Update

So obviously I haven't been blogging lately. I think I'm going to re-commit my life to Chr... I mean blogging, try and get on here a minimum of once a week or so.

As for what's up now.

I'm planting a new church (more about that in the future)

Presently I'm on vacation (maybe that's why I have time to be on this blog)

I just signed up for a cool on-line church planting class. You can learn more about it here.

Nicholas is nearly two, and just beginning to talk.

All and all, life is good.

Update

The wheels of time keep moving for our family. I don’t think I mentioned it here, I’m now working for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. They have a nice management training program for college grads. So far it’s been going well. I like the people I work with and the business is interesting, so things are good in that department.

Were fairly certain that we’ll settle in at La Crescent Evangelical Free Church. It’s not perfect, but neither are we, so I think we’ll fit right in. Culturally it’s not exactly where I’m at, (more rural and conservative) but we really like the people, so I think that will work out.

My first-born son, Nicholas, is doing well, and bringing a great deal of both love and work to our lives.

I’m still finishing up my last class on leadership at Fuller, speaking of which I better get some more work on that done tonight. So I’ll call this post quits.

Anyone Want a Cigar

So I’m now a Father. On Wednesday September 20th, (the same day my father was born) my amazing wife gave birth to an eight pound two ounce little boy at 6:44 pm cst. His name is Nicholas David Napoli Best. He’ll be a “Nick”, and Napoli is Joey’s maiden name. Both Joey and Nick are healthy, so naturally that’s a huge answer to prayer.


Nicholas David Napoli Best


Nick and Me

Update

We have arrived safe and sound here in the La Crosse Wisconsin area. That is a blessing, given the fact that we didn’t have the best truck from U-Haul. The mirror kept bending in, making it impossible to see, the blinker went out, and it got all of 6 miles to the gallon. When we moved out to California, we used a company called U-Pack, they haul your stuff for you in a small semi trailer, and the best part is that you don’t have to pay for gasoline. Don’t use U-haul, (use Budget, Rider or Penski if you want to drive yourself) And if you have the time to set up the reservation in advance, (which we didn't) use U-Pack.

My sister got married yesterday to her high school sweet heart of 6 or is it 8 or is it 10 years, (the definition of their relationship was up in the air to begin with) It was a great wedding and I have no doubt it will be a great marriage.

I start work on Monday, in the mean time I have to finish up a 30 page paper for Fuller.

As for spirituality, we are looking for a church. Being from the area, we have a lot of relationships already, though in terms of where to go to church, we aren’t sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If anyone is being the church, in their home, in or around La Crosse, let us know as we are rather partial to that.

Got a Job!

I’ll be working for Combined Insurance of America, a subsidiary of the Aon Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. It’s mostly business to business sales and account maintenance, with some cold calling and door to door stuff thrown in. The truly exciting thing is that we’ll be moving back to La Crosse Wisconsin, where Joey and I grew up, and where our families still live.
And if your wondering, yes I did go to seminary to become an insurance salesman, that is what I’ve always dreamed of. : ) No, seriously, I have no problem with this position. I have a pretty imaginative idea of what pastoring and church should look like. (at least for me) and taking a “secular” job is just part of that. In the future I may or may not take an official pastoral position, but fortunately that is a ways down the road.

For those that know me, I’ll be leaving Pasadena on or about Aug 12th, and arriving in La Crosse 3 or 4 days latter.

Update

So a lot has been happening since I last posted. Finals, job interviews, and alas the highlight of it all, graduation.

I’m still looking for a job, so if you know of something you think I would be a good fit for, let me know. (you can see my resume here)

Graduation was pretty cool. Dr. Mouw, the president of Fuller, did a great job orienting our praise toward Jesus Christ. Obviously, God deserves the praise for all his many blessings, graduation was a good time to do that.

Then today, I had the opportunity to preach for the first time in quite a while. It went really well, but in hindsight, as always, there is a lot I would do differently. That said, it went fine. The topic was lament.

In the next few days I’ll post a few of the things I was working on at the end of the quarter, including some of the points from that sermon.

Good Interview

Had a good interview this past weekend, now I’m just chilling out on spring break, working a few extra hours at work. Class starts up again next week. I’ll be taking The Ethics of Life and Death, and The Spiritual Disciplines.

Are they out of their mind?

I have my first real pastoral interview next weekend. I had three really good one’s with this church by phone, and now they are flying my wife and I out for a face-to-face with the search committee.

Three years ago I accepted the Spirit’s calling on my life to be a pastor, (prior to that I had kind of been running from it) but it is only now that this is really starting to sink in. Are they out of their mind…me…pastoring a church?

On the one hand I know I have a good skill set (which will definately need to be complimanted by others) and I'm naturally confident, but on the other hand this is pastoring, you know...lives...spirits...souls...

God have mercy on us all…me…them…all of us.

Got One in the Oven

Say a prayer for joey, cause this little booger is making her quite sick. Other than that were ecstatic!

New Job

Finished up my second day on a new job yesterday. I’m working as a “recycling specialist” for a company called Tomrah Recycling. Basically I help you sort your recyclables, weed out the stuff we don’t pay for, weigh it, and print your cash voucher. I think its going to be great cause I don’t have to do much thinking, and I get to rub shoulders with some great people.

At our site, people can turn in their cans one of two ways. They can use a “reverse vending machine”, or if you have a lot of stuff (or not) I can weigh it.

Done!

