Heather and I would like to introduce our new son, Roman Allan Goodmanson. He was born tonight at 7pm, 7lbs 9 ounces, 19 inches long. Also, be praying for the birth mom, Holly who is going through quite a bit.

UPDATE: Here are a few pictures of Roman & the birthmom Holly and her friends, her mother, her daughter and us…

Calvin has always had a profound impact on my life. I recall when I was in 5th grade, one of my first book reports centered on Calvin. While I was young, I felt like I could live vicariously through his life and trevails. With my birthday coming up, my family got together and purchased the complete works of Calvin, much to my surprise. My encouragement to people working in the ministry is to get to know and appreciate some time reading Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson, it’s a necessary break in the labors of the ministry.

My brother’s Seattle home (He built with three friends) has finally been completed. Congratulations. It has a great view of Ballard and Freemont in Seattle. They also have a community hot tub on the roof. Sweet.

I just uploaded this picture from my trip to New York. I wanted to upload a bunch more and integrate them into my blog. Any recommendations on a gallery system. A friend recommended Gallery2 and I saw someone had integrated wordpress and gallery2. Anyone tried this? Other suggestions?

My youth group experience (at least the way I perceived it) seemed focused more on what not to do. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t have sex. In fact, I think it was in my church high school group that I learned that ’sex was bad’. Church seemed so unreal from the reality I faced and the pressures of the teen years of fitting in. I wasn’t being equipped to reply to the reasons why I shouldn’t do these things other than moralism. I wish the conversations were more frank and dealt less with the ‘what not to do’ and more with a Kingdom culture.

That leads me to a post Jen Zug made:

When I was a teenager I smoked, I shoplifted, I double pierced my ear with a needle and an ice cube, and I kissed boys in the bushes at church camp.

These are the kinds of characters and antics I find in the Diary of a Teenage Girl series by Melody Carlson. This is not simply the Christian version of the Sweet Valley High series with its drama and quest for popularity, but these are honest stories of real people who wrestle with everyday things like car privileges, school bullies, body image, and boys. (Full Post: Finally, a Teen Book Series for the Rest of Us

Churches, let’s stop entertaining our kids with cool services and XBox after service and raise a generation of gospel culture-changing activists. That may need to start with conversations based in reality.

I spoke with the headmaster (Scott Parson) at Geneva School in Manhattan. It was great to hear what they are doing, which includes a real sense of redemptive teaching. “It is easy to fall into the trap of Christian Classical Education (CCE) that creates a performance-based environment that sends a subtle worth-basis on performance rather than grace.” He mentioned decisions as small as an honor roll. Mr. Parson encourages people who seek to start CCE to really define what CCE means to you.

Here are the resources he recommended:

BOOKS
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning : An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education by Douglas Wilson
Teaching Redemptively: Bringing grace and truth into your classroom by Donovan L. Graham
Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp

(I own all but Teaching Redemptively, which looks like an excellent read. Article about Teaching Redemptively)

SCHOOLS
Geneva Orlando
Regents Texas
Logos Idaho

It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out, part of the effort will need a group of San Diego Homeschool people to rally behind this.

I’m back. My wife and I had a great time in New York city.

Sunday Evening- Arrival, Times Square
Monday - A trip around all NY city boroughs with a local cop of 20 years, whose father was a cop before him. Great time filled with stories and other valuable ‘insider’ info on the city, history, 9/11 and more. I think we averaged 2-3 moving violations or other illegal traffic moves (driving the wrong way on multiple one-way streets, etc) per minute! It’s good to be a cop.

Circle Line boat cruise around the island. Walk through SOHO, Greenwich village.

Tuesday - Wall Street, Financial district, Trinity church, Brooklyn Bridge, Grimaldi’s NY-style pizza (Zagat’s 5 year winner for best pizza), Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Hairspray Musical.

Wednesday - Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Dakota (my wife is a big Beatles fan) Upper West side walk.

Thursday - Hung out with friends in Central Park for 1/2 the day, Upper East side.

Friday - Headed home.

It was a great time, we must have walked about 10 miles a day. We stayed on 31st/Broadway hotel and frequently walked to 76th or down to SOHO. Loved NY, but am glad to be home…will post some photos soon.

My blog will be on vacation until October 7th. I’m taking my wife to New York for our sixth anniversary. If anything should happen to us, David Fairchild is raising my kid so keep him on the straight & narrow! If you want to get new blog posts, go to Fairchild’s blog because he’ll be posting ideas he has about a book he is writing that the church needs to read! Ask him about it….

I won’t access email while I’m gone, so this will be a good test of how technagoraphibic I am.

Our son, Gideon, is now 2 1/2. Even before Gideon was born my wife and I have discussed Classical Christian Education. The debate has been one of responsible education of our (hopefully many) children, the missional opportunity of public/private school as well raising them with a Christian worldview. Many of you have children, what are your education plans for them?

Some links on Classical Christian Education:
Classical Christian Education History
Classical Christian Education Links Resource
Free Online Classical Christian Education
Escondido Classical Christian Tutorial Service

There is a group of people we have found in San Diego that want to do this collectively (with some already doing it in their homes). We’d love to start a co-op.

I’m taking my wife to New York for a week to celebrate our anniversary. If you had a week in NY, what would you make sure to do?

Ok, we’re two weeks from leading a group of couples through premarriage counseling here in San Diego. Let me know if you have any books you highly recommend. Here are three more I’m picking up:

1. Strengthening Your Marriage (Paperback) by Wayne A. Mack
2. Rocking the Roles: Building a Win-Win Marriage (Paperback) by Robert Lewis, William Hendricks
3. Your Family, God’s Way: Developing and Sustaining Relationships in the Home (Paperback) by Wayne A. MacK

My son, Gideon, turned two on March 19th, because we had friends who had a marriage on the 19th, our party was this week. Here are some pictures from the bash.

Album: Gideon Two Year Old Birthday Party >

I’m taking the week off to spend with my parents in Palm Springs. So no more posts until I return. I’ll return and post some pictures, stories of golf and relaxation.

Weather for Palm Springs, CA
79° | 53° Tue
Clear
83° | 55° Wed
Clear
86° | 56° Thu

We took our son to the snow for the first time. Bill Munson let us use their cabin for part of the week. We packed our bags and headed up there with the Fairchilds. Gideon sled down a hill, a couple times on his own. It was pretty amusing to see our almost 2-year-old son trying to figure out the snow. Picture Gallery >

I was reading a book in our living room. My wife walked by carrying our 22 month-old son to bed. She had previously asked me to clean the room, which was filled with toys from Gideon and I playing. “You know, the room isn’t going to clean itself,” she commented as she walked by. Ah, but if evolution were only true, maybe with just enough time and chance, life could start from these toys and they just might organize themselves. After that fleeting thought, I put my book down and cleaned the room. All in all, it made me miss the greatest comic strip ever, Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson.