e r i c . s p a n g l e r

Video - Family Hike

More coverage of our hike in Wallace Falls St. Park last Friday...

Hiking on Friday

Our family had a nice couple hour hike on Friday, in Wallace Falls State Park.  This is near Gold Bar, Washington..

Challenge to Pastors From Eugene Peterson

Found these words from Eugene Peterson (editor of the Message translation) at THIS LINK.  It is a challenge to all pastors today.  According to the post, the following is taken from Eugene's book "Working the Angles."  You can see the original posts HERE and HERE.

"American pastors are abandoning their posts, left and right, and at an alarming rate. They are not leaving their churches and getting other jobs. Congregations still pay their salaries. Their names remain on the church stationary and they continue to appear in pulpits on Sundays. But they are abandoning their posts, their calling. ...

... The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns–how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money. ...

... The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades."

Top 10 Richest People in USA

I like top 10 lists.  Here's the latest Forbe's richie rich list:

1. William Gates: $59.0 billion
2. Warren Buffett: $52.0 billion
3. Sheldon Adelson: $28.0 billion
4. Lawrence Ellison: $26.0 billion
5. (tie) Sergey Brin: $18.5 billion
5. (tie) Larry Page: $18.5 billion
7. Kirk Kerkorian: $18.0 billion
8. Michael Dell: $17.2 billion
9. (tie) Charles Koch: $17.0 billion
9. (tie) David Koch: $17.0 billion

 

MerrillBarnicles

MerrillBarnicles, originally uploaded by pstreric.

 

Average Price for House: Seattle

According to the Seattle Times this week, the average price for a single family home in the Seattle area is now over $500K.  Whew.  In Snohomish county where we are living, the average is $375K.  You can read the article if you are interested HERE.

Bethany's Baptism

This past Sunday, at our AWESOME church gathering at Lakeside Community Fellowship:

Way Cool Time Lapse

Check out this site.  It's a time lapse photo page project, I think of Toronto, Canada.  The photographer took 3,350 photos between 6:30pm and 8:30pm; about every two seconds.  The result is really fun to watch.  Click here or on the photo:

 

For Those of Us Who Preach...

“If you think that the gathering of biblical facts and standing up with a Bible in your hand will automatically equip you to communicate well, you are deeply mistaken. You must work at being interesting. Boredom is a gross violation. Being dull is a grave offense. Irrelevance is a disgrace to the Gospel. Too often these three crimes go unpunished and we preachers are the criminals.”

    - Chuck Swindoll

Not Really.

Nahh.. Can't be true, can it?  Not really!  Found it HERE.

Home

From our family friend, Todd Koeppen, who will be at our church this coming November:

The summer of 2001 was particularly difficult for my wife and I. In the span of just a few months we lost three of our four remaining grandparents. By the beginning of September, the ordeal had inspired the beginnings of a song called “"Home”." The song felt special (throughout the piece we'’re reminded that “we’'ll cross our troubles, we'’ll be home”), and I was in the process of taking my time to make certain that this song was a good one, when out of the blue, September 11 happened. I finished the song the next day.

Person after person encouraged me to record the song, and a little over a year later, after losing my remaining grandmother, and finally, my father, I recorded the song. I meant to put it out on a CD, but then a slew of artists released songs called “'Home”.' So I held back. Here we are six years later, still waiting to cross the troubles that we ran into on September 11, 2001, but I still believe we will cross them.

At a recent show, a woman was scouring my CDs, trying to find which one had “Home” on it. Of course, she didn’'t find it, but I promised I would post the song online for a free download. I’m happy to announce that it is now available as a free download on MySpace (go to http://www.myspace.com/toddcarterkoeppen - Home is the 4th song listed in the music player).

Please forward this to friends and family that need encouragement (especially those that are serving overseas). The lyrics are below.

Home – by Todd Carter Koeppen

Just as sure as the time keeps ticking on
Know I still believe
We’'ll cross our troubles
We'’ll be home
I hold to the promise of this life
It’'s all I see
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home

CHORUS
We’'ll be home
Where all this outside world
Is just a picture window
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home
There'’ll be birds that sing
A big porch swing
And chimes when the wind blows
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home

A stroke of luck can turn
It brought you to me
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home
We’'re tired but hanging on
Just faith to fill our needs
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home
CHORUS

I will hold the door for you
You deserve the best
We’'ll cross our troubles
We’'ll be home
I’ll be looking fine
Admiring you in your white dress
We’'ll cross our troubles
We'’ll be home
CHORUS

You can visit Todd's website HERE.

You can download Todd's songs on iTunes HERE.

Give Aways to Get You To Come

I just read a post over at THIS SITE that talks about churches that give stuff away to raise awareness about an event or to get people to come to the church.  The giveaways range from iTunes cards, to iPhones, to a vacation for two at Disneyland.  What do you think?

There's a part of me that feels willing to do nearly anything to help people come to know the reality of Jesus.  Another part of me thinks that giving stuff away to get people to come to you is just another kind of attractional method when God's people are sent and being missional is about going to 'them.'

Then again, not everyone is ready or willing to be sent.

What does Jesus want the church to look like?  How near to His plan are we in America?  Close?  Far away?  How do we listen and respond?

50K Symbol of Self: "Because I Can"

Read an article in USAToday about a gigantic home for one family that is being built in Connecticut.  Why?  Because the owner can afford it.  Is that a good reason?  There are some good questions asked in the article about the morality of building such a house.  Here's a description from the article:

"...only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view.

It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home.

At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America."

You can read the whole article HERE.

Institutional Preservation Mode

From a letter written by Richard Foster, found at Renovare:

• So many churches today are little more than centers for religious consumerism.

• So many churches today are more committed to style than they are to substance.

• So many churches today are obsessed with success and productivity.

• So many churches today are taken over by hectic, frenetic, jangling, babel.

• When more energy is expended on turf protection than on soul care, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When any energy is expended on turf protection, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When we see property fights erupting between local congregations and denominational headquarters, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When we engage in a spirit of protectiveness from outside influences, whether religious or secular, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When Spiritual Disciplines are used to boost Sunday attendance scores or cash flow, rather than for the good of a person’s growth in grace, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When we become unusually exercised over defending our denominational distinctives, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When we spend more time and energy and money on the ABCs of church “success” (attendance, buildings, cash) than on caring for the soul growth of the people, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.

• When church business meetings give more time and attention to property issues than to prayer, then we are in danger of institutional preservation.”

To read some 'turn-around' suggestions, click HERE.

Missional: A Shift In Thinking

From Ed Stetzer and David Putman in their book, "Breaking the Missional Code" (Broadman & Holman, 2006), to be a 'missional' church means to shift:

• From programs to processes
• From demographics to discernment
• From models to missions
• From attractional to incarnational
• From uniformity to diversity
• From professional to passionate
• From seating to sending
• From decisions to disciples
• From additional to exponential
• From monuments to movements