A Creative Collaboration

I promise this will be my last Dylan blog...for awhile. But I ran across this today and thought it was pretty creative. Bob Dylan will promote your message for you if you promote his album for him. Enjoy...or not.

-Josh

A Great Opportunity For Crew

Hey guys! Great news! I just got an email this morning from a deposed king from Nigeria who has just recently became a Christian. He somehow (God's sovereignty) stumbled upon Crew's website. He is, get this, going to give us 62 million dollars. All he needs is our accounting information and passwords to wire it into our account. Praise God!!!

Bob Dylan and Other Cool Things

I'm back the day after my first Bob Dylan concert. I drove to Louisville, KY yesterday with a great friend Mark McKee to see the man whose music I've been consumed by for over a year. As a side I figured Mark was actually going with me just because he likes concerts and concert T-shirts, but discovered that he IS a fan. Thanks again Mark for a great trip!

I've always kind of like Dylan, but really only knew his popular stuff (i.e. Like a Rolling Stone, Rainy Day Women, Lay Lady Lay, etc.). But about this time last year I watched Martin Scorcese's documentary "No Direction Home" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Direction_Home).



I loved the music. So I got the soundtrack. I was hooked and, as Sarah can tell you, have listened to that 2 CD set a million times. This spun me off into reading a little about Dylan and discovering his music more broadly. I'm still hooked and it seemed the natural next step to actually go see Dylan in concert. So there you go. I won't bore you with a musical analysis or his poetic value or as I get asked constantly, "Is Bob Dylan a Christian?"

What I will write about is what I think is cool and I wonder why. Maybe you can give me insights into my own warped mind and psyche and soul.

Let me give you a few snapshots of my history of what I think is cool:

1. Any Barboursville Junior High/High School athlete who was a teenager from about 1985-1990 is cool. Probably has to do with my age, but people like Craig Jefferey, Shad Herrenkohl, Sean Rucker, Brandon Simpson, and more were cool icon's to me at an early age. Very few of you know who these people are. But I am very much the type of personality that I am today because of these guys. Pretty scary I know.

2. I think smoking is cool. I think it looks cool, smells cool, sounds cool. And if it wasn't bad for my health I would smoke. I'll even take it one step further. This is going to sound kind of stupid. If I live to be about 70, maybe 65, I think I'll probably start smoking. How much damage can smoking do in 10 years and when you're 80 you're getting close anyhow, right?



3. I think being a jake (shirt tail out, hair messed up, shoe untied, etc) is cool. This isn't really original. I think not caring about your appearance has always been compelling to people. I remember pulling this off pretty well ever since about sophmore year of high school. I typically don't comb my hair, match my clothes, etc, unless in a formal semi formal setting. I'm dead wrong on this because it is so wide spread, but I think I invented the half tuck. I remember playing basketball with khaki pants and a t shirt in gym one day and after going to the bath room and seeing that my shirt had come half untucked, I really liked that look. No one that I knew of was doing that. So I purposely started tucking only part of my shirt in. That is every where now. Either I invented it or this is a natural discovery of all adolescent boys in my generation.

Therefore, I think that's why I like Bob Dylan. And I think it's because he wraps up 1-3 in a nutshell. He smokes, doesn't care what people think, isn't the most talented singer but has charisma and found his niche.



Now, dissect THAT you arm chair psychologists out there who read my blog. I've bared the cool part of my soul. Kind of scary.

Trip Back To Momma (Part Last: Friday-Sat)

This was the worst day of the trip and the day I was grouchy.

7am-3pm: I had nothing to do this day and no apparent reason to be there. But because I pricelined my flight I didn't go home until 8pm. So I piggybacked on Bruno's remodeling job all day. I painted for several hours, made about 10 Home Depot trips, and silently reaffirmed my hatred for home repair. But I loudly reaffirmed my love for Bruno.

3pm-6pm: Cleaned up, ate dinner, packed, prayed, said goodbye to my friends. I love you guys and thank you so much for the unbelievable hospitality and love you gushed on me.

6pm-8:30pm: Checked in, sat in the airport Chili's and watched the Yankees lose!!!! I hate the Yankees.

8:30pm-6:30am: Flew to C-Bus, got my car, drove home to H-town. Fell asleep about 5:30am.

7am-11am: Sarah woke me up to move some things for this 400 home garage sell that happens twice a year in our subdivision. We made 300 bucks by the way.

11am-3pm: My dad came and rescued me and took the kids for the day while I slept until about 3pm and that's basically it.

I preached at a worship gathering Sat. night that I have much to say about, but I'm tired of blogging. So if you care, just ask me about it.

The saga ends!

My Trip Back To Momma (Part 4: Thursday)

Well, I took a break from posting my trip. But I'm back and I'll get caught up.

First, though, I have had several email comments about these blogs. And while I'm glad you like my posts and you're reading them. I want to challenge you to post your emails as comments so others can read it.

Ok, let me see if I remember what happened as far back as Thursday.

Around 6:00am: I woke up and started praying a little. I fell asleep every few minutes and would wake up and pick up where I left off every few minutes. You ever do that? I got through praying for my family.

6:30am: 5 year old Guiseppe Giamba opened my bedroom door with a buddy of his who'd been dropped off to get a ride to school with the Giambas. He peeked in with his buddy and said, "There he is." I got up like a monster and growled and started after them.

6:30am-9am: Did the morning thing. Doing this journal has made me realize how much of our life is spent brushing our teeth, shaving, showering, and all of that. Also I've realized that God has made us to be unconsious for like a third of our life. I don't know what to do with that. I also ate again, called the family, and hitched a ride to Dallas Seminary for day 2.

9am-10:30am: Back to the library computer room where I shot out all of the Crew admin documents I do every week. I said hi to a gal who was I think a student my whole time in the program and I've been gone 3 years so she's on at least year 7. She was one of these folks that I never really talked to much, not because I don't like her or anything like that. I just never had much of an opportunity. You know, passed her on campus from time to time, you say hi. I thought about asking her what she was still doing here and what her name was and all of that, but I didn't. Do you think I should have?

10:30am-12:30pm: I went over to the next round of church planting vision casting. Much of the same principles, but my approach was different. I went the route of don't waste your life doing things half way. When I wanted to get married. I found the girl who loved Jesus more than anything else (including me) and was smoking hot. When I wanted to go to seminary I wanted to go to the best so I went to DTS. I don't say DTS is the best because I went there I went there because I honestly think it's the best. If there was a better one I'd have gone there. When I thought of how to spend my life for God I wanted to do the most effective and efficient and God glorifying ministry out there. So, I did church planting with the EFCA. That was my hook on Thursday.

12:30pm-3:00pm: Blogged, worked on coming Sunday's message. Bruno called to say he's coming to pick up. As I walked out of the library by this giant globe they have in there, I spun it real hard. I always do that.

3:00pm-5:00pm: Bruno picked me up and at the last sight of Swiss Tower in the rear view mirror, I thanked God once again for Dallas seminary. Spent the next few hours at the house of a pilot for American Airlines. Bruno is a contractor and he's doing an addition on this guys house. The pilot was there and I picked his brain on the life of a pilot and what that looks like. He was talking about how the money wasn't as good as most people thought and said, "The day of the 300K/year pilot is over." I know, that just breaks your heart. He probably only makes like 200K now. I told Bruno he shouldn't charge labor as a ministry to the guy ;) I'm teasing. He was a really nice a guy.

5:00pm-12pm: My evening plans got cancelled. So Bruno and I and the family watched baseball, talked a lot, wrestled with the kids, and hung out my last night. Boring to read maybe, but I had a blast.

Such drama...

My Trip Back To See Momma (Part 3: Wednesday)

Well, another day in the books for your review. Pretty great day all in all.

7am: Up and ready to go. Do a little breakfast and call to the family.

8:30-10am: It is pouring the rain. I mean dumping it. Large drops, lightning and thunder. Bruno, my chauffeur, is a complete spaz and takes about 3 times as long to get to the school. I'm teasing you Bruno, so relax. I make it into the student center and make contact with EFCA big shot Bob Rowley and we talk about the day ahead.

10am-10:30am: I get to see a mentor and great friend of mine named Aubrey Malphurs (www.malphursgroup.com). Crew is very much the church it is today and I am very much the leader I am today because of the hours of time over coffee and in the class room we spent together. He hosted us in his leadership class that every student fortunately has to take. We talked about church planting and fielded Q and A. By the way Aubrey gushed over you guys as a church. I didn't realize this, but he has showed our Crew videos that you've produced and starred in to the students in order to motivate them as leaders of a great commission mindset. He follows us in our local paper. He loves what Crew is about and I was so proud to be a part of our church. Stay at it guys.

10:30am-11:30am: Went to DTS chapel where the singing is unbelievable. It's structured like a huge barn and it's mostly men, but man does it sound great in there. Very loud and passionate and they almost always sing hymns. Tears came. Nothing like it to this hopeless romantic. They introduced me and allowed me to share a word or two about what we were doing on campus and invite everyone to our lunch.

