willspeakforfood.blogspot.com

We'll I have an official speaker site, willspeakforfood.blogspot.com. For the people who know me you may look at this and think it was just a slow day at Cutter & Buck, but I assure you, that it is more that that. Hopefully, and prayerfully, opportunities will arise for me to share my love of the Bible with others, and if I get food too, great news. I didn't want to launch with Jason Deuman Ministries, because that just sounds pretentious so I named this venture as honestly as I could. So if you're looking for a camp speaker, then just give me a holler, hop on over to will speak for food.

Motivational/Camp Speaker

So I was thinking about camp speakers and how much they must have, especially if it's not their full-time gig. Think about it, they get paid to go and talk about Jesus and hang out with kids for a week, sometimes they aren't even asked to hang out, they just go and talk. Motivational speakers too, they just go and say stuff that they think will help people. That's a pretty sweet gig. I don't think I'd do well as a motivational speaker because I'm a bit too much of a realist. But that's beside the point. I wonder how one gets in on the Speaker circuit? Perhaps I will research it to see if I have what it takes. I don't want to travel like a maniac, but it would be fun every once in a while to go talk about Jesus with people. That would be neat. So if anyone's reading and looking for a camp speaker, or anything, let me know. I'll see if I can fit you into my schedule. :o)

Getting Ready for Camp

Camp, camp, camp, always fun and full of adventure. I'm praying that all the details come together because right now I don't know how that's going to happen. I have been jerked around by this company that I'm ordering innertubes from. First they never told me that they couldn't complete my order so when I called to check the status they said they never shipped it, so I had to change the order completely, and they said that they would rush to ship it that day. But somebody didn't know what they were talking about because it never shipped, so I called today to verify that they would have the order shipped and they still haven't shipped it. GRRRRRRRRRRR. So now I'm a week out from camp and need these innertubes like RIGHT NOW!!! I can't believe the idiocy of some people. I do know this I won't ever work with this company again. GRRRR!!! I'm really hoping that this all comes together, otherwise the river float will just be in life jackets and everyone will be very sad. But anyway, that's the status right now, I'm really excited about camp though I think it's going to be good times, I'm excited for the kids that are going, and for the chance to grow relationships with them. And I'm excited to just get away and be with Jesus for awhile. It's going to be good times. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I ever get those innertubes.

Sad

This has been a tragic couple of weeks, I don't really know what to say, but this seemed appropriate. I'm not one to create armaggedon scenarios, but the situation in the middle east is dire, and it seems like no one really wants peace. I remember the Covenant that God made with Abraham, something to the effect of, blessed to be a blessing. I hope that still holds true for all his descendants.

Interesting stuff from the Secret Message of Jesus

I've basically finished McLaren's The Secret Message of Jesus, I just have the apendices left and I rarely ever read those so I'm as good as done. It was a thought provoking book, and I gotta say, not as controversial as I thought it would be. McLaren definetly paints a picture of Jesus that is compassionate, revolutionary, and on a mission. Which is where we should all be as his followers. The last few chapters where about the Kingdom of God, and McLaren really tried to enforce the idea that the Kingdom of God is not just pie in the sky go to heaven when I die. Jesus told us that the Kingdom is at hand. We need to be working on building the kingdom of God here and now. Someday Jesus will usher in the completion of his kingdom, but that is not our concern, what are we doing today to make Heaven on Earth. I was challenged at Elevate 06 this past year by something that Brandon Cameron said many times, Jesus lowered the standard of acceptance but raised the level of Commitment. And McLaren picks up on that to, when he was talking about Exlusivism and Inclusivism. This is definitely a hot issue today with the church falling on both sides, some excluding all "sinners", others welcome everyone no matter what. These churches don't talk about sin and personal responsibility because that would come across judgemental. McLaren leads us another way that I found encouraging and challenging, he titled it "purposeful inclusion." McLaren talks about how church that are divided over sin and such they fall apart, because they welcome people who don't want to help sinners get out of sin, or they welcome sinners who don't want to acknowledge their faults. And these churches begin to crumble. Here are some quotes from this discussion:

The kingdom's purpose is to gather, to include, to welcome everyone who is willing (children, prostitutes, tax collectors)into reconcilliation wiht God and one another -- but if the kingdom included people who rejected this purpose, the kingdom "divided against itself," would be ruined.

