steve-o
Introduction To The House of Carr
Introduction To The House of Carr
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Choose Wisely

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Ohioans who complained that their presidential primary votes would be unnecessary were sorely mistaken.* Ohio could very well determine the Democratic nominee this year, so I'd say things will certainly get more interesting around here in the next couple of weeks. Hillary Clinton stopped by the Skyline Chili in Oakley this morning** and Barak Obama's wife is currently giving a speech over at Music Hall.*** A couple of notes concerning the forthcoming March 4th Ohio primary:

  1. Ohio has an open primary, meaning that you don't have to be registered to any one party in order to vote for their candidates. That means Republicans accepting that John McCain is already their party's candidate could try to chose his opponent. I'm not sure it will be a huge factor, but I do think this will be one time some Republicans vote the Democratic ticket.
  2. Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory, a super delegate, is stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the next week or so he's going to have to endorse Hillary or Obama and there's more at stake then he realizes. With the city's high percentage of African American voters, it would probably help him locally to back the Senator from Illinois. But I have this feeling that, as many major city mayors have already done, he's going to come out for Hillary. With both Cleveland and Columbus likely to help out Obama in Ohio, Cincinnati will be a big battleground. Mallory's endorsement could have some significance on the outcome, not only of this election, but his desired re-election in next year's mayoral race.

Regardless, I think both candidates will swing through Cincinnati again. If so, I might try to see them. I haven't seen a President [or a potential President] since Ronald Reagan's visit to Cincinnati in the early 1980's.

*I found it humorous that people in Ohio wanted their vote to "mean something," like they have been forgotten or have been marginalized. Ohio has been front and center during the past two Presidential elections and will, most likely, be right back there again this fall. 

**This Skyline is significant as it is one of the few in Cincinnati that serves Coke products, therefore making it one of my favorites. 

***Some comments from this Enquirer blog post accuse Hillary of bad taste for stopping by a chili parlor in a Catholic town on a Friday during Lent. I'm not a Hillary backer, but that's a pretty weak accusation.

Texas Baseball

While in Dallas, I knew there were two places I wanted to see. The first was Dealey Plaza and the second was the Ballpark at Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers. I have a thing for stadia [the correct usage of the plural "stadium" for those who are wondering]. I see these places on ESPN all the time, so I like to see them in person if I get the opportunity. Arlington is located halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, right next to a Six Flags Amusement Park. I was a little surprised how suburban the location was. Fortunately for me, they had a baseball museum and, for the price of admission, you received a guided tour of the ballpark. Interesting fact: one of the provisions for the people of Arlington [a city itself] financing the stadium was that the name "Arlington" always be attached to it, regardless of the corporate sponsorship.

The museum had some great artifacts on loan from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. On one of the walls they had pictures of the "Greatest Teams of All Time" which, according to whomever made the exhibit, the 1976 and 1990 Cincinnati Reds. The second floor was all about Texas Rangers history, of which there is very little [when they have an entire exhibit area devoted to Sammy Sosa, who played just one-and-a-half seasons for the Rangers, you know they're desperate]. It should be noted that the Reds Hall of Fame is much better; it made me appreciate again Cincinnati's rich baseball heritage.

The best part was definitely the tour. Another person and I were led around by a wonderful senior citizen named Ed who's been a fan of the Rangers since they relocated to Texas from Washington DC; they were formerly the Senators. Ed led us from pressbox, to luxury boxes to locker rooms. We even had a chance to visit the dugout and walk on the field. I'm not sure if there's such a tour offered at Great American Ballpark, but there definitely should be.

When we were in the locker room, we saw starting pitcher Kameron Loe and newly appointed closer CJ Wilson. I knew Kameron because I picked him up in fantasy baseball last year, so I decided to let him know that. He apologized for a lackluster performance [which I sincerely appreciated] and promised that if I drafted him again, I'd get better stats this year. I also let them know how excited I was for them to have former Red Josh Hamilton on their team this year. They replied that they were excited to have him as well.

