Late out of KC. Late out Dallas. Late into Sao Paulo, landed when flight to Porto Alegre was leaving. AA attendant was standing at gate with new tickets for next flight.

Got thru passport control and customs just fine. No issues. Students are tired but good. Tried to contact Thomas but to no avail. Language is still a huge barrier.

Met man from PA and he was returning from Wichita, KS.

Security was a bit testy with projector. They cleary had no idea what I was carrying. Once I completely unpacked it, there was no problem.

Landed and made them eat pao de quiejo. Tired but had to push on. 24 hours of straight travel and no complaints from kids. Great attitudes amd there is a lot of laughter and teasing.

Dinner was incredible. Fish, chicken, pork, beef, and bacon wrapped beef. Lemon mousse for dessert.

New missionaries this year, good to catch up with old friends. New DTC is incredible. Great facility for gap year students. They come here before college, spend year learning from camp missionaries, deepening their faith. Learning from vocational christian professionals. They also serve as camp volunteers. Dodo is tuning this and he lives in the house next door. We are starting with him and his wife, Martina. Rebekah and Filippi are their kids, 3 and 5.

We stayed up to late drinking hot tea and talking. Very cold. 32 and humid.

Early wake up call – 7.30 breakfast.

The weekly service that most churches spend a lot of time and effort creating is both a blessing and a curse at times. “Church” is not a service, church is people. The service is a time of celebration, remembering, mourning, encouragement or teaching. But the service isn’t church.

And I love the service but church is bigger than the service. I want the service to be meaningful and well thought out. I want the service to be deep and stretching. But ultimately the service is about connecting with God, not making sure the “show” is run well. So when something interupts the service, like this, how the leaders deal with it will be driven by their understanding of the service. For this particular church, a “special needs” child (he has cerebral palsy) was asked to leave a service because he was making noise. They offered an overflow room for the family.

Then it appears a bad situation got worse because the mom ended up asking for a meeting with pastor, asked to start a new ministry at the church, AND talked to media about it all before she got any answers. The pastor refused to meet with her once he found out that she contacted the local news media. And the church said “no thank you” to her starting a new ministry at their church.

I understand both sides. I’d be upset if asked to leave a service. It’d be embarrassing. But I completely understand the church saying no to a lady they didn’t know to starting a new ministry with kids. I also understand not meeting someone who calls a TV station before talking to me about a problem they have with the church.

And who knows how loud or distracting the kid was. But I’ve got a little experience in this arena. In Parker, we had a family with a kid with cerebral palsy. He loved sitting in the service. Every now and then, he’d get a little talkative. And yes, he was loud. But we just dealt with it. We loved him and his family. It’s okay. It happens. It’s his opportunity to worship in his way as well. We smile, we laugh. We pause. We care. We love. We move on. In many ways, that kid made us better worshipers of Jesus because of his “interruptions.”

Currently, we’ve got a student at our church that has autism. I love this kid. Everyone loves this kid. He is a constant source of joy and wonder to us. If I ask a question during my message — I now know that I need to be ready for him to answer back. Out loud. He’s following me. He’s listening. He’s in dialog with God and the scriptures…in his way. It’s happened on an occasion. I’ll ask a question — not expecting an answer — and he’ll just blurt it out. And he’s right. It’s an awesome, holy interruption. He’s modeling for us how to be engaged with God during worship.

What was my reaction to him? I high-fived him.

This student keeps us – all of us – honest… and humble. I want that guy in our services, around our kids. I want this guy serving and hanging with us. Not because he is some project that we can brag about. Because…we like him. Because through his actions and service to others (he volunteers in a couple of ministries at the church), he is modeling what Love God, Live Connected, and Serve All means and that following Jesus is for EVERYONE. Because I’m pretty certain that he is teaching us much more than we are teaching him.

And I believe that the interruptions are part of the lesson plan of God.

This originally appeared on whillschurch.org as the weekly devo…

Part 2 of the Renew My Vision devo series. Part 1 is here.

Just Do It.
The Ultimate Driving Machine.
When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.
What can Brown do for you?
You’re In Good Hands.
It’s In the Game.

