Feb
6
2010
Yeah, well the title says it all. If you like to eat and watch football with people, come to the Distillery Sunday February 7, 2010 at 5:00 PM. Bring food to share. We will be eating and hanging out until 6:00 PM, then we will turn on the pre-game stuff. Kickoff is at 6:30 PM. We will watch the game on the big screen
Jan
17
2010
With the recent earthquake in Haiti in our minds and recent discussions about why God allows bad things happen to good people, we turned our thoughts to the question of suffering this evening.
We started by remembering that easy answers are rarely what we find when we look at issues such as this and I shared the cartoon graph from nakedpastor. So is that to say that we cannot have anything to say on this topic? Next we shared some of the ways we or others have, in the past, explained away the apparent inaction of a powerful and loving God when people are suffering. In this we touched on the beliefs of many that all suffering is punishment from God – and reflected on the way the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis is used as a basis for believing this can apply to whole communities or nations as well as to individuals. Then we turned, with the help of Nooma 24: Whirlwind to the story of Job. Although we acknowledged that the story has many different elements and paints a curious picture of God at times, I – along with Rob Bell on the video – encouraged us all to look at the story from Job’s perspective. He was a good man, bad – apparently random – things happened to him. He asked God for an explanation and God just said (in a nutshell) I am God, you are not, who are you to think you could understand or make the decisions I make?
We ended with a reminder that these issues only come to life when we apply them to reality in our lives – many of us can testify to God being with us, alongside us in suffering, most of us have been able to support or comfort others by doing the same. Words are easy to throw around, but as God teaches Job, sometimes we need to be quiet and accept that we are not the ones in control.
An old friend, far away, posted this on her blog, struggling with the same issue:
…all I know is that I was fully aware of suffering before I became aware of God, and so the two have to live alongside each other. I also know that prayer changes me and hopefully I become more compassionate and reach out to help alleviate or perhaps simply weep over some of the shit that happens.
So, I hope that we can put aside the need to find answers and to embrace our call as children of the God of love to mourn and weep over the suffering we see and help where we can to put broken lives back together wherever we encounter them.
Jan
10
2010
Sunday’s gathering began with musical worship, lead by Carolyn. After several songs and a prayer reading, we began the discussion of Philippians, chapter 1.
Our focus was on Paul’s chains, as he was in prison at the time of the letter’s writing. We, however, first discussed Paul’s joy in writing this letter and his excitement over the faith and partnership shared with the church in Phillipi. It was evident that he was encouraged by these friends in the cause of Christ and wanted to assure them that his “trouble” was well worth it! He rejoiced in both those presenting the gospel from a passionate heart as well as those who only wanted to stir up trouble for Paul – if Christ were being preached then so be it.
As for our focus, we talked about our own chains. That being, those things that we deal with which provide God an opportunity to use us in His ministry to the world. Is it found in a life purpose or in the day to day living that we do? Will our chains keep us from living or will we offer them to God that He may be glorified? Why chains, did God put us in them or are they simply the result of life in a fallen world? These were some of the questions we discussed – what do you think? Keep the discussion going…
Jan
5
2010
Chronos Time:
The sequential passing of time, chronological time.
It’s about dates and clock time.
Kairos Time:
Kairos Time:
An event, moment, or crisis when time can seem to “stand still.”
A period of “time” when chronos is of no importance.
It could mark a significant shift in your life (Breen 29)
This past Sunday we had a good conversation about Kairos moments from the year 2009. Each of us took some time discussing the various things that God used in our lives to teach us and grow us. If you are unfamiliar with the model we use to analyze Kairos moments let me explain a bit.
One of the tools we utilize at the distillery to help us put these things into perspective is Lifeshape’s ™ Circle diagram (see below).
As these significant events occur in our lives it is for us to take some time and step out of ourselves for just a moment to try and see if maybe God is using these moments to teach us something valuable about ourselves. Thus, when the Kingdom of God is at hand, or intervenes in our lives, it is our task to “repent” (or have a change of heart and mind) and “believe” (do something about it).
That means that we must first observe the things going on in our lives. We then reflect on their impact and the implications those things have on on us. We take it to the group and talk about it (discuss). After deciding that God is trying to teach us something new we turn towards God in obedience and begin to make changes in our lives for the better.
We begin the process of “believing” by planning what we will do next. Then we ask our friends to keep us to our plan (account), and ultimately we carry the plan out (act). By following this simple model we can then effectively respond to the good news that God is intervening in our lives by bringing the Kingdom near to us.
