Under Bridges

I'm back from Council - I had a great time :)

Here's a song that talks about some of the stuff I'm wrestling with right now - some of which I was reminded of while I was in Orlando.

"Under Bridges" by Brave Saint Saturn

Yesterday while walking
Beneath an overpass
I saw the figure of Jesus
Standing barefoot on broken glass

His beard was graying
Smell of urine filled the air
Asking if I had some change
Anything that I could spare

Emaciated
His shaking fist balled up
Influenza and pneumonia
Begging God to take his cup

So different from his pictures
Breathing air through yellowed tubes
Jesus Christ, dying of AIDS
Can look right through you

And all have hated
Crucified and walked away
Savior of the prostitutes
Drunkards, rapists, and the gays

Under Bridges,
With hands raised
From the ghettos
They praise His name

Broken, crippled
In the dark of night
Raise your voices
To Jesus Christ

Hallelujah

Council - Day 2

Well, it's the end of my second day at council. So far, things are going well. I've seen many friends and acquaintances thus far and have had some (VERY) interesting conversations.

I'm chewing on a few things at the moment and I don't think I'm ready to share them just yet.

Funny story: I woke up this morning in my hotel room and headed for the shower. I always look forward to hotel showers...somehow they manage to be better than regular showers. Don't judge me, just believe! Now as I was sleepily getting prepared to shower, I pulled the handle to turn on the water. The handle came off. As I held that handle in my hand - I understood why this was rated 2 out of 5 stars ;) Long story short, I managed to screw the thing back on and get the whole sha'bang back together.

Important lesson learned of the day: When Luke says there is free parking at the convention center and everyone else is telling you otherwise, don't believe Luke :)

The general sessions for conference are broadcast live from the C&MA site (thank God the business sessions are not...unless you are having problem's sleeping). Visit the C&MA website if you are interested in getting a whiff of what the C&MA council is like. BTW... Make sure to check out tonight's message they are podcasting the messages so you can listen in- even if you can't watch it live.

Here's a fun link for your enjoyment: "When Ninjas Attack" - for your spring season Ninja preparedness

Off to Council Tomorrow

Every few years, pastors and delegates from our denomination - the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) get together for a general council. It's a time to meet up with old friends, network, receive counseling/training for ministry, and contribute to the ongoing movement of our Denomination (business).

Tomorrow I leave for Orlando, FL for Council. I'll be there through Sunday and I'm looking forward to the needed break. I'm staying solo in a hotel and I'm taking some good books (and the "good book"). I'm looking forward to hearing reports of what God is doing within our humble (small) denomination.

I also get a peek at where our summer youth conference will be held, so I'm looking forward to doing a little of scouting. I'll try and blog from Orlando and post what pics I take.

Interesting Picture Zoom Flash Movie

You could spend hours playing around with this flash movie. It zooms in and creates images from images. Very cool stuff. Check it out:

http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm

Experience Matters

"The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush."

- A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

The Worship Industry

What do you think of this video?

Spare cycles... for God?

I was reading this article today and it got me thinking...

We human beings have so much untapped potential. The aforementioned article explored the concept of boredom and the latent productivity of the human race. Basically, we have much more free time than we'd like to admit and we fill this free time with everything from entertainment, movies, video games, hobbies, staring at the wall... you get the point.

Just look at the vast amount of information and resources available on the internet. Web 2.0 is all about collaboration. Most of the people who blog, manage Wikipedia, contribute to myspace and Youtube are all volunteers. Their doing it for free.

What if we took our "spare cycles" - our spare time - and used it to further the Kingdom of God? I'm not knocking down-time, it's incredibly important to us all. But if I was honest with myself, I would say that I have too much free time.

What if we as Christians collectively collaborated to further the kingdom of God with the time in our margins? What would happen when millions of Christians took 5-10 minutes a day to spread the love of God? A word of encouragement to the lady at the store, a helpful hand to the neighbor next door, a hug to a friend in need, a quick call to an old friend. All of these things don't take more than a few moments, but combined we could make a real impact.

The point of using spare cycles for God isn't to be busier. It's about stewardship. What are we doing with our time? Do we really need to watch 3 hours of TV a day? Do we really need to see 3 movies a week? Do we really need to spend all of our free time doing things that merely entertain us? What if we all gave a little? Imagine the possibilities.

I'm not dead :)

I know it's been a while since I blogged. I guess I just didn't feel like I had anything to share. The summer is almost here and I'm busy as a beaver getting things ready for our student ministry trips and special events this summer. On top of that I'm the program director at our District Summer camp so that has kept me pre-occupied.

On the "Erik has a life" front, Rachel and I will be going to see Spiderman 3 tomorrow night. I've heard mixed reviews, but I'm still looking forward to seeing the movie (especially with the company I will bring with me).

On a similar subject... is anyone getting tired of mega-marketing campaigns associated with the big movies? I guess it's just a product of the culture we live in, but it certainly gets old, fast.

Smile

Sometimes, I must admit I take life too seriously. If you've ever been around me for any extended period of time, would would know that this is in fact true. I feel like I've been more tense than normal lately - I guess I need a vacation or something. This weekend I got to blow off some steam playing paintball with some people from church which was very healthy (it got the kink out of my neck too!).

In the spirit of "lightning up", I leave you with this gem from David Crowder (their first music video).