cards

I'm not a big fan of Christmas cards. Something about spending hours writing little notes and signing the family name at the bottom of an inevitably cheesy piece of card stock and sending them en masse to loved ones under the guise of personalized, acute affection just always seemed ... bad ... to me.

Of course the other edge of the sword is that one is, somehow, obligated to do just that. Especially having sprung oneself from the "nest." Adulthood and financial freedom obligate Americans every December to cutesy (and unoffensive) snowflake stamps, brushing up our calligraphy, family photos in the snow, and impersonal greetings. In the name of Jesus - because our bumpers affirm we need to Keep Christ in Christmas this time of year.

So this December I will oblige (it's my second Christmas as a married woman so I'm setting myself up to be the proverbial black sheep of the family if I don't). I've decided, though, that I will not give in to box sets or gold foil. Ours will be handcrafted with love, thus combating all that is aloof, commercial, and hypocritical about the Christmas card industry. Your grandchildren will thank me for their freedom.

I've drawn up a list and begun construction. Six down, about 20 to go. Here is a sample of what I've got so far:

two can play this game

So I was washing dishes a couple days ago - Timothy was out - when some little devil started "accusing the brethren" in my ear. Where "the brethren" equals my husband. He must have been new at this little trick because the stuff he was trying to dredge up to get me upset was ridiculous. Stuff that is long since forgiven and so far removed that it was just impossible to attach any emotion to it.

"Remember this ... ? Remember when he said this? Remember that one time ... ?"

I was more irritated at the accuser than at the accused.

I know in that situation we're supposed to follow Jesus' example from the wilderness and combat with scripture, but I was feeling feisty and ... well I kind of used scripture.

"Remember that time you guys thought Satan could really ascend higher than God? Man, did you fall hook, line, and sinker for that one! Idiots. Who would actually believe that?! Talk about short-sighted. 'Fell like lightning from heaven,' is, I think, how that turned out for ya. Oh, and remember that time you thought you'd killed Jesus? Ha ha ha - and He showed up at your door and you got yet another beat down?! Oh to have been a fly on the wall ..."

It's not conventional, but it worked. I finished the dishes in peace.

good weekend

I got to spend the weekend with my husband. How nice!

Saturday we ran errands together, cleaned the apartment (well - half of it) together, went to Guitar Center to look at basses together, wandered through Cabela's and looked at dead animals together, ate kettle corn and apple cider together, and got dressed up to eat finger food together.

Sunday we went to church together, watched a movie together, took a nap together and went to my parents' for dinner and laundry together.

We realized we'd almost forgotten how to just hang out and do nothing in particular. It was nice to do that again. And to actually have a relaxing weekend.

cms

So you've heard me talk about this Church Marketing Sucks blog before. I like these people. Every so often (perhaps when they run out of updates), they "round up" some of their favorite comments from recent discussions. I was the favorite this time. That's right: I'm God's favorite and I'm Joshua Cody's favorite. I rock.

CMS is also talking about an article from last week titled, Willow Creek Repents? Apparently Executive Pastor Greg Hawkins decided that before launching another expensive program it might be good to see how the congregation was doing. They did some extensive surveying and found that a lot of what they were doing wasn't actually working.

Bill Hybels talked about the most dramatic finding at the last Leadership Summit. You can watch the video here, but basically, they discovered they weren't helping people become mature disciples:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become self-feeders. We should have ... taught people how to read their Bibles between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

They released their findings and, I hope, are in the process of turning themselves around.

For the leaders of a church that makes all of Outreach Magazine's lists (biggest, most innovative, fastest growing, etc.) to be able to admit their mistake and take action to fix it is pretty amazing. It would be so easy for Bill to ignore that information (which they instead published in a book called Reveal) and go on being a shiny, happy megachurch, but it sounds like they're stepping up to the challenge. Props.

our store

Check us out.

The Switch Youth Ministry has a mall. Click me. We get a small %-age of purchases made through the website, so do all your Christmas shopping through us! (If you haven't converted to Christmas shopping online yet, let this be an excuse to start. It's way less stressful and you can do it in your PJs.)

It links to hundreds of stores, so you'll find everything you need. Examples: Target, Kohl's, Best Buy, the Apple store ... There's a ton more, but I can't even think of anywhere else you'd need to shop. The actual shopping is done on the company websites, so it's secure; you just have to get to the company website through ours.

So Bookmark that bad boy and tell all your friends! (Then buy them all a subscription to the Wall Street Journal 'cause we get a big cut from them!)

i'm proud of me

Know what I did after work yesterday? Nothing.

