Taxi Trouble

My readers from outside the tri-state area are probably unaware of it but there's been something of a crime spree happening here. No, it's not a general danger for the pedestrian on the street, it's a targeted aggression. The victims are taxi drivers. Someone is holding medallion cabbies at gunpoint and robbing them of the money collected from their daily fares. These guys provide an honest (usually) service to tourists and locals and now they have to watch their backs (literally) for the gun toting miscreant in the back seat.

It's always a challenge to help people get around. Medallion cabs once were a unique fixture in Manhattan, but now they are picking up fares at locations in Brooklyn Heights and on Queens Blvd. People with no other means of getting around need these guys to get where they need to go.

In some ways, Ascension Church is like a spiritual yellow cab. People in Forest Hills need to find a way to God and we help them to get there with the Gospel. Sure we don't have people sitting in Sunday service saying, "Hey buddy, take me to the Kingdom and step on it!" If so, our response could well be, "Sure, hop in, oh and by the way, the fare's been paid already."

SAVE THE DATES

For my Mississippi readers, I'll be paying you a visit in the middle of July. I'm looking at the third week, July 15-21. I'll be contacting many of you to firm up the plans, but I've got a taste for some catfish and cant wait to see some old friends.

Baseball on my Blog

It's come to my attention that the baseball season is a quarter over and I've yet to mention it on my blog. If you visited this space with any regularity last Spring and Summer you know of my little sermonettes about how Ascension Church had a similar dream as the New York Mets... to build a winning team in Queens. I can only carry that kind of metaphor just so far.

If I want to get baseball on my blog, I need to find other illustrative pontifications a bit beyond the basics. Here's my attempt.

In the late 1950s National League Baseball left New York City for the West Coast. The Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles, while the Giants left East Harlem for San Francisco. For a few years there was but one team in New York, and a large fan-base that wanted nothing to do with the Bombers in the Bronx.

Enter the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, the Mets. The concept was born from tradition and the major contributions of a Lawyer named William Shea. In the earliest days of professional baseball, one of the first teams was the New York Metropolitan Nine from which this team would derive. Team colors were a combination of Giants and Dodger elements. The orange color and NY insignia were pulled fromthe old Giants (team colors were black and orange), while the royal blue was taken from the Brooklyn Bums (Dodgers to the non locals). In short order a stadium was planned for Flushing Meadows Park in Queens to coinside with the World's Fair.

Building its future on a strong sense of the past, the Metropolitans (as one local Sportscaster prefers to call them) were born. From the beginning, the Mets built their existance on the past.

That continues with the current construction of Citi Field, a ballpark modeled after Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, the former home of the Dodgers (and frequent Summer hang out of my Father when he was a kid).

As Christians, we understand the Gospel as not siting outside of a historical context. Our faith is supported by the facts and our hope for the future is strongly rooted in the past. Ascension Church endeavors to communicate that appropriate juxtoposition of the ancient and modern that not only defines our everyday lives, but forms our hope for the future.

Did this baseball illustration work. If not, I'll find other ways to get my beloved Amazin's into my blog this season. Turdt me on this one.

Traffic and Transit

On my morning drive I listen to an all news radio station which features traffic reports every 10 minutes. "The time now is 7:41. Time for traffic and transit on the ones," is the general introduction. This is the portion of the broadcast to which I pay the closest attention. To me the traffic and weather reports are the most useful parts of any news program because they represent news that is more than simply information, it actually contains information I can use and may determine some of my own actions.

When I hear stories about a city councilman's crusade to remove electric currents from manhole covers or a 92 year old Brooklyn woman winning the lottery, I'm genuinely interested, but I keep right on driving. However, if I hear that traffic is backed up on the Grand Central Parkway due to an overturned SUV on the exit ramp to the Clearview Expressway, I change the route I'm on and look for an alternative.

Many people approach Christian teaching like they do a basic news report. It's interesting, but it doesn't do anything to me. I prefer to think of the Gospel in terns of a traffic report. Just as the purpose of the traffic report is to let you know if the road you're on will get you where you need to go, the Gospel is more than information, it tends to show you that the road you're traveling, in spite of your familiarity with it, may be the wrong way to go. The biggest difference is that, while we still may get to work without listening to the traffic report, we are all on the wrong road without the Gospel.

Speaking and Tweaking

It was my turn to do the Alpha talk tonight, and it went pretty well. Attendance has fluxuated, but it hasn't been disappointing because we know that God is bringing to people to the course that He wants there. It wasn't a sermon, it was simply a talk aimed at generating discussion. There's a great deal of apologetics in running this Alpha Course, something that is an important discipline here in Queens (well, anywhere actually, but the need for it in Queens is pronounced).

By the way, this isn't a picture of me speaking at Alpha. It was actually taken last summer when I was a guest speaker at a Korean church retreat in Pennsylvania, but I don't have many pictures of me speaking, so I thought I'd use it here.

In any event, Alpha continues into June, other ministries continue to develop and our opportunities are coming at us rapid fire. It's all I can do to get a decent night's sleep. I know pastors (and aspiring pastors like me) are often accused of bring workaholics and to some extent, that's true, but there is something to be said for how much work there is to be done. Between the workaholic disposition and the volume of projects going, only God's grace can bring us through. The Gospel has amazing power.

Please keep my boss, Michael and his family in your prayers. His father is quite ill and Michael is taking on a lot of additional responsibilities on top of all the work he's doing for Ascension Church. Needless to say he and his family are under a lot of pressure and facing a lot of challenges these days and I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers.

Lastly, tomorrow is my mother's birthday and I would be remiss to not mention it here. I've had the blessing of a loving mother all these years and God has been most gracious to me for giving me such a wonderful mother. I also know she reads my blog, so, "Happy Birthday, Mom."

A Super Hero from Queens

No, I wouldn't be so bold as to refer to myself this way. I'm talking about Spiderman (Peter Parker), the Queens boy who survives a nasty spider bite to become an elusive crime fighter in red and blue spandex.

I don't look too good in spandex, nor do I see my position here as an opportunity to fight crime. For a big city, crime isn't too bad here, but the Gospel is still elusive in much of the five boroughs. It's the Gospel that brought me here and keeps me here and it's not a result of a spider bite, rather it's by the death and resurrection of Jesus that brings it all about.

Actually, the real reason I mention Spiderman here is that I'm taking the boys in the Youth Group to see Spiderman 3 tomorrow night. It should be a lot of fun.

Saturday, Ascension brings in a new outreach under the sponsorship of The Indie Society, our ministry to singles and married couples without children. We're calling it "Post-Modern Jive," and its a dance outreach which will instruct people in a simple and enjoyable style of dance that can be enjoyed to a variety of musical styles. We hope this could be a great outreach to a major group of the local demographic of central Queens: young profesional, singles or married without children. It too should be a load of fun. Please pray for this event on Saturday night.

Until our Alpha Course is completed, I may begin posting here on Wednesday evenings to avoid staying up later than I should on a weeknight. I'm not sure about it yet, but if you see a post here after next Wednesday, you'll know what I decided to do.