An evening with the brothers Finn

Wednesday morning... it's been a personally challenging week after making some hard decisions... I've been encouraged as well as challenged by people I love... I'm still not sure... HOWEVER...

As soon as I discovered about a week ago that the brothers Finn--Neil and Tim--were going to be at the Vogue in Broad Ripple, I wanted to seize the opportunity to see these incredible songwriters live. Tim, the eldest of the brothers started the band Split Enz in their native New Zealand in the early Seventies. His younger brother Neil joined the group for a season and later founded the band Crowded House. Probably unlike most fans, I didn't really discover the Finns until I picked up their 1996 "solo" project Finn. I was immediately drawn to the songs. They seemed at once beautifully makeshift and brilliant. Thus began my exploration into the discography of the Finn Brothers.

In the Fall of 2004, the Finns released the beautiful collaboration Everyone Is Here. As I had hoped to do, I took the opportunity to see them live at the Vogue last night and it may indeed have been the most incredibly enjoyable live music experience I have ever had. The music was wonderful... The boys' banter with one another and the intimate crowd was warm and hilarious. They performed several songs from the new album as well as some their work from the Split Enz & Crowded House days such as "World Where You Live", "It's Only Natural", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" and "What's the Matter with You". My wife who is a 6th grade teacher was quite tired through much of the show. I'm so glad that she joined me though and that we both got to see and hear the Finn Brothers perform an brilliant live set and an outstanding encore!

Well, well, well...

Work has begun in the renovation process in the place that we at cgpc are referring affectionately as "the Attic". It's been a long time a-comin' and last night, our Jr High ministry team began the purging process by throwing out over half of the nasty couches and chairs. Tyler and Kip literally threw a couple broken recliners down the stairs. It was quite a spectacle to be sure! Renee and Rose found some costume apparel for spirit points day at the Great Escape this summer. The "green" room has nothing on the floor now but the air-hockey table! It's unbelievable! Carpets are getting cleaned on Friday. I won't spoil the surprise of what's in store.

I'm ready to start recording for this next project [what once was to be known as maquette]. I am now tentatively calling it Not What She Used to Be... It's quite possible that could change within the next couple of days. Jason and I have been meeting and writing and playing... I've been talking to Bob and we're gonna get together soon to work up some stuff... and I'm ready to try some of the new stuff out soon...

I am sad to say that my favorite coffee mug which was purchased at Goodwill only last October--the same one featured in the profile photo to your left--recently had to be put to sleep. His handle apparently wasn't doing well and it just fell off while being pulled from the cabinet one day. None of us saw it coming. He wasn't with us very long but judging by his aesthetic features, he lived a full long life. Let's all raise a hot brew for our defunct friend! We barely knew ye!

Don't feed the baby strollers

Peep this my scalawags,

It was quite an interesting weekend once again. At first seemingly ordinary yet delightfully lovely. My brother-in-law and his wife were in town for a wedding in downtown Indy and my wife and I had the opportunity to babysit our 1-year-old niece during the rehearsal dinner on Friday evening. She is ridiculously cute... no, no, seriously. She looks like a Muppet baby version of my brother-in-law... which may or may not have clarified things for you.

My wife and I wheeled her around in her stroller at Circle Center mall for a few hours. We got to experience feeding a baby an olive-green pudding-like substance refered to on the label as Vegetable Medley with Pasta! It took all the will-power within me to keep from grabbing her jarred dinner and making a run for the Banana Republic to lose myself in euphoria! I withheld. However, while visiting Bath & Body Works [one my wife's favorite places to be] I nearly lost my niece to her collapsable stroller. Here's a hint for all you stroller manufacturers out there: Try putting the collapsing lever somewhere other than THE STROLLER HANDLE! Maybe it's my own fault for being the curious little monkey that I am, but if it weren't for the combination of encouragement of my apathetic on-lookers and sheer alligator-wrestling brute strenth, my dear young niece may not have been with us today.

I also got my Epiphone back from Guitarworks after being in the shop for a couple of weeks. It sounds rather acousticky and capoish... indeed. I am looking forward to recording some of the new songs I've been scribing recently.

Love and Lollipops,
Joel

A wiseman once told me

Good morning, depending on whether indeed in is morning or not when and wherever you are. It's Thursday and the seemingly eternal sinus infection which plagues me all of my days is growing into its full maturity. As the seasons change, so must we all...

It has now almost been a full week since our youth ministry's Sr High retreat at Pyoca but, I simply cannot slip through without commenting on the experience. This was arguably the best weekend retreat we have done in my almost-three-year tenure at CGPC. As God has been working on my own heart in a lot of hard, uncomfortable places recently, I found this weekend retreat to be a humble affirmation of my place in this ministry which He has called my wife and I to during this season of our life. I found it in the relationships, the discipleship, the community of worship and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Just as I pray that our teens and adult leaders alike wrestle with and explore the possibilities of their spiritual gifts, talents, values, personalities, and how God has uniquely made them, so do I continue to grow in my understanding of how and why I've been made. His Glory. That's the bottom line. Not to us, but to His name be the glory.

