Heroes Wednesday: Powerless

On the two entertainment websites I frequent, I've read about several people who have said they're done. That this finale is what has finally pushed them to a point where they can't watch Heroes anymore.

I'm not there myself, but even I couldn't stop myself from asking questions that didn't seem to have good answers (why hasn't Peter just read Adam's mind to find out the truth?). And the final section of the show where Nathan gets assassinated holds almost no resonance or fear of Nathan's death. Why is that? Well, the creators have totally undermined any death that happens on the show with Claire's blood. In the last two shows, we've had two people get shot, only to come back to life fairly quickly. So why should I believe that Nathan will be any different?

It's almost like the creators came up with all of these cool ideas for powers without thinking through the ramifications of each one. Or maybe that they can't put themselves properly into the heads of the characters themselves. Peter has all these amazing powers, but he appears as dumb as a post. Does he lose brain cells each time he goes shirtless? Mohinder IS a genius, but he's also as dumb as a box of pet rocks. So much of the plot of the show has depended on the characters acting in fairly stupid ways and so that takes the audience out of the plot and thinking, "Well, that's dumb. Why not fly after the assassin, or stop time to get him (or her)?" And it's not just that. It's some of the dumb writing. Sylar's "I'm ba-a-ack" was just lame. We know you're back. We just saw you telekinetically grab a can of spinach. Stop with the mustache twirling.

Now, I didn't completely hate the show. I thought that Hiro's plot line was very well done. I like Hiro being kind of gray and his solution for taking care of Adam was very clever. I thought that the scene in Mohinder's apartment with Sylar was well played and one of the better ones in the episode. Those two actors play well off each other.

I'm not done with the show yet. I'm giving it the rest of the season (whenever that happens, due to the writers' strike). But I'm not going to do what I did with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which should have ended after Season 3). I'm not going to watch just to see what happens to the characters. If after this season, I don't think it's worth my time, I'll just stop watching. And I think there are quite a few people who are already on that train.

My score: C-

Baby Picture Pictures

Over the last week or so, Sheryl and I worked on getting up on the wall the 12 month panels for Kinsey and Connor as well as their newborn pictures. Here's what we came up with...


It was kind of weird looking at the pictures, because I'm kind of flabbergasted at how different Kinsey and Connor look in general. I know I see them everyday and all, but there are brothers and sisters that you look at and know they're related. I'm not sure people could look at them and know that they're brother and sister.

Otter Creek Church of Christ History

Right now, Otter Creek is in the middle of series on time right now and as a part of a creative planning team, we've been trying to come up with some alternative ways of presentation. We've had a drama. We've had some readings. Yesterday we had the song "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent. Yesterday, our topic was based in Ecclesiastes 3 and so, Brandon asked me to think about a video that could go along with the classic Byrd's tune, "Turn, Turn, Turn," basically taken from that passage. We scoured YouTube and tried to think about where it's been used in movies and just couldn't come with anything.

Now, two years ago, when Otter Creek was moving from our Granny White location to Franklin Road, we were encouraged to bring in pictures from the history of Otter Creek and we hung them on a wall. My thought was to do a video using those pictures so that's what I did. The video was shown as people were walking into church about 5 minutes before the actual service started, so I'm sure most people didn't see it. And I would think that most people who watched it had no idea what church the orange and brown one was (it was the way the building was configured before renovation in 1983) or even who some of the people were in the pictures. At any rate, it was fun for me to do and a nice way to pay tribute to the history of Otter Creek. Enjoy.

Worship Continued

Two weeks back, I answered a question from my brother Father Thomas McKenzie about worship. Thomas has answered back, so I'm going to respond.

I can't say that I disagree with much of what Thomas said. The one area of contention I might have is about worship transcending our reality. I don't think it's an either or issue. I believe that worship can both open our eyes to how God is working in our reality (and should do that), but can also remind us that this reality is not the only one.

My other point of contention would be here:

When I worship, my question should not be "did I have a good experience, did I enjoy it?" Rather, I should ask "was it faithful, was it true, was God blessed?" And, if it is then God has been worshiped and I have the opportunity to be satisfied with that.

I would think that these two don't HAVE to be mutually exclusive, although they can be. I don't think it's wrong to ask the question of experience or enjoy-ment, but if that is our only criteria for worship, that's wrong. But I also don't think that it's a question we shouldn't ever ask or be aware of.

On the whole, I greatly agree with Thomas' thoughts. Church of Christ worship services are much less "physical" in the sense that Thomas uses it. But in a lot of ways, I appreciate that aspect of simplicity. And I think a lot of my thoughts on worship come from being in a tradition that puts a lot of importance on the forms of worship, i.e. the five acts that I mentioned before, and making sure they are done properly, and I'm obviously influenced by being a part of that movement that's moving away from such "legalism" and adherence to form over function.

And not to make this a mutual admiration society, I have loved getting to know Thomas over the last few years, both with Church of the Redeemer meeting at Otter Creek's old building and through the Emergent Cohort. He's become a good friend and one that gives me a different perspective of Christianity and faith and orthodoxy that I greatly appreciate.

btw, just as a fun addendum, back when Church of the Redeemer was meeting in Otter Creek's old building, I helped out with some technical things to get them started and did two posts on what I thought about their services.

My thoughts on Church of the Redeemer Worship Service
What made me "uncomfortable" about the Church of the Redeemer Worship Service

Interesting for me anyway to look back at that. Especially with regard to this conversation.

YouTube Thursday: More Lighthouse

Am I aware that just 2 months ago I posted a very similar video? Yes. But tonight, I'm going to be at the Ryman with Sheryl and some friends and watching Nickel Creek in the final performance of the Farewell (for now) tour. Depending on when you read this, we might be there right now. And if I don't hear this song, there will be blood.



Can't. Wait.

Heroes Wednesday: Truth & Consequences

Image from HeroesWiki

I've learned to stop asking some questions.

For instance, what kind of babysitter would let someone in that he or she had never seen before and leave them with a sleeping child? Or why doesn't Peter just read Adam's mind and find out the truth about why he wants the virus? Or... Or...

