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larry points to this interview of jerry falwell on npr where he talks about how he will stir the pot to get a reaction which gives publicity to whatever it is he is doing/thinking. i was thinking that i'd give some mind to the article & interview, but i don't care to spend my time on this guy anymore.
instead i'll share this picture, a true sign of summer. mowing the lawn with your, sorta riding lawn mower... i wonder how he takes the corners??
want some tips on happy blogging? here's a decent list. not sure where i found them, i remember it was through an epic purging of a neglected bloglines. let me just say thanks
if you are without something to say then you can check out my ideas on blogging drought.
the ecusa has a new slogan, they've created a bumpersticker and everything. tip to kinesis & revgalblogpals. you can get yours at cafepress.
if you are looking for a healing from infection that modern medicine just can't fix. Jesus bandages.. thanks andrew
when you don't keep up with blog world, a late night working seems to be a pretty good time to catch up and find some funny stuff, sorta...
We should pray that Tony Jones really meets Jesus and repents from promoting forms of Eastern mysticism and Roman Catholic heresies.
with the spread of gangs, i'd be watching out for this to come to nashville.
Davis said it wasn’t supposed to be like this. They survived Hurricane Katrina’s Category 3 winds and the ensuing looters. They reopened despite the long odds of doing business in a devastated city. The last thing the Magazine Street shop owners expected to threaten their survival was a crime ring of transvestites.
must confess, this hits way to close thanks gapingvoid.com
i ran into jamey tucker, the news channel 2 religion reporter, today in our sanctuary. apparently he was filming & interviewing michael for a report on the growth of the umc. he's got a post going now about the decline in methodist membership.
i have never thought about this, but dan brings this up for thought. what if the bible had a warning label on it, what might it look like. he didn't create it, but found it in circulation around the internet. so you don't have to strain your eyes, here's what the warning says. some of dan's commentors have thrown out this site as more food for thought.
WARNING: This a work of fiction. Do NOT TAKE it literally.
CONTENT ADVISORY:
Contains verses descriptive or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs or alcohol, homosexuality, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness and human rights violations and atrocities.
EXPOSURE WARNING: Exposure to contents for extended periods of time or during formative years in children may cause delusions, hallucinations, decrease cognitive and objective reasoning abilities, and in extreme cases, pathological disorders, hatred, bigotry, violence including but not limited to fanaticism, murder and genocide.” endanger your mental health and life”.
i haven't switched over yet, but flock seems to be a great browser for those with an internet community interaction. read jonny's take on the browser.
hey, it's my birthday. gimmie some love!!
i'm now working on my 33rd year, oh what it a year it will be, that 32nd year was way crazy and way fun!!
some conversations to check out.
the us team is out of the world cup. beaten by ghana in our show up or go home game. well, we're going home. in what is obviously a league of play that we are out matched i'm not upset with the players, but i'm more miffed i bought into the whole notion that we had some chance. the tv networks sugar coated our competitive level that i feel totally lied too. especially now that all the players and formations that i was sold by espn or newswriters, should have serviceable or possibly the best position player in the world are totally turning on all things said prior.
hey broadcast people, it's okay that we can't compete, sell us on other teams. just don't lie, it's not good for journalistic reputations.
my rambling feelings for the week:
this week i have been feeling much like the rich young ruler. i've kept to the law best i know how, but when it comes to being closer to Christ i get thrown in my face that i have to give everything away to the poor... i have much and i can't bring myself to do that.
back story: this week i've been helping out with some youth at 61st ave umc with their summer day camp program. it's been a fun these past few days, but getting to know the kids more only makes their struggles and future paths so much more apparent. children no more than 5 years old have anger that is just scary and not something that should be harnessed in the soul of a child. words, oh the words they carry with them. images, images of who they want to be, "i want to be mean like my daddy" "i'm going to be a mommy like my sister." it's not new, children have grown up like this and around this environment forever. i've known that, so why do i feel this way today?
tuesday i was sitting with my friend nita, one of those saints on earth, and i listened and she told about how churches have come and gone trying to "fix" the problems of the neighborhood. however, when their ideals of progress are not met they flutter off slowly, never to be heard from again. thus leaving the church back at the same place. there are consistency issues. there are money issues. there are facility issues that take forever to get done. the churches that have come (myself included) do good while they are there, but we don't make lasting changes because we are not committing our resources and selves into being a part of the community, because they have become like all other short term mission experiences of youth group mantra, we come in, do a little good and go home feeling good about ourselves.
