I got a chance to hang out with Jim Henderson of Off The Map this morning. As I listened to him, about twice a minute I would think to myself, "Wow, that's good, I need to remember that." After about 40 minutes of that, my thoughts were closer to, "Oh crap, I can't remember all of this! Too much good stuff!" Oh well. At this point, I'll just be a cheerleader for what he's doing. Equally important to what Jim does is that he's got a thorough, thoughtful theological base that just plain makes sense. I definitely look forward to more times ahead with him. I already linked to this once, but you can go here for an interview that Jason Evans did with Jim recently. Here is another interview I found with another Seattle Jesus follower, Rachelle.

Well, I figure that since I whined about my job a couple weeks back, I should update that scene. I won't say I've necessarily had easy weeks since then, but definitely less stressful. I've been able to pace myself more reasonably. I thought I was going to be out of the office part or all of today, and it turns out that I'll be there - which means I scheduled it very lightly. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I may be able to glide quietly into my weekend.

I drove to Olympia to meet with a guy who does collegiate ministry for my denomination. It was a very different conversation than I expected, and quite encouraging. This guy works for "the system" but he's not a system machine, and from the sounds of things, he looks for ways to break the system - actually, he looks for ways of exposing the brokenness that's already there, even if he has to stir up a little trouble in doing so. People like this are so very few and far between in my stream of faith that I'm always refreshed to meet a kindred spirit. I'm looking forward to some continued conversations about partnering together on a project . . . more to come . . .

I just finished reading Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas. I read through it quickly, most of the time thinking, "Dude, slow down and savor this." I'll read it again some day. There were also several points at which I said to myself, "You should post that quote on the blog." Alas, there would just be too much. I've seen a few quotes from the book scattered around the blogosphere, so I'll let those be.

Anyway, I am fighting whatever urges I might have to nominate the guy for sainthood - heck, I'm not Roman Catholic, so I don't even know how one would go about that. But at the same time, I really believe that this guy may be the best high-profile example of a real Christian we've got right now. Ironically enough, many other high-profile Christians would like to question whether he is a Christian at all.

And speaking of reading, I ordered my first four back to school books last night, so I'll be diving in soon. Meanwhile, I'll be driving to Olympia this afternoon to meet with a guy from my denomination for a little "consulting" - how much consulting I do with them and for how long will be one of the topics we discuss. I'll write more about that later.

Coming to Seattle this November . . .

Jason Evans has an interview with Jim Henderson of Off the Map posted over on his blog. It's clutch . . . but it's painful in the way it exposes "leaders" - both old and young.

I repent, here and now. This isn't mere confession, my friends, this is actual repentance - as in, I won't do it any more. For the second or third time last night I watched the TV show called Hit Me Baby One More Time, in which singers/bands who had a moment or two in the spotlight get a chance for a comeback. Horrible. Really, really bad. Cheesy host, bad production, fake enthusiasm from the live audience of extras. And then there's the music. The shows I've seen have featured Wang Chung, Tommy Tutone, The Knack, and other people I had never heard of doing songs I wished I hadn't heard of. I have experienced the consequences of my sin. This morning I woke up hearing Cameo singing in my head:

"Do your dance, do your dance, do your dance quick mama,
Come on baby, tell me, what's the word, the word up?
Everybody says, when you hear the call you've got to get it underway,
Word up . . ."

Please accept my apology if you too have those words in your head about six hours from now.

In a related note of musical trainwrecks, I heard a radio interview a couple weeks ago of Paul Anka. He's promoting his new album in which he does big band cover tunes of popular music. Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun was marginally acceptable, but Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit? Someone wake me up and tell me that didn't really happen.

Is it just me, or is Gmail down? I'd tell you to e-mail me with feedback, but that clearly won't work.

My neighbor, Jeremy, told me about a flickr page put on by Victrola Coffee, which is my favorite place to spend a lunch break on work days. The baristas there are absolute artists. Go here for more of their work.

Well, after a couple of months worth of thinking, praying, and jumping through some administrative hoops, I got word on Friday that I have been accepted by a seminary for some further education. In August I will officially begin coursework in pursuit of a Doctor of Ministry at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Specifically, the program I'll be a part of is called Leadership in Emerging Culture. It's pretty exciting and very very scary at the same time.

Normally a Master of Divinity degree is required for a DMin, but I don't have one of those. My grad degree is in Counseling, but I have done some MDiv coursework. Anyway, they decided to let me in, but only on the condition that I complete some additional coursework along the way. In fact, I have to complete 6 credit hours worth of work before I'm allowed to walk through the door in August. That means I have to get cranking right away.

My lovely wife has been super supportive all along the way in this decision making process. One of my big goals and challenges as I do this work will be giving her the kind of time and attention she deserves, even while holding down a full time job and being a student.

Life on the job has been tiring lately. Yesterday I was on my cell phone during what was a poor excuse for a lunch break and we had another client meltdown. I was speaking with someone in a seminary office, and then all of a sudden loud swearing, namecalling, threats . . . but thankfully no physical violence. A few days ago we had a similar situation from a different client. A few days before that we had one too.

If I told you about the kind of client issues I've dealt with in the past week, I'd be borderline unethical and/or illegal, so I can't go into specifics. Here are some general client issues I've got now, though: a client who honestly believes that he's hung out recently with the likes of Shania Twain, Elton John, and the guys from Pink Floyd (all in a ratty little bar in Seattle); a client who has been known to eat foreign objects (pencil, toothbrush, razor blades); a client who can't get into his apartment because it got raided by police investigating a crack cocaine ring; a client who aspires one day to detonate a device that will destroy the West Seattle bridge.

I'm ready for a boring week right about now.

After all these years, I've finally discovered why I always sucked at Rubik's cube . . . From Wired:

At the fad's height, a high school student named Jessica Fridrich quietly invented a way to crack the puzzle in under 20 seconds. The key is memorizing some 100 algorithms. Then, after arranging a cross-shaped pattern on one side of the cube, a player can quickly solve a column at a time by applying the right algorithm. . . [read more]

Me and algorithms just never did get along.

I wrote up a little ditty about American Idol for the June edition of Next-Wave. You can find it here.

I've been reading D.A. Carson's new book on the emerging church. When I first heard about it a couple months prior to it coming out, I made some assumptions that it would be a small minded approach, and that it wouldn't be a fair critique. I'm about a third of the way through now, and while I won't say that I agree with a lot of what Carson writes, I will say that he does try to be fair, and he is not mean spirited. Oh, and he does make some good points. Especially when it comes to the way many in the emerging church have become postmodern bandwagoners. I don't particularly like the term "emerging church," but it's definitely better than postmodern as a category - postmodern thought may have stimulated many of "us" and resonated with where we were, but it's as broken as modernity. I'll keep reading, and post some other thoughts when I get farther into it.