Many people have probably heard me say, “I use my vote to vote for something, not against something.” 

Staying true to that axiom, for the first time in three elections, I didn’t vote for Ralph Nader. I actually voted for a major party candidate for the presidency. 

Two things that will win my vote no matter what the rest of your platform is:

1. I feel like your telling me the truth. No BS. I vote for the most honest person in the room. The one who has nothing to lose and is a straight shooter. The one who doesn’t just play the game of fame politics, but is driven to achieve goals that are self-actualized in the character of the individual. 
2. Your definition of “Life” is from the womb to the tomb! Abortion is a hot issue, especially for Christians. But in my neighborhood, so is being a teen mom (in 2004, North Minneapolis had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation). Life is not just about bringing kids into the world, it’s about what are we going to do with them once they’re here. How will we care? How will we show it? What will we do to support young moms? I tend to think that poverty is the reason the abortion rate is so high, not just because women have the right to have them. A whole-life policy is what we need, not just regulation and restriction. 

Lately, I’ve just been way too busy to blog. I’ve got a lot going on.

Sunday, I leave for France where my wife and I will have vacation, and she’ll undergo life-changing back surgery. The kids are staying at home. For three weeks. Crazy. That takes some planning.

When we get home, our friends Corey and Betsy and their kids Jonathon and Lily will have moved in. To prepare, we have to clear out the playroom, to convert it back into a bedroom, and clear out my office to convert it into a bedroom. We’re purging our stuff, cleaning out the basement. Getting rid of our junk, and preparing to live in tighter corners with tighter community. This is a big step. One I’m both excited and apprehensive about. 

We’ve given the situation until the end of summer, then we’ll have an evaluation of how things are going…

Needless to say, all the stuff above, and the reality of handing my job over to 5-6 committed volunteers whom I’m very grateful for, has been a ton of planning and extremely time consuming…Not to mention that backyard landscaping project that i decided to start in the middle of the night a while back.

Anywho…I can’t wait to start blogging again, but It might not really come back until week 2 of France. I will probably have a lot of time on our hands while Sarah is cooped up in the hospital…

I asked my twitter / facebook communities to give me some book suggestions for reading while I’m in France in a few weeks. Here’s the 3 that are going to make it into my carry-on bag:

Common Wealth by Jeffrey Sachs
I read the End of Poverty by Sachs last year. I expect equally great things. 

 

 

Un.Orthodox by Tommy Kyllonen (Urban D.)
Urban D. has been guest artist at Sanctuary a few times for Hip Hop Sunday. He’s equally impressive as a preacher, and I’m guessing equally impressive as a writer. (I’ve already started this one, not sure if it will make it to the plane.) 

John Adams by David McCullough
 I read McCullough’s 1776, last fall. A Brilliant read. What a great storyteller. I want to read it before I see the HBO Documentary.

 

I’m excited to be sitting on my own domain now. 

The site is still a work in progress. I’m not at all sure about the design, but it will do for now…

Gallery

Sarah will be getting one of these on June 2nd.
The Maverick>>

The Willow Creek Lead Summit is coming up in August. Efrem will be speaking there this year.

They’ve got their website up and running now. You can check out a sample video from Efrem there.

Or check out the introduction from Phil Jackson, who co-wrote the Hip Hop Church book with Efrem.

The Book at Amazon:

Incidently, Phil and Tha House MCs will be at Hip Hop Sunday this month, April 20th 9 & 11am. They blew the roof off last time…Tha House is a ministry led by Phil Jackson birthed out of Lawndale Community Church in Chicago.

In the creative business, it’s important to stay inspired. I do that often by visiting the sites of the designers I love and the work they do that inspires me.

Here’s a few designers I like to follow.

1. Duffy & Partners.
Last summer I had the opportunity to work with Dan Olson, Creative Director at Duffy on a project for King’s Christian Academy. It was an awesome opportunity to see the process behind the great creative teams.
Here’s the logo we worked up…

2. Design Guys.
Instrumental in the “Target Revolution.” Steve Sikora literally got to go isle by isle and redesign generic target products, point of purchase, endcaps and more. Amazing work, wish they’d show more of it and update their website.

