes. Pray that I have my voice by then!
So last night we have a gathering at my house with some people that want to get a better understanding of the Stirring community. So Nate (no blog yet???) and his wife Erica (great blog) come over and we have a group of us hangin' out in our living room. For some odd reason we bring up the word placebo in a story. It becomes painfully obvious that Nate does not know what the word means when I call him on it and he says..."oh yeah, like in that song that the band Live sings." Immediately I knew what he was referring to and I said, "actually, that's not even close to what placebo means and things just got weird!" Here's the lyrics to the song. The word is the second word in the second line of the song. I'm pretty sure that's not a placebo!
Nate turned red and I died with laughter. Good times!
After four different days and 6 total hours on the phone (refer to earlier post) I am officially cutting Dish Network out of my life. It's been a good relationship for 3.5 years but the breakup has been brutal. You broke me down and you broke my bank. I don't want to just be friends...I prefer just loathing you! This is now how we roll when we watch TV. I turn the couch 90 degrees and we watch full episodes of stuff on our Mac.
And here's my other beef. We had a 4 month relationship with Netflix and has officially crashed and burned. It doesn't hurt as bad because we don't have the history that we had with Dish. For the second time they sent us a DVD that has a huge crack in it. It wouldn't even read that a DVD was in the player...good times.
I'm actually excited about this new season of life. We hate TV anyway. We only watch a couple shows anyways and you can watch most of them on the computer. It's hard when you have kids because you put them down at 8pm and there's no leavin' the house together. And you can only play so much Scrabble and Parcheezee (we don't own either of those...just making a point).
So here's the new plan...prepare yourself...
No more regular TV watching...occasional couch turning TV watching on my 20" Mac screen that won't really show full screen so you're looking at about a 16" screen. No more Net Flix. We are going to Hollywood Video...they have a deal for $15 a month were you can rent 3 movies at a time...bring em back within 5 days and rent 3 more (unlimited rentals a month). I'll tell you how it goes.
This long standing relationship with my TV is something I've been trying to walk away from for a long time. Thanks Dish Network for taking $350 from me and forcing my hand. I already feel better without you.
BTW...As I was in the crescendo of my breakup with Dish I informed them that I was going to tell everyone that I thought would listen that I think they're the worst company on the face of the planet. So there it is world...Death to Dish Network!!!
In retrospect I think it's exactly what Jesus would do :)
I'm a jerk
Now I'm off to pray
Just wrapped up our first group and I'm really excited about it. We had no idea what to expect. We had 15 total and 2 that are gonna show up next week. The group is stoked to serve together, and live out what we've been talking about at our Sunday gatherings. I think we are going to go through one of the gospels and I'm gonna supplement a bunch of context from books that talk about the political, social, and economic climate that Jesus entered into in his ministry...if you don't know...I'm a junkie when it comes to that stuff...should be amazing. I'm just excited to start living this out with a group of people. 17 groups started this week plus about 10 that aren't being advertised. I'm sharing on Sunday about God's dream for everyone to have family...especially the least. Can't wait. Hope I have a voice by then!
My wife can capture moments like no ones business! This picture sums up life in a house with 4 sick people...good times. Pray for our wellness.
This is the bank outside our townhome this afternoon. I couldn't make a snowman or anything but it was still pretty exciting. My kids were lovin' it.
Adult admission for a movie ticket (full price, no matinée, no coupon, not a senior, not a student) = $7.25
When we were out at our District conference I saw Juno for the second time. It's amazing. Great characters...great story
Tonight I went to The Great Debaters with Alyssa. Moms in town so we are cashing in on the free babysitting that we've taken for granted forever. Another great movie. At times I thought Jesus was writing the script. Seriously...really good!
Leading worship on Sunday
Just transposed 5 songs so Jaime can lead if I'm knocked out
Blogging in the dark
Just got blankets out to sleep on the couch. (I'm coughing like a mad man right now and there is no way my wife could sleep next to me tonight)
Anyone else sick? Is something going around? I never get sick...except for the weeks that I play at church...is Jesus telling me something?
Greg Boyd wrote "Myth of a Christian Nation" and it blew my mind it was so good. He weighed in on some politics in this post.
I don't want to ever be on this guys bad side because he owns people when he throws down!