I bet you can name every single one of those companies. These are the “mantras” of some of the worlds most successful companies. A great mantra does not make a great company. They have to deliver what they promise and do that for a long time. BUT a great mantra does more than just advertise the product. It guides, it directs, it speaks to the foundational principle of that culture. It answers the “why are we here” question.

At Western Hills, our mantra is Love God, Live Connected, Serve All. Sometimes we get lazy and shorten it to just Love, Live, and Serve.

We’ll unpack each one over the next few weeks in greater detail, but think for a moment about the simplicity of these words. Think of all the questions these words answer?

What is a disciple? What does it mean to follow Jesus?
Someone who loves God, lives connected, and serves all.

What’s the mission of the church? What are our ministries supposed to be doing?
To make disciples who love God, live connected, and serve all.

What’s a leader look like at Western Hills?
Someone who reproduces another disciple who loves God, lives connected, and serves all.

What should I do as a new believer in Jesus? What’s my first steps?
Love God (worship), live connected (community), serve all (service).

It’s simple. It’s memorable. It’s tangible. It brings focus and clarity to the task ahead and the next steps and we need simplicity and clarity.

Besides all of that – they are Jesus’ idea in the first place. It’s His Bride (the church) so he gets to write the mantra. And his mantra was the story of the Good Samaritan. That story was his answer to the question – what is the greatest commandment? What should we be doing? What should we focus on?

Love God – Love the Lord, your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Live Connected – The second is like it – love your neighbor as yourself. Live in community with others.

Serve All – Who is your neighbor? Whoever you walk by and needs a neighbor.

Rinse and repeat.

Recently had an interview with a student doing research on evolution versus “creation.” Thought I would post the interaction here.

Interviewer: I am supposed to use physical proof of creation instead of bible verses to prove my point. So if there was any, what was the proof that convinced you that God created the world and that it wasn’t evolution?

GE:
Couple of thoughts, when we enter the conversation of the beginning of the universe – it is no longer just science. The question of origins ultimately lands in the philosophical arena. Furthermore, no matter what theory we hold to, we all have the same “physical evidence.” The physical evidence doesn’t prove one side or the other. It is there to be interpreted.

And we all come to the evidence with different lenses and biases. There really isn’t any escape to this. Unfortunately in our culture, the sense of wonder that normally accompanied this conversation has been replaced with political rhetoric and debate that seems to create more enemies than really advance the conversation.

I came to the conclusion of Intelligent Design BEFORE I really started following Christ. It was a long journey to this position from evolution but there were three huge pivot points for me. I’ll try to hit the highlights without going to deep.

#1 – Law of Biogenesis
It’s the first law of science we are taught -in like the 3rd or 4th grade I believe – life begets life. Nothing comes from nothing. Must have life to get life. Louis Pasteur’s experiment of where did the maggots come from on rotted meat? Remember this? Superstition had it that the demons put the maggots on the meat. Reality was that flies laid their eggs on the meat and the eggs produced maggots. So the idea that life sprang out of a soup of nothingness or “just happened” is illogical. Must have life to get life.

#2 – Irreducibility of a Complex Organism
This took a long time for me to understand – due to my slowness – but here’s a basic understanding. Macro-evolution (species to species) teaches us that only the strong traits survive, strong species survive. If a trait helps a species survive better, it is passed on. If a trait doesn’t, it eventually is replaced or gone from the gene pool. The classic example is the short-necked giraffe versus the long neck giraffe. Basically – if a trait doesn’t help the species survive, it is replaced or lost.

However, if macro-evolution is true there MUST be evidence/proof/possibility for an organism to grow more and more complex components of their system. An example is an eye. An eye is a huge evolution advantage but — how did the first eye in any organism “evolve?”

IF you take away any component of an eye, it is no longer an eye. It won’t work. And if it won’t work – it is useless in a species. And if it is useless and won’t help the species survive – it will eventually be lost or replaced or the species dies out. Hence, there is no logical/evolutional reason that the eye should have ever come into existence.

So there is this conflict in evolution theory. It works one direction — from the complex de-volving to the simple but can’t from the simple to the complex. This is the basis for the 2nd law of thermo-dynamics. (I’ll let you look that one up on your own!! ha ha ha)

I could give more examples but hopefully this helps in the short term.

#3 – The ongoing research of DNA
DNA are the building blocks of life. This “code” is where all life springs from. So if any theory of origins is going to work, it must work on the molecular level.

