Cole Billings is TFC's Guitar Hero!

Caleb Wood worked his way unscathed through the summer's double-elimination Guitar Hero Tournament. Caleb's prize was the opportunity to take on Cole Billings on our 1st Sunday at PRMS. It was a pretty tight match, but Cole came out on top.
The funniest part of it all was Cole's nonchallant attitude. When I gave Cole a high-five, I realized I was more excited for Cole than he was for himself. I think Cole had the basic attitude of, "of course I won, what did you expect?"

Go hard or go home!

That's pretty much my philosophy when I do things like what we did yesterday; skiing and tubing on the lake. Unless I wipe out in a massive way, I wasn't trying hard enough. Skiing is pretty easy, but just going back and forth gets boring quickly, so I try to add a little bit of excitement, but since I'm not much of a skier, the end results aren't too great.
On one trip, I caught some air over some waves and wasn't able to land both skies at the same time, so one went out behind me and I got pulled into a sommersault, hitting the water on my back. It was a nice shot to the kidneys. On another trip, I tried giving a little slack to the line for a moment, but that resulted in me getting yanked face-first into the water.
Zach and I also rode the tube together, taunting Dale to go faster in the attempt to throw us off. It eventually happened, several times.

I'm so sore this morning I can barely move.

If you want to see some more pictures, you can click here.

Finally Here!

Today marks the beginning of my favorite two months of the year! To celebrate the beginning of fall I got up early to mow the law, rake up dead grass to prepare for new growth to take its place and put down my fall fertilizer. I also listened to the below song for fourth September 1st in a row. I'm not exactly sure what it's about, but I love this song. My theory is that Billy Joe is taking his 7 year old son to Kindgarten, but I'd be willing to bet that isn't it.



To celebrate Labor Day, Erin and I are going to spend the day on the lake with some friends we met through the musical, the Sass family. For some strange reason, Zach Pogemiller will be joining us today as well...

I also watched a LOT of football over the weekend to celebrate the beginning of the greatest season of the year!

Honest

The last three Sundays, I've been incredibly honest with the congregation. I guess if you can't be eloquent or insightful, at least be honest, huh? It's not that easy to bare your soul before a group of people, especially not 3 Sundays in a row, but that's what God has been leading me to do.

On the 10th, I shared openly about Erin and my struggles with infertility. Although I cried while writing the message, I didn't feel much emotion while preaching it. I could sense the empathy pains others were feeling, though. You can listen to that message here.

Two weeks ago, God completely changed what I was going to say on Saturday morning. And to freak me out even more, God kept me from preparing a message and instructed me to spend time in prayer, instead. The next morning, I made a few quick notes before heading to worship. I was completely terrified during the music and wanted to hop in my car and drive home. I then shared very openly and honestly about the challenges (how they freak me out) we're facing as we move to a new school and the opportunities (how they pump me up) that we're facing as well. Just as the church is stepping out into the unknown, God lead me to do the same thing with my message. listen

This last Sunday, I had to be honest in an entirely different way. I was preaching on Matthew 6:19-34, explaining how Jesus' expectation that we're generous with our money is what sets us free from extreme worry and extreme consumerism. My good buddy, Joe Kumor had some nice words to say about that message - link. Since Joe is one of the most generous people I know, it's not surprising that message would get him all excited.

Preaching about money is never easy for me to do, I'm pretty much assured that someone in the congregation is getting angry with me as I speak. I didn't hold back on Sunday, though. A couple main points from that message:
1) Jesus doesn't give an "if you can afford it" clause. He expects EVERYONE to be generous. He was speaking to some of the poorest people in the world.
2) Generosity is what sets us free from worrying about whether we have enough to fit in (the image of the flowers) or whether we have enough to survive (the image of the birds).
3) If you think TFC is just after your money, give your money away somewhere else!
4) Life doesn't always turn out the way we think it should; birds die and flowers get cut down, but we still keep God first.
5) God wants your heart above all else, but since money represents security and independence, God's path to your heart goes directly through your wallet.
6) I also shared a very personal story about a recent event in which God asked (told) Erin and me to give away a significant amount of money, something that had never happened before in our lives. This was the most difficult thing for me to share out of the past three messages. It's one thing to share your struggles or concerns, it's another thing to share something good that God has done through your life. I took the risk of sounding like I was bragging to let people see our internal struggle. I hadn't planned on ever sharing that story, but as I was working on the passage, I sensed God guiding me into a place of honest vulnerability - again.

To hear the message, click here.

TFC has been responding to my honestly. After Sunday's message, we had a time of prayer. We gave several ways to respond. Answering reflection questions from the weekly, lighting a candle as a prayer, writing your concerns on some paper on the wall and being prayed for by our prayer teams. There was a powerful sense of the Holy Spirit moving among our congregation on Sunday. It was great!

Tony Campolo on the Colbert Report

One of the preacher/ authors most influencing my thinking currently is Tony Campolo. Back during my "Ditto-head" days, I wrote Campolo off as a bleeding heart liberal. But I then began doing something that most right-wing Christians appartently don't do - I started reading the Bible! Sarcasm aside, it's amazing what reading the Bible will do for your theology and your political views.

I would strongly encourage you to go to Campolo's website and subscribe to his podcasts. You can also enjoy this video from the Colbert Report.

Why we started TFC!

I didn't know Marty and Lindsay until Easter Sunday, but I knew they were couples like them out there, but if we were going to reach them, it would require a unique approach to church. This is EXACTLY why we started this church and why we do what we do EVERY single Sunday! I LOVE it!

I also love the relational chain that happens here. Travis gives his life to Jesus, invites several friends to TFC, one of those friends make a dramatic turn-around. Now Marty and Lindsay have been inviting a lot of friends to TFC, too. Haven't seen a dramatic turn-around among them yet, but it's coming.

