So I've been in Lynchburg, VA at Liberty University this week and yesterday got to meet Jerry Falwell. I wasn't sure what to think about this occasion since I have mixed feelings about him. He's one of many high-profile Christians who seems to have a propensity for sticking his foot in his mouth. Despite that, I tried to go into the breakfast meeting with an open mind.
In person Dr. Falwell reminded me simultaneously of my father in law (only larger and much older) and of the stereotypical Baptist preacher: well dressed, perfectly coiffed hair, a man of some girth, paternal yet still a good 'ol boy.
He spoke to all of the reps there for the missions conference and talked about the history of the school and their future vision. I came away from it rather impressed. What impressed me was his drive for excellence in Jesus' name. Certainly there are times when the pursuit of this standard can lead to poor choices, but the standard itself is not bad.
I have blogged on this before, but will make the point again. Jesus was excellent, and I believe his followers should pursue that standard as well. Why should everything Christian be second-best? When did it become OK to accept low quality so long as it's Christian? We used to lead the world in nearly everything: music, art, politics and education. Dr. Falwell reminded us that almost all the Ivy League schools were founded by Christians to train ministers.
Nowadays we lag. We've abandoned many of these fields out of some misguided sense of pietism. The point Dr. Falwell made is that we need to re-enter and make a solid contribution in Jesus' name, bringing faith and a Biblical perspective back into these arenas. Rather than just talk about it, he's doing something about it -- establishing a world class liberal arts undergraduate institution, along with a Bible institute and a seminary. They opened a law school three years ago and plan to open a medical school in the near future. I'm all for more Christians in the legal and medical fields.
In addition, he also talked about extending this drive for professionalism and excellence into the athletic realm. They have very intentionally built their athletic programs into Division I caliber, able to compete with and beat larger, better funded, more recognizable schools. They've already made huge gains in the basketball program and he said his goal with football was to one day go to South Bend and beat Notre Dame while sitting next to the Father (the President of Notre Dame). I'm not sure Jerry will live THAT long, but I like his moxie.
His frankness and ambition were refreshing. He wants to see Christ exalted -- and most especially in those arenas we have abdicated. May God grant them favor in this endeavor, for the benefit of us all.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
X-treme X-cultural Xperience
I have lived in Austria, Germany, Iran and California, but none of those experiences quite compares to the cross-cultural moment I had tonight. What, you might ask, could trump those? Me speaking to a group of 182 college students -- every single one of them female. That's what.
When I first heard I was speaking to the students of one floor in a residence hall, it was going to be 60 female students. Then I found out a little later two other floors of the same hall didn't have speakers so I would be addressing all three floors of hall 25 -- a total of 182 girls. Even then I wasn't fazed. No, I was fine until I walked into the lecture hall at 9:45. I felt like I had just walked into the women's bathroom. Now I have never been in the women's bathroom, but I imagine it would be like this. Every single eye in the room was on me and I think I could hear them all thinking, "What is he doing here?!?!" (Note to my wife: I cannot actually hear women's thoughts.) They can't have been shocked though because I'm sure they were told they'd be having a guy speaking. They may, however, have been surprised to see that I was not 50, since just about every other agency rep here is.
Anyway, I did feel alternately like:
a) I was sitting in on a giant sorority meeting
b) I was the last living man on the planet
and c) I was bravely going where no man had gone before.
I think I just earned the right to be called a true "pioneer". Honestly, I was a little afraid. But I gathered my wits about me and addressed them, feeling very much like I'd stepped into a time warp and wound up back in 1950 (i.e. man speaks, women listen). Part of me wanted to call one of the women in the front row up, hand her my notes and insist that she speak instead while I sat in her seat or went outside to have a cigar and belch a few times.
But I made it through, got past the "dear Lord what am I doing here?" and the "my goodness these college girls can be very rowdy" and managed to deliver what I thought was a pretty competent message. Around 20 ladies stood up at the end when asked if there were any there who planned to go into full-time missions, though I'm sure most or all already planned to do so before I began. Hopefully some will have been impacted by what I said and will remember this night as long as I will.
When I first heard I was speaking to the students of one floor in a residence hall, it was going to be 60 female students. Then I found out a little later two other floors of the same hall didn't have speakers so I would be addressing all three floors of hall 25 -- a total of 182 girls. Even then I wasn't fazed. No, I was fine until I walked into the lecture hall at 9:45. I felt like I had just walked into the women's bathroom. Now I have never been in the women's bathroom, but I imagine it would be like this. Every single eye in the room was on me and I think I could hear them all thinking, "What is he doing here?!?!" (Note to my wife: I cannot actually hear women's thoughts.) They can't have been shocked though because I'm sure they were told they'd be having a guy speaking. They may, however, have been surprised to see that I was not 50, since just about every other agency rep here is.
Anyway, I did feel alternately like:
a) I was sitting in on a giant sorority meeting
b) I was the last living man on the planet
and c) I was bravely going where no man had gone before.
