music

piano

politics

Christianity

church

bible

books

Marilynne Robinson

reading

reviews

humor

movies

evangelicalism

quotes

history

blogging

Bullet Points

theology

Richard Beck

family

obituary

personal

work

travel

year in review

tech

thoughts

love

rich-mullins

youtube

diy

home

rants

self reflection

baseball

poetry

mastodon

twitter

social media

podcasts

food

kids

R. F. Capon

lgbtqia

Arcade Fire

jazz

Ilia Delio

science

christian nationalism

archaeology

random

Rush Limbaugh

scripture

Lyz Lenz

derecho

Walter Wink

sports

Andrew Osenga

Bruce Hornsby

Andrew Peterson

Caedmon's Call

Michael W. Smith

journalism

Padraig O Tuama

David Bentley Hart

watches

comics

Michael Gorman

Hannah Anderson

concerts

James Cone

racism

Jonathan Martin

sermons

nerdery

prayer

social justice

socialism

Brian Zahnd

Positive Politics

broadway

Weird Al

photography

education

football

marriage

leadership

N. T. Wright

photos

tv

worship

Fred Rogers

culture

space

Wendell Berry

creative writing

efca

legal

meetings

parenting

flying

muppets

pens

Verizon

amazon

running

advent

india

friends

courage

ethics

William Stringfellow

life

health

art

good-things

cynicism

games

rain

homeschooling

religion

language

nerdy

house

homeownership

burnout

media

engineering

church-search

weather

Christmas

imonk

coffee

memes

2008 flood

softball

web design

church plant

exercise

words

desiring-god-2006-national-conference

management

memories

bluesky

Michael W. Smith

N. T. Wright

R. F. Capon

rant

web

: Haven’t run much in the last several years after injuring my knee running a half marathon. Having …

: Oh man, this bit in Naomi Alderman’s latest novel, the thoughts of a woman who left a religious …

: Current status: monitoring the video game room at the post-prom party. Watching the level of play, …

: 2024 Reads: NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman 📚 A moving and empathetic history of modern grappling …

: Headed into a busy weekend… high school tennis tonight for K15, prom tomorrow night for A18. I …

: Because I need more piano music... Because I’m a sucker for trying out new piano music that I’ll probably never be good …

: A radicalizing NYPD-Columbia Education Sam Thielman goes hard in his most recent piece at Forever Wars titled “What Could Be More …

: May your garden always thrive: A beautiful little essay from Wil Wheaton.

: After a tense last 19 minutes: #DallasStars #NHL #StanleyCup

: I may have become the stereotypical liberal exvangelical. On a beautiful Sunday morning, I slept in (until 8). Kicked off the coffeemaker to brew my …

: 2024 Reads: The Light Within Darkness by David Jeffrey 📚 Blew through this one in a day to finish up …

: 2024 Reads: The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar 📚 A stunning little novella. …

: This Cubs/Brewers game this afternoon has all the hallmarks of a postseason clash. Two terrific …

: Just took a close look at my calendar and realized that between work travel, personal travel, and …

: Got travel booked last night for a family trip in June… National History Day nationals for …

: With all the crap going on in the world it seems trivial to still be cheered by sports, but dang it, …

: Jennifer Knapp: Kansas 25 I was an instant supporter of this album on Kickstarter and now I’m finally getting a chance …

: A better late than never update: Katie took 2nd place in her division at National History Day state …

: Iowa National History Day state competition: with only 5 competitors in the senior individual …

: National History Day state competition in Des Moines today. Event center buzzing with teenagers who …

: A. R. Moxon: War or Nothing A. R. Moxon has a brilliant and brutal essay out today entitled “War or Nothing”, in which he …

: Finished reading: Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson I wasn’t sure what to expect from Robinson writing on Genesis, but I enjoy her writing enough it was …

: 2024 Reads: Sun Wolf by David C. Jeffrey 📚 I like this guy’s ideas, and the sort of grand scope of …

: Today’s challenge in adulting: paying attention at the tail end of a 3-day class when …

: Mandatory post.

: Gah, Cody Bellinger has a cracked rib. This is not the way I hoped to see Pete Crow-Armstrong in the …

: I'm not claiming any special prescience, but... I was cleaning up old blog posts here and found this that I wrote back in 2012: I think it may take …

: “Tom Cotton has never seen a left-wing protest he didn’t want crushed at gunpoint.”. …

: Medieval Christians' perspective on climate change Well, this is a fascinating perspective: medievalist Dr. Eleanor Johnson writes on Literary Hub …

: Well, hard to see how this could start worse for the #Stars. Gave up a power play goal in the first …

: Great: the Dallas Stars are the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Not so great: their first round …

: Moving my blog to micro.blog So on a whim I reactivated my micro.blog site and threw 1275 markdown files at it - the entire …

: Bullet Points for a York Tuesday I’m visiting the UK for work this week - my first visit ever. A few thoughts: Having a public …

: Pictures at an Exhibition for Guitar I got to know Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition when I was in high school and my piano …

: The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon I just finished up reading Sarah McCammon’s new book The Exvangelicals and I need to take the time …

: Bringing joy to people IS bringing glory to God Crisanne Werner has a lovely essay up on Substack today about her changing understanding of how the …

: Reimagining Orthodoxy Dr. Chris Green shared part of an essay today on a theology of disagreement. There’s a ton of …

: Did the Emerging Church Fail? Richard Beck has a series going right now in which he asserts that the Emerging Church movement …

: Donald Bruce "Don" Hubbs, 1949-2024 Donald Bruce “Don” Hubbs, 74, died Saturday at his home in rural Richland County after a nearly two …

: The State of my Task Management, 2024 As a new year begins and I settle into a new-ish position at work, it has been time to again rethink …

: Recommended Reading: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory by Tim Alberta My first completed book of the year is one I can wholeheartedly recommend: The Kingdom, The Power, …

: A short note on Travel Planning I have found myself, since returning home from Washington, DC in mid-December, without any travel on …

: My 2023 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, …

: Chopin Being Mean I have hacked through the Chopin Ballades for years now. I started learning the first one in high …

: Reviewing Two Decades of My Thoughts A big chunk of effort in migrating the blog was going through each post to review and clean up …

: Migrating to Eleventy If you’re reading this post, you’re seeing the updated ChrisHubbs.com as generated by …

: Closing down iowadon.org A year ago I set up my own Mastodon server at iowadon.org. Elon Musk had just bought Twitter and was …

: In Praise of Humble, Gentle Men This morning a headline came across my social media feed, with a link to a remarkable interview with …

: You get the feeling from reading them that we might be loved This old concert recording of Rich Mullins at a Wheaton College chapel service in 1997 is an …

: We have attended an Episcopal church now for a few months, enough times at least to get sucked into …

: A Hymn Aptly Chosen One of the fun things about attending a church in a new and unfamiliar tradition is that things that …

: An Appliance Installation in Four Lowe’s Trips Setting: a local homeowner has an old dishwasher that is dying. A new dishwasher was delivered and …

: Christianity no longer has an Effective Cosmology Some 18 months ago I was just getting acquainted with Dr. Ilia Delio’s writing, and shared a brief …

: Playing the Jeremiah 17:9 Card “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” …

: My own personal Philippians 3 If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on …

: Fast Car, or, why I'm crying at my desk this morning “You’ve got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere…” If you’ve been …

: A Tale of Two TV Ministers I’ve been thinking tonight about two ministers who spent a lot of the 20th century on TV, and the …

: Billionaire Hoarders and “Charity” I re-posted a meme to Facebook the other day which suggested that billionaires are “hoarders”, …

: Ten-Year Review Seeing as I’ve got 4 months before I need to do any international travel, and 10 months before …

: Catching up with myself In the past two weeks I’ve logged 13,000 miles in airplanes, 1500 miles in the car, and spent …

: Protect elders! Ban television! danah boyd has a fantastic piece out today about the current furor to ban teens from social media, …

: Hope springs eternal... It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball, which is the one day of the year where I can be …

: Supernatural love, found within human love Christian Wiman, from his book My Bright Abyss: It is not some meditative communion with God that I …

: A little poetry for Monday night I’ve done a lot of reading so far this year. Tonight I started My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a …

: Chris E. W. Green on the Beatitudes and Power I’m still only in chapter 2 of Sanctifying Interpretation, but this is too good to not share. Green …

: Chris E. W. Green on Christians as a temple for the sake of the world Following up from yesterday’s post, here’s Chris Green again from chapter 2 of Sanctifying …

: Chris E. W. Green on Vocation I’m just digging in to Chris E. W. Green’s Sanctifying Interpretation, and while it’s a book I …

: On leaving Twitter, embracing Mastodon, and recommending Ivory I joined Twitter back before it was a social media juggernaut. I don’t remember how many years …

: New on ChrisHubbs.com: The Bookshelf I’ve tracked my reading in one way or another here on this site and then using Goodreads since …

: My 2022 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, …

: Stanley Hauerwas on sin, character formation, and fear From Chapter 3 of Stanley Hauerwas’ book on Christian ethics The Peaceable Kingdom, this wonderful …

: Moving my Mastodon Instance to a New Server Continuing my adventures hosting IowaDon.org, a very small Mastodon instance. When I started hosting …

: Podcast Recommendation: A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs For a long time my podcast listening has been almost exclusively nerdy tech podcasts mixed up with …

: Hosting a Mastodon instance: moving asset storage to S3 I’ve had my Mastodon instance (iowadon.org) up and running for about a week and a half now. …

: Carter Burwell: polymath film composer I was familiar with Carter Burwell’s name thanks to his score for the Coen brothers' film True …

: Setting up a Mastodon instance on Linode With the Muskian shenanigans happening over at Twitter, I’ve been looking into Mastodon as an …

: Liège Waffles! On my work trip to Brussels last week I was introduced to the liège waffle, a type of waffle that is …

: Rich Mullins - gone 25 years Rich Mullins died on Sept 19, 1997 in a car accident. A songwriter, poet, and prophet, Rich spoke …

: Preparing to launch Eighteen years and seventeen days ago we brought our first child home for the first time. She was …

: Capon’s Wager on God’s Love I have on occasion paraphrased something Fr. Robert Capon wrote about God’s love as ”if God is a …

: On LGBTQIA+ Affirmation June 2022 was quite a month for me. It started with the death of a long-time friend. It ended with …

: Sympathy for Jesus It had been a long time since I’d listened to this song. Then it came across my playlist this …

: Quick Thoughts after watching Top Gun: Maverick Mild spoilers ensue. This is basically the most 1980’s war film you could make in the 2020s. All …

: Geof F. Morris, 1978-2022 Geoffrey Franklin Morris, 43, of Madison, Alabama, died today at Vanderbilt Medical Center in …

: Waiting for the Lightning For a guy who loves music, I’ve never been the guy who finds and falls in love with an artist on …

: Essential Jams: ”Fugace” from Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio So much to love about this. I wanted to find a recording that wasn’t the canonical Bolling/Rampal …

: Easter 2022 Christ is risen! Alleluia! This morning Becky and I attended church in person for the first time …

: Eerie Parallels Last night I started reading Dr. Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the …

: My 2021 Reading in Review With 2022 well underway (for the past 10 hours or so) it’s time to review my reading in 2021. As …

: Keeping theology coupled with cosmology I was introduced to Dr. Ilia Delio a couple weeks ago on a podcast. Her thoughts about God, …

: Beck: Nationalism and the search for meaning Richard Beck, on his Substack today, on American nationalism resulting from the need for deep …

: Fascinating: 5th Century Byzantine Basilica honoring Female Ministers found in Israel Reported at Haaretz.com on Monday: The Holy Mother Sophronia. Theodosia the deaconess. Gregoria the …

: The Teaching vs. The Teacher The last couple days I’ve been reading a book of theology by an author I was heretofore unfamiliar …

: Recommended Reading, September 2021 I have badly neglected recommending any reading so far this year. I have read plenty of books - …

: A 'Christian' nation without empathy twitter.com/jonrog1/s… In case the tweet gets deleted: an embedded tweet from John Rogers …

: Richard Beck: hermeneutical self-awareness and a neurotic spiritual nightmare Richard Beck is on a roll this week with a short series on reading the Bible. In Part #1 yesterday …

: An Easter 2021 Meditation This last year has felt a lot like death. We’ve had a pandemic sweep the world, and in this country …

: Teenage Vernacular Update, circa March 2021 “Yeet” is passé. “Ye” has entered the common vernacular as an affirmative response. “Pog”, “big …

: Recent reading: Queer Theology by Linn Marie Tonstad The past couple months I’ve been participating in a reading group hosted by Matt Tebbe. (Matt …

: Thoughts upon Rush Limbaugh's passing Rush Limbaugh passed away today at age 70. I spent countless hours listening to his radio show as a …

: Richard Beck: Political detox for evangelicals Richard Beck has a wonderful post up today, describing American evangelicalism as “addicted to …

: Love hopes all things, but I’m still hitting the ‘Unfriend’ button Over the past month or two I have been making a renewed effort to engage in good faith political …

: My current side project One of my favorite 2020 discoveries (which, ok, only came out in 2020, so I was on it from the …

: Psalm 126 1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was …

: 2020 Reading in Review Another year, another review of my annual reading. The mess that was 2020 definitely affected my …

: Bullet Points, Special Edition: Unpopular Opinions I’m feeling particularly crusty today. In the spirit of efficiency, I expect I can write a bunch of …

: Richard Beck on finding Common Cause Richard Beck has a fantastic post out today reflecting on a passage from Barack Obama’s recent …

: Recommended Reading: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez How could the vast majority of white evangelicals support Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2020? To …

: Michael F. Bird on Social Justice as Christian Love Don’t buy into the lie that all social justice is driven by Marxist ideology. It is not! It is what …

: By the Waters of Babylon - Joey Weisenberg I don’t remember who shared this on Twitter the other day, but I listened to it once and …

: First Day of School, 2020 It’s hard for me to express how big a deal today is for my household. Back in January we first …

: "Get Freed" The other day I posted a belated review and recommendation of Lyz Lenz’s book God Land. Today I’d …

: To drag knowledge of reality over the threshold of consciousness is an exhausting task... Rebecca West, from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, describing her experience observing a worshipper at …

: God Land by Lyz Lenz — A Belated Review It’s been a year since Lyz Lenz’s book God Land came out. I wrote a review on Goodreads at the time …

: 2020 Reading - July/August Roundup I guess I don’t need to wait until the end of the year to do another summary… August …

: September Suffice it to say I’m happy to have August 2020 in the rear view mirror. We have completed our house …

: Quiet Around 1:00 pm today, after 216 hours without power to the house and after logging 106 hours on the …

: Incessant It’s Sunday night. By tomorrow afternoon we’ll hit a week since the storm hit. No power yet. The …

: Fragile It’s the Friday after the Iowa derecho. What a week. After the devastation of the storm, the cleanup …

: Devastation Where to even start? Monday, August 10, somewhere around 12:30 PM, eastern Iowa got hit with a storm …

: Ten Years Note: I originally wrote this post in January 2019. 18 months later we made the decision to leave …

: Walter Wink on nationalism and the myth of redemptive violence Walter Wink, writing in 1992 in Engaging the Powers, with paragraphs just as relevant today: The …

: Weekend project: bookshelves! One of the challenges a significant reading habit provides is where to keep all your books. While …

: July 4, 2020 America’s Independence Day seems a strange holiday to “celebrate” this year. Our country is in …

: 2020 Reading - First Half recommendations July 1st means that we’re halfway through 2020 already… what a year. I looked back and …

: We keep living anyway The chorus of this tune has resonated in my head a lot this week. .embed-container { position: …

: Desperation How desperate am I for live sports? I’m watching NASCAR. And hard pressed to turn it off when they …

: Kermit does Jazz: there's video. The other day I mentioned goofing around with the idea of Kermit the Frog singing a jazz version of …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Also-Rans Culling my list down to 10 albums was a challenge. Here are a few also-rans that just didn’t …

: Kermit does Jazz? I’m playing keys for the church livestream this morning, which in the end results in me having a …

: Bullet Points for a Saturday Morning Since I started working from home 8 weeks ago, my morning routine has changed. No more gym, reading …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band Maybe this one should’ve been first on my list, but I decided to leave the best for last. Rich …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Rachmaninov’s Vespers (All Night Vigil) I’ve really been wrestling with what album to post for day #9. But I’m gonna go with one that …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Bride of the Noisemakers I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: The Suburbs I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: Recommended daily reading: Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American In these turbulent days the news can quickly become overwhelming, and the social media noise can …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Silly Songs with Larry I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Behold the Lamb of God I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Long Line of Leavers I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: When Harry Met Sally I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Go West Young Man I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Rach 2 I got tagged on Facebook to do this project - share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …

: Podcast Listening, Social Distancing Edition Back in the old days (say, before March 2020), my podcast listening tilted heavily toward current …

: The poor you will always have with you? I just finished up listening to Finding Fred, a short-series podcast about Fred Rogers. Podcast host …

: Adam Young on Hope and Wrestling with God (2) Continuing from yesterday, more from Adam Young’s fantastic podcast The Place We Find …

: Adam Young on Hope and Wrestling with God (1) A friend recently pointed me to Adam Young’s podcast The Place We Find Ourselves. As a …

: An Iowan's thoughts the morning after the 2020 Caucus Last night I and thousands of Iowans like me participated in the Democratic Party caucus. After …

: Journalism I'm Supporting, January 2020 Good journalism is one of those things everybody wants to have available to benefit from, but fewer …

: Slow Reading After reading more than 80 books in 2019, there’s a part of me that is getting a little …

: 2019 Reading in Review The beginning of a new year means a quick look back first at last year’s reading in review. (Some …

: Happy New Year! This Strange Planet cartoon is as apt a sentiment for starting 2020 as I can think of today.

