The World According To Chris Brewer

Because that’s how old I am today.

Two more years and my insurance rates go down.

A lot of exciting things are going to be happening in my life over the next month and a half. Maybe even over the next few months.

Cris Birch came to my apartment last night and we had a good chat. I told him about my plans for the future and he told me that people at New Horizons were concerned with how I’ve been. We talked for a bit about how God had told me at Senior Camp that New Horizons isn’t the place I need to be, and where I need to go from here forward.

So not only am I gearing up for exciting things in the future, but I’m gearing up for exciting things tonight and tomorrow. Tonight I am going to PGE Park with Brian Taylor to catch a Portland Timbers soccer game. I don’t even know who they’re playing but I’m going anyway.

And tomorrow as most of you know, we’re celebrating my birthday. I had to change the venue though, because the forecast calls for rain over the next two evenings. So we’re meeting at Red Robin on 185th and Evergreen at 7:59 PM. That should be exciting. I’m banking on seeing a few friends there, and by a few I mean about ten.

I haven’t been able to play disc golf over the past couple days and it makes me mad. Where in the world does it rain consistently for a few days in the middle of July? Oregon, that’s where.

I’m outta here. Boom headshot!

Friendly reminder…

Friday night during my birthday dinner at McMenamins (remember, it starts at 7:59 PM and you need to RSVP by tomorrow night), I have a major announcement to make.

Everyone that attends is getting free iPhones!!!

I kid, I kid. But seriously, there will be a major announcement. Some will cheer, some will cry, some will pat me on the back, and others will rebuke me.

Be there and find out what it is I have to share. It’s exciting news. The future indeed does become clearer on July 20, and that’s this Friday of course.

Now sit back and enjoy a hellaciously weird video from Lemon Jelly. The track is called “A Man Like Me,” and it’s one of my favorites. I first listened to it in Iraq and every time I hear it, it gives me memories of a late night in Baghdad standing among deserted streets and abandoned neighborhoods for some reason.

The Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic is going on as planned this weekend. In fact, right now, a bunch of riders are stopped in at Centralia College in Centralia, WA to enjoy some beer, music, etc. and get some shut eye before heading out early tomorrow morning.

And I’m sitting at home typing this to you.

Not two months ago, we rallied up a team of riders from New Horizons Church to ride the STP and raise money for the building fund and multimedia ministry. We planned to drum up support from the local church members and some businesses, and raise over $2,000.

Today, I am no longer a part of New Horizons Church, the STP is half over and a bunch of us guys that were originally going to ride are enjoying the comforts of home or doing whatever else we may be doing. My point is, we’re anywhere BUT the STP.

I’m really disappointed about it too. We only tallied $60 in total donations. None of it came from the local church, and we didn’t get the business support we desired. We had all the riders and volunteers we could want and then some, but we didn’t have any money.

This is a prime example of a problem that plagues the COGOP from what I’ve seen. A lot of people are willing and ready to commit and help in different projects and undertakings with their hands, but they literally won’t put their money where their mouth is.

Another shining example of this is how in the recent past I had asked for reimbursement for travel and equipment expenses to cover the costs of video projects I created for the church. Guess what their reply was?

“You’re doing it for the Lord and He will bless you for it.”

I was too shocked to come up with a good response. The mentality that has plagued the COGOP in our region for years reared its ugly head at me, and I had enough of it.

Can someone please tell me why the church wants people to donate their time to create quality video projects with no financial benefit to the artist, when the standard freelance fee (even under the table) is $40 or more per hour? At the very least, reimburse them for time and materials used. Same with building projects. Or something as simple as driving kids to and from church.

Same thing applies with the STP. Why could the church send kids to camp left and right but not donate $.01 to an event that even though planned on short notice, would have been fun, beneficial to the church financially and physically rewarding to everyone who participated? Needless to say it would have provided a great community outreach for NHC.

The world revolves around money, and as long as churches use resources this world provides (i.e. buildings, cars, etc.), we’re not exempt from that. COGOP can only get away with spending as little money as possible, and maximizing internal resources, as much as possible.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. The COGOP in our region lacks money and it shows. We have fifteen churches in Washington State. Many of them can barely afford to keep the lights on. Need I talk about websites? Only a handful of us have them, and only one or two of those look barely professional and relevant at best.

Let’s be even more honest with ourselves. 98% of the work done in the church could be done better by someone outside it, who would charge a fee for their services and in turn make a better product than anyone inside the church ever could (myself definitely included). There are better video editors outside the church. There are better construction workers outside the church. There are better web designers outside the church.

Get the picture? Why not start bidding for outside services to get a quality product and make the COGOP more marketable. Marketable, as in attractive to Joe Schmo off the street who has never been there or seen what you’re about.

I’m not anti-COGOP and I certainly don’t dislike anyone in the church. I’m simply posting this to make you think.

