All I Have to Give

On Maintaining a Blog

2013-02-24T14:20:00.001-06:00

I read a blog post from a friend recently about finding your voice when writing. I have had a blog since 2003 (Xanga in those days). Back then I had many fresh new ideas and I viewed the internet as a place where I could explore themes and thoughts with a measure of distance. It was a sort of laboratory for thoughts and ideas that had been rattling though my head.

Back then, I felt like my life was always on display - my blog was just another way others could view and understand me. When I became a Youth Pastor, I got in the habit of airing my thoughts and feelings publicly to groups of people. As I had time, I maintained my blog as my laboratory.

As my time as a youth pastor started winding to a close, I found myself becoming more reclusive with my inner workings. I had learned that what I said online could impact my everyday life. Heaven forbid someone read my thoughts and base their entire perceptions of who I am on that blog post! I was worried. Worried that my faith journey would frustrate or confuse friends and family. That sharing my private thoughts online could lead to people I cared about misunderstanding me. Maybe it could even hurt future chances of getting another ministry job. So I stopped posting my thoughts online. The internet makes a pretty crappy journal.

I still read many, many blogs. I enjoy reading the musings of others now. These blog posts have the power to inspire me, challenge me, force me to look at perspectives different than my own. The best bloggers I know seem to have found a way to share the private thoughts of their hearts in a way that is true to who they are as people and the gifts and callings they have been given.

Sometimes when you're on an inner journey, it helps to write things out. To interact with those you know and those you don't know about your ideas. For me, I have been learning the beauty and sacredness of keeping my mouth shut and listening (for the most part). Its been refreshing not to have to share, defend, explain, or fight for my thoughts and opinions with anyone other than my wife and close friends. I'm no longer preaching. I'm no longer teaching. No one hangs (or pretends to hang) on my words any longer. Its been freeing.

But I love to think. I love to interact. I love to grow and learn from others. I value the gifts and insights that God has given me. And sometimes, I have something to say. Recently I have been thinking a lot about blogging again. To put myself back out there. I have things to say, and lessons to learn.

Next month, my journey takes another turn with the birth of my first child. I'm going to be a daddy. This thrills me and terrifies me at the exact same time. I look forward to sharing my continued journey with all of those who would listen. It's going to be an exhilarating year, that's for sure!

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T09:02:00.001-06:00

I hope you had a great holiday and New Year season. I had a refreshing time with friends and family so much so that I'm back here on my blog writing something again.

Seriously, I have been very bad about writing this last year and I hope to change that. As I was perusing my rss feeds this morning I was reminded at how formative and helpful these voices have been to me the last few years. Hearing other people's stories and experiences and learning from what they are learning have nudged me along in my own journey.

With that in mind, I would like to be more intentional about writing this year. I don't love writing, at least not at first. Not only does it take time (even more so when I have to type on my iPhone), but it makes me vulnerable and forces me to process my thoughts. All of these things I see as a positive, so I shall press on this year and continue to share snippets of my life with you. You can encourage me in this by interacting with my posts, and of you have your own blog - I would love to hear about it and maybe add you to my blogroll.

So here's to 2012. May it be a year full of wonder, joy, and discovery for me and for you.

Dinner Christmas fun with the family

2011-12-22T18:43:00.001-06:00

p23.mov Watch on Posterous

Follow me on Delicious

2011-11-11T09:18:00.001-06:00

For those of my friends (in RL or otherwise) who had enjoyed following my shared items in Google Reader you might have noticed that the big G has decided to take away their sharing feature. There are plans to roll sharing into Google+ but many of you don't use G+ so I have an alternative you can use.

If you would like to continue to follow what I'm sharing please add this feed to your RSS reader of choice:

http://m.delicious.com/v2/rss/dareyoutomove

Anytime I share a blog post it will show up in this feed. Thanks for following.

Happy Reformation Day!

2011-10-31T09:46:00.001-05:00

This day in 1517 Martin Luther posted 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door in Germany sparking the Protestant Reformation.

As I reflect on this day in history, I wonder if I had the chance to nail some of my own grievances to the "door" if the church in America, what would they be. Here are three off the top of my head:

• Unity in Christ - The Church on America is full of bickering. Popular theological debates Divide denominations and Christians. We need to do a better job of encouraging believers to be united in Christ instead of divided over differences that are not central to the Gospel of Jesus.

