Ah... fresh starts. It feels good to be at the verge of something new. As we close the book on "Faith & Life" we begin a new chapter entitled, "The Kingdom of Couches." It follows the course of a book by the same name, which we will be using as the basis of our discussions over the coming weeks. The book's subtitle is "Fighting for Communal Faith in an Individual Age" and is truly the first book I have found that strikes a chord with me on this subject of 'spiritual life together.'

We're on this journey together, yet many times we find ourselves holed off in one corner with our Bible, perhaps a good Christian book, praying to ourselves (that is 'by' ourselves to God), treating discipleship as if it were purely an individual affair - and many times totally void of any kind of meaningful spiritual connection & relationship with others. Our faith is a communal faith - grounded and rooted deep in the Body of Christ with Kingdom intentions.

Continue reading "The Kingdom of Couches" »

What started as a quick shot online to check my email on Saturday night, turned into reading this incredible, and very lengthy, recount. If you are pressed for time, you'll want to avoid clicking the link to the story below (at least come back when you have some time to spend). You're gonna want to read this one :-)

Man 1, Bank 0: Guy deposits junk mail check for $95,093.35, and gets it!
"I was one of thousands of people around the country who received a 'junk mail' letter touting a get-rich quick method." ... "That letter also came with a check for the same amount, $95,093.35. Everything about the check looked real except for the words 'non-negotiable for cash' type in the top right hand corner."

I'm laying here on my couch just enjoying what has transpired over the course of the last 24 hours or so (more like 30 hours, but who's counting?). Today is Andrea & I's 11th anniversary. Because of the gift of good friends who insisted on watching our kids overnight for us so we could have some alone time, we were able to spend yesterday/today in Chattanooga. It was really a wonderful time & something that we haven't experienced for many years. We were thinking back & realized that we haven't spent a night away from the kids in over two years and that we haven't taken an anniversary trip like this in more than twice that long.

I am overwhelmed frequently at the thought of how blessed I am. I don't know why God chooses to shine down on me in so many ways, but I am so grateful for all He brings. My life isn't without incident, pain or struggle - just like everyone else out there. Maybe it is just a consciousness that God delights in giving good gifts to His children. Chief among those in my life is my beautiful wife - someone I couldn't even imagine (nor would I want to) how my life would have been without her along for the ride. The last eleven years have been amazing & I pray that the years ahead will only be filled with the same adventures we have shared thus far.

I love you, my Andrea.

Love, Your (and only yours) Christopher 

Courtney Baker, one of the young adults in our community group, works for a company called Third Coast Sports. They work to bring Faith Nights to sports venues across the country.

Probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) venue they have worked with is the Atlanta Braves. Yesterday was the first in a series of three faith nights they are organizing for the MLB team. It was also the first ever for a MLB team.

A big congrats goes out to Courtney & the entire Third Coast Sports team! This video ran last night on the local news. I'd just have to say "Praise God!" The influence of this kind of an event has even bigger impact than simply those who came to the game. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to hear about Christ because of the media coverage like this one.

The clip is a streaming Flash video topping in at around 5.8mb. I apologize for those of you with slower connections - this was as compressed as I could get it without making the video unrecognizable.

My beautiful wife forwarded me an enewsletter with the following article in it. I think it is a great reminder of the importance of family and of formidable relationships and connections with others in our lives:

On the Wilson side, our extended family has what we call a "quinquennial." Every five years, members of our clan wend their way to some assigned spot, and we all have a really good time together. My father was one of six boys, and so the number of my cousins on that side is, ahem, significant. So last year at around this time, my wife and I had the pleasure of driving across most of Idaho and most of Utah in order to gather with the family near Zion National Park (located in Washington and Utah).

Now to some this may seem an arbitrary and very weird pilgrimage. Why do we do this? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to stay right where you are, and make friends with the neighbors? I was closer to some friends in the third grade than I am to some of my cousins, and I don’t drive across the country every five years to get together for the old third grade reunion. So what is with this? Why is it valuable? Is it valuable?

