Faith, Love, & Rock n' Roll As Told By The Brown Kid

I Am Moving...

2007-12-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Not physically, just my blog. I am now over at wordpress. It's not you it's me. I need something different and I like their layouts better. This is consumerism. I am a part of it. If you are one of the three people who read this blog, please link me over at

ronpai2.wordpress.com

See ya on the darkside,
ron

It's a Wonderful Life...So I've Heard

2007-12-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

I saw "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time the other day. I can honestly say that it was an okay movie. Is it me, or did it take forever to get to the point? Hailed as THE Christmas classic, I saw a little blurb about it in the special features, which made me laugh a little.

Did you know that when it was released, It's a Wonderful Life was seen as "okay". It was actually forgetten quite quickly. The reason that it became so popular is that in the 1970's the copyright ran out and somebody forgot to renew it. When this happened, television stations caught wind of it and began showing the movie because they did not have to pay any royalties. This is why it was on so many times a year. This is also what contributed to its popularity, because now a whole new generation had discovered this movie, thus thrusting it into becoming a Christmas Classic.

Just more crap to occupy your brain.

what's your favorite christmas movie?
ron

Snow Madness

2007-11-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

Could it be? Could it really happen? Well they are calling for it, but when I took this picture the sun was coming up (@ 8:30!).

I love when there is a threat for snow here in Whatcom County. People get crazy around here. Walmart and Target are filled with a few more people than usual, and all everybody can talk about is the snow. It is exciting for us. The thing that I hate about the snow is driving in it. I don't mind it, but I get a little freaked out by the other people on the road. I'm the guy who is going fairly slow (5-10 under the speed limit) and doesn't care when he gets home. Then there is the other guy who "grew up driving in the snow" and is in his SUV and speeds around me going about 45 MPH. Those are the guys who freak me out. Those are the guys who get a little crazier when it snows.

It is snow madness. Whatcom County suffers from it. We all love it and hate it at the same time. Snow madness is why I want to move to hawaii and only visit washington during the winter.

54 WPM

2007-11-27T17:19:00.001-08:00

With 94% accuracy. suck it.

www.typingtest.com

Flight of the Conchords

2007-11-27T15:53:00.000-08:00

These guys are my latest obsession. I think that they are really funny. Think Tenacious D meets Beck's song Debra on his "midnight vultures" CD. enjoy.

Merry Christmas

2007-11-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

If you want to see a Christmas movie that will instantly jump into your top 3 Christmas movies (if you are human and have a heart, I guarantee it will), than you need to see this movie. It is called Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas). Here is the write up for it on Netflix:

Inspired by a true story, this heartwarming tale unfolds on Christmas Eve, 1914, in the midst of World War I. As the French, Scottish and German soldiers prepare to open their presents, a momentous event occurs that changes the destinies of four people: an Anglican priest, a French lieutenant, a world-class tenor and his soprano lover.

I saw this movie last year and just remembered it. It is a beautiful story of war coming to a halt for one night, truly peace on earth, while men truly realize that they all have more in common than they know. If you work in a church, this will be the movie that you will show for a "movie clip" sometime during your christmas.

Netflick it now.
You're Welcome,
ron

Got Our Christmas Tree...

2007-11-26T09:16:00.000-08:00

For the past five years, Cynthia and I have had a tradition with our friends Rob and Willow Weston to get our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving. We do this to avoid the mall and the madness and just hang out together. We usually go to Stoney Ridge Farm, but his year we went to Lowe's. I know, I know. I thought that it was lame also, but Stoney Ridge was closed the day after Thanksgiving this year. Here are some pics from our tree expedition down the street from us.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for my wife, Cynthia. She puts up with a lot from me. For the past 4-5 years she has been supporting me in going to school. I've been working various part time jobs during this time, but she has always encouraged me with music and how I can improve my skills. She also has encouraged me for better health and never settling for less than I am able to achieve. For my wife, lover, and friend, I am thankful.

I am thankful for my school debt. Though it is a lot of money that Cynthia and I owe, I know that this is a small price to pay for the education I've recieved. I feel as though I have been given a masters degree in a bachelor's degree because a lot of the books, philosophies, and ideas that I have been exposed to are ones that my friends who have masters degrees are constantly surprised to see in a bachelor's degree program. I have been exposed to many different things that have encouraged me and also made me question my own faith and worship of God. For this challenge, I am thankful.

I am thankful for my family. My mom who showed me the idea of love and respect toward other people who are different than me. My sister and brother in law who can talk with me about various and strange b movies from the 80's and still love them even though we realize that they are wonderfully horrible movies. My brother who has helped me believe that it is still possible to be a good father even though we grew up without one. And I am thankful for my little sister who is just starting her life as she turned 18 this year. For my family, I am thankful.

I am thankful for my church, Roosevelt Community Church, for letting me lead them in worship each week and being open to new and different ideas of what worship could look like. They have supported me, both financially and professionally, since Easter and continue to spur me on with their stories of God being shown to them in new and different lights. For their love, community, and support, I am thankful.

I am thankful for my friends. I remember becoming a christian about eight years ago, and one of my main worries was that I would have no friends. It's petty, I know, but God has blessed me with an abundance of people who I am proud to call my friends. Rob and Willow Weston continue to spur me on with challenging thoughts and discussions that last well into the night (and sometimes into the morning). Rob and Nicole Mathey and Chris Croft show me what being a friend without expecting something in return truly looks like. They are so giving of their time, money, and friendship it amazes me. Matt Martinson has shown me courage in facing life, the importance of education, and laughing in the face of life when it gets him down (really is there anything else we can do?). Baron Miller believed in me and gave me a Worship Directors job at Roosevelt Community Church, encouraged me when I needed it most, and introduced me to the shows Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the British Version of The Office. Kelly Huckaby, my secret source to odd music that everyone always asks, "How did you hear about these guys". Ben Pries who plays and loves violent video games and Jesus...I kind of feel responsible for both of these. And Tim Ross, whose life that semi parallels my own at times (which is scary), gave me conversations over beers that ooze with sarcasm and makes me laugh. For these friends, I am thankful.

I am thankful for music and musicians. Music inspires me, encourages me, soothes me, welcomes me, and takes me to different worlds sometimes. A lot of memories I have are triggered by music. Music is my release, and for this I am thankful.

Finally, but it should be first, I am thankful for The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All of them sustain me and give me hope when I feel hopeless, strength when I feel weak, and remind me that I am loved when I feel lonely. They remind me that they are all I need to feel sustained and that material things and social status does not matter in light of God's Kingdom. For their gift of true life, salvation, and inspiration I am thankful.

For my God, wife, family, friends, and hobbies, I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.Ron

I've Always Wanted To Do This...

2007-11-20T11:14:00.001-08:00

I've compiled a list of CD's that I've listened to over the past year that I think are some of the best music I've run acrossed in the past year. Here, in no particular order, are those CD's. (Keep in mind that these CD's didn't come out this year, in fact a lot of them came out a while ago, I've only just discovered them.)

Amos Lee – Amos Lee
A mix of Tracy Chapman’s story telling and Norah Jones’ Blues, Amos Lee’s album will easily become one that you will listen to over and over. Amos Lee is also the master of getting to the point. Ten songs all around three and a half minutes long. Perfect.
Highlights: Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight; Arms of a Woman; Love in the Lies.

Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinois!
I can’t remember when I got this album, but all I know is that it continues to inspire me to write music and appreciate great song writing every time I listen to it. A couple of my favorite lyrics: “Tuesday night at the bible study, we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens…” and “But in my best behavior, I am really just like him…”
Highlights: Decatur or Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!; Concerning the UFO Sighting…; Casimir Pulaski Day; John Wayne Gacy Jr.

Justin Timberlake – FutureLove/SexSounds
Don’t hate, participate! This CD was an incredibly amazing step into something different. Seriously. This is a good CD…although all of Timbalands stuff sounds the same.
Highlights: My Love; What Goes Around; Damn Girl.

Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
I am a sucker for R & B music. Not Keith Sweat or D’Angelo (though I do love them also), but the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, etc. Amy Winehouse brings back rhythm and blues and adds her own twist to it. Though the content isn’t really great, at times it is hilarious and sad at the same time. Think Lauryn Hill with a major drug and alcohol problem that she brags about constantly.
Highlights: Rehab; Me and Mr. Jones; Addicted.

Robin Thicke – The Evolution of Robin Thicke
Yes, the son of Alan Thicke. This album was one of the smoothest albums I heard all year. He sings in his falsetto a lot showing that Robin Thicke was an obvious Prince fan. With the likes of Faith Evans, Lil Wayne, and Pharell showing up as some of the highlights how can one go wrong with these guests?
Highlights: Lost Without You, Would That Make You Love Me?; Wanna Love You Girl.

Ben Harper – Diamonds on the Inside
Folk Rock/Gospel/Funk. Could it get any better? I stayed away from this album for a while. I regret it now.
Highlights: When Its Good; Picture of Jesus; She’s Only Happy In The Sun

Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
Another band I tried to avoid, I tried to avoid DCFC simply to deter the hype of the Northwest, but I came to find out that I actually liked them. Great lyrics + Catchy melodies = unavoidably likeable. I tried not to conform. I really did!
Highlights: Marching Bands of Manhattan; Soul Meets Body; I Will Follow You Into the Dark.

Eva Cassidy – Song Bird, Live @ Blues Alley, Time after Time, and American Tune
All four albums are incredible. Eva died in 1996 of melanoma. She has one of the purest voices you will ever hear.
Highlights: Fields of Gold; Song Bird; Time after Time, and Aint No Sunshine

Copeland – In Motion
These guys made me believe in the magic of the hook again.
Highlight: Pin Your Wings

Jay-Z – Unplugged
Jay–Z + The Roots = awesome. If you are a fan of the Jigga Man and the roots this is a must listen. If you are a fan of just one of the two, it is still a must listen. If you are not a fan, this will turn you into one.
Highlights: Izzo (H.O.V.A.); Big Pimpin’; Jigga What, Jigga Who; Song Cry; I Just Wanna Love You.

Xavier Rudd – Solace
Literally a one man band, Xavier uses a Didgeridoo, Djembe, Lap Steel Guitar amongst his many instruments. A native Australian, Xavier is also an advocate for the Aborigines and who speaks and sings about the importance of their history and teachings in showing us how to preserve the land and the ocean.
Highlights: Let Me Be; Yirra Curl; No Woman, No Cry.

Jonny Lang – Turn Around
Liked him in the 90’s, but I liked Kenny Wayne Shepherd better. Where did Kenny Wayne Go? This album is full of Gospel, Funk and R & B. Great Album.
Highlights: The Other Side of the Fence; Thankful; That Great Day

Damian Marley – Welcome to Jamrock
Taking reggae to a different level. I think that his uncle would have been proud of this.
Highlights: The Master Has Come Back; All Night; Pimpa’s Paradise

The Roots – Game Theory
I LOVE THE ROOTS! I have loved them ever since I saw them open for Rage Against the Machine when Wu Tang got kicked off the tour. This album is a strange step away from their usual music but well worth a listen.

Did I forget any? What were some of your favorites?

ron

Community

2007-11-09T17:15:00.000-08:00

Just finished a book called "The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview". It was overall a great read and good insight into looking outside of ourselves and opening up to the world with the love of Christ. Here was a comment that really stuck to me about community:

The Community is God's means of empowering people. THe Christian community...should work for justice in political life. The church should be a place where the elderly and disbled contribute meaningfully. As a multidimenshional community, it should be a place where the arts are encouraged and aestetic life flourishes.

...the christian community should foster a responsible economic lifestyle which radically breaks with the narcissistic consumerism that surrounds it.

...when married people feel pressure to give up on their marriages as conflicts arise, the Christian community should provide a supportive and healing environment, perhaps even offering profesional assistance.

What makes the christian community Christian is its worship. A radical community, it subverts the dominant culture because it worships, serves and prays to a different God. It's worship sets teh pattern for its whold life. Rather than being conformed to the world, it is a community being trasformed by the renewing of its communal mind - its world view. Consequently its worship is not relegated to just liturgical activities, but it gives its whole life to God as a Sacrificial offering (Romans 12:1-2). Herin is the essence of a Christian cultural witness in a society in decline.

Worship beyond the church walls? Helping peopel inside and outside of your congregation? A place where everybody is welcome? Sarcasm aside, this book brought up many thoughts that I thought that I would share.

peace,
ron

Inspired.

2007-11-06T23:11:00.000-08:00

This song leaves me breathless lately. It's Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama singing Ben Harper's song "I Shall Not Walk Alone". Seriously...breathless.

We've Tried It Before...

2007-11-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

let's try it again. I've made a new Hot Tub Theology blog. Let's start discussing again!

ron

The Hour

2007-10-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

I've been talking a lot about the television show "The Hour with George Stromboulopoulos". It is one of the most culturally relevant shows on television right now. You need to go and watch some of the interviews that they have on there. If you still don't believe me, here is a snippet that I took from their website to describe the show:

The Hour is a national current affairs show on CBC television hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. It’s not a newscast. It’s not a magazine show. The Hour a different take on the news through the lens of George and company. While news shows cover the issues of the day, The Hour dissects the issues within the issues. Always unconventional. Often controversial. Never predictable.