tuesday might have been the first day that i've gone home from what i perceived to be a "mission experience" feeling absolutely pissed off at myself. i'm pissed because i headed back to a church with a sizable budget. as a youth community we just spent 1k to upgrade our nickel and dime sound system so that we could have a better sound for our praise team and youth gatherings. this was certainly warranted in our viewpoint, as is the many thousands we spend on retreats and "mission experiences" off in other states. personally i'm going home to a nice home with digital cable a couple of thousand dollars worth of computer and photography equipment. did i mention how much money i spend on books? all these things i'm so consumed with i can't fathom giving them up... i don't think our youth can fathom giving up some of the trips either.. i'd probably be out of a job if we did... so like the young rich ruler who has much, i walk away from meeting Christ a little peeved because i just don't know how i can live up to this one.
so, this is a literal view, which literal viewpoints of scripture is not my way. but the message is there, i've got my things, as the young man, that have attachments which keep myself as well as the churches i've been a part of that keep from truly living as Christ teaches. i don't know how this changes, so let me see a problem that i feel we can respond to appropriately.
there's a problem with seeing poor or marginalized as a "mission." if i take my limited historical perspective, "mission" has a connotation that we go somewhere do something and then return back to our lives as we left them (generally patting ourselves on the back with what we've done). the experience might change our lives, but does it really change the lives of the people that are viewed as the mission? on the short term, it doesn't. as someone who has done the summer camp missions for years i've returned to the areas where i've sent groups to work with people. no change in the lifestyle from building a porch, even an extra room, the ills of poverty continue to set in. what then?
in my struggle i put it to some of the staff at our church. can we be a church that approaches the mission of the church differently? in my short re-imagining of how we 'do' missions it came as a feeling that we don't do missions, that we just do for our neighbor. it's not something we commit to for a one time event, but something that we are engaged in through a context of relationship, so much that we live with those whom Christ calls us to give to. we don't have to do the common understandings of missions, building things, painting a room, but come even closer to the critical needs of those Christ calls us to give to.
for our church to fulfill this calling of Christ, we no longer seek to be short term missionaries, but people who just do what Christ calls us to. to enable our church to do this, we seek out people who have a depth of faith and understanding to forgo what they've known to be as missions and give themselves to be open and listening for opportunities to help seek the needs of a community. through listening, communing with, and prayer this group discerns together where God is calling them to be present in the community. the response comes as people who have sought God's guidance, not their own concepts, enables the church.
just so this doesn't go completely unnoticed. the umc board of church and society is encouraging everyone to ring their church bells or have a moment of silence in rememberance this weekend for those who have died the iraq war.
i'm down with this, but i can't help but ask. why now, wouldn't it have been better during a significant anniversary that was observed by the news and such. i understand the death toll passing 2,500k people, i consider this a moot point as there were already 2k people dead by the 3rd anniversary. a specific number reached, at this point, shouldn't be a sparking point. where is the publicity? i know the gbcs doesn't have the greatest of budgets, but common, if you are going to ask people to participate in something you can get the word out, be through the blogosphere, email lists, etc.
the only answer i can come up with for myself is that this was something a local congregation decided to do. to this a counter point is, shouldn't those that work for the church be able to dream up creative ideas for the church to be in ministry. isn't that many of their jobs?
regardless, it's always a good time to be praying for peace and those who have been affected by war. so i encourage everyone to have a time of rememberance, personal or as a congregation.
in semi-related news: what do you think of an admin council doing this?
so the only denominational joke i know is this one about baptists and methodists.
what's the difference between a baptist and a methodist?
methodists will wave to each other at the liquor store
haha, funny and yes, there are more differences than that. but this came to mind in reading more about what is happening with the sbc convention. honestly, i don't seek this stuff out, i just find it.
apparently they have put forth that no person who drinks alcohol is to be on a denominational trustee board. i don't know what a 'denominational trustee board' is, if it is any different from our trustee boards of the methodist discipline, which oversee the facilities and risk management issues of the church. if it's the same as the umc, it seems silly a measure to have for just one particular committee. maybe it does cover all committee's.. which makes for a thinning of the congregation i am sure.
"The use of alcohol as a beverage can and does impede our testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ," said Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, at the denomination's 13-14 June annual meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina.
