if you can read this, you're literate

know what this is?



it's our new jeep.

i bid on it on ebay and won.

this means i'm selling the truck. so if you're one of those cousins that always calls me to help move you out of your boyfriend's apartment, i can't help you now.

we pick it up tomorrow in machesney park, il. i've wanted a wrangler since i was in high school. and now we're finally getting one.

the best part... NO MORE CAR PAYMENTS.

yeah, i had to get a car with a LOT more miles, but it'll be worth it in the longrun not to have to make payments on something. i can't wait to be free of car payments. it will be a great weight lifted, and we'll be able to do awesome stuff.

here's a quick list off the top of my head of what we could do with our extra $266 a month...

money to africa
money to kids
money to african kids
money to single moms
money to xxxchurch
plates that match
getting rid of more debt
...to help kids in africa.

i'm sure we'll think of more, but for now, that's what i'm thinking.

anyone up for a muddy ride?!?

Posted by erichapman at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

everyone have a merry christmas!

...no matter where you are!

Posted by erichapman at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments

this is late, but i mentioned it briefly in another post. i didn't want to overlook it b/c i feel like i got something to say, and like any other blogger, i assume people want to read it.

last weekend, sarah, jamin, and i took a half day to go to grandville, mi to hear rob bell speak. holly was a bum and already had the ENTIRE DAY off work.

we drove through every tiny little town on 24 between here and indiana to avoid the tollways and chicago/gary, in traffic.

it would have been quicker to go through chicago at rush hour than go from 55-40 and back again about 80 times.

we got to hear rob bell's "everything is spiritual" again. holly and jamin got to hear it for the first time, and i'm glad i let holly take notes on my mac. now i have a copy of notes. (i'm not a note taker).

there were two showings that night... one at 7 and one at 9:30. we had to go to the 9:30 one b/c we didn't realize that there was a time zone change from here to mi. oh well, not a big deal.

that's why we ended up at cousin jay's around midnight (or was it 1???). but that was the coolest/creepiest drive of my life, i think.

he warned us of a ton of deer, then we drive down this curvy road in the pitch black that's lined with trees. i thought it was the black forest or fangorn forest (LOTR!) or somewhere equally as scary.

we found out in the morning that the trees just lined the road and that we weren't driving through the thickest forest i had ever seen a road pass through.

anyway, michigan was the highlight of the trip. to much nature stuff to put into one post... oh, except that i did a rope swing out over the lake at jay's parent's house and almost broke in half. almost broke mySELF in half... not the swing. i thought i was going to die, but everyone else laughed, so it was worth it.

ikea is awesome, by the way.... sarah and i had never been there, but holly and jamin could probably drive there in the dark. they were our tour guides. we got new sheets for our bed (don't worry... we're not opening them until we're married) and sarah got gifts for her whole team at work for under 25 dollars! we'll be back there when we get a house.

but as always with great friends, the drive there and back was probably even better than everything else. if we had more vacation time next year, we'd be taking more road trips with holly and jamin.

...as long as they'll let us.

Posted by erichapman at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

ok, ok... i planned it that way... my last 4 posts have been about a specific people or group of people for a reason.

baca, jay, the montagues, and barry are all examples of christ like role models for me.

i want to be more like these people all the time.

and, to go one step further, none of these people are directly connected to a religious affiliation.

i don't think any of them even go to church.

yet they're better examples of christ than some christians i know.

i won't mention names, but there are definitely people i've come across in my life at church or at work or wherever that claim to be a christian, yet don't lead the life jesus did. they're not even trying.

i used to work with this woman at bergner's (again... no names) that would call security every time a non-white person would come into the store. and then she'd go back to telling stories about how she watched the brats on wed. nights at church.

sorry, but i can't take someone in a long skirt with a bun that seriously. i just think of nuns.

i worked there for over a year, and the only people i ever saw steal anything (the cops arrested them at our store) were a couple, man and woman, age around 40. if i had to stereotype them into a description... i'd say they had lived in pekin their whole lives.

my point is this; i'm careful of whom to make my examples. they're not always going to be your typical christians.

God spoke the universe into existence...

don't you think he can use anyone (including non christ followers) to influence your life?

don't blow people off just b/c they don't fit into your description of christ like.

we were all created in his image.

