Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

study bible & koran

a new site to help you study the bible & koran together. to "help promote better understanding. "www.bibleandkoran.net
tip turbulentcleric

t-shirt for christmas

it is that time of year that people ask, "what do you want for christmas?" why not geek them out with stuff from the the lifehacker store, which is in a closeout sale.

the story of your stuff

i have been watching this video from "the story of stuff." simply put, it is the life cycle of stuff all the things you buy & re-buy. i've plugged in "consumption" section of the video. partly because it reminds me of our conversations last week. you can watch it in full by going to the website. tip to ariah for the video

what church really wants

thanks to asbo jesus

oh the childhood memories

i love my high school friends. back in the day, i had a great group of friends that has just continued over the years to uplift me in many ways.. one thing we do is get into these email strings that has something to do with our past lives as "jersey boys." today i received another such email that has me in stitches. you might not find it as terribly funny as i, but if you are from the new jersey, tri-state area, then it is a must read (especially the last link).

Last week at lunch the guys I was with started talking about how at the company they worked at before used to rent out a bus, and they would take one day and go skiing for the day.  It got me to thinking of:

A.      I actually used to ski
B.      This sounded similar in scope to the ski trips we used to take in high school
C.      Most of the places in the Poconos were pretty beat to go skiing
D.      I always liked the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge trip the best just because the place was so big
E.      They had this sweet looking amusement park named Action Park that looked like a blast in the summer
F.      Anyone would have had to have been insane to go down that Alpine Slide track that ran under the lift
G.      Wasn't there some sort of looping waterslide down by the lodge?
H.      I wonder what became of Action Park So off I went to research. 

Well I had no idea what I was going to get back, but apparently AP was just a den of injury and death.  I feel like I remember hearing some of the things back then but to go and read them all now is somewhat shocking.  It sounds like something being run in a third world country not right up the turnpike only 15 years ago.  I included two of the better links below if you want some entertaining reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.php?id=235

our subsequent dialogue had me cracking up. but i will refrain from making you read it as it falls under the categories of "you had to be there" or "you'd have to know them."

words from an old friend

i ran across a blog by an old friend from my mountain top days. roman, who lives down in austin texas, served with both my brother and myself on staffs at mountain top. i just loved the man. so i was stoked to get connected to him again. this is his first blog entry on his gleanings from years of youth ministry work.

remembering thomas merton

today is the anniversary date of the passing of thomas merton, or father louis merton. i have been strongly influenced by the gleaning and words of thomas merton over the years. i have spent some time with his community at abbey of gethsemani. today, what i think i remember most partly due to the recent events in colorado, is probably the one quote from his prayer life that i have held onto. this i read in his journals once. it is part of a more complete prayer, but this stuck out to me then and sill walks with me.

"My God, I frankly do not understand Your ways with me."

the gray of just defense, killing someone

i starting going on a ramble over at phil's blog. he was expressing his feelings of gray over defense & pacifism in light of the recent shootings in colorado. i have expressed many times my troubles with pacifism as i understand it. these are some of the thoughts i threw down comment style.

since this isn't all over the news today, which i thought it might be. the guard was a congregation member. she was activated, along with others (i assume) because they had heard of the YWAM shootings earlier in the morning/night. they had an organized security force due to other church violence reasons. so maybe their actions are preventative.

our Augustine relation of just war could be considered here. they didn't go out looking for, this was completely defense oriented. this is simple marks of "just war"

it doesn't make it any easier. someone was hurting that they sought out to hurt others. why couldn't the church help prevent that hurt?

my heart breaks for all that are involved. shooter & the innocent victims of their hurt.

i do not look forward to hearing about various uses of this as an example of why we need loosen gun laws for citizens to protect themselves. i see that only promoting a future where anyone is judge jury & executioner. or maybe we are already there.

to claim a full pacifism is tough. partly because we are so ingrained to protect what is ours. to protect our safety. i thought it eerie that there were all these large gun toting police men around the new life church to give sustained feeling that people are now safe.

can the implement that sustained the terror really be the same implement that brings peace? or is it the hearts of the person that are the difference?

as with any commenting these are never fleshed out thoughts. though, this is somewhat long for a response. so if you have questions or care to take me to task, feel free.

in further "making sense" reading. check out bene diction @ connexions "will arminians loose faith?"

story update: reports are that it was the same gunman in both incidents. after identification it turns out he was enrolled into the ywam program at one point.

i need bigger shirts...