Well, anyway, I've stopped asking those nagging questions of character and plot continuity.

All of the heroes are starting to get reconnected in the plot lines. Sylar fulfills one of his apparent requirements for being back on the show and knocks off Alejandro while almost completely corrupting Maya. He's still being a little over the top for my tastes, but there you have it. And beyond the whole worst-babysitter-in-the-world scenario, having him in Mohinder's apartment with Molly was pretty creepy.

I really liked how Hiro was using his power in this ep. He obviously learned from his time in Japan that messing with history could have dire consequences (although couldn't one argue that messing with history made it happen the way it was supposed to happen?) as well as from his father. Using the power to observe rather than affect is pretty cool, as well as the call back to last season where time stops everyone except Peter.

Hayden Pantierre is a great actress, but even she couldn't sell the awful lines about how losing her dad hurts more than falling from 20 stories. And how much time passed between the end of the last episode and this one? Wouldn't Claire or her mom have questioned how Bob got the body cremated so quickly? But again, there's those darn questions that I'm not asking anymore!

The deal with Micah and his cousin is interesting just for the fact of seeing a hero dress up in a "costume" to do good deeds, but seriously, Monica didn't KNOW that Superman wore glasses to have a secret identity. Firstly, the glasses are about the worst disguise ever, but there are people that don't know about Superman/Clark Kent?

Peter/Adam/Victoria was pretty interesting too, except for Peter's not looking into Adam's head. Obviously we're getting set up for something big there in Odessa.

Next week should be interesting and I hope we get to see Nathan and Parkman back in the mix again. Nathan's been in Ireland for too long and I want to see the ramifications of Matt going into Mama Petrelli's head.

This week's score: B- Too many characters had to act stupid to move the plot along and that's just dumb.

Kinsey and the Bad Saturday Night

Well, we had a great plan. Kinsey had been up kind of late on Friday, just due to stuff going on, so we thought that we'd get her into bed before 8 to get some good long sleep before church on Sunday.

Oh my.

7:30, she's in bed. Sheryl and I are cleaning up the kid detritus from the day and we hear her feet come padding out of bed. "I want to be with you guys." Well, it's kind of early for her, so we let her stay up for a few minutes, and then we take her back to our bed and she and I watch The Incredibles for a little bit before I take her back to her bed.

8:00, she's in bed. I'm turning on her Twila Paris CD and she starts getting weepy. "Why are you crying, sweetie?" "Twila's voice is so beautiful!" Um, oooh-kay. "Do you want me to turn it off?" "No." "Ok. Good night." "NO DADDY. DON'T LEAVE ME!" And so starts a whole thing about how she's scared even though the child has about 50 nightlights in the room (well, 3, but that's still a lot). She's afraid of bad dreams. And she gets herself so worked up that she thinks she's going to throw up. So into the bathroom we go. I hold her hair up. No puke. She uses the bathroom. Back to the room. "NO DADDY! Don't leave." "Kinsey, it's getting late. You have to get some sleep."

8:30. She's in bed, but not for long. She comes out again, crying for us and weeping, and oh my gosh, if she doesn't fall asleep, I might have to give her Nyquil or Benedryl or whiskey! I carry her back to her room and decide that what I can do is read her some more of her book, By the Shores of Silver Lake. And I read, and I read, and I read. Four more chapters. And each time I think she's asleep because her eyes are closed and she's breathing deeply, I stop, and she says, "No, Daddy, keep going please." Sigh. So finally, it's getting late and I need to get some stuff done down in the basement. So I decide that the best way for her to fall asleep is for her to stay with me and watch football while I'm working.

9:30, she's downstairs in a chair. She curls up and about 9:45, she's asleep. I leave her there until 11 while I'm working and I carry her gently up the stairs and lay her in bed. Relieved that my plan finally worked.

12:30, she's in my bed. Having completed all my stuff (work, watching SportsCenter, playing Xbox), I head upstairs. And Kinsey is sleeping with Sheryl in my bed. As I come in to get ready for bed, I notice this and she looks up at me and just gives me the most cherubic smile and I give up.

Which is how Kinsey ended up in my bed Saturday night and I ended up in hers. Thankfully, the last two nights have been back to normal and hopefully next time we'll lay the law down a little harder.

Yay Parenting!

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Also, you really need to read and see the post by Sam Davidson today called Mean What You Say about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty which might not be all we think it is. Very strong stuff.

Book Review: Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead

On our non-kids weekend last weekend, I was able to sit and read the book Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead. I've been a fan of Lawhead for about 16 or 17 years now, from his Song of Albion series.

Scarlet is the second book in a trilogy called the Raven King based on the Robin Hood legend. However, there are a couple of significant differences. 1) The historical setting has changed from the time of King Richard Coeur de Leon (The Lion-Hearted) to the time just after the Norman invasion of England, 1080-1100. This is not the first Robin Hood book that I've read that did this. Sherwood by Parke Godwin did this as well and pretty well too. 2) Lawhead also changes the setting from Nottingham to Wales. Lawhead is well known for his love of most things Celtic and so this fits well into his story.

Lawhead also employs one of his other literary trademarks, which is a limited first person perspective (not to go all English teacher on y'all). The first book, Hood, was told from Bran's perspective (Bran is Rhi Bran y Hud or the Raven King AKA Robin Hood), with occasionally jaunts into the Norman/French halls of power to see the political machinations behind the choices that kill his father and force him to live as a brigand woodsman. Scarlet does something similar, which serves to introduce the readers anew to Bran and his group, while also giving the perspective of how a member of his own group of woodsmen see him. I won't say much about the plot, but it's basically Bran and his groups involvement in their wood trade, but how that also intersects with the political and religious plots of the day, of which there were many.

I really really enjoyed it and if you're a fan of the Robin Hood legend, I'd recommend both this series, as well as Sherwood. What's interesting to me about all of this is that for close to 700 years Robin Hood has been such an archetype that he's constantly being re-visioned in books and movies and tv shows. I wonder if the struggle against unjust oppressors or the re-distribution of wealth or living in the woods off the land or any of those other pieces of the legend are what keeps it going for so many years.

