Category: Personal News

For the record, I have the best wife ever. Happy Valentine’s Day, Paula!

Yesterday morning I went to hear Tony Campolo speak at ‘Straight Talk’, a really cool ministry to businesspeople sponsored by Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.

He was really funny–I’d always heard that he was a funny guy, but he was REALLY funny. He was also insightful. He contrasted two basic orientations to life (emotional and rational, people and principle, yin and yang, Pentecostalism and Prebyterianism) and talked about how Jesus was able to integrate them both.

Whenever I’m around a world-class speaker I always try to glean some tips. He didn’t do a good job of connecting with members of the audience beforehand (we shared a breakfast table separated by one person and barely exchanged two sentences), although I think some of that may have been due to the structure of the event rather than his proclivity (there really wasn’t much of a chance to talk). He did an excellent job of using humor to make profound points, and was an outstanding storyteller. In fact, his talk was really a series of stories connected by some logical transitions.

He was also outstanding at localizing his message. He had tons of jokes about Presbyterians and Menlo Park and other things his audience would resonate with. I’ve got no doubt he’s given basically the same talk many times before, but it felt fresh and special because of the localizations.

Side note: Tony mentioned that he thinks Pentecostalism is theologically inconsistent. I wish I had been able to talk to him about that… but duty called.

As soon as the meeting was over, I had to book it up to Woodland to meet with two pastors (AGTS classmate John Gallegos and Jeff Bills), and then I drove to Sacramento and met with another pastor (Eddie Rentz, the former national youth director for the Assemblies of God: check out his google), and started to drive home just in time to catch the traffic jams.

After returning I visited a student in his dorm room, and then came home around 7:30pm. Twelve hours on the road–not a bad day.

On a completely random note, one of the dorms I lived in back in my undergrad days was demolished via explosives last weekend.

I always said it should be condemned, I just never thought they’d take me seriously…

See the multimedia footage.

This morning I heard from an old friend from college, Rob-Dog McGuire. It was very exciting–I haven’t talked to Rob in over five years!

He’s working with Teen Challenge in New Orleans and seems to be doing quite well.

Anyway, if you’re an old college friend and need to find Rob, drop me a line.

Saturday morning we were up early to go hear Doug Fields and Bo Bashers talk about youth ministry at an event sponsored by the Church Communication Network. It was great–CCN does these simulcasts from the Bay Area and they want a live studio audience. If you show up, you get in for free! There were probably twenty people in the audience.

It was interesting to see how well Doug worked the audience. He’s a real master at connecting with people. Before the satellite broadcast began he learned most everyone’s name, where the lead youth pastors were sitting, and made small talk with several people. He remembered names and called on people directly during his teaching. I was challenged to get better at that.

Side note: I don’t think Doug really liked me. He didn’t dislike me, either. It was just a weird vibe. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t dressed like a youth pastor; I mean, my shirt had buttons and everything! It might also have been related to the fact that when Paula and I showed up one of the directors asked us to sit in the center of the front row because everyone else was hanging back. His first impression of us walking out was probably that we were some sort of weird groupies: we were dressed up and sitting in the center of the front row. And then we gave him weird responses: he asked all the youth pastors to raise their hands (and we didn’t) and then he asked all the other church staff to raise their hands (we didn’t). I think we confused him.

Still, it was great material.

After that we drove up to Tehama, CA. It’s way north, and pretty remote. We were to speak at the local Assembly of God church Sunday morning, so the pastor put us up in a hotel overnight.

I have to say that Tehama AG has the nicest church building that we’ve been in so far. It’s the oldest AG church structure in America (built back in the 1800s) and it’s the oldest church in Northern California. Simply gorgeous.

After the morning service we drove down to Cupertino to speak at Abundant Life Assembly of God’s missions banquet. That was fun.

Then we came home. It was a long weekend (with over 500 miles on the car), but it was great!

I should mention that I’ve completely kicked whatever bug had me down a few days ago. Thanks for all your concern and prayers (especially to Andrew Careaga, who reminded me that I hadn’t given any updates on my condition: he’s a true e‑friend).

For the record, I am officially against being sick. I dislike it immensely.

I have a dull body ache and have become a mucous factory. I’ve been feeling a little sick ever since Chi Alpha’s Winter Conference, but I thought I had kicked it yesterday. Instead I kicked it into high gear.

*sigh*

Yesterday Paula and I got up at 5:30am to drive to a church in Salida to share with them about our ministry, and then we drove to Sonora to share at that church.

We didn’t get home until 11:30 at night!

Still, we had a great day. Both the churches were swell (although very different).

I’ve been meaning to post some reflections on books I’ve read lately. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that sometime tonight…

Paula and I lived in Springfield, MO for around five years, and so we were extremely interested to hear that they were having a snowstorm last week.

Paula got puckish and suggested that I spread a little holiday cheer, and so I sent my friends back in MO a picture from our balcony along with this note:

I just saw a weather report for the Ozarks, and it filled me with such sorrow. How I miss the snow and ice!

I took a picture from my balcony a few minutes ago with you in mind. Look at what Paula and I are forced to tolerate day after day…

Merry Christmas,

Glen

Naturally, this provoked a few spirited email responses.

What most surprised me was how many people responded by sending back a digital photo of their own. I’ve uploaded two of the best so you can contrast them with my own provocative shot.

I’d just like to wish all my friends in the state of Misery–I mean, Missouri–a very Merry Christmas.

P.S. I’m wearing shorts and a tropical print shirt as I write this. I’d say I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, but I don’t think a minister should tell white lies…

On a personal note, the last few weeks have been a great exposure to the diversity of the Assemblies of God here in Nor Cal.

Two Sundays ago I had the opportunity to talk to people about our ministry at Family Community Church in San Jose. FCC is a very contemporary church reaching young adults and professionals by the droves. They’ve added over 700 in weekly attendance over the last two months.

That afternoon, I was invited to preach in a Fijian church (First Fijian Assembly of God) that meets here in Palo Alto. It was great–they’re a wonderful church! We were especially honored by their gifts of Fijian leis to us. Interestingly enough, they make leis out of dyed tree bark in Fiji. Very nice.

Last Sunday I was able to share at Oriential Christian Center (a Chinese church) that meets down in San Jose. It was the first time I’ve ever preached with an interpreter. I kind of like it!

And to show you how connected the Body of Christ is, one of the people I talked to at FCC gave my website to a friend of his who works at Stanford. He contacted me and we had lunch yesterday. While talking, he mentioned that he had a Fijian friend he was trying to minister to, and I was able to connect him with the Fijian church I preached at!

How wild… God has got a way of hooking things up. He’s definitely got a systems perspective!

By the way, we’ve been experiencing great favor in our attempts to schedule services and connect with pastors. Right now we’re preaching in a different church every week through March, and we’ve got tons of 1–1 meetings planned.

As a result, we’re already at the 70% mark of our mandated monthly support! It looks like we’ll be able to go full-time on campus sometime this academic year. Yippee!

Also, it looks like we’re going to have around 30 people crammed into our apartment for a Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow–almost all of them Stanford students!