: Knives Out Took the family to see Rian Johnson’s latest film, Knives Out, this afternoon. I know Johnson is a …

: Frozen II: A Very 2019 Movie It’s been just long enough since the original Frozen came out, and my girls have aged just enough, …

: 2019 Reading, Compendium #5 A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon by …

: In The Shelter: Naming the Gadarene Demoniac I’m currently reading Pádraig Ó Tuama’s wonderful In the Shelter: Finding a Home In the …

: A High View of Scripture? About a year ago I started getting interested in historical criticism as it relates to the Bible. As …

: 2019 Reading, Compendium #4 Goodness, I’ve let this go a while without providing a list. Here we go… Anointed with …

: A justice not to be feared but to be longed for Here is my servant, whom I uphold my chosen, in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him; …

: Family Movie Night: Chain Reaction (1996) With a kid under the weather after some dental work, it was a good night for a family movie. The …

: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #6 Because it’s been a while… Lots of topics have rattled around in my head… none …

: 2019 Reading, Compendium #3 A few added to my list… Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch …

: Richard Beck: Love in Post-Progressive Christianity Richard Beck has a series going on an approach he calls “post-progressive Christianity”. …

: Time to weed out some candidates I’ve spent a few hours now sitting down with my 13-year-old daughter to watch the two nights of …

: 21 Years I guess this is the point at which we can say we’ve been married half our lives… …

: Why *wouldn’t* you want to be an egalitarian? In reply to a tweet thread the other day, I posed a question that’s been on my mind lately: Update …

: 2019 Reading, Compendium #2 Trying to not get my book lists get so backed up this time. Here’s what I’ve been …

: These Democrats Should Run for Senate instead of President in 2020 With today’s announcement by Montana governor Steve Bullock that he is throwing his hat in the ring …

: DBH: Can we relax about "socialism"? David Bentley Hart reworks his Facebook post from last year (which I posted about at the time) into …

: Finished reading, an early 2019 compendium Maybe I’ll start posting these every time again… but for now I’ve got a long-ish …

: Richard Beck: In defense of heretics I really appreciated this from Richard Beck today: People don’t just wake up one day to …

: Today's the day! Can confirm this morning only a light jacket was necessary.

: I know nothing about this movie other than what’s in this trailer... But I would buy a ticket right this minute if I could. youtu.be/bs5ZOcU6B…

: Opening Day 2019 It’s been a long winter. Heck, it’s been a long week. Which makes today a particularly …

: Current Earworm I’m accompanying a local friend who’s a high school senior when he sings for state …

: My latest fascination I’ve never been particularly a jewelry or fashion guy. I’ve worn a watch inconsistently …

: Strange Planet One of my favorite discoveries as of late has been the new webcomic Strange Planet. Apparently only …

: Democracy for Republicans There’s a really good essay by Jacob T. Levy (Professor of Political Theory at McGill …

: What systemic repentance might look like for the Evangelical church There are a few big stories rattling around the American evangelical church community lately that I …

: A passion for Jesus and for justice Justice is inherent in justification. This understanding of justification will have enormous …

: My 2018 Reading in Review Time for a quick recap of my 2018 reading. I’ve done several reading posts through the year so …

: Painful but true words about gifting If you are entrusted with a certain gift, most of the people around you won’t be similarly gifted. …

: Fans with Bands I went down a little bit of a YouTube rat hole the other day watching a playlist full of videos …

: The Cross and the Lynching Tree Having read very few black theologians over my past couple decades of reading theology, it was far …

: Making the rounds... I’ve been playing music in church since high school and as a member of worship bands at least …

: For All The Saints This great hymn was sung at the end of President George H. W. Bush’s funeral this morning. …

: Of disappointment and unexpected footwear A week ago I ordered some foam replacement earbud covers from Amazon. Friday the package showed up. …

: The Emperor and the Empty Tomb A fascinating and engaging essay from the LA Review of Books (HT: Matthew Loftus): When Wilhelm …

: Chaplain Mike: Exiting the Evangelical Wilderness Oh man, I really appreciated this summary from Chaplain Mike over at InternetMonk.com today. While …

: A night with Bruce Hornsby’s brain Last Friday night my wife and I had the opportunity to go hear Bruce Hornsby play a solo show at the …

: A good word from Jonathan Martin From a recent sermon on his Son of a Preacher Man podcast: The fake good news only sounds like good …

: Grammar nerdery + Bible reference? You bet I'll post this.

: You are always more ready to hear than we are to pray... Wow, Proper 22 from the BCP this week: Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to …

: Being Christians above all else Really good piece from Father Thomas McKenzie yesterday about living as a Christian in these divided …

: Social media exhausted me again Social media exhausted me again. If I’m more self-reflective I guess I have to say I exhausted …

: Three dimensions of salvation by allegiance I’m reading Matthew W. Bates' Salvation By Allegiance Alone this week, in which he argues that …

: Biblical intersectionality “Intersectionality” is a concept that has been a popular punching bag of many …

: What are Evangelicals afraid of losing? Dr. Michael Horton has a wise piece on CT in response to President Trump’s comments to …

: Finished reading: 2018, part five My reading has apparently slowed down a bit this summer. Still, there’s been some good stuff …

: David Bentley Hart's case for socialism Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart takes a break from theology to talk briefly about his …

: Power corrupts. Including religious power. Former Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty has a great op-ed over on RNS making the case that …

: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning, German Edition I’m on work travel this week, visiting Cologne, Germany. It’s my second visit to …

: Welcome to America... David Bentley Hart with a prophetic critique of America in a recent NYT column (HT to Richard Beck …

: Zahnd: Christianity vs. Biblicism I attended the Water to Wine Gathering at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, MO a couple weekends …

: Finished reading: 2018, part four What I’ve read the past month or so: Head On by John Scalzi A sequel in Scalzi’s series …

: The Greatest Show pointing to the greatest story Whatever you want to say about The Greatest Showman, it’s not subtle. I know I’m late to …

: Christ has made our hearts glad... and is waiting for our politics to catch up Matthew Lee Anderson has published over on Medium a transcription of a great little talk he gave …

: Albert Mohler, the SBC, and #MeToo I’ve been chewing on Dr. Albert Mohler’s post on The Humiliation of the Southern Baptist …

: Utterly stuck in my head We’re doing this one at church this weekend, and this Village Church version of Lion and the …

: Finished reading: 2018, part three Books I’ve read the past couple months: Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen A fun little …

: Positive politics: health care Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written something on positive politics. Let’s …

: Bruenig: Dignity in work, dignity in rest Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig makes an important point today when she says that we …

: Fun with time signatures Because who doesn’t want to play an etude that switches between 7/8 and 4/4 every measure? …

: It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps This little two-minute snippet of interview from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summarizes an …

: What will happen with the children of post-evangelicals? Richard Beck has an insightful piece up on a topic that’s had me thinking. While he’s a …

: Opening Day 2018 Some of my favorite words: Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Cubs started on the road but …

: Farewell, Facebook I just posted this to Facebook: So let’s review what we’ve learned about Facebook in …

: Is it the beard? I’ve written before about my Swedish Doppelganger - the botanist Carl Skottsberg in his …

: Found Tonight The Hamilton / Dear Evan Hanson mashup we didn’t know we needed until it came out… so …

: Finished reading: 2018, part two Books I’ve read over the past month or so: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles An utterly …

: Birthday week! Today at our house we enter Birthday Week: three of the five of our family members celebrate a …

: Geek dad status, part 2 Tonight I introduced my daughters to Weird Al, and now daughter #2 insists she needs to listen to …

: Geek dad status: unlocked. (Oh let's be honest, this is nothing new...) Last night I showed my oldest (13-year-old) daughter the first 5 minutes of Dr. Horrible’s …

: I tried YouTube TV - here's what I found YouTubeTV is the latest entry into the streaming TV field. I’ve been an early adopter here; I …

: Beck: A practical Lenten fasting routine Richard Beck describes one of his concerns with traditional Lenten fasting and his rationale for …

: These are the deep questions I ask myself... The other night we were playing “Name that Disney movie” while shuffling soundtracks on …

: Liss: Some questions for those who say the solution is to arm teachers Casey Liss, whose wife is a teacher, writes up a list of 35 practical questions that we’d need …

: Parkland How long must we continue to sacrifice children on the altar of the Second Amendment? As Christians, …

: Bullet points for a Wednesday morning: travel edition It’s grey outside and I’m on business travel all week. Bring on the bullet points! …

: Finished reading: where has 2018 gone already? I start each year with the intent of writing up Finished Reading posts on a book-by-book basis. Then …

: The Gospel Coalition has its #MeToo moment The pace of sexual abuse allegations and resignations / firings in the wake of the #MeToo movement …

: Positive Politics: Religious Liberty It’s been too long since I’ve written in this series. So let’s tackle something …

: Beck: bored with his doubts The trouble with the incessant deconstruction at work within progressive Christianity is that, left …

: My 2017 reading in review Just a quick post to summarize my reading and a few favorites this year. I read a total of 71 books …

: Finished reading: 2017 year-end edition I’ve gotten seriously slack at listing all the books I’ve been reading. Consider this my year-end …

: Some thoughts on my social media fast Back in November I decided it was time for a social media break. Facebook and Twitter were turning …

: Church graveyard at night Took this a couple years ago; still one of my favorites.

: Positive Politics: Internet and Technology Policy Well I’m not ready to jump into one of the big ugly topics yet, so maybe this one will be a …

: Positive Politics: Education None of the topics I’ve teed up for my Positive Politics discussions are easy ones, but in the …

: Andrew Sullivan on the Gay Wedding Cake Case I miss Andrew Sullivan. I’m glad the guy detached a bit - the pace of his daily blogging was …

: Positive politics: a little bit of foundation Before I start in on specific political topics, I want to lay out some foundation that will lie …

: Thinking in more positive terms about political issues From time to time over the past year when I’ve been tempted to write political rage posts, it …

: Really happy for Scott Frost Really happy for Scott Frost and impressed to see him take UCF to an undefeated season. Will be even …

: Unexpected benefits... Apparently one of the benefits of a social media fast is that my friends start texting me to say hi! …

: Jesus' Appeal to Human Emotion and Reason Some really fascinating thoughts from Richard Beck this morning on Jesus' appeal to human emotion …

: A Social Media Fast The holidays aren’t typically a time we think of fasting… but it was time. I’ve …

: Some Thoughts on Thoughts and Prayers The familiarity of yesterday’s breaking news alerts almost muted the shock. Half a church …

: Finished reading: fiction! Two weeks, two business trips, it was time for light reading. Trolling the fiction shelves found me …

: Land of My Sojourn A Rich Mullins song as timely today as it was when it came out back in 1993. .embed-container { …

: A healthier approach to a mid-life crisis... Andrew Osenga started a new podcast earlier this year called The Pivot. Episode 3 is his discussion …

: Over-reaction? This is a good word… When we call the lamentations of others Over-reaction without first …

: Finished reading, part the next A rundown of recent book completions: A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of …

: Andrew Peterson and Friends: The Ragamuffin Album, Live at the Ryman Last Sunday night I had the privilege of attending an Andrew Peterson-organized and -led concert …

: Liberty and Holiness In a Facebook discussion recently on a mildly contentious topic, a friend brought out a line of …

: Finished reading: several more It’s been a while since I’ve put a post together, but I haven’t stopped …

: Book Blame, Volume 1 I write regularly about the books that I have finished reading. What I don’t often do is …

: A little random follow-up Nearly a year ago I wrote a post dismayed about a church looking for a part-time Director of Music …

: David Bentley Hart, from The Doors of the Sea A lovely passage from the conclusion of The Doors of the Sea, wherein David Bentley Hart addresses …

: Finished reading: some history, some sci-fi, some theology The history: The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough An interesting read about …

: Happiness as Human Flourishing: Matthieu Ricard on On Being I’ve read Christian authors from time to time who seem to be flirting with Buddhism - I guess …

: Yep, still reading... A few more books I’ve completed lately: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan …

: Bullet points for a Friday morning, July 2017 Hey, it’s Friday. The weather is really too nice to be sitting in the office all day today. I …

: Finished reading: a few more... Summertime seems to make it hard to get through too many, but here are a few more books that …

: Nineteen Nineteen years ago today Becky and I were married. If I search back through the archives on this …

: Finished Reading: People to Be Loved by Preston Sprinkle I’ve honestly been avoiding books on the topic of Christian views on homosexuality because …

: 15-year-old Chris would be in disbelief File this under “things that would’ve stunned the 15-year-old Chris”. As a …

: The extraordinary moment... Again from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled …

: Sabbath is a way of life... More from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled …

: Marilynne Robinson on Cultural Pessimism I’ve been a fan of Marilynne Robinson’s for a while now, though perhaps even more for …

: Finished Reading: The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova Grabbed this one off the library shelf on a whim. I read Kostova’s The Historian a few years …

: James: Gotta Trust Somebody Samuel James made a couple excellent points yesterday about our intake of the newsmedia over at Mere …

: Rands: Assume they have something to teach you A brilliant post from Rands today that has broad applicability beyond managing in the tech industry. …

: Finished reading: more books Finished reading: Since I can’t seem to get individual posts written… The Silk Roads: A …

: Matthew 6, a modern paraphrase Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you …

: An open letter of apology to my wife, to be reused as necessary Dear Becky, Tomorrow the postman will drop off an Amazon package in the mailbox. Yes, it’s …

: Fr. Boules George: A Message to Those Who Kill Us The priest at one of the Coptic Orthodox churches that was bombed on Palm Sunday responding to the …

: Finished reading: The Madame Curie Complex by Julie Des Jardins Picked this one up from the library on a whim. The Madame Curie Complex is a relatively short volume …

: Stop Trying to be a Man - Start Trying to be a Good Man Brad Williams with a fantastic piece on Christ and Pop Culture today, saying things that desperately …

: Finished reading: Faithful Presence by David Fitch I’ve kept up with David Fitch for a while now via his blog and twitter. Fitch is a professor …

: Jethani: Blessed Are The Disillusioned Skye Jethani articulates in a piece today a lot of the frustrations I have felt and heard in recent …

: Finished reading: several books If I posted these individually when I finished the books, I’d have more frequent posts on the …

: We are from the future, embodying that in the here and now One of my favorites, Brian Zahnd, talked recently on the Makers and Mystics podcast. I love this …

: Finished Reading: The Day the Revolution Began by N. T. Wright When the good Bishop N. T. Wright has a new book out it’s an automatic purchase for me at this …

: NTW on 'a central part of the Christian vocation' [F]ollowers of Jesus have no choice. A central part of our vocation is, prayerfully and …

: Finished reading: a quick compendium Because I’ve been lazy and not keeping up: The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies - and What …

: Another view of 'love of neighbor' I was catching up on my backlog of On Being podcasts and came across a fascinating discussion with …

: Finished reading: Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Another random library selection, and a nice change of pace from history and theology. In Now, Cal …

: Finished reading: Instrumental: A memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music by James Rhodes I’ll confess I’d never heard of James Rhodes prior to picking this book up at the …

: Finished reading: A Wretched and Precarious Situation by David Welky Found this one on the New Books shelf at the library and figured hey, why not? Welky tells here the …

: Bullet points for a Wednesday afternoon I’m glad I signed up for the 0530 kickboxing class, but it’d really help if I’d go …

: Finished reading: The Whistler by John Grisham Because sometimes you need some thoughtless entertainment. Even at that, Grisham is just coasting on …

: Finished Reading: Reclaiming Hope by Michael Wear The buzz on this one had been going around Twitter for a while, so I was glad to pick up a copy and …

: Finished reading: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn History, it is often said, is written by the winners. Zinn, though, undertakes to tell a history of …

: Where you get your news matters As I sit and write today we are in day two of Donald Trump’s presidency. Across the United …

: Finished reading: Introduction to the Old Testament by J. Alberto Soggin John Halton’s review set me on this one, and I had much the same response to it that he did. …

: The most moving video I've seen in quite a while... President Obama awards VP Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his 40 years …

: Finished reading: How to Survive a Shipwreck by Jonathan Martin Read this one on a business trip this week. Having nothing to do with actual nautical survival …

: Thanks, Obama. A little more than 8 years ago I did something I’d never done before, and voted for a Democrat …

: Finished reading: Broken Trust by W.E.B. Griffin I got sucked into Griffin’s Badge of Honor series years ago. This is book #13, and the hero is …

: Finished reading: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Found this on the library shelf and was a challenging read to start the year. Is Kendi making an …

: Books I Read in 2016 Another year, another book list. I think this year I can at least say that the unread book pile …

: Talking Complementarianism and Egalitarianism with Brent Thomas Brent Thomas is kicking the dust off his blog in the hopes of fostering some charitable discussions …

: Entirely resilient If outside it’s all gone mad In Christian ways or not Still is the world, this gorgeous world …

: This is my new favorite picture and I don't know why

: Recommended reading: The I’ve got a soft spot in my heart (and on my reading list) for science fiction. It probably …

: #FlyTheW I’ve enjoyed baseball for as long as I can remember. I have fond memories of attending my …

: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Afternoon After traveling two out of the last three weeks for work, it’s good to be home. It’s …

: A Little Plastic Surgery for the Body of Christ As a musician and long-term volunteer worship leader, I have plenty of opinions when it comes to …

: Puttting the work into music in church I made an observation on Twitter yesterday that I want to flesh out a little more. [twitter is gone, …

: Worship Night in America This showed up in my Twitter feed over the weekend: twitter.com/mattmaher… “Worship …

: A couple recent podcast episodes worth recommending I listen regularly to a handful of podcasts, and irregularly to a couple handfuls more. This past …

: Finished reading: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson I haven’t been posting on every book I’ve read, but wow, this was a good one. The Warmth …

: Finished reading: compendium 4 I’ve hit a bit of a slowdown in my reading as the summer got busy, but have still made some …

: On Watching the Tonys for the First Time Last Sunday night I sat down with my family and watched the Tony Awards ceremony. (The Tonys are …

: Worship Pastor as Tour Guide A couple weeks back I linked to a two hour panel video discussing The Worship Leader as Pastoral …

: The Beach Boys 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' with the vocals isolated... opulenthurricane-blog.tumblr.com/post/2129… Wow.