Yahoo!!! I'm finally done with my finals. I just printed my last paper, so for the next 25 days, I have nothing to worry about in conjunction with school. Meaning I can get back to a normal routine, which coincidentally includes blogging. I look forward to telling y'all about what they been learning me in this hear school, so stay tuned for more wild tales from the crypt (i.e. cemetery, i.e. seminary)

Going to Montgomery with the Red Cross

About a week and a half ago Joey and I looked into the possibility of volunteering with the Red Cross to go and serve Katrina victims. This past Tuesday we got trained on shelter operations, and a number of other things. Today we got word that we are leaving at 7:10am tomorrow on a flight bound for Montgomery AL. (we'll be back in 11 days) From there will be bussed to wherever we are needed on the Gulf Coast.

The training reminded me of what it may have been like shortly after Pear Harbor occurred, for the mass of people that volunteered to serve in the armed forces, the Red Cross, or some other capacity. On Tuesday we were just a rag tag bunch of volunteers being rushed through training by a 30 year veteran of the Red Cross who skipped most of the official training, and instead told us what we needed to know, which wasn’t much, because nothing like this has ever happened on this scale.

I hope to be able to blog while I am down there, but there are certainly no guarantees that internet service will be available, or that I will want to write after a 13-hour day.

Please keep us, and the many that are hurting, in your prayers.

Cool Temp Job

I got a cool temporary job. I’m “alpha testing” software at a company called Get A Head Math. I simply use the software as it is intended to be used and make notes and screen shots of technical problems, or things I don’t think make sense. The people I work with are cool, and it seems that they have a pretty good product. I certainly learned some things while doing 6th grade math all day. : )

Update

This past Friday wrapped up six long weeks of four hour a day, lectures, which means I’m half way through with my MA in theology. I still have some papers to write, but overall I get to enjoy something resembling a summer break. I’ll also be busy with my internship, which I'm really excited about.

We have another year here in Pasadena; after that only God knows. At this point truly anything could happen. We will probably start exploring just what “anything” is going to look like in a few months, but for now were simply enjoying the present.

Started Summer Quarter

Now that I’m back from vacation, I can spend the next few posts talking about last quarter, and what is happening this quarter.

Today I started a two week intensive class entitled Old Testament Prophets. There are classes you want to take, and there are classes you have to take, the trick is to treat the latter like the former, something I’m not very good at. I think this OT class will be a bit of both, the topic isn’t my favorite, but our professor, Dr. Scalise, is making it palatable, so that’s good.

One of the things I think I will enjoy is what appears (at least after the first day) to be an emphasis on the text of the Holy Scripture, as opposed to what scholarship says about the text, as was the case in my New Testament classes. Not that there won't be any scholarly analysis, but that does not appear to be the emphasis of our time and energy.

Vacation

…got back from Wisconsin Saturday night…good flight…praise God for friends and family hauling us to/from the airport…did what I wanted to do, not much…read some more of Brian McLaren…engaged in some good theology/praxiology conversations, more on that latter…saw U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds…very thankful for family…looking forward to class on Monday, sort of...

Doing Nothing

Finals week was over this past Friday. At 12:35am that night (next day) we caught a plane ride out of LAX. (I kind of felt like an escaping convict) Since then I’ve been hanging out back home in La Crosse Wisconsin where I grew up. Just been relaxing, which for me means being unplugged from the internet, (hence no posts the past few days) and spending time with the family. For me technology is kind of a love/hate thing, so when I get a chance to just relax with no responsibilities, I try to go all out and truly do nothing that I do when I’m doing the typical student thing. I thought I would toss a post on here just because, that being done I’ll sign off. More on my vacation when I get back to Pasadena.

Hitting the Home Run and Template Stuff

Big news, I’m going home on Saturday. Get to stay a week. All y’all that I grew up with that read this thing, which is probably about two of you, pass the word to our non-blogging friends, and maybe we’ll hook up.

I’m really looking forward to seeing friends and family and my small home town. I need a break from this fast paced, traffic clogged, “paradise”. It will be nice to go for a walk in silence for a change, and sleep without the lullabies of traffic ten yards from my bedroom window.

As you regulars can tell, I was playing around with the template last night. I’m not sure it actually looks better, but at least it is slightly different from every other blog, though not much. The thing is, I’m sick of having the same template as thousands of other people. I bought html for Dummies, so we’ll see how that goes, it that doesn’t pan out I may just take this thing over to TypePad, or some other host that will let me do more, but that would require some time, so I don’t know. If you have an opinion on blog hosts let me know.

Going to Mexico

So I mentioned Mexico the other day. The reason, I’m going down there with my wife and some friends from church. We’re going to put up a fence and do some other work to complete a playground at a home for battered women and their children. It’s just a short trip, five hour drive, leave on sat, come home on sun, no big deal. It will be fun though, more when I get back.

On The Road

Well were off and running. In the next three weeks we will put over 4000 miles on our car as we travel home to Wisconsin, then down to Chicago, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Las Vegas, and finally Pasadena.

For us this is a very exciting time in our lives. Everything will be new when we reach Pasadena. We will have a new church, school, neighborhood, and friends. What God will make of this we can only guess, but we know that he is good, and will work everything for a favorable outcome.

Being home in La Crosse right now is nice, as we can touch bases with close friends and family, and think over some tough issues while talking with them. Home is a good place, but where the Holy Spirit calls is a better place. Right now that is Pasadena, a place we can’t wait to get to.