What the Team Polycarp'ers are up to....

Roy- Roy is in Lakeland, Florida for the big outpouring-revival thing that is happening. He is also blogging about it over at his blog.

He mentioned this morning that while at the conference they announced the 18th report of someone being raised from the dead...

WHAT!?!?

I'm sure that news will go a long way to either bringing much legitamacy to this happening or a whole lot of controversy. I hope it's the former... For lot's of reasons...

Terrence - Well, if you had Facebook and were his friend, you would know why he never posts here. He is smitten in love. Really heavily. I just looked at like 6000 kissy-huggy engagement pictures and his daily status is always something about how over the moon in love he is. (P.S. I am sooooo happy for you Terry!)

David - He's blogging some great stuff over at his blog. We had coffee time the other night and solved some century old theological debates. I also recommended to him to buy a second home in Louisville, KY. because he seems to go there every other week for another conference.

Steve- He is missing in action. Other than his cryptic post from a week ago with a photo of a hot dog shaped into the form of some Hebrew syntax. I think he is sending us warning messages from the state of Illinois about the condition of the Republican party.

Cryptic internet message to Steve

"Steve.. where are you!?!?

ARE-YOU-OK!?!?

Has the Illinois Libertarian party got you trapped in a vietnamese corrugated metal hot house forcing you to continue to campaign for Ron Paul?? We are here to help!

/Cryptic internet message back to Steve

Jason- I am happy and enjoying my job and posting at least once a day here at the blog. Still wishing for an occasional post from my cyber-buddies. ;)

one last thing...

TEAM POLYCARP activate! Form of a ice glacier! Form of an Octopus!"

Blogging again on a Saturday morning.

I had crazy dreams all night long last night. The old "I can't find my homework, I'm late for school" have now been replaced by "I'm leading worship in five minutes and I can't find my chords sheets in the key I need them". Awesome.

Noah is once again watching cartoons. This time it's Tom and Jerry, waaaaaay better than George shrinks. The wife is sleeping in again. She loves to sleep in. Loves it. I also had weird dreams about feeling guilty cause there are a few people that keep asking to be my friend on Facebook but I'm not accepting them...

Every Saturday for the last month I've been feeling I needed to get out into our little micro-front yard and do some micro-gardening. It is a small patch of land, yet needs some up- keep. A family member I will not name recently commented that our little front space/yard was the tackiest and most unkempt in the whole complex. That is quite a feat. Having only about 10 square feet of space and ensuring it's tacky. Bravo to me! I was thinking this morning of kicking it up a notch and getting some old auto parts and strewing them around my little space with some crushed beer cans.

I just watched a Saturday morning commercial on cyber-bullying. Are you kidding me? Man, that sucks. At least in the past you could go home and have respite from bullying for 10 hours in between school days. Now these losers invade that sanctuary. How hard it is to be a kid these days? Whoever thought growing up in the bloods and crips, gang invested 1980's and 90's would have been the golden years. My kid is never ever EVER having a public internet profile. Ever. Just decided that. (and here I won't accept certain people as my Facebook friends... hypocrisy...?)

Well. I guess I should get to the gym this morning. The only problem with that is it will push the rest of the day away from the doing something with the tacky and unkempt micro front yard/space. Hmmmmm. But then again, I ate poorly yesterday and need to hit the gym. I'd rather my personal "front yard" is looking good... ;)

Three good words.

From the Internet Monk on Humility with theology and scripture.

From the author the "stuff Christian like" other blog about the prodigal son and Michael Jordan.

and from Francis Chan in Brazil.

Que Dieu te garde Luc.

Wow, the frailty of life. Like a vapor, like grass that whithers in the field. Here for a moment.

In hockey mad Canada we love and follow our local team. Here in BC that team is the Canucks. The team and sport have aggressively been climbing up my sporting priority ladder over the last 6 years.I'm beginning to live and die with the team like I was born here myself.

The Canucks lucked out with the 10th pick of the draft following the lockout in 2005 and used it to take a young french speaking defenseman named Luc Bourdon. I remember Bob Mckenzie's excited voice as he warmly gave his stamp of approval for the Dave Nonis pick. Immediately I was hooked and a fan. My fandom only grew as a short time later my buddy Dave took us to the world jr. hockey championships here in Vancouver (for Americans, think the Rose bowl for hockey). Luc was on the team that took gold and I remember every time he would touch the puck or check someone the Vancouver crowd would erupt with a deafening "LUUUUUUUUUCCCC!!!!" letting him know that he belonged to the city of Vancouver.