Posted by erichapman at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

i started a new job on monday this week. they stuck me with this dude named barry doak.

and he's totally cool, man.

he loves bon jovi (he's got a picture of him on his desk. the OLD bon jovi... you know, weird sports jacket with the sleeves rolled up, big hair, and a pink derby), marilyn monroe, and aerosmith.

he's about 36, so i can see where those hair bands would be cool to him.

but you just can't get this dude down, man. he's got customers calling him all day long pissing and moaning about not getting parts, but it doesn't even phase him!

i thanked one of our bosses for putting me with him because i totally want to be like that when people yell at me. just go along with it, nod your head and say, "yep, i hear ya. i know... i know." when people are basically rippin' him a new one, he's totally on their side. he tells them he'll do what he can to get them their part, and then their happy.

he was telling one lady today about an engineering freeze on a part and she cut him off and said, "I CAN READ!" so he just did what he could and overrode the grief on her order and when she was hanging up she told him to "have a blessed weekend."

still, he wasn't bent out of shape. just kinda laughed it off.

it's kinda funny....
i wanna be more like the guy who's getting yelled at rather than the lady telling people to have a blessed weekend...

Posted by erichapman at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

i know this awesome family... they're willing to open up their home to anyone and treat them like they're family.

they'll take you out to dinner.
they'll buy you drinks.
they love each other.
they always side with their family.
they just work as a family.

i've been to a party at their house where someone just walked up with a bowl of fruit salad, walked around for a minute, and left. she was at the wrong party... but i swear if she had stuck around, she would have been having frozen red, white, and blue drinks with everyone else like it was nothing.

my family has never been this tight. the montagues argue like any other family, but they stick together like every family should. i would recommend the world famous 4th of july party at the montague household to anyone.

where else are you gonna go to watch old people drink???

Posted by erichapman at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

i met the coolest dude two weekends ago. it's sarah's cousin jay. he was the cool one.

when everyone was was grilling me and kevin (that's sarah's sister's fiancee') about where we work, what we do, where the honeymoons are, where we're going to live... bla bla bla, jay was the one who would jump in the middle and make a joke so the attention was off of us.

he even came right out and said, "jeeze... why don't you put a giant spotlight right over here!" but in a funny way.

then it turns out he lives near kalamazoo, mi. and we were going to grand rapids, mi the next weekend. he offered for us to stay at his house. he even offered to let holly and jamin stay at his house with us after never having met them.

so that's exactly what we did. we went to see rob bell preach a rerun of "everything is spiritual" and then we drove 40 miles south to jay's house. we got there around midnight (or was it 1??? there was a time change somewhere in there...) and he was asleep on the couch.

we walked right in anyway and he ended up waking up while the four of us tried to sneak into his guest bedrooms. he was totally happy to see us even though he said we "scared the shit out of him."

he ended up giving us the tour of his 1882 farmhouse on 20 acres and asking if we wanted a beer or to play boardgames.

the next day he gave us the tour of hickory corners, mi (an awesome little lake community) and took us out to breakfast. the whole time, i just remember jamin saying, "we're moving to michigan!"

we pretty much had to eat and run, but he made us feel welcome. like family. you can just tell this guy is himself no matter where he goes. he's never fake. he always feels very genuine.

of all the cool people i've come across so far, jay's probably in the top 5.

Posted by erichapman at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments

i'm a pbs junkie. i'll admit it. no, i don't watch antique roadshow (often). but i do love nature, nova, and bob ross.

every once in a while, they have these documentaries that aren't part of their regular line-up.

this particular one that i'm in the middle of right now is about love.

they have rabbis and doctors and psychologists and reverends say a piece about love, and then they have an example. there was a family where the mom raised three boys by herself and then they all were deployed to iraq.

then more opinion on love by some smart people or some think tank members...

and then this example...

baca

Bikers Against Child Abuse

every member i saw was your typical biker.
pony tails
tattoos
leather vests
fu man chu mustaches
you get the idea.

but most of them were abused as children, also. they had one guy they were interviewing and he was narrating a story of a baca adoption.

there was a girl who was about 13 years old. she had been experimenting with drugs and alcohol. she was brave enough to be in this interview and said that once she started using, her mind wasn't clear and she just kept using more.

then one day some older boys (i'm guessing post high school from the sound of it) propositioned her and took her to a hotel and, in her own words, "sexually harassed" her.

somewhere in here, baca got the call.

a guy that goes by the name of "torque" is the president. he had flyers made up (they looked really good!) and literally dozens of bikers saddled up and covered the neighborhood where there was a lot of prostitution and drug use that was the last known whereabouts of this girl. they rode to every gas station, hotel, park, and basically any public place handing out the flyers.

eventually, they found her sitting on a curb crying. the documentary showed torque at the actual curb with his bike where they found "daredevil."

that's her nickname because she got adopted into a new family (the one she came from was abusive) and baca gave her a vest with a warning patch on the back. they gave her a teddy bear that every member of this particular chapter hugged. and they gave her a family.

see, she was lost and then baca saved her life. those are her words. and no one messes with a baca child (that's what the patch says). her past doesn't matter. these people left work, stopped cleaning the house, skipped softball games... they dropped what they were doing to ride all night long to find one lost child.

her new nickname is her new identity with her new family and her brothers and sisters are the community of baca members. she used to be one person, but now she's changed. she's a whole new person.

thanks to the love of one group of bikers, someone can experience salvation.

