Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd

chewing on

There are very few people
who realise what God would make of them
if they abandoned themselves into his hands,
and let themselves be formed by his grace. (St Ignatius)

I ask for the grace to trust myself totally to God's love.

bye bye bishop

i an email from mike brought me to the attention that bishop willimon is no longer going to "blog." i quote blog because i never felt he was part of the blogosphere, engaging in any conversation, just reposting of his emails. still, on an account of stealing of his identity, he's gone hiatus completely from blogging.

honestly, i wish he'd stick with it. stuff like this happens but if you have people around you that know what you are doing then they can plug holes and track down problems. my supporttheministry site got hacked, i allerted a friend, he patched the hole, restored the site, tracked down the culprit and then sent the information to a friend at the fbi. no need to stop when you got folks who know how to help protect ya.

update: mike has shared thoughts on the true nature of blogging. i must say it's a rather childish viewpoint. &:~D

are the baptists better than us

i woke up this morning afternoon to find a conversation going in my email between dale, cole & jay. the conversation has multiple facets, however, one highlight is this article from the tennessean about how lifeway (the sbc's publishing co.) is progressive in embracing technology over the umc or umph.

Recently, the organization started a cooperative effort with Christian Podder, a Christian podcast community, where individuals download Web feeds of either audio or video files to mobile devices. This offers opportunities for pastors and other leaders to submit content for other people to download. LifeWay's church resources division has started podcasting for youth ministers and plans to expand to other pastors. And a few weeks ago, LifeWay partnered with Pure Online to offer an anonymous Internet-based recovery program for sexual addiction and pornography.

As the sole blogger for LifeWay, Draper used the medium to stimulate conversation among young leaders within the denomination. Through his blogs, he reached young SBC pastors whom he'd met with over the last 18 months to assess a perceived disconnect between them and the SBC.

cole is upset because he wishes the umc would be more progressive as well as jay. i wish our church would catch on more with what is out there. however, when something like this comes up it brings me back to childish arguments over "my toys are better than yours." personally, i've tried really hard over the past 4 years to stop my baptist bashing/envy in whatever the manner (with some success).

so, to this i just say, great for them. i'm glad they are going to try out the new mediums for the betterment of their church. i hope that we could learn from them. i hope there are somethings out there that they can learn from us to. i just suppose it's not in a realm that i am familiar with, otherwise i could share about it.

update: jay has responded to this post pointing out that i generally group his and cole's views together. i agree that i did that, certainly not intentionally, it's just the way it got typed out. he expresses his frustrations, quite well i might add, as not about the technology piece so much as a umc culture.

workshop hindsights

finally home from our youth retreat this weekend. i started a post about the whole weekend, but then something made firefox crash, probably because of surfing myspace, it's crazy unstable. so i lost what i've started so i'm picking up where i was.

my workshop seemed to go over well. a bit unorthodox in set up as we met in the hallway that goes over the convention center. you can only get a wireless signal on the third floor, and they don't have regular training rooms and the walls are all that blah concrete. the hallway had actual blank walls, so there we were. most everyone seemed pleased with their 45 minutes of life they allowed me to take over. i shared a snipit of web 2.0, and my thoughts on general church still in the middle.

we covered cms quite a bit, my boy johnathon (this is one of my youth, notice the spelling change) did my surfing and exampling of how to change a site and all that. we addressed myspace & other communities, their concerns for safety, how the youth communicate, why it's important to have a presence there, etc. all that seemed to go well, i was quite happy with how that went. i would have hoped to have a bit more done of my youth website with the use of the web empowered church project, but that wasn't the case. maybe down the line i can share detailed experiences on that.

blogging was a big push of mine, not really because of my experience, but the spirit of the software i feel is at the heart of web 2.0 and church 2.0. the stuff is out there, easy to use, those of us in ministry should be using it.

things i wish i could have gotten too. besides giving folks time to actually do some work or walk them through setting up site applications. i never got a good minute on podcasting. what i would suggest is jays methocast on podcasting. although it's hard to get everything jay shares about the podcasting process, it's a tad hard to conceive without a visual.. at least for me. still, it's a great resource.

beyond that, if could have gotten into rss feeds, some actual code stuff, graphic & page layout development.

:: download my note pack :: tennessean article ::

sunday photoblog : from the rising of the sun

saturday devotional

a continuation of the devotionals from this weekends retreat.

Warmth In Winter ’06

Get Real Be Fearless

Youth Group Devotional

Saturday night

Be Fearless, Be Weird, Be Crazy, Be Unique, Be Christian

If you come back to your superhero from last night, let’s move forward. I had picked Superman. I remember Superman in "Superman II" had himself changed into a regular human, so that he was able to be normal. The problem with this, he wasn’t normal. He had been bestowed some gifts, gifts from God, that set him apart from all others around him. When it came time to use his given gifts, against the evil Zod, he was useless because he submitted his gifts to be of this world. Thinking of your superhero, did they go through a similar phase in their superhero life?

Luckily for Superman, he was shown grace and was restored of his super human strength and thus able to protect the human race from Zod. However, it wasn’t because people told him that he should be super man, he was willing to continue to be normal. It was because he knew deep down that he was set apart.

