Recently in General Thoughts Category

There are some folks without whom the Church Basement Roadshow would not have been possible. The first is the inimitable Michael Toy, owner of the RV that carried us over 15,000 miles this summer.

The other is the group of sponsors who underwrote the tour in one way or another. I encourage you to click on the logos of any sponsor you're interested in:

Click on a sponsor's logo to find out more!

We will have our final two shows of the North American tour tonight, Sunday and tomorrow, Monday.
Come and join us if you can in Grand Rapids and Indianapolis.

Sunday:
Fellowship Covenant Church
1569 44th St
Hudsonville, MI 49426
(616) 669-8114‎
fellowshipcovenant.net

Monday:
United Methodist Church: Lockerbie Square
237 N East St
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 637-2716‎

While we are tired and we are filled with encouragement and hope. It has been so good to join with people all over the country and see the great things they are doing.

We all miss our families and so look forward to being home with them on Tuesday.

We are mixed with feelings of sadness at the end of the tour and relief that we can return to normal life. But most of all we are ecstatic at the chance to shave off these beards. For me I am not so thrilled to get rid of my beard as I am to be able to look at Tony and Mark without theirs. Good Grief.

We arrived at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan yesterday afternoon shortly before the Moslim time of prayer. There is a modest mosque next door to the church that has become an overwhelmingly popular mid-day prayer destination. The mosque was filled and the overflow of hundreds of men, young and old lined the sidewalk on 29th street to observe the time of prayer, removing their shoes and sharing their prayer rugs with one another as they stood, kneeled and bowed. It was quite arresting to see hundreds of men bowing on the ground on the sidewalks of New York-- a startling demonstration of public faith and solidarity. We joined many of these men in the crowded line at the Pakistani restaurant next to the mosque after the prayer service concluded- and enjoyed a nice curry lunch.

During our stop in New Orleans Kiwi Dave and I had an opportunity to see the lingering devastation of hurricane Katrina. It was heartwarming to see how the people of New Orleans have rallied together to rebuild their city--with the help of so many friends from across the country. New Orleans certainly has a unique and lively local culture of jazz music, Cajun and Creole cuisine and joie de vivre that is alive and well.

Last week we had a few days off from the tour and Tony and I went to see Dark Knight, the new Batman franchise film. Indeed this film was more sinister and melancholy than so many super hero movies--and yet more realistic in terms of the ambiguities involved in trying to be a helpful contribution to the world.

Recent articles in both Newsweek and The New Yorker have discussed the changing face of evangelicals in the American political landscape--particularly younger evangelicals who seem unwilling to carry on the hard-line, single agenda politics of their predecessors......

Wesley Seminary is one of our Roadshow sponsors, and I posted over at the "A Word from Wesley" blog. Read it HERE. See all of our sponsors listed in the right sidebar....

As Doug and I were driving the RV from Bend to Edina last week, I read to him the essay by Andrew Root on Lost and eschatology. Being that Doug and I are both fans of Lost and of eschatology,...

Over the weekend I went with one of our house mates to see "Wanted" the new action thriller staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie and directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Action movies are one of my guilty pleasures and on the...

I had a long chat with a reporter yesterday. She's writing a story for News 21 about the changes afoot among "evangelical" voters in the coming election. I put scare quotes around "evangelical" because much of our conversation revolved around...