Women's Work?

You know that whenever the media eats up a church-related story it most likely isn't favorable. Earlier this weekend I heard of the decision of a Baptist Church in New York firing an 81 year-old Sunday School teacher because she was female. Tonight, as a story about the incident aired on ABC's World News Tonight, I realized there ain't no stoppin' it now. So I thought I'd throw in a few thoughts about the whole to-do. 1) Where do I stand on the whole women issue? Not so easy to explain. Considering entire books have been written about 1 Timothy 2:12 [the text used to defend no female teachers in church], there's no way I can do justice to it in a few sentences. I would say that, in order to get your hands around this text, you have to examine what Paul is doing throughout the book. This isn't a woman bashing party but the opportunity to address a situation within a new church. Timothy, Paul's protege, had recently become the minister of the church and he was telling the younger man how church structure should look.

I believe that "teaching" in this text is better understood as "holding authority." In chapter 3, Paul proceeds to outline the requirements for elders, the overseers of a church, so this text should fit in with that context. Paul's message: women can't be elders. That being said, I think everything else is a green light. Do I think they can teach? Yes. Is that the same thing as "holding authority over a man"? Not necessarily. Do people disagree with this interpretation? Of course. Does that mean Christians can agree to disagree on the issue and peaceably coexist? Sure. Well, at least I can.

Now even this simple explanation of the matter opens myself up to much criticism, so before you jump all over me I would issue a warning to those on both sides of the issue: tread lightly. There's so much about this text we can't explain with full certainty. To form a hardcore theology based on this small part of Scripture could be dangerous.

2) Let me get back to the issue at hand: this church in New York. They handled this situation horribly. If you read the minister's account of things, this woman was part of a larger group of unhappy parishioners who were gunning for the pastor. The church needed to be extra wise about how they practiced their authority and they weren't. They said there were other issues for her dismissal. Instead of practicing church good church discipline they sent a letter [never a good way to handle conflict] ignored the real issues of conflict, and used Scripture as a trump card. Great way to end up on the evening news.

3) I love how the media runs with stories like this. Even though the Catholic Church is the biggest patriarchal organization in America, one false move by a Baptist Church and it's national news. Aren't we at war or something?

4) Don't mix ministry with politics. Every time I'm frustrated at something in this city I entertain the idea of running for City Council. This story [the minister is one the village council] proves it's a bad idea. When you become a politician, you sacrifice your ability to be totally honest. And if you're clergy, your personal convictions might not be community values. So now the minister, who thought he could make a difference setting town policy, has probably hurt the church's reputation in his town. It makes me wonder: if this guy wasn't a public official, would this had even made the news?

5) I love women. Um, don't take that wrong, but I mean it: I love them and so does God. I live with one of the most talented women I've ever met. And I'm raising a little girl who, I pray, will do wonderful things with her life. I want them to know that they can use gifts in the church to impact lives. And they can do it with God's blessing.

Postcard Update

The first set of postcards should have hit all the houses by today. We just got ours in the mail. So far, web traffic was up on Friday and a little higher on Saturday. Received one voicemail from a guy who said, "it's a rather attractive design, but I hate religion and don't care about Christians and Muslims." At least he was polite. This morning we received the next batch of cards. I'll let 'em sit this week and we'll get 'em out early next week.

I love not knowing.

What I'm Listening To

Since we've made the effort to become more fiscally responsible during this stage of the new church, I haven't bought much music recently. Thanks to Kay and Ann who hooked my up with the awesome iTunes card, I got a good collection of songs earlier this year. Downloaded some Franz Ferdinand and Green Day from that. Too cool. Just this last week, ordering some commentaries for our Matthew series at Echo, I also nabbed a CD from Amazon. It was one I've been tracking for awhile and was stoked to finally get: Lauryn Hill's Unplugged. I caught the performance on MTV a couple of years ago and was mesmerized. Taking her voice, backing it up with an acoustic guitar [which she play surprisingly well], and letting her unleash raw lyrics makes for a compelling listen.

Some of her fans expressed bitterness towards this album because it was nothing like her wildly popular Miseducation [if some one has a copy of this, let me know because I'd really like to listen to that now as well], but this recording shows how incredibly talented she really is.