The Hour has interviewed some of the most interesting and influential figures on the planet: from big thinkers like Al Gore, Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson, Lewis Lapham, David Suzuki and Deepak Chopra, to establishment shakers like Bob Geldof, Henry Rollins and Bono, to world-renowned musicians like Coldplay, the Foo Fighters, Ludacris, and The Killers.

Throw in a bunch of A-list actors like Ed Norton, Rachel Weisz, Matt Damon, Viggo Mortensen, Catherine O`Hara, Alan Rickman; add a Prime Minister - Stephen Harper, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, and you start to get a sense of the program. A different take on the news? You decide.

You can watch interviews with various people and if you miss a show you can watch entire shows.

enjoy!
ron

In Case You Missed It...

2007-10-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

Kurt left this in the comments section of one of my blogs. I've been thinking about this since I read it and have come to the conclusion that this is why I do not want to hold the title pastor in front of my name...because I don't do any of these things.

"One of my professors was talking with Gustavo Gutierrez before he became a prof, and when Gustavo heard he was going to teach theology he asked him "before you do that go and hold the hand of someone suffering in the hospital, pray with someone who is dieing, eat a meal with the poor" i thought this was profound, before we start talking about the gospel we better make sure we are entering into the suffering that God entered into, the greatest mysteries are never actually known or understood only experienced."

Thanks Kurt!

New Stuff

2007-10-23T17:19:00.001-07:00

Hey,

I added a couple new links to the side. Check em out. If you go to Spacebar 2000, my record is 45. It's the beauty of being a bass player.

ron

Questions About the New Era

2007-10-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

I am really struggling with the thought of production vs. worship. I've been seeing worship leaders oggling and blogging over churches like Hillsong/North Point/Willow Creek's production, and wishing they had that money/production quality. I wonder if that is really what it is all about? It seems like church is becoming a show and people continually want to do what they are doing. I know this is cliche to think or say, but it is so true. For decades now we have seen a shift in church and we are now in the middle of a new reformation.

During the first Reformation, theologians began to notice a shift where people were not worshipping because it was all entertainment. The songs were too hard to sing because they were in a different language and also because it was a huge production in this other language - really the only people who were attracted to church were people who understood Latin, were artists, or were musicians who could sing along with the songs. People like Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin began to take notice of this. They saw that people were disconnected from the church because they were not a part of it - there was no participation. These men saw that the gospel was bigger than what the Catholic Church had made it out to be. What it involved was the participation of the people - literally a liturgy or "work done by the people". Matt spoke about participation in relation to Paul Tillich over on his blog which he linked to Jordan Cooper.

Today, most people cannot remember a sermon beyond the weekend. It doesn't stick. It is the same with a lot of the songs that we sing; they are difficult to sing or filled with performance and solos. It is a disconnect to people. Maybe the things we sing and hear at church aren't memorable because they are just regurgitations of what we had sung or heard the week before. Most tell us how to love Jesus, but not why we love Jesus. We are given the steps to loving Jeus, but not the story of how we got to this point in Christianity. How dangerous it is that we are told to love Jesus, but not how to follow him.

So what is the answer to all of this? I don't know. That's the beauty of the bloggosphere is that we can pose questions or ideas and see if anybody else has any ideas. I wonder if educating people will help? Maybe helping people discover the Christian story that they are a part of. Talking about the narrative that is the bible. Maybe singing songs that explain what we believe and why. Hymns are a good example of this. If you read some, not all, of the "old hymns of the faith", some of them truly explain what we believe from everything from the trinity to the atonement to why jesus calls us to serve. These are just a couple of ideas, I'm sure there are tons of ideas. I'm just curious as to how we got to this point and how we can get out of it.

Barth Man

2007-10-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

I was reading a passage from a book I never read last semester, The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth. Though it is simply a commentary that Barth wrote in 1918, I find myself in many "Holy Crap" moments (some would call these "wow!" moments) while reading this book. I wanted to share this one because I've been really wrestling with trying to figure out where western culture went wrong in modernity. Where did we lose Jesus?

"The Gospel is not a religious message to inform mankind of their divinity or to tell them how they may become divine. The Gospel proclaims a God utterly distinct from men. Salvation comes to them from Him, because they are, as men, incapable of knowing Him, and because they have no right to claim anything from Him. The Gospel is not one thing in the midst of other things, to be directly aprehended and comprenended. The Gospel is the Word of the Primal Origin of all things, the Word which, since it is ever new, must ever be received with renewed fear and trembling.

The Gospel is therefore not an event, nor an experience, nor an emotion - however delicate! Rather, it is the clear and objective perception of what eye hath not seen nor ear heard. Moreover, what it demands of men is more than notice, or understanding, or sympathy. It demands participation, comprehension, co-operation; for it is a communication which presumes faith in the living God, and which creates that which it resumes."

I think that Barth hits one of the many nails on the head when he describes the Gospel that Paul is sharing. I can relate to what we are making the Gospel out to be. Maybe we are making it into an event when we reach to our personal saviors or when we have alter call, rather than trying to simply participate in the story that is the Gospel. Maybe the Gospel is walking with the broken and noticing those who are hurt along the way rather than trying to give them an experience only to walk away from it without having talked to them about what had happened. Any immediate thoughts come to mind?

Confession of Ministry

2007-09-28T16:27:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about the "call to ministry". So many times we are told that ministry is a calling, but this often makes me question if I am actually called to ministry. Am I supposed to be leading people in worship of any kind? I lead musical worship at Roosevelt Community Church, and I love expressing songs to God in new and different ways. I want to introduce people to worship in even more ways, but I sometimes come back to the question, "am i called to ministry?"

How can anyone really feel that they are called to ministry? I wonder if we went wrong when we began thinking that we had to be perfect in order to "work for Jesus". What I mean is, I wonder if we put such a high expectation on people as ministers that we forget that they are human - that they are just as susceptible to sin as anybody else. I have a relationship with God, but I find myself looking at women a little longer than I really should, not praying as much as I can, and sometimes even thinking thoughts of an extremely malicious and violent nature toward other people. I want a house and I secretly become jealous when at friends houses. I listen to and enjoy music that is degrading toward women, glorifies drugs and alcohol, but I tell kids not to listen to it. I want children but feel that I can't afford them and don't trust God enough that he will provide for me and my family. I have no other skills other than musician/warehouse worker, so what am I to do? Am I called to ministry?

What about a person qualifies them to be working at a church? is it their knowledge of Jesus and the Bible? is it their management skills? is it the way that they pray in prayer circles or on stage? I enjoy reading people like Kierkegaard, Barth, and Donald Miller more than I enjoy reading people like Paul, John, or Moses. I do have extensive knowledge about the Bible, but I don't read it as I have been taught in my enlightened circles; in fact, I read it quite differently than I have been taught. Maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe snippet scriptures will teach better than the narrative. I enjoy leading prayer through the book of common prayer or through scripture before trying to think of one of my own prayer off the top of my head. And also, I wonder if maybe managing people will build worshippers more than relational contact. Maybe by telling people to "feed themselves", this will bring them closer to their "personal Jesus" and save me time and allow me to manage people more thoroughly. I always thought that it was the heart of the person, not their administrative skills. Anyone who knows me, knows that administration is not my strong point - am I called to ministry?

I really do love working at a church, because it allows me to use my creativity for the glory of Jesus. With this, I am able to see people worship in new and different ways than they are used to. I am also allowed to challenge people to think about their faith and what they believe. I myself become so upset and feel ripped off sometimes because I've been told that Jesus is happy and clappy but never upset. I've been taught how to rejoice, but never how to mourn properly. I've been taught in my christian upbringing that Jesus saves but not what he saves me from exactly - am I called to ministry?

Maybe I'm too cynical for ministry. Maybe I question too much. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, but deep down inside I feel something telling me that I am totally wrong for the job. I feel these attacks on my heart saying, "you are really good at sinning and not good at teaching people to love jesus." I just feel the need to ask these questions once in a while. this is my confession of minstry.

Long Awaited Heresy

2007-07-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

Kurt said he missed my heretical thoughts. Here is a sermon I did a bit ago. Give it a listen and some feed back.

peace,
ron

haven't been here in a while

2007-06-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a lot to say lately, but I wanted to show you my friend ben's Survivor Audition.

...and that's why we have auditions.

2007-05-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Seriously, you need to watch the whole thing. It is more painful than funny (although I started to laugh toward the end) but at the same time I have to point out that people always ask why worship teams audition. Darryl shows us why.

Gimme My Props!!!

2007-05-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

I was talking with Monkey briefly about the idea of citing sources in talks. It's kind of a dilemma, because if these words are truly for God should they even be cited? I have heard quite a few talks where I know that they were given by somebody else. For Example, I heard a talk down at Mars Hill Seattle and came to bellingham and heard it at another church - almost word for word at points. And it makes me wonder (sure does) if we should be citing our sources. Should the church be giving the places where they recieve their talks from? If it is truly for the kingdom, should the author care when they find out that they were not cited? The same goes for worship music. We pay copyright fees and acknowledge writers, but if the song was written for God's glory, do they really need acknowledgment?

I understand the thought that we needs to get paid. I totally agree with this thought. Artists need to get paid for their art; this is why we have copyrights in the first place. I guess what I am trying to say is that if we are willing to acknowledge musical artists, shouldn't we acknowledge the spoken arts as well? Shouldn't the person using somebody else's words acknowledge the source it came from. My humanity wants it props - why should the other guy be termed a genius and I am not even seen - but my spirituality says, "to God be the Glory". It just sucks that my humanity is bigger than my spirituality sometimes.

I'm a Catholic!

2007-05-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

At least for the next three weeks I am. I am in a class in the catholic school at TWU. It is a class on Christian Moral Theology, and I love it. I found out what Utilitarianism is, and that some of my friends fall under this umbrella (I laughed anyways). I enjoy the class because we discuss social justice in both the Evangelical and Catholic perspective. We have two profs: one is an Anglican Priest who converted to Catholicism and the other is a Political Science/Sociology Teacher who is an Anabaptist. Awesome. I must say though, it is wierd to have the Pope and other Popes continually staring at you for three hours.

A Psalm of Sorts

2007-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Everything you have heard is backwards!
Turn all that you know around!
For our God is a God of mercy for all
He is a lover of the diseased
His Kingdom is filled with people you would not expect to see
His people are ugly in our enlightened eyes
The lame dance in his streets,
While the pious look on in disgust
The undesirable sit at His right hand,
And the religious cannot understand this settlement of sinners through grace
Financial offerings mean nothing to Him
Social status makes no matter
For His justice is for the poor
His favor is for the needy
God over all of our “gods”
Nothing compares to Him.

WOW!

2007-04-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

It seems that we have a lot of opinions on just war. I would have posted it on the Hot Tub, but I forgot the password. I have to make another hot tub. Here are a couple of interesting sides that I found on Just War:

When I think of a soldier fulfilling his office by punishing the wicked, killing teh wicked, and creating so much misery, it seems an un-christian work completely contrary to Christian Love. But when I think of how it protects the good and keeps and perserves wife and child, house and farm, property, and honor and peace, then I see how precious and godly this work is; and I observe that it amputates a leg or a hand, so that the whole body may not perish. For if the sword were not on guard to preserve peace, everything in the world would be ruined because of lack of peace. Therefore, such a war is only a brief lack of peace that prevents an everlasting and immeasureable lack of peace, a small misfortunce that prevents a great misfortune.
-Martin Luther

and on the other side:

The scriptures teach that there are two opposing princes and two opposing kingdoms: the one is teh Prince of peace; the other the prince of strife. Each of these princes has his paricular kingdom and as the prince is so is also the kingdom. The Prince of peace is Christ Jesus; His kingdom is the kindom of peace, which is His church; His messengers are the messengers of peace; His Word is the word of Peace; His children are the seed of peace; and His inheritance and reward are the inheritance and reward of peace. In short, with this King, and His Kingdom and reign, it is notheing but peace. Everything that is seen, heard, and done is peace.
-Menno Simons

I have to admit, Luther's thoughts begin to make sense to my humanity, but my spirituality is moved by Menno Simons. I feel that we are called as christians to be protectors of peace, but through violence is - like kurt said - like deep fried health food; it doesn't make sense. When Jesus was seized, Peter drew his sword and cut off an ear but Jesus stopped him and healed the soldier's ear. It was almost a reconciliation to keep peace.

what are your thoughts?

Peace

2007-04-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a friend of mine this past weekend about peace and how it fits into our Christian faith. I brought up the usual "Turn the other cheek" arguement, but he began asking if peace could come from peace, or do we need to physically fight for it? It was an interesting discussion to say the least, but I was wondering what you guys think about peace.

1. Can it (peace) be achieved without violence?

2. Biblically and theoretically, what is your position?

3. Right now, what is your position on this topic? Are we so sheltered from the rest of the world that it is so easy for us in the west to do nothing and so we just protest?

I want to know what you are thinking.

ron

Have a Happy Easter

2007-04-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

...or else the kid gets it.

