patrickmead.net

Whew… I am tired. The drive down on Wednesday was a bit of a nightmare. The car ran great and the weather was wonderful… but a wreck shut down Interstate 75 in Cincinnati… and that began the show. Signs warned that “the interstate is closed at [name of street]” but it didn’t say which interstate. The sign was north of interstates 75, 74, and 275. So which one was the bad one? Not having local knowledge, I didn’t know which road to avoid… and we got caught on 75. I finally got off, got to 74, then over to 275 in the edge of Indiana. We lost thirty five minutes… but that was okay.

And then… Kentucky. Interstate 71 from Florence over to Louisville was a parking lot. Hours later, we got into Louisville only to hit another parking lot south of the city on I-65. An hour and a half later, we crawled past the road works…. which consisted of fifty to one hundred yards of lane marked off with barrels. That was it, ladies and gentlemen. Our 9 and a half hour ride turned into a 12 hour 5 minute one. But we were lucky. Some of our friends behind us were caught for much longer. One family with two small babies took nearly 14 hours to make the trip.

Kami (”She Who Must Be Obeyed”) solemnly informed me: “get a church in Tennessee or get used to flying me down; this drive is impossible.”

We missed all the festivities on Wednesday night, suffice it to say, but we saw several friends from our time in Morgantown. Today was a great day. The weather was fabulous. Low 80s with beautiful sunshine and low humidity. Paradise!

We saw friends from Pennsylvania, all over Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama, and West Virginia. I heard great lessons from Randy Harris and Mark Love. Then, it was time to have lunch with Tim Woodruff and some friends from Florida. I got back in time to do my talk at 2PM. After visiting with the crowd afterward, I went to another meeting with a church… only to find out it was scheduled for tomorrow! Oh well. Kami and I took advantage of our suddenly free two hours and drove over to see the house Kara, Lucas, and that guy she married bought. It is a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood. Unlike most subdivisions — including the one we live in — the homes were all unique and well designed. It did us good to know they would be living in such a great place.

We drove back to Lipscomb just in time to meet with the elders from a church in east Tennessee. We had a good time with them but, when it was over, we realized two things: we had missed supper and, we were too tired to eat! We drove over to Green Hills and passed on the Cheesecake Factory (just not hungry enough), stopping instead at Baja Fresh. We drug ourselves back over here at 9PM (10PM Detroit time). I sit here, tired but amazed at the circle of friends God has built up for me over the years.

Tomorrow… it begins again. More later.

In the morning, Kami and I will point my little car south and head toward Nashvegas (as my kids call it). I am speaking twice at Celebration at Lipscomb University. My classes are at 2PM on Thursday and Friday. They will be part one and part two of “Jesus and the Nobodies.” The material will be some of the same stuff I presented at Tulsa this year, showing the folk how we have reached the unchurched and how we have reimagined our church (and church work) in a way that frees us to BE Christ rather than just attend a Christian bunker on Sunday.

What a difference two years makes! Two years ago I spoke at Celebration and was able to move around the campus anonymously. I’m not well known in central Tennessee so I could walk around and listen or observe without being spotted. I’m not sure what caused the change but this time I have had to turn down tons of invitations to breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, late night strolls… okay, I made that last one up but you get the point. Four have even called me to see when we are planning to arrive on Wednesday so that they can visit with us. That’s nice but a bit overwhelming. I think we are fully booked for the whole time we are there.

Oh… and that is the other difference. It is “we” this time as I will be accompanied by my lovely wife, Kami. We didn’t have time to celebrate our 30th anniversary last Sunday because we had a full day at Rochester Church. We had thought we would take an evening to do something in Nashville but those are all booked now. We’ll try again later.

