Just Thinking Out Loud…

“As church leaders, we need to make decisions based on who isn’t here yet rather than who has been here the longest.”  –Eric Bryant

How would our churches be different if we put this into practice?

After our Jetta was totaled, we had to find another car in a hurry (the insurance company provided us with a rental for about 2 weeks).  We didn’t really have anything in mind, but just started looking around at different dealerships.  We stopped at a Toyota dealer to look at a used Camry, but the salesman directed us to a new Corolla that wasn’t much more than the Camry.  We looked it over and did a test drive, but had no intention of buying that night.  But every time we tried to leave, he came down on the price.  After he had taken $2,000 off the sticker price, we decided to buy!

It turned out to be a great decision.  That Corolla was the best car we ever owned.  Solid and very reliable — it never developed a single squeak or rattle, even after 180,000 miles.  The only service we ever had done on it was normal maintenance (tires, brakes, oil changes, etc.).  The engine had no oil leaks — again, that was after 180,000 miles!

As our family began to grow, we had to move up to a larger vehicle.  Unfortunately, that meant trading in our beloved Corolla (to this day, I wish we could have found a way to keep it).  That will be part 7 of our story.

Jill and I were married in June of 1989, and we moved into our little apartment in the suburbs of Detroit.  The little Dodge Omni was going strong, but since we both worked in different parts of the city, we needed a second car.  So, after visiting a lot of dealerships and test driving several cars, we settled on a 1987  Volkswagon Jetta.  It was a great little car with a 4-speed manual transmission.  It became primarily Jill’s car, and she loved it.  It was quick and reliable — which was important since she worked as a Social Worker in some bad areas of Detroit!

Unfortunately, our relationship with the Jetta was short-lived.  In late December of 1990 we decided to go down to southern Ohio to spend the Holidays with Jill’s family.  It started snowing along the way, and by the time we reached Dayton, Ohio there were several inches of snow on the ground.  On I-75 in downtown Dayton, a car spun out in front of us, so I swerved to avoid it, and stopped on the left-side shoulder against the guard rail.  It was then that I heard the frantic blasts coming from the air horn of a fully-loaded tractor trailer.  I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw the tractor trailer sliding sideways toward our car.   It smashed into the back of our Jetta and the trailer came to rest on top of the passenger side of the car (right over Jill’s head!).  Thankfully, we were not hurt in the accident — but the same could not be said of the poor Jetta, as you can see in the pictures below.

So once again, we were in the market for a car.  This time we would find a rare gem.  That will be part 6 of our story.

After working as an intern with a church in Muncie, Indiana, I headed back to Harding in the fall of 1986 driving the big Buick.  I was traveling alone because I had to get there early (I was going to be a Resident Assistant in the freshman dorm).  My first problem came somewhere between Lima and Dayton, Ohio.  Something didn’t seem right with the car, so I exited the freeway, pulled into a gas station and looked under the hood.  I couldn’t see anything wrong, so I got back in and tried to start the car.  Click-click-click.  The battery was dead.  Thankfully, the gas station sold batteries and I had some tools with me.  I replaced the battery and continued on my way to Harding.

The next problem came about 45 minutes later.  I was driving along just south of Middletown,  Ohio when all of a sudden, the engine just quit.  Just like that.  I was going about 65 miles per hour, and the engine just stopped!  Thankfully, I was right in front of a rest area.  So I pulled to the side of the road and looked under the hood.  It didn’t take me long to find the problem.  The bolts that hold the fuel pump in place had somehow come out, and the fuel pump was just hanging there.  I called a tow truck, had the car towed to a service station, and they quickly bolted the fuel pump back on, and I was on my way once again.  Thankfully, I had no more trouble that trip.  But my Dad and I agreed that the Buick was going to have to be replaced as soon as possible.

So when I came home at Christmas break, Dad and I went to Oakland Dodge and found a nice, clean and affordable 1985 Dodge Omni.  It was bare bones — vinyl seats, no air conditioning, and an A.M. radio.  But after 3 and a half years driving the big Buick, that little Omni was beautiful!  The first thing I did was install an AM/FM radio.  On my way back to Harding, I was happy to discover that it got outstanding gas mileage.  I could drive from Detroit to Harding (900 miles) and only stop for gas one time.

The Dodge Omni served me well for many years — including my first few years of married life.  But the time came when Jill and I needed a second car.  That’s  part 5 of the story.

It has been a while since I posted here, and my posts have been few and far between over the past year.  Some of my friends have even dropped me from their blogroll (I understand and don’t hold it against you).  So, I need to give an update to the handful of people who still stop by from time-to-time.

There are a few reasons for my limited and sporatic posting.  I’ve been actively involved in Facebook and Twitter — and that only leaves so much time for blogging.  Life in general is pretty busy these days, with my wife going to Grad School, my kids having a lot more activities, and me running on regular basis again.  But the main reason is that I’m much more limited in what I can say here.  A little over a year ago, I discovered that there were some people (both inside and outside our church) who were attempting to use what I wrote here against me.  They were (without consulting me) printing out certain posts and passing them around in an effort to hurt me professionally.  Because of that, I have been very careful about what I post here.  My family and I simply don’t have the time or energy to deal with that kind of nonsense.  So I have done  posts on cars and sports and family activities — all of which are interesting to me, but maybe not to others.

