Ten Things I've Learned From Living in Wichita For Three Weeks

1. Most days when I wear my Mizzou t-shirts people just think I'm wearing a Wichita State shirt.

2. Panera Bread. Chick-fil-a. Sonic. Starbucks. Chipotle. Jimmy John's. Repeat.

3. The best coffee in Wichita isn't at the place that claims to have the best coffee in Wichita.

4. Luther Burbank has no power over me here.

5. You should only be fearful of tornados when the locals go into the basements themselves.

6. Lots of people go to church. That doesn't mean lots of people love Jesus.

7. The "fresh" label on seafood in a landlocked state in the middle of the continent really means "days old."

8. When I tell people I'm from California they give me a look like I'm from a different country. Like Europe.

9. There is a reason some houses are over a hundred years old in Tornado Alley. Live in one of those homes.

10. Kansas isn't flat. Okay, yes it is.

The Writebol's Are Moving

This morning I shared the following with Santa Rosa Bible Church:

Over the last few years God has given me a passion for a couple of things:

The advance of the gospel through small community groups.

The advance of the gospel through church planting.

As those passions grew we began to pray that God would either connect those two in our lives or remove the passion from us. When “it just so happened” that a church plant I was familiar with in Wichita, KS made it known that they were looking for a pastor to lead their small groups we felt that God was answering our prayers and directing us to a new season of ministry. To that end I've stepped down as the Adult Ministries Pastor at Santa Rosa Bible Church and as of April 1st I will begin working at Journey the Way in Wichita, KS to lead their Community Group Ministries with this church plant.

Our time here at Santa Rosa Bible Church has been fruitful ministry for me and I am grateful to the Lord for allowing me and my family to serve Him by shepherding you. We have set down deep roots with many of you and are the recipients of much grace in those relationships. We will be praying for Santa Rosa Bible Church in the months and years ahead that God would continue to give this church a passion for His grace and an effectiveness in the city and the world.

Please pray for our family as we make a big transition to Kansas as there are many logistics that we are working through. Additionally please pray for the grace of God to be upon us as we minister in Kansas. Pray that Christ would be exalted, that the gospel would spread and that we would see much fruitfulness from our ministry in Wichita.

It's been a great eight years in California at SRBC and we are looking forward to what God has for us ahead with Journey the Way in Wichita. Please keep us in your prayers and I'll keep you posted on all that is ahead and God is doing.

Top 40 Things About Stephanie

Today is Stephanie's, my wife, birthday. To honor her and maybe inform you about some things that make her so great I've created a "Top 40" list of awesome things about her. Here's my list. I love you Steph!

Top 40 Things About Steph

40. Stephanie is from #Mizzou
39. Stephanie loves dark chocolate
38. Stephanie loves shopping at antique stores

37. Stephanie likes iced toffee nut lattes at Starbucks

36. Stephanie’s favorite season is Autumn
35. Stephanie doesn’t like wearing glasses, but she’s really hot when she does
34. Stephanie is the Christmas Queen
33. Stephanie allows a Hungarian grandma to give her directions
32. Stephanie thinks David Gray’s White Ladder album is one of the best ever
31. Stephanie orders chips and dip at any restaurant that serves them
30. Stephanie was a cheerleader in high school
29. Stephanie won the award for top Spanish student in high school
28. Stephanie has only lived in two counties her entire life. Callaway and Sonoma
27. Stephanie fought to get her man
26. Stephanie hates camping. Hates!
25. Stephanie cheers for Carl Edwards in Nascar
24. Stephanie has survived many tornadoes. The real kind.
23. Stephanie loves to read to her kids.
22. Stephanie’s favorite side dish is anything involving a potato.
21. Stephanie loves Broadway musicals

20. Stephanie has forgotten more about how to educate children that most people ever learn

19. Stephanie has been published on the most read Christian blog in the world.
18. Stephanie's spiritual gifts are hospitality and administration
17. Stephanie would kill for good brie
16. Stephanie’s nose crunches when she smiles.
15. Stephanie’s favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast
14. Stephanie rushed and was accepted in every sorority at her college. She turned them all down.
13. Stephanie’s cookies have won awards.
12. Stephanie can’t have enough shoes
11. Stephanie is wicked-good at the drums in Rock Band
10. Stephanie cried in Toy Story 3
9. Stephanie loves to clap to the songs we sing at church on Sunday mornings
8. Stephanie is a tireless worker and servant
7. Stephanie smiles most when playing with her kids
6. Stephanie loves games, especially Scrabble and Nertz
5. Stephanie’s favorite places are Seattle, Santa Fe and Auxvasse.
4. Stephanie should have her own Food Network Show.
3. Stephanie is an amazing mother to her two children.
2. Stephanie married a nomadic, unemployed, bald, real-life George Costanza.  That’s real love.
1. Stephanie’s love for Jesus dwarfs all her other loves.

A Broken Car Seat and a Gospel Lesson

Stephanie wrote the following on her blog last night. The event was a vivid demonstration of the gospel to me and brought me to tears as I thought of the grace of God in my life. Jesus paid it all.