In our Christian faith we have stories of people who have been given great gifts that show in stories of the bible, ancient texts, modern day testimonies. What made them so special?

Group Exercise:

• As a group share, what are some of those inspiring stories that give you, as individuals, courage or strength? This could come from the bible, family, friends, something you heard or read in an email.
• As a group have each person share, what are one of those moments in your life that you have done something courageous or unique that set you apart?
• What set these stories apart?
• Why should we remember these things?
• Why should we tell our stories?

Into the Scriptures

If you look into the book of Exodus, it is the story of the Isrealites fleeing from Pharoah’s rule and land. They go into the wilderness (after the parting of the sea) and are given manna (Ex. 16) to sustain them. During this time they are given the 10 Commandments after goofing off and not following what God told them (Ex. 19 & 20). Ultimately they were given the promise land (Deu. 34: 4), even after the whole incident with the golden calf (Ex. 32).

So a funny thing happened once they got the promise land. They had seen and known of all these great works of God, yet they forgot how they should be as a people of the God of Abraham. They got amnesia. They forgot what it was that set them apart and they became the normal people that they were under the rule of Pharoah. They forgot to keep the commandments, they created idols, because they forgot where God was in their lives, as they became normal.

Sometime later, someone completely set apart came and helped to remind the Isrealites. This person was Jesus our Christ. He told stories to help people see where God was in the midst of them, and to help them remember what they were to do a people of God. Now as Christians, people not just of the God of Abraham, but of Jesus Christ, we need to remember those stories and tell news ones that remind others and ourselves God’s movements.

As a Group:

Everyone needs to stand up. Now, on a count of three, everyone is to do their best muscleman poses. Everyone should know what this is, but you might have to give a visual example. Do this for at least 15 seconds. Points given for the best poses.

• How did it feel while you were posing?
• Would this be something you’d do regularly?

Closing Thought

Being Set Apart may look weird, crazy, stupid, excentric. Yet being set apart is very much Christian. Don’t forget those things that make you Christian, remember them. It takes courage and faith to be fearless in the face of all that normal, but normal isn’t what God calls us to be. He calls to be as Christ is.

Closing Prayer

God our Father, as your children we are growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show us that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after the normal selfish goals.

Help them to take failure, not as a measure of our worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give us courage and strength to hold our faith in you, and to keep alive our joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

friday devotional

the following is a youth devotional i put together for this retreat i'm on. check back tomorrow for the 2nd installment

Warmth In Winter ’06

Get Real Be Fearless

Youth Group Devotional

Friday night

Getting Real, Knowing is Half the Battle

Pick a super hero… Any one. I’ll pick Superman (why, because those movies were prevalent when I was younger). Clark Kent had special gifts to do miraculous things and he found those out throughout his childhood and youth. However, it was only when he came to recognize that he had these gifts/talents that he as a superhero began to be at peace with who he was and what gifts he brought to the world. Before that he struggled with Clark Kent as a regular human and Clark Kent the superhero. He had to come to answer the question of "Who am I?" before he could as the question of "What should I do as a Superhero?" This scenario plays out in some form with all superheroes. Just pick one.

Group Exercise:

• Have each group member describe himself or herself without giving a societal label. (I.e. Group members cannot say I play basketball, in the band or am Methodist, but possibly I am caring or shy.) The intent is to think of “Who I am?” beyond the normal labels or identifiers our society gives us. This can be very difficult as people don’t think in these terms and may not have words for what they feel about themselves. If an individual is having trouble you can ask them to share some of the things people have said about them.
• Other things to share:
• Stuff that gives them confidence
• Things that they aspire about themselves
• Things that they are fearful of or afraid to do
• Have the group to describe their youth group, without similar identifiers as exercised talking about themselves. This may be more difficult or possibly embarrassing depending on your group. Be prepared to give ideas to help spur thought, i.e. hospitable, respectful, loving, embracing, caring, missional, etc.

Into the Scripture:

• Certainly the scriptures are full of people who have come to understand themselves thus finding God. If you feel confident, and have bibles, the group can search through the bible for some of these people and share their stories with the whole group. (Check out Elijah (1 Kings 17 &18), Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4), John the Baptist (Mark 1)

This isn’t a narcissistic thought (a preoccupation or excessive love for yourself that lacks empathy and caring for others) but quite the contrary. The more we really know ourselves, the more we’ll be able to reach out to God and others compassionately and effectively. You should have or you will find that as you become Christian it’s not that you find God the way you thought YOU would have found him. However, it’s that you find yourself and see that God was there. Read to the group:

Brother Christopher of the New Skete community puts it like this, ".. the God who sees into our depths, who knows us as we really are, isn’t interested in some sort of phony fantasy of what we think we are. He’s interested in us as we really are. It’s only when we try to own ourselves in our totality, when we respond to live as it truly is, that we can truly relate to God."

Get a few young people to do this skit:

One young person is sitting in the pew flipping through the bible, another is walking the sidewalk, another is searching the internet, yet another is reading a book, they are all looking for the same thing. God.