An amendment successfully moved by Richards at the Greensboro meeting urged the exclusion of Southern Baptists who drink from election to the convention's boards and committees. The resolution is not binding on the 16.2-million-member denomination. Supporters of the action contended it was necessary because some Christians wrongly believed that Scripture allowed them to drink, the Baptist Press news service reported.
stephen colbert in interviewing bart ehrman.. ehrman referenced him being an agnostic. colbert's response "isn't an agnostic just an athiest without balls?" the look on bart's face is priceless.. eventually ehrman agreed
i've followed to some degree the happenings of the episcopal/anglican church after the election of Bishop Robinson. it's been a heated topic in tennessee with some congregations splitting and others shutting down completely. i watch this to have an idea of what is to come with the umc as it struggles with spiritually addressing the issues, emotions, viewpoints, and theologies associated with homosexuality in the church.
to say, the church has been pretty clear with accepting into membership those who are gay. even with decision 1032 that doesn't seem change our attitude as a whole church there. what is the struggle is clergy. it's the struggle with the anglican community to define what is permissible through the words of "practicing." with Bishop Robinson, he is & was a "practicing" homosexual with an established relationship. it lived outside the means of marriage as that is another issue, thrown about adolescently in the political systems of government and church (which i think is a shame, shows how much we really do revere marriage that we use it as a tool for gain, and that goes for both sides).
anyways, back to the episcopals. to keep a short history, the episcopal church in america elected Bishop Robinson. this set things in motion. a year or so ago the anglican communion (the world anglican church and somewhat conservative in nature) issued the 'windsor report' which simply said, "bad american episcopals. now you apologize and say that you won't do it again." the response to this report hasn't been too swift of anything, the bishops developed a letter in response saying that bishop elections needed some heavy approval, but never said that they would respect the church to put a "moratorium" on electing officials who are "practicing." well, the pals are in their general conference at the moment and they are debating over the windsor report and other things. thunder is always so kind to keep me informed of what is going down. here's what he emailed to me as the ecusa response to said report.
Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, that the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church regrets the extent to which we have, by action and inaction, contributed to strains on communion and caused deep offense to many faithful Anglican Christians as we consented to the consecration of a bishop living openly in a same-gender union. Accordingly, we are obliged to urge nominating committees, electing conventions, Standing Committees, and bishops with jurisdiction
to exercise very considerable cautionrefrain from the nomination, election, consent to, and consecration of bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.; and be it further
Resolved that this General Convention not proceed to develop or authorize Rites for the Blessing of same-sex unions at this time, thereby concurring with the Windsor Report in its exhortation to bishops of the Anglican Communion to honor the Primates’ Pastoral Letter of May 2003; and be it further
Resolved that this General Convention affirm the need to maintain a breadth of responses to situations of pastoral care for gay and lesbian Christians in this Church. Resolved that this General Convention apologize to those gay and lesbian Episcopalians and their supporters hurt by these decisions.
if this is how it works out with the umc (and i'd suspect it might unless we change our methods of leading church, calling to an end a business model of church decision making). then, we'll see ourselves quarreling with the global church in much the same way. since we think so highly of us enlightened american status we'll opt for a 'we are smarter' childish mentality which might bring us to a semantics and reasonable stand still.
Bishop Robinson has engaged the conversation which should be interesting to see what happens.
update: talked with thunder today about a number of things. in regards to the convention and this resolution not being adopted due to the semantics. apparently it was agreed that both sides of the fence hate each other. i say that is good common ground to start from.
this past weekend was an annual pilgrimage for many tenderfoot wannabe hippies, bonnaroo. for some reason someone felt a farm in manchester tennessee was a good place to have one of the largest concert festivals in the states. true to any concert of this nature, there's always some wonderful stories of people doing stupid things influenced by drug of choice. last year it was fsu quarterback (at that time) going home with the impression that he was god.
this year's oddity is the death of a ohio man who left the concert and walked onto the highway in front of ricky skagg's tour bus. the oddity isn't about the man, that's tragic, be it suicide or death due to drug impairment. what is odd is the viewpoint from people at the concert.
"That's horrible," Estrada said. "I wish there had been some adults (with the victim) who had been more responsible."
uh, if this were a youth or children's event this comment would have weight, but isn't the make up of the 80k plus people all "adults."
Rick Bidelman of Nashville said that he thought things at the festival were going better than the drug overdoses and unexpected deaths of past years' festivals.
uh, if there are drug overdoses and deaths each year wouldn't it be prudent to not promote this? or is the lure of a few million bucks enough to risk a few lives.
