prayer request for skye teresa

Hi, all.

Thanks so much for your friendship, prayer & support for us and Skye. Skye is being tested again tomorrow & Tues at Hopkins, both for kidney function and for reflux in both kidneys. We are asking God to totally heal her. It's our understanding that's the only way her kidney function will be restored. At the least, please pray that her right kidney will still be functioning at a high level and that she will not show reflux at all. The best news we have so far is that she has not had one SINGLE BOUT of pain on her left side since February! That in itself is so wonderful, I cannot tell you. Before then she had a full day of serious pain in her left side every 4-6 weeks [for 3 years]. We are very thankful for this and also that she is still active and basically feeling well.

Aside from the above, please pray for excellent nurses, veins that cooperate (she has lousy veins from my side of the family), and swift test results so we're not left wondering (her doc is on vacation until the end of July).

We will let you know as soon as we have answers. Thanks again,

beth :o

- background on skye's condition

sort of out of pocket

ramping up to new gallup job is time-consuming! blogging may very well be quite light.

i'm enjoying the change. I'm blessed with a beautiful new office in downtown DC. I've lived in the DC area since 1988 but have spent very little time in DC so it's a neat exploratory time. I'm using the train to commute daily. Gallup is a great organization and the people are truly wonderful.

rexmiller.net

my friend rex miller of millennium matrix fame has launched a new site!

Tim Russert - 1950-2008

The tragic passing of Tim Russert has resulted in a veritable flood of statements praising his political passion and journalistic acumen. Sometimes such a passing results in hyperbole. That such encomiums are justified is indicated by the praise that Time Magazine gave him when they recently chose him as one of the top 100 most influential people for 2008.

UPDATE: There's so much good material online and on tv now about Tim and his life. I just noticed a particularly insightful piece on USA TODAY's site by Michael Gartner, who was President of NBC News from 1988 to 1993 and persuaded a particularly reluctant Tim Russert to take on the Moderator role at Meet the Press.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meachem has also posted a piece on Russert's religiosity.

Books on the Emerging Church

A-List Emerging Church blogger Andrew Jones holds forth.

Emerging, Emergent, & Missional

Dave Dunbar, President of Biblical Seminary, goes on record with a helpful piece regarding distinctions between the terms emerging, emergent, & missional (pdf).

Dave's piece prompted Scot McKnight to ask his readers to weigh in.

I've commented on the emerging church/emergent distinction in a number of places:

• are there emerging church shibboleths?
  
  
• resonances with the emerging church
  
  
• the emerging church is protean
  
  
• tony jones on the emerging/emergent distinction
  
  
• toward an emerging church primer
  
  
• history of the emerging church and emergent
  
  
• is the distinction between the emerging church and emergent obscurantist?
  
  

ht: steve knight

The Future of Emergent Village

"Having accomplished much more than we’d expected, we, the Emergent Village Board of Directors, feel we are at a crossroads as an organization. As we look ahead to the future, we are seeking input and counsel from three groups of people.

• First, we are asking people who are highly committed to Emergent Village to give us their counsel.
• Second, we would value input from people who value the emergent conversation.
• And third, we would also like friendly critics to offer their input."

- see the entire post and a link to their brief survey here.

New Online Resources

• I Howard Marshall's New Testament Theology
  
• Craig Keener's Bible Background Commentary

ht: Justin Taylor

Einstein's God

I posted a review on Walter Isaacson's recent Einstein: His Life and Universe on Leadership Network's Book Blog.

Our Continuing Search for the Quintessential Baltimore Diner

kenny sheppard provides details here.

whither twitter

I've been twittering since 10 March and still feel conflicted about it. So, faithmaps blog readers, why do you twitter (if you do) and what do you get out of it?

thanks.

McCain, Obama, Clinton Joint Statement on Darfur

"Today, we wish to make clear to the Sudanese government that on this moral issue of tremendous importance, there is no divide between us. We stand united and demand that the genocide and violence in Darfur be brought to an end and that the CPA be fully implemented. Even as we campaign for the presidency, we will use our standing as Senators to press for the steps needed to ensure that the United States honors, in practice and in deed, its commitment to the cause of peace and protection of Darfur’s innocent citizenry. We will continue to keep a close watch on events in Sudan and speak out for its marginalized peoples. It would be a huge mistake for the Khartoum regime to think that it will benefit by running out the clock on the Bush Administration. If peace and security for the people of Sudan are not in place when one of us is inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009, we pledge that the next Administration will pursue these goals with unstinting resolve."

- read the entire statement here.

Rick Warren's PEACE 2.0

Rick's rebooted PEACE:

• Time has a piece on Rick's new modified plan
  
  
• Christianity Today has weighed in.
  
  
• The Christian Post covers it.
  
  
• The UK's Christian Today posts an article on the new initiative.
  
  
• The Orange County Register in Rick's backyard offers a treatment.
  
