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i just picked up on the fact that rev. lunkin came to town and visited the upperroom. this to me seems significant as i was around many of the upperroom and gbod folks who were praying for the reverend when he was held hostage last winter & spring. i know they cared deeply for him and were all quite hopeful that he would be released peacefully. which he was.
as i have been watching the news tonight this moment in scripture comes to mind where king david gets word of his enemy saul's death. he asks for confirmation and how the messenger knows. the story is rather compelling, but what happens afterwards is what i would only hope & pray is how people would encounter this most recent death.
David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2 Samuel 1: 11-12
i don't have to like saddam, but i am compelled to say that i love my enemy as myself and i find it hard to jump for joy, or celebrate a political or military win.. i am speechless and pushed to a solemness & time of prayer
i got interviewed this morning by jamey for a spot on channel 2 news that will go through the top religious news stories of 2006, both local and global. he interviewed my buddy phil and myself at bongo java which was fun. phil got the easy questions, i must say. most of the questions jamey asked were of the stories that i followed the least. if you tune in you might hear me call the pope fallible or try to throw out basic psychology. we talked together for about an hour, so who knows what will get fit into a 2 minute segment.
update: erin & i watched the 10pm news, but it didn't show. i suppose we got bumped for more coverage of the hussain execution. however, i know it showed in the evening news as i got a phone call from mother-in-law who got phone call from best friend who saw it. luckily for those that missed it & for those out of nashville area you can check it out here.
for some reason the videos on the wkrn site are always broken when i view them. if it is this way for you just wait till later on when they upload the video segments onto jamey's blog (video links on left). you can also check out jamey's post on our hang out today.
sam posted this pic earlier this week. first impression. ouch! that hurts
when the pacifist youth leader defends his tribe, he takes up arms.
erin & i will be heading out on saturday to annapolis to celebrate the new year with some of my oldest and best friends. steve, whom we are staying with in annapolis actually reads and comments on the blog too, what a friend. that's better than my mom.
if you will be on the streets of annapolis for new years come find me. i'd love to chat!
once we get back i'll be on the road with jonathon to the congress on evangelism. looking forward to hanging out with some fellow bloggers and geeking it up bigtime! oh, i might be doing a workshop too. if you will be in myrtle beach next week come find me. i'd love to chat!
Christmas Day is over. in taking account of the day of gifts that was, this was my favorite gift. it has high usability, comic relief, a bit of a story behind it. all the make-up of a good gift. what was your fav gift?
last week our youth group had our annual christmas party & scavenger hunt. one of the tasks was having group pictures among some tacky christmas decor. well, for those that don't know, we have a tbn location in hendersonville. so that became a fav destination. so from our family in hendersonville to yours. we give you this holiday cheer.
ps: if you look at the hours for tbn in h'ville. notice they never take off the sabbath. just thought that was noteworthy... well, it stuck out to me
here's a little diddy with benny hinn meeting up with scream metal drowning pool, "let the bodies hit the floor." tip: todd
this is a way fun sermon by my pastor, michael williams. he tells a story of how john the baptist is a complete christmas party pooper. thank God for Jesus!
this was one of the devotions i wrote in a youth email. i liked it, so figured i'd share.
I hope that everyone is finding time and space to reflect on the New Year of the Christian calendar. Advent marks the beginning of a new year. Remembering the New Year is one of those things that helps us to be people set apart. Which brings me to highlight something that I have been reading. This last week I've been reading "Revolution"
by George Barna. Barna has a research group that does statistical and research analysis of church & society to take notice of the movements of God. I've never been a big fan of Barna, so reading his book was a bit of a stretch for me, but I must admit, I've quite enjoyed it. To premise the book, their research
shows that God is moving in what they call "mini-movements" lead by "revolutionaries." They do not define the revolutionaries or even give examples of them, I feel this is intentional to keep from saying what a mini-movement has to look like. According to Barna there are two insights into these "Revolutionaries" from Christ's perspective.
1. Is that one cannot rely on public policies and enforcement of laws to shape your character and lifestyle. "It is not your title, fame, fortune, or network that gives you lasting influence; that comes from who you are, in light of your character, your values, and your core beliefs. It is those components that drive the decisions and activities in your life." If you are Revolutionary all this is because you have sensed and responded to God's calling to be an imitator of Christ. The church or society cannot make you into this, this is your decision to be Christ-like.