: Wise words “Practice doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it wrong.” -- [Frank …

: Finished reading: compendium 3 I’ve gotten really bad at blogging through all my reading, mostly because it drives me crazy …

: The worship leader as pastoral musician Zac Hicks shared this video last week - it’s a two-hour long panel discussion at Calvin …

: Reading Revelation Responsibly by Michael J. Gorman We’ve been in a sermon series on Revelation at church, so when a couple recommendations for …

: Thoughts on Brian Zahnd and Word of Life Church As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Prayer School I wanted to spend a little bit of time …

: Brian Zahnd's Prayer School A month ago I had the opportunity to attend the Prayer School weekend taught by Brian Zahnd at Word …

: Hamilton's King George reacts to Donald Trump Serenity Caldwell planted the idea in my mind… twitter.com/settern/s… And I …

: 5/4 day Today is May 4th, which has gained an online buzz as “Star Wars Day” - “May the …

: Bono and Eugene Peterson discuss the Psalms A million people have undoubtedly posted this already, but… wow. So good. Bono and Eugene …

: Finished reading: Compendium 2 Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer I’ve been a fan of Sawyer’s stuff to this point, and …

: The discomfiting presence of a saint A couple friends shared this old compilation video of Fred Rogers appearing on the Charlie Rose …

: Finished reading: Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism by John G. Stackhouse Jr. I put this one on my Amazon wishlist after reading a few posts on Scot McKnight’s blog about …

: Finished reading: The Christian Tradition, Vol 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) by Jaroslav Pelikan I picked up The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2: The Spirit of …

: Christianity as cultural salt Scott Sauls, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, has a really good piece from earlier …

: Finished reading: a couple more I had three books going in parallel before finishing these two, which was making me twitchy. (Now …

: Finished reading: The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis I picked The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis off the library shelf on a whim. Well, more accurately, I …

: Finished reading: a compendium I’ve been finishing books faster than I’ve been able to blog about them… so …

: Zierman: Making Room for Others Well, now, this from Addie Zierman is lovely: Our hearts are made like pendulums, and when we swing …

: A little window on the past My wife indulged her philately habit and purchased a big box of old stamps at a garage sale some …

: Finished reading: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord I picked this one off the New Books shelf at the library and was intrigued enough to borrow it. The …

: Finished reading: Sisters In Law by Linda Hirshman I’ve been interested in the Supreme Court ever since high school, so when I saw this one on …

: Finished reading: Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald I’ll be honest here: I’ve never been a big Bob Dylan fan. I like a few of his songs, but …

: Brian Zahnd on Silence and avoiding angry noise Brian Zahnd, from a January 29, 2016 message titled “Silence”: The church is not a …

: Words matter O. Alan Noble has a really good piece over on the CT website about the importance of Christians …

: Finished reading: Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber This one was kinda hidden in those photos I posted yesterday. But after wading through Heim I was …

: Finished reading: Saved From Sacrifice by S. Mark Heim I don’t remember when this book came onto my radar, but it was already on my Amazon wishlist …

: By resurrection Jesus is cleared of the scapegoat charges against him... By resurrection Jesus is cleared of the scapegoat charges against him. But the resurrection also …

: Aigner: Reframing Worship Arguments I really appreciated this piece from Jonathan Aigner on Ponder Anew yesterday, wherein he suggests …

: Liftoff Episode 12: Geof makes the bigtime When the Relay podcast guys announced a show about space, my first thought was “sure, Stephen …

: Music that evokes an emotional response From a Facebook group post today: Name a specific musical artist, for whatever reason, that is …

: Finished reading: The Type B Manager by Victor Lipman Being a recently new manager at work, and having a definite Type B personality, I saw The Type B …

: Finished reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr I didn’t get as much read on this business trip as I’d thought I might - French …

: I should've remembered this from last time... This post serves simply as a reminder to myself that when a European immigration officer asks where …

: I love my daughter's embarrassed-but-pleased-with-herself smile Oh yeah.

: Fiet: Wheaton College and the Fear Machine Midwestern pastor (and Wheaton alum) April Fiet has some really good thoughts today about the …

: Finished reading: How to Watch a Movie by David Thomson I picked up David Thomson’s How to Watch a Movie on a whim from my local library shelf knowing …

: Meador: on Intervarsity and Black Lives Matter Jake Meador over at Mere O has a really good piece today on the white evangelical response to the …

: Finished reading: Hackers by Steven Levy I hadn’t heard of this one prior to listening to an Incomparable podcast episode last year - …

: My 2015 Reading Year in Review 2015 was another enjoyable year of reading for me, and with books tracked as usual on Goodreads, …

: Finished reading: Saturn Run So here’s an idea: a sci-fi novel written by somebody who can actually write, with the physics …

: Richard Causton, George Szirtes - The Flight For the past hour or so on this Christmas Eve morning we’ve been listening to the Nine Lessons …

: Hamilton It’s been a while since I’ve had a record catch my attention and get stuck in my head …

: The Worship Industry is "Killing Worship"? Self-described post-evangelical (and Methodist worship pastor) Jonathan Aigner wrote on Patheos …

: Beck: Let Us Be the Heart Of the Church Rather Than the Amygdala A really good reminder from Richard Beck today: …it struck me how emotionally reactive we …

: Now this is good news! A proclamation of the Gospel that I love and seems timely: The joy of the gospel fills the hearts …

: The first shoreline of the invisible world There’s a beautiful bit in the On Being episode that was published earlier this week, from a …

: Some months I need to clone myself, or, Chris gets work done, Orphan Black-style So yeah, it’s one of those months. I need a clone. Or two. Or five.So yeah, it’s one of …

: Happy Birthday, Laura! (2015 edition) How am I old enough to have an 11-year-old? It doesn’t seem I’ve gotten that much …

: 17 Years Seventeen years ago, on a sweltering Friday night in Charlotte, NC, two youngsters stood before God …

: A little early-morning band action I play with a band called Standing Before Giants off and on. (I don’t show up on the official …

: A little bit of a bozo My theme in any discussion over the past couple of years has usually come around to “well, …

: That old, old impulse to tweak and re-write As a worship leader I confess I grumble from time to time about the current propensity of our …

: May I go through the day calling on you A beautiful prayer, credited only as an “Ethiopian Prayer”, from today’s noon-time …

: A Meal Shared Among Friends I’ve had the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) on my mind lately after reading James K. A. …

: Infrastructure and the Common Good Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker last week: What we have, uniquely in America, is a political class, …

: Formation of the Heart I’m working my way through Jamie Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, and he is driving home …

: Too much knowledge about the Bible a bad thing? In a recent update of Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal they interviewed Josh McDowell …

: The Benedict Option (i.e. Christian Cultural Withdrawal) Rod Dreher has been championing an idea he calls The Benedict Option - as he describes it, “a …

: Capon on Confession Confession is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness; it is the …

: Revisiting the evangelical worship experience A self-professed “child of the 1990s’ Christian subculture” recounts her experience …

: Relax Richard Beck had a great little piece the other day about being relaxed. It challenged me. In …

: Popular Movies I've seen over the past 15 years Marco Arment recently posted about how few popular movies he’s seen, and proves it by listing …

: Have Safire write up a speech I gotta say, this XKCD from last week cracked me up, if only mostly for the alt text (which …

: The Spiritual Pep Rally Really good stuff on the Christian movie phenomenon, in the deliciously-titled “Do You Believe in …

: Some fun for Friday I had about five things turn up in my RSS reading today that I want to blog before long. But …

: American Oligarchy The kerfuffle around Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act this week has been a mess of …

: And the youngest turns 6... We’re finishing up Birthday Week at the Hubbs house by celebrating today as the youngest turns …

: The best sports weekend of the year It’s the best sports weekend of the year: the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball …

: Matt Maher: Glory Bound I’m not a big listener of CCM and Praise & Worship music, but Matt Maher’s stuff has …

: Not to deal with sin, but to save... Grace is a difficult pill to swallow. A dangerous doctrine. The fact that the evangelical church has …

: Happy Birthday to the AG! (2015 edition) Our middle daughter, Addison, enters her last single-digit year today. Hard to believe that nine …

: Can you name 5 ways the church differs from America? There’s a challenging riff from pastor Brian Zahnd over on Missio Alliance today. How, he …

: Stopping ISIS twitter.com/RickWarre… Pastor Rick Warren’s tweet echoes a sentiment that I’ve …

: A famous scene minus the dialogue OK, I’m just shamelessly reposting something Jason Kottke dug up, but it’s fascinating - …

: Worth reading: an interview with Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is an author many folks have never heard of, but boy, once you get into the right …

: HDHomeRun Extend noisy fan: fix it via OVERKILL! A few months back I replaced my old (still working) HdHomeRun networked tuner with a newer model …

: Jim Cantore, Minor Prophet In former days the weather gods spake to us through almanacks and prognosticating rodents, but in …

: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning, 2015 edition I’m in Florida for a work trip this week. It’s been a good time so far. Doesn’t …

: Worship develops feelings for God, not vice versa twitter.com/PetersonD… This wonderful little bit of insight came across my Twitter feed this …

: Farewell, Episcopalians? There have been some strong reactions across the internet the past couple days to some remarks that …

: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Songwriting Yesterday my worship pastor sent out a lead sheet and MP3 for a new song we’re going to learn …

: Worth checking out: Laghdú I would never have run across this album were it not for Jeffrey Overstreet tweeting about it …

: It feels like a new era... We got my first computer when I was 7. My dad was writing a book, so bought a little PC with two …

: A Timely Word for Today The Fall is where the nation is… Americans have become so beleaguered by anxiety and fatigue, so …

: My 2014 reading in review Well, with 2014 in the books it’s time for my annual little review of my reading. This was a …

: St. Thomas More's Prayer for Good Humor I ran across this fantastic prayer this morning in a story about Pope Francis. (Reportedly the Pope …

: A Pearls Pun for Friday How awesome is this?

: Is the goal to win the argument? twitter.com/AJWTheolo… twitter.com/BrianZahn… These two tweets showed up on my …

: Some serious time travel going on here I’ll confess - I did almost all my Christmas shopping via Amazon this year. Amazon is usually …

: A little piano music for the season A couple years ago I recorded a little album of solo piano Christmas music. Here’s one of my …

: Deliver Us I’ve felt a need for Advent far more keenly this year than I recall from previous years. …

: The War of Christmas @pegobry with a great post about the subversive and challenging nature of Christ’s advent: Is …

: I'm not really an opera guy but this is still amazing: Amazing control, making the ridiculously high notes seem really easy, and putting such personality …

: Resonating strongly with me this morning: Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: ‘Give me leave to …

: Winnie the Dude On the topic of my previous post, I had this Twitter interaction with Stephen Granade: …

: O Bother, Where Art Thou? You gotta love this: an artist created movie drawings based on movie title typos found on Reddit. …

: Living the Bachelor's Life My wife and kids have been gone for the past two days. They planned a trip to visit Grandma for …

: Yeah, I only gave Augustine''s "Confessions" 4 stars I went on a quick business trip this week which gave me several hours of airplane time to do some …

: 10 years of blogging The first post on this blog was written on October 29, 2004, in typical new-blogger fashion noting …

: Ruiz: First Church of Authenticity and Trends Miguel Ruiz, over at Internet Monk, has this gem: If you can indulge me a moment of satire, what if …

: A few thoughts on Mark Driscoll's Resignation Mark Driscoll resigned today from the pastorate of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Driscoll has been …

: Sure, *my* story is complex, but yours? This article over on CT is so much more than its title - “What not to say to a Dad of …

: Paul counting his privilege as rubbish - Alistair Roberts' take on Philippians 3 There’s an interesting piece from Alistair Roberts over on Political Theology today. Roberts …

: My musical find for the week: Ólafur Arnalds I started an Arvo Pärt station on Pandora earlier this week and one of the artists that kept coming …

: Assorted recommended reading I haven’t had a lot of original thoughts to share in long-form here on the blog lately, but I …

: I'm still reading... So, what have I been up to reading-wise? I don’t know that any of you were actually asking …

: Fun for Friday: Star Wars without the Music How awkward would the final scene of Star Wars Episode IV be without John Williams' awesome score? …

: MPT: 20 Problems with Progressive Christianity Matthew Paul Turner says he’s a “progressive Christian”, but that he’s never …

: Argument is offered to justify the felt judgment... I’ve finally been catching up with Richard Beck’s Unclean: Meditations on Purity, …

: Wherein I rag on Aaron Sorkin, do a little bit of my own research, and brag on my completely awesome friends. Last night I briefly moaned on Facebook about a small inconsistency that bugged me whilst watching …

: A couple more knocked off the list I had a business trip last week which gave me extra reading time, so… two more knocked off …

: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Afternoon: San Diego Edition I’m on business travel this week to San Diego and with so many thoughts rattling around in my …

: Paul Tripp on the inadequacy of external accountability Pastor, author, and counselor Paul Tripp recently resigned from the Mars Hill Church (Seattle) Board …

: Looking back at my thoughts on the Acts 29 Leadership Change My post from March 2012 about Matt Chandler taking over the reins of Acts 29 has seen some renewed …

: Do what he puts before you. Strive to do it well. Pass on what you learned. That’s it. Over on CT, Ed Stetzer is starting a blog series titled “Act Like Men”. (First article: …

: The pile keeps shrinking... I’m slowly whittling down my bedside book pile, completing Darren Dochuk’s From Bible …

: Using HDHomeRun Plus to record H.264 video with Windows Media Center Yeah, this is a nerdy post. I’m not expecting it’s of huge interest for my usual readers …

: Kirk: The Missional Diagnostic Question “Missional” is a word that has been used so much in the evangelical church-planting …

: Technology upgrades and how they snowball, home video edition Last week we used some Amazon rewards points and a couple of gifts and upgraded our bedroom TV and …

: Krista Tippett on listening to those of other faiths The guys over on Nomad Podcast recently interviewed Krista Tippett, a Christian who hosts a public …

: OK, I love Tim Keller for lots of reasons but this one takes the cake From an #askTK session on Twitter today: Perfect answer. Love it.

: One down, 25 to go I finished up NT Wright’s Surprised by Scripture the other night. A nice short form of several …

: Music to Work By: Rostropovich and Britten play Schubert A good bit of my day-to-day work involves reading and reviewing large documents and sets of …

: Ragamuffin: Music inspired by the Movie I haven’t watched the Ragamuffin movie yet. Having known and loved Rich Mullins for the last …

: No More Buying Until I Do Some Reading …that’s the promise I’m making myself. The book pile next to my bed is just too …

: Random thoughts while watching The West Wing tonight Tonight we watched “Dead Irish Writers”, from the middle of season three. A couple of …

: Lewis, Tolkien, and True Myth There’s a good piece today from Fr. Stephen Freeman revisiting C. S. Lewis and JRR …

: This is a useful word. For reference, my current pile:

: My Fourth of July: Ran the local 8k. Didn’t set any time records. At home: finished the laundry and cleaned the …

: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning Just a few random observations… Crazy softball game in our church league last night. We were …

: Mere Fidelity Podcast on NT Wright I’ve recently started listening to the Mere Fidelity podcast, a theological conversation …

: O'Hare Overnight Liveblog American Airlines and a stalled warm front have conspired to have me sleeping overnight in the …

: They Took the Post Down As a follow-up to my last post: Leadership Journal last night took down the controversial post, …

: Take down that post? As if it had been too long since the last evangelical church sex abuse scandal, Leadership Journal …

: Some thoughts on the recent EFCA doctrinal survey I was fascinated to last week stumble upon the results of a 2013 doctrinal survey of more than 1000 …

: I never think I'm volunteering for too much stuff... …and then it all piles up at once and gets really busy. Help friends move? Absolutely, …

: NT Wright on the intersection of the Bible, ethics, and doctrine In a recent interview by Jonathan Merritt on Religion News Service, Anglican bishop NT Wright had …

: Gentleness and Respect for all - addressing 'the transgender issue' But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks …

: Real Transformation happens when? In light of the whole Tullian Tchividjian / Gospel Coalition dust-up in recent days, Mark Galli has …

: Bullet Points for a Thursday - French edition! It’s Thursday at nearly 7 pm and I’m on the next-to-last day of a quick business trip to …

: That's not me! - an update... Last month I wrote That’s not me!, in which I lamented an Atlanta-based person using my Gmail …

: An app idea especially for Cubs fans As a Cubs fan I set up my Yahoo sports iPhone app at the beginning of the season to pop up an alert …

: OK, this is pretty cool I know this has been all over the internet already, but I’m going to post it here anyway. …

: I'm an uncle again! The congratulations are due to my brother Andrew and his wife Heather on the birth of their second …

: How can you not love this kid?

: Bullet Points for a Thursday Because hey, I haven’t done one of these on a Thursday for a while. It’s been kinda …

: This Time I Can Stay - reflections on the music of a friend I want to take a little time today to tell you about a guy I know named Andy. (He’s got a …

: One more Supreme Court amusement I have some other posts planned, but my buddy Geof pointed out something in a Supreme Court ruling …

: A Serious Argument over a Traffic Stop, or, Why I Love Reading Supreme Court Decisions One of my secret guilty pleasures (and here you get to plumb the depths of my weird mind) is reading …

: Goerend: This Session Should Have Been A Blog Post Russ Goerend is a teacher, relative of a friend, and self-admitted sneaky reader of this blog. He …

: Why I'm Leaving the Evangelical Theology blog wars I’ve had my adventures growing up in the church. In 35 years of church attendance I’ve …

: That's not me! OK, I’ve heard stories before about people having their email addresses added to unsavory …

: Which artist had the impact? This interview with Rich Mullins' producer Reed Arvin is months old now, but I thought of it again …

: A Startling Bit of Insight I’ve owned an iPhone for 18 months now, but haven’t had a PIN in place to lock the …

: Humility There are days I foolishly think I’m fairly well-read and have thought through good chunks of …

: In which I gripe about my home media center travails You regular readers (all three of you) know that this blog bounces back and forth between theology …

: We need more neighbors There’s been a lot of virtual ink spilled in the Christian blogosphere on the gay marriage …

: Star Wars music on an amazing pipe organ OK, this is pretty great. Organist Jelani Eddington performs a suite from the Star Wars soundtrack …

: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Evening Because hey, I like this format. Just when you think spring was here, we get snow. The ground and …

: On Being Allowed to Grow Up There’s a fascinating article on The Atlantic site that’s been making the rounds …

: The difference a decade makes On the left, my passport photo from 2004. On the right, my passport photo from last week.