11:30am-12:30am: I vision casted the EFCA church planting movement of which Crew is a part of. Essentially this is what's going on. They have corralled around 50-75 potential church planters into a room to eat pizza and talk about our movement. Then they give me about 10 minutes to be the satisfied poster child of why EFCA church planting is great. So, I started my comments like this: If you do church planting with the EFCA then you'll lose wait, grow 3 inches, you're teeth will get whiter, and sex will never be better. The hook was in!

12:30am-2pm: Called beautiful Sarah. Got some time in the library to pray and work on my talk this weekend. I'm loving this talk by the way.

2pm-4pm: Wrote that load of blogs I posted yesterday. That had to be some kind of record and answered some email.

4pm-10pm: Went out with a bunch of great guys that I used to run around with. Many of them I worked with as well. An unbelievable night of sharing and hearing what God's doing. Good stuff.

10pm-11pm: Crashed on the couch watching the playoffs with Bruno. Fell asleep on the couch and stumbled to bed at some point in the middle of the night.

Great day or what?

Remembering Things....Some I Didn't Expect

Ok, I've been hear in Dallas for almost 2 days. I'm hear to talk and think about the future. But heart and my mind is being drawn back in time. I'm constantly running in to things, places, sounds, smells, weather, and people that take me back to a four year stretch of time that seems a million years ago in a galaxy far far away.

I remember that Dallas is rich. There are Porches, BMW's, Mercedes, Ferrari's everywhere in this town.

I remember that I too use to whip in and out of bumper to bumper traffic at 80 mph on 75 north, while writing something down and looking in the back seat running my mouth. My mom hated driving with me in Dallas. I remembered why.

I remember that I hate the Cowboys.

I remember that it's hot here.

I remember that it rains hard here.

I remember that chill that runs up my back every time I see the DTS campus with that sign saying PREACH THE WORD. I remember I'm responsible to do that.

Here's what I else I remember that I didn't expect to remember and yet these are the memories that flooded in from nowhere and caused me to tear up every time. And this is to Sarah mostly:

I drove by Ivanhoe Apartments where we first lived. I remember our car getting mistakenly towed our first night there. I remember two people got murdered for about 50 bucks right outside our door. I remember moving a month later!!!

I drove by a street---Oh no, not Larmanda.

Look that's Thanksgiving Tower with the Blue stripe across the top at night. Sarah worked there.

Oh, there's that golf course I ran by at 2am one night.

There's the bench that Sarah and 1 year old Danny used to wait for me after my preaching classes to see how I did and to give me a kiss before I went to work.

There 802 Swiss Tower over looking the Cotton Bowl.

There's Baylor Hospital where the Jack Hammer was born.

There's the path I sprinted through from the Campbell Center to Swiss Tower. I'll never forget sitting in Old Testament Prophets when a secretary brought a note to Dr. Constable. He read it, looked up at me, walked over and whispered, "It's Sarah, you better go." We lost our baby that day. All of that in a little strip of land.

I remembering and discovering that God taught me so much here that was never mentioned in that admissions catalog. Thanks God.

My Trip Back To See Momma (Part 2: Tuesday)

6am: I woke up and did my morning routine, loaded the car, and ran a few last minute errands.

7:30am: I kissed my family repeatedly, noticed my drivers license had expired, took Danny to school, and headed to Columbus, OH to catch my flight.

***I know, I know. Why fly out of Columbus? It saved the EFCA about 400 bucks and we're wanting to send me to DTS yearly. So the more cost effective this is, the better it is I'll go annually ;)*********

11:30pm: Having parked my car and checked my bags I get a cup of coffee and the worst roast beef sandwich I've ever had in my life. I'm not sure if it had mayonnaise on it or if that was cheese.

12:30pm ET-2pm CT: Flew to Dallas, TX. People usually ask me what I read on the plane, so I'll tell you. I read the entire book of the gospel according to John and the first 5 chapters of the book of Job. Another thing of note is when we were landing we went up and down really dramatically several times. I honestly thought we were crashing once. But we didn't. The plus to it was my ears popped great but the minus was I have a very sensitive stomach and was nauseas for awhile.

2pm-4pm: I landed at DFW where I had already purchased a rental car for the week. But remember my driver's license had expired. So, I handed my reservation paper to the clerk and tried to very nonchalantly show my drivers license to her without giving it to her. You know, "See I have a license, no need to look for something petty like it's validity." But her program made her type stuff in and I was busted, denied, and slunk away. I was able to get my refund through priceline, which I was shocked about. Then I started calling for a ride...

4pm-5pm: Success!!! A great friend of mine Ryan Yokabaitus picked me up and took me to Dallas where I connected with another great friend of mine, Bruno Giamba, at whose house I'm staying.

