Reflections

So I’m listening to this sermon and something the guy says sparks a thought.  Its totally not what he is talking about or teaching on but this whole thing begins to develop in my mind.  Soooo I sort of tune out for a bit, grab a pencil, and jot a few things down to remind me later of the thought.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’ll get this thing… call it maybe a God idea… and its soooooo clear… so vivid… so profound (uh huh)  that certainly I could never forget it.  And yet, the next morning when I try to remember what it was, it’s slipped away.  So, I quickly wrote “Pro or College Ball?”

So this is still just a thought, but what better place to throw it out there than here.

Anyway, down here in The South, college football is waaaaaaaaay bigger than pro.  So I began asking myself, why is that?  Well, college is more local, its easier to identify with college ball I think.  But mostly I think its the way they play.  College players seem more hungry if you ask me.  The quarter back is willing to take a lick for that extra few yards at the end of his run.  Coaches push them to discover their talents.  It also almost seems like they play because they love to play.  I’m not saying Pro players don’t love to play, but it seems at some point it becomes their job.  Soon they begin to become valuable.  “If I get hurt taking a lick for just a couple yards… I could break a leg or an arm and be out… so I better not.â€?

Now don’t get me wrong, I would NOT want to be on the other side of one of those tackles.  Those guys are HUGE and definitely take a pounding.  But college ball… there’s just something about it… its more fresh… more alive… more on the edge… a place to step out of the pack and show the world what you can do.

Then of course all that slipped into thoughts about Christianity.  I don’t know, maybe its the preacher in me and everything can somehow be turned into an illustration.  But think about it… New Christians vs Faithful Member.

New Christians seem more alive sometimes, more on the edge, just discovering all this stuff God can do and wanting to step out of the pack to show the world what they can do.  When you’re a new Christian, there’s a rawness to your faith.  Then something begins to happen.  Well, most likely living out there on the edge like that has gotten you hurt, so you pull back a bit to safer ground.  Then somewhere along the line it becomes a job.  You have discovered your talents.  Discovered what you can do and now you are doing them.  Suddenly your Christianity or who you are with in the Christian community is defined by what you do.  You do the stuff because thats what good Christians do.  Its a slow process sometimes.  It happens without you even realizing.  But pretty soon you get valuable and you cant afford to get hurt… socially, economically, emotionally.. it slowly turns into doing the job.

Of course, I’m totally speaking in general.  I’m not speaking of everyone or every circumstance.  But so many times I wonder… what ever happened to the college ball player?

I don’t ever want to lose focus on how amazing God is.  And I never want to forget its not about me but Him.  And I’m hoping I will always be willing to take a lick to get just a few more yards at the end of the run.

This is the music portion of our Easter service. I added it to YouTube and they have a 10 minute limit so I ended up spliting the file into 2 parts. You know its funny how it seems like such a small group because of the camera placement. We really need a view from the stage looking out into the congregation.

The backlights don’t show up the best in this video either and the audio levels are a bit off. BUT it gives a good overall feel of our style and Pastor Tim is great. I love him as our worship leader.

Now, our college and youth service… both have more of a rock edge. The youth band recently added a violin to the mix. It sounds great.

Man I love my church!

Here they are… you may need to pause them to buffer a bit before you press play. All depends on your connection speed.

Harvet Cathedral Music Part 1

Harvet Cathedral Music Part 2

EDIT: hmmmm well I guess I can’t add YouTube stuff anymore… it gets stripped when I post. soooooooo  I added the links to the video…

Picture this if you will… A church reaching near capacity as God continually works through them. Growing and growing, something needs to be done when a piece of prime commercial real estate becomes available almost directly in the geographic middle of their ministry. The property is purchased at an unbelievable price. Then as the capital campaign begins they are told the miracle pledge would be 2 million…

amazingly 8 million is pledged. Yet another confirmation. The architects are called, plans drawn, land surveyed. All waiting on the simple “go ahead”

But then it happens….

