Where I've Been

Last Sunday afternoon, I drove to Birmingham with Jared Bryant and Aaron Slaten, who are on staff with me at the soon-to-be Christ Community Church (we changed the name from Christ Church Presbyterian - that's a whole other post). Given that our church is still in the start-up, creative, entreprenural phase, we needed to get some time together and brain storm and plan for the future of the church (more on that later). It also gave the three of us some time to hang out and eat way too much food together. We also found out that Jared talks non-stop in his sleep which is why he never talks in real life and that Aaron will be struck down by God if a razor ever touches his face. That last sentence is as totally fabricated as Floyd Landis' Tour de France victory, which the cool kids tell me is a bike race. I used to have bike races on my Mongoose when I lived in Montgomery - good times.

We got to Birmingham around 5:00 and drove into the Five Points area just south of downtown so we could worship with some of our friends at Red Mountain Church - well, pretty much I was the only one who knew anyone there, so Jared and Aaron ate doughnuts while I caught up with some people who used to go to Faith Church when I was on staff, as well as friends that Lindsey and I knew outside of our ecclesiastical vaccuum. That was the first time we had been to Red Mountain which meets in a room where I used to have fraternity parties - kinda surreal. The vibe was laid-back which fits the personality and context of alot of the people I know in the church. Ran into Clint Wells (owner and architecht of that little piece of the blogosphere we call Clintland - and one fine guitarist to boot) and got to talk for about 30 seconds before he and his bride had to make a quick exit - I'm looking forward to getting together with him when I'm back in Birmingham soon. I usually struggle to worship in other churches because they usually sound and feel pretty alien to me, but I was moved towards the cross and the hope of who Jesus is and what he has done for me.

We ate at Jim n' Nicks BBQ afterwards and were brought closer to the Holy Ghost thanks to the cheese biscuits. I'll go ahead and tell you that we were rather legalistic in insisting that any and all food ingested during our trip had to contain at least 50% fat - we wanted to feel like a native Alabamian. So between Jim n' Nicks and Sol Azteca (and the greatest salsa on the planet) and Tin Roof BBQ and Jim Davenport's Pizza and the Montgomery Brewing Company, I'm going to have to do one of those 30-day fasts just to get back to normal. This entire paragraph provides great evidence of the difference between men and women. Every guy reading this knows what it's like to organize your day (or in this case, three days) on the basis of where and when you're going to eat. I know this doesn't make sense to the women reading this, but call us even because we're still trying to figure out Lifetime television (well, not really. All men should have a dude lock on their TV so they never have to see another Valerie Bertinelli made-for-TV movie). Or Oxygen. Or We. Or women's basketball. Or Lance Bass - I mean, who saw that coming?

From Monday morning to Wednesday morning, Jared, Aaron and I had five planning sessions, reviewing our philosophy of ministry and laying out all the leadership needs we had in those ministries we have now, as well as those we believe that God is leading us to undertake in the days ahead. It was mentally challenging to reduce the measure of success for any particular ministry to a single sentence, but I think it paid off in the end. We're in such a significant period of leadership transition as a church that we need to help out the new guys as much as we possibly can. I thought our time together went well and thanks again to our friends at Faith Church who served us so well.

Monday night we went to see Superman Returns. I loved the first two back in the day (episodes three and four don't count), so I liked the idea of picking up five years after the end of Superman II. Given the twenty-six year gap between the making of the two films, it didn't really feel like a sequel but I'll give kudos for continuity in storyline. I really enjoyed the movie and kudos to anyone who can make me see Kate Bosworth and not automatically word associate 'Blue Crush' (which is not a good thing). Brandon Routh did a good job even though at times I felt like Superman was a bit too metrosexual for my taste. Kevin Spacey did his normal excellent work, but I thought the only time Parker Posey got to be herself was during one scene with her in a runaway Ford Mustang. Special effects are great and John Williams reminds us that he is the King of the Movie Scores.

Tuesday night we drove down to my former stomping grounds in Montgomery (and by former, I mean way back to 1985-1989) to watch their minor league baseball team, affectionately known as the Biscuits. We were drowned on the way down, and you know it's raining too hard when you pass up the chance to eat at Outback because you can't see the front door from the parking lot. So we drove to Montgomery and ate at the Montgomery Brewing Company, an experience completely wasted on four guys (my Dad went down with us) who don't drink. We had a good time - Dad got hit on by the waitress (just kidding. No, Mom, seriously - that's a joke) and we all enjoyed eating fatty red meat and beer-battered fries before heading over to the ballpark (which was really beautiful) and watching the first six innings of the game, which started an hour late because of the aforementioned deluge. I was on orders from Lindsey to bring Jonathan home a t-shirt and I added a stuffed Biscuit (complete with the pat of butter for its tongue). I did have to pick up a Biscuits hat thanks to lingering showers - as an aside, someone needs to tell New Era (the company who makes all of the gameday hats for the Major and Minor Leagues) that making hats that stand up like a helipad isn't helping their sales. So I bought this hat instead.

So there are the highlights of my week and why the blog's been awful quiet. Hope you're doing well out there.

Comments

[Brian T. Murphy]

sorry I missed you.

[Matt Adair]

Murph - I'm actually back in the Magic City - this time for a two-week study break. Shoot me an e-mail and let's try to hook up while I'm in town. At the very least, Lindsey and I will be at Red Mountain on Sunday night.