Archive for February 2010

Being The Church10 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: Adam Posegate | RSS | Google Reader

I recently started a new blog.  It's different from The Posegates, because it's focused.  You might joke that being focused is different from the Posegates all around, and then I'd laugh politely and cry myself to sleep.  Seriously, though, where was I?

Oh right!  The other blog.  It's called "Being The Church."  It is a blog that is ministry focused.  Right now I am the only contributor, but I'm planning to recruit other youth pastors and leaders, mostly of smaller (less than 100) student ministries.  It is a place for us to support each other and help us be better at what we're doing, which is ministry. 

Being The Church

I'm not totally fond of the current "look" of it.  It's kind of ancient, kind of not.  I don't know.  I want it to be effective, because there are important things there.  I'm a little dizzy as I type this-- not sure if that's because of the 24 oz soda I had (I don't drink a lot of caffeine usually), or because I'm excited about this new site.  If you are directly involved in "organized" ministry, or know someone who is, please utilize this new site.  Your comments may spark great and helpful discussions.  Of course, they could also ruin everything! Why would you do that?!

Just kidding.  Caffeine. 

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On this, the beginning of my 30th year07 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: Adam Posegate | RSS | Google Reader

I am 29 today. I received a loving phone call with a new arrangement of the birthday song.  I took my dog out to do her business (her stock portfolio looks good, I guess). I fed my dog. I sat down to write this, and saw this commercial (below).

It made me well up. 

My soul praises God, maker of all things.
My heart yells to its master and friend.
God, do not be far from me!
God, draw me nearer to you!
Lead me in fatherhood and marriage.
Make me true in covenant and promise.
Make my path straight, Light of the World.
You are my hope and my everlasting salvation.
You are just when I am not.
You love mercy when I do not.
You sacrificed while I was yet unwilling.
You love when I do not.
And you teach me to love even more every day.
May my heart beat with yours.
That I might have compassion and obedience.
That I would have mercy and obedience.
That I could have love and obedience.
And so, that I walk humbly with you, my friend and God.
May my words and my heart offer you sweet smelling sacrifice.
For you, oh YHWH, are one.
For you, oh YHWH, are God of all things.
I praise you, Yeshua, God.
I ask for your breath to fill me again and again,
So that I may exhale your praises.
In the love of Jesus Christ, I offer my praises and myself to you.
Be honored today.

 

 

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Book Review - My Father, Maker of the Trees, by Eric Irivuzumugabe05 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: Adam Posegate | RSS | Google Reader

My Father, Maker of the Trees (book cover)

Eric is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He is a Tutsi, and most of his family, along with over a million others, were murdered in the genocide over the course of 100 days. He has written a book about his experience, but that is not what makes Eric special. What the book conveys is the work of God in him and through him. He is a living example of Christian forgiveness, and he preaches forgiveness and reconciliation and peace. 

It is of course moving and emotional. I couldn't make it through the prologue where he listed off the names of his family who had been killed without breaking down. That is not the point. The power of his message is not in his victimhood, but in the proclamation of Christ's love towards those who perpetrated these heinous acts. 

Eric documents his journey of living Jesus' command to love one's enemies. He will be blessed for that, and so will those who take this message to heart.

Purchase My Father, Maker of the Trees at Barnes & Noble.

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Book Review: The Year of Living Like Jesus, by Edward Dobson01 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: Adam Posegate | RSS | Google Reader

The Year of Living Like Jesus (book cover)

 

Before reading Dr. Dobson's book, The Year of Living Like Jesus, I brought to the table a number of prejudices including, but not limited to, my fandom of Dr. Dobson and my expectations of what someone living like Jesus would do and act and look like.  I looked forward to a step-by-step how-to process that one could patent and license to churches all across North America along with clever t-shirts for the franchise such as "Served Over 1 Billion."  A list of laws on how to be more like the man who fulfilled all laws from a trusted evangelical source.
 
The welcome slap in the face to bring me out of my fanboy hysteria was when the subtitle finally sank in: My Journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do.  This is not a how-to book.  This is not some instructional manual tailoring a Jesus wardrobe.  This is not a devotional on how being a sacrificial giver will come back to you in a specified outline of prosperity.  The guide for how to properly kill a bull for evening meal is nowhere to be found.
 
Instead what I read was an appropriately candid autobiography detailing the author's frustration at just how difficult this task really was.  It was a story of his journey to learn more about what Jesus would have done, and his deliberate discipline to execute those tasks.  And when he fell short, then he conveyed his feelings and responses to his own shortcomings.  This was not a mere task of living the Bible literally.  This was an attempt to keep pace with his rabbi so that he would be covered in his dust, not left in it.
 
The disjointed connections of the first and second halves of the book are only a momentary distraction as the content of the second half becomes less broken and more flowing.  The difference is not bad, just noticeable and admitted.  The break in the month of July was a good joke, and I liked that it went by quickly.
 
The book really shines as Dobson relates his past life experiences to what he is going through at this time.  The honest emotional struggles to even accomplish the physical tasks as he is reined in by ALS give an immediacy and tension to something as simple as camping and fasting.  The fond and poignant reflections of his own journey that brought him to this place at this time are welcome context for someone unfamiliar with who this smiling, bearded, and bespectacled really is underneath the tasseled undershirt.
 
All of this is to say that this was a good book.  It was insightful to the frustrations that come about when trying to mold ourselves to our own interpretation of someone else, while being cognizant of others' interpretations of that same person.  Perhaps, more than anything, all of the frustration adds up to an appreciation of God's grace that he made us to be his disciples, and that we don't do that in our own power.  We do that in his.

Purchase The Year of Living Like Jesus at Barnes & Noble.

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