You find yourself entering… God’s Twilight Zone

(Click here for effect)

In the natural, Twilight begins… the sun goes down and the sky begins to darken. Specks of light begin to shine in the sky. First a faint glow, one by one they begin to appear shining brilliantly in the night sky… in the Twilight…

We were moving ahead, doing what needed to be done… Purchasing the land was truly a God thing with perfect timing and answered prayer. You see, God was clear… buy this land. It’s clear, God is moving us into a new realm of ministry. Plans were made, brainstorming sessions on what it should be like, what we would look like… It was all good BUT I think at that point there was a slight shift. We sort of decided this is what we want and what we think. But you see, the land was only the first star; the first speck of light in this new vision.

Then there was another star… and another… the funny thing is, we all saw the stars beginning to appear, beginning to shed new light, new direction. But no one really shared what they were seeing. Not at first anyway. Looking back, I’m reminded of Paul and company when the Holy Spirit prevented them from entering Asia:

(6) Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. (7) When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. (8) So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. (9) During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (10) After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10 NIV)

That’s what happened to us. My senior pastor just couldn’t give it a go. The Spirit wouldn’t let him. All of us on staff felt the same prodding. Now tell that to the congregation that pledged 8 million for a new facility on new property. Imagine this too if you will… without one site model, without one artistic rendering of the new property brought before the church. People continue to honor their pledge. You know, usually people need to see something, ANYTHING to keep the vision fresh.

But you see the vision wasn’t complete. The land was just the first star in this new illumination. I believe God is calling us to the market place. I know that’s nothing unique or cutting edge and you may think… “Yeah yeah yeah… jumping on the bandwagonâ€? Well… honestly… heck yeah! If God is leading this thing, then I want to jump on for the ride!

Do we now fully know this new plan? This new vision? No, but it isn’t that huge landmark facility visible for miles and miles. Well not tomorrow anyway. Remember Paul made it to Asia. He just needed to begin somewhere else. I still see a large facility. I still see this place, a resource center if you will. I see us reaching out into our surrounding communities, creating smaller communities of believers; separate and yet together, all part of the same body.

So what does that look like in real life practical terms? I don’t know, but we are talking to the mall. Imagine, renting a store in the mall that becomes your youth “sanctuaryâ€?. It can be open, maybe a coffee shop/bookstore of sorts. But on Saturday nights, the youth arrive, the band plays, worship happens… in the mall.

I began thinking; we have so many people in our community that will never set foot inside a church building. Why? Many reasons… and that’s a post all of its own. So how do we reach them? How to we provide an environment that will allow someone who would never consider going to church… to… well… go to church? You go were they are. We are also talking to a local night club. The current college hot spot actually. What if we could rent that facility on Sunday mornings? What if we played the same type of music (with slightly different lyrics)? Would one of those “I’ll never go to churchâ€? people be curious? Maybe thinking… “What kind of church is willing to meet in a bar?â€?

So that’s where we are… looking at the star and imagining the impossible… expecting the impossible. Will there be failures? Will there be conflict? Will we make mistakes?

Absolutely! But I say… bring em on, I’d much rather step out into the unknown and possibly ignite a spark that will change the face of our community than sit back in my comfort zone waiting for people to come.

Ok, so I show up today at my favorite quite get-a-way lunch spot. There’s this little used park down by the river. It use to be just a boat ramp and a parking lot. But it was great, I could park under the trees, see the river and just have a nice quiet lunch.

But now…. They’ve put in a playground, there’s a river walk, and when I pulled in for lunch it was soooooooooooo crowded there was only one spot to park. And this spot is right next to the walking path. So everyone walking by feels to urge to look at me as they walk by. That in turn gets me to look up, thus lossing my place in this book I am reading. Now there’s another guy leaning against his car, enjoying a fresh smoke, after his brisk walk I might add. But he’s like… RIGHT next to my truck and of course I have my window down…. rrrrrrrg people have discovered my spot I know, I know… I talk all the time about being where the people are.

