Places I've visited

create your own personalized map of the USA



create your own visited country map

Man... I need to get around the world more!

Special "Date" with Dad

We have a deal with our kids that whenever they have done their chores for a certain number of days and have also stayed out of trouble they get a special "date" with mom or dad. Today Alex and I went ice skating and to Sonic. We also went to the motorcycle store up the street. There a little 50cc motorcycle that a five year old could ride. Alex has been talking about it all day. Maybe someday Alex and I will both have motorcycles. Mom and Deb, hope you aren't reading this!!!










The only hot dogs they had were foot long!












Next, Alex will be up for his special date with Deb and then back to me for what is billed to be the best, super, special, amazing, unbelievable Dad-date of all time. It's such a secret that I can't even tell Deb. (No, it's not buying him a $1000 kiddie motorcycle)

What questions about the Church does the Bible address?

I've decided to take a relatively quick trip through the New Testament to see what it has to say specifically about the Church and what she should be.

Questions I've got in mind for God in His word are:

How much is the presence of 'local churches' in Biblical towns culturally conditioned? In other words... Is there a 'church at Ephesus' because having a church at the town level is how God wants things always or is it because the Ephesians didn't have the internet or airplanes? Is the local church a necessary Biblical concept? If so, what is local these days with our sprawling metroplexes and our connectedness across the globe?

Should a believer necessarily give a percentage of income to a church in the local town or is it ok with God for some believers to give all of their contributions in whatever way we see fit across the globe to advance his kingdom?

What will a person miss out on if he is just worshipping at Crowder concerts, reaching out to co-workers, making Christian friends on the internet, studying God's word with Bible Study Fellowship, and serving with any of the numerous relief organizations? Maybe he misses accountability? But is accountability really a good thing? Does accountability make someone hot or does it just usually warm a cold person to lukewarm?

How can we find the level of community and oneness mentioned in John 17 regardless of church style or structure?

How should life coaching or mentoring fit into the Church?

Is the method Paul used to start churches God's way or was it just Paul's way? Trying to discern the roles of apostle, pastor, teacher, elder, deacon, etc in a non-institutional church model.

What about "church discipline" in a more fluid, less structured church? Does a Christ-follower need a solitary person he follows as his pastor and spiritual authority?

What constitutes "not neglecting to meet together" as we are instructed in Hebrews?

Is it mission or love that binds us together as the church? Or is there another combination of the two?

Though I'm currently reading through the New Testament, what does the Old Testament teach us today about these things?

I am NOT looking for any one of you to answer these questions. But I would be VERY INTERESTED in what additional questions about these things (church, church structures, and the growing band of revolutionaries) you would suggest I ask as I read through the Scriptures in coming weeks.

Dr. Martin Luther King Weekend

Each January I am deeply moved by the vision, courage, integrity, clarity, and tenacity of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, King said the following about urgency of mission which really resonates with me right now:

"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."

While some thought that the civil rights problems for non-whites were gradually going to get better, King was not content with gradual. He knew that there was immensely important progress that had to be made and he was even willing to die accelerating the process.

Am I "taking the tranquilizing drug of gradualism" in any areas of my life or work right now? What about you?

This year I have immersed a little further in the celebration of King's life. I contacted the MLK celebration committee in my city last July and made myself available to help in any way needed. I ended up doing some web work for the celebration this weekend and also made a video for a couple of the events.

Today I also found some MLK speeches online. www.americanrhetoric.com is a great resource for mp3s of tons of great speeches. I downloaded King's "I Have a Dream" speech and burned it to a CD. We played the 16 minute speech in the van as our family went to the mall today. I don't think the kids fully understand, but I love letting them hear great vision and courage and determination.

One other thing today... At the city's celebration, they had a gentleman speak who was both a scholar on Dr. King and a King impersonator. He told King's story through some narration and then he would break into speaking portions of King's amazing speeches in a voice amazingly like King's own. The fact that this impersonator was a white man made the experience all the richer. It was a picture of the bridging of the races.

Do you have any thoughts this weekend about Dr. King?

Sun Clock Widget

For mac bloggers: I found this widget on www.apple.com. It is a map of the earth and tells at any time where the sun is and which part of the earth is in daylight. As we interect more globally through the blogosphere I think this is one more little tool to help us feel more connected as we, at a glance, remember what part of the day our friends across the world are in.

What is Local?

I've been reading George Barna's "Revolution". He talks about how many are starting to pick and choose parachurch ministries to create their own Christian experience. They fill their plates with things like:

- supporting and enjoying Crowder worship concerts
- teaching or learning in Bible Study Fellowship studies
- organizing or serving on reliefnownetwork.org serve trips
- throwing some parties with neighbors and friends who don't yet know Christ
- blogging with great Christ-following friends from around the globe.

It's funny... I just categorized Passion and BSF and reliefnownetwork.org by the descriptor I've always heard... PARA-church ministries. Why can it not be acknowledged that these are PART OF THE CHURCH? I think I could be a pretty complete Christ-follower doing the five things listed above. In fact, they are Rick Warren's five purposes. Barna is bold to question the validity of the statement "The local church is the hope of the world." Maybe the concept of the local church is being blown away since the world is now so small that a believer can stream Tomlin, blog with Scotland and paypal dollars to AIDS orphans.

