The Old Hat Workshop

Hey Everyone. I wanted to write with a bit of an update on some of my recent projects. Some of you may know that I’ve had the woodworking bug for quite some time, and now I finally have some of the tools that allow for me to actually create things. Thanks to my lovely bride, and other family members.

That being said, I have always wanted to work with wood in some way to help pay the bills, and that is a very tall order! One of the draw backs of market capitalism is that it is hard for any small-timer to actually earn a reasonable living building things like dining tables, coffee tables, or even front porches, when places like Pottery Barn can mass produce a nice looking, decent quality table in less than 1/2 the time, and at a much lower price. Not a soap box, just a reality. Hey, I would buy the Pottery Barn table, too!

Nevertheless, in our recent move to Spokane, we’ve had the great fortune of living next door to an accomplished carpenter/contractor, and I’ve been able to spend some considerable time with him (and hopefully secure a job!!…still working out the details)! Pete, is his name, and he can build anything. I’m so excited for what may be in store for our future relationship, and we look forward to sharing life with him and his family. The main reason I mention Pete is because 2 weeks ago he took me to his go-to lumber store, and bought me some very nice Black Walnut. He encouraged me to build a coffee table with it, and try to sell it. So, below are the fruits of some recent labor in the Old Hat Workshop…

 

 

A close up of the arched end.

 

 

 

 

A few clipboards and a letter writing box I made a while back (these are for sale, too!).

 

 

 

A full shot that kind of captures the tapered legs, and matching shelf.

 

 

So, I’m hopeful that I can sell this piece. Not in a big hurry, and not sure there is much of a market for handmade coffee tables in Spokane, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled. If you know of anyone…

 

Also, here are a couple of shots of my recently finished workbench/work area! Colby is hard at it.

Awakening

So, we just experienced another Holy Week with its Palm Sunday, Maunday Thursday, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday (Easter) celebration. It was a special privilege to join Resonate Church in this season of thanksgiving and remembrance, dwelling on the sick truths that the grave could not contain our King. Death could not conquer him. Jesus is alive.

Interwoven throughout these seven days was a whole lot of prayer. Resonate rallied together, interceding for the cities of Pullman and Moscow with the goal of raising our voices to the Lord for 24 hours, 7 days, 2 cities. With excel documents created and time slots filled in, the Church sought the Lord’s favor and His movement in this part of the country, and more specifically on the campuses and in the coffee shops and book stores and other frequented places.

And let me say, it was ridiculous. It tends to be a good idea to ask God to do what He longs for: to be glorified. Glorified in redeeming and drawing people to Himself; in bringing reconciliation to broken marriages and estranged friendships; in bestowing crowns of beauty instead of ashes and garments of praise instead of spirits of despair.

Holy Week and prayer collided in a really beautiful way. In prayer rooms. In bedrooms. In closets. On the streets.

There’s a rather phenomenal book called Red Moon Rising, that faithfully recounts the stories of re-awakening the Lord is causing throughout Europe (and the world), as the Church gathers in the basements of pubs, spaces too grungy to rent out, church houses and skate parks to pray. Continually. After work and during lunch breaks and 3 a.m. shifts when the entire continent seems to be in a deep slumber. People are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good!

In the aforementioned book, Pete Greig details a conversation he had with Brennan Manning who reminded him that, “’Prayer is not primarily about changing things somewhere out there. It is first and foremost about changing something in here,’ and he patted his chest. The most powerful thing that can happen in the place of prayer is thatyou yourself become the prayer. You leave the prayer room able as Jesus’ hands and feet on earth. This is what it means to pray continually, to see with the eyes of Jesus and to hear with His ears with every waking moment.”

This concept of “praying without ceasing” that we find in 1 Thessalonians literally means “come to rest.” May we come to rest, knowing “With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, [The Church] prays as if it all depends on God and lives as if it all depends on [her].”

And that continues to be our prayer as The Church here in Moscow and Pullman-that we would learn more and more what it looks like to live with the conviction that we are free, yet live as “slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.” May our prayers be lived out on our streets and in our work places.

May we “who call on the LORD, give ourselves no rest, and give Him no rest” till He is the praise of all the earth. Isaiah 62

Dear friends, please join us in praying for Awakening:

1. Awakening in The Church here in Pullman-Moscow, as we learn more and more what it looks like to become Jesus’ hands and feet in those situations we’ve prayed for.

2. Awakening in those whom we know here and in those we excitedly anticipate meeting in Spokane.

Hey Spokane! What’s up?

This is Riverfront park, just north of downtown Spokane! A future place of frequent frisbee throwing, jogs, and ice cream cone eating.

I apologize for the gap in updates. We’ve had a full past couple of months in preparation for our move to Spokane. First off, thanks for your continued support and love. We are grateful for the notes of encouragement and letters and financial support!

As you may know, we are wrapping up our months of training here in Moscow/Pullman with Resonate Church, and will be relocating to Spokane, WA in late June/early July. We are in the process of creating a lot of the content that will communicate the vision of our church and its place in the body of Christ. Basically, that means we have a lot of meetings that require coffee, big tables, prayer, research, long conversation, and notes written on scratch paper. However, we’ve found it to be a real joy to put vision into writing, and look forward even more to seeing that fleshed out in Spokane as we hit the ground running this summer.

Leaza has also been working hard with Moscow School District as a paraprofessional, helping students with disabilities, each weekday morning. On top of that, she meets with a few girls each week to talk about Jesus and faith, which is pure joy for her. We’ve had the opportunity this semester to host a small group (Village) in our home with the Mills’ family. Each week we have 10-20 folks over for a meal and conversation about the teaching that took place the previous Sunday. It has been a privilege to share in this season with all these friends.