But this is my quiet spot… my place to be alone… to pray… to read… to work on a message… or to nap…. What’s that I hear….. “Its the waaaaaaaaambulance….� I know…. but at least now I feel better!!

I suppose I just have to find a new spot.

*whew* Ok, I feel better now that I got that out there….

Have you ever gone somewhere and felt just totally out of place? Well there’s two places that do it to me almost every time. One… the auto parts store.

I mean, you walk in and everyone is dressed kinda the same, many times the people working there know the guy in front of you and its like everyone in there is talking about a 440 dual overhead injector thingamajig or that monster 220 intake panel assembly or something like that. Then here I am. All I know is I need an air filter for my truck because they didn’t have the one the book said I needed at Wal-Mart. I don’t know. Maybe its just me. But I feel like a little kid sometimes and all the adults know whats going on and I don’t.

Then there’s the music store. I really like going to the music store and checking out new guitars and such. But once again, you walk in and everyone sort of looks the same. They sort of dress the same. And without fail the guy with his hair pulled back in a pony tail is going to come over and ask if you need any help. Which isn’t a BAD thing. Except I’m trying to kinda look like I know what I’m doing for some reason or another, and if he starts talking to me… well… It will be obvious I don’t. Because here again, they are talking about solid tops and light strings and maple something… and all I know is… that one over there sure is pretty. I will admit. I’m beginning to be able to go in and not feel stupid. Partly because I have been learning to actually play the guitar and partly because I know half the people who work at the music store. But I still remember the first time I walked in…

Well, today I discovered a new place. You see I had this old metal shed in my backyard and maybe a month or two ago this massive windstorm came through and destroyed it. Of course it WAS pretty rusted. So this weekend I finally get all the pieces loaded up into my truck and check when the county landfill closes. Drat… it closed 30 minutes ago. So I decide tomorrow, which is of course today, I will go to this place I drive by everyday. Its a recycling center. Maybe they will take it off my hands. As soon as I pull up that feeling of… you don’t belong here begins. I mean, I’m in slacks, dress shoes, a dress shirt and tie. I walk in and people are doing the stuff your suppose to do. The guy behind the counter is saying hello to the people by first name… they all know each other.

Finally he looks up, “Um can I help you.�

“Yeah, do yall take stuff like an old metal shed.â€? …. “Yeeeees…â€? said kinda slow and sarcastic… “thats what we do, recycle metal.â€?

So I finally get through the process of getting a ticket and weighing my truck (It weighs 4,080 pounds btw). Then the scale person just waves me through and is like, “Ok, go aheadâ€? Of course I have to ask, “Go ahead WHERE?â€? once again speaking to me slowly and with a slight eye roll almost like “sheesh, everyone knows that. What are you an idiot?â€? So I drive around back where I was instructed. No one meets me, no one is around except some other guy whos unloading his truck. So I ask him “Hey, do we just dump this stuff anywhere?â€?… Yep, So I unload my truck. Good thing the gloves where still in the front. Of course I’m wearing black shoes and light tan slacks and I live in Georgia: home of red clay. So my shoes are covered in red clay dust as are my pants but hey, I get the stuff unloaded.

Finally back to the scale, back inside, receiving wonderful personal directions as to what to do next… and I walk out with a ten dollar check. Not too bad I guess since I was taking to the landfill to begin with.

Driving back to the office I begin to think of church. Ok so I know, it seems everything I do always leads me back to thinking about church. I can’t help it. That whole feeling of, you don’t belong. I bet that happens a LOT at church. Imagine walking in, everyone is dressed the same, everyone seems to know everyone else, everyone knows the liturgy of the service. And you know, even if you aint a liturgical church… you have a liturgy.

You kinda stumble your way through the service. You have to ask where to take the kids, where to get coffee, where are the bathrooms… I’ve been to a bunch of churches where I was the odd man out. Thats why I love my church. We have to be the most diverse church in the area: Racially, socially, economically. Some people dress up, some don’t. There’s people with tattoos and eyebrow rings, there’s the guys who ride their Harley’s to church, there’s the preppy looking people and the skater looking people. Blacks, Whites, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian. People from Africa, South America, Jamaica, Alabama…. We are fairly close to an Air Force base so we have people from all over the states. It really is an amazing place to come worship. But even with that. We fall into the trap of assuming people know what we are about. Or we assume they know what we mean when we say certain things.

