"Good" Friday was a Beautiful Scandalous Night

"Beautiful Scandalous Night" as performed by The Robbie Seay Band

Posted via email from erin bird's web nest

Valentine's Gala

If you are married or engaged, are in your 20s or 30s, and live in the Cedar Rapids area, then consider coming to the annual Valentine's Gala. It's only one month away! It will be a wonderful evening for you and your spouse to dress up (time to put on that tie, gentlemen!), enjoy some appetizers and dessert while listening to live music in a cool venue, and spend an evening celebrating your marriage (or future marriage!). Consider going out for a nice dinner beforehand, secure a babysitter now (if you need one), and buy something special for your spouse to give to them at the end of the evening.

But don't just think of yourselves! The Gala will also be a great event to invite some non-church friends from work or your neighborhood. Allow them to enjoy the evening and celebrate their relationship as well!

Here are the nitty-gritty details for the Gala as being sent out by the sponsoring group (the Marriage Matters ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) from New Covenant:

Date: Saturday, February 14th
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: ara Gallery (located near the NE/Marion Carlos O'Kelly's)
Tickets: $25/couple
Attire: Cocktail (What is "cocktail attire"?)

Live music is provided. As are appetizers and dessert. There will be door prizes to help you invest in your marriage. Tickets will be available to NCBC attenders and their friends starting Sunday, January 18th. Starting February 1st, remaining tickets will be available to the 20-30-something general public. Space is limited, so get your tickets quickly!

Laughter to Warm Up a Chilly December Day

Here are some humorous things I've either seen or heard in the last few days that I thought I'd share:

1)  At our Christmas Open House a week and a half ago, I was having a conversation with Caleb, the son of my friend Laurie.  Caleb would ask me to guess an animal based upon his impersonation of that animals' call.  Well, because I love to tease and play around with kids, when Caleb would say "Ribbit" I'd guess "Cat".  He'd repeat it, and I'd guess "Cow".  After several of my lame attempts at guessing the correct animal, Caleb would announce the correct animal (in case you didn't know, "Ribbit" is what a frog says).  Caleb when then begin the game again with a different animal noise, and once again I'd guess incorrectly, sometimes with completely random guesses (I could have sworn Ear Wax said "Meow"!).

After a couple of rounds, Caleb asked me to guess another animal.  But instead of making a noise, Caleb got down on his hands and knees.  Then he very slowly dipped his head down, and then slowly brought it back up.  As he continued to repeat this motion, I looked at Laurie because I had no idea what Caleb was doing.  Based upon the look on Laurie's face, she didn't know either, so she finally asked him, "Caleb what animal is that?"

Caleb's response?  "I'm an ornamental reindeer!"

2)  At lunch on Sunday, my 5-year-old son announced to the whole family, "Jesus is in our whole house!  He's in the whole world!  And we step on Him!"

3)  I just saw one of Apple's Christmas commercial's for this year.  Of the two I saw, this one made me laugh.

Appearances

It's been WAY too long since I've posted.  I've had too many thoughts that I wasn't able to get recorded, and with my horrible memory, I'll never recover them.  Oh well.

Since it's been so long, I'm going to do another "catch up" post (which means it will be entirely too long!), with a true "blog thought" at the end.  So for my family and close friends, read the first portion.  For those who don't care about my life and just want to read my thoughts on an issue, skip to the non-bulleted section at the end (it's okay to skip, I won't be offended - the first part is mostly for me anyway).

