A-HA! Moment -- Benediction from the Back of Church

Image by pietroizzo via Flickr

I had an A-HA! moment today in my small group on small churches.

In many of the churches I've been to over the years the pastor has said the benediction at the back of the sanctuary after the worship service has ended.  This is where it is said:

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever. Amen.

Or, from Numbers 6:24-26…

May the LORD bless you
and protect you.
May the LORD smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the LORD show you his favor
and give you his peace.  Amen.

"Benediction" literally means "good speak."  So, it's a blessing said upon others.

Well, I had known many churches where this was done at the back of the sanctuary and I thought it was kinda' OK, but never really thought about the practical side of it.  What's so important about this is that it oftentimes puts the pastor at the back of the church, near the main exit, so that visitors can be greeted as they leave.  This never occurred to me before.

It has made me reevaluate how I've been doing the benediction for the last 10 years and how I should probably try to do it when I get back to my home church.  Logistically, however, I'll have an issue with the communion bread.  It has been my practice of taking the leftover communion bread with me to the back of the church after the benediction (after some persons--including visitors--have made their exit) to hand out bread to the children.  I'll need to figure out what makes sense to "catch" the visitors and pass out bread to the children.

Chess Pie

Had "Chess Pie" with lunch today and had to look up what it is when I got back to where I could get online.

It was yummy.

This is what Wikipedia says

Chess pie is a particularly sugary dessert characteristic of Southern U.S. cuisine. According to James Beard's American Cookery (1972) chess pie was brought from England originally, and was found in New England as well as Virginia. Recipes vary, but are generally similar in that they call for the preparation of a single crust and a filling composed of eggs, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. What sets chess pie apart from many other custard pies is the addition of corn meal. Some recipes also call for corn syrup, which tends to create a more gelatinous consistency. The pie is then baked. The result is very sweet and is often consumed with coffee to offset this.

Where are Your Fields?

Image via Wikipedia

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Matthew 9:37-38

Where are Your Fruit?

Image by equinoxefr via Flickr

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

John 15:1-6

Christian Formation Quote By Reggie McNeal

Image via Wikipedia

“Spiritual formation is the number one issue for the church. It doesn’t immediately present itself as the major concern. But the loss of mission that plagues many churches is a direct result of not being shaped by the heart of God. The fact that we focus on creating members instead of missionaries grows from our lack of being captured by the heart of God for people.”

Reggie McNeal, A Work of Heart

Discipleship as a Fitness Club

Image via Wikipedia

More thoughts from Nashville---

Discipleship is all about before and after…what you have in folks BEFORE discipleship and what they are AFTER a year.

Think about it this way.  If you're an operator of a fitness club and you want people to join your club, what change do you want to see in them?  You want them to move from overweight to a good weight.  You want them to move from unhealthy to healthy.  You want them to move from feeling badly about their physical fitness to feeling good about their bodies.  And, along the way, you'd hope that they build some healthy habits and some healthy relationships.  You can picture the BEFORE and AFTER pictures in your advertising.


Now, in order for this change to happen, you, as a Fitness Club Operator, need to offer certain things.  First, you need to have the space and the variety of equipment for them.  You might have personal trainers who can work with them individually and special classes where they can work out with people who all want to play basketball or do step aerobics or yoga or power lifting.  You may want to consider your hours to make the fitness club available to the most people at the most time.  Perhaps you provide the necessary entertainment to keep them coming -- the TVs, the snack bar, the social settings to connect with people.  You probably need to think about childcare.  You probably need to think about all the ways they can have healthy habits at home so they can take home what it is that they've learned…and indeed, become.  All of these things will help move them from the BEFORE image that you put above and the AFTER image that you hope for them.

Well, how does this relate to discipleship in the church?

We have a BEFORE and AFTER as well.  We believe that there are persons who are looking for a sense of belonging in the world, who are hungering for a relationship with Jesus and others.  We believe that, while there is a spirality without the church, that the church can be in the business of instilling a spiritual life in persons. We hope that people learn something in the church and are called upon to service in new and exciting ways.   We have a BEFORE and AFTER, where our AFTER is "a fully-committed disciple of Jesus" -- not without problems and not without sin, etc.  

So, in order to move folks from BEFORE to AFTER, we need to provide certain things.  We need to have worship services that move them towards discipleship, that relate to their lives and can provide teaching moments.  We need to be thinking about how we welcome persons in and provide discipleship opportunities and rituals for children and youth.  We need to have the "small groups" for those who want to be in service to others and mission in the world.  We need to be growing persons who then become equippers of others.  That is the maturity of faith.   That is where persons have discovered what it is that God wants them to be in the world….discovering their call.