As I left, I was a little disappointed. The Ballpark at Arlington is about eight years older than GAB and it's a much better facility. I can't help but be reminded that the county cut corners when it came to the Reds stadium.

How about a few pictures. I had the older point-and-click camera, so the quality wasn't quite as good as I liked.

Exterior of the Ballpark.

Me in the dugout [taken by Ed].

Looking toward home.

Centerfield from dugout.

Some locker room, eh? Bad photography, though.

Next door, the new $1billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium being constructed.

JFK

I've always been fascinated with the assassination of President Kennedy. I'm not a conspiracy theorist per se, but you have to admit that the occurrences surrounding JFK's death in November 1963 are peculiar enough that we still discuss them today. So on my recent trip to Dallas, before my conference started, I went downtown to Dealey Plaza to see the site and visit the museum now located at the Texas Book Depository site. The museum itself is mainly located on the sixth floor of the building, the floor where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots. No photography is allowed in the museum, which is filled with photos, time-lines and artifacts. The tour is self-guided; your given an mp3 player with headphones to go through it.

As I remembered the Oliver Stone movie that suggested Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy, there was just one thing that stood out to me while on the sixth floor. Oswald, after shooting the President, was supposed to have ran across to floor to a stairwell, hidden his rifle, descended four flights of stairs, and made it to the lunch room in 90 seconds. I'm just saying, the guy must've been fast. I also never realized that Oswald was only 24 years old.

It was a little bizarre to see how some people acted around the place. I understand the need to take a few pictures but what possesses someone to pose smiling in the place where someone was killed? Check the picture below [taken from the overpass, with the Texas Book Depository behind the trees to the left] and you'll see at the other end of the arrow the dipwad who wanted his picture taken where JFK was shot. Even more ironic is it wasn't even the right location. Tourists . . .

I've Got Friends*

On my trip to Dallas, I flew out of Indianapolis [that stinkin' Delta hub in Cincinnati forces many locals to sprawl to other nearby airports to save some cash]. Fortunately, I was able to leave my car at my brother-in-law's church and he drove me to the airport. But Josh and my sister Becky were going to be leading a middle school retreat upon my return so I needed someone to pick me up. Enter my buddy Jason: a man of whom I have endless stories. Without hesitation he agreed to pick me up. Later that night we went out to dinner with Dalea [who's expecting child number four] and the kids. We had a great time.

After fourteen years Jason and I can pick up right where we left off. If we lived closer, we'd hang out all the time. As it is, we do pretty good to see each other regularly.

In short, he's my kind of people. He's a good friend.

*Yet another Jason story: when we were playing soccer in college, we had but one CD we would listen to: Garth Brooks' Greatest Hits. I ended up seeing Garth in concert twice. Not quite sure that happens without Jason. I don't hold it against him.

It should be noted: today Jason's son Drew turned ten. Kelly and I held him the day he was born. And now he has shaggy, hippie hair. He's a good looking, smart kid. Happy Birthday, Drew!

Grace

There's a guy in my Xavier program who's smart . . . I mean, he's impressively intelligent. He's down to earth but can throw around five dollar words with relative ease. I've really enjoyed getting to know him. And he's an atheist.

Funny thing for an atheist to attend a Catholic university, eh?

Anyway we're in a class tonight, a course covering the development of Christian theology from the Reformation until now, and we were discussing Luther's perspective on justification by faith. Basically, Luther wrote that we are saved neither by faith nor works but by the grace of Christ [it's more nuanced than that, but it's not where I'm going with this].

So this really smart guy, the atheist, asks a question of the professor:

"What do you mean when you say the word 'grace'?"

He had never really been exposed to the theological concept that is Christian grace.

I almost wanted to turn around and excitedly explain it to him myself. The professor did a decent job of defining grace in a textbook fashion, but I found it wanting because it was devoid of the personal encounter. As I think about it, I think she defined it without any reference to Jesus [which is entirely legitimate as grace was present in the Old Testament. But I'm not sure I would now converse about the topic without noting the importance of Jesus' death].

