Bella (Beautiful)

Just watched this awesome movie. The scenes jump around and make it a little hard to put the timeline together. I would recommend this movie for 10+ due to some very dramatic scenes. Watching Jose made me think about how we as humans and especially Christians should be living life.

"My grandmother used to say, 'If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans'."

An evangelical manifesto

I heard about this on the radio earlier this week and it is out now and available at the site linked here. I've downloaded the document but have not read it yet. I also downloaded a study guide they have available. Maybe I will post more here when I have a chance to review and consider it.

Book Excerpt Review

Received an email inviting me to consider reading this book "The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief". The excerpt that I read and am reviewing can be found here. The email included this short summary:

In this work I make the claim that, in order to remain faithful to Christianity, we must be courageous enough to betray the bible (section 1), God (section 2) and the church (section 3). Why? Do I think that we must abandon them as redundant relics of a by-gone era? Do I think that they have served their purpose? Or do I feel that they prevent the world coming of age? By no means! Here I argue for a betrayal that remains faithful to these very words by helping us to re- discover the truly untamed, white-hot, life-transforming reality that they house.

My initial reaction was to move on and ignore this completely. But I was intrigued at the same time that anyone could even believe this could be a valid viewpoint so here I am.

I found the story in the prologue to be thought provoking. I don't think the leaders response is right either but it is not like they have done anything wrong in their response. I'm not sure the caretaker's response is right either but in some way it is good. I think it is this goodness that makes me want to ponder this issue further. At the same time part of me asks who are we that we should respond to God in this way.

The introduction gives a second meaning to the recently popular question "What Would Jesus Do?" or WWJD. The author refers to a parody "What Would Judas Do?" and uses it as a springboard. While I have liked the original question, I have not liked the commercialization that we have done with it and I believe the author would agree. I got the impression that it was what we have made the church in this regard that the author would have us betray and that he believes Jesus would do the same if he came lived now.

While part of me still opposes the idea as stated originally, I do think this would be an interesting and thought provoking read, but only for those who are strong in their faith and knowledge of what they believe.

A Poem by Adrian Plass

I just got done listening to the session by Michael Frost at PGF 2007 where he read the poem by Adrian Plass. Go here to see the post from the conference which gives the words to the poem.

Indy Code Camp

Attended the Indy Code Camp this last weekend. It was pretty good and well worth the drive.

Are you lukewarm or maybe filthy rich?

Check out this message. It is great to hear someone preach a very direct message about how we are living our lives. It is also encouraging to hear him say that if he can't keep the focus then he will need to move on so that he can keep the focus. We need to listen and respond.

Press Release

Convention Pick Will Add 'Wildcard' to Presidential Race!

Lancaster, Pa/ September 17, 2007 - The Constitution Party, thefastest-growing and largest third party based on voter registration(Ballot Access News ) will nominate a presidential candidate at itsNational Convention in Kansas City, MO, April 22-27, 2008.

"There is little appreciable difference between the two parties thatcontrol government. Voters seeking a return to limited, constitutionalgovernment would not have a choice in November if one of the so-called'front runners' receives the Republican nomination. With the exceptionof Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) - who has been ignored by his party -, we have'Tweedle Dee' and 'Tweedle Dum' candidates once again," Clymer added.

A recent Zogby poll (http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1332) showsAmericans are leaning toward third party options.

The selection of Kansas City for the nominating convention was made inlight of the Constitution Party's stated opposition to the proposedNAFTA Superhighway/Railway (http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=387) which is planned tostretch from Mexico to Canada through a 'SmartPort' (http://www.kcsmartport.com/ <http://www.kcsmartport.com/> ) based inKansas City. The Kansas City SmartPort website notes: ''Kansas Cityoffers the opportunity for sealed cargo... to travel toMexican...cities... streamlining shipments from Asia to cut ... laborcosts..."

"The United States does not need more cheap imports from China or morelongshoremen out of work", Clymer pointed out.

Among the convention speakers the Constitution Party anticipatesinviting is Party member and New York Times best-selling author JeromeCorsi, Ph.D. Dr. Corsi, who is a frequent speaker at Constitution Partyevents, would likely speak about his latest best-seller The Late, GreatUSA-the Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada. Corsi regularly speaks andwrites about the potentially devastating effects of the NAFTASuperhighway and the push to merge the sovereign nations of NorthAmerica into one.

