Bay City Coffee and Tea Revisited (Review)

Bay City Coffee and Tea is back in my good graces. Jeff the barrista confirmed that they don't use "Big Train" powdered crap like the ice rage. The signs are just up for something to look at. Right on! Highjack corporate brand recognition.

Tonight I came for a bluegrass jam and stayed for a discussion about biblical historicity put on by Grace Christian Fellowship. Jeff asked me what I thought, and here it is: It was pretty good, a little more didactic and less relational than I might like, but it was inoffensive and has great potential.

It all started from The Da Vinci Code, a book I have yet to read. They wanted to clear up the historical divergence in the novel so that it didn't become an "urban ledgend." The presenters upheld the nature of Christ and the scriptures while the PoMo crowd questioned how the cannon came to be. All in all an engaging evening.

My sugestion:
Perhaps they could select a topic that offers true open dialog where the biblical world view offers many options for discussion. That may allow the guys to come off the high stools and become participants in a wider discussion, building trust and relationship.

the blue chicken: pluralist pizza with all the toppings?

the blue chicken: pluralist pizza with all the toppings?

A thought provoking response to my question...

Profit

“They say you’ve got this friend, born out in Bethlehem
Some contend that he is mightier than any man
And those who disagree as to his sovereignty
Are called devil-loving, rubber-wearing-pagans damned.
I am impressed but not fooled
It looks like they sold you some of that too.

Trying to make a profit
Trying to make a profit
Trying to make just a little bit of profit off it.”

—the mammals (Profit)

Is our evangelical Christianity a bastard of capitalism? Do we approach the kingdom of God thinking the ideals of western commerce are Biblical?

Jesus certainly makes it clear that the economy of the Kingdom is opposed to the world. Suffering brings victory, slavery-freedom, death-life, and poverty-riches.

Yet so often it seems our efforts to evangelize degrade into making another kind of profit. Surely we’re not as concerned with money as is popularly supposed, but so often we treat people as so much change. We trade in souls and barter with eternity.
Is there an economic model that would change the way we treat people in the church? one that values life and relationship rather than profit?

Foster James Hooton (1 day old) More here

New Baby

Foster James Hooton breathed his first today at 9:46 pm. Weighing 8lb, 8ozs and measuring 21½ inches, he is the latest little thing to turn my world upside down.

I sit looking into his sweet little face struggling to figure out the world outside his protective womb, and I wonder. What will this face become, what future awaits him. Will he be handsome? Winsome? Kind? Oh God, the joy that rushes in on me, along with tears in my eyes.

My head nods, “ah yes—the deed in the pot.” My mind continues to mull the text for tomorrow’s service, perhaps all the more since I never made it to the church for coffee and prayer.

Though we go through times of pain, though we travail, and labor, still our Sovereign Lord holds out a future. Thank you.

Writing

I've been having a hard time writing my sermon. I have the basic plot going on, now I have to artfully weave the aplication. Hmm... maybe some prayer and coffee at church this afternoon will get me up to speed.

Things inevitably turn in such a way that I am facing crunch time on Saturday. It is a good thing that Tuesday was so good. Wednesday was eaten up with doctor's visits, it was Foster's due date, but he is still causing mama's belly some pain.

Thursday I went to Bay City Coffee and Tea with hopes of writing. But I became wrapped up with the internet, I don't remember if it was my blog or others... It was so frustrating that I didn't even enjoy reading Tozer for Bible study that night. I just skimmed a great chapter. The discussion was amazing.

Friday Elaine was getting restless, so we went for a drive around the top of the thumb and saw the Pointe Aux Baroques light house along with other sights.

The library was good to me today

I am sitting in front of the library on the sidewalk with my computer. I had a meeting to go to so I left the library at 3:00 and now it is closed. I simply had to return to pay homage.

The few hours I spent here were very productive. My sermon is where it normally is Thursday or Friday. I had a chance to read all my blogging buddies as well.

A common source of meditation in the blogosphere today was money. Strange. Jeremiah doesn't deal with money as directly as the gospel text this week, but still I find myself meditating on that more than anything. There is certainly a stewardship involved in the Jeremiah text. It comes with a recognition that there is a future beyond the circumstance. Is my life like a deed in the pot saved for the future God has planned for me? or do I like Dives spend and waste my life?