As I look at our church in Girdwood, I realize that we are really not…really not…moving persons from a BEFORE to any planned for AFTER.  I guess we just hope that persons learn discipleship by osmosis or that something just kind of collects on their feet as they come to worship with us.

More needs to be done.

A plan needs to be made.

Disciples are needed for the Kingdom.

And it has to start with us.

(And I think I should go to the gym tonight.)

"Jesus Picture" -- Getting Jesus Outside the Church

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Heard a wonderful, powerful, Spirit-filled sermon this morning in the African American tradition.  There were a lot of "Amens" which filled our worship space.  But I wanted to share, as best I can, the story that began the sermon…a story about taking Jesus out of the church and into the world.


There was a church (as often these stories go)….

There was a church in a downtown area of some town somewhere.  In in this "somewhere church" there was fire that broke out on a Sunday evening.  Some trustees of this church were in the area and saw the smoke coming out through the stained glass windows.  The trustees ran in to the building because they knew that there was a picture of Jesus hanging down in fellowship hall.

Now, this was a pretty traditional picture of Jesus and had been in the congregation, hanging on the same wall of the fellowship hall for 25 year.  It had been painted around, straightened when it got a little crooked.  Persons had eaten many a doughnut and drunk many a cup of coffee at its feet.  Children had run wild.  Youth had held lock ins.  All with little regard to its presence in their midst.

Then the fire came.

Well, those trustees raced into the church, raced downstairs into fellowship hall, and raced on out with the picture of Jesus.

There wasn't much else that could be saved that day.  Those two trustees, some other members who got the phone call about the fire, and a lot of the people from the neighborhood gathered around and watched the church slowly burn to the ground.

They stood there and looked at the picture of Jesus in their midst.  It was traditional.  Jesus was a traditional lily-white, gazing up to heaven.  But their was a beauty about him.  Someone noted an irony of "saving Jesus from the fire."  The trustees got to share why it is that they would run in and save this one thing from the fire.  Church members got to talk about some of the great, holy, life-changing events that had happened in that little church.  And persons, some of whom had been in the community for years, heard about the saving power of this "saved" Jesus for the first time.


We need to be about the business of taking Jesus out onto the streets.  We need to take the message out on the highways and byways…to the neighborhoods and coffee shops and bars and parks and homes and businesses and lives around us.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus confined to our fellowship halls and our libraries and sanctuaries and church offices.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus inside our church.  We have a world out there that needs to hear about and be transformed by our Jesus.

Looking for Authentic Enthusiasm

Image by Exothermic via Flickr

I'm in Nashville, staying at the rather nice Renaissance Hotel next to the Convention Center for the School of Congregational Development for the United Methodist Church.  There's about 500 or so attendees, from what I've been told.  My guess is that there's more than that if worship last evening was any indication.  Lots of talks.  Lots of education.  Lots of worship.  And it's fun having a layperson from our congregation along as well.

My guess is that a lot of my blog posts from the next several days are going to include information that I've been given while here.   This is one of them.

One of the speakers (actually someone giving an introduction tonight) said the following:

AUTHENTIC ENTHUSIASM BRINGS FORTH HOSPITALITY AND EVANGELISM.

I'll say it one more time:

AUTHENTIC ENTHUSIASM BRINGS FORTH HOSPITALITY AND EVANGELISM.

When I look at the churches I've served, and when I look at MYSELF, I struggle to find AUTHENTIC ENTHUSIASM.  I'm not saying that it doesn't exist EVER.  But I am saying that I sometimes question how passionate persons are about their faith, about their Savior, about worship and church and service and all of that stuff I have in my head and understand to be "church."  It's a lack of enthusiasm for both Jesus AND Church, for the Spirit of the religion AND the form of the religion. 

And if we don't have people fired up about who Christ is and what Christ is doing, how can we ever expect to be truly hospitable?  How can we be evangelical?  How can we have a church that persons want to visit and a faith that they would care to profess?

I am a pretty good cheerleader as a pastor.  I don't have the pompoms, but I can get persons to get behind me for one cause at a time.  More than that and I seem to get distracted.  But that's not the same as building up an enthusiasm for the work of God in the world among the members and friends of the congregations I've served. 

I want to see passion.

I want to see enthusiasm.