Citizens of the kingdom must indeed want to learn a new way of life, and if they don't count and pay the full cost, they will remain outside.

So yeah welcome anyone to come into church, and let them know, the only way to come into the kingdom is to seek reconcilliation with God and each other, so you have to deal with sin, there is no way around it. This was quite interesting, and actually surprising to come from McLaren. But at the same time the kingdom of God is open to religious people who may actually miss what Jesus is doing because they are too busy sticking to their rules. Religious leaders and Prostitues alike both need to be willing to commit to a new way of life, of reconciliation, of healing, of grace. Because really we are all jacked up people and Jesus is came to get us all into the revolution. I also like the way McLaren talked about the Kingdom, we really have no context for kingdom thinking today because we don't live under kings. But for Jesus to say things like the kingdom of God is at hand, he wasn't just saying the nice little platitude that it has become today, he was inciting a revolution, and while it was intended to be a revolution of peace it was still a revolution. Jesus was basically saying, yeah Rome may be in charge today, but we serve a higher power than Rome. We may be under the heels of oppressors now, but someday our oppressors will receive justice. Jesus wasn't a hippy who had an incredible medicare and food program, he was a revolutionary. And his followers literally risked everything to be associated with him. They were setting themselves up to be seen as traitors to Rome. What can we say today that would encite that kind of passion about the Kingdom of God? What image can we cast about what the kingdom is really like? What can we say to give it the weight that it really deserves? Jesus calls us to be revolutionaries, not just pew warmers, not just republicans or democrats, not just pastors and lay people, not just doctors or bus drives, revolutionaries.

Blog Review

I just went back and loked over some of my old posts. Wow, it seems like a long time ago. It's funny how things that I thought were going to be huge panned out to not much and the things that I thought were going to be not much turned out to be huge. I can't believe how quickly this church world goes. It's always, always busy. I'm still working through the Secret Message of Jesus, by McLaren. So far it's a really good book. He's been showing how Jesus was a revolutionary and how his disciples are supposed to take his revolution everywhere. Jesus message of grace and mercy and love, and the kingdom of God need to be here and now and not just in heaven. We need to live, breathe and dream the gospel. I haven't come across anything controversial in this book, maybe mclaren's got all that out of the way with Adventurs, and the Last Word. But yeah, it's a good book thus far.

Clark Kent Moment

So today I realized that Clark Kent could get away with people not knowing he was Superman by just wearing glasses. I was walking down in freemont before work and this lady who was taking signatures for a survey stopped me and tried to convince me to join whatever organization she was working for. And I declined because I'm already a pretty busy guy and I don't want to join any more clubs. So when I walked by her the first time I was without my glasses because they are mainly reading glasses and I don't have to wear them all the time. Later in the day, I walked by her again on my break and she didn't recognize me at all and tried to recruit me again. Crazy. So maybe Lois Lane is like this lady, and just can't recognize people who alternate between glasses and no glasses. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Here's Jason Deuman Here's SuperJason I can totally see why people would fall for this disguise. It totally works. Now that I know I can be a superhero, I wonder what my super powers should be, I need a super hero name too. Hmm, any suggestions would be welcome. Speaking of superheroes, have you seen the commercials for the NBC show, Heroes. I don't know what to think about it yet, I'm a total comic book geek so I might have to check it out.

