Living Grace to the World

It was quite the conference. It sold out with 1200 people coming from 46 states and 11 countries gathered at the Mars Hill Ballard Campus. A bunch more gathered at other Mars Hill campuses for live simulcasts of the sessions. Speakers ranged from C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, Jim Gilmore, Matt Chandler to Mark Driscoll speaking on subjects such as Pastoral Character & Loving People and Preaching Jesus Christ To Pagan Culture. The energy in the auditorium could have been sold to cut registration in half!

I was really impressed with Matt Chandler, from The Village Church in Dallas. He was articulate, funny and provocative. Jim Gilmore helped me understand the Experience Economy better. It’s amazing to me how much experience is worth in the marketplace. So churches are being drawn into that venue in order to appeal to a culture deep into it, bringing some unique opportunities and risks.

The Crossway folk had arranged for Mark and me to sign another 100 copies of Vintage Jesus to make up for the shortage of books available when we were in Chicago. Somehow the appointment got on the public schedule. I pointed it out to Adriel who consulted with Mark who said, "we have to do it since it’s on the schedule." The opportunity was announced. I felt really strange looking at the line in front of the table extending down the wall, around the corner and out the door. What will I write in the books with so many people and only a half hour time frame. Then word came that Mark would not be able to be there. He was interviewing folk for the video resources and they’d run long. The line mostly dissolved. I signed a few books, talked to a fellow from Jo-burg South Africa, prayed with a woman whose husband is a Washington State Senator under attack by the newspaper, and hung with some church planters who were wanting to think through a hard situation in their place.

Mark and I gathered in the Green Room that evening and signed the books as we listened to John Piper speak on how to discern the true gospel from the false gospel. I’m still mystified why that was the occasion for an extended exposition of limited atonement.

It stunned me when Geoff Dennis told us that Vintage Jesus has already sold 25,000 copies . . . and the book is not out yet!

All this comes in the context of spending every free minute of a very busy professor’s life working on book three on ecclesiology. Oh, yeah. I hate writing!

But I like the idea of a bunch of people coming into contact with the real Vintage Jesus through reading and studying the book.

Sherry had a great time in Phoenix, but Elizabeth was the hit of the show, of course. Her coming was a complete surprise to everyone which enabled her to charm everyone all the more. I’m glad she’s back, but I have to admit, I’d like Elizabeth to have come too!

Cyndee will take vacation and fly back to Kansas City to spend a couple weeks with her brother and niece.

I’ll write . . .

As you can see, I’m enjoying Elizabeth pictures. This picture defines peace, right down to folded hands and stuffy animal. She’s getting to be totally cute since the oxygen tubes are gone now.

The frustrating thing is that Sherry is in Phoenix, enjoying her live. She decided to surprise her sister and mother and have Donn and Elizabeth just show up at the airport at the same time she did. So we arranged that. The surprise didn’t quite work since the plane from Kansas City was late arriving. Liz knew Sherry was there, and called. So Sherry had to tell her why she wasn’t available yet. Despite that, there was great joy! Elizabeth’s cute smile won her great grandmother over immediately.

I’m preaching tomorrow, so Sherry has promised to send me pictures. The people here need to know how cute she is!

It’s not often that I end up batching it at home. Genesis 2:18 is true: it’s not good for man to be alone. I’m very much appreciative of having a friendly person here to chat with. Of course with preaching and book, I end up staring at a computer a lot.

On the last post, I talked a bit about Juno, the academy award nominated movie. I am intrigued with the idea that it is a story of Juno’s conversion from “Gen X” to “Millennial.” Gen X folk are into postmodernism with its hermeneutics of suspicion, constant expectation that someone is trying to use their power to mess us up, with IPod’s in their ears listening to Indie Rock, playing video games and pretty depressed. Millennials were raised on Barney, have Facebook pages with hundreds of friends from all over the world who are very different. They believe if they can just get together and talk openly, they can make a big difference. They are very hopeful, believing that Barak Obama’s message is true. So when Juno has her conversion experience in the Previa, she gives up on sarcastic approach to live, load’s Bleeker’s mail box with red Tic Tak’s and makes a very different approach to him. They end up sitting in front of the house, playing their guitars together and life is hopeful. I’ve left out plot specifics, but those who have seen it can see what I’m after.