Then God happens upon them and He asks, "What are you doing?"

Student 1 replies: "I’m trying to find God, but I can’t figure it all out."

God responds: "If you really want to find God then I suggest you first come to terms with who you are."

Student 2 replies: "What’s that got to do with anything? I’ve heard all I need is Jesus and God, so that’s what I’m trying to find."

God responds: "You are close. You must know yourself. Getting real with who you are, good and bad. When you do that you will find me and you will come to understand how you need me."

Student 3: "Thanks God, I didn’t know that."

God: "Well now you know, and knowing is half the battle."

Challenge:

Spend 5-10 minutes in quiet all by yourself. The conditions of this quiet are; no TV, no thinking of other things to do, no reading, no playing video games, no taking pictures. Be still, be quiet. Ask yourself these questions over and over leaving time for a response. "Who am I?" and "What does God want me to learn about myself this weekend?"

Closing Prayer:

Lord God, who has created and wonderfully made us

You know our motivations and thoughts

You see to the depths of our soul

It is here we wish to meet you

Lord God, We so often run from who we are

Give us strength and courage to get real with ourselves

We ask this so that we may love and be with you more

Amen

the words of children

a story of my nephews

the other day Keegan was doing this weird kind of noise with his mouth and we asked where he learned that and he said ...."uncle Shawn".  they are too funny.  Also if I say now that i am going to get cross their comment is "like nana and like grandpa"  guess they heard that alot. LOL

hat tip: my sister

backstory: my nephews just spent two weeks with my mom and dad while sister was in china and bro-inlaw was traveling for work.

prayer for a brother

i'd appreciate it if you all could lift up terry and his brother in your prayers. his brother has been sick for awhile and things are not as positive as one might hope.

St. Jude, through prayer you praised God for the wonderful works of Jesus. You asked God for the strength to meet the challenges of your apostolate. You put your trust in God's mercy, believing firmly that God loved you and understood your joys and sorrows, your hopes and fears, and your triumphs and failures. You understood that nothing is impossible for God. We ask you to pray for us now before the Most High so that we too might be filled with God's saving power, understand God's will for us and faithfully place ourselves in God's loving hands. Amen.

outlook not so good

what does a day look like when you start off by spilling your coffee twice? once at the coffee shop, yeah for mops. once in the car, yeah for over abundance of napkins. if i had one of those prophetic tools it'd probably tell my quest for a good day is, "outlook not so good."

the PrayerRoom

an idea i've dwelled on for a few weeks now. i started a myspace group to help lift youth and others up through intercessory prayer. if you have a myspace or your youth do, steer them to this group. i hope there are a number of us ministers out there that can help to nurture this too.

thePrayerRoom

prayer for unruly children

this rung a chord with me as i panicked to put together a wednesday night worship service after i spent the morning in my new disciple bible study group.

God our Mother and Father, we come to you as children. Be with us as we learn to see one another with new eyes, hear one another with new hearts, and treat one another in a new way. Amen

UMPH 466 (Corrymeela Community, Ireland, 20th Century)

volf interview

jared coleman interviewed miroslav volf. it's generally about his new book, free of charge, but it is worth checking out all together.

tip: blogs4God

youth blogging

the tennessean has a decent article about the rising trend of teens blogging. some interesting statistics:

Four million teenagers are blogging. That's 19% of all teens ages 12-17 who surf the 'Net, according to 2005 stats from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Adult bloggers total 8 million, or only 7% of the adult online population.

Plus, 38% of online teens read blogs compared with 27% of online adults.

Girls are leading the blogging trend. Among online teens, 25% of girls ages 15-17 blog compared to 15% of boys. Those numbers go even higher when it comes to simply reading blogs: 53% of older adolescent girls vs. 34% of boys their age do it.

this just goes to highlight that teens are taking this on as a viable means of communication, and thus, blogging has not hit a ceiling. the look and tweaks might change around, but the spirit of blogging will most likely remain intacted.

as a point for us in ministry, this could be the new bible study, video sermon (video blog), etc. but it will never replace the physical presence of love & relationship. kids, youth, adults, and bloggers still need human contact.

classified under "child abuse"

in our long journey home, we took in car talk on npr. car talk is both funny and informative and this episode was all that. one of the information bits shared i will classify as child abuse. they brought out the most used baby names after car models.

my noteables: kia, scion, beemer, benz, chrysler & chrysla

in fun, check out baby name wizard. see the trends of your name. i'm sure these were not around at the turn of the century.

will the real st. francis please stand up

shane asks if jonathon is seperated at birth from tucker carlson.i however ask for the real saint francis to stand up. meet bill wright. bill is a retired episcopal minister, now anglican in practice. he is also part of a fransiscan order. he is also a champion of civil rights, actually being recognized as grand marshall for a Martin Lurther King Jr. parade last week.

so i ask, who is the st. francis and who is the pretender. jonathon has a ways to go.