(Well, okay - I did dishes, cleaned the stove, picked up a bit, and put away some clean laundry but we're talking 90 minutes of housewife activity tops.)

Timothy and I borrowed some movies and we sat on the couch, with the laptop on a kitchen chair and a frozen pizza on the couch next to us, and vegged until about midnight.

I didn't work on the worship night coming up. I didn't make a single Christmas card. I didn't zine. I didn't clean the bathroom. I didn't brainstorm sermon illustrations or fundraising activities. I didn't plan a set list for practice tonight. I didn't pay a single bill or even look at the checkbook register.

Then this morning I started to think ... for the briefest of moments ... about how I need to better schedule my time so I can be more efficient. I rubbed my sleepy eyes to squint at myself in the bathroom mirror and very politely advised me to shut up.

how people read the Bible

Barna has released the findings of a new study. Survey respondents were given six "renowened" Bible stories and asked if they believe each is "literally true, meaning it happened exactly as described in the Bible," or "meant to illustrate a principle but is not to be taken literally.

Percentage of American adults who believe the following stories are literally true:
Jesus' Resurrection: 75%
Daniel in the Lion's Den: 65%
Parting the Red Sea: 64%
David Killing Goliath: 63%
Peter Walks on Water: 60%
Six Days of Creation: 60%

The report breaks the numbers down by region, ethnicity, education, etc. You can read all that here if you like.

George Barna made the following comment on the new report,

" ... the widespread embrace of these accounts raises questions about the unmistakable gap between belief and behavior. On the one hand we have tens of millions of people who view these narratives as reflections of reality ... On the other hand, a majority of those same people harbor a stubborn indifference toward God ... It seems millions of Americans believe the Bible is true, but are not willing to translate those stories into action. ... the Bible has become a respected but impersonal religious history lesson that stays removed from their life (sic)."

Lord, keep me out of that majority!

ready set go

We had been secretly planning to take over the youth ministry anyway, I just didn't think it would happen so quickly.

Word is out: the times they are a changin'. The Lord has something new for the Krauss family and something new for Switch (me). We made the big announcement Friday night, but I haven't stopped thinking about it for about a week now.

I've never - never - laid awake at night thinking about something. You see it all the time in movies, and I know some people who are way too involved with their work that tell me they do it but I've never had that problem. Sometimes I've even wished I had that problem; I've tried to have that problem because I run out of time to brainstorm. My midnights are pretty open, so ... It's never worked, though, until this week.

And then I came to my senses and decided the first thing to do is pray about stuff. I sat down to pray the other day and didn't even know where to begin. Seriously.

All I've come to is that I have to watch Holy Spirit. A month ago, I probably could have told you that, sure: as someone is moved to different levels of authority and responsibility, said person needs to better be able to hear from God. You need to watch Him, and go where He's going. It's amazing how, with anything, lessons lived are more difficult and more effective than lessons taught.

leave it to the swedes

That's right: their names are Pee and Poo. I hate to admit it, but they're cute. You can get tshirts, socks (for baby or yourself), plush toys, temporary tattoos ... oh wait, the temporary tattoos are out of stock. Yup - Pee and Poo temporary tattoos are selling like hotcakes.

There's also a link to Pee and Poo Memory. It's the card game. My top score is eight (8). Beat that.

(Thanks to DTR for the hot tip.)

click.

This just in ...

According to a recent AP report, "maritime pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier." Mua ha ha ... ah ... ahem. Nevermind.

According to Koala Wallop (I don't know), December 8th is "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day." Suggestions are available on the forum. Sounds hilarious.

If you ignored me a couple weeks ago when I told you to watch the sessions from GCC's Innovate 2007 conference, stop it. Here's the link to the list again: link to the list. Rob Wegner is talking about Transferring Communication on the other half of my screen right now and it's wonderful.

A church in TN is suffering backlash for a red hot marketing campaign. Video. We could get some discussion going on that; watch the video and let us know what you think. Effective marketing, or did they go too far? I'm with the church, personally, and if I weren't overflowing with the love of Christ I'd like to hand a piece of my mind to the community member who doesn't think churches should spend money on marketing. *grits teeth* Overflowing with the love of Christ ...

So there's some fun for your Wednesday morning. (Subliminal: Watch the Innovate sessions.)

in hope believe

My journey through Judges continued the other night into chapter 10. The pattern of evil, bondage, crying out, deliverance, and peace continues until verse 11 (-14, embellished):

//So the LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from your addictions and from your pride and from your own lies and from the soul ties you forged and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and your ego oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress."