The Constitution Party convention announcement comes in the wake of thenation's largest Hispanic rights group, La Raza, warning it may cancelits 2009 convention in Kansas City. The cancellation was threatenedbecause a Kansas City park board member belongs to the border-securitygroup The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (http://minutemanhq.com/hq/).
"In keeping with the Constitution Party's stated support for secureborders and the dedicated work of the Minutemen (http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=195) to enforce lawsignored by our government, we look forward to choosing a presidentialcandidate in Kansas City", Clymer stated.

Other blog

For those interested, I have another blog here. For now I am posting most stuff to both while I figure out how I want to differentiate them.

Sound of Music

We're watching the movie with the kids piecemeal. We're half way through after two nights. Corwin really loves he songs but he started out wanting to end it before it realy even got started. Angeleah has been pretty good, although tonight she was a little anxious when the governess and the captain had their heated discussion.

Tetris

Check out the video on this post by a friend.

Amnesty International policy change

Stumbled across this article ( http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/october/1.17.html ) and do not like the change. I understand the desire to protect women who have been raped but how come it seems like they never talk about the child's rights. I have to agree with the author regarding the use of health and how we manipulate that to help ourselves out of an undesired result of our actions. I like the fact that PFM is still going to work with AI in prisons since this change does not affect that, and also agree with them making clear where the agree and disagree with their partners policies.

Labor Day Vacation

Went to Minneapolis, MN and Woodruff, WI to visit some of Char's extended family. I've uploaded some pics at http://warephreak.multiply.com/photos/album/1/Labor_Day_2007_-_Minneapolis_MN

Book Review Update

Enjoying both the fiction and non-fiction sections of each chapter but the meditation sections haven't done much for me yet. Maybe I need to spend more time on them.

Upcoming Book Review

After the emergent conference we had a book release party for a friend. Got a copy under restriction of doing either a review on the blog or passing it on.

Haven't gotten far into it but the mixture of genres within each chapter makes what would be a boring topic an interesting read so far. The fiction side gives you something to relate to. The non-fiction piece helps raising the questions and forcing the thought processes.

It isn't an answer book which is good because it allows God and you to personalize the impact.

Hopefully that makes a good teaser. Will post more as I get further (maybe halfway) in.

Missing Post - Emergent Midwest Conference 2007

I thought I had made a post while at a conference but don't see it now. Anyways had a great time and heard some interesting ideas. The main sessions were all recorded and available at the website, http://www.emergentmidwest.com (See the Audio section).

The Forbidden Fruit

Stumbled across this an thought it of interest to post. Haven't looked into the accuracy of the musings but the conclusion is interesting none the less.

Fortune Cookies

Tonight's was: You are what you do, not what you say.

Yesterday's was something like: You don't realize the affect you have on those around you.

Multiply

I'm not sure I really need to join another thing, but here goes.

New Wyncoop

It appears that a new Wyncoop is currently growing. We just found out but don't know when he/she is due or which gender he/she is yet.

Having one boy and one girl already as I had always hoped to have at least one of each, means I'm not really hoping for one or the other.

It might be nice to have a boy to balance out the family since we have a female dog, j/k!

Fortunately I still have my name lists from Corwin and Angeleah. Time to dust them off, review them and start posing suggestions for approval.

How Logical Are You?

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Your English Skills:
Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 80% Spelling: 80% Vocabulary: 60%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Sounds like an interesting game

See here for a game I stumbled across. I might have to add it to my froogle wishlist.

Ethics & Morality, cont.

It's been a while since I originally posted this, so here's a recap with the portion of a comment I am ready to answer at this time.

Original comment by Mike:

For example, honesty and truth-telling is an important moral principle, but there are times when the principle to love and care for those in need supercedes honesty. The example of someone hiding Jews from the Nazis is the prime example of this. Is it immoral to lie to the Nazis in order to protect those Jews, or are we in fact morally required to lie in order to carry out the command to love our neighbors and defend the oppressed?

Base of my response to above

I don't want to sound as a loveless bastard, but maybe there is more to this. What if we were meant to fight Nazi-ism directly but not lie and hide the Jews. Wouldn't God care and protect them according to His plan? Didn't God ask us to lay down our lives for Him? I know that I don't feel the full weight of that sitting here in my comfortable house with the many freedoms we have.

Part of Julie's comment:

interesting post - just a couple of thoughts...
on the hiding jews/fighting thing. why would it be out of God's plan to hide the Jews and lie? that strategy was used quite effectivly in the exodus story with the hebrew midwives lying to the egyption soldiers and we are told God blessed them for it. And when Rahab lied about hiding the men in jericho and she was placed in the line of David/Christ. when given the choice to save lives by lying or to save lives by killing - I would choose lying every time...

