Just a word for my six readers out there, between transforming a warehouse into a worship space and preparing to lead a mission trip to Cincinnati next week I will be on a blogging hiatus for a week and a half or so. But I will return with a vengance or something like that.

Peace-
Greg

This week I continued my preaching series on Kingdom Math. This week it was faith.

I just wanted to give a shout out to my Nazarene peeps for a great day in our denomination yesterday. Two new General Superintendents (our bishops, we have 6 of them) were elected yesterday and for the first time we elected a GS from outside of North America. Eugenio Duarte who has served over the African region for a number of years and is from the Cape Verde Islands, was elected in the first election yesterday. By all accounts he is a pretty extraordinary individual, speaks 5 languages, and brings a new perspective and a whole different set of life experiences to the church. 60 % of Nazarenes live outside of North America, so we were way overdue to have an international GS. This is a great thing. When he was elected a delegation from Africa began to celebrate and dance and picked up Duarte and danced with him on their shoulders. I can think of nothing better for our church.

The other election resulted in Dr. John C. Bowling president of Olivet Nazarene University being elected. In many ways Dr. Bowling fits the typical mold of GS. He is an upperclass, midwestern, white man who has served as a leader in both Nazarene schools and some of the large and well known Nazarene churches. But Dr. Bowling is more than a stereotype. He is a very well educated and accomplished leader. He actually turned down his election four years ago to remain at Olivet. He will serve the church well I have no doubt.

So there is one more election left. The front runners are not known to me, but I will be in prayer today, along with many around the world, that God indeed will raise up the leadership our denomination needs so desperately.

So many different things going on in my mind today, I am in full on project management crunch time doing a thousand things at once mode. Seems too much to stop and write anything lengthy about a subject so today is a shotgun approach. Here we go.

We celebrated my brother in-laws birthday Saturday with two hours of Whirly Ball. If you have never played, whirly ball is a mix of jai-lai, bumper cars, and hockey. It is amazing. It is a bone jarring collision course of ridiculous fun. If you come out to Chicago to hang out, we will definitely go.

Here is Death Cab for Cutie playing Whirly Ball

Church was absolutely rocking yesterday. The band was on fire, people had great energy, and lives were impacted. On days like that you simply appreciate what God is doing. I was reminded last night, however, that we shouldn’t be disappointed when every Sunday isn’t like that. God is present in the routine, in the every day, in the every moment. We have powerful worship experiences to energize us and encourage us for the routine of our lives. So thanls for the pick me up yesterday Lord, we really needed it.

The more I think about it, the more perplexed I get that the Wizards sold their second round draft pick instead of taking DeJuan Blair. Who are we going to sign for under a million dollars who can rebound like this guy?

Another on bites the dust. Good bye Billy Mays! I listened to your advice and bought the Oxiclean, but it never worked quite like I expected. It’s all good, I never held that against you. What is the best Billy Mays hyped product? Anyone have a personal favorite that they have ever used?

On this week’s episode of CSI: Vatican the  Vatican did scientific analysis on what are believed to be the bones of St. Paul! That is crazy in a wow they actually went through the trouble to show these were some seriously old bones way. They say that the evidence is now clear that these are St. Paul’s remains, and I have no evidence to the contrary, but in all honesty, I don’t really care if we know where Paul’s bones are our not. The whole thing is cool, but mostly lost on me. If Grissom told me they were St. Paul’s bones though, I would believe him.

We are making some progress with our new building. This week we are building a stage, priming all the walls, doing some more cleaning, and picking out some paint colors. We definitely need some help figuring out the acoustics side of things, however. Anyone out there have soundproofing advice that doesn’t involve a wall of carpet or egg cartons?

Finally,if you want to see an someone’s interesting take on the same sex marriage debate, check out this graphic.

Alright, I am off to change the world, have a good Monday.

Tonight is absolutely one of my favorite nights of the year, NBA Draft Night! I know that I am one of 13 NBA fans left, but I don’t care. I absolutely love the NBA Draft, it gives me goose bumps. I love the ridiculous suits that these elongated humans wear in front of millions of people. I love Jay Bilas constantly talking about how long people are. I love the Knicks fans getting fired up about anything involving their team. I love it all. So in honor of this great day, here are my predictions for tonight.