By the way, we don’t know when we are going to get there. We don’t know when we will leave. We are going to enjoy the ride. Kami plans to skip my first talk (she’s heard me before) and go see the house that Kara and Josh have just put an offer in on. They got back last night. I took advantage of the day we are all back in the D and ran over to hold Lucas for awhile. He blessed me with tons of smiles, some soft laughs, and some incredible faces. He is such an expressive seven week old kid! We will miss him. And Kara. And that guy she married.

We’ll try to keep you informed throughout Celebration. If you are going there, please come up and introduce yourself but excuse us — and understand — if we seem rushed and if there is a hunted look on our faces!

…that I married the lovely, wonderful, sweet, and incredible Kami in Denver, Colorado. I was in a suit from Woolworth’s. She came from an upper middle class family. My family was… well, my family, while hers was highly regarded in business, social, and church circles. It was widely assumed that our marriage would crash and burn. In fact, we kid each other that at every anniversary, somebody loses a bet!

We have journeyed long and hard throughout the world since then. As we talked about that this morning, I admitted to Kami that I don’t think of all the people we met and the places we saw. What I remember is Kami in Glasgow, Kami in Dundonald, Kami in Norfolk… my life is full of memories of looking at the wonderful gift God gave me. She filled my life with two wonderful children who are now two wonderful adults.

The odds are we won’t have 30 more years — if actuarial tables are to be believed — but, then again, the odds were against us back then, too! Kami is quiet, social, precise, graceful, wise, and possessed of an orderly mind. I am… well… not. But God has been all over this marriage and done things that would have otherwise been impossible. What a ride. What a glorious gift. I am honored to be the husband of this Christian woman.

I have been doing some behind the scenes work on a new Hidden People series. It isn’t ready for primetime yet but should be before the end of the year. (remember, it takes time to gather this kind of info) A friend sent me a link to a British newspaper article that has some bearing on both the Hidden People and our current national debate over health care.

Except it isn’t much of a debate. I have never seen a party shut the other party out of debates and legislation like the Republicans have been shut out since January. A lot of this is the Republican’s fault — they have no national spokesperson that is wise, charismatic, and strong enough to take on the media and Democrat Party. And when they do get a spokesman, he runs off and has an affair on Father’s Day in Argentina and thinks he can get away with it (seriously, people, when will Republicans learn to keep their pants on?).

I have lived with National Health care and know its ins and outs. In the UK today, you have to be in pretty good health to get access to further health care. If you are very sick or chronically ill, they do not give you access because that would “waste their limited resources.” Too fat? Smoke? Don’t exercise? Bad genes? Tough cookies (or “biscuits” in the UK).

Even when resources exist, they are doled out according to political policy and not on a first come, first served basis. See this article for one of a score of examples we could pluck from British headlines:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193810/Want-GP-Gipsies-come-NHS-tells-doctors-travellers-seen-straight-away.html

Could it come to the point where if you are not part of the favored political party or if you do not life your life in a politically correct way, you will lose access to health care under a nation system? Well, let’s see… that actually HAS happened, but only in every single country where national health care has been instituted.

Oh, and in every country with national health care, costs have also risen dramatically, resources dwindled, waiting lists lengthened beyond reason (it can take over a year for a simple heart cath in the UK and Canada), and people have been denied care for the crime of not being worth saving.

Not that it matters. We are about to pass an energy bill that will dramatically raise our food costs and nearly double our electricity bills. We won’t have enough money to make a phone call to Congress to complain about our health care. They are voting on it on Friday. And Republicans? Who knows? Maybe we should ask Senator Ensign or Governor Sanford for their wisdom on this… on the other hand, let’s not.

I have an idea… let’s all become Travellers. They live outside the system, live in a cash economy, and get first access to national health. Anyone want to trade me a trailer for my house?

The temps got a bit too high for this guy today. Yes, yes, I know that many of you have even higher temps than we do here but you have to understand something — two weeks ago, we were wearing sweatshirts in Michigan. Today, it is 92 and humid. The whole area is under an air quality alert with smog and ozone causing people breathing problems.

