Blog Update

Hey friends,

So I am sitting here in the dark and thinking as the year comes to a close. It's been a crazy one. Everything in my life has changed so much... none the way I would have scripted them. But through all this I still hope to find God's path for me and find myself in a position to lead others to Him. He is an amazing God and with faith in Him all things make us stronger, better Christ-followers.

The blog is going under some updating. I am adding labels so you can search just certain lines of thought. I rant for a while on art, then for a while on music. I will add an area on the sidebar for you to look back through those with ease.

The Band is going strong. We took some time off for the holidays but will be back at it next weekend. Come see us at the Bethany Barn on Sunday evening.

Grace and peace,

Bollman

God Space

I was very blessed on Christmas eve. I attended the greatest Christmas service I have ever seen. I laughed, I wept, I prayed, I sang, I worshipped the Living Lord.

Join Pastor Mike from Lutheran Church of Hope and his friends as they make some space for Jesus....

Click Here

This service was amazing... as an emergent it was just right. The use of video was fantastic, the drama was engaging, the message so relevant...

But just as a Christ-follower, listen to this message. Soak it up. Listen to the last five minutes real, real close. It is the essence of the Gospel. The gift is here... Open it and receive the gift of grace.

Christmas Greetings

Merry Merry Christmas!!! The rescuer is coming. Unto us a child is born. He will bring light to the darkness and we shall call him King of Kings and Lord of Lords!!!!

Pillar

I went on a trip with Joel's youth group last week. About a dozen of us went to see Pillar headline the The Days of Reckoning Tour. It was quite the night. Four bands rocked the stage of an AoG church on the south side of town.

Decyfer Down, a hard-rockin' band in the mold of Sound Garden kicked off the show. They really appealed to my 90's grunge insensitivities. They were a four pierce, a straight lead guitarist that used cool phasing and octave effects, a pure rhythm guitarist, an awesome drummer and a bass wielding front man with long hair and big vocals. Even more impressive then their musicality was their spirituality and devotion to Christ, which really shined through. They are an evangelical rock band first and foremost. Their message is not watered-down.

I hate it when I go to a Christian show and if it where for the venue or a tattoo of a cross you’d have no idea they had anything to do with the Lord. That is something we as a band must balance. We want to make music that speaks to the world in which we live like Switchfoot, Reliant K and U2 but we also don’t want to become so removed from the Gospel that you have to search our songs with a strainer to find the Lord anywhere in them. That is our goal as a band, to be true to our artistic vision and our ministry at the same time.

Luckily for us that has never been an issue. We have always placed our mission first and our music second. We are a band, yes, but we are people who serve the Living Lord and spread His Word to all that may hear.

Lord please keep us rocking the Gospel… the Good News that Your grace is free for the taking. AMEN!

Santa

The G-squared gang donned their santa hats, jumped into their sleigh and played santa. We wrapped our presents in the Gospel and gave them with a song.

Four horns up for Christmas!!!

...Under the Trash

I have been nosing around the book of Ecclesiastes this Advent season. I have found a seeker, a man roaming through the world searching for the true meaning of life. I see a wise man exploring wealth, fame and all manners of earthly pursuits. In the end, what does he find? He finds that all things are empty without a relationship with God. All things under the sun are trivial without find what's above the sun.

It was a brief second in the Popmart set. It was a tiny moment with enormous meaning. It was a throwaway gesture in which the whole Popmart thesis is understood. Perhaps it was even the whole point of the U2 dissertation of the nineties. The band was cranking up the volume in "Mofo" when Bono came to the line "Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash." As he sang those words, he gestured his arm to the biggest TV screen in the world, that huge golden arch and the mighty lemon. It was almost just a shrug, but the illumination it threw out was as bright as every spotlight, special effect, or image Willie Williams was flashing up from the light desk. All of this paraphernalia the band had around it night after night for most of the nineties was trash. What was more important was underneath it all. The use of Baby Jesus could mean the genesis of this thought is in the commercialization of Christmas, when Jesus, the real meaning of the season, is lost beneath wrapping paper, tinsel, stuffing, and Santa Claus. But it is a picture of a general loss of meaning or hope or truth. As we glance across the horizon of the loudest and brightest culture in the history of humankind, is there any chance we might find in the midst of all the shallowness something deeper, something more precious, something more lasting? Is Jesus lost? Or can He be retrieved from the garbage?
p. 119
Steve Stockman
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2



In the work of U2 we see the same seeking. We see the same yearning to find spiritual meaning in the world. The postmodern world is one filled with a choir of voices... none of which pause in honor of the others. It’s a mass overload of sensory overload. It’s easy to be lost… but this bewildering landscape of shopping malls, pop-up adds and sound bites also brings us to the same truth that the seeker in the book of Ecclesiastes finds… The promises of this world are hallow.


Again, it was the searching for Jesus under the trash. "Mofo," which kicked off the show, begins with that statement of intending to look for something to save hi soul and fill the God-shaped hole. The seeking will be done in a barren desert place... There are still no comfortable refuges in the life of this Dublin boy, but the search continues. The compass points have not changed even though he may be in the wilderness in some kind of Old Testament wandering. It is still that God-shaped hole that captures the thinking of his heart, soul, and mind.
p. 121
Steve Stockman
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2


Modernism, logic, reason, invention, political truth, and rationalism all leave you empty in the chilling emotional desert of this world. We find real life, real peace, in the spiritual. Thank god, that God is a intimate god, that reaches down into this world and becomes personal. He hasn’t stopped calling out to you, even though you are lost in the barrage of holiday chaos. He is as present as ever, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, drawing you towards His truth and His light.

Merry Christmas… Make it a personal one. Do not forget the reason for the season.

Looking for Baby Jesus...

MOFO
U2

Looking for to save my save my soul
Looking in the places where no flowers grow
Looking for to fill that God shaped hole
Mother...mother sucking rock and roll

Holy dunc, spacejunk coming in for the splash
White dopes on punk staring into the flash
Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash

Bubble popping sugar dropping rock and roll
Mother...mother sucking rock and roll



Christmas time, a time when you see everyone at the stores buying last minute gifts for every person on their list. Everyone has a little religion around the holidays. Even the most stone cold heart says an occasional 'Merry Christmas.' We pack our front yards with lighted displays that stress that we are in the Christmas spirit. We have Santa's on the rooftops and we Christmas carols on the radio. But never forget during this time of tinsel string and blinking lights that underneath all the glitz and glamour of the holidays is a miracle story, the story of a child in a manger, of a king sent for poor shepherd and commoners, of a God so caring that He'd become lowly to save ordinary folks like us. That is the heart of Christmas.

It might take a moment, but this year, take a moment, if only for a moment, and look for baby Jesus amongst the holiday trash. If even at a red light, look for Him for He is all around. Christmas with out the CHRIST is just a mess!

Grace and peace this holiday season!!!

Move

Emergent Church:

The emerging or emergent church movement is a 21st century Christian movement seeking to engage people, especially the unchurched, living in postmodern or postcolonial cultures. Proponents call the movement an emerging "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature. A common characteristic is the concept of missional living where Christians are sent out into the world to be a blessing wherever they are. Narrative presentations of faith and the Bible as well as the use of multimedia, the Internet and blogs are popular with this predominantly younger generation of Christians. An emphasis on dialogue allows for a generous openness to a plurality of biblical interpretation with an avoidance of a dogmatic approach to theology found in historical Christianity.

Wikipedia

Change

I have an interesting vantage point. I work with the first real youth of this historical age. I see the millennial generation, and the world on the great swing blade of change as Modernism fades into memory and Postmodernism takes hold. This is the generation that will see their lives change in so many radical ways. The very way they live will be forever altered. Religion is no different. It will change too.

This is not new. The Bible has changed through the years. Scriptures were once recorded on scrolls. These holy documents were kept in temples and read and interpreted. We see Jesus many times reading from the Bible in this format.

The Bible as we know it wasn't compiled until a few centuries after Jesus' death and resurrection. The church took the holy writings, both Jewish and Christian, and developed a canon. They determined what was in and what was out. This wasn't a cut and dried thing. Different books came and left the Bible for a thousand years before the current standard was set.

This collective process has caused controversy through the years. What standards were used was often called into question. The very format of the Bible being bound into a large, hand-printed book was a radical shift from scrolls. It made the Word of God much more portable and much easier to spread. Jews kept their scrolls locked away. These new Christians wanted to spread their new bound books far and wide. That was CHANGE!!!

The next major shift came around 1500 when Guttenberg’s printing press made bibles much easier to obtain and much cheaper. The rise of literacy rates also raised demand for bibles printed in native languages. This was a major factor in the Reformation that forever altered the look of the church and they way people worshipped.

In the 1900s we saw renewed interest in the study of historical text and the creation of dozens and dozens of translations. The logic minded rational scholars of the Bible wanted to find the most accurate version they could. This created all sorts of change and conflict. There are KJ only people and NIV people and those who think the Message isn't a Bible at all. Some people believe in magic Bible Codes and others that the NRS stands for New Revised Slander. All these things came and went as the cycle of change occurred.

Change is still going on today. In the postmodern age, the Bible has gone digital. I use bible gateway more than a paper bible. Some would see this as a bad thing. It is just the Scriptures adapting with the times. But the Bible is still the Bible no matter what packaging it comes in. The Truth that it holds for our lives is still true no matter if its rolled in a tube, kept in a book or downloaded onto your PC. God is big, his arms wide, wide enough to wrap around any historical age. Those who doubt the Lord's authority in this age are limiting God's power... and that is a very silly thing to do. God is in control.

Some people fight change. Most often they are political ideologues, hard-line fundamentalists, lovers of the status quo, or people who prosper financially from the old way. Change is scary. It is a treat. But change is what keeps the church alive. Over and over again, through out the ages, movements have come that reformed the way the Church looks and works and serves the people.

I love the Church. I want to see it grow and flourish and meet the needs of the millennial generation. To do this its going to have to change. It will never lose its roots in the truth that Jesus Christ sets us free from sin by His death on the Cross. But how it is organized and how it functions will change just as it did in Luther's day and so many other times. Postmodernism wont go away even will we pretend like it isn't there or that the people who embrace it are bad guys.

And what about those people who are served well by the traditional church? Of course I wish those people the best. I pray that they may find what they need and be content. May they eat and drink there and get their fill. But for those seekers, those which I feel so drawn to, for them I will continue to investigate the Church that is emerging in this new century. And in this age of endless possibilities, let us lay down our conflicts with each other and move forward for the Kingdom. I love Jesus Christ and work every day for the cause of spreading His Gospel. I love the Church and will watch as it continues its march through time.

Life in postmodernity

I went to college at the University of Iowa in the middle and late 1990s. I studied painting and drawing and the new emerging field of digital media. My work was abstract and my subject matter was a barrage of pop images that my media-saturated brain had collected as I grew up a child of America. Sesame Street, Nintendo, Fog and Toad, Scoobie Doo, Captain Crunch, Kool-Aid Man, Super Mario Brothers, Lord of the Rings books, Star Wars, Gummie Bears and Smurfs all went into the blender of my imagination and came back out as wild, abstract things.

A focus of our studies in the BFA program was postmodern studies. Postmodernism is a cultural shift that has (and is) occuring in a world radically changed by the proliferation of new technology. As a group of young artists, a lot of our study was centered on defining how art would exist in the next era.

Just as industrialization informed Modernism, so would digitalization inform postmodernism. The computer, the Internet, flash video, mass communication, blogging, and global community are the dawning reality. Art will (it must) adapt to exist in this new world.

We made many conclusions. Some were starry-eyed and foolish, some where way out of left field, but some hit the nail right on the head. Art is changing in this new age. Just look at TV trends and YouTube and you can see this is true. There is nothing wrong with the old way, if it suits your needs that great. But know that the world is changing and that change is natural and it is inevitable.

The emergent church is the equivalent of that discussion group seeking to redefine art for the new age. Church too is changing. It always does. The church of the feudal age with its central power structure and big stone buildings changed. It didn’t look a thing like the church of the Reformation. The church of the last two hundred years was reformed by modernity and its pursuit of logic and reason. And this incarnation of the Body the Christ is also changing. It's having new life breathed into it by a new generation of pilgrims that are coming to the well and they are oh so thirsty.

More on change tomorrow.

Switch

For years I was a regular at one church. I went years never missing a Sunday. I was a member, my kids were baptized there and I was an active volunteer. I held positions on a committee or two. I helped haul fabric down flights of stairs for the lady's quilting ministry. I shared space with the same group and always tried my best to cooperate and return the space to its original condition. Once a year my group of wily teens would help carry dozens and dozens of those quilts up the stairs and loaded them up into vehicles so that they could go to needy people who had no blanket. Once I was even on a Call Committee that selected a new pastor. I co-wrote a description of that church that stated all the many parts that contributed to the whole and made it an extraordinary place to worship. I was a proud member of that church. I volunteered and helped the other branches of ministry as much as I could.

I have heard a call to duty that has given my life new meaning and purpose. The Lord God has laid it on my heart to work with youth. I have poured my entire being into the cause. I read Paul’s words and know what its like to be poured out like on the ground like an offering, a sacrifice. This isn’t a job or a hobby. It’s my passion. I see other people whose hearts pound for the arts, or competitive athletics or success at other endeavors. The very passion they feel for that activity is the way I feel about reaching youth. This attitude has made kids open up to me. They come to me with problems, real life problems. We talk them out, we cry, we sometimes shout. We are always real to each other and always look to Jesus for the answers. When kids are upset they seek me out.

I have a bag in my closet of little scrap pieces of paper from my years in youth ministry. They contain little comments from the kids I have ministered to through the years. When I am down, when I am really, really down, I get them out and start reading them. That is when I remember truly why I walk this road. This is all about them… and giving them what they need.


But despite all the hard work and the blessings the Lord poured out upon our little youth movement, a time came when we weren’t needed anymore. Oh, we felt the winds of change for a while, but then the conflict came and the warm nest where our ministry was firmly planted was overturned and it was no longer a place where we could work.

When that church and I finally had a parting of the ways, my loyalties were never in doubt. I have pledged my heart and my soul to Jesus Christ. He is not the property of a single church. I have promised my life to the service of the cause of reaching youth for the glory of His precious and holy name. That can happen in many places under many different appearances. I just had to move to more fertile ground and start throwing seeds again.

A few days ago I looked at the differences between my bible and the Bible. Just as my bible can be replaced… so can my church. If my bible is damaged and no longer serves me well, I will seek out a new one. If the opportunity arises to purchase a better bible, then without tear or sweat on my brow I will do so. It is the same with my choice of churches. I can live without that church but I cannot live without fellowship and communion with believers.

Luckily I surround myself with passionate believers, most far wiser and stronger in faith then myself. They keep me focused on the Lord. Many times Joel has to shake me and say, “Don’t get wrapped up in these earthly games, brother. Our work is for the Kingdom!” Chris, the quiet monk of the group, he always shows me the way with his constant study, daily prayer, consistent conversation with the Living Lord. Cody shows me God’s sense of humor and reminds me that the Christian life is about living life to the fullest. He keeps me focused on the Gospel, that Jesus died to set us free from the chains of the old ways. Just eating pizza and throwing the Frisbee with Haner is a holy experience. The ladies in my life keep me honest, Amanda keeps me organized and in check, the guys keep me doing powerhops. Calla keeps me searching for forgiveness. And always, always there is the Holy Spirit that keeps me learning and breathing. At the moment these folks are my church. We love each other and prop each other up and in time we will unite back in a big stone building on a hill. But for now we are just a band of believers focused on Jesus and the work of His Church.

His Church IS as mighty as an army with all its banners. She marches through time feeding the poor, reaching the lost and caring for the down-and-out. I will be focused on that task. I will look for every way I can to be the Light in this world. There is a lot of work to do… it’s time to go to Church.

Screwtape

I love irony. My favorite painting is the Rene Magritte Dada masterpiece This is Not a Pipe, an inconspicuous little realistic rendering of a common, brown tobacco pipe. 'Why isn't it a pipe,' you ask? Because it is merely a picture of a pipe. You can't smoke tobacco with it, which is a pipe's primary function. So the little painting succeeds in looking like a pipe, but fails miserably at working like one.


It's like when Wily Coyote paints that tunnel on the cliff face. That isn't a tunnel. It looks like one, but when you bear down at a full sprint and slam into it, the reality presents itself that it's solid rock.