Then again, I wondered, "if an atheist asked me, 'what is grace?' would I have an acceptable response?" As a minister with over a decade of theological schooling, I'm still not entirely sure how I would answer that question. This isn't to say that I haven't chewed on it myself; trust me, I've thought a lot about it. But I suggest that how we define grace ought to differ from person to person, i.e., we each view the grace of God differently in our own lives. And that's one of the amazing aspects of the gospel message- there is no one true definition but it can be expressed in many different ways without losing it's transformative power.

Perhaps there are times when we who are fluent in "Christianese" ought to beware that we assume people know what we're talking about. Faith is a complex matter and it never hurts to double check to make sure you're being understood.

That said, I love difficult questions. So how do you answer it:

What is grace?

Soupa' Bo' Thoughts

Going into it, I really didn't care who won last night's game. There was nothing at stake for me, sans wanting a great football game. I, like the odds-makers in Vegas who are feeling it this morning, thought the Patriot's would go in and take care of business. Apparently we were wrong.

By the second half, with the Giants defense having established themselves in the trenches, I was full-out rooting for Giants to make plays. After the Pats scored with a little less than three minutes left, I stated that if Eli Manning drove them the length of the field to win the game, he could have an average career and make the Hall of Fame. This wasn't nearly as bold a prediction as the male in a soon-to-be-married couple made the statement that if Plaxico Burress scored the game winning touchdown, they would name their first child after him [hope it's a boy].

Still, the pitch and catch from Eli to David Tyree [video here until it's removed by Fox] was one of the most amazing plays in Super Bowl history. I literally fell out of my chair and was on the floor. It was unbelievable. At this point, I'm thinking the Giants have to win because that play will still be shown long after I'm dead.

I read last night where people were hatin' on this game, calling it boring. But if you were a true football fan, it was far from it. The Giants' defense went in last night and did was called impossible. And the last eight minutes were legendary.

I also remarked last night that perhaps we [football enthusiasts and professional analysts] missed something about the Patriots. True, they've won three championships this decade, but it came as the result of good defense. I'm not saying Tom Brady and his offense were inept over that run, but definitely overrated. This year was different. New England's strength was their offense. And the adage the defense wins championships still seems to apply [in this decade, that also applied to the Super Bowls won by Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and New England].  That's why it seems surreal the New York won the Super Bowl, but their defense has been spectacular. Then all you need is an offense to make a couple of plays, which the Giants did. And now they're number one.

It has me thinking about the Bengals and Chad Johnson. I'm still not in favor of getting rid of him, as it would kill the salary cap, but if they could get some amazing defensive talent out of it, then I'd send him packing in a heartbeat. We love to see Carson let 'er fly, but the reason the Bengals have zero playoff wins since Palmer's arrival is that the defense sucks. With a lights-out defense, and a QB like Carson, you could put schleps out there catching passes and still be OK.

Anyway, football's finally over and now it's on to Spring Training, March Madness, and the Masters.

I love the changing seasons.

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See Dead People

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When a local news issue has ethical and religious undertones, I feel obligated to chime in. There's a new exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center called Bodies. It's a display of human cadavers and organs from unclaimed bodies in China. It opens today and will make a seven month run here.

It's created a little stir here locally, as the Archbishop forbade Catholic schools to use it for field trips and a few people even protested the exhibit's arrival. For Archbishop Pilarczyk, it's an issue of human dignity, although he didn't demand that Catholics avoid it altogether. For others, it's about human rights, as exhibitors aren't sure whether or not the bodies were Chinese political prisoners, as the nation is notorious for violating human rights issues.

So how do people of faith deal with this exhibit?

First, we need to recognize that this isn't a Biblical issue; there is nothing explicitly "un-Christian" going on here. So now we have to approach it as a purely ethical decision that needs to be explored.

I will respectfully disagree with the Archbishop that this is an issue of human dignity. We live in the most sophisticated societies in world history. I know people my age and older who have never actually seen a dead body. I'm not sure that would have been possible in societies until the last century. And if we are truly concerned about issues of human dignity, I'd suggest that atrocities taking place in third world countries around the world are much more disturbing than this science exhibit. So I'm not buying this as a reason.