Days ago this was my response to Israel, but now, aware that I am Israel and not God in this story, I allowed myself to get a little worried.

I know how the story ends, so it's easy to call God's bluff, but Israel was probably worried and unsure at the time. They probably thought it was too hard, if not impossible, and hardly worth trying anyway since it seemed the Lord would not deliver them.

But they served Him anyway.

Imagine. Who would do that, really? You've gotten yourself in a mess (of course, many of us would never admit was our fault in the first place), you cry out to the Lord, and He says, "No! Get yourself out of it. I'm tired of your cold shoulder." Church attendance the next week would plummet. Tithes and offerings would all but dry up. Which side would I be on? I know which side I should be on, but in the midst of that ... who can stand?

Israel served God anyway. For better or worse, they realized their err and put away the false gods even though they had little hope that the Lord would act on their behalf. Which answers my question from yesterday ...

And I love the last half of verse 16. After Israel returns to the Lord, with no expectation for their own good, "His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel." And He raised up a deliverer.

hypothetical

Tami pants posts a question on Facebook about your dream job/career. A seemingly innocent question, but my first qualification is: do I assume I'm good at whatever I want to do or is she asking for my dream job given my current skill set?

So I'm randomly thinking about it as I'm driving somewhere, and I start to think about my one semester as a music performance major in Missouri. Sometimes I wish I had stuck with that; Alexis Wisniewski - Concert Pianist. That would be cool.

HS: Sure, but you'd be using your giftings for your own glory, instead of Mine.
AW: (selfish and argumentative) If that's what I wanted to do, would You disallow it?
HS: Should you be asking for permission, or guidance?
AW: What if you guide me to spend my life doing something I don't want to do?
HS: What could you want to do besides My will?
AW: I mean what if it was something really awful? What ever happened to the desires of my heart? Would being a disciple mean I have to spend my life doing something I really dislike? Or ignoring something I'm really passionate about?
HS: So what if it did?

Of course my rebuttals were weak and unfounded and unBiblical, but I think that last point is what He was driving home. And of course it probably wouldn't come down to that because He knows the desires of my heart because He made them the desires of my heart and He loves me best ... but He also knows how to speak to me.

Am I following Christ because it's convenient for me, or because He's Truth?

from granger community church

good stuff ...

Barna released a new study called What Teenagers Look for in a Church. One really interesting statistic: One-sixth of teenagers (16%) and one-quarter (25%) said they had "a spiritual experience" online where they worshipped or connected with God. If you really care what I think about it you can read the work blog, but you'd better be pretty bored.

Granger Community Church recently wrapped up their Innovate 2007 conference. You can watch all of the session here. I'm watching Guy Kawasaki talk about The Art of Innovation right now and it's pretty spectacular. It started out with a cute live performance, a Granger music video that was pretty cool, a couple worship songs (which made me feel better about being a worship leader and a mediocre singer ...), and a really cool Granger video that wrapped up their 2006. It takes 25 minutes to get to Guy's presentation, but it's worth it. (Oh, and it's long, but I say keep it open on half your screen and respond to emails on the other half.)

For those of you who were looking for spiritual content, I will briefly describe my frustration as I read Judges last night:

I started to notice a pattern by chapter two, and began to jot subtitles in the margin. "Evil ... bondage ... cry out ... deliverer ... peace ... evil ... bondage ... cry out ... deliverer ... peace ... evil ... bondage ... cry out ... deliverer ... peace." I started to get frustrated with Israel and my righteous inner monologue was shouting, "Just get your act together already!"

Then I had a Calivn and Hobbes moment - one of those where Calvin looks out at the reader and the little asterisk (*) appears over his head. I was astonished at the grace of God in the Old Testament (when He's often accused by unbelievers of being mean and hateful - psh) and in my life. I'm used to it in my life, but to read it in the third person made it real again. Because I got frustrated and God kept sending deliverers over and over and over ...

steampunk

This is rad, and no I'm not just saying that because "punk" is in the title:

I've been thinking about a story I read in college. I don't know how many years ago. At least three.

I could hardly remember anything about it except the end was so beautiful I almost cried every time I read it. It had something to do with a guy who'd had a rough go of childhood, but played piano and it ended in a blues bar.

It's been on my mind for weeks. I don't think I was Spirit-filled when I'd read it, but I remember the way it felt when I finally met the Holy Spirit. He seemed vaguely familiar. Which, as I thought about it, was strange because I was sure the story had nothing to do with religion or spirituality or Christ - because I would have rejected it immediately if it had.

