Time magazine has an article on the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America (subscription required to read the whole thing). The list includes :

It’s interesting to me the number of people in that list that have direct influence on me through radio shows or their books.

And in other news: SciFi channel have made available a full (unedited, advertizing free) episode of the new Battlestar Galactica series on their website, requires RealPlayer to view. I think I’m hooked. Isnt that how drug pushers work though; the famous “the first hit is always free”?

Comforting fact of the day - I’m wierder than Sehlat!

Why do I feel vastly unprepared for my midterm exam later today? Because (and this is just a gentle, unassuming little hypothesis)…. because I am so grossly under-prepared? Huh? Huh???

Here we are at the midterm of the penultimate quarter of the VLI course and I am only just about to get my final results from last quarter … perhaps I am not the only one running a little behind the curve?

I dont feel all that bad about the “Latter Prophets I” module this quarter - geopolitical descriptions of 7th and 8th century BC middle east were fascinating, giving the books of Jonah, Hosea, Amos and Isaiah a new shade of colour. I’m sure that the exam grades will show my greater interest in that topic when compared with the grade for “Interpreting Scripture” (my other module this quarter). That, to be honest, is going to suck. Suck like … I dunno … a major sucky thing. Bleaugh.

Major sucky-thing - like a mini black hole opened in a planetary atmosphere for instance. Auditions for the role of “sucky thing” invited in comments: In your own words, answer (cleanly) “It’s going to suck like … ___________________”

Yes, it’s my birthday

• Pepper mill

• Peppercorns
• Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence
• The Very Best of… Sting & the Police
• The Phantom of the Opera (2004 Movie Soundtrack)
• …and a rocking carving (roasting) fork to go with the carving knife that I have.

There are other gifts I’ve not unwrapped yet, but so far things are looking good.

BBC News | Health had a piece that said:

Similarity makes happy marriage
Disparity can breed contempt.

People who pick partners with a similar personality to themselves could be helping to guarantee matrimonial bliss.

It says part way through:

The researchers then looked at personality traits such as attachment, whether they were extravert or introverted, and whether or not they were conscientious.

Which sounds to me like they used a combination of the Myers-Briggs test, and the DISC test. I can certainly attest that our marriage has benefitted from similar Myers-Briggs scores (ISTJ vs. ESTJ) although I have to admit that we’ve found ourselves aggreeing aggressively with one another more than once!

I’m currently in the middle of a VLI intensive training weekend taught by Dr. John Oswalt. You can read his bio online. So far the quality of teaching on the course [as a whole] has been excellent. The external speakers that come in for intensive weekends, though, really take things up to another level. At about the 50% stage of the intensive, I have to say: my brain is full. I Still have and overview / wrap up of Amos, and a discussion of the whole book of Hosea to sit through yet. I want something mindless to do this evening - long hot shower, and maybe a movie?

Over lunch I came to the realization that my leadership project this quarter is something of a BHAG (Big hairy audacious goal). Generally a BHAG in church is one where if God himself doesnt move, it’s destined for failure. Similarly here - previous projects had the capability to go wrong and merely cancel an activity. This time around, I’m working with the area pastoral care leader (who looks after the pastoral care of Vineyard pastors in our region) and if things go screwy on the project it’ll reflect badly on him (at the very least) and rob another small church of an event where they would otherwise be really blessed. No pressure!

Unless God comes through and smoothes over my rough edges, works on my character defects and fears, this thing’s got the capability to go belly up pretty spectacularly!

What do you do when you cant get a song out of your head? What if you happen to hate country + western music, and this is a pop-country song? Arrgggh!

Live Like You Were Dying
Tim McGraw

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how?s it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what’d you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn’t
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn’t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I’d do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what?d you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying

Time for truth!

• I’ve known three bona-fide, out-and-out, practicing Satanists.

  TRUE Harry the bar-tender at college (who was from the town I was born in - more on that later), then there was “C” (name hidden to protect the guilty) - my college roommate who was part of a small group who tried to form an official chapter on the Church of Satan, and then there was John - one of the guys I worked with at Burger King in the summer of 1989.

