Last Sunday, Larry Norman died. He was 60 years old. Larry is often considered the Father of Christian Rock - or somesuch... He was a pioneer, no doubt about that. There was a lot of controversy that surrounded him - maybe he was hard to work with, I don't know. I've heard that some in the "CCM Industry" who would laud him publicly (and, you know, record his songs and stuff) would criticize him privately. He made some pretty wild accusations, no doubt about that (apparently Larry wrote a song called The Tune that somehow he says Bill Gaither ripped off in the song "God Gave the Song" - okay, maybe he took the CONCEPT, but, really, listen to "The Tune" above, and then listen to this - Bill Gaither talking about "God Gave the Song" - which sounds like, if something was done it was done by Ron Huff...but I digress. I mean, yeah, it's got a lot in common - but...well, I don't know... Larry says that it was Gaither's biggest hit...
Everybody has buzzwords - business has theirs, the entertainment industry has a lingo, in sports, and in church work we have ours, too. Dilbert the other day had the pointy haired boss try to lead via catchprhases: copyright Scott Adams I have threatened to make up "Buzzword Bingo" cards for Annual Conference. You know, put words like "Holy Conferencing" and "Inclusiveness" and "Core Value" and, oh yeah, "Jesus" on the card and when you get five in a row you can jump up and yell "BINGO", or maybe "Holy Spirit" I don't know... We're not allowed to play bingo, so we definitely shouldn't yell out that word. Maybe if I had people yell out "Hallelujah!" when they got 5 in a row, the powers that be at conference would just assume that the person was powerfully moved by the point being made.* But we would know - and would secretly give them a prize.** The point being that we like to use the t...
We had our second annual community Easter dinner yesterday. Last year when we had the dinner, we had some new people show up for Breakthrough that evening. Happened again last night. Bill was here. I've seen Bill around, but I never asked his name. Truth is, I never really paid much attention to him. He struggles in some ways - physically and mentally - economically. I hope he felt loved and welcomed last night...but I don't expect to see him back again. I hope he comes back, but... Bill's on my prayer list now. I've noticed him. I'm ashamed to admit (though I must) that too many people are too low on my radar to ever even ask their names...I pass them on the street, in the store, and never stop to say more than a passing, "Hello." But here's one guy that I won't miss again. Here's a guy that I now have "something to say to." At least I have one connection with him now. I keep coming back to that proverb that I heard a yea...
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