I’ve continued working 2 or 3 days a week with the bookstore at WSU, and in between church planting meetings, I have started a little woodworking side project that will hopefully get its own post in a bit!

Leaza and I will be traveling back to Texas in June for a couple of weeks! We will be scheduling partnership meetings with churches/individuals to share our vision and hope for the church in Spokane! We would also love to see you during this time. If you or anyone you know of cares about missions and starting churches, we would enjoy the opportunity to share what’s going on up here. That means small groups, sunday school classes, churches, or any other combination you can think of. If you are already on our support team, we would absolutely love to take you to dinner and catch up on life!! Thank you so much for who you are.

That’s all for today. Love you guys.

Dagger

We understand that Texas was hit with a nice sized snowstorm a few weeks ago. That sounded like a bunch of fun! We in Idaho have been hit a few times too. Leaza and I are getting into ice sculpting! My first creation looks like an icicle, but I’ll have you know I spent hours sculpting this dagger/giant toothpick into a useful tool. What would a church planter need a dagger for you ask? The Bible says, “the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword.” It’s as close as I could get. Let’s call it a devotional illustration.

Done.

Does Jesus know anything about Church?

Of course, if you are a follower of Jesus, you’ll probably respond to the title like, “Duh! Jon, sure he does.” My follow up response is then, “How much should Jesus’ teaching inform our ecclesiology (church government/structure)?”

Soothing presumptions: First, let me say that disagreement is expected and encouraged, for the sake of the Gospel. I’m not mad at the Church or any local expression of it. That would be sad, because I belong to her. I love the Church. She’s the Bride of Christ and I’m so stoked that we are invited, as part of New Creation, to reconcile humanity (and other non-living things) to God by the Spirit. I don’t consider myself to be emerging in my theology, even though I went to school on the west coast. Most days, I’m still plagued with some carnage from seminary. If you’ve been, you know what I mean. I believe that the Scriptures are a critical part of the Word of God (even the black-lettered parts) and ought to shape every part of our lives!  I enjoy being a part of a local church body, and I’m especially fond of the churches that have helped our team get where we are today! I know next to nothing about the following matter, but I have opinions and thoughts that need shaping. So I’d love your help?

The argument: I want to argue that we subtly ignore Jesus as it regards ecclesiology. We would never admit this, but the trend of our modern/late modern, evangelical church models are to consult Peter and Paul (Ephesians, 1&2 Timothy, 1&2 Peter, Titus) assuming that we are consulting the whole council of Scripture. It is after all logical that we read Titus when we are thinking about how to choose elders, since Paul is explicit. But, is that all the Bible has to say about leadership or governance? Most church planters quickly discuss roles like “lead pastor” or “worship pastor”, create hierarchies of ministry (not unlike the early church), and assign non-pastoral roles to fulfill the activities that don’t require teaching/shepherding. I don’t believe these steps are bad or even wrong, but I do wonder why these are the most visible issues that we need to address? I keep coming back to the question, “Does Jesus know anything about Church?”

My Hope: Was that too bold? Probably so. The heart of my question is not to be reactionary for the sake of simply owning my postmodern viewpoint, but I do want to unashamedly ask us to let Jesus speak to our ecclesiology as much as we let Paul or Peter. I hope that at the foundation of my reaction is the Gospel, not nothing. As our team develops our ecclesiology it is my hope to ask a few questions that still end up with a Gospel-centered answer, and also honor the heritage of faith that gave/gives us the support we have today:

• How do the red letters influence our leadership structure?
  • What if our qualifications for leadership were also based around the Sermon on the Mount, instead of only Titus and 1&2 Timothy?
• Do we see Jesus as the ethical/moral strategist and Paul as the church strategist?
• Do we need to bridge the gap between Pauline talk and Jesus talk or simply acknowledge their differences?
• Was Jesus “seeker-friendly”? If so, what should that do to our gatherings?
• Is church something we do or is it something we are?
• Is there even such a thing as a “church-planter”?
• To what extent should 1st century ecclesiology inform 21st century ecclesiology?
  • Are you being unfaithful to the Scriptures by even asking that question?
• Can we allow the teachings of “the Kingdom of God” to be predominant in our governance/structure & polity and actually gain traction with the broader culture?

Well, those are some off-the-cuff questions for your chewing and perhaps your spitting out…I’d love to hear your thoughts, because we are in the fire as we speak. We are praying and seeking wisdom from almost anyone (please join us in that!). I write as a freshman, who just walked through the high school doors, not a senior walking out of them. So, what thoughts does this question/post spark in you?

Are you wondering what our life really looks like?

Click on this link to our team blog and read what Laura has to say. It’s succinct, comprehensive, and it has pictures!

trainingseason.wordpress.com

Preliminaries:: Idaho : Texas*

• If you get stuck in your driveway, you’re still a freshman. Guilty.
• People actually check the DOT website for road conditions.
• People don’t talk about how cold it is much.
• There are not many trucks, but there are sandbags at gas stations for those who do have them.
• Sometimes you forget that you’re driving on snow.
• As pertains to Boise, ID, it’s pronounced, “Boi-c” not “Boi-z”
• There isn’t great Mexican food (waiting to be proven wrong).
• There are better coffee shops.
• We will learn to cook.
• Schools don’t close really.
• We can walk anywhere we need to go in 20 minutes or less.
• We filled our car up with gas a week and a half ago, and have more than half a tank.
• We still don’t know how to work with the wall heaters.
• We have wall heaters.
• People know a lot about firewood.
• There are little potbelly stoves that actually heat entire houses.
• Leaza wishes she had a Potbelly sandwich.
• Three people putting on chains is laughable:

There you have it!

*We will need more experience before we have more comprehensive list.