Recently in Family Life Category

Here's the interview, you should definitely read it. I think they did a great job of representing my dad's vision for worship at NCF-Chatt. Thank you byFaith and Robert J. Tamasy for highlighting the ministries of New City Fellowship churches.

I will say that a consistent misinterpretation of NCF is to say that we are about contextualization. This is a half-truth. Contextualization is to say, "We are in a [random culture] neighborhood and so we have [random culture] style worship." There's nothing wrong with contextualization, but it's not the complete vision. We believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is by nature a reconciling force. Our new identity in Christ makes us peace-makers across racial, cultural, economic, and generational lines. So our multi-cultural sound is more than just smart marketing, some attempt to reach a demographic group by being relevant. It's an intentional demonstration of love with the goal of establishing God's kingdom. The result is that we are not trying to make people comfortable in church; instead our goal is open up ourselves to being uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to sacrifice my stylistic preferences in order to be in fellowship with someone who is different than me. When Jesus called us to take up our cross, he didn't have comfort in mind. When Paul encouraged us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, he didn't have comfort in mind.

Worship should be uncomfortable because it means that we see God in all his holiness and then we see ourselves in all our mess. The response should be like Isaiah, "I am a man of unclean lips!" Grace is what brings us joy in God's presence, but grace is also what makes us uncomfortable with the mess in the world around us. If we don't leave church feeling uncomfortable with the status quot (meaning the fallen world around us which is characterized by division, racism, oppression, injustice, etc.) then maybe we haven't encountered Holiness, repentance and Grace in a very real way. Randy Nabors was right to say that Christian worship should be defined by joy. We have every reason to rejoice in the Lord. But Randy would add that our Christian joy is always a force that drives us out into the world to be peace-makers and reconcilers.

Sorry, I don't mean to preach so much. I honestly loved the article! Thanks again ByFaith!

Today we started our 2 service format. It was exhausting, but I think it was really exciting too. It felt so cool to see a small group gather at 8 am to worship this morning. May the Lord increase the number of people in our church through an increase in lost brothers and sisters returning to the Father's love.

Now it's raining and dark. I'm relaxing with my family; enjoying the slow afternoon. I'm so glad our move is past us and now we can get back to life.

We woke up last night to some strange sounds.

Driver chased, shot to death in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/10/2009

ST. LOUIS -- Police are looking for the gunman who followed and killed a motorist on Maple Avenue near Kingshighway early today.

Edward Vaughn Wilson, 34, of the 5000 block of Kensington Avenue, was shot to death shortly after 1 a.m. today.

He was speeding west in the 5000 block of Maple, about six blocks from his home, when his car hit a street light, police say. Wilson was behind the wheel, and he'd been shot in the head. He died at the scene.

Witnesses told police they had seen a black Dodge Charger following the victim's car, shooting at him.

Police said they had no suspects.

My parents came up for a few days this week to see our new house and to hang with the grand-kids. I managed to squeeze in a few hours with Jacob to track my dad playing on some tunes for the CD. We got out the Rhodes again and dad played on "Rejoice In The Lord", "Walk the Talk" and "I Am My Beloved's".

Rejoice In The Lord - We did a about five passes with various feels. Some were more busy and had a lot of cool jazz style lics. Other passes were more basic and popy. We'll probably end up editing together one take from all of the best elements in each pass. It sounds awesome! It has a definite Steely Dan vibe that I have always imagined for that tune, but it could also stay in a more simple James Taylor kind of thing.

Walk the Talk - We put my dad through the ringer on this one with a lot of specific sample-ish lics. His part helps the tune have that cool neo-soul sound. The song has a great funk/hip-hop feel, but we have to keep it in my own personal idiom (as Sir Lancelot would say.)

I Am My Beloved's - This one was tough because we don't have anything but guitar and drums completed on it. Dad did a good part that is simple but effective.

The rest of the keys parts were done a few months ago by Ryan McMillan but I had been saving these tunes for when Dad could come up to St. Louis. Working on these tunes made me realize how far from being done we are.

By the way here's a link to a post that Jacob wrote about working with me. My favorite line is, "Kirk is currently interviewing for fans." Check it out!