But I bet we would all agree it’s high time COGOP literally started putting their money where their mouths — and hands — are. The people in our region are the best at volunteering and getting stuff done physically. But if we want the COGOP to grow numerically, we’re going to have to start investing some hard-earned money into it.

A good monetary investment into quality work, large-scale events and the people of the church overall will benefit everyone greatly in the years to come. Don’t be afraid to go into the red financially. If you believe God will bless those who do work for the church, believe it for yourself when it comes time to make a large-scale investment and you have to dip into the reserves a little bit.

What say ye?

Last night, I was driving down Cornell Road about to turn left on 25th toward my apartment, when I get this phonecall. Danielle Parker, the text on my phone read. What a pleasant surprise!

“I see you,” she said.
“Where?” I asked.
“Left turn lane on Cornell, heading onto 25th, of course,” she replied.

And for some reason, I couldn’t find her vehicle anywhere. It bugged the crap out of me. She saw me but I didn’t see her. But it was cool — we kept talking on the phone for awhile, about future plans and we exchanged stories of how each of us have been for the past couple months.

It was good to hear from her again. I’ll see her soon, I’m sure.

I’m looking forward to State Convention. REALLY looking forward to it. It’ll be my first visit to the Tri-Cities in five or so years. Not only that, but it’ll be good to see folks from around the state that I haven’t had much of an opportunity to see or hear from over that same span of time.

For those of you coming to my birthday dinner, remember, it’s at McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro on Friday, July 20 at 7:59 PM. They don’t accept reservations for Friday nights, so if they can’t accommodate all of us then we’ll migrate to Red Robin on 185th and Evergreen. Drop me a line (use the Contact Me form above) if you have any questions.

I’m out like Richie Sexson is nearly every time he steps up to the plate anymore.

Job 4:17-26 in The Message translation:

So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of Almighty God!
True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound;
the same hand that hurts you, heals you.
From one disaster after another he delivers you;
no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you—

In famine, he’ll keep you from starving,
in war, from being gutted by the sword.
You’ll be protected from vicious gossip
and live fearless through any catastrophe.
You’ll shrug off disaster and famine,
and stroll fearlessly among wild animals.
You’ll be on good terms with rocks and mountains;
wild animals will become your good friends.
You’ll know that your place on earth is safe,
you’ll look over your goods and find nothing amiss.
You’ll see your children grow up,
your family lovely and lissome as orchard grass.
You’ll arrive at your grave ripe with many good years,
like sheaves of golden grain at harvest.

I have finished mixing and exporting the audio from the Senior Camp 2007 sermons that I recorded this year. Audio from all four nights of messages are available below (on the first night we watched Facing the Giants so there was no sermon).

You can download each sermon by clicking the titles below.

June 25 - Shelly Symonds: “Joy Stealers”
June 26 - Bishop Don Knoblich: “Heart Conditions”
June 27 - Corey McBee: “The Three Callings”
June 28 - Shelly Symonds: “Passion”

Ah, yes. A Dr. Seuss reference in a story about an occurrence at the Apple Store yesterday.

I was in the middle of a sale involving an attractive young lady and a MacBook Pro. As is standard procedure, I was answering questions regarding the computer. Would it be a good computer for digital photography, is Adobe Photoshop CS3 available, you know, general questions that a creative professional asks when buying a new product that would significantly enhance the way they do their jobs.

Unfortunately this sale took me too close to the kids section. If you haven’t been inside an Apple Store before, imagine a small little desk setup with four iMacs so kids can play games while their parents shop. It’s nifty and annoying at the same time.

Somehow the customer and I ended up talking about our jobs…I explained how I work for Fox 12 as a freelance photographer/editor when I’m not working at the Apple Store. She started to explain a bit about her job and all was going well.

Meanwhile all of a sudden a young girl, I’d say no older than five, stopped playing her game on the iMac, and started running circles around the desk. She proceeded to do this for a couple minutes.

After talking for a bit longer, I was asked what brought me to Oregon. No sooner had I told her that I moved out here for my girlfriend, and now that she’s gone I don’t know what the future holds for me……all of a sudden I hear a little girl’s voice saying “DADDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!” right below me.

I looked down toward the voice and saw that it was a little girl standing there with a huge smile on her face and her hands extended toward me. She really believed I was her father.

As for me, it was a case of awkward timing. Horribly awkward. I didn’t know what to say. Here I’m talking about my ex-girlfriend to an attractive young woman and then some lost little girl comes up and thinks I’m her dad.

It took a couple minutes for the girl to stop staring at me, and then suddenly she figured out I wasn’t her dad after all. The look on the little girl’s face turned from one of absolute joy to one of childlike consternation, and she promptly ran a few more circles around the desk.

Let’s just say that it provided a rather uncomfortable, if not lightly humorous, moment during the better part of my day on the sales floor.

