two things. no, three!

My heart is torn up about what is continuing to happen at church. If the people who made this decision at church could hear people (grown men, even) crying in such a gutteral way from so much grief, I wonder if it would change their minds.

On another serious note, here is this wonderful clip.



On a happier note, David gets back from Japan today! He just texted that he landed. This is what he was filming there.

Big in Japan Teaser from John Jeffcoat on Vimeo.

15 authors

My answers to that thing going round on Facebook.

Name fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and who will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Roald Dahl

2. CS Lewis

3. Beverly Cleary

4. Ann M. Martin

5. Flannery O'Connor

6. Dave Eggers

7. David Dark

8. M. Scott Peck

9. John Kennedy O'Toole

10. David Sedaris

11. Lorrie Moore

12. Marva Dawn

13. Aimee Bender

14. Walker Percy

15. Eugene Peterson

Token poet: e. e. cummings

kitties in sweaters

Yesterday I emailed this picture to Jona, Carrie and Simone, and their responses cracked me up.


Jona: "STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!

Simone: "AHHHHHHH! Who can be sad after they saw a kitten in a sweater? I keep telling Gregg that I feel like Marnie needs clothes. She's too much of a lady to be walking around nekkid."

Carrie (who has no link because she deleted her blog to the detriment of society): "IT HURTS SO GOOD! This reminds me of my cat I used to stuff into my 'Hot Looks' doll clothes. They were supermodel dolls and their clothes fit cats PURRFECTLY, even the socks and sunglasses. That cat was so pliable!"

Simone: "We use to put our cat in Cabbage Patch clothes. Their fat arm holes were perfect for a cat, though Tootsie shouldn't have been wearing dresses because he was male."

Jona: said "We used to put our cat in the mailbox. Not to be mean to the cat, to be mean to the mailman."

the acts 29 philosophy on church planting

This is unfortunately all too true. This is their formula.

linkapalooza

1. The most messed up Craigslist ad I've seen in awhile.

2. I am going to watch this today if I can get the kids to stay quietly in another room, it's a 1973 movie John and Yoko funded and it was banned for 30 years, just got rereleased in 2007. My friend Nathan said it was at the peak of the psychadelia movement, before everyone started slouching towards Bethlehem.



3. I can't wait for this to come to Seattle! It contains my beloved Neil Hamburger.

tennis pro in tokyo

fun with foster

Here is a recent IM conversation with Mike Foster. He said he took screenshots too and asked if I would post them, and I will, but he hasn't sent them yet. Anyway, I'm posting this because if anyone thinks I'm a mocker and a scoffer I want them to please let me know. I need people to call me out on that kind of thing.

screenshot from facebook chat today

sorrow

Our church is really dear to us. It's 12 years old and our head musician has been there the entire time. His official title is artist-in-residence and he's a genius visionary with prodigy-level skills on cello and is a great producer and arranger. He takes old hymns and gives them new music sometimes, or makes his own stuff, or just uses old stuff, all with an orchestra and rad combinations of instruments and he refuses to use video projection or be corny. I've always loved so much that our church had a position on staff for someone just to make art. It has helped redeem church for me after all my church trauma.

Well, three weeks ago he was fired. The reason we were given is that the leadership "wants to reach a broader demographic" and they have written a new job description for what the next music worship leader should be like. Our church has about 300 members and we're all absolutely heartbroken. The congregation wasn't told about this beforehand or consulted so it's all a surprise. The lead pastors consulted the elders, which are 4 men whom we all have known pretty well for years, and we're told the elders weren't happy about it but they finally relented.

We've talked to two elders and one pastor and they say they feel God is leading them in this direction. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to grow a church but when you cause harm to people already in your community, that's a sign to me that you're going about it the wrong way. The leadership just have a seemingly-empathic head nod for me and their minds are set.

I can't describe the grief David and I are feeling. I'm frightened because this church has been my community for 12 years and I see it unraveling. I don't know what to do with how sad I am. I've been crying hard daily since I've heard the news.I can't believe this is happening. That's all I can say.

one of my favorite loveline calls. might offend you. might not, i dunno

maybe i'm horrible, but

Funniest unintentionally funny tweet I've ever read:

Departed's beloved horse was graveside w/ us today. When I read Vov's "Resurrection" prayer, the horse whinnied. It was AWESOME

(by @jaredcwilson)

.

I've survived a decent amount of church-related trauma. I've loved our current church community for years now, and in the past two weeks something happened that is threatening to pull that community apart. So I'm preoccupied with that and grieving and trying not let my hope shriek and die. It's so hard because with as crazy as all our lives are church was a reprieve from that in so many ways and now there is a lot of unrest in that space. I'm grateful though for the ways the community is banding together against the threat of disruption and maybe something really beautiful will come out of this.

Well, at least we have this wonderful, incredibly thoughtful review of Brett McCracken's Poser Christianity, I mean, Hipster Christianity.