Monthly Archives: September 2006

25 going on 75

Becca and I have begun a new Wednesday morning tradition, one which suggests we can skip straight from apartments to Leisure World.  We go out for breakfast to the same corner diner, followed by an ambling walk through the neighborhood.  As a further sign of our burgeoning seniority, this morning we spent twenty minutes searching for a coupon for the breakfast that would have saved us about a dollar.  Good times.

Working with your hands

I love assembling furniture (if we can use the term “furniture” loosely) from Ikea. I go in knowing that I’ll have to figure out how to disassemble it in three years in order to trash it, but that’s fine; I get to assemble something new. This weekend it was a wardrobe. For a guy in ministry, there’s an enjoyable novelty to actually getting to build something that has a starting and ending point, with a tangible result.

The process reminded me of Paul’s role as a tentmaker in Corinth. I wonder if Paul enjoyed the work itself, or if it was merely a means to an end (namely, food and shelter). Work (whether it is carpentry or tentmaking or… whatever assembling Ikea furniture is) bears a stamp of man’s productive capacity for which God has created him. Let us not corrupt what is good through an idolatry of work.

The Connecting Church, by Randy Frazee

I have enjoyed this book immensely. Maybe because I’m a nuts and bolts guy. Frazee (when he wrote the book) was the teaching pastor at Pantego Bible Church in Texas (he’s now at Willow Creek).  The book is the ministry philosophy they implemented there.

His broad concept is that Christians should have a common purpose, a common place, and common possessions. The common purpose is standard stuff, with acronyms and the whole thing. Definately necessary, but nothing groundbreaking.

What I really enjoyed was his section on the “Common Place.” He suggests that it is more important for the Christian life to be engaged in a community home group with people who live within a block or two than to be in a home with those in your age group who live all over the place. Interesting idea…

Anyway, great book, highly recommended.