:: cawleyblog ::

Together For the Gospel

I'm in Louisville and obviously haven't posted my major update. I'm sure you're devastated, but you'll just have to wait...

Church Planters @ T4G

I got a few emails from people yesterday wondering if there were any planned gatherings for church planters at Together for the Gospel this year. I also got a few others from people wondering what Acts 29 Network people I knew that were going to be there.

The answer to the second question that I know with certainty is: myself, Pete Williamson, Joe Thorn, Kevin Larson, and Brian Brown. I'm also told there will be folks from LifePoint Church (Ozark, MO) and no doubt there are others (folks from Sojourn maybe?).

Because there is a decent group of A29 people, and because the answer to the first question is, "I don't know"-- we have decided to try and facilitate a gathering of like minded church planters (A29 or otherwise) at this year's T4G conference.

For Those Interested in Joining Us: We will meet Wednesday during the 4:45-7:00 pm dinner break at The Irish Rover in Louisville. Head straight there at the break and we'll try to get tables. Larson and Thorn are quasi-gods in Louisville, so I'm trusting that they can get us the hookups. If you're more inclined to make arrangements than you are believe my myths about quasi-gods in Louisville, then you're more than welcome to call ahead and see if you can get us a table or three reserved.

Please FWD this to people that would be interested in joining us, and let me know if I can do anything else to get the ball rolling.

See you there...

Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Ave
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 899-3544

Technorati Tags: A29, T4G

UPDATES

People continue to comment to me that I haven't added anything in the way of real content to this site in almost three years, and I continue to laugh them off and tell them that I've had other stuff going on. However, I realized last week that it has been over a year since I have even made minor additions here (like updating my book and music lists). 

Since this site has become little more than a repository for photos of my son's growing head, I decided that it's time for some real updates.

Not that you should be expecting the re-emergence of a steady flow of posts, but there is a lot of exciting news that has happened since we moved to Arkansas last summer that I'm eager to share. Most importantly, I want to update those who are interested about our church planting progress in Kansas City.

My major update will be finished sometime this weekend, and I will post it sometime between now and when I head out for Together for the Gospel bright and early next Tuesday morning. In the meantime, I will be posting smaller updates and tweaking a few things on the site that have gotten squirrelly as a result of my neglect.

I am also working on some major site updates at our Reach Kansas City website. Those that have found that site useful in the past should watch out for a decent amount of updated content.

Speaking of updates, everyone should be refreshing their Schrute consciousness in preparation for the return of The Office tonight!!

FRIDAY PHOTOS

ALL MY PHOTOS | FLICKR FRIDAY PHOTO GROUP

FRIDAY PHOTO

ALL MY PHOTOS | FLICKR FRIDAY PHOTO GROUP

Feeling pretty downright confident tonight...

...knowing that I could take 25 five year olds in a fight...How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?

25

FRIDAY PHOTOS

ALL MY PHOTOS | FRIDAY PHOTO GROUP

FRIDAY PHOTO

ALL MY PHOTOS | FLICKR FRIDAY PHOTO GROUP

Dwell Urban Church Planting Conference

DWELL CONFERENCE

Speaker Topics:
Mark Driscoll - Dwelling in the Text & Dwelling through the Text
Tim Keller - TBD (2 sessions)
Ed Stetzer - Dwelling in the Kingdom & Dwelling in the Mission
CJ Mahaney - Dwelling in the Cross
Darrin Patrick - Dwelling with non-Christians

Technorati Tags: EdStetzer, TimKeller

Ben Stein: Expelled

A friend just sent me the link to Ben Stein: Expelled, a forthcoming documentary that deals with intelligent design and chronicles Ben Stein's "confrontation with the widespread suppression and entrenched discrimination that is spreading in our institutions, laboratories and most importantly, in our classrooms, and that is doing irreparable harm to some of the world’s top scientists, educators, and thinkers" (source).

The Expelled Blog has been around since August (read Stein's introductory post), so this may have been discussed ad nauseam in the blog world. But if there are others who, like me, have taken a joyful and extended holiday from the blogs, I thought it would be worth linking again here.

Stein approaches the issue based on the fact that a free and progressive society should have the freedom to discuss intelligent design without fear of discrimination and persecution.