Slow Down

2007-04-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters"
-Psalm 23: 1-2 (NIV)

"Slow down everyone you're moving too fast
Frames can't hit you when you're moving like that..."
-Jack Johnson "Brushfire Fairytales"

I've come to the conclusion that I am on the go too much. I hate this time of school because I am so rushed with papers and finals. I am sick right now (I think due to school, church work,and hanging out with kids), and even though I am sick I am still working. In the Psalm, I found it interesting that it says "He makes me lie down in green pastures". It is the thought of forcing you to slow down, much like a shepherd would for his flock in the middle of the day. It's finding rejuvenation in a quiet,tranquil and serene place. I found this video of a beach just a walk up the way from my favorite beach in the world, Kailua Beach.

As we are entering into one of the most busiest times of Church work, Easter, we need to take ten minutes out of the day and just relax. Watch this video and just escape for a little time. rejuvenate.

"There are two types of Mormons: Later Day Saints and Later Day 'aints".

2007-03-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today I had a visit from the mormons. It was pretty interesting. We talked for a while, but usually when I tell them that I work at a church and also study christianity and culture at TWU they back down. This didn't happen today. It was interesting because I was asking them about how they felt about their beliefs and they were very open with me. I really appreciated our conversation actually. What I want to tell them is I want to be their friend not their project. I want to hang out with Jerry the person, not "Elder Jerry" the missionary. I also want to know more about the magic underwear. Minus the magic underpants, maybe this is how people feel about us Christians.

While researching my new friends and their faith, I came across this video. I thought that it was ridiculous and funny. It looks like "superfriends" meets propaganda. Don't worry, I am still a christian. I loves me some Jesus and I love my neighbor, even if their beliefs are different than mine. Now if only I could meet a true buddhist like Merton.

Playing Catch Up...

2007-03-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, so I'll catch you up on the going on's in the life of Ron:

- Getting ready to write papers and take finals. One of my papers is going to be called, "The Kingdom is at Hand and You Won't Believe Who's There". It will be about who is really "in" the kingdom of Heaven. If you have any resources, I would like to borrow them. So far I have Kraybill's "the upside down kingdom", McLaren's "the secret message..." (would like to use "generous orthodoxy" if you have it), and some Gustavo Gutierrez writings.

- Writing more papers. One on the verse, "Be Still and know that I am God": is it a meditation, or is God speaking out against the war that is going on? Another on Kierkegaard (the shizness), and one that's due next week on something that I have no idea what to write about.

- Signed up for classes. Summer classes will be 1)Moral Christian Theology and 2)Digital Recording. Fall Classes will be 1) Catholic Spirituality in the Modern World, 2) Contemporary Christianity, 3) Developing a Christian Worldview, 4)Sociology of Religion, 5) Popular Physics and 6) Basketball.

- After taking these classes, my chances of graduating in december are good to great.

- Going through the rocky quintology before I watch Rocky Balboa again. Also watching scrubs through netflix.

- listening to Van Morrison. Why didn't anybody tell me about this guy before...well one of my prof's did, but he's kind of a tool.

- Will be planting Roosevelt Community Church on Easter. A day of new beginnings and liberation. Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty we're free at last.

- trying to get in shape again. Lost 15 pounds in a month. It's my once a year thing I do. I'll probably stop at the end of the summer again only to start again in the new year.

How are you doing?

ron

Faceless Love

2007-02-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

This one is going to rabbit trail a bit...I'm stuck on this thought of a faceless love. What is tripping me up is the thought that once you've put a face to love it is no longer love but just a form of affection. I say I love my wife, but is it true love or is it that we wear rings that say that we love each othere and we also said it in front of a bunch of friends? That being said, do I truly love her? I know everything about her, but now I have a face on that love! Where is the mystery? Of course I love Cynthia, but is it simply an earthly love? If there were no identity to this love, would this love be even more? I wonder this about my love for Christ also.

When I think about Jesus, I have a face on him. He is attractive, white, and quite honestly a bit effeminate. I picture the jesus in the picture at your grandma's house. I wonder if by putting this face on him if my love is skewed in any way? There is no mystery. With this face put on Jesus, now I have a saviour that I can understand. It's the thought of iconification in which once we have a face on someone or something, we make them into whatever we imagine them to be.

This makes me sad because I wonder if since Ive been living with this icon of jesus in my head, have I ever truly loved "Jesus"? I've had plenty of girlfriends of whom I told that I love, but today I never talk to or about any of them - they are only a memory. If I stopped following the Jesus I know today, would I still love him ten years from now? Would I miss him, or would he be like my girlfriends and become one of those we don't speak of?

Maybe Jesus and I need to go to marriage counselling and reconnect so that the mystery will come back. Maybe it is simply that I need to find the mystic Jesus that nobody really "knows", much like the Orthodox church. I don't want to become one of those guys who simply worships christ because it is cool, but instead is worshipping because God is with us. I wonder if Jesus' humanity is what is killing the church because now that there is a face on him, we can control him. "if our god is for us, than who can be against us"? Now Jesus works for us instead of us working for him.

thoughts?

A Couple of Emergent Thoughts...

2007-02-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been having a discussion with people regarding the "emergent" church. It's a funny concept really. Ive been reading Peter Rollins "How (not) to Speak of God" (which I think would be fun to discuss in the hot tub soon), and I've been enjoying it because he makes it clear that the emergent church is not a church or denomination - which some people try to make "emergent" churches into - but instead is a dialogue. Dialogue is the buzzword for the emergent crowd, which I think is overused but we it's hard to find another word, that describes what is going on in the movement rather than what they are all about.

He speaks on faith versus theology and I must admit that my eyes were opened at this thought. Faith is the experience of God, while theology is the reflection on the experience. This opened my eyes, because so many times I find my self reflecting on God rather than experiencing Him. Rollins went on to discuss the thought of our reflections becoming an idol that we have built.

"The arguement is made that naming God is never really naming God but only naming our understanding of God. To take our ideas of the divine and hold them as thy correspond to the reality of God is thus to construct a conceptual idol built from the materials of our mind."

This was on page 2 of the book. This is why we need to bring this book to the Hot Tub. I feel like there will be a lot of discussion forming from this book.

Peace,
ron

PS - New post at the Hot Tub

Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here's what Valentines day is based on. It may not be just a hallmark holiday!

"In the third century, the Roman Empire was ruled by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. He was nicknamed Claudius the Cruel because of his harsh leadership and his tendency for getting into wars and abusing his people. In fact, he was getting into so many wars during the third century that he was having a difficult time recruiting enough soldiers.

Claudius believed that recruitment for the army was down because Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families behind, so he canceled all marriages and engagements in Rome. Thousands of couples saw their hopes of matrimony dashed by the single act of a tyrant. And no one seemed interested in standing up to the emperor.

But a simple Christian priest named Valentine did come forward and stood up for love. He began to secretly marry soldiers before they went off to war, despite the emperor’s orders. In 269 AD Emperor Claudius found out about the secret ceremonies. He had Valentine thrown into prison and deemed that he would be put to death.

As Valentine was awaiting execution, he fell in love with a blind girl, who happened to be the jailers daughter. On the eve of his execution, with no writing instruments available, Valentine is said to have written her a sonnet in ink that he squeezed from violets. Legend has it that his words made the blind woman see again. It was a brief romance because the next day Valentine was clubbed to death by Roman executioners.

St. Valentine gave his life so that young couples could be bonded together in holy matrimony. They may have killed the man, but not his spirit. Even centuries after his death, the story of Valentine’s self-sacrificing commitment to love was legendary in Rome. Eventually he was granted Sainthood and the Catholic Church decided to create a feast in his honor. They picked February 14 as the day of celebration because of the ancient belief that birds (particularly lovebirds, but also owls and doves) began to mate on that very day."

Don't forget to get a card for your lady friend. Hope you Valentines Day is filled with Sweet Love Making and Chocolate.

Peace,
ron

I Go To an Ugly Church

2007-02-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was leading the singing part of our church and I looked out at the congregation and realized what an ugly bunch of people I lead. We have people who have marital problems, drinking problems, learning problems, sexual problems, people who have and/or are very open about their psychiatric problems, and people who are either "semi-homeless" or actually homeless who come to our church. We have the socially awkward, the socially inept, socially abandoned, and the socially weak. We have people who have lost their children to the state, have lost their spouses to disease, lost their lives to infidelity, "almost" had chidren out of wedlock or actually had their child out of wedlock - all come to our church. We have hippies, bankers, annoying people, liars, free loaders, slanderers, and gossips. We also have the poor, the marginal, the middle class, and the poorest by our standards. Now you are probably saying "Welcome to ministry Ron, We have these people in my church also", but the beauty of this weekend is that I realized that I know them by name.

I know all of these people who by the standards we have been given are considered ugly. Then there is me. I am the ugliest because I see these things. But now I've realized that these things that are ugly about them are the most beautiful part. It is the thought of them coming to Roosevelt Community Church to find someone who loves them and knowing that this person is Jesus. Some come to church because they feel that this is what good people do, but others come because jesus has begun healing them of their ugliness.

As I led the congregation in singing, I began thinking that this is what heaven is probably going to look like. Sorry, but I truly believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is not going to be a pretty place. We like to imagine that it will be, but I really believe that it is going to be one giant ugly place. Jesus spoke about this when he told the story about the King who threw a party. None of the pretty people showed up and when he sent his servants to remind the pretties, the servants were either told that the pretty people were too busy or the servant was killed. This is when the King told them to invite any who will come. I believe that the hopeless will make it into the Kingdom before the hopeful - better yet, the ugly will make it before the beautiful simply because the beautiful see the ugliness and decide that that is not for them. We are all drawn toward the attractive - it's true. We like the attractive things about culture - music, fashion, film, literature - but recently I've been gravitating toward the ugly. I've been leaning toward the broken before the fixed. I've seen the attractive and it is very inviting, but the ugly seems to be more real to me.

My church is ugly. As a worship leader, I point them in the direction of the One who sees them and makes them beautiful. I love it.

Artistically Cruel

2007-02-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

“For anyone to love a man, he must be hidden, for as soon as his face is shown, love is gone.” - Dostoevsky

I finished the Grand Inquisitor the other day and came away with the thought of "artistically cruel". Dostoevsky used this term to describe the ways that the Turks were torturing people, but I can see it used by Christians.

Christians are called to love God and love others even if they don't like them. The funny thing is that we are so quick to "help" other Christians when they stumble. It is artistically cruel because our accountability is a wonderful act but it is done with the wrong intentions. We love to call others out on their sins, which is a needed thing, but we love to call them out on their actions that are very public and wrong. What about the sin of not hanging out with their family enough? What about the sin of over loading thier schedule? We seem to only focus on the juicy stuff - the really good sins. Artistically cruel.

I love the truth inside Dostoevsky's quote above. Love must be a faceless love in order to truly be love. What if our faith is not "true" love, because we have put a face on teh God who loved us first? What if the Jesus of our agenda is not faceless anymore, so therefore we just love ourselves. Artistically Cruel. We take this love, this perfect and powerful love, and we lose it because we can picture the one who gives it to us. What if this is our "personal Jesus"?

thoughts?

PS- Our Friend Rob has joined the blogging world over at ADD Theology. I can't wait to see what he has to say. Check him out on my newly alphabetized blog list. God doesn't play favorites, so neither will I...until someone donates money toward my guitar fund.

Two Amazing Movies That I Saw

2007-02-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I watched two movies that I loved: Little Miss Sunshine and Favela Rising.

It seems cliche to say that I liked Little Miss Sunshine, because everybody who watches The Office (american version) loves it simply because Steve Carrell is in it. The reason I liked the movie is that it shows a broken family. It's the realism of this movie that captivated me. There is a father who is laying unbelievable amounts of pressure on his family to be "winners", a mother who is ready to quit the family, a grandpa who is a heroin addict, the wife's brother who is a gay professor who attempted suicide because of his lover leaving him for his nemesis, a son who hates so much that he decides to not talk to him, and a daughter who is not "beauty pageant" material, but is accepted into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. I would say, if I had to compare the movie, that Little Miss Sunshine was like National Lampoons Vacation only darker and hits closer to home with dysfunction and what is happening to some of today's families (though not the exact same problems).

Favela Rising is a documentary showing a ghetto in Brazil. Here is a story of a favela (ghetto) run by drug lords and dirty cops, and a guy who's brother was murdered by the cops decides to do something positive instead of sinking deeper into the world of the drug lords. He starts a music group which sings about what is going on in his neighborhood. They begin gaining the respect of the neighbors because of their positive impact and message, and even gain respect of the drug lords. They begin the Afro Reggae movement and even begin teaching kids how to play the drums. This is what was so impactful about this movie for me. I began wondering what I have to offer the kids in my neighborhood. What could keep some of them focused and away from the drug scene? This movie really challenged me to think "what am I doing to make a positive ding in the Roosevelt Neighborhood". This is a dangerously inspirational movie. If you've got Netflix, flick it now.

Hot Tub Theology - the blog!

2007-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

We've seen Jesus Camp, now let's discuss...

book mark it on your sites.

peace,
ron

Interesting article

2007-01-31T10:27:00.000-08:00

here is an article I read from Sam's friend/mentor, Wade Hodges.