C. S. Lewis does something very similar with his 1942 Christian fiction masterpiece, The Screwtape Letters. He presents a story about a devil named Screwtape, who is advising his nephew, junior tempter Wormwood, on the best tricks of the trade, how to pull people away from their faith and covert their victims (sleekly called 'patients' by the author) to the 'Father below.' Lewis uses an interesting literary tool. The story takes the form of a series of letters from the 'affectionate uncle' Screwtape, advising Wormwood on methods of securing the damnation of the patient, undermining faith and promoting sin, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine. We do not see Wormwood's letters to Screwtape, but the contents can be inferred from Screw tape’s replies. We follow the success and failures of the junior tempter has his earthly subject goes through many phases of mortal life.

This book, at first glance, appears to be a whimsical look at faith from the perspective of the devil. But upon further inspection, it becomes a slyly crafted criticism of Christian life in the modern era.

Wikipedia states the following about the work:

The irony of the tale is that Wormwood's blundering efforts are utterly unable to prevent the soul's salvation, while Screwtape seems incapable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

After the first letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is given a severe rebuking and threatened with the "usual penalties" at the House of Correction for Incompetent Tempters. Wormwood's task is now to undermine the patient's faith as well as to tempt him to explicit sins which may result in his ultimate damnation. Screwtape explicitly tells Wormwood that the gentle, sliding slope of habitual small sins is better than any grandiose sin (presumably murder, rape, sexual immorality, etc.) for the devils' purposes in terms of damning a patient. Screwtape also notes that conventional churchgoing is so boring that the Patient will soon tire of it.

Lewis' use of this 'correspondence' is both varied and hard-hitting. With his usual unexpected mix of lenient and hard-line theology, Lewis covers areas as diverse as sex, love, pride, gluttony, and war. He depicts intellectuals as largely under Satan's influence, especially in regards to the "Historical Point of View."


Early in the book, Uncle Screwtape admonishes his nephew for allowing his patient to convert to Christianity. It is then that Lewis weaves his finest review of Christian society as he (or more accurately as Screwtape) sees it. He shows the current idea of church in the same way Magritte presents the pipe in his painting. This is not the Church. The Church is the massive, embodiment of Jesus Christ that lives and breaths and stretches through time and is constantly evolving and changing and growing. It works towards the inevitable future when the Kingdom comes.

Screwtape writes:

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy.

But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy whidh neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print.

When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like 'the body of Christ' and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy's side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our Father Below, is a fool. Provide that any of those neighbors sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.

A church can be a good and wonderful place, a place where the warmth and love of Jesus Christ stretches out and pulls people in. A church can be a place of comfort, healing, refuge and shelter. But too often church becomes a freeze frame, a fragment plucked from the stream of continuum of the Gospel, the All-powerful redemptive movement of Christ Jesus, started on the Cross and finished on the Day of Judgment. People become more focused on whom to let in or out of the doors of church and never let Church into them. They are about the business of maintaining a church and never get to the business of maintaining the Church.

A church can be magnificent. Unfortunately, often times we find it in a slumber, locked in a short-sighted malaise of its own importance and own business and it misses the amazing miracle that exists all around. Jesus Christ is big and awesome and everywhere. Revival is in the air!!! (stay tuned)

Bible

I have a bible. I like it. It's a split text NIV/MSG with a big blue hardcover. It has a cool green bible carrier with many pcokets stuffed with highlighters and sticky notes. It serves my needs oh so well. I like my bible. But I could live without it. If I lost it my life would go on. I would simply go out and get another bible.

But the Bible, Holy Scriptures, that's a different story. God's revealed Words for me to live by, the Bible, that I cannot live without. I love the Bible. I study it, chew on it, pray it, sing it, meditate on it.

The Bible is like my heartbeat. It guides my life.

Church and church

A lot of the confusion regarding my beliefs comes from a simple misunderstanding. I love Church. I have never once said that a post-modern revival should or could ever take place outside of Church. I have real hope in the Emergent Church that is growing in this country. But notice, Emergent doesn't mean anything without Church attached to the end.

Please note a subtle but important difference in the following statement. We as believers should never confuse the church with the Church.

I will explain this further tomorrow.

Church

For the next week or so I will address a subject that means a lot to me. Some have charged me as being anti-church. Nothing can be further from the truth. I love church with every fiber of my being. Perhaps I do have a slightly different view of what Church is, can, and should be. I will take a long look at these things and try to present them here in a way that will let everyone, my supporters, friends, fellow emergents and my detractors alike, know where I stand.

About a month ago I gave up my cable television. I did this to increase my time writing music, to spend more time with my internal dialog and to focus more on reading. Literature was a passion of mine back in high school and college, but somewhere along the line I discovered Sportscenter on ESPN. Every since that smorgasbord of candy for my short attention span, my reading habits declined. But with cable gone, I have dove back into reading. I have devoured works by all the major PEEW leaders and recently a book about U2. Each book I read quoted the same source over and over again, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. I decided it was high time to read this book by one of my favorite authors as a youth and when my friends bought it for me for my birthday I decided that God was aligning everything in order.



And yes, The Screwtape Letters is my current reading selection and is informing my current topic of 'The Church.' I will reference it frequently as well as those works that have drawn inspiration from it. It's an interesting experience to discover the music you listened to for years was so heavily inspired by such an amazing work of fiction. I hope you all take the time to read this book.

Ultimately this blog isn't about me. It's about Jesus Christ. I hope to point to Jesus, His mission and His ministry. He was God on earth. We are just warming His seat until He gets back from His extended vacation.

Praise Him With What You Got

I went to a little Christmas program at the Lutheran Church in Kimballton tonight. I was persuaded to go by some girls I teach art to. I am so glad I came. It was a sweet little show that really spoke to my heart.

One line stands out the most. At the start of the play, the lady who ran the pageant said a few words. She said something to the effect of, "Now these kids are going to praise the Lord in their own way of doing so..."

In the next hour, kids read, danced, sang, acted, beat on tambourines, did silly accents all while delivering a message that Christmas is about Christ, the King, Savior of the World. It was glorious. I am blessed to have been there and share their praise.

That's the thing about praising God. We don't need anything special to do it. Everything you need is already built into you. Praising God is taking your talents, your singing voice, your painting skills, your carpentry skills, your good listening skills, your ability to do math in your head... whatever it is that you do best, and doing it in Christ’s name... in a way that glorifies HIM!!!

Today is a great day to praise the LORD!!! USE WHAT YOU GOT!

WWMD

There was a time in my life when I wasn't focused on Christ at all. I was very self-centered. I needed someone or something radical to break me out of my short sightedness. Of course, Jesus has an amazing way of doing this. It’s call flipping things upside-down.

The Beatitudes-MSG

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom

Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

There is something amazing about the Beatitudes. Jesus over turns the status quoe, flips your expectations. Alanis Morriset sang about the irony in rainy weddings and dead men winning the lottery. I didn’t find anything in that song particularly ironic. But Jesus, now there was a man that knew how to reverse the outcome on you. He is the most ironic power ever.

He makes the weak strong. He makes the poor wealthy. In my own life, Jesus shook my out of my slumber in the most peculiar way. Jesus took the students and made them the most powerful teachers.

There is a saying around my circle of friends. WWMD. What would Megan do? Megan is a go-getter. She isn’t the type to spend a lot of time lamenting about a problem. She jumps in and starts working on solutions. She is hands on, positive and just doesn’t take no for an answer. If there were just more like her, the world would run out of problems. She has inspired me to push out of the safe borders of the known and into that uncomfortable zone where Jesus performs His magic. I learned so much from Megan. She is a blessing in my life.

Other Students have had a huge impact on my faith. I will never forget Cody Haner, a big bear of a boy, on his final mission trip. His group was waiting in line for an ice cream when they met a man just out of prison. He was had nothing not even have a pair of shoes on his feet. Cody didn’t judge him. He just saw a man in need. So he asked the man what size shoes he wore and took off his favorite pair of shoes, on the spot, and gave them to his total stranger just out of prison. That’s the type of generosity I want. That’s being like Jesus.

I also learned bravery from an unlikely source. I once saw a girl, no more than one hundred and twenty pounds, stand in from of her church and face down evil. She stared down her oppressors named gossip, rumor, and lies. She stared them down right there in the very church where she was baptized, confirmed, worshipped every Sunday, even from the same pulpit where she gave a Lenten message where she proclaimed her intentions to serve the Lord for the rest of her life as a vocation. There in the church she stood and with more courage than I could ever muster told them to leave her alone. It was the kind of moment that defines a person’s character. And she faced the force against her with bravery and love. Just like Jesus.