Ah, but now my contemplation is ruined by WiFi Vigilante man telling me that accessing the library's free WiFi from the sidewalk is illegal. I have a suspicion that free WiFi itself gets in his craw, because he wants it to be only for the elite SUV driving wireless geeks such as he. Hmm, it sucks being on the upper lower-class side of the class war as well as being beaten down by the man.

money, money, money, money.

How rich are you? >> I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 822,871,928 richest person on earth!

Ah ... money. What I could do without it.

In meditating on money check out the Gospel of Suply Side Jesus.

Pic of my vintage shoes

Apprehending God

Pursuit of God: "But the very ransomed children of God themselves: why do they know so little of that habitual conscious communion with God which the Scriptures seem to offer? The answer is our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. This is the condition of vast numbers of Christians today. No proof is necessary to support that statement. We have but to converse with the first Christian we meet or enter the first church we find open to acquire all the proof we need."

Tears come to my eyes when I read this. O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears. I cry out for myself, that my faith falters and I become numb to the reality of God. I cry out because I am responsible for a people of numbness. The weight of the responsibility presses on me.

RENOVARE - Invitation

RENOVARE - Invitation

Ah Richard J. Foster...

We are doing some crazy stuff at church. Sunday Mornings we show scenes from the life of Jeremiah (the blue puppet). Complete with set containting all Jeremiahs visions and object lessons, it has been fun.

Life without local news?

Local CBS affiliate WNEM TV5 recently aired a commercial asking: what would life be like with out local news? How would you know what is happening in the state, where would you get information about storms?

I suggest that life would be better with out local news. Instead of sound bites and sensational hooks to keep us watching we could find news by reading in depth articles from papers that take their responsibility seriously (which is rare these days). We could also get a vast amount of world news that is missed by rating-centric TV news from reputable sources like NPR. A simple weather radio would keep us safe, especially when the power goes out.

All in all local TV news is not necessary. If our news was not predigested bites recycled on every channel, peppered with video press releases, I think we would have a shot at being a well informed people.

Coffee Tree Cafe Review

I went to the new Coffee Tree Café today. It is across the river from downtown Bay City, what is that? Uptown? It has the atmosphere down. Tables of dark mahogany or oak, funky black chairs set off a light airy texture. It has the culture of a hep cat. The Metallic Green espresso machine pulls together a vintage theme—the pigment on the canvas of high ceilings, Art Nouveau metal work and chandeliers.

The tea is arranged in its own wooden box. They serve the uncultured Ice Rage, though the barrista admits she has never been asked to make one. They also have many decent espresso drinks at nice prices listed in colored chalk on four simple black boards.

Overall I like the place. I would love it if they had WiFi and replaced the leather couch with a vintage Deco model, the barrista independently agreed. The place has tremendous potential, their success rests on whether they tap in to the coffee culture or start down the slippery slide away from the culture that created it. Well, hey not every place can be Goodbye Blue Monday!

The Pursuit of God

The Pursuit of God: "Hearts that are `fit to break' with love for the Godhead are those who have been in the Presence and have looked with opened eye upon the majesty of Deity. Men of the breaking hearts had a quality about them not known or understood by common men. They habitually spoke with spiritual authority. They had been in the Presence of God and they reported what they saw there. They were prophets, not scribes, for the scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet tells us what he has seen."

Ah-- Tozer. My heart yearns to be broken again. I know what that will mean, lamentation like Jeremiah, pain, discipline. Yet all that seems nothing and indeed is quickly forgotten in the sweet presence of God.

I've felt it- the manifest presence of God! Oh how I miss it. He leaves me with the sure and unshakeable knowledge that He is always with me. Yet I lay in bed blogging to avoid my thoughts devoid of his presence.

Oh sweet Presence, tear away the veil again. Let me see your sweet face. I know this means tearing self from self, and I welcome the breaking of my heart! Batter my heart three personed God!

Fall

The sun danced across lush green grass at the church today. Though it was still warm today, I felt something in the air that reminded me of fall.

For some reason fall is the time of the year when I am most nostalgic and at the same time most open to the present moment. In the cool breezes I am aware of the Pneuma—Breath of God.

I surveyed the flowers and blue sky, and the light in them spoke to me of God’s love and communion with me. That all creation rejoices, that his family alights my heart.

