2010 January — wadehodges.com

Cafe Fulcrum

Yesterday we had a meeting of the team that is working to launch the Fulcrum Community. This a group of dedicated individuals and families who have committed to doing the necessary work to gather a new community of faith in the North Austin/Round Rock area. I love these people and I thank God for them every day.

As we were evaluating what we’ve been doing over the past few months, the consensus was that Cafe Fulcrum is the best thing we’ve done so far. We’ve had three of them, all of them at Star Co. Coffee, a coffee house in downtown Round Rock. The idea behind Cafe Fulcrum is to create a middle space kind of environment that is bigger than a small group, but smaller and more informal than a large group worship gathering. It’s a combination of food, live music, and short teachings about how the Fulcrum Community fits into God’s dream for the world.

It was initially designed to be a mixer. We invited all of our friends and contacts with the hope they’d come and meet each other and get more information about what Fulcrum is all about. Each one has gone really well. We’ve had new people join us every time and we’ve had people come back more than once. Both of these are huge wins for us. We’ve also had a few people who come to the Cafe end up in a Home Group, our weekly groups that meet in homes. Another win.

We’ve had people attend who have been going to a church most of their lives and we’ve had people join us who’ve never been a part of an organized community of faith. We’ve even got a few who are burned out on church as we know it, but still love Jesus and long for some spiritual community. The feedback from all of these different groups has been overwhelmingly positive. They are enjoying exploring spiritual issues and hearing more about the Kingdom of God without the formality of walking into a church building and sitting through a church service. As one person put it, “it’s not stuffy and preachy.” The emphasis at Cafe Fulcrum is definitely on building relationships, rather than putting on a “church show.” (I’m in no way throwing rocks at church buildings or services. I’m reporting the feedback I’m getting from people who aren’t in the habit of going to church services in church buildings or who are trying to get out of the habit of doing so.)

We’re discovering there is something wonderfully natural about walking into a coffee house on a Sunday morning, grabbing a cup of coffee and a breakfast taco, and connecting with others who are searching for something “more” in life.

After about 15 or 20 minutes of conversation, someone begins to play some music. The first time it was local artist, Grace Pettis. The last two times it’s been our new teammate, Patrick Jones. At the last Cafe, Patrick did an amazing job of transitioning us into a moment of worship when he invited us to sing with him a song he wrote. Turns out it was a song about God and we sang it together and it was worship. It was simple and beautiful and it gave me a vision of what Cafe Fulcrum can become. I got up after Patrick and did my best to summarize the storyline of the Bible in less than 15 minutes.

We’re going to do another Cafe this Sunday. I expect there to be hints of worship and glimpses of God’s glory in Star Co. when we gather. We’ll eat some food and meet some new people. Patrick will invite us to join him in singing some God songs. I’ll talk about Jesus. Only Gods knows what will happen after that.

I love it, and I hope God does too.

Come check it out if you’re in the area.

January 25, 2010 By Wade 4 Comments

Unacceptable Email Drop-In

Filed Under: Books, Sports

As the Cowboy game was finishing up on Sunday, I got an email from a friend I haven’t heard from in a while.

The subject line said: Ouch. In the body he wrote, “Reality hurts. Go Vikes.”

I immediately responded with, “This is an unacceptable email drop in. We haven’t been communicating regularly enough for you to send me the equivalent of a one ring rub in.”

I don’t mind my friends busting my chops when my team loses if they’ve been a part of the conversation beforehand. Had we exchanged even one syllable of pre-game banter, then I’d have welcomed his email as a twisted display of friendship. But what he did was not appropriate, especially since I know that he has little interest in pro football and has no favorite team that he publicly supports. Which means there is no way I can send him a similar email in the future when his teams crashes and burns. He’s not playing fair.

He responded with, “Happy events make me think of you. Anything bad happening to the Cowboys is a happy event indeed. ‘Unacceptable email drop in’ has a Bill Simmons like sound to it. I like it…”

Which brings me to the point of this post. It was no surprise that my friend told me I sounded like Simmons. For the past two months I’ve been plowing through his latest volume, The Book of Basketball. At over 700 pages, this is by far the longest book I’ve read since I worked through Wright’s book on the Resurrection of Jesus.

Now that I think of it, both books have a lot in common. Like Wright, Simmons provides persuasive argumentation for the unprovable. I mean, how can you prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the 86 Celtics are the greatest team of all time? You can’t, but Simmons does his best to take away whatever objections you might have and in the end you can’t dismiss the probability that he’s right (I agree with him by the way).

Both Wright and Simmons drop footnotes like crazy. Simmons’ footnotes are funnier than Wright’s though. Here’s my favorite:

Pete Maravich holds the white guy record for points (68); Jerry Lucas for rebounds (40); Mark Eaton for blocks (14); Dirk Nowitski/John Stockton for steals (9); and Dan Majerle/Rex Chapman for threes (9). Peja Stojakovic had 10 threes in a game but I don’t count the Euros as true white guys. Just a personal thing with me.

(Don’t buy this book and try to read it on a Kindle. They can be hard to track down on a Kindle and the footnotes alone are worth the price of the book.)

Both Wright and Simmons can dig into the minutia of a topic and pick it apart for pages. I don’t care how much time you’ve spent thinking about basketball, Simmons has spent more. You may think you know a lot about the game, but Simmons knows more. He proves it page after page after page after page. If you’ve read his column, then you know how long-winded he can be as he goes on quirky asides and throws around creative pop-culture references. This book is like that times two.

Speaking of asides, I told my friend who sent me the email that I’d send him my copy of the book now that I’m done with it. Ever since his major breach of chop-busting etiquette on Sunday, I’m thinking about sending it “first class postage due.” With a book this size that will amount to a double digit fine.

Seems about right.

January 21, 2010 By Wade 7 Comments

New Year’s Declaration

Filed Under: Random

I remember preaching a New Year’s sermon to a group of beaten down people when I was in my mid-twenties. I started off by asking how many of them had made at least one resolution for the new year. I was unprepared for the lackluster response. Only a few hands went up. I thought that maybe the rest were just being shy so I pressed them a bit, but quickly found out that they hadn’t made any resolutions. I remember thinking how sad it was to see people give up on changing something about their lives.

Now that I’m a decade older I think I understand why most of them had stopped making resolutions. Experience had taught them that 99% of New Year’s resolutions “don’t mean nothing” come February. After awhile, we get tired of setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure. It’s easier to resolve to do nothing new or different than it is to make a commitment and then wind up with the same results as those who made no resolutions at all.

Most resolutions fail because they’re actually more wishes than commitments. A resolution without a clearly defined goal that is supported with a realistic strategy, and empowered by an encouraging community is nothing more than an opportunity to be disappointed in yourself. If you’re not willing to do the strategic work behind the resolution then don’t torture yourself by making yet another list of wishes that have no chance of coming true.

Over the last decade, I’ve made my share of dead-end resolutions and I’ve let a few January’s come and go without setting any goals for myself. I’ve found myself stuck in a moment that I can’t get out of more times than I’m comfortable admitting. I shudder to think that at times I’ve been well on my way to being one of those who has simply given up and resigned myself to living the life that is, rather than the life that could be.

That’s why before I made any resolutions this year, I had to make a declaration: I don’t ever want to believe that change is impossible. I don’t ever want to be the kind of person who looks at some area of mediocrity in my life and decides that this is as good as it’s going to get. I always want to believe that things can get better, that I can be better, that I don’t have to be stuck where I am.

Change is possible!

I believe this.

What about you?