3. Swim 345.
Chris Dewan is one talented cat. Use to be Minnesota-based…never met him…but he’s somehow connected to friends…

4. Bludot.
I don’t know how comfortable their stuff is, but I love to look at their new catalog each year. They never seem to sacrifice function for form.

5. Tilka.
I’ve been enamored with Jane Tilka’s work since I saw her speak at a conference a few years back. She simply understands how to build an identity system and keep it consistent across the brand. She started Sox Appeal years ago.

6. Olson .
Great work. The new ad hub of the twin cities, since fallon has really gone downhill in the last several years. At least 3 Olsonites go to Sanctuary. Can’t wait to work with Rob someday. He’s got far more talent than I do in this area…

7. Hatch.
I loved Joel Templin’s work as part of Templin Brink, which apparently went their separate ways last year. His work is so clean and always has been. Love it.

8. Wink.
Fascinating kitschy retro esthetic. One of the guys from Wink moved into my old apartment in NE Minneapolis when we moved out and bought our house. Wink was just getting going then…They’ve grown up.

9. IDEO.
Not much you can say. Brilliance at work. Innovation is the name of the game.

10. Turner Duckworth.
Just a warehouse of ridiculous talent. Package design to blow your mind.

At Sanctuary, staff members are required to have a monthly spiritual retreat day. We call it the DAWG day (Day Alone With God). I did mine today.

Funny enough, I spent about two hours at Barnes and Noble reading, “God is not Great.”

Atheist Christopher Hitchens makes a case for God not being so Great (or even existing at all).

It attempted to dismantle the world’s major religions through highlighting the inconsistencies in their major texts and the representation of their people. Logic, apparently, is the only fabric that should weave our understanding of the world.

I actually enjoyed the read, though I whole-heartedly, and partial-mindedly disagreed with Hitchens.

Note to self: Never try to convert an atheist… just love people…let God (or your belief in the God that you’ve made up) do the rest…

One of my favorite former atheists is doing a great series on violence in the old testament over on his blog.

Friends Corey & Betsy and their two kids Jonathon and Lily moved in on Sunday. That’s right, we now have 4 adults and 4 kids living under the roof. They might be here a week, they might be here a few months, who knows, they are welcome to stay.

Living in Community over the last few days has been really good. Some of the pros of living with friends:

1. Meal time is easier.
Somebody cooks, somebody cleans, we switch it up. It’s wonderful to not have it all be on one mom and dad.

2. The kids occupy themselves.
I love my boy Elliot; Elliot needs friends. It is so nice that it isn’t up to mom and dad to be his entertainment all the time. With more kids in the house, there’s more people to play with and moms and dads can have more mom and dad time.

3. It’s cheaper.
The footprint is smaller, the food goes a little farther, we can share more.

4. There’s potential to get out more.
When the kids are asleep, one couple can go out. There’s always someone there.

5. We all work more from our strengths.
I like to cook, others like to clean.

6. To know and be known.
Sharing life together is a good thing. We know each other more. We share more with each other.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

• 22:10 It seems like Clinton doesn’t have the fire anymore. Like she’s given up….? #
• 00:33 kickin out some work…and my new blog design… #
• 00:51 I’m a technogeek trapped inside the budget of a technopeasant. #
• 08:42 what’s that pungent aroma? #
• 09:54 design team, up next… #
• 12:28 Let’s put the design in design team! #
• 14:19 NEEEED CAFFEINE! I miss you starbucks. Forbidden Love. #
• 17:28 great meeting with living stones church today. i’m excited to design their website… #

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• 18:57 lo mein no rock. #
• 18:58 the boys from 12minutes.wordpress.com are gathering tonight. #
• 09:56 Rockin with Spearhead #
• 11:44 Staff meeting was short and sweet. I actually have time to check my emails before lunch. #

This Daily Twitter Round Up was automatically posted by LoudTwitter

I love cooking. I love trying new recipes. Jamie Oliver is my new favorite for recipes….Check out his podcast, or catch him on the Food Network. 

I’m making these for dinner tonight.