The Expelled site has several videos, including a lengthy 'super trailer' (pictured above). Check them out here, or view the teaser trailer @ youtube embedded below.

RELATED
Ben Stein's homepage
Stein on Bill O'Reilly (youtube video)
Stein @ technorati

As personal note, this documentary is especially interesting to me given that the Fellowship Associates residents just finished reading and discussing Nancy Pearcey's, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Study Guide Edition).

Technorati Tags: BenStein, intelligentdesign

My Favorite Albums of 2007

After the birth of our son and the most serious computer crash I've ever experienced, I finally compiled my favorite albums of 2007. Hopefully, some of you still have some remaining iTunes gift certificates to experiment with or an emusic subscription that is begging for suggestions.

When I first started looking back at the music I acquired in 2007, I thought that picking a favorite album would be easy because a) there really wasn't that much good music last year, and b) I hadn't really picked up that much music in 2007. I quickly realized that neither of those points were valid.

Blah Blah Blah Disclaimer ... I'm not the experts, and I don't get all the free records that they get. To see the expert's favorites, check the links below. To see my favorites, hit the jump.

BEST 2007 ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS
metacritic
Rolling Stone Top 50 of 2007
Paste Top 100 of 2007
Zulu Records Staff Picks of 2007 (my favorite record shop in Vancouver)
The Right Reverend Steve McCoy

"Computers are about trying to murder you in a lake..."

"Everyone always wants new things. Everybody likes new inventions, new technology. People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business are about human connections.

And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake."

Last Thursday, my hard drive died. Not crashed. Died. Forever. Dead. Gone.

I had backups in several places but hadn't backed up my Entourage user data in a long time. And, the backup I made of my Entourage user data in November-- for whatever reason refuses to work. So, unless someone can help me resurrect this backup I have from November, I have lost every email I wrote and received since July. If that makes you shudder, imagine how it makes me feel...

_____________________

IMPORTANT:

If you're waiting on email responses from me, please resend your email. And, if you emailed me for the first time in the past few weeks (on any account) and haven't heard a response from me, please resend your email.
_____________________

Consider this a friendly reminder to back up everything you have right this minute.

And, because I need the laugh, I thought I would conclude by sharing Michael Scott's terrifying experience with technology...I've actually never felt more like him than I do right now.

Technorati Tags: MichaelScott

FRIDAY PHOTO

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David Allen: Getting Things Done @ Google

Great seminar in which David Allen introduces the nuts & bolts of GTD and talks about two keys of sustaining a healthy life and work style.

direct youtube link

New Year's Miscellany .:. Music

I've spent the last few days looking through my iTunes library and trying to apply some sort of Larry & Sergey algorithm to come up with my favorite album of 2007. This year will be a little bit harder than past years — for the simple reason that I no longer have my entire music library on one computer. It's primarily on one, but I no longer have my own version of "the jazz matrix" that I once had.

I will say that I'm surprised that I've picked up as much music this year as I have — so choosing a favorite album, or a list of 30 of them, will still take me another few days.

As you wait with bated breath, here are a few lists the experts have made:

Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2007
Metacritic Best of 2007
NPR Best of 2007
Paste Magazine Best of 2007
The Current Top Ten of 2007
i heart music | Best EPs of 2007
Best of 2007 @ The Drop

The Verdict of the Holiday Keyboard Bath...

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
As I threw my keyboard in the trash this afternoon, I thought I should pull it out and give it one more try. I'm typing on it right now. And, the fifteen minutes of testing I have subjected it to have been flawless. Hilarious! I'll let you know if it goes on the fritz again...but I think Jason jinxed me by suggesting this was God's way of providing a new bluetooth keyboard.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've had a few people tell me that they were waiting on the results of my keyboard bath before they made the plunge for themselves. So, here you go...

The keyboard looks FANTASTIC! More white even than I expected.

The keys feel nice and tactile — not brand new, but much more responsive than they did before I washed it.

I let it dry for a full seven days.

There's only one problem...

MY KEYBOARD NO LONGER WORKS!

That's not entirely fair or correct. The washed keyboard works. It works like an eight year old kid running on zero sleep, without their medications, and hopped up on sugar and red bull...which is to say, not so well.  The command key now does any number of things without any discernible pattern. Some keys don't work at all, others work sporadically, and others work perfectly.

