Category: faith

Continue to pray

The latest from Sara:

I just wanted to let everyone know that Elliot Skaggs will be born this upcoming Monday, April 28th. I have a c-section scheduled for 7:30 that morning, so please be in prayer for us, for Elliot, for the Doctors, for everything surrounding that day.

I am confident that God’s grace is going to cover us on Monday, just as it has for the past three months. He has been so good, so faithful, and so abundantly compassionate towards us, and I know He won’t stop now as all that we’ve expected for 14 weeks comes to a head.

I still believe that God can perform a miracle, and that He alone can make Elliot perfectly healthy. That He can place normal sized, fully functioning lungs in Elliot where there were none on the sonogram just a week ago. That He can give him a functioning kidney, completely void of cysts, though the doctors have told us it’s impossible. I believe that He can. But even if He does not, I believe that He will take care of us, and that He will take care of Elliot – even if that’s by taking him to Heaven. The five year old son of one of my best friends reminded me that I shouldn’t be sad if God takes Elliot to Heaven, because “it’s so beautiful there, and Elliot will be much happier there anyway”. And Parker is right. There is suffering and pain and sin on this earth that my son will never have to know. He will be immediately swept into the loving arms of Christ, and though I will long to hold him in mine, I know that there’s no better place for him to be.

Asking the right questions

My buddy Thomas and his wife are heading on a spiritual retreat this weekend with some friends.
Keep them in your prayers.

Thomas is a big encouragement to me – we seem to be asking many of the same questions. We may word them differently or focus on different ones and different times but I think overall we’re asking the same things.

I talked about “Everything Must Change” and spoke of the dilemma / challenge I have with the “Prosperity” section — the one that describes/discusses “Theocapitalism”. We spoke of independent coffee shops, open source software and charity shops as means of subverting the consumerist agenda. Fab.

We then spoke of a joint dilemma we face… how we bring people from “consumption” to “participation” in the expressions of church that we create/facilitate/direct… and how “interaction” is an important stepping stone in the transition.

Keep it up mate. Keep it up!

Mother Earth

I read an interesting view on “mother nature” yesterday and why Christians often have a hard time with living green or caring for nature (aka natural conservation – which sounds like the very essence of a conservative).

First off, because most Christians believe the earth is going to be destroyed in the end – so why should we worry with protecting the environment?
Secondly because most Christians traditionally consider themselves “conservative” there is a tendency to be against anything and everything those “liberals” are for.
And third, the idea of a “mother earth” seems mystical or too spiritual or giving too much authority to the rest of creation. It also seems to reflect a Darwinist viewpoint that we all evolved from a single cell somewhere that was birthed my “mother earth.” And I think in addition, there’s a fear that “treehuggers” have taken it their love of God’s creation to the extreme. Some how the dolphins and Pygmy Three-toed Sloths have become more important than humans and well – we can’t have that.

So how about this? What if rather than using the term, “Mother Earth” which tends to give a higher authority to the rest of God’s creation – we used a new term, “Sister Earth?” After all, we do have the same Father/Creator.

Thoughts? Ideas? Have you faced some of the same struggles? Do you care?

Driving in reverse

For the past 4 months, our pastor, Brian (aka Brother Treadaway, Brother Brian, Pastor Treadaway, Rev. Pastor Brother Brian Treadaway :-)) has been challenging the men of encounter with the encounter 9. You’ve probably heard me mention it here or on twitter more than a couple times.

Each month we’re given GPS coordinates to an undisclosed location and a set time to meet there. The location varies from month to month. The first month we met at a boat dock and were carried out by john boats to an island in the middle of the lake. The next month we met next to a stock pond while Brian talked about growing spiritually and Scott grilled fish on a nearby fire — illustrating the progress from a baby drinking milk, to fixing our own meals and then fixing meals for others (physically and spiritually). Another month we did a “prayer/Q&A walk.” And this last month we met at a local cometary and talked about our legacy and identity and how Jesus called the disciples out of their known identity — their careers as fishermen or tax collectors, etc — and into a new identity with Christ — as fishers of men.
Continue reading Driving in reverse

Quote of the day

“You see dear Crock Pot, I don’t find you much anymore. We’re all trying to live a little healthier, eat less dishes that look like macaroni, cheese and beef got into a street fight. So now when I go to potlucks I can’t find you among the sea of vegetable plates and organically grown sea grass burgers.”

– Stuff Christians Like

To the guys who stole our trailer…

billboard

So what happens when a church’s trailer gets stolen – with ALL their stuff in it?

Do they join the neighborhood watch and start fighting crime more than ever? Or do they forgive and invite the thieves to dinner? What do you think your church would have done?

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