My Princess

Happy 5th Birthday Juliana!

You hold such a special place in my heart. God told me I was going to have a girl as my first born when I was still in high school, even before I knew your mom. I had to wait many years before I finally met you, but you finally arrived on June 29th 2005. I was overcome with emotion when I held you for the first time, my daughter, my Juliana, my princess.

You have had to endure lots of travel in your lifetime so far. From NY to Seattle, Seattle to NY, NY to Kentucky and then back to NY. You have been a great traveler from when you were a few months old until now. I would take you anywhere. Making the 5-6hr flights from Seattle to NY were not easy, nor were the car rides from NY to Kentucky, but you always did it with grace. Which happens to be your middle name, Grace. As the years have gone by this word has come to exemplify you in your speech, your dancing, your artisitc ability, and of course your beauty.

Often times when you come up to ask me a question, I can't focus on what you are saying because I am awestruck by your beauty. I have to pinch myself and ask you to repeat yourself. You're just turning 5 and you are beautiful way beyond your years.

I wish I could be there to celebrate your special day with you. But remember the good times we have had together: going to Mariners' baseball games, trips to the zoo, sleeping outside in the tent, swimming in Grandpa's pool, adventures in the woods, tea parties, Barbie movie marathons, and late night stories with snuggles and prayer before bed.

You mean the world to me Juliana, may you have a wonderful birthday and know that your Daddy loves you very, very much.

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Home Away From Home

Growing up in Upstate New York, my family during the summer months would annually make the trek to the Appalachian mountains to go camping. We went to such places as: Nick's Lake, Lake Placid, and Watkins Glen among others. We always went with three other families and had wonderful memories of swimming in mountain lakes, singing around the campfire, eating delicious hot schmoes, I mean s'mores, constructing forts in the woods, and of course making various weapons out of the fallen tree branches. Good guy stuff. Fast forward about 15 years...

I am in the mountains again, in a bigger fort called a FOB (Forward Operating Base), sleeping in a tent, and I have my M4 Carbine with a 40mm grenade launcher attached to it, with me at all times. It all feels vaguely familiar...minus the s'mores. It seems funny how God can orchestrate things in your life together. Things you enjoy in one season of your life can set the platform for another season later on.

Speaking of enjoying things, mountains are kind of my thing. Just looking at them, not climbing them...just wanted to make that clear. I am in awe of God's handiwork. Being able to see the Appalachians growing up and the beautiful Cascade mountains in Seattle was an amazing priviledge. The glimpses of Mt. Rainier on a sunny day are breathtaking. Now I am smack dab in the middle of my own little mountain getaway. And as a 240B gunner I get to sit up in the turret of the vehicle and visually take in the mountain landscape, the villages, and the Afghan people...while I am scanning for Taliban fighters of course.

So anyway, for now the mountains are my home. My home away from home. Far, far away from where I want to be, but where I need to be nonetheless.

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FC (Functional Church) Ideas Part 2

Idea #3 is a touchy one. you might not want to keep reading, or do, it's up to you. But I warned you. Alright, so here it is...

#3 Tithing-The early church did not support pastors' salaries, huge buildings, operating costs, or programs. It wasn't until the 4th century under Constintine that Christian leaders began to advocate tithing as a Christian practice to support the clergy. But it did not become widespread until the 8th century (Pagan Christianity Ch. 9). So, 700 yrs after Christ we set up a tithing system to the clergy.

There has to be reform to the way our "tithing" system works because when you use it to pay pastors' salaries you are elevating their position above the rest of God's people, creating a clericial caste system. The Body is divided into those who have the knowledge and calling (clergy) and those who don't (layperson). The pastor and his staff become paid Christians, and cause the Church to fall into passive dependency on the "professionals".

Didn't Jesus do away with the old system (Heb 8:13) and bring in the new covenant? Isn't the priestly system done away with? Aren't we all priests (1 Pet2:5)? If Christians today became functioning priests in God's house, why would we need to pay church staffs??? Read that last line again.

Christians in the US give between $9-$11 billion dollars a year on church buildings (Barna Group). Buildings...What!? What if we actually used that money to give to the poor, the needy, the orphan and the widow? What kind of impact could we make on the world!

Just a thought...

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Functional Church Ideas Pt. 1

As a follow up to my last entry, based on some of the comments I received, here are some ideas bursting forth from my brain as to how we can become a more functional church body. I feel a little bit like Martin Luther, posting my blogs of reformation...okay, not really.

#1 Size-It does matter, there I said it. It seems we have become too big and lost our personal touch. Think about this, if you put two elephants in a room in 22 months you will have one more elephant. If you put 2 rabbits in a room, in that same amount of time you would probably have 1000. Smaller is more effective for reching people and causing authentic, life-changing growth.

I think a home church of 10-25 people would work. Getting together in a home is more like a gathering of friends, than a put-on-a-happy-face get ready for a passive listening Sunday service. In a smaller group mutual edification is the focus, not spectatorship.

Plus, we need to get out of the mentality of "going to church". We ARE the church, it's not something we do or where we go, it's who we are, a living organism. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, which means "an assembly". The church body, His Body is an assembly of parts all working together and functioning in unison. That can't happen if there are a select few doing everything. Everyone has a role to play and something to offer. Which brings me to #2...

#2 Participation- Unlike, today where the teaching for the most part is brought by the same person week after week, when the 1st century believers gathered they all had a right, privilege, and responsibility to minister in the group, to the group (Eph. 4:16, 5:19 1Cor 14:26,31 Col 3:16).We have small groups where this happens more, but they are a ministry of the church instead of being the church. Which again goes back to the mindset of "doing" instead of "being".

