Jaybrams.com

Hello. My name is Jeremy Wheeler. I have not been around these parts lately due to… general laziness? So lets get you caught up and get this blog ball rolling again.

1) I passed Old Testament Survey. I wasn’t too worried about it. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”

2) I started to learn Spanish because I want to. Relearn really. It is going alright, but I need to concentrate on it more. Hopefully I will be conversational by end of summer. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”

3) On Friday, June 6th we’re leaving for Branson. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”

4) Blake is a bad word. He got me addicted to Sports based MMORPGs. “FAIL”

5) I’m still addicted to soccer. FC Dallas fired their coach, probably the right thing to do, but horrible timing and situation surrounding it. They gave up a goal in stoppage time last night which resulted in a draw instead of a win. “FAIL”

6) I bought the new Deliriou5? It is so yummy. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”

7) I’m still fat but until last week I was losing weight and staying off the Dr. Peppers. But last week and a half is horrible. “FAIL”

to end on a positive note… “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”

Popularity: 13% [?]

Category : Eh... Whatever, Family, Fatness, Me Dang It!, Music, School, Soccer, Sports, Video

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I know i’ve been fairly quiet these past two months. OT Survey has been a workload, and I added more to it voluntarily. I’ve had some time at work to post, but haven’t really wanted to simply due to the mental strain I was already exerting in class… I know it’s a lame excuse, but just throwing it out there…

I do have some plans for some things to write about (namely, our church searching experience), but i’ve got one more night of class (TONIGHT!) so i’m thinking tomorrow or wednesday i’ll start posting stuff worth while again.

In the mean time, lets see just how attentive you are. Just so you know, I did fail the first time, so don’t feel bad if you do.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Category : Church, Eh... Whatever, School, Video

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Well, i know it’s a little early considering I haven’t finished Spring 08 yet, but I had to register and get it all rolling. It’s only been two semesters, but I’m pretty pleased at the pace of things. I am still hoping to find a way to wedge in a few additional classes in the coming summers (2009/2010), and maybe take up to 15 hours in a few semesters so as to finish in three+ years rather than four+ years (especially if I go on to get a masters). Thats all dependent on finances. Either way, it’s going quicker in my mind than I expected. It’s great to look at “general core” and see i’ll soon be over halfway done. So this is what Fall ‘08 will look like:

Tues Aug 5 - Sept 16: HIST-1321 World Civilizations II (on campus) - World Civ I was better than I expected. I’m pretty sure I’ll have the same prof, so I know what to expect… a good deal of reading mixed with good in-class discussion and learning. He’s more interested in teaching us to think historically rather than memorizing dates or exact geographical locations. If you thought I already took this, its because I planned to this semester but I over booked my financial aide and chose this as the one to drop.

Sun Aug 17 - Sept 28: Business Math (online) - The ONLY math class I have to take for my degree. Math isn’t that difficult, but I don’t enjoy it. Thankfully I am married to a math tutor. I doubt I’ll need her… Since this is online, I came up with this awesome plan of having Dionna do all the work, but she wouldn’t go for that. I guess I’ll need to refresh some math skills.

Mon Sept 22 - Oct 27: Literature Survey (on campus) - This is my last required English class, but I may take on more for my electives if they have any sort of Christian Literature class (I haven’t checked). I like reading and I like writing, so this class should fit my personality well. It’s just a matter of how much reading I have to do. This is my first on campus Eng. class, though, so I’m curious how different it will be. The first two comp classes worked well online.

Mon Nov 3 - Dec 15: New Testament Survey (on campus) - If I can get through the OT is 6 weeks, I should have no problem getting through the NT is 6 weeks. This is the only Biblical Core I’m taking Fall of ‘08 so I better enjoy it!

STATS*:
General Core Semester Credits: 9
Major/Bible Core Semester Credits: 3
Elective Semester Credits: 0
Total Semester Credits: 12
General Core Credits Complete: 23 of 42 (55%)
Major/Bible Core Credits Complete: 12 of 66 (18%)
Elective Credits Complete: 2 of 21 (10%)
Total Credits: 28 of 129 (29%)

(*: if you look at the “spring lineup” post, some of these numbers have changed when it appears they shouldn’t have. That is because they finally figured out a clean way to show us what we have taken, what we haven’t, what’s required, whats not, etc, based specifically on our individual degree plan. In January, I was still using a generic degree plan to try and determine what was needed. This is much more accurate.)

