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scenes of a big church

my church is either the biggest or the most central church in our district, as we always have district meetings there. tonight as i leave my office i pass a sign "district ministers meeting with bishop." intrigued i stick my head in. conversations ensue

ds: hey you need to be here for this
me: what is this
ds: it's a presentation on how to avoid burn-out
me: i gotta get home or my sick wife will burn me

speak some quick pleasantries to other pastors and youth worker. big hug to pastor i hadn't seen in quite a few months. good to have a quick catch up (he affirms need to head home). continue to walk downstairs out the door. run into pastor i hadn't seen in even longer time. family chat catch up. conversation ensues

pj: so what is this thing all about?
me: it's a presentation on how to avoid burn-out
pj: great, let me go home from mandatory meeting, thursday is my non-meeting night
me: have fun with it
pj: what do you mean?
me: ask a question like, "i've always heard it was better to burn out than to fade away?"
pj: hahaha!
me: "didn't wesley say to light yourself on fire and people come watch you burn?"
pj: i might just do that

i wonder if he did?

picketing the fundamentalists

so i remember all the spark about mark driscolls comments on women in ministry and advice on how young men pastors could keep from falling into temptations as rev. ted haggard. i guess the spark got to be enough of a fire that this group has decided to protest the mars hill church.

For nearly ten years many people (friends and foe) have challenged Reverend Driscoll about his attitudes and language regarding women. Nevertheless Reverend Driscoll has persisted in making demeaning and degrading comments about women from his pulpit, on his blog, and at numerous national conferences.

People Against Fundamentalism has said, “Enough!”. On December 3 we will be protesting outside the Mars Hill Ballard campus to demonstrate to the people of Mars Hill and the residents of Seattle that we can no longer ignore his crass objectification of women.

Our goals for this protest are:
1)  To expose to the city of Seattle to Reverend Driscoll’s anti-women diatribe.
2)  To see Mark Driscoll removed as a religion columnist for The Seattle Times.
3)  To extract a sincere apology from Reverend Driscoll for his comments and a pledge to cease demeaning women in the future.

If these goals are met prior to December 3, People Against Fundamentalism will call off this proposed rally for women’s rights in Seattle.

i can understand disagreement on theology or doctrine, but what does this gain?

world aids day

tomorrow, december 1st is world aids day. take time to spread the word, make a donation, and pray for the people around the world affected by the devastating disease.

cokesbury survey

cokesbury is sending out this survey. if you have anything to do with youth ministry or interest in resourcing of a youth ministry do take this.

The United Methodist Publishing House has contracted with an independent organization to gain a better understanding of the youth curriculum needs in your church.

Please take a few minutes and click on the link provided below.  The link will take you to the survey.  We appreciate you giving of your valuable time to complete the survey.  We consider your views extremely important in helping us to serve you more effectively.

One note:  If you are not directly involved in the decision making process for choosing youth materials (decision maker or providing input to the decision) or are not familiar with the youth materials; please forward this email to someone in your church who is part of the decision making process.  If you do not know such a person, please forward this email to someone in church administration who can forward this to the correct party in your church.

Again, thank you for your cooperation.

UMPH

http://spss.cokesburyresearch.com/Trevecca/index.htm

irony of a conviction

today at our youth worker bible study we talked about convictions. i mentioned a couple of mine, one being my global impact as a person. so i should have been happy, and i guess i am, to see that the president-elect to the Christian coalition resigned because they were more focused on abortion & gay marriage over poverty issues.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the socially conservative group in January from Roberta Combs, said he had hoped to focus on issues such as poverty and the environment.