2. Is the mark of "being in, but not of the world" (found in John 17). "Through consistent devotion to biblical principles manifested in a noticeably different mind-set and lifestyle, the disciple is called to influence the world rather than to be influenced by it."
Let us all seek to become these "revolutionaries" as we take this New Year to start afresh in seeking to conform to the will of God and letting that permeate and affect our life decisions and actions.
paris hilton says "sex is sacred"
so my cynic self says something like.. how does this celebrity have any credibility in this subject? when your whole persona, which you have created for some reason (you certainly didn't need the money) is based around a image of sex.
so my convicted self says something like.. i should dismiss cynic self and allow miss paris to change herself without judgement. grace is available even to the high celeb. good for her to trying to make some change
one of my youth at church sent me this. it's a little holiday cheer from me. so as the common phrase has been lately. if i don't see you before sunday, Merry Christmas!
i might have seen this before, jonathon told me about this "mychurch" site which acts like a social networking site (ala. myspace) but through ones church networks. so i am the lone member of my church. anyone want to come join my church?
being part of this world wide web consortium i am inclined to support those things that make the internet the broad platform it has become. from web 2.0 leading time magazine to name "you" as people of the year, to the open source creations as a form of pure science. it would be a shame if it were harmed in any fashion. www.savetheinternet.com
so i'm trying not to throw my computer which i just listened to pastor maury davis rant on about our governor sending out his personal christmas cards with a portrait of an Afghanistan teenager that he met in a trip there. maury davis, i am not a fan of already, and listening to someone equate this personal action to sending klan cards on martin luther king's b'day is just insane broken logic (no ounce of theological understanding either).
He said, “Why can't we put a picture of Christ on there. Why do we live in a country that wants to push our nativity scenes out of the public marketplace? And then we want to promote the picture of an Islamic woman... on a...
“Can you imagine if the governor had sent a card on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a picture of a Klansman on the front of it? It would be blood on the streets. It would be bad. If you put it in that perspective, it's an insult to the church of Jesus Christ,”said Pastor Davis.
He said he doesn't want to judge the governor and his intentions, but he believes the message may have become lost.
“Possibly he had good intentions; ‘We got to love people, that's the will of God’, but the message is convoluted and complicated,” he said.
Pastor Davis said the Islamic religion is an anti-Christian religion, and the governor’s attempt to combines both faiths in the form of a Christmas card failed.
“Both religions believe that their faith is right and the other one is wrong and what he's trying to say is, it doesn't matter what you believe, allbeliefs are equal... All beliefs are not equal,” said Pastor Davis.
pastor maury, if you don't want to judge then don't. if you do then you have to judge my Christmas card which has frosty the snow man and one of our wedding pictures. btw: i'd be happy to send blogger friends one if you send me your address. i think the governors intentions were good and meaningful to him. christmas cards are not a biblical issue, "thou shalt have a innately christian christmas card." they are well wishes from people showing some meaning and feeling one has towards the other. or, if you get my mothers it's a crammed one page synopsis of the year of dogs, family, friends, and more dogs. back to you pastor davis, i think your equation of holding the governor as pope or archbishop of tennessee churches is unfair & reactionary. he is our governing authority, not a spiritual authority. the man sent out a personal letter, that happens to be called Christmas cards, with an image that is etched into his soul. i don't see anything wrong with that, no one else should either.
cbs has an article and video series on youth ministry and its collision with teens & technology. featured in one of the videos is marko of youth specialties.
so apparently santa keeps a blog. i wonder what is next, the easter bunny or tooth fairy
so anastasia, a contributor to the huffington post, has a little rant for her ills towards the far right christian youth ministries. i read her daily email about teen marketing and find it partially useful. this was something she linked too and i find enlightening to view as someones outside view of the profession of youth ministry.
I am fascinated by how this subculture appropriates popular youth culture and creates its own version of everything -- Christian wrestling, the Christian version of American Idol (called "Gifted"), Christian rock festivals, Bibles that look like teen magazines, Christian manga (Japanese style comic books) and skateboarding ministries.
my critique of marketing to youth in youth ministries is partly skewed as many of these markets are not attracting the youth, but their youth ministers who organize groups to attend events.