My response to comment above

• Part of the issue for me is to try and point out the issue prior to the critical point. Are we not wrong for not defending them prior to raching the point of hiding and covering for them? Should we not be active in defending them prior to this?
  
  Not to minimize the struggle the Jews faced but I think a clearer example is in my arguments in the Pro-Choice / Pro-Life debate. I always enter this argument by claiming to be both pro-choice and pro-life, which always draws people to make me explain that. I explain that I am pro-life and thus against abortion. I also explain that I am pro-choice in that we choose (generally except rape) to participate in sex which by it's most basic nature is for procreation. To support this further, I sometimes even use the struggle's name. Why are they both Pro-? That points to me that there is truly two separate issues being lumped as one thus avoiding any negative connotation by being considered Con-.
  
  Back to the Jewish example. History was never my strong suit, but if I remember correctly Jews were supposed to wear a David's star to mark them as Jewish. Did we as loving neighbors fight that fight to the fullest then? Or did we sit idly by, thus making the follow-up decision one that had to be made?


• Another part of the issue is that one sin is not lesser to another. It seems to me that we feel that lying is less of a sin so it becomes a choosing of the lesser of two evils. I feel we need to get away from that thinking as I feel it may be a major part of the decline in ethics and morality in our country/world. What would have happened had people not lied but stood with them ready to suffer the same fate out of love for their neighbor? I feel we need to be more like Jesus where we stand beside our neighbor and call for the one withiout sin to be first to cast a stone.

As I stated in my previous post, it is very easy for me to sit in my reclining chair and type this out. But do I live it out in my life each and every day? I don't pass judgement as I might have done thse same in that very situation. But rather I want to call us to look for a better way so we don't repeat history.

Maybe this sounds like rambling as I'm not sure how to close it, I hope not.

A Little Behind

Sorry all for not keeping this current. Life has been very busy but I guess that is no excuse.

Anyway, my Mom passed me a link to her worship leader's blog. He has done something a little different so I thought I would put a link here so others might go through and see it. Obviously, try to post a comment to follow his example as I looked and he hasn't gotten a whole lot of feedback.

And if you want to, let me know what you think so I could know whether to share more links like this in the future.

Hopefully, I will post a little more frequently.

God Bless!

Another Quiz

You scored as Loner.
Geek	63%
Loner	63%
Drama nerd	44%
Punk/Rebel	44%
Goth	31%
Prep/Jock/Cheerleader	25%
Stoner	13%
Ghetto gangsta	6%
What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

Great Citation

Found this great source citation that I wanted to share.

And power is cool (page 1, "Evil Genius for Dummies," Cthulu, Dummies
Press, 12342 B.C.).

What's your religious philosophy?

You are a Believer

You believe in God and your chosen religion. Whether you're Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu.. Your convictions are strong and unwavering. You think your religion is the one true way, for everyone.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably Words of Affirmation with a secondary love language being Physical Touch.

Complete set of results

Words of Affirmation:		9
Physical Touch:		8
Acts of Service:		6
Receiving Gifts:		5
Quality Time:		2

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz

Ethics & Morality, cont.

Mike stated:

For example, honesty and truth-telling is an important moral principle, but there are times when the principle to love and care for those in need supercedes honesty. The example of someone hiding Jews from the Nazis is the prime example of this. Is it immoral to lie to the Nazis in order to protect those Jews, or are we in fact morally required to lie in order to carry out the command to love our neighbors and defend the oppressed?

I don't want to sound as a loveless bastard, but maybe there is more to this. What if we were meant to fight Nazi-ism directly but not lie and hide the Jews. Wouldn't God care and protect them according to His plan? Didn't God ask us to lay down our lives for Him? I know that I don't feel the full weight of that sitting here in my comfortable house with the many freedoms we have.

That leads into something that I have realized about emergent or post-modernism. I have not seen much reference to the evil in the world. More later, I gotta get going to work.

Settlers gets ranked at #1

Found a ranking of games where Settlers of Catan made #1

New Disease

Found this regarding a new disease (MoDeD).

Busy

I have just been too busy to post lately.

I need to get the taxes done, but that is waiting for me to catch up on the finances. Working on a church plant. Need to get registered for another class. Learning PHP for the church website. Trying to stay ahead of my co-workers on .Net.

And in the midst of all this God is trying to change / grow me.

St Patrick's Day Limerick (late)

I've been busy lately and haven't posted anything. Meant to get this up sooner, but better late than never.

Attended a party and we had a limerick contest. This was what I banged out as my entry.

