Big Day

We had a full day planning meeting at the church building from 8:30-4:30. Then I had Sunday band practice. Then I went over to Noel and Grace's. Oh, and Jaden rolled over, twice.

Together

Wow, we just got back from steve somerlot's house for the young couples hangout thing. It was so cool there were about 60 people there and there were just a lot of people to meet and get to know a little. I still want to post about sacrifice soon, but for now i'm going to do a little reading and hit the sack.

The Aquatic Life

I can't wait for this

wilco

I finally got my Wilco tickets for October 10th! Below is where they will be playing.

Coffee Knows

So, I'm here at Van Java. Suzanne is working. Chey is in some sort of business meeting. Nicole is on her computer. Jaden is sleeping. I kind of miss the days of working at Java House in Springfield. The early morning customers who get the same drink every time, Van Morrison in the background. It was coffee bean aromatherepy for all who enter: the artists, the business folks, the homeless, the college students. I remember the sun slowly rising and me, being all alone in the shop. It was my discipline of silence. I enjoyed the simplicity of the work. It was my job to make coffee, tidy up a bit and chat with the patrons. Simple.

So onto something a bit more complex. The word know.
let's start out with the definitions....
To perceive directly; grasp in the mind with clarity or certainty.
To regard as true beyond doubt: I know she won't fail.
To have a practical understanding of, as through experience; be skilled in: knows how to cook.
To have fixed in the mind: knows her Latin verbs.
To have experience of: “a black stubble that had known no razor” (William Faulkner).
To perceive as familiar; recognize: I know that face.
To be acquainted with: He doesn't know his neighbors.
To be able to distinguish; recognize as distinct: knows right from wrong.
To discern the character or nature of: knew him for a liar.
Archaic. To have sexual intercourse with.

I'm not the first to talk about this. I'm not claiming to have any philisophical/linguistic intelligence. But I am writing this because I think that there is a cultural rift that this word causes in regards to our epistemology. The rift is mostly between boomerish evangelicals and the youngers who have grown up in postmodern culture.

Mr. Modern Evangelical is defensive about his apoligetics. These "proofs" give him good reasons for his faith. They show that his faith is not illogical, his "Christian Worldview" is somewhat consistent, somewhat coherent. He "knows" that God exists. He believes that if you can just get a willing person into a conversation about "proofs" for God etc...that that should then logically move one to faith.

On the other hand Miss Younger Evangelical "knows" that you can't truely "know" anything. How can you "prove" that God exists to someone? Doesn't that kind of certainty eliminate the need for faith? Was Kirkegaard heard at all when he talked about the existential "leap of faith" that Christians must take in light of the fact that we can't prove anything? She doesn't understand why it's not ok to question things. Why do we have to act like we have all the answers to everything. Why do we think we know?

Well, I am not about to think that there is any real solution to this outside of more honest dialogue between the two groups. I'm not even sure I'm representing them well. I do however know people like Mr. ME and Miss YE. And I think that one of the basic misunderstandings is our meaning of the word know. If we go back to our definition at the top of this page. We find one definition: "To perceive directly; grasp in the mind with clarity or certainty." Some people use the word know in this way. If this is the case I really have a hard time with it. Certainty means 100% evidence in many peoples minds. Whereas I think or knowledge of God is more acuately defined as: "to have experience of."

Now to the Modern thinkers out there I am not sugesting that you cannot have a Justified True Belief. But you just can't really prove it. You just don't have 100% evidence. You must admit that you have to have faith that brings you to that belief.

And to the cynical Post-Moderns out there. Shame on you (us?) for just assuming that the Moderns use the first definition of know. We should be more aware of the deconstructionist understanding that we assign meaning to words. And instead of looking for meaning we have our definition of "know" (100%) and expect that that is the way that everyone else is using it (and therefore shouldn't be using it). Instead let's dialogue. I think if we can explain what we mean to the olders, then we might get somewhere in this conversations. But instead, so much of the time we have just been talking past each other.

The Kid

Thanks again to Travis.

Why I haven't been blogging

So, I suck at updating my blog. But I do have reasons. This past week has been a wonderful escape. Scott and Tammy our frousins (friend/cousins) were here all this past week and it was wonderful. They are on their way to Vancouver because Scott is going to seminary at Regent there. These two kids are some of our dearest friends. Rarely have Suzanne and I recieved such unbridaled love. The are more than family and more than friends. I wish I could say more but I can't becuase it can't be described in words. To understand you would have to be there when Scott, holds Jaden, or plays baskettball with me and the neighbor kids or when he leaves his world of philosphy and acedamia and just says something silly. You'd have to be there when Tami asks challenging questions in pure honesty or when she hugs us goodbye and tells us directly of how much she loves us. We will miss them.

This weekend we went home for a friends wedding reception. Had breakfast with Charley and Jennifer on Saturday. Can't wait for them to visit. They need to move to Lansing.

I'm hoping to update some more tomorrow. I want to talk about sacrifice and the word "know," but for now I need to get some sleep.

Line of the Day

"I was so close to Jesus, I accidentally tripped him!"