Dang. She's so cool. ____________

One more thing, a good friend of mine heard a rumor that Lauryn made some inappropriate statements a few years back. Did a little research and discovered it was urban legend material. If curious, check it out here.

Going Postal

Headed out to Bethel, Ohio this morning. Our first postcard mailing for Echo was shipped to us yesterday, all labeled and ready for postage. Why did I have to go to Bethel? We needed a bulk mail permit so we could get the good non-profit rate on our mailing. CEF, the church planting organization who gave us this grant for our marketing, hooked us up with theirs. Part of the stipulation of using the permit is that you have to get postage counted at the post office of origin. CEF's postage is handled by the staff of Bethel Church of Christ, thus my trip to Bethel. So I took a 40 minute drive out to the far eastside of Cincy to get this done. All throughout the drive, I was a little leery of how things would go down; the only government entity more difficult to work with than the IRS is the US Postal Service. Add slow traffic on Ohio 125 and I was really not excited. But by the end of my trip I was incredibly grateful. I was blessed with a wonderful postal worker there named Nancy who was very understanding and worked step-by-step with me to get this done. After 45 minutes of her help, all 19,742 cards were ready to go. I think God let us have the experience at a small town post office to let things work out that well. If I had to do the same thing down at the downtown post office, I'd probably still be there.

Tomorrow I have to "drop ship" the boxes to three local post offices [it saved us some money to drop them off at the local post offices]. That means by early next week, are mailing should hit homes. I know you're curious what it looks like, so here it is:

Front

Back

We didn't design it; Outreach Marketing had this existing design we were able to pick and customize. I like it because it's striking, yet simple. Pending tomorrow's drop-offs, the process hasn't been too bad. Not sure what kind of return we'll get from it, but it's a great way to introduce the community to our church.

We're gaining speed. Just 24 days until the relaunch.

People Who Need People [Part Two]

So after a Sunday I'd prefer to forget [that I detailed here] I tried to synthesize my experience with what God has been teaching me. So rewind to Saturday night: I had the opportunity to speak at a young adult gathering in Georgetown, Ohio. It was the inaugural gathering of the group, a worship service called "Connect." I choose to roll with the theme and speak from Genesis 18, where Abraham welcomes three strangers, one of whom happens to be [most likely] God himself. I urged the college kids to take every opportunity to reach out to people, regardless of your preconceived notions about them, and engage them as if you're Abraham unknowingly entertaining the Lord. I think they got the message. Maybe God wanted me to get the message too, hence, my Sunday.

Jimmy and Richard are those kind of people I know I need to try to connect to. Not because I'm a pastor, but because I'm a Christian. In the long run, they might cause me more grief than joy, but it isn't mine to discriminate. I have to give it a go regardless.

That being said, I can't allow individual people to dominate my life. Don't get me wrong: I'm all about people trying to help people out, but I'm not Jesus- I can't save them. When I recognize I can do no more, it's time to give up. Jesus stated there's a point that, when your message isn't accepted, you just need to move on. It's rough because we always want to fail on the side of compassion, but Jesus had many other attributes that we sometimes fail to emulate.

Let me add a few other thoughts to wrap this up: it doesn't mean that it doesn't break your heart. I'm an optimist. I think that everybody I meet will wake up and get it. It's not like it's easy for me to give up on people.

Finally, just as I was wrapping this up, I get a phone call. It's Jimmy. He was calling to let me know he was OK. He also stated how much he cared about us and were glad that he had friends like us. I guess sometimes it does work out. That's why we can't stop trying.

People Who Need People [Part One]

Had a rather full weekend, so much so, that it demands a two-parter. Let me start at the end. Last October I wrote this post about God bringing certain kind of people into my life. The two people I focused on were Jimmy from Mason and Richard who's been attending Echo. Yesterday things came full circle as I had experiences concerning both of them.