I want to see some of that Pentecostal Fire in our congregation.





I want to see it in me.


I want others to see it in me, too.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
 

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?  Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

William Wilberforce, Before the House of Commons 18 April 1791

Image via Wikipedia

Great words from a great man against the great injustice of slavery.

Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country.

William Wilberforce,
speech before the House of Commons, 18 April 1791

From "Living Water From an Ancient Well"

The First Rule of Leadership

Image via Wikipedia

If there’s an elephant in the room, shoot it.

Turn What You Have Into What You Want

Image via Wikipedia

Been doing some thinking about TRANSFORMATION in life...not only because I want to see some changes in my life and ministry (as I think I always should)...but also because the people I'm in ministry with and the people I'm friends with are at places in their lives where they are questioning marriages, jobs, how they're raising children, their finances, etc.  It's part of life.  It's part of growing up and  growing older and having your friends and your relationships do the same.  And it's partly due to the economic situation in which we find ourselves these days.

I know a lot of persons who are UNSATISFIED, who are UNFULFILLED, who are UNHAPPY, or who are just stuck in a RUT and they KNOW it.  They long for a "resurrection..." a transformation...a change.

So, it is with interest that I read "Turn the Ministry You Have Into the Ministry You Want" over at The Gospel Coalition. The blog post By Dr. David Murray of Puritan Reformed Seminary takes from the Harvard Business Review an article called "Turn the Job You Have Into the Job You Want."  It's originally by Yale Professor Amy Wrzesniewski and I think it's more than a "when life gives you lemons make lemonade" philosophy of life.  It's more than looking at your present (perhaps hopeless or unsatisfying) job or situation with rose-colored glasses.  It's about actually transforming your present situation into something different...not just pretending that it's different or pretending that the bad stuff of your situation isn't there.  

When looking at a job, Wrzesniewski says try changing one of these three things:

1. Tasks. You can alter your job by taking on more or fewer tasks, different types of tasks, or by simply changing the way you do the tasks you currently have.

2. Relationships. Change the nature and degree to which you interact with others. Take on a mentee, or spend more time getting to know people in other departments.

3. Perception. Think about your job in a different way. If there are parts you don’t like, separate them from the parts you do like. See your job as two jobs: one that you must do, and one that you enjoy doing.

The original author sees this as a tool to reenergize your work life.  "It involves redefining your job to incorporate your motives, strengths, and passions. The exercise prompts you to visualize the job, map its elements, and reorganize them to better suit you. In this way, you can put personal touches on how you see and do your job, and you’ll gain a greater sense of control at work…”

Well, how then does that relate to what some of my friends are going through?  Have they really looked at the tasks and relationships and perceptions they have about their work?  Have I?

I know that, as it pertains to Girdwood Chapel ministry, I'm pretty good at itineration--supporting our mission--and that it is very necessary.  However, I'm becoming more clear that my passions are lying elsewhere and I need to see how I can get that task and my passions to come together.  I also know that there are relationships which need attention--because it would make me a better pastor and a better person. 

Thanks to The Gospel Coalition and Dr. David P. Murray for bringing this to my attention.

Pretty Buttons -- "Share This"

Anyone who reads this could share this drivel at any time.   For some, it involves cutting and pasting.   For some, e-mailing a link or two.  For some, it is all about sharing something on Facebook. 

I just wanted to draw your attention to the lovely little buttons at the bottom of these posts -- when you are on the actual blog post and not the entire blog page--click on the blog title to get there.  They are designed to make it easier to share this stuff with persons in your way.

Feel free to share.

Please let people know where it came from.

Please give proper credit either to me or the others that I mention.

Thanks.

Diagnosing Your Life / Three Questions

Image by Biology Big Brother via Flickr

Justin David Buzzard writes over at Buzzard Blog about life and the Gospel from what he considers is Western perspective--which is, in and of itself, an interesting perspective.

He has the following in a post about how to best steward the life (and in some cases of our readers, the ministry) that God has given you.  You can begin, he says, by asking three questions:

1. What is the one thing you are now doing that you think you should continue doing? (This should target towards your greatest strength)
2. What is the one thing you are now doing that you think you should stop doing? (This should target towards your greatest liability/time waster/sin/way of harming others/etc.)
3. What is one thing you are not now doing that you think you should start doing? (This should target toward your greatest opportunity/untapped potential/a big new risk)

This has given me some food for thought for the day...and my return to Girdwood in a couple of weeks.

