black coffee man: a journey

“I hate coffee”

That was me.  Words I actually said when a friend handed me some coffee laden garbage at 2am before I slammed the door, got onto the highway, and drove south into the night.

First sip . . . “this is not bad”

Second sip . . . “I think I can handle this stuff”

Tenth sip . . . “I don’t feel so hot”

Twelfth sip . . . “This coffee is making me ill”

Final sip . . . “This is going out the window”

. . . . . .

That was 7 years ago in 2002, the year I decided I hated coffee.

It was also the year I decided that I would learn to love coffee.

Why?

Dads drink coffee. Men drink coffee. Students drink coffee.

So, basically, it was a necessity. (right?)

I started my journey with drinks that were as close to milkshakes as I could find, so it was a solid diet of frappuccinos (mint chocolate chip, vanilla bean, caramel, vanilla, and miscellaneous seasonal varieties).

At first, I was forcing myself to deal with the coffee flavor, but a pressed forward into the foreign and frightening realm of “lattes” and “mochas” . . . having no clue what those words meant, but knowing I could have all the chocolate and caramel syrup I wanted squirted into my cup to deaden the “expresso” flavor I so dreaded.

In time, I developed an appreciation for these drinks, realizing that my favorite beverages came from the local coffee shops of Louisville, Kentucky that had access to locally roasted beans of the best espresso variety (yeah, I finally learned to say “espresso” without an “ex” sound).

“Whoa! I am starting to develop a taste for this stuff!”

Encouraged, I pressed forward . . . quickly moving into the world of Mistos, Americano, and flavored coffee.

I was so close, so very close indeed, to conquering my taste buds and becoming a “black coffee man”.

Buy I just couldn’t get over the hump.

And then, one special morning in Dallas, I met the Affectionate Communist.

. . . . . .

Driving up from Texas, I stopped to stay the night with my buddy Mason King.

Mase took me to breakfast at the Crooked Tree Coffeehouse.

Mase told me about this drink I had never heard of before, a drink with the kick of a full blown Communist dictator but the smoothness of a . . . well . . . benevolent dictator, let’s say.

Mase introduced me to Jason, the barista, who passed me a small brown mug, smooth syruppy caramelly brown contents smiling up at me.

Mase treated me to a truly Affectionate Communist.

Mase got me over the hump – I realized that I didn’t need cream to thicken the texture of my coffee, I needed more coffee . . . thicker coffee, richer coffee, and a little sugar to pull it all together.

Mase brought this epic journey to its final destination.

Mase made me a black coffee man.

. . . . .

Do you have a fastastical story of your own experience with the coffee beverage?

If you are a coffee lover, is it more for the ritual of the coffee or the actual consumption of the beverage, itself?

video interview with abbey

Lee recently interviewed Abbey while Beth ran into Target to get some applesauce.

In this exclusive interview, Abbey reveals her new vocal stylings:

We had a great time with our family in Austin and, as you can tell from the video clip, Abbey really misses her grandparents and great grandparents.

. . . . . .

More videos and photos from a week in Austin and two weeks in Louisville will be posted shortly.

update: dad’s surgery

My dad will be recovering in ICU for the next few days.

My mom said from what she could tell the surgery went well though it was a touch longer than expected.

His anesthesia wore off enough at about 9 this evening.

My mom said he was in a lot of pain. I could tell it really affected her to see him in pain.

The Lord has been very gracious to our family and to my dad specifically. When I asked him last night if he was nervous he said, “I don’t think the Lord is done with me yet.”

My mom said he did not seem anxious this morning. Thank you all for praying.

Thank you to the men’s group that meets at my parents house. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Thank you for praying for my daddy. He said last Wednesday was very sweet to him.

I pray that God’s power would always be seen in the weak.

recent abbey shots, courtesy bbrogers.com

Our fantastic friends Brandon and Bethan Rogers (bbrogers.com) have taken some incredible photos of Abbey over the last week.

I thought you guys might be interested to see some of them:

We think she’s pretty great – and we hope you agree.

Special thanks to Brandon and Bethan, they are such great friends to us.

. . . . . .