Thanksgiving 2007

This year, I was privileged again to help organize the 45th annual Thanksgiving service at Otter Creek Church of Christ. In previous years, I spoke myself and this year I decided that 1) I was tired of hearing myself talk and 2) because of that other people probably were too.

So I asked some others to talk and tell what Thanksgiving means to them. John Rucker was first. He's 90 something years old and has been at Otter Creek for many, many years. He talked about the first Thanksgiving and how much he is thankful for in his long life. It was great to have his perspective on things.

Next was Tiffany Fox a great friend of ours. She talked about the people that she is thankful for. It's been a year with some struggles, but she did a great job talking about how the people around her have been not just the hands and feet of Jesus, but the arms that hug and the tears that cry with her. It was a powerful time.

Just as powerful was Trina Frierson. Trina runs Mending Hearts, which I've talked about before. And she didn't just testify, she didn't just witness. She preached. She talked about how the work of Doug Sanders has helped them so much, not just in their physical needs, but also spiritual, and to show the women that there are good men in the world, not just the ones that have abused or taken advantage of them. It was incredible.

Last was my own sweet Kinsey. And honestly, this went much better in rehearsal than it did in practice. But Kinsey put her own stamp on things and acted like a very typical six year old.

All in all, I thought it was a good morning and I hope that we can keep doing the testimony kind of thing for future Thanksgiving services. Thanks to all of you who were there yesterday.

Heroes Wednesday: Cautionary Tales

Image from HeroesWiki

Well, here's where the fun starts. All in all, a very good episode. Lots of fun with some "OMG! I can't believe they just did that!" moments, and then there were moments where I think the continuity fairy was taking a smoke break.

Easy stuff first:

Parkman: This is where it seems like Matt is becoming both like his father and the morally dark character in Five Years Gone. It's obvious that he stripped the name of the woman in the picture from Angela Petrelli, even though she begged him not to. I'll be interested in how this develops out.

Hiro: First it wasn't a surprise that Kenzei/Munroe was Kaito Nakamura's killer. I thought possible West because of the flying or even Nathan, but with his vengeance to be exacted against Hiro and no body being found on the ground that all made sense. I also like how we're starting to see a more mature Hiro who accepts his powers, as well as the necessary limitations. I think the line that Kaito said, that they have the powers of gods, but that doesn't mean they can play God is the defining line between his ideology and the Company's.

HRG/Claire and everyone else, including stupid, pretty Mohinder:
Man, was this whole storyline fun. But it's also where the continuity fairy took her smoke break. For instance, why didn't HRG and West not keep Elle wet when they were handing her off? She could have escaped at any point. I guess the looking-good-at-the-beach fairy won that street fight. And secondly, the painting of Mohinder showed the gun smoking and it wasn't in the fulfillment. Plus, when did Isaac paint these? After he met HRG? Before? Wouldn't he have mentioned them? Oh wait, I'm thinking too much about the show...

Anyway, I thought everything about HRG was really bad ass in this episode. I really thought he would have shot Mohinder if West hadn't been there and would have shot Bob if Mohinder hadn't shot him. I'll admit I was caught completely off guard by that. I didn't expect it to happen right then and I sure as heck didn't expect HRG to be resurrected. Now, we could say that on one hand, it cheapens HRG's death because he got brought back, but that is thinking too deeply about it. On one hand, it's just cool that he got the Holy Sh-- moment like Claire did last season. For another thing, it raises some interesting questions, like where is he? Who brought him back?

Here are the three theories I have:

1) At the Company; Bob resurrected him with Claire's blood.
2) Somewhere else (it looked awfully dirty and not company like) because Mohinder took him there and resurrected him as he and Bennett had always planned to do.


3) somewhere else because Munroe/Kenzei resurrected him as another ally against the Company. I think that one is the least likely.

Oh and just for good measure, a cool pic of HRG...


With all that said, I'm going to have to give this episode an A. It was very good, kept me on the edge of my seat and had a great great ending. Looking forward to next week as well...

How Old is He?

Connor is reaching that age for me where monthly increments no longer work. It's weird how we tell people kids' ages. For about the first 2 weeks, days are the norm. After that, for about 3 months, it becomes weeks; and then at 3 months, it becomes months. And then, at about 12 months, I personally break it into 3 months intervals (12, 15, 18), and after that, I'm all about the six month interval (18, 24), and then it's years.

Sheryl and I talked a little about this on our trip and she still likes doing monthly increments up to 24 because they still change so much developmentally in that time. My thought is that it's too freaking hard to remember where we are in the month in relation to the birthday and then how long ago he was born. Too much brain power.

So if you ask me today how old Connor is, I'll say "almost 18 months." After Friday, "18 months." And then I'll possibly go to the "He'll be 2 at the end of May."

For those of you with kids around this age, how do you tell people how old they are?

R and R

On Friday, I took a half day from work and Sheryl and I headed down to North Georgia. This was a no kids weekend. Her parents watched the kids for us. We took some movies, we took some books, and we took off.

And it was wonderful.

Obviously we love our kids, as almost every parent does. But there are times that we just have to get away and instead of being Kinsey and Connor's mommy and daddy, we have to get back to being Phil and Sheryl. It was so therapeutic. We slept in both days and Sheryl cooked a great breakfast. We spent all day Saturday reading or napping (or me in the van listening to the end of the Vandy-UT game). We watched Ocean's 13 and Evan Almighty and True Lies (great, not as good as the first one, but better than the second; good, not as many laughs as Bruce; very funny but slightly misogynistic as well, respectively). I read Stephen Lawhead's new book Scarlet (wonderful, and I'm sad I have to wait for 2009 for the next installment; I might write some more about this series later) and we ate at a little cafe called Shoebooties in Murphy, NC. It was basically a mini-retreat for us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. And while we're always happy to get back to our family and our house, it's this kind of thing that re-invigorates you for the wonderful work of parenting.

