The job

I've spoken before about how the job of pastor can be overwhelming with the experiences in peoples' lives we get to take part in. Today was one of the fun ones. Today, RCC had a baptismal service up Provo Canyon at a park. We had the opportunity to baptize people in the Provo river. Pastor Dean did all of today's baptisms and some fathers were able to help out with their children.
One of the fun jobs I had was to interview some of the people being baptised. We had the opportunity to speak with a bunch of the younger people being baptised and one of the younger kids had this to say. Go ahead, just click it.

The BBQ and party after was a great time! I really enjoyed the baptismal font being the river and I think it turned out great. We had a bunch of people from the church and friends and family of the people today. Chili dogs and pulled pork with potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans and chips of all kinds were on the menu. The kids had a couple of bouncie houses to play on and once again our people worked their tails off. Thanks to everyone for the hard work!

I'm excited!

Our web site is almost complete! As part of the change, my blog has been changed around some...look for some huge changes in the next week or so as we bring a real web site online!

Neighbor

One of my neighbors out here in Benjamin has been around since this little place started. His grandfather and his grandfather's two brothers were among the first immigrants to move in. His father lived and farmed out here in Benjamin and he currently lives in his father's home.

Dick is an older man with a hand like leather and even though he is breaking 80 years old you still wonder if he squoze just a bit more if he could break your hand. Dick has worked hard all his life and has gradually sold off most of the old farm. He now has just a couple of acres and a garden.

His garden is his pride and joy. It's always neat and clean with everything in perfect rows and not a weed to be found. Dick would drive by towards the end of Summer or start of Fall with the back of his truck full of produce.

C'mon over and grab something

he'd tell us. Then he'd complain we didn't take enough. Dick was always generous and even shared that he enjoys the garden because he gets to talk to his neighbors because of it.

Last night, Dick wandered away from home and died near the slew. I know I will miss Dick driving by to jaw at me a bit. I never met his children, but I know his dogs will miss him, too.

Goodbye, Dick.

OSS

If you've read this blog for any length of time you realize that I enjoy open source software. Working at Novell and being involved with SLED 10 I'm a fan. What I've found with OSS is that the more platforms they port the software to, the better the overall product is.

Initial software written for Linux tends to do what it was made to do, but not much else can be said for it. The interfaces are usually clunky and it is devoid of eye candy. When the developers port that software to Windows you end up getting a much nicer user interface and it becomes more intuitive. Then the port to OSX comes up and that's when the software goes from being 85% done to 95% done. OSX users tend to want the eye candy, the nice little things that makes the software really, really good.

A perfect example of that is Open Office. When it first came out for only Linux, it was a fairly geeky interface. The port to Windows made the UI much better, then OSX port gave us eye candy.

Recently I've been hoping for a decent sound editing tool that is open source. I found a couple of them for only Windows or only Linux and the interfaces on both of them really clunked. Hard to work out, many steps that should have been automated and just painful. It made it difficult to edit Pastor Dean's podcast as well as the Weekly Message podcast.

Until now!
Audacity is fantastic! This chunk of software does a lot of what the closed source stuff does. It's interface is slick and it makes my work much easier. I'm super happy with Audacity and it's ported to Windows, Linux and OSX.

Proverb questions

So today being the 26th, I was reading Proverbs 26. I used the New International Version today
and verses 4 and 5 struck me.

(NIV) 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

What?! Don't answer a fool then answer a fool. I've read this I don't know how many times and it didn't strike me until this day. So off I went for another version

(The Message) 4 Don't respond to the stupidity of a fool; you'll only look foolish yourself. 5 Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn't get a swelled head.

Hmm, it says to not respond then answer. Still unclear...not quite sure about that one! Off to another translation

(New Living) 4 When arguing with fools, don't answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. 5 When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation.