• Cultural/Political Syncretism - many churches in America today mix politics of the empire with what it means to be a Christian. A Christian must put God over country in every issue. Christ was not a Republican or a Democrat.

• Mission - is the Church being Jesus' hands and feet to the world, or is it a private religious country club? I believe that the Church needs to return to its roots making disciples and caring or those that Jesus spent time with.

What about you? What thoughts would you nail to the door of the Church today? What pressing issues do you think are vital to the continuation of Jesus' Church in the world today? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Hello September

2011-09-01T09:37:00.000-05:00

Blogger.com has a spiffy new clean interface for writers. It was pretty enough to get me on here to make a quick update. See?

Life has been good these summer months. It's been really oppressively hot, but that's Alabama. Some of my favorite summer activities have been

staying cool indoors as much as possible. A/C is a modern miracle
visiting our local farmers market on Saturdays at Pepper Place. Local honey and produce is always awesome.
hanging out with friends, babysitting our nephew and our friends children. They say we will benefit from the practice. I can change poopy diapers now.
reading through the entire Harry Potter series for the first time at work (yes I can read at work, it's not as exciting as it sounds)
and visiting the family lake-house at lake Martin!

Marie and I are looking forward to the cooler fall weather. Being Alabama, that could be another month or so. It would be nice to live somewhere where there was a fall before winter that lasted more than a few weeks.

As for spiritual matters, we have been praying for God's guidance as I seek another full time youth ministry position. It's been very difficult to wait on God's timing but we know that that is the very best for us. Please pray for guidance with us. In the meantime we have a very awesome church family here in Birmingham that we are enjoying serving with. Even while we wait, God provides!

Well this short missive is turning into a long one so I'll sign off here. Take care friends.

Doing the Father's Work

2011-08-05T09:37:00.001-05:00

Don't believe me unless I carry out my Father's work. But
if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I
have done, even if you don't believe me. Then you will know and
understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father." (John
10:37, 38 NLT)

There are many today professing to be Christian leaders. Some
Christian leaders entangle themselves in the politics of the day.
Others write books. Others still are pastors of very large churches.
Some have their own television or radio programs.

But how are we to know whether they are worth believing and listening
to? Jesus told the people that his works were proof that he was doing
his Father's work.

Do the Christian leaders we follow carry out the Father's work? Do
they care about the people Jesus cared about? Do they love like Jesus?
Do they stand up to the Pharisees of our day?

I know I want to live the kind of life as a Christ follower that is
without a doubt doing the Father's work. It means I have to involve
myself in the issues and with the people that matter to God. It also
means I need to discern what those things are. Not an easy challenge
in our world today.

Motivations

2011-07-26T16:45:00.001-05:00

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. (John 6:26 NLT)

Why do we become Christians? Is it for our selfish gain? This passage in John 6 follows the feeding of the 5,000. These Jews were excited that Jesus could provide for their physical needs like God provided mana from heaven.

But like the Israelites in the old testament they miss the point of Jesus' provision. Jesus is not a divine miracle vending machine. He is the bread of life. We follow Christ not for what he can give us (blessings) but because we recognize who He is. Jesus performed miracles to help us get a glimpse of God's kingdom and our King, Jesus. Why do you want to be with Jesus? To be with Him? Or are we merely using Jesus to get something we want?

A discipleship question

2011-07-13T10:14:00.001-05:00

Recently on vacation I was meeting with my mentor and friend Jeff Miller and he asked me this question:

"If you met a new Christian who had never been discipled and you were given 5 days to instill in them everything they would ever learn about being a disciple, what would you share with them? You can only share one idea/value/teaching per day with them. They will never have another chance to learn from anyone else."

What would your 5 be?

My Encounter With an Evil Pothole

2011-04-14T11:03:00.001-05:00

My car has been making me sad recently. It's been going to the mechanic every week for the last 3 weeks to try and detect a leak in my A/C system. After several visits it's been determined that the leak is nowhere to be found and the most likely candidate is the Evaporator Core. To get to it it's going to cost something like $600 in labor to have my dash pulled apart in order to even check the thing.

