Breaking Away

I guess everyone else has had their go at "it"..."it" being their chance to wig away for some rest and recuperation from the toils of life, love and ministry.

So it's my turn now I 'spose. Cathy and I are taking a mini-sabbatical of sorts starting in October. I am cutting out some things by necessity and staying put on others that I don't feel like God has released me from yet. We've been on "go" from day one here in Oxford and that was 7 years ago. Actually, rewind to 1998, and we've been in "church planter" mode since then without a real break. And I don't mean the occasional vacation, but a break from the mind running full speed ahead, always processing, always analyzing, always on "available" mode. A paring away of the regular routines of doing things.

In the presence of frustration (there's always that), futility, joy (even), weariness and smidgens of hope, we have decided that we have neglected some things about ourselves that need attention. That includes our marriage. We are solidly in love, devoted to each other and to ministry together.....we just need some time together and alone to find more of what we're to be and where our service to Christ and to our community will take us. We are solidly committed to being here in Oxford too....so we aren't going anywhere but to within, to God and to each other.

This has been a while in coming...about a year and a half actually. I just haven't had the courage to admit it much I don't guess. I tried a mini retreat for a few days in March and that was great, but I knew it was not enough. I just know that I can't remain in some of the places from which I am operating...and that mostly out of my own strength. I don't want that much anymore.

This means:

• Terminating our suburban community (we have had two other people living with us in intentional community)....we just need the space that is our home to be able to go to where we need to go
• Ceasing our house church community meeting at our house (other community members are planning on an alternate location)....we also will not be attending our community during this time
• Laying aside some visible and mostly invisible pastoral duties....I will still be observant and it isn't as if I'm leaving a vacuum...I am going to return in due time
• Entering into some deliberate personal and corporate accountability during the interim for reflection, healing and wholeness
• Getting away with my wife so as to just focus on ourselves a few times
• Getting away personally...each of us....so we can gain a greater clarity of our place in our togetherness

We will be back. We are not sloshing around for an undetermined period of time. I will return to this blog. We will return to our community refreshed, reinvigorated, revitalized and- hopefully and prayerfully- with something of import to say. And an even greater, more empowered platform from which to spring. Yeah, it's scary, it's a risk but and some may not even understand, but everything in our bones tells us it's the right thing.

I won't be back the same as I was upon stepping away. Thanks for holding out for me/us.....keep posted.

The Cathedral Spires in the Black Hills, SD- from our trip out west this summer. Could really stand to be there right now.

Everytime I see this pic, the cirrocumulus cloud deck above the spires there look like they're moving from right to left.

Figured I'd post since I've been reticent for the last 21 days. I guess I can surmise enough has been going on to direct my attention elsewhere, as such seems to be the case with blogging buds who've slipped the surly bonds of the blogosphere into other ethereal freedoms. But it doesn't mean I don't want to write.

So much seems to be happening around these parts and I'm really trying to grasp something I can recognize. I'm changing, Veritas is changing, people around me are changing. Not all of it is healthy change. And not all of it is within my influence, though it doesn't mean I haven't tried. And that doesn't mean that it should be controlled by me at all. People just float along not really seemingly aware of how the decisions that they make and the things they say, do (or don't do) impact those around them.

Some things bode well for the future. I have been mentoring a church planter here in Oxford for the last several months who I've just simply come to adore (along with the whole planting team). His heart is solidly in the right place, he has a love for this community, for the students and for his planting team and God is doing some neat things in them even as new as they are. In just a week and a half of school, 10 students have become Christ followers. Some crazy God-stories are already happening too (including one of the pastors getting run over by a car and living to tell about it).

We are gearing up in plugging a young lady into the mobile home park as part of what we are praying is the center of some God-activity happening there. She has bought a mobile home at the entrance of the park, is stoking some things dream-wise and Veritas is going to come along-side her because we believe she is only going to be the first of several who will be part of an intentional community to anchor that section of town. She knows she's called, we've affirmed that (things are happening relationally there too) and we're just waiting for God to give some more specifics.

Cathy has just begun a prayer group at her school, where she and some other teachers are going to gather once a week before school in one of the rooms and just pray. Such stuff is the nectar of weary church-planter guy (like me), looking to suckle some sweetness wherever he can find it.

HOT HOT HOT
Hottest I've seen it since I can remember.....hit 99 today at my weather station at 1361 Dana here in Oxford. Hit 104 according to the thermometer in the car (which was the temperature near the pavement). Excessive heat warning, severe thunderstorms today (not here of course) and even a 'nado in NYC. Good weather day all around I'd say.

Testing...Can You Help Me Out?
Okay. I need someone...ANYONE to just leave a comment on my blog to let me know people CAN comment. You don't have to interact.....just say something. I don't know if things are working right, although I can comment.

Can We Do This? Are We Allowed?
Here's the deal. Kim and Kara are two young Veritasian ladies who've been tracking with us quite a while. They are finding themselves in a transitional time in their lives calling into the fore issues of vocation, calling, economy, ministry, location and the Kingdom of God. They've waded through the decision to remain in Oxford- here in our community- foregoing other options and opportunities to go elsewhere and be and do other things. That says quite a bit there.

This is coinciding with a phase in the life of Veritas that many of us are encountering on many different levels. We have people who are staying put and taking root here. Jobs are being secured here. We're buying houses in the same neighborhood and really only beginning to ask what that means. We know it's significant.

The major point is that we are revisiting what our community is all about. Why are we here? What are we to do? Who are we to be? We're feeling the need to solidify our community around some vows pertinent to our place and people. And yes, we've been influenced by many friends and communities in what could defined as the new monasticism but not because we read a book or two. Perhaps that's a dog to chase a bit later.

For the Dana house, we are embracing the fact that in many ways we are a training house and a "retreat" for leaders in training. And we're also just a simple, warm and inviting cabin in the woods for some wayfarers. Our calling is to be navigators in this terrain we've been given. We've toyed with that, but it's time for us to go full force into that placement. And God is giving us people with whom to verify this calling.

We've always had people living with us since we've been in Oxford. Well....not ALWAYS as in 24/7/365...but many people have been with us, living under this roof, for multitudes of reasons. There is definitely a "thing" of hospitality that we are seeing God enact by just opening our home. God just does things with this. We're only just now seeing how being intentional with it makes Kingdom possibilities become realities. We've done "intentional" things with people in the past (such as community leadership internships), but this is an occasion of not only exploring this dimension of community and what it means for us as a church, but also in the creation of another intentional community.