So, it says don't answer then be sure to answer. Not really getting any help here! Okay, I'll try the King James Version and see what we get

(KJV) 4Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. 5Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

Whoa! That translation is the most unclear I have seen! Answer not a fool according to his folly followed by the exact same sentence with the 'not' removed. Not making a ton of sense, so I go to my commentary the Ryrie Study Bible in New American Standard

(NAS) 4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. 5 Answer a fool as his folly deserves, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Now that one makes more sense. Don't answer his silly arguments, but rather answer the underlying thinking problem. Get to the root cause of the thinking error. I can understand that. Ryrie's commentary doesn't really help here

These verses are complementary rather than contradictory. While it is unwise to argue with a fool at his level and to recognize his foolish suppositions, there are occasions when it is best to refute him soundly, lest his foolish opinions seem to be confirmed.

That doesn't clear anything up. It seems that we are to accept that it's okay because Ryrie says they complement each other rather than contradict but he doesn't explain how they complement each other.

So my conclusion is if we answer a fool it is not to be an answer to his incorrect arguments, but rather the underlying root thinking problem that he has.

Entrepreneurs

This morning, I had a meeting with a young man who is looking to become an entrepreneur. There was no business plan ready for review, but rather this was just a meeting to spitball some ideas and see if I was interested in capitalizing his idea. We discussed it for a while, I explained some terms he didn't understand and in the end, we agreed to continue the conversation after he has taken some time to put together a business plan for me to look at.

I wonder how many times I miss out on opportunities to teach my children. This morning, my oldest learned about business because he wants to sell donuts, lemonade and popsicles at an upcoming garage sale. Since he doesn't have enough money in his bank to make the initial outlay and purchase his stuff, so we went over his needs and all. Tonight he'll have his first opportunity to present a business plan and we'll see how he does!

I think he's probably most excited about having some leftover donuts, but this has been an opportunity to teach him about business!

Reminders

This morning I was out with my family lined up on the side of Center Street in Spanish Fork for the Pioneer Day parade. I have my iPod in my ear listening to a sermon. The parade started with some Civil War memorial soldiers hauling a cannon down the road and pausing to fire the cannon and their muskets with a blast of black powder and a HUGE boom! Then the fire department started coming down the street with their sirens blaring. I reached over to turn up the volume when the preacher was talking about being thankful to God for the little things that we don't always think about. He was talking about flying through space on this huge rock at a high rate of speed without falling of, how many times our heart will beat today without our input, our respiration and all. The fire engine stopped about 25 feet past us and fired up the water cannon. They waved it about while all the kids when barreling into the street to get wet. And I saw a rainbow show up in the waterfall from the water cannon. It just reminded me of the covenant God established with Noah and his sons and the animals and....me. It was a good reminder this morning.

Missionaries

In a traditional church, when missionaries the church supports come back to itinerate for a while in the states they usually show up for a service to present what they have been working on. Since we moved the church to a theater, we no longer have the flexibility of a service during the week, and Sundays are tight on time so they just can't make their presentation.

I really like the solution that we came up. I must admit we weren't sure how we were going to handle the missionaries before, but after the first we found it worked out well. We now have a local restaurant that closes off a section for us to show up and buy dinner for the missionary. This gives us the opportunity to speak with them up close and personal and ask any questions on our mind. It's turned into a great time where a bunch of RCCers show up, we eat and have a more intimate experience with our missionaries.

Tomorrow evening, a missionary will be here and going to dinner with a bunch of us to let us know what has been going on in their lives. I'm looking forward to hearing about what the missionaries have been involved with in the mission field.

What do I do?

Last night we had some friends over and I was being queried on what I do during the day. My typical reply is

I'm a computer nerd at Novell

and usually that works. If queried further, I just use my title of Senior Software Engineer on the Core OS team. I then tell them I sit at my desk all day programming the computer. That always gets me off the hook and I don't have to try and explain further.

Not last night.

Last night I kept getting asked more and more what it meant to be a nerd at Novell and what work I really did. Now let me tell you that I don't feel comfortable getting deep into it because my wife has taught me. She knows more than anyone what I do at work, and typically her eyes glaze over about two TLAs into a talk on what I'm doing. She has assured me many, many times that nobody really cares about the deep level of detail of what I'm doing.

