Today is the shortest day of the year — well, in some senses I suppose. The sun, in the northern hemisphere has its shortest trajectory today and man oh man am I happy about that. Because that means that tomorrow the days start getting longer and summer is officially on its way. We are now halfway through the forest and instead of entering we are leaving.

Today, Brooke and I also hope on a plane and fly to Chicago to meet my sister and brother-in-law who will then drive us to Holland, Michigan where we will be for 5 days, and then we head up the glove, across the bridge and over until we run smack into Escanaba Michigan.

We shall return on January 2nd. No guarantees that I will blog while away. So if I don’t, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I look forward to journeying with you all in the New Year.

peace
joel

Tomorrow is my last day as Facilities Manager at Mars Hill Graduate School. I have had this job for 2.5 years — it has been my only job while living in Seattle — and tomorrow it is over. I am saddened and elated. I am sorrowful and gladdened.

Many marvelous thing have happened while working on this job. I got to know some marvelous people, some of them are no longer employess and some of them are. Bev Westlake, Phil Hamre, Dori Reed, Alice Jovich, and Dan Kronstad thank you for getting to know me while I spent time at Mars Hill, both as a student and an employee. Christie Lynk thank you for pursuing me, even in the midst of your own sorrow. Jason Best thank you for calling me to wisdom and to patience. Zach Brittle thanks for the first nickname I have ever had. Lisa Philabaum (Vinyl) thanks for your laughter. Amie Armstrong thanks for Teriyaki and the gas mask. Kristen and Jeff Houston thank you for lunches and for a blossoming friendship. Molly Kenzler thank you for your smile, charm, wisdom, love, and inspiration. J.Paul Fridenmaker thank you for letting me talk to myself in our office and for caring the torch that is the pig hat. Paul Steinke thank you for being a foundation for which I can flounder on. Dan Allender thank you for teaching me the power of story and for the opportunity that once was. Ron Carucci thank you for our many lunches and curb talks.

Tomorrow will be a day of nostalgia, a day of remembering what was, what wasn’t, and what will be.

peace
Joel

Think about that one for a second…ok, that’s good enough, now you can move on

peace
joel

This is a post that represents some of the moments that I have particiapted in in the past week or two.

A couple weeks ago it snowed in Seattle.

I choose to rode my motorcyle, and then it snowed.

So did my friend Michael.

A couple days later the Eschaton broke into earth and I captured it on camera.

This weekend I went to Eagle and Child, then to Neighbours

Then I sat at Ram Brewery and watched my undergrad School, Grand Valley State University, win the Div II football championship and got in a conversation with Tom Ryan about movements — where we talked about this article by Wendell Berry. (this is certainly worth a read)

Then, last night Brooke and I went to the Mars Hill Graduate School Christmas party and had conversation with many a people, but ended up in the Jazz lounge, sipping wine, and talking with Tom and Lorenne Rasmussen (good friends of ours who moved to Idaho a couple weeks ago but were in town for the party) and Tim Soerens.

What a weird life I live.

peace
joel
.

So what happens to power in God’s Kingdom?

In our current day power is abused probably more than it is used for good. In fact, I’m not terribly sure too many people think about the power they have and how they are going to use it for good. We like to throw our power around until it has a place to land. If you aren’t convinced of this just look around the events in the world of the past 24 hours. A man is shot in an airport, in front of his wife, because he ran out of medicine. George W. Bush throws his weight around when he speaks of “the axis of evil.” In general, media reports articles that divide us instead of bring us together.

Power is an intimate part of the social make-up of humanity. So then what happens to power when Christ returns?

I really have no idea how to answer this question — but something tells me it is an important question.

If you want more context on where these thoughts were triggered check out Meredith Dancause’s blog here. She wrote a captivating post that is filled with snippets of what an answer to this question could look like.

peace
Joel

Two strange things have happened this week.

1. Within the past month or so I have returned to buying ‘nice’ clothes. Now, you must understand this is a stretch for me because of my monetary ethics as well as the simple fact that no shirt can possibly be worth more than, let’s say, $30. So to help appease my conscience I have only purchased name brand clothes that are on the clearance racks — luckily I found some good deals. However — they got stolen this week. Yup, that’s right, stolen. Brooke and I have lived in the same condo complex for over a year an we have never had anything get stolen from our community laundry room…until I start buying nice clothes. They took Gap Corduroys and a J.Crew Sweater. damnit.

2. Our credit card company gifts us a $50 gift certificate to shell gas stations. I’m super excited about this because Shell is the only gas I put in my motorcylce (trust me, there is a difference between shell and citgo or arco.) Well, as I pull out of the gas station after using the gift certificate for the first time my tank bag (a bag that sticks magnetically to my gas tank) flips open and out flies the card. I stop, almost immediately and scour the sidewalk, road, grass, gutter, and pretty much anywhere a card could fly to. But to no avail. I lost a $43 gift card for Shell gasoline. damnit.

Meaningless my friend, meaningless, everything under the sun is meaningless.

peace
joel

UPDATE: After I wrote this I commuted up to school and on the way looked one last time for the gas card and found it. Glory Be.

I know that I am probably the one that is most excited about this…but…I got all my old data back and finally figured out how to import it into here…

CELEBRATE JESUS CELEBRATE

peace
joel

Let that sit with you for a little while. At first it seems like an easy thing to grasp, at least intellectually. But after sitting with it for a little while you might begin to ask yourself, “now, how the heck does one do that?” I am not sure myself, but I think it might have something to do with these two words “risk” and “fool?”

peace
Joel

I found this article the other day on a website of a ’successful’ church in Seattle. I read the article because I found the first sentence strange. For the remainder of the article the sentence is rather tangental and doesn’t add much value to the argument. And yet, it is the first sentence — and better yet, it is the first sentence and it is its own paragraph. I won’t psycho-analyze this except to say that this sentence is driven by fear for anything other — and therefore is incredibly narcissistic and arrogant. What a good way to start an article about selecting church leaders, ehh? (thick sarcasm)

For those of you that read this blog, I’d love to hear what you think about the article…because I am somewhat ambivalent about it and want to hear from others. I’m especially curious as to the differing leadership styles that are felt in this article as compared to the one I posted two days ago.

Here it is…

Selecting Church Leaders

Every church plant has a lead guy.

And, in planting a church the lead guy quickly finds himself doing too many things, most of which he is not skilled at and generally makes a mess of. So, it is imperative for the planter to develop leaders before he pursues masses of people. The selection of an inner circle of trusted leaders and emerging leaders help to ensure that the church does not continually bottleneck at the leader and thereby slow or retard progress of the church and cripple the overworked leader.

This inner circle of key leaders should be chosen by the planter for their skill, trustworthiness, and loyalty. They should not be rushed into official offices too quickly (i.e. deacons and elders) but instead tested in their work and later approved for the office if they qualify. In selecting these people you must be careful to avoid the selecting of those imposters who intentionally or unintentionally appear like fellow leaders.

(more…)

Check out this post about the emerging church. It is quite hysterical and awfully true.

After reading the post I must admit that I fit the ‘mold’ in the majority of areas except

1. I’m married
2. I own a Dell (but desire a Powerbook G4)
3. I’m not a fan of David Crowder Band
4. As of today I don’t have an Ipod (but i will after Christmas)
5. I don’t speak of Calvin negatively and I still like the idea of a ‘meta-narrative’
6. No Prius yet, but that is simply because I just bought a new car two years ago
7. No tattoos…and I don’t desire to have any.

peace
Joel