Blink

I have been reading on a book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It has been very interesting so far. He talked about this thing called thin slicing that basically pointed to the fact that we could make very good, sound judgments about people based on nothing but what we observe in people. The thing that makes this tricky (because this happens on an unconscious level) is that our conscience catches up and interrupts out "gut feeling" with "facts."

It is just interesting to think that we can make good (i.e. accurate) judgments about people and then convince ourself contrary to our initial "feelings." I need to learn to trust my initial feelings.

Organic Church-Introduction

Christianity has been buried inside the walls of churches and secured with the shackles of dogmatism. Let it be liberated to come into the midst of us and teach us freedom, equality and love.--Minna Canth

For many years now I have taken to going to church less and less because I find so little there of what I hunger for. It is a sense of the presence of God that I hunger for.--Frederick Buechner

The data seems to tell us that people are interested in Jesus, but they are not interested in the church, at least not as popularly defined and practiced. We have equated spiritually as going to church and because people don't like church, they are labeled as not spiritual. What a load of crap!

So, the common cry of most churches is"ya'll come." It is about getting people to come to a location. It is about getting people to a place on a regular basis. When you step back and think about it, is it not odd that we expect spiritual transformation to happen this way? We don't see any examples of this in the New Testament.

Spiritual transformation is what happens when a person encounters the gospel. And the gospel is the story of creation being rescued from destruction. And that story involves all of us.

Because of the philosophy mentioned above, we have made "church" a show that happens once a week. It is a religious show, we watch and then we go home, having fulfilled out "commitment" for the week; having been "transformed" by our showing up.

And so, from a New Testament perspective the church is the place where Jesus is. It is not a building. It is not a weekly show. It is not a program that promises to do something for you. The church is believers trying to live out their faith.

If I seem a bit bothered, it is because I am. I am tired of the assumption being that "they" should come to "us." I want it to be "us" doing life with "them." However, I would still like less of the "us" and "them" terminology. (I am not quite sure how to transform my attitude.)

Questions:
1. Have you ever had the mentality of "ya'll come?" Have you ever been asked or invited to a location?
2. How would you define church? How would you define spiritually?

Ministry Watch on CBS

A good blurb about a needed ministry.

(ht bill)

John Adams

I am so excited about this...

Expelled Movie

This looks like it is worth watching

Awesome!

Sometimes life is awesome...

1. Three friends had babies last week on the same day...the Paynes, the Wojteks, and the Lantzs. How odd is that I would know three people that would all have their babies on the same day...plus, and this is the kicker, it is one of our best friend's youngest's birthday also, (PJ.) And Kerre is sitting here by me telling me that we have 2 other friends who have birthdays on that same day as well. Question: What happens 9 months before January 17th? Answer: Hankey Pankey! and it is right after Taxes are due (April 15th)

2. Baby Jack, (we still are not for sure on the name) is moving around like you wouldn't believe. My dad is a runner and when you talk to him about what he doing that day, he often casually mentions that he is going to get in his 4 miles. Kerre said that Jack is getting started early and is running four miles in the inside of her stomach.

3. Jack is finally big enough that I can almost always find part of him when I touch Kerre's stomach.

4. I really like the people I am working at Starbucks with.

5. Our cell group is about to multiply...we have been having almost 15 people on a very consistent basis and they are never the same people. If all the people that come, came at the same time, then we would be in trouble and have to meet outside and it is COLD.

6. I got to go to my first Dallas Stars game last Sunday.

7. I got to hear PJ say, "Who pooped on the couch?" repetitively. (By the way PJ is three, and I don't think it was Indee...)

8. I got apple pie yesterday and dump cake ( which has nothing to do with whoever pooped on the couch.)

9. I got to play with a cool Thomas the Loader set last night (which also has nothing to do with pooping on the couch.)



10. My nephew, Lucas is now my brother. He told us that Jesus fixed his heart. (Lucas has been on the verge of making this decision for along time now and we are all very proud of him.)

Update...

Kerre did this awesome update for all of our family and friends so in case we don't have your email and you read this here it is...

Hello Friends,

Sorry our updates have been far and few between. We just wanted to give everyone a shout to say hi and that we miss you all.

Aaron and I are doing very well. Living one day at a time, but amazed at God's provision in our lives. We may not have all we want, but we have more than what we need!

