I got my copy of this in the mail today:

It looks like amazing stuff. Thanks to Jonny Baker for hooking me up with this.

The Lewins are working on their own experiential worship book. Can't wait for that one to come out.

A few of my friends have had kids this week!

Congrats to my friends from California, Jason & Brooke Evans, on the birth of a healthy baby boy. Jason wrote on a recent blog entry, "Monday, January 26 2004 at 12:31 pm our baby boy, Matthew Corban Evans was born at 8 lbs. 10 oz. He was 19" long and totally healthy."



For more pics of God's good blessing, click here! AND, if you don't know Jason, click here. He's one of the greatest guys I know. Besides, he has an awesome family that has now become four awesome people.

Here are a few thoughts from the study advertised below. You can get the whole thing here.

The Practice of the Presence of God
If we are to follow the experience of those pilgrims of faith before us, we should look to experience God’ presence, at least, in the ways people have consistently experienced it throughout history. Here are five suggestions based on what was explored above.


1. Acknowledge the fact that because you are in Christ, the Spirit is living in you (Rom 8:1-16). Set your mind on what the Spirit desires. In every ordinary situation, ask Yahweh to direct your thoughts, feelings, will, and words by His Holy Spirit.


2. Listen for Yahweh’s direction. Study and meditation of the scriptures is a primary means of experiencing his presence. Practicing disciplines of disengagement such as silence, solitude, fasting, as well as disciplines of engagement such as submission, service, fellowship, and worship can help you attune your soul to hear the Word of God.


3. Obey the teaching of Jesus. Read and study what Jesus taught and then find appropriate (that doesn’t mean convenient!) ways of obeying them in your life. Simple obedience born from the love of God will go far to help you experience God’s presence with you.


4. Participate in the life of the redemptive community (the Church). Partner with believers at work, at home, and in your local expression of the church. Throw parties that celebrate what God has done in your lives. Share in the corporate retelling of God’s saving actions. Whether it is a gathering of four or four thousand, we experience God’s presence wherever God’s people get together to honor him and seek his will.


5. Ask God to give you wisdom (James 1:5) concerning the ordinary course of your life. See yourself as a student and your everyday life as the classroom. What is God teaching you? How is God leading you in right paths? Unmask the foolish messages that bombard you through advertisements, and choose to live according to the Wisdom of God instead.

If you're interested, I'm going to be teaching this series on "Opening yourself up to God in everyday life" at Jenison CC on Wednesday nights in January (14, 21, 28). It will be looking specifically at learning to experience God's Presence, Direction, and Grace in the ordinary parts of your life. Here's the cool looking promo...



I think this is going to be some pretty good stuff. The study starts at 6:30pm.

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Jeremiah Smith has posted his notes from the Not Alone conference. It is a pretty full report of what was said. Go check it out.

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One more note: I am going to be leading a retreat with Mark Riddle for some students from Bella Vista on friday and saturday. Pray for us as we prepare to lead them in this venture into spiritual transformation and the spiritual disciplines.

It's 12:30 a.m. My family is away for the weekend. Kathy is with some water's edge people down in Cincinnati @ the Not-Alone conference. The kids are spending two nights with the grandparents - one night with each set. I love it that they still have grandparents who can take them for a night. I remember those days myself, and my grandparents were formative in my life.

But, this old farm house is incredibly quiet, a sense of emptiness as my kids are not sleeping upstairs. Neither is Kathy present and available to converse. The house feels a bit cold, and a sense of loneliness has swept into my being. I've turned on the t.v., and I'm listening to the David Crowder band...

I've just been reminded of how quickly life can seem to change seasons. Tomorrow, God willing, my house will return to the craziness of our more normal life. But, I am reminded that a tragedy is only one step away from my life being set upside down. I thank God for the goodness that I currently enjoy. I also grieve for those who have felt the depths of pain and/or despair in their lives in recent months.

While God reigns completely, we have a long ways to go to see "thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

London's Guardian posted this article (via Chris Curtis) entitled, "20 Big Ideas," citing, "the next 12 months promises to bring a revolution in the way we work, rest and play."