This article is an interesting look at a "come and see" (numerically driven) church moving into the role of a "go and do" (gospel driven) church, and I felt is a glimmer of hope for the direction of church and the gospel.

peace,
ron

jesus camp showing

2007-01-29T13:36:00.000-08:00

Just letting you all know, that I will be watching Jesus Camp at my place at 12:00 Noon on Friday, February 2nd. All five of you who read this can come. Actually, you must come. Until then, here is another video to keep you entertained until then.

Hot Tub Theology

2007-01-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

For all of you Hot Tub theologians, I got the movie "Jesus Camp", and we need to set up a time to see it. It really depends on you, because my schedule is pretty open. Until we figure this out, here is the trailer for you to see.

Matthew 21:32

2007-01-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

"Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him."

I'm still wrestling with the thought of the kingdom of God.

What about this guy?

And what about the guy in this song?

Lyrics to "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." By Sufjan Stevens

His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's T-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took of all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss
On the mouth

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid

what about this guy...

and what about this "monster"?

It seems that we've written them all off as not being in the kingdom or not having a chance to even meet or reconcile with God. But this is the black and white world of christendom that I was talking about earlier. It is the black and white world which tells us who is going to heaven and who is not. I think it begins with knowing God and realizing that we are children of God first. After this, we need to realize that everybody else is a child of God, and then asking them if they believe they are hurting others through their actions. The Kingdom is not cut and dry, but instead it is very complicated and hard to understand. I don't know, I'm rambling now. what do you think?

Brokenness is what we long for?

2007-01-22T16:16:00.000-08:00

It's the thought of brokenness that confuses me as a christ follower. If we are truly broken, then why do we feel that others need to be saved before we do (remember to invite your coworkers and neighbors to friend day...but not the homeless or the drugdealers - that's too far out there)? Jesus tells us that the prostitutes and tax collectors will make it into the kingdom before we will. It's because they are broken. They realize that they are not worthy to even hang out with Jesus, but he still wants them. Jesus is the king of the "losers"! These are the people he longs to be with.

I wonder if where we went wrong is when we began mistaking the gospels for our morality. It's like we've taken the thought that we are made in the image of God to mean that we are to be God himself - pure, perfect, and above everybody else. Our quest for holiness has fogged our vision so that we don't see others and in the end, our morality has trumped out faith. But our moraily is far deeper than faith; doesn't God want faith before virtue?

Kierkegaard, my current favorite theologian/philosopher, showed this when he spoke about Abraham. He talked about how Abraham was about to act on God's call to murder his son, and he does this out of faith - his virtue of not killing another is nowhere to be found, but his faith is clearly there. How freaky would it be if God had asked you to kill your son to show your love and faith in YHWH? But Abraham did so with tears rolling down his face, I imagine, and God stopped Abraham because he saw this faith - Abraham was broken but still faithful. He was willing to give it all up to God.

Sam asked, "What is good worship". It's a pretty open ended question for sure, but I believe that what we are talking about is the first step into "good worship" - worship that is pleasing to God - this idea that we are broken and no better than anybody else or that there are no second class citizens. Good worship is the realization that we are all on the same level, on the same earth, with the same God, and with same problem: our morality. To some this sounds a lot like the social Gospel, to others it may sound similar to communism, but to me this is the Kingdom of God. You can find this kind of worship in Alcoholics Anonymous. Could you imagine a faith community built upon authenticity (sarcasm implied)? What if the AA steps were an intro class into your church or ministry - knowing that you are not any better than anybody else on that stage or in that congregation (I know that Christ the King church in Bellingham offered it at one point in time).

The rich young ruler was almost there. He told Jesus that he was a follower of YHWH and obeyed his rules, but in the end he couldn't give up his securities (his possesions). It's the brokenness that Jesus was looking for and the realization of what the ruler was truly following; this is how we've been taught to look at this passage, but what if he would have said "Okay" to selling his possesions? What would Jesus have said next? I wonder if he would have kept finding other things in his life and would have kept going from there until the ruler finally went away sad? Jesus was searching for his brokenness and a realization that brokenness is beyond what we are comprehending in Christ. The Kingdom of God is a love for other people, not other things.

What do we see in today's Church though? The happy christendom where everybody is striving to achieve the norms given to us by the culture and the church! People are being told how to be good christians and good americans and how to be "normal". It is this aesetic which numbs to the point of no differences, and in the end we all look and act the same. The anaesetic? Where is it? What will wake us up? Where is the pill that will make us see? When will we realize what makes us a "real boy or girl"? What will take away the numbing and help us realize that we are still striving for the same thing as the rest of the world? I think it could be the realization of sin and the color that it brings to our black and white world. The realization of our sin is beautiful because it is the brokenness that we long for.

seriously...simpsons rule.

2007-01-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

Influential Christian Thinkers

2007-01-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Kurt and I are both in Influential thinkers together. It is a long class (6:00-9:30). If you don't like "rabbit trails" within conversations, this class would drive you nuts. During our break, Kurt and I walked out in a sort of daze and asked "what the nuts was he talking about?".

We discussed Abolition of Man and now the book is starting to take shape. I'm actually enjoying it a little more, but this seems like a book tht you would have to discuss or else you are screwed. The prof kept quoting Nietzche, Plato, Augustine, and Aristotle along side the book. Matt would be excited, because we will be discussing Heidegger next week.

My Christianity and Culture class is the balls. I'm pretty much finished with "Myth of a Christian Nation". It was an interesting book. The premise of the book is that it looks at Christianity and thier involvement in war and conflict, and how un-christian that is. Basically throughout christian history, beginning in the third and fourth century with Constantine's conversion, christianity has been involved with war in some way. From the reformation to the New World to many of today's conflicts within the last 15 years, Christianity has been involved. There was a wonderful quote describing christianity and their actions saying,

"love is patient and kind; enslaving and torturing people is neither. Love is never rude; burning people alive is. Love does not insist on its own way and is not irritable or resentful when others disagree; compelling people to agree with you by using force is the direct antithesis. Love doesn't rejoice in wrongdoing, even if (especially if) those rejoicing credit God, who supposedly gave them the power to do it. Love bears all things while believing the best in others and hoping the best for others; imprisoning, enslaving, and killing others inthe name of your religious views is not bearing their burdens, believing the best about them, or hoping the best for them."

Hmmm. Interesting thought. I wonder if we christians have lost our voice in our culture? With our ugly past and loss of imagination, how does christianity regain a voice in culture without trying to take it over? We already took america away from one culture, and now it seems that the church rallies around the battle cry to "take back america for God". I don't think that christians want to take back america for god, but instead for Christians. It's like we are striving for everybody to think like us because we can't stand to be around non christians. How many times do christians get excited to find out that somebody of some kind of importance is christian (sports stars, both popular and unknown musicians, doctors and nurses, presidents of a country, etc.). It's like the spirit is thought to move more through these people rather than ourselves and brings us closer to christian thought by changing laws, thoughts and sports.

I'm rambling. I'll stop. Let me know what you think.
ron

disappointed

2007-01-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

I finished reading "the abolition of Man" yesterday. All I can say is, "I don't get it". I mean I understood most of it, but there were times I would be reading it and literally feel my eyes begin to glaze over. I thought that this was supposed to be Lewis' best work! I didn't feel that way about it. It seemed like a bunch of big words given for the sake of using a bunch of big words. At least it wasn't a big book to read.

Now reading: Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory Boyd. Just started this one. Seems pretty interesting, but usually when you agree with the premise of the book it turns out pretty interesting.

I added my friend Colin Potts to the mix. Check out his blog. He's trying to keep up with it on the regular, plus he started a blog called "Books that don't suck" that never got past one post.

Peace,
ron

School is in...

2007-01-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

and I get to buy new books!

Here are some of the books for my future reading fun:

(Influential thinkers of the Twentieth Century)
Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis
Pensees - Blaise Pascal
Confessions - Augustine
On Christian Doctrine - Augustine
Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner - Frederich Nietzche
Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegaard
The Present Age - Soren Kierkegaard
Technology and Justice - ???
Closing of the American Mind - Bloom
Epistle to the Romans - Karl Barth

Then in my other class:

(Christianity and Culture)
Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard - W.H. Auden
Myth of a Christian Nation - Gregory Boyd
A Peculiar People - Clapp
The Grand Inquisitor - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Secret Message of Jesus Christ - Brian McLaren
Geneology of Morals - Frederich Nietzche
How (not) To Speak to God - Peter Rollins

I also have a class on Psalms and the Wisdom books, the History of Christianity from the reformation up to the present and my music theory class. This semester will be filled with a lot of reading and paper writing. I'm excited for that and I feel nerdy about it. Oh well.

peace,
ron

New Look and New Thoughts

2006-12-15T16:54:00.000-08:00

While I am on christmas break, I was cruising around and decided to change the look of my blog. Unfortunately, all my links were erased. Blasted technology.

I stole a link off of monkey's blog, "propheteering". Interesting stuff.

Today I was reading T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" and found this:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death?
There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

This thought of birth being filled with agony for them...I wonder if it was the waking up or realization of the new born king that built this agony, and then to return to your old life and see what was happening around them - it seems that the Magi were even more aware of this transformation. Of course this is poetry and everybody will have a different opinion except for the author.

Enjoy the Advent Season.

ron

Finally Done

2006-12-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

...For now. I still have a year at TWU. Yep, a year from now, I will be trying to figure out where to go for a vacation, but for now I just break for the winter. Just finished a paper on the need for the prophetic voice in the contemporary church. Now I just study for a couple of finals and write a paper on the movie "big fish" and how it relates to apologetics and my life is on holiday.

Here is what I plan on doing on my break. A few of my friends wanted to start a group called "hot tub theology", but instead it kind of fell through. My plan is to take this group and start a "film theology" group for 6 weeks to see what it will look like. In this group we will read works of theologians and philosophers and then comparing them to movies and discussing this. I think that the movie is much like the modern day parable. the discussion group is not new by any means, but I think it may be fun.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
ron

~different thoughts~

2006-11-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

***Warning: This may sound crazy and even heretical at times, but this is what I've been thinking about.***

I am writing a paper on Gay Marriage, arguing from the point that marriage in today's culture is not sacred, what with the ease of divorce and adultery in today's society, why shouldn't same sex marriage be allowed. THe funny thing is, though I think that SSM should be allowed, I would not perform a SSM if I was a religious leader of somekind. From my own moral standpoint, I see that it is wrong, but I am not going to condemn them for it. Pretty contradictory, huh? I guess I wonder, "what if marriage was viewed as a civil ceremony rather than a religious, would it then be okay?"

This is where I stand at a crossroad. Is SSM truly wrong? Christians quote scriptures from the Old Testament condemning gay relations, and then we can argue that Jesus brought a new covenant which erased the law of the old testament. ANd when Christians quote Paul in Romans 1:18-19; 22-23, what if paul is saying that you should either choose to be gay or not, but don't flounder between the lines (hot or cold, not luke warm). Be faithful to one person, not many.

Side note:
I began thinking about the Samaritan woman during this process. Here she was, viewed as a samaritan - only half of a human being. Sucked to be her, but isn't this how we view homosexuals today? What about the African Americans from the time of Slavery until only recently when we ended segregation (or at least attempted to). WHat about women? Since the beginning of time women have been oppressed by men, and only recently have had the hand that holds them down lightly lifted for them to breathe. I think that in about 50 years same sex marriage will be legal, the gay community will be more accepted by western culture, and instead of a lifestyle they will be viewed more as a minority.

ron

paper questions

2006-11-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

I am getting ready to write a paper for my Apologetics class. I am thinking about writing about Apologetics seen as a literal apology rather than a defense of the faith. I was inspired by Donald Millers, "Blue Like Jazz" confessional tent he set up. My only thing is that this is my only resource. Does anybody have any suggestions?

ron

Top 5

2006-10-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Top 5 American Rock albums and runners up:
Almost all iconic rock bands are from europe or recorded their major alvums in Europe (even Hendrix). Here is a list of my top 5 american rock albums and the runners up after them.

1)Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
-The album that started the movement.

2)Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
-"Don't let anyone know that you don't own blonde on blonde!"

3)Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
-Quintessential Americana? After listening, I agree.

4)Nevermind - Nirvana
-If kurt cobain had lived, would Nirvana have been so influential? No, but this album began a new movement in rock itself. A classic and a monster.

5)Ramones - Ramones
-Tired of all the other music out there, these guys started their own genre. Genius.

The runners up:

The Doors - The Doors
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Hotel California - the Eagles
Harvest - Neil Young
Appetite for Destruction - Guns n' Roses

I Was Hit by a Car...

2006-09-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

...and I live to tell about it. Yesterday as I was riding my bike home from Cornwall Church, coming down Northwest by the baptist and lutheran church, I was hit by a car who was trying to get on the road. The paramedics came, but I was alright. I just had a banged up knee. I was sitting there for about an hour or so with police and paramedics, answering questions and what not, and then I got on my bike and rode home. Seriously, it was crazy but I am okay. RIght now, I'm icing my knee and watching Magnum P.I.. Don't worry about me, but if you would like to know more, we can go for coffee and I will tell you about this latest adventure.

ron

The Kingdom of Heaven is like...

