I had a chance to sit down with Karis’ current elder candidate, Aarik Danielsen. Lord willing, we will be installing Aarik as our newest elder on February 21, and we’re incredibly excited to have him laboring with us. As you’ll see here, Aarik has a great heart for the Lord and his church. I’ll be posting this interview in 3-parts over the next few weeks. So enjoy, and check back for the following parts!

This January, beginning on the 24th, Karis will be launching a new evening worship Gathering. It will look just like the morning service, but just at night. It’s our hope and prayer that this will open up the experience of Karis to a whole different group of people. It will begin at 6 p.m. each Sunday night. Join us. Spread the word.

Note Karis members and regulars: we are seeking to send a special team of people to begin this evening Gathering. If you are interested in participating, please contact Rob Gaskin or Derek Zimmermann on The City.

Check out this great article in the Tribune’s Ovation section about Karis intern Kate Chute.  Aarik did a great job again.  It’s exciting to see Karis members making headlines in our community.

Check out the recent Vox Magazine.  Karis’s own Matt Ballou is featured!

It’s always exciting to see a Karis member writing in the Tribune about a fellow Karis member.  Aarik Danielsen, the Trib’s arts editor, and a Karis elder-candidate, features Brady Didion in this week’s “Niche” article.  Brady is a gifted guitarist.  You can hear him rock out a couple of weeks a month on Sundays at Karis.  It’s also cool to see how my buddy’s faith comes out clearly in the article.  Congratulations, Brady!

Karis member Alex Pfeiffer, while not feeling well physically at all, set up a Karis table on Tuesday at a fair at Columbia College.  She mentioned today, when she updated me on what happened, that she was a bit disappointed, as she only was able to really talk to one person.

My mind went back to our first Mizzou “Activities Mart” in 2005.  I had pretty much one meaningful conversation that day.  It was with Rob Gaskin.  He is now in Karis’s elder process. He is one of my best friends in the whole world.  He would cut off his arm for the mission and vision of Karis.

Tomorrow actually is also his birthday.  I’m thankful for you, Rob Gaskin - more than you know.  Alex, and Karis, let’s be excited to connect with that “one person.”

Karis member Aarik Danielsen interviewed Brian Regan, one of my favorite comedians, for this week’s Ovation section in the Tribune. Regan is performing this Thursday at the Missouri Theatre.  Check out the following quotes.  They have some relevance for contemporary preaching, I’m convinced:

• On authenticity in shows: “You don’t ever want to look like you’re mailing it in where you’re kind of on stage, going through the motions and basically reciting your act. That’s bad news, man, if you ever look like you’re reciting your own material. You want to be living it, and you want it to feel like it’s coming out right then and there, truthfully and honestly and happening at the moment. It’s a quest — you don’t always hit it, but that’s the goal is to make it look like it’s immediate.”
• On relevance to the entire audience: “I want most of my stuff to just come from the perspective of a human, the human condition. It’s not a joke about being a male. I don’t want to write too many jokes about being a guy or about being a dad or about being a husband. Anything that factions off the audience, to me, it’s starting to go in the wrong direction if you hit on that too much. I want to do jokes that have to do with being a human. Going to the eye doctor — everybody does that — or going to the emergency room or buying greeting cards at a greeting card store. Things where everybody in the audience can go, “Hey, man, I’ve experienced that. I know what he’s talking about.”
• On the message’s importance over the messenger: “I’m not interested in being a TV star — that doesn’t affect me in the least. Not that I wouldn’t want to do that if my comedy was associated with it. If that could help get my comedy famous, I wouldn’t mind going along for the ride. The point is to make the comedy famous, not me personally. For that reason, maybe I’m not as in the public eye out there as other people just because everybody has different quests. My quest isn’t to become famous. My quest is for my comedy to become famous. If it could be famous and me stay anonymous, that would be the perfect world.”

Karis member Tom Seagraves talked about his experience as a Big Brother on KOMU’s “Pepper and Friends” this week.  You can watch the video here.

Today, Karis’s Pastor for Worship and Mission, Luke Daugherty, and his wife, Ann, welcomed their first child into the world.  Ian was born early this afternoon.  He was 22 inches long and 7 lbs and, I think, 11 ounces.  Congrats, Luke and Ann.

Karis member Lindsey Howald just wrote a great feature on Karis member Matt Ballou.  Lindsey edits the Columbia Tribune’s Ovation section.  Matt teaches art at Mizzou and is an accomplished painter.  He is a gifted leader and theologian, leading and shepherding a Karis C-Group in an exemplary manner with the assistance of his sweet wife Alison.  We’re so thankful to have them on board.  Check out the super article about Matt’s work here.

A quote: It would be a great mistake for one to assume that Ballou, now 32, has painted any of these because he thinks they look good. Before his acceptance to the master of fine arts program at Indiana University, Ballou, wearied by his job, wrote constantly to give himself hope. He has published a book called “One Hundred Permutations” and an essay about Nerdrum himself in “Image Journal.” He developed deep philosophies behind all that he paints, philosophies that power the work and give it meaning.