Monday Morning

Man monday mornings are rough. I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still don't feel like I've woken up. The reason the mondays are so rough is because our youth ministry meets on sunday nights. So Sunday is usually about a 9 hour work day for me, so monday's pretty tough. But it's totally worth it because sundays are the most important day of the week doing the most important job ever, helping people connect with God. So i'm totally willing to be tired on monday's if people are connected to God on sundays. Last night was a lot of fun for me. I talked about the Good Samaritan and Mary and Martha, if you want you can download it here. But it was fun talking about how Jesus constantly broke boundaries that people put in people's way to here the gospel. Jesus is revolutionary and when we look at our society today Jesus is the key for a lot of the progress that we have. Gentiles can hear the gospel because of Jesus, women are elevated to peers because of Jesus, we are all neighbors because of Jesus. There's a term that has been floating around, "glocal". Glocal simply means thinking and living globablly and locally. Jesus was the first person to have a glocal perspective. He ministered to his community and he sent his message around the world. The Good Samaritan reminds us that We truly are called to be glocal. We have to be neighbors ro everyone. We have to serve everyone, we have to bring the gospel to everyone. I love that about Jesus. After >>beyond>> we played ultimate frisbee up at the creekside campus. It was a lot of fun and I don't know if we are technically allowed to do that, but it was a great field and everyone had a lot of fun. Yesterday was a good day and I'm fine being so tired today.

A Generous Orthodoxy Review

Well I finished McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy. I was please to read it and not feel angry or upset in anyway. That usually qualifies as a win in my book. There was some stuff that I didn’t fully agree with, and there were some things that I think we were really close on. All in all it was a good read and I would recommend it to people who like to think and be stretched a little. This book is basically a story about how McLaren traveled through different traditions within Christianity and came to appreciate certain things and became concerned with others. Part of the reason that this orthodoxy is called Generous is because he tries to show how all these various traditions can compliment each other and that we as followers of Christ need to work to see that and not fight so much with people from traditions outside our own traditions. I come from a Pentecostal tradition and McLaren went through a Pentecostal phase in his life. And I was actually surprised that he and I had a lot of the same concerns with typical Pentecostal thinking. One of the biggest things that Pentecostal theology creates is an insider/outsider mentality when it comes to spiritual gifts. If someone isn’t speaking in tongues then they are somehow less of a Christian. I know that is an extreme statement but it comes across from time to time. And this, I feel, alienates people who are on the “outside”. It can make them feel less important, less gifted, less usable by God, or just less. And I think that if the Pentecostal tradition is going to live and thrive in the future we will need to be willing to look at this inside/outside thinking and reevaluate what it is that we really want to say about speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts. The other thing that he said about Charismatic Christians is that they, along with contemplatives, have a great understanding of joy. That really both paths lead to experiencing joy in profound ways. People don’t usually associate Charismatics with Contemplatives but ultimately these two paths should both lead to true and lasting and new joy. Another really insightful thing that he said was in regards to the reformed tradition that the church should always be reforming. We should always be adapting to our culture. And this can be difficult to draw a definite line on because how far should we reform, what should we reform, those kinds of questions leave a lot of options and people can get confused and sometimes reform what should not change like the basic message of the Gospel, sexual boundaries, our state as sinful people before God. Those are all things, and there are probably many more, that should not be reformed. But we should be willing to reform our method, our vocabulary, our dress code, our music, all of that should be reformed with our culture so that we don’t come across as completely aloof and out of touch. For instance, there are some things that are completely offensive to an older generation that if said in church would anger them, where as if that same statement were said in a younger context no one would even care. (I speak on this from experience). Who is right and who is wrong in that kind of situation? Both. But should both be willing to reform and try to communicate to the culture in the most practical and applicable way? Yes. So I guess it a give and take but it must always be moving gradually forward. One of the things that was very clear in the book is that Christians should have compassion for lost people, but also for fellow Christians. I do agree with him that there are many things about our many traditions that we can embrace and celebrate. Because ultimately no one has it all figured out. We have been trying to for centuries and we still are not there. Some day we will be, but that’s gonna be in heaven, so in the mean time our orthodoxy can stand to be a little more Generous.