Eight o'clock Sunday morning I get a call from Jimmy's mom, a German immigrant with a thick accent, asking me what happened to Jimmy Saturday night at church. I informed her that I had left CCM almost a year ago and had no idea what had happened. She said Jimmy fell, banged up his eye, and couldn't remember who brought him home. She was a little anxious because it's similar to how Jimmy became disabled in the first place: some drinking buddies were with him when he had his accident and dropped him off on his mom's doorstep while he lay internally bleeding. I did some investigating for her and found out the Jimmy fell while running [which he shouldn't have been doing in the first place] and told the family that took him home that he was OK.

I was trying to be honest with Jimmy's mom, telling her that his meds are affecting his memory and coordination, and that he needs more professional attention. She agreed and thanked me for being such a good friend to him. I was also told yesterday morning by the family that sometimes drops him off that every week he prays with them and he asks God to take care of me, Kelly, and Kaelyn.

So then, a little past six o'clock last night Richard comes into the church wanting to talk with me. Over the past year our people have given him many things and a lot of cash, hoping to make a difference in his life. Unfortunately, our good intentions have done nothing but help him feed an addiction and not work. And he even got in the habit of showing up before church, hitting people up for money, and leaving before the service started. Since his recent incarceration and stint in rehab, we've been withdrawing from giving him stuff.

So last night he sells me a story he's used many a time about desperately needing money and I tell him I've got nothing for him. He then asks me to go to the bank to get some money out for him, and I tell him no way. After seeing he wasn't getting anywhere, he started acting suspicious for a few minutes, walking in and out of the church. I was keeping my eye on him and he then approached Kelly to ask her for cash. I told him to back off and take a seat in the sanctuary because church was getting ready to start. At this he goes outside while I go to the sanctuary to get ready to start our service. Just then Kelly tells me that she watched him getting into someone's car in the parking lot!

Needless to say, I was livid. So I immediately go outside to see him mulling around some cars. I told him to leave immediately, that I was giving him a head start from the police. I said that if something was missing from the car, I'd call the cops and would tell them his address. He said he was sorry and I just told him to go away and not come back for awhile. The car belonged to someone from the choir that meets in the church at the same time. She was very understanding, and nothing was missing. Despite a good service, the rest of the evening sucked for me.

Not quite sure to do with these incidents. I'll try to bring it all together in part two.

Swedish Invasion

Looks like Ikea's coming to town. If I were cooler, I'd be excited.

WWW.Friday.COM

I'm not the highest of tech-techies, but I know there are some people who read my blog that could use a little help now and then when it comes to the world-wide web. So I thought I'd do a world-wide post to end the week and drop some knowledge. 1) Firefox Trust me, there is no better internet browser than Mozilla's Firefox. When I was on staff at the megachurch, the IT guy didn't like it and forbade us from having it on our computers. I would go to great lengths to hide it from him because it was that good. Why did I like it so much? The ability to open articles in tabs at the top of your browser. So when you're going through your favorite news site, instead of clicking all around, just open up any articles you want in tabs by right-clicking. I have a bookmark tab I've labeled "morning." First thing I do on my computer each day is click the bookmark, open all the links in tabs, and do my morning reading. Do yourself a favor and download it now. You'll see. It's what they call, "awesome."

2) Myspace OK, it still sucks but it's a necessary evil because I've been able to use it as a vehicle to reconnect with quite a few people I've lost track of. So now that my wife's signed up, as well as Echo Church, here are some tips to help out with it.

Now that you've got Firefox download an app called Greasemonkey so you can get rid off all the crappy media that slows down your Myspace viewing. It's fully explained here.

The biggest problem I have with Myspace is the near-porn ads they put all over the site. It scares me that all these guys are exposed to half-naked women whenever they surf. And I'm sure it annoys many a woman as well. Go download the Firefox extension Adblock, again follow the directions here and VOILA! No more hoochie-mamas! It makes Myspace much more tolerable.

3. RSS feeds. You've heard it from me before. If not, reread here. Scroll to the bottom for the pertinent info.

4. Interesting Websites: Wikimapia: combine Wikipedia with Google Maps, and this is what you get. Digital Whiteboard: Another way to waste time. Free High-Res Photos: Many of these are awesome. I downloaded quite a few.

Do share and let me know anything interesting you've found.

