Making a Move

It appears that I'm making a move over to WordPress and my own dns. I'm working out some bugs, but from this point forward, you can follow my blog at http://abobslife.net/blog. You can subscribe to the RSS feed there at the url http://abobslife.net/blog/?feed=rss2.

I've managed to import this blog to that site, so you can still check out the archives there and even search them rather easily. I'm still setting up categories and I'll have to go back through the archives to assign categories appropriately, but, hey, that's part of the fun of having my own site.

If you are interested in blogging, I highly recommend Blogger, which is what I've been using these last 18 months or so. I just decided the time was right to move upward and onward. I'll have quite a bit of work to do before I'll consider it easy, and I'm sure I'll get hit with bugs in the meantime, but I'm looking forward to the change. I recently told folks that I don't blog for the readership (doesn't that show!). Now that I've got a few more folks reading my blog, I go and move it. I guess that's a sign that I really don't do it for the readership, eh?!?

Why Dads are Important

Jeremy lists the top ten fatherhood facts. My kids are currently running through the house as though their pants were on fire (they're not, trust me!). In the midst of the chaos, I read Jeremy's post and can say that I'm glad I'm a father. Modern society seems to have confused the roles of Daddy and sperm donor (ever hear someone say, "Who's your daddy?"). I stood in a gas station near our old house one day and heard a guy walk into the store and see a lady he knew. He turned to the lady's child (about 3 years old) and asked the child if he knew who his daddy was. He started razzing this little toddler over something the child had no control over. The fact is, this little boy didn't have a daddy at all. "Daddy" is a title that a child gives their father because they love their father. Being Daddy is a job that can only be rivaled by "Mommy." If your child doesn't give you the title of Daddy, then you don't have it. Period. You can't give that name to yourself.

Worship Music on Sale at iTMS

The iTunes Music Store has a bunch of worship music on sale through March 20th. If you have iTunes on your computer, go here to check it out. The music is from the Passion 06 Conference, as well as albums by bands that performed there. Every album is $2 off the regular price, so music by Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, David Crowder Band, and the Passion Worship Band is all on sale.

Why the Reformation Movement Needs the Emerging Church

The Internet Monk has posted an outstanding look at the bigger picture of evangelicalism in the US. He examines the critiques of DG Hart's book Deconstructing Evangelicalism and a presentation by Phil Johnson entitled "Is the Reformation Over?" Placing these side by side, he challenges the reformed movement to seriously consider encouraging the good points of the emerging church while continuing to confront the more questionable aspects. The move by DA Carson and others to toss the whole emerging church overboard will mean getting rid of a lot of good stuff. Like anything else, encourage the good, get rid of the bad. After all, we don't allow the reformation movement to literally burn people at the stake just because they disagree on a fine theological point, so even they have changed over the years!

He also discusses the role of Catholicism in a "post-evangelical" world. Consider this:

In all honesty, is the problem ECT, Timothy George and Chuck Colson? How many Peter Kreefts and Scott Hahns jumped ship over ecumenical evangelicalism? Hardly. It is traditional Catholicism that is making converts, and it is making them from largely conservative evangelicals who are looking for something in conservative, fundamentalist post-evangelicalism that isn’t there.
John Paul II and Benedict the XVI are seen as spiritual leaders of substance, in contrast to what evangelicalism these days calls a leader— anyone with two books and a church over 1500 members.

I know this is true of my generation! I have far more respect for John Paul II than the vast majority of evangelical "leaders." Most of the "leaders" that we've been raised on view politics, particularly Republican politics, as the real solution to the world's problems, but I'll get into that in a post later today or tomorrow.

The Bank Was Not Scammed

Having the house number 1234 means that we get a lot of odd looks. Today we got our first rejection letter from a bank. It was supposed to go to someone at "1234 Your St." Apparently the Post Office thought it was close enough to our address that we should get it, though it had someone else's name and a different zip code. Sorry Mr. Johnson, you won't be getting a credit card anytime soon!

You Thought Emergent Was Scary?

Jeremy links to an audio piece that has frightening implications for urban mainline congregations. When your denominations are dying out, the leadership has to find a way to raise cash. What better way to do it than sell off church buildings in urban neighborhoods for huge profits? I know our neighborhood has four Lutheran churches, all in the same Lutheran denomination. Any one of them could hold all the folks who attend all four of those churches. Why not sell off three of those buildings? Simple, the neighborhood isn't worth enough yet. Give it another 5-10 years and there will be fewer Lutheran churches in our neighborhood, based on this line of thinking. Calling it "job security" is a bit crass, but in reality, that's what it is. It goes back to that old human tendency to look out for self in spite of the consequences for others.

Autistic Teen Takes Over the Game

HT to Jeremy

The 17-year-old senior, who is autistic and usually sits on the bench in a white shirt and black tie, proceeded to hit six 3-point shots, finished with 20 points and was carried off the court on his teammates' shoulders.

The New mini

My favorite computer has been upgraded. There is seriously no computer cooler than the mini. Anywhere.

A Day in the Life of...

Had a busy morning, full of meetings. I went to lunch with a board member and we got to talking about a possible state law that we'd like to see written. Got back to the office and fired off an email to an attorney-friend with a passion for that sort of thing. We'll see what happens. We also talked about going to law school over lunch. My attorney-friend encouraged me to do that the last time we were together. I'm not so sure. I've certainly got enough going on right now. She's a bit of a rabble-rouser, and I could definitely see a law degree getting me into trouble someday too! As she puts it, "It's a license to raise hell." She does that pretty well. There'd be some serious stuff coming down the pike if my attorney-friend, board member, and I all had law degrees. We already have the potential of creating mischief if we really want. Speaking of which...

We're looking at getting a group of folks together in Chicago to have a long conversation about affordable housing issues. Should be a great time. The only problem? It probably won't happen until May, when I'm in for a meeting. I'm hoping that the three of us mentioned above, as well as one other would be there. We're thinking a couple hours over lunch, but I could easily see it lasting longer if no one has other appointments to get to. There's too much to talk about. Governments to overthrow, that sort of thing. Yup, its the sort of conversation that could get out of hand and unrealistic, but at the same time, there's some serious potential for good to come out of it.

Speaking of good to come out of it, the local paper is working on a story regarding foreclosures. They're looking for someone who'd be willing to step up and talk about their own experience. Instead they're getting a lot of calls from people with questionable motives. Folks who look for pre-foreclosure sales or who track foreclosures nationwide so shady characters can prey on people who are in a desperate financial situation (I'm sure that's not why they track the foreclosures, but that's the result). The writer got our name from a legitimate source, and has seemed to be impressed with the knowledge that our office has about the situation. We ought to have it, we deal with it every day.