O Lord truly immerse me in more of those fall days when you were real to me, when you knocked me down, and shocked my senses.

My Family at Grandma's House (less Tory and Annie)

So much for family values

Dylan's lectionary blog: "Jesus is saying here that his mission will divide people from one another. Specifically, Jesus says that his mission will divide families, setting children against parents and parents against children.

So much for 'family values.' Why on earth would Jesus say such a thing?"

At their best, our family values are based on Old Testament ethics. They teach us how to act as a family with honor, respect and obedience.

Jesus seems more postmodern in his interpretation. Family isn't defined by blood but by relationship. He calls those on the journey of faith with him his family. So what matters for us is not what it means to be a family, but more importantly what it means to be a community of faith--the family of God.

This is something I haven't been able to completely wrap the folds of my brain around. What does that mean for the "family ministry" model I've tried to develop? One thing that jumps at me is that having children integrated into the community of faith at times such as worship is all the more important, not simply because they need to be with their families, but precisely because their family is now different from the blood nucleus it was before Christ.

People watching at Bay City Coffee and Tea (and review)

I came down to the coffee shop hoping to write. Last night I felt fanciful and full of reverie, I felt impelled to write, but I was in bed, and sufficed to head to the coffee shop today.

Of course, it took me too long to get out of the house, and after the half hour drive here, I don't feel like going through with it... Writing.

So I watch the few people here. The only live ones are a couple who met here for coffee, there is the excitation and light on their faces of discovering romances. As they turn toward each other on the loves seat, sipping their ice rage coffee drinks, I notice neither of them wear a ring. The light of puppy love is some how refreshing to my imagination in a couple, dare I say? past their prime. The other two men sit alone sipping tall house cups of undoubtedly strong coffee. They strike me as being pastors, because who else would be studying alone on a Saturday?

That simple observation makes me miss Derrick and Clint that much more. How much easier would my task today be sitting across a table from them at Caffeine Dreams writing my sermon as they work another chapter to a novel or some other worthy work?

Speaking of the Great CD and Big Dog and Double "D" I wonder what they would think of this, place of my choosing today... Bay City Coffee and Tea has a whole lot more atmosphere than Espresso Express, but I admit I don't understand their business model. I thought they were going for the quality niche because all their drinks were overpriced, but they recently started serving the Big Train Ice Rage drinks my two love birds were drinking earlier. (They are currently enjoying an awkward interruption by the woman's daughter's piano teacher.)

We served the Ice Rage at Sehnerts, it annoyed me because every one came in to order this "great new thing," and we had been serving blended iced lattes forever. I wanted to tell them I could make them something better. This powdered excuse for a drink has no business being a part of coffee culture. It belongs in the convenience store next to the candy coffee capuccino machine! Sorry for the rant, but I may have to find another place to hang around if this coffee shop is headed down the slippery slope of profits over culture.

How does all this relate to the clay in the potter's hand? Finding the answer is my task for the next hours, I scrapped my initial attempts at it. The potter was crazy. I had him saying:

"You see this vase, how beautiful it is? It is beautiful isn't it? Don't you find it beautiful? Yes? Well, today I am going to make a vase more beautiful than this. It will be so beautiful, you've seen nothing like it, it will put this vase to shame. Compared to it this vase will be ugly. Puh, I spit on it. I will smash this vase, it will be so ugly!"

Not like the omnipotent God of wrath and love who's hands we are in.

At any rate now that I am warmed up and my cup is empty, I will get another AA and get back to work. (Ah the pastoral life!)

Clay in the potter's hand

Bible Gateway : JER 18:1-11;: "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand"

It is a fearful thing to be in the hands of God. He molds us and shapes us as he plans. There is a great cost though to us. He shapes us as it seems best to him. His desire for each of us, seekers and oblivious alike, is to shape us into something beautiful and useful. Something that can remind the world of his presence and glory.

Impure clay frustrates the potter, the beauty he sees in his mind does not work its way out in his fingers. The potter has no choice but to punch the lump back down and form something else.
For israel impurity meant destruction. God reformed them and brought glory to himself in a fearful way. He destroyed and exiled them for 70 years, only to rebuild a remnant.

Have I counted the cost of being in the potters hands? Do I resist his molding? Do I stand in fear of what his hands can do to my life, my self, and at the same time can I rest in the comfort of his loving palm?