: Not everything that calls itself a church is really a church. My friend Randy posted a nice little bit of self-observation today that resonates with me: Q – …

: My Swedish Doppelganger When my wife’s sister and her husband recently visited Chile, they found this picture in a …

: To be a Christian is to believe that all political ideologies are suspect. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry nails it: To be a Christian is to believe that all political ideologies are …

: A couple thoughts about Christian celebrity There’s been a lot of talk about Christian celebrity the past several days, but Richard Beck …

: How can suburban churches minister to urban areas? Some challenging thoughts from Christina Cleveland today: If we truly saw ourselves as an …

: Bullet Points for a Monday #5 Because, hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. Did my first …

: The Importance of Accountability Carl Trueman, writing today about Mark Driscoll’s problems, and our own: Mark Driscoll is one …

: OK, so I bailed on Octopress A few months back I tried a great blog migration - moving from Wordpress to Octopress, a Ruby-based …

: Practical Worship Leading Ideas Yesterday I wrote a response to a post wherein someone else argued that church praise bands, by …

: Do Praise Bands speak a Secret Language? Yesterday I ran across a recent post from Lutheran pastor Erik Parker provocatively titled …

: Happening This Weekend I was a bit excited back in November when I bought the tickets. And after living through a very long …

: The Healing of the Open Road Maybe it’s just a reaction to still being in the tail end of 3 months of a cold winter back …

: The Lost World of Genesis One Last week I finally got the chance to read The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the …

: A Valentine's Eve Win Last night my wife and I went to see Jim Brickman in concert at the Paramount here in Cedar Rapids. …

: In Appreciation of Both Sides of the Creation Debate One of the beautiful things about being slow to respond to the internet topic du jour is that …

: Notes from the Creation Debate There was a well-publicized debate last night on this question: “is creation a viable model of …

: A Holistic Digital Person Yesterday morning I was tweeting from the beginning of an industry committee meeting I’m …

: Spike Jonze' 'Her' Tonight I went to the theater and saw *Her*, the recent movie from Spike Jonze. For those who might …

: Where Are The Christian Daddy Blogs? I had a passing thought in the midst of a blog post a few weeks ago that I want to explore a little …

: The Unruly Beginning of the Muppets I’m currently reading a biography of Jim Henson, creator of all my beloved Muppets. I’m …

: There's truth here From today’s XKCD: (Hover text: ‘Automating’ comes from the roots …

: "I am utterly unworthy to offer any critique of these mysteries" I love this confession from Catholic blogger Andrew Sullivan today: If by doctrine, you mean the …

: Ben Myers' Canon Fodder Australian theology professor Ben Myers (@FaithTheology) has been tweeting a fantastic series of …

: A Cheap Pun for your Wednesday Growing up in the church as I did, and appreciating wordplay and humor, I’m of course familiar …

: My Podcast Listening circa January 2014 At the moment I’m subscribed to 14 podcasts. I do all my podcast listening on my phone - …

: On Selling Books Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before: I took a stack of books and sold them at the …

: Books I read in 2013 Here’s my one year-end post: a little summary of what I read this year. I’m not gonna …

: A little inspired art We were looking for a family movie tonight and Netflix recommended The Secret of Kells. I had only a …

: The last word on Mark Driscoll for a while I can’t imagine anybody saying things much better than Jared Wilson did today over on The …

: Fitch on Driscoll: why doesn't he just repent? Professor and pastor David Fitch has some powerful words on the Driscoll plagiarism topic today, and …

: Follow-up thoughts on Mark Driscoll, Plagiarism, and Power I’ll start the blog post with a disclaimer, because heck, why not? Disclaimer: I’m not …

: Carols for Christmas (reprise) Last year I recorded some piano arrangements of familiar Christmas songs. I called it, originally …

: Correlation and Causation All the correlation / causation talk around Dave Ramsey this week brings this classic XKCD cartoon …

: Called to be faithful, not famous Wenatchee the Hatchet pointed me this morning to a devotional post written by Jeff Bettger, who up …

: Accepting truth, discarding error Yesterday I wrote about the need to be willing to accept truth (and discard error) from wherever we …

: Dave Ramsey, Sacred Cow Earlier this week I posted a link on my Facebook feed: “What Dave Ramsey Gets Wrong about …

: A Pakistani cover of Brubeck's Take Five OK, this is likely the most unique cover you’ve ever heard of Take Five. Very cool. …

: The Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis published a new “Apostolic Exhortation” today titled “EVANGELII …

: Jim Belcher, "In Search of Deep Faith" I first became acquainted with author Jim Belcher back in 2009 when I read Deep Church. It appears I …

: The command to love my neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me I don’t always find myself warmed by the writings of Charles Spurgeon, but my friend Michael …

: Today I did something I've never done before... I bought two tickets to a big rock-and-roll show. I’ve been an Arcade Fire fan for a few years …

: About those doubts and questions From Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead: I’m not saying never …

: Many Happy Returns Just a quick note here today to say Happy Birthday to my dear mother. (I’ll call you later on …

: Cue the Vangelis soundtrack... One of the enjoyable things about going on business trips to various locations is the chance to get …

: The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior outside the church Here’s one for ya this morning: The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior …

: A Calvinist at the Pearly Gates Trevin Wax today reviews Michael Bird’s new book Evangelical Theology. Outside of the book and …

: Some thoughts on the FAA's decision to allow use of phones/tablets on airplanes from gate to gate The FAA announced today that it is directing airlines to enact policy that will allow passengers to …

: Something to lighten the mood... It’s been fun as my daughter Laura gets older (almost 9 and a half!) seeing her start to use …

: A story of two men Yesterday I attended a church in another town which I have infrequently visited before. …

: "To be astonishing seems to be the mark of God’s great acts..." I’m sure I heard the name Marilynne Robinson several years ago when her novel Gilead won the …

: Losing something in the modernization This past Sunday our worship team learned and led a new (old) song - Chris Tomlin’s …

: I Rest in the Grace of the World When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my …

: The proper format for a sermon A good insight here: …a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the …

: 'Perfect' is just my pathetic attempt to hide Comedian Marc Maron has a fantastic recent podcast episode where he interviews jazz pianist Ben …

: One more fun musical post for the weekend Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye together on stage having far more fun than any two people should be …

: Bluegrass and Bach: Something Relaxing for the Weekend It’s Friday headed in to a holiday weekend and I’m tired of writing about serious …

: Recommended reading: Guilt Factories My brother-from-another-mother Daniel Deboer has a great post up about what he calls “Guilt …

: A few thoughts on the "yuck factor" discussion In case you’re not already caught up: the discussion started with Thabiti Anyabwile’s …

: Steve Martin & Kermit the Frog play 'Dueling Banjos' There is no way I could not post this. (That being said, whoever voiced Kermit at the end of the …

: Does your church have room for me? What if I don’t have 100% agreement with your doctrinal statement, but still want to be a part …

: When church and convictions conflict - a personal follow-up Yesterday I recommended Ed Cyzewski’s post talking about when church and your personal …

: When church and convictions conflict Ed Cyzewski put up a great post yesterday about diversity of churches and ministries and about using …

: Internet filtering and government 'protection' Internet filtering has been a hot topic in the news the past few days. In Britain, prime minister …

: Recommended Reading: The Journey of Ministry Recently I’ve been reading The Journey of Ministry: Insights from a Life of Practice by Fuller …

: In which I sing the praises of NewsBlur I realize that everyone reading this has already either made a decision on a Google Reader …

: It's Not a Long Leap In my last post I touched just briefly on the evangelical “modesty culture”, wherein the …

: God has not given us a Spirit of Fear The evangelical blogosphere has been an interesting place lately. There have been voices talking …

: Four generations at play We had a bunch of family visit our home the past couple days, including my grandmother, my parents, …

: Is this Calvinism's Default Position? I’m sitting in a hotel room tonight enjoying a family weekend and catching up on twitter while …

: Tonight's chain of musical thoughts Playing this in the van while headed home: .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: …

: The Power of the Pen I like writing by hand, and I love the feel of writing with a good pen. In my experience, though, …

: Happily After All It’s Memorial Day here in the States, which means we’ve been enjoying a day together as …

: Where are the voices? Boz Tchividjian has strong words on the SGM mess. Boz Tchividjian (grandson of Billy Graham, law professor at Liberty University, and former state …

: Happy Birthday to Becky! Today is my dear wife’s birthday. We’re probably getting to the point where she …

: T4G and TGC break their silence on Mahaney One of the great frustrations of those trying to bring the allegations of rampant child abuse and …

: A Rich Mullins... movie? Matthew Johnson alerted me yesterday to the trailer that’s out for a movie about Rich Mullins. …

: A plea to John Piper on the use of social media There’s been a lot of blogospheric noise today around a tweet that Pastor John Piper made …

: Facing the truth about ourselves Andrew Peterson has a beautiful piece up at The Rabbit Room today. He reflects on his discomfort at …

: Telling the Tales of the Scarring War with Sin Songwriter and singer Jennifer Knapp answered questions over on Rachel Held Evans' blog this week, …

: A year off the Internet Tech writer Paul Miller spent a year unplugged from the internet, and returns today to share his …

: New-to-me Music Monday We made a family trip to the library yesterday, and as usual I came home with a pile of books and …

: Graffiti vs. real change Matt Chambers has a piece up today in light of this week’s ongoing arguments about gay …

: Celebration is a craft I need to learn Sarah Clarkson has a beautiful post over on The Rabbit Room today about, as she says, “the …

: Vatican City is not what you think it is... There’s a fascinating post up on the Strange Maps blog this morning about Vatican City and the …

: Happy birthday to KP! It’s March, which means the birthdays come fast and furious at the Hubbs house. Today the …

: Happy Birthday to the AG Seven years ago today, in the dark of the early morning, Addison was born. This young lady is so …

: Richard Beck on Holiness and Hospitality …the pursuit of moral purity often undermines the life of welcome as “sinners” …

: Biblicism and the Reformed Evangelical magisterium One of the long-term hallmarks of the American evangelical church has been a congregational …

: On Book Reviewing and Control My friend Geof wrote a good post yesterday about really taking time to digest and consider a book …

: A follow-up on our Verizon woes A couple weeks ago I wrote about my frustrations with Verizon’s service when it came to the …

: Amazon AutoRip and Pricing Models Last week Amazon introduced something called AutoRip. Basic premise: you buy a physical CD from …

: Be careful what you ask for... So, that guy who complained earlier this week that he was getting a little bored or stale playing …

: My running record for this year... …I think it’s gonna by Battle Born by The Killers. Forget the violent sounding name. …

: Going after the dove sellers The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the …

: On Playing and Variety My primary instrument has always been (and likely always will be) keys of some sort. I started piano …

: Verizon Wireless woes Back around Thanksgiving my wife and I made the jump from US Cellular to Verizon, for the express …

: My 2012 reading Time for my annual roundup of what I read over the past year. While I’m often lousy at …

: Carols for Christmas For at least twenty years my mother has been requesting that I record some of my piano stylings. For …

: Advent... or not ‘Tis the season of Advent, or at least lots of church bloggers are telling me. A time of …

: Closely intertwined I think it may take the American evangelical church another decade or so to really realize how …

: My Favorite Elected Official The primary focus this election day is on the race for President, as well it should be. After I …

: My India Trip, Days 7 and 8 OK, I’ve been back for almost two weeks now, I should finish up reporting on my India trip. At …

: Home entertainment setup with a HTPC I’ll get to a summary post or two about my India trip in upcoming days, but today I’d …

: India Trip, days 5 and 6 I think it’s a fair guess that I’ve never spent 4 days talking non-stop for 8 hours each …

: India Trip, Days 3 and 4 Some thoughts from days 3 and 4 (Monday and Tuesday) of my India trip: Sitting around doing …

: My trip to India, Day 1/2 I’m in Hyderabad, India this week for work. (I’ll be teaching a training class all week …

: In an alternate universe... Twitter was abuzz with #Hutchmoot tags yesterday after Andrew Peterson’s announcement of the …

: Standing Desk Update It’s been a little over a month since I began using a standing desk at work. So how’s it …

: Andrew Peterson - Light for the Lost Boy Andrew Peterson’s new record, Light for the Lost Boy, came out last week, but a business trip …

: Single Payer I was stuck in a hotel last night watching Paul Ryan’s speech, and after he ripped on …

: Three careers I could've pursued but didn't I’m sitting in a hotel room in Florida tonight, bored and needing blogging inspiration. So I …

: I just wanna be Andy Gullahorn I’ve gone through a lot of wanna-be stages in my life as a musician. My mother listened with …

: Church and Community Yesterday on Twitter I had a bit of a conversation with some friends about the relationship of our …

: One of the dangers of a standing desk... …is that when I’ve got my headphones on and I’m grooving to some music, I’m …

: Standing Up (at my desk) I’ve been intrigued by the online discussion about standing desks for a while now. Heck, …

: "When I Was A Child I Read Books" by Marilynne Robinson I’ve gotten to the point where, unless I’m looking for a specific book, I don’t …

: The sure sign that I'm not blogging enough... …is that I start blogging about blogging, and I start thinking more about how I’m going …

: Some Android / iPhone follow-up So the same day I published my previous post on ditching my Android, a customer service guy from US …

: Why I'm ditching my Android and getting an iPhone 19 months ago I purchased my first smartphone - well, two of them, one for me and one for my wife. …

: Chicken and Friends and Eternity We were at Chick-fil-A a couple of weeks ago for Cow Appreciation day when we ran into some friends …

: My daughter does awesome book recommendations Forget my book recommendations, folks: my seven-year-old daughter Laura has me beat. This …

: L'audace, or, he killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day I don’t often stop to read obituaries any more - lack of a newspaper subscription puts a crimp …

: Antihistamine Money Years ago when my family first got a VCR and started renting movies, my dad made a beeline for all …

: The Anxious Christian - Rhett Smith Sorry for turning this into a book review blog of sorts. One of these days I’m going to get to …

: The Road Trip that Changed the World - Mark Sayers Australian pastor and author Mark Sayers put out a request for reviews of his new book, The Road …

: N. T. Wright sings Monday night I had the privilege of meeting Bishop N. T. Wright and hearing him speak in Nashville, …

: What I wrote to 16,000 people This email went out on The Listserve this afternoon. There’s good news, and then there’s …

: What would you say to 16,000 people? A few weeks ago I heard about a little online project called The Listserve. Email mailing lists are …

: Leonard the Lonely Astronaut My friend Andy Osenga has a new record available to purchase (download or physical CD) today over on …

: Some thoughts on Matt Chandler's move to lead Acts 29 So, it’s official: Matt Chandler will be taking over as president of the Acts 29 church …

: 15 Reasons to Show Grace A couple of days ago I posted a link to Rachel Held Evans' “15 Reasons I Left Church” on …

: Happy Birthday, Number Three! Our third daughter, KP, turns three today. So big, so fast. So blessed to have her.

: Happy Birthday, Addie G! Our delightful middle daughter turns 6 today. Happy birthday, little lady! You’re an amazing …

: The people of God are like... a political advance team After recently finishing N. T. Wright’s Simply Jesus, I’ve been thinking again on …

: Bullet Points for a Monday #4 I haven’t done one of these in a while, but was reminded just how much fun they are. So, …

: Second-guessing God Stringfellow is just full of good stuff. Still in Chapter Two of An Ethic for Christians an Other …

: Stringfellow on Revelation In the second chapter of William Stringfellow’s An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a …

: William Stringfellow: "An Ethic for Christians & Other Aliens In A Strange Land Among the many Christmas gifts I received this year, I was quite pleased to get a book which had …

: My 2011 Reading The end of the year means it’s time for a summary of my last year’s reading. Thankfully …

: I didn't know you would be /you/ Karibeth Baumann has spent November blogging letters to her young son Atticus. She finishes up today …

: Last night I convinced myself... Last night I convinced myself that I wanted to hit the gym this morning. I packed my bag so I could …

: Thankful On this day set aside to be thankful, I want to review the events of the last six weeks, because …

: Thanks, G. My friend Geof has been writing a series of “letters” blog posts this month, addressed …

: Are we overly focused on the cross? There’s a thought-provoking post by Bo Sanders up on Homebrewed Christianity today wherein he …

: The Axes of Evil: A Halloween Groaner [HT: Boing Boing]

: My brain is full: a quick clarification I realize after writing these last couple of posts that they may make me sound like I’m deeply …

: My brain is full, part 2 Yesterday’s post wandered a bit in talking about the relevance of God’s Word even as it …

: My brain is full; it is my soul that needs fed. BHT patron and Twitter friend John H posted earlier today about the “Flash evensong” he …

: Jesus as the great "I Got You" Far down in the comments on an excellent post on cross-gender friendships (which is worth reading in …

: On parenthood and life Tech blogger Jeff Atwood took a detour from his usual nerd programming yesterday to address a nearly …

: Robert Esher Hubbs III, 1939 - 2011 My wife’s father [Yes, that’s right - Becky’s maiden name was Hubbs, my last name …

: Trying Someplace New Went to The Flying Wienie for lunch today; my first time ever at this local Cedar Rapids …

: A long-delayed update So, that blogging every day thing didn’t last long, did it? A little bit of work craziness and …

: Off the wagon So I had a Lipton diet green tea yesterday. The whole bottle had 30 mg of caffeine. From what I can …

: Decaffeinating Today marks the beginning of my second week without caffeine. I started out the month of August with …

: Hard, true words from @tallskinnykiwi Andrew Jones (aka “Tall Skinny Kiwi”), “itinerant social entrepreneur”, …

: So I'm gonna do this... Finally biting the bullet and sending in this registration. 7 more weeks to prepare!

