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I’ve sat on this for a couple of days, but I have to write something about all the attention that Valley View Christian Church has gotten in the past week. In case you haven’t heard, Harriet Miers was a member of the church for over 20 years. Since she’s unknown to the national media, they’re looking for anything they can find to write about her. One of the things they’ve discovered is her longtime involvement in church.

There have been numerous articles written about Ms. Miers, and at least 300 have made some mention Valley View. Mostly the articles have just mentioned that she was very involved and that it’s a conservative Evangelical church. There has been one article, however, that focused almost all of its attention on the split that the church has recently gone through. The L.A. Times published an article entitled Church Changes Led Miers to Join a Splinter Group . In it, there are a number of claims made that I would like to address.

The following statements are personal opinions and are in no way official views of the church or its elders.

The first statement that I took offense to was this:

The dispute is one over style, but it has political undertones too. Some of the more traditional members of the church fear that its effort to be more contemporary could dampen its emphasis on social issues, including its teachings against abortion and homosexuality.

While I have no idea how any logically thinking person could make this jump in logic, my biggest issue is that VVCC has always, and will always hold biblical truth as authoritative truth. One of the values in our Mission, Values, Strategies, and Measures that was officially adopted by the church’s elders in April 2005 states this well. It reads, “We value biblical preaching and teaching because the Bible, and the Bible alone, is God’s infallible, inerrant Word in written form and the supreme source of truth in all things.” This is one of the ten values that will shape us in the future as a group of believers. We will not bow down to cultural pressure to ignore parts of the Bible just because they’re difficult or not culturally acceptable. We are a Bible-believing church and we will continue to be no matter what style of worship we have in our weekly worship gatherings.

Another statement that is not correct reads: “Much of the money that had been spent on foreign missionary work, the elders decided, was to be routed back into the church itself.” Let me just give you some statistics. In the annual budget for 2003, missions was alloted 23.4%. In 2004, the percentage was 23.2%. In 2005, missions has been budgeted 25.1%. I’ll let you come up will a conclusion, based on the objective statistics, as to whether or not we’ve turned our backs on missions.

Here is a statement in the article that contained a completely false fact:

[The elders] brought on Barry McCarty, a charismatic and influential minister. This summer, they wanted to make McCarty the church’s senior minister. But according to the church’s bylaws, such a move required a full vote of the congregation. The elders sidestepped the bylaws by creating a new title, naming McCarty “lead” minister. [italics mine]

Not true at all. Barry’s title has been “Preaching Minister” since he was hired and that title has not changed. The elders have asked him to lead the staff for now. This is not unusual. The previous Senior Minister served as Interim Senior Minister for about one and a half years before he was voted on by the congregation. There has to be someone serving as the point person during transitions until a permanent leader is decided on by the elders and then taken to the congregation. They have not violated the by-laws in any way.

There are other statements that upset me, but I’m not going to comment on them. My hope is that level-headed people will be able to see through the rumors and gossip that has now become national news and see that the elders of Valley View are indeed godly, trustworthy people.

It’s been sad to me to see the group of people leave. I will miss many of them dearly. I hope that God can use them to reach people that have never had a relationship with Jesus that would not have come to Valley View otherwise. My prayer for Valley View is that we will be strengthened through these tough times in order to accomplish a great work that I believe he has for us to do.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

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Supreme Court Justice Nominee…

Originally uploaded by Brian and Julie.

It’s really weird when someone you know is now a nationally known public figure. My family has known Harriet Miers for many years now. While I don’t know her very well, I do have a great deal of respect for her. Knowing that you’ve had more than one conversation with someone who could be shaping our country for years to come in a very awe-inspiring thing.

This is a photo of my brother when he recently went to DC and Ms. Miers gave them a personal tour of the White House.

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In the words of Glenn Beck callers, “Awwwhhhh Yeeeaaaahhhh!” Costco has the 360 bundle available to order online. I know I’m going to get it when I read these little words: “Backwards Compatible: top-selling Xbox® games can be played on Xbox 360â„¢, including Halo® 2.”