Finally, yesterday, I dug through dusty piles of text books beneath the old bed at my parents' house and found the collection of short stories I'd been forced to pay too much money for years ago. It was late, so I brushed off the cover and brought it home.

An hour later I sat next to stacks of clean laundry that wouldn't be put away that evening and flipped slowly through the text. The Bible-thin pages stuck together and made for slow going, but I patiently scanned the italic text in the upper right-hand corner of the pages. I didn't remember the title of the story, but was sure I'd recognize it when I saw it.

I stopped several times to read the last page of a few stories with promising titles. None. 400 pages later I couldn't find anything. I started at the front this time, and began to browse the table of contents - hoping that I'd recognize the title. Then I did. "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. I knew that was it. Page 25.

Excited and relieved and dying to sit and read this story again, I flipped through delicate pages. 15 ... 21 ... 24 ... 49. Between pages 24 and 49 were stubs. I'd torn it out years ago, sure that the rest of the text would be discarded and forgotten, in an effort to save it. And now it was gone.

Then I started to think of all the things I've tried to save in my own strength ...

on my mind

Hi. Sorry about that lapse. It's been busy in my head and I don't think I have it all sorted out yet. Here's what I've been thinking about (in no particular order).

//Baking. I made some mean cranberry bars last night. I wonder if I could open a bakery. A café/bakery. Kind of a third place space. I could never work in a boring office ever again. I'd bake and do ministry for the rest of my life.

//Vacation. We signed up with American and United for miles accounts. Now I have to call to get retroactive credit. It looks like we'll be in Memphis for Thanksgiving, though, so with any luck that can turn into the elusive '07 vacation.

//Teenagers. Man ... *sigh*

//Church buildings. Partly because it's my job to think about church buildings, partly because it's come up at church. It's amazing to see what happens when ministries adjust to the idea that the space they're in really does matter. (For some it's natural, others fight the idea.) We've even seen it at home: the children's ministry is growing so fast that they need more space (I think they're trying to colonize Church in the Word and they're just being sneaky about it). Part of that is because Pastor Scott is doing a great job, but part of that is because they are using their existing worship space well. They are able to redesign their worship space to reflect the sermon series, and one little girl was just astonished. The kids know that is their space, and they're excited about it. Space matters.

//Worship. I cannot write a song. I can write prose and poetry and I can put together great chord progressions ... it seems like there should be at least one song in there, right? There's not. BUT whenever I sit down to do Harp & Bowl after a church service, or just worship by myself at home, the most amazing things come out of me. (I've tried to turn some of those into songs too, and that doesn't work either.)

//Prayer. I don't get it, and I'm pretty sure, somehow, that I'm doing it wrong. I don't know if that's possible, but if it is, I'm doing it.

//Moses' Cradle. I've got an idea for what could be a great not-for-profit, and it's been stirring (violently at times - stirring like a hurricane) inside me. I'm terrified about it. It is absolutely too big for me (Which is what every one says, I know. David and Gideon and Moses and Mary, I know, I know.), and even if it weren't I don't know when on earth I'd have the time. If it's NOT the Lord I'm totally going to fall on my face and waste a lot of time/money. If it IS the Lord, though, it could be amazing and I want to be faithful. A couple weeks ago the Sunday morning anouncements included a man at CITW who wanted to help people in their small businesses; if anyone knows that guy I need to talk to him please.

//Money. I despise money. That's all I'm going to say.

//The Esther Project. I'm still believing the zine is going to break up the darkness in the punk rock underground in this area.

There you go. That's why I haven't blogged in a couple days - it's a mess.

no it's not

There's an email circulating about how "In God We Trust" has been omitted from the new dollar coins. It has not. The motto, along with the Great Seal motto and the mint date are on the edge of the coin to make room for new features like the dates of each president's term(s).

There was a set released right after the first mint that accidentally got printed without the inscription on the edge, but it is not the intent of the designer to phase God out of America.

Just thought you should know.

730 days

Today is our second anniversary!

That's right - two years and going strong. Have I learned anything in two years? Let's review:
1. Freud was a weirdo, but sometimes I do wonder how I managed to marry my father.
2. Dating is more important after you're married than before.
3. The devil really hates it when passionate Christians get married.
4. You can, in fact, teach old dogs new tricks.
5. Romantic relationships with other people before getting married mess you up more than you know.

My parents gave us a little gift last night, and my mom mentioned this article she'd read a few weeks ago. A German politician has proposed adding an expiration date to marriage licenses. After seven years you would either renew or go your seperate ways without all the hassle of paperwork. Yike.