: The desire of every blogger Thanks to Mo Willems:

: Learning to run Running isn’t exactly a new topic on this blog. I first decided to lace up my shoes back in …

: More about church efficiency and effectiveness I’ve been mulling over Skye Jethani’s question about efficiency and effectiveness after …

: Who decided that efficiency and effectiveness were the highest values for ministry? There’s an excellent post from Skye Jethani today which hits close to home for me in a number …

: Seeing the people instead of the system I’m still catching up a bit, but I definitely want to recommend this piece by Richard Beck …

: A Rant about a Church Sign There is a Baptist church in our town that I drive by on my way to church at least a couple of times …

: Moving at the speed of love Richard Beck has a great piece today on interruptibility. Basically, interruptibility is a form of …

: My 5K Playlist for Hog Wild Days It’s been a while since I’ve reworked my 5K playlist. This latest incarnation may be a …

: The right kind of tolerance “Tolerance” is a much misunderstood word these days. I remember hearing a barn-burner of …

: Awesome morning music mix My music playlist is full of awesome this morning. (Thanks as usual to Geof for the playlist …

: Bad Christian Art There’s a great post over on Image Journal addressing the concerns of “bad christian …

: A great response to Bill Keller's social media hand-wringing A wonderful response to NYT editor Bill Keller’s hand-wringing post on social media was …

: Running again I started my dalliance with running nearly 4 years ago. I was looking for some motivation to get off …

: Love your enemy: within a divided self It’s been at least a week since John H. linked this James Alison essay on Twitter, so …

: Good Things in April 2011 01 - Ran five miles in 49 minutes. Longest run ever for me. 02 - Beautiful day, lots of garden and …

: The Royal Wedding: This, Too, Shall Pass The interwebs have been going gaga for weeks now about the British royal wedding, and this morning …

: Some thoughts on the proposed new mission statement for Stonebridge A couple of weeks ago Becky and I attended a Friday night meeting at church where the church …

: Sometimes it takes me some time This seems to be the story of my music-listening life: catching up with albums years after they are …

: Good things in March 2011 06 - dinner with the family at Casa las Glorias and the kids were all well-behaved! 07 - resolved to …

: A first look at Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player Amazon is offering two new services this morning: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player. Time …

: Playing Games So I have this sudden inclination to find some new games to play as a family. I don’t have a …

: Introverts in the Church I’ve been doing a slow-and-steady re-read of Adam McHugh’s Introverts in the Church, and …

: Christ Liveth In Me As lives the flower within the seed, As in the cone the tree, So, praise the God of truth and grace, …

: Slowing Down I’ve read a lot of books the past few years. As my Goodreads account will attest, I’ve …

: Evaluating Restaurant Catch-Phrases We took the family to Texas Roadhouse this week for my birthday, and I was quickly annoyed by the …

: Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Have you ever read a book that turned everything you had been taught about a subject upside down? …

: The hazards of church music... …aren’t necessarily what you think. My left ankle and leg has been very sore for the …

: Books in my reading queue My reading queue has been backed up for a while now, and I’ll admit that I only make things …

: Rain, Rain, Go Away I know, if you ask me, that we’ve only gotten water in our basement due to rain twice, and …

: Whom then shall I fear? I could tell you exactly the point I was going to choke up even the day before. I had been hanging …

: Some resolutions In a week I’ll turn 34, and begin my 35th year of life. That seems momentous somehow. For this …

: A Good Customer Service story featuring U. S. Cellular I’ve used this space in the past to gripe about bad service, so when truly good service comes …

: Homeschooling as "normal" When our oldest daughter turned 6 and we finally had to make a decision about school, we decided …

: Imagining a different narrator for a favorite song A couple of nights ago I had the classic Veggie Tales' Silly Song Dance of the Cucumber pop into my …

: Another take on 'Hipster Christianity' Back in August I linked to a piece by Brett McCracken wherein he decried what he sees as the …

: 15 Records I’m sure I got tagged on this meme somewhere along the way, and then my buddy Dan did it last …

: Found this little gem last night... …while cleaning off one of our bookshelves. Completely forgot I had it. Robert’s Rules …

: Also Bring Cold Water Responses from right-wingers and evangelical Christians to the so-called “Ground Zero …

: The Perils of Hipster Christianity Brett McCracken’s column that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday really hit …

: A day with family Today we had the chance to enjoy what is an increasingly rare occurrence: all four of my siblings …

: 12 years June 26, 1998, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I made vows, exchanged rings, and …

: Learning to spell a new word, or, how do you spell 'blerg'? It’s fascinating to see how a new word evolves, especially in the case where a word is …

: Another thought on church shopping and polarization Yesterday’s post on church shopping and cultural polarization reminded me of a question …

: Church shopping and cultural polarization CNN.com has a blog post today exploring “How Church Shopping is Polarizing the Country”. …

: So, I just invented a new word. Fidgetoid, n. an object with which one fidgets. A Google search reveals no substantive results, so …

: Well, we joined. After taking quite a bit of time to make our decision, Becky and I yesterday became members of …

: Staying Organized: What Tools should I Use? Some weeks at work are calm, with just a few meetings and only one or two things to keep track of. …

: The freedom to chill the heck out Just found a link to a great thought that Jared Wilson posted back in January. Given that it’s …

: Doctrine good, stories bad? I have learned much over the past several years from brothers and sisters of the Reformed …

: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #5 We have high temperatures in the 50’s forecast for this week. Incredibly thankful for spring …

: Another interesting thing about the Canadian anthem A follow-on to yesterday’s post about the superiority of ‘O Canada’: I was not …

: On the superiority of the Canadian national anthem Watching the winter Olympics over the past two weeks, I caught at least a few of the medal …

: I am now spoiled to commercial air travel forever Yesterday I traveled with five coworkers from Cedar Rapids, IA to Wichita, KS, to participate in our …

: Sometimes knowing too much is a bad thing Last night Becky and I sat down to watch the second episode ( titled “Rewind”) of the …

: Partaking "in an unworthy manner" Brent Thomas posted yesterday on the question of “fencing the table” at communion, and …

: Going To Morrow My friend Dan’s greeting on Twitter this morning brought this song to mind - it’s a …

: Now Playing: Brian Eno <em>Ambient 1: Music for Airports</em> Time to start something new around here - from time to time I’ll highlight a record that …

: Offering right sacrifices In 2010 I’m undertaking the Bible reading plan put out by The Journey, and this …

: Tales from THE SNOWPOCALYPSE, Day 2 Morning timeline: 0530: alarm goes off 0532: check of the cancellations page via my iPod touch …

: It's the SNOWPOCALYPSE! Cower in your homes, everyone - IT’S THE SNOWPOCALYPSE! Vicious white stuff will attack from …

: Bullet points for a Monday #3 There is a more substantive post or two in here, I promise. But for now - bullet points. Sewer pipe …

: Orangeburg So, those sewer troubles we had last week? They came back. After snaking out the drains on Friday …

: Not exactly to plan Way I planned to spend Friday evening: reading a book and watching TV. Way I actually spent Friday …

: What Would Jesus Want Us To Think about Healthcare Reform? a Quick Response What would Jesus want us to think about health care reform? That’s the question that Justin …

: Joining up... or not That little announcement made its quarterly reappearance in the church bulletin last Sunday: …

: Catalyst Compassion "Moment": Amazing or Exploitive? My internet friend Bryan Allain posted a video on his blog this morning of a moment that happened at …

: Phrases that stick with you Most of what I remember from Rocky & Bullwinkle is cheesy puns (which are AWESOME, by the way), …

: The Patient Notebook I keep a notebook at work for scribbling to-dos and other things I need to remember. I don’t …

: Bullet points for a Monday Morning #4 Blog posting has been a bit slow lately since I typically post during breaks at work and my blog has …

: The "Left Behind" influence on the Religious Right It’s been a common observation over the past several years that one of the practical results …

: I suppose there was a time I thought staying up all night was cool... …but right now isn’t it. After getting, by Becky’s measurement, 11 inches of rain …

: Getting rid of the Dish: the Philosophical Post So a couple of weeks ago I talked about the nerd side of getting rid of the dish. I’m still …

: Not being able to do it all Kevin DeYoung just nails it in a post today. Titled “On Mission, Changing the World, and Not …

: Taking Reproof Seriously Nearly a week ago I wrote a piece here wrestling with some concerns I’ve had about Sunday …

: Getting rid of the Dish: The Nerd Post So we’re getting rid of our Dish. We’ve had cable or satellite TV pretty much ever since …

: Taking Worship Seriously OK, so it’s entirely possible that at the ripe age of 32 I’ve just become an old …

: Adventures in Home Ownership, Part 17 As my Twitter stream revealed over the weekend, it turned out to be a busy weekend, but not quite in …

: Bullet Points for a Friday #2 Slow-ish week turns into busy weekend. Lots of family in town, softball tournament, leading worship. …

: A Rant on Amazon's Super Saver Shipping Mostly to save my Tweeps from a half-dozen tweets venting my frustration. I ordered a HDHomeRun …

: Fever° Version 1.01 This morning Shaun Inman pushed out (with notice via Twitter) version 1.01 of the Fever° feed …

: Shaun Inman's "Fever" a day later I’ve had a Fever install up and running for 24 hours now, and I’ve gotta compliment …

: A first look at Shaun Inman's "Fever" Twitter and the blogs have been abuzz today over Shaun Inman’s newest creation, called Fever. …

: There are no chapter titles I think it really hit me when I saw the dirt bike. I hadn’t seen that dirt bike in years, but …

: Fox News, knee-jerk reactions, and out-of-context statements If my previous posts in which I declared my support for Obama and for civilly-recognized gay …

: 10 years Last Sunday we visited Noelridge Park Church for the morning service so Laura could participate in …

: Canadian Travels and Weird Internet Friends This week business took me on my second-ever cross-the-border trip, once again to Canada, though …

: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #3 Monday road trip to Nashville was awesome. Saw some friends, made some new ones, saw a great …

: Moving beyond the "what" to the "why" Earlier this afternoon I posted this thought to Twitter: Scary Thing #1 as an engineer: people who …

: News to make my day cheerier It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks, but this does make the day cheerier: I just firmed up …

: More busy than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest That’s the way my friend Steve used to describe it, and this week has been one of those weeks. …

: Home again, home again... (new baby edition) As a friend noted the other day, it’s a bit of a weird feeling to know that you’re …

: It's a girl! Katherine (Katie) Paige Hubbs born March 20, 2009 at 11:22 am 7 lbs, 13.5 oz 20.5" long. …

: Who says you have to spend a lot? Back in college, Dr. Batts suggested a cheap date: a trip to Walmart. His rationale? First, go …

: The Waiting Game We’ve gotten to that point in Becky’s pregnancy now where it’s just a waiting …

: A dilemma of sorts Last week I accepted a position in a new group here at work. It’s a group I’ve worked …

: Book Review: <em>The Echo Within</em> by Robert Benson There is a particular class of inspirational book these days that you can identify on the shelf …

: Bullet points for a Tuesday Morning #2 Laziness, and no big topics to contemplate. Put those two together and you end up with my blog as of …

: Book I Read: <em>The Weapon</em> by David Poyer Normally I’d write up a whole 250-word review for a book I finished, but The Weapon by David …

: Adventures with Hot Water, or, Providential Timing Once Again Last night after Wednesday night church, as we were just about to settle down for the night, Becky …

: Book Review: <em>The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music</em> by Ben Ratliff Normally when we think about musicians and “their music”, we think about the music that …

: Book Review: <em>Ender In Exile</em> by Orson Scott Card I’ve been a big fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series since I read it a few years ago. …

: There might be something to this Facebook thing... Yesterday afternoon we went over to a friend’s house for her belated 30th birthday party. It …

: Book Review: <em>The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British</em> by Sarah Lyall Every culture has its quirks, but to really notice them and appreciate them you need to be able to …

: Book Review: <em>Jesus and the Victory of God</em> by N. T. Wright I should say this up front: the idea that I’m going to be able to intelligently …

: Book Review: <em>The Philosopher's Apprentice</em> by James Morrow I picked up The Philosopher’s Apprentice on a whim from the library. And what a whim. The …

: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #2 I’ve been neglecting this blog for the past few weeks, so it’s time for an update of …

: The Church Search: A Conclusion of Sorts After Nick chided me last night about my infrequent blogging, and after Roger noted elsewhere that …

: How do I know when to...? Andy Osenga nailed it on his blog today by answering the question “how do know when I’m …

: Brrrrrrrrrr.....

: What's this place about, anyway? I’ve watched with interest the transformation of an internet acquaintance’s blog over …

: Book Review: <em>The King of Sting</em> by Craig Glazer and Sal Manna Sometimes, real life is even better than the stories. The King of Sting details the adventures of …

: Book Review: <em>Ring</em> by Stephen Baxter I was browsing the sci-fi section in the local library and came across an old paperback with a …

: 2008: A Year of Reading in Review This the only year-end post I’ll write; just a summary of my book reading list from 2008. Some …

: Wedding bells, etc I’ve taken plenty of pictures the past few days, but the dial-up internet connection here at …

: Christmas 2008 wrap-up Nothing like a holiday and a week off work to slow down the blog posting. We started our Christmas …

: My current songwriting struggle Songwriting, you ask? Yeah, if you missed it, I was invited to attend the Iowa Songwriter’s …

: Just Us at Christmas In the 11 or 12 Christmases Becky and I have spent together, each has been celebrated with one set …

: More Ketchup! Our little Addison (age two and a half) caught a low-grade stomach bug earlier this week. She …

: A fun evening, a late night, and musical kinship I’ll work through that title backwards. How do you know when you have some musical kinship …

: Sometimes Things Don't Turn Out Like You Expect When Andy Osenga’s The Morning came out two and a half years ago (to much fanfare on this …

: Everybody's Working for the Weekend Yes, we have a weekend coming up. Unfortunately, we’ll be heading into the weekend with a …

: A College Football Playoff Proposal OK, so can we just agree that the BCS really stinks, and there must be a better way to do college …

: Road trip time! Tomorrow morning I will get in the car and, rather than heading to work, I will embark on one of my …

: How do you select/appoint elders? When we visited Maranatha on Sunday, one of the inserts in their bulletin was a full page giving the …

: The Church Search, Week 7 There was no post for week 6 last week since we were out of town for the weekend. So now we come to …

: What to do about "gay marriage", part 2 Becky observed last night that my post yesterday on gay marriage was rather wordy and not as simple …

: Recognizing the civil-religious disconnect, or, "what to do about 'gay marriage'" I’ve been working through the whole ‘gay marriage’ issue in my head for a while …

: Do you want to play with me? Children have ways of saying things that just cut you to the quick. They don’t realize it, but …

: Happiness is... another new pen. When we were in Minneapolis last weekend I happened upon one of those dangerous places for me to go …

: A weird iPod Genius playlist bug Discovered this one last night: when I tapped the Genius icon to create a Genius playlist out of the …

: Bullet Points for a Thursday Morning #2 It’s been a crazy week so I’m reduced to one of these play-by-play lists. Sorry. Note …

: The Church Search, Week 5 This morning we got up off our behinds and visited the next church on our short list: Maranatha …

: Happy Birthday, Mom (2008 edition)! It’s my mother’s birthday today, and out of respect for her (a respect that I …

: Good friends say things like this Good friends aren’t afraid to say hard things. Last night I had a friend tell me: “Hey, …

: Post-Election Thoughts So much has been said by so many this morning that I don’t really have anything brilliant to …

: Culture Warrior or Disciple? The Internet Monk’s latest post deserves more than just a bullet in my overnight links. …

: Election 2008: I voted Reports of long lines at many polling places had me wondering if I would be in for a wait to vote …

: I will not fear On an internal discussion board at my workplace today, a co-worker (who is a Christian, though a bit …

: Election Eve It seems like this election cycle started a LONG time ago. We had our caucuses in Iowa back in …

: The Church Search, Week 4 We had plans to go to church on Sunday. And the best of intentions. But even though we were all up …

: The Church Search, Week 4 Preview This week our plans have us heading to Maranatha Bible Church. We know the Maranatha pastor and …

: Book Review: <em>How Would Jesus Vote?</em> by D. James Kennedy Have you heard that there’s an election coming up soon? So has WaterBrook Publishing, …

: Gilbert & Sullivan & an embarassing admission During an online conversation with Lydia this morning I was chiding for her unfamiliarity with …

: They are soon gone, and we fly away It always seems to be the bitter, cold, rainy days. Yesterday morning I took my familiar perch …

: Yet another reason I love my brother... Lately I’ve had a quote from Chuck (a rather fun TV show on NBC Mondays) set as my IM status …

: Observations from the weekend Your house doesn’t have to be amazingly clean to invite friends over. Even if it was amazingly …

: The Church Search, Week 3 After deciding early in the week that Cedar Valley Bible was off our short list, we spent a lot of …

: Time for some piano music I switched over from my usual podcasts and indie rock this morning to give some iPod love to a genre …

: Short list got shorter Well, we talked about it some more last night and agreed that Cedar Valley Bible Church is off our …

: Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe Lydia asked for it, so here it is… Ingredients 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained - I …

: An end-times deal-breaker So yesterday afternoon I noted that the next church on our short list for visiting during the Church …

: The Church Search, Week 2 Week 2 of the Church Search took us back to Stonebridge Church for the second week in a row. (We …

: The Coffee Experiment, Day 30 or so I have just about finished up the bag of Starbucks dark roast that we had here at home, what to get …

: Living Life Together It is becoming more and more clear to me lately how we are created for community, and how much we …