We are still living with our friends Jonathan and Sandi Tindal in Plano. Their family is such a blessing. Our little room is comfy (however the full size bed is starting to become a tight fit as my belly grows more and more). We've been told our house is showing well in Corpus, but there haven't been any nibbles as of yet. Keep praying that it sells soon. We'll be here until it does. House payments and rent at the same time add up to a little more than we can handle right now.

Aaron is really enjoying being back at Starbucks. He loves people and has unlimited supply and a large mix of them there to keep him happy. He's throughly enjoying building relationships with coworkers and customers. He has made friends with one young woman that frequents his drive thru... she heard his accent and the first thing she asked him before she even ordered was if he was from West Texas. Turns out she is also from Amarillo. He mentioned we were pregnant in passing conversation and one day she came by just to let him know that she just found out that she and her husband are expecting as well. I made her a gift of peppermints and lemon drops with a card (they helped me tons with the first trimester nausea). So everyone be praying for our new friend Emily from Amarillo. This is just one example of ways Aaron has been able to reach out to those around him. He truly has a shepherd's heart and he is really in his element.

Aaron has also interviewed at UT Dallas. He is really hoping to get a job there so that he can reach out to college students. We've heard through the grapevine (my sister-n-law works at UTD) that one of the ladies that was in the interview is thinks he is overqualified for the job that he interviewed for and is trying to get him in a higher paying position! Keep praying there as well. We hope to hear from them late this week or next.

Aaron has a blog if any of you would like to subscribe. He tries to update it fairly regularly: http://aaronthorne.blogspot.com/

I am doing well... I'm officially in my 3rd trimester. Growing is an understatement. Our little guy (we still are not 100% on the name, but we're getting closer) is doing great!! He is VERY active. For those of you that know Aaron's family at all I think we're going to have a little Ronnie (that's Granddad) on our hands. Today I told Aaron I think he was getting his 4 miles in, taking laps around the tummy (Ronnie's a runner and moves a lot too). My biggest prayer is still that it's very hard to dream and especially nest when we don't have a place of our own yet. I get down sometimes because I can't do a lot of the things that come along with the "expecting" part of expecting. But God reminds me often that we didn't pray for all of that stuff, we prayed of a baby and he said yes! That's more than enough!!!!

There are pictures and more updates on our myspace. If any of you have one and are not yet friends come find us. I keep it pretty up to date: http://www.myspace.com/stickboyandgirl

Our church, Residing Hope, is doing awesome. We are planning to multiply our cell in the next few weeks. God is blessing us with tons of people that need his touch. We're enjoying being his hands and feet.

Well guys, thank you so much for all your love and prayers and we'll continue to keep you all posted. We'd really love to hear back from you, please let us know how you're lives are if we haven't talked in a while and let us know how we can pray for you.

Love, Kerre

I've attached a few pictures for those of you who haven't seen us in a while... as you can see Indee Anna is super excited about being a big sister!

Sometime you can't trust directions...

click here
(ht kinnon)

Tetris

My Mom used to play tetris and this reminded me of her.

Points for Creativity

You have to give this kid points for creativity...don't you?

Spooky

So this is a picture of "the Boys" (aka my nephews, Andrew, Nicki, Lucas, left to right.) We stayed with them in a bed and breakfast when we went to Weinert for Christmas. We had the ntire 2nd floor of the bed-n-breakfast to ourselves which was four rooms and the boys were assigned the blue room. Nicki responded that he did not want to stay in the room with the spooky picture in it. Go ahead and take a look...by the way Kerre and I stayed in that room and I sure did not leave that picture up while we were sleeping in that room.

I pray that you have a restful Sabbath.


----------------
Now playing: Blues Traveler - Brother John
via FoxyTunes

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy New Year. I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve.

Kerre and I spent the evening with friends and family. We played a game that was called Farkel (aka Oh Hell and Blew It.) It was a new game for me and I enjoyed it a ton. Here are the rules.

Kerre made me a Cherry Crisp like my mom used to make it and that was very nice.

I am excited about this week...I think there are some awesome things in store.

• My cousin Kristen is getting married to Ryan this Friday night.
• Residing Hope leadership has an opportunity to meet with a missionary from Mexico.
• I start at Starbucks this week.

Ok time for diner...an entire bowl of Black Eye Peas which has New Years traditions associated with them. So do collared greens, but we are not eating them tonight.