Here’s some things I suck at:

1. Managing the Family Finances by myself (I’m much more successful when there’s someone holding me accountable).
2. Staying connected to friends and family when I don’t “need” them (I’m busy. When I’m not working, I want to be with my wife and kids, or I need to be filling a role. I should still do a better job reaching outside of that small lens).
3. Letting others take care of me (since my wife’s back has been out for years, I’ve been a get it done person. Now that my back is on the rocks, I have a hard time with being the one who needs others).
4. Reading the Bible daily  (I just don’t do it. I probably don’t believe in the return. That’s on me).
5. Praying (I like it short and sweet).
6. Not thinking I’m the best at everything I do (I’m often viewed as cocky. I might be, but I also believe in myself to “do things.” People can do things I can’t. I shouldn’t be such a big-headed jerk.

Here’s some things I suck at:

1. Managing the Family Finances by myself (I’m much more successful when there’s someone holding me accountable).
2. Staying connected to friends and family when I don’t “need” them (I’m busy. When I’m not working, I want to be with my wife and kids, or I need to be filling a role. I should still do a better job reaching outside of that small lens).
3. Letting others take care of me (since my wife’s back has been out for years, I’ve been a get it done person. Now that my back is on the rocks, I have a hard time with being the one who needs others).
4. Reading the Bible daily  (I just don’t do it. I probably don’t believe in the return. That’s on me).
5. Praying (I like it short and sweet).
6. Not thinking I’m the best at everything I do (I’m often viewed as cocky. I might be, but I also believe in myself to “do things.” People can do things I can’t. I shouldn’t be such a big-headed jerk.

I had no idea. TED has a podcast/RSS Video Feed…. Get it here:

RSS 

iTunes Podcast Link

Zune Podcast Link (Just kidding, I don’t go there…not that there’s anything wrong with it:)

If you don’t listen to TED Talks, you should. 

If you do listen to TED Talks, listen to some more…  

To my surprise, I just found out that Sanctuary is on the Outreach Magazine’s Annual Top 25 Most Innovative Churches list. 

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank

 When walking through the Mall of America the other day, my three year old boy saw a napkin on the floor. It was really hard on him. How did it get there? Why didn’t it get thrown in the garbage? Why didn’t somebody pick it up?

What will I do today, that isn’t about my job, or leaving my mark, or boosting my ego, but simply about going unnoticed and leaving a positive impact today? 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MafI0h8P4tw&rel=1]

one day soon, maybe over my vacation, I’m going to redesign this blog and make it hot. I can’t stand looking at it anymore… 

I go through keyboards like, well, I go through a lot of keyboards. My 3 year old loves to play in my office. I can’t stop him. He’s crafty. He’s smart. He renames all the files on my desktop by banging on the keyboard.He also manages to pour juice on the keyboard more than you can imagine.Who knew that keyboards are dishwasher safe. 

I’m going to try it with one of the dead keyboards in my closet. 

I go through keyboards like, well, I go through a lot of keyboards. My 3 year old loves to play in my office. I can’t stop him. He’s crafty. He’s smart. He renames all the files on my desktop by banging on the keyboard.He also manages to pour juice on the keyboard more than you can imagine.Who knew that keyboards are dishwasher safe. 

I’m going to try it with one of the dead keyboards in my closet. 

I opted out because we had too many people signed up, but the Love Minneapolis was incredible.

Plymouth Christian Youth Center was overrun by 50+ volunteers to help 1,000 North Minneapolis kids buy presents for their families. The kids paid a dollar to buy 5 gifts. Love Minneapolis volunteers were tour guides on their shopping experience.  

When asked what Love Minneapolis is, one volunteer simply said,

It’s just what we’re supposed to do. 

I opted out because we had too many people signed up, but the Love Minneapolis was incredible.

Plymouth Christian Youth Center was overrun by 50+ volunteers to help 1,000 North Minneapolis kids buy presents for their families. The kids paid a dollar to buy 5 gifts. Love Minneapolis volunteers were tour guides on their shopping experience.  

When asked what Love Minneapolis is, one volunteer simply said,

It’s just what we’re supposed to do. 

Kiva is amazing. Microcredit is all the rage. All the kids are doing it.

Here’s 5 individuals whose lives and the lives of their families will be transformed by a few bucks from overseas.

Check out The Power of We portfolio from a Kiva party that Erin and Neeraj hosted last summer.

re-read the things I write in the middle of the night. 

re-read the things I write in the middle of the night. 