1. Clippers – Blake Griffin – Sorry Blake the next 5 years of your life are going to stink, but at least you can be the feature of a bunch of career redemption stories in 5 years when you sign on with the San Antonio Spurs
2. Memphis – Trades Pick to Minnesota for #5 pick, # 18 pick, Craig Smith and some left over Garnett jerseys – Minnesota takes Ricky Rubio
3. OKC – Hasheem Thabeet – They rescinded the trade for Tyson Chandler, now they take Tyson – lite
4. Sacramento – Tyreke Evans – Desperate for a point guard they draft a pseudo- point guard who can’t really shoot or finish at the rim, but he have, wait for it, wait for it, length!
5. Minnesota – Traded to Memphis – Memphis takes James Harden, who unfortunately spends the next 5 years watching OJ Mayo throw up off balance jumpers from a foot inside the three point line
6. Minnesota – Stephen Curry – Minnesota pulls off their backcourt of the future by pairing a skinny 18 year old Spaniard with a skinny, looks 18 year old small college bomber
7. Golden State – Jordan Hill – This likely means the departure of Brandan Wright from GSW, so he should love this pick
8. Knicks – With Curry and Hill gone, the Knicks roll the dice with super skinny, super quick, a little too high on himself Brandon Jennings – this strangely will make two straight years the Knicks have drafted someone out of the Italian leagues
9. Raptors – reports have the Raptors high on USC swingman DeMarcus DeRozan, but I Dethink he is Debad shooter and Debad passer and Debad rebounder, oh well, Toronto is a mess anyways, let’s call it DeRozan
10. Bucks – With Ramon Sessions likely to leave via free agency the Buck need to draft someone good enough to make sure Luke Ridnour stays on the pine, Jonny Flynn, you are that man!
11. Nets – The Nets have been linked to a bunch of different players from Blair to Hansbrough to Williams, but I think Terrance Williams wins the day and brings his impressive and enigmatic game (along with his Barbie backpack, seriously read up on this guy) to exit 16 W off the turnpike
12. Charlotte – With Michael calling the shots you just have no idea how the Bobcats will blow this one, but logic says they try to get a 2 guard and Henderson from Duke is the best available. He is a crazy athlete and can really defend. I am not sure how Mike feels about drafting a Dookie, but he is probably playing golf somewhere and doesn’t even know the draft is tonight.
13. Pacers – TJ Ford, Jarret Jack, Jamall Tinsley – What do these three guys have in common? Well all of them are just good enough to get you in the lottery so Tinsley has been exiled, Jack will leave via free agency and TJ will be the place holder for a season or two for new point guard Jrue Holiday.
14. Suns – With trading away Shaq this morning, at least the Suns aren’t pretending they are contenders anymore. That way they can draft on potential. Earl Clark has more potential than anyone left and his ability to rebound and run the break with Steve Nash gives them a presence they haven’t had since they traded Shawn Marion away.
15. Pistons – Detroit is reloading and trying to find a frontcourt, so expect them to go big with this pick. They already have DeJuan Blair senior (Jason Maxwell) on their roster so expect them to go with more, wait for it, wait for it, length by drafting James Johnson from Wake Forest. Austin Day has more height, but the dude is skinnier than Tayshaun and that is saying something.
16. Bulls – The Bulls have length but no girth so look for the toughness pick here with DeJaun Blair. Put him next to Noah and his height isn’t an issue. Those two could really control the boards together.
17. Sixers – Uncertainty around Andre Miller will make them want a PG – they have to choose between the polished Eric Maynor and the erratic Jeff Teague. With Eddie Jordan on board I am betting Maynor gets the nod
18. Memphis– with this pick from Minnesota they go for more size here and the only big man with potential left on the board is BJ Mullens out of Ohio State.
19. ATL – For some reason Atlanta just traded for the most selfish player in the NBA Jamal Crawford. They also gave away draft bust Acie Law, so they need a pg to feed the rock to Crawford and Joe Johnson. Have fun with that Jeff Teague
20. Utah – We all know that Mormons love white people. Who is whiter than Tyler Hansbrough?
21. New Orleans – The Hornets need some major help, unfortunately, they won’t get it here. But they do get some great value for the 21^st pick with Austin Day from Gonzaga. Dude can really shoot; too bad he weighs the same as the average starting power forward on a middle school girls basketball team.
22. Portland – Portland trade three picks to move up two spots. The only reason to do that is to draft some foreign guy, so Omri Casspi, whoever you are, you are that man! But with Ty Lawson sliding down the draft board they go with the proven commodity.
23. Sacramento – The Kings are really bad, they need serious help, they don’t need a rookie. So they draft Sam Young from Pitt who is a real banger, but he is older than Andre Blatche of the Wizards who is starting his 6^th season in the league. When Rubio is his age he will have been playing professionally for 10 years. Awesome.
24. Dallas – Dallas gets a couple of free 2^nd rounders to move back two spots and draft a guy, Chase Bundinger, who would have been a lottery pick two years ago, so it all evens out
25. OKC – Doesn’t need another rookie, I think they move this pick to someone who wants to get their hands on the rights to Nick Calathes who will play in Greece for the next year or Omar Casspi. Portland perhaps? That seems like a Pritchard special and I think he goes with Calathes.
26. Chicago – This is the point of the first round where teams are trying to stash players in Europe or are selling their picks. The Bulls do neither, they grab a cheaper, less gifted Ben Gordon clone names Toney Douglas
27. Memphis – don’t need three rookies so they grab a foreign player to stash – Nick Calathes – You are that man!
28. Minnesota – Hey guess who doesn’t need anymore rookies? If you said Minnesota, you were wrong. They go for the best available here and nab Darren Collinson of UCLA, but wait others teams want him more and Dallas or Portland swoops in and trades for this pick
29. Lakers – Lakers aren’t going to play a rookie, so why pay a rookie. They sell this pick to someone, maybe San Antonio, and that team drafts PG Patrick Mills
30. Cleveland – The Cavs are excited that a steal in G-town big man Dejaun Summers who can really shoot the ball is waiting for them at the end of the first round. He is the kind of guy who could actually guard Rashard Lewis, imagine that!

