just got home from Phil's birthday party, where Mark threatened to take me off his blogroll if i didn't post soon. point taken. posting in process...
really enjoyed the celebration last sunday. as Bono might have said, God walked through the room. had a working session with the church board in the afternoon; encouraged about the direction Jesus seems to be leading us re: leadership development, discipleship infrastructure, etc. after coming home and hanging out with Ronni and the kids for a bit, Blue drove by with an invite to twightlight golf at Huron Hills, on the banks of the river. much fun had with Blue, Matt, and Jimbo. Matt and i won the two man scramble (in a playoff chipoff), and were treated to Coldstone Creamery for our efforts.
monday (day off) took a trip out to the new Canton IKEA with Don, Julie, Eve, Ronni, Colin, and Elle. IKEA's like the Mecca or Jerusalem of inexpensive contemporary furnishings. crazy cool, and crazy cheap, relatively speaking. they've mastered the family shopping experience, with a huge childcare / play area for kids, cafe, great layout, fast checkout, the whole nine yards. had a ton of fun hanging out with Don and Julie and Eve, especially since we hadn't seen them in a while. played soccer in the evening at church with a bunch of guys (and a few girls, too). Mark Morsfield jr. dominated, effortlessly, it seemed to me.
spent most of tuesday in Lansing, meeting early in the morning with the crew that went to Russia this spring for a mission's partnership meeting, and then with the east michigan area vineyard pastors. Steve drove me there and back, and we had a great time talking, observing stuff God's up to in the church and in our lives, even a little blueskying. homegroup was really rich tuesday evening. Phil and Amy shared the story of their lives and relationships with each other and with Jesus, and then we prayed for them afterwards.
...wed. to sat. in the next post...
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
vineyard great lakes regional conference audio
thought this post on my friend Donnell's blog nicely articulated the following news (cut and pasted directly, in italics):
Each year Vineyard hosts either a national leader conference, or a regional conference. This year's regional conference theme was A New Christianity: Rediscovering the Center. It's a time of ferment across the church landscape in North America as an ancient faith struggles to find fresh expression. You know the buzzwords: emerging church, post-modernity, and the like. It's time now to flesh it out. Vineyard churches are positioned to do just that. We believe the New Christianity involves a rediscovery, a new convergence toward the center, drawing from the treasures of the whole church. The conference addressed some major themes, such as contemplative prayer, social justice, and Spirit empowered and outward focused ministry. I believe this is core content for the emerging Christianity of the 21st Century. It is also central to Vineyard's contribution to the emergent church conference will be aimed at leaders at all levels in local vineyard churches, but it is wide open to anyone who wishes to attend.
while you're at it (visiting Donnell's blog, that is), check out his link on an interview with Brian McLaren re: the DaVinci code - expresses eloquently what i've felt on a gut level but never thought about with enough focus to put into words.
Each year Vineyard hosts either a national leader conference, or a regional conference. This year's regional conference theme was A New Christianity: Rediscovering the Center. It's a time of ferment across the church landscape in North America as an ancient faith struggles to find fresh expression. You know the buzzwords: emerging church, post-modernity, and the like. It's time now to flesh it out. Vineyard churches are positioned to do just that. We believe the New Christianity involves a rediscovery, a new convergence toward the center, drawing from the treasures of the whole church. The conference addressed some major themes, such as contemplative prayer, social justice, and Spirit empowered and outward focused ministry. I believe this is core content for the emerging Christianity of the 21st Century. It is also central to Vineyard's contribution to the emergent church conference will be aimed at leaders at all levels in local vineyard churches, but it is wide open to anyone who wishes to attend.
Some of the audio from the conference is available online and is also available as a Podcast .
by the way, the conference deeply affirmed for me so many of the reasons i feel privileged to be part of a church in the community of churches called the Vineyard.while you're at it (visiting Donnell's blog, that is), check out his link on an interview with Brian McLaren re: the DaVinci code - expresses eloquently what i've felt on a gut level but never thought about with enough focus to put into words.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
notes from Cincy
the conference has been awesome so far. extraordinary teaching, excellent worship, great fellowship. add to that a couple of encounters with Jesus that have caused me to lose all my cool and a fair amount of snot, too, and it's been a definite winner.
i'm rooming with my friend Donnell, a pastor at the Ann Arbor Vineyard. he's finishing up prep for his message tomorrow. his talk will be the final session of the conference - i'm really looking forward to it. looking forward to the talk, i should say, not the end.