Carrie Anne, a 25-year-old Skaggs fan from Portland, Maine, was disappointed to hear of the death but said, "There are worse ways to go than to be hit by Ricky Skaggs' tour bus."
uh, yes, that's the way i want to go. i'm sure others are with you carrie.. btw, what are you smoking!!
i couldn't help but post this once i found this clip online. i watched this interview the other week and just about fell over myself. it's funny, it's sad.. you'll know why after you watch.
i have said in comments various places, most recently inside mikes head that if we were to put biblical law into our court houses that we should be considering things like, "love God & love thy neighbor as thyself" if i remember correctly there was something said by some person that "this is the greatest commandments." how bout the beatitudes? those are pretty good.. anyway, for the politicians, please leave biblical references to the Christians. for congressman westmoreland, just go with what Jesus gave us as the greatest commandments, maybe you can remember them when you are putting forth legislation.
so today, i went to church to pick up some kids for a morning of helping out 61st ave umc with their summer day camp. i stopped by the local chick-fil-a for a chicken biscuit and coffee. when i pulled up to the drive thru window the older lady who took my card immediately said "did anyone ever tell you that you look like jack black?" i smiled and responded yes with a nod. i sorta picked up on this a week ago.
i've been told that i remind people of jack black because of a certain look (middle height, somewhat overweight, brown hair) but mostly because of our mannerisms. i say that he's like me, because 1. i think i'm older than him & 2. this is how i am, i am not doing movie characters that act a certain way it's just how i am. this hasn't been a isolated demographic thing either. i've been told this from older women to younger teenage boys of all ethnic ranges... the big difference between today and other times.. i haven't been given the "you look like jack black" rhetoric based solely on looks.
fast forward one hour and we are at 61st ave umc and a little girl comes in and upon being introduced to me she says "you look like jack black." i smile and nod, "i am aware of that." moving into another room with a new set of children one of the little boys (who is that little) comes up and says "you look like jack black." to this i say "yes, that's because i am his older brother." he responds, "cool, i've never known anyone famous before." then he shuffles over to his friends to tell them i am jack black's brother.
so, do i just look like jack black, or is this because i look like nacho libre? eric said i looked like julio iglesias..
in what the tennessean is reporting and the associated baptist press, bloggers had a great influence over the recent president elections at the southern baptist election. this happened when jerry sutton pastor of two rivers lost the election to frank page pastor of first baptist in taylors, sc. it's a turn from the conservative leadership to a moderate voice. wade burleson, who is credited as a prominate blogging voice, had a bit of a story that i thought highlighted how bloggers can shape the movements of the church.
I saw Dr. Page in the hall. I greeted him saying, "Hello Mr. President." He smiled and reminded me that I was the first one to call him several weeks earlier when he and I talked on the phone about him running for President of the SBC. We had a good conversation and I reminded Dr. Page of his pledge not to exclude from service godly, conservative Southern Baptists who affirm the Baptist Faith and Message, but yet differ in areas of doctrinal interpretions not addressed by the BF&M.
Frank graciously reiterated that pledge and then said he was looking to open up the appointments to people throughout the SBC that had a sweet spirit, a commitment to inerrancy, and a willingness to serve. He said he would not recycle appointments.
When Frank's election was announced I was walking around the arena and just happened to be stopped by a reporter in the undergound hallway. He wanted my reaction. Soon other reporters stopped and by the time all was said and done probably over 25 media persons from around the nation stood four deep and asked questions for forty minutes. One of the questions that kept being repeated over and over again is whether or not I believed blogs played a role in this election. I said, "Absolutely." Baptist bloggers in 2006 may well go down in history as the first time bloggers actually determined the outcome of a national religious/political election.
Why? When all three candidates were being nominated my wife leaned over to me and said, "I feel like I know all three men because of the blogs."
one of my regular blog reads, but for some reason hasn't appeared on the blogroll (which needs cleaning up) is kevin, i met him with an evening of theo banter with daniel and thunder (come to think of it, thunder isn't on the blogroll either). anyway, kevin has an excellent and funny post defining terms that are confusing to the seeker. i love all it all, but here's a sample.
Catholics
Catholics are the New York Yankees of Christianity. They are the biggest and wealthiest team, and their owner is intensely controversial (this makes St. Francis of Assisi the Derek Jeter of Catholicism: discuss). Catholics all wear matching uniforms, and are divided into "parishes," or "squadrons," to make choosing softball teams easier. Catholics are rigidly controlled by a hidebound hierarchy that starts with priests and ends with priests' housekeepers. Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible, eat meat, or refrain from worshipping statues.
hi all, wonder if you could do some brothers and sisters a blessing and keep some of our friends in your prayers as their little one, libby, goes through heart surgery. you can follow the progress at libbysurgery.blogspot.com thanks in advance. shalom, -g
so nashville is talking had this video of, what seems to be, a journalist of some nature being bull baited by some scientologists while he was trying to walk about a scientology happening. if your view is like mine, the audio doesn't match up to the vidoe, but you'll get the drift. if you follow the video to the google video there are more video's of similar oddities.