2006-09-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God with his parable of the Prodigal Son. I guess I never really noticed the part of the Son who was angry, because it really stuck out to me the other day. It was the part where he refers to the Prodigal as "your son" and the father comes back with the thought that "it is not his son in there, but your Brother".
There are always going to be people who I don't get along with or don't necessarily like, but Jesus calls us to love our neighbors. In Luke 6 he chooses his disciples and then goes straight into the blessings and woes and how we should treat each other then what we as christians should surround ourselves in (good fruit) and then how to live this life. As I read the Prodigal son I began to realize that the Kingdom of Heaven is not filled with God's children but my Christian brothers and sisters of whom I have no right to judge.

a post???

2006-09-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I would post this little nugget for all two of you who read this blog. It's a long one, but easy to read:

The Loving Church
With the question of relevance looming in the church, the question that stands is this: Is the worship service for reaching the seeker or feeding the believer? Worship is centered on Christians seeking their God with loving hearts, but Worship Evangelism can show the irreligious Christ’s love through the religious congregations actions, helping them understand and grow to know this God that they are seeing worshipped. Does the church have to cater their worship service solely to reach out with love to the seeker? Maybe instead they try to “keep it real” for the believers and not water down their traditions with a quick fix, or even try not to limit the service to the church building and extend worship outside the walls of the service. Looking at these three thoughts, enables a deeper exploration into the actions behind worship evangelism and who it is accommodating in the act of praising God.
“I can do all things through Christ who gives strength.” Here is an example of a Christian crutch of scripture which has helped Christians throughout history when dealing with the hard subjects of life. Christians believe this scripture to their Christian cores and give it away freely to each other as advice and an easy answer, but when it comes to the chance that they may offend the seeker by the way they are worshipping, they suddenly forget this verse. Christians have come to believe that God can speak to people through a donkey and a burning bush but cannot speak through their worship practices, and instead opt to show God’s love with consideration toward the seeker by not making them uncomfortable. In doing so, the church has set limitations on God and the way He can move in people’s lives and have forgotten that the measure of a true worshiper is not the length of historical tradition or the height of his hands above his head, but instead the depths of the love in his heart for the father.
If Christians truly believe that God can do anything, including move mountains, then it is time for them to take God out of the box. Christians have limited God in worship and thus returned to the thought of worshipping catering to them rather than God. Sally Morganthal reminds the church, in her book Worship Evangelism, that Christians should worship to witness because worship is witness, and that seekers can be changed through authentic corporate worship; therefore, the church does not have to water down the service in order to help seekers meet God. Instead, Christians need to extend God’s grace, because God does not want seekers to just see worship but He longs for them to become worshippers. When Christians come to worship, they acknowledge God’s presence, but must remember they do not come from “outside” where they live to “inside” where God lives, for God’s presence reaches beyond the walls of the church building.
The goal of Worship Evangelism isn’t exclusive worship services for believers only; it is a cry against attracting people with weakened worship, and instead building faith in the attendants through worship - it is a call for the church to be a church for the world’s sake; not entertaining or superficial but proclaiming the splendor of God, not the church’s feelings about Him. This is the chance to introduce the seeker to Christendom by teaching the language, habits and grammar of the church’s worship which requires faithfulness and reliance on God, rather than a dependence on the spectacle of the service. Worship is the work of believers; it is intriguing, even magnetic, to those who do not yet claim Jesus as Lord.
Christians need to remember that worship is an act for God done by the people and this is what they should focus on. There was the idea earlier about the thought of a God without limits but a common misnomer of the church is that they have limited their worship within the walls of the church. What about what Paul spoke about in the beginning of this paper in Romans 12:1 - offering ourselves as living sacrifices? Evangelism should be the work of all the people of the church, not the worship service; therefore, how will people know the Christian God if the church confines itself to the building without becoming proactive in society and sharing the love that Christ has for all his children?
Worship is thought to be for the spiritually hungry – people who are starving for truth. If the seeker has come to the church building seeking truth, then what right does the church have to deny them what they are looking for? Worshiping God without limitations places the congregation of worshippers on the same level – they are all at the foot of the cross together and none can boast of anything. By being on the same level, the seeker is able to learn from the example of the mature worshipper, and what God looks like in a Christian light.
The mega church has embraced this idea of worshipping on the same level, believer and non believer side by side, but in the process they have traded their theology for ideology. While attempting to be relevant to popular culture, the mega church has dropped the idea they still need to be counter cultural or as Marva Dawn had labeled it – alternative yet parallel to contemporary culture. Worship that entertains an audience instead of praising God is certainly contrary to this substantive purpose. Christians are called to be a body of people sent on a mission to speak into the culture, but in the process the contemporary church has adapted to it. With this loss of identity within the church through seeker services, not only is the church theology and doctrine weakened, but also the participant. By gaining identity, the Christian believer is able to share their faith more lovingly and boldly.
Most Christians do not share their faith because they feel that they are not skilled enough, they don’t have Christian friends, and they have been given a bad name by the sleazy preachers on TV. With these common excuses, among many, not to share our faith it is a wonder that Christians are called evangelists in the first place. Marva Dawn suggests that these excuses bring up the thought that “maybe we are religious consumers ourselves” – maybe Christians do not understand worship evangelism themselves. If a selfish, consumer filled church is all that the world sees, how will true Worship Evangelism ever happen? A better question to Worship Evangelism is this: If the “loving church” closed its doors and became a mini mall instead, would the world that once surrounded this church ever notice?

Alanis was right yet again...

2006-08-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

I went to a Leadership conference this past week expecting to hear dribble and non sense, but I left amazed and inspired to change the world. I was pleasantly amused by people who I don't really care for and people who I felt had nothing to say to the church. I laughed as every speaker was speaking straight into the heart of the church and it felt like nobody was listening. I felt that it was ironic at the same time because everything they were saying that the church (or buisnesses) should look at doing, a lot were not doing at all. I was inspired to think and pray. I prayed for future leaders who are being brought up int he church and current leaders who are hopefully going to begin investing. I prayed for God's guidance in my own direction. I hope that God will enable me to attend and work with a community that I will know and not a congregation which looks like a sea of unfamiliar faces which I currently work. I don't want to be famous, I just want to introduce peace into my community and spread it into the world.

pearl jam thoughts

2006-07-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

I went to see Pearl Jam at the gorge this past month. It pretty much rocked. It was 103 degrees and the beauty of the Gorge defined God’s goodness as it always does. As the concert had started and the band played well into their set, I stood sweating amongst the hordes of people throughout the concert wondering what God will say to Pearl Jam’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder, when he dies. As he stood up on stage and performed in front of 20,000 people, he did not say anything about peace or love or joy although he did speak about wine a little. I was not expecting a Christian message by any means, but with the ears of 20,000 fans listening to his every word I had hoped for a mission of some sort for the droves of Pearl Jam allegiance to set out on after the concert.
This is where I began to think to myself, “Do we as Christ followers do this?” Are we using our influence as the church to speak into society? The church used to be the most influential part of society, speaking into what happens and why. Now it seems that the bride of Christ’s arms and legs have been cut off only to lie down and let the river of pop culture dictate where it will go.
Though we as cornwall church do not have the opportunity to speak into the lives of tens of thousands of people in a single night, we do have people around us that we can influence. People consistently look to the Christian life to see what we do or say, but it is up to us to pray that God will give us the words and actions that will properly speak into their lives and help them find what they are looking for. I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us as worship leaders to reconnect the limbs of Christ’s body and speak into people’s lives leading them to hope and appreciation of the life they have been given and the life that God gave for them.

Ron, what have you been up to this summer?

2006-07-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been busy with summer type activities. I have been running the middle school group at Ray of Hope - a camp for socially and financially challenged kids -, working at the church, and playing softball.

This past sunday I realized why I don't play in a church league. We played against a church, and in the midst of having our butts handed to us, they continually mocked and made jokes at my team. Needless to say, I was pissed. I joined a rec league so that I could meet people outside of the church and let them know that God loves them and the people of his church do also, but here we were playing a church team who were doing the exact opposite and all the "progress" (for lack of a better term) I made with my team being taken away. It sucked, because the people on my team don't go to church because most of them don't see God in the christians of this world...and so it continues. Deep inside, I wanted to go tell this team exactly what they were doing, but I didn't because I am a wussy with a p.

crap.

Tim Ansorge

2006-06-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Tim died on thursday morning at 1:25 a.m. after a year long battle with Melanoma. Sucky, but thinking about where he is is baffling to me. I was sitting in the funeral today wondering what he was doing today, and then I began wondering if there is even "time" in heaven. Is there lunch time in heaven? Is there a schedule of some kind? Is there sleep, because we all learn in sunday school that we get to do what we like most in heaven...sleep is mine.

Tim was a sarcastic, dry, hilarious, caring man of God. He loved his family and friends, and he loved Jesus. He made new musicians at cornwall church feel welcome and old ones feel like brothers and sisters. I will miss Tim. We had a lot of laughs together and a lot of tears. He truly lived by God's word, and embraced it with everything he had. He also knew the meaning of Hawaii's "spirit of Aloha", and continually lived by it in his interactions with strangers.

I was honored to sing at his funeral today, but more so, I was amazed to see old relationships begin to be rekindled. It never ceases to amaze me how in the midst of pain and hurt, God still shows up and is able to show us how he will continue to work in these times. Tim had us play a song at his funeral, which he asked me a year ago to sing, called "Who says you can't go home" - a duet with Bon Jovi and Sugarland. I walked in and asked Mike, our worship pastor, if he thought that this might be Tim's final joke on us by getting us to play a country song (which most of the peopel on stage dislike). I'll always remember Tim and I'm going to miss him, but I know that I'm going to see him again some day.

Crazy

2006-05-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

I met with a friend of mine who is dying of cancer. Basically, he came back home to die. We talked about music, family, and "old times" that we've spent together. It was a good time, but so weird because he and I both know that he's going to die soon. He's scared, but excited.

It is a strange thought that we always say that we are "going to be with the Lord", but we also know that he is near always. My friend kept telling me that he feels so near to God and so close to God. Do we say this to reassure ourselves? Maybe there is a peace that falls on us when we know that we are dying.

Please pray for my friend, that GOd will ease his pain and that he will know that he is loved by his God, his family and his friends.

ron

quick thought

2006-05-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the church and their priorities. It seems that we as the church have forgotten taht Jesus told us to First love God and then our neighbors as the most important things for us to do. Ultimately, the great commandment has been flipped and traded with the great commission, so instead of first meeting and knowing our neighbor, we are instantly trying to convert them with weak theology and weak stewardship. That's all I can write at this time, but I wanted to let you know that, like Pink, I'm not dead and thinking about you.

ron

Listening to: Hank Williams III. Sounds a lot like his grandpa and not at all like his dad...awesome.

...

2006-04-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

Worship – what worship has developed into confuses me. It is the thought that worship is only done on Sundays that has become funny and cliché. How this thought of worshipping only inside the walls of the church in the form of singing and sermon on the weekends is beyond me. Could it be due in part to our individualistic culture and the loss of community in today’s church? The thought that we are only worshipping on Sundays is an argument we’ve all probably heard before, and yet we seem to be doing nothing about it. I wanted to share the idea of a visionary leader who worships God with everything that he/she has (Mark 12:30), what a true visionary looks like, and how they will have an impact on the church culture.

At Cornwall Church we sing and play a song by Todd Agnew, called Romans 12:1, which was written directly from a letter addressed to the Romans in which the Apostle Paul made the urging plea for people to “offer bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”, calling it our “spiritual act of worship”. Calling people to no longer conform to the world, Paul asks for a renewal of our minds and to witness transformation within ourselves. Only then will we find God’s will – “his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-3). Once we have found God’s will in our lives, we must not keep it for ourselves, for we are called to let our light shine before others (Matthew 5:14-16) and proclaim repentance and forgiveness and to be witnesses (Luke 24:44-49).

Here is where the idea of a visionary leader takes place. A visionary leader is not someone who boldly faces the future in order to see what God is doing in the church. Instead, a visionary worship leader looks to history to see what God has done in order to build the future. Whether looking at their personal history or the church’s history, a visionary is able to teach and aid others with worship in a variety of ways, beyond Sunday morning or Saturday night, creating the spiritual worship as Paul had mentioned.

My hope is that we will consider our worship of God in a more serious light beyond ourselves, and so I wanted to leave us with these questions: What are we learning either historically or personally and how are we applying it to our personal worship of God and/or aiding others to live a life as described in Romans 12:1? Also, are we looking behind us in order to teach others, or are we simply facing forward waiting for somebody else to show us God’s will?

