I'm blogging while in line for the coveted iPhone. This is a day I've been looking forward to since January, really, but especially since the beginning of the month. In some ways I'm counting this as sort of a 'birthday' two weeks late :-)

I've read every article I can find, watched every video tutorial, even listened to the pundits talk about how the iPhone isn't God's gift from heaven. I've pinched pennies and saved toward this purchase - in reality this is my birthday present (note the singular tense).

It's 8am and I'm 24th in line. (I think - I'll get a scientific count later when I need to get up, walk around & stretch my legs. I can see the store from my spot. I took a few pics before the mall security, in a very kind way, informed me that there were no cameras allowed in the mall. I'll have to post the pictures later (I'll have the guy next to me save my spot while I run out to the car & grab the memory card).

So here I am, bagels in hand, book in the bag, pulling WiFi from the Apple store. And happy. :-)

Update: 8:29am
The guy next to me told me I could just use the built-in camera on my laptop to snap a few pictures :-) Added a couple to our Flickr account...

• Waiting in Line for the iPhone

Update: 10:22am
I'm officially #30 in line (scientific - walk through & count heads #). Everyone is really in good spirits here. Lots of talk about Apple & computers in general. Someone just said that a Fox reporter was nearly mugged this morning doing a live review of the iPhone. In other news, a car bomb in London near the Apple store was found & disabled. It's iDay pandemonium! About 20 more people in line since I arrived about two hours ago.

Update: 10:42am
I'm meeting some really great people while in line. I'm fortunate to be next to some cool people. One guy's wife brought him an extension cord that he is sharing so that we can keep our laptops going. Another one is a full-time writer of graphic novels (he's been editing a book while sitting next to me on the bench) who just offered to buy me a cup of tea.

Update: 12:36pm
Just finished my second bagel and decided to boot my laptop back up to check my email & post an update. The line has officially turned the corner now. A reporter from the Tennessean was here interviewing some people and got an official count about 20 minutes ago at about 75 people. It's probably a bit larger by now. I got some shots of the 'people barriers' that they had set-up throughout the mall to handle the lines, along with the friendly "be courteous" signs posted every once in awhile. I'll try & run out to the car here in a little bit to get the card out of my camera & upload the few pics I got before I had to put the camera away. Time is really passing quickly. I've enjoyed getting to know the people around me & had some really good conversations (and some great tea!). T-minus about 5 more hours - almost halfway there!

Update: 1:05pm
Got the pictures from earlier posted to the Flickr photoset

Update: 1:34pm
Got another free water bottle from the nice Apple people. They're all walking around every now & then with their black "It's Here" iPhone shirts on, talking with people, making sure we're as comfortable as possible. One local business owner came by the line first thing this morning & dropped off boxes of fresh Krispy Kremes for everyone in line!

Update: 3:13pm
We're locking into final mode now. Apple shut down the store at 2pm - complete with black sheets covering the interior as they prep for the launch at 6pm. I snapped a couple of shots that you can see on the Flickr photoset. News vans are pulling up. The guy next to us just ordered pizza & is sharing with everyone. Griffin technologies just came by & dropped gift bags off for everyone in line. There are probably 130+ people in line now. People keep arriving who took off work early to join the line. Needless to say they don't look too excited when they see how long the line is!

Update: 4:00pm
Two hours to go! Apple employees just made the rounds again, talking with people & handing out $5 Starbucks cards! Woohoo! Just finished my Raspberry Mocha Frappuccino - good stuff! Walked past the entire line heading to the Starbucks (someone saving my spot in line). It's turned the corner in the mall & already at least as far down as it is from the Apple store to the corner - at least 150 strong. Channel 2 is here with their lights on & filming some footage not twenty feet from us. We may make backdrop on some news tonight.

Update: 5:06pm
The black 'curtains' just came down! I'd take a picture but they literally have two security guards flanking the front doors while the Apple staff are frantically moving around inside (looks like 2-3 dozen) finishing setting things up, cleaning the demo iPhones, etc.

