Archive - January, 2007

Thursday Thoughts

January 11, 2007 in General with Comments Off

1) I’m Tired. On Tuesday/Wednesday my insomnia was in full effect. I got a good sleep last night but had to get up at 5:30am for a youth ministry meeting at my least favorite resturant, Cracker Barrel. I need a good snow owrkout like the guys in the picture below to help wake me up a little more!

Members of the Special Warfare Command participate in an annual severe winter season drill in Pyongchang, about 180km (113 miles) east of Seoul January 10, 2007. The special forces carry out the training course every year to improve their member’s combat abilities in cold weather and heavy snowfall.
2) The Office: Heroes doesn’t return for another 2 weeks but there is a new episode of The Office on tonight. Yahoo has posted some great clips from tonight’s episode. It looks like the employees so Dunder Mifflin Scranton are going out on some sales calls. Should be a lot of fun. There isn’t a funnier show on television. I heard a guy on the radio yesterday say that if you don’t get The Office you just don’t get it.

3) Sending Out An SOS: It is so easy to feel isolated and alone in this world. A couple of conversations that have happend this week have served as great reminders at how hurt, frustrated, and lonely people can be. I think about the song Message in a Bottle by the Police quite often. The song tells the story of a castaway lost at sea on an unihabited island. He decides that he is going to send the world a message in a bottle in hopes that someone will come to resque him. He waits for a year lamenting his loneliness until one day he walks down to the shore. He is astonished by what he finds there.

Walked out this morning, don’t believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I’m not alone at being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home

Like I said, I think about this song an awful lot. As a minister, I see broken people all the time. Sting is right. Countless broken and hurting people out there. This song helps remind me to look for those messages of desperation that people are sending out.

4) Senior on Staff: I am currently the senior guy on staff at my church. Pray for not only my church but for Christianity as a whole! Maybe we could get a documentary crew in here to film a new version of “Who’s Minding the Store?” :)
I get to preach in a couple of weeks so I’m trying up all the lose ends on my “The Gospel According to Starbucks” message. It is progressing very nicely I must say. Can’t wait to share it with you all. Maybe I’ll do a podcast.

5) Samuel L Jackson is God: No, not a god but YHWH. Well, at least his voice is. Prominent African-American actors and actresses have lent their talents and voices to an audio Bible project called, The Bible Experience. I have the New Testament already and Old Testament drops later this year. The production value is top notch and the acting is superb. It is the best audio Bible I have ever bought. I bought the MP3 discs because they were a tad cheaper and eaiser to rip onto my computer. I’m planning on using some of the segments in a worship service soon. At least check it out. It is a great way to supplement your Bible reading and a way to hear scripture in a totally new way.

6) Have a Great Day Yeah, have a great day everyone.

Last One

January 9, 2007 in Music with Comments Off

Ok. This is the last post about the iPhone and it isn’t even about the phone. It is about something that happened during the phone’s demonstration during the MacWorld Expo this morning.

As Jobs was demonstrating how to switch from phone mode into iPod mode something piqued my imagination. Jobs purposefully chose some great music to use during the demo.

Thanks to iLounge.com for the picture.

“Tap here and uh… ‘a Little Help From My Friends.” Could this mean the the Fab Four will be coming to the iTunes store? A Beatles Digital Box Set would get me more excited than that little phone anyday.

Nice move Steve. Nice move.

You can watch the Keynote address and see it for yourself. (Starting at about 42:40)

mmmmm….iPhone.

January 9, 2007 in Guilty Pleasure, Popular Culture with Comments Off

Gorgeous. Too expensive but gorgeous.

The iPhone

January 9, 2007 in General with Comments Off

Jobs jus announced the much anticpiated iPhone.

Pictures to follow.

Sanctuary

January 5, 2007 in General with Comments Off

I’ll be away this weekend on an area-wide retreat.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Peace.

