Aww yeh, some mutha bleepin' lessons dawg

Soo its summertime. 

Summer is the time when everyone lets loose a little bit, busts out the ol' grille, soaks up some sun, and enjoys the weather.

Summer is also known for the summer job pull. 1,000's of young individuals look for jobs to make a little scrilla to take their honey out with. When this system is clickin' everyone is happy as a fat kid in a hershey's factory.

that is, when everything is clicking.

The global economy caught a swift kick to the lower extremities about 6 months ago and it is still down for the count. Unemployment has reached an all time high, the stock market is as finicky as Billy Joel at a bar, and entire industries are being slaughtered to try and make international ends meet.

So! Now that the stage has been set, lets take a look at my predicament. My Mom urged me to search out an internship at a church (since that is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life). I cautiously agreed, seeing as how I was interested in makin' some G's this summer. Internships aren't the most glamorously paying of jobs, mind you. Eventually I found an internship at the church my parents attend in Alabama. Its a good little church with great worship and good membership, and it is really close to my house. I was pumped.

Time continued to drain out of the school year and I was looking forward to figuring out more about my internship. I e-mailed questions and called the ministers: no answer. "Hmm," I thought to myself, "Maybe it is just a really busy time!" Try again: no response. Again: Nuthin. It had been a couple weeks since I had heard from the church, and I was starting to get a little worried about my plans of "changing the world one internship at a time". 

When I finally got a call (finals week) the minister's said that they were deciding to go in another direction instead of an internship. They said that I could volunteer at the church all that I wanted to! What they were really trying to say was that they were dropping the bottom out of my summer plans in the 11th hour like a bunch of champions of inspiration. 

And now we're here. I'm currently sitting on my bed not really doing much of anything, which is what I have been doing for the past week. Jobs are scarce and jobs that pay well are even scarcer. I've gone to many different places looking for work, but the response has almost consistently been, "We're not hiring, but we'd certainly take your application!" Yea, I'm sure you would. In this market they probably are using the 1,000's of applications that are coming in to heat their workspaces. 

No job. No fat bank. Not much of anything is going on.

It is interesting though, that God still works in these times. 

First, I was bluntly taught that church leadership often has no idea what the (insert any crass word) its doing. For all the pomp and circumstance of a sunday morning service, the 166 other hours in a week seem to be filled up with a lot of "Ums", "Uhhs", and "???s". The church- on the micro and macro levels- is still growing and maturing. Just because you become a "senior minister" doesn't mean that you have it all together or that you have all the answers. Sometimes (and probably not often enough) things in the church get a little raw. It would be easy for me to be pissed out of my mind about how irresponsible the leaders of the church were! 

The alternative to going primeval on their hineys is to forgive and grow. The minister at the Mercy House talked about showing "Maximum Forgiveness" to all that we come in contact with. What a simple statement, yet how profound! If we don't forgive, then we aren't Christians. Why wouldn't I want to see the church learn from its mistakes and be better for it? That would be because I truly didn't have the love of Christ living inside of me. You can't see people for who they are, but rather for who they can be. 

God has also taught me to enjoy peace. I was scurrying about so much this past semester with all of my responsibilities that I didn't get much time to stop. When I go back to Taylor, school and Student Body President stuff are going to consume me. Possibly God wanted me to stop and smell the roses a little bit? 

This summer I'm going to be stretched in ways that I don't see coming. God, the guy who made me, knows what is best for me. Am I willing to follow his plan and see where that takes me?

We'll see.

PS- I'm writing this with my laptop in my lap and my computer battery is HOT. Is it reasonable to wonder if the heat is cooking myself to being sterile? AM I GOING TO BE ABLE TO HAVE KIDS IF I KEEP BLOGGING IN THIS POSITION!? 

Summer 2009: Act One

WOW. That is all i can say for the past 5 months of my life. I've traveled to Africa, become the Student Body President for Taylor University, finished my 2nd year as a PA in my dorm, and Bethany and I have started seriously discussing what the rest of our lives look like together. Needless to say, life has been FULL. 

And now i'm in Alabama for the summer. I had an internship lined up with a local church, but that fell through, so i'm now on the prowl for jobs and sources of income. I don't really have any significant plans, any big goals, or any huge aspirations. 

All i want to do is be here in the present as much as possible. The end of this past school year about killed me, and i would love a summer to recover from that. I'll be updating this quite a bit to inform everyone that cares about what is happening, what I'm thinking, and what is changing in my life. 

So!

Summer 2009, you and I are going to have a good relationship, i can tell. 

-JB

FALL BREAK 2008

Today is the start of something wonderful.

Fall Break 2008.

Thats right. Today starts a chain reaction of fun events that come in many different forms for many different people. Some people left earlier this week, choosing to skip classes to fully enjoy the long weekend. Others have decided that a long weekend at school doesn't constitute skipping classes and have chosen to stay here at school. I am more in the camp of the latter, but just because we've decided to be more responsible doesn't mean that we still can't have fun! My roommate headed back to Bolivia for a week, so from my room alone i feel like we have the entire spectrum of Fall Break activities covered. 

So let me do a little bit of explaining of this coming weekend. 

Thursday- Today is the beginning of all of this insanity. Starting later this afternoon, we most likely will be playing a board or two of Lord of The Rings Risk, which by the way is awesome. After that, Julie Coddington, a fellow PA from English hall, will be possibly making some of us privileged individuals pies and cakes and the sort. We get to be the official taste testers! (SO TIGHT) After these things take place, other mayhem will ensue, but it won't be planned, which is probably the best kind of mayhem. :-)

Friday- Friday we will wake up and begin the day in a lazy manner. Friday is our official Board game day. Risk, LOTR Risk, Settlers of Cattaan, Heroquest, and many others will all be played tomorrow. This is the true root of our geekiness and we are going to relish in it, so be jealous. After all of the gaming has gone on, we are planning on heading over to a neighboring dorm and making root beer! I ordered Root Beet Extract (from zatarain's, the people who also make rice) and Brewer's Yeast (from swanson's, the chicken broth company). I was very confused as to the sellers, but its no use to fret over it. :-) This is set up to be a major event, so a lot of us who are sticking around are planning on heading over and learning this obscure art! Who knows, maybe one of us will find our true calling.

Saturday- Saturday is set up to be another slow start to the day, but then we have a lot of plans. The plans of our overall group deviate a little bit more on this day because of other responsibilities that we have. One guy, Ben Aalderink, will be headed up to Fort Wayne to see some friends from home. Ryan Gates and Dustin Friesen are going to Indianapolis to shop at the Apple store, considering Dustin's computer is on the fritz. *moment of silence for dustin's mac...* I personally will probably be trying to watch seasons 1 & 2 of heroes. I will blog about my reasonings for watching Heroes some other time because this is already a long enough blogpost and you probably wouldn't be interested anyway. :-)

Sunday- Finally, the final day of fall break. On sunday, many people will be coming back with crazy stories of what happened over fall break, all of whom thought they had the best break. Unbeknownst to them, I know that everyone who stayed would have had the most fun. This day we will be doing homework and hanging out with other friends, all of whom realize now that fall break is over that responsibilities have come back to bite them in the butt. 

Its okay though, its college. This is where we are weaned away from childhood and thrown into the cold world, holding onto only our weak presuppositions of the way things are and what we are told we have to do to be good people. Its a bleak and dismal outlook on everything, but that really is all you have in the world.

at least, thats what you think if you didn't spend fall break at Taylor University. :-)

The History of Heroquest.

Ahh, friday. The day when everyone gets to loosen up their ties and shoelaces, all in expectation of the wondrous weekend. Everyone loves the weekend in the words of Loverboy. The lounging, the lack of schedules, the pandemonium that occurs, and Heroquest.

Ahh, Heroquest. Let me explain this game to everyone.

It all started around 3 or 4 years ago in lexington Kentucky, the homeland of Heroquest. It had been a cold, cold winter and spring was wanting to break out of winter's icy grasp. Jack Frost was willing to let up on all of us, but only if he could have one last blast of winter weather before he left. This blast came in the form of a monstrous ice storm which dumped three to four inches of said ice over the entire bluegrass. Any of you readers would know of what i speak, nod your head at your computer screen in confirmation.  Trees and power lines were falling daily, roads were un-navigable, and power was removed from thousands of homes. In Firebrook, there was only two or three streets that had power, and mine was one. Across the neighborhood, Dan Marino's house (not the football player, but the Mormon EMT driver) did not. 

Despite the lack of power, my mormon friend and his cronies were sure to find ways to entertain themselves as they always did. During the 2 week period where they had no power, this desire for entertainment manifested itself in the form of Heroquest, an 80's boardgame that is like a mall madness version of dungeons and dragons. Now here, there is a small aside that i must state. I realize that this is very dorky and nerdy, but i promise that it is worth your time to continue to read. If you are saying on the inside of your head, "Oh Pish Posh! Why should I, a nobel prize winning all american athlete, continue to read about silly board games?"

You should.

Anyways, they taught themselves how to play the game and they actually beat every single mission that they could! With the power still out and the game complete, they did what any other group of mildly bored, ethically sound group of high schoolers does: they started making their own rules and missions. Dan was givn the coveted title of Zargon, the dungeon master (DM) and everyone else was able to create their own specific character. My good friend Thomas was Nigel the hollister Elf. He was wearing trendy clothes and rode on a plaid cloud. 

Oh, the dorky revelry. It was so awesome.

Time continued on, the ice melted away. but the heroquesting continued. More people were joined to the fold (aka me) and the game grew in size and in hilarity. Rules were removed and ludicrous situations were commonplace. Once, a hero kicked coals into the eyes of multiple orcs, successfully burning out the eyeballs of each orc, and then successfully killing the orcs (somehow). 

Ohh, those were the days. The classic days of Heroquest, with all of the original pieces and all of the original players. These were the times that really shaped the way that i saw the game and how i played the game. Yet alas, all good things must come to an end. The end of high school came upon our merry little group of board game adventurers, and the group was disbanded. Sigh...

College! The excitement of living in a dorm with hundreds of other smelly, hormone driven twenty somethings! I came to college and enjoyed the first semester of my schooling at Taylor University greatly. School was fun and all, but the one thing that i talked about regularly was this ridiculous game that i played in high school called Heroquest. I could see the sparkle in other's eyes as I explained it to the excited listeners. Everyone would say, "why don't you bring the game up! We need to play this!" I wish that I could've brought it up, yet i didn't own it! With that, i really lost hope...

Until January! It was J-term and my birthday happened to fall within J-term. Unbeknownst to me, my good friend Steven Stevens bought Heroquest on E-Bay and had it shipped to Taylor. Now the fun could really begin! With that, hilarity and pandemonium has occured in Samuel Morris hall, but i can't really explain it and do it justice. I would recommend that you come and see for yourself... Midnight on Saturday nights... Come enjoy! :-)

Bandanas and Americanos go well together

Today, something horrific occurred in my life. It became known to me that the only coffeehouse anywhere remotely close to Taylor University will begin closing early. Yes thats right, Payne's Coffee and Custard will start closing at midnight from now on. Why you ask! What in all of God's wonderful green earth could cause such a magnificent cloister of greatness shut its doors to hungry and caffeine craving patrons? Money. We asked one of the workers what the deali-o was and she informed us that Payne's wasn't making enough moolah, hence the depressing news. If I'd have had a candle, i would have lighted it for Payne's sake. 

So, if any of my dedicated readers (which i have 2 of! ^_^) happen upon vast amounts of money, please make your way to upland, Indiana and leave an exorbitantly large stash of cash in the seat cushion for the failing business. Everyone at Taylor would thank you profusely.

On another note, I am thinking about re-arranging my computer Keyboard from the Qwerty keyboard to the Dvorak keyboard. The initial benefits will be little, but in the long run, there are many benefits. 1. The Dvorak keyboard is proven to be faster and better for your hands. 2. other will have a hard time sabotaging the work that i create. 3. I will know a vital skill if i want to be an "international person". 4. Its just the thing of a trendy white hipster to learn. 5.  positive challenge would be welcome in my life!

take it or leave it, thats whats going down.

-JB

and to end today, the most entertaining video on the internet... Here

The purpose of a church at Taylor University

What would the purpose of a church at Taylor serve?

I asked this question a while ago in a blogpost, and I think now I will try and answer that as best as I can. Hopefully the Dave Matthews i'm listening to can help me out. :-)

As many people that go to Taylor have realized, not everyone that goes to TU is a practicing christian. Some people go to church or read their Bibles every once in a while, but it isn't enough to constitute a strong relationship with Jesus. There are even some people on campus that are in opposition to christianity. A good example of this lack of spiritual concern on campus can be seen in chapel attendance. I know that chapel can be boring, and I know that sometimes I don't want to go or haven't gone, but there have been times where 5 guys from my floor have been at chapel. My floor is made up of 80 people. 

Another example is the growing problem with drinking on our campus (this was brought up by students). Now both chapel attendance and drinking are slippery slopes to use as examples, but they both have some of their roots in a much larger problem: spiritual apathy. It is this spiritual apathy that is a major cause in things like breaking school rules or cheating on schoolwork (another problem brought up by the student body). Now being realistic, I know that you will always have people that will break rules and cheat. Taylor isn't the garden of eden, and its not ever going to be. I'm pretty sure that the garden had more hills and less corn. :-) 

So, as a student that wants to try and combat this wave of spiritual apathy that is growing through campus, what can I do? How can God use me to stop the spread of disinterest in Him? My first thought was to make sure that rules were more enforced in my dorm. Being an RA, I could do this effectively. If rules were more strict, people would not want to skip chapel or break rules because of the consequences. 

