an evening at home... just the boys 

wedding

a week ago, i hooked up with my new friend jeff. today, i met his fiance taylea. i will perform their ceremony come the 1st of Oct. i couldn't be more excited about this. i love the thought that two very different individuals are choosing to lay aside their individualistic ideas on life and commit to one another forever. loving the other more than their own life. beautiful. this act/choice is so bold, so mature, so daring... it is so radical and counter cultural to actually take seriously the vows, the promises, and the death to ones self. they don't complete each other, they love one another with perfect love. loving in spite of failure, ignorance, frailty, immaturity, and weakness. this is a glimpse of the kingdom of God.
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currently playing:: mindy smith: one moment more

long day filled with all sorts of things...  long shift at work, walk to the park with the family, good discussions at church, now off to see mike perkins play at zyng up the road with curtis.  after a late night i'll drag my butt out of bed tomorrow to open the store.  I then have the privelage of driving palmer to ky to the airport to fly out on his missionary journey.  then back home to hammer out a new liturgy for the church.... maybe i'll have time to blog on thurs.

 

yesterday i got pierced at piercology.  it didn't hurt nearly as bad as i thought it would... and I held up my end of the deal with chris.  my parents came down to visit yesterday and while here they bought us a digital camera.  i'll try and post a picture of it when it comes in the mail.  i think it's intended purpose was to snap pics of the kids and email them.  sorry mom and dad.

riley and luis

riley: when i get older, i'm going to watch spiderman

luis: when i get older, i'm going to marry your mom...

eric: sorry dude, she's taken.

luis: then i'll find somebody else... sheshan my cousin and what ever girls i like.

underground seminary

not many things in my life right now are stable, anchored, and expected... that's why it is so good for me to be on another learning journey for the next 10 weeks with my friends.  here's a taste of what we will be studying:

Synopsis of the Historical Paul:  After Jesus, Paul is unarguably the most important figure in the history of Christianity.  After his Damascus Road experience with the risen Jesus, he set out to make Christ known to the ends of the earth, starting and nurturing communities of faith as he went.  The story he announced was nothing short of earth shattering.  It was a subversive Gospel in every way, one that turned the Mediterranean world on its head.  But who was this Paul?  Was he a heretic, as many claimed?  Was he the true founder of Christianity?  Was he a philosopher, an apostle, a prophet, or all three?  These are the questions we will attempt to answer in our course on the historical Paul.  We will do this through historical study of his first century setting, and by studying parts of his letters that he wrote to the young churches that he started.

on children

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of infinite,
And he bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
So He loves also the bow that is stable
 
Kahlil Gibran

the big event

i wish i could be there

happy anniversary victorians

last night was vic's 7th annaversary. i was honored to hang out and talk to Eric Nassau. conversation centered around the kingdom of god vs. kingdom of this world.
oh and myke rock was there. can't tell you how much i enjoyed last night.

wcbe

how about this for a morning playlist!

henri nouwen

In 1979 the writer Henri Nouwen said that "I am afraid that in a few decades time the church will be accused of having failed in its most basic task: to offer people creative ways to communicate with the source of human life."

Americans put away their wallets

believe it our not, the christian science monitor reports that Americans put away their wallets this past month. nothing about starbucks in here, but even walmart is feeling the blow!

my new friends

we experienced a very slow relaxing wknd. many of our neighbors were home without the business of work/running around (most things were closed)... so we were able to connect with most of them. tonight was especially exciting... Carlos and Joy invited Kerri and I to an authentic "mexican" cookout. Carlos is from el salvador and when he invited me i could barely understand him. We hung out, ate too much and listened to stories about his home. He pulled out some of his favorite latino tunes... Carlos said that when he's listening to his music that the cares of his world all disappear - although i could barely understand his broken english over the blaring stereo. Good times had by all.

action plan

i have a church planting coach. he keeps me from slacking off and gives me homework each month. some of it is a bit challenging. for example... "eric, your vision seems to lack a definite discipleship plan"... so i typed in a search on the web: ministry flow charts for the 21st century church... no luck yet.

our world the freak show

Frederick Buechner writes in Journey Toward Wholeness

As for the church of Christ, no one knows better than the church itself all the ways it, too, is broken, just as no one knows better than you and I know it the brokenness of our own individual lives, both within ourselves and in our relationships with each other. In other words, it is easy enough to see the world as a horror show... For all its horrors, the world is not ultimately a horror show because, as Jesus tell us, the world has the kingdom buried in it like a treasure buried in a field, like leaven working in dough, like a seed germinating in the earth, like whatever it was in the heart of the Prodigal Son that finally brought him home. The question is, How is it possible for us not just to glimpse that buried kingdom but to unbury and become it? How is it possible in a broken world to become whole? Is wholeness something that we reach by taking pains, taking thought? Is it something that is given to us by grace alone? Is wholeness a human possibility at all?

good question fred