Luc made it up to the team for training camp over the next few seasons and had a few cups of coffee with the squad during the regular season. Again I remember the anticipation and reaction of the crowd as we were waiting for our prized prospect to come into his own. My lasting memory is Luc chasing down the all-world Alexander Ovechkin in the corner and stripping away the puck from him and the crowd responding with another cheer of "LuuuuuuuuCCCC!!!".

The news today is that Luc was killed when his motorcycle collided with the trailer of a semi-truck. He died instantly. I'm amazed once again how fragile life can be. Here was a young man who was just beginning his life. I'm sad for his family and friends. Sad for his team mates.

I was really a big fan of Luc. He was mostly an unknown to everyone except the roto-geeks like myself who follow the transaction wire and minor league stats of the prospects as close as box scores for the big team. I was following and rooting for Luc to make it. Now I just pray God's grace for those that loved him and knew him best.

Here's to you Luc Bourdon, #28.

John Piper and the prosperity gospel.

Would you mind watching this video and responding in the comments to a few of the questions I have below...?


1. Do you think Dr. Piper is off base in his critique of the prosperity gospel?

2. Do you think he is just unfairly attacking a generalization or caricature of the prosperity gospel?

3. Is there anything we can learn from the prosperity gospel?

HT: Supersimbo

Missions bracelets turn unsightly.

SPRING HILL, Fla. — As part of a new missions push, Discovery Church gave each member of its congregation a bracelet to remind them to pray for the Ecuadoran village they are sponsoring. But the bracelets, handcrafted from jute by the villagers, began smelling and looking repulsive after just days.
"I know we committed to wear them for a year, but mine already stinks to high heaven," says one man. "I poured cologne on it, and that just made it worse."
People say the foul odor, which is exacerbated by wetness, is interfering with their business meetings, social lives, even marital intimacy.
"We can’t go near each other without sticking our hands in plastic bags," says one couple.
Worse, the bracelets have dulled from their initially attractive bright colors. After one week the woven bands appear "brown, ratty and embarrassing," says one woman who now wears a larger bracelet over the top of hers.
A local businessman who attends the church says he wears his high on his arm so his employees won’t see "this twisted ugly string on my wrist," he says. After it slipped down during a formal presentation, and some people complained of the odor, he fashioned an arm garter to keep it riding high.
"We’re supposed to pray for this village whenever we think of the bracelet, so I’m praying for them all the time," he says.
When the congregation gathers for worship on Sunday mornings the sanctuary "smells like a hog farm," says another man. "It’s hard to focus on the Lord."
The bracelet is indeed a reminder for many, "but not of anything good," says a woman. "It’s getting harder to think of the Ecuadorans with any fondness."

Love the Larknews.com

Is this the new breed?

I am thinking this may be the new breed of Christian media for the 21st century. What do you think, Jason?

Watch live video from jesustvin's channel on Justin.tv

Blogging on a Saturday morning.

Sitting here with the boy watching the Saturday morning cartoons while the wife sleeps in. She loves to sleep in. Thought I'd drop in and write something profound. It's hard to be profound when "George Shrinks" is on. This show drives me crazy. But the boy likes it.

It was a tough week. I know I sound like I always whine, but it kind of was. Mostly in the parenting division. We have a ball of energy on our hands who is figuring out boundaries and emotions. Sometimes that is a combination for chaos. We had a huge public blow up at school, at the baby sitters after school. A few more times. Enough to make me want to crawl into the fetal position and go to bed at 6pm at night. Enough for the wife and I to go out and buy a new parenting book. Hopefully we will be able to hit restart before the next week. We'll see.

Anyway, I think I'll get to the gym. Run for a few miles on the treadmill. Sweat out a bunch of stuff. I've started to get out of the routine of the gym with recent scheduling stuff. I can see for the first time after dropping a ton of weight how people start to put it back on. I no longer get up at 5 to go to the gym. I'm ordering the fries now instead of the salad... So time to re-prioritize health and wellness again. To get up from blogging on the couch to get to the gym. Gotta go!

Just so I could say I contributed...

Redneck Calamari Dinner!

No words can describe.

Back in my youth pastor'n days there were lots of kids coming through. Some I remember just feeling so perplexed, intimidated even, that I could never seem to make a dent in. Tough kids. Tonight I was surfing around a social networking site when I came across, really randomly, a comment about one of those kids. The commenter mentioned "him being the worst person she knows, into crack and stuff..."

No matter what water has flowed under the proverbial bridge, how hard I tried, or didn't try, how well I really knew those kids or was never given a fair chance to, it still rips my heart out. To see young peoples lives being destroyed by Satan. Destroyed before they ever got a chance. Destroyed even after they had a chance to hear the good news of the gospel.