Update: 5:22pm
This is it. I've already unloaded the rest of my paraphernalia from iDay into my car. As soon as my line friends get back, I'll have them save my spot while I run my laptop out to lock-up in the trunk as well, so this is my last update until I get home after purchasing the iPhone (and probably playing with it for hours on end). All in all the day has truly flown by. I've enjoyed the conversations, meeting new people, the freebies & the atmosphere of it all. It was (& still is) the kind of experience I've never been a part of before, but wanted to. See you on the flipside!

Update: 7:15pm
I'm done! I'm back at home, my OS X is updating so the iPhone will work with the computer. The last 30 minutes or so before 6pm (since I updated the last time) was surreal. With about 20 minutes left, the Apple employees came out of the store cheering & proceeded to run up one side of the line giving people high fives & hollering, and then back down the other side. Some of them tried to lead some cheers, "I say 'i', you save 'phone', 'i', _____, 'i', _______." They didn't go over too well (apart from people around me saying how sorry they felt for the staff having to do such things. Everyone's excitement level was at a peak. When it finally got down to 10 seconds left everyone was counting down together & let out a huge cheer when 6pm finally arrived. It took me about 10 minutes before I got into the store (I was around #30 in line). When I walked in, the Apple employees where flanking the main walkway into the store & stood there cheering for each person who came in the store. Took me another 10 minutes to buy the phone & a headphone adapter before leaving. 11 hours total time waiting (starting around 7:30am & ended about 6:20pm). I'll post my impressions some other day. It's been a long one and I have a lot of playing to do :-)

We took advantage of a free Saturday by taking off for a day trip to Fall Creek Falls, the largest state park in Tennessee. It's about a two hour drive east & a little south of Nashville - but it gave us a chance to take our first real 'trip' (outside of the everyday commuting here & there) in our new van, which was nice.

We saw a couple of falls, including the big one which the park is named after. I think Andrea said it is the largest waterfall in the Eastern United States. It was really big, but, unfortunately, because of the drought we've been having in TN, it wasn't at it's full majesty. It was still beautiful to see, though.

After taking in the view from the overlook at the top, we decided to take the half mile or so hike down to the base of the waterfall & let the kids swim a little. The path wasn't too difficult down - not nearly as clear as the path we took last summer at Burgess Falls, though. Emerie was a trooper & hiked most of it herself (although mom & dad did carry her on our backs once or twice on the climb back up). When we hit the bottom the kids ventured out into the water. It was really, really chilly, but they didn't seem to mind too much, as they kept getting out & going back in. Josiah even swam over close to where the waterfall was hitting the rocks on the far end of the pool, enough to let the water splash onto his back.

It was nice to be outside enjoying God's creation. We took the alternate route home, opting to skip the Interstate & taking a state highway back instead. It was two lane much of the way, took a little longer, but was well worth it as it felt like we were actually driving through the country much of the time. Small towns & beautiful scenery to boot!

I've posted a Flickr photoset for anyone who wants to see some pics:

• Fall Creek Falls Trip

Well, I'm about to bite the bullet...

I'm planning on listing my Treo 650 smartphone on eBay (probably tomorrow) to make way for my new iPhone which comes out next Friday. I've been pacing myself - trying to figure out when the best time to sell it would be.

I figured if I waited until I had my iPhone in hand that the eBay 'market' would be flooded with other Treos & smartphones from new iPhone owners like me who were replacing their phones. If I sold it too early, though, I'd have to do without that much longer - which I really want to minimize as I use my phone all of the time right now.

So - figured a week would be a good place. Planning on selling it as a one-day auction, possibly - that way if it doesn't sell I can relist it in plenty of time.

At this point I'd rather have cash in hand (which is going into my iPhone fund, along with all of my birthday money) than my Treo.

Anyone interested in buying the Treo from me is more than welcome to email me & let me know. I'd much rather sell it to friends/family, if possible. It's in near mint condition & includes home charger, software, sync cable, & 1mb SD card. Email me, or post a comment, if you're interested - just be sure you do it before Saturday noon or so.

Just a quick update on the Ediger family...

Well, I came into work today. I'm still feeling a little off, but what's new :-) Nothing too much to keep me home. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to normal.