Yesterday, we got a little taste of what life in the city is really like. We moved last month in the middle of one of the coldest winters I've ever experienced, so our street and the surrounding block has been like a ghost town. A few weeks ago we had a big snow and saw a lot of our neighbors while we were all shoveling snow. But, last night in the warm twilight, we heard kids playing, car stereos, and the other sounds of the city in the spring. The apartments behind our house was bursting with life as a dozen kids ran around shouting and frolicking on the playground. On my bike ride home, I saw kids walking home from the bus stop, families out on their porches, and the young men loitering on corners smoking cigars.

Behind our house, past the apartments, on the north side of Page Ave, we could see a group of about ten men standing around dressed in casual clothes on the porch of a house, in the yard and on the curb. They weren't having a cookout; they weren't waiting for a bus. Was it a gang? I don't know. But after dinner, we heard a pop-pop-pop-pop from behind the house that was definitely not firecrackers. After that sound, I looked behind the house again at where the "gang" had been, and they were all gone.

We knew we would be moving into the "inner-city" and that we'd be willingly entering into all the mess that comes with it. So, I was not surprised to hear what might have been gunfire, but it's still disconcerting. Lord, make me an instrument of your justice!

I learned this song last week and it's been in my head for days.

You have shown us

To the oppressed and the broken
To the widow and the orphan
Let the river of your justice flow through us

this song is from the Compassion Art project.

Our contractor finished the work on our house. We are now officially done with the repairs, so anything else that breaks down, fall apart, or rots will be on me to fix.

Today the weather in St Louis is unseasonably warm. I rode my bike to work for the first time since our move (and the first time since daylight savings ended.) It took my about 10 minutes to get to work on my bike.

I'm getting psyced up about our Black History Celebration on February 21. It will be a fun time for all and I hope that we'll get a lot of strangers. This weekend, I made an announcement in which I emphasized to people the potential for inviting neighbors and co-workers. We had a few full-color invitation cards that got snatched up right after church. We printed 200 more in anticipation of people getting the word out. The whole world loves gospel music, and so it's a great bridge for the good news to be communicated.

Me and the fam are flying to Orlando after Easter to hang out with Sarah's siblings. Apparently, there is an airline called Allegiant Air that only flys to a few tourist destinations from small airports. We got round trip tickets to Orlando from the Springfield/Branson airport for $60 a seat. So we'll have to drive about 3 and a half hours first, but it sure beats trying to drive to Florida or paying to fly out of Lambert Airport. Maybe next time we go to Chattanooga, we'll fly Springfield to Orlando to Chattanooga for $120 a seat.

No more stomach flu. No more staph infection. No more medication reactions. But today, my arthritis is giving me trouble again. My wrists are really bugging me.

I discovered this website for people who like to make to-do lists. I'm trying it out for now, but I am skeptical that it will be better than my good old legal pad and sharpy system.

The recording is progressing. We are hoping to have 5 or 6 tracks completed soon. Maybe, I'll just go ahead and stick them on iTunes to see if my fans (86 on my facebook page) would like to buy them.

We are now residents of St Louis City. Our neighborhood is called Academy. It is 97% African American. It's a neighborhood of gigantic homes that were all white owned 50 years ago. Most homes are brick, 3 story buildings that are about 100 years old. Our home happens to be a new house built in the style of the homes in the neighborhood. We are close to the Central West End, Barnes Jewish Hospital, the Loop, and Forest Park.

We decided to move despite the fact that our kitchen is not done. We don't know how long it will take, but we knew that we would have to pay mortgage plus rent for as long as we delayed the move. So, we made a make-shift kitchen in our 3rd floor bathroom. We have a microwave, a pair of borrowed mini-fridges, and a crockpot. We wash dishes in the tub. We've also had a lot of friends invite us over for dinner. That's been a huge help.

The kids are adjusting well. Joanna is unflappable. She is so cheerful and oblivious to the change. Samuel got sick the week of the move and hasn't really recovered yet. He's not sleeping very well (as a result, neither are we.) Sam also picked this week to learn how to crawl, so he's a lot more mischievous.

Yesterday was a cold day. By cold, I mean it was the coldest day in St Louis in 6 years. High of 9, low of 0. Wind chills easily put it in the negatives. So, as a result, the pipes froze in our 3rd floor bathroom (aka "the kitchen".) Today the water started running again, but there's not been any sign of a leak yet. I'm not naive enough to suppose that there's not a leak, but I can pray for a miracle. The joys of home ownership!

Please pray for us during our time of transition. Also please join us in praying for our neighborhood and for St Louis that the kingdom of grace and the power of the gospel will reign.