Sunday we talked about the different things we have learned and made a commitment to keep our eyes open this year for more. It was a good time had by all.
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Notes:
Breen, Michael. The Circle: Choosing to Learn From Life. Colorado Springs: Nexgen. 2006. Print
Jan
2
2010
We rocked our socks off for nearly 7 hours last night with a pretty solid band. Here are the band members from last night:
John: Guitar and Vocals
Tammy: Vocals
James: Guitar and Drums
Johnathon: Bass
Kaitlyn: Guitar
Martin: Guitar, Drums and Vocals
Carolyn: Vocals
Kids: Groupies
First video is of Martin singing “Monster” by The Automatic and the batteries flip out on his controller:
Next up is Carolyn singing “Hysteria” by Muse with the annoying-cam flying around the room taking shots at weird angles and harrassing the band members:
Dec
27
2009
So Last week someone wanted to put a video on the laptop that is connected to the projector and I had to tell them “no” only because the projector is too far away from the screen and would not project the image correctly. Currently our program that runs the slides is setup to project a smaller image than normal so it fits on the screen.
It bugged me all week that we could not watch a video on that screen, so i did something about it today. At around 1:00 PM I began working on an alternate fixture to hold the projector closer to the screen so that we could watch videos. I took a flat board a little larger than the projector and drilled holes in each corner. Then I took some cat 5 cable and ran it over the florescent fixtures attached to the ceiling. I used two cables the same length, ran them through the holes on each end of the board and tied them off making a hanging fixture.
Then I placed the projector on it and plugged it in. It looked okay except that whenever the air moved in the room the projector would rock back and forth. Watching the image go left and right and then bigger and smaller eventually made me want to vomit, so I tore it all down in frustration. Well of course I was very careful with the 700 dollar projector and as well I was careful pulling the cable down so as not to rip the light fixtures out of the ceiling, but other than that I ripped the sucker out of there.
Then I sat down and started thinking. The pole that the projector was on was too far away from that wall, but it happened to be a good distance from the other wall adjacent to this one. By “good” I mean the perfect distance from the other wall. So I began by taking the entire gathering space and turning it 90 degrees to the right. I moved all of the instruments and all of the chairs, the altar, the cross, everything and to my surprise people seemed to like it better than the way it was before. And we can finally watch a video on the screen with no additional configuration.
I liked it better. So for the year 2010 we now have a brand new configuration in our room. Likewise, I feel like there is a new move of God going on here. I know. every pastor says that on any given day of any given week, but usually not me. I am pretty laid back when it comes to saying those kinds of cliche sorts of things. In fact it is a bit of a stretch for me to mention it, but I really see God doing stuff.
Of course I asked him to show me more stuff and to actually try and get my attention once in awhile because frankly it has been a little quiet. but that is besides the point. For the past few weeks I have really felt that God is doing something new here. Notice I said “God.” Because I have been doing the same ole stuff.
I am seeing this thing become some “thing.” I am watching community form in front of my eyes and its a bit like having a cool-ass ant farm. Not one of those where the ants lay dormant and never seem to do anything because they were all dead in the package you mailed off for from that magazine (doesn’t that suck when that happens?). No, I mean one with all sorts of cool tunnels and portals and rooms and such.
Being a pastor is a little like that. You kind of HAVE to sit back and let God do it. Like watching an ant farm. If you got a good shipment and it was meant to be then the ants get to work and start building the thing. But if for some reason you opened the package too soon or you really aren’t the sort of person that digs ants, then those ants are certainly not going to dig for you.
So all that being said, do you like ant farms? Can you let God build it? Are you the kind of person that can listen and trust God when he tells you to shut up and listen? Plant a church then. You don’t need any sort of sponsorship — just you, a few friends, a place to meet, and God. Go for it. Do it and let me know how it goes.
In the mean time the Distillery will be here just kind of watching what God does and hoping for some cool tunnels once in awhile…
Dec
24
2009
Wow! What a very cool time we had tonight at the Distillery. It all started with the most excellent pot-luck. We had Chicken Biryani, Paprika Chicken, Kielbasa Sausages, rice, cookies, naan, salad, cookies, and cookies. Everything was so good. We stuffed ourselves and then sat around and talked. Around 7:00 PM we got started with the service.
