I've had a number of people ask me what I did for New Year's Eve this year, and the truth is that I have absolutely no idea what I was doing at the moment the calendar changed from 2009 to 2010.  This is not, however, because I was asleep or drunk or anything like that.  It's because I was in an airplane racing across seven time zones to meet the dawn of the new day, the new year, and the new decade.  And though we left just before seven o'clock in the evening (Central Standard Time) and arrived in Europe at 10:35 the following morning (Central European Time), it was never announced when the hour struck -- because time is a very fluid concept in trans-Atlantic aviation... So I don't really know where I was, what I was doing, or precisely when 2010 began.  I suspect it was somewhere between Newfoundland and Greenland, while I was watching some crappy movie on the in-flight entertainment... but I guess we'll never really know.

What I do know is that we had a great couple of weeks in Ohio at Christmastime.  It didn't feel like we had nearly enough time -- but then again, it never does.  And as much as I could bemoan the shortness of the vacation, I have to admit that we actually managed to fit quite a bit into the time period.

We rode an antique train to the North Pole (surprisingly accessible from Connersville, Indiana!).

We enjoyed snowball fights and sledding and lots and lots of Christmas lights.

We baked cookies and went carrolling from house to house in the country.

My brothers and I made lefse (traditional Norwegian potato-based flatbread).

We played basketball and American football, and we watched basketball and American football on television.  My Dad, my son, and I got to go to our first professional basketball game together -- watching LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers trounce the Houston Rockets.

We re-enacted the biblical account of Jesus's birth on Christmas Day.

And we just spent a lot of good quality time together with family who don't often have the privilege of gathering together any more.

It was really everything we could have hoped for.  Of course, it wasn't without its stresses either -- driving in heavy snowfall, coordinating schedules with a lot of families who each have their own priorities, sharing one bathroom with 16 people (when the water heater went out for a couple of days!), and traveling through busy airports... But so is life.  We made the most of the experience, and for that I am very grateful.

Time passes so quickly, doesn't it?  Some of the family we only get to see in parking lots and every five Christmases.  Some members of the family are quite advanced in age (Marci's grandpa, for example, turns 93 later this month).  It's difficult to project life's trajectory.   And even with all other things being equal, there's nothing to say that someone won't get cancer or some other sickness (over the holidays, I happened to hear about two particularly tragic discoveries of cancer, plus a suicide and a teenage car crash).  It can be terrifying to think of all the possibilities that a new year could hold.

But we can only take it one day at a time.  One city at a time.  One conversation at a time.  There are a lot of anxieties for the coming year, but there is a lot of hope and opportunity as well.  It'll be interesting to see what 2010 will hold.  Happy New Year to all of you...

I got this from my friend?Brooke, who got it from her sister, who got it from?George Ella Lyon. ?But since I'm spending some time back in Ohio for the holidays, together with our families, I figured this might be a good time to try it for myself. ?It's a poem -- adapted from Lyon's original poem, then made into a first-grade writing exercise called "I am from..."

These are the instructions for the exercise that I got from?Brooke's blog:?

Here's the idea:

1. Write down sensory memories from childhood/life. ?smell, touch, sight, hearing, taste

2. Think about sayings you heard often / lyrics from songs, like... "don't let the bed bugs bite"... "safely in his bosom gather"

3. Think about things you smelled, food, mom's perfume, or the feeling of a family blanket

4. Write the senses down, don't explain them, but be detailed. Don't just say, "I am from dad saying " I love you more than the stars" say instead "I am from "I love you more than the stars."

5. Put "I am from" before your memories (or, in our case, we did "We are from"). List some together.?

So see what you think of my own work-in-progress here below:

We are from spontaneous four-part harmony.

We are from It's Soooooooooouuuup!

We are from full, soft, feathery-needled white pine Christmas trees.

We are from basketball with sprained ankles and broken noses.

We are from coffee with dessert while Dad abstains (insisting that he doesn't even drink whiskey).?

We are from Ya sure ya betcha.

We are from duck-colored Carhartt jackets and sports caps.?

We are from Wonderful the Matchless Grace of Jesus.?

We are from porridgey grip on Saturday afternoons and blueberry muffins on Sunday mornings.

We are from dinner table theology, ecclesiology, and homiletical analysis.?

We are from stacks of Readers Digest on the shelf next to the toilet.?

We are from Big Ten football on Saturday afternoons.

We are from big bowls of buttered popcorn on the couch at the end of the day.?

It's still a work in progress. ?In fact, I'm hoping to round out the poem over the Christmas holiday, together with other family members who could contribute memories to the mix. ?Maybe you'd want to try something similar for your family, too.

At any rate, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!?

When we first started our church in Amsterdam, and people would ask us to describe our “church,” we would often describe our ministry space.  “It’s kind of like a café.”  Comfortable couches, café tables and chairs, careful consideration for lighting and ambiance.  Or we’d describe our weekly worship gatherings.  “It’s kind of like a concert.”  Some music, some spiritual story-telling, just sit back and enjoy the show.  People were intrigued by these explanations.  They would remark that they’d never heard of a church like that before, and that they might like to come and visit sometime.  And sometimes they would come.  Often, they’d like it.  They’d keep coming back, and over time our church grew to the point where people were overflowing into side rooms and staircases, coming to enjoy the “café church,” the “concert church.”