Feel free to offer up “thought bubble” captions for any of the photos above – it one of our favorite games.

please pray (for beth’s dad)

Tomorrow morning at 6am my dad will be undergoing triple bypass surgery with a valve replacement.

Please pray for my dad.

The Lord has been faithful to see my father through these many years. As I pray tonight for his physical heart, I know with confidence that his spiritual heart rests in Jesus.

Just as the Lord has changed a heart of stone, so too is he is able to direct the veins and arteries of bypass surgery.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

The arm of the Lord is not too short.

He is mighty to save in every sense of the word.

-Beth

city fellowship church: audio now posted online!

update: sermon links have been updated and are functioning properly.

. . . . . .

This is one of the most exciting posts I have written in a while.

Our church, City Fellowship Church, has finally posted the first two sermons in an ongoing series our pastor is going to be preaching on the first Sunday of every month.

“Mission Sunday” is an opportunity to introduce people to how City Fellowship is seeking to live out and proclaim the gospel in our city.

Click the links to stream the sermons online, or right click (ctrl click for my fellow Macintoshers) to download the MP3.

I hope that you are encouraged to live out the gospel with your church . . . in your city.

Mission Sunday – CFC & Families

Mission Sunday – CFC & Racial Reconciliation

I am deeply appreciative of Pastor Russ Pflasterer, a godly husband, father, and pastor who leads his little flock by faithfully and lovingly preaching the Scriptures.

It is not often that you run across a man whose character, humility, and  example of godly repentance is as commendable as his preaching – but Russ is one such man.

. . . . . .

If you live in Jackson, feel free to come visit City Fellowship Church – we meet at 3pm on Sundays (visit the CFC website for location/directions)

If not, I would love to hear your feedback if you get the chance to listen to these sermons.

Either way, feel free to leave your comments below.

derek webb: stockholm syndrome, the experience

This is a quick post to point you to a couple of other blog posts that will answer a couple of questions for you:

1) What is the world is this Stockhold Syndrome thing we keep hearing about?

People are talking about ’stems’, preview concerts, clues, secret websites, and all kinds of other craziness.  Is this some kind of promotional marketing game?

As Stephen Capps explains, it all started with a (rather odd) email:

On May 12, 2009, those of us who were on Derek Webb’s mailing list received an unexpected e-mail from Derek about his new album. He briefly and vaguely gave us some details: the album’s title is Stockholm Syndrome, there are troubles with the record label, and he wants us to hear the album and will contact us again soon.

From that point, it got pretty dang interesting . . . click over to Stephen’s blog to get the helpful breakdown of the events.

2) What about the album?  Is it any good?  Why is it so controversial?

To answer that, my buddy Dwight (who was kidnapped alongside Stephen), has written a review of the pre-released copy of “Stockholm Syndrome” he received in Derek Webb’s home studio.

Here are the first few lines, you’ll have to hit up his blog for the rest:

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Derek Webb’s newest release titled Stockholm

stockholm sydrome pre-release

Syndrome.

His record label refused to release it because of a song with two cuss words on it, something that Christian artists are apparently not supposed to do.

Webb wasn’t going to let that get him down though, he proceeded to drag fans into an alternate reality online game similar to what Lost did to fans with the Lost experience.

Everything culminated July 3rd in Nashville at The Rutledge where fans who followed to clues in the game were rewarded with a video containing most of the songs on the album and a brief Q&A with Derek and the guy who helped him make the album.

Those of us who had been playing the game and were still remaining vigilant followed still more clues released during the event and ended up at Derek Webb’s house with copies of the new album in hand . . .

[The rest is over at Dwight's Blog, Convergence Review]

Finally, as a reward for your reading this post, top to bottom, I will point you to a post by my great friends (and avid sufferer of true Derek Webb stockholm syndrome) Logan Gentry . . . who lovingly followed the clues and has posted links to three of Derek’s controversial songs from the Stockholm Syndrome album.

The links are posted at his Gentrified blog.

. . . . . .

Who plans to order and download Stockholm Sydrome come Tuesday?

links worth clicking

1) Resurgence Music downloadable (for cheap) on Amazon.com:

2) Paleontologists take break from conference to visit Kentucky Creation Museum (reported in NY Times):

Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh

Creationism = Evolution?