More and more I want to change my vision. I don't want to be a lofty person. I don’t want to sparkle and glisten in fancy robes. I want to be humble and Christ-like. I want to be like Jesus. I don’t want to be a slick televangelist. I want a quieter approach. I want my life to be a work of art for the Lord. I want to dedicate myself to helping those less fortunate than myself. I want to serve the way that Calla Johnson serves. I want to find a place in my life where I have gained wisdom from sustaining a long, patient walk with the Lord. I want to serve and lead others into service. I want my words to become quieter but my actions to become louder. I want to serve the Lord with Megan’s energy, Cody’s generosity, Amanda’s bravery and with a servant’s heart like Calla.

I am a long way from any of these things. I am not very energetic, nor particularly brave. Old Adam often jumps back in and I act selfish again. I am not very wise like my mentor-friend. But with God’s grace and my friends’ support I hope to someday have people telling tales about my escapades in radical faith. I guess I’m still a work in progress.

G-squared Adopt-a-family Fundraising Campaign

Hey Friends,

The bandmates, Thrown-ups and G-squared folks have decided to adopt a family for Christmas.

Yesterday a family just fell into my lap. It is a family of three, mom and two kids. The dad is not in the picture and they need a lot of help for Christmas.

I talked to the mom yesterday and she was exited that we are at their service. G-squared has taken on the task of taking care of this boy's Christmas needs. My original goal was $125 to get him a PS2. But to my suprise, just twelve hours after I sent my original e-mail, we have raised an amazing $140 dollars!!!

Praise the Lord. Let's keep this going. Let's get this kid a bike as well! If you would like to be a part of this service project, please email me your pledge ASAP. We will be buying these gifts on our way to the Skillet concert on Saturday.

Grace, peace and miracles!!!

Bollman

Jake the Drake Update

I got the following update from our brother Jake the Drake. He is your ministry's good friend in Des Moines. He has a real servant heart and passion for evangelism. Take my word for it, he pushes you out of your comfort zone. I say a prayer of Thanksgiving everyday for he and Aldger and the wake up call they gave me on that summer trip four years ago. I am blessed to have Jake as a friend and brother in Christ.

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your prayers and/or financial support thus far.

I will keep this short because I want you to read the news letter but here are the highlights:

Prayer Request: We just had a concert and Rock vs. Paper vs. Scissors tournament at AIB. Older students at Drake from our fellowship stepped out to come and help the push. We got to meet quite a few of new students a few of whom have an interest in coming to church and getting involved. Be praying that God would use the concert/tournament to start changing hearts at AIB and that laborers would rise up out of AIB. Pray specifically that Carrie Ann, Bobbi (girl), Allan, and Allan’s fiancé could start getting involved with us and that God would raise them up to be leaders for Christ at AIB. I don’t know how many of these students know the Lord so be praying for that they would as well.

Invitation: You are all invited, if you can make it, to my graduation open house on January 7, 2007. More information is in the newsletter.

Need: I am going to be going on a mission trip to Spain for the third year in a row now to the same city I’ve been going to all this time and that is Vic, just south of Barcelona. For this I need to raise $1,300 and am asking individuals if they can donate $35, $50, or $100 for this cause.

Thank you all and I must go now to the Tournament!

Standing in Grace,

Jake Bennett

NEWLETER

If you would like to contact Jake and donate money to his cause download the PDF at the link above. There is contact info included.

Amazing Grace

Joel's Wednesday night youth group is watching The Passion of the Christ for Advent. Advent, the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, is to me a time of reflection, preparation and meditation over the coming of Jesus. I don't think there could ever be a better time to watch this movie. It puts the Nativity in a whole new light.

When you scan the Christian landscape you see crosses everywhere. You see them on car bumpers, on skateboards, on necklaces and even on chocolate candies. Wearing a cross is like being a part of a club. The Cross has become so watered down. It is little more than a symbol, like the golden arches at McDonalds or a mascot for an NFL team. 'I'm a Christian. I'm on that team. I wear a little golden cross.'

But tPotC shines a blazing spotlight on the cross. It shows it in the true light of what it really is. The Cross was pain, anguish, humiliation, suffering, torture and execution. It isn't a safe little symbol. The cross is life or death. You either kneel before the cross or are crushed under it.

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
-Matthew 21:42-44

The Passion of Jesus Christ isn't a cute, little nursery rhyme. It's the most powerful story ever told. The Cross has the amazing ability to change people. It empowers the weak and makes them stronger. It takes the hopeless and gives them hope. The Cross can take a group of tattooed outcasts and make them leaders. It can take petite teenage girls and make them heroes. It can take those with seemingly nothing.... and give them the grace that only Jesus Christ can afford. He doesn't give you trivial things that the world offers. He gives you what you need. He offers you life, love and peace of spirit.

And why is His grace so amazing? Because it's FREE!!! The price has already been paid. The work has already been done. Jesus chose to walk down that path of pain and suffering because He loved you so much. He paid every fee, every fine, and every penalty so that you and I can become free. All we have to do is believe in Him, confess this faith with our mouths and start a new life with Him in our hearts.

Walking with Jesus is easy once you make that first step. He carries the load for you. He fills you up with a new feeling inside. You are like a detergent that is NEW and IMPROVED. And soon you see the fruit of this new relationship. Jesus gives you what you so desperately need. He has done it for me. Let Him do it for you.

Call on Him today. It’s toll-free!

January Generation Genesis Poster

Here is the new poster for Generation Genesis. Help get the word out: January 7th at Bethany Barn, bring your friends and worship the living Lord. If there is snow on the ground we go tubing down the big hill!!!!

Grace, peace and snowboarding

Bollman

Killing the Humbug

I have never been a superfan of Christmas. Oh sure, I love the nativity story and weep over thoughts of baby Jesus in the manger, the shepherds, the angels and three kings and all. But living in this world of Mega-Wal-Mart’s, Santa Claus and Big Gulps, Christmas just seems so lost. The epitome of this syndrome in my opinion is the jewelry advertisements ran during football games...

If you are gonna tell her that you love her... go all the way... prove your love with a diamond...

WOW! Call me unromantic if you want, but there seems something really insincere about proving someone's love by buying a thing... I guess I'm just a shepherd... I don't come with expensive gifts, but I kneel and worship.

So as usual, I have been my normal grumbley, bah, humbug self this holiday season. I even started my countdown. I would say, "Only twenty-two more days until Santa Claus's Birthday!"

But my friends are working on me. They are trying to break my old habits. One said, "It's only Santa's birthday if you let it be so!" And she forced a box full of Christmas lights, a little nativity set, and the world's smallest artificial tree into my arms. I rolled my eyes and went on home.

The next day, my four-year-old and I were playing computer games, watching the Tick on DVD and jumping on the bed. After while he grew tire of our normal routine and said, "I want to do something diddernt, daddy!"

I pulled out the box of happy, shiny, Christmassy things and we decorated my little apartment. It was so much fun. We talked about baby Jesus and why we give gifts. We talked about trees and lights and had many laughs. It was very Christmassy indeed.

It seems my friend was right. Christmas is only an advertisement for materialism if we let it be so. If we celebrate life, love and that Light sent to us on that day, we can make Christmas wonderful... So, as I stomp my humbug, I say, twenty more days until Jesus' Birthday. Merry Christmas everybody.

Bono's Advent Musing

"That there's a force of love and logic behind the universe is overwhelming to start with, if you believe it, but the idea that that same love and logic choose to describe itself as a baby born in s**t and straw and poverty is genius. And brings me literally to my knees."

-Bono, U2
Christian Today, March 2003

It's Advent time, friends. Remember that God clothed Himself in flesh and bone and came to earth as the poor child of a carpenter and his wife in order to live a life of love and service for all humanity. It's totally amazing.

Here I Am To Worship

Light of the world You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You,
Hope of a life spent with You

King of all days, Oh so highly exulted,
Glorious in heaven above
Humble You came to the Earth You created
All for love sake became poor

So here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my God
You're altogether lovely altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me.

Living Water

The Woman at the Well

Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."

The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?"

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."

The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!"

John 41-15 MSG

This image of McDonalds haunts me. I have been listening to Zooropa by U2 a lot lately as well. We are saturated by the images of mass produced pop culture that have turned us into beings from the movie Tron. We live in the neon glow of the consumer world where we buy things to be happy and buy things to pacify our longings. We shop at Wal-Mart for the every day mundane things that we have convinced ourselves are essential for life... quality life... longevity.