Worship

A couple of weeks ago, Thomas+ and I got into a little bit of a conversation about worship and I decided to bring it out overall. A point I made in the post was that I didn't think churches should be worship centers, but centers for discipleship. Thomas said that the most important thing his church does is gather for worship and I expressed that because of the time I spend in the tech booth, I don't get to worship very often.

Here's what I mean by worship. To me, worship is the ability to step away from ourselves and to focus completely on God and the wondrousness of His presence. In traditional Church of Christ theology, there are five acts of worship: teaching, giving, singing, praying, and communion. And if you only count those, I do get to experience those every Sunday, but I'm not able to focus exclusively on them. If you step away from that and get into a less "finger-based" approach (tiny joke there) that thinks in a wider view of worship and experiencing God in a more experiential way, I don't get to participate in that very often either.

Am I happy to be helping in the booth? Of course. It's a talent that I have and one I'm grateful to share with the body, and one that I know facilitates worship in others. But because I have to be so focused on making sure that there aren't mistakes in what we do which would distract others from worship.

That's what I mean by worship and why I'm not able to focus on it. So, Thomas, I'm interested in hearing your take, as well as anyone else's, of course. I'm going to be out of pocket after this morning and not able to respond until Monday, but I'll be very interested in reading the responses to this.

YouTube Thursday: WGA Writers' Strike

I really hope the writers' strike doesn't continue, but if it does, I know why...



Of course the case can be made that digital can include a lot of things, but it also includes internet downloads, which is obviously being monetized through advertising.

Now what would be really interesting is if it does continue. Is America so addicted to TV that people would willingly watch reality shows, such as:

• "Amne$ia" is a comedy game show in which contestants are challenged to answer questions from their own lives for money and prizes. Memories will be tested and blasts from the past will be revealed as contestants wrack their brains to answer some of the most challenging questions -- often with hilarious results. Dennis Miller is the host.
• "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" is a competition series that will finally prove the familiar schoolyard boast -- "My dad is better than your dad!" Dads will be at the forefront of the action competing with their families in a series of unique stunt-driven challenges.
• "Clash of the Choirs" takes celebrity artists back to their hometowns to assemble an amateur singing group made up of everyday people. Once the best have been selected and the choirs assembled, they will compete live.
• "Baby Borrowers" is a new alternative series that asks five young couples -- ages 16 to 19 -- to set up a home and begin fast-tracking on parenthood by becoming caring parents first to a baby, then a toddler, pre-teen and grandparents -- all over the course of one month.

And that's just on NBC.

Addendum: Not the Daily Show...

Heroes Wednesday: Four Months Ago

Image courtesy of HeroesWiki

Well, for what this episode did, I thought it did it well, if you don't think about timing too much. I understood why this ep didn't have HRG and the Bennetts in it. We know where they were. I was disappointed that Mohinder and Matt weren't in it. How did Matt survive the bullets Sylar put in him? Why did Mohinder and Matt decide to play "My Two Dads" with Molly? But I also understand that there's a lot of plot to get into this one, including the twinzzzzzzzzzz.....

Anyway, I thought the explanation for why Peter couldn't fly when he was exploding was a good one, as well as that he regenerated quickly enough to get Nathan to the hospital. I actually enjoyed Kristen Bell as Elle this week as well. I thought she really played that sociopathic flirt (two words I don't think I've ever written together like that before) very well, with just a hint of pathos as well. Unless of course that was meant to manipulate Peter as well.

The plot with Monroe is very interesting too because we know about his past, but I wonder how much he told Peter and how much of it was true. It will be very interesting to see them work together over the next... 3 episodes I guess.

I thought the Niki/Jessica stuff was really well done, except for DL's death. I don't know if Kring is trying to show that even heroes can't escape random violence or what, but that just seemed really anticlimactic. I think Ali Larter is really showing herself to be a great actress in how easily she slipped from Niki to Gina and really embodied that personality. They also did a great job in portraying how someone would react to psychotropic drugs and going off them.

Maya and Alejandro? If I cared about them, this story line might have been interesting. But it's not.

So questions... we didn't really get an explanation about the irradiated version of himself that Nathan keeps seeing in the mirror. Is it a Niki like personality? Is it supposed to be a metaphor for the guilt he feels about Peter? If it's the latter, I really think the show has done a bad job of communicating that. Also, we didn't hear officially why Nathan resigned from Congress, as well as the Matt/Mohinder stuff from above. We also didn't find out how Sylar escaped from Kirby Plaza which really disappointed me.

My grade: B Not as good as last week's episode, but not bad like the earlier ones. The show appears to be getting its feet back underneath it, just in time for the writers' strike to kill it.

Connor Feeding Himself

Well, it's more like getting the food in the general vicinity of his mouth.






And what would a momentous time like this be without video...



------------------
In other news, Kinsey has her first loose tooth. It wiggles around quite a bit and she's very impressed with it. I'll be VERY interested in her reaction when it comes out. I remember losing one of my first teeth in first grade. I bit into an apple and after I had swallowed, I realized the tooth was gone and I freaked out because I thought I had swallowed it. I was very upset at the possibility of losing the quarter I was sure to get that night as well as the possibility of the tooth growing in my stomach. Thankfully it was stuck in the apple and I got the quarter last night as well as no gastrointestinal enamel issues.

Anteater's Ball

Friday and Saturday I worked a show at church called the Anteater's Ball. It's a show put on by a club at Lipscomb University to raise funds for foreign charities in this case, a school in Haiti.

Whenever I go into things like this, I'm a little resentful to be honest. Yes, I'm helping out with my services and there's usually compensation for it, but it means that I'm away from my family and Sheryl's at home by herself with the kids. And I went into it with that attitude some this weekend.

Thankfully, I had a lot of fun doing the show. The rehearsal was fairly loose and people didn't get too uptight about things. I was able to joke with the kids about a variety of things and even the show went really well and was done in an hour and a half. I'll say that there were some fairly marginally talented people that performed and some exceptionally talented people as well. In fact, because of one of the performances, I downloaded (legally from iTunes) the song All These Things I Have Done by The Killers.