Peace,
Ron

"creative" planning

2006-04-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

I went to a creative planning meeting for my church yesterday and somebody asked me what my initial thought was of the meeting. "I have just wasted two hours and ten minutes of my life", I replied, "I want them back."

ron

Easter Thoughts

2006-04-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Another easter has come and gone, and the church continues to dupe the unchurched into a message which instead of telling the truths of Jesus, tells them of their stupidity for not believing in Jesus and asks them to join their club. I get so sad when we are consistantly reminded of how "christmas and easter are the two biggest holidays in which the non churched come to church" and we are asked to bring our non churched friends to church so that we can reach out and share the good news of the risen christ, only to have them hate us because they waste an hour of their sunday being lectured to.
At my church we do this thing called "one life" - a person that you are inviting to church because they need to be saved. "Be praying for your one life", "Make sure you are thinking about your one life and inviting them" - both common christianese thrown around my church around this time of year. The thing is, I don't invite anyone, because I don't want to invite them only to feel like an asshole for inviting them to a lecture on why they should believe in Christ. Shoot, I could do that! Why don't they pay me money as their offering and I'll let them into my church for the sexy people...

Shine on You Crazy Diamonds

2006-04-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

Has it really been 16 years to the day since the death of Kurt Cobain? I don't like to throw around the word "genius", but I really think that Kurt Cobain was pretty close. He fronted a musical revolution filled with slackers, inspired millions of kids (including this one) to play guitar, and hearing his music today you can hear his influence on other songwriters. Like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain died before we could hear what he could actually accomplish or see him fall completely on his face instead of shooting it off with a shotgun.

R.I.P. Kurt.

PS- Layne Staley from Alice in Chains died four years ago around this time. His actual time of death is approximated to today because his body was dead for two weeks before it was discovered.

Mars Hill - Ballard

2006-04-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I went to a service at Mars Hill this week as an experience for one of my worship classes at TWU. They are one of the fastest growing churches in the nation right now and are led by Mark Driscoll. Before I went to the church, I wrote down some thoughts as to what I thought the church service and congregation would look like so if this looks like a critique, unfortunately right now it is. This is just so I can begin my paper, but I wanted to share what I thought with you and also that my predictions of waht to expect before I got there were pretty accurate.

Mars Hill is an Mega Church which appeals mainly to sarcastic, artistic students who are looking for some help as they are on spiritual journey searching for some kind of truth. THough Mars Hill helps students find their way through this, it is a very cold church. Nobody seems friendly, the music is loud (am I getting old?!?), their is no eye contact from the stage - the list goes on and on. When I first walked in, I sat for an hour in thier foyer and nobody said hello or anything; not even the people at the information kiosk!

THe message was filled with sarcasm and talked poorly about other religions and other philosophies - Islam, Mormons, and New Age - and called them stupid; even making a joke that he was "sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee" and when not a lot of people laughed he said that he thought that joke would get "a few more laughs than that". He also talked about how if he wasn't a christian, he would turn the church into a strip club, drink a lot and jump the walls of the playboy mansion - which I didn't think was offensive, but he kept dwelling on this point for at least ten minutes too long. I thought that the most ironic part of his sermon was when he told us that "never follow a white guy from the midwest who says he has a religion (mormons)", and later gave us the history of Mars Hill and told us how he started Mars Hill from 12 people in his home and had grown it to thousands and they were adding a new venue in west Seattle. The direct correlations were somewhat humorous.

There is a pressing for theology in the church, which I did like. It was evident in his talk as his sermon revolved around christ's death, his ressurection, and his eventual return and what will happen afterwards; not your normal mega church seeker sensitive message material. The church also has a film theology club where they watch movies and search for the correlations within the movie and christian theology. Also in the Mars Hill monthly magazine, there was an article about Martin Luther which said to me that this church pressed education amongst the people. But it was ironic how this church had zero participation from teh congregation. As the many books that I want to write ten years too late said, "welcome to the new reformation".

The one thing that I applaude Mars Hill for is that they know their audience. THey know who they are talking to and they are relevant with their talks...but I think that's about all that I could applaud them for.

ron

This Weeks Soundtrack

U2-How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Counting Crows-Recovering the Satelites
Busta Rhymes-When Disaster Strikes
Jars of Clay-Redemption Songs
Stone Temple Pilots-Purple
Patsy Cline-Heartaches
Prince-THe B-sides (Disc 3)
The INN-Empty I Come

Communion Thoughts

2006-03-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

I just finished a paper on Luther and his hymns. I think the thing about Luther that is ammusing is the view of the reformation in the sense that the worship and liturgies of the church were all taken away from the people and instead performed at the altar by the ministers and the choir.

While researching and reading, I laughed at the correlation of the church today and how we are in desperate need for a reformation of some kind within our church. The services are very performance oriented in churches who have the money to buy cool backgrounds for their powerpoint slides, and the services in churches who don't have money to buy all the bells and whistles strive to meet the standards of excellence that the bigger brother across town had set up.

I laugh earlier, but it makes me sad and upset that people's minds work in these ways to bring the worship to a point where somebody can come to church and talk of the "great worship" instead of meeting or experiencing God. Even at mid-week "communion" services, people are more moved by the music than a stirring of God in their thoughts and hearts. These services had also become a show. Once going in with the purest intentions possible, now instead of worshipping God through rememberance we look at setlists and service orders and try to figure out where we can place the taking of the elements of which this service was intended for in the first place instead of revolving everything around the communion itself.

And then, we also make communion such a personal thing by seperating the bread for people so that they can go off in a corner and hide as they consume Christ. When I think Communion, I think community. Something that we experience together - same bread, same cup. This is my traditional fascination coming out in me, but I think that it is something that could be practiced whether in a church of 20 or 2000. Christ said "eat me" and "have a drink on me" in rememberance of him. But he told all of his disciples and they did it together, not individually.

I did this in one of my classes, where we served communion to each other instead of our prof giving us the elements. It was crazy having the person on my left, who wasn't a pastor by title, giving the elements to me and taking them, and then turning to my right and giving the elements to that person. So on and so on throughout the room hearing the words, "The Body and Blood of CHrist for you...". Imagine hearing this 20-100+ times in your congregation's communion service rather than hearing the band playing, "amazing love", "the wonderous cross", or "insert cliche communion song here". Surreal yet awkward. Counter Cultural - the way we christians are supposed to be.

Music I'm listening to: This week I've decided to select a bunch of CD's and listen to them throughout the week. Here is my week's list.

Joss Stone - Soul Sessions
Television - Marquee Moon
Ben Harper - Live from Mars (Disc 2)
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
Chris Issak - Baja Sessions
Lyfe Jennings - Lyfe 268-192
The Cure - Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

Song Lyrics

2006-03-22T23:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some lyrics from a song that I wrote for my CD that I'm working on. Originally I wanted to title it "whore", but instead I put the date.

1.25.01

Do you remember how they were living
Or how they used to walk
Do you remember all the love they shared
Or how they used to talk
Do you remember them walking fearless
Or how they used to act
Do you remember her reckless abandon
thinking he'd take her back

But now all her friends are laughing
And same goes for her enemies
"Why did you leave me?" she asks
"Why am I alone"

So now she sits in misery
Weeping buckets of tears
Now she sits without a soul
Or a soul to care for her
She feels so cheap and worthless
She groans and turns in shame
She longs for others just to feel her
and to feel her pain

And now all her friends are laughing
Same goes for her enemies
"Why did you leave me?" she asks
"Why am I alone"

Oh, oh, oh
How empty she's become
Oh, oh, oh
She was once on top of the world
Once the queen of the ball
Now a slave to the world
Once chosen by him
Now she's an ordinary girl

And now all her friends are laughing
Same goes for her enemies
"Why did you leave me?" she asks
"Why am I alone"

This is actually a lament out of Eugene Peterson's Message remix (first half of the bible, 25th book, first chapter - or Lamentations 1). I wrote another song out of Lamentations. I found lamentations easy to write out of because it is full of heartbreak and questioning and bitching and complaining (that's some blaine talk for you), but in the end people eventually remember that God is good and he is holy. Through all of the crap that we go through, God is still sovereign...this is something that I think we forget as Christians and choose instead to whore ourselves out and live the way we want. Why not, sometimes it feels good to be bad, right? But then we find ourselves in the same position as Jerusalem: Now all of our friends are laughing and same goes for our enemies. "Why did you leave me?" we ask.
"Why am I alone?".

Blaine Damaged

2006-03-22T23:16:00.000-08:00

My friend Kurt has a new blog that you should check out. Kurt and I attended TWU summer classes last year, but I feel like I've known him for my whole life (Cable Guy reference anybody?). He is a Young life guy for Northern county here in Whatcom county and and resides in Birch Bay, Wa (Everyone thinks he lives in Blaine, but Birch Bay is not Blaine). Kurt also has an amazing discussion on our theology as compared to the beer we drink that was written on March 22nd that you should check out.
Below is a clip taken from an article from my hometowns paper, the Northern Light in Blaine Wa, in which the city council is trying to decide what bricks to use as they are constructing a boardwalk in hopes of attracting more tourists to teh town. "Liebert", which means lover in german, is the mayor of Blaine and my old high school history teacher.

"Council member Charlie Hawkins suggested to Ely perhaps it was a job better suited for his wife. Liebert, however, added it will be difficult to please everybody. “Contemplate all you want. Once it goes on, someone will be bitching about it,” Liebert said."

I think that:

1. what the blaine city council is forgetting is that you cant polish a turd

2. I also think that the funniest part is that the paper printed it word for word. It shows the class of Blaine. You stay classy borderites.

and

3. Blaine High School Football rules!

random thoughts

2006-03-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

I've realized that I am growing old. I'm only 29 but, as I posted earlier, I threw my back out and even today I am having troubles with it. I may as well throw in the towel and start using those rascal scooters when I go grocery shopping...actually, that would be pretty cool.

I finished recording some scratch tracks this week. Now I listen to them and the other songs I recorded last year and figure out what I want to do with them. It's kind of scary though because if I record a CD of some kind, then I will have to play out again. Hopefully that won't mean waiting until 2:00 am to get paid for a show that no one went to, but it probably does. I'll begin recording in June.

My NCAA bracket is going well. My small group does one every year, and last year I won lunch. THis year I hope to repeat because I am a hungry man...a hungry old man.

Currently studying about Martin Luther and his writing hymns. Before the reformation, the worship was a show for the people and was non-participatory. Martin Luther wrote hymns to help bring worship back to the people so that they could worship God and worship would be for God instead of for the people. I have 10 pages to write about this, and then 10 pages to write about Jesuit missions. fun.

peace,
ron

listening to: Bedouin Soundclash. A reggae band from Toronto. You should listen to them because they make me smile. It makes me long for the sun to come out at about 70 degrees in the mid morning. then I can wear shorts again.

What has Ron been doing...

2006-03-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Well...

I've been hating school. I'm in a couple classes that are some real snoozers as I keep saying throughout this semesters blogs, but I have one instructor who is really a cool guy. Dr. Klassen is an old guy, but the kind of person that you know you can learn from. Usually anybody who talks about when he saw Karl Barth lecture is a) really old and b) really cool.

I've been working out. Yes, I've been pumping the iron. Actually it's all a ploy so that I can lose weight. I have lost about 15 pounds and have thrown my back out. If I believed in Karma, I would think that this was because of all of the fat jokes I make about myself and others.

I'm addicted to Lost. Cynthia and I began watching season one on DVD and we cant stop. We're almost finished, but I don't want it to end.

I'm amused by myspace. Yes, I have a myspace. I think that the people who are really into it are very funny though (the people who take the time to photograph themselves making kissy faces at the camera or without their shirts on). It has been cool though, because I have found people from school who have myspaces and have been able to try and catch up with them. Also, people who want to "add" you as a friend but don't know you are pathetic.

I'm writing a few songs. Tomorrow, 3/13, I will be recording and beginning toward a full length album. it should be fun.

That's it for right now. School is out for summer in the middle of April. that's cool. THen I can get drunk and dance on campus.

ron

I'm ruined

2006-02-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

I continually tell monkey that school is ruining me. When I hear talks, the "red light keeps coming on in my head as people take scriptures out of text, or don't even use them. I hate it, because I want to just come to church and be told the best way to live my life is through jesus and serving him. Isn't that what church was intended to be for our generation?

All sarcasm aside, I really do hate this dilema. Oh well, I'll just continue to be critical and have my wife rebuke me for it.

ron

Listening to: I have a version of the worship song "Blessed be Your Name" in my head set to John Mayer's "Love Song for No One". From teh bridge to the end, it goes into a Reggae feel. It is incessant in my head...that and Madonna's song that she did on the Grammy's last night. I won't leave me alone!!!

~I'm In A Postmodern State of Mind~

2006-01-31T07:31:00.000-08:00

You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse but

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

I could be lost inside their lies
Without a trace
But everytime I close my eyes
I see your face

Never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
Never saw no military solution
That didn't end up as something worse but
Let me say this first

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

** Just a quick though: I read these words yesterday, and though the song is an ode to his wife, I think that the words Sting wrote really touch a nerve in most people in the world today whether they are christian or not. As society has been in this postmodern movement of the church since around the birth of the industrial revolution, shortly after the civil war, people are finally beginning to question what they are being told. This song questions the church, democracy, the military, and science but after all is said and done, the only faith that we can hold on to is You. Not Sting's wife, but God. I truly believe that this is one of the many ways that the postmodern church feels, and also one of the reasons why there is a tension between the modern and postmodern church.