Got back from District Conference. It was good to hang with our team. I tried really hard to have a good attitude during the general sessions...I didn't do very good.
I lost my voice for some weird reason...I'm leading worship this weekend...good times.
I'm going to pick up my mom at the Redding airport in a couple minutes. That's right folks. You can fly right into Redding on Alaskan Airlines to come see us. You have to fly from LAX and the tickets are @ $250 roundtrip as opposed to $100 on Southwest...but hey...I won't have to drive 2 hours to Sac to pick you up!
Should be good to have mom around for a little bit...the kids are missing her and the other grandparents. We just bought an aro-bed (I think I spelled that wrong). We shelled out the big bucks because we are going to have a steady stream of visitors up here in the future. Aaron Foor used to rave about his aro-bed so we went for it.
So no more excuses folks. Come up to Redding and visit the Lances. The bed and breakfast is complete. I will take you to Burrito Bandito and you will meet Jesus all over again!
Nate, Derrick, Meghan, Patrick and myself leave for District Conference today. We are a church plant of the C&MA. We are going to use the time away to have kind of a mini staff retreat. Talk about where we're going...pray for each other...should be cool. I've got other buddies from this district that are in our denomination so that should be fun too. I'm interested to see the differences in the northwest district.
I get back Thursday and my mom is coming up that night through Monday morning. I'm leading worship again this weekend and all our Life Groups start next week. So there are a couple things going on. Not sure how much internet or time I'll have to blog. We'll see...have a great week. Pray for Alyssa and the kids...Leaving for 2 days at this point won't be easy.
So we've settled into a little bit of a rhythm here in Redding. Monday's are going to be our Sabbath here. Alyssa let me sleep in this morning because I was pretty wiped out after our gatherings last night...she is awesome. We took a freezing cold walk with the kids. And we are starting a new Monday tradition. Daddy lunches with Zeke. I took him to Chipotle then dropped him off at school. It's a cool time every week that I'm really going to look forward to. Then it was off to the gym...rested at home...picked up Zeke...we have some friends (Patrick and Bethany) bringing us dinner tonight...and we have a video chat date set up with Alyssa's parents tonight with the kids. Great day. Family, friends, food, recreation. I love that God knew we would need times like this on a regular basis to remind us how amazing he is, and to remind us that our ability to work is a gift. I'm glad to have a semi normal schedule going on. How was your day of rest?
Just realized I haven't posted a picture in a few posts...so you get an annoying photo booth picture of me! This morning we had 25 Life Group Leaders jammed into our front room for 2 hours. I was laying out vision and sharing my heart for where we hope our community is moving. This was the reason I was asked to come and I felt alive! We have an amazing team that wants to share the load and wants to transform Redding...I can't wait. We talked about keeping things simple...becoming family...and we emphasized the language and posture that we want to use to create the culture at the Stirring. Life Groups is our only program. We don't do anything else. It's the only funnel and I couldn't be more excited. Everyone seemed pumped and our team is awesome. God is good. I love what I get to do for a living.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
"Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
will he be to his brothers."
26 He also said,
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth's territory;
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth."
What in the world is going on in this passage? Anybody???
I'm thinking about starting a little mini series of posts containing "Things you see in Redding that you wouldn't necessarily see in Riverside." These post will contain a little stereotyping but it is all in love. I just want my Riverside peeps to get a better understanding of the place that I now reside.
#1 Just saw a mom in pajamas (not like...oh, those could go either way...these were pajamas) pushing her baby in a stroller in the bike lane of a busy street, smoking a cigarette. Went to fast for me to take a picture.
#2 Dudes in the grocery store with their shirts off. Not so much now when it's freezing but I definitely remember this from before during the summer. I seem to remember mullets as well. I'll try to grab some pictures for you in the future.
I love the things that make my town unique! I'll keep you posted on new sightings of Redding goodness.
Moving to Redding has been amazing. We have had people bring us a B-day cake for Sofia (thanks Jeff and Jaime)...Nate and Erica took us to dinner...Sean and Rebekah made us dinner and had us over for dinner...Derrick and Danielle brought us dinner and hung out...We have plans to eat with Patrick and Bethany and Matt and Anna. Yesterday Chris and Cassey had a box of organic fruit and vegetables sent to our house...amazing! I think the food we bought from the store is going to go bad. We have felt welcomed in every way possible. We miss our families and the Riverside crew but our new and old friends up here are making it a lot easier.
For most of my life I have read through the Bible with a check list mentality. I used to get stickers in class when I'd finish portions of it. I've read through the Bible quite a few times. Straight through, Chronologically, Yearly Bible, randomly. It's crazy that it took me 30 years to start seeing the Bible as a story but it has changed everything in my reading. Everything connects, there are no isolated stories. It's a narrative, start to finish. We find our story within the story. Context is king, and the Old Testament is essential for the New Testament.
Anyways, this year I'm going through one of those reading plans that give you some Old Testament and some New Testament to read every day. Right now I'm reading parts of Genesis, Matthew, and Psalms. I stumbled across this website yesterday and it sets you up with a pretty good plan. I know this has been out there forever but I've never done it. Has anyone ever read through the Bible this way? It's a little confusing because you are reading all over the place, but I like the fact that you get insights into different parts of the story every day.
I feel a need to get the content from the scriptures in me on a yearly basis. I'm a pretty undisciplined dude in this area of my life and plans like this help me. Anyone else trying to read through the story this year?
Meeting with Nate and Derrick
Staff meeting
Coming up with goals and prep for meeting with Life Group Leaders on Saturday
Leading worship this Sunday
So it begins...
Can't wait!!!
Last nights one year anniversary at The Stirring was amazing. Lots of awesome stories!
I couldn't imagine the pressure these candidates face with the issues facing us as a nation right now. Terrorism, billions of dollars spent on war, rising gas prices, a crumbling health care, global warming epidemic, energy crisis, terrible situations in education, people ready to build walls and sniper illegal immigrants, homeland security issues, and the list goes on...
The debate was pretty heated last night. A lot of attacks and a lot of defense. Romney and Clinton were getting beat up pretty bad and countered with some red faced political jujitsu. I still love Obama, thought he countered arguments well. Edwards was really passionate and well spoken. It's just funny when a guy with ridiculous amounts of wealth is constantly talking about fighting for the middle class. Clinton was sticking to her experience card but didn't get too specific about what that experience entailed. Seemed like see was trying to knock Obama down most of the night. Richardson actually said some good things but no one is voting for that dude. McCain seemed to hold himself together pretty well on the Republican side. Huckabee had a few good things to say. I felt like punching Guliani in the face. Ron Paul is awesome but his views are so extreme that no one will ever take him seriously.
All in all it was a very interesting debate. Ultimately the Kingdom of God needs to advance in the homes and neighborhoods of those that follow Jesus. That is God's plan for bringing the world to rights. He doesn't need governments and politicians. But this system is a reality that we live in so having leadership that has their head on straight would certainly be helpful. I know you're not supposed to talk about politics but I figure it is going to saturate life in 2008 so I thought I'd see what you think. Be nice!
2nd day here and I bring a hurricane...what the heck?
They said winds last night were anywhere from 60-80 mph.
It felt like our town home was going to fly down the street, Wizard of Oz style.
I think I slept for 15 minutes...The rain was so stinkin' loud...pounding our bay window.
You could literally see the water off the road blowing down the street.
It's good to be back in the 530.
Prepare yourself 951...our storms hit you a day later...board up your windows and buy bullets.
What do you do when you're couped up in the house all day? I'm thinkin' about giving the kids some Tylenol PM...putting them in bed...and going to rent some movies!
That was a joke for people that are unable to read sarcasm on a computer screen!
9 hours and 45 minutes. Beat that Trav!
2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, 4 bags and 1 stroller strapped to the top, all available space utilized...
2 stops (Paso Robles, Woodland...represent Sam Boone)
Dog only puked once!
2 videos (Cars and Baby Einstein)
MVP of the trip...Sofia (she did amazing)
Most questions of the trip...Zeke (54,239) Most common question...why is Redding so far away?
Coolest thing that happened on the trip...We stop at a Quiznos in Woodland and Bill Russell (the basketball hall of fame player, not the cop) walks in. He had to duck to get through the front door. If I was my brother I would have got an autograph and picture, but I just watched him order and blogged about it.
We are here...finally...feels good to be settling in.
Come on up and visit...the Lance bed and breakfast is officially open for business!
Pray for our trip tomorrow. I don't know if my kids will last. I'm shutting down the computer. Next blog will have the Redding love.
