gmurph

05:04 pm: Hello World
Yes, its been forever. But I'm back with a quick update. Cristin and I have started running this week. So far so good, except for the sore back/legs. We're on the ever popular "from couch to 5k" plan which is all over the internet. 3 workouts down, 27 to go. Our goal is to run the Frozen 5k this January at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Take care kids.

-GM

11:41 am: The man is back...
Dave Campbell was offered a job in my department yesterday. He's been rescued from Des Moines!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12:26 pm: Also...
I finally have a Minnesota phone number...seriously. I got 2 Katana's from sprint for $50 and Cristin went with the pink one(imagine that). six-1-two-4-oh-8-oh-6-eight-4.

12:05 pm: Almost Arrested
Well yesterday the policy finally got a hold of me about the burglary that happened while I was at Josh's place. They called me and asked me to come into the presinct to give an official statement. I started by just telling the officer my story of what happened. When I was done it turned into a semi-interrogation. The officer kept telling me how Josh's story and mine didn't jive perfectly. He told me if I was concealing anything that I was an accessory and guilty of the same crime. Then he asked me for my fingerprints, which i declined. He then said, maybe I'll have to arrest you to get your fingerprints. I said, I'd like a lawyer if you're going to do that. He then said, I need to think about this and walked out of the room. At this point I would've been well within my rights to walk out. I wasn't detained or under arrest. Instead I called my lawyer/father and asked him about giving my fingerprints. He said to just go ahead and give them since they could subpoena them if they wanted to and I wouldn't have to come back in(my dad is obviously a prosecutor, not a defense lawyer who would make them earn every inch). So while the officer thought he was sweating me out, i was actually just making him wait. :) He came back in with arrest papers and 2 officers waiting outside. He started asking for my info and then I just snyly said, can I just volunteer my fingerprints. He was semi-disgusted because he went to the trouble of waiting and getting the officers. I then gave my fingerprints and left. Quite an ordeal. The officer wasn't a bad guy, just trying to do his job and poke around to get information that would help out. He was obviously frustrated with the case. I wan't as nervous as I thought I'd be. When he started questioning me I was a little uncomfortable, but when all you have to do is tell the truth, it's not to hard.

06:08 pm: An Engagement...
Well, I finally popped the question this weekend. Here's how it all went down. I was planning on asking Cristin while ice skating with my friends Dan and Katie Fitch. Unfortunately on Saturday evening it was about 40 degrees and raining(raining?!?!). So, of course, I had to improvise. I decided against much planning, because that gives you more to worry about. After a riveting game of Apples-to-Apples and Davanti's Pizza we decided to rent a movie, because a rainy night is a perfect excuse to stay in. Dan and I went and got Crash, Cristin's favorite movie, and one Dan & Katie hadn't seen. When we returned the girls were downstairs watching the Office on TV. I got out the ring, opened it up, and placed it under the DVD(She never saw it coming!!!). As i got downstairs I walked over to her holding out the movie towards her. There was really no good reason for her to take it. I was standing up already, it wasn't her house, and she was in a comfortable chair. I told her to take it and she did without too much suspicion. When she did, she immediately saw the ring. I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. Then she started laughing, and laughing. It seemed like an hour or so(probably 2 minutes), but she finally said yes! Katie had alertly turned off the Office and Dan was just grinning. Cristin was shocked and it was very funny. Dan followed with "Not that we were in on this, but there's a bottle of Champagne upstairs..." We called and talked to friends and family for an hour and a half, and then went and watched Crash. Blockbuster's not getting that one back!!

07:46 pm: Surprise, Surprise!

Freak- INFJ 40% Extraversion, 53% Intuition, 40% Thinking, 60% Judging

Well, well, well. How did someone like you end up with the least common personality type of them all? In a group of 100 Americans, only 0.5 others would be just like you. You really are one of a kind... In fact, I do believe that that's one of the definitions for the word "FREAK." Freak's not such a bad word to describe you actually. You are deep, complex, secretive and extremely difficult to understand. If that doesn't scream "Freak!" I don't know what does. No-one actually knows the REAL you, do they? You probably have deep interests in creative expression as well as issues of spirituality and human development. You've probably even been called a "psychic" before, because of your uncanny knack to understand and "read" people without quite knowing how you do it. Don't fret. You're not actually psychic. That would make you special and you'll never accomplish that. You're also quite possible the most emotional of them all, so don't take this all too hard. Nevertheless you most definitely have the strangest personality type and that's not necessarily a good thing. ***************** If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out this. ***************** The other personality types are as follows... Loner - Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving Pushover - Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging Criminal - Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving Borefest - Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging Almost Perfect - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving Loser - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving Crackpot - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging Clown - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving Sap - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging Commander - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving Do Gooder - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging Scumbag - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving Busybody - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging Prick - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving Dictator - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Extraversion You scored higher than 99% on Intuition You scored higher than 99% on Thinking You scored higher than 99% on Judging

Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

04:25 pm: I built a salad for lunch at work today. It had chicken in it. I was full afterwords. It cost $2.18. I'm going to do that again!

09:21 pm: Tired of being silent...
Apologies in advance for not knowing how to LJ cut.

Well, I've mostly been silent on the group of churches leaving the Vineyard over the women in leadership issue. I'm really sick of being quiet, which I suppose is why I have a blog(not that I use it alot). A little background. I went to college at SIU. Most of you know that. All but 1 of the pastors whose churches left shaped my life in a significant way, and I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am without them. I love these guys. Steve Morgan is still the best communicator I've ever heard and he follows God with extraordinary faith. Sandor Paull found places for me to serve and just loved me while I was rebelling against God in college. He has an extremely steady personality for a person who is radically following Jesus. This probably makes me identify more with him than any of these guys. Ben Powers pushed me to pursue charismatic gifts more and gave me a prophetic word that in part led to me pursuing full time ministry as a long term endeavour. Jeff Miller left at about the same time I showed up in C-dale.


I found out about the possibility of the churches leaving in late July while on a missions trip. I was in shock. Then I was angry. Then I tried to understand. Then I was angry again. My theology on this is really simple. Jesus created the church. God gifted the people of the church. The job of church leadership is to use the gifts of its people to bring the Kingdom of God as it has been called. You could argue that I am just ignoring gender altogether. You're right! I would argue that most arguements against women in leadership are implying things onto our culture that are different than what the original text implies. I'd argue it's placing the belif on the text, not taking if from the text. I'd say look at the person (gifts, empowerment, character, etc.), not at the gender followed by looking at the the person.

Anyways, I can deal with their difference in theology. But, I was absolutely broken over their leaving the movement because local churches are allowed to decide whether to ordain women or not. Part of the beauty of the Vineyard is the ability of local churches to hold varying non-central beliefs and be part of the same movement. It's extremely frustrating to me that the decision of the national board would have exactly zero effect on these local churches and yet the decision is made to leave this movement. That leads me to believe that the problem is on regoinal/national level for these guys. Is the thought of having Di Leman or Adey Wassink as a regional authority really too much to bear?!? Seriously.

I've heard that an explaination that was given is that it's a slippery slope from ordaining women to ordaining homosexuals. I really don't buy that arguement at all and I don't see where it would come from, aside from looking at other main-line denomonations that have gone down that road. I feel like that's a guilty until proven innocent kind of philosophy. I have to wonder if they will come back when the movement doesn't go down that road. Somehow I doubt it, although ultimately I hope that's what happens.

This of course leads to the arguement in my head(I'm not the only one that has those, right?!?) what would cause me to leave the Vineyard. Would ordaining homosexuals? To be honest, the Vineyard probably has ordained homosexual pastors. It probably hasn't know that was the case at the time. I probably would think twice about our movement if it decided to ordain openly rebelious unrepentant homosexuals.

I think that the leadership structure of our movement is extremely well set up to avoid sliding in that direction. I feel like denomonations, or sections of denomonations that have gone in that direction have become politicized which has led to their doctrinal downfall. Could polotics creep into the Vineyard. Sure, already has I'm sure. Is that what's driving the push towards women in leadership...I don't think so.

Basically this has been tough to deal with. I want to bless these guys and knock them upside the head at the same time, though it's probably not my place to do that. Enough thinking out loud for now, although this is somewhat incomplete and unformed. Deal wit it.

08:24 pm: Mocking???
http://www.vineyard-church.com/

Can anyone find the irony/(insert angry hipocritical adverb here) at this homepage.

(Hint: This is the Carbondale Vineyard's website)

05:35 pm: God gets some pub in the NFL...
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Aqliri6gnm0tptpjEyDCZP05nYcB?slug=ap-seahawks-alexander&prov=ap&type=lgns


Why couldn't he wait a week? They're playing the Bears on sunday!