And, frankly, as a lot of my friends enter into their 40s or wind down time at jobs or have kids looking forward to graduation or have babies on the way, these are good questions to have, not only in the back of your mind, but at the front of it.  It's another way of looking at "strengths, weaknesses, and growing edges" that I've looked at off and on.

What is it again, "The unexamined life is not worth living?"  That's it.

How to Have Power in Your Life as Pastor -- Quote

To have power in your life as a pastor, it is supremely important that you make it a first order of business for the rest of your life not to do things to impress people or gain a reputation or protect your reputation. It is very clear from the Gospels that Jesus is calling us to deny some basic things in our personality–things that need to die. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 to deny yourself; take up your cross and follow me. And I think that means dying to our fleshly love of impressing people in this way for glory for ourselves. (Jack Miller)

(This has been passed around several blogs that I read and apparently originates from a now defunct blog called "Dying Church" by Darryl over at dashhouse.com)

Learning About Grace from Shirley Sherrod

The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote an article about Shirley Sherrod.  Ms. Sherrod is the FORMER Agricultural Department official who was forced to resign (by Blackberry, no less) after comments she had made about race to an NAACP Audience, last March, I believe.


What started the hoopla was two minute, edited version of an over 40 minute speech.  You can see Andrew Breitbart's edited version here:

You can see the whole thing here:

I don't want to fight against a caricature of Ms. Sherrod or lift her up as a saint.  I'd have trouble hearing some of her words out of context.  Partly, it's just the way I speak. And, frankly, it's not the way I listen.

What I find interesting is what was talked about after it all "hit the fan" over the past week or so.  You see, in 1965 Shirley's understanding of race was shaped in a way that was sure to have an effect on her and her ability to help poor persons regardless of race. 

That year, 1965, her father was shot and killed by a white man in a dispute over cows, the family says.

That year, she was one of the first black students to integrate the high school in Baker County in rural southwest Georgia.

That year, she decided to become involved in the civil rights movement in that area of the state.

And in later years, like some of the farmers she helped when she worked for a non-profit, Sherrod and her husband lost a group farm to bankruptcy.

Now the former Georgia director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture is fending off allegations that she is racist because of something she said during a speech before the NAACP last spring. It was a few sentences in a story she told about an epiphany that changed her way of thinking two dozen years ago; the problems of farmers were not defined as black vs. white but “poor vs. those who have.”

How did the shooting happen that had affected her so greatly?

Sherrod’s father, Hosie Miller, had a dispute with a man over cows that had come into his pasture. The neighbor insisted that three of Miller’s cows were his. Miller said he would call the “law” to settle the dispute. As Hosie Miller was closing the gate, he was shot in the back, the family says.

Grace Miller said that the neighbor was not held accountable.

I think we can learn about grace here from Shirley Sherrod...not only in how she's handled the mess of her firing.  I think we can learn that we can change.  I think we can learn to fight FOR those who we might be tempted to fight AGAINST.  I think we can work for justice even though we've been wounded along the way. 


I can't say I know what she's feeling.  I can't say I understand the plight of black persons in America.  I can't say that race-talk makes me feel particularly comfortable even if I think it's necessary.  But I can say that I'm impressed that someone who was so wounded by her history can reach out beyond it to help the poor no matter what their color.

There's a lesson in grace here...

and probably a lesson in media as well.

Communion By Twitter! -- Leave it to the Methodists

Image via Wikipedia

Well, they're Methodists in Great Britain...so it's a little different.  Anyway, the following is an excerpt from London's Telegraph newspaper:

In a modern spin on Christianity's most sacred rite, worshippers are being invited to break bread and drink wine or juice in front of their computers as they follow the service online.

Churches usually require a priest to take the Eucharist, but the Rev Tim Ross, a Methodist minister, will send out a prayer in a series of Tweets – messages of up to 140 characters – to users of Twitter.

Those following the service are asked to read each tweet out loud before typing Amen as a reply at the end.

The move is likely to upset traditionalists, but the Rev Mr Ross argues that it is an important step in uniting Christians around the world and reaching those who might not normally go to church.

Hundreds of people have already registered to follow the service and Mr Ross hopes that thousands will have signed up by the time he sends out the groundbreaking tweets next month.

I have issues with those churches that do communion with Coca-Cola and Oreos.  I also have issue with this.  Not sure if that's breaking down the "community" part of communion into something that is almost entirely devoid of "community" (he, ironically, writes on a blog which will be updated to a Facebook account :) )

Is this too much of a "re-thinking" of church?

