Hear ye, here ye

So here I sit, typing upon my keyboard, officially thirty years of ruggedly-aged joel. It would be silly to say that I really feel any older than I did yesterday, but it certainly does cause one to look back on the seasons of life with a little perspective. The last six months have been a series of emotional chutes and ladders for Miranda and I. There was really nothing that I wanted more than to celebrate my thirty years on earth with some the those who

are dearest to my heart. I was honestly overwhelmed as sixty or so family and friends merged in our backyard for conversation, food, games, music and frivolity through a monkey sprinkler!

Thank you everyone.

Garage sale

Aloha

After months of anticipation about our upcoming, long overdue vacation, Miranda and I finally made it to Hawaii. Oh sure, many never even make it across the Pacific to the beautifully lush islands in a lifetime. But you see, it was the very dreaming of one day traveling to Hawaii which brought our relationship to a new level of commitment what began eight short years ago. Now that the two of us have been to the islands together, we can finally move on with our lives. In planning for our visit, we opted to find a cheap, all-inclusive cruise which would visit several of the islands. After some online research, we chose to embark on The Pride of Aloha with Norwegian Cruise Lines.

We flew in to the island of Maui and enjoyed a couple of days there before floating over to Honolulu on Oahu. During our stay in Honolulu we met a wonderful family from Nebraska who hiked up Diamond Head Crater with us. We also joined them for dinner a couple of times on the boat. From Honolulu we drifted up to the garden island, Kauai where we had the privilege of looking out over the Grand Canyon of the Pacific known as Waimea. We also did some snorkeling in Kauai. I have to tell you, snorkeling in the Pacific was just about one of the most magical things Miranda and I have ever done together. During our honeymoon in Florida six years ago, we visited this makeshift aquatic zoo in what had to be someone's back yard. It was, to say the least, highly entertaining. The simultaneously cool and sad thing about this questionable operation though was that they had a giant sea turtle in this little pool. He was a beautiful creature slowly swimming back and forth. Occasionally, he would poke his head out of the water and look you right in the eye as if to say, "Not a whole lot to do around here is there." But Miranda marveled over him like a little child. Until then, I had no idea how much she enjoyed sea turtles... Fast forward to Kauai, 2006. Aside from the colorful fish of many sizes and shapes, we got to float right over two big sea turtles as they waved their mighty flippers and went on with their everyday turtle lives. As amazing as swimming with those turtles was,and believe me it was pretty amazing, the thing that gave me more joy was watching my wife's face light up behind her snorkel and mask. The plastic plumbing clinging tightly to her face couldn't hide the shrieks of delight as she watched those turtles float slowly beneath her. If I'd ever forgotten, all of the memories of why I first fell in love with this girl came rushing back to me.

After two days on Kauai, our boat took us to the big island where we stopped at Hilo for a day to ride bicycles down a volcano and then Kona where we went 100 feet below sea level in a tiny submarine. Our journey ended where it began back on the island of Maui where they booted us off the boat at 8:45am and shuttled us to the airport where our flight was to leave at 5:50pm. Miranda and I decided to rent a car and drive for a while. We took off along the coast down the Hana highway to see what we could see. We found a beautiful off-road oasis call the Twin Falls where we hiked back to swim in some crispy cool waterfalls. We then stopped to walk along the beach on our way back to the airport at afternoon's end.

Sure, we had to endure the tiresome bitching of some of the cruise snobs aboard the ship. We went cheap and had no cruise experience with what to compare. I say, you get whatyou pay for. And who cares anyway? We were in paradise. No amount of airborne flu, bad buffet food or obnoxious cruise directors could take away from that. The icing on the cake, as our plane departed over the Pacific, was looking out over the expanse of endless blue sea that slowly veiled itself beneath the thick of clouds that cradled the sky like an arctic landscape. I swear we could have set that big old jet right down and all walked out to dance around for a bit. I just said, yeah God, that's pretty good.

This bird has flown

Dearest brethren of Center Grove Church,

It is with pain in my heart and tears in my eyes that I write this letter. These three and a half years behind us have reaped so much fruit for God's Kingdom. Along with many of you, my wife and I have seen lives transformed by the grace and love of Jesus Christ. We have experienced the warmth and healing of God's mercy in genuine Christian community. I can think of no greater joy - save the love of Christ - than sharing in the chapters being written into God's story which we've been so graciously allowed.