• Over the years I’ve been accused of being a Satanist, a cult-leader and dabbling in black magic (though not all at the same time).

  TRUE Once in 1990, and once in 2004. Needless to say, both accusations were utterly groundless but at the time hurt like h**l!

• Two of my friends are/were coke addicts. (to clarify: that’s cocaine not Coca Cola!)

  TRUE I wont reveal their names, I’ll just call them “C” (my Satanist roommate) and “J” who I met here in the USA.

• I had a permanent, positive, life altering experience while a part of a recovery (12 step-alike) group.

  TRUE A good friend lead a Celebrate Recovery group a few years ago and asked me to help co-lead. Celebrate Recovery is based around 8 recovery principles that follow the beatitudes found in Matthew chapter 5, and that closely mirror/merge the steps in a 12-step program. God used the group as a crowbar to lever me out of my complacent state, and into applying for and persevering through the Vineyard seminary training. The 8 recovery principles say:

  1. Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable. In other words, stop living in denial - specifically the denial that God wants to use me in pastoral ministry.
  2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, having it fail, yet running right back to it thinking that “this time it might be different” - the path of sanity being to stop running from God, to believe that He wants the best for me, and will empower me to accomplish all He’s called me to do.
  3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. In my walk forward through seminary level training, while it will tear me apart (I mean, is currently / will continue to) and reassemble me, Jesus is in total control and the process of transformation is for the benefit of myself and all those around me.
  4. Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself, and to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. Admit to myself and to others that God wants me to go through Vineyard Leadership Institute training, with the ultimate confession being my filled in application forms
  5. Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. I’m not the person that entered the VLI training 17 months ago. The “me” of 17 months ago would never have dreamed of leading a homegroup, of preaching on Sunday morning, of leading a men’s retreat, of leadership projects. I still hear echoes of the “me” of 17 months ago and when I do, in the war between the old and new man, Celebrate Recovery has taught me to submit those character defects, the doubts and fear back to God.
  6. Evaluate all my relationships; Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others except when to do so would harm them or others.
  7. Reserve a daily time with God for self examination, Bible readings and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will. It’s suicide to not do so though I have to admit, Im right on the line on this one - I dont do a good job of maintaining the discipline of quiet time alone with God.
  8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words. Oh, you mean, like preaching once a month at the service at the old-folks home, and in my own church (for the 1st time) this month? Or did you mean, like leading the homegroup? How about learning how to be a witness in the workplace, or with the sales guys who’ve been around trying to sell us new windows? What about the fact that I graduate from VLI training in June? Or of being solidly committed to the Vineyard movement - described as “aggressive” in it’s zeal for planting churches.
• Although I presently live in the USA, I was born in England.

  FALSE Well done to Paul B, who, correctly called this one. I was born in Cardiff, the captial of Wales, and not England. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make up Great Britain - so it’s fair to say that I was born in Britain, but England is a wrong answer!

Well done to those who played!

Truths and a lie lemming

Well, Delayra managed to successfully mutate a meme saying, “But I’m all for a double dose of truth… so I’m going to post both here and in my reply on her journal, four truths and a lie”

So I’m torn between being true to the original (and posting 2 truths and 1 lie) or being open, honest and transparent and posting 4 truths and a lie. Hmmm.

1. I’ve known three bona-fide, out-and-out, practicing Satanists.
2. Over the years I’ve been accused of being a Satanist, a cult-leader and dabbling in black magic (though not all at the same time).
3. Two of my friends are/were coke addicts. (to clarify: that’s cocaine not Coca Cola!)
4. I had a permanent, positive, life altering experience while a part of a recovery (12 step-alike) group.
5. Although I presently live in the USA, I was born in England.

Reply as to which you think is my lie, and I’ll respond privately… and then you need to post your four truths along with one lie in your own journal.

I will provide answers in a week’s time.