Thinking about the missional church...

I've been thinking again recently about what it means to be a missional church - a sent church. When I first started hearing about and reading about missional churches, something struck me deep in my soul. Perhaps I'm being simplistic or idealistic, but I cannot see any other way of being the church. Check out this post on the Missional Church Network from Lois Barrett's book, Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness -

A proper, biblical ecclesiology looks at everything the church is and does in relation to the mission of God in the world. The church does not exist for itself, but for participation in God’s mission of reconciliation. “Mission” is not just an activity carried out by special people in faraway places. Mission is the character of the church in whatever context it exists.

A missional church is a church that is shaped by participating in God’s mission, which is to set things right in a broken, sinful world, to redeem it, and to restore it to what God has always intended for the world. Missional churches see themselves not so much sending, as being sent. A missional congregation lets God’s mission permeate everything that the congregation does — from worship to witness to training members for discipleship. It bridges the gap between outreach and congregational life, since, in its life together, the church is to embody God’s mission.

See the entire post here

Surprise Wedding Surprise!

The wedding is Sunday the 10th!

Tickets have been exchanged.

Rooms have been canceled and re-booked.

Life is good.

Unpredictable, but good.

Surprise Wedding!

We got news yesterday that Kim's brother has decided to take his fiancée to Las Vegas on Sunday to get married! Yay! So, we quickly made arrangements yesterday afternoon to get the family to Vegas for an impromptu but long overdue ceremony. Of course, I'm expecting the city will be a zoo (more than usual), since Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday! And, of course, we get to drive through Phoenix on the way - which is the host city for the Super Bowl! So yeah, I would have opted for a different day, but hey, that's my brother-in-law!

Now if we can just find Criss Angel in Vegas...

Cloverfield

At my son's encouragement, I survived the nausea generated by watching Cloverfield - and, man, am I glad I did! This was quite an experience. I have to say it's one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen. Not that I'm scared of giant monsters invading Manhattan (although, as you probably know by now, I do have quite the fondness for Manhattan), but the filming technique put you in the middle of the unknown and the action.

If you haven't heard much about this, the entire movie is filmed from a handheld camcorder. There are no breakaways to other scenes, no background music (which is eerie on its own), and lots and lots of movement. If your 10-minute home videos make you queasy, beware. But, if you can make it through, it's a movie you won't soon forget.

I won't spoil any of it for you. All I can say is that if you like movies, especially scary movies, you need to see this film. Watch the trailer, go see the movie, and then help figure out what these mean...

Still here...

Wow...January 9th was my last post?

Hmmm...

That's a little sad, isn't it?

And I don't have much to say right now, except...

well, see the next post.

Back in the (Greek) saddle

Last night we began quarter #2 of Greek. Thankfully, Dr. Miller let us out very early so I could sleep and pray that the Z-Pak would start working on my sinus infection (which it did...). But this will be a critical quarter because we are starting to learn verbs. So in a few weeks, we might actually be able to read an entire sentence! (It's the little things in life, I know.)

And tomorrow night we head to the mountains for a few days of rest. The trip to New York - while fantastic - was slightly exhausting. So this trip will be the rest after the vacation. And, I need to spend some serious time thinking about this upcoming year...more on that later.

Our "Best-of-New-York" List

On our way home, we compiled a "best-of-New-York" list. So here goes:

• Best Bagel: The Everything from H & H Bagel - No tables, long lines, but oh so good...

• Best Meal: Sixteen Spice Chicken at Mesa Grill - Bobby Flay knows how to use spices!

• Best Appetizer: Involtini Di Melanzane (stuffed eggplant with ricotta cheese and mozzarella in light tomato sauce) at Da Nico - two or three of these would have made a perfect dinner!

• Best Pizza: Pepperoni and Sausage at Famous Original Rays Pizza, on 7th Ave near 49th St. - there are a lot of "Ray's" pizza places, this one was really good...

• Best Hot Chocolate: Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity - it's not hot, but it's the best! Plan on one cup for two people...

• Best Brownie: Kim’s - the Fatwitch brownies in Chelsea Market were very good, but still not as good as my wife's...

• Best Chai: Starbucks - what can I say?

• Best Chocolate Truffle: Godiva - duh

• Best Shopping: South Street Seaport - the line just to get in to the 5th Ave Abercrombie & Fitch went around the corner. At South Street Seaport, we walked right in. Plan on spending several hours and mucho cash...

• Best Store: The Apple Store on 5th Ave - Even though I'm a PC guy, this was the coolest store. Just look at the picture...

