All-nighter recap.

I have successfully transitioned from normal people hours to strange night shift hours. I’m not sure if I should consider it a success, considering there’s no specific reason why I switched my sleeping schedule around. I slept all day Sunday, then decided to really start my day by going to church at 7pm.

Flat Matt brought it and spoke on unfulfillment, the seemingly unattainable goals and expectations we have out of life. He explained the three ways to respond to “life’s disappointments”: blaming other people, things, or events, blaming self, and giving up. We dug into Romans 5:12-17, tracing death, sin, and the cause of this “need for perfection, wholeness” back to Adam and the fall. Although we each have individualized sins, our major sin was inherited and imparted to us in the womb. But, we have been gifted righteousness and grace through Jesus Christ. The resolution to the sermon didn’t make sense in my head, but I have a feeling that’s a summation of my spiritual conflicts as of late.

I spent my “afternoon” eating Panda Express and watching Ugly Betty. I picked up disc one yesterday and had to rent disc two tonight. I had never watched the show before, but having Blockbuster Online, I tend to rent random things such as this. This show has a lot of heart. It’s refreshing to have the heroine be a physically unattractive girl with awkward traits, but with such honesty and integrity. It’s goofy, but worth watching.

I spent the rest of the night attempting to write, redesigning the blog, and notably, checking out the Q&A session from Mars Hill’s first part to their newest series, Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions.

I listened to half of the sermon the other day which was interesting, but if you want the on-the-fly, honest, graphic questions and answers, watch as Pastor Mark Driscoll answers questions texted to him after their last service. This is a church that is unashamed to talk about the “dirty things,” which “dirty” or not, should not be ignored. It’s not for kiddos or the faint of heart, so if you’re neither, check out the Q&A session here.

AT&T is coming to setup their U-Verse stuff between 8am and 10am today (which is in twenty minutes!) I am quite stoked to get rid of Time Warner, especially after the one month I had no service. Maybe I should take a nap before they get here.

What makes a church?

I used to have these wild ideas about what the word “church” entails, but am starting to find out a lot of my ideas were unbiblical. One pastor who has modeled a church that I would love to visit one day is Mark Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. (Yes, this is the “Mark the Cussing Pastor” Don Miller writes about.) I listen to his sermon podcasts every week as he unapologetically describes who Jesus is - both the loving, grace-dishin’ Jesus as well as the less popular King Jesus, tattooed, sword-tongued, and ready to tell each one of us, “Well done, good and faithful servant” or “I never knew you.” Oddly enough, Mark has proved you don’t need to sugar coat Jesus for a church to grow. Maybe just a little humor and an occasional cuss word, but Jesus is enough.

I started reading Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church, Mark’s book about Mars Hill. It’s definitely aimed at church planters and pastors, but thought I’d read it anyway. Since I’ve listened to his sermons as well as his 2-hr lecture on church planting from a Resurgence meeting, I’ve heard a lot of what he’s written already. I did want to share this since I have been guilty of this view before:

Over the years, I have become increasingly troubled by the frequency with which young pastors simply dismiss the New Testament teaching on church leadership and discipline, so that if four guys are drinking beer in a pub, they can call it a church. One well-known expert promoting this new undefined, undisciplined, and unbiblical ecclesiology was once asked how we can possibly define what a church is if his advice of not having elders, deacons, members, discipline, or doctrine was heeded. His reponse was simply, “If it smells like a church, it is a church.” My response was that sometimes a whore wears the same perfume as a wife, and it’s no different with the bride of Christ.

So, if you want to hit up some no frills teaching, suscribe to the Mars Hill podcast or vodcast (video sermons). Not for the faint of heart, but shoo, Jesus isn’t really either.

On meat.

“That’s why God made cows out of steak, so we would eat them.” - Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church pastor

“If God didn’t want us to eat meat, he wouldn’t have made them taste so good.” - Dirk Fowler, Communication Design professor at Texas Tech University

Sorry, I think I’m just hungry.