Coffee Shop Commandments: part 2

Here is the second installment of Coffee Shop Commandments you need to be aware of if you are to visit a coffee shop at any point in the future.

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Thou shalt not play your guitar Just because there are open mic nights at this establishment, it is not an indicator of this being a constant testing ground for your new song or whatever cover song you're working on right now. All these people are NOT here to hear you play. Leave your guitar at home. (Your song isn't that great anyway. I'm sorry...I'm a friend)

Thou shalt not drink of the outside Why is this commandment necessary? Honestly, this is a business and though their competitors' ads may be accepted, their competitors' PRODUCT is not. You may not bring another company's coffee into this shop. It is not rude for them to ask you throw it away; you are rude for having brought it in.

Thou shalt not make this your marriage bed You would be offended if I sat next to or in front of you with a bucket of popcorn and a video camera while you and your significant other make out on the coffee shop couch, but I cannot understand why you're offended. You quite obviously wanted your affection to be a spectator sport or you wouldn't have chosen to do so in a public coffee shop. You are gross!

You shall talk to others Yes, we all have work to do. That is why many of us are here, but don't be afraid to speak with others. If you come here all the time, there is no reason we should not know one another. If you are here all the time, you should know the baristas' names.  You should start to recognize the others who are here all the time...engage with the community you are observing.

You GOTTA hear this

I keep ongoing lists on my iphone. Here is my current list of artists Im trying out or need to buy. What are your thoughts. The Drawing Room Future of Forestry Gungor Fair Robbie Seay Band John Mark McMillan Pokey Lafarge Chris Bathgate Playdough Commoners and Kings Lilies and Sparrows PND The Devil Makes Three Justin Townes Earle The Red River Nathan Arnold Armin Van Burren Brandon Flowers Ugly Casanova Owen Drops Like Stars (video) Jeremy Fisher Going Down Swinging Baths Beach House Foals The Drums Damien Jurado The Tallest Man on Earth Menomena Sun Kil Moon LCD Soundsystem Nana Grizol Hellogoodbye Local Natives Aloe Blacc Junip Avi Buffalo The Besnard Lakes Black Keys Born Ruffians Dr Dog Mimicking Birds The Morning Benders the Radio Dept Chris Staples Fanfarlo Steve Means David Wax Museum PJ Morton Cold War kids Green River Ordinance Lecrae Katie Costello The Go! Team The Civil Wars Neutral Milk Hotel

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What artists are on your music to try list?

70% [poem]

They have left her dimly litas a dome light in a dark room

no stirring breath remains in the pixelated remnant

only a faint breeze wafts the dusty laundry on a frayed line and rusty cothespins with a white-knuckled grasp

He never intended this desolation but her emptiness leaves only hope

for them

not only to return but to garner together the s c a t t e r e d intoone

her floorboard screams for love her walls beg them to join on both of her sides

Only then can she be called beautiful and authentic

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This is a sermon I have 'poemized'  as a goal I set for this year.

Why I am Nervous to Teach The Ragamuffin Gospel

This Sunday I will begin a class I am teaching over the book by Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel. It is my favorite book of all time, and I am strangely nervous to teach about it.

I am nervous because:

1. It is my favorite book. The lesson of recommending your favorite book to someone is one not many have learned. Not everyone is going to have the same experience with the book as you did, face it! I had to learn a while ago to be selective with my excitement for the book recommendation, but I'm not just recommending the book; I am TEACHING it.

2. I don't know how Is it a book study or a class? Can we not keep pretending that everyone actually reads the book in a book study? So the question becomes, "If I am accepting not everyone will read it, should I just teach through it at the risk of repeating what some WILL HAVE read? OR Do I go on pretending they read and make a book study at the risk of everyone looking blankly at the only one who HAS read it...ME?

3. Uneducated people may attend Aristotle said, "The mark of an educated mind is one that is able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Human beings have a tendency to hear one thing they disagree with and throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, Brennan Manning is a flawed ragamuffin of a man; he is likely to say some things which aren't perfect, but so do I. So does your senior pastor. So does your favorite author, but those people also write and say many other great things to present Jesus to us.

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If you're in the Sacramento area and are interested in attending the class, it is on Sunday mornings for the next 6 weeks at 11:30a at First Covenant Church.

What Would You Say...You Do

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpog1_NFd2Q&w=480&h=390] I understand a group of people you do not take the time to know.

