margo’s baptism in pictures

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Baptism, Christianity, New Testament, family, fatherhood, sacraments
• Date: Jun 23,2009

I had the awesome privilege to baptize my daughter Margo this past Sunday @ Versailles Christian Church in Versailles, MO – the church my wife grew up in. Praise God!

Here are some pics from the baptism:

And as a part of this beautiful sacrament, we all prayed this together to thank God for his work in our lives…

Prayer of Thanksgiving

In the beginning, O God, your Spirit moved over the water, and you created all that is, seen and unseen.
We give you thanks for the gift of water that sustains all life.

In the time of Noah, you destroyed evil in the water of the flood; and by your saving ark, you gave a new beginning.
We give you thanks for new beginnings.

You led Israel through the sea, out of slavery into the freedom of the promised land.
We give you thanks for the gift of freedom and the gift of the land.

In the water of the Jordan our Lord was baptized by John and anointed by your Spirit; by the baptism of his death and resurrection, Christ set us free from sin and death and opened the way to eternal life.
We give you thanks for our own baptism and the gift of eternal life.

The Lamb has come to lead us to springs of living water.
We give you thanks for the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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come to me like little children

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Communion, Gospel, New Testament, authenticity, evangelism, family, fatherhood, missional living, parenting, prayer, sacraments, the art of...
• Date: May 19,2009

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far

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going guiltless

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Bible, Christian season, New Testament, culture, family, missional living, parenting, social justice
• Date: Jan 8,2009

Photo by hickory hardscrabble

I thought I’d wait until we had a little space from Christmas to re-post something here on the blog so your visceral reaction would not so closely connected to the present tense.

Just before Christmas, my friend Shaun Groves wrote a four-part series on the idea of “going giftless.” (And yes, I’m using the word “guiltless” in my blog title on purpose; a little turn of the phrase)

It’s challenging. You may not agree with everything in the series but I think it will be good for your soul to wrestle with this. Holly and I took a big step in this direction with our family this Christmas. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow…

Here is the series:

Going Giftless Part 1
Going Giftless Part 2
Going Giftless Part 3
Going Giftless Part 4

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extract’d

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting
• Date: Jan 8,2009

Photo by Wrote

When you have small children, you can simply never realize what it is going to be like to one day face them, as adults, with the realization that YOU have shaped them into the persons they will be for all of their lives. If we realized what it really means to create, nurture and shape another person in the deepest of human ways, we’d be frozen with fear. So much of what they are comes from us in ways that were unintended, or unknown or unplanned. Your children are truly a legacy of the kind of person you really are, and of how you’ve lived, how you’ve loved and what you’ve considered most important.

-from “Reflections on Being a Parent of Adult Children” by Michael Spencer on his blog, internetmonk.com

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the year that was 2008

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Gospel, blogging, church planting, concert, education, emerging church, family, fatherhood, history, missiology, missional church, relevintage, theology
• Date: Dec 31,2008

It is terrible how much has been forgotten, which is why, I suppose, remembering seems a holy thing.
Anita Diamant, from The Red Tent

It’s the last day of 2008, time to look back at the year that was:

January

I had the privilege to lead my oldest son of 6, Cooper, in a prayer of belief in God’s grace for his salvation. I thank God for the awesome opportunity.

Sally Lloyd-Jones stopped by the blog and thanked me for my kind words about The Jesus Storybook Bible, which I believed God used in a providential way to help make the gospel clear to Cooper.

My Sloan turned two.

February

I remembered three tragedies that hit close to “home”: one in my hometown, one in the town I live in now, and one that affected a sister Christian university.

March

Cooper was baptized. Praise God!

I wrapped up my series: The Emerging Church: A Postmodern Reformation.

I posted my review of Todd Agnew’s new album, Better Questions. (I review music for Ardent Records)

I had the privilege to be a part of a unique event that ended up being one of the most transformational times in my spiritual life. I was part of a recording for the Shapevine’s Active Learning Podules series with Reggie McNeal. You can watch it on the home page of their web site. I would embed it here but it doesn’t have that capability.

April

I posted my review of Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken’s new EP, Ampersand. (I review music for Speakeasy)

Cooper enjoyed his first Cardinals game with my Dad and I and played organized baseball for the first time.

I talked about how the will of God is that we would pray ceaselessly.

I “celebrated” two years blogging.

May

Our family grew in missional compassion through Compassion International…

I saw Radiohead in concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis. Wow…

I wrapped up my book review series on the Zondervan Counterpoints book, Four Views of Hell.

I posted my review of Delirious’ new album, Kingdom of Comfort. (I review music for Sparrow Records)

The Lost finale. Unbelievable…

June

I celebrated nine years with my amazing wife…

My family enjoyed a local vacation…

I recapped my series on the missional church: The “Sent” Church: A Missional People.

I talked about one my vices: morels.

For the second year in a row, I judged Joy FM’s iSing competition at Six Flags – St. Louis .