Presence

Funny how little things catch your eye. Reading an article in the Enquirer about big money being behind all the ballot referendums in Ohio, I came across the following quote: "Jaime Love, 29, of Amelia, for instance, said she and other members of Corinthian Baptist Church in Avondale were approached 'under false pretense' after Sunday services last month to sign a petition for Smoke Less Ohio."

This little sentence, in my opinion, demonstrates why the Cincinnati is struggling and why we felt compelled to start an urban church; and it has nothing to do with petition signing. The Corinthian Baptist Church is about a mile-and-a-half from our home. Amelia is about twenty miles away. Jaime Love drives a half an hour on a Sunday into town to attend church. Here's a map to demonstrate how far she'd have to drive to church:

Now I don't know Jaime Love; I'm sure she's a great person. Most likely she and her family grew up in the Avondale area and she eventually moved outside the 275 belt loop. Corinthian is an established African American church which people rarely leave regardless of where they move. The attendance of these urban churches have maintained somewhat steady over the years while the communities in which they're located have deteriorated. But while Jaime probably thinks she's helping the city, she's most likely harming it.

My analysis: these communities are struggling because God-fearing people have fled to suburbia, leaving a moral and spiritual vacuum behind. To some extent they still "believe" in the neighborhoods, so they go to church there supposing that, if the church remains, there's still a good presence there. Thus, they feel good about their attendance at an urban church thinking that they're keeping things going. But what they don't realize is that THEY ARE THE CHURCH and their presence [habitation] in the city is necessary for a positive effect. And because people falsely believe that church attendence equals health, we're not accurately measuring the situation.

It's not enough to have churches, and/or large churches, in our cities. We need Christian people to inhabit these communities if we ever hope to see the kind of city change we're praying for.

You know, I've never done this, but I really think some of you reading this need to move to the city. You might laugh at that suggestion, thinking we were suicidal for moving here, but maybe it's something you should pray about. If you've ever wanted to be a missionary but thought there was no way you could move out of the country, America's cities are a great place to start. It's not third world, but it's been forgotten.

You have no idea what kind of difference your presence could make.

Ready for SOME football

It's that time of year again when I have to cover up my problem. Rather than hide it, I figured I'd just come out and admit it: I don't like fantasy football.

I've already received four invitations to participate in leagues and turned all of them down. I have absolutely no desire to participate. And it's not as if I'm against all fantasy sports because I absolutely love fantasy baseball. I briefly touched on the subject here last year, but let me lay it all out so I can show my way of thinking.

I'm a competitive person. I love to try to out-think and out-perform opponents in order to win. I started playing fantasy baseball years ago and thought football would be just as fun. I was very wrong. While all fantasy sports involve some aspects of chance, fantasy football is a total crap shoot. There's very little skill involved and a great reliance on luck.

Look at the process" you start with your draft [many drafts are taking place right now, before the preseason starts], scout the best players and get your team. Because football's such a high contact sport, injuries are more likely and you're one move away from your season being ruined. God forbid that Peyton Manning break his leg in week one. Mass suicides will take place all over the country. Lose a key quarterback or running back early in the season and you can start planning out your next year's draft.

In fantasy football you're at the whim of head coaches with a different game plan every week. Sometime the NFL team your quarterback or wide receiver is on needs to concentrate on the run for a game. Sucks to be you. In baseball, there's consistency. Sure, every once in awhile your player will lay down a bunt instead of swinging for the fences. But when they get 25 to 30 at-bats per week, it evens itself out.

Case in point: four years ago I got into a competitive league up in Mason. It was an established, competitive league and I was treated to an expansion franchise. Little did I know they loved to screw over the new guys. The draft was top to bottom [not snaking like most fantasy leagues, meaning it was just like any professional draft] so I got the last pick every round. It was also a keeper league and, since it was my first year, I had none. So the cards were double-stacked against me to suck.

But that year, with no keepers and sucky picks, I made it into the play-offs and finished third out of sixteen teams. I did nothing but let it ride and make these guys with the top picks look like idiots. I was resolved to come back the second year and rock the league again. I had some good keepers and scouted hard and finished dead last. Fantasy baseball allows you more games, the possibilities for more moves, and the opportunity to out-perform your opponent; it's a much better judge of skill than football.