We are filled with such joy and yet it burdens us in knowing that we have experienced more grief and agony from tongues of those whom we should call brother and sister than we have from those who do not claim to know Christ. I say this not to dismiss the work that God is doing through the people of Center Grove Church. It's hard to imagine a greater tragedy than to allow a foothold to the enemy who seeks to destroy what has been established and consecrated by God. Rather these words are meant to encourage you dear brothers and sisters to press on in love and in oneness in Christ Jesus. Do not give up! Do not give up on His goodness and do not give up on one another. Surely, our loving Father has yet to give up on any of us. We pray as we leave you that in the days and months and years ahead that Center Grove Church will be known for being a community which listens. May you listen for God's redeeming voice in the silence between the busyness which most mistake for life. Don Miller said it this way, "We can trust our fate to a jury of peers, we can work to accumulate wealth, buy beauty under a surgeon's knife, panic for our identities under the fickle friendship of culture, and still die in separation from the one voice we really needed to hear.

I was invited to Center Grove Church to dream and to cast a vision for the youth ministries at Center Grove Church. The vision which I continually saw before me and was convicted to follow was not that of efficiency and fast-paced programming, but instead had more to do with authentic, relational community. I believe with all of my heart that God was blessing and will continue to bless that ministry in which He has laid the foundation.

It pains us to leave you this way, not of our own sensing of God's calling us elsewhere. However, God can and will take all things and use them for His glory. Of that we can be quite sure.

Therefore, do not stop loving one another with your very lives. For love washes over a multitude of things and it is by our love for one another in which we will be recognized by the world as Christ's bride.

As the apostle Paul said, "When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reign in your minds and in your hearts,

joel

Only wish

The 2005 Christmas ep is now making it's way into the hands of good folks both young and old. This one was a joy to create as the songs took on a lovely shape thanks to the nurturing of a couple of good friends named jason and kyle.

Be sure to come out for a hot beverage at Strange Brew on friday, january 20th while the boys from rebel robot and myself share some music and song.

"If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." -c.s. lewis

And the adult superstores shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

I just spent a handful of hours northbound on 65 from the wonderfully inclined nashville city. My wife and I spent about four days hanging out at the annual YS national youth workers convention. We hadn't been in a couple of years, but had the chance to spend the time with two incredible women (one R. Furrow and another A. Johnson) who are continuing to listen to and follow God's wonderfully calling on their lives. Together, the four of us were challenged and encouraged in our faith, love, and in the youth ministry at center grove church which God has called us to be partners in. I made a few new friends like Brad from first baptist church in Williamsburg, Kay Why. We sat in on a seminar together, snapped a few photos and prayed for one another before parting ways. He has just finished a year as an interim youth pastor of a group of about twenty kids (jr AND sr high). After a brief conversation, it was evident that God has been blessing their "small" youth group with depth in relationships and transformed lives rather than with numbers...

As I spent the last few days in Nashville, reflecting on our ministry, fuming about our church community, listening to God, to brothers and sisters in Christ, to Dylan... alot of things began to percolate... not only in my mind, but in my heart. I began to see how inward focused I have become lately. I have forgotten my first love. I have stopped trusting my God. I have stopped jumping fearlessly into His arms with wild abandon. And yet, regardless of my own neglect of my soul and of the God who alone can nourish and sustain me, He has not forgotten me. Somehow, in my confusion, and inability to see two steps ahead of my self, I am held by the peace of Christ Jesus. You are my joy You are my joy You are my joy You are my joy.

And so, after miles and miles of billboards citing Scriptures adjacent to adult superstores, I arrive home. Not with answers to all of my questions, but with joy in my heart and a hope in the God who was doing just fine before I came around and who certainly doesn't need me now. And yet he desires me. He delights in me. He invites me to be apart of His story as salvation unfolds and His kingdom comes.