    I won’t do a mock of the 2^nd Round, but since the Wiz traded out of the first round I have to talk about pick #32 with which they really need a back up power forward. Thankfully in this draft there is great value at the top of the second round and they can get their hands on either DeMarre Carroll, Derrick Brown, Taj Gibson or John Pendergraff. Couple this pick with a free agent signing of a serviceable big man, maybe Chris Wilcox or using the mid-level on one of the Celtics restricted guys in Big Baby or Leon Powe and the Wizards may actually win 45 – 50 games next year.

Happy NBA Draft everyone!

Could this issue be any more clear for us now? Homosexuality isn’t killing the American home, Heterosexuality is!

First there is the ridiculousness of Jon and Kate. What started out as a cute show about how a normal family tries to handle having 8 young children became an exercise at pimping out a family to gain fame and fortune. Now of course their marriage is over. They of course have been hailed as great examples for Christian families everywhere. Guess what, whether or not you proclaim Jesus as Lord, if you chase money and fame and love of self in your marriage, it will absolutely fail.

Then there was Nevada Senator John Ensign admitting to an affair. He of course was being hailed as a great conservator leader and a real darling of the GOP.

Now there is the bizarre news today, from South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association and potential 2012 Presidential nominee, that he too had an affair. Sanford really dug himself a huge hole on this one by lying to his staff and the state about where he was and hopping a plane to Argentina to conduct his affair. Don’t tell people you are hiking the AT and then go to Argentina if you want to be governor. As a matter of fact, if you are married and love your spouse don’t do it at all!

Everywhere we look conservative leaders and even Christian in the public spotlight are showing why marriages are failing in our country. It is not because of the debate over homosexual rights and marriage, it is because we do not take seriously how hard it is to be married. We aren’t in our marriages to last. We are in them as a matter of personal convenience. We choose to be together so long as it suits us. Until we set aside our pursuit of self indulgence, fame, money, and a lack of maturity and exemplify the servant life of Christ in our marriages, they will continue to fail inside and outside of the church at an astonishing rate. It almost begs the question as to why the homosexual community is fighting so hard for the right to be married, especially when so many of us just don’t seem to care that we have the ability to anyways.

One of my favorite sites I have found recently is New Math by Craig Damrauer. New Math simply takes ideas and expresses them in mathematical equations. Such as this….

I recommend looking through the site because there are some really interesting equations given. There are varying levels of commentary embedded within them. This got my brain to thinking and I came up with a new sermon series called Kingdom Math. We already know that God’s ideas in the Kingdom of God are completely upside down compared to the kingdoms of this world (or more accurately God’s are right side up and ours are upside down). So I thought it would be fun to come up with some equations of my own.