We tell ourselves, "I must have that or I'm going to die!!!" But the truth is that as our halo of stuff grows, our happiness never increases. Happiness is an illusion. Bob Dylan said, "Happy is a yuppy word." And Switchfoot turned that quote into an amazing song.

Happy Is A Yuppie Word
Switchfoot

Looking for an orphanage
I'm looking for a bridge I can't burn down
I don't believe the emptiness
I'm looking for the kingdom coming down
Everything is meaningless
I want more than simple cash can buy

Happy is a yuppie word
Nothing in the world could fail me now
It's empty as an argument
I'm running down a life that won't cash out

Things don't make us happy. True happiness comes from finding peace in what we have. Peace is satisfaction. It is oneness with the world around us. Jesus Christ came to give us peace. His last words to us till he returns are "Peace be with you." And may we find that illusive peace that is the only thing that can truly quince the thirst that haunts our lives.

Billions and Billions Served

I was headed to Parables Christian Bookstore in Omaha when we passed a McDonalds and I noticed their big red sign with their trademark golden arches on top. Under the sign it read, "Billions and Billions Served." That is true. People around the world line up by the millions to get their hands on a Big Mac, large Coke and those all-too-delicious french fries. Billions are served at McDonalds, but my question is, how many are served well? How many feast on a nourishing meal that builds up the body? The answer is none! McDonalds is fast food. It's a quick fix, a rush of calories and fat to shock the body and temporarily silence the pains of hunger that rumbled the belly.

I am not interested in feeding the masses just to raise the numbers on a giant tote board. I am not interested in running them through the line to collect as much profit as possible... I am interested in a better kind of meal. I want them to feast on a much more nourishing food and to drink of a much better kind of water.

Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'

But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'

Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'

But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'

-Luke 13:25-27

I will take a few fed for eternity over billions served for just today.

Get up off Your Knees

God the Holy Spirit has used prophets, biblical and contemporary, to separate people from the lies and illusions to which they've become accustomed... prophets train us in discerning the difference between the ways of the world and the ways of the Gospel, keeping us present to the presence of God.

Prophetic voices that challenge the people of God to live 'in accordance to scriptures,' scriptures that are especially vocal about care for the poor, the suffering, and the disreputable have never received cordial treatment from people who use religion to cocoon themselves from reality.

-Eugene Peterson, Author of The Message Bible

Two thousand years ago, the scribes and Pharisees decreed that those suffering from leprosy were cursed by God. They were run out, shut away from the world… they were seen as sinners unredeemable and untouchable.

Jesus, The Light of the World, came down in the midst of this blind hatred and did the opposite. He reached out and touched lepers. He healed them, blessed them, and restored them. He was not afraid of their ailment. He was not afraid of the social rules that prevented touching these lost souls. He went to those in need and he touched them.

For twenty-five years the church has shunned victims of AIDS/HIV. They have labeled them as sinners that were unredeemable and untouchable. Some more conservative pastors have called AIDS God’s wraith on a certain group of people.

Oh, how history repeats itself.

Today—in the next twenty-four hours—5,500 Africans will die of AIDS. Today in childbirth 1,400 African mothers will pass HIV to their newborns. If this isn’t an emergency, what is? In the Scriptures we are not advised to love our neighbors, we are commanded. The Church needs to lead the way here, not drag its heels. The government needs guidance. We discuss; we debate; we put our hands in our pockets. We are generous even.

But, I tell you, God is not looking for alms; God is looking for action. He is not looking for our loose change—He’s looking for a tighter contract with our neighbor.

I should be preaching to the converted here. There are 2,300 verses in Scripture pertaining to the poor. History will judge us on how we deal with this crisis. God will judge us even harder.

-Bono at Creation East

Be the change!

Be The Light

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

5:14-16 MSG


Over and over again I tell people to be the light of the world. I say that when Jesus came down to earth. Light entered the darkness. Truth invaded this world. When we pull Jesus into our own hearts, and your lives are transformed, we become torchbearers for the same God-light. We in essence, become the light in this darkened world. Jesus told us to go about the world spreading his truth, teaching his ways and leading others to him. This is the way of love, the way of peace, the way of serving the poor. When we do these things we are Jesus' hands and feet in this world.

I have a story to share. It’s just an instance that a friend of mine shared with me today but it sums up well what it means to be a Christ-follower imbedded in this world. Everyone could share his or her own tales of people being the Light.

A lady friend of mine was working at a major retail chain store. Things weren’t going well. Whenever she went near that place she felt sick in her heart. She wasn’t happy with the pay. She didn’t like the work. She didn’t like her co-workers. It just wasn’t the job for her. Today she entered that store to tender her two-week notice. On her way in, she passed a Salvation Army bell ringer. He was an older man wearing a lightweight coat, not near the protection needed from the strong, gusty winds.

She reached into her coat pocket and grabbed a stray five-dollar bill and stuffed it in the kettle and exchanged a token Merry Christmas as she entered. Inside the store office she dropped off her notice and informed that manager of her plans. She learned her next paycheck would be availed for pick up later in the afternoon. So she gathered her belongings and left.

Hours later she entered the store again to get her paycheck. Who did she encounter at the front of the store? The same bell ringer, still standing there, still working in his light-weight coat, still smiling and wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

This touched my friend’s heart. Oh what service he was performing without complaint. How could she repay him for his hard work? So after picking up her check she headed down to the Wal-Mart deli area and picked up two large cups of cappuccino. She then exited the store and asked the bell ringer if he was due for a break. With a smile he relied, ‘Yes mam.” The two enjoyed their cappuccinos together and she thanked him for standing there all day. He thanked her for doing more than just shoving money in the kettle but actually taking the time to appreciate what he was doing. The two lightened each other’s worlds. The two were torchbearers spreading the Gospel of love.

Be the light.

Dare You To Move

YOUTube Video

Running Up Stream

Running up stream is hard.

In the Christian version of Switchfoot's Dare You To Move video, found on the double-sided disk, the hero runs through the streets of a dark city. Storm clouds loom overhead. As he goes he begins to encounter other people running towards him, at first just a few, then more and more until he's battling a tide of people running the opposite direction.

He stumbles, nearly falls as he's knocked about like a pinball. In the end He finally breaks through the crowd, finally fights upstream and reaches the goal, the rain stops, the clouds break and he is surrounded by beautiful sunlight.

As Christ-followers it's hard. We have to struggle to make it against the flow of what everyone wants us to do. Often times it's tempting to turn and just follow the flow. But Jesus never gave up.

So when the burdens of life begin to pull at you, when your name is attached for your beliefs, when it might look easier to just go with the flow, remember, Jesus has worn those shoes. He's climbed that hill. He's gone through everything that you have...

Dare You To Move
Switchfoot

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

Bad

Sometimes in life you are cast as the bad guy. It doesn't matter if you sign up for the part or not. Sooner or later it happens. That's just the way life is.

You can lament. Feel sorry for yourself… Nash your teeth and cry. That doesn't change things.

You can fight it. You can call people names, flip people the bird, and argue with your rivals... but sometimes fighting a monster turns you into what you are fighting.

Jesus was charged as a radical, as a fool, as a man possessed by a demon... as just a carpenter's son, even as a Samaritan spy. Jesus never shied away from these charges. In fact, at times he seems to enjoy the role.

Instead of hiding on a couch with a pillow over his head, when accusations came his way he responded by blazing the shining light of truth at the world. He attacked them, not with fancy speeches and slick legalism. He told basic stories in everyday language the made his attackers look like fools. That's the trick with the truth... it's easy to mock and taunt, but it's hard to make go away.

If Jesus didn't run from the title of radical then neither will I. I will embrace that yoke. Praise the Lord... I'm a bad guy, too!

Bad
U2

If you should ask then maybe they'd
Tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Bruised silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes

If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go...

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go

And so fade away
To let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so to fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping

Get Up and Stand Down

Where do you go to find God? Do you go to church in your best clothing to a big brick building? Do you go on Sunday like clockwork, when all your friends and neighbors are also filing into the same brick building in their own best clothing? It’s like a dance, a thing we do, like parallel parking. It isn't always enjoyable but it’s a part of our routine.

Somewhere outside the nice white shirts, the ties, the sport jackets, beyond the nice pantsuits and the dresses, there is another kind of Christian. They don’t exist in the same nice shining, clean world. They live in the dark, color-saturated world of real life beyond the picket fences, the smiling faces and the stained-glass windows on Sunday. These Christians aren’t interested in the comfort and the rhyme and meter of the Christina ghetto. They want to reach the poor, feed the hungry and comfort the orphaned.