Ok so I’m not real sure WHERE I was going with all that… I believe we just need to make a place where people belong. Not a place of isolation of elitism. But rather simply a place to belong.

Yes, once again my family is fortunate enough to enjoy the wonderful delights of a Bowen culinary experience. Ok… so most the time they like the food I cook…

Sidetrack: I remember way back when we use to make out lists and shop for enough food for two weeks. Heck, a month in our pre-kids days. But now, more often than not, I simply stop by Kroger or Wal-mart and pick out what I want to prepare for dinner that particular evening. I’m not sure which way is better. Sometimes I just dont feel like going to the store, so we end up with fast food. Or sometimes we have places to go and people to see so its a burger on the way. But then there’s times, when I just feel like cooking! Last night was one of those times. (sidetrack ends here)

So last night on the way home I start thinking… Italian… or maybe that coffee spiced steak my brother told me about. But mmm I love Italian food. Well, I love food in general, but if I HAD to pick one type of food I like the best. It would be Italian. I love cooking Italian as well. The colors, the smell of the herbs, garlic, olive oil, picking out the fresh veggies… mmmm So Italian it is.

Some stuff I just do… spaghetti, dried red tomato, artichoke heart chicken in a creamy white sauce over a bed of penne pasta, baked ziti, lasagna… stuff like that, I just make it. Other times I like to pull out the cook book. So last night I decide I want something different so I look in the cook book. Ooooh so many choices but it needs to be on a budget.

I decide on Steak Pizzarelio or some such. I didn’t write down the name and I dont have the cook book with me, so thats probably not what it was called, but it was something like that. With creamy garlic potatoes and a side dish of noodles and veggies. Off to Wal-mart, buy the stuff, and back in the kitchen in no time.

I begin the water for the potatoes, those big pots take a while to start boiling. Then add olive oil red onion and garlic to the frying pan. While thats sauteeing I cut up the sirloin into tips. Its cheaper if you buy the steak and cut it up yourself. Of course stirring the garlic and onions as I go. Oh yeah, I cheated on the garlic. You can buy it in a jar already minced. Its ALMOST as good as fresh, almost. The onions are clear so I add the meat. While it is browning, clean the potatoes and put them in the now boiling water. Add a cup or so of white wine, a tablespoon or so of dried oregano, salt and pepper to the meat and while its reducing, cut up the veggies.

I decided on carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, red onion, and garlic. They are cut up and set aside for a moment. The potatoes are now done so I drain them and put them in the mixer. Adding new water to the big pot for the noodles. Add a cup of minced garlic, some dried oregano (maybe a tsp), too big spoonfulls of butter, salt and about a cup or so of romano cheese to the potatoes Then let the mixer do the mixing. You leave the skins on btw.

I only have one big frying pan so at this point I transfer the meat mixture to a sauce pan. Letting it continue to boil over medium-low heat. “DAD, I’m hungry… WHEN are we going to eat…â€? my son chimes in. “Mmmm it’s almost ready. Look at thatâ€? I say showing him the potatoes… “ooooh, I’m not sure I want to eat THATâ€? the skin in the creamy potatoes has thrown him a bit.

The water in the big pot is not quite boiling so I begin the veggies in the frying pan. Add a cup of olive oil and all the veggies. Sautee them for a bit until the water begins to boil and add start the noodles.

The meat is done, the potatoes are done, the veggies are done and now the noodles are done. Drain the noodles keeping a cup or so of the water. Add the noodle water to the veggie pan. Stir around a bit then toss the veggie mixture into the noodles along with a cup or so of romano cheese. Add some salt. And dinner is served.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, my son could take it or leave it. My daughter loved it. The wife… she didn’t say one way or the other. But me… I loved it… and the eating part was almost as fun as the cooking.