One more thing about postmodernist thought and then I'll step off of my pomo soapbox. Leonard Sweet said that "We don't need a modern church, and we don't need a postmodern church - what we need is a biblical church". Someday, I believe that the baby boomers of the modern church and GenX on down to the Millenial kids will be able to get along in a church that is filled with Community oriented culture rather than an individualistic mind, Filled with the mystery of GOd, rich in theology, and speaks in many different and diverse languages including the language of the cognitive and the affective. Now we have to figure out how to get there. Another thing: who are we (GenX) going to fight with in the future because we don't like where the church is headed and where is that?

ROn

Listening to: Simon and Garfunkel.Bridge over troubled water- THere is just something about listening to vinyl that I love. I think that it's the crackle of the record while it is playing. I love Paul Simon's poetry in all of his songs, but I think that Garfunkel was a tool. A big, high pitched singing, money sucking, afroed tool

In order to understand greatness...

2006-01-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

one must start at the beginning

Oh Boy-

2006-01-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

My classes are some snoozers. Reformation Europe is very boring, and so is Religion in Canada. I bought my books online, and haven't recieved them yet, so I am behind on my readings. Argh. I can't wait until late febuary, because then I will have a break from school work...but I'll probably be working on papers.

I bought a couple books the other day at school: A hymn book, and "War and Christian Ethics". Both of them for $1.50 canadian, which equals out to about 1.25 in US. I felt good as I screwed the man over once again. HAHAHA, I am so clever. I also got a "Book of Common Prayer" in a downtown used book store. It was pretty cool.

I also visited the Brendan Center, which is a Christian Non Profit here in BHam, which stands against Social Injustice and has a library of Christian history and theology books. Monkey, seriously, we need to go there so you can see the books. This place is tucked away in bellingham, past the soapbox, and right across the hall from teh Democratic office here in Btown.

That's about all that's happening as of late

ron

Theme album of the day: Justin Timberlake: Justified
Book I am reading: Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross...snore

What I Did During My Break

2006-01-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

School started this week. I don't know if I will enjoy it too much. the classes are a lot harder than I anticipated, but it was only the first day, so we'll see how we do. Here is a funny happening: I compared prices of the books at the school store, and then went online and found the same books used. If I bought them at the store, I would spend $88 more. I want to stab somebody in the throat.

Some of you may be wondering (all two of you), "what has brownie been up too these days?" Let me give you a run down:

I wrote a few songs -
I wrote a few new songs about people. That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to be recording soon with Chris Cochran, and deciding how this CD thing will work or if it even will work.

I read a few books -
David Crowders "Praise Habit" - If you like the style of Don Miller (Blue like Jazz, Searching for God knows what) then this book is a very simple read about developing a praise habit of your own, and a look at david crowders everyday life.

AW Tozer's "What ever happened to worship?" - I've said it before and I'll say it again, though Tozer is quite heady at times and speaks like he is speaking in and often quotes the King James Bible, he speaks with the tongue of a prophet that could speak into anybody's life today, and will speak into their life 20 years from now, and further down the road for many generations to come.

THe Message Remix - Went through the psalms. Since David Crowder quoted out of this text, I thought that I should read them for myself.

Body for Life - yes, cynthia and I jumped on the wagon, but we did it before the new year after we engorged ourselves stupid on christmas day.

CS Lewis' "Mere Christianity" - Very heady. I don't really remember anything that I read. I'll read it again someday. Maybe if somebody reminded me of one of the points, I would be able to dialogue, but right now I don't know.

I listened to few CD's, records, and tapes.
My listenings included the following:
Fall Out Boy, Lyfe Jennings "Lyfe 268-192", Paul Simon's "Graceland" (One of the best albums I listened to during the break), Sting "The Dream of Blue Turtles (Vinyl)...seriously, What Sting did on this album, Dave Matthews is doing 20 years later..., the Cars (Vinyl), Waylon Jennings (Vinyl), Matisyahu "Shake off the dust...Arise", Israel Kamakawiwo'ole "Facing Future", Lots of Prince Tapes including "sign o the times" "Alphabet Street" "Prince (1979)" "Controversy" amongst them all, Prince's "Purple Rain" (back to CD), THe Beatles "rubber soul", Neil Diamond "the essential Neil Diamond", Kanye West "the college dropout" and "Late registration", "Billy Joel's Greatest hits volumes I and II", Lauryn Hill "the miseducation of Lauryn Hill", Assorted Johnny Cash, and different Worship CD's including, Hillsong, Israel Houghton, Darlene Zschech, Wow Compilations, David Crowder. Believe me, there are a lot more that I can't think of right now.

I decided things that I want to do to grow musically:
While reading Praise Habit I've come to the conclusion that I want to learn about Country music. I'm talking about the old stuff starting with Hank Jr. and Willie Nelson and going from there. I don't know a lot about this genre, but if I figure if you like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings then you will probably like the other stuff that comes from this genre. And besides, didn't Hank Jr. write the theme to the Dukes of Hazzard? It can't be that bad then!

Also, in the new year, I want to have a theme album for each day that I set out upon. This is music that I am going to study and like or learn to like. This is my new years goal: to listen to about 150-300 albums and learn about them.

That's what I did during my break

ron

Currently my theme album is "rubber Soul" by the Beatles

I Steal, I Don't Kill

2005-12-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

I stole this from my friend brad hauge's blog. At around 12:30 a.m. on December 17, 2005, I peed my pants a little when I saw this.

Churches. Can't We All Just Get Along?!?

2005-12-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

why is it that there is a separations amongst churches? THere is a guy who would like to play at my church, but he goes to another church. His heart is to build a community and friendship amongst churches, but I was told that I couldn't let him play because he plays at another church. There is a term that I like to use which is "church gigging". THis is a term for people who play at multiple churches so that they can get more play time. This guy who plays at another church wants to play with me to support our outreach into the neighborhood and support a community that he has a desire and longing for. So is it wierd that I want him to come to my church to play?

I guess you have to choose a church eventually, but when you are using your gifts to bless a community is this a bad thing? It seems that there are these walls built up and sometimes need to be broken down. I spoke to this guy, and told him to speak to his pastor about this to let him know that we are not stealing him at all, but instead are sharing his gifts, and also that this is his choice and not my influence. I will also speak to his pastor after he does, but this is just wierd to me. I knkow that this is the mature thing to do, but I think that this is the shitty part of being a "pastor". My heart still lies in the thought of building a network of musicians who have a passion for playing for God. If churches can hire musicians out of a studio, is there a difference in this?

I had to battle with my bosses for this, and it is cool because they trust me with this and my decision, but then I am also scared, because what if I screw it up and they never let me do this ever again. crap.

ron

I'd Hate to Jump On Board...

2005-12-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

but I went to see Narnia today, and it was probably the most amazing story I've ever seen/heard. Knowing that it was a movie, and not a book, I am inspired to read the series. I didn't really jump on board with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but this one I may became a fairweather friend.
I think what intrigued me was the theological ties running rampant throughout the movie. If the movie was somewhat true to the book, I like a lot of CS Lewis' theology. THough he is selfproclaimed "not a theologian", Lewis' story is so rich with the stuff it was impossible as a christian not to be moved by this movie. One question though: what the heck was Santa doing there?
I was also moved by this movie, because I've been going through this "dry period" in my spirituality. Not so much a doubting of God, but a doubting of the church. This movie, and the story of Christ and his mission, helped me realize that people matter so much more than my feelings of what the church should be like.

thoughts?
ron

oh those asians...they so crazay!

2005-12-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Stole this from my friend knox. It's very interesting and funny.

gotta go, saved by the bell college years is on.

ron

Matisyahu

2005-12-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

I'd talked about listening to this guy earlier, but the more I listen to him, the more I like him. The thing about him is that he is Jewish who does dancehall reggae music. As I listen to him, I keep hearing all of these stories and lyrics that sound familiar, and I realize he's singing right out of Old Testament Theology and Israelite history. It is very interesting to hear, but there is one song in which he cries over and over wanting longing for the messiah. It is such a strange disconnect that I have when I hear this. I like to think of the Jewish faith as our distant cousins, almost like that cousin that nobody talks good about, but most of the family knows that you are related. The family just doesn't talk about this cousin because of his wierd beliefs. But what if we are the wierd cousins that everybody is talking about. ***side note: I am at TWU and I just saw this couple make out in the "student center" as I am writing this - get a dorm room, seriously.***

anyshoe, I'm finishing up a paper on Merton.

peace in the middle east
rizz

Heading Into the Home Stretch

2005-12-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Just a few more finals and then I will drop dead...well, not really but I will be glad it is all over. My plans? I will probably read, write some new songs, work out old songs, and record some songs with some friends of mine. I am also planning out what I want to do for my next record even though I haven't one ready to listen to now. I think for my new album I will do a "concept" album telling the stories of people that I minister to and fellowship with. It will be their stories, only they won't really know it - very bruce springsteen or lionel richie in theory, you decide which one. This is just a thought ponging around in my head right now.

what am I reading? Study notes...boo.
what am I listening too? A mix of songs that I made that I named, "Music to Make Love To: Volume III".

ron

Another One Bites the Dust!

2005-12-04T22:57:00.000-08:00

Knocked out another paper. This one was on the interpretation of Isaiah 7:14, and the thought of Isaiah talking to Ahaz and Israel or predicting the coming of the Messiah.

So far I've written:
*A 10 page paper on "Jesus made in the Image of Man"
*A 10 Page paper on "The Social Gospel and its Impact on American Religion and Society"
*A 6 Page exegetical paper on "Isaiah 7:14"

In the next week I will write:
A 10 Page paper on Benedictine Monks
A 10 page reflection on Writings of Thomas Merton
An 8 Page paper about architecture used in christian worship.

All this while studying for finals.

Shoot me now.

Random Snow Day Thoughts

2005-12-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

I sit here watching "Saved by the Bell: The College Years" and laughing as I watch outside with anticipation for the next dumping of snow. It probably won't snow again, but "anything can happen on a snow day" ("Snowday" one of the best snow movies ever). I'm debating whether I should work on papers or see how Zach's crazy shenanigans end up. Is it me, or did A.C. rock the same mullet through high school and college?
I was thinking the other day about family traditions. Cynthia and I go to get a Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving every year with our friends the Westons. What are some of your traditions? Really, I'd like to know.
What are your churches doing for Christmas? ANything different? For the next four weeks leading into christmas, we will be doing some different liturgies (prayers, calls and response, and candles. WE are so Post modern) and celebrating the season of expectation. I didn't grow up in a church, so this will be fun and different for me. I've had some people come and tell me that they thought that advent was just a word in front of a calendar that they could buy at Costco.

enough of that. Saved by the Bell is finishing and I have papers to write. Enjoy your day.

ron

A Step in the Right Direction for the Church

2005-11-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is what we should have been doing since the eighties.

My time this weekend

2005-11-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

I've been writing lots of papers as you may or may not know, and that is how I spent this last weekend. I did however get to attend Christ the King Bellingham so that I could work on a paper for my worship studies class. This paper will tell whether CTK is a pedagogical church or revivalist church, or does it deal with the mind or the heart.
I loved going to this church, because my friend/mentor/hero leads there, and seeing the way that he leads the congregation is a beautiful thing. He is able to capture and direct the attention of the congregation deeper than the singing of the songs, but more so draw unconciously attention to the meaning of the songs. He also started the service with a very simple greeting saying that we are worshipping our God with song which is just one of many ways to worship this God that is so worthy of praise. I'll be honest, I'm going to steal that because I truly believe that people need to hear and know this when they are worshipping through song. It was very refreshing to be led in worship rather than lead. Thank you sam

ron

listening to: Buckethead "Colma". A guitar prodigy who toured with Axl (they were NOT Guns and Roses) on his last tour. He plays with a white mask on (like the guy from the Halloween movies)and a KFC bucket on his head - need I say more?

And Challenging for Nerd of the Year is...

2005-11-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

Nerd of the Year Contender

Negative Christians

2005-11-23T10:59:00.000-08:00

At Trinity Western University, I am a Christianity and Culture major, which looks at Christianity and its history and theology. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the more I learn, the more I question about my place in the church and though I question, I've met people who are more extreme than I am. My fellow C & C majors wonder the same as me, but they threaten to leave the protestant church and instead move to the orthodox church. This used to be attractive to me, until I came to this thought: the church is the bride of Christ, and the we are basically calling the bride all of the names and thoughts that we have of it (i.e. a whore). When we call the church these names, the groom is going to find out and punch us in the face. Martin Luther quote from Monkey's blog: the church is a whore, but I love her. Did Luther get punched in the face?

If we are so negative and so quick to leave the church, how will it ever find out what Jesus intended for it to be in the first place.

ron

listening to: Christmas mix - Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond, Greg Otterholt, Adam Sandler, Tracy CHapman, and many others.

Worship Conference

2005-11-16T11:57:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to attend a Worship leaders conference down in Kirkland with other worhship leaders from our church. Here are my likes and dislikes:

Likes:
I was able to get to know people that I serve with a little better. I was able to learn different and new approaches to the guitar. I saw music done in different styles and with different approaches. I got out of town for the weekend. I saw favorite artists such as Lincoln Brewster, Chris Tomlin, and Matt Redman. The classes I took were very informative, and well taught by professional musicians and teachers.

