Had Power Outage for 11.5 Hours

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Will be a slow day on the blogging front.

More than 520 Posts

photo © 2009 See-ming Lee | more info (via: Wylio)
Quietly...or not so quietly...I've written over 520 posts.

This beats my previous blog record by about 500.

Maybe I'll stick with this thing.

128 People Read My "Diarrhea Sermon" This Past Week

Image by Shockingly Tasty via Flickr
Well, I don't know if they actually read it, but 128 people, probably while searching for sermon resources on the lectionary text of this past week, Luke 18:1-8, found my sermon on that passage called, "The Parable of the Persistent Widow."  It was preached on June 27th of this year and, I have to say, is a pretty good sermon.

However, it is remembered by some as my "Diarrhea Sermon" where, as part of our summer series on the parables, "The Stories of Jesus," I told stories from my time here at Girdwood Chapel that helped describe who we are and what we are as a congregation. So, as an illustration on the importance of prayer, I brought up how a young boy in our congregation, Gunnar, wanted prayer for his father, who was on a boat, and had diarrhea.  Everyone giggled at the time the original event took place, but I retold it as a reminder of what prayer means at Girdwood Chapel and, if it's big enough to be a burden, it's big enough to lift up in prayer.  Now, the story didn't have much to do with the Persistent Widow, but it did have a lot to do with our church...which, during a summer of storytelling, was important to remember.

However, now I see 128 people found that sermon as they were looking for stuff to use on "The Persistent Widow" and I'm wondering what people thought when they got part of the way through and found that I actually used the word "diarrhea" in a sermon in a reference to prayer life in a congregation.

I'm mortified.

I'm amused.

And I'm impressed that 128 people found that sermon.

I'm hoping there were more than a few giggles at the topic and more than a few recollections from their own congregations, when prayers surprised congregants.

I guess, in order to get hits to my site, I just need to keep in front of the lectionary by a couple of months and the hits will keep rolling in.

What other maladies can I use that will surprise and shock those who visit?

A Guinness World Record for Blogging!!!

The record goes to Darren Murph over at Engadget for 17,212 individual posts at three different sites.  I would say that he needs to get a life and a job...but I think this IS his life and his job.  It sure puts my 430 posts in perspective.



Read the story over here.

Blogging is Alive & Well

51% of internet users read blogs at least monthly.

12% of internet users update a blog at least monthly.

I'd love to know the percentage who read blogs daily or update blogs daily.  (I'm in both of those categories).

This is from a report over at EMARKETER.

Interesting. My most viewed blog post...

Image by Annie Mole via Flickr
"Last Night I Hit a Dog While I Was Driving."

I've had sermons.

I've had some deep philosophical posts about evangelism and missions.

I've mentioned Islam and Lady Gaga (not in the same post).

I've had funny pictures and cool videos.

I've gone on and on and on about my desire to have an iPad.

I've posted pics of myself and Shane Claiborne.

I've posted beautiful pics of where I live.

The most popular post was about when I hit a dog with my car and the dog was fine and I was shaken and it passed.

Interesting.

I think I'm going to either take myself far less seriously or take myself far more seriously.

Or perhaps I should just write more posts about dogs.

Tortilla Chips, Salsa, and Blogging

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I love salsa.  I really do.  I love the Mango Salsa from Costco.  I love Southwestern style salsa. I love it hot.  I love it mild.  I love chipotle.  I love it when it has bits of corn in it.  I love it when it has beans.  And, I love the kind you get at restaurants that just tastes authentic.  I love salsa.

Now I like tortilla chips.  I don't love them.  But I do think they become much better when holding a good amount of salsa.  I do admit that not all chips are created equal and, occasionally, at a restaurant I'll have a chip that is head and shoulders above the rest.  (The best chips I ever had were at a Tex-Mex place in downtown Phoenix this past winter.  They were AWESOME.).  But, more often than not, chips are nothing more than a tool to get some salsa into my mouth...an edible spoon or fork if you will.  It's the salsa I'm really after.

Well, what does this have to do with blogging?  Not much.  It's kind of a stretch.  But, as I've been working on this for the last several months I realize that I have found lots of wonderful stuff I want to share with folks, links and ideas from persons who I think are much more well-spoken than myself.  I have discovered some wonderful websites out there.  I love what they say.  There's such a variety.  It's good stuff.  It's great stuff.  It's what I'm really after.  It is THE SALSA!!

My blog posts...well...they're the chips a lot of the time.  They are the tool to share some of the great ideas others have had.  I admit that, at times, my content isn't very original.  That's because there's so much great stuff I want to share and talk about and reflect on.  This is the place in which I can do it.