Suffice it to say, God is making a move of some sort that seems rather pointed and concerted amongst more than a few of his people here in Oxford in our own little abandoned place of Empire....the Oxford trailer park. In some pretty supernatural ways, he's laying this area of town (I call the College Corner Corridor, or C3.....I know, I know) on our hearts and we're discovering a common vision for the C3.

So Kim and Kara are finding an inner urgency to "be" there...in the trailer park, as residents- even buying a trailer and essentially becoming one with the people in the neighborhood, serving them and doing their part to love them into the Kingdom. Nobody, especially not I, had ever suggested to them to do such a thing to my knowledge. And from what I am gathering, they are not loners "out there." There are pioneers who've laid a path. And if it is that Kim and Kara are to go there, there will be others to follow if they are faithful. They won't be the only ones.

Still yet, there are quite a few unknowns and uncertainties in making this move, if it indeed happens. And having lived together the last year and just recently coming to the end of their lease, Kim and Kara are finding that the decision to move is forced upon them. But this time, in ascertaining where to go, they are submitting it to the scrutiny of what this particular move can mean in context with what God is doing in us and them. A move with this kind of Kingdom-minded intentionality is somewhat of a precedent for our faith community.

So this is what the Dana house is offering and has indeed morphed into.......we have invited Kim and Kara in to live with us in a structured, intentional community as we delve into and decipher just what it is that God is doing in them as well as in us. There are no real preconceived notions and token naivetes in the formation of this community here at 1361. We are laying a bed of disciplined routines and a structure to our common life together for as long as we are together (until God says to move). Through common prayer, meals, conversations and routines borrowed from the rich history of the Church, the new monastic ideals evident in other local communities and through careful support of the wisdom of brothers and sisters in Christ, we are basically seeking out a way of life that is indeed sustainable and reproducible and faithful to the (hopefully) prophetic witness of the KOG here in the intellectual capital of Butler County, Ohio.

Sure, it may be prototypical and exploratory, but what we have formed is real. We are even in a suburb, but not the kind of suburb you might think if you've never been here. We are one of a few single family residences on our street where the rest are duplexes, some mainly run down. People are in and out of these places like the seasons, and most of these people are in lower income situations, or at least, transitional income circumstances, if you will.

But here we are, and we're going for it- or something, whatever "it" will be. We know that we are fashioning a disciplined bed where the seeds of the possibilities of God are going to be nurtured and grasped in due time. For a split second, I've thought, "can we do this in this kind of neighborhood?" Does the place we are in "guarantee" a legitimacy or not? Are we trying to be "new monastics" and therefore up our stock on the hip guage? No, not really. This kind of life we are choosing at 1361 Dana just makes the most sense. And mainly, we need discipline and depth because we think we are on the cusp of some pretty inspiring things here in Oxford and we need depth if we're to be an incubator for what God wants to entrust to us.

If you were a child of the 80's you may really appreciate this.




Brings me back to times on our cardboard in our friend's carports....breakin' in East Tennessee for sure.

Days do indeed go by.

Bellythink: Stability's Arch Enemy

Currently, there is only one Veritasian who's still a university student and will be graduating in December. Quite frankly, the fact that there aren't any students (or won't be in the near future) means a several things: one, our community is coming of age; two, our outreach into the student population has waned a bit; and, three, it reflects a bit of the direction our community has taken.

Part of this coming of age is begging a few questions as well. Who are we? How are we to grow? What are we supposed to be doing? We are asking questions that even challenge many of the ways I've conceptualized about what it means to be the Church.

We are nonetheless primarily a church of young adults. Many of these have graduated and some have moved on to other parts of the country and world. Some of these still track with us.

Now some are staying in the area and getting jobs and buying houses. This has been a long time coming when you are intending on sustaining a church plant amongst primarily students, as we had purposed when we arrived in 2000.

For us, there are some Kingdom issues that are taking on new light. It is heartening to see us starting careers here in the area and buying houses and thinking about staying here and serving God in our "hereness." This is a phase I think that bodes well for us as a church because I believe God is faithful when we embed ourselves for the long haul.

This is why stability is becoming more of a meaty issue for us...one that can truly be embodied in tangible ways that reflect back into the community at large. This means we are at a place of seeing how such a vow can impact really what is already taking place in our lives.

Stability embodied in the presence of such cantankerous consumerism as can be found on a campus such as Miami (which is only a microcosm of our culture) may seem ridiculous to townie and student alike. Why would a student want to remain in Oxford, which offers next-to-nothing in terms of the kind of life and income "promised" to the Miami graduate (if not by virtue of its reputation alone)? Jon Stock, in his chapter on stability in Inhabiting the Church notes that we, from an early age, are taught to think "with our belly." He is essentially saying that our appetites virtually drive us into a frenzy of purposeless mobility and restlessness. Our culture dictates that not attending to our desires is to impose disaster to our sense of fulfillment and actualization.

What does it mean to stay together in a city where dispensing/dispatching people is economically and systemically necessary? How does THAT bode for the Church in our context, especially when we devalue attractional modes of being and "doing" church? We shall try and find out.

A Quick Pictorial Update on Veritasian Happenings

Chris' baptism back in June at Hueston Woods State Park.












Baptismal feast in embryo; waiting for the coal of char to heat up.












Celtic Daily Tatanka Brownie.













Swell times at the Dana gathering.

Yellerstoned
Although it seems like an eon ago since we were there, the total impact upon my soul from our journey out west is still reverberating within. People who've been to Yellowstone inevitably say to people who haven't: "It's so hard to describe. You just gotta go!"

I agree with that conclusion. Comprehending the massive bombardment to the senses there and what that portends was staggering for me, sort of an existential paring of my soul on a level for which I was unprepared.

It was no difficult task to be utterly reminded of the grandeur of God's creative supremacy while you are out there. You might be driving for hours in the color-washed reds, pinks, browns, tans and whites of the countryside spanning visibly for miles ahead and suddenly you are taken in by a wash of emotion and humility in the Creator who seems to say, "Look what I did."

The contrasting ironies are at once preposterous as they are invigorating. It is unnerving and freeing to have gone from suburban "civilization" to tremendous landscapes resulting from great and terrible forces that could, in a moment, end your life.

I was simply not prepared to process the enormity of the experience that is Tatanka. I must say, having surfed the channels one week before our trip, I happened across Dances With Wolves at the part where Costner's character is getting pummeled while trying to show the Native Americans that the bison were on the move. The only word he knows that they understand is "tatanka," which he indicates with two pointed index fingers attached to his temples. They got it and so did I.

So I issued an edict to Cathy, decreeing that we shall not refer to the bison as such, but they would be called "tatanka" and we had persmission to correct one another whenever we strayed.

