I can't believe it has been three weeks since my last post.
Since sitting in class that day it seems like I have been overwhelmed with homework. Theology of Baptism, culture and ministry, Statements of Faith, and the list continues to grow. I literally try and find pockets of time in which I can sit and do nothing; these pockets are few and far between. Right now is one of them.
If it isn't enough with work and homework, this is one of the busiest times of year for my yard. The leaves are very deep and they need raked up.
Here is a picture of just how many leaves are in my yard.

Thankfully I have the help of God to take care of some of these leaves. The wind will blow them from my yard to my neighbors (sorry Dan) and across the neighborhood.
This is the best season, I believe, in the Midwest. It makes for some great sunsets. Those of us from the states that have mountains claim the sunsets here are so good because there is nothing to hide them.
If you have a chance, come see the musical drama of "It's a Wonderful Life" being performed here at Calvary Church in Muscatine. It is going to be great. My wife is the director and my kids are in the cast. It will be December 1,2, & 4. This follows the movie very closely, but it has added some great music. To buy tickets, go to the Calvary link and purchase them online.

"IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE"

Sadie is in the upper right hand corner. Emma is the sad little girl right behind George (almost directly in the center of the photo)

I am sitting in class right now at Bethel Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. I have had several conversations with some of the best young leadership minds I have known. One of the interesting things about spending time with these friends is howthey have little to know drive to work in the local church. They love church and are actively involved in their respective ministries but there isn't the passion to work in a local congregation.

I came across this blog at www.nakedchurch.com and thought this might speak to why it is difficult to get young leaders involved to revive old churches.
Here are 10 possible reasons to why this may be true.

There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it quits:

1. The discontinuity between what they imagined ministry to be and what it actually is is too great.
2. A life without weekends sucks.
3. The pay is too low (most pastors in my denomination make less money than a school teacher with five years experience).
4. They are tired of driving ten year old cars while their congregations trade in their cars every two years.
5. Many young pastors are called into difficult congregations that chew pastors up and spit them out because experienced pastors know better.
6. Even though the search committee told them they wanted to reach young people, they didn’t really mean it.
7. When the pastor asked the search committee if they were an “emergent church”, the members of the search committee thought he said “divergent church” and agreed.
8. Nobody told the young pastor that cleaning the toilets was part of the job description.
9. The young pastor’s student loans came due and the amount of money he/she owes on a monthly basis exceeds his/her income.
10. Working at McDonalds has alot less stress.

I know it is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I think there is some validity to the thoughts.

I recently spent the evening with all of my closest friends here in Iowa and we celebrated my 40 years here on the earth. Here are some pictures from the celebration.





Here I am opening the presents from my brother. He and I are really tight, so he had to give me the good gag gifts. I got some depends, efferdent, cane tips, instant enimas, etc. He thinks he is funny (and he actually is). He told me that when he buys these items for himself he usually puts them in the bottom of the cart under everything else he is going to buy, but when they were for me, he put them at the top. He wanted everyone to know that his little brother is turning 40 and will now need some help in life.... don't we all! (need help that is)






Here is my mother-in-law with Mike and Mandy (Amanda) Each. Mandy is Rene's cousin that lives here in Muscatine.














Our good friend Heidi is taking the party all in. Brenda Mohr (best assistant in the world) is right behind Heidi.










Emma being Emma!












Our good friends, David and Karen Stern admiring my cute baby pictures. However, my mom claims I was one of the ugliest babies she ever saw.... Gotta love my mom, and I do!







However, you decide.....

Here is a picture of my beautiful wife. I recently turned 40 and she did a lot of work in putting of a great party for me. We had a ton of people in our home and she even tried to surprise me, having my mom and in-laws (are in-laws coming to your birthday party really a present?) come out from Oregon. She tried to surprise me, but she should know after all these years that I am a very difficult person to surprise. She did a great job on the party and for my present, she is taking me to DisneyWorld in Orlando. 8 days with no kids, although it seems a little weird to go to the "Happiest place on earth" and not have your kids with you.... I think we will survive. Bottom line, my wife is the best. She keeps me sane in a world and life of insanity.

I will post pictures of the party when Rene' gets them downloaded to my computer.

I have been playing fantasy football for 7 years now and I have never had a weekend that I had this last one. My league (the melonheads) switched our service from Yahoo! to ESPN because ESPN had more options. It all sounds good, just one little problem..... ESPN can't handle the amount of traffic they are getting on their fantasy football website.
I tried on 5 different occasions last Saturday to update my roster only be told the server was busy. My roster this weekend was a bunch of scrubs that Matt Lettington put in because he was the one that filled in our teams. My players this week were a bunch of no-names that shouldn't even be on the football field, let alone my fantasy team.
Today (Tuesday) when I looked to see how my no-name team did over the weekend, thinking that by chance I might have pulled out a surprise win... NOOOOOOOO. I get the message that the ESPN fantasy football website is experiencing technical difficulties. Ya think! I can't even find out how I did with the roster I didn't even want to play.
I want to go back to Yahoo!