• Got back last Saturday from taking two weeks off.  Just moments ago I handled the last email that had piled up during my absence, so I'm celebrating by allowing myself to post here.
• The two weeks were WONDERFUL.
• Week #1 - went to Cedarly Pastors Retreat.  Andy and Nancy are incredible hosts.  Mike is an amazing chef.  The other couples there are awesome people.  The environment was perfect for having time to read, reflect, and pray.  And getting to sleep in each day and then having time to do things like read and write was almost too good to be true!  The week really was refreshing.  (Thank you, Tom Pietz, for your strong recommendation!)
• I had decided before going on the retreat that I would spend time writing a book.  I've never done that before, but I heard Pastor Ray (the pastor who was here at New Covenant when I came on staff 6 and half years ago before going home to Christ after a battle with prostate cancer) say once that he thought everyone should write at least one book in their life, even if it would never be published.  The discipline would be good for them.  Since I always learn so much when I work on sermons, I thought I would get just as much out of writing a book.  I had WAY more fun writing than I ever thought I would.  Who knows what I'll ever do with the book, but it's been fun and educational (or maybe I should say transformational) for me.
• After coming home from the retreat, we got to celebrate S's 5th birthday with a "Bird Family Night" style birthday party.  The 5 friends he got to invite (plus their families) all piled into the middle school room in New Covenant's building to watch a LarryBoy cartoon, eat popcorn and munchies for supper, play games, and enjoy controlled chaos.
• On the Sunday we were home between the retreat and Thanksgiving week, I enjoyed watching and helping with the cardboard testimonies in the worship services (click here to see an example of what we did).  There was some very powerful ones.  As someone who grew up in a Christian home, it was difficult to come up with my own cardboard testimony, but the more I thought about it, the more God truly has changed me.  I thought of what I'd be like without Christ, and I'd probably be a "nice guy", but I'd be incredibly selfish.  While I am still selfish, I'm sure my wife, kids, and friends are glad I'm a Christ-follower!
• Watching the cardboard testimonies fueled my desire to see even more people's lives changed by the gospel of Jesus.  I'm realizing that I'm a bit addicted to changed lives - I rarely am moved to tears, but when I hear of how Christ has changed someone's life, I find myself choking up a bit.  And the weird thing is, I want to choke up more.
• Week #2 was spent in Bellevue, NE to celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family.  As usual we had a blast!
• My family got to help serve at my brother's church's Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday night.  The church bussed in over a thousand people, fed them an incredible meal, and allowed those who needed a new winter coat to select one before being bussed home.  This was the second time we got to do it.  This time around they had TOO many volunteers, but the evening still went well.  We got to serve as table hosts.  Two years ago when I got to do this I had some great spiritual conversations with the people at my table.  This year I only got to host one table, and it seemed that everyone they sent me either was already a believer or didn't want to talk.  Oh well.  My wife and sister-in-law had a good conversation with one gal - hopefully the lady will pursue Christ and not simply religion.
• I enjoyed the Nebraska game - well, I only enjoyed it cause they pulled out the win (and got to watch it with my brother, dad, and one cousin).  I didn't enjoy the fact that they allowed Colorado to score 3 easy touchdowns in the first half.  Nor did I enjoy the fact that the Husker offense seemed to move the ball at will until they got within the 20 yard line.  But if you like dramatic football games, this one was for you.
• LeAnn and I put up new blinds on Monday this week in the eating area and kitchen - finally!  The old ones were in horrible disrepair - they were so bad that I think it embarrassed some of our neighbors.  But no longer!  Now instead of cheap, broken, "alabaster" vinyl blinds, we have cheap, non-broken, white blinds.  Huge thanks to my dad for helping me out!  (Hanging the blinds went much smoother by having someone who is actually handy helping with the job.)
• Now that the blinds are up, all young adults (and those who help serve and lead them) at New Covenant are welcome to our annual Christmas Open House tomorrow night from 6-12.  If you are on Facebook, here is the "Event" a friend set-up for the party.

And now my blog thought (at least the one I've hung on to the past couple weeks...)

While at the pastors retreat in Wisconsin, LeAnn and I met 5 other really neat couples.  One of the couples was newly married and instantly likable.  But they were also unemployed.  The husband had recently resigned from his Jr. High youth pastor position at a church.  He and his wife were at the retreat to seek God and his direction for their lives.

Over the course of the week, we learned more about each couple.  The reason he had resigned from the church was due to unhealthy boundaries.  As a single guy, he didn't notice these unhealthy boundaries, but as a married man, he began to see that these issues would keep him from being a great husband, which in turn would keep him from being a great youth pastor.  What were these "boundaries" being crossed?  He was regularly working 80 hours per week.  He was overseeing two youth groups at two different campuses (their church was "multi-site").  He would receive phone calls from his superior at 2 or 3 in the morning to talk about "business".  The final straw came when he was told he had to lead one of the youth groups on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday night, the same night his small group met.  His small group was the one thing that was actually helping him, encouraging him, and strengthening him to make it through the week - the thought of losing that on top of everything else was enough to open his eyes to these unhealthy patterns.

One evening during our week, this particular young adult couple mentioned the name of the church they had resigned from.  We didn't have Internet at the retreat house, so I looked up the church when I was back home and could hook the Internet I.V. back into my digital veins.  I wanted to see this "horrible" church that abused it's staff like this.

To my surprise - the church looked great!  As I perused the church website (I tend to read other church websites - it's what us pastors do), I found myself thinking, "This looks like a GREAT church!  I'd go there based on what I'm reading!  The site is beautiful.  The vision and mission is compelling.  The appearance of this church's site makes this look like a great church."

