Ryan Weaver

storyteller//gospelplanter

.: Update on the 1K Beard…

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In the days following the announcement that I would be cutting my “Thousand-Dollar Beard“… the aforementioned beard (and I) made a few appearances throughout Downtown Salisbury and across the Mid-Atlantic region. This “beard tour” was staged to share the story of the beard’s soon-coming demise, and to give me the opportunity to say goodbye to the beard.

On Sunday the 14th of July in the year 2013… my sons cut off my beard in the presence of many witnesses. The final measurement of the beard was just under 10 inches in length. It was a pretty massive amount of beardness upon my face.

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One of our talented artists at Remedy Church decided that a goodbye video montage was necessary as a live lead-in to the beard’s cutting (as if the insane amount of self-coverage that I had generated for the beard wasn’t enough). For the sake of hilarity, here is the goodbye montage::

The story of the thousand dollar beard also caught the attention of our friends at the BCMD, who decided to cover the story last week in their regional publication. If you are so inclined, you can read the article here.

And thus begins the growth of another beard…

(image credits:: SMDi Photography)

.: Thousand-Dollar Beard…

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My friend, Chris Marlow from Help One Now, was in Salisbury this weekend with his family to share the mission of Help One Now with Remedy Church. Chris decided to open his talk with a joke.

Jokes are good. I get jokes. But this joke involved my beard.

In fact, Chris joked that I had previously committed to cut my beard if someone would donate one thousand dollars to engage extreme poverty and the global orphan crisis during the service. The gesture was warmly received… the “ice” was broken and laughter was shared by all (less by me, but that’s okay).

When I followed Chris on stage to give a final challenge and provide transition toward our communion gatherings… I mentioned that if it took me growing (or even cutting my beard) to encourage our church to further engage the global orphan crisis then my beard was totally for sale.

I should have known better than to give such a challenge to this church full of generous and messy followers of Christ. The donation was given anonymously before we even sang the final song. When the news was broken to my sons, they had the following reactions:: Ryland was angry with me and Rance wept openly.

Ahhhhhhh yes. (sigh)
Teachable parenting moments.

My beloved beard will now be cut on Sunday, the 14th of July.

And I am now the proud grower of a One Thousand Dollar Beard.

You can listen to the podcast here::

(PS:: expect quite a few photos online this week as I say goodbye to my beard… which hasn’t been groomed since January of 2012.)

.: Remedy on the Web…

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After months of work… we have finally unveiled our new Remedy Church website. I am told by our local designer (Chris McIntosh) that our site is a fully integrated HTML 5 website. I don’t know what that means… but the site looks slick!

This is not the first time that we have rebooted, rebranded, and relaunched Remedy Church on the web. And it will not be the last. If form follows function in art and life (and it does)… then our online presence must beautifully reflect our organizational DNA while also meeting the demands of our community (and the city in which we are planted).

Check out our most-recent web rebranding effort… and let us know what you think::

RemedyChurch.me

.: Remedy Church (Downtown)…

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Remedy Church is located in Downtown Salisbury on the 3rd floor of the City Center building. We love this city and have centered ourselves in the heart of #DowntownSBY’s revitalization and renaissance. It is this very vision which led us to relocate from the Regal 16 Cinemas to Downtown Salisbury in December of 2011.

Since that time, Remedy Church has been intimately involved with the urban and communal revitalization of Salisbury’s Downtown. This vision for Downtown Salisbury is directly linked to our mission (Go.Be.Do.) and our values as a local church. In Isaiah 58, the prophet addressed the people of Israel who were then living in exile among the nations. His challenge to the people of Israel was to become a part of the social, architectural, and economic welfare of the cities in which they had been replanted. We believe that this is a beautiful commision to the local church today as well…

Your people will rebuild the old cities that are now in ruins; you will rebuild their foundations. You will be known for repairing the broken places and for rebuilding the roads and houses.
+ Isaiah 58.12

.: Messy…

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Remedy Church is a messy church.

The elders at Remedy have found ourselves saying this phrase more than almost any other in describing our church to others (and to ourselves).

Each local church is entrusted with God’s mission to bring restoration and reconciliation to the world. Each local church lives this mission uniquely. Because of this truth… some churches are messier than others. We are messy because of the way that we value relationships (with God through Jesus the King, with the city in which we have been planted, and with one another).

One of the most beautiful (and challenging) things about the Scriptures is that they share the messy details of the people (and nations) whose stories fill each page. Many of the stories in the Christian Bible are uncomfortably honest… and unflinchingly real. I’m naturally uncomfortable with messiness and I crave order in disorder… but the more I love and serve Jesus as my King the more I am forced to come to grips with Paul’s beautiful refrain::

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
+ Galatians 2.20

We aspire to celebrate God’s Kingdom by embracing the mess of our lives and claiming that messiness as the very sacred space where God can be magnificently glorified.

We aspire to cultivate relationships and plant ourselves in this city where we have been planted… as a gathering people and a scattering people.

We aspire to be a people (and a place) where heaven and earth collide.

Now that’s messy.

.: Back that Thing Up…

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My season of mourning has ended.

After five years of consistent blogging and writing on the web at terminalconfession.com… I made a rookie mistake and neglected to back up any of that data before I went on a writing sabbatical. When I returned, my mistake was quickly realized but the data loss was catastrophic. I really should have backed that thing up.

Not much is worse for a storyteller than to realize he has totally lost context with his audience. Details get fuzzy. Perspective gets murky. Impact is lessened. Influence is weakened. The punchline requires explanation. The story loses anchor. The tribe begins the contagious yawn of inevitable boredom.

In the past few months, I have made several sputtering attempts at regaining rhythm with blogging and writing on the web… but have succumbed to grief (and anger with myself) each time. This time is different. Grace is in my lungs. I am confident that this is a platform that is needed as a healthy rhythm in my life which is in alignment with my mission. Some story re-telling will be necessary, and it is going to take some work to get the backlogs built up. but it will be worth the effort. The mourning over that which was lost has now ended.

And this time… I am most-definitely backing this thing up.

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