Well, just as I couldn't let that slip by, it is also imperative that I also let anyone who care to hear know this as well:: Thomas Wiseman is the Roller Skating King! Argue with me if you will, but you must know that it's futile. Keep on rollin' T-Shades!

Peace, love, and pancakes,
Joel

Intruder alert

The love, grace, and mercy of Christ invades us in a way that demands more than a portion of our attention. The God who loves us so perfectly and completely with unmerited favor deserves the attention of our entire being [heart + soul + mind + strength]. His perfect righteousness, perfect justice, and perfect love inspire the worship of our lives, not one day a week, not only in our grand endeavors which are seen, but also in the smallest details of our ordinary existance. He is, was and will continue to be our loving Redeemer who has rescued us from death and slavery into life where we are called His beloved, His sons and daughters, His heirs. How can we who are hopelessly broken be capable of such love and worship? Christ is the answer... Only by the intrusion of this Wonderful Lover into our broken and contrite souls can we begin to respond with our lives in worship to the One who deserves nothing less.

"Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use His words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thanksul hearts. And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through Him to God the Father." -Colossians 4:16-17

Tuesday morning

It's Tuesday morning and I've got about 4 and a half days until the Sr High Winter Retreat. Though there's much to be done before we leave on Friday evening, I'm really excited about the group we've got going down to Pyoca this year...

I've been so encouraged through the fellowship of several of my brothers in Christ this past week. As I spoke with Kyle yesterday afternoon, we both marveled at the idea of the revealing of God's mysterious plan for our lives does not end once you've reached the age of 28. As we both wrestle with our futures in very different seasons in our lives, I think we're able to pray for each other understanding our mutual sense of confusion as we step into the unknown having to trust fully in Christ with where he may be leading. I was able to have similar conversations recently with my good friends Josh, Phil, and Nick. These are other men in my life who challenge me to be honest and real about my brokenness. Their very friendship sharpens me like iron and presses my disobedient heart towards Jesus. I am so thankful for these brothers in Christ.

I love Jesus for how He loves me and loves me and loves me when I'm so dispicably unlovable.

May His unceasing love and mercy find you wherever you are at today!

Phil not Phil, etc.

The clock on my computer claims 10:01am, but I'm a little skeptical... For you see, this clock tends to lose track of the time quite often, but I digress...

I had lunch yesterday afternoon with my great friend and mentor and brother in Christ, Phil Jackson. For those of you scratching your proverbial head asking "Phil Jackson? Famed NBA championship coach several times over and Zen guru Phil Jackson?"... I'll let you ponder long and hard on that one.

Wrote a new song last night inspired by recent emotional and spiritual bouts... Enjoyed a homemade calzone made by my beautiful wife [Thanks for the GT Xpress 101 Mom!] and the company of some of our Sr High students at Center Grove Church [Tyler, Brad, Nicole, and Ty]. I poured myself a dark cup of decaf and listened to Brad and Tyler jam in the Mustard Room before watching a brand new episode of ER with a gun in it... Promos claimed America would be talking about this one. Well, America, are you talking?

Tonight we set a course for Lafayette to be musically and mentally challenged by the beat-driven, spiritually minded stylings of Josh Garrels!

Peace of Christ!

Haps in hipness

Greetings lost web travelers! I can't begin to imagine how you stumbled upon this weblog. Or is it simply 'blog'? I'm not quite as "hip" to the lingo as I'd like to let on... Nevertheless, I shall continue to share with y'all the haps and so forth as they indeed hap. Just a reminder, a new Joan of Arcadia is on tomorrow with guest star Hilary Duff! I am looking for extra VCRs which I can program just to be absolutely sure I don't miss it [I have yet to capture this elusive television genie known mysteriously as TIVO]... So anyone willing to lend a poor twenty-something male a spare VCR for an evening to guarantee his viewing enjoyment would be generously rewarded, I'm sure!

I'll be groovin' to the live sounds of Mr. Josh Garrels at Purdue University this Friday... I hope to see you there! Peace of Christ! Seacrest out!

Zoom! Crash! Boom!

It's funny how we often try to minimalize the Christian life as mountaintop and valley experiences. I know, I’ve heard the analogy and studied Matthew 17. I’ve even used that description myself. It’s an easy explanation. That’s what we like isn’t it? Easy explanations? I know I do. I’ve been guilty of using this analogy myself. But it seems a little too easy doesn’t it? This mountaintop/valley perspective on the Christian life comes off a bit one-dimensional when I look in on my own life.