take this peyton.. i'm hitting the gym.. for about 20 minutes. taking thunder with me

oh my gosh!

i am shocked to have come home to find the news of the tragic shootings in colorado. first the early morning shooting at a ywam office. then at new life church in colorado springs. the two are only an hour and half drive apart, so speculation is out there that they are related, there still is not word of that though.. friends talking about the shootings; jason, scott, amy, patti., art, andrew, & phil.

i am just speechless. heart is broken for these brothers & sisters.

off to the source

today i am hanging out at the gbod in "the source" a training day put on by the gbod. this one is a tester to get feedback on how to tweak for better results as they will be going around the nation with it. one of the things with being in nashville. these folks are my friends and i work closely with them on a number of projects. i don't know what it will be like to be in a training environment with them.. maybe i can be tangent king and then critique them for letting me tangent?...

friday five of 5 cars that i have owned

it isn't the revgalsblogpals official friday five. but i am taking after art. a guys friday five.. we love cars.. some more than others

1. first car that i "owned" which is the most legendary in the world of cinnaminson new jersey. is a 1970's lime green ford ltd station wagon. it was huge. we could fit almost 30 teenagers into the car and go out. never needed a party, we drove the party. it had it's personality, for some reason it didn't like to start in the rain. in it's old age (when i was driving it in 92) it didn't even like to start when it was about to rain. my brother and i both drove the car for awhile. classic moment was when we tried four-wheeling with it. it couldn't keep up with the fellow friends 4x4's. try towing a station wagon out of a dug hole. that's an experience. then i think we had to give it up. all were sad.
2. early 80's mustang. these were the not so cool mustangs. had a big old hatchback (which was handy for carting all our junk around). it was my sisters and we drove it while she was at penn state, as she didn't have a parking pass at that time. many times we tried to pack the same amount of people from the station wagon into the small mustang. many good times in that car.
3. 1988 buick century, "old man" brown. this was my dad's work car. i bought it from his company when i graduated high school. not flashy, but i knew who had driven it since it's birth and i know my dad is as gentle to cars as they come. so it was perfect for my impending drives to & from tuscaloosa alabama and new jersey. one of those moments etched in time with me regarding this car.. i was walking with some girl out of class. we came up to my car and she asked "is this your parents car?" my response, a stuttering "no, it's paid for!" she didn't walk with me out of class after that..
4. 1988 bmw 325i.. this again, the sister bailed me out. the buick had served me well for over 7 years and 200,000 miles. alas, the transmission was going. so my sister who had moved with her family out to california said. you can buy my car and drive it down from new jersey. so i took a 27 hour bus ride from nashville to new jersey. slept some, then got in the car and drove back to nashville. the trick was, this car was a stick. i had only driven a stick on and off over my driving career. so i drove 15 hours, some of that through washington dc rush hour, re-learning stick. luckily highway is easy with stick. it's the getting up and going that sucks.
5. 2004 saturn ion.. i don't technically own this one. the bank does. the first car that i have had on an official payment. get's good gas mileage. it is stick, with manual windows. you actually have to us a key to open the door. amazing i know, people still live this way.

honorable mention. '96 ford explorer: inherited from erin for a few months. 79' chevy pick-up truck: my bro and i rebuilt the engine to use for mountain top. did we mention it was camoflauge?

is it any wonder that i don't have one of those guy pictures standing next to their cars?

cute alert!

cute alert everyone. my mom sent me this. it is my niece in what i assume as cast picture. she is one of the angels in the nutcracker down in birmingham. erin & i will be traveling down there next saturday for the show with the rest of the family.

little niece is quite the dancer, as was her mother. i don't know anything but i've seen her do the little poses and jump around, which i thought looked great. erin says she's really good for her age. when she was younger she amazed erin with some of her abilities.

anyways. little girl, in angel outfit. too cute not to share.

getting past the mundane to extraordinary

if you are like me, you need this.. tip jonny & bob

cohort revisited

in thinking of yesterday's cohort. i was reminded of this talk by malcolm gladwell @ ted conference. in looking around the internet. i also found this video of tyler sharing some of the similar thoughts we discussed yesterday
on channel 5 ethics daily.

any golfer in the house?

in the past month i have received two issues of golf magazine. a subscription i have not had since high school (yes, hs golf was one of my sports). my first thought was that my mom decided to buy a subscription for me. this has yet to be confirmed. in asking the wifey, her thoughts were that it came with the edwin watts preferred member shop too much there club that i signed up for a few months back when i picked up some new equipment for us. we cannot confirm that suspicion either. any golfers out there have an idea?

friday in the blogosphere

some things that i find myself reading/watching today in the blogosphere.

