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 August of 2006 and ran my first 5k in September of that year. After the initial 5k I never trained much for the races. I’ve run the local Hog Wild Days 5k every year since then, but even then never trained much or cranked up the pace much. My race times evidenced that fact: I ran that first 5k in 31 minutes and change, and 4 years later I was still running right about 30 minutes for a 5k.

At some point this spring, though, some switch flipped in my head, and running became enjoyable and something of a compulsion. I started tracking my runs using runkeeper.com and being more regular with my running. I got in more than 50 miles in April, 47 in May, slacked in June whilst on vacation, and now I’m back at it in July.

My times are showing the improvement. I felt pretty darn sluggish for the Hog Wild Days 5k this year and still completed it in 27 minutes. Then I ran the Alliant Energy 8k on July 4th and completed that in right at 45 minutes.

At the moment I haven’t made a real decision on whether to work for distance or speed next, but I’m leaning towards distance. I ran a 6-mile route this morning and really enjoyed it. I’ve been tossing around the idea of running the New Bo Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend, but haven’t been brave enough to send in the registration form yet. Either way, it’s time for a new pair of shoes between now and then.

I’m still working on understanding why I enjoy running as much as I do. Partly it’s the personal challenge, proving to myself that I can stretch my body beyond where it’s gone before. Partly it’s also so nice to have my body feeling perpetually tired and sore rather than slow and sluggish. It’s also nice when the running helps take off a few pounds.

I doubt I’ll keep with the running long-term as seriously as I have this year, but it’s something I want to keep as a regular part of my life. 30 years from now I’d love to be one of those old guys I saw in the race on Monday, still chugging along and running 5 miles faster than a lot of the young guys.

More about church efficiency and effectiveness

I’ve been mulling over Skye Jethani’s question about efficiency and effectiveness after my brother Andrew prodded me with some comments. Andrew argues for prioritizing efficiency and effectiveness thusly:

If reaching people with the Gospel is the ultimate goal, then efficiency (the stewardship of resources towards the greatest gospel advance possible) and effectiveness (the fruit of that stewardship) is essential. We’re asking, ‘what do we have that is being used for missions, and how well is it doing its job?’ If you’re not constantly asking those two questions than you’re not really going to be ‘effective’..

I’m beginning to think that we actually more or less agree on the need for efficiency and effectiveness, but are looking at it in different perspectives. Because the goal is two-fold: “preach the Gospel”, and “make disciples”.

Now, maybe we can preach the Gospel most effectively by just taping the “best of” sermon series from and distributing it via video to every corner of creation. But does that help us with disciple-making?

Or does it possibly stunt our disciple-making efforts because it takes away opportunities for men to become teachers and hone their teaching skills, and for local pastors to tailor teaching to speak specifically to the needs of their local congregation?

We’re getting a ways off here from Jethani’s original point, maybe. And yeah, I’m sure any well-run megachurch is going to need an amazing elder board to hold it together. But I think we would do well to learn from the example long set before us: of small, local churches with local leadership, benefiting occasionally from the all-star teacher who was visiting town. Maybe efficiency and effectiveness comes through grassroots insurgency rather than from video sermon distribution.

Having written all that… if you need me, I’ll be off catching up on Matt Chandler’s podcast.

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 of ways. First off, he’s taking a lesson from the redundancy that is built in to airplanes, making them the safest way to travel. (I’m a certification engineer at an avionics company, so I am very familiar with what he’s talking about.) Second, he asks what the church should be learning on this issue. It is wise to structure a large church organization around a “main man”?

(This also hits home because there was a time in my history when I was told that I would cause great damage to my particular church if I chose to follow what I felt was God’s leading to go elsewhere. I wasn’t the pastor - only an elder and part-time worship leader. I went ahead and left anyway. The church, of course, was fine. But that’s a different story.)

Jethani is asking questions about places like Bethlehem Baptist (John Piper) and Redeemer NYC (Tim Keller), both of which are large organizations built around single, superstar pastors. (Other churches quickly come to mind - Mars Hill Seattle (Mark Driscoll), for instance.)

…whenever I’ve discussed this inherent danger [of a single failure affecting multiple congregations] with those operating video-based multi-site systems they invariably mention the efficiency and effectiveness of their model. Who can disagree? Utilizing one highly gifted person to impact thousands of people in multiple cities is unquestionably efficient….