Guy Kawasaki talks about why Kiva works. 
I love Kiva. I think it’s one of the most important tools that the average person has to make a concrete difference in someone’s life. Micro-lending is a good thing. I Kiva. Do you?
Others are doing it. But few with the ease of participation that Kiva has.Do it.  

Innovation is essential to life. Whether it’s using logs to move 2000 pound rocks to build pyramids or harnessing the power of the wind to turn on the lights…Innovation makes life better.

It transforms our surroundings. It qualifies efficiency. It affirms our reflection of God. After all, the first thing he did was create something out of nothing. That’s innovation. 

Innovation is hard, though.

It stretches us to think in ways that no one else has.   It’s the charge to look in the negative space and discover what’s missing. To solve problems most people don’t even recognize as problems.

Innovation is:

1. Solving today’s problems
2. Harnessing tomorrow’s possibilities
3. The challenge to change and grow

Innovation requires:

1. Anticipation
2. Analysis
3. Intuition
4. Creativity
5. Adoption

When Jesus was around, he did most of his ministry on foot going to people rather than bringing people to him. He used meaningful stories and illustrations that made sense and were relevant to their lives. The temple was reserved for the holy, the pure, the godly to enter into God’s presence.

Isn’t it interesting that the modern church in America is leaning towards the opposite scenario. We open the doors of the church to the unholy and make them come inside our house, stepping out of their comfort zones and their natural settings and ask them to watch our media clip and listen to our story and then join the folds. We have a hard time walking the hillsides of our communities to meet people in their own natural settings. We tend to make them come to us…

That’s one of the reasons I love the idea of Love Minneapolis. 

We’re not going to tell you where you’re going. You just show up because you want to serve. Because you want to love. Or maybe because you’ve read a little something about Jesus and you just want to be a little more like him.

Whatever the reason. Whatever your hope. Whatever you want out of it. We hope you’ll see that a love revolution doesn’t take much. Just a few people willing to say, “I want to do something.” 

Seth Godin wrote about the kindle yesterday…(Amazon’s new electronic book reader)

I’m not ready to hyperventilate the way he is.  This thing is going to be $399. It doesn’t exactly fit in your hands. Has no backlight. Even has an extension arm booklight? 

I like to curl up with a book at the cabin. On the dock. Maybe even out on the fun island.

Why do I want another device?
If you can put my movies, music, calendar and phone in the palm of my hand in one device, why not just add books to that list and call it quits.

It’s the equivalent cost of my yearly book budget…and then I still have to buy the books? 

I don’t get it…yet. I need convincing.

Tech Companies have been trying to get books to go digital for ten years and the true innovations just aren’t there yet. And as great of an entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is….I don’t this thing has legs.

What if I’ve  got all my digi-books in there and I drop it in the lake at the cabin as I did to two books last summer? Good ole paper books have an easy to replace factor that this thing just doesn’t have…  

kindle=kindling   

Seth Godin wrote about the kindle yesterday…(Amazon’s new electronic book reader)

I’m not ready to hyperventilate the way he is.  This thing is going to be $399. It doesn’t exactly fit in your hands. Has no backlight. Even has an extension arm booklight? 

I like to curl up with a book at the cabin. On the dock. Maybe even out on the fun island.

Why do I want another device?
If you can put my movies, music, calendar and phone in the palm of my hand in one device, why not just add books to that list and call it quits.

It’s the equivalent cost of my yearly book budget…and then I still have to buy the books? 

I don’t get it…yet. I need convincing.

Tech Companies have been trying to get books to go digital for ten years and the true innovations just aren’t there yet. And as great of an entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is….I don’t this thing has legs.

What if I’ve  got all my digi-books in there and I drop it in the lake at the cabin as I did to two books last summer? Good ole paper books have an easy to replace factor that this thing just doesn’t have…  

kindle=kindling   

still sick and cranky though.

We had to take our baby to the hospital tonight. He’s had a fever for two days.  

When I got home from work, we checked his temperature. I watched the numbers start at 99 and skyrocket. Before it even stopped climbing, it hit 104. I told Sarah we needed to go to the hospital now.

I remembered watching some movie were this girl was going in to shock from a high fever and Harrison Ford made the family soak her in an ice bath.