Continue reading "We Were There For Family" »

Picked up a new book to read this week. It's Compassionate Leadership: Rediscovering Jesus' Radical Leadership Style by Ted Engstrom & Paul Cedar. One of the chapters I read this morning was talking about "The Perils of Compassionate Leadership," looking at some of the temptations & dangers that leaders face when they seek to lead like Christ.

One quote hit me, especially. It was from Charles Spurgeon...

Success exposes a man to the pressure of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head, and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplished the work, that He can continue to do so without any help, and that He will be able to make out with other means whenever He cuts me down to size.

Perhaps what struck me was the fact that here was Spurgeon, a man of high faith & esteem, admitting his own struggle with the perils of leadership - especially when it came to popularity and the esteems and demands from others in his life. Perhaps it was Him saying the clear reality that God is God and not only can, but will, step in and cut us down to size and use other means to accomplish what He wants.

Now, I don't feel like I struggle with popularity or feelings of granduere - but I still feel this parallel between me & Him, between my feelings & desires and His will & Kingdom. Much of what I wrote about yesterday about feeling 'caught in the middle' of sorts. 

We're looking to launch our new young adult community groups the week after labor day in September. As I've shared consistently over the last several months in our existing group, this, in my eyes, is & will continue to be the cornerstone ministry as we seek to reach out to young adults. We have seen people's lives changed, new friendships formed, needs met, and heart-felt prayer lifted up in the short time we have been meeting already. I hope you have been part of this impact and have seen how God has used our community group to make a difference in your life. Can you imagine when we are able to offer this same kind of environment & life-change impact to 3x-4x as many people!

This multiplication process won't happen by itself, however. We need many of you to step forward & offer your hand in helping these new groups form. Here are several ways you can help...

Continue reading "Calling All… Well, Everyone" »

Got another new CD in the mail this week. It's from a new band called The Wilderness of Tekoa. The CD is called "The Skies Pale in Comparison" and is really good! I tell you, it seems like I've been hitting the jackpot lately (hence several of these 'media' posts in the last couple of weeks). The band hails from West Palm Beach, FL, and has a sound that falls close to U2 & Coldplay.

Check them out at www.myspace.com/wildernessoftekoa...

Doing some research finishing things up for our Sunday conversation on "Faith & Work." Landed on the Switchfoot website, of all places (shameless plug: come on Sunday & you'll see why) and ran across this quote from Jon Foreman, lead singer & guitarist in the band...

In 1991, when Rolling Stone interviewed Dylan on the occasion of his 50th birthday, he gave a curious response when the interviewer asked him if he was happy. He fell silent for a few moments and stared at his hands. 'You know,' he said, 'these are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. It's not happiness or unhappiness, it's either blessed or unblessed.'

This record was written somewhere between the blessed and the unblessed, between the godly and the ungodly by a few young urban professionals from San Diego. These songs are dreams and questions, bleeding together, breathing in and out- always somewhere between life and death. And I feel this tension, this distance now more than ever, like a numbing ache... deep inside. The distance between the way things are and the way they could be, the distance between the shadow and the sun. And this is where we exist: within the paradox. Living out our lives: oxygen and carbon and hydrogen and so on... This record was the attempt to make something beautiful in filthy backstage dressing rooms everywhere, trying to sing something true with a broken heart. This record was written about things that I don't understand.

And yes, there's more than a wink of irony in all of this: making music from our most intimate thoughts and selling these songs online for a dollar a pop. Singing an anthem every night about how "we were meant to live for so much more" and many times feeling like a failure; singing "I dare you to move"and feeling trapped.

Read the full text... 

Do you ever feel that way? ...'trapped in the middle'? I think I live in an almost constant state of flux. Things go well - I feel happy & satisfied, only to have something side-swipe me to my knees and humble me. Things go less than ideal - I mope around, until I realize how blessed I really am. I laugh when I think about what Mark Lowry, a Christian comedian, once said commenting on John 10:10 ("I have come that you might have life & have it more abundately.") He said that if life were like a roller coaster (motioning the ups & downs of a roller coaster ride with his hand), then 'life more abundately' the ups must be higher & lows must be lower (again motioning even greater ups & downs with his hand).

Reminds me that God is as much, if not more so, concerned with the process of 'getting there' than the end of 'arriving.' Enjoy the journey! 