sunday photoblog : look to Jesus

desert thoughts on the empire

Abbot Pambo, why do the devils prevent me from doing good to my neighbour? the edler said to him. "Don't talk like that. Is God a liar? Why don't you just admit that you do not want to be merciful? Didn't God say long ago: I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and on all the forces of the enemy? So why do you not stamp down the evil spirit?"

remembering the narrative

a great day today. started out late, sleeping in was apparently part of the plan. however, once we got going we had a great blessing with marcus borg & walter brueggemann in the morning session. after that jonathon and i did a bit of pilgrimage around the st. simons island area. he's composed a nice write up of the whole day, so i'll direct you there.

i especially enjoyed Christ Church, it's just kinda neat to be close to the narrative history of methodism. i've experienced this with many other denomination signposts, however, i do believe that this is the first of my own denomination.

we ended the day with the way we started it. hanging with borg & brueggemann. i must say these guys have been a joy to hear from. i think brueggemann especially has a great message for us youth ministers & church overall. though, youth ministry events don't tend to bring in insightful theologians, so we'll have to wait i suppose.

check these out :: photo album :: notes from event ::

i'm not black and white

dan has an interesting observation that just grosses me out. honestly, i just hurled. i'll go on record as saying some things are for certain.. but not like this.

update: dan finishes the story with his conversation with said person.. which is interesting

look kids, big ben parliament

this morning started early, early.. arrived at jonathon's house at 6am and we headed out for our big adventure.

the plan was to stop by and have a cool bloggers lunch with rev mom. however, after arriving into atlanta on time but to only get lost on the i285 loop we wasted good time. by the time we arrived at rev mom's church we were way behind and she had already done a sick run to the school (which became a evident later). so lunch was entertained, but i think we all understood it to be out of the picture.

rev mom was great, showed us around their new building and her new storage office room. we then were interviewed for a video series for upcoming worship services. i wish i had been warned, i might have fixed myself up better.

on the road again, and on the road some more.. and continue to be on the road. if i wasn't absolutely positive that we made it here i'd be sure that we'd still be on i75 or i16. go figure, we missed a turn and got lost on st. simon's island (don't ask, i'm starting to question jonathon's capabilities as shotgun).

still, we made it for brueggemann's session. it was way fun, very cool and quite insightful. some thoughts.

• Exodus is about Israelites bound by the empire of pharoah. the parallel comes with how we have our American and cultural empire.
• the 10 commandments are all about how to live in a neighborhood..

i wish i had taken notes, there were some great one liners to keep for future reference. i suppose that is what tomorrow is for.

update: i have control of the remote, so i am punishing jonathon.

a nashville morning

it doesn't snow much in the nashville area, but when it does things pretty much shut down. this wasn't a bad snow, but with things opening later in the morning it was nice and cold and very quiet. i have a nice spot at the end of a dead end with a field and creek behing the house. thought i'd show you a bit of my corner of the world from yesterday morning.

dismissed as stupid

when i was looking for a ministry position over the past three years i interviewed with one affluent church in one of the most wealthy towns in tennessee. they were in the process of joining a smaller congregation that had land on the outside of town. to this they said, 'we will keep our downtown campus for mission work.' to this i thought, what missions can this town have where the household annual income is over 150k? will you bus in homeless? will your clothing closet be stocked for people who cannot afford abercrombie? this sounded way too misguided & riddled with self-interest comfort.

moving to today. i wish i made stuff like this up. however, i can't, i received this as an email this morning. it goes down in my camp under stupid: 1. can we separate ourselves more as Christians 2. how great a mission to put this money to something actually missional 3. can we actually say come be with Jesus possibly and not, come be with "celebrity" 4. what is a 'huge' mission opportunity? spending time with orphans? building schools and water towers for third world countries? spending money like tourists in carribean countries to keep their economic infrastructure going, just like any other tourist Christian or non-Christian?

I would like to make you aware of an awesome and unique opportunity. If you are looking for a vacation in a family friendly environment, or if you and your church group are looking for a way to have a great time and make a huge impact for Christ. Look no further than the “Cruise with Cause.” We are offering this cruise on Royal Caribbean’s “Sovereign of the Seas” at a fraction of the cost of any other chartered cruise out there AND it is the ONLY FULL CHRISTIAN CHARTER TO THE CARIBBEAN DURING THE SUMMER.

PraiseFest Ministries, Inc. This will be the ultimate vacation experience and also provide a HUGE MISSION OPPORTUNITY like no other mission trip out there. 

Join Christian artists Tait, Todd Agnew, Sonicflood, ZOEgirl, NewSong, Kutless, Skillet, Jeff Morris, Luke Garrett, and more

You will also be encouraged internationally known speakers such as Josh McDowell, Steve Borden aka former wrestler “Sting”, Dave Edwards, Jamey Ragle and others for on board conferences catered to students, singles, and adults.

There will also be late night entertainment from comedian Mickey Dean, illusionist Curt Anderson, and the “Hip Hop till You Drop Show.”