July

My family and I visited Tulsa for the first time to confirm the call to plant missional communities there in the future. God answered our prayers…

I posted the first (and only at this point), vodcast on Acts.

August

We celebrated Margo (5) and Everett’s (1) birthdays.

I posted on my weight loss. Total loss = 20 lbs. I have to say, wow…

I spoke on emerging worship at Bible Preaching Week at Windermere at the Lake of the Ozarks.

I spoke at the first annual Missouri Baptist University Ministry Group retreat at Cornerstone Farms in St. Jacob, Illinois.

Fall classes began at MBU; teaching “Worship History and Leadership” and “Worship Performance Workshop”

September

I announced the cool opportunity to do two directed studies in missiology under the tutelage of Ed Stetzer.

I posted on my first trip with Ed to a conference in Jackson, Mississippi. This pretty much sums up the trip..

I had the privilege to host Dan Kimball, Matt Maher, and The Afters for MBU’s second annual Abandoned: Worship as Life seminar. Here are some pics…

October

We celebrated Cooper, Holly, and I’s birthdays.

I posted on my second trip with Ed to Johnson City, Tennessee. Here is a pic…

I traveled with my good friend, Clint Carter, to Tulsa to continue to exegete Tulsa…

I attended the Lead Conference, put on by The Journey, a conference on the theological and practical implications of ministry in an urban context with Clint.

I posted on my missional practicum in University City.

November

Relevintage becomes transformission.

Holly and I saw Coldplay at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Not bad, not bad…

December

We celebrated Christmas with all of our families. Blessed…

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debunking leisure time mission

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, church, community, culture, family, incarnational, ministry, missional church, missional living, post-Evangelical, relationships
• Date: Dec 11,2008

In a recent article on Out of Ur entitled “Mission and Recession,” Skye Jethani, managing editor of Leadership Journal, synthesizes much of my current thinking regarding the natural rhythms of mission in the sacredness of “all of life” rather than the “volunteer extraction” model most churches engage in. It is a must read. Here is a teaser:

Economists are asking what would happen if we built our economy on production, savings, and manufacturing rather than spending and debt. Pastors should be asking what would happen if we built our mission on people’s core time rather than leisure time. What if we could tap into the 80+ hours people spend every week on the job, with their families, and engaging in life’s ordinary responsibilities? Of course, this would require a fundamental shift in the way we think about mission and institution.

Read the rest here: Mission and Recession: Building a church on “core time” rather than “leisure time.”

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if you have kids…

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family
• Date: Jul 11,2008

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dusting off: fireworks in a ghost town

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting, reflections
• Date: Jul 3,2008

One of my favorite pieces to appear on relevintage. From last year’s Fourth of July:

Tonight, my family and I – my wife and our 3 children who are all under 5 – went down the road to an interesting spot to view some 4th of July fireworks. A spot that has an intriguing history.

Back in the late 90’s, St. Louis’ Lambert Airport was promised a lucrative contract with a major airline. And with this deal, Lambert would need to expand – extra runways and concourses, etc. So they bought out some land southwest of their facility which in turn meant that neighborhoods, churches, businesses, etc. in that area would need to be demolished and folks would have to relocate.

Well, the contract didn’t meet it desired expectations. Lambert did a partial expansion [although in February of this year, the city announced plans to continue the expansion]. And acres and acres of land now sit empty as thousands of people had to leave.

The Riverfront Times stated in 2002 that over 1925 homes were demolished and in January of this year, the USA Today reported that ,” … the runway displaced 6,000 residents of suburban Bridgeton from their homes. And John Krekeler, one of 16 Lambert airport commissioners, estimates that only 5% of flights at Lambert use the new runway.”

So today, only a few empty houses and a church remain. A veritable ‘ghost town’ in the middle of a major metropolitan city. But in the very back of this ‘ghost town’ sits a park that is a part of the Bridgeton park system. The park still has a certain level of maintenance. And even though there is virtually nothing around it, I think it was made for a night like tonight.

I saw – no joke – probably 20-25 major fireworks displays west down the I-40 corridor – St. Charles, St. Peters, O’Fallon, Lake St. Louis, Wentzville, etc. – north up the I-270 corridor – Bridgeton, Florrisant, Ferguson, etc. – and northwest into Elsberry, Louisiana, etc. Our kids were mesmerized. And so were their parents.

And there were other families there. Ones that I’m sure remember when this community was a fledgling neighborhood. Now all that’s left are empty lots and the occasional home whose windows are broken and shrubs are overgrown.

As we drove out of the ‘ghost town,’ I couldn’t help but think of all the people who were uprooted from these neighborhoods for nothing. They are now scattered all over St. Louis and St. Charles counties. The band director at my church and his family used to live in one of the neighborhoods. They now live in St. Charles.