As much as we enjoyed some of the strengths of the “café church,” with time we’ve also come to realize some of the weaknesses associated with it as well.  And close to the top of that list of weaknesses, one of the most obvious results of a “café church” is a congregation of “customers” or “consumers.”  The café is the place where you go to sit with friends, soak up the gezelligheid, and order food and beverages, prepared by a cook in the back room and served directly to your table by a waitress.  If you’re treated well, you keep coming back, tipping the waitress -- maybe even recommending the place to your friends.  But if you’re not treated well (maybe simply because you came during a time when the place was under-staffed), you’ll scoff and find another café.  Because that’s the way it works.  It's the same thing in the concert business.  If you put on a good show, you sell lots of records and merchandise and tickets for future shows.  But if you don’t deliver a good show (maybe simply because the lead singer had a head cold), you’ll scoff and spend your entertainment euros (or dollars) elsewhere.

Do you see how problems could develop when the café or concert model is applied to establishing a church?

How weird would it be if the cook comes out and asks the customer if they might be willing to step back into the kitchen and help prepare the refreshments for the other customers?  Imagine the awkwardness if the waitress reveals that she’d really like you to help with serving the other customers?  Can you imagine the customers having their commitment
implicitly questioned when they stop coming around (or come around
less)?  It’s no wonder that a “café church” like ours has had a hard time getting people to help with “serving” or volunteering to help with various ministry responsibilities like making the coffee at the beginning of a church function, keeping kids occupied during worship gatherings, and cleaning up afterwards!  Yes, of course everyone realizes that coffee and childcare and cleanliness are nice amenities within a church context -- not to mention good music and good messages -- but when the service economy model is applied to Christian community, th e situation can be very challenging if not downright counter-productive.

Today, we’re re-envisioning our understanding of what the church is and how we operate.  These days, we like to think of our church community more as a “family” or a “home.”  Yes, we still welcome others into our “living room" or "dining room,” but they are as guests in our home, not as customers within our franchise location. We do our best to keep the place tidy and welcoming -- perhaps needing to explain unique traditions in our family.  But we don't rearrange all the furniture and put up false pretenses about who we are (dysfunctional families do this, of course, but we strive to maintain a healthy home environment!).  We're a family, for better or for worse.  Those who regularly sit at our table and share meals with us typically help with preparing the meals, clearing the table, washing the dishes; this is just part of being a family.  Even when we're out and about -- around the city, at work, in school, or wherever -- we're still a family.  But we also like to spend time together, hearing stories about what's happening in each others' lives and simply enjoying each others' company.  As our children grow up and become mature, we bless them and release them to start their own families (not franchises).  We keep in touch and celebrate special occasions together, but we do not practice "quality control."  We are a family, and we trust in God's ability to develop successive (and overlapping) generations.

This "family church" concept also has its strengths and weaknesses.  I'm sure of that.  But I'm content forour church to experience those as we go.  To me, the distinction between a café and a home is a helpful one.  How do I plan for family events?  How should I treat a guest in my home?  Do I talk to the person who prepares the meal as if he or she is the Maître d’ or the Mom?  It's a big difference.  Don't you think?

We had a magnificent party for Olivia this afternoon.  Exhausting, but magnificent.  In case you might like to see more pictures from Olivia's birthday festivities (and Cor's, too, for that matter), you can visit the Family Pictures section of the website.

So we had kind of been hoping to be done with our kitchen (and other) renovations by the 1st of June... not for any particular reason -- except that we wanted to give ourselves deadlines, to cope with the stress of living in a construction zone.  Well, it turns out that we weren't able to meet that goal.  Not for a lack of effort.  It's just been a lot of work by a couple of inexperienced klussers who don't really know how to estimate construction time-lines too well.

Overall, we're very pleased with the progress we've made up to this point.

We've painted walls, installed cabinetry, installed appliances, installed countertops,  hooked up appliances, hooked up kitchen sink, installed overhead lighting, installed under-cabinet lighting, cut tiles, laid tiles, grouted tiles, installed stainless-steel backsplash, installed decorative wood paneling... and a host of other, smaller projects.  And that's all just for the kitchen!

We've still got some minor work to do in the kitchen (putting plinths under the cabinetry, installing a new faucet, installing the hood above the stove, and polishing some of the raw surfaces on the edges of the granite countertop, plus probably some other, unforeseen things) -- even though it's now past the 1st of June -- and we've also got some more significant work left to do in the dining room and in Cor's bedroom... But still, I'm pretty proud of what we've been able to accomplish up to this point.  It's turning out to be a really beautiful space.

Even though we can't say we're completely finished yet, I thought it still might be nice to post some pictures, as something of a progress report.

In addition to the kitchen, you can also see a couple of pictures, here below, of the living room during our project to lay new flooring (this is the one room in the house which is now pretty much completely finished).

Pretty cool, huh?  Oh, what a happy day it will be when we're all finished!