Popularity: 10% [?]

Category : School

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… no fun for Jeremy?

Monday, Old Testament Survey kicks off. I’ve known about it for three weeks and had a twelve day break between Foundations of Leadership and OTS… Why, then, did I wait until last night to get prepared? By Monday, I have to have read most of the Pentateuch (Gen-Duet), over 100 pages in our OT companion (and… 30 Pages in, i can tell you it looks cool thumbing through, but its a bit of a beating so far), and study and locate several pertinent Historical and Biblical locations on ancient maps… plus all the actual work/essays beyond the reading. … Thank God I dropped World Civ II early in the semester for financial reasons. Otherwise, I’d have double the reading and work.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to diving in. I like history and I see great value in understanding our heritage as Christ followers, found in the tradition of the Jews. Thus, I believe the Old Testament helps enhance our view and relationship with our Creator and Savior. But one problem with accelerated adult learning classes is the pace required for some of the more work and reading intensive studies. While a traditional student has roughly 18 weeks to complete the course, I have 6. So the whole OT along with the textbook, essays, homework, and so forth are crammed into a short amount of time.

Can I get it done? Sure… Will it be exciting? Not really… Will I learn as much as I should? probably not… but, then again, thats why I have at least 3 years left.

(btw, the fact that I dropped world civ II means I will remain a freshman until the end of Fall 2008. Technically after one class I’ll jump to sophomore, but it won’t show officially until end of the semester… so I’ll be a 27 year old freshman :P).

Popularity: 14% [?]

Category : Empyreal, School

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What ministry or project would you take on if you had just barely enough resources? Barely enough money, time, energy, people, support, etc… Its too cliche and easy to ask if you had “unlimited,” but if we set out to do something we really believed in and had passion for, we could probably muster up “just barely enough” to do just about anything ministry related.

My sister and her esposo wanted to start a local food pantry and after speaking with the church leadership, felt confident they could pursue the ministry. They spent quite a bit of time putting everything together, organizing, , vision-casting it, etc., only to hear the church inform them that it didn’t quite fit with the vision of the church for that particular season.

I have had a friend who has a heart for the homeless and we’ve talked numerous times about the lack of opportunity to serve the homeless within the churches he has attended.

I’ve had several ideas lacking only legs that i’ve rarely bothered to pursue because I knew it would be difficult without the church’s blessing.

I have come realize that something isn’t quite sitting right in the relationship between church member and church institution. The realization birthed the following mantra (which you’ve probably heard if you’ve known me long enough, and i’ve know i’ve said it at least once on this blog before):

Church should not be the fulfillment of ministry in your life, rather it should be an extension of your lifestyle of ministry.

We’re all given gifts from God that play out through our strengths within our personality, intelligence, and various abilities, yet in my experience we tend to save these gifts solely for use within the local church. If our church home does not provide us an avenue to serve how we feel lead to serve, we push the urge aside, ignore it, save it for later… We have allowed the church to handcuff us, to tell us when and where we can minister… we’ve allowed the church to dilute our passion… if there isn’t a program to meet the needs of our vision, we simply choose abeyance rather than obedience.

The relationship is out of whack… and it’s not solely (or even mostly) the institutions fault. I don’t want to downplay the importance of the local church. There are a lot of churches doing great things, but there are far too many churches who are just as handcuffed by our inactivity.

But… at the same time… I look at this vision in which ministry is not determined by the availability of a like-minded program that my church offers, rather is propelled by the Love of God within me… the more i chew, the more I see that we have placed too much of an emphasis on the local church, and not enough on the Body doing what it is designed to do.

As a parent, I want to be involved in my girls’ lives, converse with them, watch them grow, help them find their way in Christ… So I chose to be a soccer coach a few seasons back. This allowed me to impart some things in my daughter’s life about working with others, trying hard, accepting failure, and enjoying victory humbly. Coaching soccer did not fulfill my vision as a parent, it was simply an extension of my everyday parenting. How ridiculous would it be if I told my daughter “hon, you get all of me during anything related to soccer… the rest of the time i’m going to do my own thing.”

