Here and Now

I was listening to NPR yesterday and they had a feature on the SBA (that's Small Business Administration, duh). It seems that the SBA guaranteed a ton of loans in the wake of the 9/11 attacks intended to be for businesses that were adversely affected by the attack. Thing is, an audit was done of the loans. They pulled 59 random applications and they found that NINE (9) and ONLY 9 had any verifiable link to the 9/11 attacks. In other words, they could only verify that 9 of the 59 were adversely affected by the attacks. The other 50 had absolutely no evidence whatsoever in the applications. Okay, well, maybe they didn't write it all down... No, they interviews 42 of those who recieved loans guaranteed by the SBA intended for those affected by the attacks. Only 2 of interviewed even had any idea that their loans were in any way tied to the attacks... So, the statement from the SBA is that it's not their fault. They are understaffed to evaluate the merits of the applica...

I just got a letter from a friend. No, not an email. No, not a card. An actual letter. Came in the mail and everything. Who knew such things were still possible? The letter came at just the right time. You see, my friend is a retired pastor and part of his ministry in retirement has been to pray for me. I know to most people that doesn't sound like much, but to me, that means the world. The book of James says, "The prayers of the righteous are powerfully effective..." So, my friend sends me this letter and - I have to be honest here, I haven't really thought much about him in a while (we live an hour or so apart - might as well be a million miles most days) and then, bam, this letter comes to me. I'd been in a bit of a funk lately (man, I'm not ready for Advent to start yet and Christmas is already over...) and just reading the letter helped me out a lot. There's something to be said for the ministry of encouragement, too... AND, here's where...

Getting ready for our Christmas Eve services. I get to plan the early, family-friendly service (7:00 PM). I really want to use some video this year - more than we have in the past - as well as engage people's senses in other ways... Of course, it's the Monday before and I don't have anything "set in stone" - lots of ideas, one of which already fell by the wayside because I didn't get on it early enough (no, no, I'm just early for next year...heh). Got some neat reasources - Cloth for the Cradle from the Iona Community has some interesting ideas in it as well as Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay. I have Fresh Out of the Box Volume 3 from Lumicon which is pretty good and the Mirrors DVD from Sacramentis... Whew, looks like I have the resources (those are just the things in front of me - I have a bunch of other worship planning stuff and video stuff...but those are just tools - I need inspiration...) I was reading Isaiah this morning (I...

Recently I received (via email) one of those really hard questions, and since I put a good bit of effort and prayer into the answer, I thought it would be appropriate to share it here... Some one close to me, who is not saved, has been affected by a suicide. Over the weekend the discussion came around to faith and I was totally unprepared for a couple questions I was asked. Would...you please share your thoughts and any scripture I might read to both console & guide my friend. I have searched through the small amount of reference material I have and find nothing that really speaks to suicide. Let me start with another difficult question: what about those who never profess Jesus as Lord and Savior? My father died never having recited the sinner's prayer or, as far as I know, never having made a public confession of faith (except when my sister and I were baptized...). Where do I find comfort in his death? Revelation 3:14-22 is an open letter to the c...

I THINK I've recovered from Friday night. A bunch of churches got together and put together an all nighter based around the Narnia movie with a midnight showing of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My head is JUST beginning to clear... Oh, here's the website of the youth ministry that promoted the event. http://www.time4revolution.com (okay, there's virtually NO content there - because this event was the kickoff for the ministry). Anyway, one of they guys sent me this, it made me smile, thought I'd post it... TOP TEN SURPRISES IN THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA MOVIE By Dave Tippett 10. Narnia City Council votes to remove all images of Aslan, replace them with generic alley cat that represents all felines of world 9. Mega Aslan den draws animal followers from smaller dens with better praise and worship band 8. Metaphors go crazy as Aslan assigns kingdom duties to second in command, a talking rock 7. Sequel set up when, after the victory, Charismatic Aslans clash wit...

One of my kids (I'm a youth leader at church) was talking on Wednesday about what a horrible week this was in history. These were her reasons: An attempted assassination of Bob Marley The guy who was killed at the Rolling Stones concert in California Pearl Harbor day (64th anniversary) John Lennon was assassinated (25 years ago) Of course being the sensitive and understanding youth leader I am, I asked if she got her history lesson from Rolling Stone Magazine... Three of the four of these evens aren't even historically significant. (Lennon fans are going to hate me for that, I know, but really, in 100 or 200 years will he be remembered? I bet Pearl Harbor will be - like Fort Sumter or Fort McHenry or the Boston Tea Party are remembered - I bet MLK's assassination will be remembered because he was, historically speaking, a much more significant figure). The point is not to alienate Lennon fans (or Marley fans or Stones fans) - but to simply comment on how culture oversh...

In an effort to blog with more consistency... I just discovered that my spray deodorant has as ingredients both butane and propane. Talk about explosive. I'm walking around like a body builder now because I'm afraid that I might create friction in my armpits and they might explode... Nah - but what it did make me think about for a minute was how many things we buy/use that we don't know either what they're made of or where they come from. Just what are the ingredients of a Twinkie or that Lean Cuisine meal that you bought? What kind of impurities are found in that cracked coffee mug you keep using? Who the heck puts butane in thier deodorant? Okay, probably everybody...but, do I really want to be spraying that kind of stuff on my body? It' s just so wierd... Speaking of not knowing stuff... We recently did a radon test in our basement - and it was high (4 is considered tolerable - ours was 5.3) so we're running another test - if it's high too, we ha...

Another day, another funk... Not sure why I never seen to update the blog - nobody's reading it, so I can be free to write whatever I want to write, right? We had our annual all church meeting two nights ago (in the UMC we call it Church Conference or Charge Conference - in contrast to Annual Conference, which involves all of the churches in Western PA - every June - or District Conference which occurs every spring and involves the 50 or so churches in our district - Church Conference is in the fall and, well, we talk about our church). At the meeting, the District Superintendent talked at length about not looking back but looking forward. He, of course, made reference to Isaiah 42:9  See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. God is doing new things. SEE...THE NEW THINGS I NOW DECLARE. Even before they happen, God is telling us about the new things. What is done, is done. The past is, well, past... T...