Northern 'burbs blog

• Update on Galyna

  Galyna update posted too... [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:40pm EST
  

• Values of the Church 2: Unity Part Two

  In the last post we started looking at what unity is (and isn't.) Unity is a high value, extremely important to Jesus. Unity is to be concerned with mission and purpose. Unity is not, though, uniformity or unanimity. God created us as individuals. So while unity is a value' [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:15pm EST
  

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 11-17-2009 Edition

  More recent randomness, just because I can.
  
  Really, who just doesn't appreciate a good cloud now and then? I prefer mine spinning but there are other cool pix on this site.
  ...
  Ever had one of these days?
  
  ...
  Can they kill off spam too?
  ...[...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:20pm EST
  

• Values of the Church 2: Unity

  The last post in this series introduced to our discussion the notion of values. We all have values, and we use those values when making decisions. Some value money and possessions, then decide to work hard to obtain same. Some value family, others value solitude. You can tell the [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 5:43pm EDT
  

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 9-22-2009 Edition

  Okay, some randomness is called for as I get back to this blogging thing.
  ***
  Guess I need to update my blogroll. I have a number of friends on the Web, from Leah in India to college buddy Keith in Ohio. Also, a bunch of folks from church: [...]
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  Posted: September 22, 2009, 4:49pm EDT
  

• We Interrupt This Blog...

  ...for an update to another blog! Just posted a note about Galyna's surgery over at Galya's Tale. During the next couple of days I should have some time to continue the church series, as well as (perhaps) pontificate about a couple of other things rolling around my noggin of [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 2:04am EDT
  

• Galyna Update

  I've posted the latest on Galyna over at Galya's Tale. Stop over if you want to see what's going on with the latest addition to our clan.' [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 6:00pm EDT
  

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 6/17/2009 Edition

  Heh. Haven't been here in three months. Since someone (cough)Rachel(cough) missed me, I'll try to do better. While I'm working on the unity part of the current/long-running/slowly-developing series, here are some items I found noteworthy on the 'net, or in the blogosphere of late.
  ***
  I think I've been fairly' [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 3:25pm EDT
  

• Values of the Church

  I've looked at the "who" and the "why" questions related to church. The answers to these questions are the foundation that sets us up to start talking about the "how" and "what" questions. How do we do church? How are we to behave? What are we to do?[...]
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  Posted: March 11, 2009, 3:35pm EDT
  

• God is Great, God is Good...

  "God is great,
  God is good,
  let us thank Him for our food,
  by His hand we must be fed,
  give us Lord our daily bread.
  Amen."
  Author unknown
  
  Over the course of our relationship, my wife and I have attended a few Steven Curtis Chapman concerts. At [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2009, 1:06pm EST
  

• Preach It Bro'

  I'm a PK, a pastor's kid. It's an ... interesting thing, with an interesting set of pressures. I wouldn't change it for the world, but it wasn't an easy thing to deal with at times.
  
  For this reason I have a great deal of empathy and care for the' [...]
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  Posted: February 24, 2009, 4:25pm EST
  

• The Mission

  Last time I talked about what the church is. There's a difference between the big-C universal body of believers in Christ, to use the common analogy, and the little-c local church. There is a difference between the two, which I'll get to, but as a general rule the local [...]
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  Posted: February 10, 2009, 10:02pm EST
  

• What is This Church Thing?

  Having been properly chastised (thanks Rachel!) for creating this series sans flow, I humbly move forward with my thoughts on church. This is the start of my view of ecclesiology. There are others, and if you have differing views please chime in with a comment.
  
  Having taken [...]
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  Posted: January 27, 2009, 2:38pm EST
  

• Back to it?

  Okay, so my off-again, off-again series on the mega-church question is back on. At least for the near future, though part of me wants to do this so I can get back to posting infrequently about other things!
  
  I introduced the question back in '07* as I was getting' [...]
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  Posted: January 26, 2009, 4:27pm EST
  

• Blogging for Choices

  Interesting. Today is something called "Blog for Choice" day. Last year's was so "successful" that even a 'net savvy person and multiple-blog reader like me didn't hear of it until this year. Being a giving guy, I'd like to help them out and add one more post to this [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 11:22am EST
  

• Trippin' 'Round the Sphere: 1/15/09 Edition

  Yes, I'm bringing back the most sought-after and heavily requested feature of this blog!
  