  
• and Leadership Network's DJ Chuang provides another one of his usually impressive around-the-rooms on the PD Summit and on PEACE 2.0 here.
  

kenny sheppard on tony jones' book the new christians

"The New Christians is a loose kind of narrative. It tells a story that moves from the “old ways” to the “new”, and it does so through a set of relatively discrete stories about this process. These smaller stories are punctuated in turn by sets of definitions, “dispatches”, and more concrete sets of arguments. It is, then, a kind of mosaic, where anecdotal narrative, theological disquisition, dictionary, and popular history meet. The book is meant to engage on many levels, providing, it seems, several ways of reaching the reader with the message: the emerging church has a history, a theology, a set of practices and institutions that are robust and here to stay. It’s an apologia. And it is here, I suspect, that critics who wish Emergents to set down their beliefs will find fodder for their arguments. It is where I take issue in this review, but for different reasons."

- read kenny's full review on tony jones' book the new christians

A New Chapter: Goodbye USA TODAY; Hello Gallup!

On Friday 23 May, I let my boss know at USA TODAY that after almost 20 years with this great company, I am leaving to join Gallup as a consultant.

I began working at USA TODAY in January of 1989 as a part-time Customer Service Representative shortly after I was laid-off from my data-entry job with the Washington Times.

At the time I was working on a degree in Management Information Systems. But when my dentist told me that I needed $1500 worth of dental work, I dropped out of school (it was my third degree anyway!) and became full-time so that I could get dental benefits! A year later I became a Customer Service Specialist and then I later became a Customer Service Supervisor. A few years into that, I decided to switch to a technical career within USA TODAY and became a Data Analyst, then a Database Administrator, then a Technical Manager. Then in 2002 I began working with a team of folks to roll out USA TODAY Subscriber Delivery Partners (which were usually other newspapers) first as a Circulation Manager and then finally as USA TODAY's National Home Delivery Circulation Manager also running a small group called Market Services.

It has been a wonderful ride.

The thing I'm most proud of is that we were able to expand USA TODAY's Home Delivery footprint from 20 million households to over 50 million households within a six year period.

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life optimizing people systems for core value impact. I thoroughly enjoy reading about, writing about, and executing project management, conflict resolution, vision statement creation, running great meetings, in short all things org. And USA TODAY has provided me an optimal context to learn about these things and to practice them. I've written elsewhere about how much this has served me in ecclesial contexts. When I first came on staff at Cedar Ridge Community Church as a part-time small groups and adult education pastor in the late 90's, I used to say I didn't know if I had learned more about pastoring from seminary or from working for USA TODAY! And so with this decision to begin working to optimize people-systems, I started very intentionally looking for great organizations where I could do this. I never sent out my resume to tons of places, but over the course of maybe four years I worked to get jobs in just three organizations. I liked my job with USA TODAY; I wasn't in a great hurry, so I took my time looking. Gallup was the fourth organization I started looking seriously at about ten months ago.

A few years ago, USA TODAY began working with Gallup and their Q12 material (First Break all the Rules). Then about a year ago, USA TODAY asked me to become a Strengths Leader (Now Discover Your Strengths) working with my group - Market Services - and also with National Customer Service. I had the opportunity over the course of the year to teach the material and do one-on-one coaching, in addition to working with other USA TODAY directors and supervisors on their own coaching. I enjoyed it so much, I broached a conversation with Gallup about joining their team. After three months, testing, and six interviews, Gallup invited me to join their DC team a few weeks ago.

There may come an opportunity down the road for me to work some with the Gallup Faith group, though I also plan to continue writing for Leadership Network as long as they keep feeding me projects!

I begin 16 June and I'm very excited. I will miss my friends at USA TODAY and I told our director on the day I resigned that they have treated me like a prince.

I'm very grateful to both organizations and to God.

please pray for susan's husband

“God knows what he is doing. Susan and I met fast, fell in love fast, had a kid fast. Now I know why…God knew this was coming and he wanted us to have this short time together, because he knew it was all the time we had.”

At the age of 30, Noel Heikkinen's friend Susan died yesterday morning of a sudden blood infection. Please pray for her husband and her two year old soon.

See Noel's post for more and a video of Susan's testimony.

Toward an Understanding of "Missional"

I'm working on an article for Leadership Network as part of their Missional Renaissance Community, co-facilitated by Reggie McNeal and Eric Swanson. The Missional Renaissance Community is composed of nine churches who participate together with leaders from their local communities. They are basically resourcing one another as they strive to be more effectively incarnational within their local environs. Part of my writing project was interviewing leaders at the nine churches. But I'm also doing some background research on the history of the term "missional" and will make some brief comments about that in the piece.

Toward that end I've found some useful material online that I wanted to mention here.

• Andrew Jones has found what seems to be the earliest ecclesial use of the term in 1814 as detailed in his post Missional: First Occurrence of the Word.
  
  
• Andrew mentions Rick Meigs wonderful Friends of Missional Site, where in a side bar Rick explores some of the etymology of the term.
  
  
• When I contacted Rick to inquire as to the source of his info, he cited missiologist Ed Stetzer. I had earlier found a helpful series of post by Stetzer under the rubric "Meanings of Missional."
  
  
• preface
  
  
• part 1
  
  
• part 2
  
  
• part 3
  
  
• part 4
  
  
• part 5
  

Todd Hunter...

...is now blogging again!

pls pray for the family of steven curtis chapman

Associated Press:

"The 5-year-old daughter of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said."

- see the whole AP article

Interview with Todd Hunter

Charlie Wear and I recently had the chance to interview Todd regarding his new adventures in the latest issue of Next-Wave.