So I’m curious what others think on this.

I’m doing the Multnomah Missions Conference Monday and then up to the Resurgence conference at Mars Hill Seattle. Amazingly, I have no official responsibilities there other than signing another 100 copies of Vintage Jesus. I’ll just hang out with friends, enjoy the speakers.

Without a doubt, I’m the last American to see Juno. What a powerful film. She has a wonderfully smart mouth, a blended family, a nerdy boyfriend, and an indelible pregnancy test. The little Chinese girl protesting outside the abortion clinic greets her and then reminds her that the baby has fingernails, a memory that haunts her in the sleazy clinic and drives her out to find adoptive parents in Pennysaver news paper.

I feel very virtuous for not mudering her dad for his response to her struggle to tell him she’s pregnant. Vanessa starts terribly perfect, controlling in every detail, but draws Juno in as she plays abandonedly with a little girl. She knows what deserves to be framed. Mark begins so likeable but . . . He deserves the murder I spared Juno’s dad, who utters two of the most caring lines in the whole film to his tearful daughter. Paulie. Well, there’s rumor he may just grow up and really be the man, because Juno gets it and taps into his heart with many boxes of red Tick-Tacks and loving, admiring words that awaken him. The lost little girl looks up for a smile and

Life never quite works out the way one plans. Despite best efforts, love often eludes grasp but then shows up where you’d least expect. Sherry and I walked out of the theater, smiling, holding hands (are we too old for that??), reminscing about the movie. She’s the embodiment of Dad’s advice: Find someone who just loves you the way you are, who will stay close even when you are being a jerk, care deeply even when the distance between is infinite. Hope someday the children may play and smile again.

It’s amazing that this super pro life film is gathering all kinds of awards. The quality is clear, but the message isn’t PC. One must keep watching life. You can miss grace surprises if you aren’t looking.

I’m writing on the third book. Not a fun thing to do at all. But there’s a fulfillment to see how the material I sent Mark’s way is showing up in his chapter drafts that he’s sent to me. There’s a satisfaction to see that a high powered guy like him respects and uses the input I give. Seems unlikely, but there it is.

The sermon for a week from Sunday is on Luke 8:22-56. It’s a press since I have the weekend science and theology class next weekend. I’m also teaching at Living Hope and RiverWest as well as under pressure to finish the ecclesiology book. Oh, yeah, and there’s students and the upcoming D.Min. class and teaching at the Multnomah Missions conference and going to the Resurgence conference for the official unveiling of Vintage Jesus. I see it’s gone from about 10,500 in the Amazon sales rank to about 2,500 rank . . . and it’s not out yet!

Fortunately the crisis I mentioned a couple of posts ago has resolved as well as possible. There’s still lots of pain, but the crisis is at an end. Many hours invested had positive results where things could have been total a disaster.

GRANDMA’S HANDS 

Grandma, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. She didn’t move, just sat with her head down staring at her hands. 

Sherry’s 1993 Geo Metro blew its second head gasket as she was coming home from her Saturday haircut. Fortunately she was only a mile away from home, so she was able to drive it home. I was tied up in Troutdale at an elders’ retreat (why do they call a day long elders’ meeting a retreat??). I would have left, of course, but didn’t have to. Even if the Geo could be repaired for a reasonable price, the car is done, since Sherry can’t trust it. So what to do? Our normal way is for our friend, Peter Dodd, to find cars. But he’s in Taiwan. So we ended up going to Gresham Toyota. The 2003 Olds Alero made her smile. So now we own it. It’s ten years newer and has 100,000 fewer miles.

The experience made me think of trust. I trust Peter deeply. I know he cares a lot about us. He’s competent in mechanics and shopping. He smiles when he’s doing it. But we can’t wait until he gets here at the end of June. Neither Sherry nor I like car shopping at all. If we take time to shop, in my compulsive way, we’d have to invest a lot of time, rent a car, and that’s an expensive process too. So we decided to trust a Christian car dealer. That dealership asked me to do a Q & A time with their staff after the Passion of the Christ came out. Today, the salesman and I talked aobut the movie as we tested the vehicle. I’m a little nervous about it all, but there is a need to trust, even when there’s not really adequate basis for it.