I've really analyzed this subject a lot and have plenty more comparisons, but this is enough to make my point. Don't get me wrong here: I absolutely love football. We're coming up to some of the best months in a sports fan's year. I definitely plan on watching, even if all the Bengals are in jail. But when it comes to free time, I can do without fantasy football.

Tagged: Books

I really think this is the blogging version of the chain letter. Thanks, Mike. If it wasn't about books, there's no way that I'd be playing along. And since answering "The Bible" on any of these questions is a cop out, here's what I came up with: 1. One book that changed your life: Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas Tough one to answer out of the gate. Sure there are other books that were more insightful, but I came across this at a critical time in my life. I should really reread it to see how it makes me feel now.

2. One book that you've read more than once: The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Oddly enough, my favorite of his writings. It always forces me to reevaluate my life perspective. Lost my copy, so if you have an extra, that would rock.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island: How to Build Wooden Boats: With 16 Small Boat Designs by Edwin Monk. Need I explain why?

4. One book that made you laugh: Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon McKenzie This guy goes into corporate America and tells them what kind of job they're going to give him. And they comply.

5. One book that made you cry: As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg It really didn't make me cry tears, but reading the tale of an apostate Jew in the first century made me thankful I didn't live during that time.

6. One book you wish had been written: Pete Rose: How He Made It Into The Hall of Fame by Mike Schmidt. And when it happens, I'm going to Cooperstown.

7. One book you wish had never been written: Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen. Notice no hyperlink. I read only the first page and was able to come to this conclusion.

8. One book you're currently reading: Walking Steps Of Cincinnati by Mary Anna Dusablon I actually just reread it because it contains some fascinating info/history of the city. I haven't been reading as much lately beyond the Bible and commentaries right now as I focus on our Matthew series for the fall.

9. One book you've been meaning to read: Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill. I've read Cahill before and I'm a big history geek, so this makes sense.

10. Tag five others: I don't like perpetuating these things so, even though I might risk death here, I'll refrain from tagging any others. You're welcome.

Stand Pat

Don't worry, Al Gore, help is on the way. But you might not be interested in it. Pat Robertson now believes in global warming and wants government authorities to address fossil fuel issues.

No word whether or not Pat blames the phenomenon on rap music.

The Hunt For Reds October

Before I get into this, I know the title of this post has been consistently used since 1990 whenever the Cincinnati Reds are in the playoff hunt. So I'm not claiming to be original here and apologize for my lack of post title creativity. With St Louis coming to town for a four-game series the Reds, who are still leading the NL Wild Card race, could conceivably take over sole possession of first place in the NL Central this week. New Reds owner Bob Castellini, who was formerly part of a Cardinal ownership group, is offering the majority of tickets at half price for three of the series' four games. This move has drawn the ire of some local baseball fans that claim Cincinnati is no longer a true baseball town because, if it were, the series against the Cards would be sold out without the ticket discount.

A little over a week ago, the Enquirer had a front page story that wondered why attendance at the games were so bad. Of course, I was not asked so I think I will offer three reasons why few are going to the games.

1) Turn on the TV. By the end of this season, Fox Sports Ohio will have shown 112 games. The two parties signed a new eleven year agreement last week that ensures they will air 140+ games next year. If I want to see the Reds, I can watch them at home. I'm already paying for cable and don't have to shell out for parking or over-priced concessions. Now if that's how I feel about it, and I live close enough to the ballpark to be back home in five minutes, how would people living up in Mason feel about it? So instead of attending a game every one or two weeks, I catch a game a month.

Plus, perhaps people should look at the current economic state of our country: people are more selective with their entertainment dollars. Instead of nights out at movies, people prefer staying in, investing in their home entertainment system, and saving a few bucks. If gas wasn't three bucks a gallon perhaps people would be willing to spend their entertainment dollars at the ballpark.

2) Time heals wounds. It's been eleven years since the Reds made the play-offs. Since that time, they've had some pretty bad teams. We thought Carl Lindner would come in and seriously invest in franchise. Who could've predicted that he'd spend less than Marge Schott [relatively speaking]? This town loves a winning team and will invest in them. Look at the Bengals who have already sold out their entire season? I guarantee that if the Reds have an active off-season making improvements to the roster, it'll be more difficult to get tickets next year.

3) This team ain't that good. I thoroughly appreciate the efforts of Castellini and General Manager Wayne Krivsky to put together a contender. But this is the most frustrating Reds team I can ever remember watching. The 1999 club that lost in a one game play-off to the Mets was an easier team to root for; they were over-achievers. These guys seem to lose numerous games on baserunning and defensive gaffes. And they're much better on the road than at home. It's ugly baseball. Even if they do make the play-offs, they'd struggle to win a series. I still love 'em but it's painful to watch.

I absolutely love the Reds, but it's absurd to think that I don't care about them because I don't go to more games. It'll be interesting to see if this series will sell-out this week. It might cause the Reds ticket office to reapproach their marketing of the team.

Prediction: Reds win three of four to get to .5 games out of first. And they'll make the play-offs.

--------

Update:Reaffirming point number three, It's the fourth inning in game one and the Reds are now down 9 to 1. EZ Ramirez's throwing grapefruits and Brandon Phillips is hot dogging at second. Like I wrote, I love these guys, but they're giving me an ulcer.

You CAN Hear It!

Finally, after much fanfare, we have our Echo podcast up. It can be found here at iTunes or the XML feed is here. A few things to be noted.

1) These files are currently in Mac form as opposed to mp3s. Sorry to you PC users, you are not forgotten. We'll be changing that soon.

2) Just wanted to get something up for now, so these are a few messages from our Genesis study from last fall. We'll try to get some new ones up soon.

3) Once we relaunch, we'll do our best to have the new messages up within a couple days.

4) Props to The Dale for consistently setting up his laptop to do the recording. This guy has been huge for us. Thanks, Dale!

5) And huge props to Brian Coates. We've sent about fifty emails back and forth this week. Brian's doing our hosting and has gone the extra mile to get us set up.

Things are starting to come together . . .

For To Smile About

A couple things that made me laugh today: 1) Kelly wrote yesterday about the Colbert Report's shutting down the elephant page of Wikipedia. While I admit to referencing the site, I find it hilarious because of the time that some people commit to updating it. For instance, as Colbert himself noted, the entry about him is longer than the one about Lutherans. Anyway here's a page that proves these people that update Wikipedia have a little too much time on their hands: a comprehensive list of songs featuring the cowbell.

"Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription...is more cowbell!"

2) With the Reds rain delay [will they ever win again?] we were looking for something else on TV and came across a show called Who Wants To Be A Superhero on the SciFi channel. This reality show features people dressed up in homemade costumes as superhero characters in order to impress Stan Lee [Spiderman creator]. The goal is the hope that he might make a comic starring one of these characters. With people named Cell Phone Girl, Fat Momma, and Monkey Girl, this show is definitely worth watching. My personal pick:

Major Victory. I'm telling you, this guy's awesome.

I love to laugh.

Rounding Third . . .

Hate to use a baseball analogy on a night when the Reds sucked [but the home plate ump wasn't much better] but we're ready to head for home when it comes to the Echo relaunch. Tonight we had a gathering here at the condo with the core group. These are some great people who have joined our vision of an urban church in our area and they've embraced the call. It's not easy starting a church; you need people who can see something that isn't there but believe it will be. That's the type of people God has brought in on this. I'm so excited for them. I pray their faith can be rewarded and see Echo do well.

I can't lie to you: I'm a little nervous. Things are always easier in theory. As these months of plans converge on one date, we have to trust that God will bring it all together. This has been the biggest thing we've ever attempted. I feel as if my whole life has been leading to this one point. Um . . . no pressure.

But that's when I step back, take a deep breath, and realize that God is truly in control. The one thing we've done a lot this year is pray. I don't think I've ever prayed so much about one thing. And we've had many people lifting up our ministry before God. Too many things have happened this past year that have displayed God's involvement. He's taken care of us so far, so why should we doubt now?

This Sunday night is the culmination of our month of prayer. We're using our weekly gathering as a time of corporate prayer to lift up our community, our church, and our mission. It'll take place in the sanctuary at the Walnut Hills Christian Church at 6:30pm. If you're in town, feel free to join us.

