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Introduction To The House of Carr
Introduction To The House of Carr

She's One!

No, not Kaelyn; she just turned eight months last week. It was a year ago Monday that Echo Church was officially started. I'm not quite sure how to describe what we've been through this past year, but it actually feels like we gave birth to two children [although Kelly swears her pregnancy was more painful]. Even though we're still scratching for every inch, I've absolutely enjoyed this past year. I wake up everyday thankful that we're here. But this experience has definitely stretched our faith. I won't lie: I was scared to death a year ago. I didn't want to fail, which was always kept me from jumping into a church plant. We left security for uncertainty. And, honestly, if you had told me that this is where we'd be after a year, I'm not sure I would've done it. And that's precisely why I'm glad I didn't know. This is a long term investment. We're not blowing out the doors today, but we're gaining momentum. Thirty years from now, no one will remember year one.

And that's why, as I have been with Kaelyn, I've been trying to enjoy every minute of Echo's infancy. I enjoy getting to build closeknit relationships with our core group. I've appreciated additional sanity since leaving Panera at the beginning of the year. Could've done without the hepatitis, but even that was a learning experience [I learned having hepatitis sucks]. It's a good journey to take.

And now, time to name drop.

So to those of you who helped us embark on this journey, thanks. Dave&Bev, Anthony, Jen, Jaime&Melinda, Mark&Heidi, Paul&Carol, Jeff&Martha, Lindsay, Bill&Betty, Brad&Tammi, John&JoLynn, Sandy, Justin, Dave&Melissa, Mike&Nikki, Jeremy&Bonnie, Sydney, Brian&Krista, Dan&Rhonda, Jeremy- you all made it possible for Echo to start.

To those local church leaders I've had the pleasure of interacting with this year [Mike, Aaron, Russell, Markus, DG, Benji, Heidi, Bill, Scott] as well as those online [Tim, Michael, Bob, Tadd, Chad, Bob, Ben, Dave] thanks for the encouragement and for keeping me sharp.

To Emily, Shawn, Jim&Cindy, thanks for being a part of our original core group. We miss you, but are excited about where God has taken you.

And to those current core Echo'ers [Aaron, Dorota, Tim, Larry, Dale, Melissa, Rachel, Nate, Tim, Jessica, Tye, Andrea, Bud, Adam, Dylan, Kelly&Kaelyn], all those who've been coming recently, and all those friends and family who have supported us throughout the year with presence, prayer, and encouragement [especially those whose names I've accidentaly omitted], my deepest thanks and respect. God is definitely good. And you are proof of that.

Let's see what He does in year two.

And to bring this full circle, here's a picture of the little girl from Echo's birthday weekend:

A Brand New House

This is where things get confusing. Beit Carr is now more than a blog; it's a full website for the Carr household. For those of you getting my posts via RSS feed, you noticed nothing new. And if you access this blog via beitcarr.blogspot.com you missed it as well. But for those who type in houseofcarr.com, you've seen the changes. At houseofcarr.com you can get some extra info and pics of me, Kelly and Kaelyn. I'm also going to try to put up some short family video clips to keep people interested. It's a work in progress, but I'm excited about what we've got so far.

Thanks to Brian Coates for helping me get this up and running. The site design was all done in iWeb for Mac and was extremely simple. Not sure how it looks in other browsers, but let me know if you notice anything.

So from now on, if you just want the blog, go to beitcarr.blogspot.com [do yourself a favor and get an RSS reader like Google's]. If you want the full enchilada, go to houseofcarr.com.

Good night, now.

Ouch

Kelly's at the dentist so it's me trying to get Kaelyn to take her mid-day nap. I have the presidential news conference on in the background and I have to admit it's painful. I honestly believe that W is an intelligent man, but he comes off like a small-church deacon running a business meeting. No wonder The Daily Show has so much material.

Just an example: he referred to his office as the "o-VAL office," stressing the second syllable instead of the first. It was extremely southern, if not hick. He also continually called it the "Korean PeninSHula." I'm all for being personable, but it's not very comforting when discussing possible nuclear war.

