Ahhh...This is the life...Steak, Wine & Friends

I am currently digesting one of the best dinners I've had in the past year. My friend Kevin got a Big Green Egg BBQ for graduation and the thing is amazing! It is like having the Nebraska State Fair BBQ champ in your backyard at your beckon call. Kevin got the Egg up to 550F (child's play for this bbq) and he perfectly cooked 4 New York Steaks in about 6 minutes. We paried the steaks witha vegetable medley: roasted tomatoes, grilled red and yellow peppers, grilled zucchini and corn on the cob. I'm tellin' you right now, those steaks were already worth the price of the egg. To top it all off, we had a great Merlot to sip (thanks to the sale at World Market).

2002 Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot - Napa Valley, California

With 87% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 4% Syrah, 1.4% Petit Verdot, and .6% Other, this wine was sweeter than I usually prefer, but it had some nice fruity flavors that paired well with the steak. Cherry, vanilla, oak, and licorice were the standouts. The tannins were too weak and the finish was too short to make this a good sipping wine. However, I enjoyed it with the steak and would buy it again at $11 ($22 regular price).

some pictures:

I'm a Neo-Orthodox Wesleyan

According to this new foolproof method of diciphering one's theological worldview in less than 15 minutes, I am a Neo-Orthdox-Wesleyan-Evangelical. This is somewhat surprising since I usually call myself a Pentecostal. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, and have consistently worshipped in Pentecostal congregations as an adult. At the same time, it shouldn't be that surprising considering what I have been studying in my free time: Karl Barth's 11 volume Die Kirchliche Dogmatik, one of the greatest theological works of all time. My brother, Allan, generously bought this expensive set for me as a graduation present.

I can hear the conversation now:

Stranger: "So, what religion are you?"

Me: "Christian."

Stranger: "Oh, what kind?"

Me: "Neo-Orthodox-Wesleyan-Evangelical"

Stranger: "Oh, what is that?"

Me: "Um, I'm pretty sure neo means new, so I think it is some kind of new orthodoxy that follows John Wesley's ideas about evangelism"

Stranger: "Oh, but I thought orthdoxy meant keeping in line with past traditons of belief and thought. How can it be new?"

Me: "Uhhh...because QuizFarm said so."

Stranger: "Oh, I see."

Here is how I was scored:

Neo orthodox 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Roman Catholic 54% Classic Liberal 42% Charismatic/Pentecostal 36% Reformed Evangelical 36% Modern Liberal 21% Fundamentalist 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

What Happened to April & May?!

Its now been 11 weeks since I last blogged (the approximate length of the entire Spring quarter at Fuller). I was hoping to be more consistent, but I failed miserably. Luckily, I learned this morning at church that we have a God of "second chances". I am hoping I have an audience of second chances...

Rather than recount everything that happened in the last couple of months, I'll just highlight a few things:

1) The wine sale is still going on at World Market (hurry the good stuff is going fast)
2) Heather is 12 weeks pregnant!
3) We are moving to Des Moines, Iowa on August 5th
4) Heather and I both graduated with our Masters degrees
5) I am now blogging on a Mac (specifically a black MacBook)