i have been spending time listening to God in regards to the youth ministry of our church at hfumc for the last three or four months. this period has led to a number of posts on youth ministry, but i'm fleshing out a vision, methodology, and liturgy for our youth ministry at hfumc. i'm sharing the inspirations as a gift to whomever they bless.
i'm calling this our seasons of youth ministry. in order to give focus to the event programming with the youth ministry we are naming the seasons and their purposes. the events/retreats, whatever form they take, will be used to enhance the particular season.
community: our season for connecting is the fall. we take in new youth with our seventh graders changing the landscape of our group. we loose our seniors giving gaps to what (hopefully) were our role models and leadership. as a new community in Christ we will spend the season of community by learning what our identity is, who we are, what we want out of ourselves, how we get along, how we welcome. community will be circled around some common unique experiences that root each other in story. for us at hfumcyouth, this is going to take shape in some camping and adventure retreats, as well as some initiative type tests. the hope is that we break down walls, give common grounds to communicate and tell stories from, give space to experience God as a group, and develop the foundation for a safe community to build on.
connecting: our season of connecting is in the winter. connecting is about understanding and touching base with the greater church. the community of faith is not just centered around our one church. in order to create and nurture relationships with others in the community of Christ , not to mention our 'united' church, we will engage in retreats/events that bring together different churches in fellowship, worship, prayer, play, and education growth. two things we will continue to be involved in and start up are warmth in winter (our conferences biggest retreat) and a district ski trip. the hope is to have lasting relationships that youth continue with and nurture over the years giving them confidence that they can develop new relationships that take on meaning within their life of faith.
formation: our season for formation is spring. another name could be considered contemplation. we are seeing the space around Holy Week as a time to focus on the individual spiritual growth. we take time from what has been a busy academic year to start a process of slowing down and noticing what we've learned, experienced, people met, and where God was in the midst of all that. events or retreats would be small in nature. programming would help to slow down the growing pace of testing, future life decisions, and growing questions of faith. for us at hfumc we'll give ourselves space with a sabbath retreat and confirmation retreat.
outreach: our season for outreach comes in the summer. this is our response of all the experiences of God through the year brought together in one season. we bring together our learning in teaching of those younger than us, vacation bible school and summer camps. our compassion leads us to give of ourselves in short term mission. sharing of our gifts through worship on a choir tour. at the end the joy of giving of self in response to God movement in ones life should give a new perspective on the Christian life.
the community changes and the seasons start over, but the rhythm of the seasons brings everyone back to God.
shane has picked up again with conversation on teenagers and worship. his first post which sparked my long winded post has now been updated to answer some of the comments.
jay wishes that he was hanging with his emergent village friends in a coordinating group meeting. jamey though has posted a synopsis, plus andrew has uber blogged on the meeting.
annual conference has come and gone. i spent a total of a day and half doing the conference thing. some of the sights and thoughts from conference.
this is monica, she's one of my bud's from the child care training stuff i used to do with tsu. she's now a local pastor with a two point charge in the cookeville district. definitely one of my fav people in the conference, we did a ton of hanging out with tsu stuff, now we only get to hang when there's a conference event.
in blogger conversations, i chilled out with fellow blogger mark youngman, he's husband to periodic hiatus blogger jenny. he's off to a new appointment at chapel hill umc, a progressive small town church. anyways, we chatted about a bunch of stuff and then ran into each other throughout the day... i don't think he was too happy when i took his pic. you decide. also caught up with one of my youth from hermitage umc, abbie, she was there as a 2xpk. it was great to catch up with her.
i toured the place, first umc murfreesboro has a new building, i was more familiar with the old downtown square church building. took a tour of the youth rooms, pretty cool set up with different themes for each room. there were many booths set up with different ministries around the conference. one i found interesting was umm... for some reason i felt their display was trying to over compensate for something, or at the very least needed a womans touch.
in the "how adults act like youth" category. it didn't take much effort to find some delegates, lay or clergy, hanging out skipping a session. funny how if these folks were teenagers we'd herd them into the sanctuary. talking to some of the clergy, there is apparently a grassroots effort to wear bow-ties on tuesday. feel free to continue the grassroots movement.