But who decided that efficiency and effectiveness were the highest values for ministry?

Boom. Awesome question. Jethani goes on to enumerate some reasons why a more redundant, less efficient organization might well be healthier for churches. It’s worth a read.

And oh, yeah - about those airplanes? Some of the most amazing safety engineering ever done happens on those aircraft. They include redundancy in ways you’d never imagine. Very cool stuff.

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 wherein he examines how bureaucratic structures in the world tend to dehumanize us.

In each of the [stories above] human beings are not interacting directly. We are, rather, interacting through the power structures of the world. I don’t know the name of the man in my backyard about to turn off my electricity. And he doesn’t know my name. Our relationship is, rather, defined by our locations in a bureaucratic power structure. He’s an agent of the electric company. I’m an address on his work order. That is how our relationship is defined. A relationship stripped of its humanity. And as a consequence I have to work mightily to treat this man with respect. He isn’t to blame. But everything about this dehumanized interaction makes me want to yell at him. To direct my anger at him.

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? How easy it is to rage against people who are only trying to do their job. Beck calls us to vigilance:

On and on it goes. If we are not careful, if we are not vigilant, if we are not prayerful modern life will dehumanize us. It is a demonic force that must be resisted. I keep going back to something William Stringfellow said, we must struggle to live humanely in the midst of the Fall.

And he closes with a fantastic illustration that I won’t copy here, but that is worth reading in full; go take a look.

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 a week. For the past couple of weeks they’ve had a message up on their sign that has irritated me to no end. Now, sayings on church signs have a way of being trite and cutesy, but this one has surpassed that and gone on to outright misguided ridiculousness.

First, the quote from the sign:

“Don’t make me come down there!” – God

Here begins the rant.

I’m trying to think of ways this could be interpreted, and no matter how you do it, they’re all bad. Some things it could be construed to be saying:

  • God isn’t actually involved down here on earth right now. Apparently He’s somewhere distant, and just observing. That’s obviously incorrect.
  • People on earth are at some marginally-acceptable level of sinfulness right now. Wrong again! We’re all sinful. No one does good. We’ve all missed the mark.
  • If we cross some line of sinfulness, then… BLAM! God’s gonna come down and make us pay! No. God isn’t up there threatening to blow us away. He promised he wouldn’t flood the earth again and wipe everything out. (I have to remind myself of that when the springtimes get abnormally rainy…) And He poured out His wrath on Jesus. Jesus died so we don’t have to.
  • God coming down here to Earth is a thing to be feared. Uh, no. God coming to Earth in the person of Jesus is the best thing that’s ever happened to Earth and humankind.

I assume somebody at that church saw the message on the internet somewhere, thought it was clever, and put it up without even thinking any further about it. It pains me that the message has been there for weeks now and apparently no one at the church has discernment enough to recognize the gross error and get it taken down.

A message to church sign designers everywhere: if you’re going to put a weekly message on your sign, keep it informational, or, at worst, cutesy. This sign is a big steaming pile of pseudo-cleverness served with a nice heretical gravy on top. Make it go away.

Moving at the speed of love

Richard Beck has a great piece today on interruptibility.

Basically, interruptibility is a form of welcome and hospitality. It is a way of making room for others. This space we create is less a physical space than a temporal space, making room in your To Do list, making space so we can slow down and pay attention to others.

Interruptibility is, he says, “a sign that we are moving at the speed of love.” (What a great line!)

Beck goes on to explore some other traits that our interruptibility (or lack thereof) demonstrates. It’s worth reading the whole thing.

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 little heavy on Arcade Fire, but I’ve been listening to them a lot while I’ve been running this spring, and the tempos of the songs work really well. Anyway, here’s what I’ve got:

  1. “Modern Man” - Arcade Fire
  2. “Beautiful Day” - U2
  3. “Brighter Day” - Gungor
  4. “City With No Children” - Arcade Fire
  5. Someone Else’s Arms - Mae
  6. “After The Garden” - Andrew Osenga
  7. “Month of May” - Arcade Fire
  8. “Hometown Glory” - Adele

If I finish in the time I’m hoping for, I’ll be somewhere in the middle of “Month of May” when I cross the finish line. The Adele song is a fantastic cooldown song.

Here’s hoping for good weather in the morning and a good race time!