Potential Sermon Title?: "Diapers and Depends"

This Sunday, we hear of poor Sarah who went to the story to buy depends and was told she needed to also get diapers. She laughed.

Got this from Pastor Dan at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Anchorage

The Small Church -- This gave me chills...really.

As I go to speak at a "small" church in Fairmount, Indiana, this AM....and as I think about the great worship that's going to be had in Girdwood later on, I think this is appropriate.

This post by Jared Wilson at "The Gospel-Driven Church" gave me chills.  It's entitled, "Our Church Isn't 'Cute'" and made me think of all the times we've had visitors say that about our building was "cute." It's a little 90'x90' building with a port-a-potty outside.   So, maybe it is "cute."  But it's so much more than just that word.  It is, after all, a place where the Gospel is read and proclaimed and people are married and buried and baptized.  "Cute" is such a shallow word for what really goes on in that place.

I usually don't post something in entirety, but I'm doing that here.  Please go check out the thoughts of Pastor Wilson at his blog or go buy his book, "Your Jesus is Too Safe" (which I just did after finding his blog).

But read the post below.  It's for anyone who's ever been in a small, but powerful church.  It's good.  Very good.

"Oh, it's so cute."

The photo is of the building in which Middletown Springs Community Church, the church I pastor, gathers each week.

The quote is something I've heard several times -- that or something like it -- typically from friends and family hailing from some steamy portion of Six Flags Over Jesus where church buildings are indistinguishable from office parks or the galleria.

Our church is "cute." Because it's small, old, traditional. "Cute" is the backhanded compliment for those who'd never go to a "cute" church, but want you to know they admire it and perhaps even those who aren't privileged enough to go to a church "successful" enough for a building that is big, impressive, full-service. You know, not cute, but rather "awesome."

But our church isn't "cute." It's beautiful like a bride both blemished and perfect.

Our building is just a building, but it has stood for over 200 years on the stony soil of the oldest part of our nation, the land of Christian pillars Whitefield and Edwards, of the Great Awakenings, of Puritans and patriots, of Green Mountain Boys and hundreds-of-years-old family farms. The building is just a building but it has weathered over 200 years of harsh Vermont winters, not to mention pastors strong and weak, congregations passionate and passive, spiritual ebbs and flows of Old Testament proportions. Once upon a time the church kicked out Joseph Smith's secretary for heresy.

Our building is just a building, but it's not just a building. It's a symbol of the enduring evangelical presence, small but hearty, in this least-churched state in the nation, and of the endurance of the great salt-of-the-earth people who are the church that gathers in the building for which they're called.

The gates of hell will prevail against espresso bars and KidzTowns. But not our church.

Our church is not cute. It is epic.

Money Quote from Bo Diddley

Image via Wikipedia

"Don’t let your mouth write no check that your tail can’t cash."

 

Interesting words for individuals AND the Church.

Apple Computers & The Church

Image via CrunchBase

"I'm a Mac."  There's no way around it at this point.  I became "A Mac" about 5 years ago when my Dell laptop died.  That was in the days of Windows ME and Windows XP and I, frankly, was frustrated enough with the operating system that I was open to "become a switcher."  And right now I'm on my 3rd Apple laptop...first a Macbook, then a Macbook Pro, and now another.  And I love them.  They are not without their own sets of problems, but the operation of the computers makes more sense to me.  Really, I don't have much against PCs.  I just set a PC up for my mother-in-law.  I can find my way around them.  I'm even writing this post on a PC.

But I have been amazed at Apple Computers over the last decade.  The iPod.  The iPad.  The unibody construction.  The lack of a floppy drive years ago.  It has seemed that, outside of gaming and power computing mathematical stuff, Apple has been at the leading edge of the industry.  Take a look at the iPod.  You may or may not have an iPod, but most people out there will call MP3 Players, "iPods"...whether they are iPods or not.  And, look at the iPad or the iPhone.  Neither is without serious drawbacks, but every phone or tablet PC that comes after it will have to be "the iPhone Killer" or "the iPad Killer."  Apple got there first.


Apple has a knack at building things people WANT to use.  They do SEXY well.  They seem to understand the market.  And, furthermore, they seem to be very focused on controlling the user experience (too controlling for anyone who wanted to try to use PC software or use "apps" not found in "the App Store").  I, for one, have found the operation of their equipment intuitive.  I've got my iPod Touch and my MacBook Pro.   I covet (in an unhealthy and unholy way) the iPad but am holding off until the second generation in the hopes of some improvement.