One of the ideas was this:
14. Notschool
Meaning?
A school for kids who don't fit into the mainstream

In other words...
Children who are bullied, excluded, disaffected, chronically ill, phobic or under police protection all meet the admissions criteria of Notschool, an online learning environment piloted by Ultralab, the IT and education innovators at Anglia Polytechnic University.

Pupils are called 'researchers' because the ways in which they like to learn inform the website's non-hierarchical, signposted design. Teachers are 'mentors' and Notschool-leavers stay online as 'buddies' to the new kids.

'We are providing a safe learning environment for young people who have nowhere else to go,' says Jean Johnson, Notschool's project director. 'And we reawaken their desire to learn.' The initial pilot intake of 100 Notschoolers has recently been upped to 600 in 17 local education authorities and new Notschools are planned for New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands. And after Notschool? Well, there's another Ultralab invention - Ultraversity.


Wondering if this might shed some light on a bit of what we're about with regards to the church in West Michigan? What do you think? I especially like the bit about "we reawaken their desire to learn."

Notchurch? Huh.

I want to 'push back' on something Randy wrote on back on December 2 regarding pastors and control. I was going to put it in the comments section, but it might get more response here...

I think that control is not the same as leadership. Leadership must be seen as an act of service. The lust for power is not leadership--it is greed and hubris; it is self-service. Leadership is in the position of the one who would become the servant of all--not the tyrant of all.

One of the things I think I need to be self-critical on is that I think we may have mistaken leadership for control, and may have failed to provide the leadership that has been necessary for Water's Edge. The problem for me is that I'm still learning what leadership-as-an-act-of-service looks like among us. What does leadership-as-an-act-of love look like among us?

I do think we need to let go of our lust for control, but I am not so sure that it requires us to fail to provide direction. We need to be faithful with the responsibilities that God has entrusted to us (our kingdoms under His). But to give up leadership altogether because we're afraid of falling into power games is as dangerous for us as it was for the servant who buried his Master's resources in the ground.

Fear, too, perhaps, is the opposite of love.

...more food for thought...

Torie and I were driving to a wedding a week ago, and she was reading the first chapter of “The Purpose-Driven Life” to me aloud. When she had finished, I did a quick critique of what Rick Warren wrote in the chapter, and then I went on to talk about the importance of seeing ourselves as part of a story. I quickly went over my recounting of God’s story, and emphasized the importance of living out of that story as opposed to all the other “unstories” of our culture. Little did I know we were about to be tested as to which story we were really living in.

Torie read the second chapter of Warren’s book, and it sounded like she was reciting what I had just said about the beginning of God’s story. It was a bit spooky. I had not read any of this book before, but there it was in black and white—some phrases nearly word for word as I had said it a few moments before.

After Torie read the second chapter, we talked some more about it. Almost immediately after we had finished that conversation, our transmission started making some very terrible sounds. The car was dying, and we had to get it off the road. We made it to a gas station where we had some help identifying the problem from a guy in a tow truck. When we realized we weren’t going to make it to the wedding, we made arrangements to be towed back to Grand Rapids (now 100 miles away).

Waiting for my dad to come with his truck, Torie and I had about two hours to talk about the situation. We had to come to grips with the realities of transmission replacement (mucho dinero). My reaction was initially one of mild anxiety and frustration (it always seems things like this happen just as we start making some progress on our savings). Yet, this time, I was not overwhelmed by anxiety or despair. Torie did not seem phased by it at all!

Torie kept reminding me of all the reasons we had to be grateful. She kept looking for ways to see this situation from a kingdom life perspective. She kept reminding me about what I had said about living out of a sense of story and really trusting Jesus when he said that when we seek God’s kingdom, he provides what we need. We saw that God had indeed provided for us ahead of time, not just in this situation, but in several specific situations over the past few years.

We are increasingly learning to live from the perspective of kingdom life, and not just in the theoretical and hypothetical. Living that way is not always easy, but it really is possible, and surely is always good.