i dropped by the cokesbury store. i tried not to buy anything, but i was powerless. apparently i had a need to bash the american Christian church. bought "red and blue god, black and blue church" by becky garrison, "the gospel according to america, a meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted idea" by david dark, and "revolution" by barna. i was sold at some of the chapter titles. not sure when i'll get around to reading them, but it should be interesting reading.
i did hang out for some of the reports and resolutions. i think someone needs to teach roberts rules of order to the greater public if we are still going to use them. greater concensus that i saw was that most folks were confused throughout the amendments, substitutions, questions on the substitutions, etc. the bishop though was pretty funny throughout, not quite sarcasm but a certain good sense of humor. to be noted, jay was the geek of conference sitting front and center during conference. kay, his wife, told me that they had to in beginning, it was the only place there were spaces (just like sunday worship). apparently you get to see and hear some of the side conversations better which made for more entertainment. me, i sat in the balcony.
i really enjoyed the closing communion and setting of appointment service. not sure why this service was so different from other communion services, the commitment liturgy, being served by the bishops assistant (who's a good friend), being amongst so many conference friends, praying for a new year of ministry.. i'm not sure, but it all felt powerful for me.
new testament professor & blogger ben witherington 3 has apparently come from silicon valley and shared with us the 10 commandments of the internet age. saddened to say i've broken most of these.. some within the last 24 hours..
Thou shalt not make for thyself a sacrilegious image using Photoshop or Powerpoint.
Remember the Shut Down time and do not Restart during it. Six days ye shall compute and do all your email and word processing but on the seventh day cease, to make room for the Word Perfect.yeah... tough time with that one
Thou shalt not covet thy sister’s laptop, nor her printer, nor her Ipod, nor her cellphone, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
yup, writing this blog on erin's powerbook.. me like a lot
where was i, was i the only one that missed a sign that dean snyder is still up for some blogging.
"when you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants, in your room."
with a new jack black film i've taken on a new identity, i am now "nacho libre" or as i'll call myself, nacho gibre.
for historic note: i've been told i remind people of jack black for some time now.. however i wish it would have been for his high fidelity character, i like him the best in that film.
anyhow, the story of nacho libre is a monastery cook, who cooks badly, who has developed a plan to wrestle to raise money for better food for the orphans of the monastery. see any parallels?
well i'm taking my nacho gibre self to annual conference some this week. i'm not a voting delegate. i am just crashing the party to say hi to friends and influence people. i will put on my alter ego as conference youth coordinator to go up against the big players of our conference to make life a little sweeter for the church.
this weekend is our youth annual conference, we elect our officers, make & vote on our resolutions as a lead in to annual conference. one of the cool parts a saturday dinner with our extended cabinet. each year the cabinet members are always like "wow, the youth are so very smart and well mannered." it's like they haven't seen youth before.
still it is nice that they make themselves available for the dinner and these youth are able to place faces & voices to titles and offices. pictured is johnathan, elizabeth, and grace with bishop dick wills.
not since a church quoted the devil on their website homepage have i seen such a mistake of scripture. check your grammar please
:: thanks nashville is talking ::
shane has thrown out what looks to be a bit of a stream of consciousness in dealing with unchurched youth and worship. it's a great little read as many of us have thought like this at some point.
Asking youth to sit through 60 to 90 minutes of prayer requests, announcements, music (and possibly sermons) that they can't easily relate to is a whole different ballgame when they're getting to church on their own initiative.
Since many UM churches (I know there are exceptions) don't do the best job of engaging youth during the 11:00 hour, what's the solution? Creating an alternative worship setting just for them? Killing the Sunday School hour and pulling youth out of the service for Christian education? I'm not sure if I know the answer.
in his humor, shane throws out "Why is the worship service such a sacred cow in churches anyway?" which, knowing him is honest, but not a serious statement, he knows the importance of worship.
worship for youth should be a gathering of the community of Christ together to express their faith, connect and encounter God. a traditional service with liturgy, hymn singing, teachings, and sacraments should really hit all those marks.
so the question to be asked? why doesn't this strike a chord with teenagers? added onto that, why doesn't this strike a chord with baby boomers (they like the contemporary, a common myth that teens like contemporary truly it's for the boomers)? i'd say simply, the answer is entertainment. traditional services are not entertaining to these generations.
next questions to ask, do we want to be "entertaining?" do we feel we need our central community experience to be entertaining? i taught a workshop last week on creative worship where i did a couple of things. 1. i said, i give you permission to not do the cool thing. worship isn't about cool & we shouldn't feel like a cool thing has to be done during worship. 2. don't be hindered because you don't have the powerpoint/mediashout/video loops to your worship. 2000 years of faith has been lived and grown without these, it's not a necessary for our times today. does this stuff help? it can & it can be distracting or blurring of what is actually going on. what is going on could be that movement of the Holy Spirit among the community. me personally, i don't think worship needs to be 'entertaining' as we know it of a worldly context.