Found a great new band last week - Bernard. I found them on a new website I got some info on, www.monsterpod.org, which is kind of an all-you-can-eat Christian podcast buffet. They carry some audio/video podcasts from Christian music festivals as part of the site. While checking out the CornerStone 2006 podcast I came across them covering their song "To Those of This World." I was immediately hooked! Jumped on to iTunes & downloaded their EP "A View Beyond the Cave."

I tried adding it to my "Listening To" list on the right, but seems the album is only available online through the iTunes Music Store (the sidebar uses Amazon.com). Check it out for yourself! 

Listening to the Relevant podcast this morning (very good, if you haven't heard it yet), checked out their corresponding website (duellikerealmen.com) and found a collection of the kind of Christian ingenuity that makes me proud to be a part of the group. Take this fine T-shirt design (every Christian needs a good rip-off T-shirt to wear, right?)... I can honestly say that the "You Who" design is probably the worst that I have seen. Kind of reminds me of the time when I was less fond of country music and had such amazing songs as "Refried Dreams" as fodder to make fun of people who had a different opinion than my own (I've reversed course now and enjoy country). In case you didn't get the correlation...

"You Who" design is to Christian T-Shirt
as
"Refried Dreams" is to Country music

If your dresser drawer is filled with Christian T-Shirts, I apologize (how does a T-Shirt become Christian anyway?) - I'm really not entirely against the idea - probably only about 80% or so. :-)

I guess the thing that has always bothered me about the Christian 'market,' which includes anything from 'Christian' apparel, to music, to figurines & trinkets, to movies, to... (you get the point) is the lack of ingenuity. We, as God's creation, are created in His image, right? And God is a creator at His very core, right? Then why does a fallen world many times, whose God-image is tarnished & warped because of sin, come off as more creative than those of us whom God is perfecting His image within?

"Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator." Colossians 3:9-10, HCSB

We need to represent Christ well - wherever we go & in whatever we do. We're going to talk about this a little this Sunday in our "When Faith & Life Collide" series as we look at "Faith & Work." For my part I want to strive to be as accurate a reflection of His image as possible - trusting that the imperfections will be overridden by His grace and truth. 

I would HIGHLY recommend Dave Ramsey resources. Andrea & I have both been involved in a "Financial Peace University" (FPU) group as well as leading a group of our own. It is literally life-changing as it helps you have a clear & healthy focus on money, debt, & finances in general. I know there is a FPU group that will be meeting in Tod Strain's home in the fall beginning around August 20th. I think it will be meeting on Sunday nights. Be watching the church bulletin, small group directory, etc. for more information on the group.

You can find more information about Financial Peace University, as well as helpful articles on just about every area of finances on Dave's website at www.daveramsey.com.

This past Sunday, as part of our ongoing conversation of "When Faith & Life Collide," we discussed "Faith & Money" - how our faith impacts our everyday decisions and attitudes toward money, our finances & our possessions. I have to admit we had a lot of blank stares back at me :-) which tells me what we were discussing was hitting home with most people (good or bad). I think we are uncomfortable talking about our finances because we believe: A) my faith & my money have nothing to do with each other, B) we have a preconceived notion that the church is always asking for our money, C) our finances play such a large role of our everyday existence (a negative role many times) that we don't like focusing on it or talking about.

I think our finances and our spiritual lives are more intertwined than most give credit for. Why else would Scripture & Jesus talk about money & possessions more than any other topic (including more than prayer, heaven or hell)? How we approach money impacts our spiritual lives and vice versa (at least that's the way it is supposed to work, right?)...

Continue reading "Money, Money, Money" »

As I've been sitting here preparing our look at "Faith & Money" for this Sunday morning's conversation, and as I just posted a, somewhat lengthy, post recapping what we discussed this past Sunday, I began to think.... (yes, I know - very dangerous thing) There is really no way that we can can come close to discussing every aspect of life that our faith truly intersects with - not with only a couple of Sundays left in the series. So, in order to help alleviate this issue a bit, and to blatantly push people to leave some comments on here every once in awhile :-), here's my proposition...