• Best View of Manhattan: Top of the Rock - no question

• Best Movie Star (that we saw): Laurence Fishburne - of course, we didn't see any others, but seeing him was pretty cool

• Best TV Star (that we saw): Matt Lauer - does he look like me?

• Best Christmas Display: The Angels and Tree at Rockefeller Center

• Best Church: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine - even though part of it is closed from a fire in 2001, it was magnificient in its size and beauty

• Best Transportation: Walking and Subway (tie) - Buy a MetroCard at one of the subway stops for the number of days you're going to be there and then combine walking and subway - there is no better way because taxis just get stuck in traffic anyway...

...and finally...

• Best NBA Team: Not the Knicks - Madison Square Garden was cool, but...

Back Home

Ah...I slept on my pillow in my bed last night. That was nice. We're sad that the trip is over, but glad to be home. Some of our luggage decided to take a later flight home, but other than that, the trip was uneventful. We were so lucky with weather both in New York and on our travel days! It was such a great trip...

Now, if only we could figure out how to live there for a little while...

Final shots of Times Square from inside the Minskoff Theater where we saw Lion King:

Looking north, 7th Ave goes off to the right, Broadway to the left - the area behind the blue fence was where the bands performed on New Year's Eve

Looking south

Looking south again - the flagpole at the top of the Toshiba sign is where the ball dropped - it's actually a very small distance compared to how it looks on TV

Headed Home

It's 3:30am on Thursday, and I have just a few minutes before we head down to the lobby to catch our shuttle to the airport. Yesterday was our last full day in Manhattan. Bummer.

We bought a few more New York souvenirs, went and saw Lion King (magnificient!), and watched the Knicks lose to the Sacramento Kings. Not the best game to see, but at least we can say we have been to "The Garden."

I'll post a final entry after we get home and sleep some more...

Day 6

We started our day a little late after last night's festivities, but the bagels from H & H Bagel were delicious! We stopped there on our way to the American Museum of Natural History. From there, we headed to Rockefeller Center and spent some time at the Top of the Rock. It is a magnificient view all around Manhattan from their observations decks.

But now, I'm really tired and my feet hurt. It's an early bed night, and only one more day here...

Carolyn enjoying her chocolate milk from H & H Bagel in front of AMNH

The kids in one of the dinosaur rooms by T-Rex

Looking toward Southern Manhattan from the Top of the Rock

That was so cool!

So our plan did not work, but we could not have planned what happened any better!

We got to Applebee's at about 7:15 with the intent of staying there until close to midnight. Well, after talking with our waiter and watching other groups, it became clear that we would not be able to stay that long. So what to do, what to do? And people were piling in to the restaurant from outside who had to go to the bathroom. So, we had a long, leisurely dinner looking out the windows and watching the TV, but from where we were, we could not see the ball. Bummer. We decided to leave about 9:30 and take our chances on the streets. We actually got outside at about 10:00, after all of us made bathroom stops.

So here's the deal with the ball. You can see the ball if you are on 7th Avenue, north of Times Square, for many blocks. The cross street is 42nd or 43rd. So, our Applebee's was on 50th, between 7th Ave and Broadway. For us to see the ball, we would have to get onto 7th Ave. Hmmm. That did not look possible, because 50th was barricaded just before 7th Ave. Standing at the barricades, we could not see down 7th Ave to see the ball. What to do, what to do?

Well, we met the nicest family from Ottawa outside the Applebee's who were trying to do the same thing we were. We talked and talked, and nobody was making us move, so we decided to just stay there until close to midnight and see what might happen. About 11:30, Cindy (the mom from Ottawa) worked her way to the front of the barricade on 50th and started talking with the NYPD officers. We moved that way after a little while, and through the kindness of the officers' hearts and some flirting by Cindy and Carolyn, they let us past the barricade onto 7th Ave at about 11:50pm where we could see everything perfectly! It was amazing! After all of that, we were only 7 blocks north of the ball. And, remember, these blocks are very short. It was so cool! Here are some shots:

From left: Cindy, one of the Ottawa daughters, unknown girl, unknown girl, one of the nice officers, Carolyn, Meg (the other Ottawa daughter), and Robert as we got onto 7th Ave.

We're so happy!

Looking towards Times Square - the ball is the bright speck above the traffic sign on the left (it was closer than it looks in the picture)

Looking back towards the Applebee's and the barricade that they let us past

Almost time!

Fireworks and confetti over Times Square at midnight!

Happy New Year!