And we wonder why Christianity has a developed a bad image in our culture:

Actually though my guess is that those videos are not the reason Christianity has garnered a bad name, but rather they are an extension of a greater problem. I’m not sure if I’m gifted enough to be able to clearly and adequately state that problem in one or two lines, but pretty much its that the church stopped trying to live out the kingdom message. We started trying to create our own comfortable subculture instead of being architects of Christs alternative culture that is supposed to be actively changing our world (think of Jesus’ stories about the mustard seed and leaven).

Thanks Jason, I about cried when I watched this.
(for everyone else, Jason went to great lengths to prove the point I was trying to make two posts ago about Greendays song Good Riddance/Time of your life)

This is a post that not everybody will want to read. I’ll keep the details to a minimum as best I can…

I’ve had a bloody nose before. I’ve sprained my ankle pretty severely. I’ve had my wisdom teeth removed. But my first surgery was today.
I found myself strangely calm after I got into the waiting room. My heart wasn’t racing, I felt quite comfortable, and not too generally worried at this point. My nurse had only been working in urology for a month, she’s just filling in because they were short staffed. Normally she works with colons and other lower end parts. The whole time she prepared everything and washed my body she looked as though she was going to vomit. I’m not sure why, but that was my perception. Feeling very comfortable I asked her many questions, “how did you get into urology”, “do you have any good stories” etc. I talked to her about my brother-in-law Ben who had a horrific experience, I talked about my aunt Tina who works in urology too. We talked quite a bit…all while she scrubbed my “body”.
When it came time for the surgery the doctor about killed me when he pulled out a (I’m being very literal here) syringe with a needle that was 2.5 inches long and that was probably a quarter inch thick. The doctor looked over and saw his mistake and said “Oh, I’m sorry. We’re not supposed to let you see this. We’re not doing a very good job are we?” I just laughed uncomfortably. After drawing some fluids into the syringe he pulled off the needle and put on a much more appropriate smaller one. I was quite relieved. The most painful part was getting injected with the numbing stuff, which felt about as painful as any other needle prick (I hate needles in general). After that it was just a strange sensation of pulling and pressure. He did make me jump at one point when he accidentally pinched a part that wasn’t numbed, but besides that there was no pain.
The worst part was not hearing the sizzle of him cauterizing my flesh, the worst part was the smell of my burnt flesh that permeated the room.
All in all, it was quick, easy, and worth the end results. At the end of the procedure I got back in my clothes and they wheeled me out to my car where my wife was waiting. It felt a little strange getting wheeled through the lobby in a wheelchair, everybody knowing what I had just done. It felt even more strange because I felt perfectly capable of walking out of the hospital on my own. I commented to the nurse “is this really necessary or is it just to make the guys feel good?” to which she responded “It’s just precautionary.” which I took as-no, it’s not necessary, men are just babies when it comes to those parts and we’re trying to baby them a little.
Now it’s just ice packs, Tylenol, and rest. Wish me luck, and in a few months I’ll actually know if I’m sterile!
Oh, one last note that only the males should read…the doctor began to leave the room, but then poked his head back in and said (and I quote) “Ryan Woods, your body is most impressive. Your wife must be very happy.”*

*This may or may not have been a day dream caused by the medicine, I’m currently uncertain, though I believe it to have happened.

I’ve got a theory. My theory is that you can put any set of pictures or video clips to Greenday’s Good Riddance (Time of your life) song and it will feel tearfully sentimental. Go ahead. Try it. Put some pictures to the song. No matter what the pictures are they will leave you sentimental and downright misty eyed. I would have proved my point by making a couple of odd slide shows, but as it turns out I don’t own this song!
Here are two examples:

Kristi said this:

I’m interested in your thoughts on your readiness in planting a new church.

Honestly I’m uncertain as to what the “right” answer to this question is. I can say that the older I get and the deeper into church planting ministry I get, the more ill prepared I feel that I am. If you would have asked me three years ago I would have told you that in three years I’d be planting a church, that I had lots of growing and maturing to do, but that I felt like I was generally ready start. I blame that on the ignorance that generally comes with our 20’s. These days I tend to think more along the lines of, if one ever feels confident in their ability and readiness to plant a church then they’re probably not quite ready yet.
Also, any time line that we’ve ever made connected to Renovatus or a daughter church plant has always been way off…by about two years actually. The reality that we’ve had to come to grips with is that we don’t know much about church planting and what we do know (now) is that success in church planting comes from God alone (at least the kind of success that we seek).
So with all that said, am I ready to plant a church? Only God knows. My prayer is that discovery lab will be a tool for God to make things more clear and begin to better outline his plan rather than mine.
If I was to take a guess as to when I’ll be planting a church and how ready I am here’s my thoughts…Right now I feel as though there is still a lot of work I need to do with Renovatus before God is ready to move me on to another church. Also I feel like there are still a few specific things I need to learn and work on before I should lead a church. Also, I don’t think its time yet because for the type of church I believe God is cultivating we are in need of more partners. People who are willing and open to doing life together in a deeper and more experimental way (don’t get dirty on me here).
So there you go Kristi, a very brief piece of my thoughts. All in all what it comes down to is that I’m learning to let God do what he wants with me. I’ll probably never be ready to plant a church, but one day when I’m just weak enough to let God do his thing without me getting in the way then it’ll be time…and that day could be tomorrow, next year, or never. It’s really up to him.