Isn’t that what many of us tell God? Inadvertantly, subtly, and in the words that are only audible through our actions and lack there of… God stirs our heart and says “i’ve given you the gifts… go do it.” Many of us respond “give me a way to do it at church, and i’ll do it!”…

I’m still trying to figure out how to shake the off the handcuffs that I’ve firmly locked into place on my own. This is grass-roots stuff… it’s not culturally relevant, its not seeker sensitive, and i dunno if its for everyone. But I’m tired…

Tired of words without action. Tired of hearts beating but not breaking. Tired of visions without casting. Tired of knowing what I should do and using the church as an excuse not to do it… We are the Church, so the excuse is no longer valid… And if we somehow get this concept working in our lives, we will see the local church relevant in the way it was intended to be.

(and this more or less is what I presented in my final of Foundations of Leadership)

Popularity: 18% [?]

Category : Church, Culture, Empyreal, Enabling, School

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I don’t do a lot of tagged stuff. Someone tagged me a while back concerning books I read, but i just started reading again so i would’ve had horrible answers. But my sis tagged me for “7 Things About Me” so I will oblige, only I don’t know if I can come up with 7 interesting things… so here’s 7 Things I’ve Failed At in my life.

1) Community College: I was put on probation (yes, at a community college) after one semester. I dropped out halfway through my second. Perhaps it was because I spent 90% of my “class time” in the computer lab.

2) ESPN Radio: This maybe is my fault, maybe not. I was an unpaid intern, working directly for Assistant Program Director (that’s second in command) at the Dallas ESPN Affiliate. I did really well everything he asked me to do, but wasn’t my jovial, talkative self around some of the other guys, thus making no contacts at all. Then he got really really busy and moved off to one of the Carolina’s. In the meantime, i was left with little-to-no-contacts and it never went anywhere.

3) Clear Factor: Once I started my own business to supplement the very little income I had coming in due to my transition from corporate work to ministry work. It was a storefront window-washing business, which has extremely low overhead and extremely high customer potential. I realized quickly that I wasn’t cut out for the sales / self-marketing part of the job. I could probably sell stuff at a retail place adequately, but i didn’t do so well selling myself. Instead I eventually sold my stuff to a friend, who eventually got out of the business as well ( I still own the company name “Clear Factor” if anyone wants to buy it from me).

4) The previously mentioned Ministry Career: I had it all figured out when i was younger. I was diabolically opposed to going to CFNI, and I was not interested in going to one of the larger schools. But I was “called by God” so He was obligated to make everything I touched in ministry work… after all, I was doing it “for Him” and if He called me, then obviously nothing I could do would fail… but getting your girlfriend pregnant, ignoring your responsibilities as a Christ follower, and convincing yourself you could do it on your own leads to “failure” despite and “calling.”

5) Novels: I’ve started two novels, both made it well into the second or third chapter (wow! that’s far!). I re-read them the other day and laughed at the writing. The concepts are still decent, so i think i’m going to pick them back up and re-write what i have, but for now, i’m still going to count it as failed (Despite the lack of skills I display on this site, it has been said by a few professors, friends, colleagues, etc that I have a knack for writing. I dunno about that, but I enjoy it none-the-less).

6) Music Career: My first “gig,” I opened for Darrell Evans, who at the time was one of the most popular worship leaders going. This was before Hillsongs went crazy and before the time of Crowder, Tomlin, Redman… Lincoln Brewster, who was Darrell’s guitarist, stopped to tell me to keep doing what I was doing and be true to who God intended me to be. Later I played for a few thousand people at a large variety show… several bands later, I’ve never done much beyond record the three songs that are sitting on virb and i’m not a huge fan of those.