These dudes were everywhere. They were wandering in our campground through the tents. That's about 1500-2000 lbs. of them, doing what they wanted. Approaching six feet tall at their shoulder, they are visual markers of bygone days of graceful innocence and rugged strength and power. To me they became icons of God, pointers to his grace and affirmation.

White man nearly decimated the creatures not so long ago. After coming to within 10 feet of one for the first time in my life, (in addition to seeing them in their natural places that I had never seen before), I began wondering: what is God's experience of these animals? does he take pleasure in them? are they "aware" of his pleasure in them? what is their "experience" of their Creator? It became nauseating to me that these animals could not have an existence outside of a park created for them. Is our current subduction of the globe as it is the kind of stewardship God intended, having traded the earliest Garden for ones wraught with concrete and steel, mostly at the expense of the creatures with which we are to coexist? Certainly, this begs the fullest expanse of the questions of consumption and sustainability.

It became amazing to me, that- in spite of our history with the tatanka- they tarried with us...in their home, almost seamlessly weaving us into their ways, our unnatural
interruptions with our cars, tents and selves, gawking with mouths agape. They jam our roadways and lumber onward in their tantanka-ness, with a slow toll and pace that invites onlookers to relish the same. Irony...in their behemoth heads rhythmically flowing up and down as they reveal a grace from time immemorial. Irony.....in such docility while knowing that they can run about 30 miles per hour and with one thrust of their horn...well, you get the picture.

But there we were...us and them. We didn't deserve to be there. Not after our atrocity perpetrated upon them. By virtue of just being out there, it was no stretch to see the consumerism that almost eradicated them for their fur never really abated. But there, for me, amongst our tents and beside our cars and with no legitimate reason to allow us, was an image of God. Packaged in this furry beast was rolled up welcome, affirmation and grace. God, we are told, "pitched his tent" amongst us. And this in spite of how we try to "do" him in and eradicate any semblance of him. Perhaps I may be unsupported in these tenets, but I was still moved by them.

But their heads are so freekin' awesomely huge! Beyond the fact they use them to plow through the snow to reach the warmer springs and steam vents for grass, I am still trying to decipher the theological significance of that.

I am back from my summit in Greensboro, NC. Wonderful people there.....quite hungry and eager for God to break into their midst and use individuals in a simple and powerful way. That seemed really evident to me.

Driving down there was luscious....saw a house fire, a tanker fire and a car on fire within about 3 hours. God even gave me a lil' bit of fire while I was down there too. That's always a delicious thing.

God to see Dave-O at the elsewhere collaborative in Greensboro...a 3-story storefront with some cool artists and splendid art installations. Somewhat in my honor (I'll go ahead and think), one of Dave's works there includes a "weather station" that allows a person visual and auditory (as well as tactile) stimulation of weather from the INSIDE. Nifty stuff.

Tomorrow, the Dana house is hosting Chad Moore and his planting team for a cookout. They are planting a church here in Oxford. Chad and I have been meeting together weekly for the past few months and the guy is pretty sharp and some God things are happening with him that I'll hopefully elaborate on later. I'm looking forward to meeting his team, but, of course, tomorrow will probably be the day we'll get severe weather.

I'm just tinkering with my blog appearance and it's getting a bit ridiculous now. But I needed something new but I can't stop myself with the reinvention, at least with the small leeway I have in knowledge and options with Blogger. I don't know....I suppose the digital flux here represents the same in my life.

I'll be leaving for Greensboro tomorrow for yet another summit with some local pastors/leaders there to talk about non-traditional church planting stuff. It's kind of funny that Dave, a Veritasian, is in the midst of an art residency as part of a collective there in Greensboro and I get called for this trip there with the North American Mission Board. We'll get to connect so that's off the cool-meter.

Okay...experimenting here. What you see is not what you'll get. Bear with me. If you're with me.

Shortly, after a conference call regarding my next summit in Greensboro, NC, I shall haul a busload of chitrens and yoots from Clubhouse down to the Cincy Museum Center at Union Terminal.

My goal this year- in addition to arriving at our destination safely- is to keep the umbrellas on board while on I-75.

The New 'Scape of Things?

Ever found yourself peering out over the horizon, thinking you're ascertaining the lay of the land- but instead of a state-of-the-art, handheld, GPS device- you see that you've really been clamoring over a 6-foot sextant more appropriate for Johannes Hevelius? And to top it off, you don't really know how to work it.

So what does that say about how you "got" to where you are now? Where are the objects that have been guiding you? Are they as fixed in their positions as you thought?

Secretly, I think I tend to hold my perception of my own relationships as constants for navigation. I don't think there currently is a judgment for or against this at this point either. This has been solidly the case for me in these last few years of ministry....I guess I can say it's been that.

There was a time in those years (and I don't think that "time" has abated) wherein my journey seemed like a span from the Arctic Circle to the calm of the tropics. It was lonely and icy but there were others being found on that journey and it seemed we were all headed in the same direction. Finding each other was warmth enough.

Across the board, some destinations were made, some are still in progress and some- like poor, ol' Jack Dawson in Titanic.- sunk into the cold depths off the raft.

I'm looking around in wonderment at how much things have changed in such a short span. It's not all negative change. People's lives take root; new footholds are gained. Any one vantage point, perspective or conclusion at any given time isn't hard and fast. We all know that- but that's a risky emotional reality in which to dwell. But again, not necessarily negative.

For instance, and at the risk of sounding something like a drama-queen, I look at my blogroll and about half either barely or do not blog at all. In their histories, there were cathartic moments for them when actively writing and images flowed through their fingertips to the screen handily and I was profoundly moved by their virtual introspection into their lives. Somewhere, the light went off, the writing was burdensome or had lost it's novelty or was laid aside for authentically noble reasons. For whatever reason, just like the move toward blogging signaled a life change, the move away from it arguably signals something like that too, I would say.

The pressure to generate content and the quasi-convincing humiliation that you have no readers can be a blog-killer, especially when nothing is to be gained financially from the endeavor. Did the online phenomena dictate the direction of the discipline to "pen" thoughts to the cybersphere or did our conversation? Does the code, signal and digitized images give life or do our words? It's curious that those who have much to speak with unique profundity find that they cannot say as much online anymore. And in every way, I can respect that. The entry into disciplined silence is noteworthy, if that's the case. If not, what's happening?

So, we seem to quit writing when we become disillusioned or part of our dream dies.The fact remains that we identify a life stage and assign a behavior to that stage as a marker (such as the novelty of blogging). We move out of that stage, and blogging is dispensible (again, for some good reasons). I've found, and maybe others have at times, that blogging is writing and writing for me has been prayer. Since I'm not altogether that good of a pray-er, I've not been that good of a blogger. But, I'm not a blogger, really. Just a writer of sorts. And that connects me to my soul and to souls. Every so often, it connects me to the Creator of Souls.