Had I not talked to someone on the inside, I would have believed the appearances.  But the story of what was lying underneath was completely different than the website indicated.  Staff were leaving in droves.  Relationships among the staff weren't emotionally healthy.  And a fantastic young Jr. High pastor with an incredible heart for Jesus left.

I feel so sad for this church.  They lost a great guy.  LeAnn and I found ourselves wishing there was some way New Covenant could hire this twenty-eight year old.

But I'm also excited for this young man and his bride.  They did the right thing by stepping down and they are doing the right thing by seeking God in all of this.  They are living by faith, willing to do whatever HE wants for them.  And I know that God will do great things through them for His Kingdom.

As I pondered all of this after seeing the church's website, I couldn't help but think - what appearances am I giving off that aren't true to what is really underneath?  Are there things that need cleaned up, corrected, or improved in my life?  Am I saying one thing with my mouth, but doing another in my thoughts or actions?

All I know is that I don't want to be like that church - giving the appearance of being one thing, when underneath a completely different story exists.  To live like that is to live unlike Christ.  However, it is my prayer that God would daily continue to change me to be more like Jesus in how I think, talk, act, and love.  Jesus didn't put on appearances, so neither should I.

The Adventures of the Birdnest (2007)

Another Christmas, another Christmas letter from the Birdnest. This year's creative twist? A comic!

Click here to read the PDF of "The Adventures of the Birdnest! (Issue 2007)"

Coming out of the Closet

One of the many projects LeAnn and I didn't get to during my first week off in November (due to my illness) was purging our closets of old and unused clothes.  In our 13 1/2 years of marriage (as of today - I'd like to wish my wife a happy half-anniversary), we have never truly purged our closets.  We still had worn out clothes from our high school days sitting on our hangers.  While it was tempting to keep them preparing for the 80s fashion retro fad, we knew it was time to help our clothes come out of the closet.

I was eager to begin the project, but the first few items I was pulling out, I found myself hesitating.  I didn't want to part with these pieces of fabric!  So I compromised and created a "maybe" pile.  I was surprised at how I wanted to keep these things, even though I hadn't worn them for 2 or 3 years.  But once I got going, it became easier and easier.  In fact, I started having so much fun, I was even willing to take the risk as a husband and tell my wife what she needed to get rid of! :o)

Eventually, all of my "maybe's" went in to the bags destined for Goodwill.  And I was pleased at the sense of peace it gave me to have my closets cleansed.  The more I learn about myself, the more I realize how uncluttered I prefer my environments, so it feels really good to walk into a thinned closet, knowing I have everything I need and perhaps someone else will benefit from the items I no longer was using.

So give yourself a Christmas gift this year by getting rid of a few things out of your closet.  It might put you in the Christmas Spirit more than you expect.

Bird Christmas Gift Tradition

A friend has asked me to blog about my family's gift tradition. I once shared it with him and his wife, and as they have recently entered parenthood , he's asked if I would not only share it with him again, but with everyone through my blog.

Up front, I have to admit that this tradition is not original with me or my wife. A different friend sent me an email article years ago that talked about this gift tradition, and my wife and I liked it so much we have adopted it for our kids.

The tradition is based upon the 3 gifts the wisemen gave to the Christ child in Matthew chapter 2. This helps guide our decision making into what we give our kids, and it keeps us from getting caught up in the consumerism of the culture. It also helps teach out kids contentment and being thankful for the gifts they do receive, even though it is only 3 gifts for each of them (which means twelve presents this year- maybe we should stop having kids or change our tradition! :o)

The first gift mentioned in the Scriptures was gold. When we think of gold, we think of something precious or expensive. So our kids' "gold" gift is usually something very special, something we wouldn't normally give them everyday, but is something that will be precious to them. We often wrap this gift in gold wrapping paper.

The next gift mentioned is frankincense (or incense, depending upon which translation you consult). Incense is known for its aroma, something that smells sweet to the nose. The Scriptures tells us that our prayers are like incense to God. And so LeAnn and I use the "frankincense" gift to be something that will help our children grow spiritually, so their lives are a sweet aroma to God. Last year we gave the girls devotional books. This year we already have Salem's incense gift when we saw a sale a couple months ago at the local Christian bookstore. We've also given CDs with worship music, and even Bibles to the kids when they reach reading age.

The last gift is myrrh. Myrrh is used for embalming. This was a very practical gift since Christ would one day die on the cross for the forgiveness of sin and would have his body prepared for burial (because they didn't know he was going to resurrect!). So LeAnn and I make the "myrrh" gift a very practical gift for the kids. Often this gift has been clothes the kids have needed, or something else that would be useful for them.