7) This thing we call Life: I’m overweight and even more out of shape than I look (just ask the guys i went “jogging” with saturday!)… Not including my house, i’ve got nearly as much debt as my age in the thousands… I don’t show my wife I love her enough… I don’t teach my kids about Christ enough… I don’t allow God to work through me enough… I pretend to have it all together, when I don’t, often struggling with mild depression (my wife would probably say it breaches into the “moderate” level from time to time, but I try and keep things in perspective)… I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up… I play video games more often than I study or meditate on what God wants to do with me… and I can’t win a Scrabble for the life of me…

NOTE: This is not a “pity me” or even a depression-induced post… I look at these things and I look at where God is moving me, and I’m extremely grateful for learning what I have through all of the failures. I can see that He is evolving me so that I can one day remove #7 from this list, append #4 to say “early ministry career,” and, heck, maybe even take #5 off the list as well … It is these failures that have propelled me to a place that I can finally say “Lord, I can’t do anything without You because I’ve proven over and over that I will fail on my own… it’s Your turn”

So, what have you failed at?

Popularity: 32% [?]

Category : Church, Eh... Whatever, Empyreal, Family, Me Dang It!, School

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So, as you may remember, I decided to try out Speech online rather than on-campus. We’re about halfway through, and there is no doubt I would consider this a mistake. In my closing comments I will definitely let our school know why this class should not be offered online…

1 - you have to find your own audiences, which may work for some people, but is a difficulty that a student shouldn’t have to worry about…

2 - Speaking to video camera is totally different than speaking to a group of people. I watched my recent informative speech and it is nothing like what how I am when I speak in church or whatever. I guess that’s my fault, but in class or in church, if i slip up, i just fix it and move on… doesn’t bother me a bit. While filming, I try to fight through it, but the temptation to start over is too strong… oh well, i didn’t look as natural as I would normally.

3 - One of the main things they are trying to teach us is how to speak extemporaneously. In other words, reacting and moving with audience… knowing your material enough to have the freedom to recognize when your audience needs you to clarify or wants you to expand… how can i do this with a video camera and no audience?

So, anyway, the most recent speech I did was an informative discussing Josh and Lindsey Parks and their preparation for becoming localized missionaries in Ukraine. Feel free to read it… it’s only 1500 words … this transcript was the original and much more casual than how I’d write this same information in an essay… i had to cut a lot on the fly because of time restraints, but wanted to post the “full” version…

parks-mission-speech.pdf

i’d probably post the speech after the class is up (can’t until then), but i don’t think its a good representation of me… i dunno, i guess i’m just more comfortable talking to real people rather than a silver piece of equipment mounted on a stolen tripod.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Category : Essays, School

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So, it’s been awhile since a real post…

Work suddenly became busy for a couple of weeks… it’s slowed back down, but i tend not to post when work is busy.

School has been a bit of a beating so far this semester, but I must admit that I’ve brought most of the issues on myself.

And finally, sickness decided to camp out at my house. Once again all four of us got nailed with something or other over the last three weeks… Once again, i took the lightest hit and Dionna took the heaviest. Both girls took a hit somewhere in the middle.

Churchis going well. I played some electric guitar last week, but in general i’m heading up the audio/video team for the youth. Things are coming together alright in that respect. But more importantly, the youth as a whole is going well.

And for the record, i was cheering for the Patriots but was very impressed and happy for how Eli played. Six weeks have made me an Eli fan. All to annoy Blake, who lives and works in his college town, but went to his rival college.

Now, tonight i have 100+ pages of history to read and other crap to do before the Mexico v USA Men’s soccer game tomorrow night.

Popularity: 74% [?]

Category : Church, Culture, Current Events, Eh... Whatever, School, Sundays, X:Worship, Youth

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Mon Jan 7th: CPR/First Aid (on campus) - 1 credit class required for core completion.  This was scheduled as two monday night classes but we were able to finish the four hour course last night. I was trained in CPR when I was a freshman in high school, but that was 12 years ago now. This was a nice refresher course and “taught” me some other skills that are nice to know. Most first aide is common sense, but the CPR and various methods of emergency aid are helpful.

Thurs Jan 10 - Feb 14: HIST-1311 World Civilizations I (on campus) - I have not received my book for this despite having ordered it nearly two weeks ago. It was probably sent via media mail which is cheaper but does not have tracking and can take up to 2 business weeks which would put the book due to arrive on Thursday, Jan 10th. This is a problem considering I have homework due on day one. Such is life. Lots of reading, some writing.