 

• Bring your family,   friends, church group, Sunday School class, church   staff, etc.  
• 3^rd and 4^th guests in the same cabin are 10% off of the cruise fee   through January 31^st.  
• We will sail from Port Canaveral, Florida. We will spend one day on Grand   Bahamas   Island, and also port one day on Cococay.  
• The dates are May 29 – June 2  
• There will be a   special banquet for graduating seniors who choose to do this as a senior trip with great surprises.  
• There will also be   a special session for church leaders and teachers led by Josh McDowell.  
• Only available to book by calling 1-866-450-8828  
• Please direct all pricing questions and mission trip questions to Matthew@praisefestministries.com   or 205-292-4592.

This type of experience has never been done before. I encourage you to be a part of this. Also, we are encouraging churches to send their pastors and spouses to help with the mission effort. Please pass this information along to everyone you know.

In Christ,
Matthew Dunaway
President
PraiseFest Ministries, Inc.

honestly, can we not see that separating ourselves be-it the walls of a church or cruise ship (i would liken some churches to cruise ships without the water). it doesn't help in building the kingdom.. i'm not sure it really helps in saving souls.

note: the email is unaltered except for two links to the company running the event. the emphasis's are all the original intention from the creators.

when people talk about you

i'm not so popular that people say stuff or quote me frequently, so when they do i can't help but take some notice. recently found this web site with a, i guess, flattering write up.

Blogging is a new kind of communication, sharing, soapboxing. Here is an excellent one from a young chap in ddd with very eclectic interests.... Visit his blog if only to examine the sort of environment he has built, and how his interest "things methodist" and monasticism and other things has led to an active life now including youth ministry.

fair assessment? you decide

sk8ter day

today was skater day. yes, by the calender today was Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday observance, but since the kids have off school that means i'm hanging out somewhere. today it just so happened to be at the local skate parks.

i took one of my youth and his skate buddy (who happens to go to the umc north of our town) to two parks where i took a bunch of pictures (kids love pictures of themselves 7 skaters love them even more).

i loved the dynamics of the two parks. one was pretty tame, a number of little kids, rather quiet. the other was pretty crazy, lots of yelling back and forth to other kids, cars screeching out of the parking lot. it was interesting to say the least.

as i listened to the foul language & watch the girls smoke cigarettes i wondered if i were to do anything more that i was doing (in the whole, i'm a spiritual leader, maybe i should evangelize some, should i invite them all to church kind of thought). currently i was simply present with them. i'd look over and smile, exchange a quick conversation if engaged. then go back to reading or taking pictures. oh, i did have my 'methodist' sweatshirt on. (it's a hoodie sweatshirt that has the word 'methodist' in big bold print across the front) maybe that was my witness.. i don't know.

anyhow, it's been a cool day. no logistic was covered in the office, but i got to hang with some kids that i don't normally and maybe they'll wonder.. wonder why i was there, who i was, and then wonder why i was friendly to them..

blogger meet up

jonathon and i are heading to georgia thursday for this january adventure at epworth by the sea. if there is anyone out there that is going and would want to catch up give a shout.

as it is we are planning on catchin up with rev mom in atlanta (emory i think) for lunch on the way. after that it's theologian time. jonathon assures that the hotel has wi-fi, so i'm sure we will be blogging about it all.

sunday photoblog : our father

my new ride

so after my last big car milestone, i've had an odyssey with cars. i'm excited now to finally have a new ride. have to say that carmax rocks. it's like going to disney world for car buyers. glad this adventure is over. now, it's back to business as usual.

i'm so happy now

i am so happy now, kevin is now telling us what he thinks... wait, he thinks?

NEW YORK (AP) - Britney Spears' husband will speak for himself in cyberspace now. Kevin Federline has unveiled his own Web site, at www.KevinFederline.com. The site's introduction shows tabloid articles reporting trouble in his marriage with Spears, while Federline raps, "Keep messin' with my family and you're through." The introduction ends with a screen that says, "Now that I have your full attention, never judge a book by its cover." Federline writes he hopes the site will provide the opportunity to get to know who he really is. He plans to release a hip-hop album called "The Truth" in 2006. In spite of the reports of marriage problems, Spears is plugging Federline's site on her Web site. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

daniel's sad song

so now i don't get to watch 'the book of daniel' gosh. the tennessean reports that our local nbc affiliate is taking it off air. nice.

WSMV-Channel 4 pulled the new NBC show The Book of Daniel after the network rejected a Channel 4 request to air it overnight instead of during "family viewing time," WSMV General Manager Elden Hale Jr. said yesterday.

Hale said he made the decision after receiving "thousands" of complaints about the show, which features a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son, a pot-dealing daughter and a philandering bishop father. Viewers objected to it all, Hale said.

"They didn't like the priest saying, 'G..d… him.' They didn't like the fact that there was a 15-year-old girl having sex in the back seat of a car. Many of them didn't like the portrayal of Jesus," Hale said.

NBC issued this statement yesterday: "The Book of Daniel is a quality fictional drama about an Episcopalian priest's family and the contemporary issues with which they must grapple. We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction." Maybe not.

WSMV's general voice mailbox shut down within 20 hours of the airing of the two-hour premiere last Friday because 137 complaint messages jammed the machine, WSMV officials said. There also were complaints via e-mail and regular mail, including letters bearing church letterheads.