"They pretty much said, 'These issues are fine, but they're not our issues, that's not our base,"' Hunter said.

part of what i find ironic in this is the picture that the article used was hunter preaching via video feed. not being the fan of satellite churches, i wonder how much money is spent to help people watch tv at church versus contributing to world poverty or environmental issues?

monastic retreat

next wednesday through friday i will taking a shortened retreat to Saint Bernards Abbey in cullman alabama. if there is anyone who wants to join or catch up let me know or contact the Abbey. this is one of my fav spots to retreat to as it is not that busy, easy to just drop in, and the monks will allow for almost full access & participation into the monastic life. this trip is a bit last minute as i am taking a friend who is taking a month long sabbatical and wanted me to go with him to the monastery for his first time.

pre-advent chronicles: christmas pickle

this being erin & mine's first Advent season as a married couple we have talked and started up some traditions that we hope to become part of our lives and family. one of the traditions we started was setting up the Christmon tree the thanksgiving weekend. this is new for me, as a richardson family the tree got set up whenever my brother and i submitted to dragging the tree out of the attic (yes, we're a fake tree family). not sure if setting up the tree after thanksgiving is erin's family tradition, but it's something she wanted to traditionally do, so we did. but how to decorate?

this was one of my ideas for us and future family, that we decorate throughout the Advent season. we put on the lights and some ribbon plus some generic ornaments, but from there on out each day we gather around the tree, pick an ornament, and then hang an ornament on the tree. the idea behind the tradition is to help promote that feeling of wait & patience as we wander through the advent season waiting on the birth of Christ. some people do the calendar things (i am not to great with calendars) but this seemed to make it real and tangible for us as a new family.

with our new tradition comes some new jokes and stories. one of them has be circling around an ornament in a set that my dad gave us. it's a pickle. to this we've joked, who is going to hang the pickle? how is it going to look on the back of the tree? well, today i chose the christmas pickle and come to find out there is a tradition behind it. who knew? certainly not erin & myself.

pre-advent chronicles

it's a bit before advent, but i have already begun listening to Christmas music. not sure why this is, usually i abhore listening to seasonal music loooong before the season. maybe there is something special to this season that i am to wait around for? hmm.. what could that be?

one of the listens that i'm digging though is sufjan stevens Christmas music. i think it got directed around last year as a freebie download (google search), seems it's for purchase this year. if you want to buy it great, if not download test a listen, sufjan is a bit different, but i think you'll like the feel of the advent season a bit more with this less rock and out of reach voice compilation.

where do we go from here

so apparently my alma mater has fired their football coach. his head was called for by many of the 'faithful' and those who remember a day when alabama ruled (albeit, those days were in the 60's & 70's). i was not one of those calling for his head. he didn't do the greatest coaching job, doing some dumb moves over his tenure, but he had a 10-2 season with his seniors and with a rebuilding year following with a sophomore quarterback they went 6-6 with some young players who showed promise (the soph quarterback setting a single season passing record). however, he won't get the chance to coach his players as head callers won out and he is out with just a 4 year tenure.

this upsets me in a couple of ways.

one, it shows peoples short term, have it now expectations. yes, the season was hard to watch, but there are signs of promise with a young team. remember the guy took over a program picking up pieces from a summer fire & with scholarship sanctions from a prior coaching regime. though the man got 4 years, he never got a real shot.

two, it's reactionary to the headhunters. we will pay shula some 4 million over the next four years as his buyout (which seems to be a customary clause in contracts these days) making it expensive to get rid of him, but who does one get to fill in the place? as i see the coaching landscape there is no proven coach out there that is going to make the masses happy that we realistically will get.

some will say petrino, who i don't feel is a name coach (not to mention he's far from a "bear" boy). butch davis is already going to north carolina. greg schiano is going to stay at rutgers or go to miami. maybe, we could make a run at steve mariucci, he's doing tv now but might opt for a michigan state job, his home state and his best friend runs the basketball program there. spurrier coming here is just a pipe dream, we pay less than south carolina and those people adore him, we'd just scrutinize and call for his head whenever he says or does something "not alabama." jeff tedford is a nice name, but he hasn't done a whole lot with cal, they've been ranked high but they have never won a big game. he does get his quarterbacks into the nfl though. oh, we don't care about that here. there just isn't anyone out there. the coach put into place has to win immediately, if they don't this wasn't worth the reaction to just fire.