Here today, gone tomorrow
Crack the bone, get to the marrow
To be a bee and the flower
Before the sweetness turns to sour

What we have we’re gonna keep, always
What we’ve lost we don’t need, always
What is it that won’t let you sleep, always

Be the arrow and the target
Put your head over the parapet
Be uncool, yes be awkward
Don’t look in the obvious place
The soul needs beauty for a soulmate

Get down off your holy cloud, always
God will not deal with the proud, always
Well if you dream then dream out loud, always
Eternally yours, always

I want you
I want you
I want you
Touch me now inside
I wanted to be a man
I wanted to call

You say you come to know yourself, always
Don’t find yourself in someone else, always
And always wear a safety belt, always
Wait for me I’m running late, always
This is the moment that we share for always
Turn each song into a prayer, always
Now and forever
For always

Always
U2

A Guarentee Is Only As Good As The People Behind It

January 4, 2007 in Customer Service, Patrick McGonigle with 3 Comments

receipt.jpg Last weekend I purchased what I thought was a General Admission floor seat to the Red Hot Chili Peppers through the up and coming StubHub.com. I read over the listing for the ticket, I read over the FanProtect guarentee, and I made the purchase. I felt comfortable that I was indeed purchasing a ticket on the floor of the American Airlines Center. I was trying to avoid what I witnessed in Atlanta at the U2 concert there. Watching young, happy couples skip up to the doors of the Phillips Areana only to be turned away because they had paid hundreds of dollars for fake tickets broke my heart.

Having seen so many fraudulent cases in the ATL I didn’t want to pay good money for a bogus ticket. I trusted StubHub and felt good about the listing. I pressed the purchase button.
When I received my email confirmation (see pic) I noticed that in the comments section I would also be receiving a parking ticket. At least that’s what I thought.

When my FedEx package arrived yesterday I quickly opened it to find that I had purchased, not a floor seat to the Chilli Peppers and Gnarles Barkley, but a platinum parking pass. The word livid comes to mind. It was late and there was nothing I could do last night so I gathered all the info I could and went to bed knowing that I was going to call StubHub this morning and get my money back come hell or high water.

I’m a college educated twenty something. I have been purchasing things off the internet since high school and have rarely run into a problem. In fact, I have never, never run into a problem by purchasing through mainstream sites like Amazon and Ticketmaster or even eBay. Once some monks stole my credit card but that is another story for another post. I felt completely duped. I know that this guy went to work yesterday and everyone had a good laugh at the stupid guy (me) who paid fifty dollars for a parking pass. My bet is that he will be sitting in a box next week and everyone would have another good laugh at my expense. Guess what, Homey Don’t Play That!

First thing this morning a called StubHub. A young woman answered the phone and I explained to her my situation. She politely put me on hold while she polished her nails spoke to her supervisor. When she came back to the phone she told me that there was nothing she could do. Most people would have been so frustrated that they would have cursed her out, hung up the phone, and then pouted. Not me.

I poured my heart out to this young phone operator. I told her that I felt that this was a case of blatant deceit on the part of the seller. Not only was it stupid to pay $50 for a parking pass but it was criminal. When she let out a small laugh I politely asked to speak to her manager because I knew I wasn’t going to get my money back from her.

Manager Mario got on the line and I explained the whole situation to him. I told him that I felt more comfortable with the StubHub process than the eBay one. I really believed that I was buying a floor seat and not a stupid parking pass. Most importantly, I told him that as a fan, I didn’t feel very protected by their “guarantee.” As nice as he was though, I felt like he was just humoring me. He kept saying all sales were final and that he was truly sorry but there was nothing he could do. Was I going to get stuck with this expensive parking space?

I threw everything on the line and said,” Mario, let me ask you something. When was the last time you parked you car in a seat?”

There was a pause. Mario quietly answered, “Never.” Bingo!!!

From that point on everything fell into place. Mario put me on hold while he called the seller and as soon as I publish the post I’m off to FedEx to send my parking pass back to the seller. I’m getting my money back although there was nothing that could be done!

Persistence. Patience. Politeness. It pays off.

KatD Update

January 4, 2007 in 2007, Books, Music with Comments Off

I have updated the On My Desk Page and the On My iPod Page with fresh readings and listening tos for this, the first week of 2007.

See my summary of the introduction to The Forgotten Ways I posted yesterday. mDNA + Apostolic Genius= A powerful Jesus Movement!