Dirty Peace

To hear the story behind this picture go here and click on the pic.


Well, I just got back into lansing, and it's so awesome to see my wife. Jaden and I missed her. I spent some time with my good friends Jim, Troy and Charlie. As well as my family. I think they had a good time taking care of Jaden.

Strut Jazz

ok so go here to listen to some really sweet jazz. It's good to work to. Make sure you click "audio."

alive

ok, my email is back now. So send me some mail.

Songwriting

I've spent most of today writing a new worship song. It has been frustrating and rewarding at the same time. It's fun, finding theological truths that fit simply, and somewhat succinctly into a song that can connect with people and their experience. I'm not done yet, but it's getting there. It looks like I'll be recording sometime soon. People at Riverview and LT have been asking for the songs, so we've got to serve it up!

no mail

so the eriv server is down, i can't check my email. Not trying to avoid anyone!

So the jazz fest. Friday the first few bands were just ok and we were about to leave and then this amazing band played, the leader was a pianist, Michael Kaeshammer. They totally jammed out. He played this one solo where his left hand was in 3/3 time and then his other hand kept changing time sigs and they would meet up every three or four measures! Crazy.

Saturday we say a bit of Thelonious Monk's son's band. It was ok, he wasn't anything special at drums and the whole band had to read music even though they mostly played Monk's father's songs. At one point the wind blew the music off the piano and the pianist stopped playing picked up the music and went back to it. Come on! Improvise if you don't know it!

Holy Observer

Impressions are Impressions!

Here is a great passage from "Decision Making and the Will of God by Garry Freisen. I think it's possible that "God's inward peace leading us" just may be an unbiblical lie that many people (and I have believed it in the past) believe. I haven't really seen anyone back it us scripturally though, besides taking a verse out of context. I'd love some response. I know this is a touchy subject for people and don't want to claim to have the corner on truth, but I would really like for someone to show me why we can make decisions based on some inner feeling of peace.

Chapter 8
"since peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), it is viewed by many as one of the means at His disposal to communicate His will to the believer.

This concept is based primarily on the exhortation of Colossians 3:15 "And let the peace of Christ rul in your hearts..." The explanation is that this peace functions as an umpire that "calls" each decision in question. So long as the believer is living within the center of God's will, he experiences and inner quietness of heart "which surpasses all comprehension" (Philippians 4:7). Through this peace the Umpire is calling "Safe!" But if the Christian begins to move in the wrong direction, he experiences increasing restlessness and inner anxiety--an indication that he is about to step "out of bounds."
It is not difficult to see the logic of this explanation, and it corresponds beautifully with the other aspects of the traditional view of guidance. Unfortunately, it dos not correspond with the rest of the passage of which it is a part, and we suspect that the apostle Paul would be surprised to learn that his statement to the Colossians was being explained in such a way. For he was not writing about God's provision for decision making, but rather a moral lifestyle that is consistent with the believer's position in Christ.
The statement "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" is part of a paragraph that runs from verses 12 through 17 in Colossians 3. That paragraph begins with an exhortation for believers to "put on" certain virtues: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and above all, love, "which is the perfect bond of unity"(3:14). These virtues are to replace discarded vices such as immorality, greed, anger, abusive speech, lying, and the like (3:5-11)...Rather Christians are to be characterized by unity--a unity that will grow spontaneously as Christians put on the garments of love (3:12-14), submit to the peace of Christ (3:15), share the word of Christ (3:16), and do all things with thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus (3:17).

Jazz Fest

Looks like we'll be hitting up the jazz fest in Lansing this weekend. T.S. Monk (Thelonious's son) is going to be playing.

Wed Nes Day

Ah..today is my day off and I'm so glad. Yesterday was a tiring day, we met with some potential architechs all day long... It was good i think they had some great ideas and seemed to be willing to work with our budget etc... so well see where it goes.

So Suz and I are hanging out tonight. It is so crazy when you have a kid, it's harder to get time to hang out with each other, but we are determined to today!

Ah...and I found a store (Goodrich's) that has Sweet Walter Red Wine which we used to drink with Walt and Andy and Jami. Goodrich's also has Dogfish Head which Shane and Andy introduced me to in Columbus. Good stuff.

too much coffee

Well it's late and I can't seem to get to sleep because I drank some coffee earlier. I "had the talk" with the Saturday bands tonight, that is I told them about the upcoming changes (although i leaked it out a month ago). I'm basically making the music thing a one year committment and having try-outs once a year. This will be to keep things fresh and to bring more people into ministries/community at Riverview as well as giving us a wider talent base. The teams responded so well. They (at least said) thought it was a good idea and seem to be behind us all the way. It's tough when you get into music stuff. It's such a personal thing. And with praise teams you have to balence out the talent issue with the heart issue and style and preferences etc... especially with a large church. I get emails from people almost every week, asking to be in the band. So it will be interesting to see how everything goes. Pray for me!

LT Band

Ok, so thanks to Micah for the picture. It's Sean, Christine, Me, Kyle and Matt.