I remember feeling so powerless against the apathy and cold stares of indifference. I'd pray and pray. I'd lay my hands on them every week and declare, prophesy and speak life and truth into the voids. A lot of them as I check their facebook's and stuff seem to be firmly either: a)seriously investigating or b) immersed in the kingdom of the world. That's not being judgmental, it's just the truth. I know my role in their life didn't end when they graduated or I quit "the job". Proximity and time are starting to dull those old ties more than ever. I feel like, and am probably a stranger now. But I will always pray for them.

I wish they were all in bible school and on DTS's somewhere. But they're not. Who knows how God is working this all out. If I knew then what I know now, I'm not sure I would do it all over again. Sorry to be dumping this here but I'm just trying to process through it a bit...

Professional Agronomists.

When I lived in Mexico I had a wonderful friend named John. John is legendary in my circles for his faith, joy and Christ-like heart. One of those guys that you just shake your head when you hear him mentioned. The kind of head shaking that you do when your too impressed for words.

John used to take the Greyhound monthly from from northern California all the way to five hours south of the Tijuana border crossing. He' d come to check on the garden that he'd started. It had hundreds of different varieties of fruit trees, grape vines, nut trees. There was one fig tree I remember that had been cultivated to have 17 different kinds of figs grafted in. His master vision though was the 70 acre macadamia tree orchard he had planted. He had figured out from his garden that a certain macadamia tree trunk and another species of macadamia tree branch when grafted together would thrive in the arid, yet agriculturally rich farm lands of the northern Baja California peninsula. John, all 80 years old and barely 5 feet tall of him helped to plant the huge orchard as a way of helping our orphanage and outreach create an economically viable way of supporting ourselves. John is one of my heroes. That's not hyperbole.

Whenever John would come to the Baja he would also take lots of time to share stories from his fascinating life. He was Charismatic in every sense of the word. In theology and deed. We had many a night where he would pray and prophesy with and over us. He had this knack where whenever he would pray or prophesy over you he would do it in rhyme. Not kidding. It was amazing. We would have these great, nutso, home group nights that anyone from the outside looking through a window at us and probably run away screaming to call the bible answer man. But the reality is that there was so much love and community. John just exuded Jesus to everyone. It was always Christ-centered and we always felt safe and secure with John. That's not hyperbole.

John knew plants. John knew fruit. As I observe around the world the interesting things that are happening, sometimes I'm afraid now. I don't know what to think. So all I can do is remember to be like John and follow what Jesus told us, watch for the fruit. No good tree bears bad fruit and likewise, no bad tree bears good fruit. The tricky part though is we aren't nearly the professional agriculturalist or agronomist that John was.

As I observe (and am confused), everyone has there own way to determine what is good fruit. I'm reading around the Internet and there is a lot of talk about what is happening in Lakeland, Florida. Some is absolutely visceral and explosive. Some is glowing. I look at these different groups and wonder at how they judge the fruit. Each of their own reasoning is important and meaningful to them yet, the two sides seem to be at odds with their different value systems and theological priorities.

I think of my little, strange, legendary friend John and remember how Jesus always just flowed out of him everywhere he went. How he had a vision to see a seed become an orchard. God bless him for teaching us a little how to judge what is fruitful.

I am a master prophet.

Saw this over at TSK.
Spent the afternoon and evening kind of addicted to it. Good ole' bible trivia. You should try.
I am most proud of (besides being #2 temporarily) my streak of 34 straight correct answers. If your ever in doubt and Ezekiel is a choice, pick it. The guys that created the game must be studying it in the home group or something...

Funny goats.

So my wife who really isn't impressed at all by the internet, (except for the Facebook) pointed out this funny video to me. There are all sorts of funny charismatic jokes just waiting to be birthed from the video.


(I personally think Roy should over dub this with some audio of Lakeland... BAM!)

Bummer of a weekend.

Not as bad as what Steve encountered but I don't think I will be placing in money in Vegas on my fave sports team any time soon.

The Dodgers. They have now lost three straight after winning a bunch. The killer: They lost yesterday after they had a no-hitter into the 7th. Not good.


The Lakers. Have now lost 2 straight in the second round of the playoffs. And Kobe is battling injuries.


The Canucks. Fired the GM a couple of weeks ago. Everything is kind of in limbo after missing the playoffs. Who knows if the new guy keeps the coach either...


The Raiders. Well, they have won like 7 games total over the last 5 years. So thats not good.


USC. Major stories about star players receiving cash gifts. Not good. Not good at all.



Only the Lakers appear to be a team with any simblance of championship material. And if Kobe is injured then that is history too.

More from "Stuff Christians like"

I know, I know, I keep going on about it. I kind of wish I could just cut and paste every one of his posts over here.