back to the question, how do we bring in youth or young people? shane mentions that if you ask youth they do not give answers to you.. i explain this as we teach youth today to give answers to a test, they'll give you a 'children's church' answer to whatever you think they want or you want. to get them to speak to where they really are takes patience, trust and a forum that allows them to be heard. if i speak for them a minute, they'd say, "we want a place where we encounter God." "we want to know that people will listen to me." "we don't want to be judged." "we want a place that we feel included."
how do we give youth or young people something like this? i'm not a big fan of the charismatic "Jesus is speaking to me right now!!" type of worship experience, in fact, i shutter at it, but in the same, we have become some emotionless in our worship that we don't allow acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit moving through our community within worship or life. how many times can we honestly say that we listen to teens or young adults or each other? are we really in tune with who we are as a community, where everyone is? what if passing of the peace or prayer concerns was something more than just a 'hi there' & list of announcements that we actually connected and had compassion for our fellow brother & sisters in Christ. what would that look like?
maybe the question we need to ask our selves then is, do we want youth or young adults to feel a part of worship? i know of numerous churches that give lip service to "yes, we want all young people to be part of our church." problem being, they should cap that sentence with "but..." but, don't expect to sing in the adult choir. but, you're not responsible enough to usher. but, you don't really know the mature enough to serve communion. but, we're not going to invite you to be a part of the worship committee. but, we're not going to ask for your input on songs. but, your special music is not special to us. but, your expressions of 'amen' make people uncomfortable. but, you don't speak well enough or stammer over scripture too much to be liturgist.
however, "we do support our young people." we have a youth sunday which is generally the least attended sunday of the year, that way they screw up in front of the least amount of people. "we have a youth choir" that way our adults don't have to mentor or show youth what it means to lead in worship. "all our youth sit up the balcony together" it's the only place they feel safe cause if they sat on the main floor we'd all stare at them and "sshh" them for chatting to each other, something we certainly don't do as adults.
in all this, if we as congregations were honest i'm sure the reasons we would come up with 'why teenagers get bored with or don't attend worship' is not because we don't have a slick powerpoint worship. it'd be because we might really not want them there. sure they are chaotic, disrespectful at times, giggly, emotionally moved, uninhibited, honest, needing teaching, and inspiring to a congregation. the church that accepts that they are going to be a young people friendly church needs to loosen up their grip on what is comfortable to them and embrace that they will accept the chaos & beauty of a teen in order to show them the love of Christ and hope to transform their lives through the Holy Spirit in the act of worship.
yes, i admit it. i'm one of those few people who really care and will watch all or as much of the world cup as i can. like every other suburbanite kid i played soccer in my youth & some intramural in college. even with the mls there isn't much of a pro game here in the states to get excited over. however i've been a fan of the premier league for years.
for new friends, my mom is welsh and grew up in england for many years. so we go over to see our family there often. while we are there we catch up on the fav teams, southampton was the local team for years. i've collected a couple of picture books, the equivalent of baseball cards. when i could afford an expanded cable package i would catch up on the premier league broadcasts on fox sports world channel. the national game though i got into when erin & i were over in summer '04 for a wedding and it was at the same time as the euro cup. england made a run, rooney was the new big name, and beckham choked in a shoot-out.. it was awesome
so i look forward to some more great soccer/football, which by the way, the first game of germany and costa rica is not disappointing, it's been back and forth and is 2-1 germany currently.
watching the news now i'm catching up on all that can be said about the death of al-zarqawi. a couple of folks who have chimed in, thunder is not too pleased with the 'victory' of killing.. the counter terrorism blog has way too much coverage, but then again, i suppose it's a big news day for them.
i'm not crying over this man's death. my questions are just that something like this doesn't really deserve this much effort.. or does it?
check out the reaction of the father of nick berg who was beheaded by al-zarqawi.
the other week i was able to spend a day in retreat with mark yaconelli on his contemplative youth ministry book tour. while there i came to name for myself a couple of things that i find important examine further.
1. i'm not the contemplative/mystic that i once was and sometimes try to claim to be. a waining prayer life, a sense "to do lists" taking precedence over everything, a present relationship with my God that feels like we are on some hiatus.
