jane rogers, colossians & crowley ridge state park

Big news this week, sweet baby Jane Rogers was born on 9/9/09:

Baby Jane’s Daddy and Mom are two of our favorite people in the world – they’re gonna be great parents.

Let it be known, blog followers, that the Rogers gave us Wilsons a healthy dose of what many of you experienced after our Abbey’s birth …. I think Beth must have checked the Roger’s blog and Facebook pages about 200 times before they were able to post pictures of baby Jane.

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In other big news, mad props to Jason Nichter for taming a wild stallion, one of his personal goals for the year.

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Finally, we are currently in Northeast Arkansas at Crowley Ridge State Park, where Lee is preaching through the book of Colossians for the University of Memphis Baptist Collegiate Ministries.

Good times are being had by all.

Crowley Ridge State Park

book of the week: ‘when helping hurts’

Usually when I post a ‘book of the week‘ I try to post a book that I am going to be reading that week – this week is a bit different.

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself is a book I plan on buying this week and reading ASASCAD (“as soon as seminary classes are done”) before the summer is finished.

Why this book?

Well, as Justin Taylor so helpfully pointed out, you can pick up a copy from my favorite online bookstore (WTSBooks.com) for only $4.89 – this week only!

Judging by the blurbs and by the pressing need in my community (and yours) and in our nation (“these economic times” . . . heard that before?)

Judging by and the incomprehensible needs around the world and by the deeply convicting & oft ignored biblical mandate to care for the poor . . . this is the kind of book I need to read . . . the kind of issue I need to understand . . . the kind of kingdom-concern that must be reflected in my life as a Christian.

I plan on ordering my copy and giving author Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert a hearing . . . as soon as I have an ear available to hear.

Care to join me?

. . . . .

Do you have any books that you have found helpful on the need for Christians to demonstrate the gospel through caring for the poor?

Any edifying stories you might care to share about how you (or someone you know) have tried to demonstrate care and generosity towards the ‘least of these’?

book(s) of the week: pastor dad & pastor daddy

My favorite book to read to Abbey (other than the Bible) is a fantastic little book called Pastor Daddy.

I have posted about this great little book previously, so you can actually listen to me read Pastor Daddy to Abbey over at ‘pastor daddy, pooping daughter‘ if your into that kind of thing and haven’t yet seen the video.

I love it because it encourages me to be a godly father, shepherding and loving my family.

I love it because it teaches Abbey to look to me to lead our family.

I love it because it teaches Abbey how important the local church is in the life of a Christian.

I love it so much that you should buy it.

Here’s the link to Lulu, the site where the fine folks at Sojourn Community Church have chosen to sell Pastor Daddy.

. . . . . .

The next book I plan to read on fatherhood is a little book by Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

If you don’t know Mark Driscoll, you need to acquaint yourself with his preaching and writing – you’ll either love or hate him.

I love him, especially his desire to see young men grow up into godly men.

Enter Pastor Dad.

Based on a sermon from 2001 (which I have listened to), Driscoll wrote Pastor Dad as a gift to fathers for Father’s Day.

Based on the sermon, I anticipate this book to be convicting, challenging, encouraging, and saturated with biblical wisdom.

Since it is a gift, Pastor Dad has been released for free (in pdf format) to download.

It can be read online, downloaded, and even printed out – all for free.

There is also the option to purchase a hard copy of Pastor Dad at Lulu.com.

Give it a read – I think it will be well worth your time.

. . . . . . .

Dads, any favorite books on fatherhood?

Any pastors or authors who have been formative in the way you think about being a dad?

book of the week

I am only 50 pages into Above All Earthly Pow’rs by David Wells, so I cannot tell you how it ends, but I will tell you that it is my official “Book of the Week“

About 5 years ago I first heard John Piper make reference to his great appreciation for David Wells’ work.

It was not long after that when I heard that Piper’s Desiring God Ministry decided to devoted an entire conference to helping Christians understand the questions raised and answered in this book.

Desiring God invited David Wells to travel to Minneapolis and serve as the featured speaker for the event.

They also requested his permission to use Above All Earthly Pow’rs as the name of the conference.

Getting to my point, this book is legit and it is important.

It is important because it asks the question that many people, many young people in particular, are asking today: “what does Christ have to say and do with our ever evolving culture?”

As the Modern Era fades into the history books and the Postmodern Era, which has been looming on our Western horizon, takes over as the status quo, how should Christians respond?

In Above All Earthy Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, David Wells helps Christians understand the significance of the culture shift that is occurring in the West.

He helps us to understand how the postmodern mind thinks about the world, thinks about the claims of the Christian faith, thinks about the church.

He helps faithful followers of Christ to wrestle with the myriad challenges of postmodernity, bringing clarity and biblical fidelity to bear on the postmodern shift that is taking place in our culture, our nation, our cities, our homes, and even our own minds – whether we know it or not.

. . . . . .

This book has been on my list for a long time and I am thrilled to get the chance to read it this summer.

What books have been sitting on your shelf that you are hoping to dust off and read this summer (well, maybe it’ll be this fall)?

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Also from David Wells:

spotlight: GM, the future of the SBC?

Some of you need to try not to look so shocked.

If you are sitting in a coffee shop, work, or some other public place, you may be making a scene right now.

Pick your jaw up off of the table . . . your hands are up in the air, do something about that . . . have a little composure people.

I know that it is shocking that I am posting something about the Southern Baptist Denomination on the blog.

Its kind of surprising to me too.

The way I figure it, there are more than enough hotheaded bloggers piping off about their opinions of this or that denominational issue, and I just prefer to not be one of those guys.

. . . . .

Some of you could care less about the Southern Baptist Convention.  Some of you may actually be surprised that people still identify themselves as “baptist”.  Some of you may think that denominations are silly, pointless, or (perhaps) even sinister and divisive.

But let’s not go there right now.

This morning I encountered an article that may be one of the most insightful that I have read about the future of the SBC.

As you read – if you keep reading – think about the Southern Baptist Convention as the largest existing method of Christians cooperating to send missionaries around the globe to spread the news of Jesus Christ’s life, his crucifixion, and resurrection.

Put aside denominational politics, nostalgia, or past offense and ask the question: “what happens if the support system for 5,656 missionaries goes the way of General Motors, crumbling and disintegrating under the weight of its own archaic structure?”

Here’s what Don Dunavant has to say:

GM and the SBC

Monday morning, June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy.  The once number one car maker in the world came to an ignoble demise.  Started in 1908, for most of its one hundred and one year history GM was synonymous with the America idea of success, an industrial icon that was as American as apple pie.  That has all changed now.  Speaking of GM’s bankruptcy President Obama optimistically asserted that the trauma of bankruptcy will help GM be a more viable company in the future.  Yet he pointed to dark days ahead saying that more plants will close, more dealerships will shut their doors and more people will lose their jobs.  GM as it has been up until June 1, 2009, will never be again.

What happened to cause the downfall of the car-making giant?  Some will point to the economic downturn as the culprit.  But, GM had survived all other economic downturns and even the Great Depression.  No, there was something more systemic behind its failure.  GM had developed a management culture so entrenched in the way it had always done business that  it lost touch with the rapid changes taking place in the car-buying public and a union culture so  preoccupied with self preservation that it entrenched itself against any change in the business model.  Together both made GM too inflexible in a world of rapid change.

No one did anything on purpose to undermine GM.  In fact, up until a few weeks before June 1, both management and labor argued passionately that what they were doing was the best for GM.  But now their words sound hollow and their arguments mute in the wake of the ruins of GM.  Inflexibility trumped the best of intentions.

Are there lessons the Southern Baptist Convention needs to learn from what has happened to GM?  The SBC touts itself as the largest Protestant denomination in America, boasting sixteen million plus members.  Together Southern Baptist have stood in the forefront of other denominations in sending missionaries around the world and across the nations, supporting  theological education and so much more noble work.  But does success in the past guarantee continued success in the midst of the seismic cultural shifts taking place in American culture and in the emerging generation of pastors?

[To read Dr. Dunavant's answer to this question and his commentary on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention, visit the full post at Between The Times)

Before today, I had no clue who Don Dunavant was, but I intend to pay attention to what he has to say in the future.

Let’s hope that the Southern Baptist Convention, its members and leaders, are paying attention, too.

There is a great deal at stake.

three tricks

Beth here.  Well our little Abbey accomplished three big feats this week.

First, she slept through the night for the first time.

On April 1st, 2009 at 8:30 pm Abbey began her descent into dreamland and remained there until 5:00 am that morning. Yes!

While this is a very exciting thing, I cannot take much credit. I have had her on more of a structured schedule for all of three days, and then all of the sudden she decided she would sleep through the night.

I wish I could write a post about sleep training, but she did this one on her own.

My girl is getting so big (tear).

I will say I have yet to reap the benefits of her sleeping through the night.

My body has conditioned itself for 10 and half months of waking up in the middle of the night.

The first nine were due to frequent trips to the bathroom due to little Abbey resting on a little bladder and the last month and a half due to a thirsty baby.

The second great thing she did is smile – what I have been anxiously awaiting!

She smiled on command this Thursday (April 2nd) – her six week birthday. She is quite the textbook baby. Everything from arriving on her due date to smiling at exactly six weeks has occurred exactly as they say it should.

Check out these glorious pictures. They just make my heart melt. I love that she can respond with a smile.

Cheese!

“Yes, I did just smile . . . don’t believe me? check this out . . .”

“. . . I will do it again, just to prove I can.”

Look at these sweet cheeks. She is observing a thunderstorm outside.

A note: These pictures are courtesy of Angie Roberts. Abbey and I went over to her house during the day Thursday because of bad weather (they have a basement).

If you like what you see, she would first confess that (1) her sister-in-law takes professional photos and (2) the great photos are due to the quality of the camera, not the operator, before she would take your compliment.

Lastly, I will post a video we took this morning.

Abbey followed the camera with her eyes. For those of you without children – following objects with your eyes is a learned trick, a developmental milestone, if you will.

This morning was the first time we realized she could do it.

Another note:  We do not let Abbey sleep in bed with us. We were simply enjoying our daughter after she woke up this morning. Our little one is just so sweet when she wakes up.

- Beth

from the hospital: the why and how of live blogging abbey’s birth (9)

[4:45 am, CST]

Here is my heartfelt answer to a valid question, a question I asked myself for weeks leading up to Abbey’s birth:

. . . . . . .

Also, just in case you had any misconceptions, not much happens in a delivery room leading up to “the push”.

Every 45 minutes to an hour a nurse will come in.

Every 2 – 3 hours our doctor will pop into the room.

The rest of the time, just me and Beth (and Jen, Matt, or Casey).

Who knew? Not I.

. . . . . . .

Earlier updates:

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (1)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (2)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (3)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (4)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (5)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (6)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (7)

from the hospital: abbey’s birth (8)

goodbye union: beth retires at 24

Only 31 years until we can start drawing benefits!

Today is Beth’s last day of work at Union University.

Starting today she is done with mere financial aid and begins focusing on comprehensive life aid for another little, squirmy human being who will soon be emerging from Beth’s body.

. . . . . . .

I have been blessed with a wonderful wife would could not be more eager to be home joyfully laboring in the duties of motherhood.

She is so excited to be home and at work on house and family that she actually got angry with me when I told her she was not allowed to do anything on Monday – that I wanted her to have a day to rest and relax before she attacked her mental list of “things to do before Abbey arrives.”

It has made me so proud as a husband to see the way that Beth’s heart has been inclined towards our home – the eagerness to love and serve our family as a mom and a wife.

I cannot imagine a woman who could possibly be as great a mom as Beth is going to be.

Abbey is a lucky little girl.

I am a lucky man to be married to a woman like Beth – a woman that I rejoice will be raising and discipling my daughter.

I hope Abbey grows up to be just like her mother.

Our house is lucky, too – I imagine we are going to have the whitest, bleachy-est bathroom floors on our block, whether I like it or not.

(I have a feeling you can be expecting another bathroom bleach scrubbing video soon – check out ‘nesting 2.0‘ if you don’t know what i am referring to).

. . . . . .

Beth left her final day working at Union with a bang – dressed really cute and packing a feisty attitude (as you can see from the photo)

I would definitely have to agree with everybody who has said “you are just the cutest pregnant lady I have ever seen.”

Wouldn’t you agree?

[Ladies, note that Beth rocked the heels until the the very end]

. . . . . . .

Here is what I would love.

I would love for you to share your advice to Beth for the next . . . day, week, maybe couple of weeks . . . as she has time to wrap up some loose ends and prepare to be a mom.

What would you have done differently? What do you wish that you could have done before your babies made their appearance?

Is there anything that you you wish you had purchased from Babies-R-Us? Not purchased from Babies-R-Us?

Ready, Set, HELP!

spotlight: providential redux

You know when somebody tells you a story about somebody you don’t know and you listen just to humor them?

I realize that in a blog format you don’t have to pretend to care and you can just surf on to the next website of interest, so let me give you four reasons to stick it out and keep reading:

1. Look at the cute baby picture.
2. A good story is a good story – period.
3. Sometimes we need to be reminded that God is in control and hear a story about God’s providential plan for somebody’s life unfold from beginning to end.
4. The gospel changes everything, infuses everything, and if you love Jesus you just go with the flow.

As a point of reference, J & Sal are good friends of our from college and, with their powers combined, two of the funniest and most thoroughly enjoyable people we know.

Here’s Sal:

In case you are wondering why we changed our blog name from Polka Dots and Pinstripes, J started a new job! [. . . ] He left Dell after almost exactly 3 years to create a non-profit called “The For the City Network” or “For the City.” I couldn’t be prouder of him. Some of you might be confused, so I will give you some back story.

1. We read a book – September 2007

About a year ago we started reading a book with a group of friends called Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.

It totally changed our whole worldview: the way we thought about God, ourselves, each other, and the people around us. One of the main things the book tears apart is our notion that we should give (money, time, care, etc.) because we feel that we are better or have more than others.

It may be true that we (all Americans) have a lot (especially on a global scale), but that this shouldn’t be the motivation for our giving or extending ourselves to people in need.

The main motivation for extending mercy is that God was merciful to us. Period.

Luke 6:36: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus gave, saved, loved, and helped us when we did nothing to deserve it and nothing to honor Him. What should stop us from overflowing that same undeserved mercy we were given to those around us and act like the One we love most? Tough stuff in practice. We are still learning and God is not done with us.

2. J gets excited – January of 2008
So J, who is one of the most merciful people I have ever met, got pretty excited about organizing people and thinking about how we can be more strategic in helping people both in our church and outside of it.

With a team of people at our church, J and the team started concentrating efforts to figure out how we can start mobilizing people to serve around the city and tell people about opportunities.

3. Build a building.
At this very same time our church was trying to decide where to build a building. Because our church has a vision to be a part of renewing the city, we bought land in an area where there is a lot of opportunity.

Within the campus, we are building office space for non-profits to foster synergy among them. We are also creating the sanctuary as a multi-use space so that it is available for use for community/ city-wide events during the other 6 days of the week. There are going to be a lot of possibilities with these new buildings.

4. Memphis – August 2008
All along the way J was thinking this would be an excellent 2nd career, but was very happy in his job at Dell. Then he went to Memphis for three days.

A lot can change in 3 days.

He left discussing where we might move to get his MBA.

He and his friend Travis set off to Memphis. Travis is J’s exact opposite, except as it relates to journals and pens. In this way, they are identical. They complement each other really well.

When we (me and Katie, Travis’ wife) picked them up from the airport, he said that he needed to quit his job and do this for the rest of his life.

If you know J, he doesn’t mess around. He is not a dreamer. If the words make it out of his mouth, it is as good as done and he has already thought through the implications, so I reply “Alright. Sounds good,” not knowing at this point even what he was talking about since he hadn’t told me about the trip, yet.

He proceeded to tell me about how Memphis has an amazing network of non-profits that all do what they are really great at, but are networked together to do the maximum good. He met with people who had lived in neighborhoods for 25 years mentoring, he met with non-profit community developers, he met with church staff, and many more. They all knew each other and they all worked together for the city.

Beautiful.

J and Travis love the name “For the City” as a result of it being a term they constantly say all week. They buy the domain name upon returning home, just in case.

5. J has a chat with his boss – August 2008

When J returns from Memphis his boss asks how the trip was. J frankly tells him that it was life-changing. His boss admits to his own dreams of doing something that helps people and makes a difference.

Not what J was expecting, but very confirming.

This was one person that he thought would try to talk him out of it.

6. Vision Series – September 2008

Every fall our church has a series of sermons that cast the vision of the direction we are heading. This year it was called “A Church For the City.” Pretty strange and has nothing to do with J or Travis.

7. J gets an offer! – December 2008

8. God tests J. – December 2008

While we were considering and praying, the day after J got the offer, J gets a raise and promotion.

Haha. The “irony.”

9. J starts his new job! – January 2009
His vision for the non-profit is that it would be a network that would be a strategy leader, coordinator, and advocate for city renewal by creating partnerships, influencing and casting vision for improvement, generating new initiatives, channeling funds/resources, mobilizing and equipping volunteers, & meeting diverse needs.

There are so many more obvious things that the Lord did that I didn’t write here. Ask me if you are wondering. ;-) We can’t wait to see where He takes this!

Thanks for going with the flow J & Sal – we will be praying for you as you try to live out the gospel “for the city”.

We will do the same.

Link: ‘Pinstripes for TOMS‘

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Sal has walked the aisle of bloggery and rededicated herself to blogging about life as a Lopez.  I have a feeling that, should she be successful, it will be well worth keeping her on your Google Reader or frequently checked blogs.

You can find her, J, and Annie at La Casa de Lopez

housing abbey: cool, warm, hotter, hot, boiling

Family, friends, blog stalkers (that is a term of endearment where I am from, just to be clear), in the nursery nesting game of “hotter, colder” we made some major moves from cool to boiling this weekend.

That’s right, we advanced a full four degrees up the scale – but how is that possible?

We dug into our bag of tricks, scrounged around a little bit, and came up with a man with some serious skills.

That man, his name is Jason Nichter.

Stop laughing, do you really not believe that J has some serious construction and decorating skills?

I thought you might not believe me – so I documented his skills for all to see.

Check it:

See, Jason Nichter is more than books smarts and basketball stats, he has some legit real world skills.

He also has some pretty serious blooper reel skills:

I hope you enjoyed Beth enjoying Jason try to work a tape measure.  One of my favorite things about Beth being pregnant is that the hormones  have made her really silly and giggly.

In the words of Jason Nichter: “Man Beth, a few weeks hanging out with you and a guy is liable to feel pretty confident about his sense of humor”

I love my wife.

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Last Word: J, I really appreciate your help and we couldn’t have done a lot of the things we did this weekend without you.