This one is about "the first-time visitor to a church" greeting/warning. Look at me, guilty as charged.

Here's a snippet of what we should probably say. I think I will this next Sunday.


"If this is your first time, thanks for coming. Church is kind of weird, isn't? I mean today we're going to sing songs to the person we feel breathed into existence the universe and the sea horse. We're going to learn about the person who we feel is most important but we've never actually seen. We're going to tell you how a book that is thousands of years old can help you have a better day tomorrow in your cubicle at work. And then we're going to cut you off in the parking lot after church cause we're still pretty messed up. It's going to be a little weird today but we hope you'll come back next week. Because even though it's weird, it's also wild and wonderful."

And then we're going to fire WWJD bracelets into the crowd using those t-shirt guns they have at sporting events. It will be a good time. Promise.

Some sites to visit... Some have been mentioned before.

Stuff Christians like. Funny, funny stuff.

Letters from Kamp Krusty. Funny thoughts from one of Steve's old friends.

A very powerful moment with Francis Chan. (From shawnw.org ((who also posts interesting stuff)))
(As a matter of fact it just occurred to me how much I love Francis Chan. The funny thing is I don't remember where I came across his sermons. Usually I come across a speaker because they are apart of some theological camp/idea that I'm excited about. But as I listen to Francis I have no idea what his theology is other than Jesus. I have no idea if he is a Calvinist or an Armenian, a charismatic or a... non-charismatic... you get the idea. It is really refreshing.)

The plow. Interesting stuff. I usually click on it when I see it in my RSS feed

What's new with Becky. A Christian TV producer who follows around the President of the USA. Or POTUSA as she refers to him. She talks a bit about bread pudding, but for some reason I find it fascinating.

Stone made Flesh. Dave's new blog. Be forewarned though. Dave gets you excited with a new blog for about a month but then deletes it.

Evangelical Manifesto

So I didn't even know this happened but a lot of important guys like Os Guinness, Jack Hayford, Dallas Willard, Jim Wallis, JP Moreland, Loren Cunningham and others are charter signatories of a new 20 page document being called the "Evangelical Manifesto".

It states it is for:

For those who are Evangelicals, the deepest purpose of the Manifesto is a serious call to reform—an urgent challenge to reaffirm Evangelical identity, to reform Evangelical behavior, to reposition Evangelicals in public life, and so rededicate ourselves to the high calling of being Evangelical followers of Jesus Christ.

There seems to be a bit of controversy over the section in how the faith shouldn't be politicized by either the right or left. In reading some of it, I think it could be a very important foundation for solidarity and a definition for some to describe their faith eloquently to non-believers.

Ed Stetzer says in USA Today that "Christians need to speak prophetically to all parties, not be beholden to one. Evangelicals need to be known for what we are for: showing and sharing the good news of Christ, not only what we are against on public policy."

"You cannot stand for justice and be afraid to speak of Jesus," he says.

This might end up being the refreshing outlook and diagram I have been looking for to answer some of the questions I've been struggling with about a believers role in society.

The other positive is from now on when people ask me for my core beliefs I can just refer them to page 5 of the Evangelical Manifesto.

Take a moment to download the Manifesto and sign on with others if you are so inclined. In true Evangelical fashion it even comes with a study guide.

Kind of funny.

Way back in 2003, 5 years ago I wanted to start a blog. I thought up a great name, and posted a couple of riveting posts. Then that blog got lost. Anyway, through the magic of blogger it reappeared in my list of blogs recently. So I decided to post there for the first time in 5+ years. Not bad heh?

You can check it out here. Got to love technology. Now if I could just find my blog that I started in 1998 before I went to Mexico on Angelfire.... That would be cool. That is like 10 years ago...

Y' All

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

So... "You" in this verse refers to a collective group of people and not just to me individually...

That causes me to think...

Tim Keller speaks at Google

Props to TSK

Questions for accountability

I got these from Ed Stetzers blog. I thought they were good. Now if I only had a small group to ask them in!

John Wesley’s Small Group Questions:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?

4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work , or habits?

5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

6. Did the Bible live in me today?

7. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

8. Am I enjoying prayer?

9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?

10. Do I pray about the money I spend?

11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

12. Do I disobey God in anything?

13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?

16. How do I spend my spare time?

17. Am I proud?

18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?

19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?

20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?

21. Is Christ real to me?

Wesley’s Band Meeting Questions:

1. What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?

2. What temptations have you met with?

3. How were you delivered?

4. What have you thought, said, or done, of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?

5. Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

Reference: John Wesley’s Class Meetings: a Model for Making Disciples, by D. Michael Henderson, Evangel Publishing House, 1997, pp. 118-9

Funny church/worship team video.