Posted by erichapman at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments

here's an awesome list of great new year's resolutions.

i like how some of them are serious (the first one is my favorite serious one) and then there are joking ones like, "call your mom."

to that i say... "i'll call your mom..."

Link

Posted by erichapman at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

walker, texas ranger might be in syndication, but he still isn't afraid to sound off about the dangers of babies turning gay.

i read this article after megan blogged about it.

it might not have the same advertisement on the side if you click the link, so i'll just provide it to you here...

Posted by erichapman at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments

while that original controversial post may have seemed like i've got something against northwoods, i don't.

in fact, it's quite the opposite.

i still recommend northwoods and all its ministries to anyone looking for a church.

yeah, i had a bad experience there. big deal. there are literally thousands of others that are having outstanding experiences there all the time. and i believe it's really God working there.

i also have to point out, i met my hot wife-to-be there...

...so how could i NOT like that church???

(yeah, that's her picture. you can tell even at age 2 that she was going to be a knock-out)

so like i said, just because i don't feel that it's the church for me, i don't feel that it's a bad place. on the contrary. i think it's a place that God has used to touch countless lives, and continues to use to touch countless more.

go to church this sunday. try northwoods if you haven't already. it's a great place full of amazing people.

Posted by erichapman at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

yeah, one more leadership blog. i swear, if you have a long pause on blogging, once you start again, it spills out all over.

don't hold it in, man. just blog.

ok, here's the meat of this post...

sarah was just telling me about someone in a staff meeting one time pointed out that "this church focuses on leadership a lot, and that's good because God has given some gifts of leadership, but he's also given some gifts of servitude."

i have to change that a little...

God has given SOME to lead. and God has given MOST to serve.

and i agree, anyone in a leadership role should focus and be taught constantly on how to be a leader and how to be a BETTER leader. after all, i'm the overly critical servant. i want my leader to keep improving. i want my leaders to focus on their skills as a leader.

but i think this lady's point was that while focusing on leadership is an excellent attribute, there needs to be more focusing on serving.

especially for leaders.

remember how i mentioned that my boss doesn't know how to do my job? it's because she hasn't humbled herself to a servant's level. she's above that and therefore can't reach her people.

leadership training is great. and while i'm know part of of leadership training is focused on serving, it needs to be the center point. because, after all, the point of a leader is to get the serving done.

and how can a leader get a job done that he/she isn't a master at doing in the first place?


i want my leader to be the best servant.

Posted by erichapman at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

this is the advice i get most regarding my opinion of leadership.

"you're so harsh on leadership. no one's perfect. of course you won't be completely satisfied with everyone."

to these naysayers, i have this to say...

if no one is perfect, and i will never have a perfect person to follow, then why shouldn't i question them?

i know going into any leadership/follower relationship that neither one of us is perfect, so why not push back if something doesn't feel right?



just one more facet of the leadership issue.

Posted by erichapman at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

i've made it pretty obvious.

i think there's too much focus on leadership, and not enough focus on serving.

i could sum it up by linking to some scripture on biblegateway. but i won't. i've got more to say than a quote, and more to grapple with than one idea. and if i'm ever going to get comfortable with leadership in any form, i'm going to need to talk it out.

and if you're offended by any of this... fine. leave a comment if it will help. i want feedback. i want other points of view. but i want constructive criticism.

here's my big issue... i won't follow someone blindly.

i've got a problem with authority. i know this. i've always had it. i just don't like being bossed around. it's for a lot of reasons, really. at work, i feel that the leadership that is chosen is very often undeserving and underqualified. i'll go out on the cockiness limb and say that i have more knowledge than a lot of the supervisors where i work. my boss right now has no idea what i do. how do you follow that?

also, i've always been fed the "i'm in charge and THAT'S why" line too many times. it was my mom's favorite phrase growing up. ever been pulled over by that officer who just seems like a jerk? ever wonder why he treats you like you're a nobody? because he can. someone has given him the power to take up your time.

for whatever reason, i am extremely critical of whom i follow. i'm extremely skeptical of whom i follow.

i refuse to follow someone out of sheer blind faith.

it's a human thing. everyone does it. but yeah, i consider myself a christ follower. but if you consider yourself a christ follower, then i want you to really think about this next question...

why did you choose jesus? why are you choosing to follow him?

that was a choice. he doesn't make you. you get to decide.

do you follow him because he's a bad leader? do you follow him because he's a pretty decent guy?

or do you follow him because of what he's done for you? did you decide to dedicate your entire life to someone whom you believe is someone you would like to be?

now, here comes the wormhole...

i don't feel that i've found a leader i can follow yet (with the exception of christ).


why is that?


i have to wonder this... if i had experienced a great leader, would i follow him/her completely?

as honestly as i can answer, i have to say...