It just reminds me of the whole Bill Clinton fiasco. You can get away with a lot if you can speak well in public.

Buy The Numbers

Because I'm all about this proposed gambling initiative, check this out from today's Enquirer:

"Ohio's Office of Budget Management issued a scathing report that estimated the take from the slots would be less than half what proponents think. The office estimated that the slots would reap $1.1 billion annually, with $486 million going back to Ohioans.

"While the lower projection would cut scholarship funding to $324 million - the office said the measure would severely under-fund treatment for addiction. It cited a Cleveland State University study that estimated new casinos would spawn 109,000 gambling addicts that would conservatively each need $3,500 worth of outpatient treatment - costing a total of $381.5 million."

9 Minus 9 = Dead Kitty

Ah, the weekend that was. So many good things happening but what to share today? How about the tail [pun intended] of the slain kitty? I will warn you that animals were harmed during the creation of this blog post, so some of you might want to skip this one altogether. But I must tell the story, nonetheless. Played a little flag football on Saturday morning with some people I met through our soccer league. After the game, I returned home and parked my car on the street. I walked around the back of the car, took some items from the passenger side, and went up to the condo. As I walked in, Kelly asked if I could hold Kaelyn so she could get something upstairs and I obliged. After a couple of minutes I stood up and peeked out the front windows to notice a dead feline laying in the grass area by my car door.

I knew I didn't run down Garfield, but I asked to Kelly to confirm my case; Kel is able to see me pull up and would've noticed if I had run over the cat. She said wasn't guilty. And I knew the cat wasn't there when I got out of the car because I would've remembered walking over a kitty corpse.

This left me in a bind: it was still morning but soon the sun would be shining on the cat; leaving it there wouldn't be a good idea. And I knew that calling the city wouldn't bring a response until Monday [if it all]. It was up to me to give the cat a proper burial.

Going outside I confirmed that the cat had been run down. And I could tell that the tire tracks didn't match my own, so again I would be innocent in a court of law. But the whole thing didn't make sense. How did the cat get there? I can't imagine someone would've run it down, get out of the car, picked it up, and threw it by my car door [although the North Koreans are doing crazier things now a days]. I would have to think that the cat was hit and managed to make it to the other side of the road before breathing its last. That's one determined cat.

Because of the cat's moxie, I decided to name it Gilbert, for the street it attempted to traverse before it died.

I won't divulge the specifics, but services were held this past Saturday with burial by the city of Cincinnati's Solid Waste Management Department.

We never knew you, Gilbert, but we're sure you were a swell cat. If only you knew how crosswalks worked, you might still be with us today.

You will be missed.

No Spin Zone

Here's where we're at: Ron Luce of Teen Mania [if you've never heard of him, imagine Tony Little but hyped on Jesus instead of exercise] is sounding the alarm that we're in a post-Christian culture and that Christian teens are choosing the ills of society over Jesus. His claim: "we're losing" and need to get in gear or the future is lost. Ron, Ron, Ron. Where to begin? First, thanks Captain Obvious; we've only been in a post-Christian society since the 1980's. Second, of course teens are choosing the ills of society over Jesus; they always have and always will. That's what you do during your formative years: you do everything you're not supposed to do so you can tell the next generation what they're not supposed to do. And third, we're not going to lose. Read the Bible [and keep your dispensational bent* at home with your Jolt Cola] and you'll discover that Jesus will win regardless of how Chicken Little you want to get.

I know I'm supposed to be on the same team as this guy but I have a tough time accepting this warning from him. His whole ministry is based on drawing tens of thousands of teens to weekend experiences where he takes advantage of a spiritual high to get kids to commit to decisions that they aren't able to persist with. Of course he's going to be crying wolf here because it directly effects his success rate.

Perhaps the actual problem is that the type of crusades Teen Mania supports is dated and is no longer attractional to the average Christian teen. Luce's response to the crisis "is to replace MTV’s wares with those of an alternative Christian culture, so teenagers will link their identity to Christ and not to the latest flesh-baring pop star." But creating such a sub-culture doesn't solve the problem. It just links their identity to the latest flesh-baring CHRISTIAN pop star and still doesn't create the necessary link to Christ. I hate to echo what I just wrote about the local gambling initiative, but there is also gold in the hills of the Christian sub-culture and many stake their living on it.

Listen, it's not that I'm not concerned about our kids, but we have to stop these ridiculous means by which to reach them. The vast majority of Christian kids aren't going to abandon pop culture for CCM. And do they have to? Why can't we stop lecturing to them and teach them how to live as a Christian in this culture? Why can't we challenge teens to go deeper in their faith so they can own their faith?

Stop blaming the world and take responsibility for the ways we [the church] have failed our youth. Instead of giving them substantive spiritual formation we gave them cotton candy, a promise ring, and a pat on the butt as they enter the real world. For two-thousand years of history, Jesus has been enough. Why do we think we have to reinvent the wheel?

Newsflash to the alarmed: things are going to be OK. Jesus assured us, "from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it" [Matthew 11:12]. So don't lose sleep over this. There are better days ahead.

*I'm pretty sure that Luce's ministry holds to dispensationalism which is interesting because this theology is centered on the idea that the world will get progressively worse, culminating in Jesus' return. So if this is your eschatology, shouldn't these stats be a cause for celebration rather than alarm?

Desperate

Money drives the world. And people will do whatever they can to get their hands on it. Case in point: I just had a person knock on my door [better than kicking it in] with a petition in hand. "How are you doing Mr. Carr," she began, entering into her spiel and I stopped her.

"How do you know my name?" I asked. "I have a list here," she showed me and I glanced down to see it was the Issue 3 petition; that's the gambling issue in Ohio.

Before she said another word I told her, "Sorry, I'm very angry about this issue and there's no way I'm signing your petition" [read my previous rant here]. She seemed a little surprise but I did tell her it was nothing personal as I know that this lady is just a hired petition collector; she's trying to make a living and doing the best that she can. Too bad she's being used by a group that cares nothing about her but is drooling over the millions they could rake in if this issue passed.

We're almost a month away from election day and these turds looking to profit from legalized gambling have pulled out all the stops. Do you realize the investment that it takes to send petitioners door-to-door? It's not cheap. And not to mention that they're doing it here in Walnut Hills which, overall, is an impoverished, undereducated part of town. That's tacky.

I think they're screwed. That's why it's come to this.

BTW, one of the more interesting things I've learned about this issue is while the proponents' website is www.ohiolearnandearn.com, the opposition was able to acquire www.ohiolearnandearn.org. Genius.

I Might Be A Jerk . . .

. . . but let's be truthful here. I laughed out-loud when I read the following on a church's website:

"We believe God sovereignly placed us inside the loop of I-275 in an area with wonderful racial and economic diversity."

The local area being discussed? Kenwood. If you're familiar with Kenwood, that's not quite how I would describe it's racial [white] and economic [affluent] diversity.

Whatever makes you feel better.

If you need me, I'm just slummin' in the belt-loop.

Poor Leadership

Joe Girardi, a manager that fans in Cincinnati and quite a few other cities would love to have, was fired today by the Florida Marlins after just one season. Girardi's termination occurred not because of poor managerial skills [baseball people would agree that his team overacheived this year] but because of his deteriorated relationship with Marlin owner Jeffrey Loria. Earlier in the season Loria was sitting behind the dugout and began to yell at the umpire because of some questionable calls. Girardi asked Loria to put a sock in it and Loria reminded him who signs the paychecks. Girardi, unfazed, told him again to shut his pie-hole and Loria left the game in a huff. They had a 90 minute shouting match after the game where Loria wanted to fire Girardi on the spot. Advisors suggested it would be bad PR to fire a winning manager and Loria waited until the end of the season to give him the ax.