I think I just earned the right to be called a true "pioneer". Honestly, I was a little afraid. But I gathered my wits about me and addressed them, feeling very much like I'd stepped into a time warp and wound up back in 1950 (i.e. man speaks, women listen). Part of me wanted to call one of the women in the front row up, hand her my notes and insist that she speak instead while I sat in her seat or went outside to have a cigar and belch a few times.
But I made it through, got past the "dear Lord what am I doing here?" and the "my goodness these college girls can be very rowdy" and managed to deliver what I thought was a pretty competent message. Around 20 ladies stood up at the end when asked if there were any there who planned to go into full-time missions, though I'm sure most or all already planned to do so before I began. Hopefully some will have been impacted by what I said and will remember this night as long as I will.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Bad Airport, Bad Day or Bad Mood?
This has been a very schizophrenic weekend.
Saturday started out well. I ran my first 5K race and finished in a respectable 30:25 (or something like that; pictures are coming soon). This is respectable because I just started running again last month and had only run that far about a week ago. In college I was really fast, but that was 9 years and about 50 pounds ago, so my standards are a wee bit lower.
The day kind of went south from there. I went to a conference in Orlando called Fusion. I must admit now that my primary motivation for going wasn't to minister to the attendees but rather to hear David Crowder Band and Voddie Baucham. So through a series of what must be karmic misfortunes, I wound up hearing about a half of one song and about two minutes of Voddie's talk. And on top of that, only had about one meaningful conversation with an attendee (my secondary motivation for going). I spent most of the morning and early afternoon tracking down a TV and DVD player for our lunch session, which, on a positive note, was very well attended.
I got home mid-afternoon feeling rather tired (I got up at 5:45 on account of the morning race), but had to pack and prepare to leave for my two-week Virginia odyssey. I got to the airport at 6:30 for my 8:10 flight ... which turned into a 10:30 flight thanks not to bad weather, but to mechanical problems (travel frustration #1). Fortunately, Naomi came back to the airport and took me home so I wasn't sitting in the terminal for four hours. Nevertheless, I wasn't in the best of moods when I landed at about quarter past midnight at Dulles (frustration #2).
Wanting to make up time as fast as possible I was the first one off the plane and made my way quickly to the baggage claim -- only to discover that Dulles uses gigantic buses to transport people between the terminal and the baggage claim area, and my bus was going to wait for all the people on my plane, and all the crew, and the people cleaning the terminal and the Easter bunny (frustration #3). When we finally did get to baggage claim we waited about a half an hour before someone discovered our bags were going in circles around another carousel a couple carousels down from where they told us to wait (frustration #4). So now it's about 1am and I'm up past my bedtime.
It may be the grumpiness talking, but at this point I'm pretty sure Dulles is the worst airport in the United States. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for it since Die Hard 2 was a very good movie, but no more. I fly out of Raegan on the way back so we'll see if that's a suitable alternative.
Surprisingly enough I got my rental car without incident and then drove the 45 minutes to my best friend's place in Dumfries in a sporty two door Chevy something-or-other. I arrived at 2am and got a whole four and a half hours of sleep and roughly 30 minutes with my best friend before having to leave for Richmond.
It's amazing (yawn) that I made it (yawn) through the whole day (yawn). But I had help: my friend Dan shared his Costa Rican coffee with me and I discovered that there is coffee in the world that I actually enjoy! So perhaps coffee will be more than just a wake-up drug for me -- if I move to Costa Rica. I also got a nice nap in the afternoon after church yesterday.
Last night I slept almost nine and a half hours, so I'm feeling much better. Well, I'll have to get to yesterday's odd events later. It's time for lunch.
Saturday started out well. I ran my first 5K race and finished in a respectable 30:25 (or something like that; pictures are coming soon). This is respectable because I just started running again last month and had only run that far about a week ago. In college I was really fast, but that was 9 years and about 50 pounds ago, so my standards are a wee bit lower.
The day kind of went south from there. I went to a conference in Orlando called Fusion. I must admit now that my primary motivation for going wasn't to minister to the attendees but rather to hear David Crowder Band and Voddie Baucham. So through a series of what must be karmic misfortunes, I wound up hearing about a half of one song and about two minutes of Voddie's talk. And on top of that, only had about one meaningful conversation with an attendee (my secondary motivation for going). I spent most of the morning and early afternoon tracking down a TV and DVD player for our lunch session, which, on a positive note, was very well attended.
I got home mid-afternoon feeling rather tired (I got up at 5:45 on account of the morning race), but had to pack and prepare to leave for my two-week Virginia odyssey. I got to the airport at 6:30 for my 8:10 flight ... which turned into a 10:30 flight thanks not to bad weather, but to mechanical problems (travel frustration #1). Fortunately, Naomi came back to the airport and took me home so I wasn't sitting in the terminal for four hours. Nevertheless, I wasn't in the best of moods when I landed at about quarter past midnight at Dulles (frustration #2).