So, how is Apple able to do this without assuming that Steve Jobs walks on water...which it seems some persons assume?

This is from "The ever-arrogant Apple" over at Ken Segall's Observatory.

"Following the Antennagate news conference, certain critics quickly concluded that Apple was acting like its usual arrogant self," Ken Segall blogs. "I couldn’t agree more."

"How dare Apple think they can make this problem go away with a free case that makes the problem go away," Segall writes. "They need to suffer more than that."

"It’s gotten to the point where Apple doesn’t even try to disguise their arrogance," Segall writes. "They’re a company that creates devices other companies should have created, follows standards only when it pleases them, shuns research to create only the products they’d like to use themselves — and then won’t even let outsiders tamper with the platforms they’ve created!"

"Look what they’ve done to poor Adobe, yanking away their right to spend more than three years figuring out how to run Flash on mobile devices," Segall writes. "Look what they’ve done to the world’s developers, telling them to write specifically for iPhone rather than just port over apps designed for less capable phones. Compounding their sin, they have the unrelenting gall to insist that apps meet some basic standards for quality and reliability. With their “our way or the highway” attitude, Apple takes choice away from customers, forcing them to settle for a library of only 225,000 apps."

What can churches learn from Apple?  Here are a few things:

• Have a goal and stick with it -- I'd say Apple's is user experience.  They've never been shy about letting PCS have the faster processors.
• Stay focussed on your goal/vision and don't be afraid to let those things die that stand in your way of doing ministry--like Apple did with the floppy and with Adobe?
• Don't just "think different" but "think ahead"--Apple has, at least for the past 10 years led, led the way in some significant areas.  I'm not saying they've done it best.  I'm just saying they did it first.
• You don't have to be all things for all people -- Apple has never sought the high end programmers or those seeking a truly budget computer.  They've let other companies take the lead here.  And that's fine.  Find your niche.

So, What Does This Say About God?

This is a pillow apparently brought home by a 7 year-old from Bible camp.  Note how God's "comforting" word also brings doom.

Interesting what this says about God and the theology that must have hit home at that Bible Camp.

The picture is from over at Passive Aggressive Notes (dot) com.  And I got it by way of Jesus Needs New PR.

So, What Does This Say About God?

The story is that this is a note in a store, perhaps to dissuade shoplifting. 

I have to admit I've used a similar argument with our kids, basically asking them "Is Jesus happy with what you've done?"  But, as I look at the note I ask what does this say about God and our theology?

I got the picture over at Passive Aggressive Notes (dot) com by way of Jesus Needs New PR.

Quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. on Prayer

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

Faith and Doubt

Tim Keller offered this observation in his introduction to “The Reason for God”.

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Found over at Think Christian.


I have various doubts.  But I will not share them here.  It's not the place.   Not here.  Not yet.

Jim, "Rebel with an 8-Track Player"

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Way back when I was about 12 years old, or thereabouts, our family took a trip to New Hampshire with some good friends from Yorktown Heights, New York.  It was a great trip.  It truly was.  I'm sure I remember it better than it really was, but in my mind the skies were always clear, the kids never fought, and every day was awesome. 

This was the vacation that we hiked up a mountain and went swimming in a snow-fed stream which was so cold that the warm sunshine "burned" when we got out of the water.  It was in that stream that we found some beer that hikers had left to cool and thought that was the coolest thing ever--as if we'd have any idea about beer.

This was the vacation that my friend and I were infatuated by a girl from Massachusetts.  I don't remember her name.  I don't remember what was appealing about her except that I assume she was approximately our age.  But I do remember that we called her "Cah."  That was because, being from New England, she once yelled out to her parents, "I'm gonna' get in the cah;" dropping the "r" from the end of the word as New Englanders do.  That's, frankly, the most personal contact we had. So, in my memories, she's "Cah."  That's it.



However my most vivid memory is my red, 8-track boombox that was along for the trip.  I loved that 8-track player.  It's funny now when I try to tell my kids--each with their own iPod--what it was like to play 8-tracks and have the songs fade out in the middle, click, and then fade back in again.  I'm so spoiled now with my 32 Gigabyte iPod.  But, with this trip, that red 8-track boombox was a companion while we played card games up in the "kids room."  John Denver.  AC/DC.  Styx.  Kansas.  Dan Fogelberg.   (I know, it was an eclectic mix).