And, of course, the air conditioning in my office quit working. Perhaps it hasn’t been working all year and we hadn’t noticed it until this day showed up. I came home and did my writing and made my calls from the relative coolness of my kitchen table. Ahhh. The only problem I have here is that Scooby the Wonder Parrot continually talks to me. She doesn’t like competing for my attention with a pile of books and papers.

Nineties are in the forecast for most of the rest of the week. That makes this weekend interesting. We are having our Rochester Church Men’s Golf Outing on Saturday. We check in by 7:30 and have a shotgun start. Lunch follows. The day before, eight of us are getting together to golf a round at a different course. That will officially double the amount of rounds of golf I’ve played all year. This will not be pretty… We will be keeping the sunscreen and water bottles very close. You folk in Tennessee and Florida are probably laughing at us but remember, Michigan people don’t tan. They stroke.

I’m praying for all the kids at Elevate, the week long youth rally at Rochester College. Only one of the dorms has air conditioning. The rest of them have to rely on fans they brought with them. Salient, the rock group I featured yesterday, actually went out and bought their own so they could survive the week. I offered to bring them home with me but they wanted to tough it out with the kids. Admirable.

Tonight is the last night of my seven week series on “God at War” based on Gregory Boyd’s book of the same name (and bits of his book “God of the Possible” too). It has been a lot of work to present it, but it has truly been fun to see the lights come on in peoples’ eyes as they finally “get” the Bible and the universe in which they live. The lessons are being posted on the church website at www.rochestercoc.org. I am aware that they aren’t posted quickly. Sorry — we rely on a volunteer. He does a good job when he can get to it. We have lost three of our best sound and tech guys to the economy and moves. All of our ministries have been hit by those kind of losses. One ministry that we really MUST keep fully operational is our work with the homeless in Cass Park. Josh Graves, its champion, is moving on to Otter Creek in a couple months.

Speaking of my grandson and his parents, they are taking him on his first plane ride tomorrow. They are headed to Nashville to look for houses. It is going to be terribly hard living a ten hour drive away from that little guy. I’ll leave you with a photo of my grandson that was taken for Father’s Day. He is now six weeks old and we are smitten, of course. Now… where did I leave that half gallon glass of iced tea?

I returned from SoulQuest just in time to join in a week long youth event at Rochester College called Elevate. There are lots of good speakers — and me — rotating in and out with able small group leaders and Chris Shields is leading the praise team. The kids seem happy and engaged, which is cool. One of the highlights of the week is the presence of Salient, which I consider to be the best Christian rock band out there.

And, no, I haven’t heard them all. Sadly, most Christian music is just way too much girl-with-a-guitar-Jesus-is-my-boyfriend for my taste. Salient isn’t like that. They have guitars and they know how to use them! I tried to explain them to my small group last night and could only feebly say “If you took the best of DC Talk and the best of U2 and you gave that to four Christian men who model their faith unashamed, you would have Salient.”

Here is a clip from their performance just over a year ago at Rochester Church’s youth event — Illuminate. The sound is as muddy as it can be, but it gives you a taste of Salient.

I love these guys, as you can tell. I plan to take them to Gus O’Connor’s for lunch today. We wanted to take them to a Tigers game but the schedule wouldn’t work for us. Take some time to pray today for men like these who travel everywhere to sing of God and faith… for what amounts to pennies… while the world throws its money away on the latest pop sensation. And, if you want to book them, go here:
http://www.gigmasters.com/ChristianRock/Salient/

Yesterday was busy, as advertised in this space. After preaching twice and teaching the teen class, I went across the street and grabbed a quick lunch at Burger King (the Big Kid’s Meal. Thanks for asking) and ate it as I changed clothes in my office. Now festooned in jeans, sneakers, and Marine Corps polo shirt I joined the caravan to Cass Park.