Often times this brings these wandering missionaries in close contact with the very type of unsavory folks that the white-shirt crowd shuns. They would never be around drunks, druggies, whores, criminals, street people, homeless, smelly, and the crude. Christian equals white and clean. These types aren’t Christian enough for their circle.

But where is Jesus? Where did he go? And where are we likely to find him now? Is he trapped in the temple? Or is he found in the sea of humanity, the weak, the lame and the sorrowful people that once flocked to him on his travels?

It was the very flowing tide where Jesus had commanded His disciples to live. Out there where the city gambles. Where no one believes. Out there among the thieves. In the face of abuse and mockery. Where love violently dies. Out there at their daily Calvary, to take up their crosses and follow. Not to holler but to follow. If only Jesus had said to Peter, “Pray this prayer and withdraw from the world and make sure you preach in every song.” He didn’t. He said, “Follow me into a daily dynamic of dilemma where they will misunderstand you and castigate you and call you all kinds of things. It’ll be messy, and every decision will not always be on the white or black side of gray, but follow me. Get involved. Where I walked.”

Walk On
Steve Stockman
p. 153

I love church. For three years I never missed a Sunday service. I love the feeling of being surrounded by God-lovers and prasing together. I love to see what progressive chruches are doing in their communities. I love to see kids growing in the faith through years of mentering in the ways of Jesus. But is that it? Is that where our faith begins and ends? I go to church to worship the Lord God. But if I want to find Jesus, I put on my working clothes and head the other direction.

Jesus calls us to get up off the pew, to walk out the door and help people. He said that when we help the weakest we are helping him. He said when we feed the hungry we are nourishing him, when we give clothes and shelter to the downtrodden we are sheltering him. He doesn’t want an armchair faith. He doesn’t want followers doing nothing but mailing in praise and tribute from afar. He wants active, engaged people, carrying the cross into that color-saturated reality, reaching out to others. This is your chance. Start this week. Get up and stand down!

I Will Follow
U2

I was on the inside
When they pulled the four walls down
I was looking through the window
I was lost, I am found

Walkaway, walkaway
I walkaway, walkaway...I will follow
If you walkaway, walkaway,
I walkaway, walkaway...I will follow

VA Stand Down

Omaha VA Stand Down- 12/03/06

Stand Downs are one part of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ efforts to provide services to homeless veterans. Stand Downs are typically one to three day events providing services to homeless veterans such as food, shelter, clothing, health screenings, VA and Social Security benefits counseling, and referrals to a variety of other necessary services, such as housing, employment and substance abuse treatment. Stand Downs are collaborative events, coordinated between local VAs, other government agencies, and community agencies who serve the homeless.
Come help a homeless veteran. Make a difference. Touch a life. Be the change you want to see in this world. Be the light.


Jesus, help us have the courage to reach out and touch. AMEN!

Control

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 16:24-27


I see so many people that are fighting to maintain control. They want to be valiant Christians, but they let fear and doubt get in the way. They worry so much about saving themselves and creating a safe harbor, a nest to pad them and their loved ones from the dangers of the big scary world that they are actually insulating themselves from what is really important.

They are attracted to activities that are all about being the overseer, the watcher, the one in control. Maybe they pose men and woman on the stage like pawns, maybe they paint perfect little worlds that they lord over like a god.... maybe they set up little microcosms where they set every little piece in synchronized motion, a perfectly ordered little world where every variable is calculated and everything is under control. Everything runs right according to schedule and everything is predictable. Safe becomes the lack of risk. Control equals comfort.

Control is always just a mirage. It's a trick to make you feel comfortable and placated, pacified and cozy. It's the wool being pulled over your eyes. The truth is we aren't ever in control. We cling to a massive rock that hurls through the frozen void of space at about ninteen and a half miles per second. We can do very little to make us safe. All the locks and deadbolts and rules and structure in the world cannot save us from truth. And that truth is that we aren’t supposed to live locked away… We are charged as Christ-followers to head out into the world and help people, tell them the Good News and live as Christ did.

Jesus taught us not to hold onto what we have, He called us to let go. He didn't want us to be safe hoarders of things. He called on us over and over again to reach out to others. If someone steals your jacket, give him your shirt as well. If we see a stranger down we are to jump into harms way and rescue him. If someone strikes you, turn and let him strike your other side. We are to give up the idea that we have to be overlords of our own destiny and just live in peace that God's grace is enough, his plan is perfect and His promises assured.

Once you've given up control, life becomes much easier. You find a new freedom. This freedom from worry and doubt allows you to walk through the world as a light barrier. Snakes will not bite you, poison will have no effect and miracles will happen in your midst (Mark 16:18).


What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:32,33

Imagine that there was once a man in a boat. He had crafted it by hand and loved it with all his heart. He was sailing around just outside the harbor when a massive storm blew in from the ocean catching the sailor off guard. Before he could get back to safty, the winds rose and sheets of rain fell from the darkening heavens. Then, a massive wave came up and capsized his vessel. He scrambled quickly to secure the hold of the up-side-down craft. He held on and prayed for God to save him. He clung to the boat for dear life knowing that he had to hold on so he could wouldn't drowned.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard came and saw the man and the capsized boat. They rushed to the rescue. The threw out a life line and called for him to let go and grab the rope. They promised to pull him in and take him to safty. But the man wouldn't let go. He couldn't accept the risk of losing control. So he was left there on the stormy seas.

Today is a good day to stop clinging to what we have. It's time to let go and let God take over. It's time to be cast onto the wind to spread the good news. It's time to leave the games behind and go out and change the world.

Walk On

I'm half way through my new book, "Walk On: the Spiritual Journey of U2." Steve Stockman, an Irish chaplain presents the world's greatest rock band in a new light. It details their constant struggle to live their lives and make their art in a way true to Christ's teachings, not some dogmatic, legalistic code authored by suit and tie-wearing south Baptist preachers.

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.

Joel 2:28.

More than a window into their artistic process, I find the book a narrative of a group of Christ-followers on a great quest, to search through their teenage fairytale myths when their faith was young, to their cold confrontation with American evangelism and their plunge into Post-modern spirituality. Bono and company have battled so many of the things I have experienced. They have been bitten by many of the foes that have snapped my way. I am seeing Bono, a life-long hero do to his music, in a new light. And he’s even more of a guide now. Bono has a quote that sums up his theology of grace and the cross… and it’s beautiful.

“To me, faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned to social justice- that is not aligned with the poor- it’s nothing.”

-Bono

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Luke 6:27-31

Imagine a world where the blacks in South Africa could learn to forgive and live alongside their white oppressors. Imagine a white government in Pretoria that could see a new South Africa with, by some kind of miracle, Nelson Mandela as president. Imagine that there could be a ceasefire in Northern Ireland where the paramilitaries would lay down their weapons and sit together in a new Northern Ireland government. Imagine if enemies could be loved.

Looking at his disciples, Jesus said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

Luke 6:20-22

Imagine if the hungry could be fed. Imagine if the meek could inherit the earth. Imagine a world where the first would be last and the last would be first. Imagine. Without the turbocharged engine of imagination, nothing can change in our world. God told His people that they would dream dreams and see visions.


Imagine another world and how it could be and how it could work and where to begin to put it together is where the kingdom begins.

Walk On p.82

We are the artists that paint the pictures of what tomorrow might hold. We envision the future. We strive ever more to reach out and touch those that Jesus called on us to reach; the poor, the lame, the sick, the orphaned, the downtrodden. It’s time, friends, to grab our brushes and start painting those pictures, of the kingdom to come. Imagine, all of us united together, what light we would shine in this darkened place.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year let us skip all the pilgram and indian misinformation and get right down to the heart of Thanksgiving... We are blessed in America. We have so much stuff that we just expect, take for granted. We have warm homes, food to eat, clothing to wear, safe water to drink... and we live in relative safty. These are the things we should bow our heads and thank God for. We are blessed.

This holiday season we all will worry about gifts and money. We will question if we are getting big enough presents to show our love... I am guilty of this as much as anyone. But let us not forget the ultimate gift, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He gave His life so that we might enter into communion with His Father. Remember Phil 2:5-11. Live it!

Say thanks for all we have and all we have been given.