One of the days, maybe it was  little rainy now that I remember, with AC/DC on the boombox, a particularly crude song came on.  (I won't name the song at this point. This is a family friendly blog, after all.)  My friend and I put that boombox up in the window of our New Hampshire condo for all the complex to hear.

Now, I don't know if anyone heard it.  I don't know if those who might have heard it cared at all.  But for one song, I felt like a rebel.

And if playing a loud, inappropriate rock song around people who never saw me before and haven't seen me since is how I remember being a rebel back in my pre-teen years, I guess my parent did OK.

Now, there are other acts of rebellion in my past, but I'm sorry to say that most of them will seem just as insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  This is just one instance that I can still REMEMBER being rebellious.

A Case of Lawn Envy

 




This is a picture of the side lawn where we're staying.  The house is an old country farmhouse that's being fixed up

Our family has a lawn. It is a very small lawn that I hardly take care of. I use an electric, plug-in lawn mower and don't have to unplug it once. It takes 15 minutes--and that's only because I have to clean the wet grass out of the mower much more frequently than I'd care to do. It's small.


There are some folks with nice looking lawns in Girdwood, but not that many. Most of our yards are "au natural" with bushes and berries and some grass.  Granted, behind our house in Girdwood is Chugach National Forest.  I'm not complaining.  Really, I'm not.


But, Indiana has some lawns! I don't want to do all the work it would take to get a lawn looking like the ones I see around, but they sure are nice to run on and play on. Our kids are lovin' the ability to run and play on freshly cut grass in the sunshine.

How I Felt In 1994 to 1995

I said before how I wanted to "get crucified" over every issue as I started out in ministry and how I had more trouble than now in discerning which burdens I should pick up.  David Hayward over at Naked Pastor has a cartoon that exemplifies this feeling:

Beautiful Indiana Sunrise

This is a picture taken this morning by our son. He happened to be up early enough to see it and snap a picture. (I even put a watermark on the bottom for him.)

Writing/Blogging as Discipline

Image via Wikipedia

I'm a smart guy.  And that's not really to toot my own horn.  It's just to say that, in school, I could go pretty far on just brain power alone.  However, what made me really smart is that I knew I couldn't just rely on my brain or my memory or my ability to think on my feet.  In school I was a hard worker.  I truly was.  I was the one asking questions when I didn't understand. I was the one staying up late at night studying and trying to ingest the last bit of information I could before every test.  I'm sure there's some deep rooted psychological reason for this.  But, when it comes down to it,  I think those who knew me in high school would probably tell you that I took my schooling pretty seriously...I was disciplined about it.

This discipline carried over into college, where I realized just how easy high school had been, and then into seminary, where I realized just how easy college had been.  Each stage got progressively harder with, I found, a whole lot more reading.

I did well in school.  But it was only because I worked hard.  My smarts (and my dashing good looks and quick wit and wonderful sense of humor) could only get me so far.  I was a pretty disciplined student.  And, as I look back, I realize that the diplomas that would be hanging on my wall if I actually cared to put them up would be a testimony to, not how smart I am, but how disciplined I was. I worked hard.

Writing this blog does not come easy for me.  My wife and family might assume it comes easier than it does.  Just pull a quote from here.  Find a funny picture there.  Share a personal story.  And, there you have it, a BLOG.  But it's harder than that. 

I've put up over 200 post in close to three months.  In my head, I was putting up more than one post a day so that I could make up for those days (or weeks) that I assumed would be dry spells just around the corner.  You see, I've tried blogs before.  I've never gotten more than about 20 posts before I came to the inevitable conclusion that I had nothing to say...either to anyone who might be reading it, or to God, or to myself by way of personal reflection.  And, after a couple of months, one could say, perhaps, that I have nothing to say here.  I don't know.  If you've gotten this far maybe you think otherwise.

Perhaps I'm trying to find my voice.

Perhaps this is my online journal.

Perhaps I'm seeking feedback or pats on the back.

Perhaps I'm trying to let friends and family in on who I am as pastor and father and husband.

Perhaps, even though I think I'm pretty honest in a worship setting, I wanted to have a place to be a little more honest (recognizing that I will never be totally honest in a place such as this...that is entirely public).

And yet, for whatever reason, I keep writing...even when it's not convenient.  I'm curious what this might look like after a year...with maybe 600 posts under my belt.  How much of it will be me?  What are the issues about which I will have dealt?  What are the things that are important to me?  How many people will have responded with words of their own?