There was a man from Galilee

whose mission for the world to be

a much better place

meant he had to face

hard trials and die on a tree.

Not quite the normal humorous / silly ones you get.

Ethics and Morality

I have generally been a hard line for absolutism. Recently though, I have been putting my stance to the test and questioning it. Stumbled across this article and wanted to share it in case others are working through this issue.

Here's the second article on this topic from this source. I haven't read this fully and it is getting late. So I will get back to it and finish reading it when I can concentrate better.

Interesting Post

Stumbled across this interesting post while doing some research at work.

So your thoughts, how should the dictionary work?

Moving from Vampires to The Lord

Excerpt is taken from Breakpoint Commentary for Nov 25, 2005, "Out of the Darkness From Postmodernism to Faith":

And now another prominent figure has experienced a similar conversion. After writing twenty-five novels steeped in the occult, Anne Rice has returned to Catholicism, the faith of her childhood, and has promised that she will now "write only for the Lord." She's written a book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which I have not read, but reviewers say is a faithful account of the one she calls "the ultimate supernatural hero." Anne Rice, writing about Jesus instead of vampires? It's what Newsweek calls a "startling public turnaround"—and that's putting it mildly.

Ok, first things first, I am a little behind in reviewing the email transcripts of the broadcast commentaries.

I still haven't figured out what the postmodern movement is. I had thought it was Christian, but obviously not. So I need to look into this further.

I had not heard about this book or Ms. Rice's changes but am interested in getting a copy and reading it. Has anyone read or heard of it and willing to make some comments?

The Brick Testament

For those of you that liked the image from Aaron, there is more to this at the following site http://www.thebricktestament.com/.

Google Image Answers

First Name: Matthew



Middle Name: Aaron



Last Name: Wyncoop



Age on Next Birthday: 34



Favorite Color: Metallic Magenta



Place you want to live: Cleveland



Place you actually live: Plano



Habit: Locking Doors



Favorite Food: Lasagna



Favorite Animal: Penguin



Religion: Christianity



Dream Job: Professional Game Player

AWESOME

Found this great graphic poster.

End of Church Age?

This is an addition to another post I made elsewhere.

There is an article "Why Home Churches are Filling Up" in the current (or recent) Time magazine that I heard about that relates to this discussion further. I haven't read the article yet, but overheard some discussion on the morning radio program I listen to.

a new beginning

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. EZEKIEL 36:26-27

Listened to the Shane CD Mike lent us. Need to find the poor in Yorkville and Plano. Need to stretch out to the others to grow them. Need to make changes.

Diatribe

My wife made a comment to me regarding my use of diatribe and you seemed to have the same impression so I had to double check if I was using it correctly. According to Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: di·a·tribe
Pronunciation: 'dI-&-"trIb
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin diatriba, from Greek diatribE pastime, discourse, from diatribein to spend (time), wear away, from dia- + tribein to rub -- more at THROW
1 archaic : a prolonged discourse
2 : a bitter and abusive speech or writing
3 : ironical or satirical criticism

I was correct in the use of the word with definition 1. If you thought I was using it in either definition 2 (as my wife was) or 3, then I am sorry for any offense as I meant none (other than sometimes you all can be toooo intellectual).

Gune, cont.

First some comments. The original post was just meant to be a reminder to myself where I left off in some research. If you note the time posted at, you would realize I did this just before work started. So it was nowhere near complete or worth much. However it seems some of my intellectual friends just couldn't help themselves and wrote diatribes in response. Now on to the real work.

I have done further research and feel that my initial looking at 1 Tim was a deadend. By the way in case you were wondering, this was meant to further flesh out in my own mind the position of women in ministry.

I have read the N. T. Wright paper that Julie referenced in women in ministry. I also read the diatribes that were posted in response to my original note. While it has solidified my recent conversion to support women in ministry, it has also made two other topics come up.

The first is simple and should be applied to all (male or female) while it was directed towards women originally. That is the 1 Cor 14:34 verse. We should speak up only to participate fully in the service. If we are not participating to the group, we should remain quiet and not be a distraction to the others.

The second is the whole set of verses regarding heads being covered or not covered in 1 Cor 11.I believe this to be setting a cultural standard for those that participate in worship. While I don't believe we should adopt that culture's standards we should have a standard that is relevant to our culture. According to the notes I have read it appears to be mandating that men be men and women be women, fully appreciating the gender we were created as. What that standard is for today, I don't know yet.