I might have to check out some of the other things that they've done. At any rate, a pretty good weekend overall. Look for some fun pictures and a video of Connor tomorrow.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church: Final Thoughts

Over the last two weeks, I've discussed Dan Kimball's book They Like Jesus But Not the Church. This week, I just want to end with a couple of things. First one is a question. Kimball lists 6 perceptions/misperceptions that nonChristians have about church.

1. The church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
2. The church is judgmental and negative.
3. The church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
4. The church is homophobic.
5. The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
6. The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.

Which of these do you think is off base? None of them? All of them? Should the church change to correct these perceptions or are they misconceptions that only should be corrected by properly educating people about what it means to be a Christian?

One last thing. In the comments of last week's post, one poster noted that she gets "a little weary of the criticism by the 20's and 30's." I can understand that, especially as negative/cynical younger people can be about the church. However, what I would point out is some simple historical points:

• Martin Luther was 34 when he was supposed to have nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Door.
  
• John Calvin was 26 when he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion.
  
• Barton W. Stone was 32 when he helped author The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.
  
• Jesus himself brought his message from the ages of 30 to 33.

Perhaps we might do well to listen to what 20 and 30 somethings say. Whether we agree or not.

Next week, I take up Father Thomas' idea and I'll talk about worship, and why, specifically for me, it's been hard to worship for the last couple of years.

Caption This Picture!

Be funny!

Heroes Wednesday: Out of Time

Image from HeroesWiki

If you gave up on Heroes after last week, I couldn't really blame you. It was bad. But I'm afraid you gave up a week too early, because this one felt a lot like last seasons' best episodes. Was it as good as Five Years Gone or Company Man? No, not by a long shot, but it was easily the best of this lackluster season.

The good news? No twinzzzzzzzzz. Oh please let them die off screen and us just hear about it in passing. No Monica this week either and while I like her, I didn't mind it because we got some really good action and character work this week.

Parkman: Great job by Greg Grundberg in this role, working through all the daddy issues as he went up against Maury.

Nathan: I liked how Nathan really took some charge of the situation at the Company and put the screws to Bob to find out some information.

Claire and Noah Bennett: A little more movement on this plot line. I liked West finding out about HRG, but (and maybe it's because I'm not a high school girl) I found the scenes between West and Claire to be so schmoopy and tiresome, especially listening to music together. Is that what I have to look forward to in the future? Oh please no. I liked seeing all the painting and getting some payoff with them in that very episode. We're also set up for Mohinder with gun and the nose bandage which would seem to lead to HRG's death.

Mohinder: Dr. Suresh once again takes his stupidity pills that morning. Geez, at least he looks good, because he ain't smart at all. Telling Bob that he's actually working with HRG to bring the Company down? Seriously? I was so wishing at that point that when he told Bob he was doing that, Bob had shrugged and said, "Yes, we know."

Niki: Nice to see her back in action and also nice to see that she was very affected by DL's death, however that happens, which I guess we'll find out next week. Also, now that she has the (mutated) virus, things have become quite a bit more dire for her.

Hiro: I'm glad this storyline is over, but I'm also glad it got some residual poignancy by Kenzei becoming a villain because of Hiro. That will obviously have some play out at the end of this whole thing.

Peter: I was so glad they didn't spend the whole episode in deserted 2008 New York. I thought it was a nice touch how we went there occasionally. Christine Rose again did a great job as Angela Petrelli, now a little softer and those who were interested got shirtless, wet Peter. I'll be interested in how they resolve the Caitlyn being left in the future aspect of this. As well as now finding out what happened to Kenzei/Adam Munroe in the intervening 300 years, as well as why he was working with Peter, but yet was one of the original founders of the Company.

The bad: I can't find it right now, but I read an interview with Tim Kring explaining why the plot lines were so expanded this week, and the upshot of it made me worried for the season. He basically said that he thought people didn't mind it because even though they might not see their favorite character or storyline each week, they'd still come back the week after to see what had happened to them. And I'm sorry Tim, but that's just dumb. People don't want to come back after a "cliffhanger" or at least a significant unresolved plot point and not have it resolved the next week. Like I stated last year, that's why Heroes in Season 1 was different than Lost. It resolved plot points pretty quickly and then moved on. That's honestly one of the reasons Hiro in Japan seemed so listless. It didn't seem to have any relationship to the rest of the story. It seemed like just an excursion for Hiro in Japan for him to have fun with his childhood hero. Not bad in and of itself, but if we're interested in the overall plot, that stuff just takes away from it. Now, it better that we know that Kenzei does affect the overall plot, but still, I think that's one of the reasons Heroes had the lowest ratings of the season on Monday night. People had/have given up on it. Monday felt like a step in the right direction, but if this is philosophy of the season, especially with the twinzzzzzzzzz storyline sucking the life out of the show, I fear for the rest of the season.

Overall, I'm going with a B+ on this one. Very solid ep, and very much in the feel of season 1.

This is not the article I was talking about above, but an interesting one, nonetheless: 'Heroes' Creator Apologizes to Fans: Tim Kring admits mistakes were made at the beginning of season 2, but promises to get back on track

All Pictures Post

Halloween and other various and sundry pics.

Connor after a successful candy collection.

I love Halloween like Connor loves suckers.

With my mom and dad.

At Sheryl's mom and dad's

This might have to become a desktop picture.

This might become blackmail later.

Where else would he gets the good looks?

Kinsey chilling out after school.

Kinsey and a friend from school having a playdate on Saturday.

A candid from last night.

Check out those cheeks.

One of those two needs a haircut.

A candid that Kinsey took of Connor.

A candid Kinsey took of herself.

This one is definitely blackmail for a later date.

Graduation: A Teaching Story

I haven't done a teaching post in a while and I got thinking about it some last night.

My second year of teaching was the first year I taught seniors. Considering that in my first year I had taught 7th, 8th, and 9th grades so this was a considerable change. I was way off my game that whole year due to a lot of things... we were moving into a new section of the building, I got engaged to Sheryl, just a lot of stuff happening. I liked the kids that I taught but never felt a "real" connection with them, plus it was only one class.