Mon Jan 21 - March 9: SPCH-2310 Speech (online) - How I’m supposed to do a Speech class online i’m not sure… I had the option of doing it on-campus but wanted to see the dynamics of Speech online. Book comes with a video lecturing series. Speeching doesn’t bother me, hopefully isn’t too heavy of a workload.

Tues Feb 19 - April 1: MINL-1310 Foundations of Leadership (on campus) - I hear nothing but good things about this class but I fear the footwashing… not that I’ve heard that footwashing is a part of this, but for some reason every time I hear something has great spiritual impact on a group of people, i get all freaked out that someone is going to have to wash my feet… I feel sorry for whoever does that… but I’m pretty sure we won’t be doing it. Is there a name for that phobia?

Mon April 14 - May 19: BIBL-1332 - Old Testament Survey (on campus) - *sigh* probably the least looked forward to biblical class in my major, which is odd ’cause i really like knowing/learning/talking about how the Jesus’ ministry is deeply enriched by knowing what and when he references OT customs. His message is still the same whether you know the OT stuff or not, but it just seems more fun… But not looking forward to the class… Kinda like how I hate “stupid comedy” movies (Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell type stuff) but that is almost exclusively the type of real life comedy I like… doesn’t make sense.

Mon May 5 - June 16: HIST-1321 World Civilizations II (online) - Haven’t received the syllabus for this yet, but I can imagine it will be similar to World Civ I. History is only good when done with a great professor. And I’m sure both of these guys are great, but one is a four hour a night class, and this one is online, so I’m not sure how this is going to keep me entertained. Perhaps I’ll do most of my research via Sid Meier (which I got for Christmas).

STATS:
General Core Semester Credits: 10
Major/Bible Core Semester Credits: 6
Elective Semester Credits: 0
Total Semester Credits: 16
General Core Credits Complete:  16 of 39 (41%)
Major/Bible Core Credits Complete: 9 of 72 (13%)
Elective Credits Complete: 0 of 18 (0%)
Total Credits: 28 of 129 (22%)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Category : School

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So I’m really tired lately… like exhausted. Monday night I dozed off at 6:30 waiting for my youngest to get ready for bed. No big deal… Last night, while working on my final for HTStB, my eyes were so heavy and my head was spinning from exhaustion so much that it seemed as if I was going to pass out. I *needed* to write most of my seven-page paper… all I made it through was a hand written outline. At approximately 7:23 PM, i sat my notebook down on the coffee table and zonked out on the couch.Other than the dog licking me in the face, i slept through pretty much everything the rest of the night… The wife and oldest squid playing the very loud Mall Madness didn’t even phase me… I vaguely remember waking up once to turn over while Dionna played Oblivion, and remember crawling into bed at around 11 ish…

Nothing else is bothering me. No headaches, no achy muscles, no flu symptoms… but here I am after sleeping for 10 hours last night and the tiredness is starting to set in again… i’ve got a final due tomorrow that still hasn’t stressed me too much… most of it has already been written through various other assignments throughout the class, but it’s still 6-7 pages that I have to write / edit / compile tonight in order to prepare for the oral presentation tomorrow night… so if i make it through tonight and tomorrow, i’ll give this exhaustion thing through the weekend… if my body doesn’t pick itself back up, perhaps i’ll visit the doctor… 

in other news, there was no text-fessional this week because we turned sunday into a game night. We also announced the hiring of a new youth pastor… like a full time one… finally… and it’s not me… thankfully… so that is good because the group really needs vision and direction, something I believe this guy will bring.

In other news, our high school ministry’s bass player’s mom took a new job at a different church.It was good worshipping with him, but those days are now over. I am trying to convince dionna to pick it back up and play with us. I think it’s working. Did you know she played? I taught her on a monday and on tuesday she was playing with the worship team. As the weeks went on, i was able to teach her how to do some cool stuff… so now, since *her* bass is busted, i just need to find someone to borrow a bass from (we’d love to buy her a new one, but just can’t right now…).

In other news, my daughters are still freakin’ awesome.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Category : Eh... Whatever, Me Dang It!, School

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