***UPDATE***
Costco has taken the page down. Don’t know why, but you can see if it’s back up here.

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Kodak has just started shipping a digital camera that is wi-fi enabled. The idea behind it is that you can email the pictures directly from the camera when you’re connected to a wireless internet connection. It is equipped with 4 megapixels of resolution, 3x optical zoom, storage room for up to 1,500 photos and a 3-inch touch screen. This may sound pretty good, but I don’t see it catching on. Firstly, the pictures will be rather large–roughly 1mb per high-res picture. Most email accounts don’t allow very big attachments, so you’d only be able to send a couple of pictures at a time. Secondly, it’s not very hard to plug most camera’s into computer anymore. Usually you either plug in a usb cable to the camera or take the memory card out and put it in a reader.

Basically Kodak is trying to appeal to people’s general laziness. However, I see it being much more of a hassle getting the camera to connect to a wireless network than the normal process digital camera’s do now. My thought is that it’s a big waste of money.

Read the story here.

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I am a little unusual when it comes to the sports teams I like. Ok, I’m a little unusual in more ways than that, but that’s another blog entry. My favorite teams are the Dallas Mavericks (NBA), Texas Rangers (MLB), Dallas Stars (NHL), and the Chicago Bears (NFL). Yes, you read that right, Da Bears. How did I become a local fan of all the Dallas teams, but not with the Cowboys? They’re America’s team! Well, it’s easy to understand with a brief history lesson.

My family moved to Dallas from Sandwich, IL (45 mins from Chicago) in November 1986. The Chicago Bulls at the time were coming off a 30-52 season (1985-86), while the Mavs made the Western Conference Finals the next year (1986-87). I loved the White Sox when we lived up there, but when the Rangers picked up Nolan Ryan, I was hooked. I didn’t really get into hockey until I was in college, so that’s a no brainer. And finally, the Bears won the Super Bowl XX and the Cowboys were mediocre the first few years we lived here. Oh, and don’t forget the Super Bowl Shuffle. Who couldn’t be a Bears fan after that?

Which brings me around to my thoughts on Cowboys fans. I don’t know of a more impatient, fickle bunch of fans on the face of the planet. Anytime something goes wrong, it’s time to change the offense, make a trade for a better Linebacker, switch back to the 4-3 and bench Bledsoe. When something goes right they’re the greatest team known to man and the fans are looking up Super Bowl XL tickets on eBay. I’ve known this for a while, but it was made obvious to me again today when I heard people calling in to ESPN radio suggesting that they either trade Roy Williams or put him at LB. But as Keyshawn was making the touchdown reception to win the game, one of the guys I was with yelled out “greatest team ever” (in a somewhat, but not completely, jokingly tone). I don’t really think it’s a bad thing. It’s just funny. And Rob, don’t book your flight to Detroit just yet.

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I was watching the news earlier today here in Dallas and I can’t help but be amused by how much people freak out. I don’t want to minimize the hurricane. It’s a serious threat on a lot of levels to a lot of people. The news story channel 8 was running was people getting gas here in Dallas and the long lines that people have had. I don’t blame people for wanting to get gas now, with reports of the price jumping to $4/gallon if Rita takes down the refineries. But the reporter said that bottled water was flying off the shelves too.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea to prepare. But come on people. We’re freakin’ in Dallas!!! When the storm hits us, it won’t be a hurricane anymore. At worst, it might be a tropical storm. Even at that, there would only be sporadic flash flooding. Not widespread destruction.

New Orleans was a unique situation. It was surrounded by levies and sat below sea level. I don’t know if it’s possible, or at least likely, for flooding like that to happen at any other major city in the country.

Let’s all just take a deep breath, say a prayer for those who are left at the Gulf Coast, and don’t panic. This is another storm that may or may not cause a lot of damage. Either way, bottled water will be readily available at Costco stores all over Dallas. And that should make us all smile.

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The parents that I mentioned before may not be the worst parents after all. I still don’t think putting your kids in “enclosures” or cages is a good idea. But their intention was to protect the kids from themselves and each other.

Their attorney had this to say:

“The children have been out of control and have caused serious harm to themselves and each other,” said attorney David Sherman, adding that Michael Gravelle built the enclosures to provide the children with a secure space while their parents slept at night.

“The Gravelles love and miss their children and are devastated and brokenhearted with worry, since their children have been ripped away from them,” Sherman said.

“Their motives and intentions were good. They would never harm a child.”

Read the full story.

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