• bob is talking about romney's recent spirituality speech. will has the video for those that missed.
• this guy thinks that i-35 is the next rapture revival is going to happen. tip to nate
• cute puppy, wait! that's a coyote. tip dogblogger
• igor larionov sells wine?
• unhealthy eating habits of bloggers, courtesy of problogger (guilty as charged)
• trying to attract some younger clergy?
• map of all the megachurches in the usa. interesting yet predictable. tip john
• cliff guy decided to immerse himself in hanna montana last night (he lived, we are grateful)
  
• who knew that brian mclaren looked like barry gibb, with a good boy haircut? i sure didn't
• for those insane decoration neighbors.
• phil asks to help a brother out. (crazy story)
• sci-fi channel is going to make "the running man" and actual show. (i hope they keep jessie the body retired this time) tip thunder
• us local folks are talking coffee elitism

cohort thursday

the first thursday of the month generally is nashville cohort day. last month we spent time with will samson which was super cool and i am still pondering some of his gleanings. this month we had tyler wigg stephenson speak and lead discussion on some of the premises within his book "brand jesus." more challenging thoughts. jason does a great recap. i have some 38 minutes of the conversation on my primitive voice recorder (it is digital, but not the likes that connects to a computer, so i have to set up an elaborate system of microphone to computer to transfer. the quality is good so we will post it later). good times

for other fine reading. why not try out 'what would Jesus buy' by becky garrison or walter brueggemann.

they like jesus but not the church

this is a nice capsule video of dan kimball's book, "they like Jesus but not the church." i've been reading through it. it's a good read, but is lost in my multiple book disorder at the moment. it a critical for those of us who find themselves so surrounded by the church walls and christian culture. the video is actually for a dvd study & practice as a group. tip to len

nbc and emerging church

you may have seen that the emerging church had an article done on it earlier this week on the nbc nightly news. this has generated a lot of buzz. i think adam has a great critique. not to mention a bit of research that shows that the church they called "emerging" does not even consider itself emerging.

anybody shift conference

i am particularly interested in going to this years shift conference (youth ministry conference put on by willow creek). the general speakers i have all heard or read. but mostly i want to go and check out something that i probably won't agree entirely with. a challenge to myself i guess. for those that are going or have been, care to encourage me? scott mcknight is able to give out a $50 discount for his blog readers.. so that's a start.

my geekness

sports apple photo ex-linux podcast travel outdoor book fantasy football geek geek
thanks john

nashville be knowledgable

last month i heard about mountain top removal as a method for gathering coal to fulfill our energy needs from will.  essentially this is someone's brilliant idea that, instead of mining for coal resources, we will just blow the tops off of mountains to get to the coal. which, as you might imagine, changes the landscape. here today, gone tomorrow. anyway, will links to a site (www.ilovemountains.org) that will tell you where your coal connection comes from. sad to know that ours comes from a mountain top mound in kentucky.

i'd suggest everyone get to know a little more about where their energy comes from. and if you are one of those people that enjoys mountain views or scenic drives.. i might suggest you sign up to help make a break from mountain top removal. not to mention, lower your carbon consumption.

john breaks big news

big ups to john for breaking such big news. &:~)

hear this all the time

i don't know about you, but i hear this all the time. courtesy of asbo jesus

tuesday randomness

just some random things..

• apparently the methoblogosphere is not controversial enough to garner this attention
• mitch has some thoughts on the divide of traditional and digital marketing
• a mom harasses a girl over myspace that commits suicide, and doesn't feel responsible
• don't say any christmas cliche to her
• what every nashvillian should know before moving to town
• you might be a youth minister if... list
• take that cell phone!!
• now if only the church had money like brad pitt.. wait, maybe they do.. certainly the government does

who knew i sang at a bar

yeah, who knew i sang at a bar.. or maybe it is my semi-alter-ego gavin richardson. it is alter-ego's birthday today, which is kinda odd to see gavin richardson listed under facebook birthdays when i know it is not my birthday..
 

props to a young person

i received an email this morning from one of my pastor friends that her daughter jill was featured in a tennessean article on small colleges. i met with jill when she was a senior in high school to start one of these youth minister & youth friendship. we talked about applying for scholarships and colleges. i remember the conversation pretty well because i had given some advice that i was struggling with myself. jill is the kind of person who will just go over to an old ladies house to hang with them, volunteer at a shelter or kids community center, will be the first in the door at the church to help in the mission of the church. this is just who she was, she didn't see it as something unusual that belonged on a resume, letter, or application. so i shared that writing these things down for others to know is not a bragging, but just a glimpse of who you are and how you operate. she was able to get some scholarships to martin methodist college shortly after that and in the following years has a continued list of Christian service (becoming a part of the mountain top summer staff family as well).