Dec G-squared Flyer

Jesus in dreads is cool!!! Check out the G-squared December poster. Print it, hang it, give it to some friends. Let's pack the Barn!!!

Political Correctness

POLITICALLY CORRECT LORD'S PRAYER

Our (mis)Concept of Patriarchal Authority, who, it can be said, inhabits the metaphysical sphere, privileged be your signifier.

May your social structure achieve dominance.

May the enactment of your desire be manifested throughout the physical-metaphysical dichotomy.

Empower us this day with the means of material production,

And refuse to enforce sanctions against our behavior which some see as subversions of a moral perspective, just as we refuse to marginalize the moral perspectives of others who have exerted their individuality.

Don't lead us into situation that some would (mis)understand as detrimental to the full expression of our humanness, but liberate us from the concept of "evil."

For yours is the hegemony, and the dominance, and perceived mystification within the entire continuum of the Western concept of linear time.

Let's make sure we keep the Truth the truth. When we fuzz down the power and the pop of the Good News, soon the image of Jesus Christ becomes so blurred, so obscured that it fades away.

Remember that Jesus refused to be easy. He refused to water down His radical message to be popular with the powers that be. Jesus walked into the darkened room and blazed His shinning light. He refused to be filtered or toned down... He was awesome truth. And we should keep it that way!

Prayer

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

How do you talk to your best friend? Do you open up and bare your soul? Do you whisper your little inner problems? Does just sharing them make you feel better?

I have a good friend. I tell all my deep dark secrets to her. I bare my soul to her. I pay lots of money and spend hours driving to the therapist, but in the end, my chats with my closest buddy are always the most healing for my soul. I share the good times and the bad. When I have a success, I quickly grab my phone to tell her the story. She is my confidant.

Here is the deal, God wants to have a relationship just like that! He wants us to pray to Him in the same way. Talk to Him. Tell Him your deep hidden secrets. Share your highs and lows. He is there for you!

Two Week Warning

Greetings friends,

Happy early Turkeyday!!!! I know it's a bit early, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner. As I look over the calendar, I also noted that December Generation Genesis is just two weeks away. Now is the time to contact us to volenteer your talents. G-squared was designed to be a service for your age group, by your age group. Get excited and get involved!

Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
7:00 pm at the Barn south of Exira

We will be celebrating Advent, the coming of Christ and the holdidays. The entire band is back together after a few weeks off. We will rock, worship, pray, share, and do whatever else the Spirit leads us to do. Remember, our goal for this next get together was for everyone to invite three friends.

Stay tuned for more information. Call if you need a ride.

Grace and Peace,

Bollman

A warm tingly feeling all over

Today I worshipped in a most unusual place. I was lying in the tanning bed at Back Alley Cuts, totally in my birthday suit except for the dishtowel I use to wrap up my tattoo. I had my earphones jacked into my Chocolate and I was jamming to some Jeremy Camp. The warmth of artificial sun was all around. As Camp belted out some good paise tunes I just couldn't contain myself. I started praise right there with him.

There I was, in the tanning bed, a hand stretched out as far as I could, tears rolling down my face, singing Beautiful One and Enough right along with him. I felt better than I had in days, weeks, maybe even months. It's funny, there is a great line in You Alone by Casting Pearls that speaks to the omnipresence of our God. If I wind up in China, He will follow. If I end up in a submarine at the bottom of the sea, He is still there. If I end up on the moon, God is still right beside me.

As I sat in that tanning bed, washing in the Spirit it became so real to me. God is always with me. He always has my back. He never loses sight of me. Even when I'm fake baking, Jesus is my homeboy.

You Alone
Casting Pearls

If I go to the heavens above Lord I know You are there
If I make my bed in the depths lord I know You are there
If I rise on the wings of the dawn or settle on the far side of the sea
Even still Lord I know You will, You will always be there with me

I'm letting go of all that I know
I'm holding on to You alone
I lay it all down down here at Your feet
I want You alone You alone

Stop!

Stop dating Jesus!!!

and make a commitment.

blanket faith

Tonight I have been sitting around with my feet up on the computer desk, my guitar in hand lightly strumming as I send prayers up to my wonderful God in the candlelit little room that I call home. I started thinking about Paul. I love Paul. I think about him a lot... him watching from a distance at Stephen's stoning... that amazing moment on the road to Damascus, running straight into God in the flesh... the scales over his eyes... and the long journeys he made with his friends Barnabas, Timothy and the others. This evening I have been thinking about what a leap of faith it was for him to give up his comfortable existence to go follow Jesus and His radical message.

Remember, Paul wasn't joining the Christian Church... it didn't exist yet. The few believers that had rallied around Stephen were scattered and hopeless after his public murder at the hands of Paul's religious scholar buddies. The entering movement was little more than a few scattered men preaching a shocking message. Yet Paul gives up his path to power in their Jewish world anyway.

No Paul wasn't joining a church. He wasn't following a path that was easily followed. He was following a MAN. He was following Jesus. Our churches today are very different. Right when you walk in the door at most churches you are greeted by a volunteer that hands you a visitor's packet with a list of all the stuff that church can do for you. Some of it is very good like food pantries and other ministries... but most seem like social events, mix and meet event. The church has become so involved in every little thing in the community, bake sales, Christmas music concerts, piano recitals, even sillier mundane things.... all the while they lose sight of the purpose, the goal, the prize. Jesus. Paul stared straight at Him. We, too, should stay focused on Jesus.

It is easy today to join a church. You fil out the card and meet with the pastor, you pick which committee, which clubs or groups to join in that building. You buy into the package of activities that best suit your needs. You can see all the stuff that the church can and will do for you. Most join for the services and the show not for an image of Jesus. But Paul never did that. Paul's church was really simple... He loved Jesus so much that he wanted to tell others about him. And that he did his whole life.

Oh, let us gaze into His eyes. Let us stand before this humble carpenter and let His beauty knock down our defenses. And our pride. And control and shame and hesitancy. And let us run with him a wild race of truth and beauty and grace. Let us pour out our most treasured prizes upon Him, only Him.

Let us abandon all for Him. Let us no longer be couch-sitting Christians who are known more for our dogma than for the actions of our hands and feet. Let us become people of the Way. Jesus followers. The word Christian implies religion and dogma and sedentary intellectual assent to a belief system. Enough of that!

Let us throw off this heavy blanket of cultural Christianity and relearn how to run. How to repent. How to lose our lives instead of always trying to save them. How to be used by God. How to change this world.

Let us relearn how to stare, how to worship, how to study, how to kneel, how to touch, how to trust. Jesus is so rich. So full. So utterly captivating and beautiful and worth everything we have. We is all.

God in the Flesh
Don Everts
p. 153-4

I spent many years with scales over my eyes. For some of them I was even a pretty good member of the church. I was a terrible Christ-follower. I did everything I could to stay involved in activities so I couldn’t listen to what God was actually calling me to do... But once I actually opened my eyes and saw Jesus, stunning Jesus, beautiful Jesus, the same God-man that Paul saw, I could never be the same. I had to drop all the pretense and run after Him.

I see so much pretense. I see so much acting, and dancing and puffed up frosting that makes this church or that church look important... But really it just keeps them busy. These activities have become like a heavy blanket that is weighing them down. I pray that it is thrown off... and Christ be revealed in its stead.

Stained Glass Masquerade
Casting Crowns

Is there anyone who’s been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who’s traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Christian Napkins

I was in a big Christian bookstore last year during the holidays and I saw and amazing thing. There was a sign that read in big block letters, "Christian Napkins." I couldn't believe my eyes! What in the world is a Christian Napkin and how does it enter into the faith? Is it baptized as a young napkin and then grow up in the church or is it saved after saying the salvation prayer? Are you a really good Christian if you use them to wipe the crumbs from your mouth? It just seemed a little ironic to me.

Why do we have to label things as Christian or non-Christian? Now friends I do realize that the papergoods in question had little crosses on them and that’s what separated them from their counterparts, but what an absurd label. It makes me wonder why we segregate so much in this life. We have Christian music and secular music. We have private and parochial schools.

I listen to a lot of contemporary Christian music as well as a lot of secular alternative and hard rock music. Often times I see more of the Gospel in a ballad by Coldplay than I do in the words by Michael W. Smith. One throws in the word ‘god’ here and there and it becomes a ‘Christian song’ while the other may be about love and struggle and sacrificing your life for the one you care about… and it becomes the secular tune.