Channel 4 received no official complaint from local Episcopal churches or from organized protests, Hale said, adding that it was the quality, not the volume, of the complaints that impressed him.

it makes me wonder. we have nice wholesome television with Christian themes, yet we don't watch those and don't raise a huge stink when they go off the air. but when something is uncomfortable (and probably all to real to our reality) we are up in arms within hours..

there goes summer vacation

so i had this dream of visiting the holy land, not because i wanted to see the Western Wall or walk the Via Dolorosa. no, i wanted to go visit the new theme park built on the sea of Galilee. those dreams are gone now as mr. pat pissed off the Iraeli government and they won't sign the contract any more. all he said was that God was punishing their leader for giving some land to the Palestinians.. man this stinks..

Israel is pulling out of a 50 million dollar deal with US TV evangelist Pat Robertson after he said Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution.

Tourism Ministry spokesman Ido Hartuv said Israel would not sign a contract with Mr Robertson to build a biblical theme park by the Sea of Galilee.

Mr Robertson suggested on his TV show "The 700 Club."that the stroke was a punishment for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

well, i suppose that is that. no more holy land trip. what's the point. atleast i can still go to orlando to the real holy land experience.

help me brainstorm

a few months back a group of us got together and started talking and the beginnings of planning an event that would gather united methodists together under a spirit of 'open source.' it would be 'open source' in that it would help to teach, bring to light, support the varied methods of using technology in ministry. it would be 'open source' in that not everything would be a lecture, but many gatherings would be conversations based on the needs of the groups. all this would be to the benefit of the mission of the church, specific target, but not limited to methodist communities. sound good?

well, this dream is becoming a real possibility. as we move forward i'd like some input in brainstorming ideas. so chip in some thoughts, answer one question, each question or just throw down a whole new idea.

• what would you hope to gain from a church conference specifically talking about technology and church?
• who might you invite as prominent/progressive voices?
• where would be a cool venue for something like this (think 300 +/- people)?
• should john get an invitation?
• how would the blogging community support/participate/benefit from such an event?
• what should we call this thing?
• how much would you pay for a picture with shane?

how to endorse peace

received an email today from the gbcs as part of their 'faith in action' email newsletters. they are asking for people to stand alongside the bishops formal letter of protest and request for peace in Iraq.

Thousands of United Methodist clergy, and laypersons of many faiths have added their names in solidarity to the bishops' statement of conscience.

We invite you to stand with the bishops in their call to end the war in Iraq.

You can add your name at www.umc-gbcs.org/nowar and read the list of others who have called for peace. The list will be shared with members of Congress as we work to bring about an end to the conflict

apologies for the upcoming cynical self. i do feel a need to support the gbcs, even if i do not agree with all they do or say on my behalf, so this is worthwhile to lift up. with that said, i at this moment, don't plan on signing. this doesn't mean that i don't want peace. i pray for peace on earth and to the middle east specifically almost everyday. those prayers are not because our bishops have brought this to light. 

however, as sense of formal protest this action should have been upheld long before an invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan in my eyes. it's past the time of offering critical advice or the same old over done thought on making yourself look good in front of a growing majority. to me this is almost like every email chain i get to say i believe in Christ or i'm going to hell or have a year of bad luck. blah!!

i'm sure this is a bit out of character with who many of you know about me. but it's not, i've always called for more creative ways of solving global and national issues instead of the same old rhetoric and ideas just repackaged (and sometimes not even repackaged).

going back to when this letter was written i was glad for the bishops, but let's be honest, how much weight do the bishops hold with the Presidency or congress when they have to schedule a meeting with him just to do introductions to the leaders of his denomination. 

peacemaking is within the hearts of the people making the decisions and if they are immune to the polls or numbers (which they are) and feel they can successfully navigate them (which they do, or have no need as ending terms would lead) then why bother. it is those pastors & friends who have access to people who shape and influence not just politicians, but voters and friends of said politicians. i could say that i have some influence within a prominent conservative republican radio show here in town. i have asked myself how i could let God use me as an instrument of peace in helping to meet the hearts of this venue.. we shall see..

crazy busy

life this past week has been just crazy. i have to remind myself to write down when i say 'yes' to folks. i forgot to write into the '06 calendar the evangelism congress and a youth retreat that jonathon, jeff, and i helped to lead worship for. back to reality and saturday night is a blur, i believe erin and i did something, but maybe we didn't. sunday was another full day with council of stewards of ministry meeting after church, a parents meeting before youth, and then our youth gathering. side story: a funny happening at youth, after we did a lengthy announcements and prayer concerns we did our 'passing of shalom' (a little ritual of passing the peace in our youth gathering). after we were finishing up with 'passing of shalom' a few kids had to leave which apparently signaled to more that youth was done.. some were confused and when i figured out what was happening i was too, so we ended around 10 minutes early and just hung out in the parking lot for parents to pick up. after that, sunday night is a blur.

monday was check writing and applications for varied youth events for winter through summer, then we had our first monday night bible study for the year, which went well.