  But before I do that, I'll post this.
  
  Not to cross-promote too heavily, I have a new post up at Galya's Tale.
  ***
  Also in the "cross-promotion" business, the church has done' [...]
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  Posted: January 15, 2009, 12:02pm EST
  

• MinnPost Link!

  Thanks to Justin at MinnPost.com's Blog Cabin for the link to Galya's Tale. If you want the synopsis of my other blog's purpose and story, read his column here. If you want the detail, go to Galya's Tale itself. [...]
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  Posted: December 24, 2008, 1:09pm EST
  

• Merry Christmas!

  For you and yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. As much as we are focusing on our newly-extended family, this time of year is about remembering and celebrating another child and why he was born. Enjoy the season, the family and the traditions. But remember [...]
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  Posted: December 24, 2008, 9:52am EST
  

• New Blog!

  Okay, this will be a temp blog, but I started a new one called Galya's Tale. It's named in honor of a little girl we're working to adopt from Ukraine.
  
  We leave tomorrow for Kiev, with much to do, and many things hanging in the balance. We'll use [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2008, 2:33pm EST
  

• Randomness

  Yeah, back for my (apparently) every other/third/fourth month blog entry. Random thoughts of recent note, and I don't pretend you'll care about them:
  
  I can't take gymnastics (or figure skating, or diving, or any "judged" sport) terribly seriously when scoring is so subjective.
  ***
  This [...]
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  Posted: August 18, 2008, 5:35pm EDT
  

• Praise Him in the Storm

  As long-time readers know, I have an affinity for the hobby of storm chasing, or at the least storm spotting. I am a certified Skywarn spotter and, although married to someone who thinks I'm nuts, find violent weather to be fascinating.
  
  Please note I said "fascinating" and not' [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2008, 5:43pm EDT
  

• Presumptions of Science

  I am taking a break in my series (ha! a break he says; more like a sabbatical) to post on a couple of articles I read recently that have me thinking. They both point to an arrogance, I think, in the hyper-rationalistic, hyper-naturalistic worldview that claims that nature is all [...]
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  Posted: May 16, 2008, 4:37pm EDT
  

• The Mega-Why?

  Last time I introduced a little bit what I was going after in this series. And yes, I know it's going on a long time. Before I get too much further into it, I wanted to clarify why it is this question has some hold on me.
  
  As' [...]
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  Posted: April 18, 2008, 5:37pm EDT
  

• He is Risen!

  He is risen indeed!
  
  May your Easter be blessed, and the risen Son of the Living God be your source of Life forever and ever.
  
  Amen. [...]
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  Posted: March 23, 2008, 8:14pm EDT
  

• A Megachurch Question - Part New

  A while back (oops! a loooong time back) I raised a question about the megachurch "movement" in America, and whether the criticism of megachurches is valid. I'd like to get back to that today as a way of...I think this is called blogging, but that would imply a more frequent' [...]
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  Posted: March 20, 2008, 6:36pm EDT
  

• Happy New Year!

  So far 2008 is off to a rousing start in the northern 'burbs of the Twin Cities. Plenty of snow, lots of family gatherings and some ice skating with the NBB daughters last evening. Good times.
  
  The NBB wife is planning another trip to India, I'm hoping to travel [...]
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  Posted: January 01, 2008, 10:49pm EST
  

• Wow! I Remembered I Have a Blog!

  For those of you wondering, and inquiring, yes, I do still plan some things here at the blog. To wit, I have things in progress to update y'all on:
  
  The Mega-Church Question
  A mission trip I took to Donetsk, Ukraine this past summer
  Life in general
  Various tidbits from' [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2007, 10:29pm EDT
  

• Why?

  Yesterday I broached the subject of "why." As I noted, some people are focusing on the "why did the bridge fall?" question in the pursuit of political gain (and, for full disclosure, I doubt very much that particular malady will be isolated to one party or ideology; to date, [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2007, 10:10pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Why the Bridge?