I hope you enjoy some of the good stuff I'm sharing with you.  It's good stuff.  And I love a lot of it.

Why Blog?

Image by churl via Flickr

I'm amazed at the amount of things I've written about and the number of items (some of them more random than others) that I've posted over the last several months.  I'm enjoying this process and am trying to figure out what it is that I'm doing here.  With so many things on my to-do lists, what is the purpose of trying to take some time each day to make sure something goes up on this blog...something that I want to say to the church?  Some of it's personal.  Some of it impersonal.  Some I'm not so sure about.

And, frankly, there are so many other posts that sit as "drafts" in my head.  There are so many things that I've read and that have spoken to me in a particular way and I think they are worth sharing.  But there's no time for everything.

Why?

I confess to being no Stanley Hauerwas, ethicist at Duke Divinity School.   But, I was greatly influenced by him and his thought during those wonderfully rewarding years at seminary.  I found the following quotes of his over at Reclaiming the Mission, a blog by David Fitch.  Perhaps these get at some of the things that are going on in me through this blog...

“Writing is hard and difficult work because to write is to think. I do not have an idea and then find a way to express it. The expression is the idea. So I write because writing is the only way I know how to think.” 

“I write, moreover, because I have something to say.  That I have something to say is not a personal achievement. I have something to say because I am a Christian." 

I want to say that these ring true for myself as I reflect upon the meaning of what's taking place here.  Yet, I also want to say that I struggle with making sure this I don't think of this endeavor as more or less important than it really is.

I understand that this is a season in my life.  I don't have plans to have a blog around for the next ten years and I'm darned sure I'm going to find times that I can't be near this faithful in my updates.
But, for now this is what I'm doing.

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.

Writing/Blogging as Discipline

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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.

To All My Loyal Readers (both of you)

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To All My Loyal Readers (both of you):

It's going to be a little "hit and miss" over the next three weeks or so.  I'll try to keep up with some of the usual drivel every couple of days so you have something to read between "Law & Order" and Leno...or between innings of the Cubs games.  If nothing else, it will remind us all that I'm alive.

Peace,

Jim

In Memory of an 80 Year-Old Christian Blogger

The heading of this video says:

In memory of Olive Morgan

The most amazing 80-something blogger we have ever met!

Interview taken from Evangelical Alliance Godblogs Conference in September 2008

Here's the wonderful video.  Commentary below.



I love her comment that, if John Wesley were alive today, he'd have a blog rather than a journal.

And, more than that, I love how she was able to tell how her blog was a real ministry in the life of at least one person (the survivor of the 9-11 attacks).

I think it begs some questions of me:

1) How is this site a ministry and how will I know it?

2) What are new ways to forge real relationships with persons for ministry?

Thanks to Richard Hall's Connexions Blog from Wales.  I am reading more and more of the stuff he has over there and can't help but be impressed what's going on on "the other side of the pond."

Alaska United Methodist Conference -- Annual Conference

While I'm getting a kick out of posting quite often and from watching to see where this blog is getting hits from, I'll be spending much of the next few days at our Annual Conference in Anchorage. You can follow us with the Twitter hashtag #AUMC. I'm sure I'll try to post something every once in a while, but I'll probably need to go a couple of days without anything here.

Keep the faith.

Comments Section Now Working!

Thanks to my friend Andy who told me that the comments weren't working. They are functioning now as the post on Orthodoxy and Soteriology has an actual comment on it.

Woo Hoo

Pastor Apologizes/Sometimes The Internet Will Bite Ya'

Here's the scenario as best I can make sense of it:

1. An audio recording surfaced on Vimeo. (recoding has now been removed)
2. The audio is of a 15 year old sermon by West Virginia pastor Jeff Owens (Shenandoah Baptist Church), apparently at a college chapel
3. In the sermon, Pastor Owens calls for Christians to "Burn and Shoot Fags"
4. After the audio recording of the original sermon, Pastor Owens issues the following apology

The text of the apology is below:

If you are responding to a sermon that I preached about gays I would like to render the following apology.

Nearly 15 years ago I preached a sermon that promoted physically hurting gay people. I was young, stupid and immature. I didn’t even hold to the belief of hurting people when I wrongly made those comments. I regret those words and have asked God to forgive me for them. I am not a believer in the gay life-style but I was profoundly wrong in making any comments about hurting people. If I could retract those words I certainly would.

I wrongly represented both God and myself. I truly believe that God is a God of LOVE. I believe he loves the whole world even when people in the world do things that are wrong; Such as my wrong representation of how to treat someone who does not believe the same way I do.

