Missions in the Church

In a great article from John Piper on missions, he states,

"You have three possibilities in relation to missions. You can be a goer, you can be a sender, or you can be disobedient."

Be sure to check out the rest.

St patricks day every day

Join me at the street fair in orange.

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Orangestreetfair.org check it out if local.

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Fun Hypothetical. McCain Palin win. 2012 features H Clinton v Palin for pres.

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Palin

Not since Reagan has anyone actively courted the Taft, Goldwater, Reagan first term conservatives. While McCain is probably choosing her because she is different than him in the pants it still makes for an interesting choice with regards to the Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin folks.

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Thinking I should head to bed. So I will. Good night all.

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Really liking posterous Check it out at www.scottoverpeck.posterous.com

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Vote for Scott!!!

I am running for President. Check it out.

More Cheesy "Christian" Knockoffs

Yet another example of the wonderful world of Christian as an adjective...

"christian" Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, etc can all be purchased at Digital Praise where they apparently "glorify God through interactive media." Not sure if this is more or less awesome than "christian" candy or "christian" golf balls, but it is really really awesome.

The Lighter Side of War

Cool New Site

Check out i Hi Five. Cool site dedicated to bringing back the Hi Five.

Bacon Bourbon

If you like either bacon or bourbon this may be an article for you. So go ahead, bacon up that bourbon. Maybe chase it with some butter. Mmmmm...

I will let everyone know how this goes just as soon as I try it...

Stupidity

A quote for politicians, pundits, parents, pastors and other people (see how I used alliteration? Wasn't that cool?)...

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ethanol Good v. Evil

Ethanol advocates claim that the biofuel is a cheap, renewable energy source that reduces pollution and our dependence on foreign oil. It sounds too good to be true—and it is.

Ethanol, especially the corn-based variety, is bad for taxpayers, bad for consumers, bad for the environment, and horrible for the world's poor. In fact, even environmentalists are critical of ethanol subsidies these days. The ethanol craze has distorted markets and increased the price of food worldwide. The only people who still support ethanol subsidies are the ethanol producers—and politicians from both sides of the aisle. Together, they make sure the subsidies keep coming.

Super Awesome Organization Sunday

To Write Love on Her Arms is an organization founded to bring awareness and resources related to depression, cutting and addiction. Check out their story below and their website for more details.

TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS by Jamie Tworkowski

Pedro the Lion is loud in the speakers, and the city waits just outside our open windows. She sits and sings, legs crossed in the passenger seat, her pretty voice hiding in the volume. Music is a safe place and Pedro is her favorite. It hits me that she won't see this skyline for several weeks, and we will be without her. I lean forward, knowing this will be written, and I ask what she'd say if her story had an audience. She smiles. "Tell them to look up. Tell them to remember the stars."

I would rather write her a song, because songs don't wait to resolve, and because songs mean so much to her. Stories wait for endings, but songs are brave things bold enough to sing when all they know is darkness. These words, like most words, will be written next to midnight, between hurricane and harbor, as both claim to save her.

Renee is 19. When I meet her, cocaine is fresh in her system. She hasn't slept in 36 hours and she won't for another 24. It is a familiar blur of coke, pot, pills and alcohol. She has agreed to meet us, to listen and to let us pray. We ask Renee to come with us, to leave this broken night. She says she'll go to rehab tomorrow, but she isn't ready now. It is too great a change. We pray and say goodbye and it is hard to leave without her.

She has known such great pain; haunted dreams as a child, the near-constant presence of evil ever since. She has felt the touch of awful naked men, battled depression and addiction, and attempted suicide. Her arms remember razor blades, fifty scars that speak of self-inflicted wounds. Six hours after I meet her, she is feeling trapped, two groups of "friends" offering opposite ideas. Everyone is asleep. The sun is rising. She drinks long from a bottle of liquor, takes a razor blade from the table and locks herself in the bathroom. She cuts herself, using the blade to write "FUCK UP" large across her left forearm.