Last night I was faced with an intelligent person who might not understand the intricacies of what I'm doing, but definitely understands the overall look at it. And I got stuck. I've been getting better at communication and being able to boil things down and make them understadable. And last night I failed. I couldn't really boil it down. So today I started writing an email describing what I do and maybe with some photos and figured I'd blog it so I could just send the link to anybody who wants to deep end in my world.

Today I'm working on a problem in a piece of code I have worked on for years. I work on communication from one computer to another, and the other computer is answering a question I never asked. So I start looking at this...
and this...
And I correlate it with my C code like this stuff...
and try to find the problem. In this case, it is a problem of the other computer shouting at me when I was waiting it it to finish answering a question I asked before.

But this is what I do at Novell during the week. Hope it's clearer!

Rodeo

We hauled the family to the Spanish Fork rodeo last night and had a great time! My smallest boy was fascinated with the clown that kept jumping into the crowd. He was always looking for the clown even when the cowboys were riding horses!

The downside was the seating is horrible. Just a hunk of wood that is 12" from your neighbor in front without enough room for your knees and you end up hitting your neighbor all the time. But you can see the cowboys well from anywhere in the stadium and we all had a great time!

Pastoral work

There are some aspects of pastoral work that are both extremely humbling to be a part of and also bone crushingly painful. When tragedy strikes that can be both. I'm humbled that somebody would turn to me in their time of need. I'm just a guy trying to muddle through this life like any other yet I have an opportunity to offer words of comfort and solace. Yet the only way to be integrous through the process is to accept some of their pain. This is more than empathy, this is joining them in the journey at whatever point they are at and continuing to walk down the path together. It can be painful at times. I suppose it gives me the smallest glimpse at what Jesus did for us on the cross, and again I am humbled.

Irrevelant

One of our core values at RCC is relevant. We work hard to be relevant to our community. We also work hard to show people how God is relevant to them daily.

Today I was sending a photo I took that I was proud of to a buddy. He recently left the company I work for, Novell, to work at another place. He's an amateur photographer who helped me out with how to compose a photograph and some basics for taking the shot.

Anyway, I was speaking to him via MSN IM and when I went to transfer the file, Microsoft popped up a message that said

...less than 25 minutes with a 28.8 modem

Now who in the world remembers a 28.8 modem? Is it just me or do only us nerds give a rip about all these TLAs and numbers? Talk about irrelevant to people using the product. Who cares how long a 28.8 modem will take to transfer? Don't most people have a fast modem if they are on dial up? And most folk have broadband?

Irrevelance is not an option...except for MSN IM!

Oh, and here's the photo I tried to send to him...I really enjoyed the composition.

You never know who you will meet...

On Saturday when I took my kids to the airport, I had a chance to meet a bunch of folk. I was out there with my camera, had the telephoto lens on and my sunshade so it looked pretty impressive and I shot a ton of photos. I wanted to help out the local EAA chapter, so I shot a bunch of the kids flying in the planes.

One of the weirder machines flying around was a Sparrowhawk gyrocopter ran by a local company there. So I shot a bunch of photos of that since it was low over the runway and flies relatively slow compared to some of the other aircraft there.

Later on I was waiting for my boy to come back from his first flight and I was approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as Tom. It turns out this Tom is from Hawaii and is here in Utah learning to fly a gyrocopter. Not only that, but today was his very first day flying the craft all alone! So the photos I took were of him flying the machine alone for the first time.

When he was cruising along he noticed that I was shooting photos of him and was interested in getting some of them from me. So I got his email address and gave him mine and was able to send them to him. Once I got home and pulled the photos off my camera, I saw he was alone and waving in a bunch of them!

So now I've been emailing back and forth with Tom. He has graciously offered to show me around the island if I ever make it over to Hawaii. He is also thrilled to death to have some photos of this great accomplishment of his first solo flight in the gyro. You never know who you will meet and where you will meet them!

The regulars

phew!

I just completed a marathon session of putzing on my computer with audio files. The other week, 9 July that I took off had a couple of opportunities with the recordings. They were really quiet and recorded everything which needed to be cut out and then splice two CDs together and try to get the audio level up.

