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Good conversations, interesting stuff. December 26, 2003Alan Creech There are alot of great conversations in the responses.

Kid Rockstar

During JR. High all i did was play the guitar. Trying to emulate all my guitar heros wondering what it would be like to get paid to play the guitar. I was the ultimate wannabe. I even got a metal method tape to learn how to play fast like Vinne Moore, Marty Friedman and others. I truly wanted to be a rock star and here I find myself 30 years old and getting paid to play my guitar with a bunch of teenage kids. Awesome. It is one of the coolest things. I guess that makes me a professional musician but not a rockstar. HAHAHAHA

I am of average ability but still enjoy it. Seriously I get to teach some kids that you gotta to be able to get stinky funky on the guitar. You gots to get the rhythm man! Most of the kids I play with in our student bands rate about a 3 on the funkability factor. It is encouraging to know that you are opening some musical windows for them. They actually listen to what I have to say and at times wonder why I am not a famous rock star! (Yeah! right!) This kid actually told his parents that I was one of his favorite guitar players! I think he was high. I just pray that they would see the point in playing. That every good things comes from God and we must play in a way that glorifies him. I try to deepen their understanding of humility and encourage them to be humble. Good guitars players are a dime a dozen so I really don't care too much about their ability. I want to know their heart and help mold that. One of things I learned to do as a kid has come into play later in life. Just another example how God doesn't waste anything in your life.

Community?

I was thinking the other day what community means or how it is plays out within the church. What does the church usually identify as community: small groups is the most common answer. We ask people to leave their comfort zone and enter into the Christian bubble. This is the case in most churches and it is the case where I currently serve. But I did get a glimpse of what community could be like. Our last sg meeting was an interesting one to say the least. We had a gentleman invited by a couple in the group who bought him a thanksgiving dinner one day outside of Aldi's. She was led to buy this man food and in the converstaion he decided he wanted to go to church with them. He came and he wanted to come to the sg. They brought him and the man instantly starts to share how God has impacted his life. Interesting stuff. He goes off on a tangent directing the converstation towards a universal God. He said he taught Islam in prison and the such. He continues to bang the drum that we all worship the same God(He mentioned several different religions). My intial reaction was to break out my kung-fu likes skills in apologetics and start rippin' a new one but i waited. I saw the reaction of some of people there and they were seemed confused. I was fighting everything i was trained to do it was like my mind was saying he is wrong!!! But my heart was saying just wait. I finally decided that I would say something. I said something to the effect that Jesus is God in flesh and that is not what Islam believes. I contined to add that this would be great if we could continue the dialogue and learn from each other. After I said this I second guessed myself the whole time wondering why I didn't just let it go and maybe wait until the relationship was established. I think he just wanted to be heard and I heard what he was saying but didn't agree. It was exciting to see and hear someone outside the bubble with different views. It definetly added a different dymanic to the group. It was awkward, uncomfortable but it was good.

The other aspect was at the close of the night our kids came up from the basement. There are several toddlers in the group and my little girl was with one of the other leaders in the group laughing and giggling. I had another little girl and she was just lovin' on me. As i looked around and seen kids with other parents just loving on them. This is the world that I want my daughter to know. The family of God loving on each other. It was just cool watching kids crawling, droolling, babbling, and melting the hearts of the adults. I believe that this is one aspect of community that is the coolest. I know that I want my daughter and future son to grow and know these people or people like them. I want her to see her dad going over to someones house to fix a water heater, to put a window in, to bring them grocieries, to push a car in the garage so we can fix it. I want her to know that church is people loving people and that is it. The love of Christ is infectious and ludacrious it just doesn't make sense. I pray that God will mold me and help me change the mindset of the current church that I am involved in. I believe He will because He is already changing me.

Community is a buzz word that is being throw around but I know it when I experience it. All I know is I never would have met the man if someone would not have loved him they way Jesus would. A need was there and the couple met it therefore, he was not as hesitant to enter the bubble. I just want to be more invovled with bringing community to the people and not asking them to leave. Community who knows?

It's a boy

Just got back from the doc and it's a boy.

Kirk's Blogging

Kirk Bolen (Eddie Van Halen Jr.) Kirk is a cool guy check him out.

LABELED

Labels are funny. I have been labeled my entire life and although there is truth to most of the labels they don't define who I am. During childhood I was one of the twins, the baby. In high school I was labeled a stoner or metal head. While I was a metal head I definitely wasn't a stoner. I left that up to my older brothers because they seemed to be rather proficient at getting stoned. Maybe I was labeled that because of association. Who knows? Now I have a huge label that seems to be more of hindrance than anything: youth minister. My close friends know who I am but some people only know me as the bald student guy (at times I wish I was known as the guy with long flowing hair).

My point is this: Labels suck! Labels are an easy way to push responsibility off on other people. As society labels sections of itself we tend to pick the labels that we are most comfortable with. You have the lesbos, homos, hobos, pomos, weirdos and the list drones on forever. When you label somebody you instantly think you know who they are, what they believe, you let the label define who they are instead of them telling you. You assume hence you usually make an ass of yourself. I want to be know as Tim. I know some people would argue that I should be known as a Christian or disciple but what do those labels speak of today? Not exactly what I am about but there is truth to them. Christ is transforming me into what he wants me to be albeit kicking and screaming at times. What if we would just take the time to look past the labels and get to know the person I am sure this world would change. Just a little thought.

Rediscovered
I sit in my chair all day long listening to music while I work. I get tired of the same ole stuff. I listen to Dave Matthews, David Crowder, Worship stuff, Edie Brickell, Sting all day. I have heard it all a zillion times!!! BLAH...I was looking for a photodraw disc at home and I found a burned CD i haven't heard in awhile. Train Drops of Juniper. What a refreshing CD. I will be sick of it in a week but they are a great band with above average song writing. The cd sounds good as well. Check Train out.

I will be writing soon about jawing sessions I am scheduled to have with some friends. It sounds promising. Hopefully God will give us clear direction in implementing some of this "emerging" church ideas. It is easy to talk about we actually want to do it. Peace.

Kingdom
I don't know about you but the Kingdom of God/Heaven is confusing. I was given the opportunity to speak about Kingdom responsibility Sunday and boy did I ever screw it up. I tried to explain the very basics of the Kingdom to Jr. High and High school students. I vaguely comprehend the basics of the Kingdom so it was an enormous task for me. I trust God works despite my inadequateness as a speaker. I focused a bit on how Jesus is the King of the Kingdom using Colossians chapter 1 and 2 as the starting point. Then it went downhill from there but I guess reading the bible to a bunch of punk kids never hurts. I won't extrapolate (I am trying to incorporate big words like Mr. Gowin) on the suckiness of the talk.

The Kingdom saturates the Gospels, everywhere you look Jesus is alluding to the Kingdom. The Kingdom is within you, the parables about the Kingdom teach us the value, worth, and a little bit of how the Kingdom works, etc.... Jesus birth narrative states the his Kingdom will never end. The Kingdom is everywhere! AAAAHHH!!!! I guess what I am asking is maybe some suggested studies or readings to try and help my feeble mind comprehend a little more of His vast Kingdom. All I know is: It is great to serve the King in His Kingdom and live under is grace and power but very frightening at the same time. Peace.

Should've Got a Smaller One

Yesterday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous. We decided it would be the perfect time to go get our Christmas tree. We started this tradition last year and my wife almost went to Menards to get the tree...NO WAY! We are going to the tree farm, I insisted. We got there and we happened to meet up with some friends. It happened to us last year too. Friends are great and make the experience much more fun. Anyway, my pregnant wife is like a green beret, she is dodging in out of trees with great speed and agility of a gazelle. I got the kid on my shoulders running around trying to track down mom. She finds one tree and we decide it just didn't fit the bill. So the search continued. There it was closely nestled in among other trees. It called out to us, "CUT ME DOWN I AM SICK OF LIVING! I WANT TO DIE IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR LIVING ROOM!" I just couldn't figure out why no one else had taken her. She was beautiful, perfect as far as trees are concerned. We got our picture before the tree met it's demise. I would suggest the killing of trees with your family. It is great!

As I began to cut the tree I notice that the trunk was a little bigger than last year's. I plowed through it with my daughter giving me encouraging giggles and squeaks. The tree toppled over and my wife was amazed at her lumberjack husband. I cleaned up the bottom a bit and managed to get it out in the open. That is when I saw my friend's trees. They looked like table top models compared to ours. I began to second guess our choice. Of course they began calling me Griswold. It was cool. As we began to throw our trees on the trailer I noticed the actual size of the tree compared to the others! HOLY CRAP it was huge! Shaquile vs Spud Webb. We Got it home, put it in the stand. The moment of truth, I cut off the netting and it just about shot me across the living room. I stood back in awe! It was huge it took up half our living room. We actually had to move some furniture around to have enough room. Then it happened. It fell over. We got it back up and I adjusted the screws in the tree stand and then let go! "GRAB IT, GRAB IT, GRAB IT" It fell over again. So my pregnant wife is holding the tree as I go out to the garage and grab two concrete blocks and some tie down straps. I somehow fanagled the straps down through the behemoth and tied it down to the blocks. All was well throughout the night. This morning I am sitting there looking at the beauty and I notice it is leaning and leaning. So I adjust the straps. Needless to say I am getting sand bags on the way home. My guess is the tree was not taken because it was too big. Maybe bigger isn't better but I am sure it will incite some interesting responses. My buddy came over and the first words were and I quote, "HOLY CRAP!"