I didn’t use ice, but I drenched him in cold water for 10 minutes and then we zoomed to the hospital. When we got there, his fever was down to 101.7. After many tests, the ER docs wanted to admit him. The don’t have any answers yet, just a bunch of stuff ruled out. The fever is still there. He’s on an IV. He was finally sleeping peacefully when I left to go pick up Elliot from Erin and Neeraj’s house.

He’ll see a Pediatrician in the morning…

Every week as the bulletins get done, I can’t help think about the group of people who would sit around a table with their coffee and donuts before Sunday Worship and fold the bulletins. The folding machine replaced them.

With one person, the machine can get more done in 20 minutes than the whole team that worked on folding bulletins previously. 

So I’ve taken away their community time.

The updates on the kids, catching up with life stories…and I replaced them with a loud obnoxious machine that acts up from time to time.

Goodbye Community. Hello Technology. Where’s the innovation in that? I’m an evil, evil man. 

but i’m really burnt out right now.i’ll be back after turkey week. 

One thing I learned early on from reading the Art of Innovation is that renovation is often much harder than innovation.

It’s one thing to have a problem that nobody has solved yet. Your solution is the best solution by definition of being the only solution. In the case of the grocery store shopping cart that IDEO was charged with renovating, the challenge was clear: Make the best shopping cart ever. The problem however was deeper: Rethink the grocery shopping experience so that the design and functionality of the shopping cart matches the reality of your shopping experience or makes it a more desirable experience.

So they had to dive in and rethink things from the moment you walk in the store. Whether you’re the urban hipster, the soccer mom, or the daily shopper. The results were drammatic. The traditional shopping cart took on the form of this multi-compartment hodgepodge of speciaiized functionality.I don’t think it was that great.In fact, it looked bulky and awkward. Spaceage and untouchable….(yet fascinating).

The reality is the traditional shopping cart meets most of the needs we ask of it. And even if IDEO’s cart is a good design, the awkwardness of it compared with something I’m used to, makes it harder to adopt in it’s renovated state.

Last year when I started renovating my kitchen, I would have begged for a blank slate to work with. Not bad wiring, banged up walls and 5 layers of flooring. It would have been much easier to start with nothing but studs, but instead, it was a renovation job. It required rethinking how to make something old into something new. Something broken into something that works. Something stylishly outdated into something fresh, modern and visually appealing.

It took sweat. And it’s still not done.

Renovation can be much harder than innovation. 

<p>How well does the church renovate?

I’m just not satisfied unless I’m asking this question.

It’s never enough. It’s never enough in a good way. One idea leads to another. What’s the next venture. I’m horribly tired right now…but as I was talking to a friend the other day as we we’re trying to plot the next year of his life, I left asking myself the same questions.

Am I more interested in starting the next idea than actually carrying it out…? I’m skilled. I can generally accomplish whatever I put my head to. I’m not saying that to be cocky, I just have a track record of determination…But what I’m realizing, is that it often ends when I know I can accomplish my goals. Even if it’s early on.

I want to start things, but I don’t want to be the one doing the nitty gritty work to finish them.

I have a few more ideas, I just want to launch them onto a team and watch them be carried out by people who love the execution…

So I ask myself, What’s Next?

A few things I’m interested in:

Starting a Non-profit to help people fundraise for major medical issues.

Launching a building campaign to move Sanctuary to the next level of ministry in north minneapolis.

Becoming a Genius at an Apple Store

Get my new Xserve up and running with no experience and 4 days of training.

I hate mediocrity, yet, I don’t want to do the work, just think about it.

I’m just not satisfied unless I’m asking this question.

It’s never enough. It’s never enough in a good way. One idea leads to another. What’s the next venture. I’m horribly tired right now…but as I was talking to a friend the other day as we we’re trying to plot the next year of his life, I left asking myself the same questions.

Am I more interested in starting the next idea than actually carrying it out…? I’m skilled. I can generally accomplish whatever I put my head to. I’m not saying that to be cocky, I just have a track record of determination…But what I’m realizing, is that it often ends when I know I can accomplish my goals. Even if it’s early on.

I want to start things, but I don’t want to be the one doing the nitty gritty work to finish them.

I have a few more ideas, I just want to launch them onto a team and watch them be carried out by people who love the execution…

So I ask myself, What’s Next?