also looking forward to seeing Ronni, Colin, and Elle soon. Ronni tells me whenever she mentions my name on the phone, Elle looks around inquiringly, "Da-dy? Da-dy?" as if i might just appear around the corner. breaks one's heart, don't you know?
i'm rooming with my friend Donnell, a pastor at the Ann Arbor Vineyard. he's finishing up prep for his message tomorrow. his talk will be the final session of the conference - i'm really looking forward to it. looking forward to the talk, i should say, not the end.
also looking forward to seeing Ronni, Colin, and Elle soon. Ronni tells me whenever she mentions my name on the phone, Elle looks around inquiringly, "Da-dy? Da-dy?" as if i might just appear around the corner. breaks one's heart, don't you know?
Monday, May 8, 2006
regional conference
heading down to cincinnati for the vineyard great lakes regional conference tomorrow. really looking forward to it.
experimented with motion backgrounds behind the song lyrics during worship at church yesterday. curious to see if it helped people worship, or if it was experienced as distracting/showy. it sure was easy to experience God's presence during worship, but i don't know if had anything to do with the multimedia, since the worship team was really in a groove. rarely get feedback on anything, so i'm not optimistic anyone will actually say anything voluntarily. i'll have to do a little investigating, i suppose.
also, going to see a chiropractor today; see if maybe some relief for head pain is available. should be interesting.
had batting practice for softball yesterday. while pitching, took one to the radius. can still see the stictches imprinted on my forearm. should leave a nice bruise, but nothing lasting, i'm sure.
experimented with motion backgrounds behind the song lyrics during worship at church yesterday. curious to see if it helped people worship, or if it was experienced as distracting/showy. it sure was easy to experience God's presence during worship, but i don't know if had anything to do with the multimedia, since the worship team was really in a groove. rarely get feedback on anything, so i'm not optimistic anyone will actually say anything voluntarily. i'll have to do a little investigating, i suppose.
also, going to see a chiropractor today; see if maybe some relief for head pain is available. should be interesting.
had batting practice for softball yesterday. while pitching, took one to the radius. can still see the stictches imprinted on my forearm. should leave a nice bruise, but nothing lasting, i'm sure.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
russia trip recap
Bob has been writing a day by day recap of our trip to Russia, and it's fantastic (complete with photos). rather than try to duplicate it, i'll just direct you to his blog here.
Steve and I are looking forward to sharing about our experiences at church tomorrow morning...
Steve and I are looking forward to sharing about our experiences at church tomorrow morning...
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
home
arrived home yesterday and slept from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. but still feeling really groggy today. trying to stay awake through home group tonight, so i thought blogging might help. difficult to concentrate enough to write, though. we'll see how it goes...
how about a quick recap of Sunday and Monday?
Sunday, 8:00 a.m (GMT +3): wake, shower, pack, eat breakfast of toast, cheese, and yogurt in hotel cafe.
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.: walk to Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard with Bob & Steve. Kevin is already there, warming up with Kathy and rest of worship team. Emily is coming with Dave & Stephanie (Dave & Kathy's 15 year old daughter)
Sunday, 11:30 a.m.: worship starts, about 1/2 hour late. no one seems concerned, just seems to be the way things work here in Russia sometimes. worship is awesome - familiar songs in Russian language. Sasha from Vineyard in Siberia is helping lead. Sergei from another Vineyard in western Russia preaches on servant leadership. great stuff - remarkable guy, the only indigeonous pastor of a Vineyard church in western Russia.
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: eat lunch at Papa Potato (they kind of ran out of food - there's no "after church" brunch crowd in Russia since there are so few churches). our team meets with Dave & Kathy to share some ways we're planning to support them and the church.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: walk back to church for conclusion of leadership conference. worship, teaching, ministry time. Holy Spirit present in cool ways to bless people. seems to show up regardless of whether a translator is present to interpret or not. lots of heartfelt goodbyes to people we've felt a deep bond with in a short period of time. receive tons of encouragment about our time here; seems like God's favor has been with us.
Sunday, 8:00 p.m.: pack up van and taxi with luggage, drive to airport outside NN. take Siberian Air to Moscow. it takes off late because of a VIP arriving after everyone else has boarded. somebody with bodyguards, etc.
Monday, 12:30 a.m.: arrive in Moscow, where we are picked up by Sergei from the Moscow Christian Center. Sergei takes us across the city to a hotel near the international airport.
Monday, 2:00 a.m.: check into hotel. eat some dinner and take a shower. call the Harvest Ridge home group to say hi, since it's 7:00 p.m. Sunday in Michigan. finally, Steve and I take a 45 minute nap til our wake up call at 4:30 a.m.