The right kind of tolerance

“Tolerance” is a much misunderstood word these days. I remember hearing a barn-burner of a chapel message back in college from Josh McDowell, warning us that the biggest sin in the worlds eyes in upcoming days would be “intolerance”, which they would define (roughly) as “saying someone’s beliefs are wrong”.

The fact of the matter is that it’s impossible to be tolerant if you don’t disagree with someone, since tolerance is, by definition, allowing the existence of something that you disagree with. I was recently witness to an illustration…

Our associate pastor, Robin, and his wife, Kathryn, hosted a foreign exchange student last year. His name is Ahmed and he is from Egypt. When I first heard about him (just a few weeks ago - guess I’m out of the loop!) I thought to myself maybe he’s Coptic Orthodox or something… that’d make sense if he’s living with a Christian pastor… but nope - Ahmed is a Muslim. Some experience that must’ve been, I thought.

Then two weeks ago, after the sermon in our Sunday morning service, Pastor Robin invited Ahmed to join him on the platform and they spent nearly 15 minutes discussing Ahmed’s year here. Ahmed told the story of his initial trepidation of being hosted by a Christian pastor. He told a couple of funny fish-out-of-water stories that had everyone laughing. He admitted that American high school was a much more laid back and pleasant experience than his all-boys French Catholic high school back in Egypt. And he spoke proudly of the Egyptian people’s overthrow of the Mubarak regime in this spring’s revolution.

Then Robin invited Ahmed to share with us the basic beliefs of Islam, and asked him to talk a bit about how Muslims view Jesus and what some of the key differences are between Islam and Christianity. Our church listened intently as Ahmed described the Five Pillars of Islam and that the Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet though they don’t believe that he was crucified and resurrected.

When the discussion time was over, Pastor Robin prayed for Ahmed, asking God to guide him and watch over him as he returned to Egypt. Then Ahmed was presented with a parting gift: a McDonald’s gift card. (Apparently Ahmed has developed a taste for Big Macs.)

This, my friends, was a beautiful display of the right kind of tolerance. There was no pretense in the entire conversation (or, clearly, in the entire relationship between Ahmed and his “parents” Robin and Kathryn) that they agreed religiously. However, the love and respect between them as they discussed their differing beliefs and shared experience of the past year was evident and obviously real. Ahmed was also quite gracious in his willingness to be prayed for by a man who believes so differently. (I sometimes wonder whether I and my Christian brethren would be as gracious if the roles were reversed.)

That Sunday morning discussion between Robin and Ahmed was valuable for all of us in several ways. We learned a little more about Islam. We gained a better appreciation for seeing our own Christian practice through foreign eyes. And whenever some rabble-rousing politician or media fear-monger wants to stereotype Muslims, we’ll be able to look back to this handsome, genial, friendly young man and remember that those who follow Islam are, for the vast majority, like him, and not like those extremists that we are told to fear.

My friends, this is true and good tolerance, and I am all for it.

Awesome morning music mix

My music playlist is full of awesome this morning. (Thanks as usual to Geof for the playlist algorithms.) Here’s the proof:

  1. “Just As I Am” - Andrew Peterson, from Love and Thunder
  2. “Saturday Sun” - Nick Drake, from Five Leaves left
  3. “Winter Winds” - Mumford and Sons, from Sign No More
  4. “Springtime Indiana” - Sandra McCracken, from Gypsy Flat Road
  5. “Walkin’ Home” - Billy Crockett, from In These Days
  6. “Nobody’s Fool” - Avril Lavigne, from Let Go
  7. “Four Horses” - Andrew Osenga, from Letters to the Editor, Vol. 2
  8. “Heaven Can Wait” - Charlotte Gainsbourg, from IRM
  9. “Sad” - Eisley, from The Valley
  10. “Please Be My Strength” - Gungor, from Beautiful Things
  11. “Furr” - Blitzen Trapper, from Furr
  12. “Blue Bayou” - Norah Jones and M. Ward, from …Featuring
  13. “Alien Conspiracy, Or, The Cheese Song” - Andrew Peterson, from Appendix A

Within the next 15 upcoming, I’ve got Simon & Garfunkel, Derek Webb, Fleet Foxes, Leigh Nash, Ryan Adams, Coldplay, Adele, and Harry Connick. So good.