Dislikes:
Wherein lies the difference between the Worship set and Christian Concert? I found myself waiting to hear my favorite leaders to play their hits. I watched more than "worshipped". Though I got to see them play, I left in the middle of their...set? I don't think that I was the only one who thought this - I hope not - because it was aggravating to hear people say, "I love this song". I'm not self righteous and I'm not THE worship leader either. In fact, throughout this conference, I fell into the trap of wishing I could show some of my chops to people. When you stick a bunch of musicians in a room together, there is no breathing room because our heads swell up and fill teh room itself. It is a sad thing really, because as leaders our humility should be prevalant, but even during the musical worship sets you hear it. When the leader is singing, all that you can hear throughout the congregation are the harmonies of the song and no melody.

oh well, my stank still stinks like everybody else.

ron
Listening to: the new David Crowder Band CD. I love his music because he sounds like David Crowder and not compared to any other people (Secular or Not). Favorite track is the remake of Hank Williams/Johnny Cash's "I Saw the Light" and "Oh God, Where are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pidgeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)"

Is This a Joke?

2005-11-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

Really quick add to the last-
cruising around and found this job description for an "Extreme Worship Pastor" in a Pomo/GenX church. Read on and be baffled or amazed or just plain filled with laughter.

Job Description:
Main Event Church is seeking an exceptional leader to be our Pastor of Extreme Worship Arts. We believe the right person will be a unique fit for for such a time as this.

This person serve under the Senior Pastor, and will oversee all areas of worship. Candidates must embrace the Senior Pastor’s vision of aligning all people of all denominations under the same vision. The person must also meet these requirements:

Ability to infuse the TULIP doctrine in all worship sets

Postmodern, Visionary, Missional leader capable of creating an ethos and apostolitic movement

Willing to find some songs written from a premillenial dispensationalist theological tradition

Desires to develop an emerging handbell choir

Some snake handling may be appropriate (for our believers service only)

Agree that the Lord is to be worshiped through magnificent attire and appropriate versions of the Bible

Demonstrate proof of a second blessing... Tongue speaking in various accents is a major plus as we are a multicultural church.

Exegetically establish a movement of fluidity in the Extreme Worship Ministry

We realize that many of these requirements are personal preferences and not biblical mandates. Therefore, each candidate must be aligned with roughly 3/4 of all our requirements.

God Bless America and Nobody Else!

2005-11-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm reading, "the american Jesus" by Steven Prothero. A recommended read to any american who believes that we are the chosen nation...we are aren't we? This book gives a history of how we came to worship Jesus instead of God the father like the New World Puritans who "founded" america. It is such an interesting thought how our belief in Jesus is so different than that of the founding fathers of the good ol' US of A. According to Prothero, we began distorting the face of Jesus and his agenda when Jefferson took a razor and glue to the gospels to build the "Jefferson Bible" and give us what he feels are teh essentials of the Gospels. Only in America....Only in America.

ron

Listening to: Matisyahu-Shake off the Dust...Arise. This is a Hassidic Jew who mixes his chants and beliefs with Dancehall Reggae music. Definitely worth a shake of the tuchas.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2005-11-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was up in Beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia on saturday night and sunday morning. It was really quick, but painful. I was up to participate in a liturgical service where I helped lead some of teh embodied prayer or praying with the whole self. Really what I'm doing is churching up the phrase "interpretive dance". Yes, that's right, I was doing a little bit of interpretive dancing this weekend. Here's a question for you: What has two thumbs and hates interpretive dance? Answer: this guy right here.
It was an interesting night and really cool in some parts. The worship music was done by a Jazz Combo and all that we did that night, Cynthia and I experienced when we went to an Anglican Church service at St. Johns (shaugnessy). It was a really neat experience in a beautiful church. If you are ever in the area, really you should check it out because it was just an over all different experience. See, I come from an adrenaline driven church experience, so tradition is something taht I don't have a lot of experience in. I really enjoyed it, and took communion from a Community Cup- that was different. It was real wine too. I'm not of a fan of wine, so it made me think a little differently of actually ingesting the blood of Christ as a bitter experience and the way that Jesus died.
This next weekend I get to go to the Christian Music Summit and learn about worship leading, guitar playing, etc.. Sometimes I am very saddened by these things, because they offer classes like, "How to have a Cool Choir" - no joke, this is an actual class - and it makes me embarrassed. Some of the peole who are at this thing are some of the bigger names in Christian music such as Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin...it makes me wonder what they think of classes like this.

ron

Listening to: Right now I love this guy named Monte Montgomery, an acoustic player from Austin Texas. Also I listen to Pantera while running.

...Somebody Kill Me Please!!!

2005-11-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

In the next month I will be writing paper after paper after paper...after paper. I didn't realize I would have to waste this many trees. Here is my schedule of Papers:

A paper on Jonah-Looking at the Fish as a symbol of Hell, but it is a Hell that God gave to Jonah out of his grace. 6 Pages Due November 2

A paper on Jesus in the image of man. 10 pages Due November 17

A paper on the Jefferson Bible and his deist agenda. 10 pages due November 29

A paper on the Desert Fathers in the early church. 10 pages due December 6

A paper on the Architecture of the medieval church in worship 10 pages Due December 5

A paper due on an Old testament Theme that I haven't even begin to think about. 6 Pages due on December 7.

Also, a couple of 1-3 pagers detailing services at different churches that I will visit.

God help me please.

ron

Lived To Tell The Story...

2005-10-31T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well, my weekend is over and now I have officially spoken for the first time. It was actually really fun. It was a stretch for me, but in teh end it all came together. I realized that God works in wierd ways (realized yet again) when I was driving home thinking about how I don't think any kids got anything out of what I gave them this weekend, but I think that this weekend was just a way for God to tell me that I can do it. I often wondered if I could, but was never given the chance. That's my friend Monkey for ya! Always looking out for the little man and giving me a chance. I think my biggest fear this weekend was that I didn't let him down and that people would see me as a serious talk giver guy. Sometimes during the talk time, I would see kids staring off into space and I'd think that it was normal, but there was also a leader who sat in the front and would frown the whole time-not very encouraging to say the least. Oh well, God pushed me through it and I lived to tell you about it. THat's all that really matters.

ron

listening to: I got an MP3 player this weekend. So cool. Decided against the iPod for financial reasons, but also because it is very discouraging that you can only use their stuff. Boo. Soory <---canadian for sorry--- to my friend Paul, because I know that he works with Macstuff.

2005-10-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

I'm an Uncle!!! This is my nephew Kale Evan Pai. He was even born on my birthday! (October 14th...its not too late to send a present)

Ron the Speaker?

2005-10-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend I get the priviledge and opportunity to speak to high schoolers about worship. As much as I would love to discuss different aspects and styles of worship, I decided to tell these kids about some of the personalities of the triune God that we as christians worship. In my head I thought that it would be better instead of learning about "embodied prayer" or different postures of worship that it may benefit them better to learn about the different parts of the trinity and hopefully make them think about why we worship them.

please pray for this talk as it comes to fruition...I'm still not finished with it.

ron

listening to: Travis Tritt: Greatest Hits. I don't know why, but I like his voice. The thing that I love the most is his guitar playing.

Thoughts?

2005-10-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

...modern Christianity has become willy-nilly the religion of the state and the economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has, by a kind of ignorance, been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has for the most part, stood silently by, while the predatory ecomony has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of empire. It has assumed with the economists that "economic forces" automatically work for good, and has assumed with the industrialists and miltarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with everybody that "progress" is good, that it is good to be modern and up with the times.

-Wendell Berry

Berry went on to say that Christians admired Caeser even during his depradations and defaults. But in this alliance, they fail to take action against the Murder of Gods Creation and his willingness to destroy the world. For in these days, Ceasar is no longer a mere destroyer of armies, cities, and nations. He is the contradictor of the fundamental miracle of life.

A part of the normal practice of his power is his willingness to destoy the world. He prays, he says, and churches everywhere compliantly pray with him. But he is praying to a God whose works he is prepared at any moment to destroy. What could be more wicked than that, or more mad?

Thoughts on Don Miller

2005-10-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

CYnthia and I went to see Don Miller speak at the firs conference center last night. It was a very insightful talk telling us that everybody is mroe important than we think we are. I thought htat the most important thing that he said was that the top two people that people are most scared of are:

2) Serial Killers
1) Evangelical Christians

It's funny that people are scared of Christains more than somebody who would eat somebodies brains without even thinking twice about it. One of the reasons of this is that we begin to think that we are seeing how many people we can convert before we find out who the person is. We put Jesus into the thought of a product before he is an actual relationship. We try to sell the product to a person before we can actually have some kind of credibility to speak in their lives.

Another thing he talked about was when he was asked to defend Christianity, and he said that he couldn't defend something that wasn't what it was supposed to be in the first place. He couldn't defend something with a name that was given to it so that Rome could have a voting platform. He wouldn't defend something that has been westernized and is used to assimilate other people to western thinking. All that we can defend is that God love us, but he loves everybody as much as us. We cannot go on writing people off because they don't believe God died for them and the world's sins. These are the people that God told us to love more than ourselves. These are the people that we need ot talk to.

As much as we would not like to think it, the church has become a club that has become inpenetrable by people on the outside. Some churches call themselves "seeker sensitive", but what are tehy being sensitive too? This is the question that makes me think that I want to play in bars again. I think I talked about how I hate hanging out with christians before, but sometimes I really mean it. Sometimes we as xtians are the fakest people. One time I played at a College ministry "talent" show and I said, "it's funny when you play in front of christians, because they won't let you know if you suck or not, because they clap at anything you do". "Oh that was great", they say. it jsut makes me laugh. It will be hard to play in bars again, because they will tell you if you suck, but at least they are real.

ron

CD- Sgt Peppers and Commons "Be"

Quick Thought for You-

2005-09-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of the bible we are told about God dwelling among us within the garden with the tree of life and the impending curse that is set down upon us because of the mistake of Adam and Eve. But in Revelations 22 we are told about a time when God will dwell among us again and we will be face to face with him and a tree of life that will heal the nations and there will no longer be a curse. If we go right into the middle, we find Jesus as God dwelling among us and dying for us on the cross (the tree of life) that will forgive us our sins (lift the curse). Just something that ran through my mind as I was thinking during one of my classes.

Is it me, or does this look like one of those emails that you have to forward to ten of your friends if you believe in Jesus otherwise you don't?

ron

CD-Listening to the White Stripes in concert on NPR
Reading-a narrative of surprising conversions by John Edwards. zzzzzz...what? oh I'm sorry I fell asleep.

Pain In The Neck

2005-09-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

I threw my neck out. It hurts so bad that I am using an old prescription of Vicadin to help ease the pain. I led music at our monthly worship service last night at church. I was high on Vics. Is this a sin?
One thing that I'd like to pass on to you is this thought: THe importance of space. When I was leading worship last night, there were these moments where you could feel the presence of GOd in the room. You could feel that he was doing something incredible, but suddenly out of the blue there would come this extremely violating moment where an electric guitar would make a big "ka-chunk" sound, and this was not an accident. The guitar player was either checking his guitar or "adding" sound. Something that we guitar players are cursed with is that we love to play, and if we are not playing we think that we should be. Here is where the concept of space comes through.
When worshipping in any shape or form, we need to be considerate toward the Holy Spirit and be ready to move with it where ever it may lead. The thing is, if we are continually running our mouths/instruments/whatever it is that you worship with, how will you ever be able to be sensitive to what the Spirit is trying to say?
A friend of mine once showed me an illustration of this by balancing a broomstick on the end of my hand. THe point of this illustration was the fact that we cannot balance the broom without looking up to the heavy part of teh broom. This is what is true in worship: we cannot worship without keeping our eyes on the Holy Spirit, otherwise you are going to try to manipulate it to no avail.

ron
CD-THe Gorillaz*demon days. Beautiful cd.

Excited for-The movie Walk the Line. the Johnny Cash story. It will be amazing.

Words Cannot Explain...

2005-09-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

I recieved the strangest phone call last night. I have a friend in california who I've known for some time now and he called me to tell me, "as a friend and as a pastor", that he has cancer. He finds out tomorrow if it is aggressive or not and an estimate on his life. He called me to tell me that he wants me to play at his funeral. It's a beautifully morbid honor that he is giving me, but it's these times that God just doesn't make sense. He's not old, and he's not young, he doesn't smoke, he's fairly healthy...he just has a sunspot that is growing on his head. This is where teh reality of "pastor" kicks in (and by pastor I don't mean that I have the title in front of my name). It's not jsut playing songs anymore, it's peoples lives in my hands and assuring that God is remembered in all of this shit. It is really numbing right now. Surreal...is that the word I'm looking for?

ron

cd-A mix of Hawaiian/island music to help soothe me: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Bob Marley, 311, ub40, Jack Johnson, Ho'aikane, and others that you may or may not have heard of. I sent a copy down to my friend to help soothe him also.