I help those people  feel less lonely in a drowning ocean of disconnection.

I help those people see hope where they had never recognized it.

I walk hand in hand with people toward a God who seems far off and immense...at first.

I make impending life-decisions seem like manageable tasks.

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The most creatively you can, what would you say you do?

Why Campus Ministry?

My friends at Heart of Campus Ministry asked me to contribute to their current blog series entitled, Why Campus Ministry asking us to tell why we do what we do...in 200 words or less. Here is the link to my post today. Why Campus Ministry? :: PC Walker.

Abide Week: wait

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

a*bide [uh-bayhd] verb, a*bode or a*bid*ed, a*bid*ing 4. to wait for; await

Remember that time when you were doing what you assumed God had intended for you, and still nothing happened as you thought they would or should?

Remember when you prayed frequently; when you asked, seeked, and knocked to no avail? Remember wondering why God would ask you to do these things if he was not going to answer you?

Those are moments of waiting. They are moments of abiding.

A significant part of my story over the course of the last 7-8 years has been an education in waiting and abiding. It is incredible looking back on those moments when I had certain expectations, which were never  granted. 

Moreover, it is incredible the things God has shown me since then. He has shown me on a few different moments what would have happened if I had been granted what I thought should have happened, and those results would have been detrimental on every occasion.

Abiding in Christ is learning a sense of waiting with patience. It is learning that the things you think should happen may be more detrimental to you than you had thought they would. It means learning to trust the intent and wisdom of a Father with your best interests in mind and has no intention of giving you everything you think you want and need.

Abiding is a practice of patience. It is...

waiting.

Why Ted Williams is unwelcome

"Oh wait! You actually needed more help than the makeover we gave you? We are ashamed of you now." - America

I have been sucked into the firestorm of the Ted Williams story this week. I cannot help but see a hard reality of our media and American culture weaving its way into the story.

We were so quick to overlook any possible deeper issues in order to make ourselves look better by helping this man with a makeover, but once they cleared away the dirt, grime, and hair, they found "demons" like alcoholism and a dark past. Now the story changes.

Suddenly, the man with the golden voice is another tabloid regular, and there is an air of disappointment in the media coverage.

It makes me wonder, "Do you really think all you had to do was cut his hair and give him some new clothes?"

Today, I am wondering how many churches do the same thing. How often do we want simply to get someone "saved" without any concern to the reality of brokenness that lies underneath? Are we willing to enter into those things after the initial saving?

Suppose we do enter into someone's broken story, are we going to react with grave disappointment as though we never expected the sin-soaked nature of humanity to rear its ugly head after they accept Jesus Christ?

No answers here...just reflection...

 

Abide Week: continued condition

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

a*bide [uh-bayhd] verb, a*bode or a*bid*ed, a*bid*ing 3. to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship; last

Negativity is a powerful snare we often feel entrapped in. Days and weeks are wasted with our incessant inner fight to get rid of our negative thoughts. When willing them away reveals itself an empty attempt we find ourselves layering the negativity of our inability to change it onto the layers, which had initially brought us to that place.

None of us desires to be stuck in this trap, or it would not, by definition, be a trap at all. Relief, though minimal, is found in the realization we are not the only one who wrestles with this negativity within. Our sense of loneliness is not reality, but realizing that in theory is easier than it is in practice.

This negative person within us, which we spend the bulk of our time and energy wrestling is possible to be released when we are able to be in a continued condition and attitude toward Christ. We can lose the negative person within.

In order to lose him, we have to realize where the negativity came from. We also have to realize we do not create emotion. Think of every emotion you have: anger, sadness, happiness, negativity. You do not create those emotions by an illustrious act of will or thought.

Emotions are not creations; they are reactions.

Every emotion is a reaction to something else that has happened to us and created a certain belief. Every behavior we do is a reaction to something we believe in our core. Realizing this, the way of losing the negative person within us means, first, determining what it is that has created the negativity. What has happened to us to create within us the emotion of negativity?

Once you realize, after searching, what that thing is, you have to change it. We cannot change the behavior alone because it does not get to the root of the real issue. In order for the behavior to change, the real change must be in the belief. Search yourself and determine what it is that makes it okay for you to be negative and change that thing within yourself.

That change will bring the loss of the negativity, but more importantly we are getting at the real understanding of having a continued condition and attitude toward Jesus.