In the same vein, instead of making the local church the place where everyone's gift finds a usage, why not allow the global church to be the place where that happens?

What do you think?

Three Billys and a Benno

We spent most of today assembling Ikea furniture and re-arranging our house. I love ikea. Not just for the good prices on sturdy furniture, but more because going to Ikea feels like you are stepping out into the cosmopolitan realm. You see people from all over the world. It's a touch of cosmopolitan, urban life in our boring suburb.

For pix of today's adventure go to my flickr

The adventure ended tonight when Debbie's mom had to be taken from the rehab hospital to the emergency room for uncontrollable blood sugar. The hospital got it stabilized. Still some concerns though...

Gotta run...

Happy New Year!

No longer in the lead!

I've always been ahead of my parents as far as obtaining technology goes. They still had a camcorder that took VHS tapes til last year. They also were still using a Sony Mavica digital still camera which took floppy disks. They could fit 20 jpegs on a single 1MB floppy disk.

This all changed Saturday night when my Mom opened a gift from my Dad. It was a new digital camera. I figured it was probably 5 megapixels like mine. I was so glad to see my mom (who loves to take pictures) be able to abandon those floppy disks. She didn't get into the camera box immediately but sat it aside to open other presents.

I waited and waited for her to get into the camera but then curiousity got the best of me. I went over to take a look for myself. It wasn't 5 megapixels like mine. It is 7.1 MEGAPIXELS.

Ok... I'm jealous... Mom and Dad I have to say you are the new technology leaders in our family.

Christmas Pictures 2005

Today we went to this nice new urban development in our area (intriguing place for a vox cafe!). We like to take pix of our kids in their Christmas clothes. I'm finding that the pictures I enjoy most are ones of candid action instead of posed shots. Also, $10 in ice cream bribe is a lot better than $100 in a photo studio!

A conversation I had

I had a very interesting conversation this morning with a guy while I was working out at the rec center. He is originally from India, has spent time in the northern US, and is looking to leave our suburb near Dallas to head back north as fast as he can. He says that as a result of Sept 11, he finds the southern US to be very skeptical of him. He can feel the discrimination often down here and says that there is a lot less of a condemning eye on him in the north.

It's sad to me that we in the Bible Belt still can't impact our culture to embrace people from every land. We are so behind.

It's also sad that this gentleman says he needs to go soon to England or another European country to receive some medical care he needs. If Republicans are going to be for small government and personal responsibility in caring for people in need here and around the world then churches and conservatives need to step up and take care of the needs. I think many try to have the best of both worlds... they want to control most of their own money and then they use most of the money on themselves.

I was really energized by meeting this new friend this morning. World concerns and people from around the globe keep popping up in my life. In our conversation, I tried to downplay any role I have in the church since it seemed that being down on the politics in the south led him to also be down on the evangelical church. I did gently but boldly weave the gospel naturally into the conversation. I apologized for the discrimination he feels in the south and I offered to pray for him and his needs right there on the spot. He was a little apprehensive but consented. I prayed for him.

I'd ask you to pray from him too. He has no job. He has no insurance. And, he has a medical condition that needs attention.

If this tugs on your heart and you would like to help him out and show him the true church, you can donate money to help him through this difficult time at www.legacychurch.org/egiving. BE SURE TO INDICATE "HELPING HANDS (BENEVOLENCE)" FUND and TYPE IN THE FIELD AT THE BOTTOM THAT THIS IS FOR "ALLEN'S INDIAN FRIEND". I'll be sure the money gets to him.

Audio blogs

Playing with phoned in audio blogs. See Deb's explanation

Emmaleigh Laugh

Em Cupcake Joke

Alex Pickle Joke

Alex Brownie Joke

Alex Brownie Joke 2

Susannah Rabbit Joke

LA Trip

PC120074.jpg
Originally uploaded by allen texas.

In LA last weekend I bought my son a Mexican wrestling mask at the market. He thinks he is quite the superhero.


Indian Food!


Nice halo BreathFire

Better than shopping!

Morning of Solitude

I participated in a "Morning of Solitude" Thursday morning which was called by our pastor. We were just to show up at a certain parking lot near one of the walking trails in our suburban city's parks system. The plan was to walk alone and pray and think for as much of three hours as we could.

It was a great time. The air was very cool and the sky was bright blue without a cloud. It's been a while since I took a big chunk of time to just be quiet before the Lord. I feel like I received some real insight from Him on the trail.

Do you occasionally take extended time to just be quiet with our amazing God?

A long time ago I heard a cute little way to remember to do this and the principle has always stuck with me (though I rarely execute it well). What follows each bullet is "my take" on what those words mean.

• Divert Daily - a daily "quiet time" with God
• Withdraw Weekly - block out an extended hour or two weekly to spend in worship, meditation, God's word
• Quit Quarterly - take a day each quarter to get away and refuel
• Assess Annually - take a retreat overnight annually to dig in and assess how the year has gone and what should be different next year
  

Thanks, Gene, for calling us to that morning of solitude. Right now my life is running so fast that it takes someone else making me slow down and refresh.

BTW... have you heard Crowder's new tune "Here is our King". I am loving that song! Who are your favorite worship leaders, bands these days?