A naturally shy student, Williams said professors and administrators started pushing her to speak up — and now she's student body president.

"I was kind of pulled out of my shell, but I was nurtured as a leader, and as a person and as a student," Williams said. "It was easier for me to not fall through the cracks."

jill, i am honored to know you & your family. i look forward to seeing the great things your life will bring to the Kingdom of God.

who needs college football spiritual direction

there seems to be much unrest in the blogosphere with the recent bowl championship series. for those that need to talk, i am here as your football spiritual director. share you story i will try to help you see where God is moving within your team. jim, i think we need to sit down together.

&:~)

slick methodists

who knew us methodists were so slick with the pick up lines. this has been good for a solid laugh... though non-methodist friends might not get all the lines. sorry

end of season gavin poll rankings

since we continue to be as much experts as anyone else. here is our top ten ranking.

1. USC (they have all their hurt folks back, play solid ball & they won the pac 10, which has had the most consistent top 25 teams)
2. LSU (still explosive just beat up now. give them four weeks to recover and prepare they will kick butt like they did earlier in the season. they score points and i want to see dorsey on the main stage and healthy)
3. Oklahoma (they more than anyone seems to impose their will on a team, but i think they are one year away from truly dominating)
4. Georgia (knowshon moreno is a studd and will carry the offense past stafford's passing out of control cannon arm. defense is solid and can get into any backfield.)
5. Ohio State (i think they are large and lumbering, took care of most of their business, but the big 10 is down and they didn't dominate like last year and still couldn't compete in the end then. plus scheduling three cupcakes doesn't constitute a tough schedule with a lacking conference schedule)
6. Virginia Tech (i would never want to play a virginia tech that is coming into it's own. beamer ball and special teams wins big games)
7. West Virginia (they got caught looking ahead in a rival game. that may be the cardinal sin. but the spread is the future and everyone wants a pat white. give him time to recover and some practice time to put in a few new spread tricks they will roll all over an opponent. if they choose to wear the all yellow they are to be automatically pulled out of the top 25)
8. Florida (they might be the best three loss team ever. if someone wants to play florida i would say that that person wishes to commit suicide. did you see how a month of prep for urban meyer worked last year? did the same with utah in 2004.)
9. Kansas (i still think they are quality. never thought they were championship material, but a no name roster can still get the job done)
10. Missouri/Tennessee/Arizona State (why the heck not, at this point it doesn't matter. tennessee has gotten all the lucky breaks in their wins this season, so they probably will continue. if you give them a decent bowl they will actually show up. i like chase daniel, never thought mizzo were number one, but most didn't. they still have players. arizona state might not win against a top ten team, but that quarterback of theirs is a player. bowl games generally are not decided over defense so a potent offense, which they have would help them.)

so my bcs bowl scenarios..

bcs championship game - usc vs lsu (usc wins)
rose bowl - ohio state vs florida (florida wins)
sugar bowl - georgia vs west virgina (georgia wins)
fiesta bowl - kansas vs arizona stat / tennessee (kansas wins)
orange bowl - oklahoma vs virginia tech (oklahoma wins)

i don't know if it will break down this way.. but it should.

update: so rankings are starting to come out. the ap poll has osu as number 1. predictable, what is shocking to me is that they garnered 50 first place votes in one day without ever playing a game. to me that just seems wrong.

dirty santa question

at what point did the gift giving of Christmas become a dirty santa experience? we have over seven dirty santa Christmas parties.. honestly, it was a cool way to do Christmas when we had one of those a season. i was never that successful of a gift giver, but i sure like trying to think of people and find something that they would really appreciate or use.

update: first ds party down. i came away with an itunes gift card. not flashy, but it works. erin has a gift certificate to some boutique. the goal was actually to get a gift that we could potentially re-gift. both are potential. our gifts, a candle with 10 bucks was a hot swap. our other gift, was intriguing, but did not get too much play.