WELL, HERE I IS...
I really have MUCH to update you on...Veritasian ministerial leanings/directions/developments; having just driven over 5000 miles in the last 3 weeks; realizing I've seen fully one-third of the states in the continental US since October....goofy stuff like that.

It's 330am- my usual haunting hour- my ladee of oldness and the dawg are sleeping in the community room and I'm listening to Hammock's Raising Your Voice...Trying to Stop an Echo and I'm quite fond of it at present. You should dive into it if you have a hankering for some ambient, shoegazer, dream-pop tracks that are altogether melancholic and hopeful and starkly emotionally riveting. Their musical intuitions hearken me back to my rural Tennessee roots, rife with mountain scenes and the pungent and sweet odor of valley cornfields tucked between mountains.

So this duo, from the south and living in Tennessee (you'll see good stuff DOES come from there), produced Raising Your Voice... after one of the duo lost a friend to suicide. Much of the tracks cover a theme of loss, despair and questioning and a hint of faith....not unlike what you and I have been through in the recent past.

I feel like I haven't surfaced for air in months, but my wanderings have been rich and formative. All of this brings me down to the longing to nurture my roots here in O-town for a while.

MY (WIFE'S) CELEBRITY LOOK ALIKES

Thanks to the Creecher, I just had to....

While I'm too embarrassed to do mine yet, I had to do my wife's, which was just plain entertaining. Mine....well....was quite shameful. But maybe later.

MYSTERY GIRL UPDATE

For the untold myriads of you desiring further knowledge on the subject ("myriads"=nicki mcg!), I queried my next-door neighbor about her.

Essentially, she is perhaps a girl that deals with autism or something similar. There is some history with my next door neighbor and the girl and her family as well where she exhibited some behaviors indicative of the aforementioned condition.

Sounds like there are some extenuating family issues for her too that are a bit heartbreaking, maybe having to do with some control issues with her. Hopefully, she'll keep showing up and we can make some sore of contact with her. Don't know what we'll do next.

Whaddya Do With This?

For several weeks and on a few occasions, I have been observing a little girl in our neighborhood who has seen to make herself available to our front yard and, well....just help herself.

She's not doing anything that I can see that's destructive or suspicious, insofar as a fourth or fifth-grader can do. She's just.....hanging out. She doesn't say anything or engage in any other kind of behavior other than really loiter, I guess.

Jason saw her sitting in our driveway while we were away one time recently. She was drawing with that outdoor concrete chalk. The next time I noticed her, Jason and I were in the front yard, observing my mulberry tree. We both looked and saw her sitting in the yard, kind of straddling the curb and scooping back into the road piles of my freshly mown grass that I taken care to take OFF of the road. She was completely oblivious to us until she got up and started nonchalantly walking down the road. I thought for sure she glanced back at us and cut a wry smile as she strolled down the road as if her job was done.

So today, I am coming home from the weight room and I notice her walking on the sidewalk past my driveway as I am pulling in. I park in the drive and she proceeds to walk into our yard and plant herself under our plum tree as if on an leisurely stroll in the park. She did not even look at me as if to "ask" if it were normal comportment to just hang out in a stranger's yard. I made it a point to look at her to see if I could make eye contact, but no go.

I didn't sense any imminent threat so I went on in. She sat there for about the next ten minutes, just long enough for Jason and Andrea to walk by. Jason knew who she was and they tried to say "hello." All she could muster was a bland stare at them, devoid of any vocalizations. I figured as much.

I did get this picture of her just to make sure she wasn't a ghost. Well, not really for that reason, but this little mystery girl has piqued my interest here and, although, such behavior might be the norm in more urban environments, it's not so much in suburbia. And I don't know what it is about our place that keeps drawing her here, but I have not ever seen her doing this in anyone else's yard. Just ours.

I'll keep you posted to see if I make contact with her.

Jen Leonard is blessing our presence here at 1361 Dana in O-town for the next day or so. That's totally some pretty sweet awesomeness.

WELL, I'M BACK

Back here in good ol' oihO. And it is a treat to be home. Every time I am away, I invigorated into newer, fresher places of heart for our work here.

Well, to get this out of the way, the flights were fun. A one-hour, ten-minute ground stoppage on the runway in Dayton on my 737 was luscious. Of course I was monitoring the Chicago radar every fifteen minutes, but stopped short of offering my fellow passengers weather updates for fear of not being able to stop myself.

When we did finally get up and make our approach into O'Hare, the pilot was doing some pretty cool maneuvers that I wasn't sure I wanted to see a 737 make, like dips, dives and pull-ups over convective towers, like in the pic I snapped below.

I didn't know at the time, but one of our team members was in Detroit on his plane ready for departure when they discovered a mechanical problem with the fuel line or something. They performed a repair and did a taxi down the runway. I suppose as they were doing so, there was an even greater malfunction and fuel was being sprayed all over the plane. Yikes. No, make that a double yikes. Obviously that flight was canceled and,unfortunately, he didn't get to join us.

Coming back I got to fly in a Fairchild 328, which is Midwest's regional jet. I was scheduled for a United flight from Milwaukee to O'Hare then to Dayton on a 737. But guess who had a ground stoppage when I got to the airport in Milwaukee? They offered me a non-stop on Midwest to Dayton, which I took. You know that when you go up in gate letters and numbers you are getting a rinky-dinkier aircraft. So I got to gate D-52 and out the window there were nothing but turbo-propped "crop dusters" which I knew they weren't about to fly to Dayton, but I had to make sure. And I did. For the next 1.5 hours, I saw one Fairchild after the other land, deplane and take off again. These little boogers looked like mini-cargo planes and I immediately began to wonder how it would handle the turbulence we were about to get into.

It got a bit bumpy going up because the winds were gusting up to 30mph that day. But coming into Dayton felt like a riding with a drunk on a Rock-O-Plane at a gypsy carnival. I suppose a larger craft could have absorbed some of the bumps better but even as buffetted as we were, the crew did a good job landing.

The trip to Wisconsin was quite fruitful. We(our task force) have been compiling our findings from the past several months into some presentable material for our churches and their leaders. We have been receiving feedback from both groups and incorporating it into our material.

We started out with at least a premise that people in North America are largely unreached for Jesus and we aren't doing a very good job at ameliorating the problem. Intially, we were going to identify the barriers in our churches that kept non-professional ministers, (i.e., "lay" persons...regular church folk) from doing the Kingdom work they can and should be about, but have been kept back because of leader insecurity and just plain ignorance.