tuesday started with a confence communications meeting. i must admit some of it was beyond me but i enjoyed chatting with jay and taking pop shots at don. made a new contact with umcom that i look forward too.. other than that, i had to leave early so i'm not sure what was ever accomplished. staff meeting ensued after that. this was quite spirited, not sure why, but it was. after that it's back to the conference office for our upcoming warmth in winter event after stopping by cokesbury.. geesh.. now i'm watching npr and it's really strange & quite boring.

still to get done is finding a car to drive. right now i am borrowing from my bro. need to finish up youth planning for the summer and other calendar stuff. i've got a few more meetings this week... why does everyone want to meet at the beginning of january?

playing a bit

i am toying with a new template for the year.. it's coming along much slower than i had thought, but hopefully it will be up to my pleasing. till then, i'm just playing around with some of the typepad templates. if you care, you can lodge your affirmations or complaints.

my feelings won't be hurt, i promise.

sunday photoblog : midday office

mr. gavin goes home from congress

today was my last day in the congress. started out meeting up with jonathon to catch willimon, yes matt, he was in much finer form today than yesterday. after that i went to do my usual harrassment of good news tv (and to try and get a comped dvd of one of the sessions - was successful too). while doing general harrassing, a voice stepped up "do you blog?"

the voice belong to a jeff of palisades umc. apparently he was looking for cool places to go in nashville and stumbled onto the sacred nashville site that we sometimes update. anyhow, jeff and i spent lunch together after that taking in alektor cafe and the upperroom then jumping back to the congress. it was  a good time with good conversation, but as usual, i think i talked way too much..

once we got back it was workshop times, i took in the youth ministry workshop with terry carty. nothing i haven't heard terry talk about before, but it's always good to be refreshed on the core stuff. from that i've asked terry to come into hfumc and analyze what we've set up and see where our gaps in our spiritual formation are. my worry is that i've become so much of the contemplative that i might unconsciously leave out those entrance activities. i think we are doing the right things with the youth at the church, but confirmation is good.

the big thing of the day was stopping by the media in ministry workshop. speaking honestly, i didn't expect to find the gem that i feel i found. i consider myself well versed in media stuff & most of what i have heard in the past has been general & not helpful in meeting my needs of progressing in uses of tech media in ministry applications.

today was different. i was introduced to 'the web-empowered church' project. a collaboration of a number of web developers supported by the foundation for evanglism. they have come up with, and are still developing, a content management system (cms) that churches can use for their websites to give them interaction, a feel of community, plug-ins of video and audio feeds, all with a good look for free. yes free. they feel it's important to give this for the betterment of the kingdom of God that the developers are making it with the smaller church in mind, so they can have the same web presence as the bigger churches.

a cms web set up is basically a database site that you can control people and pages by just adding in the content, picking when and where they go and go live, much like a blogger or typepad blog. it's a great way to maintain a website. most of the sites i am putting together now are cms set ups. i've used mambo and was entertaining joomla, but i'm gonna give this a go for our hfumcyouth.org site (not live yet). this platform runs on typo3. the story with this is that the designer felt God's calling to develop a cms set up that is powerful and effective, then to give it away, completely open source.

with the plug-ins that they are working on for the final release, this is pre-release mode right now, it's going to be a great product... and it will still be free. as the word gets out i think it's going to revolutionize the individual churches confidence in moving into internet ministry. with the pre-release you need to have some web knowledge to get it set up, unless you move over to vine hosting, which has the pre-release as turn key app, basically a click here to install and start using. they have a 20 dollar a month hosting cost, which you can go lower but will have to have some knowledge to set up. 20 dollars isn't a big cost considering some of the other church web site commercial products use cms just the same yet cost even more. it's worth checking out, i'm excited to play with it.

bloggy awards

greg is asking for submissions (so pitch in) to his creation of 'bloggy awards' since i know greg through the methodist blogger circuit i'll keep it centered on wesleyan bloggers. my votes go as such.

1)  Best blog site of 2005
giving this one to jay with his methocast, i think his contribution and model merits a best of '05

2)  Most scholarly blog site
personal vote to, jonathon norman.. i feel like i've walked through his mts through his blog and i have to say that radical orthodoxy is a bear..

3)  Most controversial blog site
goes to, wesleyblog, shane has softened up since the beginning of the year, but this goes for the shear amount of commentors and conversation he's garnered over the year

4)  Most spiritual blogger
i am putting my vote for lorna koskela, i don't know any other blog i can go to and feel the spirit of God within the words like i do with hers.. sometimes it's like part of my daily prayer

5)  Most amusing blogger
the bloggy goes to, john the methodist, i wonder about him after some of his posts & who let's their rabbits take control of their blog?

6)  Most consistent blogger
this is easy, jordon cooper, even with bloglines it's hard to keep up with his posting you can count on 4 to 5 posts a day if not more

7)  Nicest dressed blogger
tough one, but since there are so few pictures of everyone, my vote goes for meyer tinley. poor guy has been going through some tough times lately, but he's got style i know it. since meyer is still coming into his own though, i'll throw a hat at matt reed, went to college with him unless he's changed lately he's a sharp dressed man.