Marie and I resolved to keep fixing this car for the time being because it's still cheaper than buying a new or used car. So here we are, about to dump $900 in parts and labor into my little Chevy and then the unspeakable happens. We were driving on our wonderful Alabama Interstate System when I hit a patch in the middle lane of the highway. We'll call it a pothole, because it felt like one. As soon as we hit it, my A/C fan started making a terrible noise like something was caught in the vent. It got louder and angrier and then started smelling like something platic burning. It cut off completly after that.

I get home and look under my passenger dash and find my blower motor broke one of it's mount screws and fell out!

Thank you Alabama roads for further breaking my car :(

A taste of the awesomeness

2011-02-05T22:49:00.001-06:00

Download now or watch on posterous

p77.mov (33141 KB)

The Civil Wars @WorkPlay in Birmingham

Benny Hinn, Ultimate Power

2011-01-16T15:38:00.001-06:00

Marie is asleep in the next room and I'm trying with all my strength not to wake her up laughing at this video. It's brilliant!

"Barton Hollow" | The Civil Wars | Live on The Jay Leno Show (January 14th, 2011)

2011-01-14T08:22:00.001-06:00

They absolutely nailed this performance, I'm so excited more people
are getting to hear their music!

Some 2011 Resolutions

2011-01-08T11:21:00.001-06:00

I'm not one to make resolutions, but I thought this might be a good idea to put my own personal goals for the year out there. There is something about writing/typing things out that make them more real to me.

So this year...

* I will be slow to add "friends" on Facebook.

I have too many friends already. I value my friends and it is interesting to see what acquaintances are up to. By limiting my Facebook friends, there is less clutter from people I barely know and I can focus on keeping up with those I am more connected with. I'd rather have few Facebook friends and more real life ones.

* I will invest my time in genuine relationships that will be messy and difficult.

Nothing compares to face to face relationships. They can be tough work. But genuine friendships can last a lifetime and make it worth living.

* The thing that will most fascinate and infatuate me will be my relationship with God.

There are so many things in the world that arrest my attention. In 2011, I want to become more focused and attentive to what matters most. Not someone famous, not a new gadget, not my job, or a hobby or even a family member, God is much more fascinating and compelling than any of those things. It's time I devote my mental and physical attention like I believe it.

* I will learn how to be a better leader and a better servant.

As a person seeking to be paid to do ministry this year, I desire to be a better leader by pouring into and serving others sacrificially.

* I will make my marriage second to my relationship with God.

Marie, you're #2! I know that doesn't sound very romantic, but as I let God pour onto me, He enables me to love my wife/family more completely. After all, God is the source of love.

* I will learn to make the most of the present.

I constantly am thinking if the next thing I have to do. I'm obsessed with the future and it's not healthy. This year, I want to fall in love with the present. I want to learn to cherish every moment today. Yesterday is over and can't be changed. The future doesn't exist yet. The only thing I can control is how I live today. The present is a gift to be cherished.

How about you? What is a goal you have this year for yourself and why?

Hitchcock would love this

2010-12-31T08:36:00.001-06:00

Download now or watch on posterous

p39.mov (38979 KB)

I took this video at my work today. It was a flock of black birds. Smaller than crows, they had some blue-green coloring around their necks. Anyone know what they are?

Meet Elphie, she's on crack

2010-12-30T19:09:00.001-06:00

Download now or watch on posterous

p30.mov (7315 KB)

This is normal behavior for her.

Musings on newlywed life and Christmas

2010-12-28T08:42:00.001-06:00

It's been a month since I married the incredible Marie Pasco and things are just starting to get settled. Our home looks habitable (just don't go in the bedrooms yet), and we're entertaining our first guests this week.

I have been asked several times "Erik, how does it feel to be married?" Well to be honest, it feels more like a continuation of a great relationship than an entirely new experience. I'm loving it. It's nice to have your best friend living with you and it's awesome to not have to drive home after an evening together.

I spent my first Christmas as a married man with Marie's family. It was a little sad to be away from home in Ohio, but it was exciting to get a little Christmas snow down here in Alabama.

The cool thing about getting married is that all those family traditions you remember growing up with? You get to create your own new traditions. This year Marie and I got to start a few new Christmas traditions we hope to pass on to our children (some day).