LeAnn and I enjoy the creativity this tradition brings to our Christmas celebration, and it forces us to be very intentional in what we buy for which child. Each kid is honored individually, and yet they are equal with the rest of their siblings. And the best part is that our kids enjoy the tradition and they are very curious each year as to what their 3 gifts will be. This has been a wonderful tradition for our family, and if this helps some others out there with their own Christmas gift purchasing - great!

Happy Grizzly Valentines Day!

My daughter is creating her own Valentine's Cards this year. And to make it truly original, she has written her own poem for the card. I just saw it for the first time on our home computer, and thought I would share it here to warm all of your hearts...

Happy Valentine's Day

Howdy Hello.
Both mean the same stuff
Hello equals normal
But howdy more tough

This will be weird,
but I really don't care
A perfect Valentine present
is a Grizzly Bear

Santa from an Engineer's Perspective

Personal News
We arrived in Topeka today. Even though we got off an hour later than we had hoped (T seemed to be on his own schedule) we made excellent time because T ate like a champ and we could hop back in the car after only a 30 minutes stop and take off again. And all combined - he probably only cried 10 minutes total in the 6 and a half hours we were actually inside the van. Not bad considering how much he hates his car seat!

Personal Thoughts
I've seen this before, but thought I'd share it with all of you in case one or two of you haven't seen this humorous bit of info. I just re-read it at Mark Batterson's blog and thought it would bring a laugh or two over at my blog, so here you go!

There are approximately 378 million Christian children in the world according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate of 3.5 children per household that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh; hop out; jump down the chimney; fill the stockings; distribute the remaining presents under the tree; eat whatever snacks have been left for him; get back up the chimney; jump into the sleigh; and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household--a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at best 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set weighing two pounds, the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the flying reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth, the ship not the monarch.

Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of acceleration from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in one-thousandth of a second, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa which seems ludicrously slim would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4.3 millions pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Merry Christmas from the Birdnest

Here is our 2006 Christmas Letter for you to enjoy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Music

With Christmas music all over the airwaves, in stores, and pumping out of MP3 players worldwide, I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas CD. It is very unlike any other Christmas CD I've ever heard.

Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God was introduced to me last year before he came to Cedar Rapids in concert. LeAnn and I worked at the Compassion Table, and so got to go to the conference for free. The CD tells the Christmas story through song, but instead of starting with the angel appearing to Mary, it actually starts with the Passover. It has some deeply beautiful and moving songs on it. It has a fun song on it (check out Matthew's Begats). It has a couple of instrumental Christmas numbers (with hammer dulcimer!). It has guest singers (so it isn't about Andrew, but rather about the One who was born). The CD isn't just Christmas music - it is an experience.

Right now, you can listen to the whole album online on Andrew's site. Just click "Open Player" and enjoy!

Exmas and Crissmas

For the past two Sundays, Eric Thompson has led the 12:30@Eleven community (meets at 11:00 am in Room 137 at New Covenant) in a lively discussion about Christmas. I've kept quiet (because I've noticed when pastors speak up, some people take their word as final, and thus discussion ends. So to encourage others to talk, I don't. :o), but have enjoyed batting the conversation around in my own head.

The first week we read an article by a Christian who thinks Christmas should be eliminated as a nationally recognized holiday. I felt the article was poorly written and thought out. Even if the government didn't make Christmas a recognized holiday, offices stayed open, and the post office delivered mail, I still think there would be a lot of the stress of the season she thinks would disappear. The celebrations of this time of year are just too entrenched right now in our culture.

But it doesn't matter to me if the government calls off Christmas or not. I would still celebrate that Jesus came to earth. I would still ponder the mystery of God becoming human. I would still give gifts to my kids (they each get three gifts from me and LeAnn - a "gold" gift that is "expensive" (on our budget that isn't that much!), a "frankincense" gift designed to help them spiritually this next year, and a "myrrh" gift that is practical for life). We would still decorate a tree because it is so much fun to do together as a family. And we would probably still host our annual Christmas Open House. That was the author's overall point, though. Would Christians still celebrate if the federal government didn't give us the day off?

Then this past week Eric read us a C.S. Lewis essay/parable about Exmas and Crissmas. I thoroughly enjoyed the piece and encourage you to read it. I found it amazing that Lewis probably wrote this around 50 years ago about Christmas in England, and yet it is still so true, at least here in America. Having kids has helped us remember to keep in perspective what Christmas is really all about. We had a good little discussion last night during our weekly family night after watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" since Charlie Brown yells "Can anybody tell me what Christmas is really all about?!"

And in case you've forgotten yourself, here is what Linus answers Charlie Brown's question with:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:1-20)