So on June 13, we all took a few hours to clean and paint the part of the building known as 65 Watervliet Ave. It was a good productive time. Take a look at the video:

So tonight we had a bit of an unusual gathering.  We all met at Kevin and Linda’s home and worshiped together led by Martin with me on Djembe, then communion and a time to discuss the future of our community in regards to our new facility.  we talked about things we would have to accomplish by the end of the month and about how to handle the next couple of gatherings since Tammy and I will be on vacation next week and possible the following week.

Then we all got in our vehicles and drove to the church building at 67 Watervliet Ave.   Inside we plotted paint colors and building useage and other stuff giving the kids plenty of time to run wild and enjoy the space.  Here is a little video of our adventure:

“ ¹²So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. ¹³They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. ¹⁴For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

 ¹⁵All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”  (Acts 6: 12 - 15)

Tonight we had a fantastic time together.  It all got kicked off with Carolyn leading us in musical worship.  Next, communion with our children, and afterwards we brought our concerns to God together in prayer.  The subject tonight was more on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  The true path of Discipleship involves self-denial.  It means that we not just follow Jesus in words, but we also follow his example like Stephen did in the verse.

There he was, standing before the court while people were literally lying about him to his face, and what was his response?  A “face of an angel.”  How did he do it?  If this were me, I would absolutely be demanding my rights.  I would be looking at my accusers, but with a grimace and a saquint of the eyes and a red face full of anger.  Being a follower of Jesus means that we don’t demand justice for ourselves.  It means that when someone says something about us that is untrue, we do not defend ourselves.  Instead we embrace God’s agenda for our lives.  We say “no” to our self, in order that we may say “yes” to God.

We refered to Mark 8: 34-35 during our time together.  Jesus was addressing his disciples and the other folks in the crowd when he said:  

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” 

When the Jewish rulers came to arrest Jesus and send him to His death on a cross, Jesus did not resist.  When Jesus was being interrogated by the Roman Governor, Jesus offered up no defense.  Why?  Because he had a God-Agenda.

When Stephen was accused of blasphemy against God and Moses, and falsely accused of claiming that Jesus was going to destroy the temple and reverse the law of Moses, he did not offer up a defense, nor did he deny the charges.  He simply proceeded with the God-Agenda to spread the good news of God.

When people are telling lies about us, and spreading rumors about us to others that are harmful and untrue, we must not strike back at them and seek to defend our own honor.  Not when there is  a God-Agenda to be pursued.  As followers of Christ we are ALL called to this sort of perfection.  However, it requires that we partner with God in our transformation in order for us to be like Stephen - the face of an angel, with the agenda of God.

In 2004, I had a tattoo placed on the upper part of my left arm.  It is a Celtic cross with the latin words “ars moriendi” inscribed in Gaelic script around it.  This tattoo was placed there as a reminder of the commitment I have made to God and others. Translated, it means “the art of death.”  It is an ever-present reminder that my life is to be about others.  It is there to remind me that I am dying daily to defending myself, dying daily to my agenda, and in turn becoming alive to God’s agenda.  This is an ongoing process that is far from complete, but each day I attempt the art of dying.  My prayer for you is that you be about God’s-Agenda and that you join me in the art of dying…

Tonight we had a bit of a small crowd at our gathering, but the conversation was good and the time together was great as usual.  We sang some worship songs together, prayed and then launched into a discussion about the remainder of Acts 5.  The background to the story is as follows.  Here we have the community of God, shiny and new.  These several hundred disciples and several thousand followers were living in absolute bliss until the begining of chapter 5 and then something happened to them.  We call it “humanity.”

First there is the whole Annanias and Saphira tragedy involving two people, united in wedlock, united in community, and united in lying, and acting religious for personal gain.  As you may know God set a precedence with those two, letting folks know that the community of God was not to be “business as usual.”  This was no assortment of do-gooders that were in the business of one-upping each other in generous acts for the sake of sheer notoriety.  This was not a band of shiny happy people pretending to be one thing, but entirely something else under the surface.

God had high hopes for this crowd, andthe unfortunate thing about it all, is that even God’s hope in us sometimes is not enough to prevent tragedy.  Tonight we discussed the latter part of the chapter that involves Peter and his followers being imprisoned for a short amount of time until an angel could free them unbeknownst to the authorities until much too late for them to really do anything about it.

Regardless of the punishment so far, the disciples are relentless in their obedience to God in spreading around the good news of the Kingdom to all.  Near the end of the chapter they are actually pleased to be persecuted for their acts in the name of Jesus.  Goes to show that you can’t keep a good man or woman down doesn’t it?  

We had a great time tonight at our weekly gathering.  Worship was with the children and led by Martin.  Then communion, and then we had a time of prayer and brought our requests to God.  Afterwards, we had a great discussion centered around Acts 5:1-11.  It was the story of Ananias and Saphira.  We have read Acts from chapter one until now and were excited to read about the forming of the first community of Jesus.  We read in 2 and 4 about a community that shares everything ancd then we got to five and were saddened to read about the deaths of Ananias and Saphira.  It led us to a rousing diuscussion about the implications of this chapter on our lives now.  After our gathering we celebrated the birthdays of Evan, Cassie and Emily (all April birthdays) in the front yard with cupcakes and song.

It was great.

alright, I love it when things work this way.  I just moved the server and all of it’s components and such to the new residence in Albany.  So, since you are reading this the move was a success.  We are up and running at the new location.  Construction is on at 67 Watervliet Ave., the ramp is built and the bathrooms and ceilings are getting done.  We will be looking to have a Dedication Party after it is painted and cleaned up (post-construction) and we will be inviting all of our friends — folks we have known since we have been in Albany and people we have met along the way.