after church lunch gone wild

after church & sunday school erin & went out to lunch. or normal lunch dates were unavailable so we tried a different spot in town. i ordered the fillet, it was good, but i didn't know it was this good. must have been some cut of beef! click the picture if you can't tell what i'm talking about.

note: the staff did fix the discrepancy and gave some excuse that they put an outrageous price to remind everyone that the steak is on special on sundays... how special? well apparently our server didn't remember... maybe it should be 2 thousand dollars.

radical christianism

terry brings light to something i hadn't heard of, "christianists." simply they are the folks that annoy the rest of us who have an understanding of the Christian message that says things like love thy neighbor, weep for thy enemy, do not act aggressively towards others... i could go on

the biblical message that i don't think people read is, burn down a church but save the bibles, stealth around in a ninja outfit while burning down a porn shop.

thanksgiving fun from alabama

just wishing everyone a happy thanksgiving with some fun pics of the family. i've slept some, played around some, gone for a walk, even shopped some. nice time with the family. click the pic to go to my flickr pages to see some more. shalom, -g

don't mess when i am in my hood, apparently

yeah, so it has been awhile since i took a quiz

Street Smart You're street smart.  This type of intelligence is very closely tied to being 'socially smart' - your intelligence comes from a high amount of applied education - you've learned, and continue to learn, from your environment.  You know the ins and outs of real-life situations, and could probably talk your way out of a fight better than any of those theoreticians could. 20% applied intelligence 80% learned intelligence

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

be blessed, be a blessing

happy thanksgiving from my fam to yours. as we remember how we have been blessed, let us also remember to be a blessing. shalom, -g

thanksgiving randomness

are you bored? the game is not interesting? everyone else is taking a nap? here are some things to occupy your time, otherwise, i wouldn't waste my life on them.

• germans and greeks in a football match, augustine & aquinas as refs (part1)
• greeks score even with carl marx in (part2)
• tom & katie get married sim's style
• why you are going to sleep in tomorrow
• was this your table today?
• maybe this was your house?
  
• if you are drinking, you need to do this math
• thanks for.... huh?
• not a creative one in the bunch.. except the llamas
• stupid, but it made me chuckle
• could this stereotype the hillbilly anymore?
• if you need summer, here's some ideas
• this would be my dog.. actually, mine would be more of a police dog than this
• i think some of the methoblogosphere would do this... but maybe not make a video like this

hope you feel like i helped to just waste an hour or so of your life... i think i did creating this

a penny for jenny, from erin

the following is from erin my lovely caring wife. i encourage you to check out the website as well as the video spots, wonderfully positive in the midst

Hello All!

I wanted to extend an invitation to an event hosted by CTX Mortgage for Jennifer Cyr.  I meet Jennifer this past spring when Gavin and I were house hunting.  I immediately was drawn to her outgoing, warm personality.

Jennifer is my age, 27, and unfortunately was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer this summer.  What a shock, I know!

She has had a double mastectomy and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments.  Take a look at her website www.apennyforjenny.com. There are pictures, stories of her spirit and courageousness, and news articles that she's participated in for breast cancer awareness! What I'm inspired by is her drive to face this obstacle with a sense of humor!  One example of this is... she "Dresses to Kill Cancer Cells" each time she goes for a chemo treatment-  From devil horns and a red sequin 80's prom dress near halloween to a basket of fruit on her head accompanied by a purple puffy dress on another trip- she is causing quite a stir and brightening spirits in the mean time!

The event that CTX Mortgage is hosting is a benefit to help Jennifer with her medical bills during this time.  She had health insurance, but she was not aware until this diagnosis that the coverage was very limited in terms of helping in a situation like this.  Her insurance only covers 80% of 25,000.  Her mastectomies alone were over $90,000.

Tickets are $75 per person or $125 per couple- and you can purchase a ticket at the website www.apennyforjenny.com  If you are not in town or able to come, but would like to donate some financial help- you can also donate other amounts on the website as well. The official invitation is below!

Thanks for you time!