We've had a busy week so far & it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. Kids have swim lessons every day. That, plus dentist appointments, plus hospital follow-up appointments (4 month check-up for Emerie's tubes), plus haircuts, plus ____________ (fill in the blank). Busy.

It finally rained yesterday. We've been in a mini-drought here for the last month or so - only getting an occasional shower or two here & there. Yesterday it actually rained throughout the day, which was much needed. Back to semi-clear skies today

Okay, so I'm doing my daily hourly check for Apple iPhone news/stories, and find out that Apple has just updated some video tours on its website. I hop over there and begin to watch them, when lo & behold what do I find but a relative! (Click the image for a larger version) (Sorry, you have to come to the site to see the full version...)

Now, before you begin to worry about my sanity, I'm really not that obsessed (really, I'm not, you can believe me, sort of). Found a helpful article that my friend Craig Webb sent my way that is helping...

• "Waiting for Your iPhone: Five Ways to Handle the Unbearable Stress" (Datamation)

You can see the video for yourself here: iPhone "Phone" page on Apple.com

I pity my lovely wife. I am not good at being sick. It's just not who I am.

I'm sitting here, in the midst of a semi- sick day/slow work day, trying to recover from being sick last night. I'm at about 85%, I'd say, and it's no fun. I got home from work yesterday, crawled into bed & slept for three hours. Then I got up, ate a little something, finished a movie with my wife & went to bed again.

I stayed home today. Probably one of only two times a year that I actually take a sick day. Even then (& now), I'm typing on my computer, trying to get a few things done, at least, so I can feel like my day was at least mildly worthwhile.

So, I'm sitting here fairly exhausted from being out & about all day attempting to finally buy a replacement vehicle for our van (which we did - hooray!). What I'm really wanting to do is lay in bed & read a good book & fall asleep, but I've still got some work to do to tie up the loose ends for our Get Uncomfortable study tomorrow morning. So, here I am, sitting in the front room, headphones on, listening to my iTunes Party Shuffle.

I don't know the formula, or how iTunes does it, but hitting that one button fills my ears with great music almost all of the time - tonight was no exception. It also does a good job of pulling music that I haven't heard in quite awhile back into my memory banks.

"I See You" is one such song. This is such a great song. I mean really, really great! The version I'm listening (over & over right now) is the Robbie Seay cover of this classic Rich Mullins song. It's not a complicated song, but it's the simple nature of the lyrics, chords & music that make it so good. I've included it below for you to listen to (although I'm likely only going to keep it up for a week or so). Lyrics included below as well...

"I See You" - Robbie Seay Band
Buy the "Thoughts of You" CD | Robbie Seay Band Website | MySpace

Lord, You're leading me
With a cloud by day
And then in the night
The glow of a burning flame

And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You

And You take my hand
And You wash it clean
I know the promised land
Is light years ahead of me

And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You

Well, the eagle flies
And the rivers run
I look through the night
And I can see the rising sun

And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You
And I see You, Lord, I see You

Well, the grass will die
And the flowers fall
But Your Word's alive
And it will be after all

And everywhere I go, I see You

As I've mentioned here before, I usually work away from the office on Fridays. I really enjoy it & find that I look forward to this day more & more as each week goes by. I tend to get more done, feel more comfortable (not having to dress up in my 'work clothes' - yeah, sounds very teenage-ish, I know), drink good coffee, work out at my local Y, and just enjoy my days a lot more than when I'm sitting in front of a monitor, three monitors, in my office at work.

For some reason I'm having a hard time getting away from the house today. I got up at my normal early hour, enjoyed my Special K/Coffee/Sportscenter daily fix, and then proceeded to work (after leaving a voicemail message at LifeWay telling everyone I wasn't there). The boys are coughing up a storm - which, besides not feeling well, is really sad for them as they're missing the last day of VBS ("Gameday Central") at the church. Andrea is gone, taking Emerie to a friend's house to ride with them for her last day. I'm half ready (still need to grab a shower) and then I'll probably drag myself away from this seat long enough to drive to my work-away-from-work (good 'ole Panera) and drink too much coffee, as usual.