...probably not.

i'm always going to be skeptical. i'm always going to question someone's authority.

but i challenge anyone to prove to me that that is wrong. what if i just followed the first person with authority that came along? that's blindly following leadership. that's not questioning decisions. that's eating whatever is fed to you...

for now, i refuse to follow something that isn't up to my standards. for now, i hold that my standards are where i want them to be.

i know that i will always have a problem sooner or later with the authority over me. but i've factored that into my standards. i have no expectations of perfect leadership.

i just don't expect leadership to react negatively when i question them.
in fact, that's my highest standard.

i refuse to blindly follow a leader who won't encourage questioning his/her authority.

Posted by erichapman at 8:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

wow, i've never seen people get something so wrong.

i have to clear this up...

my last post was a POSITIVE post.

maybe it got lost in the other stuff, but i was saying that i had this bad experience with something, but since i hadn't burned the bridge (that was never my intention), i am still able to go to events and happenings. and since this bad experience, i've had some time. i don't hate northwoods. i never said that. i'm left with a bad taste in my mouth, and it's going away.

i actually sat in the chair thinking about the fun times i had. i know there are great people there, and i was missing them.

the waste of time i was talking about was the time wasted NOT laughing together and have a good time together. the time wasted was NOT the time i spent at the party. i enjoyed the party. i just know i could have enjoyed it more.

so, thanks to everyone who took a bad situation and made it worse.

i would say i appreciate your comments, but it's apparent you just want to voice your opinion without considering mine.

i'll try not to let this soil the taste in my mouth that's going away.

well... it was going away.

Posted by erichapman at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

i just got back from the northwoods christmas party (the church, not the mall). i was able to go since sarah's on staff there.

they had good food, a magician (very crappy jokes, but the tricks were good. just very drawn out. he was able to complete 5 tricks in a 7 hour time frame), awesome dessert and a ton of people.

but, i have to be honest and say that i still have a bad taste in my mouth from that church. i know it's a great church, and the people that go there are probably happy for it. but it was just some of the things that were said that rubbed me the wrong way. sometimes, the way people say just isn't what my experience there was like.

plus, the whole thing was called the northwoods leadership christmas party.

why does it have to have that word in there? 'leadership' sarah's not a "leader," yet she was invited. it's a STAFF christmas party. the staff needs the leaders, and the leaders need the staff. why do the big wigs with the bigger paychecks get all the recognition?

maybe it's just because i come from a corporate background where i feel the leadership is corrupt and full of themselves, but i am very skeptical of anywhere that puts that much emphasis on leadership.

have you noticed how many times i've said the word "leadership" here so far? it's 8. (in one form or another). and that's the point... it's drilled into you. you're brainwashed to think that if you're not a leader, you're a nobody. i speak for the corporate world as well as the church.

yet, after all the badmouthing and the sour faces i could make, i still felt like it was a waste of time.

the evening wasn't a waste of time. the awkwardness is.

there were people there i didn't care to talk to. and it was weird to make eye contact with certain tables.

and it just doesn't make sense. we are a means to the same end. i used to have a lot of laughs with people. people on the same team.

but we wasted tonight. tonight where we could have had more laughs and made more memories.

but such is life, i suppose. people come, people go. some people go but you still have to act cordial to them in public even though you really don't feel like it.

maybe someday it won't be that way.

i don't think it has to be.

Posted by erichapman at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments

save the date magnets are expensive.

but this was free.

sort of. i bought the computer, so i guess it's just already paid for.

tell me what you think.
what should be changed, what i should keep.
or should i just delete it and pay someone to do it?

Posted by erichapman at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

ho
lee
cow


i came across this in the church marketing sucks discussion boards on flickr...

what you're looking at it not a photo taken by a camera. it's a painting. a digital painting to be more accurate.

take a look at the technical data for that digipainting. 1.7 gigs of space. if i put that ONE file on my iPod, it would be full. that's it... it's either 2,000 songs... or this one chicago skyline as viewed from a train stop.

just goes to show you how powerful the creative suites from adobe are.




can't wait for CS3... i'm hoping for january! ...but it would still be worth the wait if it were june.

...or july.

Link

Posted by erichapman at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments