I listen to Rob’s playlist because that way I can be cool without having to spend all the money on CDs. Thank you Rob for the great music.

A while ago I commented that 2nd movies in a trilogy tend to be the weakest. While that is (so far) true of Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, there are some notable exceptions. Star Wars was the best by far of the entire series. The Empire Strikes Back was okay and Return of the Jedi was miserable. The new Star Wars episodes are laughable.

Last night I saw T3. T2 was by far the best of the series. I almost believe that the T3 script was a reject for T2. There was nothing new and original here. Sure, Arnie made a few jokes about his Terminator character, but the story was weak and the action had been done. A disappointment.

My good friend Matt asked me a good question: why plant a church in the US? Instead of replying in a comment, I thought I’d blog my response.

There are a number of reasons to plant in the US. First of all, my missions philosophy is “both/and”. Long-term and short-term, overseas and domestic, church planting and pioneer. You get the idea. So, just because I am planting in the US doesn’t mean I won’t be involved in planting overseas.

Another reason to plant in the US is so that we can plant overseas as well. America is a rich country. Let’s tap the financial resource to further the Kingdom across the globe. Also, Americans have a certain mystique in many other nations. If we take Americans to those countries to preach and teach, often the locals will come and listen just because they are Americans. Again, lets use that resource for the furtherance of the Kingdom.

The third reason is that America is a mission field. More and more people are either non-religious or are becoming interested in religions other than Christianity. Also, the cults are continuing to spread themselves so why should we let them go unchallenged?

Finally, I like a challenge. I want to try to figure out how to penetrate a culture that is not interested in being bothered. How can I reach people who are bombarded by mass mailings, telemarketers and have the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons knocking on their doors every other weekend? Many of the people in my area of Southern California commute to work and when they’re home they don’t want to be bothered. They want to go water skiing or hiking Saturday and Sunday and can’t be bothered to go to church. I want to find a way to convince them that it is better, more enjoyable and more worthy to worship the Living God on Sunday with His people than it is to go camping or boating with your family.

Call me insane.

From Apple’s website. When discussing the new fast user switching in the next version of Mac OS X, they say:

Because we can
Mac OS X animates transitions from one user to another. The current desktop becomes a texture placed on a 3D cube that rotates out of view while the incoming account desktop rotates into view on another side of the cube.

I love that header: Because we can. What better reason do they need? I love being an Apple user! :) The only thing that could make it more enjoyable would be Doug Wilson calling it “anabaptistic”.

BTW, as part of my field ed this summer I’m working on an annotated bibliography having to do with church planting. If you have read any church planting books that you found especially helpful, please drop me a comments so I can check them out. Once I’m done with the bibliography, I might publish it on my site. Thanks for your support.

In the most recent issue of Reformation Today is an article on the Old Testament roots of baptism. It is brief but very interesting. I have long held that baptism’s Old Covenant antecedant is not circumcision but I never really had anything to pin it to. Richard Gibson claims that baptism comes from the mikvah or ceremonial washing.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I couldn’t understand how a rite removing a piece of flesh from an eight-day old infant boy could change into a rite involving water. Furthermore, the NT never ties baptism to circumcision but does tie to to other OT events involving water. The passage through the parted Red Sea (1Co 10:2) and Noah’s safe voyage in the ark (1Pt 3:20-21) but not circumcision.

I know that Col 2:11-12 is often cited to establish the link between circumcision and baptism, but it doesn’t. Well, it does but not between OC circumcision and NC baptism but between NC circumcision and NC baptism. OC circumcision, as good as it ever got, could never be said to have been done “without hands” nor was it “the removal of the body of flesh”. If I understand NC circumcision correctly it is regeneration by the Holy Spirit. That fits the Col 2 description pretty well and seems to answer God’s repeated call in the OC to “circumcise your heart”.

On the cover of just about every major paper here in Chicago were pictures of homosexuals celebrating the Supreme Court’s defeat of a Texas anti-sodomy law. You’ve probably seen similar pictures in your local papers.

Have you noticed that they all seem to be men weeping and hugging? I haven’t seen one of two guys high-fiving or belly-bumping or other “typically male” forms of celebration.

Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. – Emo Phillips

I’m in Kansas City at a pre-conference for the EFCA National Conference. Doing this post via the wireless LAN at the conference center. This conference is on multiplying church planting movements. Some interesting discussion. One of the great things that came up was that we have to start with prayer. I know, it sounds obvious but it isn’t always so. Before you start a church planting movement, you need to start a prayer-for-church-planting movement. Organize people to pray, give them some specific prayer items and get praying. Guess where starting that movement starts…

Okay, so I got the job! I am now the 2nd Assistant Team Leader in the Deli. I’m not sure what all the details of the job will be yet, they didn’t have a job description written when I got the job. It includes a pay raise, I know that much. :)