The nurse at the treatment center finds the wound several hours later. The center has no detox, names her too great a risk, and does not accept her. For the next five days, she is ours to love. We become her hospital and the possibility of healing fills our living room with life. It is unspoken and there are only a few of us, but we will be her church, the body of Christ coming alive to meet her needs, to write love on her arms.

She is full of contrast, more alive and closer to death than anyone I've known, like a Johnny Cash song or some theatre star. She owns attitude and humor beyond her 19 years, and when she tells me her story, she is humble and quiet and kind, shaped by the pain of a hundred lifetimes. I sit privileged but breaking as she shares. Her life has been so dark yet there is some soft hope in her words, and on consecutive evenings, I watch the prettiest girls in the room tell her that she's beautiful. I think it's God reminding her.

I've never walked this road, but I decide that if we're going to run a five-day rehab, it is going to be the coolest in the country. It is going to be rock and roll. We start with the basics; lots of fun, too much Starbucks and way too many cigarettes.

Thursday night she is in the balcony for Band Marino, Orlando's finest. They are indie-folk-fabulous, a movement disguised as a circus. She loves them and she smiles when I point out the A&R man from Atlantic Europe, in town from London just to catch this show.

She is in good seats when the Magic beat the Sonics the next night, screaming like a lifelong fan with every Dwight Howard dunk. On the way home, we stop for more coffee and books, Blue Like Jazz and (Anne Lamott's) Travelling Mercies.

On Saturday, the Taste of Chaos tour is in town and I'm not even sure we can get in, but doors do open and minutes after parking, we are on stage for Thrice, one of her favorite bands. She stands ten feet from the drummer, smiling constantly. It is a bright moment there in the music, as light and rain collide above the stage. It feels like healing. It is certainly hope.

Sunday night is church and many gather after the service to pray for Renee, this her last night before entering rehab. Some are strangers but all are friends tonight. The prayers move from broken to bold, all encouraging. We're talking to God but I think as much, we're talking to her, telling her she's loved, saying she does not go alone. One among us knows her best. Ryan sits in the corner strumming an acoustic guitar, singing songs she's inspired.

After church our house fills with friends, there for a few more moments before goodbye. Everyone has some gift for her, some note or hug or piece of encouragement. She pulls me aside and tells me she would like to give me something. I smile surprised, wondering what it could be. We walk through the crowded living room, to the garage and her stuff.

She hands me her last razor blade, tells me it is the one she used to cut her arm and her last lines of cocaine five nights before. She's had it with her ever since, shares that tonight will be the hardest night and she shouldn't have it. I hold it carefully, thank her and know instantly that this moment, this gift, will stay with me. It hits me to wonder if this great feeling is what Christ knows when we surrender our broken hearts, when we trade death for life.

As we arrive at the treatment center, she finishes: "The stars are always there but we miss them in the dirt and clouds. We miss them in the storms. Tell them to remember hope. We have hope."

I have watched life come back to her, and it has been a privilege. When our time with her began, someone suggested shifts but that is the language of business. Love is something better. I have been challenged and changed, reminded that love is that simple answer to so many of our hardest questions. Don Miller says we're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding. I agree so greatly.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she's known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don't get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won't solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we're called home.

I have learned so much in one week with one brave girl. She is alive now, in the patience and safety of rehab, covered in marks of madness but choosing to believe that God makes things new, that He meant hope and healing in the stars. She would ask you to remember.

Blowback from Bear Baiting

Anytime the US proves itself horribly adept at forgetting all of the lessons of history in foreign relations (now when it comes to trade and immigration policy...), trust that Pat Buchanan will probably write a good article about it. Here is the most current error....

Blowback from Bear Baiting

By Patrick Buchanan

Mikheil Saakashvili’s decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia’s invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships.