That is built upon the idea that soley relying on professional, trained church planters- the deployment of which are ridiculously resouce heavy- hasn't cut it. In that vein, we thought we were going to identify ways we could empower "lay" persons (we even have difficulties with the baggage associated with that word) to see that they could engage in planting in ways that- perhaps by perception- were reserved only for professional minister-types.

Well, now we are reasonably sure that the true spirit of what we think God is about in this is not to get people to "start" churches, per se, as much as it is about people being relationally available, persistent and connected to what God wants them to do in their own neighborhoods. When that happens, churches are often born in many kinds of forms that please God. That SBaptists have always taken the Commissioning in Matthew 28: 19, 20 to heart is not novel. More revolutionary in SBC life is that the goal necessarily isn't to pump out churches, but to create simple, redemptive communities where the spread of God's Kingdom is possible. This implies a radically new approach to disciple-making for some, if not many.

Not revolutionary for most of you, I know, but there is a groundswell amongst the everyday Christ follower in SBC churches that we are finding are longing to be released to do this and be free from programmatic/unnatural/inorganic approaches to impacting our neighbors for Christ. To be sure, there are deep pockets of control that factor into this being a bona fide release and empowerment.

But I think when people are free enough to realize their place and identity, God may move amongst us like we've not seen in ages, and in a way that isn't solely to save denominational face or feather the beds of our deep-seeded control issues. It will be something in which God alone can truly be glorified.

This much we knew from our first gathering in Orlando last October, when opening our journey together in a time of prayer, we were pretty literally driven to our knees- our little hotel conference room being filled with God's presence in a powerfully humbling way. It seemed God was telling us that if we were serious about what we were setting out to do, he would be the one to be glorified. I'll not forget that visitation of the Spirit upon us that day. We have a chance here. I know.

I hope.

Stuff You Just Hafta Blog About

God still loves the 'burbs. I love it when he uses the whole creation to show us.

I'm at the Lutheran church tonight at about dusk cleaning windows. It is beginning to get dark enough just to make out the crescent disk of the moon and Venus which happen to be in conjunction tonight. I had known that, but forgot.

I wasn't done with the windows, but there was an inner urgency to get home and get my scope out. And not just get it out, mind you, but something told me I had to get out on my sidewalk just in case I would encounter anyone. Ordinarily, it ain't no big thing that I yank out my scope, but just as I was ready to dismiss the idea and wonder what I would do instead when I got home, I could find the only other thing I was leaning toward was walking up and down Dana Drive and maybe praying. I think God was telling me sumpin'.

I get home, set up and begin viewing the moon and Venus with Cathy, which were both visible in my 25mm eyepiece. That doesn't happen a whole lot. Just then, a lady on her bike with dog in tow, slowed to a stop at my drive. I had seen her before, but had never talked with her.

She asked if there were an "event" going on. I told her about the conjunction and asked her if she'd like to look. She was all for that. I proceeded to take her on a tour of Venus, the moon, and Saturn. She was ecstatic and almost got her shy roomie to come out.

Turns out, Maria's a recent grad of Miami and a botanist who's been working with plant experiments with the shuttle, which includes prep studies for future Mars missions. She had also thought about being an astronaut (and was maybe being "tapped" to become one) because of her small frame, but the one-in-ten fatality ratio of the job made her think otherwise. How freekin' cool is that? She's currently a research assistant at the University of Cincinnati. But, lo and behold, she loves Oxford and wants to stay here (and mentioned she's willing to drive the hour just to stay here). That in and of itself is an anomaly.

She asked what we did, and I told her I was (gulp) a pastor with a lil' house church. She proceeded to share that she had become a Christian while living in the Northeast. And ever since she had been in Oxford, she had never connected to any community of faith.

Big open door here. Yeah, we took it, because this was a divine set-up.

We traded numbers and she said she'd be here Sunday for our gathering. I hate I have to be gone, but she's in great hands. And what a cool person. We can't wait to get to know her more.

Pray that God helps us to meet a need and possibly embody the kind of community she's looking for.

You see how God ties up things together for his purposes? If God can take our second planet from the Sun and our only satellite, combine it with my nerdy love of the cosmos with a thread of thinking on Kingdom stuff, he can do the same in your life if you're open. And I know, this is old hat for a lot of you out there and is pretty simple, but still cool nonetheless.

If anything, we have a new friend and know how to pray for her. So yeah, another reason why we are here on Dana.

Off To Madison, WI...

Hitting the skies yet again for what is going to be the last leg of my stint with the North American Mission Board's Task Force on Lay Church Planting, which began last October. Altogether, I think my total flights since then have racked up to about 14 or 15, which, if you know me, is 14 or 15 more than I like.

I've really been impressed with the the passion and depth of the people I have served with on this team. It has totally reminded me why being connected to a larger family of believers is so important. Seeing that God is faithful to building his Kingdom no matter where it is we go and to whomever we talk, I'm just glad to be journeying with these people on a larger basis and for all my pipples in the 'Nati and the Oxford area.

Talk back at you Wednesday...

GETTING UP IN A FEW HOURS....

We are going to open our house for prayer on Thursday mornings now from 6-8am for our community and anyone else who'll come. We are figuring prayer is a good thing to do together.

You know if something is requiring my presence this early in the morning, it has to be God. For the LOVE OF GOD!!!!

Literally.

Veritas 2007 Spring
Retreat...

Pic By The Kimminator

....is history. Much thanks to the Convent at Vineyard Central for their tremendous hospitality. It simply gave us the room and space to go to some places we were needing to go as a church.

For some time, I've felt --(and now see many others do as well)-- that we've been at a threshold of sorts for our community. We came together for an overnight retreat to pray, worship, evaluate and dream for things to come. It had indeed been awhile since we had done so.

We had eight of us there and I was frankly amazed at what was already on everyone's heart. It was the kind of situation where you open your mouth to share what's been stoking your heart and what it is you're dreaming of and people say stuff like: "That's what I've been thinking about too!!" There was a bunch of that happening in our short time together. I just didn't really realize how pregnant this "thing" was, though there's still some gestation to occur.

There seemed to be quite a consensus on a couple of things.

• We're getting pretty serious about the next phase for Veritas, which stands to be rather enduring.
• ...serious enough to enter into a concerted season of prayer not quite like anything we're used to
  
• It is definitely going to involve some intentional, missional communities.

These communities will be missional because we're stumped by the immense need and darkness surrounding us. And because we ain't got nowhere else to go except to Jesus and He just loves on us and then turns us back out and sends hurting people our way.