The next year, my third, I had 4 classes of seniors. This is the group I talked about a couple of years ago. It was tough, but it was also some of the most rewarding times I had as teacher. And the best part of it was graduation. Having taught over 100 of these students, I was asked to be on stage and to help read their names, and it was an incredible honor. These were kids that I had worked with and struggled with and laughed with. To call the names of students that I had helped tutor and even ones that had given me a hard time just brought such a sense of closure to the whole thing. It was a senior class where two kids failed my English class and didn't graduate (on one hand, a terrible shame; on the other, it showed later senior classes that we were serious about the grades and no one was passing just to pass [they failed because they never came in a made up their work]). It included a girl with a 1 year old daughter who I had made a promise to at the beginning of the year. If she worked hard, I would help her in any way I could to make sure she would graduate. And she did. And I made sure I read her name as she walked across the dias and I stopped reading names to give her a hug because I was so incredibly proud of her.

As much hard work as graduation was to put together (renting the place, setting up, getting the right flowers, etc), seeing the whole group of seniors together was just a very rewarding experience. And it was like I told the seniors in the class of 2000 (my last year of teaching, even though I wasn't sure of it at the time), "Look around. This is the last time all of you will be together like this. Even at class reunions, not everyone will be there. So give hugs and remember yourselves as this group."

And it's crazy, because I'm not in regular contact with just about anyone I graduated with from Hume-Fogg, but I remember most of the names (of course with only 83 people in the graduating class, it's easier to do that than with 2,000). I remember the people that I hung with and even though that's literally half a lifetime ago, I still have great memories of it and I hope the kids I taught have some of those same memories too.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church Part 2

Last week, I started talking about Dan Kimball's new book They Like Jesus But Not the Church. It's a very good read, but I talked about all that last week.

I wanted to touch on two areas this week. Firstly, a comment from last week. I don't typically respond to anonymous comments, but this one I think asks a question that many might have: "Since the church is the body of Christ, Eph. 1:23, how can one like Jesus but not the church?"

Here's how. When the church doesn't actually embody Jesus. It's one thing to recognize the spiritual reality that the church is the body of Christ. Unfortunately, the temporal reality can appear quite different. Yes, some congregations are acting in powerful ways to engage our culture and to care for those in need. But far too often, congregations can slip into country club mindset, where we go to be served and make sure that no one gets in that doesn't "belong," or at least no one that will rock the boat by how they appear, act, and/or think. And if I'm not a Christian why would I possibly want to be involved in that? And this is something that Kimball addresses in the book. Why would someone want to become a Christian when it appears to make you a worse person, not a better one?

Which leads me into the other point I brought up last week. I'm really afraid church leaders will use this book the wrong way. I'm afraid that church leaders who are recognizing that 20 somethings and 30 somethings are not in their church might look at this book and think that it's trying to give a checklist on how to get 20 and 30 somethings into the church building.

That's not what this book is about. This book is about recognizing the barriers that keep people from going to churches, but not solving them to get people into the building. Getting people into our church buildings shouldn't be the goal of a church. What a church should be about is creating disciples of Jesus. Churches shouldn't be worship centers. Can and should worship happen in a church building? Yes, but that's not the primary focus. The primary focus of a congregation should be forming disciples of Jesus Christ. If we're not about that, then we're an exclusive country club, rather than an inclusive family. The focus of a congregation should not be bringing people in; it should be about sending them out.

That's why I loved the Halloween posts that Brandon and Thomas did. That's what we should be about. If we focus on being Christ's disciples, the rest should fall into place. Maybe not always neatly and maybe not smoothly, but that shouldn't be our concern. We should work on being disciples.

YouTube Thursday: Nooma - Name

I know this is a little early (HT: Believing Thomas)

Nooma is a video ministry of Rob Bell. This is the newest one and it's only available today and tomorrow, Thursday November 1. Enjoy.

Heroes Wednesday: The Line

Image courtesy of HeroesWiki

Two words: Wow... Crappy. Seriously, I usually watch the episode with the commentary the next day on NBC.com and I just couldn't do it. Not with this one. It was that bad to me. Look, that thing that I talked about a couple of weeks ago "My fear is that the writers are running out of steam. They're running out of steam with the characters that we got to know and love last year, and so they're introducing new characters so they don't have to have the other characters in each week, thus exhausting their stories." I'm becoming more convinced that this is happening. The best part of last week was the Nathan Petrelli/Parkman storyline. Where was that this week? Nonexistent.

The best part of this week was the HRG in the Ukraine storyline. We saw the levels that he's willing to stoop to to get what he wants, even removing the memory of a dead daughter and then killing the Company man. We saw the paintings and that will be interesting. My biggest complaint was a continuity one. How could it be daylight in Russia and daylight in California at the same time (referencing the scene where Claire calls Bennett)?

Everything else felt badly written. Sylar seemed like he needed to be twirling a handlebar mustache while he talked about how evil he is. I mean, geez louise. Just terrible and a storyline that's going nowhere fast.

Claire and West? Boring. Unless West ends up evil. Then he's evil and boring.

Mohinder is back to taking his stupid pills again. Seriously, he trusts Bob? And thinks he can make calls from within the Company and not be detected? And now he's working with Jessiki?

Hiro and Kenzei is really stupid now. Kenzei betrays Hiro and Yaeko over love? Seriously? And what's Ando's purpose? To give James Kyson Lee screen time? Give him something real to do!

Peter and Caitlyn make it to Montreal and then to post-apocalyptic New York? Wait, haven't we seen that before? Like last season?

Look I still like the show. I'm still going to watch it, but I'm not on a blind bandwagon here. When it's bad, I'll call it bad. And last night, it was bad. Like Alan Sepinwall said and this article referred to as well.

My score: D+, just for the HRG stuff. Next week needs to not suck.

Costume Pictures

Check back later tonight for some pictures that I forgot to upload last night (I don't know what the embarrassed smiley is, but I'd do it here if I did).

Edit: And here they are...

