The World According To Chris Brewer

So we all know by now McCain’s pick for vice-president is Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska who has a reputation for being somewhat of a political maverick, and one who broadly appeals to the far right-wing crowd. Of course we’re all surprised at the pick, but should we really be given the circumstances that McCain is facing?

Let’s take a look here:

- It’s a wonderful tactical move. If Obama’s supporters point to her inexperience in the arena of politics, the GOP can point the finger right back at Obama’s inexperience — and it will be impossible for the Dems to give a rational response.

- Far right-wing voters should be satisfied. For all those who were complaining that McCain leans a little too far left for them, Palin should put those fears at ease. She’s staunchly anti-abortion (she didn’t even abort her own baby when she and her husband found that it would have Down’s syndrome and that’s more than admirable), opposes same-sex marriage yet still is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination, and she’s a member of the NRA. Need I say more?

- She’s a bit of a maverick. She upset Murkowski in the GOP governor primary, then went on to defeat the incumbent governor. Take a further look back, and she started humbly, serving on the Wasilla, AK city council, then defeated the incumbent mayor — and from there it snowballed. She became a big-time whistleblower and worked her way up the ladder in Alaska politics…and wa la lee, here she is as the GOP veep candidate.

There are more reasons why Palin is a genius choice for McCain, but overall I believe that this helps restore the credibility of the Republican party to those (such as myself) who believe it has lost touch with its constituents.

Palin just increased McCain’s credibility for President 200%. I see a lot of Mike Huckabee supporters who said they would never vote for McCain, crossing over and voting for him now due to Palin being the VP pick. I can see a lot of right-wing independents voting GOP in this election too because this is simply a refreshing turn of events for the party as a whole.

This goes without saying, but we are in for a real dogfight over the next couple months, folks.

For this version of the 54321, I’m bringing back some old-school Christian tunes I grew up listening to and that I am a big fan of, admittedly.

- The first track is from Mylon & Broken Heart, one of the best Christian rock bands out there. Mylon’s back story is amazing, as he had been in rock bands all over the place, wrecked his body through a nasty drug habit…and later found Christ and decided to share the Word through his music. If you can find some of that music in Christian bookstores, snap it up — it’s good stuff. Tight harmonies, awesome synths, and the guitars wailed…good message too.

- Petra brings us the second track, “Not Of This World.” For those of you wondering, this was recorded when Greg X. Volz fronted the band — I prefer Volz’ vocals to John Schlitt, particularly because he gives the band a Pink Floyd vibe, only with overtly Christian lyrics. Petra was the longest-running rock band in Christian music history and I was saddened to see them hang it up after 33 years in 2005.

- “The Throne” by Michael W. Smith was one of the first Christian songs I can remember hearing on the radio (we received Seattle station KCMS through a translator based in Longview, WA), and I heard it often. Of course it was a radio-edited version as this one is 6-minutes long. I always liked the sound of it and it never struck me until later that this was a full-on worship song. As a side note, Smitty’s album I2(EYE) was one of the best in Christian music history, in my opinion.

- No list of great old-school Christian vibes would be complete without DeGarmo and Key. Their lyrics were simple but they were awesome musicians, and great innovators for the CCM genre at the time. Their song “Six Six Six” was shown and mistakenly banned on MTV for being “too violent” (there is a part in the video where a man representing the Antichrist is on fire), and for that it deserves a spot on The 54321 this week. Dana Key now pastors a church in Tennessee, by the way.

- The fifth track in this week’s installment is for my mom. She always loved listening to Margaret Becker, much to my dismay, on trips to Longview for groceries, etc. The worst was when we would drive to church fifty miles away, and with all of us piled into the family car, she tortured us with non-stop Maggie B. Now that I’ve matured a bit, I can actually appreciate the music I once loathed, and the lyrics portray a good message so I’m including it here. Plus Mom is cool.

Ah, for the good old days of Christian music. These tracks bring back a ton of memories so this is a special 54321 for me and I hope you enjoy it too!

Dateline: August 25, 2008. Location: Springfield, Missouri.

I snapped this photo of the most beautiful sunset I’ve seen since moving to Springfield, and what a sight it was. This was driving west (of course), but behind me to the east was a wall of dark clouds. Just the vibrance of this sunset was so amazing…I could have sworn the sky was on fire.

(Click on the photo to view it in my Flickr album.)