It didn't work as well as I would have liked, but at least Pastor Dean's podcast and the message podcast are updated now. Sorry for the quiet, but it's the best I could do.

Today the regulars were back and the audio level is back up to par and are posted as well.

Enjoy!

Great day!

Another one of the things I enjoy is flying. I have a buddy who is a pilot and a few months ago he took me out in his flying club's Cessna 172. What a blast! Flying to me is a lot like taking a motorcycle ride...there is a lot of concentration going on watching for traffic and operating the machine, but it is so relaxing being able to be a part of the environment and enjoying the view. I'm always waiting for my friend to need somebody to split the gas bill with so I can go up again!

He recently took me to the Spanish Fork airport for a pilots meeting where they talked about some recent aircraft crashes. They also talked about the EAA Young Eagles program and how it was coming up July 15. While riding the tractor this morning, I realized there were a lot of airplanes flying around today and finally remembered that today was the flight. I was ready for a break anyway, so I ran in the house, hollered at the kids to load it up if they wanted to look at airplanes and we went to the airport...after getting permission from Mama to put one in a plane.

My oldest, Matt, had his first flight in a General Aviation airplane and he couldn't wipe the grin off his face when getting out! Here's some photos of it. First he took off

Then right after landing he's in the back seat grinning like a monkey!


And here he is with his plane flown by USAFR Major Richey

Connection groups

This is a good thing...a very good thing. We finally have some people with enough time to devote to connection groups. We've been running these since the move and they are the most important place for growth at our church. Connection groups are the small groups people get involved in to hang out with others and spend time talking about our lives and how we can apply biblical truths to them.

Since the beginning, we have worked hard to get enough information and training to the hosts and facilitators of these classes so they can continue to run well and have the information they need. We ran a weekly on-the-job training audio CD and podcast that addressed certain issues and every perspective leader attended a couple hour training session before they got started. I wish we could have done more, but everybody was so busy we mostly ran waiting for people to come forward with questions rather than proactively visiting the groups and offering suggestions.

That is over now! Dale and Carol Jackson will be working as our Pastors of Connection Groups. This means they will be taking an active role in how the groups are running. They will be working with hosts and facilitators to provide ongoing training and will be checking in from time to time to see how things are going. I am very excited for this! It looks like 8 September will be our kick off party for all the hosts and facilitators with a BBQ. They bring a lot of experience to RCC and will be a great addition.

New feature

When I recently asked for input on an RCC podcast, some folk mentioned they don't know how to easily email me and asked that I put an email link in every post. Well, I'm making it easier. Now there's a link on the right to email me just by clicking.

Sprinklers

I am so happy the tractor actually works again. I cannot imagine having to move all this dirt and gravel around without the front end loader. I first had six dump truck loads of dirt delivered then I had eight truck loads of gravel delivered...then I found that I didn't have nearly enough dirt and had another eight dump truck loads of dirt delivered!!!

Couldn't have moved all this dirt without the tractor...a shovel and wheelbarrow would have killed my back. I'm still working to recover from my back surgery and the tractor isn't the easiest on me, but at least it's easier than a shovel!

Random thought of the day

I can't believe I blogged three times yesterday. I try to update around five times a week, but I guess there was a bunch of stuff I had to get out yesterday. I feel almost like Batterson after that blast!

Creation

If you've seen some of my previous posts on my sunset or memorial day, I'm an amateur photographer. When I saw this evening's sunset, I ran inside to grab my camera. Here's tonight's sunset.

I'm a podcast addict

It's true, I'm completely addicted. Now that I have an mp3 player large enough to hold the amount of podcasts I want to subscribe to I am as happy as a hog in mud! My 30g video iPod now holds a whole slew of podcasts from all over the place.

I can listen to them while at work, while farming around my house here, while riding the tractor and instead of watching TV. I am really enjoying being able to stay connected and see what others are interested in while I am doing other things. It has helped me fix the message podcast and Pastor Dean's podcast.

