The Simple Church

One of my Christmas presents from Emily was the book The Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. I just finished it yesterday. I thought it was great. I found myself thinking about ideas of how to apply it in real life in some imaginary church setting that I might find myself in some time in the next year.

The basic premise of the book is that most churches try to do too much and don't have a clear process for how to become a mature disciple of Christ. Individual programs clutter up the calender and compete for time money and energy but don't necessarily work together or lead people to greater maturity. The result is a lack of excellence and spiritual stagnation while every one works harder and gets more stressed trying to maintain (and even add to) an overwhelming list of disconnected church programs.

Rainer and Geiger propose that every church should come up with a simple process for making disciples characterized by clarity, movement, alignment and focus. Clarity means that it is clear to the leadership and the people of the church how the church works and what the process for growth is. Movement means that the process is sequential with a clear next step as people proceed through each stage of growing maturity. Alignment means that the same process is adhered to throughout all aspects of the church ministry. Focus means that only programs that are crucial to helping people move through the process are maintained, everything else is eliminated so that the church can focus on the process.

Rainer and Geiger make a great case for this model and back it up with some impressive research. It's a little simplistic (which I guess makes sense) but I think it is an important rethinking of the way churches tend to approach ministry. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in leading a church. It's a quick and easy read and I'd be happy to loan you my copy (just ask me).

New York City

Here we come. Well, in about 8 weeks, anyway.

We wanted to take advantage of our last Spring break (hopefully next Spring Matthew will be gainfully employed and unavailable for travel). After considering a number of destinations (all domestic considering the current state of the US$) we decided that the Grand Canyon and Orlando, FL would make fine family vacations in the future but NYC might be now or never so we're going for it.

Wednesday night we bought our airline tickets. We'll be in the Big Apple for three days and three nights flying out of Portland the morning of Monday March 24th and arriving home late on the night of Thursday March 27th. So far we don't have any set plans for what we'll be doing and seeing while we're there (we haven't even booked a hotel yet) so if any of you have any tips or recommendations feel free to send them our way.

Jean Quilt

One of the things that Emily was really excited about over Christmas break was the chance to make some progress on her jean quilt. She caught the vision for the project even before we got married but unfortunately everything has been sitting in a box untouched for the past year and a half. But over the past two weeks Emily was able to transform the stack of old jeans into a completed quilt top. She still has to insert the battine and sew on the back lining but getting this far feels pretty darn good. With the progress she's made in the past two weeks she has high hopes for finishing the rest up before we move this summer.

Celebrity Look-alikes

So I was playing around on the internet today and found a site that lets you scan a photo of yourself and then will tell you what celebrities you supposedly look like. It sounded kind of fun so I tried it.

My beautiful wife apparently looks like a combination of women like Kate Bosworth, Christie Brinkley, and Marcia Cross.

I on the otherhand seem to be an odd combination of Patrick Swayze, Pablo Piccaso, and the Nortious B.I.G.

California Christmas

We had a wondeful trip down to California over our Christmas break. We left after church on December 23rd and arrived home on the night of January 2nd. Our time was filled with yummy food, good friends, and of course family. It seemed like there was a non-stop parade of people we loved that we wanted to visit with. Here are some highlights.

We spent time with good friends many of whom we hadn't seen in some time. A few examples:

Nick and Jody Bradley with daughter Ashlyn and dog Kiwi

Emily with her high school friends Angela (left) and Rachna (center)

Emily and Matthew with Ed and Mollie Tanjoco and their son Ben

Matt and Sara Greco with sons Ezra and Justus and newborn daughter Gianna

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with both sides of our family. Christmas Eve at the Brooks home was a raucus and joyful afair (pictured below). Christmas morning at the Hallstens was a little more subdued but no less enjoyable (Peter, we're waiting on pictures). All of the celebration in honor of Christ's birth was very special.

Highlights of our family time included playing with our nephews and niece, seeing and (in Emily's case) meeting Matthew's Aunt, Uncle and cousins who have been in Brazil as missionaries for the last four years, visiting with Emily's Aunt, Uncle and cousins from the bay area and a special New Years day game and food bonanza which both sides of the family participated in.

The Brooks, Hallsten, White, Clark, Rovenstine and Mathew families (all represented in this photo) converged on New Years day to eat and play together.

Matthew plays with our youngest nephew Koen

At the Railroad Museum Emily and Matthew's sister Christy each hold one of nephew Micah's hands with Matthew's mom in the background and cousins Rachel and Caleb White to the right and left in the foreground.

Matthew and Emily pose with Emily's sister Krista Hallsten and cousins Eric and Jason Hallsten at the Hallsten home in Roseville.

Emily had a blast playing with niece Emmaleigh Rose Brooks



Matthew got really in to reading nephew Micah Rovenstine his new truck book
We had a truly wonderful trip and thank God for safe travel great friends and wonderful family. We're especially grateful that both sides of the family are in the same place so we can see everyone when we go back to visit.