Well, the Olympics are over and just like every other time it ends, I’m sad to see them go. Especially with the wonderful job NBC and Beijing Olympic Broadcasting did to bring the Olympics to everyone via the Internet.

This was the first Olympics that I barely watched on TV. In fact, I made it a point to watch a lot of the sports that never really gained much exposure, such as the triathlon, table tennis, water polo and cycling. It was all pretty exciting, especially the water polo, as the U.S. men’s and women’s team both took home medals — relatively unheard of for our Olympic teams.

Even in sports the U.S. don’t field teams in, such as handball, the excitement and passion were clearly evident. Who wouldn’t be compelled to see Iceland push for its first summer Olympic gold in a final that they heartbreakingly lost to France? What a great game and a great tenacity shown by an Iceland team that seemed to captivate its audience at the handball venue. Amazing stuff.

The best event to watch, as over-hyped as it was, was the men’s gold-medal basketball game. It was as good as advertised, with Spain nearly pulling the upset but the U.S. winning the gold and putting everyone’s mind at ease. It was a win-win for me because I also enjoyed seeing Rudy Fernandez, the new shooting guard for the Portland Trail Blazers — and whoa, did he put on a show for Spain. Did you see him throw down a dunk OVER Dwight Howard? Absolutely sick.

Here’s something crazy, but I’m going to put in an application to volunteer for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. It would be nice to experience them firsthand, and since the Winter games are my favorite I would love to help out the athletes, officials, spectators, anyone any way I can. And since Vancouver is close to home I can visit friends while I am at it.

The Olympics this year were awesome, and I hope that China improves its quality of life for its lesser-fortunate citizens as a result of the exposure it has gained from the world. Watch out America, China is what we were in the 1920s.

To shave, is the answer.

Before and after photos are below.

Oh the humanity. What have I done to myself?

I’m alive but there’s really not much in life to blog about right now…so with that, may I please request prayer for a litany of requests that I don’t have time to type. None of them deal with me, instead they are for friends — some are ill, others are facing hard times, and still others are being attacked on all fronts.

Mostly, please remember my brother Jason in prayer. He’s going through a really rough time right now and he needs the support of the Christian community right now.

Thanks, everyone.

I am visiting Omar, Misty and the family out here in Marshfield right now. Billy Talty and his mom Leslie arrived from Washington state last night — Billy is starting school at Evangel in a week.

I took today off of work to help show Billy around town and hang out for a bit.

Here is a photo of me live on location, with O&M’s son Treyton looking at something odd…

I’m through with Bank of America.

The really sad thing about it is that it is not because of repeated instances of bad customer service — unlike many others whom B of A has lost through the years, mine was based on a solitary incident that exposed my financial information to would-be thieves, and while I can’t place blame on any one person, the person I interfaced with that potentially set the error into motion was a B of A teller here in Springfield.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the Reader’s Digest version of what happened:

I needed to change my banking address from my folks’ house in Republic to the address in which I currently live. I traipsed on over to the downtown Springfield branch of the B of A to do this, and I received prompt service in which my address was changed to reflect where I currently live. I also ordered checks with my new address on them, and asked for them to be shipped to my current address. I then confirmed twice with the teller (in person, I might add; I did not go through the drive thru), and was on my way after being told my checks would arrive in seven to ten business days. Simple enough, right?

Well, last night during choir practice of all times, I get a call from my ex-girlfriend. We stopped speaking after the breakup so I knew it must be serious. I didn’t answer the phone (of course I didn’t answer it) so she left a message, in which she said some checks bearing my name had been mailed to her parents’ address in which I had previously lived. She said her dad simply threw them away.

Now in the first place, it’s bad enough that checks bearing my personal information were sent to the wrong address. It’s QUADRUPLE BAD that they were sent to my ex-girlfriend’s family’s address — an address I changed as soon as I moved to Hillsboro last March. That was three address changes ago. There is no excuse for that.

Anyone who has concerns about their personal information being secure knows the potential ramifications of what could occur because of this stupid error on the part of a B of A employee, who in my opinion needs to take a vacation, be severely reprimanded, and I wouldn’t mind if they were fired. This is someone’s money they have just put at risk.

As a result of this, I am ending all business with Bank of America. My account security has now been breached, I placed a fraud alert on it and have switched my assets over to a local bank.

All unnecessary because of one person’s gross error that breached the security of my entire bank account. I’m abandoning B of A and I will no longer encourage any of my friends or family to do business with them.

Stay away from B of A!