A few things I’m interested in:

Starting a Non-profit to help people fundraise for major medical issues.

Launching a building campaign to move Sanctuary to the next level of ministry in north minneapolis.

Becoming a Genius at an Apple Store

Get my new Xserve up and running with no experience and 4 days of training.

I hate mediocrity, yet, I don’t want to do the work, just think about it.

The place to get up to date information on my wife Sarah’s Back Surgery Fundraising is now live. Check it out at: http://www.sarahsnewback.wordpress.com

The place to get up to date information on my wife Sarah’s Back Surgery Fundraising is now live. Check it out at: http://www.sarahsnewback.wordpress.com

When Jesus was around, he did most of his ministry on foot going to people rather than bringing people to him. He used culturally relevant stories that made sense in people’s lives. The temple, the building, was reserved for the holy, the pure, the godly to enter into God’s presence.

Isn’t it interesting that the modern church in America is leaning towards the opposite scenario. We open the doors of the church to the unholy and ask them come inside our house, stepping out of their comfort zones and their natural settings and ask them to watch our media clip and listen to our story and then join the folds. We rarely walk the hillsides of our communities to meet people in their own natural settings. We tend to make them come to us…

I don’t think it’s wrong.
In fact, I’m a proponent of both models.
I think you can meet people where they’re at, even if it means bringing them to where you’re at.

But I also wonder if the church has done too good of a job rallying people around building buildings and maybe not so good of a job rallying the people outside of our buildings, outside of our buildings.

bottom line…meet them in a bar, meet them at the movies, hit them with your postcard so they can come watch your big screen. just reach people. reach them now. life is too short to have no model…

household stuff is compensation for missing inner stuff.

some of my stuff i have to keep, but if you want any of my stuff, let me know…

i have lots of books…

Great article from Jeffrey Sachs ( The End of Poverty ) in response to the combined wealth of the Forbes 400.

The economic possibility of our time: The elimination of extreme poverty.
Why should the church let a bunch of billionaires who are finally learning how to be philanthropists, beat us to the punch of what God asked us to do?

We need to be careful of the paths we try to lead people through as we integrate them into the church. We can create just as much isolation through forcing people into community that they don’t want, as in not providing opportunities for community for those seeking it.

Don’t we all just want a place to belong?
A place where we feel our needs are met and our desires are important?

The Church tends to try to take people from, “Hi, I’m visiting,” to “share your darkest secrets with this person who is now in your small group…” in a moments time. In most cases, I think the word intimacy needs to go. Try and find it in your Bible anyway…

We need to look at how we reach people at Public Circles, Social Circles, Personal Circles, and Intimate Circles without making the huge jump from Public to Intimate with no relationship building in between….

So 1:30am on a Saturday night. Where else would I be but driving out to my favorite reliable 24 hour kinkos for some bulletin issues…

Stop at the grocery store. Return my 3 Redbox Rentals (300 ****, Freedom Writers ****, Borat **) and get a monster cookie and a skim milk for the road home…

The lady in front of me is chatting with the checkout lady about working at the grocery store in my neighborhood. I live in North Minneapolis….

She starts to ring me up and then says, “Bet you’re glad you don’t live over there. Can’t go outside your house without getting shot. Don’t ever go over there.”

I mention I’m going there right now.
“Well, you better bring your bullet-proof vest. There’s nothing good about that place.”

I then very calmly mentioned that I live in North Minneapolis. That it’s my neighborhood she’s talking about.

I gave a line about “being entitled to our opinions.” and got the hell out of there. pretty much pissed and fuming.

Listen. I’m not immune to the violence. On the contrary. It scares me. I worry about my family some days. I’ve heard gunshots right outside my backdoor and I’ve walked through a line of crack dealers to get to my front door. I’ve seen one of my neighbors running down the street chasing somebody with a gun and my other neighbor holding his 45 cocked and using the corner of my house as a hiding place.

I abhor the violence. I hate it with everything in me. But I recognize it as a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.

God left us the opportunity to be his justice in the world.

“Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

Most of the time, it feels pretty safe here. We know our neighbors. We’ve built relationships. We share a cup of sugar and two eggs just like they do on Leave it to Beaver. But we also share something deeper. We share a bond built on the love of our neighborhood and the peace that comes from looking out for each other.