I need to stress that feeding the homeless and this whole Cass Park thing wasn’t my idea. A lot of people give me credit for every good thing done at Rochester and I don’t deserve it! This ministry grew from the heart of Josh Graves, soon to be the teaching minister at Otter Creek just south of Nashville. I don’t usually get to go to Cass Park as Sundays can be very, very busy days for me. This time, however, I really wanted to go.

Josh wanted us to make a special effort this Fathers’ Day, and we did. We tried to get some of our vets to join us as we went into the Detroit Veteran’s Center (a homeless shelter for vets. Detroit has more homeless vets than any other metro region) but most wanted to be with their families. One vet who was looking forward to being with us had a heart attack Saturday and is in the hospital. We ended up with a couple vets, me, and Duncan along with some of our best volunteers. While a large group fed the people in Cass Park, our smaller group went two blocks west to serve those who served us.

One of our vets became visibly touched during our visit. He recognized some of the men. They had all been drafted together back during the Vietnam War. Now, here they were. Each of the men made sure to thank us for the food we brought (pulled pork, green beans, mac and cheese, peach cobbler all made by members of Rochester Church) and could not have been more polite or gracious. That is something you don’t expect unless you spend time with the homeless. Most aren’t the angry, deranged people you see on TV (though there certainly are some of them!).

Back at Cass Park, visitors from Louisiana and Gladwin, MI were helping us feed all who showed up. Some got extra food to take back to wherever they were sleeping. The area around there is littered with abandoned buildings, shelters, and hopelessness. The warming station (where people go to avoid freezing to death in winter) and the block around there is — quite frankly — hell on earth. You can hear audible gasps from people when they make their first trip down here as we round the corner and it comes into view. Broken, forgotten people line the sidewalks, curbs, and streets. They have nothing left but their shared anguish and a memory of being someone different once upon a time.

One of the men who came to work with us and see this first hand commented on it this morning as he popped into my office. He finally understood why we do what we do. We don’t change any of these peoples’ situation, he said, but we show them love for a few hours and give them enough to get them through the next day — all in the Name of Jesus. He’s right. We don’t have the skills, resources, or right to change peoples’ situations. What we have is grace, a bit of food, some new clothing when appropriate, and the willingness to look them in the eye, shake their hands or hug them, and listen to their stories. One sweet young lady from Rochester sat patiently while a homeless woman drug out her treasures to show her — dozens and dozens of colored sheets coloring books she had found. Another listened while a man explained why he didn’t want anyone to pray for him. And so on.

It only helped for one day, but that was what we had to give and it was enough. For now. We’ll be back.

I’m in the airport in Omaha. I am consistently surprised at the small size and limited facilities of major city airports. Just in recent months I’ve been in the airport for Baton Rouge, Nashville, Omaha, and Little Rock and compared them to our airport in Detroit. Say what you will about the city of Detroit and its troubles, our airport rocks. It is bright, modern, full of amenities — almost a destination in itself. Here in Omaha, I am in the same situation I was in at Baton Rouge — you had better purchased a book and any necessities before you went through security because once through you are in “Amuse Yourself” land. I am sitting at a tiny restaurant/bar with my Diet Coke so I can watch the US Open on TV. I got here very early for my flight, but I was awake and there was nothing else for me to do but go to the airport… so I did. Omaha’s airport does offer free wi-fi and that is a huge plus. Detroit, Memphis, Dallas-Fort Worth and way too many others make you pay between $10-14 to access the net. That’s just inexcusable.

I confess that I was a bit rattled last night. The kids were SO tuned into the talk and the songs that many of them were teary-eyed as we started worship. They were so sad it was going to be over that it ratcheted up their emotions and kept them there. I really don’t know how many were baptized but I’m guessing at least 20 were over the week. I know that some pooh-pooh baptisms at camps and youth rallies but I don’t. Sure, peer pressure and emotions can powerfully sway a kid but that’s true about everything in a kid’s life — ball team allegiance, favorite store, way of dressing, choice of music, decisions about drugs and alcohol, etc. To have positive peer pressure bring someone into a life long relationship with Jesus isn’t a bad thing. I don’t do the Jimmy Allen thing and have them sing “Just As I Am” until someone comes forward nor do I gin up their already fragile emotions. I just speak to them of love, grace, hope, acceptance, and the call to a life of ministry in the Name of Jesus… and they responded.