We started off the service with the lights down low and only the advent candles. Well actually we had to use two dinner candles to represent our four DEAD advent candles (thanks goes out to Greg and Laura Leib for gifting us those candles a few years ago). Then we began our evening with a reading “Those who have been in darkness have seen a great light…”
As we read the story through scripture and played Christmas songs and sang, the children built the nativity a piece at a time. They were thrilled to be such an important part of our gathering and were frequently in discussion about where what piece should go next. It was wonderful. We only occasionally had to stop everything and redirect them.
The music was a combination of traditional carols with an original arrangement by Martin of an old song. Likewise there was original music and song by Martin and Carolyn. As usual we were all awed by the silky smoothness of Carolyn’s vocals as she led us in song. The entire service was arranged and orchestrated by Martin and Carolyn based on an idea of Tammy’s while talking to Carolyn about it.
There was no prepping the children except in telling them which piece went next, and they figured out on their own how best to place the different characters in the nativity. I don’t think any adult in the room would have come up with what they came up with, but when you see it it makes a lot of sense.
All-in-all it was another amazing night at the Distillery. It was friends, family, and celebration. It was Christmas. We at the Distillery wish that you too would have all of the great things that Christmas is about this year and the years to come.
Dec
24
2009
We have a special Nativity gathering tonight at the Distillery. The kids will be helping us tell the story as we sing some traditional Christmas songs. First off is the potluck though at 5:00 PM. So come with food at 5:00 PM and stay. If you just don’t have anything to bring, come anyway there will be plenty for all. See ya there.
5:00 PM – Potluck Dinner
7:00 PM – Nativity Gathering
Dec
22
2009
Today I installed the new router that sits in front of my server and gives folks access to the website. It is supposed to not go down as much as the one before. Don’t know if you noticed but my server seeemed to be going up and down several times a day. I narrowed it down to whats called Denial of Service attacks from the Internet and my current router did not protect against those. This one does. This affected not just the web site, but our email was going up and down constantly. So now it is fixed.
So, that is the good news. A little bad news is that because of the fact that I moved recently, the cable company is going to come out on Monday of next week and switch the cable service over to the new residence. That means that for Monday and possibly Tuesday our website and email services will be down while I move the server over to the new residence (next door). So please forgive us in advance for the server being down for nearly two days. Who knows, if things go well it could take only a few moments.
Dec
21
2009
Well we had our last Advent Sunday last night and I must say it was pretty fantastic. I know, if you have been keeping up with my posts here you might say, “Whatever, John. You always say that about every gathering.” Okay, well then I guess I should admit to you that I am indeed a bit biased. I love our gatherings and the people in them. So, remember to read this from my very skewed subjective view and make the best of it.
We had an unusual amount of small children last night which made for a very exciting worship time. With a few egg shakers going, some maracas, a tambourine and some symbols the kids kept the beat during the music allowing me to play the drums in sync with the music (for once). Martin lead the worship and it was a good blending of traditional, contemporary and original music and composition.
We all participated in the liturgy of Christmas time with readings from Micah, Psalms, Hebrews and Luke fusing our music in and out of it and had a great time. Afterwards we all took communion together in a circle and sent the children off to their “discussion” time. I led the discussion for the adults and it was on a topic that seemed easy at first, and became more and more complex as it was ironed out among the folks in attendance.
“Love All.” Although, http://AdventConspiracy.org can be thanked for introducing this theme to us, we strayed greatly from their original intent I believe into a more localized talk about the issue. We decided in the end that it may not even be possible in this lifetime to love EVERYONE, nor do many of us actually WANT to love EVERYONE.
Ultimately, loving everyone is the result of a human life that has gone through some thorough processing and transformation by Jesus. No one in the gathering could claim realistically that they “loved” everyone. Yes, that is right, even me. My observations were that as life is lived in communion with God and man, each of us have our own journey to travel in this area.
Others mentioned that each of us have a different starting point in this endeavor as well. Some may not wish to love everyone and therefore need to pray that God change them into the type of person that at least wants to “want to” love everyone. Others mentioned that they would need to start with effectively forgiving others in order to pursue loving them. Still others claimed that there could be entire categories of “unlovable ones” that resonate with everyone as unlovable, such as “child molesters.”
There was an understated agreement that it is wrong however to simply not love someone because they fall into a specific category — even child molesters. Someone said that “I would have to consider it more on an individual basis and ask myself, ‘could I love this person as a person’ as opposed to ‘could I love this child molester’ and the answer would have to be yes, it is possible that I could.”
In the end we decided to explore this idea more in our quiet time with God. We will ask God where we fit into the grand scheme of loving all and allow him to do the tuning that is necessary to make us better “lovers” of all. We ended with coffee, chips and dip and more good conversation.
