StretchyChurch

Man, this blog thing is just going down the tubes, ain’t it?! But, y’know, I’m ok with it. I’ve noticed this happens every now and then. I post like crazy for a few months–and then I get burnt out. I take a break and then after a while I start posting every other day again!

Anyway, my buddy, D.G., just started a podcast called The Guys Podcast. Pretty funny–basically just three guys talking about stupid stuff. Check it out here.

I know, I know… I haven’t posted anything new in over a week! I guess I’ve been in one of those non-inspired states. Or maybe it’s more like this: I’ve been pouring all my energy into the church and into my Doctor of Ministry, so StretchyChurch has gotten shorted.

I’ll just share a couple quick things:

First, I’m soooo happy living in San Diego! I love the church I’ve been called to lead. I love the people. I love the neighborhood. And I love the potential that this church has to become a vibrant presence in the community of Clairemont!

I’m also happy because we live so close to the ocean. It’s better than I could have asked for! I’ve never been in a place where I could go surfing almost anytime I want to. This past week I went surfing on Thursday morning before work (from 6-8am) and then I went again on Friday morning after dropping Micah off at preschool. It’s just more than I could have ever hoped for!

The second thing I thought I’d share has to do with a comedy duo called Flight of the Conchords. They are hilarious!! My friend, D.G. has a couple posts with some videos from them. Check them out here and here.

Well, today I just found out that Bret (the smaller guy in the duo) played an elf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy! In The Fellowship of the Ring, Bret plays one of the elves at the Council of Elrond. And in the extended version of The Return of the King, he plays an elf who says to Arwen (as she is getting ready to leave Middle Earth) something like, “We must leave, my Lady.”

Believe it or not, there is an entire website dedicated to Bret’s role in The Lord of the Rings. The site is called Figwit Lives! (Figwit is an acronym for “Frodo is grea…who is THAT?!?” Very random…  But I guess the girls think he’s pretty cute!)

Every Thursday afternoon, Russell Smith and I (and several other Cincinnati pastors from various denominations and backgrounds) get together for discussion at Barnes & Noble in Newport. When I arrived last Thursday I asked Russell if he’d read my post regarding the Presbytery meeting. He looked at me and said, “You’re not looking to make any friends in Presbytery, are you?”

First I laughed. Then, later, I got nervous. Then I reflected on what I’d written. Then I came to this conclusion: We need to be free to say what we think.

I also mentioned in my other post that nothing excites me about being Presbyterian. However, I need to say that I do appreciate that we can at least hold different viewpoints. And we can still respect each other–ideally, anyway.

I say all this because it ties in with the “Permission-giving” aspect of the Transformation Team’s report (see Russell’s post for more on this). Russell writes:

It is much easier for me to go off and ad hoc partner with a few churches on things that we really care about than it is for me to try to make a sales pitch to a presbytery committee, wait for their meeting to come around, and then see what they decide. That, I think, is what the transformation team’s proposal is about.

In other words, instead of making people jump through hoops, we ought allow people to go and do ministry without having to ask permission first.

I think there’s another aspect of permission-giving, and that’s the freedom to challenge others to a higher standard.

I’m currently reading Winning, by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. In his book, he says that one of the most important aspects of a winning team is candor. Y’know–being candid. Being frank. Being open and honest. Not mean-spirited, but honest. Candor is what brings good ideas to the fore. Vigorous debate and grappling weeds out the bad ideas. You find this concept not only in Winning, but also in Good to Great, by Jim Collins. Candor, wrestling, debate–these are all critical for us to become a great presbytery.

I don’t claim to be right all the time. In fact, maybe my comments in my other post were way off base. But they were written in a spirit of candor. I just want to be open about how I feel and what I think.

Believe it or not, I really do care about this presbytery. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have expressed myself so strongly.

Ok, so I feel a little bad after giving D.G. a hard time in yesterday’s post because today D.G. came by to drop off my notes from the class. I remind you that that is definitely not the reason it took so long for me to post. Life just got busy.

But not only did D.G. drop off my notes, he also helped me out in a big way today. When I arrived in Newport for our weekly meeting in Newport at Starbucks, my car started started overheating. Luckily I was already parking when it happened.

No big deal though. A hose popped off and all I needed was a screwdriver so I could reattach it. When I met Benji and D.G. at Starbucks I asked if either of them had a flathead screwdriver and, of course, D.G. said he did. So as we were getting ready to go, D.G. came over with me to fix my car. We got it fixed, put in the rest of the coolant I had in my trunk, and we were off. But first D.G. told me that if I had any problems to call him and he’d come help.

I had problems. As soon as I was getting onto the 471, I realized I was overheating again. I pulled over and called D.G. As soon as I’d told him, he was picking up some more coolant for me. A few minutes later he showed up behind me with the coolant.

What a guy!! Thanks, D.G.!

Ok. I feel a little less guilty now about giving D.G. a hard time yesterday….

Yeah, yeah… I know it’s been over two weeks since my last post. But I have a really good excuse. I blame it on D.G. I lent him my notes from class and I haven’t gotten them back yet! Yeah, that’s it! It’s all D.G.’s fault! That’s why I haven’t posted in over two weeks!

Ok, so it’s not really D.G.’s fault. Actually, it just got really busy around here, but I promise I’ll give you a few more thoughts on that class I took.

For now, I just want to announce that my wife, Robin, is pregnant again! Woo-hoo!! We are both super-excited and can’t wait to be Mommy and Daddy again! And I can’t believe that Micah is going to be old enough to be a big brother!

And that’s it for now… Over and out.