And evolution doesn’t. We now know that all of the “adaptations” that a certain species has was there the WHOLE time in their genetic code. It was only when the conditions changed that those other “recessive” genes were then given the opportunity to be dominant. The species themselves didn’t evolve at all since the CODE was already inside the animal to start with.

This has HUGE implications. The code is there from the moment of conception. All the DNA code a person needs is there at the very beginning. They code didn’t evolve — it was there. And all codes have a codebreaker, an author, a designer. Darwin knew nothing of this code. I do wonder what he would have written now.

Michael Behe — Molecular Prof at Boston College — was huge shifting point for me. Try to read some of his books. Very helpful.

Interviewer: Have you heard of any legitimate proof that the theory of evolution could be real?
Yes. In fact, a lot of evidence points to the validity of micro-evolution. That is – inside a genus or species, an animal or organism changes and adapts to their culture. Certain traits and aspects become more dominant or less dominant as it helps them to survive. Long versus short neck giraffes, moths and so on. For this there is much evidence.

My particular problem/hang-up came with the concept of MACRO-evolution. A reptile becoming a bird, an ape becoming human. For this to happen on the scale required for evolution to work, we should have thousands of transition fossils….which we don’t have. Plus MACRO doesn’t overcome the DNA issues or the irreducibility of a complex organism.

Interviewer:What do you think leads people to believe that it couldn’t be God that created the world?
I completely understand the reluctance in making the leap from “Intelligent Design” or evolution to God as Creator. Just think about the implications for a minute. God in the picture changes everything – meaning of life, morality, purpose, values. What about the question of evil and suffering?

Any system using God as the Creator has a whole host of other issues to sort out on top the question of origins. Adding God in the mix makes it much more complicated, not easier.

And the topic of God is not one that the scientific realm can really discuss with authority anyway. The theologians and philosophers are at home in that discussion.

Budapest is just a beautiful city. Learned today that the government has a limit on how high a building can be built so there will never be a modern skyscraper in the city. They love the old European feel and don’t ever want to lose that. That’s pretty cool – a whole city committed to that.

I speak 2 times a day starting tomorrow. It’s been a great couple of days of enjoying the Seely’s company, enjoying the city and recovering from jetlag but tomorrow is the reason I’m over here – to bring God’s word and story to ICSB.

Enjoy the video…

This is very odd for me. I got pretty sick yesterday, sick enough to sit in a waiting room for 3 hours. And we all know how much I love those two things – doctors and waiting. ( I had some kind of allergic reaction. Meant 24 hours of panic followed by the now 24 hours of complete boredom.)

Amy looked at me and asked/commented/commanded, “Are you still thinking about preaching tomorrow?

I called Brandon Gunn. He’s preaching this morning on less than 24 hours notice…and he’ll do fine. He’s in the ultimate win-win situation. If he completely sucks it up (and he won’t), he can blame me. If he hits it out of the park (and he will), he can humbly say “It’s a God thing.” And he’ll mean it.

But it’s odd this morning. A little out of rhythm, a little different.

On a normal Sunday morning, Cayden and I leave the house before everyone else. We’ll sit in the parking lot a bit. If she sees a friend already there or if someone on the worship team has a baby – she’ll bolt inside, leaving me in the dust.

It’s usually there – the only really silent moments of a Sunday morning – that I’ll pray.

Father,

My only Your words come out today…from every single one of us that speak on Your behalf today. My this morning be a connecting point for a hurt person, a lost person. May this morning be the start of a journey and may all that enter this space leave different, changed, inspired, deeper because of their encounter with You.

Then as I walk through the building – I pray by name for the volunteer serving in that area – children’s workers, student ministry staff, kitchen & hospitality crew, library crew, worship team, office people, rest of staff, and life group leaders.

I’ll miss my second family this morning but know they are in good hands.

My buddy Stan Ball has been ribbing me about my 2010 Broncos -wanting my take on this season so he can (I presume) rub it in at some date and time later.

My good friend and former cohort in crime David Baumgartner has made his prediction. A very middle of the road 8-8. Mediocrity at its best. (Talking about Denver, not David.) Let me say a couple of general thoughts then I’ll get to the record.