Kinsey ready for the Halloween party

Kinsey and Connor (in the green) playing with friends at the party

Two cuties

I think she thinks she's cute

That's not laughing; that's crying...

An Almost Perfect Sports Weekend and a great NYTimes article

Vandy won!

Titans won!

Red Sox won!

UT won... Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.

Also, Mike Cope linked to this article from the NYTimes that is really good and interesting about the changing face of evangelicals in politics. A quote from it

For the conservative Christian leadership, what is most worrisome about the evangelical disappointment with President Bush is that it coincides with a widening philosophical rift. Ever since they broke with the mainline Protestant churches nearly 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelicals theology has been a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin. For evangelicals, the altar call was the only life raft — a chance to accept Jesus Christ, rebirth and salvation. Falwell, Dobson and their generation saw their political activism as essentially defensive, fighting to keep traditional moral codes in place so their children could have a chance at the raft.

But many younger evangelicals — and some old-timers — take a less fatalistic view. For them, the born-again experience of accepting Jesus is just the beginning. What follows is a long-term process of “spiritual formation” that involves applying his teachings in the here and now. They do not see society as a moribund vessel. They talk more about a biblical imperative to fix up the ship by contributing to the betterment of their communities and the world. They support traditional charities but also public policies that address health care, race, poverty and the environment.

It's long, but it's a very, very good read.

And here's an interesting article that includes a response to it from GetReligion.org.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church Part 1

I just recently finished reading a book by Dan Kimball called They Like Jesus But Not the Church.


When I picked it up at the Zoe Conference, my friend Adam told me that I wouldn't be able to put it down. I kind of internally scoffed at that, but in getting into it, I found that he was exactly right. While the book is written towards church leaders (of which I am not), I think it would be extremely valuable for all members of the Church to read. What Kimball did was become friends with people outside the church and in that, being a pastor, began to talk with them about the church and their perceptions and about Jesus and their perceptions of him. What he found was what became the title of the book, that people really like Jesus but not the Church.

Now at this point it's easy to say, "Well, sure. They like this pop culture view of lovey hippie Jesus who loves everyone and never gets mad, and might have gotten killed for some religious reason. And of course they don't like the Church. Christians are presented in the media and by some unfortunates like Dobson and Robertson and the late Fallwell as overzealous Bible beaters who hate everyone. Of course non Christians are going to think this way." Which I think is one of Kimball's points. People are basing perceptions on outside influences. One of the best ways to counteract that is by Christians not being locked into their own private ghettos of safe behavior and rather engaging the world.

At any rate, Kimball divided the book into three parts: an intro, the main meat, and a "what to do now."

In the main meat, Kimball divides the comments that people made about the church into 6 groups.

1. The church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
2. The church is judgmental and negative.
3. The church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
4. The church is homophobic.
5. The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
6. The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.

I kind of agree with these things, although as a Christian I might substitute the phrase "can be" for "is." And when I realized that I agreed with a lot of these perceptions, that was a flash of realization... that there could be a lot of people who go to a church that really like Jesus, but not the Church, but continue to go out of tradition or whatever, but it's a dead experience. There's a lot of experience of church but not of Jesus. And that's a problem.

Next week, why church leaders will have a tendency to misuse this book.

YouTube Thursday: Taylor Mali

My buddy Gavin linked to this video the other day by a Slam Poet known as Taylor Mali...



And I think that one is brilliant. Just freaking brilliant. But this next one almost makes me want to go back into teaching...



Almost. You can find Taylor Mali at www.taylormali.com

Heroes Wednesday: Fight or Flight

image from HeroesWiki.com

And this one was better than last week which was better than the week before...

OK, now this is getting more like it. I thought the plots are getting tighter and now we're getting more of the Heroes interacting with each other. That's the kind of thing I want to see.

I liked Monica again this year and how much she's enjoying her power, although... didn't we see a lot of this same thing with Hiro last year? I also liked how Mohinder showed up at the end, which made me wonder how the Company finds out about people's powers being activated. Is it like (nerd alert) the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter or (super nerd alert) the Psi Corps in Babylon 5? Is there some alert that goes off somewhere? And will Micah remember Mohinder from Kirby Square?

Mohinder is showing that his temporary brain power is leaving him quickly by taking Molly to the Company. Sheesh Mohinder. The "best" thing he did in this episode was tazing Jessiki, which btw I thought we resolved this plot last season. I thought the last episode was about Niki integrating Jessica into her personality? Did that not take?

Mohinder of course calls Bennett and the Haitian who are in front of a green screen that supposedly looks like Odessa, Ukraine. Bennett tells him it's a bad idea to take Molly and then disappears for the rest of the episode, like his daughter. Which means no West this week! Yay!

Parkman also thinks that taking Molly to the company is a bad idea, but he leaves for Philly with Nathan to find the Nightmare Man, also known as Daddy Parkman. Nathan gets a great line in about not being a cargo plane, which also might have been a shot at Parkman's weight, but I could just be projecting there.... Anyway, they go to see Daddy Parkman who seems to be a decent scared guy until we remember that he put Molly in a coma and then locks Matt and Nathan inside their nightmares. Which also ends up being one of the most creative fight scenes that I've seen in a while, with Matt "seeing" his wife and her child while he's "in" prison. He starts fighting a guard who ends up being Nathan who is in his own nightmarish apocalyptic New York (alternate reality or still a possible future?) and ends up fighting his own nuclear mutated (?) self who is Parkman in reality. It was really creative, really well shot, and a good use of Daddy Parkman's power. Oh and Daddy Parkman seems to be targeting Bob.

Sylar and the twinzzzzzzzzz don't appear in this one, so the only unrelated plot is Peter in Ireland where he rediscovers his painting power (again, didn't we go through this a lot last year?) and we see where he got the electric power from, a little blond girl who the interwebs tell me played Veronica Mars in a show apparently no one watched on the WB or CW or UPN or something. She kills Caitlyn's brother and Peter and Caitlyn decide they need to go to Montreal where there is apparently a replica of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Oh, and Hiro is still helping Kenzei. btw, if you want some more insight into this plot, visit the website for the Yamagato Fellowship and watch the videos about the legend of Kenzei and try to figure out where Hiro will work into it.