We are now convicted of this: the kind of work that we feel like we're being called to can really only flow from and be sustained by disciplined, embedded communities. We'd eventually love to see them on several fronts here in Oxford and the surrounding area.

Coming back into Oxford this evening, I felt a renewed sense of calling to this place and to these people and overjoyed that I get to be with the people who are around me who are looking to see similar things. That is stupendously overjoying.

We are really in the beginning stages of conversation about this and some other things, which I'll go into a bit later. There's no timing on anything, just words and possibilities to fit a passion and a longing. We talked of things to come with fervor and with tears and I can't tell you how much I've needed to see this.

We're having to let go of some things, some for clear reasons and others for-- well, I couldn't even begin to tell you why. It's just part of the sacrifice I suppose.

The invigorating thing is we've turned the corner for sure because it doesn't feel like we're still high-banking in preparation like we have been. There's the issue of timing, but when that's borne and he gives the green light, it's mostly just pedal to the metal from there.

Since It's Severe Weather Season....

Lightning is a main killer in storms, and this guy is pretty doggone lucky he wasn't part of the main channel that made the connection from the ground to the stepped leader from the cloud base.

Note the plasma discharge from the metal on his bike where his hand is placed.....the charge obviously worked it's way up his kickstand, deployed beneath him on the other side of the bike. You can also hear what appears to be a door alarm tripped possibly by the strike.
WARNING: Some rough language.....but hey, tha dude bout got 30,000 AMPS and 300,000,000 volts.

It's Lionel Richie's annoyingly bad "All Night Long" meets every bad episode of Kung Fu Theater you've ever seen. It's actually Hiroshima-San Say, straight from 1983. And it's the only ninja music video I know of. But that's not saying a lot. I would have embedded it, but yootoob wouldn't let me.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7D-NfDxtY

SUSTAINABLE LIVING?

There is a gnawing impetus to unplug myself from the implacable videodrome. To stop taking more than what I need in the form of hand-me-downs from the falsely-flattering industrial complex. To live more justly, concretely simpler. How do I ameliorate the sneaky need to acquire a rural Idaho compound versus remaining in the "abandoned places?" How do you do it? How do you excise the consumption beast when his salivating fangs are polished and chiseled by your own hands?

Been here in the house minus my wife this week. She's been in Tennessee seeing after her mother in her convalescence during her spring break. I'm not too used to her being away...I'm usually the one gone if one of us has to be.....or we're usually together. I think the last time she went off and left me fending for my bad self was perhaps the mid-nineties.

I've learnt a few things this week. My dog definitely prefers Cathy. She truly just tolerated me while she pined away faithfully on the landing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for her return, scattering a whimper here, a whine there from out of nowhere. I tried to take her several times on walks this week, with me on roller blades and her tagging along....all for her, to get her "out" and get exercise. It was akin to dragging the beast to the vet. I think once we got going, it felt like she was doing it for my benefit. She comes around me only for sustenance and evacuation of her bowels. I feel like I'm being used.


I guess she sees it better than I.....I'm just not my best without m'ladee.

HOODATHUNK IT?

Another Veritasian has done a big ol' can-opener in the bloggin' pool........and it be Jenny-licious.

PROUD OF MY LIL' TOWN

The April 2007, Men's Journal has listed Oxford as one of the 50 Best Places to Live in the US, under the Best Commuter Towns section.


I'll take it.

The Dry Heave
The confounding thing is that there are so many conflicting desires and distractions to dissuade me in my quest for God. Mostly, I can barely even call it a "quest" because I can be so radically aloof in regards to a requisite Kingdom-mindedness. Dryness, emptiness, weariness, unworthiness may flood in and push us away from discipline and ultimately from community. But I don't think they are the enemies:

It will happen again and again that the person who is charged with
offering the prayer for the fellowship will not feel at all in the spiritual mood to do so, and will much prefer to turn over his task to another for this day. Such a shift is not advisable, however. Otherwise, the prayer of the fellowship will too easily be governed by moods which have nothing to do with spiritual life. It is precisely when a person,who is borne down by inner emptiness and weariness or a sense of personal unworthiness, feels that he would like to withdraw from his task, that he should learn what it means to have a duty to perforn in the fellowship, and the
brethren should support him in his weakness, in his inability to pray. Perhaps it is right here that one will realize the profound truth in Paul's words: "We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Rom. 8:26).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, LIFE TOGETHER, p. 64-65.

At least they don't have to be.

ReTREAT

I am back in O-Town after a refreshing weekend at the Convent for a mini-retreat. It certainly was all I could have hoped for. No agenda but to relax, focus on God and engage in some scintillating conversation with the crew down there. The place just oozes hospitality. I mean, what a phenomenal set-up. There can be no doubt that God is all over the situation there in Norwood.

Some realizations:

• I hadn't realized how much I had "flipped" this past year in response to the loss of Chad and Palmer and watching my friends and colleagues stagger and grieve. I confronted my own mortality and misplaced my trust and looked for validity in other people when I should have sought sustenance from God. I had to repent of that.
• "Shimmering" Verses: Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." I don't even know sacrifice yet. My Christianity has been relatively "easy" and safe thus far.
• God, the Sneak: Something's creeping in on me from behind....from the horizon....from around the bend.....the sneaky feeling that God delights in me, despite my being prone to great treachery as a Kingdom vagabond and often traitor. Fleeting moments emerge, promising the hope of transformation and stepping into something greater. I sensed this driving down in the fog, rain and dusk, and, although the surroundings were appropriate to where I've been the last bit in my life, that stab of joy seemed simultaneously mine and yet not mine.
• Dave Nixon, the Omeletteer: When Dave says, "I'll get up and make everyone some omelletes..." one does well to fashion one's schedule around that.
• Dave Nixon, the Squirrelinator: Beset with this rhodentious invader, I would learn of it when Jody came down after breakfast in a hustle, crying out: "I saw it....it's running around." Heidi tells me the "it" is a hapless squirrell on its last legs that was trapped in the building for the last five days after having finally chewed its way through the wall. Well the beast would not extricate itself and Dave made haste to the third floor. Soon after, I made my way out the door and no sooner had I closed it when I hear a "THUD" and, turning, I beheld a deceased squirrell bouncing off the ground about 15 feet in front of me. I knew instantly. That had to have been one of the most awesome things I've witnessed in a while.
• What I Need More Of: A deeper, more sustaining hunger and thirst for God. A truly Spirit-empowered life, inwardly and outwardly.
• Pray without ceasing: Still as haunting as it is inviting.
• I like the ways God just lets me know that he's glad I'm here.
• I was greatly heartened by the time the Dave gave to me and Matt Saturday night at the Speckled Bird. He didn't have to, but he made time. And thanks to Jody for that time as well.
• A few days is not enough for a real retreat. I was indeed just starting to unwind.