5pm: Around this time is when I saw, kissed, and was then groped by Bruno Giamba. He took us to his house to eat dinner with some of my favorite people in the world--his family: Gioia Giamba (can we get any more vowels in that name?), oldest daughter Maria, middle daughter Becca, youngest child and son Giuseppe Giamba. I kissed all of them up and said hello.

5pm-7pm: Ate Italian food baby! Bruno and Gioia are full blooded first generation Italian Americans. Their parents came over on a boat to Ellis Island. Greatest people in the world. And they are loud. Anyway we ate Chicken Parmesan, pasta. suprasata sausage, mozzarella cheese, and italian vino (wine). Unbelievable to be sitting in the kitchen of this house after 3 long years. We were over there weekly or more laughing and crying and praying and fighting and dreaming. And here I was again enjoying this crime family, I mean family.

7pm-10pm: I went with Bruno to a friends house to paint where we argued and made fun of each other a lot. Also Bruno's friend is crazy. I mean that literally. This person is nuts.

10pm: We went back to the house hosed down, kicked back, talked some more and prayed on our knees with tears in our eyes, (that's the way Bruno likes to pray), and went to sleep.

(PICTURES WILL BE COMING TO THIS POST)

My Trip Back To See Momma (Part 1)

Hey fools! I'm going to add "fool" to my repertoire of name calling I think. I'm a big fan of sucka and sissy, but they're getting kind of tired. So...look forward to being affectionately called a fool in the near future.

Ok, now the blog I actually sat down here to write.

I'm writing this blog from the basement of Mosher Library on the campus of Dallas Theological Seminary.



It is in this room that I wrote many papers and printed off my Master's Thesis. It is on this campus and with this faculty that I grew in my theology and biblical depth. I'm excited to say that I even managed to love Jesus more through it as well. And it is in this room that I'm going to log a journal of my trip.

I start a day late so let me get caught up on what I'm doing here.

I graduated from Dallas Seminary (let's call it momma) in 2004 with my master's degree in theology. It's an awesome school and I thank God weekly for the honor of training here. It's hard to describe, but from our very first visit in the Spring of 2000 we fell in love with Momma. It's a special place with special people and God did special things in our life here. I very recently was given the high honor of coming back this week, all expenses paid, to tell my EFCA/DTS church planting story with the seminary students. All in the hopes that we could challenge 100s of church planters to plant missional Christ centered churches all over the world. Here is my week...

We've Been Robbed!!!

To top off the weekend of pain, Sunday morning at about 9:30am I got a call from Brian Patton, one of our Crew elders. He let me know that we were missing at ton of equipment from one of our storage spaces we rent for the church. Among the missing items were guitars, video projectors, and amps. Over a couple thousand bucks worth of stuff. Man, does that stink or what? Here's the good news: We caught the guy and I beat the snot out of him! No that's not true. But we do have insurance and most likely will get our claim money so we can repurchase.

Here's my request: please pray for this process, how this might effect our relationship with our landlords at the Renaissance, that the thief be caught, and that this not hinder us in our mission as a distraction. Thanks ya'll. And if you see someone walking around with 2 guitars, an amp, and a video projector call me.

A Quick Update on My Disease Ridden Weekend

Hey ya'll. I want to thank you guys for praying for me these past few days. I have had a flurry of activity since Sunday Sept. 23rd. and feel I am so out of the Crew loop. I've only talked to several people or emailed. I miss you all so much.

Here's the deal: I did a full week of ministry at Crew the week of the 23rd. Left Friday for a peaceful restful EFCA pastor's retreat with Sarah to Loudonville, OH. It was anything but. I was sick. I had an extremely sore throat and ear ache.



And developed a fever. We drove 5 hours to Loudonville, which was very nice. Went to dinner at a great Pizza joint. Very nice. But then the fever really set in. We had a meeting at 7pm with some other pastors and wives. But at 5:30pm I fell asleep with a fever hotter than a pepper sprout. I've been talking about Jackson, ever since the fire went out. Wait! That's not right, that's a Johnny Cash song. Anyway...I woke up at 7am feeling none the better. We survived Saturday, but held hands a lot. How sweet. It was nice because I was with Sarah, but that night I was up all night miserable. We left early Sunday to come home where I got some antibiotics from a great doctor and it took care of me in a 24 hour period. Beautiful! I woke up Monday and got progressively better all day so that Tues. when I flew out to Dallas (future post) I had no sign of disease. Whew! Ok, I needed to get that out there so that I can write about what I'm really excited about. But hark, there's yet one more thing.