Here and Now

So - I can really tell when the school year starts... Here comes the whining... Today is my day off. Nominally, it's a day I get to spend with the girls (well, Elie only now that Rachel is in all day kindergarten). So - how do I spend my day off? I spent almost two hours at a meeting at the church, then Elie and I went over to Rachel's school to drop off some stuff she needs to have in the classroom - which is almost an hour round trip (including the stop at the school and a beverage stop on the way home - which I had to make to appease Elie because we didn't get to see Rachel at the school...she was really mad...). Then I get home and start empying out the pool - two buckets at a time... So, then tonight we'll have band practice and then Rachel will need to practice violin and then it will be bedtime for the girls... Okay...enough whining... Now, let me look at all that again... I got to spend the morning with Elie. Then I had a meeting with three people at the c

I still don't seem to really completely understand the Kingdom - but I'm actually encouraged by that since I still don't really, completely understand what love is - but I get to experience what it is day after day with my wife, my daughters, my friends, my God - and what it isn't day after day by some of my attitudes, some of the real down people I know... So, while I may not be able to DEFINE it, I experience it. One night at Pittsburgh Project I was talking about punk rock, ska and general goofiness with the four youngest guys we took along. (Quote of the week was, "You're not going to sleep with that pizza in your pocket, are you?") So for like an hour we were just five guys talking about, well, nothing, really. But it was a kingdom moment, I think. I wasn't above them talking down at them saying do this and don't do that and they weren't above me saying how uncool, old, out of touch...so, um, pastorish... No, we were just five guys t

Robert Lupton wrote in his book Theirs Is the Kingdom: When my goal is to change people, I subtly communicate: Something is wrong with you; I am okay. You are ignorant. You are wrong. I am right. But, if my goal is to love people maybe I subtly communicate: Something is wrong here. I am ignorant. Are you okay? Lupton continues: I need the poor? For what? The question exposes my blindness. I see them as weak ones to be rescued, not as bearers of the treasures of the kingdom. And there's that word again. The kingdom. It really is all around us. But I LOVE this statement: bearers of the treasures of the kingdom. That's who the marginalized are: I don't care if you're poor, of a different race, background, orientation, abused, abusing, hopeless, helpless...there it is. Bearers of the treasures of the kingdom Lupton: The community into which Christ invites us is one of mutual interdependence. We are called to mutual sharing and the discovery of gifts Christ has concealed in

Apparently I'm not blogging enough...darn decaf... So, here's a really long post that might or might not make sense - it's from some stuff I wrote a while back... AND - I might have already covered some of this material...sorry if it's just recycled thoughts... So what are we to do? Should we have no standards? Is it just "I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe and then we buy the world a Coke and keep it company?" Heh, I'm getting old... Of course we can't just let anything go... We have to hold ourselves to a standard, a high standard. Indeed, to the highest standard - in imitation of Jesus Christ. This would be the highest moral and ethical (and, dare I say it, DOCTRINAL) standard possible. To be like Christ. "Conformed to His image." "...let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus..." To look like Jesus. There have been studies about why people start to look alike as they age. It's a common MIS-conc

So, I'm talking to another pastor and she's talking about a CPE class she's in the middle of and how she had asked someone WHY they felt the way they did about something. Her mentor said that she shouldn't ask WHY, because it ends with the head (it'a all about THINKING) and instead should have asked WHAT questions (which, apparently, is all about the heart - or FEELING). So, not "Why do you feel this way?" But, rather, "What makes you feel this way." So, she did it and it worked. The person really opened up. The conversation, she says, went clear back to the childhood and some kind of conflict with a parent... I'm not entirely convinced. I think that ANY carefully chosen questions can lead a person to undersanding themselves a little more - who, what, where, why, when, how... It's not so much the words as the intent... You see, in framing her "WHAT" questions, she really had to think about what she was going to say and wh

(Image from www.emergingminister.com ) I'm staring at a prayer list this morning from our Sunday night worship service. I know that I'm the only one who writes the names down for prayer (well, I don't actually write the names myself, but I'm the only one who keeps the names...). Anyway, I don't always hold on to the list. Sometimes it gets misplaced, forgotten, thrown away... But I'm looking at this list and it's so full of real need, real prayer material: a man who had 16" of his intestine removed (and I know of a woman who had the very same kind of surgery - both last week) two women who have had hip replacement surgery this week a man who "needs a lot of prayer" a local Christian school needs a math teacher (and, I have since discovered, an art teacher) a diabetic man who struggles with infected wounds a woman who has struggled with a difficult family situation the death of two men and a woman, in three different cities, in three different