At the International Assembly, the Church of God of Prophecy made a decision to close the Men’s Ministry department. This has a huge reverberating effect on the church as a whole, and it’s actually pretty positive. The reason for the closing is detailed in the letter below, which was posted on the COGOP international website today:

Dear Brothers,

Greetings to you through our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. I am writing to inform you that the Men’s Ministries Department at the International Offices of the Church of God of Prophecy will close as of August 31, 2008. We will publish one final commemorative issue of our newsletter soon.

Men’s Ministries is closing at the direction of our General Overseer, Bishop Randall E. Howard. Bro. Howard’s vision for our work at International Offices focuses on two major components: Harvest and Leadership Development. The close of Men’s Ministries is a move away from the paradigm of running all ministries from the top down, and a refocusing of our departmental energies specifically toward leadership development.

This closure in no way signals that ministry to men is unessential. It proposes that individual states, regions, and nations can provide Men’s Ministries leadership productively at that level. Today, many of our state/regional/national areas conduct successful men’s retreats and fellowships. In our day, there is much quality curriculum available in the broader church world that our men and their leaders are already in touch with. So it is our desire that Men’s Ministries continue in the Church of God of Prophecy world-wide.

It is my personal belief that ministry to men ought to be a component in our future leadership development efforts. Here’s why: First, our pastors are mostly male. They need gender-specific ministry. Secondly, when you serve and equip the men of the Church you bless the church at large.

It is with sadness that we say goodbye to this ministry department. Since 1997 the International Offices have sought to provide quality ministry to men. Larry Duncan spear-headed the launch of this ministry. From the start Men’s Ministries brought quality vision and resources and encouraged linking arms with proven national ministries like Promise Keepers. I know you join me in thanking Larry for his foresight and passion toward men and their Christian walk. Following Larry, Marvin
Eskew continued providing leadership with passion, focusing on bringing Men’s Ministry to the local church venue and encouraging men to follow the greatest man that ever lived–Jesus Christ. Thanks to these brothers for their labor in Jesus’ name.
I sign off with a heart full of gratitude for a ministry to men in the local church. As a pastor, I have been blessed with quality leaders who had a God-calling to love and serve men of the church. I have personally seen and received the benefits of the local men’s group no matter the group’s size.

Dear leader, it should be your aim to keep this ministry going, especially at the local level. Great Christian resources are available. Great anointing and inspiration, however, comes directly from God. Seek Him and submit to Him and let’s keep the adventure going. God will continue to call and supply the leadership. He wants to touch men in the local church and in their communities.

God bless you as you go forward in serving men. As your brother in the Lord I stand ready to help in any way I can.

Through Jesus Christ,
Mark Menke, International Men’s Ministries Director

So basically what this means is HQ has recognized the most effective ministry occurs in the local church, and is focusing their efforts at their level to leadership development. Randy Howard has done an excellent job making sure this transition happens and I think this is a tremendous move for the COGOP.

I think it speaks volumes that COGOP is decentralizing men’s ministry, and putting more emphasis on the local church. For an organization that has run from the top down for quite some time, this might signal the biggest paradigm shift in ministry structure in the organization.

God bless them as they continue to transition into a more relevant church as a whole.

With the weather really cooling off at night, I have taken full advantage of the opportunity to get out and run two miles at least every other night.

I began running and lifting last week and already it has paid dividends. After last Monday’s weight check, I logged in at an okay-but-could-be-improved-upon 182 pounds. A bit above my target weight, so I decided to implement a running and lifting program that would cut the fat and also help increase my stamina and vitality.

This week I am down three pounds to 179 and I am pretty proud. Just the fact that I shed some decent weight in one week is motivation to keep going strong.

The route I run is simple…from my apartment it’s just a little over a quarter mile to the main road, where I run one mile down a hill then up a steep incline, and double back. Tonight it was 2.5 miles and I have pulled off my fourth straight run without stopping for a break at some point during the run. For a guy who is notorious for giving up on stuff too easily, this is quite a feat. Running has boosted my motivation and confidence, no doubt about it.

As for lifting, it’s just simple weight training. Curls with weights ranging from fifteen to twenty-five pounds have already begun to make a difference.

In the mornings before work I now do fifty push-ups and fifty sit-ups. Right after I get out of bed, in fact. That helps set the energetic tone for my day.

Anyhoo I thought I would clue you all in to my workout routine. If anyone out there would like to join me running or lifting, please drop me a line. I’d love to have you join.

(sent from my iPhone)