I believe that progressive youth ministries need to proactively work to demilitarize the language being used to reach young people and preach a version of their religion that is inclusive and respectful of diversity -- even if you believe homosexuality is a sin, you can agree to disagree without making a gay teen's life hell on earth. There is nothing wrong with a healthy critique of pop culture or commercialism. But when thousands of teens are being told they are only living on this earth in preparation for the next life, and that everyone who does not believe is going to burn in hell and is some kind of agent of Satan, all in the guise of skateboarding videos and rock concert like rallies, well, Houston, I think we have a problem here. A famous dude named Matthew once said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
if she ever actually read this, feel free to come by and experience our ministries at hfumc. they are what you might call "progressive" but we are small and our scope is small, at this time.
the weekend started with a trip to 61st ave umc's last minute toy
store. we spent our second year helping out the folks there getting set
up. hung out with some of our friends there, organized and de-tagged
items. then treated ourselves to lunch. it was then on to sunday...
had a joyous time tonight with the youth as we had our annual christmas scavenger hunt. the premise being, divided up into teams (8 today) the youth had to complete tasks developed by myself in order to eat. they had to give confirmation to the various people around town who were feeding them. those folks after completing a task gave the groups their next task in order to continue to eat. lots of fun, quick stories from riding a lawn deer, singing at panera & the santa at petco (plus the dogs getting their pictures taken), to trading up to get gifts to go to last minute toy store.
lots of fun had by all. erin & myself travel around the groups, harass groups along the way, get in the way, give hints, and just laugh. it's a great way to begin this last week of advent.
funny little diddy done by biff, character from back to the future, on the badgering questions he is asked. thanks phil
i was tickled to see that the logan show, a middle tennessee based sketch comedy & interview show did a parody of joel osteen. the cast is mostly young 20 somethings or older teens with acting or communications backgrounds. i watch a number of episodes as they offer free tickets to the studio audience. the sketches are not too funny, but they do have other funny gimmicks, like the carmen countdown.
jay bakker is somehow all over the place. here is an article where he and one of his fellow church members is throwing down some tough language.
So when did the focus of Christianity shift from the unconditional love and acceptance preached by Christ to the hate and condemnation spewed forth by certain groups today?
stephen threw down the challenge to the blogosphere to raise money for heifer international. i'm excited by it and have contributed.
so marko lifted up a post on some of the top 10 cynical Christian themed destinations that are out there. low and behold the ave maria grotto, or jerusalem in minature, is on the list. not sure what that makes me? i go there for retreat at the monastery not a pilgrimage to the grotto, just like i did last week.
someone has put together a study on how materialism develops in teens. apparently it was hard to statistically figure that what we all already knew.
The researchers found that materialistic values increased between 8-9 year olds and 12-13 year olds, but then dropped between the 12-13 age group and 16-18 age group.
In a second study, the researchers determined that self-esteem was a key factor in a child's level of materialism. Children with lower self-esteem valued possessions significantly more than children with higher self-esteem.
Moreover, the heightened materialistic values of early adolescents were directly related to "a severe drop in self-esteem that occurs around 12-13 years of age." By using a test that primed high self-esteem among the children, the researchers wrote that they "reversed the large drop in self-esteem experienced by early adolescents, thereby reducing the steep rise in materialism among this group."
the conclusion was to say that there should be a ban on advertising to this age (not sure how that happens) due to the influence over their statistically low self-esteem. for a more comprehensive read i would suggest "branded" by katherine turpin as a good read.
so is it any wonder that a video game aimed at the conservative Christian crowd is getting it's bashing for being too violent? oh, did i mention the name was "left behind."
The game's story line begins after the "rapture," when most Christians are transported to heaven. Earth's remaining population is faced with a choice of joining or combatting the Anti-christ, as embodied by a force called the Global Community Peacekeepers that seeks to impose one-world government.
is it me, or do some things in this statement, purpose of the game, not jive?
last night i caught a glimpse of a trailer for a new reality show, "one punk under god." it is apparently the reality show of jay bakker, son of jimmybakker. so as the washington post reports, it looks to be rather interesting.
"With some groups, we're too Christian. With the Christian groups, we're not Christian enough," says Bakker, who rebelled as a teenager by leaving the church and turning to drugs and alcohol
as for the tel-evangelist vantage point. it might be nice for people to see someone who has grown up in the faith to see struggles not just with faith life, but family life and peoples perceptions. that might be the best witness a tel-evanglist can make.
i don't know if i'll watch it, mostly because sundance channel is so far up the cable box dial. but i might if i find it "on demand."