Even though I did the interviewing for this video, tears still came to my eyes as David showed me the final version. We're going to be showing this on our 3rd birthday, but I couldn't wait that long to get it out there. Enjoy.

If for some reason, the embed code doesn't work, you can watch the video at this link.


Story 1 - Marty and Lindsay from David Brush on Vimeo.

World War I

I just finished the book, An Illustrated History of the First World War by John Keegan. It was a pretty depressing book. WWI was a futile and brutal war. Millions dead and nothing at all gained (if there really are gains from war).

The war didn't really need to happen. Most people know that the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian activist, Gavrilo Princip was the event that plunged Europe into war but the assassination didn't mean the war was inevitable. In fact, the assassination occurred on June 18th (1914) but Austria-Hungary didn't send their impossible demands back to Serbia (the demands were really just something they'd been trying to force Serbia to do anyway and they used the assassination as an excuse) until July 31st. Based upon some national law or policy, July 31st was the last day Austria-Hungary could respond to the assignation, so they waited until the last minute.

Then Russia, who was worried about Austria-Hungary and German military might decided they needed to posture themselves, so they mobilized troops on July 31st. Germany, who had become the bully on the European 'block' had to flex their muscles, so they declared war on Russia and France on August 1st.

It wasn't really the assissination but the arms race and political posturing that lead to the war. The assissination simply gave Germany and Russia the excuse to do what they'd been working toward for almost two decades; declare war on each other. Around the turn of the century, Germany began exponentially building up their military strength, which made France and Russia very nervous. Germany had possession of lands that Russia and France believed was rightfully theirs, taken during wars in the late 19th century. Compared to their size now, it's hard to believe how big the German empire was before the end of WWI. It's also amazing when you realize Germany had the military strength to fight Russia on the Eastern front and France/ Germany on the western (same was WWII). Germany was the world's military 'big boy' for almost half of the 20th century. On a funny side note, Germany tried enticing Mexico onto their side toward the end of the war, promising them they could have Texas, Arizona and New Mexico back after the Allies were defeated.

The war was started by a bunch of politicians wanting to save face, prove their military might and expand their nation's boundaries. Pathetic little men, is what I think. Here's what their stupidity brought about:

• 60 million soldiers fighting in the war with over 20 million civilian and military deaths.
• The "lost Generation." A term that refers to all the young men who died in the war. 1/3 of all able-bodied German young men died in the war. Millions of men plucked away from European civilization.
• The fall of empires that had stood for centuries and the birth of evil regimes such as Lenin's Communist Soviet Union and Hitler's Third Reich.
• The West's over-involvement in the Middle East, resulting in the hostilities (read terrorism) we still experience today.
• The development of more brutal and efficient forms of killing each other; tanks, machine guns, gas and bomber planes. Based upon all their previous wars, the European politicians actually believed it could be a short war, they had no idea what would happen over those 4 terrible years. The machine gun inflicted casualty numbers never before seen while they didn't yet have the technology or military tactics to counter that weapon. The Allies were able to turn the war to their favor in the summer of 1918 because they had put forth the effort to develop tanks during the war (and because President Wilson finally committed the US to the Allied side) while the Germans had depended upon their superior field tactics. It's amazing the technological advances that take place when we're trying to find more efficient ways to kill each other...
• The October Revolution. Russia fell apart during the war, gave up in 1917 and was plunged in to a 4 year civil war that took the lives of 10 million Russians. The result of the Civil War was the rise of communism.
• 100,000 US dead. 50,000 were killed in action and 50,000 were killed by the Spanish flu that swept Europe near the end of the war. The bombing of US ships by German U-boats, eventually persuaded President Wilson and US Congress to declare war. While the US didn't have the heavy machinery Britain and France had developed during the course of the war, they did have a million fresh troops.
  When Germany realized what the US's entry in the war would mean to the balance of man-power, they gave one last effort to push through Allied lines into Paris during the summer of 1918 to win the war before the US could mobilize its full force of soldiers. While Germany came close, they made a few tactical errors that slowed them down and since they no longer had any reinforcements to bring to the war (they'd used every single available man) and the US was now replenishing Allied armies, they eventually gave up. The US's doughboys and the leadership of John Pershing finally ended the 4 year war.
• The guarantee that WWII would happen. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, was used by the Allies to punish Germany. Germany tried to hold out as long as possible but the starvation of German people brought about by the Allies blockade of Germany forced them to sign. The Treaty forced Germany to surrender most of their land, disband their army and pay reparations to Allied nations. The terms of this treaty plunged Germany into economic depression and political chaos. It also brought about the rise of Adolf Hitler, The Nazi Party and the Third Reich. Hitler was a WWI vet who united Germany under an "us vs. the world" mentality, which wasn't entirely inaccurate. The Allies harsh treatment of beaten Germany guaranteed Germany would come back to fight the world again. In fact, one scholar believes there wasn't really two world wars, but one world war separated by two decades. That sounds logical to me.

Well, ya' got trouble, my friend

I've finally got the video of our "Trouble" filmed by _____ (it's a secret) up on youtube.
So if you'd like to see the classic song from The Music Man, click here.

I did mess up a bit on this song. Counting practices, it was the first time I'd messed up for weeks and it had to be during an actual performance. The rhythm was pretty difficult on the song and just as I jump down off the stage, I got a bit off. But the pit stopped and we got back together. Annie, our music director told me, "anyone can do it right, but it takes skill to fix a mistake mid-stream." While that felt good, she was probably just being nice.



While seeing if my video came up during a youtube search, I found this parody of "Trouble" from a church. This is good stuff, link.