Now that things are getting back to semi-normal, I will begin the hard work of finding a new youth ministry position. Marie and I are praying that God would lead us to a community of believers that would allow us to grow and use our unique gifts to minister to teens and families. Please be in prayer with us as we search.

As a new year approaches, I'm reminded of how much God has provided for Marie and I over the last year. 2010 was a great year. Here's to 2011!

Chris and Erik's Alabama sled riding adventure

2010-12-26T15:20:00.001-06:00

Download now or watch on posterous

p12.mov (8116 KB)

This is what happens when it snows in Alabama. We used a trunk mat out of Chris's vehicle.

Wedding Pictures

2010-12-16T20:15:00.001-06:00

Megan Floyd, our photographer has posted wedding pictures online for all to see. If you would like to order any of them, you can order them directly from the site where you view them by clicking on the shopping cart.

click here to see the proofs

Sony Music Hates Youth Ministry Video Montages

2010-11-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a time of overhead projectors and picture slideshows. When I was in grade school my idea of "multi-media" was listening to a warbley tape recorder narrate as the faded colors of a slideshow dimly lit up our projector screen. Our math teacher would write in green dry-erase marker on an overhead slide. This was the pinnacle of modern technology! Except that it wasn't.

I grew up in the 80's and 90's but because I attended a public school, often we had a generation old set of technology at our disposal. It's funny how churches have the same problem of being behind the curve of all things modern. We still used an overhead projector in high school at my church and sometimes if we were lucky, we could watch a vhs tape on our color projector. But times have changed, and (most) youth ministries are almost in perfect sync with the newest technologies. Now we have PowerPoint, Media Shout, lyrics on the screen, videos on the screen, fog machines, laser lights, entire decks of starships fitted with holographic projectors that use intricate force fields to look and feel real (ok, maybe not that last one). This brings me to a youth ministry staple. The montage video.

Sure the montage video is nothing new, in fact it began with old slideshow machines synchronized with a tape recorder and mix-tapes. But now we have computers that can edit our videos and share them with the world on YouTube. Which brings me to my point for today.

Sony Music hates youth ministry video montages.

Why does a gy-normous record label even care about our lame spliced-together-the-night-before-because-I-was-watching-a-Firefly-marathon-all-day-Saturday videos? It's all about the music. You see at no point in the church media revolution of the 2000's did anyone ever teach youth ministry film makers how to capture any audio worth replacing in a montage (unless Jr. High retreat fake-fart noises count). So to mask our bad audio (and video) capture skills, we throw in some incredibly awesome Christian band (or secular band that sounds Christian, or U2) to make up for it.

If you're showing your wonderful piece of film to a private church group, there's really no problem. But post the video to YouTube and Sony tracks you down like a hungry teenager after bacon at a breakfast buffet. You see, the songs or parts of songs that make your video awesome? Sony owns them. And for some reason that I can only attribute to being bullied in the 3rd grade, their lawyers are ready to pounce on any unauthorized use of their content.

It's not like we're encouraging our youth to go and steal some music off the internet. If anything, they might LIKE the music and go buy it. At any rate, be warned that Sony (and other music labels) roam around like a roaring lion waiting to devour our hard 8 hours worth of work.

Sometimes it takes months (years) for YouTube to identify your montage videos as copyright infringing goods, so there's no immediate reason not to put them there. You could try and stick it to the man and not use music from the offending record labels (and their subsidiaries), or you could just deal with it and perhaps use Vimeo or Facebook to post the videos instead.

Selective Bible Reading?

2010-10-26T20:41:00.001-05:00

Recently I've been reading a lot of books and blogs - which if you know me isn't all that strange. But at the beginning of my sabbatical, I didn't feel like reading much which included my Bible. I just was a little frazzled and in need of a break to rest and be renewed.

After a good break, I began to take in new thoughts, ideas, books, blogs to further explore. One interesting person I've found is a New Testament scholar named Scott McKnight. Scott might be best known for his book Jesus Creed which I recently finished. But I'd like to talk about his most recent book The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.

In the book Scott talks about how there are passages in the Bible that stand out and are hard to explain. One point he makes in the book that has spoken to me is about selective Bible reading.