8)  Blogger most likely to succeed
the only person that comes to mind is theresa coleman, rev mom is beloved and they always come out shiny in the end. not to mention her innovative blog ring creations and who uses the blogger links bar with more creativity, yup, she's going places.

9)  Blogger most likely to track down John the Methodist and body slam him
with the premise of, it only takes a spark, i give the nod to cole wakefield, he travels to academic institutions (even asbury) and has a mean streak.. not sure how well he'd do a body slam though

10)  Blogger most likely to vanish and be found years later presiding as tribal king on a small island in the Pacific
should this actually be a question, it's got to be wes magruder. heck, he's halfway there now

life in congress

2nd day of the confer congress. i was late getting to the morning session with willimon as i had to travel all way to the other side of the hotel to get a cup of coffee (if you've been to the opryland hotel you know that this can be quite a travel). willimon was good, entertaining, but i have to admit, i didn't get many of his jokes.. i think the coffee was still setting in.

met up with two pastor friends afterwards that i regularly catch up with. we had varied conversation but at the end of it all we had this great vision for finding a way to start a methodist school. why should the church of Christ, baptists, catholics have all the fun. we even talked about some property ideas. note: i shared this idea with jonathon and he mentioned that his church, which has been trying to sell it's old building for a few years while it has built part of it's new campus would be a perfect set up. hmmm...

made it back for the second session with kirbyjon caldwell. he's pastor at windsor umc in houston. commonly known as the largest umc. i must admit that kc was a lot of fun, he had simple message, which he claimed at the start. laced with some great lines and well timed laughs, i can see why people are benefited by his preaching. some notes

• there are two types of churches, those that are growing and those that are dying. if you are just maintaining you are actually dying, it's just dying slower
• we need more baptism in our church, "you have to catch a fish before you can clean it"

:: bullet point notes from today ::

i'm a part of congress

this week i am participating in the evanglism congress put on by the general board of discipleship. i must admit, this isn't the best week for me to be taking in a conference congress. which brings up a question.. why a congress? i'm sure there is an explaination somewhere, i think i'll ask people tomorrow (which would make a pretty good video clip). this isn't something i would normally participate in, however, our newcomer coordinator asked for some help so i offered.. i have a soft spot for showing hospitality to folks when they come to my town.

of the names, will willimon is the big one, and i think they have every book he's ever published in the cokesbury store. he's actually doing quite a bit with the congress, so i'm interested to see what he has to say. maybe i can pull him aside to ask him why he doesn't do more blogging? actually, why doesn't he respond to comments? promoting the conversation. if i get the chance i'll probably just smooze like everyone else and get my picture with him.

beyond that, i'm interested to put some new names and faces on my radar. this is a different crowd than what i'm used too, so i'm interested to make some new circles. i'll be taking in a workshop that looks like the umc's evangelism take on emergent church, then the basics of youth ministry stuff & media in ministry. i might just skip those to track down willimon for that q & a. hey jay, wanna give me your podcast stuff?

in non-related news. i've got a book buying addiction. good news is that they are atleast good books. i stopped by barnes and nobles to find some drawing journals, and all i did was buy [re]understanding prayer by kyle lake & traveling mercies by anne lamott. after that i found myself reserving some more books in the cokesbury store (atleast i get a pastors discount there).

we are wal-mart to the world

so i had this thought jump through my brain today while shopping at wal-mart.

america is like wal-mart for the world. you can't live without it, you like the low prices and convenience of having everything at your fingertips. yet, you hate it, and you long for the days of the mom and pop store, but then you aren't going to shop there because it is more money.

america, the world can't make it without us (atleast as it seems). people hate us for how we dictate economics and the lifestyle's that we live with. yet, when those same people come here they love the conveniences, cheaper prices, cold drinks, and all you can eat buffets. i'm sure though that they'd ask for us to upgrade some of our public transportations... (that would be the case here in nashville i am sure)

just some thoughts
-g

again, not pretty but it'll do

2006 cotton bowl score

alabama - 13
texas tech - 10

it wasn't pretty, but it'll do.

weekend update w/ gavin

happy new year to everyone!!

it's been a wonderfully busy weekend in camp gavin. friday i spent meeting up with a friend of a friend in jeff morrison. he just moved to town with his family to pursue whatever God has planned for him. i'm excited to partner up with him on some ministry projects, first one being this weekend.

the mountain t.o.p. reunion/gathering that i had been organizing came and went. i think it went really really well. all the folks who volunteered to make it happen came in and did a great job. it was quite the surreal experience. afterwards a group of us caught up, telling mostly true stories, over some food and wine.

saturday was the family night as my bro & tiffany had a party for family and friends. the highlight of this was when some of the family changed over the mailbox of bro's house. the long story is that my mom does all the dog show stuff and is passionate about her welsh corgis, since my bro and tiff have two corgis for dogs my mom has blessed them with many corgi items, one being a painted mailbox. to this they say, it's cute, but it's not going on the mailbox.. well it finally made for 2006.

think that is about it... i slept when i could, worked on a new setup for the blog (to be unveiled later) now it's time for college football.