An ad for Ministry Mutiny simply reads “IT’S WORTH IT!”

A forward by a new kind of Christian is fitting for a book entitled A New Kind of Youth Ministry don’t you think?

I am totally rockin’ the new Matt Redman. Beautiful News is another gorgeous worship meditation from one of our greatest hymn writers. Well worth a listen.

Revisiting Both Sides of the Gun this week. Harper is a genius.

Matisyahu Miller has covered the Police and gone home to Israel in a great CD/DVD combo.

I got the Racontours for Christmas and I’m giving it a spin. At least until the weekend is over.

Break Free

January 3, 2007 in Chained to my Desk, Music with Comments Off

On one hand today was incredibly routine and laid back while on the other hand it was incredibly stressful and trying.

One thing that helped me through today was my music library. I hit shuffle this morning and my office has been filled with great music all day.

Some great digital pairings happend today that totally put me at ease and motivated me to keep going.

I Give You My Heart Hillsong
All I Want is You U2
Take My Life (And Let It Be) Chris Tomlin

It Never Entered My Mind Miles Davis
Sweep Me Away Charlie Hall

Amazing Grace Chris Tomlin
City of Blinding Lights U2
Secret Garden Bruce Springsteen
Love’s In Need of Love Today Stevie Wonder

Move Along All-American Rejects
Fix You (Live) Coldplay
One U2
Can I Stay (Live) Ray LaMontange

I know that the shuffle mode doesn’t have a brain but these are some pretty good sets. Thanks iTunes.

Beginings

January 3, 2007 in Books, Church Planting, Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, Popular Culture, Religion, Review with 2 Comments

..all God’s people carry within themselves the same potencies that energized the early Christian movement… Apostolic Genius (the primal missional potencies of the gospel and of God’s people) lies dormant in you, me, and every local church that seeks to follow jesus faithfully in any time. We have quite simply forgotten how to access and trigger it. This book is written to help us identify its constituent elements and to help us (re)activate it so that we might once again truly be a truly transformative Jesus movement in the West.

The first book I decided to tackle in 2007 is The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. Although it looks like a regular book it is dense and thick and that makes me all excited inside.

In the introduction Hirsch asks the $64,000 Question:

How did the early church grow from being a relatively small movement to the “most significant religious force in the Roman Empire in (just) two centuries?”

Hirsch explains that by most estimates the early church had grown to about 25,000 people at the close of the first century. Two hundred years later, conservative estimates put the church at 20 million strong. That is incredible growth. Hirsch throws a wrench in your answering of that question by reminding you that this growth happened in spite of the follow:

  • Christianity was an illegal religion at this time
  • No church buildings like we know them
  • The cannon was being put together during this period
  • No institutional or professional forms of leadership
  • No seeker-sensitive, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, commentaries, etc.
  • It was actually hard to join a church

Ok, can you answer the question? How did they do it? 25 thousand to 20 million in 200 years?

Before you answer Hirsch adds this:

But before the example of the early Christian movement can be dismissed as a freak of history, there is another, even more astounding manifestation of Apostolic Genius, that unique and explosive power inherent in all of God’s people, in our own time- namely, the underground church in China.

When Mao took power 1949 the Chinese church was estimated at 2 million. Mao set out to wipe China clean of all religion focusing explicitly on Christianity. Those in senior leadership were executed, church property was nationalized, missionaries and foreign ministers were deported out of China, and public meetings were banned by threat of imprisonment and death. This still occurs even today.

When foreign missionaries were finally able to return in the early eighties they expected to find a severely diminished church. The found that the church in China had grown to 60 million.

Hirsch says that by looking at the growth of the early church and the Chinese church we find that elements such as “the strange mixture of the passionate love of God, prayer, incarnational practice, appropriate modes of leadership, relevant organization and structures, and the conditions that allow these to catalyze” allow something remarkable to take place.

I am very much looking forward to reading this book. If the inrtoduction is any indication than I am in for a wild ride through these pages. One can only hope.

TheForgottenWays.org
Discreet and Dynamic: Why, with no apparent resources, Chinese churches thrive.
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