The timeless art of malfunction

Please come out to see me and the boys from rebel robot at Sophia's Portico coffeehouse in the basement of Olive Branch Community Church (corner of 56th and Broadway in Broad Ripple). We'll be sharing songs and musical ambiance to rattle and soothe your soul.

For more info check out www.myspace.com/joelrockeymusic.

See y'all soon!

Unnecessary exhaust

I know I know I know I know I know... It's been a while. Well, it may be little while longer... however,

Hey hermanos...

Just sitting here thinking about how life is going. Something tells me that things are about to shake up... let's try that again. Something tells me that things are about to shake up? Ahh! Much better.

The week has been unnecessarily exhausting. I couldn't necessarily say why. Perhaps the four hours spent driving to and from the Fort of Wayne on Tuesday somehow contributed to the matter. Nevertheless, it was a trip worth taking as Miranda and I surprised her mother on her birthday by showing up for dinner with the rest of the family. I believe her mother got a little misty around the eyes. It was also a joy to see our niece Megan after a few months being apart.

Last night I enjoyed the company of one Andrew Furrow as we cleaned through stuff in my office, discussing literature and speaking back and forth through mobile communication devices. These are surely times to be cherished. Meanwhile, don't you dare miss Andrew, myself and other exciting musicians as we perform at the CGPC Fall Festival this Halloween. Here is an 80 bit rate download of some work-in-progress just for the special few who may care. Enjoy!

Somebody get an organ to play

Time passes... slowly, quickly, away, by, on... these are all relative terms. Time passes, that much we DO know. But I digress.

I recently experienced something I've never experienced before and quite hopefully never will again. That being the wedding of my younger and only brother Jeremy. I also had the first-time experience of being a best man in a wedding. It was an incredible experience being able to stand next to my brother as he and his wife said their vows and as Pastor Greg Glover delivered a message of profound biblical proportions. I may have cried a bit. It cut me deep!

The reception held at the dolphin pavilion at the Indianapolis Zoo was really quite nice. We got to check out the dolphins and bust some fat moves to the phat beats of all your favorite dance party hits! I will tell you that you've never experienced anything quite like a Rockey wedding reception. Needless to say, all were exhausted by the end of the evening. Plus, my retarded tux jacket somehow mysteriously disappeared. I'm looking at a $130 fee on top of the $150 rental fee unless it turns up. I'm currently taking donations.

Recording has FINALLY started on the new album! Tracks for two songs are currently being laid down in the Mustard Room with more on the way. I'm so excited to being getting these songs on record and sharing them with others. I'll have some audio clips available soon.

Keep cool my babies!

joel

Gloria a Dios

 Hey Hey diddle diddle,

I just spent a week in Tulum with an amazing group of Sr High kids, my wife, and some other good friends. It was nothing short of amazing! This was not a mission trip as much as a partnership... I guess really that qualifies as mission and as Christian, I suppose there is a great deal of life that is missional in purpose... Kingdom missional... The mission of love, compassion, peace, justice... Jesus' mission.

Together with our hermanos y hermanas en Jesuscristo, we ate, laughed, played, loved, worshiped, listened, prayed, sang as one. Two cultures brought together by the Maker of all good things to learn from one another and to build bridges of cross-cultural ministry and reconciliation. Spending a week with friends of such depth and hearts the size of Volkswagen buses...

Gloria a Dios!

Not being there

I'm telling you, I surely missed being there (to steal an album title from Jeff Tweedy and Co.) at the Cornerstone festival with the kids from our Sr High youth group. However, my beautiful wife Miranda and I seized the opportunity of an early weekend together to road trip up to Lake Michigan for a couple of days. It was so incredibly delightful and I find no shame in admitting that during our stay in northern Indiana, we did absolutely nothing!

We ate a couple of meals, slept in a Days Inn, watched a couple episodes of Biography on A&E... but mostly all we did was lay around and read on the sand covered beaches cradled between the rolling dunes and the blue-upon-blue water. Miranda and I both wondered why we had never taken the opportunity to get away to Lake Michigan until now. We were both surprised at how beautiful the beaches and the water were. Neither of us remembered them being so from our childhood.

It was, in a word: Super.