note: if you don't normally follow links, check the sundance page adverting the show. it's got a great flash intro. sorta, i admit, i'm a sucker for old embarrassing pics
update: so i actually got to catch the first episode of "one punk under God" and a glimpse of his revolution church. it isn't that flashy as other reality tv shows go, but it seemed very honest and transparent, which as reflected in one of his speaking engagements that was recorded was quite true to where jay is. i felt for the man as one of the things profiled was him going back to heritage island, a large amusement park for Christians. it was sad to see how many of his childhood memories were lost to fallen family, the fallen church, mixed into the commercial Christian machine. i hope to watch more, as i see that jay is an example of future of pastorship where pastors are open to being transparent, showing vulnerability and struggles with faith and life and trying to live according to the gospel. he's got no choice after being in such a public life, will other pastors do much the same?
i posted some of my pics from last weeks retreat to Saint Bernard's Abbey monastery in alabama. it turned out even shorter than planned as my workload would not allow me to leave on wednesday when i had planned. so i got up early on thursday and made the pilgrimage down. met up with my buddy paul, did a little hiking, took a nap, got in some reading & set the day to hours of prayers the monks keep.
the next day we did a little bit more of walking it was way cold, so we then opted for reading and taking some pictures.
i am reorganizing my typepad photo albums now to minimize the amount of them. check out my varied monastic retreats here. you can see some other pics on my flickr.
i have mentioned a time or two of my multiple book disorder or how many books i have. many have the same issues i've found. if you have not already played around with the librarything then go ahead and start wasting your time.
i have started back work on the methodist blogosphere's top 5 posts for 2006. check in to see what each blogger within the methodist blogosphere feels is their top 5 favorite posts of 2006. this is purely subjective and is judged only by that author. it can be determined by visits, comments, controversy, passion, preference, excitement, challenge, pretty rabbits, whatever...
to participate, email your top5 posts in an html or plain text email with links to: email with the subject of "mbrtop5." pictures are optional.
enjoy the best of 2006
for those that just read this blog, may i suggest the following readings on the state of pluralism and the tattoo on my butt. does it actually exist? some say yes, some say no.. does it matter? i'm sure it doesn't.. but if it does, what would it look like? the blogosphere weighs in.
more thoughts by andy
last night we had our coffeehouse benefit for those homeless. it was put on by one of our youth & his buddy, who we adopt. they put together a great line up of artists and friends to help as we collected clothing and money donations, to purchase clothes, to help those in the nashville area that are homeless. it was wonderful, very lax atmosphere and there really was a sense of thankfulness for what we have and sharing with others. i was super excited to be a part of it.
highlights: meeting some other youth from the hendersonville area, watching jonas hit on johnathans little sister (jonas hitting on the older woman, that was hilarious!), catching up with some of my hermitage youth friends, seeing quinton finish a song (i'm not sure i've ever seen him do that, haha, i joke, but it was awesome song), and meeting the famed "hamburger bob."
more pictures @ hfumc youth flickr
if you have not already seen this. here is a kid doing what i know many of us have joked about doing at some point.
tip to marko for this one
the folks over at wired parish have offered out a free podcast for download to check out what they are doing. if you have not heard they are finding all kinds of fresh and authoritative voices on moving into the postmodern church. from len sweet, shane hipps, my bud lilly lewin, and more. it works like any other podcast, but it does have a fee subscription, but it is nominal for what you get.
i have watched this video of one of the first methodist endeavors into postmodern church that features the stylings of jonathon and jay, plus mike (thanks mike for the laugh). but it has featured as a speaker len sweet, with brian mclaren as the bible study leader. so i asked them if i could test run len sweets podcast where he happens to be fed up with praise music. check it out here. it's pretty funny and enlightening
a lot of commotion has been stirred in the last issue of "the journal of student ministries" a great new publication spearheaded by my buddy will. the article that got everyone stirred was bart campolo's personal article on a beliefs of evil and good and God's place in that. i had to back track to read it (the issue came out when i was getting married, no time for reading about doctrine) and found it not terribly offensive or surprising. i think those who are in ministry among hurt people would say this is an accurate description for how people wrestle with God.
well i just got the latest issue and i am in love with one of the side articles. "morning over youth ministry battle cries" by steve argue. the full article is online, but here is an excert that i just want to stand up and clap as loud as i can!
We can't ignore this realityin our western comfort zone. War comes close thanks to instant news, relatives and friends serving in the military, and relationship with others around the world.
War is a reality in our world.
And it's not cool--unless you are in youth ministry, it seems.
For some reason our trade continues to think that "battle zones," "battle cries," "culture wars," "crusades," and "taking places for Jesus" are acceptable descriptions useful to inspire teenagers to follow Christ.