Now you might think Loria was within his power; he owns the team and should be able to yell at whoever he wants. But Girardi was managing a young team, and insisted that only he discuss calls with the umpires. And when the owner tries to be all big shot and one-up his manager, I think Girardi was well within rights to tell Loria to shut it.

Loria made his fortune at an art dealer, not baseball [and he used some shady methods to even get ownership of the club]. He knows as much about Major League Baseball as I do- not enough to speak as an insider. There was no need for him to argue balls and strikes from the owners box except to make himself feel more manly. And when Girardi called him on it, he wanted to pretend he was a bigger hard dog and fire him on the spot. Loria was a prototypical micromanger, who lost an incredible manager, and will now face the consequences.

The truth is, the Marlins started playing even harder for Girardi after he stuck it to the man. They persevered through the season on hustle and grit, taking on the nature of their manager.

Mark my words: the Marlins will suck next year.

Truth Vs Fiction

Just finished watching Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. We've always liked Aaron Sorkin shows and this one, about a Saturday Night Live type show, seems to be a good one as well. Compare that to this past week's season premier of SNL. I've been a huge fan of Saturday Night Live since high school, and have probably seen at least part of every episode for the last 13 years. They've had some incredibly talented comedians during this time, but it seems that the sketch writing continues to get worse and worse. I found just a part of one sketch funny this past week. It just can't compare to the nightly punch that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report offer. Perhaps after a 32 year run, the show needs a complete overhaul or even the death sentence.

So if you're scoring at home: I now enjoy a scripted show about a live comedy-sketch show more than the actual live comedy-sketch show that the scripted show it's based on.

All In One Day

In case you missed it, today was the Biblical Day of Atonement- Yom Kippur. This is the holiest day on the Hebrew calendar, the culmination of the days of awe following Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the day that the nation's sins were forgiven. Two goats were selected to bear the sins of God's people. One was slaughtered, the other released into the wilderness [re: the scapegoat]. Might seem like a good deal for the second goat, but tradition states that they hid someone out in the wilderness where the goat was to be released to kill it to ensure it wouldn't wander back into camp.

Happy Holidays!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Padre!

Here's a birthday greeting to my father who is now secure in his early sixties. After his military service he needed to get his birth certificate reprinted and his current one claims that he was born in 1968. Not sure which is stranger: that my father was supposed to be seven when I was born or what that means about my mother. So even though my father is not the blog reading type, Happy Birthday, Dad!

Are You Kidding?

Talking baseball. I know you're not interested but check this out: With three games to go, the Reds are 2.5 games out, the Astros are .5 games out. One series left in the season. The Cards host a decent Brewers team, having to face a couple of tough starters. The Astros visit the Braves, having to face Smoltz on Sunday. The Reds visit a Pittsburgh club nursing a seven game losing streak.

AND, the Cards still have a game that needs to be made up against the Giants if it affects the outcome of the division.

The possibilities are mind-blowing. One team could be the clear winner or there could be a three way tie. AND there's even the possibility that a division champ wouldn't be crowned until Wednesday, three days after the end of the regular season.

If the Reds could somehow sweep the Pirates, I really think this could get interesting. But the Buccs can't lose 10 straight to end the season, can they? Then there's still Houston. BUT the Astros have won 9 straight. They can't win 12 straight to end the season, can they? Of course there's still St Louis. BUT the Cards have gone mental. They can't blow an 8.5 game lead in two weeks, can they?

Crazy.

AND, in a related note, Pedro Martinez is out for the season so the Mets starting pitching is even more suspect. The National League is up for grabs.

AND, my fantasy team is in the championship, behind 50 points headed into the weekend [just thought I'd add that].

I never imagined I'd actually be watching baseball scores this weekend. In 1999, the Reds had a play-off berth wrapped up and tanked. Could this year be the opposite?

Finally, just had to wrap this up with a little glance at how ESPN predicted the Central would turn out this year: At least the Reds did a little better than the cellar this season.