Everyday Love

Yes, Kelly and I were married eight years ago today. And how do we celebrate such a date? Sitting in front of the television watching Rockstar: Supernova, plugging away on our laptops, all while flinging Kaelyn around to make her laugh.

Can you say romantic?

Now in my/our defense, we had the chance to go out on Saturday night as Kelly's parents watched Kaelyn. It was rather enjoyable. But no cards today. We both forgot until mid-morning that this was actually the date. A lot of people are critical of me when, on major "relationship" holidays, I don't make a big deal out of it. It's almost as if people take delight when saying, "Ooooh, you're gonna get it!"

But I don't care. They're wrong.

One of the reasons the past eight years has gone so well for us is because Kelly and I are a lot alike. We enjoy the daily moments we're able to spend together, the intelligent conversation, the loving attitude not reserved for romantic holidays. So when it comes to days like this, we can go on like it's any other day because we've banked up enough love to last. I'll admit it's not like every holiday's a free pass. I made a big deal out of Kel's first Mother's Day to make is special. And every once in awhile we get each other cards. And once a President, I buy her flowers.

And she still loves me. Cause we're cool like that. I call it our everyday love.

Thanks for making the last eight years wonderful, Kel. Let's go for eighty.

Mel, Say It Ain't So

A DUI is one thing, but this is even crazier. For the director/producer of the Passion of the Christ, a movie accused of being anti-Semitic, to fire off these blasts, I'd say Mel is in trouble in Hollywood. And I don't think inebriation will be a viable excuse.

In case you missed it, after going 80 in a 45, and blowing a point one two, Mel was arrested. Upon being detained, Gibson was quoted as saying, "****ing Jews! The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." He then asked one of the officers, "Are you a Jew?" Plus he dropped some sexual remarks towards a female officer.

Stick a fork in him. He's done.

All I can say is, "Yikes."

Welcome To The Terrordome

Alright! The new Echo website is up and operational. Matt and the guys at Factor 1 rocked it. A few things to point out:

1) It is flash-based, so you might need to get a download to view it properly. A bonus for us is that the content management on it is also flash-based, which means no messing with html to change the pages.

2) Normally we'll stream music on the site. I just have to get some uploaded.

3) There are still a couple of tweaks to be done, so you can check it out later on and see subtle alterations.

4) Our hosting is done through good friend [and newlywed] BCoates at hostacular. I can get you info if you'd like.

5) Everything but the home page is my photography. Just bragging.

You can give feedback but I love it and we're sticking with it regardless.

Filler

Memo to Scott Duebber: sometimes I don't post 59 times a morning. With a two day absence, I'm a little disappointed you didn't call the authorities. Thanks for caring. Here's an update: It's been a weird week for me. Kelly had to be out Monday and Tuesday, so it was Kaelyn and me two days in a row. During that time I was fighting a lingering cold which kept me down all day Wednesday. Kaelyn's had the same thing so we've both been coughing and wheezing, trying to see who can get this most sympathy from Kelly. Today we both turned the corner and are feeling better. Or at least I think she is. She won't tell me.

I've been stressed out this week about the mass mailing we're going to do for Echo's relaunch. My representative at Outreach has been out of the office the past couple of weeks and it's been impossible to get any of their people to call me back. Plus, I found out that we had trouble with the bulk mail permit, so I've been on my cell three days straight trying to find a solution. I think I finally solved it this afternoon. Can't say for sure because NO ONE FROM OUTREACH WILL TAKE MY CALLS [no, not bitter]. But I think we're good to go.

Shout out to Markus, another Presbyterian I know. Had some good conversation about ministry this afternoon at Starbucks.

Teaser: hopefully, by the weekend, Echo's new website will be up. We had a company from Phoenix do a custom job for us and I think it looks awesome. Keep checking it out here.

Finally, one of the greatest moments in my life thus far has been Kaelyn recognizing who I am. Just recently, I've noticed that she looks at me, even if I'm not looking at her. Then when I look in her eyes, she starts to smile broadly, as if to say, "I know who you are, Daddy." Awesome. No matter how sick I feel, or how bad things about my week have been, I've got this little girl who's figuring out how much I love her.