Of course it is not a done-deal, so please continue to pray for us that the city will approve of all of our permits and that we can begin meeting at the new place soon and for  no additional costs!  Also, if God is leading you to contribute financially to us, you can do that online by clicking on the “Donations” tab above and donating through Google Checkout.  All contributions are tax-deductible.

Tammy and I are currently living at the new residence (next door at 69 watervliet ave.).  We don’t quite have everything moved over yet, but we are getting there slowly but surely.  Please pray that we will meet people left and right from this area and that God will direct our path to new relationships.

Click on the image below to see the full-sized image of the plans we submitted for our city building permit.  We will be paying towards building the handicap bathrooms and the handicap ramp.  We have our city permit and will begin construction soon.  The bathrooms are already framed.  We will not occupy the area labeled “existing apartment.”

So tonight we had kind of a small gathering of friends and family at The Distillery.  It is Palm Sunday and so we made sure to show everyone the palms of our hands when we saw them.  We did not do the traditional leaf waving thing, nor did we make neat little croses out of pieces of palm leaves.  Not that there is anything wrong with this, but lets just say that I was in a bit of a funk and did not prepare real well for our time together.

That too is okay.  As a community of real people, we don’t really mind if its not always perfect or excellent.  Tonight, I led worship with a few songs that put us in touch with King Jesus and then we went on to our discussion on Acts Chapter Three.  Now, I am sure you probably did not miss the part about me being in a funk today and as is also customary of our community I don’t mind admitting when I am not 100%.

So why am I in this funk?  I know why.  It is because right now, my good friends Martin and Carolyn and Miri and Beth and my buddy Evan are away.  They are visiting family and friends in England.  I have to say that I have been in this funk since they left (around the 3rd of April).  They are coming back in a week or so.  Also tonight, my best bud Kevin was home sick and our friends Betsy and Curtis were out as well.  What can I say, one of the flaws in having an independent faith community that focuses on authentic reltionships is that it is a little hard to carry on without the ones we love so dearly.  So tonight I played the guitar and sang, led us in communion, and collaborated a great discussion on Acts 3 with this subtle sense of lonliness that comes from being human.

 It’s an empty feeling sometimes just living on planet earth.  Everything seems to be going fine with us until we get quiet.  Maybe it’s lying down to go to sleep for you, maybe quiet time with God, maybe even while doing some distracted reading, you all of a sudden feel the dread.  

It is lonliness mixed with other kinds of human emotion like fear, distress, depression, sadness.  It is like for the moment we have chosen to side with death, and death is heavy and unforgiving.  So tonight, although the discussion about Acts 3 was good and I enjoyed the worship and time together with friends, I feel that I have really come into contact with why it is that I am a follower of Jesus.

Death is a natural part of this life.  It is not a sudden thing at all, but a gradual thing that exists while we least expect it.  It is a constant reminder of why we need Jesus.  Jesus came to town that day as a celebrated King.  People waved palm leaves at him and hailed him as the Messiah that was prophesied about for centuries.  But, Jesus himself left town on a cross. This Friday we “celebrate” the death of the Messiah.  We celebrate the death of our King.

Why do we do this?  Because, that my friend is far from the end of the story.  Jesus doesn’t just die.  He dies with the full weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders - yours, mine, ours, theirs.  Jesus takes all of the bad stuff we hear when its quiet and he puts an end to it at the cross.  Then on Sunday, He rose from the dead, whole, without all of that stuff.  Jesus’ death and resurrection is similar to our life, and coming resurrection.  

We are living in an age that exists in the tension between Jesus’ Resurrection and the culmination of his Kingdom.  This is an in-between time where death is allowed to reign, but soon enough death will be put away.  So now having chosen to follow Jesus, those sad times, those melancholy moments serve only to remind of the fact that they are merely the death knell of an age that is passing.  Jesus’ resurrection is victory over death, and is an indicator as well, of the Kingdom of God that we currently reside in and that we live in forever.  This Kingdom has no end, but it is an end to this life as we know it.  You know the life full of lonliness, suffering, sadness, pain, death, fear, etc?

My funk will be cured when I see my friends again, but that does not mean I will never be in a funk again.  I think I am okay with that, because I am grateful to God for the rhythms of life that serve to remind me of Him and the good news of a Kingdom that is all about reunion, friendship, and togetherness with God and each other, forever.

Yes, it was our first official wedding, and yes it just so happened to be the Lead Pastor’s daughter.  Below are the pictures and videos of the wedding and cake.  It was a small ceremony, with hamurgers and hotdogs afterwards in true Distillery style.

[View with PicLens]

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Okay, so I was trying to tell someone the other day the books I have been reading and am currently reading and I decided it would be good to list them here so that anyone who felt like it could pick up one or two or ten of them and read them with me.  I would share my books with you except that I am an avid Amazon Kindle user and don’t keep books anymore (other than in digital format).

So here we go in no particular order:

 Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)  by Garr Reynolds
 The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ  by Bill Hull
 The One Tree (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 2)  by Stephen R. Douglas
 Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation   by Richard Foster
 Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology  by Eugene Peterson

 Clusters: Creative Mid-Sized Missional Communities  by Mike Breen

 The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible  by Scot McKnight
 The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission  by Lesslie Newbigin
 The Good Guy  by Dean Koontz
 The Shack   by William P. Young
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures  by Dan Roam
 The Passionate Church  by Mike Breen

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations  by Rod A. Beckstrom

The Continuing Conversion of the Church (The Gospel & Our Culture Series)  by Darrell Guder

That’s what I am reading, what are you reading?