I'm feeling a bit backwards today, as it looks like I'll have to drive downtown to LifeWay during my lunch hour in order to hit the credit union & get pre-approved for a car loan (we're going to attempt to finally replace our van tomorrow, God willing). I could have got up & gone in to work, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So instead of working at LifeWay & leaving to run errands during lunch, I'm going to work away from LifeWay & go there during lunch. :-)

From the television show "Britain's Got Talent" - six year old Connie Talbot... (Visit this post to view the YouTube video)

Last week I had a chance to go to a free preview of the upcoming release Evan Almighty at a local theater. They were doing a showing for church leaders and I was able to go with a couple of friends of mine. At the time, they had asked any press who were there to not write reviews until the movie released (next Friday, June 22nd). Since I wasn't there on official LifeWay business, and because this blog is about as far away from mass publication as you can get, I thought I'd share my thoughts about the movie a little as I'm sure there is a good amount of skepticism in the Christian community about it.

As a backdrop, I think it's important to know that I'm a Bruce Almighty fan. I know that isn't the case with a lot of Christians who are offended by portrayals of God or Jesus in popular media. I thought the first movie was a bit racy at times, but had some amazing insights into how the world views God. The movie, in my opinion, made good illustrations about spiritual truths, and from someone who has worked with students in ministry most of my adult life - I'm all for using popular media & cultural references to drive home deep spiritual truths. So, take it or leave it, I came into this sequel excited about the equal potential for this to be the same kind of opportunity.

If there was any apprehension about seeing the movie, it was probably that it would come off cheesy and not live up to the popularity of its predecessor. The clips in the previews were funny, but they didn't exactly convince you that this was one of those "must see" movies of the summer.

Let me just say that my apprehensions were un-founded - this was a GREAT! Let me say that again... you need to go & see this movie, especially if you have a family. The acting wasn't Academy Award material. The plot line wasn't grounded in reality. But it was a very (VERY) funny, well made, movie, that, apart from some "bodily function humor and mile profanity" (someone said there was a word or two in there, which surprised me because I don't remember hearing any at all) it is a clean movie. Want further proof? I walked out telling my friends that I couldn't wait to bring my kids to see it.

I'm not saying that it's 100% biblically accurate. I can't think of anything off hand that made me feel like "that is way off," but, it's a comedy after all - not meant to be a Bible study. It's good, though. My opinion is that, if the crowds are anything like they were on that preview night (with a theater packed with Christian leaders and their families/friends), Christians, even if they walked in skeptical, are going to be walking out laughing and pleased.

It's hard for us to find a good family movie that we can all go to these days. Even animated flicks, once a healthy respite for families desiring to go to the movies together, aren't automatic anymore. Evan Almighty is. If you're not convinced, grab a friend or your spouse & check it out starting next weekend. Then go back & take the kids after you're finished laughing yourself through an hour and a half of good comedy fun.

PS - On another pretty cool side note - Pastors and church leaders can now download movie clips and Bible study material from the movie to use in their churches. This has to be a first - a major motion picture house allowing clips of a 'still in the theater' movie to be shown in churches. You can grab them over at SermonSpice.com.

From a blog post I just put up on the Threads website today...

I had a birthday recently. It seems like as each year passes these days become more and more reflective - looking back over where I've been and who I've become. It seems like life is shifting into higher gears the older I get, and the days are beginning to blur a little as I stick my head out the window and enjoy the flurry of the wind as it speeds on by.

I'd like to say that everything is pleasant - that somehow when I piece it all together that I've managed to make it work as best as I could. I look at my beautiful wife & my kids and know that some of those choices and experiences are good - many are very good. But when it comes down to it I feel myself becoming rougher around the edges - perhaps worn a bit by my surroundings, and that's a strange place to be.

My faith is stronger - I think. It feels more real, at least. I'm not sure I know much more of who God really is. Seems as I get older that God becomes greater, and, many times, it feels like the years add more questions rather than more answers. Part of me feels less apt to ask them, I guess - not feeling a huge burden to have it all figured out and enjoying the mystery of it all a bit more.