So now, the tests of routine, complacency and contemptuous familiarity come to try me. Thanks be to God, it "smells" a bit different this time.

Trying Not To Resist The Irresistable Revolution

Some of you may have already read it, but I am working through Shane Claiborne's The Irresistable Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, thanks to Beanerosity of the Beanius.

A pretty compelling story, especially from a fellow Tennessee boy....who's done quite well I might add (for a Tennessee boy).

Chew on this for a minute:

.....we have seen the beauty of diverse vocations and the multidimensionality of Christian discipleship. One of the best things communities like ours do is carve out a space for people to discern and redefine our vocations.
(p. 138)

In our context, with young adults struggling with what it means to marry authentic Kindgom living and issues of vocation, I find it evermore imperative to be such a community as well. It hasn't struck my heart with as much fervor as it has done so this weekend as a result of Thinspace. I don't know that we're doing this faithfully enough; we have some really struggling with losing themselves in their vocational ideations/pursuits that Kingdom vitality is being snuffed out right before my eyes. Sometimes I feel powerless to even speak into/against the current of that kind of worldview, especially when it is from those you love and who've previously desired greater things.

I long to know what I need to do to be able to carve out that approachable space for people to discern and redefine their vocations in light of the Kingdom of God. I do know you cannot prematurely impose your Kingdom-mindedness nor your vocational worldview. But there is risk when you spout out things that you think were inspired; you AND your words can ultimately be rejected.

Then again, there is also the risk that someone might be listening in the Spirit.

I did mention Thinspace in my last post. Shortly, I shall delve a bit deeper into some of the particulars of our experience this weekend as things shake out. I've discovered over a Chinese buffet dinner last night some interesting things God is doing in both mine and Cathy's lives...God nurturing, confirming, directing. I think we'll incubate it a short while (some part I've already shared with my Veritasian community) till we can speak of it with more clarity and grounding.

Bizziness abounds....posting suffers.

AHEAD:

• Prepping for my weekend retreat at the Convent this weekend. Got the support of my community and that is exceptional. Looking forward to it mostly. But I am really quite rusty at this.
• Probably traveling somewhere on the last leg of my lay church planting task force with NAMB, which will be in mid April. And by somewhere, I mean either Salt Lake City or.....somewhere else in the US. Our task force facilitator is going to be sending me perhaps to another location to facilitate a gathering along with some others in the group at additional locations.
• Camping with some buds at the end of April. Requisite time for sure.
• Veritas retreat. More later.

Thinspace was definitely a needed time for me, Veritas (yeah even those who didn't go will be affected) and our network of people we run with. Our breakout session went well and we were greatly impacted by the speakers, the worship and the people overall. I hate I missed the usual subsequent hang-out time with my friends at the B-house....many of whom I see only occasionally or once a year.

My shout-out to Cmarsh who composed us all into a workable whole. It wasn't an easy task and I am grateful he is my friend.

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO JUST GET BY...

By now, everyone must have heard about the devastation in Enterprise, Alabama, and other surrounding areas on the March 1, 2007 tornado outbreak. 8 people were killed inside the high school as the tornado-- rated EF 3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale-- ripped through.

I scouted out this video of some roommates emerging from their home near Ft. Rucker...



What seemed to be the random and fickle nature of a tornado (why the videographer's house was spared and his neighbor's twenty feet away wasn't) is due to a complex set of conditions inside the tornado circulation. Some of the pictures and videos I've seen of the Enterprise tornado seem to show a multiple vortex funnel, where smaller, more intense suction vortices form, circulate around the main center and dissipate. These account for why a house will be destroyed and why the one next to it won't.

You know how long it's been since I took an intentional, spiritual retreat for myself? You know....the kind of one where I just focus and listen to God and see where I fit in?

You know how long I've been talking about doing this?

Come March 23rd-25th, I will head down to the Convent at Vineyard Central for such a time. The space down there has some deeply resonating Kingdom connections for me here on this earth. It has been there and around the relationships formed there that God physically came through on his promise that I/we are not alone in this journey. And to realize that was all coalescing almost five years ago is astounding. The Nixon's, the Rains's and others in a collective testimony to God's radical faithfulness and perseverence adds up to an altogether safe place to retreat back toward God. And that is what I need.

The deal is this.....I need a new-found brokenness of heart, mind, passion and spirit. I need to recapture a simple center again. I need to discover the heart of God in my context and others who'll step forward to see me to that end. I have baggage to drop by the wayside too...stuff that doesn't belong to me.

Whatever is off kilter is because of me. I'm to blame. I accept that. But now I have nowhere to hide...I've brought others in on it. I've committed myself to this weekend and to others. This deal is set. To be sure, I'm not really looking forward to it. On the one hand I am eager and I know it is the "right" thing for me to do. In truth, I will to go to this place. The intrepidation I have I think comes from what God might require of me, namely, the sectors and spaces I have taken away from God back for myself.

Also, I am as unnerved of the possibility of nothing happening as much as I am of something happening. But that is beyond me. Nothing can mean something too.

I apologize if any (who remain with this blog) have looked here for something of more pertinent worth in the last bit. It has been rather flat lately, here in the blog and in certain places in the heart too.

AND, if you're so inclined, prayerfully infuse me with any insights or observations as I near this time, because, ultimately, this HAS to become more than just being about me. What should I do to prepare? How should I spend my time? What books should I take? How should I journal? How should I pray? How should I listen?

Blessings to you.

I'm looking at my hands right now. There are wrinkly places where there didn't used to be. I gazed at the bends of my inner elbows and the skin is wrinkly there too. Certain hair folicles have lost their ability to retain pigment as they used to. Shucks...certain hair folicles have seen a cessation of existence. Productive ones that is.

I just tried growing out my hair for about the last two months. Let me tell you....that was a stinking exercise in futility. I had a receding hairline since it all started back in college. I thought I was set and was just going to have to deal with it as that. Now the receding areas not only are meeting from left to right and vice-versa, but the emerging hair island on front and center sports a newly balding streak in and of itself. So I thought I'd dye it, as in the olden days. It turned orange. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Bald is beautiful again.

I am trying to rectify my own bodily changes with those around me, with my own sense of my place in the Kingdom work. I am trying to figure if I am just a wrinkle in the face of its ever-present, ever-breaking newness. I fear those with whom I have invested myself in deeply see my spiritual wrinkles, tire/bore of them and long for thicker, more vibrant colors. In such were vestiges of promise; times now bear a different, stranger fruit, promising neither certainty nor total abdication....I change; people change. Am I still wanted? Does God still want me? Do I still want myself?