First, if any of the front 7 on defense gets hurt, this defense is going to look like the Saints…..of the 80′s. Majorly thin on the line and linebacker positions. Yes, Denver has great/outstanding DB’s but nobody is going to need to pass when they can rush for 300 yards a game.

Second, (I can’t believe I’m going to write this) if Orton gets hurt, the good news is we will have one of the top 3 picks in the 2011 draft. Of course, we may not have football in 2011 but that is another story all together. Tebow will be the #2 QB. Only way Tebow starts this year is if the bottom falls out of the Broncos OR Orton gets hurt. Neither Tebow or Quinn are ready to run this offense.

Third, Bronco fans can handle another playoff-less season as long as they see some fight and finish to the Broncos. What I don’t what to see is what I saw at the end of last season. A complete meltdown and collapse.

Lastly, this summer has made me very nervous about the leadership of Josh McDaniels. He’s cut 2 of his top 2 draft picks this summer, signed veterans to larger than normal contracts only to cut them before ever playing a game, and then there is the whole Tebow experiment. And yes — if he hits on Tebow — all will be forgiven and forgotten.

On to the year…

@ Jacksonville – W
Why? Why not.

Seattle – W
Wish they were still in the division because they are more jacked up than we are.

Indianapolis – L
Ugly. This one could get ugly.

@ Tennessee – L
See CJ run. See CJ get 20% of his quest for 2,000 in this single game.

@ Baltimore – L
This is really looking like a 1st place schedule, isn’t it?

NY Jets – W
It’s not that I think Denver is that good. I just don’t think the Jets are that good. I’m not buying the kool aid on the Jets. I hate the Jets anyway.

Oakland – W
I hate the Raiders more than the Jets. And I’ll never pick the Raiders over the Broncos but honestly — the Raiders have talent. And this could be a loss.

@ San Francisco – L
I think they’ll win this one and lose the Raider game but I’m not picking the Raiders. Ever.

Kansas City – W
KC is better this year…we think. I think Cassell was/is a huge bust of a risk and until they get a decent QB, they aren’t going anywhere. IF they run the ball — they destroy the Broncos. But it always seems to take them a game to figure that out.

@ San Diego – L
I agree with David — SD isn’t as good as people think but neither are the Broncos.

St. Louis – W
Another team that I’m thankful I’m not a fan of at this point but Bradford looks like the real deal. So did Cutler.

@ Kansas City – L
They figure out Denver doesn’t have a run defense.

@ Arizona – L
I think this is a win but I have to count it as a loss because…

@ Oakland – W
I’m never picking the Raiders. Ever.

Houston – L
It took Kubiak longer than expected and he’s in a ridiculous division (Colts, Titans, Jags) but Texans are good. They’d win the West if they were in it.

San Diego – L
SD plays strong at the end of the season, Denver has yet to finish a season strong since…oh….Plummer era?

7-9
And the off-season will consist of dealing with rumblings of whether or not Josh McDaniels will remain the Bronco’s head coach and when will Tebow start. But that’s why they play the games.

Saturday will be brutal. I’m doing the funeral of a 14-year old boy named Nick. He died in a house fire on Tuesday, I met with the family this morning and will again tomorrow.

The pain is leaking out of every pore in their bodies. There is a 2 year old sister who can’t quite figure out where her older brother is. There is a mom and stepdad who are struggling to put the pieces together. There is a dad who is in a nightmare fog. There is a younger sister who mourns. There is a small community rocked to the core as well as a tight-knit group of teenagers in the marching band that wonders if the hurt will ever stop.

Raw. Tender. So many needs. So many questions.

God – show up. Just show up.

Brazil, then Middle School Super Summer, then High School Super Summer, then VBS, then we took a week off at my dad’s lake house.

Got back at 1.30 am this morning.

And school registration was today and getting clips ready for this Sunday – (Toy Story is our clip for this week, by the way).

And I’m so amped about the next month of ministry I could just EXPLODE!!!!! On August 15th, we are doing a baptismal service at Lake Sherwood and we are not only going to see double digits of people get dunked for Jesus but we are going to have ICE CREAM!!!!!!!

Anyway — just a quick post to say — I’m back. Will resume some writing this week.

Now off to youth then Wipeout.