I no longer preach like that and I purposely teach and train others to preach and behave properly as well. The hurtful words in that sermon tape were erased many years ago and somehow have resurfaced much to my disappointment and embarrassment.


I realize I have disappointed many who have heard those words in that sermon. May I include my disappointment in myself. Once again, I offer my humble apology.


With a sincere heart,



Jeff Owens

A few of points here.

First, I don't really want to comment on the content of that first sermon. I didn't see it. I didn't hear it. If you want to read some comments from those who have seen/heard it, please go over to JesusNeedsNewPR.net where I found out about this yesterday. It looks like he called for the killing of homosexuals. Again, though, that's just other people's comments.

Second, I don't really want to guess the reason for the apology at this point. For all I know, like he said in his apology, he preached some things in a sermon that he would never say at this point. It came to light and he's embarrassed about it. I have no reason to doubt his sincerity.

Third, the point I'm really getting at, is that the internet is forever. I don't think I have the sermons I preached those first three years of ministry in Frankfort, Indiana. And, that's probably a good thing. I was young(er) and naive(r) back then. And, I know there were some times, in the midst of conflict, that I probably preached some things I shouldn't have. I used the pulpit as a weapon a couple of times. It was not "pastoral." It was, in retrospect, more "angry." I remember that. Understand, I wasn't calling for the killing of anyone. However, I would probably be embarrassed if those sermons hit "the net."

All of this adds to my (perhaps healthy) fear of what it could mean to keep my sermons on "the net." Hopefully, I'm smarter and a better preacher in the coming years. I fear I'll look back and say "I was a dumber and worse preacher in those days."


And, let's face it. This "Internet is forever" thing goes for anyone who posts stuff online...Twitter, Facebook, web pages. We all need to be aware that it might be one of us issuing an apology at some point.

Sometimes the internet will bite ya'.

The Problem With Blogging

Everything is fodder for blogging.    Or potential fodder for blogging.

Image location     http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/boredinternet.png

5 out of 6 Changes Made to This Blog in 4 days

On Tuesday I said I was going to try to do the following:

1. Clean up the Twitter Stream at the top to show only the most recent tweet. 
2. Add some more social widgets.
3. Fix the pages in the upper right side of the page.
4. Put in a tag cloud.
5. Play with the widgets at the bottom of the page.
6. Abbreviate the post so it's not so long on the first page.

Today this list would look like this:

1. Clean up the Twitter Stream at the top to show only the most recent tweet.   (Installed Twitter widget to the right.  It's far down there.)
2. Add some more social widgets.
3. Fix the pages in the upper right side of the page.
4. Put in a tag cloud.
5. Play with the widgets at the bottom of the page.
6. Abbreviate the post so it's not so long on the first page.

I'm happy with the way this is working out.  I'm just wondering if I can keep up the number of these post.  These suckers take some time.

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

"Networked Blogs" Widget Installed

So, while tooling around in Facebook and updating my blog, "The Epistle of Jim," I found a way to Network Blogs together.  This seemed like such a cool idea.  There are blogs that I follow, reading them on a regular basis.  I find many of them very thought-provoking and "provoking thought" is a good thing.  I regularly need someone to provoke me to think.

Anyway, I got this "Networked Blogs" widget installed over to the right...and down.  It seemed like a good idea as I try to expand some of my intellectual and technological horizons.

However, I was very unprepared for the beginning stages of this.  I have one follower.  Me.  That doesn't seem like much of a following, does it.

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

New Template for My Blog

Well, I'm not sure how the green grass ties in with "The Epistle of Jim" but I like the layout here a lot better.  Some things I'm still trying to do:

1. Clean up the Twitter Stream at the top to show only the most recent tweet. 
2. Add some more social widgets.
3. Fix the pages in the upper right side of the page.
4. Put in a tag cloud.
5. Play with the widgets at the bottom of the page.
6. Abbreviate the post so it's not so long on the first page.

Well...it will have to be another day.  I have a walk to take.

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

I'm finding I can spend a lot of time fiddling around here

I know I'm not quite satisfied with this look.  It looks a little bit like I don't know what I'm doing...which may be because I really don't know what I'm doing.

As the blog takes shape there's certain things I wish I could do.  Should I have more social media buttons?  Should I highlight certain post that I think really describe what I have going on?  What's most important?  How much should be original thought...assuming that I'm capable of having some of those?

Be prepared for some different looks as I struggle with what blogging means. 

I hope you read this.  Some of it I think is pretty good.  Some of it, perhaps this post, is filler.