I would be more bothered with the possible Chinese human rights violations. I wonder if the Chinese government was able to significantly profit as a result of this exhibit. I'm not sure I want to take their word that these people just "happened to die." But that being said, why couldn't a similar bodies exhibit be created out of American cadavers? I would suspect that a lot of people would volunteer to let their innards tour the country after they die. I do think there's something to knowing the legitimacy of the bodies in the exhibit.

That said, I can't argue that there's an ethical issue present here. So if you want to, go see it. I here that it's fascinating. Not quite sure I'll go, however, because I'm a cheap skate and can see similar stuff on the Discovery Channel.

Flip It

Good news: it's no longer January. And the people rejoiced.

Or, at least, I rejoiced.

I'm not a big fan of January. It's actually my least favorite month. It seems to last forever and the cold weather exacerbates its position. It should be noted that I'm February is my second least favorite month. But it steers clear from "the worst" distinction because 1) it has fewer days than January [even in a leap year] 2) it's now the month of Kaelyn's birthday so I'm liking it more and 3) it's one month closer to spring.

So here's to one another cold month in the books while inching ever closer to a warmer and greener existence.

It's Gotta Be The Shoes

I just started writing this post with an idea in mind and realized I deviated a bit. And it got pretty long. But I was feeling the flow and just went with it. If you like it: good, but I enjoyed writing it so . . . there. This evening's admission: I'm a'feared of getting old.

No, I'm not concerned about mo' money and mo' problems. I'm just afraid of slowing down. Recently I've encountered some thirty-somethings who look and move a lot slower than I do. I'm trying to stave off the effects of aging as long as possible. So I've been pushing myself, even in these winter months, to do more athletically. I'm playing basketball a couple mornings a week and playing indoor soccer on the weekends. When I get some extra time, I work out over at Xavier.

It should be noted: I suck at basketball. I play for the exercise. And I hate lifting weights and treadmills. But I love soccer. And I'm somewhat good at it. So it's my athletic passion. I was playing co-ed soccer this past session and, despite my age, my game has emerged. I've actually become one of the better players on our team. When I played in college I was not a goal scorer but in co-ed I am. Last week I scored two goals in the first three minutes. I've never had a hat-trick and tried the rest of the game but was unsuccessful. So I thought I was pretty awesome.

Until last week.

Some guys I've played with before asked me to play in a men's league and I was excited about getting to play without chicks on the field. I went in ready to go and . . . played . . . horrible. The pace was much faster than co-ed I didn't do anything well. And it really depressed me for a couple of days. That fear of losing a step gripped me.

But then I recognized that I actually love the higher level of competition. Even though I sucked, I wanted to come back and go at it again. I have since decided that I'm going to keep playing soccer into my forties. And I need to start playing in competitive men's leagues [scaling back my co-ed play] so I can keep that fire going. So in keeping with this resolution, I needed to go out and get a new set of cleats. Another admission: I love soccer cleats. I can't wait until I force Kaelyn Kaelyn decides to play soccer and I can buy her little soccer boots.

I've had the same pair of Adidas Copas since 1996. Copas are the perfect soccer cleat: black kangaroo leather, classic look, awesome. I bought a size 8.5 [half a size too small], showered while wearing them to stretch the leather around my feet, and reveled in the perfect fit. They're not falling apart yet, but I have a feeling that they're going to rip sometime soon. And I need to have a pair broken in if/when those die. But a new pair of Copas would cost towards $100 and I don't play enough anymore to justify dropping that much cash on cleats. So I did some more looking around and got a great sale on the current cheap version of the Copa [the Telstar], but have yet to shower in them. I'll keep you posted when I get around to that.

That guys league team needed another player tonight so I went back for round two, new shoes and all. This time I was intent on playing better and making things happen. Ironically, we were playing a team of young guys [what seemed to be local high school varsity players] but I easily ran with them. I took some hard shots on goal, had a couple of assists and felt like I redeemed myself. I finally felt back at home on the field.