By the way, until our little road trip, it has been years since I last listened to Wilco's Being There... I don't know why... I'd gotten so wrapped up in their last two albums, I'd forgotten how brilliant it is. BE THERE!

About the Great Escape

Dear hearts,

I know it's been longer than a fortnight since last we had a chance encounter. But things have been poppin' round these parts! I will proceed to indulge you with a few highlights from recent weeks.

Those who know me know that I have a hearty passion for crafting songs and worship experiences with others. I had the blessed opportunity to partner with several of the Sr High students in our youth ministry two weeks in a row to lead others in praise and worship before God. First, at Center Grove Church and the next week at Olive Branch Community Church in Broad Ripple. Olive Branch was a small intimate congregation, but the worship experience was passionate and challenging. Thanks Andrew, Ryan, Tyler, and Emily for your hearts and willingness to serve. Thanks also to all those who went along with us to Olive Branch; Annie, Gary, Chris, Miranda, Stephen, Kierstin, Rose, Brad, Erin, and her friend whose name escapes me at the moment.

Last week I traveled to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with nine Jr High students, my wife, and Emily Furrow to The Great Escape. When I reflect on the week, the first word to fall from my lips is still AMAZING. The week is always one of my favorite weeks of the entire year and God always blows my mind and encourages me and challenges me personally every year. This year was particularly exciting because two of our Sr High students, Kip Kyburz and Kaitlyn Salpietro, are serving on Work Crew for two weeks at The Great Escape. It was incredible to be there with them and to witness the ministry they're having with all of the kids who come in to the week of camp. There can surely be no greater joy I know than to see the fruitof spiritual maturity in young people.

By the end of the week, all of the kids had been met by God's grace and left challenged to surrender to loving arms of their Heavenly Father. My buddy Sam asked Jesus into his heart and we all celebrated. It was, again, AMAZING! It's always hard to come home after a week of close-knit community and learning about Jesus together such as that experienced at The Great Escape. However, I am genuinely excited and can't wait to see how these students will continue to be shaped over the next year. One of the most incredible things has been seeing God's heart for ministry grow in these Sr High and college students. And how awesome is it to be reminded by a Jr High student of how captivating and exciting God's Word is!?

Humbling, but truly awesome!

Now, I gotsta get me some sleepy-eye! Good night Suzie Lee wherever you may be.

Listen! Do you smell something?

Smell is one of our chemical senses, the other being taste. They are so called because they sense chemicals, and smells are, of course, chemicals. Our sense of smell is also responsible for about 80% of what we taste. Without our sense of smell, our sense of taste is limited to only five distinct sensations. Conclusively, our sense of smell is arguably one of our most important. Whether for finding food, avoiding predators or choosing a mate, the sense of smell is critical for the existence of almost all creatures. We humans, able to distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules, utilize our sense of smell for a multitude of activities from enjoying the aroma of freshly brewed coffee to deciding when Junior needs to his diaper changed. In the last 15 years scientists have made great advances to our understanding of how our nose detects odor molecules and our brain processes the resulting information that gives rise to the sensation of smell.

I’m sure you’re wondering by now why a guy who slacked and struggled to earn a C- in his sophomore biology class is giving you a lesson on the workings of the olfactory system… Well, that’s a mighty fine question indeed!

The apostle Paul tells the Church that through us, God brings knowledge of Christ. “Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life” (2Cor.2:14,15). Have you ever really thought about smelling of Jesus? As the Church, our very lives emit an aroma that can be smelled from miles around which reveals far more about us than the exterior facades we build up. James tells us that a robust community living in step with God can only happen when we do the submissive work of treating each other in the Church with dignity and honor. “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness” (Ja.3:18).

The fragrance we give off correlates directly with how we love one another in the Church. Remember that old gospel hymn “…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love…” When the world catches wind of us, do they smell peace, love, mercy, and compassion or the foul aroma of bitter envy, selfish ambition, and pride? It’s a question we need to take seriously. When we find ourselves in disagreement with one another, do we respond with complaining and gossip? If we are to be the aroma of Christ to those who don’t know Him then we must find ourselves, in humility, on our knees for and coming alongside one another. Only then will we be, to a hopeless world, the sweet smell of salvation.