But it has got me thinking...would it be useful to have a podcast talking about RCC, what we are interested in, what we are doing to fulfill the vision and what is going on? The connection group on-the-job training podcast was a weekly podcast but really focused on helping hosts and facilitators of the CGs with how to do their job. I'm wondering about rolling the CG podcast into a whole-church podcast just talking about things that are going on here...maybe a 20-30 minute podcast talking about what's going on.

What do you think? Are you interested in listening to this for 20-30 minutes once a week?

Email me

A look inside...

Here's a look on the inside of how ideas are birthed on my blog. Some are more well thought out than others, and some that are not immediately clear I ask my wife to review for me. I had this big thing talking about how God made us as humans with a built-in need for Him that many fill with other things rather than accepting God.

That blog was denied. My wife didn't get it and it took like six minutes of discussion to make it clear, so not always does everything get published out here. I'll work to try and get my thoughts more clear and then post it out here.

Just wanted you to know I don't always give you all the junk...I do try to filter!

Grief

Have you experienced grief in your life? Losing a loved one? Or maybe your friend lost somebody and you were there to help them through the process. It seems the older you get, it becomes inevitable that we will lost somebody that is close to us. How do you deal with grief? Do you bottle it up and lash out at anybody around you? Do you cry it out and move on?

I've recently lost somebody close to me and am dealing with grief. It's a struggle as I didn't know them very well but I still feel the loss. I'm upset, disappointed and frustrated at how fragile life is. And I've discussed this all with God.

That's right, I've taken time to talk to God and let Him know that I'm frustrated. That I'm disappointed in what happened. I'm real with God...heck, He knows my thoughts better than I do, so I really can't put on a face! I've spent time just talking it out with Him...and it has helped. I believe God grieves with us when we are missing a loved one.

If you're going through a time now...whether it's grief or something else, I would like to encourage you to talk it out with God...let Him know what you are really thinking and be honest with yourself as well...you might be surprised at His response.

Enjoying work

I really enjoy my work for RCC but I also think it is important for everybody to take some time off. I took today off and I missed church. I really missed a bunch of folk there. I stayed home, recharged the batteries and hung out with my family from California...ahhhh

Questions

Questions are good.

Too often, I think we all get stuck in a rut where we do not ask enough questions of people. We just go through life on autopilot. We head to work and laugh at our coworkers' jokes. We get home and advise our children on what they should do. We sit down with our spouses and listen with half an ear about their day hoping we nod at the appropriate moments. But we don't really listen to what is being said we merely hear that words are coming out.

Questions are the things that kick our brain out of neutral and get us involved. We should question ourselves about laughing at the jokes at work. Do they harm somebody? Is somebody being put down for a quick laugh?

When our children need advise, do we just tell them what to do? What in the world does that teach them? That if they hit this same exact scenario in the future, here is the canned answer? But what if there is a subtle difference between today's scenario and the one they find themselves in tomorrow? The canned answer might fit but they are not sure...and you are not around to help them.

I postulate that we need to ask more questions. We need to teach our children how to think critically and that requires us to do it regularly. When we are listening to what happened in our spouse's day, the television doesn't need to be on distracting us, but rather our attention should be focused so we can ask questions.

Asking questions shows our loved one that we not only are listening to what is being said but that we care. We care enough to understand what is upsetting about what happened today. We care enough about the lingering questions of the day to continue to ask some.

Questions get people thinking. Not just the person being asked but also the questioner. In order to ask a good question a person needs to have a grasp on what is being communicated. The question allows people to rethink what was just said...put it into different words...make it easier to understand. At the same time, they are rethinking it and understanding it better.

Maybe a coworker makes a vaguely off-color joke. Ask yourself why. Is this person hurting so much that they are desperate for any attention? Do they just need to sit down and talk for a bit? Do they have anybody in their life they can actually spend two minutes being real about what is going on with? Are you willing to give up a few minutes of your life to love somebody else?

These are the questions I'm talking about...loving questions. When you care about a person enough to realize they just need to talk, the best way to get them going is to ask questions. Whether it is a friend, coworker, stranger in line, child or spouse question what is being said and you are loving them. To do that you need to do more than hear but need to listen as well. Get yourself thinking so you can help get them thinking.