Erin

doing my part to show some good

i keep pretty quiet about politics and especially the war in Iraq. however, when i see bullying like this from our soldiers i know that it is going to get a ton of pub (i know people want evil stuff as i get a ton of hits from searches for "iraq horrible pictures" so they find this). so allow me to do my part of uplifting some good.

my brother shawn has some wonderful pictures of his unit being peacemakers and if you hear him tell stories of handing stuff out they are wonderfully compassionate to all, as the boys will beat on the cars and take whatever is handed out they will hold items to quietly give to the little girls and boys who get pushed to the side or have stuff taken from them. maybe i can convince him to put some of his videos onto the net showing some of the good things happening.

i am not naive to think that all is good within this war, but i do get upset with snippets of one incident getting more pub because it is an evil people want to hold up and say, "see here!" when blessed are the peacemakers who go quietly about doing their job and foreseen duty in the best ways they can find possible.

emergent random questions

hmmm... should i try and go to the 2007 emergent theological conversation? gives me a great excuse to hang with some of my old buds from new jersey... hmmm

jonny baker is now on myspace. i wonder if he'll become my friend?

open waste of time, open waste of money?

i don't normally check the ird website, but as i clean out emails i'll check stuff i've left for a lazy moment, which is when i check up what they are up too this time... well, this time i've taken a little notice of an article calling the recent igniting ministries marketing campaign a waste of money.

the article, which is a bad mix of opinion with what might be factual info does bring out that the church hasn't been too successful at "marketing" to people. which brings me to think. a church can market a church to consumers, but does that make it right? certainly if this article was to be taken as credible (the church spent 27 million only to have membership decline by 1.8% over the last four years) then people are just not going to walk through the doors of a church by an ad campaign.

reminds me of this quote.

it sounds so simple, but maybe, just maybe we should just start asking our neighbors to come to church with us. i assume many of us already have our friends at church. and then it is our job to help bring them into the relationship and growth of the community (sometimes referred as the body of Christ). that could help. if ever methodist did that once over the next year or two, i'm not a mathematician, but i think we'd actually have some numeric growth as a denomination. then we could donate the 27 million to a needy charity case.

love it

stephen posted this the other day, i have seen it before, but seeing it again reminded me how great this actually is.

no bread and wine for you

in what is just a horrible move for the overall church, the chair of the commission for racial equality trevor philips has called on churches to not serve communion to people of the british national party. nice move!

this happening in the UK i might be a bit off, but essentially this is like the NAACP saying that churches are not to serve communion to the right wing conservative evangelical crowd.

luckily us methodists are an outspoken denomination (and getting some press that way) saying that we wouldn't participate in such an act. our tables are open to all, which is the way it should be. God's grace is enough, even for the crazy folks on that left & right.

iron bowl - can't talk

going old school

it isn't any surprise that to bring in youth one needs to include youth? i found this article and just thought "duh"..

The key to marketing to teenagers, she said, is to have them heavily involved.

but then i thought, yet, we in the youth ministry world rarely include youth, which is why this was so unique. i work pretty hard to do that here, communicating in varied ways and trying to give out information to instil confidence. however, at a honest level i know that i have not given over the youth ministry to our youth. in many ways it is still mine. part of that is the vision of the church and we can't eat pizza and play sardines or dodgeball every week. but, how are the ways one includes youth? i remember growing up in a time when our youth group was actually run by the youth.

• actually have a youth council that makes decisions: don't just give the "how do we get more people" or "lets talk about the retreat i already scheduled" but long term plan and allow them to challenge and change things, ym's role is to be prepared and willing to work harder to bring to life their vision
• put youth in the role of being spiritually responsible for their friends: give the role of sermon and lesson to the community, it make suck at first but as it goes it will build confidence and creativity, ym's role is to help guide
• have some of the oldest teach sunday school to the younger ones: keep seniors by challenging them to teach younger ones, ym's role is to help equip & have already taught some basics of faith to work from
• let them create experiences for gatherings or worship: give them assignments for changing the atmosphere of youth or video or photography assignments to help lead worship or just mc the gathering, ym's role is to inspire guide and allow for failures
• walk with them into committee meetings: unlike the adults that go to committee meetings youth can't assume they have friends there, ym's role is to actually go, not to just have one youth on paper represented
• have youth speak to youth ministers meetings: let them tell the old folks what youth want or need from them (teaching, listening, evangelism, mission, etc.), ym's role.. be prepared for some crazy stuff

it's not just on the road anymore

fair warning, this ain't your parents road rage anymore. i'd watch out john

"It is accepted by the prosecution that Mr Jones taunted you and dared you to go to his house where you would be greeted with weapons," .... Mr Bazzoni said Mr Jones' "terrifying ordeal" was a consequence of "upsetting somebody he had never even met".

tip: sam

pilgrimage: a way of seeing

one of my latest readings shares a story of a person in a land that has been negated because people no longer see it. what is there is now an illusion of what was there, but it's actually not there... this is the result of the speeding up of life to get here or there without paying any attention to what is created in between. when reading this i thought of my daily commute which takes me past an industrial plant, across a bridge, through a seldom stopped part of town, an industrial park, and then up a drive through one of this areas major shopping fairs.

as a historic account pilgrimage is spiritual practice of middle ages of the church. one where followers of the way would set off for some destination to find miracles or inspiration. however, the grandest part of being a pilgrim is finding the miracles, trials, and inspirations along the way through the people and places you never thought of going.

i wonder if people stopped trying to make their lives so much about the destination (and how quickly we can get there) and treated life much more like the spiritual practice of pilgrimage marvelous things would happen. we would enrich our lives in seeing the world that is actually around us, not the illusion. this actual world might be hard to see, but it would deepen our spirit for creating a greater world or celebrating something wonderful. it might incline us to slow down (in the car or by manual labor) within this world, taking in the little nuaces of the world, not to mention the smells (which is not always pleasant) and sounds. it would help to take away stress as this world becomes small again, making it manageable to mind and mission.

i know my daily commute pretty well. i look at the cars at the industrial plant, wondering what friends from church are there. i cross the bridge and look for barges or fisherman. the seldom stop i just stare at a run down house or bar. the industrial area i look at the signs and notice the changes of ownership (plus the terminix, a competitor of the family biz). rounding out the turns the shopping fair i notice all the people at the bus stop, the long line at starbucks, and finally the ducks at the park near the church. this is my daily pilgrimage

i recommend seeing this world as a pilgrimage

a new listen

yesterday i got in the mail a copy of jessica's cd tonic. jessica and adam became good friends when i met them through emergent conversation and adam was the student pastor at first baptist downtown. we spent a year or so hanging out and collaborating on different things. this summer they set off to south korea teaching english as missionaries, but before they left jessica released her first cd. erin & missed out on the release party so i'm stoked to get myself a copy!

escaping town & not a moment too soon!!

later today erin & i with the dogs are heading up into the mountains (a plateau actually) to hang out with some friends and support another friend who has recently lost his job and is need of some house makeover. this man has always been a great supporter of me & my crew of friends over the last 12 years and we are all deeply indebted to him. cleaning up around his house and hanging out with him is just small support comparatively.

erin & i were sorta struggling though that we were leaving, taking us away from home for the 4th straight weekend. then while making breakfast this was all over the news.. i'm so glad we're getting out of town, and apparently not a moment too soon.

out of the office

today i've spent my allotted internet time blogging at the methoblog, check that out if you care what i did. www.methoblog.com

last of an era

john has announced that next week will be the last of the methodist blog weekly round up that he will compile. go over and show some love to the mystery man behind the rabbit videos.

 

the weekly round up could be compiled by someone else, but as john has mentioned time and again, it is quite the time consuming effort. i don't know many of us who can keep with that dedication.

 

for those of us who were around when john hit the scene remember when he did his first weekly round up (only 8 blogs represented) and subsequent weeks where he profiled just about every post he could write a snappy remark on. from there came the "best of" and more and more people blogging (#91 had 52 bloggers at my count, which was hard to count and scroll).