I just spent an hour and a half with five other pastors studying Leviticus (we covered chapter 20, by the way). It's a good study and I always come away from it with something useful and helpful. It's just really difficult for me sometimes. We cover a chapter full of all kinds of sin and invariably talk about only one or two of them (today it was witchcraft and how one of the pastors in the study believes that anybody who is dominerring or intimidating is practicing witchcraft... and I couldn't help but see the whole Monty Python "how do you know she's a witch" play out, you know if she weighs the same as a duck, she's a witch...so if a person is intimidating, they're a witch...um, I just don't follow that logic...). Anyway, at least we didn't beat up gay people again today (which was also in that chapter). But we danced around it. So I asked what do we do with this chapter? What do we do with "If a man commits adultery with another

It's a tired Tuesday here. I'm actually supposed to be working on getting worship stuff together right now - and I've been all over the lectionary this morning and a few other false starts - just not sure what to do for the next two Sunday mornings. Well, I guess I have time. I just get in this kind of a funk, sometimes... Call it writer's block, call it lack of inspiration, whatever. I just kind of wait for God to show up... 3:42 AM (Writer's Block) MercyMe 3:41 AM, make that 3:42 Time just keeps rolling on while I'm here stuck like glue So many things cross my mind But nothing stays awhile, so frustrating I just wanna say something worth while, speak through me Say, say what You wanna say, and say it loudly Say, say what You wanna say 6:45 AM, man that just can't be right 3 hours have gone by and this is all I've got My common sense tells me I should get out the way, so You can speak O Lord, show up or I'll be here all day, speak through

Went to Kingdom Bound this year - just got back late last night. It was...exhausting. Check it out at www.kingdombound.org Sunday night: we went to the main stage to catch the Afters - and they were finished already! I was so bummed. The festival was running ahead of schedule - ARGH! But, we caught MercyMe that night. I thought they were way better last year - though a couple of the new cuts were the outstanding songs this year (ending with So Long Self makes a lot of sense - and 3:42 was lot of fun). Word of God Speak and I Can Only Imagine were actually refreshing (I guess I've heard/played too many weak versions of those songs that it's nice to hear the original band do the songs...). My big complaint about MercyMe was that almost everything they did was a midtempo pop song - of course, that's what made So Long Self such a standout - more energy in that one song than in most of the rest of the show (plus, last year they had a great light/video show). Monday we

I wasn't with them when this happened but Lori related this story (through her sister, too - but it's pretty reliable - no real dirt here, anyway...heh): Rachel, Elie, Sharon and Lori were shopping the other day (train the child up in the way she should go and when she is old...well, anyway) and Lori was off looking at something and Rachel and Elie were posing and dancing in front of one of those triple mirrors. Laughing and jumping and basically being three and five years old. However, Elie kept jumping in front of Rachel and at one point Rachel (who is five) burst out, "Elie, you keep upstaging me!" I still smile thinking about it. But the thing is, I don't think Lori or I have ever used the phrase in front of Rachel. I mean, really, when would we? And I started to think about where she would have heard it. Maybe preschool or at dance lessons. Not sure. Maybe a cartoon (something on Noggin, most likely, since we're pretty particular about what they wat

Well, it's really stinkin' hot here. And everywhere, of course. Okay, maybe Al Gore is onto something (he invented Global Warming, right...no, that's not it...something...). :) Anyway, I opened my email this morning (after taking a LONG but, ultimately, refreshing day off yesterday) and in my inbox was my weekly-or-so enewsletter from www.worshipideas.com and the "editorial" is about this church in Oklahoma City called Lifechurch.tv (link: http://www.lifechurch.tv/ ) Nevermind the robotic lights and the great bands. I was looking at their children and youth ministry. They know what they're doing in EVERYTHING they're doing. It's all about vision. While here at First UMC, I've tried to communicate a vision for ministry - but I'm not good at generating the excitement for the vision. I usually just kind of pull an Eeyore and say, "Typical. Guess it wasn't from God, then." and then I go look for my tail... I mean, I go off