  I'm not sure how much I can post on the 35W bridge collapse. I still have too many vivid memories of driving over the thing, having grown up in South Minny and using that route hundreds, if not thousands, of times in my life. It still feels odd that' [...]
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  Posted: August 06, 2007, 9:02pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Words Aren't Enough

  By now you've seen the stories. A major interstate freeway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last night, during rush hour, and right before a Twins game. Traffic was heavy, and there have been reports of dozens of injuries and at least 4-9 deaths (depending on which news organization is reporting' [...]
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  Posted: August 02, 2007, 9:21am EDT
  by R. Stewart

• So Sorry...

  I know a (few) of you overly-faithful friends have checked of late. Yes, I am still here, and yes I know I owe you the following:
  
  An update on the church series. I will be doing this soon. I'm in the midst of one big project consuming much' [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2007, 11:09am EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Disciplined Writing

  
  
  
  Hey! The dearth of content probably makes you think I'm not very disciplined as a writer. Well, yes and no. I write a lot, just not always (or often!) on the blog.
  
  But I do wish I was more disciplined about what/where/when I' [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2007, 6:09pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• I'm still here...

  ...but life's been hectic. I PROMISE a post or two this week.
  
  Or maybe that's more of a threat:)
  
  I hope your Memorial Day was meaningful.
  
  God bless,
  Ron [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2007, 11:47pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Time to Vote!

  Okay, it's not really a presidential election season, although it's starting to feel like one. No, this is more important: it's the Blogger's Choice Awards!. Since I'm not nominated (thanks!) I feel no problem encouraging y'all to head over and vote for my favorite New Zealander, Catez from [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2007, 5:36pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• The Mega Question

  Okay, to set this up, I've had a lot on my mind of late regarding church structure and organization. Some of this is natural; I'm now an elder and need to concern myself with such things more than I did as a layperson. Some of this is more to do, [...]
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  Posted: April 15, 2007, 10:48pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• If a Blogswarm Was Announced but Nobody Read it...

  Is a blogswarm like this effective if, say, a fairly broad-reading blogger doesn't hear about it until reading about it at KAR after the fact?
  
  I kinda feel sorry for people who think we're actually headed for a theocracy. Not a single Christian I've ever met wants [...]
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  Posted: April 09, 2007, 5:57pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Techy Stuff

  I'm tweaking some things on the site, and need some assistance. For some reason, I can't get the Haloscan comments to work on both the main page and the individual post's page. Therefore, I end up with two sets of comments, at times, for each post: one Haloscan, one Blogger. [...]
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  Posted: April 04, 2007, 5:45pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Russian in the Northern Burbs

  So I'm teaching myself Russian. Interesting language, that. It doesn't conform readily to American English, or at least as readily as I'd prefer, but it sounds rather cool. Plus I'm heading to Ukraine this summer, and it'd be fun to be able to interact with folks who don't [...]
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  Posted: April 03, 2007, 5:20pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 4/2/07 Edition

  Miss a year, there's catching up to do. So, while I was out (and since I've been back):
  
  Amy and Greg are adding to their humble family. Congratulations!
  
  Kristin and Ryan also added to their clan. Welcome Noah!
  
  Jeremy posted wonderful stuff on [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2007, 3:14pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Memes, Glorious Memes

  Okay, I took a break and came back to...a meme in the first week!
  
  Sheesh.
  
  But I like this one. HT to Catez.
  
  Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™ [...]
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  Posted: March 31, 2007, 11:34pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Back in the saddle again

  For the past (nearly a) year I've been on a hiatus. I often found myself encountering things which would be great blog fodder, but just as often would talk myself out of jumping on board just then. I'd let the moment slide, and relax in the refreshing bliss that is [...]
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  Posted: March 29, 2007, 8:15pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• I wanna be, I wanna be like Mike...

  Okay, it's official. I'll be blogging again. The retirement was short lived. I found I missed this little hobby/outlet/catharsis and decided I'll give it a go once more. There will be some changes, though, as (a) I don't like the blogger template, and (b) I'm not sure if I like [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2007, 11:30pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• This is a test.

  I'm seeing if anyone still comes here...not saying there might not be an announcement in the near future about a Jordan-esque un-retirement. I'll just leave you in suspense and see what happens:)
  
  If you stop by...say hi in the comments. [...]
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  Posted: March 24, 2007, 12:18am EDT
  by R. Stewart

• I Consider Myself, the Luckiest Blogger on the Face of the Earth...