 

we are happy to have john blogging with us at the methoblog (on mondays & whenever he feels like it). maybe this portal will help to give john his life back and carry on the great idea and work he shared with us all with the MBWR.

 

prayer of the week

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

no one cares when the bishops do good

so i'm sorta intrigued by the blog world within the methodist sphere as the bishops of our denomination are hanging out learning, worshiping, conversing and doing bishop stuff in mozambique. also getting to listen too and meet some cool folks. i look at this as all positives, yet, no one seems to put any blog news to it.

note: one article shows bishop schnase, an old friend.. sorta

mix it up people

i like the spirit behind tolerance.org's "mix it up" day. for my younger readers, take tomorrow to sit with people you might not normally. it reminds me of a book i started and never finished back in my tsu days, "why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria" which was a book one of my tsu buddies was reading with his phd program there. he worked with our office but with a role outside the univ so when he would stop in to do paperwork i'd look over his reading list, this one really caught me.

thanks sam & cool people care for the mix it up tip

a retreat experiment

 

this past weekend we embarked on a little experiment with our youth ministry here in middle tennessee. we took a vision into a youth retreat, that for what we knew, had never been tried before.

most retreat with youth or adults alike are done with a main speaker, house/praise band, and some other worship leaders who are gifted and know it. however, what if you stripped down a retreat from all that and gave the spiritual life over to the community? this is what we dreamed, visioned, planned, feared and did.

some months ago i met with the design teams for the retreats and gave them this as a possible vision. the logistics were not clearly layed out and it was going to take more work than a normal retreat they were used to putting together, but they decided to dream this vision as well.

as the retreat was designed, we would welcome the youth & adults that came to the community, have one simple time of worship, then break into groups of their choosing to participate & create the worship experience for the rest of the community. we provided mentors (jonathon, erin, jeff, mike, scott & more) and equipment for songwriting, video & powerpoint, design & order of worship, drama, choir, liturgy, worship arts, and storytelling. through friday & saturday the groups were charged with putting together elements for the worships saturday & sunday.

what was created was a community rich worship experience. everyone had a vested the worships of the weekend.  it wasn't always slick (when is it when you give the microphone for a 13 yr old to give a sermon or a group) but it was great, it was relevant, and meaningful to the community.

ever more amazing, if you ever wondered if God is around when you give it over to the artist just try and see the wonders. amazing was how everything worked together. some of my pictures as i upload them & one of the test video loops we created. feel free to download a video loop series i created to help do a quick video teaching session (17mg : 54mg)

i wish there were more opportunities for youth like this to gain skills practice & participate as a full community in worship. too often we relegate our youth to just a "youth sunday" or small portions that are cute but never allowed to move us as adults. when we risk it though, we give ourselves over to a great gift to allow our youth to share in worship and for us to be moved by that experience.

MethoBlog up and running

last weeks project is up and going. the methoblog (www.methoblog.com) has started off big with it's first days editors. for the coming future monday through saturday fellow methodist bloggers will compile & comment on the voices of the methoblogosphere. sunday, is sabbath, we'll obeserve that commandment, but you can still read away. check it out and enjoy!

don't forget about the nazarenes

scott sent me this. had me rolling! i don't think i'll ever mess with the nazarenes again.

sunday photoblog: light show

has hell frozen over?

when did rutgers get a football team? when did their stadium fill up and actually have fans? i'm confused by this.. has hell frozen over too?

being from new jersey rutgers is the school you settle for (even though you do need some academics to get in). yet, if you go outside the state, people think highly of the university, but not of the athletics. it is a big school, much bigger than what people would probably imagine, but still, it's rutgers.. what happened that disturbed the cosmos that they now have a good looking football team & fans that actually care? i am confused

ps: the next comment is #2000.. might not be a big deal for some, but it is for me! i think

who needs to be an elder

"I nominate Gavin for Methoblogospheric Overlord."
-John Locusts & Honey

YouMethodist

For those that were interested in the claymation history of the umc. Here are some more video views of the denomination.