When I was growing up and began to read my Bible for myself, I noticed that there were some difficult to understand passages in it. Going to Sunday school, and later youth group I was taught that we were to follow and obey all the words of the scriptures. But here was the growing problem: I noticed that Christians would follow some verses and not others. It's not that they were willfully disobeying scriptures it's just that it seemed to me they were taking some passages more seriously than others. Let me give an example:

"Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." 1 Corinthians 11:3

"If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head" 1 Corinthians 11:6

Why is it that there are so many churches that are quick to jump on 1 Cor. 11:3 to show that men are to be the head or leaders of women but no one (or very few) practice 1 Cor. 11:6 and require their women to cover their heads in prayer? Do we just pick the verses we like and support our opinions and throw out the ones we disagree with?

This is just one example of dozens I could point out. At first glance it appears that Christians follow what they want in the Bible and ignore that which they don't like or agree with.

What if there is another way to read the Bible that doesn't result in us holding some verses over others or picking and choosing what we will believe and follow? What if the Bible as a whole is saying something about God and His story and interaction with humanity? What if the Bible is more complex and nuanced than we were once taught? And what if the Holy Scriptures were never meant to be read and understood alone by ourselves in our "personal devotions?"

Recently I've been searching for a way to read the Bible while recognizing it's mystery, difficulties, and with an understanding that we can't just cut up the Bible into little bite size verses, yank them out of context and base whole belief systems on them. Scott McKight's book The Blue Parakeet is beginning to show me a way forward from: How do I understand the Bible? To: How do I live the Bible?

Your thoughts? What are some examples you've seen of selective Bible reading? How do we learn to follow all of God's word and not just parts?

Secret Desires for Ourselves

2010-09-29T17:02:00.001-05:00

We all have things that we wish about ourselves. We would like to be smarter, faster, bigger, smaller, better lovers, friends, fathers, etc. Some of these desires are easily achievable like trying something new at your favorite restaurant. Other desires are impossible (like wanting to fly). And still others are things that would take a considerable amount of effort, but would be useful or deeply fulfilling. Some might call these personal goals, but for me these kinds of things only turn into goals if I decide to pursue them.

Today I thought of a few of these desires as I was dreaming about my life (my job lends itself to this kind of introspection). Both of these could turn into goals easy enough, but I wanted to share them here so I could maybe start a discussion or at least glean some good insight into some of my friends own desires/goals. The first secret desire is that I've always wanted to be bilingual. I deeply respect people who have taken the time to learn another language and I love the idea of being able to interact with people from other parts of the world. The other desire was to take on some sort of hands on craft like building furniture. I love working with my hands and creating, and the thought of passing down something I created to future generations inspires me.

How about you? Share a secret desire, personal goal about yourself and maybe why you are drawn to the idea.

A Slow Return to Active Blogging

2010-09-25T10:41:00.001-05:00

As many of you will know, I have been on a self-imposed sabbatical from full-time ministry. My desire was to pull back from all my public roles (including blogging) and focus on what it means for me to love and follow Christ in my life.

The only things I've been blogging recently have been details concerning my upcoming wedding (which may I add, I'm super psyched about) and trying to launch a tech-themed blog makemystuffwork.net so that I might be able to share some of my tech-guru knowledge and make a little ad money on the side. Over the course of this sabbatical I've come to realize a couple of things regarding blogging.

I don't much care for writing
It's insanely hard to make money blogging

Once thing I do miss is having a public forum to share my observations, stories, and spiritual journey. I still think this blog is a great way to do that. So in the spirit of the impending end to my sabbatical, I will be (slowly) returning to blogging. Don't expect much at first, I'm still trying to find ways of tricking myself to write more. I'm also learning how and when to best share private thoughts using a public tool like this that is both helpful and not damaging to myself and others.

I'll probably keep the tech-related posts here to a minimum and send those posts to my new tech-blog, but as I'm finding- I'm much more interested with the things I will be posting here.

Until then, grace and peace

Engagement Pictures

2010-09-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

We've got some of our engagement pictures online thanks to our photographer Megan Floyd. Check them out!

New wedding website

2010-07-23T21:55:00.000-05:00

Marie and I finally finished our wedding website. You can find information about the big day as well as some pictures and stories about us, our wedding party, and the engagement. Feel free to leave a comment on the front page we're using it like a guest book. Thanks!