: Who, Me? My brother Ryan has been working full-time as an Obama campaign volunteer for the past few weeks, …

: Matthew Paul Turner's <em>Churched</em>: A Review Next up for review, courtesy of WaterBrook Press, is Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God …

: 4 years, 1001 posts Four years ago I started this thing called blogging, not, as they say, with a bang, but with …

: Rainsoft of NE Iowa: A follow-up A few weeks ago I wrote about a bad experience we had with an in-home sales call from Rainsoft of NE …

: The Church Search, Week 1 Yesterday morning we did something we haven’t done in a couple of months now: set our alarm on …

: The Church Search, Week 1 Preview Well, tomorrow morning we officially begin our look for a new church here in the Cedar Rapids area. …

: Listening Thoughts from multiple discussions over the last week: Most of the time, when people come to tell …

: Thinking through the presidential politics I’ve had an easy time deciding who to support for president for pretty much every election …

: And tell them we are men Douglas Wilson posted this quote, and it’s too good to not pass along. I wish you well. May …

: "I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety." I sent an email this morning which sent me thinking about a familiar quote, which in turn sent me …

: Take me out to the ballgame... It’s October 1st, which, among other things, means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. …

: Trying to describe Watership Down I finished reading Richard Adams' Watership Down last night and, when adding it to my reading list, …

: The Coffee Experiment, Day 12 Wow, it’s been a week since I’ve posted an update on The Coffee Experiment. I think …

: Random question for the morning Is it egotistical to drink coffee from a mug that says “I (heart) my Music Minister” …

: Beginning the church search After making the decision to leave Imago Christi at the end of the month, we find ourselves in an …

: The Coffee Experiment, Day 5 After yesterday’s run-in with completely nasty office coffee, I decided I would try brewing …

: Scot McKnight's "The Blue Parakeet" - a review When Zondervan offered up free early copies of Dr. Scot McKnight’s The Blue Parakeet for …

: The Coffee Experiment, Day 4 I’m not sure whether to call this Day 4 or Day 6 of The Coffee Experiment. Do I count the …

: The Coffee Experiment, Day 2 For 31 years I have professed to very much dislike coffee. If in need of caffeine to keep me going, …

: Why I dislike salespeople - or at least their tactics Update: I received a response from Rainsoft of NE Iowa that very much helped to resolve the …

: Changes Coming Tonight after the service at Imago Christi, I read this brief letter to the congregation: It has …

: Watching our tone Over the past two weeks' political conventions I have watched most of the major speeches and then …

: How much experience have presidential and VP candidates had? A warning to my casual readers: this post is going to get more than a wee bit nerdy, and probably a …

: Book Review: Wild Goose Chase Wild Goose Chase, the latest book by pastor Mark Batterson of National Community Church in …

: Denver OK, so bad travel plans notwithstanding, I made it to Denver on-time on Monday evening. Tuesday was …

: its wisdom, who can measure? Work necessitates that tomorrow I travel from Cedar Rapids to Denver to attend three days of FAA …

: Beautiful quote from a friend today …after I declared I was socially stunted because of my intense dislike for calling people …

: Finding the right Saturday-night service time One of our challenges at Imago has been figuring out the right time to hold our Saturday night …

: Wrestling with ideas about church membership One of the things we’ve been wrestling with as elders at Imago is the concept of church …

: Bullet points for a Monday Morning #3 A week without a blog update + lack of creativity = desperate measures. Hence, the bullet points. …

: 100 Books Being the voracious reader that I am, I was happy to steal this from Kari and Roger. The story is …

: Book Review: The Healing Choice This week’s book review, thanks to a free copy from WaterBrook Press, is The Healing Choice …

: Happy birthday Laura (2008 edition)! Our oldest daughter Laura turns 4 today. So far she’s celebrated the morning with a bowl of …

: Washington Vacation 2008: The Wedding After the beach we took a couple of days to travel up from Long Beach to Leavenworth. The stop in …

: A call for plot creativity, or, Why is it always the Christians? This weekend I finished up reading Rules of Deception, the latest novel by Christopher Reich. I have …

: C. S. Lewis on Consistency in the Worship Service Pastor Richard gave me this wonderful (if a bit long) quote from C. S. Lewis regarding consistency …

: Washington Vacation 2008: The Beach After arriving late on Monday and having vehicle difficulty, we took the new minivan out to the …

: An apology of sorts I had really intended to keep the blog up-to-date while on this vacation - after all, during the …

: The Flat Tire A couple of pics of our minivan’s flat tire the other night. Less dramatic because the guys …

: In Seattle Day 1 of our vacation finally brings us to Seattle. Our flights were only delayed a little - we …

: Packing for the trip With the expense of airline travel these days, we thought we might consider a method of …

: T-minus 7d It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, …

: Ten Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky …

: Counting down the days... Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I …

: Top Ten Movies Well, I haven’t done a meme in a while, and Jeff tagged me for this one, so I’ll give it …

: I tried Opera for a day No, Dad, regardless of the title, I’m not talking about Wagner or Puccini or that kind of …

: Slowly regaining normalcy Father’s Day 2008 wasn’t quite what any of us had been planning, but it’s still …

: A short Friday night update What a beautiful day today was. Sunshine, cool temps… such a nice change from the weeks of …

: Yeah, that's our downtown.

: Sucking it up No time to post pictures but if you visit any online news site you’ll undoubtedly be able to …

: And it rained all day... It’s been a weird year for weather here in Iowa. We started with the snowiest winter on …

: The passing of another weekend I had three things on my to-do list for the weekend as of last Friday afternoon. And though I kept …

: Bunk beds It’s been a couple of weeks now but there was great excitement among the little girls in our …

: Bullet Points from Montreal I’ve been in Montreal since Monday night, and it’s my first trip here, and for that …

: Montreal So today was the day I finally ventured outside the good ‘ol US of A; traveling to Montreal, …

: Muppet Imitations Apparently this is something that goes by generations, too. I’ve done Kermit (among others) …

: Tuesday morning this'n'that I have a couple other posts floating around in my head, but need to gather some thoughts (and …

: Starting a new tradition (or, a good excuse for ice cream) Some weeks ago Becky and I were enjoying a date night with a stop at our local Coldstone ice cream …

: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #2 It was an amazingly beautiful weekend. Fortunately the beautiful weather is sticking around for …

: Softball 2008! Last night was the start to our church league softball season. For most of the day it looked like we …

: ...with some frosting... One of the things that just fascinates me is observing the girls' learning - not just what they …

: Another adventure in new music So I’m rather a new-music junkie. Granted, it’s gotta be in a genre I’m interested …

: It's spring... finally! Signs that spring is finally here: Warmer weather, finally. high temps in the 70’s for the …

: I feel like such a homebody For a family that didn’t travel a whole lot when I was growing up, we have certainly made up …

: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Morning FINALLY with some warmer weather here in Iowa. Softball is supposed to start in two weeks and …

: Feed Demon Issues... Hello Google Reader? An original user of Google Reader, some months ago when NewsGator decided to make its products free …

: Four There’s been a running joke at our house for some time now that goes something like this: …

: The Strange Story of Easter: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 4 Having noted in chapter three that something happened to cause the early Christians' belief in …

: Early Christian Hope in Its Historical Setting: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 3 Let’s start at the very beginning, says a familiar song from a classic musical, it’s a …

: Christians and Sin in the Movies There’s been a good discussion going on over at The Rabbit Room regarding how Christians …

: Puzzled About Paradise? Surprised by Hope, Chapter 2 In Chapter 2 of Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright examines the wide sweep of confusing views that the …

: Wrestling with Tom: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 1 So it’s been far too long since I posted my original review of Surprised by Hope, the latest …

: Easter Thoughts I had the opportunity to do the Easter “program” (if you want to call it that) twice …

: On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness Read to the end of the blog post - I’m giving away a copy of the book! Just when you think …

: Happy Birthday, Addison Grace! Two years ago today, about this time early in the morning, I was making phone calls to my parents …

: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun This morning Laura and Addie and a few of their friends participated in a little fashion show for a …

: Happy Birthday to me... a little early/late Yeah, so my birthday isn’t until Friday, but finalized plans yesterday to be able to not just …

: Wrestling with Tom: An American Evangelical's coming-to-grips with N. T. Wright's Surprised By Hope Few writers have gained the attention of, and made waves in, the Christian blogosphere in recent …

: Another post from Augusta Yesterday was Day 2 of the RTCA committee meeting here in Augusta. (Why am I posting a day behind, …

: No, I don't play golf... This week has brought me to Augusta, GA for the quarterly SC-213 meeting. The inevitable first …

: Tim Keller's The Reason For God - a review Tim Keller has been a favorite speaker of mine for some time now. As pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian …

: Another Half a Foot Rest easy, friends, I’m not growing some fractional appendage. But I am pretty much tired of …

: An equation of insanity So back in my Caedmon’s concert post, Daniel commented that he found the length of that road …

: I'm it. Having been tagged by Jeff for the latest interweb meme to filter around to these parts, I suppose I …

: Putting on the miles The lengths I will go to hear a concert? Well, this weekend the length was 300 miles, each way. …

: Comparing Services This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading music both at Imago Christi on Saturday night and at …

: Bullet points for a Thursday Morning Playing basketball three times a week is good for your game and your weight, but sure does make you …

: In belated praise of Once It took me a while to get around to it, but last night Becky and I finally sat down to watch Once. I …

: The importance of training others “…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful …

: Putting my talents to some profit Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this …

: Rich Mullins' A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band If there was ever a “perfect” album to come out of the (largely mediocre) world of CCM, …

: A study in personalities, or, Mom was right My mom has mentioned more than once how she enjoys seeing our girls' personalities as they get …

: Wait, it's Monday? Weekends are going to look a little bit different now that we’re having church on Saturday …

: Bullet points for a Wednesday Just realized I never gave you all any feedback on the first service at Imago Christi. It went …

: Creating the routine The biggest adjustment this week in preparing for the Saturday night service is starting to think of …

: D-Day Timeline Saturday was the big day - first service at Imago Christi! A timeline of the day: 7:30 am: Wake up …

: It's a big day We’ve been working towards this for over a year now, and tonight it comes to pass: the first …

: 2007 in Books: Chris's Reading in Review One year ago I decided that my blog was the must useful place to keep my reading list, and that …

: Becoming a Caring Church Alex Strauch provides some practical guidance for becoming a church that truly cares for people …

: Songs for the Inaugural Service Imago Christi’s inaugural service is just over a week away - January 5, 2008. As I noted …

: Home after Christmas What a great Christmas, and now how good to be home. We spent several days at my parents' place in …

: Details to remember for your first worship service Yes, the title is overly-long Google linkbait. But one thing I have been astonished with is just how …

: Selecting music for an inaugural service We’re going to have our first worship team practice for Imago tonight, which means I need to …

: Wrapping things up Today is my last work day for the year. Thanks to a day of vacation tomorrow and a generous holiday …

: Building a worship team One of my big initial tasks for Imago Christi is to figure out the worship team situation. Music is …

: Contentment I was reading Psalm 131 this morning and was struck by the picture of contentment painted in its …

: 'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous... Christmas shopping is complete. The Christmas program is over. We’ve received a bunch of …

: Christmas shopping complete in record time Usually I’m the guy who is out shopping on December 23rd, if not December 24th, to finish up …

: If I were from England, I'd be unhappy Becky and I were wandering the toy shelves at our local Target store recently, finishing up some …

: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning I’ve stuck you, my blog readers, with far too many links this week and not enough other stuff. …

: The travails of travel Dear Delta Airlines, I can’t decide whether to be mad with you or not. I was definitely not …

: On the road again... So it’s been a nice weekend. Ryan decided at the last minute to come visit for the holiday, so …

: Coming in Boldly Last Wednesday night we left the girls at church (Laura for AWANA, Addie to play in the nursery) and …

: Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 2: Active Oversight I was going to make this part 3, but this all really ties together too much, so let’s just …

: Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 1: Don't Overload the Workers This seems like such a no-brainer that it shouldn’t even need to be mentioned, but based on my …

: Ideas for Effective Ministry - Introduction Last week Richard (my pastor for the past 8 years who is also leading our church plant effort) asked …

: I've been found out. OK, rarely will I write a full post to recommend someone else’s post, but the latest from …

: I love the smell of comment spam in the mornings... and other thoughts for Friday Yep, 105 comments held in moderation. All of ‘em spam. I guess I should tighten up Spam Karma …

: Making the switch After running the numbers and looking at likely use scenarios over the upcoming year or two, we …

: Halloween at Work No costumes ‘round our building today, but we’re having an event that appears to be …

: David Wilcox at CSPS Last night Becky and I experienced a couple of firsts: 1) going to a concert at CSPS in downtown …

: Bullet points for a Monday #2 [As always, I am grateful to Daniel for this very useful format.] Addie didn’t sleep well …

: No Excuses I hit the scale last Saturday after a fairly physically strenuous day of outdoor work (OK, strenuous …

: Most any update is better than none... Bullet points for the weekend: Church plant plans are moving right along. Looking like the start …

: Convergence: Death of a PDA, Expiration of a Cell Contract I’ve carried a PDA pretty much everywhere with me for the past several years; I think …

: Oklahoma City Business has brought me this week to Oklahoma City, square in the middle of the Sooner state. …

: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning Had a productive weekend; got the lawn mowed, some concrete patching done, led music at church. …

: The Doctor says: Don't Blink I haven’t enjoyed a single episode of TV quite so much in a while. I’m a couple weeks …

: Should this really be our fight? “Clergy fight same sex marriage”. This headline stared out at me from this …

: $1.05 I have a usual stop on my way to work in the mornings: the Road Ranger convenience store at the …

: Odds and Ends Sep 2007 First off, sorry to any of you who tried to leave comments yesterday. Something with the way the …

: Changes in the works I presented this letter to the elder board at Noelridge last Thursday: To the Elders at Noelridge: …

: Happiness is... a new pen. Back in February I bought my first-ever fountain pen. I knew nothing about them, but had always …

: An update of sorts It’s been slow around these parts lately, which likely just means that life has been pretty …

: It's not Monday, it just feels like it. The joys of having a Monday holiday: a 4-day work week, and a Tuesday that feels like Monday. Oh, …

: Well, I asked. Becky and the girls stopped by my workplace for a few minutes this morning to drop off some lunch …

: Caedmon's Call - Overdressed Well at least half of you who read this blog are already listening to this album, but I should still …

: Bullet Points for a Monday How can it have been a week since I last posted? Well, it has been busy. So in the spirit of …

: How can it be so hard to leave town? Instead of sitting here writing this blog post, I should be on a Boeing 757 just taking off from …

: New Specs I got my most recent pair of glasses about 6 years ago. Now, I don’t wear them all that often; …

: Seattle It’s 8 AM in Seattle and this hotel restaurant is a pretty comfortable place to sit and write. …

: Headed Out, West Coast Edition I’m sitting in the airport terminal at Cedar Rapids as the plane that is supposed to take me …

: New Orleans: Music and all that Jazz One of the things that was high on my list of things to do while in New Orleans a few weeks ago was …

: A real post - sort of So most of the recent posts here have been just links to other stuff. Sorry about that. Have been …

: New Orleans Impressions Got back from last week’s trip to New Orleans early on Friday morning. This was my first time …

: Bullet Points for a Friday [Once again, thanks to dan for creating a good format to rip off.] Laura turns three today! Happy …

: New Orleans: FAA SW DER Conference Today through Thursday is the 2007 edition of the FAA’s SW/CEH DER Conference. You can follow …

: Bullet Points on a Friday We had three neighbors over for supper last night. It was quite a good time. And the pork loin that …

: Drying out It’s been a bit of a wet week here in eastern Iowa. We had storms starting Monday night …

: It happened again. Yep. Four in a row now. What are the odds? Dang, I had to ask that. Now I’m gonna have to …

: The Challenges and Blessings of Hospitality Last week Becky and I had a discussion about, well, a bunch of things, but the one thing that came …

: It's a trap! Last week I bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi from a vending machine. I opened it up, and woohoo! The …

: Evaluating alternative iPod management software Yesterday SimpleHelp.net posted 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod. (They have since …

: A little bit sore Yesterday morning I was awake early so I went to the gym and hit the treadmill and the weight …

: It's Monday again already?!? Well, it was a busy weekend. The whole family showed up Friday night for one last get together …

: Somebody's leaving tracts in the bathroom again... This morning’s visit to the bathroom here at work revealed that someone has again been leaving …

: What day is it again? Having a day off from work in the middle of the week has totally thrown me off. Yesterday seemed …

: Ah, Home Becky and I arrived back home late in the evening Saturday. Travel was uneventful, though we did …

: Blue Man! Last night Becky and I went to see Blue Man Group over at Universal Orlando. BMG is one of those …

: Nine Years Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in …

: Orlando Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that …

: Ready for a break Today is my last day in the office for a week or so, and I am definitely ready for the break. A …

: Notes on a Tuesday Morning I’m getting ready to go sit in an all-day meeting with some customers that are in town. Not …

: Sheesh, It's Monday already?!? So for it being a weekend, it was a busy one. A synopsis: Saturday: Ran a 5k in the morning. …

: Satisfaction Well if I’m gonna gripe when I think things have gone wrongly, it is only right that I applaud …

: Not again! UPS dutifully delivered my second refurbished iPod this afternoon. The battery was pretty well dead, …

: iPod today? Got an automated UPS phone call a few minutes ago saying that my iPod would be delivered today, and …

: Bullet Points for Friday Still no iPod. I’m hoping for today, but I’m just about tired of hoping. Did an …

: The trip to Best Buy, or, why you should think when you design a computer system. So, as planned, tonight I went to Best Buy to find out what was up with my iPod replacement. Long …

: I just want my iPod back... After BestBuy’s impressive performance in getting me my first refurbished iPod, it has now …

: Good Qualities for a... We were sitting in a conference room at work the other day and there was a large pad that someone …