Last night was quite an adventure - another story all in itself - the short version - Ethan got sick several times, resulting in the car seat needing to be cleaned. I worked on that today and had it sitting there - waiting for all the drying parts to be returned. The car seat has this lovely piece of foam that is the head support. To a little four year old girl, this must have looked like a craft project waiting to happen. More than once I had said, Allison, don't touch the foam. While getting dinner ready I see Allison holding a piece of the foam and hear Jeremy asking her where it came from. Eventually she pointed to the broken foam in the living room. Yes, you guessed it, she decided to disobey and tear the foam so, as she put it, she could "make something." To say I was upset would be quite the understatement. I was not happy at all. Jeremy took her to her room, talked to her and we left her to stay on her bed while we discussed matters in the other room - trying to decide what to say, what the consequences were and cool down - all were needed. We talked about how she could pay for it (she had money from Christmas) but that seemed like something of little impact since she doesn't have a real concept of the amount of money. After a period of time Jeremy said he needed to go back and deal with her - I asked, "What are you going to say?" Jeremy's reply, "I don't know exactly, but talk to her about the gospel and forgiveness."

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The Joyful Perspective of Friendship: A Review of Real Marriage

Instead of writing a strict review of Mark and Grace Driscoll's new book Real Marriage I've decided that I would take a different tact and talk about the way this book has altered my view of marriage. More digital ink has been spilled as of late blasting away Driscoll for his "crudeness" and apparent poor exegesis in chapter 10 than actually taking to account what the Driscoll's are trying to get across in this book. I don't wish to add my voice to the debate (foolish as I believe it to be). I however want to speak to why this book was the first book on marriage I've been able to read from cover to cover.

That's right. Up until today, even after having a dozen or so books on marriage on my shelf and skimming through most of them I have never been able to complete a book on marriage. For the most part (all the faults on my end) my marriage has been strong and healthy over the last seven years. That doesn't mean I never felt a need to take in good Biblical counsel on how to improve my marriage or haven't sought out counsel for my marriage. I just haven't been able to get through a compelling, helpful, straightforward book on marriage. The reasons for this are many, some of the faults my own more than the authors, however I haven't been able to do it.

Real Marriage, however, gripped me from the get go. The reason was that it put marriage in a light that very few marriage books have done: friendship. Most evangelical books on marriage talk about it as a covenant (which it is) and life-long endurance is needed to keep the marriage together. But too many of them make marriage seem like an unfortunate consequence that comes along with loving someone, a drudgery and duty for choosing to kiss a girl. Marriage in the light of friendship however moves the perspective from a tough endurance to a happy, patient, long-term life with someone you couldn't stand to live without.

Mark and Grace are honest and straightforward about their own struggles and failure in their marriage and friendship. They offer clear, practical and Biblical counsel to couples on how to make sure they make their marriage is strong, Christ-centered and happy. They strongly counsel men to be Biblical men and women to be Biblical women, each with unique roles and responsibilities. They talk plainly and helpfully about the joy and practice of sex in the context of marriage. There is very little in this book that wasn't helpful to me.

Overall, the book has given me some very helpful direction in improving my relationship to my wife as a husband and for allowing us to be better friends to each other. The book has already helped initiate some good conversation between us. Furthermore it's given me a charge to think about areas that I can improve in my relationship with my wife and how I can be a more Christ-like servant and friend to my wife.

January 2012 Reading

Here's my reading list for January 2012:

A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir - by Hansen & Woodbridge
Esther & Ruth; Reformed Expository Commentary - by Iain Duguid
Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship & Life Together - by Mark and Grace Driscoll
Folly, Grace, and Power: The Mysterious Act of Preaching - by John Koessler

Additionally I am reading through the book of Judges this month in my Bible reading plan and starting a 32 week reading plan through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion with a friend.

Top Books of 2011

2011 was a work-horse year in terms of reading for me. Most of that due to the fact that I was finishing my graduate studies at ReTrain and was reading at least 1,000 pages a month on top of my biblical studies at SRBC. By the time I got to June I hit the wall and dropped off considerably in terms of volume of books read.

Nevertheless these were the 11 books that impacted me the most in 2011 in no particular order.

Hosea

Working the Angles - Eugene Peterson

Holiness by Grace - Bryan Chapell

Rework - Jason Freid and David Heinemeier Hansson

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction - Eugene Peterson

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor - D.A. Carson

True Grit - Charles Portis

The Pastor - Eugene Peterson

The God Who Is There - D.A. Carson

When God Comes To Church - Ray Ortlund Jr.

A Sweet and Bitter Providence - John Piper

A few things to note: Eugene Peterson singlehandedly dominated my list this year because of the compelling nature of his writing regarding my profession, the pastorate. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for helping me wade through the culture voices regarding what it means to be a pastor. I'll probably read A Long Obedience in The Same Direction annually. Secondly, I missed most of the popular choices that were published this last year. I just can't keep up with all that is new. That's why most of the books here were not published this last year. Finally, Ray Ortlund's book was absolutely ground breaking for me. I wish you could read it and if you can find a copy buy it.

Book Review: The Jesus You Can't Ignore

In typical style, Dr. John MacArthur unpacks several chapters of Jesus' confrontations and rebukes of the religiosity and legalism of the Jewish leaders of his day. While being both very thorough in the exegesis of the texts he chooses as well as very relevant to contemporary expressions of legalism in the church Dr. MacArthur gives us a good sense of the world of Jesus and how we might confront and deal with legalism today. The book can be a bit redundant, but partly because of the ongoing confrontation between Jesus and his critics that led right up to his death. Overall it is a helpful book for dealing with legalistic, religious people today and seeing how Jesus exposes even our own legalism. Standard fare from Dr. MacArthur here, well written, well argued, straight forward.