Trust is one of those things that are hard to deal with. I don’t trust anyone 100%, not even God. It’s not that He’s not trustworthy, but there’s so much of Him I don’t understand. I trust Sherry as much as one can trust another human. She’ll never intentionally hurt me, but she makes mistakes and forgets sometimes. I have friends who touch my soul, to whom I constantly entrust my life, my fears, my hopes, my fragile joys. But what of a friend whom I’ve hurt deeply who can’t even talk to me? There was only intent to build, but the hurt is still there. The fallout has hurt others. Confession and repentance is past tense, but reconciliation is not even on the horizon. What does trust look like? Me trusting time and God’s work? My friend risking to come? Unknown. So prayer, waiting, and consistent repentance. And I sadly wait.

I’m at work on a major crisis situation where I’ve been investing for several months now. It should resolve tomorrow. Trust when I can’t control things is hard. But when I see the results of patient investment come to fruition, I’m glad. There’s a major intervention in the near future which will be as tough as I’ve ever done. I need to process these and other things with someone other than God, but that can’t happen now. One day.

So my goal is to be as totally trustworthy as I possibly can be. But that means saying, “No” to people in advance, which is so difficult when those people are ones who need help so deeply, ones who may well not get help if I don’t. It means keeping margin so stress doesn’t cause my intensity to blow people out. So I pray for courage and wisdom and trust.

The Vintage Jesus book signing party is history. Al Fisher, Michele Bennet and James Kinnard welcomed me with warm smiles. We walked into the conference room and I got my first look at copies of the book. . . . a LOT of them.

Can you imagine autographing 1200 books? What do you write? Name of course. How legible must I be? What else should I write? Is it worth the hand wear? Which page do I sign? Which pen is best? How much can I talk and still get it right?

My name got pretty scrawly. The Matt. 1:21-23 stayed readable, but I tried to write March more than once. Fortunately, I was there a little more than an hour before Mark arrived. Since he only signed his name above mine, I needed the head start. It took only six and one half hours!

Crossway president, Lane Dennis joined us for an hour or so at lunch. I paused signing for ten minutes to eat my lunch sandwich. There was also the frenzied five minutes to rescue books when I knocked over my coffee cup! Lane gave us a sneak preview of the forthcoming ESV Study Bible. The Bible itself has about three quarter million words. The Study Bible notes, representing outstanding scholarship, will exceed that by 50%. But its graphic layout with color maps and charts that made my eyes pop out.

We also saw the drawings for Death by Love, our second book, pastoral letters applying atonement themes to real life stories. Their power moved me to amazed silence. This outstanding book will be out about October 1.

The trip got a rough start. I knew about the snow in Chicago. Happily, the web reported flight status “on time.” I got to the airport, watched the aircraft arrive on time, only to hear mention of a delay as boarding time approached. Then they announced a four hour delay! I called Michele. “It’s bad,” she said. “Cancel the rental car. We’ll send a limo.” That offended my plebeian nature, but pleased the part of me that values my intact skin. Then she called back: no limo’s available. Then they announced a six hour delay. That made the crew “illegal,” since they can only work so many hours. Then it was a firm five hour delay. Still an illegal crew, which made the flight unlikely. As I processed all that, they suddenly announced immediate departure. So we hustled on the plane for a great flight. So many people had already re-booked, most of us had a whole row to stretch out in. My nap felt good.

Shortly after I arrived, Al Fisher took me upstairs to his office. He brought the one copy of the book with its white dust jacket (you have to see it to appreciate how attractive it is). After some explaining of things, he turned to the back flap with Mark’s picture and bio. Only Mark’s. Al was really embarrassed. I found myself thinking it feels right. Part of my self identity refuses prominence. It just seems wrong to ride in a limo, stay in a upscale motel room, or fly first class. I “acquired” that copy of the book and asked Mark to autograph in it. It is a treasure.

Now I’m home, waiting to “kidnap” Sherry for her birthday. Shhhhh. It’s a total suprise for her!