Monday, 5:00 a.m.: arrive at airport, go through security, passport control, etc. get searched, go through 3 metal detectors. meet a guy from Texas at the gate and talk with him for a while. he's cool - an engineer for a gas company who has adopted 2 Russian children, serves as a deacon at his church.
Monday, 7:15 a.m.: take off and fly to Paris. arrive and get searched a couple more times, go through 4 more metal detectors.
Monday, time unknown: fly from Charles De Gaulle to Detroit Metro. some enjoyable turbelence. fight to stay awake so i can sleep at night.
Monday, 2:00 p.m. (GMT- 5): arrive at DTW, go through customs and meet Curt, who drives us home.
Monday, 3:00 p.m.: hug and kiss Ronni, Colin, and Elle. Elle remembers me, thankfully :) give gifts, show pictures, share stories. it's been about 39 hours since i've had any real sleep. watch some tv shows Ronni recorded while i was away. hoping to stay up until 9:00, but can't quite make it...
how about a quick recap of Sunday and Monday?
Sunday, 8:00 a.m (GMT +3): wake, shower, pack, eat breakfast of toast, cheese, and yogurt in hotel cafe.
Sunday, 10:00 a.m.: walk to Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard with Bob & Steve. Kevin is already there, warming up with Kathy and rest of worship team. Emily is coming with Dave & Stephanie (Dave & Kathy's 15 year old daughter)
Sunday, 11:30 a.m.: worship starts, about 1/2 hour late. no one seems concerned, just seems to be the way things work here in Russia sometimes. worship is awesome - familiar songs in Russian language. Sasha from Vineyard in Siberia is helping lead. Sergei from another Vineyard in western Russia preaches on servant leadership. great stuff - remarkable guy, the only indigeonous pastor of a Vineyard church in western Russia.
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: eat lunch at Papa Potato (they kind of ran out of food - there's no "after church" brunch crowd in Russia since there are so few churches). our team meets with Dave & Kathy to share some ways we're planning to support them and the church.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: walk back to church for conclusion of leadership conference. worship, teaching, ministry time. Holy Spirit present in cool ways to bless people. seems to show up regardless of whether a translator is present to interpret or not. lots of heartfelt goodbyes to people we've felt a deep bond with in a short period of time. receive tons of encouragment about our time here; seems like God's favor has been with us.
Sunday, 8:00 p.m.: pack up van and taxi with luggage, drive to airport outside NN. take Siberian Air to Moscow. it takes off late because of a VIP arriving after everyone else has boarded. somebody with bodyguards, etc.
Monday, 12:30 a.m.: arrive in Moscow, where we are picked up by Sergei from the Moscow Christian Center. Sergei takes us across the city to a hotel near the international airport.
Monday, 2:00 a.m.: check into hotel. eat some dinner and take a shower. call the Harvest Ridge home group to say hi, since it's 7:00 p.m. Sunday in Michigan. finally, Steve and I take a 45 minute nap til our wake up call at 4:30 a.m.
Monday, 5:00 a.m.: arrive at airport, go through security, passport control, etc. get searched, go through 3 metal detectors. meet a guy from Texas at the gate and talk with him for a while. he's cool - an engineer for a gas company who has adopted 2 Russian children, serves as a deacon at his church.
Monday, 7:15 a.m.: take off and fly to Paris. arrive and get searched a couple more times, go through 4 more metal detectors.
Monday, time unknown: fly from Charles De Gaulle to Detroit Metro. some enjoyable turbelence. fight to stay awake so i can sleep at night.
Monday, 2:00 p.m. (GMT- 5): arrive at DTW, go through customs and meet Curt, who drives us home.
Monday, 3:00 p.m.: hug and kiss Ronni, Colin, and Elle. Elle remembers me, thankfully :) give gifts, show pictures, share stories. it's been about 39 hours since i've had any real sleep. watch some tv shows Ronni recorded while i was away. hoping to stay up until 9:00, but can't quite make it...
Friday, March 3, 2006
Russia
leaving in about an hour for Russia with Steve. flying from Detroit to Paris, and then Paris to Moscow. got up at 4:00 this morning in hopes of being tired enough to sleep on the flight over to Paris. feeling pretty tuckered right now, but i know the adreneline is likely to kick in once we're at the airport.
can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).
i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.
Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?
off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.
missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.
can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).
i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.
Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?
off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.
missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.
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