What rattled me was the number of kids — male and female — who came up to me before and after the worship time. They thanked me sincerely, hugged me, offered to pray with me, asked if I was on FaceBook or what my email was, etc. Several took videos of each service and talk and told me it was going right up on YouTube. After the service, and after a good 40 minute period of baptisms followed each time by thunderous applause, cheers, stomping, and banging on the pews (I think the angels probably were so pleased they laughed out loud at the unrestrained and unashamed joy the kids displayed. I know I did!), I stood in the back for another 40 minutes or so while kids cried as they hugged me — some of them coming back for a second or third time. Young men, young women, their chaperons… I am simply not used to getting that much love after an event. It was wonderful and a little disconcerting.

Tim Lewis and York College put together a stellar program. The singing was the best I have heard at any event anywhere. The kids were ready to sing and they did so with glee, sincerity and not a little talent. It was amazing. Hoss Ridgeway was there to do a morning wake-up event every day and the kids — of course — loved him.

I’ll get into Detroit around 4:30 if my flight is on time. Duncan is picking me up and taking me home. As I do laundry, Kara, Josh, and Lucas are coming over for an evening of games. Tomorrow I will preach both morning services. I will co-preach with Josh as we talk about father’s blessing their children. Duncan will be on stage with us, holding Lucas. It should be a special time. During the class time, I will briefly visit with a group attending First Look, our one hour introduction to Rochester Church. Right after the second service, I change into work clothes and head to Cass Park as we feed the homeless and help the fathers there know they are loved and not forgotten. A special effort is being made to reach those in the veteran’s shelter. About the time that wraps up, I have to drive back to Rochester, this time to the college where a new week long youth rally begins. I will speak during their evening worship time and then head over to Kara’s house for a late dinner time.

And, of course, on Monday I have to get back to work. Enough with all this lazing around!

Happy Fathers’ Day to all of you dads out there. We are doing a special blessing for our dads. Can I ask all of you preachers one favor? There is a predictable pattern to Fathers’ Day sermons. On Mothers’ Day we go on and on about how wonderful mothers are and on Fathers’ Day we tell dads they need to do better. Don’t do that. Encourage them, thank them, give them a blessing, and then remember that we meet to lift up our Heavenly Father. Keep your eyes on Him.

I am only speaking in the evenings here at SoulQuest. That leaves me a TON of time during the day to fill. There isn’t a lot to see in York itself. It has a nice Wal-Mart and one of those tiny Pamida stores you find in rural areas. More than half of the storefronts downtown are empty. So… I hit the road. There are lots of museums within an hour and a half drive that are worth seeing. Hastings has a great IMAX theater with nature movies, a museum about the creation and history of Kool-aid, and a nice music shop. Grand Island has the fantastic outdoor Stuhr museum of the plains. They have recreated a pioneer village by moving in a few dozen original structures and arranging it like a town. A museum and a Plains Indian house display round out the offerings. Kearney has an incredible museum that directs you around dioramas about the great trek west, pioneer life, early Mormon history, and the settlement of the plains. The University of Nebraska over in Lincoln has two museums that are worth the three hours or so it takes to walk through them. Lincoln also has three nice independent music stores and the only Guitar Center in Nebraska (tiny).

I might make the trek over the the wildlife park tomorrow when temps are supposed to drop out of the mid 90s. The storms have been impressive but, thank God, have moved around York and spared SoulQuest. The clouds and storms here are amazing — so well defined, so full of lightning. Four inch hail pounded a town 90 minutes away from here yesterday. I can’t even imagine that kind of hail.