I would have to say that I am much more cynical. It's not where I'd like to be, but at least I'm aware of it (and knowing is half the battle, right?). I'm realizing that my cynicism is really just pride in disguise. I find myself belittling the Church and catching myself (to the point of stopping) less than I should. I'm slightly less optimistic about where we all are in this thing.

But I'm hopeful.

Yes... hopeful. And that's an amazing thing for me. For while I'm bitterly aware of my own spiritual ineptitude much of the time (I'm being a bit generous saying even that), and I know that my fellow travelers are walking in the same place, right beside me, I have more hope in who He is for me & for us than ever before. Even if we are missing the mark as His Bride much of the time (there I go again), I know that He is working in us & perfecting us as only He can.

Cynical, but with hope, and a desire to see it all happen as He desires for it to happen. When it all comes down to it, maybe that's not that terrible of a place to be.

Safari (Apple's web browser) is something I really don't have a lot of experience using. I came to Mac as a late convert and brought my Firefox (another browser) habits with me. I've used Safari a little, but never really saw many benefits to trying to make the switch - especially when Google made my life easier with their 'Browser Sync' Firefox extension (can switch between all of my computers & preserve my browsing history, bookmarks, sessions, etc.).

The one thing that may push me over is that Safari is the browser on the iPhone. The thought of being able to sync my iPhone with my Mac and have all of my settings, bookmarks, etc. carried over to my phone sounds really cool to me. Then Apple goes & releases Safari for Windows, and I think I'm going to take the plunge.

I'm playing around with Safari for the next few days to see how well I like it.

I am trying my best to hold out until July to buy some new clothes. If I wasn't so obsessed with pinching pennies to get an iPhone I'd go ahead & take the plunge.

It's not like my clothes don't fit - it's just that they don't fit well. Case in point, this morning...

Continue reading "You Know You’ve Lost Weight When…" »

I love Fridays. Apart from the normal things that most people love about the last day of the work week, Fridays are a day of flexibility, of freedom, for me.

I'm blessed to have an Internet-related job. It means, among other things, that I can do what needs to be done in a given work day from my deck as much as from my desk at LifeWay. Most Fridays you'll find me drinking coffee at the local Panera (free WiFi!), or at home working from out of the office. It's a privilege that is something I love about my job.

Today I'm sitting on my deck with my cup of Joe, listening to the birds sing, the planes fly overhead (we're about 8-10 miles from the airport), the wind in the trees, and watching the clouds darken a little as rain begins to head our way.

I love my deck. I love mornings (yeah, call me crazy). I love my job. (Oh, yeah - I love coffee, too!)

A view listen from my deck this morning:

Ran across a great new art series by Chris Jordan entitled, "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait."

He has taken images of waste from the multitude of statistics we often hear about what Americans use/consume/do away with on a daily basis. The images on his site are amazing enough - but they only represent a small version of the individual pieces.

For example, this image is part of "Plastic Bottles, 2007" which depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes. The actual artwork size? 60 feet by 120 feet! That would cover nearly half of a football field! Amazing.

You can check out the images on Chris Jordan's site.

I stopped by the Cingular store on the way home, intent on upgrading Andrea's phone - the first step in getting my iPhone at the end of the month. The plan was to get her a new phone, put my SIM card in her old one, sell my Treo on Ebay (before the onslaught of other iPhone-owner-wannabes do the same on June 29th), and use her old phone in the mean time.

I had lots of questions about upgrading, how upgrading to the iPhone would work, how many they expected to get, would it be better for me to go to them or to the Apple Store to get one, etc. Sufficed to say, they had very few answers. In fact, I think they knew about as much as me about the iPhone. Cingular corporate & Apple are still being pretty silent about details at this point.

The one bad news - my phone most likely won't be available for an upgrade until October :-(

Continue reading "Closer to an iPhone & Slightly More Confused" »

I was just commenting with Blaire the other day about how thankful I am that Sonic is in TN. She highly agreed. We gave up a few things moving out from the midwest (Braums being up there on the list). Thankfully Sonic was not one of them.

Just found out that Sonic will be giving out free root beer floats this Thursday night between 8pm & Midnight. All you have to do is push the red button and say, "Gimme a free float!" Of course, they wouldn't mind if you ordered some food to go with it, but it's not required. No strings attached.