• Mrs. Butterfield on Methodists
• Bishop speaks against War
• Reconciling Ministries at GC04
• Rev Steve Wesley Pilgrimage
• Painful in So Many Ways! (yet i still laughed & smiled)
• Church & Being Gay
• Church in Lithuania
• History of a Youth Group in Chile
• My Pastor Sings! How bout Yours?
• John Wesley Chapel Linebacker
• John Wesley Chapel Linebacker Security Guard

note: i oringinally posted this for the www.methoblog.com & felt like reposting here for my other friends, some of these are funny whatever denom you are.

yuck! splat! yum!

spending time with j-norn this morning at mcdonalds, to which my wife says "yuck!" honest jonathon, it's because of the food, not you. jonathon shares about being ill and puking at church yesterday.. yuck! that probably didn't need to be said in mcdonalds

let's move on to youth 2007! theme is splat! look at all the space we are working with! dang! hey, wi-fi doesn't work at mcdonalds, suck!

off to panera we go.. good coffee, yumm!

think we had a jeffery sighting, does he know everyone at panera by name? wonder when we will actually work?

if you are coming to youth 2007 come and visit with us at the worship space, that's our thing!

MethoBlog

this one is for you theresa

i'd like to invite everyone to sign up and check out www.methoblog.com. this a new blog portal a number of us fellow methobloggers are creating and maintaining to help uplift the voice of the methoblogosphere. we are still working out the kinks and testing the system, but you can set up a profile and let jay know to add you into the blogroll & aggregator.

this isn't designed to be its own blog but one an entrance to the rest of the methoblogosphere, highlighting and directing others to items of interest in the blogosphere. we'll do a full announcement once we get fully set up, but if you want to get plugged in early, go for it.

otherwise, enjoy theresa's favorite video

where the church lost the cross

The call to discipleship occurs here in connection with Jesus' announcement of suffering. Jesus Christ must suffer and be rejected.... ...Death on the cross meas to suffer and to die as someone rejected adn expelled. Jesus must suffer and be rejected by virtue of divine necessity. Any attempt at thwarting the necessary is satanic, even or precisely where such attempts come from teh circle of disciples, for it is intent upon not letting Christ be Christ. That it is Peter, the rock of the church, who incurs guilt here immediately after his own confession to Jesus Christ and after his appointment by Jesus, means that from its very inception the church itself has taken offense at the suffering Christ. It neither wants such a Lord nor does it, as the Church of Christ, want its Lord to force upon it the law of suffering. Peter's objection is his unwillingness to accept such suffering. With that, Satan has crept into teh church. He wants to tear it away from the cross of its Lord.

This makes it necessary for Jesus to relate clearly and unequivocally to his own disciples the "must" of suffering. Just as Christ is Christ only in suffering and rejection, so also they are his disciples only in suffering and rejection, in being crucified along with Christ. Discipleship as commitment to the person of Jesus Christ places the disciple under the law of Christ, that is, under the cross.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross

i voted!

end the war, vote me for president!!

well, that might not work out, but today i thought about writing in myself into the senate candidate spot, didn't care for governors position, thought about one of the representatives, but then i realized something. i never campaigned which would put me at a distinct disadvantage to the other candidates.

i spent around an hour & half in my new voting spot in old hickory, had some nice conversations with the older residents. funny, last election i participated in i was in line for maybe 5 minutes and i was accosted quite a few times on who & what to vote on (which i think was illegal), this time though everything was pleasant and no one was pushing a particular agenda.

when it came to voting i was still undecided over our senate race. so, write myself in? oh, the campaign thing again. ford or corker? i just couldn't bring myself to vote for either. convicted i cast my vote for chris lugo. chris is the green party candidate, and although i don't particularly care for some of the harsher words on his website, i do care for many of the principle and spirits of the party platform.

thinking of others who find themselves in the same scenario, i wondered if i was doing a disservice by casting a vote for someone who is sure to loose? then i come back to, if there is to be change, let it begin with me. votes have to be garnered from somewhere at sometime. when will change happen if we don't start voting against the givens sometime?