Repost: Deacon

I am referencing 1 Tim 3 (verse 12 directly) and the definition of a deacon. Could gune be spouse instead of woman historically. There are some instances where it must be referencing a specific sex. Need to do more research.

Repost: Tithing & Time

Just had a thought as I was listening to a broadcast today about David and the Psalms. In the particular Psalm that was mentioned, David was repeatedly talking about worship to God in the morning. The question is: What impact would it have if we gave God the first tenth (tithe) of our day?

Comments, Please!

Sorry everyone, had not realized I had turned off the ability for you to comment. I belive I have this fixed now and will leave it on going forward. I will repost any original posts that you would like to respond to to allow topic continuity.

Thanks hon for alerting me to this issue.

Deacon

Not sure if the link will work or not, so I am referencing 1 Tim 3 (verse 12 directly) and the definition of a deacon. Could gune be spouse instead of woman historically. There are some instances where it must be referencing a specific sex. Need to do more research.

Tithing & Time

Just had a thought as I was listening to a broadcast today about David and the Psalms. In the particular Psalm that was mentioned, David was repeatedly talking about worship to God in the morning. The question is: What impact would it have if we gave God the first tenth (tithe) of our day?

Sacred Parenting

Heard parts of part 2 of a broadcast on this and found it intriguing to think about. I'm part of a church where we dedicate children to the Lord and save baptism as an individual's personal choice. Part of that dedication, the pastor asks the parents to dedicate themselves to God, each other and finally the children, which I understand to be the correct order. But it had never hit me quite the same as this broadcast put it. It helped me to see how my two beautiful children are here by the grace of God to help focus me on Him.

Superbowl Squares

Bought one square on a game at work. Isn't it funny that one guy that bought two squares, after some convincing and doesn't understand football would win one of the quarters? Just find it funny how that works.

Not complaining at all as I ended up with good numbers SS-0/PS-7 for only buying one square. Not a winning number, but it had good possibilities.

Roe v Wade

Trying to figure out how this could be brought down. I usually argue on this topic from the standpoint that I am Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. Most cases are such that it is done for convenience to remove an undesired result of willing choices made to have sex. I always leave out rape and cases where it is truly one life or the other, as these are too grey and compassion must be allowed. However, my hope is that we could move to a point where we could support these women in such a way that they would choose life as well. I know my idea will seem harsh, but I think this may be a position that requires tough love to be used.

Basic idea to date:

1) Charge an abortionist with murder for hire.
2) Support charge by using cases where woman willingly chose to have sex.
   a) No rape reported.
   b) Woman's life was not in danger.
   c) Was any protection used?

This is just something popping around in my head. Not even sure it could be done. We must love the women no matter their choice, but that doesn't mean we condone the choice. Also our society as a whole needs to get back to accepting the consequences of decisions we make. In this case, I mean that the decision to participate could result in the undesired result, hence choose abstinence.

Conference, cont.

The conference was great. Now the question is how to start making the changes necessary in my own walk to support the direction needed.

"Don't Do, Be!", "No such thing as a volunteer, we don't donate time" - Need to change my thinking, heart and actions to support the paradigm expressed by these two key thoughts. The material wasn't new for the most part, but was articulated ideas that had been percolating in my mind. Not sure how else to explain it.

Also the need to attend the GlocalNet conference is more defined now. I believe this will help to enhance and further define the changes I am going to start making.

Healthy Reproducing Churches Conference

Drove to Urbana to attend the conference. Had a good worship time and one session this evening. The one key point for me tonight was the whole topic and importance of Discipleship over the Church.

Notes:
What is a Disciple? Not just Jesus in the American dream.

Church - Not having a mission, but being the mission.

Discipleship has become a lost art and ancillary. Thought: Could the resurface of this relate to the end of the church age that some have mentioned.

Dallas Willard in "Divine Conspiracy" states that discipleship is the elephant in the room.

If our church did not exist, would anyone miss it except our members?

When have I been strongest "in the zone" as a Christian?

Personal Zone Elements: Communion, Transparent Connection & Glocal Impact

Community Zone Elements: Mutiplication, Community Development, Nation Building

Like it so far

Have been playing with the template and like it so far. This site started with the minima black template, but as you can see it has been altered. Changes will continue as I have time.

One item on my list is to change the comment date-time stamp as they listed a bunch of options but not the one I wanted. found that list rather frustrating in that respect. But it shouldn't be something a little javascript can't fix.

Well it is bedtime for tonight, you should hear from me soon.

Let's try this again

I have an old blog that isn't being updated much. Also they try to get you to buy premium services. Let's see how this one works.

Happy Reading!