Lots of others have tried this successfully, so don't let my failure discourage you. You never live until you try, but in the future I'll stick to my geeky alcohol swabs and bottled air. And I'll be heading to my box of old computer junk to dig out an old keyboard!

Monergism End of the Year Sale

For those that don't get Monergism's newsletters, I thought I would link their end of the year sale. I'm sure there are countless items that would be well worth your end of the year book money, but I wanted to especially direct your attention to Scougal's Life of God in the Sould of a Man — on sale for a mere $3.99! This is one of the greatest books I have ever read and one that I try to keep on hand to give away. They also have all ESV Bibles at 45% off — including the Single Column Reference Bible for $43.99.

Christmas Miscellany...

Katie and I are heading to Oklahoma tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family. I'm beyond ecstatic about celebrating Advent with my family, listening to my nephew Will recite his Advent calendar, introducing our son to the members of my family that haven't met him, and hanging out with some new friends that God may be leading to join us in planting a new church in the urban core of Kansas City.

Things have remained quiet here throughout the fall, and I have no intention of apologizing for that (thanks Wireman). In fact, like Joe and many others, I've been unplugging. I haven't divorced my laptop, but I have dramatically throttled back with my RSS feeds (and have enjoyed it more than I thought possible).

Though I'm not trying to wake the sleeping man that is my blog, I thought I would share a few things that I'll be doing over the Christmas holiday that I highly recommend you do as well:

1. I'm putting my keyboard in the dish washer. I saw this posted to digg and delicious countless times, but seeing Merlin pull it off has pushed me over the edge. I have a filthy, disgusting Apple bluetooth keyboard, and she's getting a bath.

2. I'm listening to Duvall's Christmas album, Oh Holy Night — over and over in fact. The Smoking Popes are one of my favorite bands in the world, and the story of Josh Caterer's conversion is one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. How I missed his Christmas album until this year is beyond me. Click here to preview the album @ iTunes. Once you've fallen in love with Josh, you'll want to spend some of your Christmas money on some good Smoking Popes & Duvall albums. May I recommend: Volume & Density, Destination Failure, and Live. Seriously, watch his testimony.

3. I'm re-reading The Bible and the Future. It has been the source of great conversation with friends and people interested in participating in our church. This book is a standard that everyone should read — especially given the degree to which odd strains of eschatology have tainted evangelicalism at the grassroots level.

4. I'm reading a few new books:

-Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (a classic that's hardly new, but new to me)

-Bruce Milne, Dynamic Diversity: Bridging Class, Age, Race and Gender in the Church (I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Milne in Vancouver. I love his heart for the church)

- Ian Stackhouse, The Gospel-Driven Church (I've been meaning to read this since last Christmas)

- John Stott, The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor (I can't wait!)

5. I'm taking lots of pictures, and I'm reading the printed version of Lighting 101 that I downloaded from Strobist, and I'm hopeful that my family won't make too much fun of me when I break out my gadget infinity remotes.

Whether or not you take my suggestions, my prayer is that you take time over the next week to disconnect from all the mayhem, connect with people, and celebrate the advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus!

Blessings,

Kevin

Canadians + Wrestling = Church Growth?

Though this isn't the first time Hulk Hogan has appeared in a church, I don't know if I had ever heard him say, "Whatcha gonna do when the Holy Spirit runs wild on you brother?!"

A friend sent me this link to a Canadian church that is seeking revitalization through pro wrestling. God bless Canadians. I only pray they have some poutine on hand to feed the hungry spectators.

I am speechless...

Church pins hope on wrestling

Quinn Haddon Cawley

Quinn Haddon was born Wednesday morning at 7:25. He was 8lbs 2oz / 21.5". Mom and baby are both doing great.

Before we even knew what we were having, I told Katie that if we had a boy, I would love to name him after two men that I deeply admire.

Collin Quinn is as good a friend as any man could hope for, and a true hero of mine. Always "Quinn" to me, he exemplifies a passion for Jesus and a passion for justice that I pray my son will grow up to possess. And, for those that hadn't guessed...Haddon is the middle name of another hero of mine, Charles Spurgeon.

Lots of folks have been taunting asking about pictures, so I have embedded a slide show below. If you want to see more, you can check out all my photos @ flickr.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.