Afraid you'll forget? Text "freefloat" to 74574 to get a text reminder on Thursday (standard text messaging rates apply - I sound like Ryan Seacrest now).

I finally had a chance to watch the video from last night's presidential forum on Faith, Values & Poverty and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude that we're at a place where we would even hear presidential candidates talk about social justice issues or even their faith. I think even during the last presidential race, faith wasn't focused on near that much (although it's credited to people of faith having turned the tide of the election, the candidates themselves - especially Democrats - didn't talk about faith issues that much). Now we have candidates answering questions on nationally televised programs like, "What is your greatest sin?" "What do you pray for, and how would prayer influence how you make decisions as president?" & "What would you do, as president, to address the moral problem of poverty?"

Now's it's just time to hear from the Republican candidates in the fall in a similar forum.

Here's a short clip (approx. 5 minutes) posted on YouTube from Sojourners.

I just saw another one of those Tennessee Lottery commercials (don't ask me how I was watching commercials - I know that's strange). If you're not in TN, or don't know what I'm referring to, the TN lottery commission began running television ads last year depicting 'heart felt' scenes of lottery winners who use their new winnings to buy things for their loving family. One shows a guy buying his brother the boat he's always dreamed of. Another one has a daughter giving her aging mother the wedding she's always wanted. You get the picture...

So, my first reaction is, "You've got to be kidding!" I mean, they are cheesy enough by themselves. But, I'm just as disgusted at the whole deal. The whole point is to somehow appeal to our emotional side & our love for our family/friends to want to go & buy a bunch of tickets so we can give them what they've always dreamed of? Doubt it.

I was trying to find the clips on YouTube or something (no such luck) and ran across a blog post by Sam Davidson about these same ads that sums it up pretty well...

"So keep running ads all you want, Tennessee Lottery. But be warned that my main motivation for buying lotto tickets will not change. My sole purpose in wishing upon stars when the jackpot goes over $100 million has been and always will be my desire to fill a vault with gold coins and swim around in it like Scrooge McDuck."

Come on, you know you've had that same dream :-)

One of our TiVos has been acting weird on occasion - and typically only on occasions when it is me operating it & attempting to do something. It has something to do with the network connection between the two TiVos (one upstairs & one downstairs). Works perfectly for Andrea. But when I go to transfer a program from downstairs to upstairs (like I did tonight) it probably only works 25% of the time.

No real explanation - I've checked all the network connections. Everything is working right. The downstairs TiVo sees the upstairs one just fine. It's just when Chris decides he wants to watch something upstairs that it decides to spazz out.

Not a huge ordeal. I'm just a little bummed as I was wanting to watch the presidential forum that Sojourners was hosting at George Washington University on Faith, Values & Poverty. Luckily my Mac will still pull the video just fine from the TiVo, so I'm transferring it here (while I type this) and I'll try to watch it tomorrow, perhaps during lunch.

If you didn't get a chance to see the CNN broadcast, you can find more information out on the Sojourners website. Definitely something that is rather unprecedented - leading presidential candidates answering questions on national TV about their faith & stances on social justice issues.

• Faith, Values & Poverty" info on Sojourners.net

I just finished uploading some more pics to our Flickr account. Here's links to the photosets & individual photos (without sets):

Photosets

• Josiah's Soccer Party
• Micah's Soccer Party
• Stewart's Spring Break Visit
• Micah's First Spring Soccer Game (2007)

Single Photos

• Micah's Latest K'Nex Creation: Photo 1, Photo 2
• Emerie Helping Daddy Mow the Lawn: Photo 1, Photo 2

Woohoo! I just got my confirmation for a sneak preview they are having for Evan Almighty this coming Tuesday night. There is a PR group which is doing closed showings for church leaders across the country on Tuesday. Our 'spot' is at the Opry Mills theater, which is really nice.

The movie releases on June 22nd. Looks really good from what I've seen. I am a fan of the first one - so many spiritual tie-ins. I think this will be the same way.

Yeah, call me nuts, but I love having people in my home! Some of our friends think we borderline psycho hosting as many guests as we do each year. But, I truly call it a blessing.