My Kingdom Math for this week is ….

Next Steps

We were very excited to sign our lease on our new building on Friday. Now we have a month to get it transformed and to ready it for worship. Tonight we are starting the cleaning and building phase. Should be fun. Here are some images of the building.

So if you aren’t busy and have some time to come and clean, help build a stage, do some serious painting or just want to check it out, come and join us at Pioneer Lumber and lend a hand. First Sunday worshiping in our new building is July 19, 2009 at

According to the U.N. there are now over 1 billion people in the world who are hungry each day. The financial crisis around the globe has added over 100 million people to the list of the daily hungry around the globe.

That is one in six or one in seven people in the world who doesn’t have enought to eat each day. A disproportionate number of those are children and women. Amazingly, as I read a number of newspapers today, this headline was tucked down below the movie reviews and news about the rainout at the US Open.

The article said, “A hungry world is a dangerous world,” Sheeran said. “Without food, people have only three options: They riot, they emigrate or they die. None of these are acceptable options.”

That is a great line to conider. A hungry world is a dangerous world. If nothing else, as we sit down to our plentiful meals three times a day we shoudl at least remember the billion people around the world who simply won’t have that privilege today. If nothing else let’s be reminded of our plenty and maybe if we remind ourselves enough times, we will actually be willing to bless those who need it out of our plenty.

Later this summer I am going to do a movie sermon series that will search for teachable moments in movies that have come out in the last year or so.

I have been racking my brain trying to come up with teachable moments in movies I have seen this year. Thus far some ideas I have are to use some of the following.

Movies I have some idea of how to use

The Dark Knight

Wall-E

Gran Torino

Seven Pounds

Madagascar 2

Iron Man

Movies I haven’t seen but seem like they may have moments

Slumdog Millionare

Yes Man

Frost/Nixon

Do you have any suggestions of movies and or teachable moments from any of the movies I have listed. This is your chance to shape worship! I need movies that are out on video so that I can actually show a clip. I would love the help.

Quick Thoughts from the Weekend

No big surprises last night from the Lakers and Magic. They Magic lost this game when Derrick Fisher hit that three to tie game 4. There spirits never recovered after that. We did learn some things during the series however.

- D12 needs some post moves big time, but there is great hope because he is only 23

- Kobe is much more likable as a player when he passes the ball

- Phil Jackson seems to be aging in dog years

- The biggest deadline deal to affect the playoffs was last year when the Magic gave away Ariza to the Lakers for pocket change

- Hedo Turkoglu and HD do not mix

Went to the lake on Friday. It was 65 degrees with a good breeze. People were in bathing suits and bikinis. My wife was cold with a jacket on. Strange reality.

Watched Benjamin Button, it was slow, somewhat interesting, somewhat creepy, and I have no idea why it was set during the middle of Hurricane Katrina. That was by far the strangest part of the movie, weirder than someone growing younger, seriously.

I found my jumpshot last week, turns out it was hidden right behind I really need to lose some weight. I knew it was there all along.

Poison Ivy and Sin

There has been a lot of itching and scratching and calamine lotion at our house. Gretchen and I both got a decent case of poison ivy cleaning up the backyard last week. Gretchen is especially susceptible to it. All this itching and scratching has me thinking about the spiritual realities of poison ivy.

Poison Ivy is a lot like sin. Sometimes you are simply out taking care of business, cleaning, walking through the woods, or playing with your kids and you come into direct contact with something sinful. You may not even realize it at first. You have been warned, “leaves of three let it be”, but in the hustle of life you simply didn’t notice.

It is easy for that sin to begin to take hold and become a distraction. If you realize it fast enough, you can wash the irritant right off your skin and recover quickly. But if it allowed to linger, if you scratch it, if you let it spread and fester, it can dominate your life. Pretty soon you are up all night and the only thing you can think about is the flame in your arm and how badly you want to scratch it.

That is why I love the practice of confession so much. If we are intentional about regularly washing away the oils of sin from our skin, then we don’t let it take hold. But too often we ignore it, or think it will go away, and then the process of rooting it out of our lives is lenghthy, painful, and expensive. Confession is so good for the soul.

These are the things you think about when poison ivy keeps you up at night.

Have a good one.