All I want to do is go out and compete as long as possible. It might be gone tomorrow, but at least I have today.

And I really don't think it was the shoes, but I felt good out there tonight.

And I like feeling good . . . and abandoning that fear'dedness.

Willow Creek Shake-Up

Time for a little shop talk. Unless you're into evangelical church conversation, this post might be boring. But I find this fascinating and needed to note it. During the past few years Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, one of the largest and most influential evangelical churches in the nation, has developed a dream team of teaching pastors to take them into the future. Founder and Senior Pastor Bill Hybles went out and got some of the best communicators in the nation to join his staff so he could devote more time to overseeing national and international interests. Two of the three men he added came from my movement of churches, so I was very interested in these moves. Now, a little more than three years later, all three have resigned within a nine-week span, and one of those did so without having future employment lined up.

All the men said the right things in their resignation letters, something to the effect that "God was leading them to another place." This might indeed be true, but whenever three people get the same message, I tend to think something is up. I don't think it an unspiritual endeavor to read between the lines.

All the men left incredibly successful churches to go to Willow Creek. As Willow is known as one of the leading churches among evangelical congregations, I could see why these men thought that the jump to the "ultra-big" time was a good idea. But apparently the grass was greener on the other side. I'm not saying that Willow Creek is a bad place, but it definitely has its own culture that is more results driven than many churches. It's gotta be tough adjusting to a new role in that environment. Perhaps that's what led to these departures: when the new car smell wears off, you're still driving the same streets [my weak attempt at a deep metaphor].

I'm not sure what can be learned from this, as the true story here will most likely never surface. That said, I opine that this situation will become the norm in the years to come with many megachurches. Each leader wants to enact change on their institutions and turning them around is like maneuvering a cruise liner. That's why many ministers [um, I guess like me] choose, rather, to start their own churches. With Echo, I've been able to lead at my speed and according to my strengths. I don't have to fight an established church culture.  Of course, some guys going this route don't have the skills to start their own church and I imagine the new church failure rate will skyrocket in the years to come.

Churches are a funny thing, eh?

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Question: Do We Rock The Vote?

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I need your honest opinion. Something's running in my head and I'm wondering if I should run with it. I read all the local Cincinnati publications including City Beat, an independent weekly paper. Every year they name their "Best of Cincinnati" list, their most popular issue of the year. Among the lists of best restaurants and local stores they name a best church. For the past few years that church has been Crossroads in Oakley.

I'm wondering if this is the year we should stuff the ballot box and try to get Echo to win the title of "Cincinnati's Best Church."

Now don't get me wrong: it's not that I don't think Crossroads is a great church; I have quite a few friends on staff their and truly appreciate their ministry in the city. But they've had a good run of it and it is a little better known than Echo so they don't necessarily need that title for anything. For us, the free publicity could . . . well, at least get our name out there.

And I am very proud of our church. We're clearly not the best at any one thing, but I love our church and think it's one of the best this city has to offer.

And that's why I'm looking for your opinions. Is this a little too gimmicky for us? Is it lame? Would we be trying to hard to get some free pub?

Honestly, I could go either way. I'm not that hard up for affirmation but if enough people were interested, I think we could get this thing going. Likewise, if enough of you faithful readers thought it was a dumb idea, I would accept.

So leave a comment below and let me know.

I Must Protest

Had a great time on Saturday attending the wedding of our neighbors Dustin and Teresa. It took place at the beautiful St Monica's church in Clifton Heights. The church, it should be noted, was absolutely gorgeous. It was the first Catholic wedding that Kelly and I have attended. And although I've been to mass before, it was Kelly's first Catholic service altogether. When you're a Protestant in a Catholic service, you feel out of place. There are a lot of aspects to Catholic worship that are learned over years of attendance [and confirmation class]. And even though I have my Cincinnati westside credentials, which makes me at least partially Catholic, I couldn't keep up; I was always late standing up, sitting down or kneeling. I have quite a few theological objections to Catholicism, and can be embarrassed by its legacy, but I refuse to dismiss all the good the Catholic church has done and is doing in this world. In short, I'm not switching sides but I won't Catholic bash either.

