Marc’s Musings

Kivi Miller tagged me on a meme passed on by Jeff Brooks.

I don’t usually play these. In fact, GMail knows to automatically delete forwarded emails.

But something about this intrigues me so here it goes.

Here is what I am supposed to do:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book is Katya Andresen’s Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

Here are the appropriate three sentences:

And it cost us nothing.

Q: What’s a favorite example of your work in forging unusual partnerships?

A: The Union of Operating Engineers wanted to improve minority recruitument for jobs in the field and to raise the profile of the union and its members in our community.

Delightfully out of context, isn’t it? She goes on to tell of a partnership with them and Head Start.

Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causesis one of the best books I’ve read in a while. And I read a lot of books! Katya knows marketing and this book can help all fundraisers do what they do even better.

Like Kivi I think I’ll tag a couple Twitterati.

• Chad Norman
• Lisa Downing

I’ll also tag:

• my wife Emily
• the book’s author Katya.
• and my guest on today’s Ask Without Fear radio show, Gayle Roberts.

I’m currently reading The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion by Leonard Sweet.

Sweet has a way of taking an analogy and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it a bit thinner than I think it should go. But I do the same thing so maybe that’s why I like reading his stuff.

The center of his book on what the church can be is built around the acronym EPIC:

• Experiential
• Participatory
• Image-rich
• Connections

In the section on being image-rich, he talks about the need for church cultures to be Imax, not iPod and comments on how Starbucks minimizes words and maximizes images.

As I read that, it hit me, VCW 1.0 has been text heavy. Despite our desire and vision of being a place for artists, having murals or art on the walls, and using all our senses in our worship service, we’ve been basically preaching and singing. We even podcast the sermon.

The walls are still bare. The building’s exterior, embarrassing. Word heavy, image lite.

But I want to be part of a church that attracts people skilled in painting and sculpture as well as word and song. I have no desire to lighten up on the teaching and worship singing. But in VCW 2.0, I certainly want to expand our understanding of worship. I want the giftings of Bezalel and Oholiab to be a reality in our midst.

If you’re of the praying variety, please pray that I’ll be the kind of leader that can release these God-given gifts in our midst. And that I’ll also be able to identify the giftings and release them in people.

The Protestant Church prides itself on being a talking-head-church. But Jesus didn’t seem to hung up on preaching only. He engaged entire human beings, not just their brains.

That’s the kind of people I want VCW 2.0 to be.

Just got a cool invite to a Facebook Group: Romans8Movement. It’s a group of people committed to memorizing the entire chapter of Romans 8.

On the romans8movement.com site, they even have printable flashcards to help.

Check out the text of Romans 8 (TNIV). And then join the Facebook group at: Romans8Movement.

Romans 8
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in human flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

IE isn’t “remembering” my Google settings anymore. I’m having to log in each time.

Other programs are remembering my cookies just fine.

Can anyone help me figure out what I should change?

And can anyone tell me if I can get my IE tabs to be on the bottom of the screen?

Playing a bit more with marcsentme.com.

Now I’ve added istockphoto.com and Netflix.

The list of cool resources is growing, but only with tools I both use myself and find useful!

This morning I was running around the house almost frantically looking for my watch. I knew I’d had it at the gym but it wasn’t on the bathroom counter where it should be.

I checked everywhere: my wrist (in case I’d put it on), the bathroom (I’d put my glasses back on but why didn’t I put on my watch?), the kitchen (even under the bananas!), the living room (twice), jackets I haven’t worn in a while.

Everywhere.

I even pulled up the sleeve of my right wrist to show Emily that it wasn’t there.

I’m now at work. I just started to check today’s date by looking at my watch.

As I saw the date on my watch, I realized I where my watch in my left wrist. Always have. And it’s been there all along.

*sigh*

I love the NPR news quiz Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!.

I often am not listening to a radio on Saturday’s at 11 a.m. so I’m thrilled to find out all of the shows are available for listening from the web.

As a result, I’m having a hilarious afternoon!

The show’s web address is: http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

While I won’t send back the money I’ll get as part of the “stimulus” package, I strongly dislike tools that are designed to “help” our economy by getting Americans to spend even more money. With these rules, if we use the money to pay down debt or to increase our savings, we’re harming our economy.

*sigh*

So I was amused to see Cal Thomas’ comments on the stiulus package as reported in our local paper:

Thomas, who makes frequent appearances on Fox News, … also called the economic stimulus package, which calls for sending checks to taxpayers, “a joke.”

“People are going to be given money borrowed from the Chinese to go to Wal-Mart and buy products from China,” he said.

Last night while our family was eating hamburgers at 9 p.m. in the hotel lobby bar, Cale and I had this dialogue:

Cale: Vegetarians are really healthy eaters, Dad.

Me: Yep, they are.

[Pause for a bite of burger.]

Cale: But they sure do miss out on a lot of good food.