That isn't my place though. Yes, I must enforce rules, but that isn't going to change hearts. Its the relationships that I have with my peers that really change me. Its when I see someone else cares for me that I can then be open in the relationship. Its when I see the passion that someone has for something when I can also be passionate about it. I can't tell you how much I really hate watching sports, but when there is a really intense basketball game on and everyone is on the edge of their seats around the TV, I have to watch. I feed off of other's passion. 

A great example of someone who is passionate about life is Tyler Kessler, or as he was more lovingly known as T.K. He just recently graduated from Taylor, but while he was on campus he lived on my floor (Penthouse W00t W00t). Throughout the entire time that I've attended TU, I've seen people drawn to him because of the general excitement and life he approaches everything with, whether it be relationships or a ministry. Because of that, I saw other amazing men come underneath his wing and become involved in the floor and in great ministries because of him.

Now enters the next question: How can we take people that are passionate (like T.K.) about Christ and christianity and combat the spiritual apathy on campus?

There is a multitude of ways that this question can be answered. In no way is the idea of a church the only way. I talked to Rachel Sawyer last night and she had the great suggestion of reshaping Vespers (a sunday night bible study). Justin Heth suggested that this idea be implemented at an already existing church. Many more have said something about just creating another organization or group on campus that can act out passionately. All of these are great ideas! My first thought was a real church on campus, and here's why.

I've been reading the book unChristian by Dave Kinnaman. The book is all about what the newest generation (our generation) thinks about christianity. Some of the things people said about christians is that we're judgmental (I felt great about wanting to be harder about rules) old fashioned, boring, and sheltered. Sadly, I have to partially agree with these observations by non christians. We can be all these things! This applies to Taylor more and more as the amount of non christians on campus grows. So where have these non christians gotten these views of the judgmental, old fashioned, and boring christians? More than likely, Church. Church is the initial place where a non christian interacts with a christian. 

Honestly, I haven't really found a strong church home at Taylor. It probably is mostly my fault for not getting directly involved, but I don't really feel a strong communal connection with any of the churches that I have been to in the surrounding area of Taylor. The churches do seemed old fashioned to me in a sense, and I have been bored in church (not just at Taylor). Now I'm not saying that a Taylor based church should constantly keep someone entertained or occupied, but there is a huge opportunity reshape the way people think about church. So now it comes to it, the real purpose. 

I think the purpose of a church on Taylor's campus would be to combat the spiritual apathy on campus by reshaping people's minds about Christianity, the Church, and Christ. This would be done through the people in the community that the church is in: Taylor. The topics at the church can be the things that Taylor students are actually concerned about, and what the Bible has to say about those topics. All in all, it would be to get people excited and on fire once again for a life in christ by showing them there is life in the church. To show that the church can change, that it isn't judgmental, and that it is concerned about the things of today.

Now obviously there are many questions that follow this. What does a student church look like? What about other's in the community? How would it be operated? What would draw someone back after you talk about the thing they care about? How would this be funded? Who would lead it? There are 1,000's of questions that can be asked and they must be asked. I'm sorry to the people that I've talked to and I've not been able to answer some of these. I felt like I had to have an answer whenever I talked to someone about this idea. Since then, I've realized that if God wants this to happen, it will. I don't have to have an answer for everything or everyone, because my trust is in God. 

This is the way that I see things, and I would love to hear how you see it. 

Thanks so much for listening to me rant! I hope to see responses to this soon. :-)

In Him, 

JB

Mystery Substance Part 2.

So as i walked out of the garage this morning, i had to notice the stuff that is just chillin in the rocks in front of our neighbor's townhouse. As i described in my last mystery substance post, it is sort of like wet sugar, that somehow can miraculously transform into a chalky white looking substance. Hmm.

Based upon observation today, i have noticed very little change. It has gone from the white chalky back to the wet sugary look. The only thing that i really noticed was that there wasn't nearly as much of it as there was when i first started my observations. This leads me to believe that it has been washed away by some of the strong storms that we've had around the area. This also shows that it is not biodegradable. Whatever it is, it can be sure that it will be under scrutiny from me for as long as my internship lasts. 