I disagree
whaahoo!! you go man! finally some publication is speaking out against all this youth ministry junk! thanks to will and his staff for taking chances and possibly risking financial success for saying what is against the marketing cultural grain.
ps: it is a side article as the theme of this issue is about a theology and practice of fun, or as i like to put it "a spirituality of play." pick up your subscription today!
i will be up in the chicago area in late january for a worship leading and speaking engagement for the aurora district training event. i apparently came recommended by the person they originally booked to do it. kinda a shocker i know.
i've got a couple of ideas of where this should go, a premise being a "the worship you think you want is not always the worship you need." fleshing that out my hope would be that people would have a broader idea of the worship spectrum, be able to ask the right questions, and take faithful steps to reviving worships in their church to spread the gospel (which is what i feel they inevitably want to get too, plus grow congregations).
i'm not too familiar with the area, so i am asking if there are friends out there that might give some incite into the dynamics there that i could benefit from being aware of. if you have some concepts, ideas, that i could/should share feel free to express them.
if you are actually around and would like to hang out, give me a shout
if you happen to live around the nashville/hendersonville area come by and support our coffeehouse @ hfumc. a couple of the youth have organized this with the intent to collect clothes to give to homeless folks in the area. no admission cost, but a clothing donation is asked. we'll provide coffee and light snacks plus some great entertainment (it really is good, i'm not just some biased proud parent) from our local youth musicians.
it is this coming saturday, december 9th @ 7:00pm. check the church website for directions
this is exactly the reason why i get soooo upset with sports "experts" who want to coin national champions before the season ends. all people gave this game to usc and pete carroll who on 9 days out of 10 will be better than ucla, but not on this day.
this paves the way for more of the same "michigan" who hasn't played for three weeks & is given number 2 ranking on the subjectivity of people have probably only watch one game against "the best" team in the nation while never playing the 3rd best team in their own conference. ugh!
i don't know what it takes, but someone has to stand up and force each conference to have championship games where we have definitive conference winners from the conferences best teams. maybe then they duke it out amongst themselves through a playoff system, throw in some add ins if you like. regardless, i'm going to be sick to my stomach that now ohio state and michigan are going to play again, 2nd time in a row, for a national championship because the big 10 doesn't have any legitimate way to determine a conference champion.
more rant later...
rant update1: so florida held serve at the sec championship, and actually did it with some flash on offense, special teams and especially defense. it got me thinking, who has michigan and florida actually beaten. michigan only beat one ranked team notre dame (overrated because they are notre dame); wisconsin, iowa, penn state were not ranked at the time that michigan played them. the chumps that michigan played were vanderbilt, central michigan, iowa (a huge letdown this year), indiana, northwestern, not sure about minnesota this year. oh, and another slap is playing a november chump in ball state. florida has wins over 4 ranked opponents; tennessee, lsu, auburn (who was ranked early in the season like notre dame), and arkansas. other games of note would be an upstart kentucky team and a gamer south carolina team. it pains me but their chump teams (which are not all that chump to me) would include alabama, georgia, vandy, florida state, southern miss, ucf. the november chump (which people say is a huge black eye for florida) is western carolina.
it is obvious to me that one who looks over the schedules would say that florida will merit the number two ranking and spot for a national championship game. however, i'm feeling pretty much afraid that people will remember a michigan versus ball state game that led up to an ohio state game, as much as a week off that one can get) to place them #2 when other teams are still playing games against formitable opponents.
need i say another argument that it is insane one can be national champions without winning their own conference.
maggie dawn is happy to have someone sharing her thoughts that continuous theology studies is pre-requisite for good pastoring. i for one am sharing her thoughts, too many people from across the ministerial spectrum stop their theological studies when they get to a position of ministry. how ludicrous is that. one thing that i'd wish is that more youth ministers would take on theological studies as a regular part of their pastorship.
it's been awhile since i checked the keywords that send people to this blog through the varied search engines. i was kinda taken back to know that i rank rather in for those who google "ethnic cleansing cheat codes"
if you haven't heard, here is a new x-ray machine that will start to be used in sky harbor airport in phoenix. they have held off using this machine until they could figure out how to blur certain spots. not sure what all that will look like, nor do i want to know. i suppose it is nice consolation that if you don't want to be scanned then you can get the pat down.
in the giving mood, shaun groves is giving away free of charge and strings a Christmas song. also in the giving mood is jessica lofbomm, she's giving away a free download for the whole month. get in the Christmas spirit.
