• t-day troubles

    Dte_1By the time I was up this morning we had our first emergency of the day. At about 7:30 we lost half our power again. This happened about two weeks ago, the power company sent out 2 supervisors to evaluate our problem but then the truck never came to string our new lines. Long story short, we were without power for about an hour of turkey roasting time. We’ve got power right now, but I don’t know how long it will last.

    Madagascar With the kids driving us nuts we pulled out our secret weapon. Megan and I went to go see Madagascar at the movie theater this summer, but Paul hasn’t yet seen it. So when they were getting really wild… we pulled out the new DVD and put it in. Worked like a charm.

    The thanksgiving crowd is on their way. There was a decent snow, and it is butt cold outside… so they are going to be a little late. That’s OK by me, we need the extra time to make up for our lack of power earlier.

    Defeat_lloydSidenote to a friend in Shelby township: I found this picture and I thought you might enjoy it.

  • the office

    TheofficeI stayed up late last night [that’s what vacation is for!] to watch the entire 2nd season of The Office. It’s a BBC sitcom that has since been brought to the U.S. on NBC.

    Here’s my thought. Is it funny? Not as funny as Little Britain. Is is something I would recommend? No, far too much innuendo… and a lot of the jokes didn’t fly for this American palate. Sometimes I got the idea I’d be laughing at different times than my British friends. Kind of like watching Shrek 2 with my kids.

  • the problem in the emergent movement

    Tonyjones Let me state out front in case anyone is reading this: I am critiquing something I am seeing… not speaking against the emergent movement.

    Over the past few weeks and months there has been a bunch of downright attacks directed at people in the emergent movement about such issues as "are you teaching universalism" and "are you validating practices of Eastern Mysticism."

    Here is my frustration… very few answers ever come out of these guys! Someone will pop up and ask them a question in a public forum, or at a conference, they get all POed and think they are too good to answer any questions. [Read Tony’s blog entry]

    Here’s what I don’t get…

    1. This is a movement based on critical thinking of the evangelical community… why are they Dankimball above the same scrutiny they have laid upon the church?
    2. The questions being asked are foundational to biblical Christianity. These aren’t questions about methodology, they are about core theology… Is Jesus the only way to heaven? I think that is a question that is relevant to the conversation.
    3. By not answering these questions, they are silently denying that they believe in biblical Christianity… which clearly isn’t true if you talk to them. I have read these guys, followed their stories, heard them speak, and met several of them… these guys are the real deal… I don’t get why they won’t simply say that they don’t believe in Universalism… it’s silly.
    4. By claiming that no person represents "the emergent conversation" there is a fundamental denial of truth. There are voices out there that speak for emergent. Tony Jones recently said something along the lines of, "When you have a dinner conversation, you don’t elect a spokesperson." Get over it Tony, you speak for emergent. And so do Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, and your stuff is published by Mark Ostreicher.

    Leonardsweet All that to say, I just don’t get it. Why not deal with conflict and misunderstanding head up? Most of what these people are being accused of is silly. Emergent isn’t universalist or "liberalism remarketed" or whatever else hate driven fundamentalist are claiming out there. Those people are seeking to destroy emergent… mostly out of envy. They use pseudo-journalism and "clinton-like" tactics to twist words and make people say things they didn’t. [Too many to list!] What they are about is recognizing a major shift in American culture and helping the regular evangelical church address this need.

    What I don’t get is that more needs to be said to critics than just "no one person speaks for us." Deal with conflict in a biblically mandated way. Address people head up first!

  • pink foyer nightmare

    Have you ever had one of those restless nights of sleep where you thought you would wake up and find that your house had been painted say… pepto bismol pink?

    Well, you can stay at our house tonight and have that very dream? The reason… we are painting our foyer a deep red and right now the walls are covered in a primer pink color. It’s the nastiest color I have ever seen in a house. I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and paint over it.

    P.S. It’s vacation time. So far, so good… aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh….. rest is good.

  • Gm cuts seem to be missing the point

    GmGeneral Motors [GM] announced today that they will be cutting about 30,000 US jobs and trimming about $7 billion overall to try to get profitable. [See story] A couple of thoughts from an outsider. I am no expert… but I can pretend to be one on my own site!

    – This seems like a bandaid. The big problem in GM is pensions… massive pensions  that hold the company back. Unless they can figure out a way to restructure the pension plans they cannot compete with companies like Honda and Toyota who have lower overhead.

    – A brain transfer needs to happen. Here in Romeo we are surrounded by the brains of GM. Engineers who know are deep in knowlesge of the cars, history, design strategies, on and on. But they are also aging baby boomers. In the next 5-6 years, if GM doesn’t get real serious about transferring the knowledge, they are in big trouble when the brains start to retire and hand it over to a group of people under them that are ill-equipped.

    – Michigan needs Toyota. [See story] The bottom line is that we have a highly trained workforce and a highly efficient delivery system here in Michigan. Michigan needs to do whatever it can to lure Toyota to build a plant here in Michigan that is union free and profitable.In doing so, this will put more pressure on the Big 3 to get their employee costs under control.

    – GM would be protected. There is no reason to think that the government would allow GM to go under. More likely, the Big 3 will end up just like the airline industry… most of them losing money, in and out of bancruptcy, but kept afloat by the government because of the jobs provided and the goods delivered.

  • Not like my dad

    I found out from my dad last night that he probably won’t be coming to our Thanksgiving feast. For the second year in a row he’ll chose to work overtime instead of spending the day with his grandkids.

    You know, it’s one thing to break a lifetime of promises to your own children, but it’s a whole new level of hurt to disappoint another grankids who just want to see their grandpa. Pehaps I should expect it, but I am tired of being disappointed.

    "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." Duetoronomy 20:12

    Sometimes I wish there were an age limit to that.

  • The Megan Anthology

        Mem005

    Megan: 1 day old

    Mem283 Megan: 1 years old

    Mem412a

    Megan: 2 years old

    Lf0__082

    Megan: 3 years old

    Mclane__179

    Megan: 4 years old

    Mclane_fall_018

    Megan: 4.5 years old

  • The church as a birdfeeder?

    Birdfeeder1Yesterday, Megan and Paul went with me to Tractor Supply to buy some birdfeeders for our house. Did you know that they make these things in all sorts of shapes and sizes? I didn’t… and if these cool shaped ones weren’t so expensive we would have got one. (Yep, I’ve got a $10 limit on things like that!)

    As Megan and I were filling and placing these in our backyard… I got to thinking about the church birdfeeders we saw at the store.

    Isn’t that how people treat the church? I remember over the years I’ve heard people say that the reason you come to church is to get spiritually fed. Is that it? Is that why we have churches? To get food? To come to a place, sit on the stoop… and eat a meal?

    I don’t think so. There is so much more to offer than mere spiritual food. A good church should be meeting so many more needs than spiritual nutrician. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of the idea that we should be teaching the Bible predominantly and that not doing that is sinful on the part of the leadership. But I also don’t think we should just worry about "stuffing people’s belly’s and sending them on their way." No no no no no no. There is so much more we can offer. And a wise leadership doesn’t see themselves as a birdfeeder…

  • Feedback needed!

    IPromo_commercial‘ve been working on a promotional video for our church for quite a while now. Being that I am not a video person by trade this has been something I’ve been really, really lost on.

    That said, here is a pre-release version of it. In Hollywood I think they call it a "rough cut." If you have a spare 5 minutes, would you mind looking at it and posting a comment with feedback. If you are a dial-up user, be aware that this is a large file!

    Romeo Promo Video (18 MB)

  • my new favorite TV show

    I don’t know if it’s bad that I like some of what MTV has to offer, but the new show Homewrecker is wicked funny.

    The entire premise of the show is that if someone pranks you in a little way, Ryan Dunn will come to your house and prank you 1000% times worse than you could ever imagine.While I am not a Viva la Bam fan at all… it strikes me as just plain stupid… this show is pretty simple and so far very fun.