  Well, no, I don't. That's partly because I don't believe in luck, and partly because even if I did I never had the fortune to step into a high-traffic-generating issue that brought down a news anchor. But that's okay. I found a niche, and was blessed enough to meet some [...]
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  Posted: May 30, 2006, 2:23pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• How to Find the Northern 'Burbs - 5/25

  More folks meandered here via search engines. These are some of the more interesting paths they took.
  

  
  
  • what disasters can happen in minnesota Well, we do have a few
  
  
  • What do you believe mans’ relationship to animals is or should be? Timely considering Tuesday's post. I think [...]
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  Posted: May 25, 2006, 5:20pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 5/24/06 Edition

  Want to know what makes me tick? Apparently my DNA:
  Genuine Analyst
  Seems somewhat accurate, although not 100% so. And I never knew my DNA was so...colorful. Or pill-shaped.
  
  Anyway, some text behind the picture (which you can scroll-over the various colors to find out what [...]
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  Posted: May 24, 2006, 10:24pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Comment Moderation

  I have now enabled comment moderation. Just an FYI, since most of you are responsible commenters. Appears one person can't live with him/herself not getting enough attention, and I don't particularly feel like providing a platform for the chronically immature.
  
  Have a good day! [...]
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  Posted: May 24, 2006, 5:31pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• My Politics: Faith's Place Therein (Part X)

  For those who haven't been following closely, I'm in the midst (near the end?) of a series on how my faith informs my politics. The last post in the series touched on how I see the issue of poverty. Today 'd like to move on to the next topic [...]
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  Posted: May 23, 2006, 11:10pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Comment Policy

  Since an unfortunate troll who needs prayer more than attention has followed me from another blog, I am explicitly clarifying my commenting policy. I guess it had to happen, although I'm sorry for it.
  
  This blog is not run by the U.S. or any State/Local government. As such, I [...]
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  Posted: May 23, 2006, 10:25am EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Bizzy

  Just to let you know, I'm taking a blog break for the rest of the week due to life circumstances. Nothing bad at all, just things a'goin' on. Thought I should alert you in case you felt like checking back every day wondering why you were wasting your time. I'll [...]
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  Posted: May 17, 2006, 6:14pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• My Politics: Faith's Place Therein (Part IX)

  The next topic in this (interminable/fast-paced) series is poverty. It seems that separating politics and money is as hard as separating anything else from money. And the politics of poverty is always contentious. In general terms, conservatives want the private sector to take on alleviating poverty via charities, while liberals [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2006, 11:45pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - My Daughter's Birthday Edition

  Trippin' 'Round the 'Sphere - 5/11/06 Edition
  
  Christian Carnival is up at Something Epic. Go. Read. Think. (And next week, contribute!)
  ...
  Speaking of thinking, Ed says ceasing to do so makes living without Jesus easy. That's not really a good thing.
  ...
  USA Today had [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2006, 11:26pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• How to Find the Northern 'Burbs - 5/11

  A good number of people of late have arrived here via searches for things like "euthanasia" or "Dalits" - which are things that I've posted on lately, and make sense. A couple of searches, though, befuddle me.
  

  
  
  • god position to sex: This blog is NOT the Kama Sutra blog.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2006, 11:23pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• My Politics: Faith's Place Therein (Part VIII)

  Yesterday I left off with the questions of how I justify using religiously-motivated reasons to engage politically, and what politically activities are acceptable.
  
  The first question is often asked in one of two ways: "Who are you to try and push your morality on me?" or "Why can't [...]
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  Posted: May 10, 2006, 9:48pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Free the Dalits: The Here and Now

  I'm at about the 2/3 mark in this series on the Dalits of India, so time for a checkpoint. So far, I've covered the following agenda points:
  

  
  
  • Series Intro
  
  
  • Introduction: Who are the Dalits?
  
  
  • Background: Caste system
  
  
  • Background: History lessons
  
  
  • The Nowadays: Modern life
  
  
  • The [...]
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  Posted: April 10, 2006, 12:52pm EDT
  by R. Stewart

• Euthanasia

  Lennie's XBIP symposium is on the topic of euthenasia. As defined by Lennie, "[e]uthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured persons in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy called also mercy killing." It is also known by [...]
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  Posted: March 11, 2005, 2:02pm EST
  by R. Stewart