Nasser’s blunder cost him the Sinai in the Six-Day War. Saakashvili’s blunder probably means permanent loss of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

After shelling and attacking what he claims is his own country, killing scores of his own Ossetian citizens and sending tens of thousands fleeing into Russia, Saakashvili’s army was whipped back into Georgia in 48 hours.

Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to kick the Georgian army out of Abkhazia, as well, to bomb Tbilisi and to seize Gori, birthplace of Stalin.

Reveling in his status as an intimate of George Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain, and America’s lone democratic ally in the Caucasus, Saakashvili thought he could get away with a lightning coup and present the world with a fait accompli.

Mikheil did not reckon on the rage or resolve of the Bear.

American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight — Russia finished it. People who start wars don’t get to decide how and when they end.

Russia’s response was “disproportionate” and “brutal,” wailed Bush.

True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more “disproportionate”?

Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi?

Is not Western hypocrisy astonishing?

When the Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, we celebrated. When Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo broke from Serbia, we rejoiced. Why, then, the indignation when two provinces, whose peoples are ethnically separate from Georgians and who fought for their independence, should succeed in breaking away?

Are secessions and the dissolution of nations laudable only when they advance the agenda of the neocons, many of who viscerally detest Russia?

That Putin took the occasion of Saakashvili’s provocative and stupid stunt to administer an extra dose of punishment is undeniable. But is not Russian anger understandable? For years the West has rubbed Russia’s nose in her Cold War defeat and treated her like Weimar Germany.

When Moscow pulled the Red Army out of Europe, closed its bases in Cuba, dissolved the evil empire, let the Soviet Union break up into 15 states, and sought friendship and alliance with the United States, what did we do?

American carpetbaggers colluded with Muscovite Scalawags to loot the Russian nation. Breaking a pledge to Mikhail Gorbachev, we moved our military alliance into Eastern Europe, then onto Russia’s doorstep. Six Warsaw Pact nations and three former republics of the Soviet Union are now NATO members.

Bush, Cheney and McCain have pushed to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. This would require the United States to go to war with Russia over Stalin’s birthplace and who has sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula and Sebastopol, traditional home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

When did these become U.S. vital interests, justifying war with Russia?

The United States unilaterally abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty because our technology was superior, then planned to site anti-missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic to defend against Iranian missiles, though Iran has no ICBMs and no atomic bombs. A Russian counter-offer to have us together put an anti-missile system in Azerbaijan was rejected out of hand.

We built a Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey to cut Russia out. Then we helped dump over regimes friendly to Moscow with democratic “revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia, and tried to repeat it in Belarus.

Americans have many fine qualities. A capacity to see ourselves as others see us is not high among them.

Imagine a world that never knew Ronald Reagan, where Europe had opted out of the Cold War after Moscow installed those SS-20 missiles east of the Elbe. And Europe had abandoned NATO, told us to go home and become subservient to Moscow.

How would we have reacted if Moscow had brought Western Europe into the Warsaw Pact, established bases in Mexico and Panama, put missile defense radars and rockets in Cuba, and joined with China to build pipelines to transfer Mexican and Venezuelan oil to Pacific ports for shipment to Asia? And cut us out? If there were Russian and Chinese advisers training Latin American armies, the way we are in the former Soviet republics, how would we react? Would we look with bemusement on such Russian behavior?

For a decade, some of us have warned about the folly of getting into Russia’s space and getting into Russia’s face. The chickens of democratic imperialism have now come home to roost — in Tbilisi.

American Idol Season 8

Just 5 more months until the premier. Although I cannot promise I will be updating nearly as frequently as last season. The new baby will be just a week old.

McCain the Maverick or Mediocre

More pearls of wisdom from Market Watch.

McCain has not articulated any lofty goals. So far, his campaign theme has mostly been "McCain: He's None of the Above."
In the primaries, he campaigned on "I'm not that robotic businessman, I'm not that sanctimonious hick, I'm not that crazy libertarian, I'm not that washed-up actor, I'm not that delusional 9/11 guy." In the general election, he's emphasized that he's not that treasonous dreamer.