This morning as i was sitting in my office i got a call from Jake (the minister that i'm interning under) summoning me to the basketball courts for some mad HORSE games. The middle school minister Darrin and the worship minister Neil were also there ready to play. Never in my wildest dreams did i imagine such a competitive game of horse could be played. There were many red faces, missed shots, and ridiculous shots made by everyone... except me. I think God gave the world basketball for enjoyment. I also think God gave me basketball to keep me humble. :-)

An update on the Taylor church idea:

As i have been talking with more and more people about the idea, i've come to realize that before it gets to a point of forming programming ideas there must be some fundamental groundwork laid for the church. Jake today brought up the point that if we do teach about things we can't have messages portraying different viewpoints of the Bible. This means we have to set the goals, guidelines, and aspirations of the church. Who can do this? I'm hoping that soon more and more people will want to become involved in the idea of a campus church. As soon as there is some semblance of people wanting to actually implement this, we can organize a time or place where ideas and thoughts about the infrastructure of the church could be discussed. Be this a blog, website, facebook group, or actually meeting, I'm not sure. I am sure that of all the people that i have talked to, every single person has not batted the idea down, but they have been excited about it and seem willing to help out in any way they can. 

We can start by discussing this: What would be the purpose of a campus church at Taylor? 

I feel like once this is established, other things will fall into place. What does God want us to do with our community? How does the Holy Spirit want to move us holistically in the future? Please, respond to this either on your own blog and add a hyperlink or leave a comment! 

On another topic, I'm currently researching a little bit about the cultures of ancient middle eastern peoples, specifically the Moabites, Ammonites, and Israelites of and around the time period of the book of Judges. If anyone has any information about these cultures or time periods, i would greatly appreciate it. The research is for me personally, not for my church. I'm interested in the types of metals that they worked with, the types of weapons that they used, and the regions that they lived in. Hah! I'm a geek. :-)

Another question that i heard from my good friend Travis Whalen that has really challenged me is: Are small groups for everyone?

Think about it and respond. Use that Noggin that God has given you! :-)

Oh, also... if you get the chance, check out Newton Faulkner by order of Rachel Sawyer. She has superb music taste, so if you are looking for superb music, listen to Newton Faulkner.

Aaand, I'm out.

What TU needs? Part 2

Sorry that it has been such a long time since i have blogged at all. It has been an wonderful weekend and i was very busy throughout the past couple days. My girlfriend Bethany came down to Indy and hung out with me for the weekend, so blogging wasn't really on the forefront of my mind. :-)

To recap, the idea of a church at taylor is what is being discussed. This church would be student run and student lead in almost all leadership positions and roles of responsibilities. The driving thought behind this is that we want Taylor to become more impassioned. We want taylor to be a true community of believers that is open and actively working toward the goals of the kingdom in both spirit and truth. The best way that I've seen that happen in every single community is when it clicks with people inside the community and when those people then influence others positively. I would rather listen to the guy down my hall who has struggled with pornography and gotten out of it than listen to someone that i don't know. When it is personal, it is stronger and more applicable. 

Hence the idea of a student lead church. When i think about the churches around the area of taylor, i think of taylor students as injections into those churches. We almost are like a cortazone shot. I don't really think that many of the TU students consider themselves members of a church at school. for me personally, I wake up, go to church, listen to the sermon, sit with my taylor friends, then i get up and go eat lunch back at taylor. At no point am i involved in the church the only time that we meet corporately. I know that this sounds bad or heretical or whatever, but i don't consider them my church family. I consider my church family the other christians that i'm living life with. This idea comes a little bit from Acts 2:42, but also it comes from some articles that I've read by Gabe Lyons. If anyone of you who reads this blog is interested in reading some of the stuff that has really reshaped the way that i have looked at church, check out this website. 

As I drove up to Michigan to pick up Bethany, i was given the time to sit down and call people about the idea for the church. All the people that i talked to helped me shape a little bit more of what the idea of a church at school could look like. Thank you to everyone that i talked to! Your input was very beneficial. One of the main points that i realized was that in order for the church to ever be operational was to be really organized and well thought out. This meant we would have to have some sort of a checks and balances system set up so that one person in the whole idea of a church couldn't "take control" of everything. As a community, we are going to be all working together, which will obviously cause conflict and strife at some point. Being organized helps avoid that. 

I would love to continue to have people become excited about the idea of a church, but i can't be the only person who is informing others about it. If you read this blog and you go to Taylor, please tell as many people about the idea for a church that you can. The more people that jump on board now and actively work toward developing it as a program, the better chance it has for actually happening. That means:

• Questions
• Comments
• Concerns
• Ideas
• Networking
• Resources
• Complaints

All of these things are going to be essential for the idea to work! Also and most importantly, we need to be praying about it! Toss this up to God and see what he says about it. I know that everyone that wants this to happen will be excited and passionate about it, so lets spread the passion and cause change!