But I was also reminded as my family and I left the park that home isn’t a structure. Home truly is where the heart resides. And as I looked at my exhausted kids in the rear view mirror and my pregnant wife to the right of me, I realized no one can take your home from you.

Even if they take your house from you.

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blog fast. live slow.

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: blogging, books, family, fatherhood, review, vacation
• Date: Jun 16,2008

After this blog post, I’ll be taking one of my annual blog fasts for the next seven days…

My family is on vacation this week. We are staying in St. Louis and just chillin’ here. We’ve lived here for almost ten years – in total; Holly and I lived here in college – so we are going to do some things we’ve never done and visit some of our old favorite spots here in the Lou. Here is the plan:

Monday: Take the kids to the Boeing Store. This is the official source for authentic Boeing merchandise and collectibles, including apparel, travel gear, and gifts; aviation posters, etc. It’s right next to the airport. I’ve promised the kids this for way too long…

Tuesday: The ever-popular and free Science Center. The St. Louis Science Center is a science museum is among the largest of its type and my two oldest will really enjoy this place of informal science education for all ages.

Wednesday: The Butterfly House, a public natural habitat dedicated to the education of butterflies in Chesterfield. We were trying to go as a family when the kids studied butterflies in homeschooling, so better late than never.

Thursday: I’m really excited about this: The City Museum. Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. Artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions.

Friday: The Magic House. I haven’t been here in over 15 years. I’m going to get in touch with my inner child here. The Magic House is one of the best children’s museums in the country, engaging in hands-on learning experiences that encourage experimentation and creativity.

Saturday: The Children’s Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This summer, the fine folks @ The Children’s Garden are pretending to blaze a trail with Daniel Boone! There will be hands-on learning and family fun to be had here!

After The Children’s Garden, we’ll have a picnic and then head off to…..the famous Crown Candy Kitchen. Need I say more?

Sunday: Cardinals Party here at the ranch. We’ll watch St. Louis take on the BoSox on the tube. Dogs, chips, Cracker Jacks, etc. Tons ‘o fun…

Of course, mixed in with all of this is a bunch of goofing off, sprinkler time, movie-watching, sports-playing, resting, and reading.

Speaking of reading, I am going to try to tackle a few books this week. I have three chapters left on the first book. Here is what is on my ‘docket’:

On the other side of the blog fast:

-Continuing the “Re-engineering” series that is slowly getting off the ground – okay that is an understatement…
-My top 10 worship blogs
-Continuing “My Favorite Songs” series that has taken quite the hiatus…
-Some new blogs finds that highlight the ‘missional’ of everyday life…
-Ten artists you’ve probably never heard of but i like and you should too :)
-My top 10 Lost episodes…so far
-Music reviews of Jon Foreman’s Summer EP and Starfield’s I Will Go
-Book reviews of Steve Timmis/Tim Chester’s Total Church, Matt Smay/Hugh Halter’s The Tangible Kingdom, Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Bill Hybels’ A Holy Discontent, Earl Creps’ Off-Road Disciplines.

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the 7

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: art, church, church planting, community, emerging church, family, missiology, missional church, music, planning, relevintage, worship
• Date: Jun 5,2008

1. Brian of Semper Reformanda Records has begun a series I’m really looking forward: the various elements that comprise the majority of Sunday liturgies. His first entry in the series: The Prelude.

2. Harold Best was recently the keynote for Sojourn Community’s Cultivate Beauty Festival and if this post was any indication, he brought a breadth of insight on how art and the church intersect. Check out these snippets via Bobby Gilles for an idea of Best’s genius from his talk entitled, “Art For The Church; Art From The Church, Art Facing The Church.”

3. How do we define the local church in light of the missional conversation headed up by the likes of Hirsch, Timmis, Chester, Fitch, etc.? Jason Allen provides some insight here and here, although I think it bears some fleshing out. Jason is a friend, so I feel like I can play devil’s advocate with him. What can the local church do that a smaller missional community – that may have a larger gathering – can’t? Where is the true biblical mandate? If life is meant to be lived in community, why is that community necessarily the local church and not smaller communities? Isn’t the majority of life lived outside of the one hour we are “at” church? I have some ideas on how to answer these questions. What are yours?

4. Via Ed Stetzer a very creative post title – Questions for McChurch – and an even better push-back on some of the negatives on the multi-site concept. A must-read for anyone considering the option…

5. Shaun’s recent series on living simplify was such an encouragement [see here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] .I don’t feel like my family is so weird after all. We are doing many of things and hope to do more as we grow in simplification…

6. Don’t put together a church planting prospectus? Strong words from Jonathan Dodson of Austin City Life in Austin. He highlights the futility that is sometimes involved in man planning a work of God rather than God working His plan through man by quoting Augustine. Very convicting…

7. And finally, maybe my favorite post of 2008 from Soma Communities’ and Acts 29 Board member, Jeff Vanderstelt. Do me a favor and just read it: The Beginnings of a Missional Church Plant.

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