Questions do not have to be disrespectful, but can rather be an outpouring of love.

This guy is amazing!

I enjoy shooting a lot. One of my web sites PV talks about some of my trips to help out farmers in Northern California. Also, I have spent a number of evenings up at the Spanish Fork Gun Club shooting clay pigeons. This guy makes me look pitiful. I go up and try to shoot these pigeons one at a time from the 16-yard line.

Patrick Flanigan

An opportunity to help...

I know all too often people tell me how they want to help out with one of our projects, but they don't have the funds to be able to help out. Well, Kim and Maria are back from their missions trip and we just started putting a series of episodes together talking about why they went, what they saw and how they are changed. They are planning to head back this Fall or Winter and are already making preparations to do just that.

Kim works at Young Living Family Farm in Mona and her boss has graciously offered to donate $10/hour for people willing to donate their time to help with their Lavender Days festival and 5k run this upcoming Friday and Saturday. That's July 7 and July 8 so we have to move on this quickly!

What you will be doing is helping with crowds and parking from 7am until around 8pm each day. The volunteers will be fed by Young Living, AND for those 13 hours of work you will be raising $130 towards the Mexico missions trip!

So if you have wanted to help out and could not find the funds in your budget, here is a great opportunity to make $10/hour towards the missions trip and be able to help out Young Living in the process and get to meet a whole slew of folk heading South for the run and festival!

We have great people!

I am so excited about the recent trip Maria and Kim did to Mexico. They went down there because they felt God asking them to get involved with an orphanage down there. Here's the first video in a 4-5 video series we are doing.

One of the scariest things...

Let me give you a little insight to my life here. When I have the opportunity to preach on a Sunday, the message I put together definitely challenges me at least as much as it challenges anybody listening. That's right, I am sometimes frustrated and embarrassed as much as anybody that I am not doing what needs to be done...the difference is I then get to stand up in front of a couple hundred people and share that information.

The last time I talked was for Father's Day. This is an important topic to me. I don't think a lot of us guys are doing what we need to do to be fathers to our children. We are great at the donating DNA stage, but once that kid pops out, a lot of the time we want to move on with our lives while the child grows up with an absentee father. That was me, and I'm continuing to work to overcome some of that in me which is probably why I was so excited when I preached that message.

During the message I talked about our boys growing up to be men like we are and our girls growing up to marry men like we are. The first part really hit home just the other day to me.

One of the scariest things to me is when my mouth opens up and my father pops out. Oh, sure, when he was saying those things to me while I was younger I kept thinking

what an idiot...when will he get a clue

then my father's words come out of my mouth. And I'm standing there, talking to my kids with my father coming out. My brain jumps out of gear, slams into reverse without even grinding and I travel through the time machine and see myself in their shoes wondering when Dad will shut up so I can get back to my fun!

I know something scarier though...infinitely scarier. It's when your child starts talking like you. There you are sitting on the couch watching the tube sort of hearing noises from the kitchen when your wife and children are talking when there is a shocked

WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?!

and the child answers

Daddy said it

and you just know you are busted. This isn't just my wife is mad at me busted, but rather I really messed this one up busted. This is when you are embarrassed to be you. When your wife doesn't say a word, but makes that sound...sort of a sigh that was pushed out with a bit more air...humpf. And she walks away. And there you are, sitting on the couch, trying to come up with the scenario that caused you to say something your kids may have heard one time from you and now is a part of their daily speech.

Our children are not going to do what we tell them to...they are going to emulate what they see. You can talk the talk all you want, but do you walk the walk? They know the difference between authenticity and faking it and they don't respect you if there are words one day then you go out and do the opposite. Our jobs as fathers are not only when they are around, but we need to program ourselves to do the right thing when they aren't around so stuff doesn't jump out of our mouths at the wrong time...so we at not being hypocrites but rather doing what we say needs to be done.

Your own words coming out of your kids...that is the scariest thing.