From my recent experiences, I could see why many Protestants choose to convert to Catholicism; there's a certain comfort in the liturgy that is absent in many Protestant churches. And there's a certain reverence of God, perhaps a mystic quality, that is somewhat attractive. Confirming this is many people I observe in my master's program at Xavier who are Catholic converts.

Likewise, I can understand why Catholics flee for evangelical churches. When you have no other frame of reference but that of a distant God who requires pageantry and exact language, you might navigate towards more simplistic form of worship.

It is a good reminder to me as a Protestant minister, living in a Catholic city, attending a Catholic graduate school, of balancing the kind of worship we encourage in our church. Remembering God as dwelling afar, as well as in our midst.

Good Folk

Yesterday morning I was, again, at the little country church in New Richmond for Sunday morning services. I was surprised to see Bill and Betty Bravard there. Bill has been a professor at Cincinnati Bible Seminary for over twenty years and he and his wife attended our church when I was growing up. They now live in the New Richmond area, so they stopped by to hear me preach. Bill and Betty have continually invested in me and my ministry, from high school until today. They've sat through many of my sermons and they still come back for more. Throughout starting our church, Bill has been in contact with me; he was one of the first people I consulted with when we decided to do this.

After church yesterday we went out to lunch and talked for a couple hours about Echo, local churches, and my family. It was a great time of encouragement for me as I hold their opinion in high regard.

It's good to have older, wiser people in your life who will be honest with you. We always need mentors. Regardless of how old you are, I hope you're investing in the people around you. It makes a difference.

In Pursuit

Excited to here how things went today with Matt Mehaffey, a fellow CCU alum, whose crew officially started a new church in Miami, Florida this morning. Pursuit Christian Church is now officially open for business. Starting a new church is the craziest thing I've ever done in my life and I have much respect for anyone who has ever done it. If you have the desire to do a "missions trip" anytime soon, I know they still could use help. I'm just hoping they'll need someone to fill-in preach sometime soon. I would labor for the Lord on South Beach . . . if I had to.

Fingernails On The Blackboard

Echo's relationship with the church from which we rent has been a blessing. We can store our equipment on site which means our set-up time is minimal. The building is in great shape, with fully operational heating and cooling. The rent is dirt cheap, which definitely helps our overall budget. All in all, things are awesome. But allow me to express the one thing that annoys me about our rental space.

A choir meets there the second Sunday night each month; it should be noted that no one from their church is actually part of this choir. It's a community choir, comprised of people from all over the greater Cincinnati area. They meet in the church's fellowship hall and usually have a pot-luck dinner afterward. They don't bother us too much except that they take up almost all the parking in the lot when they gather. Repeated attempts to claim our fair use of parking have proven unsuccessful. My only hope was that their choir would eventually dwindle until there is no one left.

I might not be that lucky.

Kelly directed me to a Time Magazine article devoted to Sacred Harp singing, the kind of music this choir performs [actually, they never actually "perform." They only practice. Still not sure about that]. Sacred Harp is a bizarre harmonic, shaped-note singing of old Christian hymns. It dates back to the Civil War but I had never heard of it until we started Echo. I listened to some of the music online from a PBS special on Sacred Harp but, even when done at a professional level, it doesn't sound very appealing.

So the article says that Sacred Harp is the new, hipster activity to do. Even though they sing Christian hymns, it has broad appeal; it's popular among people from various religious backgrounds. And now that Time has covered it, I bet more locals will come out for the sing-sing in the fellowship hall. In short, parking is going to be impossible to get at Echo on February 10th.

And, long-term, I guess the choir won't be going anywhere soon.

Suck.

Of course, if that's the worst thing we have to deal with the amazing space we have the opportunity to use, then I have nothing to complain about.