God Moments

Well everyonce in a while I have a God moment where I know that he wants to use me and I just need to trust him. And today was one of those. An old friend called and wants to talk about some lifestyle decisions that he has made. I have been praying for this friend for some time and I am really hoping that our conversation tomorrow morning will be beneficial to both of us. I'm not much of a phone talker so I hope that doesn't hinder anything. But if anyone reads this before tomorrow at 6am then please pray for me. Pray for wisdom and humilty, because those are the two most vital traits that I need tomorrow morning. God is so good. --jason

PodCasts

Well I have been asked to compile a list of the podcasts that I am subscribed to. here's I hope this works. The Links that I will create below will work only if you have iTunes, they will link you directly to the iTunes website. Here's a few of the podcasts that I am currently listening to. in alphabetical order >beyond>> cast --our student ministry podcast Comedy Central Stand-Up -- video Creekside Cast -- Our church podcast Defining Moments -- Willow Creek Association Donald Miller Imago Dei Church -- A Church down in Portland Mars Hill --Seattle Mosaic Erwin McManus pastors this church in LA Simply Strategic Show the Catalyst Podcast -- a resource from Northpoint Community Church The Relevant Magazine Podcast Enjoy

More Judah Pics

It's been awhile since I last posted any pictures of Judah so here are some. He's getting so big. Your Pacifierd! One of the few times that he's really mellow Mommy's little angel.

Bloggers Book Club (BBC)

Hello All, I have been thinking about this for awhile now and I have resolved that I will start my own book club. The Bloggers Book Club, (BBC). This is how the book club will work. - All Books will be focused on Christian Spirituality. - I will read one chapter a week and create questions for that chapter, if the book doesn't already have a study Guide. - Answers to questions will be through the comments page so that everyone who participates can see what is being said. - Send all quotes that you find meaningful to through comments. If you have ideas for further reading then send them through the comments as well. This is going to be a little expirement and I hope that some of you will join me in this. The first book will be The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. So if you don't already own it, you can click on the title above to get to amazon, or you can try to find it at a local retailer, or your library might have it. Happy Reading!

4th of July, Patio Set, Donkey Talk

So it’s July 3rd, the church gave us today off, but Cutter & Buck didn’t. So I’m chillin’ here on a perfectly nice day waiting to go home and celebrate the BBQ that Kathy has put together. I’m really hoping the BBQ goes well tonight, there’s no agenda or real plan, we just want to get a bunch of people together and have fun. So if your reading this on July 3rd and have nothing to do, then feel free to stop in. It’s a Bring Your Own Meat BBQ, but we will have some extra food. But stop in even if just for a little while. But I mowed the Lawn and put together our new Patio Set and I still had time to come into to Cutter & Buck. It was a full press effort but I got it done and I feel pretty good about myself. I started reading A Generous Orthodoxy and so far nothing controversial, but I haven’t broken through the 30 page barrier yet so I still have a lot of pages to cover and Controversy may yet abound. I’ll keep you posted. Yesterday I talked about Balaam, and eventually you will be able to download it here. As soon as I find where the master CD went. I felt really good about the sermon and I felt like I was connecting with folks. And I had a lot of fun, and if the preacher isn’t having fun than no one is. But the message over arching message is that God is in Charge, he’ll do what he wants, and he always wins. And when I looked at the story I was just reminded time and again about our church and that we really are in an Exodus of our own. I challenged our people to pray less for getting the permits and to really focus on praying that God would change our hearts and transform us to be the church that he wants us to be. I think the message was well received and that people really accepted it. The morning of I was feeling nervous for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was ill prepared, even though I had studied, and prayed and gone over the notes a bunch, I still felt like I wasn’t totally ready, but God stepped in and really helped me out. As soon as I stood on the platform I felt sure and confident and ready to rock. I’m totally loving this Exodus series that we are going through and I hope that we can continue to go through books and stories like this. It’s fun times for bible geeks like me. But yeah if you want to check it out keep checking on creeksidecast.podomatic.com, it will be there eventually.