Continue reading "Faith and ______________" »

This past Sunday we dived into our conversation on "When Faith & Life Collide" by talking about "Faith & Choices." What does it look like when we bring our everyday choices in life, especially those that are difficult to know what is right/wrong, and allow our Faith in intersect at these moments? How do we especially deal with 'gray' areas - those areas that Scripture doesn't specifically condone or condemn? Here are five checks you can bring against your choice to help you know what you should do...

Continue reading "Making ‘Gray Area’ Choices" »

One of my fave shows just started this week: Rock Star (tilt is 'Supernova' this time around). I don't know if it is the amazing House Band (yeah, that's their actual name), the level of the talent of the 15 rockers (most seasoned veterans who have been out playing clubs, bars, etc. for many years), or the antics... but I really like this show! Got great reviews last year (when it was 'INXS" flavor) but never got the ratings to go with it for some reason.

Last night was a surreal experience watching the 'vote out' episode. Like other talent competition shows out there, the bottom three rockers (based on votes gathered from around the world) have to perform a song of their own choosing before the judges/band members to try and stay in the competition. When all three have performed the band kicks one person off the show.

One of the rockers in the bottom three last night got up to sing his 'keep from getting eliminated' song and to my surprise announced he was going to sing "Stars" by Switchfoot! Now, I'm a huge Switchfoot fan (one of those who has been following them since The Legend of Chin way back when), so I was pumped to hear one of their songs being covered on the show. Equally surprising was when Tommy Lee (former Motley Crue drummer & lead celebrity rocker for the new group Supernova) replied with, "I love that band!" Tommy Lee loves Switchfoot! The rest of the 14 rockers sitting over to the side were just sitting there nodding their heads in agreement.

Only problem was that the guy just butchered the song! It was totally surreal. I was sitting there listening to this wanna-be-Rock Star cover this amazing song/group, completely doing it injustice, thinking, "This is totally backwards!" Usually it is the other way around - with a Christian artist/musician butchering a great 'secular' tune as they try their best to cover it. The irony was too much to pass by, so I grabbed the clip from my TiVo & threw it up (interesting choice of words) here for all to marvel with me.

The clip is a streaming Flash video topping in at around 5.3mb. I apologize for those of you with slower connections - this was as compressed as I could get it without making the video unrecognizable. If you can hang in there for only the first 30 seconds, you'll get the gist of what I'm talking about.

We've added pictures from our July 3rd community group to our Flickr site. Lots of great fireworks photos, thanks to Steven. There's a few of the kids playing & eating watermelon as well. :-)

Click here to visit the site & check out the pictures: July 3rd Community Group

Listening to a great CD right now! It's from Jonny Lang and is entitled Turn Around. It won't be out until September 19th, but it is incredible! Very bluesy/soulsy (is that a word?). Reminds me a lot of Marc Broussard or Stevie Wonder. It has a song co-written by Steven Curtis Chapman, one he does a duet with Michael McDonald, and another has guest Nickel Creek violinist Sara Watkins play with him on. I'll link to the album in the sidebar once it appears on Amazon (not even available for pre-release yet).

Also - I'd highly recommend the new Superman Returns movie. Saw it twice this weekend (which is funny since I hardly ever get to go to the movies anymore) - once with Andrea at the new Providence Cinemas (very nice) and once at the Opry Mills IMAX (with 20 minutes in 3D!). If you have seen the first three films, you'll really appreciate the homage they pay to the original trilogy. There are times when Brandon Routh, who plays Clark Kent/Superman, looks/acts so much like Christopher Reeves it is spooky! Much better movie than I expected. Special effects are incredible!

Here is the article I referenced Sunday morning in full. It is entitled "What Would Jesus Do?" written by Just a word of warning that it is written by Walter Kirn, then literary editor for the magazine. It appeared in the September 2002 issue. Just a word of warning: realize that this is an article written by a non-Christian, published in a non-Christian magazine. It is brutally honest and borderlines on crudeness at times. But like I said on Sunday, even with any biasness the author had against Christians prior to writing this, it is good to see our Christian 'sub-culture' from the eyes of those on the outside:

Continue reading "“What Would Jesus Do?” GQ Article, Sept 2002" »