So….. I say all that to say that I’m going to get back to posting on a more regular basis — and that will include posts on faith and theology (although I will be much more careful about what I post).  I will begin later today by continuing the series on My Cars Through The Years.

Perhaps I can earn my way back on to some of your blogrolls!

The Big Buick served me well — getting me from Michigan to Arkansas a few times a year, as well as getting a date and me to Little Rock and back on occasion.  But it was starting to show it’s age.  The rear brake line burst and I only had front brakes to stop that two ton beast, the window defroster didn’t work, and it was slowly rusting out.   So on one break from school, I rode home with a friend and came back driving a 1978 Plymouth Arrow (remember the ad campaign “Me and my Arrow…”?).

The Arrow had been my sister’s car when she was in high school and when she came home from Harding for the summer (she never took it to school).  But she was now married and living in Texas, so the car was available.  The Arrow was a sporty little car made by Mitsubishi in Japan (ours looked exactly like the black one in the picture above).  But it was seriously underpowered and not very well made.  It was difficult to maintain speed on big hills on the freeway, and it burned oil. It soon became apparent that the Arrow was not the answer to my car problems.  I now had two cars at Harding and had to make a decision. I decided to go back to the Big Buick.  I wasn’t sure what to do with the Arrow, so I just left it at Harding when I went to do an internship with a church in Muncie, Indiana the summer of 1986.

I was about to experience a few bumps in the road before things would get a lot better car-wise.  That’s the next chapter in the story.  Stay tuned!

When I came home for Christmas break during my freshman year at college, it was clear that I had to do something about my Duster.  The driver’s door was bashed in and did not open, the window leaked, and the cooling system was beginning to act up. My grandfather was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and could no longer drive.  My grandmother hadn’t driven for years, but they still had their 1970 Buick LeSabre just sitting in the parking lot at their apartment building.  My grandmother said I was welcome to it, since they had no use for it, and the big Buick became mine.

Despite it’s big size and the fact that it was incredibly uncool, it was a really good car.  It had a 350 c.i. engine that was very reliable, and we could squeeze a lot of people and luggage into it.  The summer after I got it, I had it painted bright red, so it didn’t look quite so lame.

The door handle on the driver’s side rusted out and fell off, so I had to keep a screwdriver handy to open the door (or reach inside if the window was open).   This caused a problem on one occasion.  I was driving in traffic when I ran out of gas.  There was a gas station at the corner, about 1/4 mile ahead, so I hopped out and started pushing, steering the car through the driver’s side window.  I didn’t notice that the road went slightly downhill to the gas station.  Yep, you guessed it — the car started picking up speed and I had to run to catch up with it, while trying to reach in the window and open the door.  Somehow I managed to do it, jump in and steer it into the gas station.

The big Buick served me well for the next 3 years.  But I had a bit of trouble with it during one semester at school and I ended up driving another car briefly.  That will be part 3 of our journey.

I’m going to try to get back to writing here on a more consistent basis — we’ll see how that goes.

Borrowing an idea from Patrick Mead, I’d like to share with you the vehicles I’ve driven and owned through the years.  I’m a car guy through and through.  I love looking at cars, reading about cars, talking about cars, driving cars, working on cars, etc.  Perhaps I should have chosen a career in the automotive field!

I got my Driver’s License on my 16th birthday (March of 1980).  At that point I began driving, almost exclusively, a 1974 Plymouth Duster.  It had been our second car that my Dad drove to work.  I had to share it for a few months, until my sister went to college in the fall, then it pretty much became my car.   When I started driving it, it was the white color seen in the picture above.  After a couple of years, I did some body work and had it painted a medium blue color, which looked much better.  I also added fog lights, a Thrush muffler, wider rear tires, and lifts for the rear end.  Yes, it was a sweet-looking ride at that point!  It had a 318 c.i. engine, and would get up and go pretty well (I once took it up to 100 miles per hour on I-75 in the suburbs of Detroit — on worn out tires!).

It was a great car, and I will always have fond memories of it.  Unfortunately, I wrecked it 1 week before I left for college!  My friend Dave and I were going up to Michigan Christian Youth Camp to see our girlfriends and I wasn’t paying close enough attention when we wrecked.  We weren’t hurt, and the car was drivable (I still took it to college that fall), but it’s days were numbered.  We got rid of it when I came home for Christmas break.

At that point I was able to inherit another car from a family member.  That will be part two of our journey.

I love this quote from Eugene Peterson:

“The churches of the Revelation show us that churches are not Victorian parlors where everything is always picked up and ready for guests. They are messy family rooms. Entering a person’s house unexpectedly, we are sometimes met with a barrage of apologies. St. John does not apologize. Things are out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens to churches that are lived in. They are not show rooms. They are living rooms, and if the persons living in them are sinners, there are going to be clothes scattered about, handprints on the woodwork, and mud on the carpet. For as long as Jesus insists on calling sinners and not the righteous to repentance – and there is no indication as yet that he has changed his policy in that regard – churches are going to be an embarrassment to the fastidious and an affront to the upright.”

h/t Mike Cope

I recently purchased a sweet new ride!  It is a Giant Cypress (read all about it HERE).  I was tired of spending so much on gas, and I could certainly use the exercise!  I try to ride to the office whenever the weather is nice, and I’m loving it.  A big thanks to Al Petri of Al Petri and Sons Bicycles for helping me find the right bike.  If you’re looking for a new bike, see Al!

Here’s the new ride!

And here’s a picture of me riding to the office…