Hunt Adkins
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Laughing
//ITUNES: Baby Please Don’t Go from the album “Best Of Van Morrison” by Van Morrison
My friend Aaron works for an ad agency in Minneapolis. Check out their amazing website: Hunt Adkins. I could totally work there.
Balance
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Imbalanced
//ITUNES: Telescope Eyes from the album “Laughing City” by Eisley
So when attempting to avoid the attitude I expressed yesterday, I have been thinking about the issue of balance. Here are a bunch of random stuff floating around in my head. Any brilliant thoughts you have would be appreciated, as well:
1) I’m not right about everything.
2) I’m right about some stuff.
3) I need to have conviction / stand firm on some stuff.
4) I need to let some stuff go.
5) It is appropriate and healthy to have healthy dialog about issues.
6) That same dialog can sometimes be unhealthy.
7) I need to walk that fine line of having a good attitude, yet being angry about the right stuff and be willing to step on toes when necessary.
8) I need to use the appropriate forums to express these things.
OK, here’s why I am chewing on this.
I talked about the churches I visited last weekend. At all five of the services I attended, there were things I loved and things I thought were terrible. There are things I learned while there, both by positive and negative example.
Why did I not express any of the negative on this here blog?
Dunno.
Maybe it is not the appropriate forum for that criticism.
Or maybe I didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings.
Or maybe I’m too sensitive to what people will think of my opinions and therefore me.
Hmmm…
Healthy or Unhealthy?
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Healthy…I think
//ITUNES: Drive from the album “Automatic For The People” by R.E.M.
It seems that with every great positive is a great negative. It’s like the Newtonian law of life. Spiritual gifts are that way, personalities are that way, etc etc etc.
I was thinking about this as I was surfing around today. There are big sweeping positives and negatives with this here internet.
With the internet, we have this great ability to express our opinions about everything, both positive and negative. This can lead to healthy discourse on a lot of issues. There are people who we would never have occasion to meet that we have opinions about. We get this weird / outside / imbalanced view of their politics or faith or lifestyle or whatever. And now we have a forum to speak into and about the lives of these people whom we haven’t met.
Again, potential good.
The sweeping negative is that with the anonymity of the net, we can be arrogant and insensitive in how we talk about people, especially those whom we have not met. It is a temptation I feel all the time. I read an article / blog entry from someone and for some reason I find myself feeling I am an authority on all they stand for.
Not so.
So as you type, here’s my advice. Ask yourself this question, “would I say this the same way if I was sitting across the table from this person?”
It’s gonna get really interesting if this World Wide Web thing really takes off.
Yes, it’s true
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Juvenile
//NOISE: My own juvenile laughter
Yes, there really is a Big Bone Baptist Church in Union, Kentucky. And if their name isn’t culturally relevant enough, they have a podcast of their sermons as well. But, by far my favorite part is the top “News Item” on their front page. Here’s a snapshot:
Hopefully the pastor isn’t also the webmaster.
BTW, did I mention it’s Pastor Appreciation Month? Just thought it would be important for you to know.
Churches
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: I need to work…
//ITUNES: Amie from the album “O” by Damien Rice
OK, so I have a crapload of message prep to do, but I am having a horrible time getting a rhythm going, so I am going to report of my weekend first and then get back into the grind.
This last weekend, Sean and I visited Minneapolis. We stayed at my friend Mark’s house and had quite a full weekend. For the sake of getting my mind flushed and going back to work, I will diary our weekend here. I am going to talk about 5 church services (at two churches) we went to, as well. I mention this, because in the spirit of this post and not wanting to pick a fight, I am going to mention the things I liked about each of these services and I am going to be uncharacteristically quiet about what I didn’t like. I’m also not in the mood to pick a fight, so there you go.
FRIDAY
Early morning flight, arrived in Minneapolis at 8ish
IHOP for breakfast
Mall of America – we were in and out of there in an hour. And, yes, I worshipped at the Apple Store.
Hung out with Mark and his fam
Dinner with Lizz’s guy
Attended The Rock
The Rock is part of a multi-site church in the Twin Cities called Evergreen. They have five locations around the city, but consider themselves one church. They have something like 13 pastors that serve as a team (no Senior Pastor), which is very cool. It must be a trip, especially knowing the guys. Their meetings must be something to behold.
The Rock targets an aggressively younger crowd and it was cool to see so many young people in one place. It reminded me of our later Saturday Night service as far as the crowd was concerned. While we were there, I finally got to meet Adam and Peter in person. These guys have been blogging buddies for awhile now, so it was awesome to meet them in person. And, yes, Peter looks like John Larroquette.
That night, we went out with Andy and Marco from the Urban Refuge (another of Evergreen’s sites…but I’ll get into that in a bit).
SATURDAY
Slept in a bit.
Had lunch with my friend Aaron. He showed me around the city and we had an amazing lunch at some crazy pizza place that has ovens so hot they heat your pizza up in 90 seconds. Freakin’ awesome. I would eat there everyday. OK, maybe not. But it was good, nonetheless.
Sean and I then wandered around Uptown, which is very cool.
Attended The Urban Refuge. It was kinda weird because we heard the exact same message as the night before. The same guy taught both places (which I understand is rare). This service meets in a church they share with a Baptist congregation. This was a very multi-ethnic church, which was cool. There was even one asian there, which made me fit in.
Then, Chad showed us around the city (quite different at night) and we grabbed dinner and talked Emerging Church stuff. In fact, we saw this truck with a glass box on the back with people in their swimsuits dancing inside. Weird for Minneapolis. They were advertising Mexico and getting a parking ticket.
SUNDAY
Went to Evergreen Lakeville. This service was also doing the same series as the other two. It was surreal, because their target is definitely older (35-45 or so). The same series, different message, different pastor teaching, same video. In fact they had this video that they showed at at 4 services we went to that parodied The Amazing Race.
They do one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. Just before the message, they have a five minute intermission so parents can walk their kids to their classes. Kinda cool. It was a bit of mingle time, as well.
We only had time to stay for 2 minutes of the message, so I can’t say much about that. We hopped in the car and drove to…
Evergreen Bloomington to go to another service. Again, same series. I finally asked and found out that they are in an advertising season and this is one of two times a year all the locations do the same thing. Gotcha. It was cool to be at this service, because I got to hear my friend Brent teach and he did an awesome job. In fact, he said the most amazing thing about Stephen’s stoning…but I’ll tell you about that later.
After church, I had lunch with Ben, Aaron, and Chris at a little pub. We tested my call in number deal (206-888-NOEL, by the way) and here’s our little ditty we recorded.
We then hung out with Mark and his fam again for a bit and then headed downtown to check out
Solomon’s Porch for their service. Solomon’s Porch shares a facility with two other churches (I continue to love this concept). This church was by far the most eclectic I have ever visited. I really appreciated their creativity and willingness to try new things and create their own traditions. We had to duck out a little early to catch our flight, but I wish we had been able to stay.
All of their music is original. None of the songs sounded like sing-songy worship songs, so that was very cool. They had lots of art, tons of people read scripture and other stuff. By far my favorite thing, though, was that when they did a baby dedication they invited all the kids in the church up to take part. Just as they asked the parents and the church to support this kid, they asked all t he kids to be his friend and to help him too. It was way cool.
Well, that’s about it. That may be my longest post ever, but now I have all that off my brain and I can squeeze a bit of message prep in before my appointment arrives in 22 minutes.
Sorry about any typos. There is no way in heck I am proofing this long ass post.
Quote of the Day
Oct 27, 2005 Quotes
From Sanctus1 Blog:
“God told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, and then He gave us our families to practice on.”
Personal Ad
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Surprisingly Good
//ITUNES: Don’t Be A Girl from the album “World Outside” by The Psychedelic Furs
My friend Adam just posted his answers to a Personal Ad Survey. Worth the read. I was laughing out-loud in the coffee shop.
Jack Radio
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Less tired, thank you
//ITUNES: Wake Up from the album “Letting Go” by Earshot
I have been searching around to figure out this phenomena of stations (Like MIKEfm) here in town trying to battle iPods, MP3s and Podcasts and what they are doing. MIKEfm is taking a cue from a lot of other stations nationwide, by following what’s called a Jack radio format:
The rules guiding a Jack-formatted station are simple: Unlike a typical radio station, which regularly plays 300 or 400 hits of a particular genre, programmers on Jack stations select 700 to 1,000 songs of completely different genres. Then, they sequence them to create what radio programmers call “train wrecks” — Billy Idol will follow Bob Marley, Elvis after Guns N’ Roses, and so on. And Jack stations often (but not always) use a smart-alecky recorded voice, rather than a live DJ, to make short quips between songs.
It will be interesting to see if ideas like this can actually compete in this new world. Is radio dying?
Questions
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Very Tired
//NOISE: Kids
John Piper lists Ten Reasons to Listen to Questions Before You Answer. Very good stuff.
Robert Webber
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Excited
//ITUNES: The Heartbreak Thing from the album “Laughter” by The Mighty Lemon Drops
So this is very cool. I very rarely announce a new blog I have stumbled upon. Normally, I just stick them in my links section and leave it to you to find. However, this time I will. Author and Prof Robert Webber now has a blog: ancientfutureworship.
He wrote Younger Evangelicals which I talked about here. I am excited about his blog. Wee ha.
