K-I-S-S.

I don't watch The Office normally, but one of the funniest lines I have heard from it is when Dwight is talking about the Acronym K.I.S.S and says, "Michael always says ‘K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid.’ Great advice. Hurts my feelings every time." And it's really true.

Riverbend has been blessed by God to see a lot of growth over the last two years. Basically we have gone from 20-30 people each Sunday to 130 or so. When growth happens this quickly things get a bit crazy and our natural inclination is to build programs and systems to cover the growth. These aren't bad things to do, and most of them are probably necessary, but it has a very real potential to not follow the K-I-S-S advice. Next thing we know we end up forgetting what our mission and purpose is.

We have a pretty straight forward mission statement (http://www.riverbendonline.org/about-us/our-dream) but even this can seem intimidating in the midst of a bunch of community groups, events, and gatherings that can vary greatly in feel and context. This got me thinking about what is our purpose as Christians and the Church in simple form.

First off, we know its about Jesus. It's about the Gospel he lived out, died for, and rose again in. It's not about what we have done or what we do, but what he has already done. It's simple, it's radical. We don't have to do anything besides receive it and follow Him. The follow Him is what I get overwhelmed with and try to do things in my own strength. There may be some opportunity for me to elaborate more on this in the coming weeks and months, but for the sake of the Spirit of this blog, I'm going to Keep It Simple:

Following Jesus is like entering a traffic circle. We enter in one side when we start following Jesus and we go around the circle, which has two views, Proclaim and Respond, and then we exit, which is when we die.

That's it, we proclaim Jesus and then we respond to that Gospel, which leads us to proclaim it again. It may look different depending on our culture, context and audience, but to be a follower of Jesus means we are responding to the Gospel of Jesus which in turn should lead us to Proclaiming that Gospel to others. Period.

Keep It Simple.

seven months of changes.

It has officially been seven months since the last posting on this blog. Oops. In my defense, there has been a lot going on:

1) New job at Guardian Life Insurance- my grant was running out at the Conference, and while I miss the work and the people, I needed to pay the bills. Thankful that God provided a place of employment. This job keeps me very busy with not a whole lot of flexibility- making posting tough.

2) Christmas/Birthday- December is always super busy. Holidays, parties, shopping, decorating, family time.

3) We had a baby! Levi Emory Knepp was born February 26th. Had a lot to do to finish up his room etc. and now that he is here, it has taken a while to adjust to life with 2 boys. He is very laid back and already sleeps better than Jonathan does now, but still does not leave a whole lot of time for posting.

The long and short of it is, that life will hopefully always take priority over this blog. It is not that I don't appreciate all three people who read it, but when it comes down to it, changes are inevitable and sometimes it takes a while to adjust to them. My hope is to be able to post something once a week or so, but I'd wait to see that to believe it. Until next time (maybe).

haunting.

It's been a while since my last post, things have been a bit on the busy side. We found out that Lindsey is pregnant with number 2 (a HUGE surprise, but awesome), I interviewed for and got a new job that I start in a few weeks, and various other asundry projects around the house (lots of painting and refinishing a floor). But with the fall season gracefully upon us, I have been biking to work a lot (due to a liscense suspension for not slowing down enough in a construction zone- as well as for the beautiful weather) and preparing for the holiday season that will too quickly arrive. The first one is this weekend.

Halloween has long had a debatable past. Lots of evangelicals have the "fall festival" which is basically Halloween with a different name. Some more "missional" churches embrace the whole thing as a way of "cultural outreach." I found this really interesting blog posting from Mars Hill Church on the history of Halloween, I recommend reading it: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/10/29/the-history-of-halloween-revisted/

While reading it, check out this new band that I am really digging lately called The Civil Wars. They have some of the most haunting vocal melodies I have ever heard.

do you retreat?

I got together with a good friend last night for dinner and coffee while Lindsey and J are away. We had a great time of catching up, seeing what's new in life, work, family, and ministry. One thing we talked about struck a chord (or a nerve) with me. It screamed a message that I have thought on numerous occasions.
My friend was telling me about a men's retreat that was coming up with his church and said that he left the last one early and hoped he wouldn't want to do the same thing here. I asked why he left early, he responded, "Because it sucked." It was a great answer.

Now if you knew this guy, you would like him. He's a guy who cares more about God and people than anybody else I know, so if he said it sucked, I am sure it did, and not because he was uncomfortable or intimidated. Christian men's retreats can be lame. Not always, but too often, and here's some reasons why:

1) Lame and Boring Most guys I know don't like to sit in one spot for too long. I think it's a response to all the sitting we had to do in school growing up. We like to be doing things, being outside, building, climbing, whatever. Sitting and listening to a speaker multiple times during a weekend followed by other sessions of sitting and talking does not sound like a great time for me. Even Jesus did much of his teaching while people were walking places or eating or even working on fishing nets! Teach while doing.

2) Toughen Up Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Washington State is big on this right now (http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/proverbs/men-and-masculinity). He probably states it better than I do, but if you look at our church memberships (and even leadership) we see a lot of women and guys who I wouldn't put on my "tough man list." Sure, we need to be sensitive and supportive, loving, etc. But when guys get together its time to cut through the crap and get to the root of things in the ways men communicate and that's not necessarily the let's-talk-about-our-feelings-way; it's the face-up-to-your-responsibilities-as-a-man-way and just do it. There is a place to deal with our underlying issues, I just don't think its sitting around a large circle of men hugging it out.

3) Who We Are Christian man weekends (way better than "Men's Retreat" because real men don't retreat, they fight until the end, or at least resupply) are about reminding us who we were meant to be. Part of that is what we are called to do, but we need to remind each other that Jesus Christ calls us to be a disciple of him, a man tough enough to die without saying a word, and strong enough to "teach with authority" (Matthew 7:28-29). We need to teach and challenge men to be like that.

Again, I don't want to say that all Man weekends have each of these areas squarely in the "suck" category, but enough of them do to warrant this list. What are some of your experiences, good or bad? Should we move from Men's Retreat to Man weekend? You have my thoughts.

a chicken is a good job.

I'm not sure if there is a perfect job for me. Maybe there is something that I would love to do that would pay our bills, support my family, and that I would enjoy- but I probably would get sick of that too because I'd want to be spending more time with my family or doing something else. It's not that I don't like work. I like to work hard, but there are times when I don't like working. Maybe if I could find what I wanted to be when I grow up... now that I'm a grown up.

I remember going to college 11 years ago and knowing that I could do or be anything that I wanted. Gradually life started to get in the way (and school loans)and that caused me to "need" to make a certain amount and no longer allowed us (Lindsey and I) to do whatever we wanted as far as work was concerned. Our goal in life has never been to make a ton of money, just enough to support my family, do something that meets my skills and passions, and most importantly serves God in some way. Now I need to add "makes enough to pay all our school loans" to that list. It stinks.

Over the next whatever amount of time, our goal is pay down that school debt (as it's the only debt we have beyond our mortgage) so our expenses are as minimal as possible in order to serve and not be limited in what or where God calls us to. Being in social work or ministry for the last 7 years has not helped this process go very quickly, but God has provided for us and we know this will be His timing when we reach this milestone.

My desire to live in the freedom of being whatever we want or God calls us to is summed up in this dialogue with J:

Me: "J, what do you want to be or do when you get to be a big boy?"

J: (thinks for a moment) "I want to be a chicken."

If that isn't the freedom to dream, I don't know what is.