God has very odd ways of humbling us, yes He does.

My God, I’ve been complaining a lot.

I looked at my blog over the past few days and it looks terrible. Not aesthetically, but in terms of content. Entry after entry of “this is wrong with my life” and “I have no money” and “my girlfriend left me so life sucks.”

Good thing my yearlong Bible-reading journey took me straight to the book of Job today.

After reading the first three chapters, I can see somewhat of a similarity between my situation and Job’s. But after thinking about it for a bit, Job had it so much worse and still realized that God never failed him. The man lost almost everything he had, his family members were killed in a series of natural disasters brought on by Satan, and he developed a horrible medical condition that caused boils to fester all over his body. The man was in some serious pain physically, emotionally and spiritually.

One thing though: Job never lost sight of God. In fact, he realized God never failed him. People did left and right — in fact, his friends even told him to curse God and die because his condition was so bad. Job stayed true to God.

I haven’t finished reading the book yet but thank God for Sunday School when I was a kid, because I have it ingrained in my memory that Job was blessed with twice as much as he had before Satan hammered him as much as he could without killing him.

After I thought about all this, I had a good time of prayer. In fact, it was so good that it even provoked more thoughts about my life at this point in time and I just praised the Lord. I thanked Him because I am still blessed with many things. And even though I can’t hear His voice clearly, He’s still speaking to me by closing doors and opening windows for me to crawl through.

God hasn’t failed me. People have left and right, but God hasn’t. He’s the one thing that remains constant in my life. Even in times of great difficulty, I turn to Him because He never lets me down.

After all, I could be in Iraq again, right?

God bless you all tonight.

Remember the post I made imploring the Rainier School District to fire Michael Carter, the wayward and boorish school superintendent???

Well, according to Daily News reports, the Rainier School Board held two closed-door meetings to decide what to do with Carter and the Jr./Sr. High School principal, Jeff Gilbert.

Why Gilbert? He simply spoke up when everyone else was afraid to and confronted Carter in public, not so much in person, but by basically saying after a school board meeting that Carter’s behavior was tearing apart the family atmosphere in the district.

Carter, meanwhile, committed far more egregious acts. Need I recap them?

So what does the school district do? They proceed to slap Carter AND GILBERT (!?!?!?!?!?!) on the wrist. According to the Daily News’ website:

The board, after a five-hour meeting, voted late Thursday to reprimand both men and to spell out specific improvements required for their continued employment. If either Carter or Gilbert violate those terms they can be disciplined or fired immediately. If either man doesn’t accept the board’s terms, he must resign.

And here’s the full text of the School Board’s decision:

“Regarding Mr. Carter, the Board directs its legal counsel and the
Board Chair to draft and place in Supt. Carter’s personnel file a
letter of reprimand as well as a plan of assistance regarding (a)
appropriate communication to all staff, maintaining emotional
control, avoiding intimidation, by plainly stating a position or
opinion but not using derogatory or offensive terminology toward any
staff; and (b) monitoring and managing subordinates who answer
directly to him, demanding adherence to standards and monitoring
performance carefully.

“Regarding Mr. Gilbert, the Board directs legal counsel to draft a
letter of reprimand, subject to approval of the Board Chairman, which
would be placed in Mr. Gilbert’s personnel file and direct the
Superintendent to initiate a plan of assistance that addresses the
concerns set forth in the reprimand including but not limited to
inappropriate and derogatory comments based upon sex, sexual
orientation, disability, or any other protected category; or any
comments or actions constituting sexual harassment as well as any
other areas needing improvement including but not limited to
maintaining an appropriate working relationship with the Superintendent.

“The letters of reprimand and plans of assistance shall make clear
that failure to complete the plan of assistance satisfactorily could
result in non-extension of contract or immediate dismissal, and, in
addition, that even a single instance of continued inappropriate
conduct such as derogatory comments, sexual harassment or other
misconduct could result in immediate dismissal.”

Might as well give Mr. Davies a letter of reprimand for not inviting Carter to his house, for a cookout that wasn’t even sponsored by the school.

It seriously sounds like Carter has a couple of school board members in his back pocket. You try to tell me that it’s a coincidence that the Kash incident wasn’t even brought up in this board motion.

This particular statement regarding the situation between Gilbert and Carter, from Carter’s mouth to the Daily News, should make every caring citizen of Rainier seethe with anger:

Asked if he and Gilbert can work together as the board directed, Carter said the ball is in Gilbert’s court.

“It really is up to Mr. Gilbert,” Carter said. “The problem has not been with me. Mr. Gilbert has to make a decision as to what he wants to do.”

What an absolute moron. The guy has action taken against him by the school board and still he refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part. Incredible. That alone is a quality that should cause Carter supporters to back away. Too proud for his own good.

I feel for you, poor citizens of Rainier, Oregon. Your school board has failed you.