Wanting to make up time as fast as possible I was the first one off the plane and made my way quickly to the baggage claim -- only to discover that Dulles uses gigantic buses to transport people between the terminal and the baggage claim area, and my bus was going to wait for all the people on my plane, and all the crew, and the people cleaning the terminal and the Easter bunny (frustration #3). When we finally did get to baggage claim we waited about a half an hour before someone discovered our bags were going in circles around another carousel a couple carousels down from where they told us to wait (frustration #4). So now it's about 1am and I'm up past my bedtime.
It may be the grumpiness talking, but at this point I'm pretty sure Dulles is the worst airport in the United States. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for it since Die Hard 2 was a very good movie, but no more. I fly out of Raegan on the way back so we'll see if that's a suitable alternative.
Surprisingly enough I got my rental car without incident and then drove the 45 minutes to my best friend's place in Dumfries in a sporty two door Chevy something-or-other. I arrived at 2am and got a whole four and a half hours of sleep and roughly 30 minutes with my best friend before having to leave for Richmond.
It's amazing (yawn) that I made it (yawn) through the whole day (yawn). But I had help: my friend Dan shared his Costa Rican coffee with me and I discovered that there is coffee in the world that I actually enjoy! So perhaps coffee will be more than just a wake-up drug for me -- if I move to Costa Rica. I also got a nice nap in the afternoon after church yesterday.
Last night I slept almost nine and a half hours, so I'm feeling much better. Well, I'll have to get to yesterday's odd events later. It's time for lunch.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Downers on the Web
What a bummer. I just found out that someone beat me out in registering the url "www.ilovethedowner.org". At least the person that beat me out is also John Downer, and not some other Downer. This John Downer has done some pretty gnarly work in the music video industry (he worked on Weird Al Yankovic's hilarious "White and Nerdy" video, along with Hoobastank's "The Reason" and quite a few others) and seems to be fairly well travelled too. Maybe it's gone to his head ... I mean you can't pick that web address yourself! Now if your wife/girlfriend/mother/best friend/employees establish that site, then you're on to something.
Makes me wonder if www.downer.com is already taken. ... yep: Downer & Co. Their website says, "Established in 1975, Downer & Company is widely considered the firm of choice for middle-market, corporate cross-border mergers & acquisitions." I was established in 1976 and am widely considered to be the best recruitment coordinator currently on staff at PIONEERS. Strange coincidence. If I ever cease to be that though, I wonder if they'd hire me at Downer & Co. Would my name make up for my total lack of experience in their field of business? Stay tuned for a future blog. Hey, they're based in Boston! I wonder if they have season tickets to the Sox?
Changing gears a bit, www.downer.org is the home for DNA: The Discipleship Network of America. Now we're talking! Not seeing an obvious connection with the last name though ... must probe further. Seems to be the ministry of a guy named Phil Downer ... and he was speaking in Sarasota just last month. Bummer, I missed him. He's an itinerant speaker/teacher it seems, so if I should go that route it seems I'll need to find another website or join forces with him. It'd be Downers on Parade. The people would come in droves I'm sure.
www.johndowner.com is taken, but nothing's up. Come on, man, use it or lose it!
Well, there still do appear to be some fine choices: www.johndowner.org, if I'm a non-profit, www.johndowner.net, if I'm not. www.johndowner.gov if I become my own incorporated state (highly unlikely) or www.ilovejohndowner.com if I get really full of myself (please stop me if I do).
But for now, we'll just stick to the blog and save the mass media and marketing for another day.
P.S. Tip of the day: trying googling your name sometime. Can lead to great fun, unless you have a really unusual or really common name. Then it's a bit boring.
Makes me wonder if www.downer.com is already taken. ... yep: Downer & Co. Their website says, "Established in 1975, Downer & Company is widely considered the firm of choice for middle-market, corporate cross-border mergers & acquisitions." I was established in 1976 and am widely considered to be the best recruitment coordinator currently on staff at PIONEERS. Strange coincidence. If I ever cease to be that though, I wonder if they'd hire me at Downer & Co. Would my name make up for my total lack of experience in their field of business? Stay tuned for a future blog. Hey, they're based in Boston! I wonder if they have season tickets to the Sox?
Changing gears a bit, www.downer.org is the home for DNA: The Discipleship Network of America. Now we're talking! Not seeing an obvious connection with the last name though ... must probe further. Seems to be the ministry of a guy named Phil Downer ... and he was speaking in Sarasota just last month. Bummer, I missed him. He's an itinerant speaker/teacher it seems, so if I should go that route it seems I'll need to find another website or join forces with him. It'd be Downers on Parade. The people would come in droves I'm sure.
www.johndowner.com is taken, but nothing's up. Come on, man, use it or lose it!
Well, there still do appear to be some fine choices: www.johndowner.org, if I'm a non-profit, www.johndowner.net, if I'm not. www.johndowner.gov if I become my own incorporated state (highly unlikely) or www.ilovejohndowner.com if I get really full of myself (please stop me if I do).
But for now, we'll just stick to the blog and save the mass media and marketing for another day.
P.S. Tip of the day: trying googling your name sometime. Can lead to great fun, unless you have a really unusual or really common name. Then it's a bit boring.
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