E-z E-zekiel Web De-zine

I working with E-zekile in a 30 day trial to see how I like easy webdesign for our church.

You can check out the site I started tonight here

You can check out E-zekiel here

The Journalist

In our men’s group several months ago we did some personality testing – it really helped me see where the guys were at and what they were like. Roaming someone’s blog today I noticed they had taken a similar test, so I hit the link and took the test (it takes about 2 minutes). Here are my results:

ENFP – “Journalist”. Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

Camping

I haven’t been camping in ages. That’s all going to change tonight. Some of the men from our church and their friends will be going camping tonight, and then fishing in the morning. It should be a blast. I’m really looking forward to spending time with these guys. I’ve already warned them on several occassions that I am not their pastor tonight! lol I’ll try to post some pics next week.

More Pics

Jenna Lightfoot (Ghuss’s partner)

Qualenthi Sandal (yet to be introduced)

Character Sketches

Here are some sketches I did about a year ago for this story.

Angus Ericsson

Kliff al’Burton

Ghuss Fhairbotham

more to come…

The Boring Wait

Normally a crowded pub afforded Jenna Lightfoot a chance to kick back and enjoy herself; her way. Riker’s Pub & Inn was crowded, but Jenna was on a short leash, a leash that was figuratively held by Ghuss Fhairbotham. Jenna hated to think that Ghuss’ reasoning was right – it went against everything she was. Not just because she was a cutpurse by nature, as all halflings are, but also because she wasn’t the type of girl to admit it when a man was right, even if it was Ghuss.

So next to him at the bar she sat as he slowly finished his second mug of ale; she was still working on her first. Jenna loved her drink, but more than two drinks and she was a little less sturdy than she would have liked. What would put her under Ghuss would drink with his dinner. The bartender was nice, though, and cute even if he was a human. She almost felt bad short changing him two silver pieces, but in the end, he’d never know.

“He better show, Ghuss,” Jenna said looking up at her large friend. Ghuss was seemingly handsome – to muscular for her taste – with a square chin, cropped with a tuft blond hair. The blond hair spiked into the air on his head, and covered half his ears and almost all of his neck. Jenna hardly even noticed the deep scare that ran from the bottom of his right ear down his chin line. Bad wound, that one was. Good thing he was a mercenary, scares come in handy when you’re fighting for money. He never intimidated her though, she knew when it came down to it he wouldn’t kill a fly for landing in his stew.

Pointing his rough finger in the air to single the barkeep, Ghuss turned and looked down slightly at her and answered, “He better,” and winked before he turned to tell the bartender he wanted another drink. “He’ll pay us in full, too.”

“Full isn’t much these days, is it?” Jenna asked. Mercenary work paid, but picking pockets and hocking valuables paid more. Ghuss and Jenna made a great team. Ghuss would kill them, and Jenna would clean them, just like it was when she and her brother used to go fishing on the shores of Blackberry pond. “At least if we have to sit here and wait we could hear some music!”

“It’s just now dusk, Jenna, and besides, I’m not in the mood for pub music tonight. I just want to get our pay and lay down and sleep,” Ghuss replied lifting his new glass of ale to his lips.

“Are you always this boring, Ghuss? Oh wait, I forgot, you are always this boring! A little music. You letting me down…”

Jenna couldn’t finish before Ghuss turned to her on his barstool and spouted in a quiet yell through clenched teeth, “No! You are not going anywhere but right there, Jenna, you promised. The last time you where here you about got me killed! Why do you have to pick on the biggest guys in every tavern we come to?”

Pick meant more than it normally did, and in Jenna’s case it meant picking their pockets. “They always seem to let me get the closest. Besides, just because I sit on a guys lap and put my hands in his pockets doesn’t mean he can kiss me…” She couldn’t finish that last part without starting to laugh.

“Ha, ha, really funny. You flirt, I fight; we make a great team!” Ghuss joked as he slowly looked around the room. He didn’t expect that guy Jenna hit on to be there, unless there was a healer in this village, but you never know who his friends are. People always want a piece of a mercenary it seems. They think they are always up for a fight

A Missional Church

Hey, Joe Thorn over at Words of Grace has a great post on being Missional. Here’s the link. Check it out. I especially like his treatment of Acts 1:8. Let me know what you think about it…

Bono Strikes Again!

From a book called “Bono in Conversation“

Bono: … It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there’s mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled… It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.

Assayas: That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy , in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?

Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no, I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had King of the Jews” on his head, and was they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s farfetched…

Pumped About Tonight!

I’m pumped about tonight! The fam is planning on going to AlpenFest early to let the kiddos go on some kiddy rides which should be a blast! Then we’re going to hook up with a bunch of friends to go to the concert, among which there will be some of their relatives that I know from the camp I go two each summer – I’m really looking forward to seeing those crazy young people! Then, two of our best friends are coming over and staying with us and we’re going canoeing tomorrow! This is going to be some good stuff!

Salvador in Concert!

Tomorrow night my wife and I, along with the kiddos will be attending Alpenfest’s Thursday Night concert featuring SALVADOR.

It’s a free concert so come on down! For more info on Salvador click here.

Keeping our eye on the visual

Making it Memorable
People who listen to a speaker normally retain 10% of what is discussed. But when you add visuals, that number goes up to 50% (a whopping 400% increase in effectiveness). These stats, revealed in a study by the Wharton Research Center, offer compelling reasons to use media in your church—not just because it’s cool, but because it works.

From Creative Pastors Blog

Casualties of the casual

“People who insist upon dressing casually also want to think casually.” – Doug Wilson

Intersting…I think…maybe…ah, I don’t know…who cares!?

In school, sure. In church…?

Missional Herminutic

From House Church Blog

“Prodigal Kiwi has posted some “missional questions” he uses in interacting with Scripture. Take a look.
I want to update my own thinking on the subject of “community as mission” as we prepare for some gatherings in which we focus on the missional aspect of our own community… More to come.”

Baptism

In a couple hours I will be baptizing a young lady by the name of Rachel. Rachel became a follower of Jesus about a year ago, but never understood the ordinance of baptism. Since understanding it, she wants to follow through with it in obedience to our Lord. It’s going to be cool, especially since we are doing it at a public beach, where everyone will witness it, as it was meant to be.(?)

The Naked Ride Home

(Title inspired by the previous post, and by a Jackson Browne ride home…we were not naked!)

I got a call from Jay at, oh, about 3:40 am waking me from my nice warm bed, asking me to come get him and Tim from the Traverse City hospital! Evidently they were over in TC hanging out when Tim’s heart started acting up, and that landed them in the ER. They released Timmer early this morning, but the other guy they were with had to be to work early, so he took Jay’s car back to Grayling – so, Jay and Tim were without a ride.

Whalla…Pastor Toby to the rescue (I have to be “pastor Toby” so I can use my gas receipt for tax purposes…it was pastoral work, afterall…)

Anyway, keep praying for Tim!