Classic. Like him or not, McCain certainly is not inspiring much confidence these days.

Irrelevance

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.
- H. L. Mencken

Saw this quote recently and thought it was pretty funny. I think a lot of churches still fall into this trap

Cheesy Sermon Videos Remix

I hate to do repost, but noticed that this post has a ton of hits recently and wanted to hopefully get some feedback as to who all is looking at it, did it give you any ideas for your sermons, did you tell your pastor about it, etc...
Check out these "parody" videos being sold for almost $100 to churches. I put parody in quotes because parody implies wit, humor and smarts. These cheesy imitations of the great Mac commercials with Justin Long and that other guy who was in that movie with Tina Faye and Amy Poehler are not only really poorly produced (not every church has lots of money to invest in multi media, I know) but the acting is really bad and the scripts not that funny. A couple clever puns but by and large a scam looking to pawn some crummy "christian" movie off on some poor unsuspecting pastor hoping to be relevant.

Now I know someone out there is going to know the organization who put these together. Maybe you thought they were amazing. That's fine. You spend the money on them. And maybe I am being overly critical but organizations that claim to be helping churches and churches themselves should be held to a higher standard. Their motives may be great, but good intentions are not enough. My point is that creativity and innovation should be hallmarks of the Church as we follow the God who invented the duck billed platypus. We need not steal someone else's idea. We don't always have to reinvent the wheel though. That being said. . .

Save your parishioner's some money. Record the actual Mac commercials. Then use those clips to highlight any of the following for a sermon series.

1. Evangelism.

Mac could be represented as Athens. Windows is Jerusalem. A series on Acts17.(Updated: I specifically was thinking of the commercial where Mac talks about making movies and PC talks about spreadsheets. Some would not work because the point you should, I think, be making is that Paul's methods were equal but specially suited to the circumstance.)

A little more topically Mac can be seen as kind of an ancient future type faith. One that maintains the time less truths of the faith but expresses them in a way that people today can get. With Windows being the stuffy "we've always done it that way" type.

Mac could be Paul and Windows Peter. Make sure to reference 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 to drive home the point as well as Galatians 2:11-21 (of course).

2. Doctrine

I have to be careful on this one so I don't get my mailbox flooded with the DIE HERETIC emails again, but I would take one of three approaches on this one.

a. Correct Doctrine is Mac. Heresy (or for the ecumenical, Error)is Windows.

b. Those Focused on strong commitment to doctrines and statements of faith are Mac. Those who would cast aside doctrine on the altar of relevance are Windows.

C. Those who believe that Truth can be bigger than our intramural squabbles and thus agree to disagree for the sake of community and to spend our resources doing the work of the Kingdom are Mac. Insert your least favorite famous Christian figurehead as Windows.

I am sure there are plenty of people way smarter than me who have even better ideas.

Vacation

Not sure how much will get posted over the next couple days. Driving up to Oregon to visit Shannon's grandparents. In the mean time, check out the Blog roll. There are some real gems in there.

super Awesome Organization Sunday

I love this organization. They come up with creative, low cost and reproducible solutions to problems in society and then post them for you to do in your community. Check them out today.

From the Just One website

The JustOne Ethos
JustOne is a non profit organization that was formed to stimulate greater global awareness about extreme poverty, and to provoke compassionate ideas and intelligent giving in order to provide sustainable relief. We are a collective voice for the victims of social injustice––the one(s) living in geographical and situational poverty; the one(s) orphaned through death, disease and desertion; the one(s) trafficked into slavery throughout the world.

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How

Through our innovative development of resources, creative awareness campaigns, educational gatherings, speaking engagements and activist mobilization, JustOne provides reprieve to the marginalized and the oppressed.