And yet, I want to go for it all. I want to lay aside encumbrances and thrust into a faith unknown. But I won't go it alone. Things got scary a year ago when it became clear that this kind of life in the Kingdom ACTUALLY COSTS US OUR LIVES! I shared that vulnerability with people I love and I think I shooed some away. Maybe I layed too much on the line. Maybe I opened up too widely and prematurely projected expectations belonging only to myself and no one else. That's kind of why I feel like the chubby kid in dodgeball who gets pelted first and stands alone in the "out" line.

You can't manipulate people to journey with you. Neither can you settle for tag-a-longism to count for diligent Kingdom work, the kind you can share with a confidante and the kind who will enter into the deep and the mystery. And hanging on the wispy triumphs of yesterday will sink you as well.

It's amazing how the cares of the old world and spectres of the defunct easily trail us all off the path. How cruel it is that we can't ascend the lofty ideations we held in faith when the things of God were new while the devils sit victoriously reticent. And from those shadows bellow even greater temptations to further cement what we said we'd never become.

I possess a certain indigence of spirit at present that neither inspires nor witholds. It's not an achievement and there are no worthy holdings here. These words probably ring quite an advertisement for self-aggrandizement, but they help to shape the hollows and core out the marrow.

It's a threshold for sure...for life, for self, for church, for community and for all ideations about them. I just feel more alone sometimes now than ever before. And some who gave all before now float in a boat of whimsy where I may be concerned.

I am back from North Dakota and the trip was quite fruitful. I ate my first buffalo burger with some initial intrepidation, but was pleasantly surprised. It tasted like a really good lean cheeseburger. The Bismarckians were also intent upon setting the world's record for the largest snow angel on the day I arrived. We drove by the capitol building to see the fun.

The convention folk were quite hospitable and engaged with what I had to share, which was very encouraging. They are good, solid people with a heart to see God reach people there. The people and the possibilities for the Kingdom of God there more than warrant my prayer for them.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...
I'll hop on a plane again Saturday at 7am, flit to Minny-Apple-Iss and jostle over to Bismarck, North Dakota to speak at a new church plant and make a presentation with some other planters at the Dakotas Baptist Convention. It's going to be really sweet.

Think of me, if you will, as I'll be in the air again.

SOME MORE SNOWSLEETFREEZINGRAINRAIN

ALL IN ALL...THIS STORM IS GOING TO CREATE SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMSACRS THE FCST AREA. ANY SHIFT IN TRACK EVEN OVER A SHORT DISTANCEWILL LIKELY IMPACT PCPN TYPE AND DURATION AND RESULTANT SNOW/ICEACCUMS IN ANY ONE LOCATION ACRS FCST AREA. AND AS MENTIONEDABV...DO EXPECT SIGNIFICANT SNOW AND ICE ACCUMS. THIS SURE LOOKSLIKE A STORM THAT WE MAY END UP COMPARING WITH PRE XMAS STORM IN2004 AND THE VALENTINES WEEKEND STORM IN 2003.

That's the 438 PM EST SUN FEB 11 2007 Forecast Discussion out of the the Wilmington National Weather Service office. Here's the graphical cut of the latest watches/warnings:

















Most people really don't appreciate the incredible difficulty in assessing and forecasting a winter storm. There are literally millions of parameters and myriads of scenarios that could happen that affect whether or not someone sees one kind of precipitation. Moisture fetch, air flow patterns, snow-to-liquid ratios, thermal profiles, isentropic lift and many other issues play into the prognostication.

Most people rely upon popular media outlets for their weather information at some point. Often, the information that comes from there is colored by the pressure to secure ratings. Add to that the anomaly of human perception and attention to the details of forecast products.....many of which are embellished by hearsay and pessimistic attitudes that detract from rapidly changing forecasts and conditions. By the time the event is underway, the expectations of some as to what should be occurring might be based on false perceptions and old forecasts. That's a big reason why weather forecasting gets such a bum rap. If you really want to know what's going on, log onto your local NWS forecasting office and read the forecast discussions. These offices are not competing for viewer ratings and are not prone to drama. And they do admit when they make mistakes.

All in all, the comparison to this upcoming storm is to the pre-Xmas 2004 storm and the Valentines Day weekend storm of 2003. That particular wording in a forecast discussion is significant, given the typical, laconic style of forecast discussion texts.

WITH KILN RADAR INDCG IMPRESSIVE RETURNS 30+ DBZ ACRS
SWOHIO AND EXTENDING NW BACK INTO CNTRL
INDIANA...EXPECT HVY SNOWWILL CONTINUE FOR NEXT SVRL HOURS.

QUICK LOOK AT CROSS SECTIONS ALSO INDCG THATBEST LIFT COINCIDES WITH MAX DENDRITIC GROWTH ZONE OVER NEXT 3-5HOURS. THIS SHOULD ENABLE A CONTINUATION OF HVY SNOW WITH 1-2 INCHPER HOUR SNOWFALL RATE WITH SNOW TO LIQUID RATIOS AT 15/20-1 INTHESE AREAS INTO THE EVNG.

And with that excerpt from the 4:16 p.m. forecast discussion out of the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, I believe a man could sleep rather well, if not conquer many of the world's problems.

Officially at Dana Drive in Oxford, we registered 6.5 inches. If'n ya don't believe me, this pic will get all up in yer bizness. Because my camera stinketh, I'll have to tell you that the ruler is 8 inches long.

Now that's what I'm talking about. As of 1:55 a.m., EST, we are under a Heavy Snow Warning with a potential of 3-5 inches through early Wednesday. Just about freekin' time.

Of course, since I am wanting it, it won't happen (I am currently working on a personal theodicy of weather). It is a balmy 0 degrees here in O-town, with a heat index of....well.....0. Just thought you'd want to know. You just didn't know you wanted to know.

Back from DFW from a fruitful summit. I am learning much from some people/churches about what it means to be missional. Whatever the term "missional" means to whoever, granted, it's an easier thing to talk about than to do. Folks like Mission Arlington are doing it. And they are doing phenomenal things while keeping it simple.

I guess we be getting ready for The Feast of Saint Patty-boy in March. Should be pretty swell.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Dallas for the second leg of NAMB's Lay Planting Summit. This experience with these leaders from around the country has been highly edifying for me in ways I've not imagined. Looking forward to being there, but that means I'll have to fly again. Sigh.

Great. The whole freakin' state of Ohio is under a flash flood watch.

I love winter.