At any rate, I enjoyed this episode much more that the previous ones, and it looks like next week will be pretty good as well, even with the twinzzzzzzz return. B+

Grades

Kinsey's first first grade report card came out yesterday and Sheryl and I are very happy with her. She's doing well and really enjoying it. She's really good in math, which I never was, and is doing really well in her reading.

It's interesting about how my attitude about grades has changed from when I was in school until now. When I was teaching, grades were often that deadline that I didn't look forward to doing. either because I wasn't completely ready or I knew that some kids were going to be very disappointed. My other feeling was that was WAY too much importance put on grades. Grades are supposed to be indicators of how much the students had learned in the class. Did it always properly reflect that? Well, in my classes, I hope that it did. But when we started putting such import on the grades and rather than the actual knowledge gained from a class... that's when cheating becomes rampant. When the focus is put on the number score on a piece of paper, rather than the actual knowledge gained, that's when we've gotten all screwed up. And that's the school's fault and the parent's fault and the college's fault. And it's a slippery slope that we all get caught up in, because we want the best for our kids and we put so much import on their future that we make them uber-competitive with each other. And that doesn't help them either.

So, for Kinsey, grades are important and we want her to make good grades, but we want her to learn and do her best at everything she tries. And we also want her to know that we will never judge her worth based on those grades. We're happy when she makes does well in school, but that's not where her worth comes from.

A Very Special YouTube Monday: Drinking Responsibly

You might not be a Daily Show fan. I've been one for a while, about 7 years or so. Recently, Comedy Central launched a website, www.thedailyshow.com wherein you can find many fun things, but most especially old videos from the show. This one is from 2001 and stars Stephen Colbert and current Office star Steve Carell in a way you can only imagine.



Just as a note, that is not Steve Carell acting drunk. That is actually footage of Steve Carell getting drunk. Oh, and it should also show that Steve Carell's chest in the 40 year old Virgin was not a prosthetic.

Oh yeah, and Dumbledore is/was gay.

Brian McLaren, Churches of Christ, and Evangelicals

In the conversation with the Otter Creek staff that I referred to last week, McLaren talked about evangelicalism. And to frame this properly, it's necessary to talk a little about an idea in his new book Everything Must Change. In it, McLaren talks about 5 different framing stories that most people exist in.

1) Imperialism - the idea that to truly effect change and the good of the world, it has to be controlled and/or subjugated, or we must align with those who are in control. In Jesus' day, this would have been the Saducees.
2) Revolution - Whoever is in control must be taken out of power. This would have been the Zealots.
3) Scapegoating - It is someone else' fault that things are as bad as they are. They must be purified or set right in order for things to get back to where they need to be. This would have been the Pharisees.
4) Isolationism - Everything's gone to Hell. And we must get away from it to protect ourselves. This would have been the Essenes.
5) The Kingdom of God. This is the message of Jesus.

Ok, so in the discussion, McLaren talked about how Churches of Christ actually have a benefit in how they have been separate from the rest of the Christian world. He contends that much of the evangelical world is not caught up in the framing story of the Kingdom of God. Rather, they have bought into the Imperialism story, especially as they have associated themselves with particular political stories. He called it a "membrane" between us and the rest of the Christian world. Now, he didn't say that it's a bad thing that people like Max Lucado have been publicly associated with Churches of Christ and popular in the wider Christian world, but it does make the membrane thinner. McLaren feels that some of the more progressive Churches of Christ can speak very prophetically to the wider Christian world about the message of Jesus, rather than buying into any of the other framing stories.

Now, notice that he's not calling for isolation from the "denominations," but engagement. Rather than pull up our tents, we go out into the wider Christian world and call not for a restoration of the forms of the first century church, but for a restoration of a community of people who are seeking to become disciples of Christ.

It was an intriguing part of the conversation and I'm curious to hear other people's reactions.

YouTube Thursday: When Political Debate Gets Fun

Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow visits The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and they stay civil.


Part One


Part 2

Heroes Wednesday: The Kindness of Strangers

I have a creeping fear. My fear is that the writers are running out of steam. They're running out of steam with the characters that we got to know and love last year, and so they're introducing new characters so they don't have to have the other characters in each week, thus exhausting their stories. This week, we didn't see Hiro or Peter or Niki at all. And with the introduction of Monica this week, as well as Maya and Alej-zzzzzzzzz earlier this year, it have this creeping fear that the writers are losing some steam on the stories...

But, right now, I'm still enjoying it. I really thought adding Sylar to the Maya-Alej-zzzzzz story made them instantly more interesting. Monica has a pretty cool power too, but isn't it another one like Peter or Sylar that could make her too powerful or can she only do what her body is capable of? For instance, can she do the wrestling move she saw but not powerlift 500 pounds? One thing I really loved about the Monica/Micah storyline was that long hug he gave her and the focus the camera put on his hand. It made me wonder if he was trying to "fix" her like he fixed the TV.

I also enjoyed how Matt and Nathan worked together. We found out more about Matt, particularly what happened with Janice, and about his father being in the 12, as well as being Molly's boogeyman. We lost Neanderthal Nathan when he lost the beard, but we also saw his reflection in the mirror. And after several rewinds and pauses on the TiVo, it is actually Nathan and not Peter in the reflection, so it answers that question.

The Molly storyline is still good, and I really like the little actress they have for her role I think she does a great job with her stuff.

The Claire West storyline is really doing nothing for me. I hate stereotyping, but maybe this appeals more to women than to men? However, it also feels like we're treading over some of the same ground as last season. Claire and Bennett not being completely honest with each other, leading to the most uncomfortable dinners ever... Liking Lyle's responses at the table.

This one's a B- It still feels like we're treading water, even though there is some movement in good directions with Sylar particularly, and we've got stuff to look forward to with Bennett and the Haitian and Matt knowing where his dad is now.

Addendum: Cute Pictures!

Just because they're too cute not to share...