Some might thnk that Norh Minneapolis is a warzone. Hey- I’ve said it from time to time when I get so angry about the bullets flying in the streets. But it’s also God’s promised land. The new kingdom here on earth is wherever God’s people are. Wherever there are disciples of all nations. Wherever there are people who are transformed by the renewing of their minds.

I pray that we stop painting the picture that the only thing worth mentioning about this place is that our young black men keep killing each other.

There are passionate teachers.
Passionate preachers.
Connected neighbors and families.
Everyday people trying to make ends meet.
And there are the least of these.
Those with no home.
No more support system.
Paying the rest of their lives for their bad decisions or their parents poor choices.
And there is a remnant.
A remnant of people passionately pursuing God’s justice for this city.

I need to do a better job of painting the picture…and remembering what it looks like.

So 1:30am on a Saturday night. Where else would I be but driving out to my favorite reliable 24 hour kinkos for some bulletin issues…

Stop at the grocery store. Return my 3 Redbox Rentals (300 ****, Freedom Writers ****, Borat **) and get a monster cookie and a skim milk for the road home…

The lady in front of me is chatting with the checkout lady about working at the grocery store in my neighborhood. I live in North Minneapolis….

She starts to ring me up and then says, “Bet you’re glad you don’t live over there. Can’t go outside your house without getting shot. Don’t ever go over there.”

I mention I’m going there right now.
“Well, you better bring your bullet-proof vest. There’s nothing good about that place.”

I then very calmly mentioned that I live in North Minneapolis. That it’s my neighborhood she’s talking about.

I gave a line about “being entitled to our opinions.” and got the hell out of there. pretty much pissed and fuming.

Listen. I’m not immune to the violence. On the contrary. It scares me. I worry about my family some days. I’ve heard gunshots right outside my backdoor and I’ve walked through a line of crack dealers to get to my front door. I’ve seen one of my neighbors running down the street chasing somebody with a gun and my other neighbor holding his 45 cocked and using the corner of my house as a hiding place.

I abhor the violence. I hate it with everything in me. But I recognize it as a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.

God left us the opportunity to be his justice in the world.

“Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

Most of the time, it feels pretty safe here. We know our neighbors. We’ve built relationships. We share a cup of sugar and two eggs just like they do on Leave it to Beaver. But we also share something deeper. We share a bond built on the love of our neighborhood and the peace that comes from looking out for each other.

Some might thnk that Norh Minneapolis is a warzone. Hey- I’ve said it from time to time when I get so angry about the bullets flying in the streets. But it’s also God’s promised land. The new kingdom here on earth is wherever God’s people are. Wherever there are disciples of all nations. Wherever there are people who are transformed by the renewing of their minds.

I pray that we stop painting the picture that the only thing worth mentioning about this place is that our young black men keep killing each other.

There are passionate teachers.
Passionate preachers.
Connected neighbors and families.
Everyday people trying to make ends meet.
And there are the least of these.
Those with no home.
No more support system.
Paying the rest of their lives for their bad decisions or their parents poor choices.
And there is a remnant.
A remnant of people passionately pursuing God’s justice for this city.

I need to do a better job of painting the picture…and remembering what it looks like.

It’s been about 5 years since I’ve seen ben in concert. It’s time to rectify that horrible life mistake.

Labor Day - Orpheum Theater - Minneapolis - Dressing up for a “theatre-style” performance - wife & me - well, we fell in love listening to Welcome to the Cruel World back in the day.

Late nights, Lake Calhoun, driving home with ben harper.

ahhhh, nostalgia.

giving the new album a listen now

so I started taking the time to breathe.

thanks neeraj. It has actually brought a settling to my jittery caffeine filled unslept body to actually be taking the time to breathe.

It’s amazing what a deep breath can do to resettle yourself.

Remember the valley of bones. ezekial 37. the slain. the dead that god breathed into and from death to life death took on flesh.

I feel like death warmed over. I’ve had so much client work lately, and it will continue through September, that I haven’t had much sleep. Averaging 3-5 hours a night right now.

Just the simple act of slowing my breathing has completely taken away my anxiety about not sleeping. My anxiety about meeting client deadlines. my anxiety about letting the church work slip.

God is breathing life back into me.