3) Francis Chan’s Crazy Love free on audiobook from ChristianAudio.com:

. . . . . .

(HT: Justin Taylor on #1 & #2)

(HT: Random guy in my seminary class on the NY Times articles)

abbey’s first ikea trip

A little late in posting, but I think you will forgive us when you see how sweet Abbey is in this video.

Recorded in May, this is the first documented video of Abbey’s growing ability to hold her noggin up:

Abbey was really well behaved at Ikea, just chilling with Mama and Papa K while Mom and Dad (Lee and Beth) did a little shopping.

The results of that shopping trip (a flipping awesome photo wall) will make their blog appearance in due time.

. . . . . .

Special Note: Contrary to appearances, the camera operator did not deliberately follow the teenage girl as she walked from screen right to screen left . . . that was a weird coincidence.

. . . . . .

Question: any recommendations on a good inexpensive high chair?

a young former-baptist (probably soon-to-be baptist again) visits to SBC (for the first time)

That is the longest post title in the short history of the re:wilsons blog – hands down.

I just couldn’t help it, there is just so much interesting stuff packed into my buddy Dwight’s first trip to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting.

Let’s just let Dwight get right to the good stuff:

I was a Southern Baptist once.

I was pretty burned by the church I was part of and walked away from Baptist life, and by walked away I mean I went to a Southern Baptist college but attended an Anglican church. For a long time I wanted nothing to do with Southern Baptists because I casted my old churches mistakes onto the entire SBC.

Then I met people who proved to me that there are Southern Baptists out there who genuinely love you and are truly filled with the grace of Christ. Still, I originally had no intention of going to the SBC.

Lee was in Nashville and wanted to meet up for coffee.

[Editor's note: cue dramatic music to foreshadow ironic turn of events]]

I never pass up an opportunity for coffee, especially coffee with a good friend, so of course I met him. That eventually turned into me tagging along while he went shopping for a suit for the Southern Baptist Convention, which turned into him saying, “Hey, you’re coming to the SBC, it’ll be good for you.”

Lee has far too much power over me. A couple of hours later and I’m in the car with Lee and Professor Worley on the way to Louisville, this was not the way I saw my day going when I woke up that morning.

. . . . . . .

So what did this young man who was so bitter towards the SBC just two years ago think of his first real life Southern Baptist Convention?

Some of it was absurd, some of it was incredibly frustrating, some of it did not exhibit the grace of Christ, and all of it encouraged me.

There were a few frustrating parts for me such as: attacks on Ed Stetzer and other Baptist leaders for their involvement in Acts 29, attacks on the Acts 29 church planting network (a network I hope to one day be partnered with in planting a church), and attacks on Mark Driscoll – a man I look up to quite a bit.

What was encouraging was the Baptist leaders’ responses.

Mr. Stetzer said something about how anyone could get their hands on the mic at the SBC – but that they didn’t necessarily reflect the wants or views of the entire denomination.

I also really appreciated the Biblical and grace-filled rebuke from the platform for making personal attacks on Christian leaders.

It was ultimately very encouraging to see a group of people come together under the banner of Jesus Christ for the sake of furthering the Gospel.

There were a lot of different ideas of how to best further the Gospel and that caused some dispute but if you look deeper you can see a bunch of people who love Jesus and want to see His name proclaimed to all people.

For me, this was another step towards healing the wounds left behind by a careless church. While I am still not a Baptist and still have a few qualms with the SBC, I thank God for it and I pray that He uses it to further the Gospel.

My thanks to Dwight for succumbing to my persuasive abilities and demonstrating a willingness to fight to see evidences of grace in the Southern Baptist Convention.

I remember that I walked away from my first SBC with more pessimism and frustration than Dwight experienced, so I am thankful that he saw the gospel evidenced among Southern Baptists and that there was much gospel grace to witness in Louisville this year.

[For more Dwight, check out his two(!) blogs, Convergence Truth and Convergence Review, or follow him at Twitter - @dwight_david]

. . . . . . .

For those of you who have been to a Southern Baptist Convention, what was your first visit like?

For those of you who have never been, what was your impression (if any) of the events of the Southern Baptist Convention (in this year or years past)?