We believe in an economic of enough that is established through the cooperative practice of sharing and redistribution. These practices are central to the Laundry Love Project, A Trashcan can Make a Difference and the Activist initiatives. We hope to see these initiatives expand throughout the US and overseas giving others the opportunity to be the enough for those living in localized poverty.

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Inclusion and Accountability

We are a social mercy foundation that exists to change universal issues of social injustice effecting millions of people regardless of race, culture, sex, age, or religion. We have an open policy partnership, meaning we will collaborate with a diversity of people(s) and organization(s) regardless of differences while holding to wisdom, discernment and the collective council that directs the mission and future of JustOne. The collective council comes through the Board of Directors and organizational Partners

Pop Culture Lessons for the Church

For all of certain elements of the Church's railing against it, Hollywood remains pretty successful. So while Pat Robertson may take one approach...

"Popular television is flooded with filth and violence; MTV, VH-1, and pop radio stations are sewers of obscenity, rebellion and violence; pop magazines promote the vilest forms of pornography and a form of materialism, selfishness, and greed that has fallen to the lowest levels in human history."

...I would say there is probably some valuable communication lessons to be learned for any organization. USA Today recently published a fantastic article detailing one of the many ways that Hollywood makes sure that their messages make sense to the intended audience.

It seems like a lot of us could definitely learn a little about making sure that what we say is what our listener's hear. Think about the following...

1. Are there things on your website, your church's website, your company website that only insiders will "get" that are in publicly accessible areas?

2. Do your friends of differing opinions value talking to you about your disagreements, or do they shy away from "those" topics?

3. While I have focused primarily on the Church, this topic has far reaching applications. What things around you, do you see that may also fall prey to being, "lost in translation"?

The Olympics and the Cultural Divide

For a different take on the Olympics check out the Chicago Tribunes coverage. Interesting look at cultural differences.

Run Down on Political Jokes from Last Week

Paris Hilton For President ?!?!?

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Addiction to Religion

A really good post over at Stuff Christians Like. Check it out and then consider the following:

1. Does this describe you or anyone you know?

2. Does your church or the Church seem to fit into this model as a institution?

3. How do we avoid this personally, corporately and universally? Or is it sort of our destiny to always have Pharisees among us as the Church?

Look forward to your comments and emails.

New White House Spokesperson?

Pentagon's Unmanned Spokesdrone Completes First Press Conference Mission

10 reasons it would rule to date a unicorn

You have to check this site out. Be forewarned it is actually a marketing ploy. But a hilarious one well worth the ad at the end.

Dobson the Windsurfer

Seems flip flopping is not unique to any one party or religious/political movement.

In shift, Dobson may endorse McCain - The Associated Press - Politico.com

Super Awesome Organization Sunday

From Xealot's website:

Xealot’s mission is to connect resources (people, knowledge, technology, and other resource streams) to young leaders around the world! We do this primarily through forums and one-on-one leadership development consults. Our vision is not to package community transformation in a box but commit to walking with leaders to tranform their village/community/city/nation.

The three domains of people we serve are artists, businesspersons, and community development specialists.

Xealot came about as a response to actively serve the needs of developing communities in the world that are underserved. Unlike many relief-based charitable organizations, Xealot seeks to empower marginalized ethnic leaders to encourage an independence that cannot come from simply providing handouts; the hope is to help communities get the jump start they need so that they can eventually provide for themselves. We do this through action not simply talk. We have many results of projects that are complete or are in process that demonstrate our bias towards action.


I know several of the folks involved with Xealot and strongly encourage you to get involved in any way you can.
Xealot currently has partnerships with Nujon Singpila of the Sustainable Development Research Foundation (SDRF) in Thailand, Stephen “Cue” Jean-Marie of the SHAW in Los Angeles, Eugenio Araiza of AMEXTRA in Mexico, and Stephen Peters of Benson's Interational Academy in Mysore, India. Our hope is to continue to build personal relationships with indigenous leaders on a global scale as these opportunities present themselves.