To me it reminds me of the greater blessings of relationships that God has brought into our life. In some cases it is a glimpse into the future - we have begun more than a few friendships by having one or more people over at a time when we didn't know them that well. In other cases, like this weekend, it reminds me of blessings from the past (that are still impacting our lives today).

Yesterday we had two such friends fly into Nashville to stay several days with us. Renee & Bethany were formerly students in our student ministry in Kansas who are now fellow adults. They are starting careers, and considering how God may use them to have Kingdom impact around them. Both are getting set to fly to the other side of the world to impact other cultures in this way. This afternoon Blaire & Andy will join them for awhile (before Andy flies out early-evening), before our up/rooted community group leaders come over this evening for dinner, reflection on our spring groups & planning for our fall ones.

I'm just thankful. I'm thankful for the blessing of friendship. I'm thankful to experience what Christians have been experiencing for over 2000 years as they open their lives up to one another & journey together as friends & fellow spiritual travelers.

I was reading an email this morning from the Relevant Network, a resource for leaders of young adult ministries put out by Relevant Magazine (great magazine, by the way). Their email focused on an interview with Phil Wyman, pastor of The Gathering Church in Salem, Mass. and about some of the ways that the church is reaching out to the pagan community in Salem.

What struck me was the following question/answer. Phil was in the midst of talking about an event the church had sponsored recently which discussed, "God: For People Who Hate the Church" - a seminar about reaching those who identify with God but who struggled with organized Christianity.

What's the biggest challenge in going into communities that "hate church"?
Us.

Christian leaders are the biggest challenge. We do silly things like assume that if people avoid church they must also hate God, or are uninterested in spirituality. We hang out our shingle, or throw our little Christian parties and expect people to show up. We have developed ways of doing church, which may work for some people, but are uninteresting, or even offensive, to others. Instead of changing our style of gathering for those who don't appreciate our Christian culture, we change our style of music, and expect that to be the answer.

Our inability to adapt to another culture makes us the biggest challenge in connecting with those who dislike church.

I think he is right on. In fact, Phil says that when he first moved to Salem from Southern California to plant a church, "I remarked early in our move to Salem that it would not be the witches who would cause us trouble, but Christians. Like Jesus, who was not persecuted by unbelievers, but by the religious leaders, we anticipated anger and misunderstanding from certain Christian circles."

Whenever we confront the religion of Jesus' day and those who were its leader, we tend to talk about them like they are "the Others" on Lost - people with whom we may share some similarities, but who are, in our opinion, wholly different. We never imagine that we, in fact, might actually be counted with the lot of them had Jesus chosen to arrive on planet Earth in 2007.

This is a struggle - especially when you are trying to reach young adults who for the most part have a preconceived aversion to organized religion. It's not Jesus with whom they take issue.

In some ways I think it would be easier to reach them outside the confines & structure of a traditional church (not 'traditional' so much in the sense of the church's practices, but more in the fact that it represents a group of organized believers). Wouldn't it be easier to come alongside them and say, "Yeah, the church makes me sick a lot of times, too!"? Would Paul have become a 'church bashing cynical open-to-Jesus' kind of guy in order to reach 'church bashing cynical open-to-Jesus' people? I'm not so sure.

I've had my fair share of cynicism directed at the Church (both big & little 'C'). As a young adult myself I have to fight the temptation to complain and be frustrated with the Body of Christ. Yet, I can't escape it. I can't walk away. I can't grab my bag and vow to reach out to others like me by forsaking who (& whose) I am.

Like it or not, I am the Body of Christ, I am the Church. And because of this, I have already been 'organized' by my Savior. Whether I choose to meet together in a building with a steeple on Sunday mornings, or grab a beer with unbelievers in a bar while discussing theology, I can't escape the fact that Jesus has grafted me with other God followers and I'm in it for life.

So, I'm faced with the difficult, but God-given, desire to reach out as the Church to a generation which tends to dislike the church. I think that the difficulty makes the results all the more fulfilling - because I know that God has to be the one to break down the barriers, and He will be the one to receive the glory because of it.