Yesterday, I had two unusually disgusting life opportunities.  You can vote on which one you would rather do.

My wife is out of town with the kids so I can finish my final paper for my 2nd to last Fuller course without a problem, and I have taken the opportunity to tear up the bathrooms and re-tile the floors in my spare time with the help of my trusty friends, Nate and Su-Min.  To re-tile the bathroom, you have to take out the toilets.

Did I mention our house was built in 1950?  I’m not sure if the toilets have been deeply cleaned in almost 60 years…….I need to sanitize my entire body.

But wait, it gets better.

Opportunity number 2-

My neighbor, Erin, dropped by yesterday with her son, Kai.  We love our neighbors by the way and they often just stop by to hang out for a bit.  Well, yesterday- Erin says with a strange look on her face- “Corey, I have a strange request- can you help me out?”

So, I said- sure, what is it?

She then said something very surprising– “I have a dead muskrat or beaver on my couch, can you help me get it out….”

So- the question- would you rather get a small, indistinguishable animal with its guts fully exposed off of your neighbor’s couch or clean 60 year old toilets?

This is a great video from communitas in New Orleans. They are doing great R&D work for the church down there.

As I watched the video and saw all the people that like Jesus but don’t like church, the question kept coming to mind: What if we invited people who are alienated by the church to help  Christians see what it would look like to follow Jesus?  It seemed like they have a pretty good idea what Jesus is about, and maybe they could help us learn what it means to follow Him.  Rather than trying to just convince people about God, we need to invite people to participate in God’s heart.

This may not be the best way to make a political decision, but if McCain is serious, I’m in.

This is exactly the kind of change we need in our country.

If you are a follower of Christ or interested in the possibilities of Jesus’ message, please read this book. Regardless of the kind of church or ministry we are in, this book will be encouraging and inspiring. Hugh writes with a great depth of insight that comes out of failure, experience, and the perseverance to not give up the hope in the new possibilities of Jesus’ kingdom. As a consultant, mentor, and church-planter, he does not recommend cookie-cutter strategies or programs to grow our ministries, but tangible practices and habits that will grow our souls by leading us back to the heart and mission of God in normal life and relationships. I stayed up until 1am last night because I couldn’t put this book down. I had to finish it.

Another book I would recommend that I read recently is Jim and Casper Go to Church. Everyone interested in Jesus should read these books.

Here’s a promo of a book that just came out by a couple CRM staff in Denver on creating incarnational -missional community. Matt and Hugh lead Missio within CRM which mentors church planters while they have the option of earning a masters at Fuller seminary. Their community, Adullam, is doing some great stuff in Denver.

I had the privilege of spending a couple hours with Hugh on Thursday. I am hoping we can get to be better friends and partner together in tangible ways in the future. He has an inspiring calling and gift from God in his ability to serve and build relationships with people who are homeless.  I have a lot to learn from him.

You can find more about his ministry here.

In our conversation, I was most encouraged by hearing the joy he experiences in his calling.

Thanks for what you are doing and your reminders to the church that mission happens best through relationships, and is as much about our hearts as it is the people we are connecting with.

My car passed the test. I made it to Williamsburg and back last week free of charge! I was pretty amazed that I didn’t have one problem with the car.

I will say it is a little messy to pour the grease in the tank that we installed in the trunk, but it was well worth it as I passed the signs….

I did probably leave a bit of Chinese wanton smell behind me, but that’s fine by me.

In the Arts and Living section of the News and Observer, they ran a great article about the changes happening in downtown Raleigh right now. They mentioned a blog from John Morris that highlights the life of the city. It’s got some great pictures of the new building projects, night life, and arts in our home.

Overall, I’m really excited about the growth of Raleigh, and hope that it becomes an even more dynamic place. Most surveys I’ve read recently include Raleigh as one of the top places in the country to move because of the low cost of living and amount of job opportunities. Over the next 15 years, I think Raleigh is going to experience tremendous growth. I’m excited by the possibilities.

My hope is that Dorothy Dix becomes a central park area (mostly because I live 2 minutes from it), and that the city becomes more aware of how to improve South and Southeast Raleigh for the people that live there. In my short time here, I’ve already heard that North Raleigh gets a dispraportianate amount of the cities’ funding. For instance, I heard of a multi-million dollar swimming facility going into North Raleigh, whereas a major hub of Southeast Raleigh’s community life (including a public pool and memorial to MLK, Jr) has yet to be improved despite years of promises. With the continued influx of post-modern younger people into the city, I hope that we do not gentrify the poor out of their communities in our quest for improvement.

Does anyone know where we can find out more information about the cities funding in relationship to different areas of the city?

I’d like to find out more specific statistics rather than just piecing news articles and conversations I have together.

This winter, I bought an 82 diesel mercedes with the intention of converting it to run on veggie-oil once it got warmer. Today, thanks to 12 hours spent with the saint known as Gary Wisler, my dream has become a reality.

I am no longer dominated by foreign oil. I have converted. It’s official.

I feel like I have won something so I need to say a few thank you’s.

• to my wife and kids for letting me experiment with our transportation

• to Al Gore, oh, Al, how can I say enough?

• to Gary for letting me watch you work for 12 hours

• to the basketball goal on Gary’s street for lowering yourself to 9 ft high so I could dunk on you today when I felt bored

• to Greasecar.com, for making my dreams come true

• to Nate for introducing me to the whole idea and to Josh and Alan for keeping me company today

• to God, the great creator of the veggie oil, may you covert many more fatty wastes into sustainable fuel systems, may you liberate others from the tyranny of the car idol, the indifference to our effect on the world around us, and from the oppressive force of foreign oil!

• to Dwight K. Shrute, the inspirational presence in my life who taught me that we must never acquiesce, together, we can prevail!

How do you rate my acceptance speech? Does it beat this?

I felt the need to honor the Office since I was not able to watch it tonight due to my victorious efforts!

Leadership theorist, Peter Senge writes on why top-down efforts are limited for bringing about significant organizational change:

Why do we cling to the view that only the top can initiate significant change? Is it just our unwillingness to give up a familiar mental model? Is it the fear of stepping out of line without the imprimatur of the hierarchy? Perhaps, also there is an element of self-protection—the comfort of being able to hold someone else, namely, top management, responsible for the lack of effective leadership. There is no doubt that a CEO opposed to fundamental change can make life difficult for internal innovators, but this hardly proves that only the CEO can bring about significant change. At the very least, shouldn’t we be suspicious of the knee-jerk tendency of people in organizations to “look upward” and expect top management to fix things?”

Consider a different view: little significant change can occur if it driven form the top.

Hierarchical authority, as it has been used traditionally in Western management, tends to evoke compliance, not foster commitment. The more strongly hierarchical power is wielded, the more compliance results.”

the more we appreciate the inherent limitations of executive leadership in bringing about deep change, the more frustrated we are likely to feel, given the immense need for change [if we keep trying to change it from the top].

Have you ever thought about the God’s strategy to bring about change? God chooses to overthrow empires with fisherman?

The Ultimate Authority of the Universe chooses bottom up change.

So, if God is the King of the grass-roots movement, why does the church still want emperors? and why do we build empires?