Tim has done a fantastic job planning this SoulQuest. The last time I was here it was great, but this year blows out all the records from years before. You can’t fit any more kids into the church at night. It is standing room only. The singing is enough to bring tears to your eyes. These kids can SING! And they sing from their hearts. Yes, they can get noisy, especially during clapping songs (which they have also turned into pew slapping songs) but it is all about worship to them. It is an honor to get to address them each night… and makes it worth waiting all day for my 40 minutes of “on” time.

What amazes me is how many of the kids — male and female — make it a priority to come up to me, thank me, give me a heartfelt hug, shake my hand, or otherwise make sure I am encouraged. Adults come up and tell me how much it means to them that I am here. I keep wondering… why? I am just Bill and Kitty’s little boy, now going gray and not getting any better at this preaching stuff. One high school science teacher told me that he listens to our podcasts every morning as he walks from his house to work. I’ve lost track of the kids who have our lessons on their iPod. Two churches — one in Kansas and one in Iowa — told me that they use our sermons as their preacher since they are currently without a full time minister and four others told me they use our podcasts in their Bible classes. Who knew that Rochester Church’s influence was spreading like that? I didn’t.

It humbles me. And amazes me. It is proof of what Paul said — God chooses the weak to show His strength. He chooses the one and two talent people to change the world. It really is all about Him.

It was just yesterday that I was talking to my wife on the phone and said the words in question. She is up in Traverse City, Michigan enjoying that paradise (at least for two or three months a year) while I am soaking up the energy and love of hundreds of teens here in York, Nebraska. We were talking about a church that asked me if I would be interested in being their minister. In their list of requirements for their minister was the need for him to hold a degree in Bible from an accredited university. I have enough degrees to wallpaper a bachelor’s closet, but none of them are in Bible. I said to the people what I said to my wife: I am NOT going back to school to get a Bible degree at my age and at my current level of service in the Kingdom.

And then… today I got a note about a new program at Rochester College that just might make me eat my words; words that aren’t even 24 hours old. I am not interested in gaining a new degree to get a different job and, more than that, most Bible degrees don’t interest me. Don’t get me wrong — I think they are fantastic degrees in valuable areas of study, but they just aren’t for me. I don’t speak the language of theology and after learning the languages of medicine, psychology, linguistics (irony, there) and criminal justice I just can’t get ginned up about learning another academic tongue. However…

This new degree (info can be found at http://rcmlrc.ning.com/) is in Missional Leadership. Now THAT is something I am interested in — and which Rochester Church tries to pull off, sometimes with measurable success. The designer of the degree is the wonderful Mark Love. He will be joining Rubel Shelly at Rochester College shortly as the new MRE degree rolls out. It is a distance degree, which also interests me. I am not one of those who likes having structured learning environments. I like learning when it is driven by passion and not limited by arbitrary marks on a clock. This degree would allow my style of learning to blossom. In fact, as I read a description of the way the first year works, it sounded like I was reading about a British Research Doctorate… and I have some experience with those. They are very highly regarded worldwide because only the motivated get them; no trust fund students avoiding the real world in those degrees.

Will I join the degree program? I’m not sure. I must say that learning from Greg Stevenson and Keith Huey and Sara Barton — all Rochester Church members, by the way — as well as Mark Love and Pat Keifert would be an amazing experience. If you have any interest, I’d urge you to check it out…

But, more than that, if you like what Rochester Church does — and hundreds of you tell me you do — consider sending your elders and ministry staff to Rochester College to get this degree. Let them learn about Missional ministry from the best and then walk a few hundred yards to a current urban laboratory in ministry possibilities — Rochester Church. Their visits and studies would help spread a new energy to your home congregation. Contact RC for more details. As for me… I might need to interrupt my wife’s visit to Traverse City with one of those “uh… honey?” phone calls.

More? Go to http://rcmlrc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/announcing-the-mre-in