: Back online So just as I was about to get really frustrated with Qwest, UPS showed up with their “welcome …

: Playing the Waiting Game I hate waiting. I really do. I’m impatient. It’s not a quality I’m proud of; …

: Bullet Points from the Weekend We got 3 tons of sand dumped on our driveway Friday afternoon; my back is now sore from moving two …

: iPod Replacement: A for Effort, D for Results My refurbished iPod showed up via UPS late yesterday afternoon. I have to give Best Buy full marks …

: Taking the Plunge to Dish It’s been a couple of months since I did the math and realized that Mediacom was no longer a …

: Fun with Family We had the whole clan over this weekend - well, almost the whole clan. Ryan came in from Chicago, …

: iPod: the continuing saga Took my iPod with the bad battery and service plan back to Best Buy today. They have to send it in …

: iPod Blues I’ve had my 3G 20GB iPod for two and a half years now, so it’s no surprise that the …

: Heading home from DC Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home. Our meetings have …

: ...leaving on a jet plane... I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in …

: Chapter 11: In which Chris hears a familiar song in the unlikliest of places. Last night was a date night for Becky and me. We dropped the girls off with some friends for a …

: A Post In Which Chris Elaborates On Two Unrelated Songs I’ve had two songs running pretty much on repeat today. This happens to me on frequent …

: Devil's Lake Camping Trip Yes, as promised, we went camping last weekend up at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. My …

: Camping! When I was a kid, we went camping as a family all the time. I think some of my siblings enjoyed the …

: 24 Hours of the Hubbs: A Celebration of the Mundane When I decided to do 24 hours of Flickr, I wasn’t really sure what my Saturday would entail. …

: A much-needed improvement... I’ve been using Google Reader for some time now as my feed reader, and one of the more …

: Flying it! Part of the goofiness with my job is that by the time we get these announcements, I’ve been …

: Softball 2007 One of my very first posts on my blog was about softball; hard to believe that’s been two …

: Good Motivation I just filled out the entry forms for two 5K races in upcoming months: the Marion Arts Festival 5K …

: Random Thought #2 I’m sitting on my PC waiting for the Microsoft Visual C++ .NET development suite to install. …

: At Becky's request... more pictures! No, this place isn’t turning into a photoblog. But when you have a new toy… :-)

: A time to read... A month ago today I resolved I was going to put down my endless string of library books and spend a …

: New toy coming... Thanks to some unexpected cash influx, I was able to purchase this earlier this week: It’s a …

: Sunday Sermon This morning I had the privilege to preach at the Noelridge Sunday morning services. My text was …

: Stuff Life has been crazy this week, keeping me from writing much in the way of a thoughtful post about …

: Back home... at least for a day Got home last night from a quick business trip to Salt Lake City. I haven’t been to SLC since …

: Entering the Whirlwind I feel like I’ve been in it for a few days already, but I know there’s still more to …

: Name That Tune [Meme fearlessly stolen from CJ]. Step 1: Put your ipod on random. Step 2: Post the first line from …

: A real post This place has been full of links lately and very short on actual posts. Partly that’s been …

: A Resolution As I updated my 2007 reading list yesterday, I became convicted about how many novels of dubious …

: Which comes first: committment or vision? In the midst of a church meeting last night discussing our church’s future plans, a question …

: Paradise Pens Customer Service: Top Notch Just thought I’d follow up on my post from last week about my experience with Paradise Pens. …

: Billboards from God On my way home from work every day I pass a billboard that frustrates me. It’s a simple …

: A good time was had by all... This weekend we had very nearly my whole family over to visit. My sister is still in Panama, but …

: Party Time This weekend my parents and brothers will all be coming to visit. (My sister is in Panama doing …

: In Praise of Good Customer Service I’ve complained enough about bad customer service here on the blog (see: the OfficeMax debacle …

: Thoughts on Washington DC Last week I traveled for business to Washington, DC. While my original plans left me little time for …

: Getting back on track It’s been a disorienting past ten days or so; last weekend (10 days ago) we had the big storm, …

: Off to the market to buy a fat pig... …home again, home again, jiggety jig. I always seem to forget the beginning of that rhyme, …

: Visiting Uncle Sam This week is time for my first business trip in a while, and yesterday found me heading out of Cedar …

: Finally done Last night I used a jigsaw to cut two small notches, pulled the garage door opener up about another …

: Making progress Yesterday morning we got a guy out to fix the garage door, so it now goes up and down like it …

: I fought the door, and the door won Today was lining up to be a fairly unadventurous Saturday. I had a church basketball game in the …

: I think I pulled something... So last night I had the chance to do some practice on the pipe organ at Central Park Presbyterian …

: Odds and Ends Feb 2007 I’m sure I’ve used that title before, but oh well. Seems like this place has been filled …

: Pick Chris's Reading List: Hell's Best Kept Secret My dad loaned me Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort back at Thanksgiving, and sadly it had …

: Pick Chris's Reading List: Velvet Elvis Finally I complete another entry on my reader-suggested reading list: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. …

: You'd think I'd learn... I stopped at the library yesterday afternoon to pick up a book I had reserved. (Velvet Elvis by Rob …

: I skipped the State of the Union I understand from reading the news that President Bush gave the State of the Union address back on …

: Random Thoughts on... Classical Music, Second Edition Classical music has had a big influence in my life. My parents are both lovers of classical music. …

: Goodbye, Krispy Kreme Sometime while we were gone on our Christmas vacation, our local Krispy Kreme closed down. It opened …

: Word of the day: anent Never heard this one before; just saw it used in a blog post here. anent –preposition 1. in regard …

: Pick Chris's Reading List: Taliesin (Book 1 of the Pendragon Cycle) On to a book recommended by Nate Downey: Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, which is book one of five …

: The Great New Year's Eve Flood of Aught-Six Let me tell the tale of the Great New Year’s Eve Flood of Aught-Six. You won’t hear it …

: Heading Home So I’m finally caught up with my trip posts. It’s 10:20 PM and we’re in a hotel …

: The Penguin, and New Friends Thursday was get-ready-to-head-home day. We picked up a cartop carrier that Ernie had salvaged for …

: Post-Christmas Mayhem The day after Christmas found us trying to sleep off all that food we ate the day before. :-) We …

: 35 years and counting... This post is only a day belated, but let me wish my parents a very happy 35th anniversary! Don and …

: Christmas! Christmas morning dawned and we packed up four adults, two small children, and lots of presents and …

: Christmas Eve Sunday morning of our trip brought us to Calvary Church in Charlotte for the Sunday morning service. …

: Never buy a Unicorn when it's Sleeping. Day 4 of our trip (Saturday the 23rd) was a nice day to catch up. After sleeping in, we had a late …

: Back on the Road Day 3 was another travel day; Nashville, TN to Waxhaw, NC. It doesn’t look that long on the …

: Nashville Day 2 of our Christmas trip landed us in Nashville. Becky’s brother Bob and his wife Holly and …

: The road goes ever on and on... At least it sure feels that way. Day 1 of our little Christmas adventure turned out to be a bit more …

: Packing Up and Heading Out The long-awaited Christmas break is finally here! Tonight we’re loading the van, and tomorrow …

: Thoughts on Consumerism Found this wonderful little article from Will Willimon entitled “Resisting the Clutches of …

: Google Reader adds "sort by oldest" Finally! This was my biggest gripe with Google Reader up until now; the only chronological sort …

: Pick Chris's Reading List: The Russian Debutante's Handbook It’s taken me far too long, but I have finally completed the second book on my user-suggested …

: The Usual? “The usual?” That’s the question that was posed to me this morning. Now, it was …

: An Update It’s been far too long since I’ve written much here on the blog; it’s been a busy …

: Swearing on the Koran My mother-in-law asked the other day what I thought about this recent news story. In brief: Newly …

: An AP Concert Weekend Last Friday Becky and I headed out to Omaha, NE to see Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of …

: Something to think about... “I’ve noticed that when God wants me to follow Him in a particular direction, He usually …

: Pick Chris's Reading List: And Then There Were None I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None …

: Early in the Morning The past two mornings Laura has decided there was a need to wake up about ten minutes to five; both …

: Building Up Endurance So how was your Thanksgiving? We spent the weekend in Wisconsin with my family at my parents' place. …

: A Time for Giving Thanks With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I thought I’d list a few things I’m thankful for. I …

: Random Thought During a conversation with Becky while driving somewhere the other night, discussing someone: Me: …

: One last time... This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while …

: Pick Chris's Reading List Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me …

: Plans Change Well, that Happy Meal hasn’t materialized in Laura’s future yet. Becky got sick with a …

: Adventures in Fatherhood Tomorrow morning Becky will be taking off for Chicago to spend a weekend with her friend Juanita who …

: Get out and vote! Yep, it’s election day. I can’t say I’m too excited about any of the slate of …

: Dr. John Stackhouse on Christians' Political Concerns Dr. John Stackhouse of Regent College in Vancouver, BC, is in Cedar Rapids this weekend speaking. …

: Tuesday Riff on CCM So I don’t listen to Christian radio any more, but Becky had it on in the van over the …

: Seasons Yard work isn’t my favorite task; it’s one of those things that gets done because it …

: Best-laid plans... don't always work out. Last night I was headed to bed at a relatively early hour, and as I prepared to go to sleep I …

: Thank goodness for the weekend! It’s managed to be a busy week, but now the weekend is upon us. Finally! This afternoon Becky …

: Gotta run... I got out for a run yesterday afternoon - probably the first time in 2 weeks that I’ve run. It …

: The Interweb is Fun! So yesterday after church I posted a recording of Andrew and me singing a song in church. Talking to …

: Goodbye FeedLounge, Hello, Google Reader! I’ve been using FeedLounge for several months now (ever since they came out of beta!) as my …

: Gracious Words In reply to the “controversy” of John Piper’s comments regarding Mark Driscoll at …

: DG2006: The Audio is Up One of the things the DG folks do right: all the audio from the Desiring God 2006 National …

: DG2006: Piper rebukes Driscoll's "cleverness" I am sad that this is the moment that most sticks in my mind from the Desiring God 2006 National …

: Desiring God 2006 National Conference I got home about 2:30 this morning from two days in Minneapolis at the Desiring God 06 National …

: Things are changing I made this announcement after both services at Noelridge today. I didn’t read from a script, …

: Spartan Fund Run 5K Last Saturday I ran in my first-ever 5K, the Solon High School Spartan Fund Run. They had a few …

: Don't know much about... anything! Last night I took the opportunity to visit Conversation Cafe, a discussion group at a local …

: This 'n' that This weekend wasn’t too busy, but I wasn’t on the computer, so no blog updates. Rebecca …

: Last training run Well, my last training run before the Solon 5K on Saturday. I woke up before my alarm this morning …

: It's Wednesday, but Saturday's coming I told myself that I should run a good three times this week in preparation for the Solon 5K on …

: Your update for the week It’s gonna be a slow week here on my blog. I’m in town today, but tomorrow we’re …

: Park Concert coming up... This coming Sunday night my brothers Aaron and Andrew and I will be doing a concert for my church. …

: Today's lesson: Air Conditioner drain lines I may be reasonably intelligent, but sometimes I miss the obvious. I have known since we bought our …

: All sorts of wacky stuff Or at least what counts for wacky in my world. I realize my life is pretty calm compared to some of …

: Sunset There’s something about sunsets that make me nostalgic. I’m not sure what it is about …

: Running I’m going to make a real effort to do a bunch of running this week. I’ve been too much …

: Sonic is coming! Back in Texas, Sonic was a favorite fast food place of ours. Who can top the Route 44 Cherry …

: Odds and Ends August 2006 Odd: 13, the number of runs we had last night in our softball game. Also the number of runs our …

: More running It hasn’t been a real productive week for me as far as running goes; three mornings this week …

: It's time for a break... I was reading back through some of my old blog posts this morning, tagging them appropriately, (100 …

: 'Cause we're all praying for the ice to break... This song has been rattling around in my head for the past day or two. It’s beautiful, …

: The new monitor's here! A trusty IT guy came by this morning to deliver a new Dell 19" LCD monitor. He was also good …

: Feeling Squeezed Yesterday I was sitting at my desk working away when suddenly, bzzt! and one of my monitors went …

: This is why I wear a belt The main button on my (nearly-new) khakis just came off. Fortunately, there’s still that …

: geek alert The title is just a warning that some of your eyes might glaze over whilst reading this post. Others …

: My first training run I have a 5K course mapped out through our neighborhood, so I gave it my first try at that distance …

: I'm back home... Got home from Seattle about midnight last night. Oh so much fun. Our plane was late leaving Seattle, …

: Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go... Well, it’s off to Seattle, actually, in about 30 minutes. Headed up there again for work, …

: Taking the Plunge This weekend I signed up for a 5K run. I’ve never done something like this before. I’ve …

: Everybody loves a party! Yesterday was Laura’s second birthday. So, we invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate. …

: Happy Birthday Laura! She’s too young to read this, but still, I can’t believe that my little girl turns 2 …

: Random Thoughts on Classical Music For those of you brave enough to read past the title, congratulations! Now instead of me talking …

: A fun weekend... It was busy busy busy, but it was fun. My brother Andrew is now officially a resident of Cedar …

: Random Thoughts on Church Attire OK, so Dan put me up to this. Pick a topic, and just start writing. So this topic came to mind. How …

: Bits and Pieces I wait far too long between blog posts, and then I find myself searching for interesting things to …

: Traveling Adventures Tuesday through Thursday of this week took my on my first trip ever to Seattle, WA. Several of us …

: I had that dream again... Yeah, that dream. The one where Andy Osenga and some other unidentified people are holed up with me …

: What A Difference the Shoes Make I bought a new pair of Asics running shoes over the weekend and wow, what a difference they make! …

: I love used CDs Last night, FYE at Coral Ridge Mall. Hem’s Rabbit Songs. Used. Price: $4.99. But wait, …

: Chance Meetings with Friends It has been a nice morning thus far. I got up at my usual early hour, got motivated enough to go run …

: Holiday and Vacation It’s now been 10 days since I’ve actually set foot in my office. Last week was the …

: Atlanta: Impressions This is the first time I’ve ever visited Atlanta. I’ve driven through a few times, but that doesn’t …

: Road Trip: Andy O CD Release Show After hearing the announcement that “much rock will be had”, I decided if I could make …

: Well whaddaya know? CID has free wireless internet in the terminal. My flight was delayed by about 15 minutes, but now I …

: Today's Lesson: Motor Mounts Yesterday I had an unhappy occurrance. I had stopped at Quik Trip to get some gas on my way to work. …

: road tripping In a bout of insanity, I have decided to take two days off work and drive to Nashville for Andy …

: I'm sore... but I think it feels good. Having been disgusted with my lack of exercise for a while, and having been challenged by my …

: It's Monday already... That’s actually not a bad thing, just a statement of fact. Had a nice weekend; installed a …

: weekend, where did you go? Well it’s long past time for a weekend update. Becky’s folks have been here for just …

: Happy Birthday, Becky! Only the best birthday wishes to my beautiful wife who turns 29 today. She is a faithful partner, …

: Enough DaVinci, already! I’ve heard just about enough about The DaVinci Code by now. First, the hoopla over the …

: Softball as it was meant to be Monday night was our second church softball game of the year, and it was beautiful. We were afraid …

: How far do we go to be "relevant"? That’s the question that the InternetMonk asks in a column over the weekend. His summary: The …

: Follow-up on the technology saga Yesterday my PDA totally locked up, just froze with the backlight on and nothing on screen. Finally …

: it's not my week for technology On the heels of my stereo receiver biting the dust, tonight I pulled my Palm Tungsten E2 out of my …

: A slide projector... and a bedsheet! [Kudos to Roger for playing along with the Veggie Tales reference.] A follow-up on yesterday’s …

: Stereophonic Multimedia Event No, not the blog. My entertainment center, usually. But last weekend for some reason the LCD display …

: Mitt Happens I met Mitt Romney yesterday. Well, if you can consider shaking his hand and saying hello …

: The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends Dick Staub on the Staublog (which needs to move to some software that supports RSS in an awful way) …

: BookJournal: Xenocide I haven’t been a fan of everything Orson Scott Card has ever written (sorry, Keith), but my …

: more odds and ends for May 2006 Wow, so it’s been far too long since I posted. What’s been happening? Last weekend Mom …

: Andrew Osenga - The Morning Only 18 more days until release. If you’re a fan of Andy Osenga’s already, you’ll …

: It's Monday again... No, wait, it’s Tuesday. It just feels like Monday. It was very very hard to get out of bed …

: Caedmon's Call, Dubuque, IA, 4/23/06 Last night I had the opportunity to see Caedmon’s Call play in concert at the Five Flags …

: going to see Caedmon's... Thanks to Andrew Osenga’s timely posting of more tour dates, I found that Caedmon’s Call …

: a time of refreshing I hadn’t realized how burned-out I was getting. When I step back and look at it now, it …

: another week Give me a three-day weekend, and do I post any? Nooooo. But it was a very nice weekend. I had all of …

: play time Yesterday, as the culmination of a lot of research by Becky, we went out and purchased a backyard …

: Springtime! This week has finally brought spring-like weather to our little piece of Iowa. Temps will be in the …

: youth time OK, so my ankle is a little bit sore this morning. I wonder if it has something to do with playing …

: The Joy of Friends and Fellowship Yesterday was the annual Eggstreme Easter Egg Hunt out at the Berberich’s home in Stone City. …

: opening day It’s opening day for major league baseball, and what a way to start: the Cubs scored 5 runs in …

: They're back... Got a phone call from Mom and a text message from Rebecca letting me know that they (and Ryan and …

: New Music I placed an order today for some music that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time: Claude …

: they're leaving... but they're coming back. By late this evening I’ll be the only member of my immediate family still present in North …

: odds and ends March 2006 The server has been down for the last few days, so I haven’t been able to update. But now …

: the web sites can wait It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m sitting on the couch in a darkened hospital room. …