Mike Yaconelli used to say that the roller coaster is a much more accurate model of the Christian life: “You say yes to Jesus, and suddenly you are strapped in and you think, I’m going to die! Then you begin the long climb of growth—Sunday school, baptism, church membership—and you think, Hey, no problem. I can follow Jesus anywhere, and then—ZOOOOOOOOM—you crash into the twists and turns of life, jerking left then right, up then down, and fifty, sixty years go by and—WHAM!—you’re dead.”

The reality of that model strikes me to the core! In all honesty, half the time I don’t know which way is up and which way is down. Recently, it’s been brought to my attention that many of my good friends who have begun their college chapter of life are struggling. They are struggling with school, future decisions, being away from families who miss their presence, broken relationships which have never been reconciled, deeply connecting with others… I’m suddenly reminded that, while exciting, new, and liberating, this phase of life can also be confusing and scary as hell!

Too often, we can find ourselves riding this roller coaster with others who seem to be having a good time—their hands are in the air, they’re screaming with the rest of the passengers as life goes careening left and right—but the reality is, they’re lonely and scared to death, believing they’re riding all by themselves. I’m not so sure that the rest of life is any different. I do know that on this disorienting ride called life, God’s grace meets us at every twist and every turn. I also know that we don’t need to ride alone. When we expose our fears, confess our brokenness and pray for each other, God heals and He makes us whole. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

New morning

This morning, awakened to the sunshine beaming in through my bedroom window, I was reminded that today is a new day… a chance to change… another chance at being and living to please Christ rather than wading in the puddles of stagnant filth that I often find myself in.

I spent some time in the book of Hosea—the story about a man who loved God and was married to a whoring, cheating wife. What’s more, it is a real life parable of God’s love for his people. As I crept in to the 3rd chapter this morning, I read that the prophet Hosea is told by God to “Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.”

On this particular morning, I think the greatest message I heard in this passage was not necessarily from Hosea’s perspective, but from the perspective of the unfaithful wife—or the unfaithful Israelites—listening in and realizing that I have a chance to start over with my loving groom—or with my loving Father. God’s love is still perfect and true for you and I as much today as it was yesterday or the day before that… or the day before that…

It’s a new day… a chance to change. Most of that is up to you and me. Am I willing to be changed? I know that our Abba Father is the God of restoration and reconciliation. We can start over because God loves us—even as we “flirt and party with every god that takes our fancy.”

Life, lifelessness and other childlike thoughts

Don’t touch that! Quiet down! Grow up! Quit acting like a child! Even from the time that we’re very small, we are often discouraged from behaving like children. Whether it’s for our own safety or whether it’s so that we’ll fit in, we are constantly told that we need to grow up and act our age. While approaching maturity as followers of Jesus requires us to put behind us childish things, I think we need to rediscover following Him with childlike faith. There’s a fine line between acting childish and being childlike.

Jesus has something to say about childlikeness. Matthew 18:3 gives an account of Jesus calling a small child to Himself and then saying to the adults around Him, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What would it look like for you and me to follow after Jesus like a child—with the wonder, the mystery, and the danger of experiencing life for the first time?

Faith like a child is the kind of faith honored by our Father in Heaven. It’s not a safe faith. It’s a faith that breeds curiosity and danger and astonishment. It is as Mike Yaconelli calls it in his book, Dangerous Wonder, a “gloriously treacherous” faith. There is no glory in a lifeless faith which simply finds us safely sitting in our pew every Sunday morning to enjoy our comfortable religious routine. Following Jesus is anything but comfortable or routine. Following after the unpredictable Jesus found in the gospels is flying by the seat of your pants. It’s having tables turned, curtains torn, and kingdoms flipped upside down. It’s never knowing what to expect Him to stir up in our perfectly mapped-out lives.

Treacherous? indeed! Glorious? Absolutely!

So how is the Church today, any different from those of the early Church who were martyred for their zeal in following after Jesus? The culture is certainly different in many ways, but what about us? What about the Church? The disciples of the early Church were not called to live safely, but were commissioned by Christ Himself to “go”. This going that Jesus had in mind didn’t have anything to do with going and hiding away in their comfy little feel-good steeple-adorned buildings so as not to be infected by the world. Instead, the going that Jesus commands at the end of Matthew is a charge to infect the world with Himself, making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them! Nothing very passive about that kind of life. Some might even consider it “dangerous”, “adventurous”, or “risky”.

We’ve become satisfied with a life-enhancing Christianity rather than a life-changing Christianity. We’re often content with being “nice people” instead of radical followers of Jesus.

So what’s at the root of this very un-Christlike mentality?