Right now I'm disciplined in my writing.

I wonder if I'll be able to say the same in a year.

I wonder what other areas I should be AT LEAST as disciplined as this.  I'm scared to ask.

The TOAST OF LIFE -- Jesus picture made out of 153 pieces of toast

Boy those Anglicans are a creative bunch.  I found this over at JesusNeedsNewPR.net, a great source of some off the wall (or on the wall) Christian stuff like this.

Holy Adventures -- How Can I Look At Vacation Differently?

Image via Wikipedia

Here I am in Indiana.  I sit at my laptop which I've plugged into my mother-in-law's DSL line.  Two kids are watching TV.  One just got up (at 11 AM).  And the two little ones are having fun looking at pictures with their grandma.  The sun is out. It's hot. And I hope to get to a coffee shop a little later to get my latte and coffee shop fix.

So, how can I use this time, this place, this vacation as a holy time?  How can I look at each day a little differently and look at the time I'm able to spend with my family (while not worrying about our building process at Girdwood Chapel) as as renewing time?

I read a post by Bruce G. Epperly over at Patheos that has me thinking this morning.  Epperly posits that life is an adventure and every day is a new opportunity for creative thinking and we don't have to be determined by all that has happened in the past.  We also don't have to be determined by some plan of action that seeks to map out our future with no wanderings from the selected path.  But summer vacation, with its lazier days and more family time allows us the opportunity to live our lives as an adventure.  And, maybe, this can be a holy adventure for me...even if in small ways.

Epperly gives some guidance:

Well, how do we live out a holy adventure this summer in our daily lives – even if it’s only a wee adventure?  First, it’s about attitude – open your heart and mind to new possibilities, and be willing to say “yes” rather than “no” to something unexpected.  Second, look for possibility and growth in unexpected and challenging situations: often our attitude toward challenges makes the difference between health and illness, and joy and sorrow.   Assume challenges will happen, assume that “stuff happens,” but that in the limitations, there are also possibilities for growth and creativity.  Third, think outside the box – do you typically explore new ideas or simply live with the routine without considering change?  What new ideas can you first entertain and then, whether you dive in head-first or dip your toe in the water tentatively, begin to embody in your daily life?  Many people, and I am one of them, believe that imagination is one of the virtues we share with God, in fact, loving and creative imagination may be what’s most special about us as humans, the “image of God,” that makes us unique.

Fourth, go with the flow of life – the Taoists have it right.  Oftentimes when we resist novelty, we resist the energies that give birth to life and which bring health and wholeness in our lives.  Fifth, live with the beginner’s mind: see the world as if for the first time….in fact, you are always seeing life for the first time, since each moment is unique and new.  Sixth, trust that God is the source of adventure in our lives – pause and notice, and prayerfully let yourself be stretched by the divine adventures living in and through you.

And, as I sit here...at my laptop...hooked up the internet...and look outside.  I'm wondering what adventure there might be today.

A Gaelic Prayer for Peace

Image by ♥Denise A. Wells♥ via Flickr

Peace between neighbors,
Peace between kindred,
Peace between lovers,
   In love of the King of life.  
Peace between person and person,
Peace between wife and husband,
Peace between woman and children,
The peace of Christ above all peace.
Bless, O Christ, my face,
    Let my face bless everything;
Bless O Christ mine eye,
    Let mine eye bless all it sees.

Translated from the Carmina Gaelic by Alexander Carmichael

Found at Living Water From An Ancient Well

Riches on Earth

Image via Wikipedia

Yeah, I know. More stuff about money. It keeps coming at me, doesn't it? This was from Pete Wilson's blog, Without Wax. It's a quote from G. Cambell Morgan that puts a good spiritual perspective on our propensity to store up riches on earth.   The Biblical background is Matthew 6:19-21:

  ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Here's the good quote:

G. Campbell Morgan says, “You are to remember with the passion burning within you, that you are not the child of today, you are not of the earth, you are more than dust; you are the child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of Deity.

The measurements of your lives cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky kisses green earth. All the fact of your life cannot be encompassed in the one small sphere upon which you live. You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth,– poor, sorry, silly soul,– you have made a fortune and stored it, in a place where you cannot hold it.

Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning…. We cannot lay up our treasure on earth, it is not characteristic of those in His Kingdom. It was characteristic of the Pharisees. In a sense He was saying to them, “This is just another indication that you are not in My Kingdom no matter what you claim. People in My Kingdom don’t lay up treasure on earth.”

Good stuff.