PS:  Yes I realize the pictures are a bit big.  I just havent had time to figure out how to insert the thumbnail that points to the Gallery2 thing on my other site.

and thats all I have to say for now…..

Ok so after reading about Randy Bohlender’s experience with home roasting coffee beans, I had to give it a go.

You see, you can get an old hot air popcorn popper and use it to roast your own coffee beans. I have been to every thrift store in the area with no luck at all. Yard sales… no luck. There just haven’t been any old hot air popcorn poppers in this area. So I decided to go ahead and purchase some green coffee beans. Not really knowing what beans I would like best, I decided to order some beans from Columbia, Guatemala and Kenya. Of course I was believing I would run across a good popper by the time they arrived.

Needless to say… no luck still. So now I have three pounds of green beans sitting on the kitchen table beckoning me to roast them. So I have no other choice… I’m now off in search of a suitable NEW pop corn popper. After researching the web I discover there are certain types that work and some that are fire hazards. Not wanting my house to catch fire, I set out looking for the former.

Wal-mart had a popper. But it was the wrong type. Kmart…. no poppers at all… Wal-mart in the next town… wrong kind. Bed, Bath and beyond… wrong kind… FINALLY Target. They have one that is the right type of blower BUT its only 1200 watts. The “experts” on the web suggested 1400 watts. But the beans were calling me and hey, it was only 15 bucks.

So last night I get home with the new popper. The kids are like… wooo hooo you’re making popcorn… “Nope, sorry, roasting some coffee!” I say with excitement… to which they reply, “oh” and go back to doing what they were doing. Well, my daughter was interested later.

I decided to go with the Guatemalan coffee first. Drop in 1/2 cup of green beans, turn on the oven exhaust fan (I read they really smoke and it was too cold to do it outside) IN about 3 minutes, the first crack, then at about 4.5 minutes, the second crack, I watch as they begin to turn the right color and start getting that shiny coat… mmm they look good… one more minute… dumped em out at 6 minutes… and ummm… well… that was about a minute too long. :)

So I do a second batch, this time taking them out at 5 minutes. I also read you are suppose to let them sit for like 24 hours before the first cup. So I waited until this morning.  

This morning, I removed the lid from the cup I had them in and suddenly the best aroma filled the air… mmmm freshly roasted coffee beans!!! Ground em up, stuck them in the drip coffee maker. I was running a bit late so I had to skip making a breve.

Oh my, it was a wonderful cup of coffee. Great flavor and wonderful smell… so why ALMOST perfect you might ask????

Well, they had a slight bitter taste. Not all that uncommon in gourmet coffee’s. But I prefer the none bitter coffee better. I’m thinking it must be where they are grown. I’m gonna do a batch of Columbian and Kenyan tonight so I can a taste of the different types of beans.

Don’t get me wrong. The bitter was only slight. Sort of like a dark chocolate taste and I happen to be a white chocolate lover so its not my favorite. BUT it was still an almost perfect cup!!!

Oh yeah, those are the actual beans.  I took that last night.

just using this post to try and see if I can get the video mentioned in the previous post to work.

Ok so I’m watching this commercial from the Super Bowl and I’m thinking… now THATS the phone I need…

“Hey Pastor, I liked your message but…. (Insert favorite “helpful” tip here)”

But if you had one of those babies… “Hey Pastor, I liked your message but… BAM…”

EDIT:

rrrrrrrrrg for some reason Vox won’t let me embed a flash video….

But I am posting duplicate posts for the time during the beta phase, soooo you can see the video on my other blog

http://www.brianbowen.com/?p=110

Heres the code, minus the open and close brackets if anyone has any ideas why it won’t work in VOX

embed width=”328″ height=”265″ src=”http://www.ifilm.com/efp” quality=”high” bgcolor=”000000″ name=”efp” align=”middle” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” flashvars=”flvBaseClip=2691874&playlisttype=collection&playlistid=1542″