2. i'm tired. life has been good, but it's taking it's toll. youth community summer is in high gear with more time away from home coming soon. continued planning of a wedding and all it's details are starting to take form. moving has had it's effect in sucking more energy that wasn't there to begin with. my on going projects outside the church from the episcopate committee to the worship feast cdrom project seems to keep coming back.
3. i need to be seen or a feeling to be noticed. this might have always had some effect, but for some reason i recognised that i really needed to be noticed by my cohorts. it might have been just that day, but there was some strong feeling that i had to be seen by people who know me and love me already. i just needed something more.
i've tried to commit to a new prayer book for the summer. using again the book of prayer from the iona community. it asks for more silence, reflection on scripture readings, and times of intercession which seem to open up more space to listen and be in relationship. still i struggle with evening prayer times which usually was my most favorite time of the day.
trying to sleep more. going to bed earlier and sleeping a bit after a morning walk of the dogs. i don't know if it is possible to find balance in the summer. i've paired down the daily activties from week to week to just have a rhythem of wednesdays and sundays together.
not sure what to do about the noticing. i wonder if there is something that i can't find for myself that is needing reassurance by those who are my cohorts and friends. i think that i am like many, a person who has to have success defined by society in order to feel affirmed in what i do. however, i am conflicted that much of that 'success' is not what i'm called to in what i view as my holy vocation with God. maybe it's that i just need people to affirm or just be with me in my conflictions. however this pans out i'm curious to see.
the episcopal church has a resolution for their upcoming 75th general convention that is proposing a shared Communion table with us umc's. i've participated in the Eucharist at a number of episcopal churches. so many lay leaders would probably not know a difference. however, canon kendall harmon of titusonenine paraphrases as such.
The Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church have been in dialogue as members of the multilateral Consultation on Church Union/Churches Uniting in Christ for nearly forty years and have been authorized to share in the celebration of the Eucharist in the context of COCU/CUIC. The establishment of Interim Eucharistic Sharing between the two churches will allow for a more intentional focus on our bilateral relationship. The Episcopal-United Methodist bilateral dialogue was established by the 2000 General Convention and in the 2002-2006 period met regularly and reviewed the sacramental teaching of both churches. On the basis of these documents the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations feels confident in recommending Interim Eucharistic Sharing be established while the two churches continue to work for full communion, including interchangeability of ordained ministries.
erin & i are still feeling like we are moving into the new neighborhood. however, we are getting to know more and more people as the days go on. one of the main ways we are meeting folks is that we walk our dogs multiple times a day. we are waiting for a new fence to get built so we walk our dogs about 4 to 5x a day, starting at 6am (or 5:30am this morning) to 11pm. we have met many of the kids and neighbors, other dogs and eye-ed up some cats. things have been pretty good until today.
today i got yelled by one of the neighbors for one of my dogs having a pee on the sidewalk slice of someones yard. we're good dog walkers, we keep them on leashes & pick up poop. so it was so odd when coe (co-Eee), my oldest, stopped to pee after smelling some smell on a yard spot that i heard "get your dog off my yard!" i turned to acknowledge hearing the statement but didn't say or doing anything more. i recognized the older lady, she walks her shitzu dog in the mornings and lets it run around often. "have your dog go on your yard!" i respond, "she's just pee-ing. not like she's pooping" (holding up a bag). then there was something said to the effect of, "you just walk your dog around to go on other people's yards." to this it is now a hopless cause to even converse, so we just walk on.
erin was saying to me today that today is the apocalypse with it being 6/6/06.. to this i say, shouldn't that have been 6/6/66. i think it might have been back in the 60's. one of her co-workers had the question of the day.. "is this going to be a paid holiday? then i'm all for it!"
as far as the emo kid beatdown day.. i thought josh tinley, better duck.
tip: nashville is talking
tomorrow, early in the morning, i will rise and begin an annual summer pilgrimage for youth ministers across the u.s. it's not a history lesson or spiritual connection to saints or relics. it's the pilgrimage to the amusement park.
yup, i'm heading out with 20 plus youth to six flags over georgia. why six flags over georgia. well, according to the kids, six flags kentucky kingdom is not nearly as cool. yet if i really listened to what the youth wanted we'd be on a four day trip to cedar point. i don't know why, but every church i've been a part of for my 12 years of youth ministry has had some trip to some amusement park.
not sure if i can call it a spiritual experience. that is unless you consider my throwing up after an after noon of tackling the 'big' rides only to hurl after a spin on one of the 'kids' ride.. that was more embarassing than spiritual.. but i did feel better afterwards... maybe that's what it's all about
today, this first day of Pentecost, the question was asked "wh