We need to be "living life together", which can only happen when you are connected with others in open, authentic relationships. This goes back to point #1, we have gotten too big to be relationally effective for real sustainable spiritual growth.

I have more thoughts to throw out there but I will save them for later posts. Some books I have read along these lines are pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola, Reimagining Church by Frank Viola, and of course "the B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me". Check them out they are very good.

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Birthday Wishes

"Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, to the ARMY,

Happy birthday to you!"

Today is the birthday of the United States Army which was formed on the 14th of June in 1775. That's right, even before the formation of our country. I feel honored and privileged to be a part of a brotherhood of our country's warriors. I am keeping up a military service tradition that goes back to both of my grandfathers, and even my great-grandfather. So, Happy Birthday Army! I hope you will continue to stand for freedom and in the defense of democracy worldwide. Hooah!

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Functional Training

I was a personal trainer for several years, my speciality being functional training. This way of training moves away from a muscle-isolation, machine-bound, "How much can you bench?" mentality. Instead, functional training involves muscle-integration exercises, compound movements, core-based exercises which involves the total body working together as one unit. Getting the body's muscles to cooperate and function together are extremely more effective for getting results than a muscle-isolation system.

I've been thinking lately, when I look at our churches, I see some what of an isolation system between the clergy and the layperson, and I don't think it should be there. There are a select few doing the majority of the ministry and work. We have to move from spectators to participators. And I believe part of this divide is due to how the position of the pastor is set up.

Most would be surprised to find the word "pastor" is only used 1 time in the entire New Testament (Eph. 4:11) and yet today, our whole church system is based around the pastoral personality and position. Our heirarchy system where the pastor is the tip of the triangle of church leadership is not found anywhere in scripture. The early church did not have "pastors" as defined by today's role. So what did they do? Who preached at every service? The answer is...they all did. (1 Cor. 14:26, Heb 10:24-25) Everyone had something to bring, and was encouraged to do so.

I think we may be missing out on an all member-functioning church due to the system we have set up today. 1 Corianthinas 11-14 gives insight into what the early church's meetings were like. They were set up for mutual edification. Paul uses alot of "you all" and "one another" wording. I know it seems crazy, but there needs to be reform in how we function as the Body. We need to move from a ministry of a select few, to an edification of one another, in mentality and action. We all have something to bring to the table. Integration is always better than isolation.

Just some thoughts...what do you think?

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Gone But Not Forgotten

On June 7th, we were on patrol when we got the call about an IED taking out a vehicle. As the information continued to come and was passed through the headsets to everyone, the weight of the information began to sink in...we lost a 1st Sgt, a Sgt, and 3 Specialists. Two of these men I knew well. The reality of war was received like an unexpected punch to the stomach, sucking the very breath out of me. If you have lost someone close to you, you know the feeling.

Today, we honored their ultimate sacrifice with a memorial service. Everyone came out to give their respects. It didn't seem like enough for these men, but those who spoke, spoke with raw emotion and the sincerest of hearts when rembering their brothers in arms. There was hardly a dry eye in the place.

Farewell brothers, you may be gone but not forgotten...

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"You Know Something Is Wrong..."

I was watching the Matrix the other day and was struck by some of the dialogue between Morphus and Neo, just before he takes the blue pill.

"You know something. What you know you cannot explain.

You know something is wrong, but you don't know what it is...but you can feel it.

It's like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad..."

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on church the past couple of years. I used to love to go and participate and connect with God...but now everything feels so rehearsed, rigid, and regimented, lacking the very relational lifeblood I need in the spiritual and physical. It goes something like this:

Worship (3 fast, 3slow)

Greeting

Announcements

Tithe

Message

Prayer

Go home and next week do it again.

I have been in churches all over the country now, and with few variances it is the same thing...every Sunday. I have been around long enough to know how to look, behave and when to smile, raise my hand, and say "Good to see you".

But I want more than that. I want a real connection with Jesus and His presence, not something manufactured by smoke machines and high-voltage bands playing the latest Hillsong United hit.

Is there a way to really connect with people, live life together, grow in my relationship with Jesus inside what has become institutional church?

I haven't experienced it yet. So for now the splinter remains, and this unshakeable feeling that... something is wrong.

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Night Vision

I am often surprised at the twists and turns our lives can take. One minute you're bored wallowing in your fallen nature, and the next...your life is reborn full of the very nature of God. It's an incredible transformation.
But along with submitting your life to Christ's headship, He begins to navigate and steer you in directions you never thought possible or probable and I get lost sometimes trying to make sense of it all. Do you? I try to logically make sense of my life's events like moving to different states, attending Bible school, or moving across the country, or joining the military and finding myself across the world in Afghanistan...how do these things all link together??? What's He up to?
In the Army when we drive or do missions at night, we wear night vision or nods to help us see at night, when you can't see anything. They work very well. Sometimes just for fun in the black of night I will lift them up from over my eye to see what I can make out. It usually doesn't work and I trip over something, look stupid and then put them back down so I can see.
Sometimes this journey with God can be like that. I'm driving at night, but its not me who has the nods, its God. He can see everything clearly, even way into the distance. I just have to trust when He tells me to slow down, I slow, or turn right to avoid a pothole, that He can see even when I can't. I know He hears me complaining I can't see, and if He just told me where I was going we could get there faster, but for now I drive-on...trying to listen and make sense of it all as I go.
Can you see? Is His plan made clear to you? Or are you driving at night like me...without the nods?

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