: short on sleep but full of joy... Yesterday welcomed our little girl Addison Grace into the world. It was a quick labor and delivery; …

: a new addition No, it’s not the baby. But today we did end up purchasing a nice used minivan. It’s a …

: starting out hectic Well, no baby yet. But that still doesn’t mean my Monday has calmed down much. :-) We did a …

: so nice to be busy again... Things had been a little bit slow at work for the past couple of weeks; I was winding up one project …

: Welcome to Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key! House of Cakeboy had about run its course, so after reflection the new blog title, as you can …

: I still feel the same... a follow-up. In a previous post, I wrestled with the ideas of being 10 years removed from my teens, but still …

: time for a facelift Well, I at least switched up graphics and a bit of the color scheme. It’ll do for now. …

: too much new music? I didn’t think it would ever be possible, but at the moment, I feel like I have too much new …

: In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing is the soon-to-be-released latest album from my …

: it's Monday... …and I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, which means I’m a real slacker. I …

: it's snowing! And it’s about time. We haven’t had any snow since December 16th… that’s a …

: Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century This is a must-read article by …

: Loose ends Just to tie up a few loose ends from previous posts: The evening at the coffeehouse went well. I …

: An evil brain teaser Geof posted this over on the Rumor Forum and it’s been so much fun I thought I’d share …

: coffeehouse time Tomorrow night I’m providing two hours of musical entertainment at my favorite coffeeshop. …

: 10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment Erik Lokkesmoe has a good article on Townhall.com where he lists 10 mistakes conservatives make in …

: reasonable theological concern, or overly picky? I was thinking through some songs that we haven’t sung for a while in church, and this issue …

: home again, home again... I got back last night about 10:30 from another quick trip to Wichita, this time for DER Orientation. …

: ain't it just like Mediacom... It’s not unusual, in my experience, to receive calendars as gifts around Christmas-time from …

: odds and ends January 2006 I’ve been a bit haphazard in my posting habits lately, so I’ll just dump a bunch of …

: I still feel the same... I thought I’d feel different by now. I remember sitting in a recliner in the living room of a …

: and it comes around to me... "4 things" I’ve kinda been waiting for this one… Thanks Stephanie for tagging me! Four jobs I’ve …

: You Probably Shouldn’t Lead Worship Anymore If… - purgatorio It’s a bit image-intensive, but it’s a hilarious post that worship leaders and really …

: a good weekend to be off Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did …

: the next album I'll have to buy Andy Osenga notes today that Ben Shive is going to release his own album. No word yet on when this …

: finally up and running It’s taken too long, but noelridge.org is finally up and running with real pictures of our …

: being productive Last night Becky was gone to a baby shower at the church, and so after I put Laura to bed around 7 I …

: BookJournal: Fortunes of War Fortunes of War is a recent title from Stephen Coonts. It is in many respects a standard military …

: FeedLounge! The long-awaited FeedLounge finally opened for public signups yesterday. For those of you not …

: iTunes meme Geof did this, and it looked like fun. Open iTunes to answer the following: Total number of tracks: …

: US Cellular outage in Eastern Iowa I woke up this morning to find that I had very limited, analog cellular service. US Cellular has …

: too many rebates I’ve probably sent in more rebate forms in the last two months than I had in my entire …

: Weekend update Jan 2006 Well I’ve been a slacker lately as far as meaningful posts go… don’t know how …

: making things Occasionally when I walk through our building here at work to get to the cafeteria, I walk past some …

: getting things done No, Geof, I haven’t read the book, and this isn’t about the book. However, it has been …

: BookJournal: Stranger in a Strange Land I was on the prowl for some sci-fi to read last time I was at the library. They are courteous enough …

: worship team follow-up So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went …

: worship team stuff We had our first WT practice in about a month on Wednesday night. It was good to get back to it. I …

: baby names OK, so Becky is due with kiddo #2 the first week of March. We’ve talked baby names a little …

: BookJournal: No Uncertain Terms Well I just about have this one finished up so I’ll write about it now. William Safire, in …

: well, it's official I got the letter from the FAA today that officially notifies me that I will be a DER candidate …

: back into the swing of things Today I’m back at work after 11 days of holiday. I was just about ready to come back… I …

: the obligatory new year's post I’m already a day late on this - it’s January 2nd, not the first. I’ll probably …

: BookJournal: PowerSat Powersat is one of the latest titles by long-time sci-fi author Ben Bova. Bova is a prolific author. …

: Upgrading the Tivo Hard Drive OK, so when we bought our 40-hour Tivo, it was small-ish for storage space, but it worked. Now that …

: Upgrade complete I’ve just finished upgrading all of the thehubbs.net blogs to Wordpress 2.0. It all seemed to …

: Christmas time is here... OK, so Christmas was actually two days ago. Now the family has all left for their respective homes …

: Christmas shopping... check. My today didn’t go as planned. But that’s OK - it’s turned out just fine anyhow. …

: Just for the record... …the new snowblower kicks butt. I probably looked like an idiot using a 5.5 hp 2-stage …

: Ben Shive, Harmony, and the Blood of Jesus All the recent posts about the AP Christmas concert at the Ryman last weekend reminded me of one …

: lots of travel, 30 minute interview Monday afternoon found me traveling to Wichita, KS, for my DER interview with the FAA. The wisdom …

: weekend update It’s been feeling like Christmas the last couple of weeks, what with the sub-zero temps and …

: Andy Gullahorn Geof Morris once referred to him as “Andy ‘It’s really sad that the only thing …

: I met the Queen of Iowa I met the Queen of Iowa, She was dying on a couch in the suburbs. And of all the things she was …

: So much to say... So Saturday night was the Behold the Lamb concert in Cedar Rapids. As you know if you read my …

: ok, so I'm a little bit excited... Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I …

: I got accepted. Well, so I still haven’t received the official “you’re invited for an …

: Things aren't right I’ve been reading several different books recently, and a discussion with Becky last night …

: the blessings of a holiday This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with …

: I've moved... If you are reading this post, you’re reading it from my new web address: …

: I got accepted... I think... I got a letter from the FAA today inviting me to the DER seminar down in Wichita in January. …

: it's basketball time... My first basketball league of the season starts tonight. I’m really looking forward to it. I …

: It's cold and grey outside... …and I had been planning on doing yard work. I did a little bit this morning (ran the mower …

: Ender's Game I am a voracious reader of fiction. I read a good bit of non-fiction, too, but fictional thrillers …

: feeling young Last night we had a neighborhood potluck dinner, organized by our next-door neighbors. It was a bit …

: "A Separate Peace" Peggy Noonan writes a somber column today. An excerpt: I think there is an unspoken subtext in our …

: and he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again... Last week Becky and I were able to leave Laura with my folks and take a couple days of vacation up …

: priorities of time I wrestled in an earlier post with issues of time and busyness. I’m still wrestling with it. I …

: So I call you my country, and I'll be lonely for my home And the coal trucks come a-runnin' With their bellies full of coal And their big wheels a-hummin' …

: it's a Monday... …and stuff is a bit crazy here at work. Fortunately for me, I’m taking vacation this …

: OLN Hockey Blackout Yesterday night I sat down in front of the TV, looking forward to watching a hockey game. The Dallas …

: more odds and ends I’m getting a cold. I’d forgotten how much I hate colds. You can’t breathe, and …

: Happy Birthday sis! My little sister Rebecca (the youngest of us 5 kids) turns 18 today! Wow. Now I feel old. :-) Happy …

: Noelridge Park Church So, after months of planning, debating, and voting, we finally have a new name for our church. …

: The first time I've ever played a concert with somebody riding a cow in the background... Last Saturday afternoon I got to see Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga in concert at …

: I'm full! I was remembering those Taco Bell ads the other day - the ones where a guy eats a burrito or …

: a general arrrrrgh... and then woohoo! I’ll come up with a more thoughtful post one of these days, I promise. But for now, more …

: Serendipity ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties 1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. …

: The Present Future, and associated thoughts I just finished reading The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. He …

: The church name is changing! After months of prayer, planning, and discussion, we took a congregational vote last night of intent …

: fun with guitars So yesterday I took my guitar in to see about getting the pickup fixed. Let me back up. I have a …

: in another life, I would like to be... I keep a little running list of things I’d like to do if I had another life to live. Not that …

: my blog is boring Becky was bored the other day and reading over some blogs (something she doesn’t do very …

: feel the beat of a distant thunder... I have a confession to make. I had been avoiding purchasing Andrew Peterson’s latest album. I …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 26 I received my OfficeMax gift card yesterday in the mail. It was accompanied by a cheesy little …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 25 Still counting. Maybe I’ll get my gift card before the holiday weekend… but that may be …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 24 Today I missed my first event due to not having a PDA to beep at me… I was supposed to meet a …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 23 Still nothin'. On another warranty replacement topic, I remembered this morning that the Countryman …

: The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers On my last visit to the local library, I found a slim volume on the “new books” shelf: …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 22 Date I started the process: August 6. Days since I called to start the process: 22. Days since I …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 19 Almost three weeks now and still nothin'. Geof suggests I should skip the Tungsten and go for a …

: Worship Team changes... We had our first worship team practice using individual microphones last night. Currently, we just …

: Odds and Ends Just miscellaneous stuff from my life today. I got my DSL modem hooked up last night so the Casa de …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 18 Nothing to report again today. Still waiting.

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 16 Nothing to report. I have meetings all morning this morning and would love to have the PDA for …

: not all that amusing: a review of Chris Rice's new CD I pre-ordered Chris Rice’s new album, amusing, back a couple of months ago when it was …

: My CD wish list OK, I’ll admit it: I have a CD-buying habit. It’s not as destructive or expensive as …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 15 Yes, it’s been over two weeks now since I first took my dead PDA in to get it replaced. If …

: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 12 No events to report today. It is starting to drive me crazy not having my PDA. I didn’t …

: Come On! Feel The Illinoise! There have been a ton of reviews of Sufjan Stevens' new album, [Illinois], floating around lately. I …

: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 11 Sent the package off yesterday afternoon… it’s headed to Dallas. I’m guessing the …

: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 10 My prepaid mailing label came in the mail yesterday, so last night after softball I went to get …

: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9 (part 2) My dear wife informs me that the mailing label came today. You can bet I’ll be shipping that …

: the sweet relief of work completed Last week was killer. I had soooo much to do. I’ve talked about this already so I won’t …

: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9 Note from Chris: I’m not usually this bitter… but I’m taking no small pleasure in …

: a busy weekend I haven’t posted much this week… it’s been just a bit on the busy side. …

: I bet I'll be missing some meetings... My Palm Pilot died yesterday. OK, so they don’t call it a Palm Pilot anymore; mine is actually …

: the great escape act I haven’t written many (any?) posts on my first year’s worth of experience as a …

: DER Conference, Day 3 Today was the third and final day of the conference here in Norfolk. The conference itself was …

: DER Conference, Day 2 Another day in Norfolk, more of the conference. Fun fun. Today was “breakout sessions”, …

: DER Conference, Day 1 Today was the first day of the DER software conference (excuse me, the official title is the …

: On the road... I’m writing tonight from a hotel room in Norfolk, VA… I’m here to attend the 2005 …

: wait, don't work on it yet... It never fails. I start working on a not-approved-yet-but-probably-OK change request today, and …

: Randall Goodgame, where have you been all my life? Tuesday I found a bootleg concert recording of Randall Goodgame opening for Caedmon’s Call in …

: nothing is constant except change It has been one of those summers at church. We had a leadership meeting last night (to review: I am …

: a busy week... This upcoming week is gonna be a hum-dinger. Tonight is softball, first umping, then playing. …

: occasional down time Don’t be surprised if you see occasional downtime on my blog here over the next several days; …

: The day I became Fred's hero I don’t know what triggered this memory today… but I might as well tell the story while …

: Sahara Last night we had a babysitter available and so we went to the cheap seats theater in town and …

: A nice weekend Normally I don’t do a lot of “here’s what I did with my weekend”-type posts, …

: A little less wise Thursday morning I had the delightful experience of having 4 wisdom teeth removed. It’s the …

: Cakeboy? Who the heck is Cakeboy? In a comment sometime back, Amber asked about the whole House of Cakeboy title. While I may rename …

: Time to start studying I have set upon a new endeavor at work: I am applying to become a DER. A brief explanation is in …

: I should have my geek status revoked As I noted in my post to Mr. Murphy a week or so ago, I’ve been having problems with the new …

: new horizons in wife appreciation Becky went to a women’s retreat this weekend. She left Friday afternoon and didn’t get …

: boredom This has definitely been one of those boring weeks, especially as far as work is concerned. As I …

: The process of the Christian life... Was reading today and found this wonderful quote from Martin Luther describing the process of the …

: What's in a name? We’re holding some church leadership strategy meetings this summer, and one of the big topics …

: Mr. Murphy works on Sundays Mr. Murphy and his dang-blasted law were working busily yesterday. It was certainly one of those …

: random Saturday thoughts So, it' 8:30 on Saturday morning and I’m sitting here in the dining room watching Laura finish …

: are you trying to teach me something? Within the last 7 days I’ve heard three separate sermons from the same passage. This …

: ...and the streak is at 6 You gotta love the Chicago Cubs. They brought a guy up from Triple-A to start last night’s …

: Musical Baton And so today the musical baton was passed to me by Jeff Holland. It seems like a fun idea, but it …

: Moody Review: Gary Haugen Gary Haugen spoke to us last Tuesday afternoon at the pastor’s conference at Moody. Gary is …

: Home! I got home early this morning… 1:45 AM. It’s sure good to be home. Everything’s …

: Moody Conference, Day 4 It’s Thursday afternoon and the conference is winding down. There’s only one general …

: Moody Observations, Day 2 Amber liked my attempt at a descriptive writing post yesterday so I thought I’d give it …

: Moody Conference Day 2 It’s 1:10 PM and I’m skipping a general session to sit and write. Richard described this …

: Moody Conference Day 1 Monday, May 23rd 3:30 PM Richard picked me up at the house at 8:20 or so this morning. Said goodbye …

: longest... day... ever... Wow, the day is getting long and it’s not even 1030 yet. I’m in a wrap-up mode at work; …

: Happy Birthday Andrew! Today is my brother Andrew’s 19th birthday. A big happy birthday to you, bro, with hopes for …

: here goes nothin' Yesterday afternoon my manager walked in and asked me if I’d like to become a software lead …

: she's graduated! This weekend was my sister Rebecca’s high school graduation. She’s the youngest of us 5 …

: Music, family style... for real. Well, the long-awaited Sunday finally got here and I got to play keyboards in the worship team at my …

: Call me Mr. Fix-it No, this isn’t a home-improvement post… It’s more of a …

: I've been replaced by a machine! At least for Sunday, that is… I was unable to wrangle up a musician for the Sunday service, …

: I need a musician... …any musician. One of the downsides of being the music leader at a small church is that …

: a busy month... Well that personality thing was kinda boring, wasn’t it? You, reader, deserve a real, …

: making music, family style OK, I’m excited. I just finished talking to my brother Andrew. He is almost 19, has been …

: "energy dependence" Another day, another NRO column to comment on. Today it’s Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren …

: softball starts tonight! Our first softball game of the season is tonight. I’m soooo much looking forward to it. …

: zzzzzzzzz..... OK, so it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m bored. I’ve hit the end of the task list for …

: The war by? on? Christians in America... Stanley Kurtz has an excellent (if a bit long) column today discussing the current edition of …

: bleary eyed I know I owe everybody a blog post (it’s been a couple days… time to keep writing) but …

: sticking to our guns Ned Rice has a great column today on NRO where he makes a strong argument that the folks whining …

: slowly getting more out of touch... I have this “movies I’ve watched recently” link section on the side of the blog. I …

: well, no projects this weekend... So the weather intervened this weekend and I didn’t do any outside projects… apparently …

: projects Springtime has finally arrived in Iowa, and that means that the weekends become project time. That …

: softball..... finally! We had our first softball practice of the season last night. It was a beautiful night to be out, and …

: preaching on short notice... It had been planned for about a month that I would fill the pulpit at my church on April 24th. Then …

: nowadays the world is lit by lightning Peggy Noonan (one of my long-time favorite columnists, and a devout Roman Catholic) has a column …

: softball... I starting reading some of the other rmfo blogs and found David’s post on softball. I’m …

: it's a blog... I’ve made the switch today from my old blogger.com blog to my new rmfo-blogs.com blog. …

: Thanks Geof! Well it’s better than the old “hello world” message… :-) Thanks to GFM for …

: the joys of web design... I’ve been on a web page design kick lately. First it was with my church’s web page. The …

: elder = older? I’ve had several conversations lately regarding the qualifications for being an elder in the …

: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places... A book by this title was given to my by my pastor last week; we are “kindred readers” …

: another year older... Has it really been 3 weeks since I’ve posted? Good grief! No wonder nobody reads my …

: Are online friends weird? I spend quite a bit of time hanging out at the online message board called “The Rumor …

: Foolish? “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools …

: Old music... great memories So I got an iPod for Christmas… and of course the next task is ripping all of my CDs to mp3s …

: OK, so I'm not posting often enough... Or so my sister tells me. Of course, she’s 17, a senior in highschool, and has the time to …

: getting older... It’s a weird thing to get older; and then in a way it’s the most natural thing we ever …

: network downtime... This morning we are experiencing one of those fun office moments known as “network …

: another week, another concert... After thinking things couldn’t get better from last week’s Caedmon’s Call concert, …

: an excellent concert... Went with my brother Ryan to a Caedmon’s Call concert Friday night at Judson College in Elgin, …

: it's over.... To quote John Derbyshire, YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAA! The election is over. Kerry conceded without putting …

: Death by Advertising... Well it’s the day before the national elections and living in Iowa that means we’re …

: My second post... Seems like I should have something profound for the first blog entries, and I can’t think of …

: This is my first post... Well the blog is here and now I have to actually maintain it. We’ll give it a try, though.