We run about to every item, every action, every activity and label it either Christian or Non-Christian. It is as if we have a big stamp and we slap down a giant red JESUS on everything that fits into the neat little category of 'Christian.' Then we go about separating the Jesus-stuff out from the other things and we make a nice little pile of Christian-things… We draw that line in the sand and tell people to chose which side they want to be on… the side with WOW pop worship music, Veggietales and Christian Napkins, or, the mountain of other stuff that doesn’t have the red stamp. It’s a difficult choice. Most of the stuff I like will be heaped on the ‘Non’ side.

But this raises a bigger question, what does the Christian Label mean to us these days? What does it mean to be Christian? Is someone a Christian if they belong to a church? Is someone a Christian if they are active in a ministry? Are they a Christian if they simply believe in Jesus? Do they need to know Him personally as Lord and Savior of their lives?

Friends, I believe in living life to the fullest. Carpe diem. Live everyday hardcore with Jesus. I do not follow Christ to be part of a group. I do not go to church to belong to happy smiling people. I do not go to feel better about myself. I do not go for the label, ‘I’m a good person… I am a Christian.’ In fact, I go for the opposite reason. I go because I am broken and need a medicine that only Jesus can give. I go to be transformed, to be made whole.

What if the church stopped the Grand Parade of Smiling Christians and instead found itself collapsing upon Him in its need? What would that do to us? And to the world around us? What if we stopped trying to hold it all together? What if we stopped medicating our inner pains with recreation and accomplishment and business? What if we ran and collapsed upon Jesus?

Perhaps we would find true shalom settling quietly into our souls. Not a sentimental, organ-induced ecstatic feeling. But a quiet knowledge of mercy. A true, slow peace.

Perhaps we could march forward as wounded healers, as beggars who have found bread, as peaceful sons and daughters. Perhaps our ministry wouldn’t flow only from the reservoirs of our broken psyches and desire to grasp apostolic success but from souls that know rest.

Perhaps this world could look at the church and be intrigued by the inexplicable peace they see there. Instead of looking at the church and finding forced smiles and nicely tucked-in shirts and short, glib answers to the pains of life, perhaps the world would find a community of people who have the peace of Jesus within them. Perhaps they’d see lived-out testimonies of how freeing it is to admit the pains and struggles of life and take them to Jesus.

God in the Flesh
Don Everts
p. 111-112

What if being a Christian wasn’t as simple as posting a sign, printing a cross or getting a red Jesus stamp? What if the name took on a deeper meaning? What if people stopped using the church as a social gathering and started using it as a place for social change? What if we reached for a thicker, meatier faith, not a religion but a relationship? What if Christianity was no longer a label for marketing books and napkins, but became mantra for passionate, energized people chasing after Jesus? What if?

Explosive Seeds

Remember those vacation bible school lessons? Remember that happy jesus with the smiling face and the thumbs up? Remember how his teachings had all the gravity of a Veggie Tales video?

“And the moral of the story is…. Be nice to people! Now here is your cookie and Kool-Aid. Gobble it down and go play red rover.”

This misses the gravity of those stories. Treating the words of Jesus as good teachings with a happy ending misses the power, the punch and potency of the Living Truth.

God has come enfleshed in Jesus to speak what prophets and kings and angels longed to hear. He sowed explosive seeds that were looking for good soil. The Good Samaritan is not a quaint moral story for kids. It’s the sharpest of knives flung strongly by Jesus. It is a theological nuclear bomb, a philosophical land mine-all wrapped up tidily in this simple story. The more you handle the story, the more you get cut and encouraged and challenged and enlightened and humbled.

God in the Flesh
Don Everts
p74

I fear that people everywhere are still in that mode. They grow up and just wind up filling the seats of ‘big church’. They listen to the reading, hear that nice moral message, get their treat and skip off to play whatever games they played before entering into the church for the weekly dose of Jesus.

But God’s word is much more than a nice message. It’s more than a fable with a catchy slogan at the end. It’s life changing and powerful. It demands the Christ-follower to climb inside and transform.



Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides souls from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12


Everywhere we look we see hurting people. There are those hurt by the actions of others. We see friends in bondage to drugs, alcohol or sex. We find people destroying their lives to change the way they look because they hate themselves, inside or out. They need love, they need help, they need a powerful medicine that this world isn’t giving them.

How to Save a Life
The Fray

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

What can change lives? What can drag people from the edge of ledge looking down and bring them back to hope? What can stop a life of pain and hatred?

There are many fancy programs and treatment centers for whatever ails you. I think most of them are positive things that help people straighten out their issues. But if you want REAL change... if you want your problems really washed away, there is only one councilor, one doctor, one program to try.

But friends, here is the warning. Jesus won’t just fix you a little. He won’t just cure one little thing that ails you. He wants to restore you completely. Sometimes this is scary.

Thrown Room News

As you can see, I am in the middle of a major overhaul on the entire website here at www.thrownroom.com. I want the blog and myspace to flow better with the rest of the site. The blog is almost done. In the meantime there are a few font color issues and a few bugs to work out.

New to the site will be the ability to add comments to the blog posts. Check it out.

Also, I am working on an image gallery of Thrown shows, G-squared services and service projects that we have worked at. If you have any such images please send to me at the thrown@thrownroom.com.

The next gig we have booked is the first Sunday in December at the Barn. If you are interested in helping out, singing, reading or speaking, shoot me an email.

Grace and Peace,

Bollman

Landing

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

-Matthew 11:28-30


I have been studying the hands of Jesus these past few says. I have read books, searched the Bible and meditated on the gravity of His caring and His compassion. For days I have focused on how Christ's constant reaching pose should instruct my life and my ministry. I set out creating a series of paintings of people with radical faith like the gouche of Mother Teresa that I posted yesterday. As I draw these figures, I get a window into who they are. I pray for the Holy Spirit to impart in me the good lessons of these people's service and sacrifice.

But then, the heavier meaning of Christ's compassion hit me. Jesus was personal. Jesus didn't enter a town and wave His hand and heal everyone at once and stroll away. No! He called everyone to Him. He took them aside, sometimes literal holding their and as they went. He carried the ill and the dying. He spoke to the blind and the sick. Jesus wanted to look these people in the eye and heal them because He is a very personal God who wants to heal and save and comfort....

So while we, as Christ-followers must be like Jesus, the bigger message is that Jesus is calling for us to come to HIM and rest on Him. He wants to touch US! He wants to Heal us! He wants to save us!

Life is often hard. We find ourselves in moments of pain. We find grief washing over us, threatening to pull us under. We face odds bigger than mountains and we start to lose hope. But Jesus is no stranger to sorrow. Whatever we face in life, whatever challenge, whatever illness or odds, Jesus has been there. He was walked the walk. He knows pain and suffering. When we are down He has compassion on us.

What a radical concept. We look at the God of Everything, and we see such tenderness, such mercy and such compassion.

Jesus was gentle and humble in heart. He had mercy in his heart. And gentleness in his touch. A man with such mercy and compassion is a place to go to for rest. Foe comfort. To collapse upon. I think it is significant that Jesus described his Spirit as "Counselor" (John 15:26). Ever think about what that implies? It implies that we need one! It implies that the essence of His Spirit is compassionate and caring and understanding. We can weep with Him. Collapse upon Him. Know that He knows and feels and weeps alongside us.

God In the Flesh
Don Everts
p107

Friends, I am a lover of David's Psalms. David describes the all-powerful, uncontainable powerful GOD that surrounds and has control. He is solid and He is unshakeable. His truth is like standing on a mountaintop. He is a fortress and a tower of safety because He is unbreakable. How wonderful is the irony that this strong tower, this solid rock, this mighty, mighty God also has tender hands? How beautiful to see this God coming down and carried sons to their mothers and healing the sick with a touch of His hands? How awesome is it to know that He is there, calling us to come to Him now and lay down our burdens and rest on Him. It is a tender, compassionate landing... But it is solid, sure and safe.


For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
-Hebrews 4:15-16

I love my Jesus. I love his strong arm and His gentle hands. I humble myself at His feet. Yes I will serve as He did. But I will never run from the fact that I am just as broken as the crippled woman, I am just as sick as the leper, I am just as blind as the men on the side of the road. I am just as in need of His loving hand to come touch me and make me whole again.

Jesus, you are my rescue. I lay all I have down at your feet. I give you my talents for service but I also call for your mercy on me. Heal me, save me, renew me. Make me workable clay for your purpose. AMEN!