Hmmm… That’s a list too lengthy to go into. But for the sake of this article, let’s talk about fear. Do you fear going to unfamiliar places? Do you fear people who look very different from yourself? Do you fear investing in other people? Do you fear rejection from other people? Do you fear the possibility of missing out on life elsewhere while you’re not there? Do you fear that you’re not good enough for God to use you? I sure am. It’s ironic how we can miss out on life because we’re afraid of experiencing life. But that’s often what happens. We turn our backs on experiencing life and in the process turn our backs on God, the author and perfector of life. We become the Church’s own worst enemy by saying that we believe in Jesus while we’re no longer astonished and amazed by Him. It’s a frightening notion. It frightens me even more to think that I could—or potentially already have—become that very person.

I want to live dangerously close to Jesus, in absolute awe, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. But I’m afraid… I’m afraid of having my life “ruined” by Jesus, because that’s exactly what Jesus does. He turns our lives inside out and upside down until the only way we know who we are is by knowing who He is. He invented life. He offers us to experience life and promises it to us abundantly. Often that means being violently thrown from our cozy four-walled religion into a wildly colorful and boisterous world.

I want to approach the throne of Grace with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, completely and utterly overwhelmed by the unflinching love of my Father.

This is it

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” -Jeremiah 29:11

Over the past month, God has been stirring up a lot of things inside of me. For about a week in March I was going through a bout of emotional ups and downs as I often do (I’ve got my mother’s emotions—don’t tell anyone else that!) Just as I started questioning where all of this was coming from, my wife and I were blessed with a five day vacation at the end of the month. We spent our time in a place between Nashville and Knoxville called Fairfield Glade. The overcast, rainy whether which accompanied us most of the week only helped me to relax and start to unpack some of the stuff I was dealing with.

As the week progressed, and I gradually slowed down and got my heart quieter, I began to realize what was happening. I’m investing my life into kids who are gonna leave. It’s one thing that I wasn’t really prepared for when diving into youth ministry. I maybe experienced some of that last year, but the relationships which God has forged between myself and many of our Seniors this year have been on a deeper level. I’m simply really gonna miss them when they leave for college in the Fall! These kids aren’t just students of mine, but they’re brothers and sisters in Christ, partners in ministry, friends.

It’s been so exciting to watch these kids wrestle with their faith. Together we’ve questioned what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We’ve carried each others burdens, shared in each others joys, and have laughed ourselves silly in the process. Together we’ve come to the end of ourselves and have been met by the arms of our Savior who bids us come unto Himself for rest from the busyness we’re all so guilty of. I have been blessed to be a part of our Father’s nurturing as He continues to grow these kids into wide-eyed, radical lovers of God.

As I sit back and take all of this in, I can feel the gentle affirming voice of my Father reassuring me that this is what the Church should be about. This is what following Jesus is about. It’s about people. It’s about lives being shared and turned upside down and inside out as we learn to abandon ourselves and awkwardly seek fellowship with the same Jesus who has been all the while chasing us down and recklessly loving us into His arms.

I feel oddly like a parent—coming to terms with the fact that I’ve got to let go of my kids and entrust them into the hands of the One who brought them into my life in the first place. I love these kids, but it thrills me even more to know that the same Jesus who meets me in the broken places of my life is even more in love with them than I could ever imagine.

Can you relate?

I have been meeting one-on-one every week with a young man who is asking questions… Questions about truth… Questions about faith… Questions about life and eternity and a guy named Jesus Christ. Our conversations are often deep. Sometimes they are not so deep. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable when he asks questions that I feel inadequate to answer. But the amazing thing is that God always shows up and He doesn’t expect me to have all the answers. God expects me to respond to His love with compassion. God expects me to see my friend through the eyes of the One who saw me fit to receive forgiveness. But you know what? Sometimes, it’s really hard to see past ME.

If the world is to know we are Christ’s disciples by our love for one another, what then would the world have to say about us? Often, it seems like we, the church, are more concerned with pursuing our own agendas than we are about showing compassion to those who seem to “get in our way”. Jesus tells us to settle our disagreements and to be reconciled with each other quickly. Unfortunately, the church finds itself looking just like the rest of the world when it comes to bickering, back-biting, and bitterness. The outside of the cup can look neat and tidy, but means absolutely nothing if the inside is caked in bitter hearts, spiteful grudges, and selfish motives. I bring these things up as a sinner saved by grace who struggles with these very issues. I wrestle with myself and others over “serving God” MY way. But when I sit down with my friend over coffee and read about Jesus while he asks questions about why life matters, I begin to remember that it’s so much NOT about me. It’s not about doing ministry MY way or anybody else’s way for that matter. It’s about loving God and loving people.

Life matters because people matter… to God. He has created us and us alone in His own image. We are valued and loved by our Wonderful Creator. Understanding God’s love frees us to walk humbly with Him and to stop demanding more from Him and those around us. Walking humbly with God produces peace in our lives and enables us to engage a world full of people in need of forgiveness with compassion. We were created to walk humbly with God through this life, through death, and out the other side to eternity with Him.