Here and Now

found online.... A couple weeks ago, Seth Godin posted a great post about why organizations don't improve . It's short (it'll take you about a minute to click there, read it, and come back...I'll wait, honest...) Told you it's short. Anyway, he says, in a nutshell ('cause I know some of you didn't read it) that improvement is risky because it has many costs. Making something better, or trying to, might actually break it...That happens, so we fear change and do nothing. Making something better ALWAYS makes it worse for some people*. We know that, so it may depend on the perceived power and position of that "some people". Change is frightening, so we don't do anything - and that feels better, because it is known... But Jesus changed everything... *I know churches who hold on for dear life to a particular worship style in a service where only a dozen people attend - and in one church it is a traditional ser...

found online It's Lenten Luncheon season around here. You know,* where you go to a different church each Wednesday (or Thursday) at noon, have some kind of "service" and a light lunch - all conveniently packaged in an hour so folks who work can punch back in before the boss gives them the stink eye...** So, yesterday it was at the Lutheran Church and I almost didn't go. Don't get me wrong. I didn't want to go in the first place. But I go, because I should go. I'm a pastor in the community. It's "connectional." Well, sort of. I don't think these kind of things advance the Kingdom of God particularly, but I feel compelled to support the other churches. So, anyway, the point is, I go... And they hand me a bulletin. Okay. Sigh... It's a lot of responsive reading stuff. I mean a LOT. Like three sides of the bulletin, you know what I mean? It's ALL responsive reading stuff. Leader. Us. Leader. Us. Psalm. Prayer. Call to Worship....

From Morguefile (Note: I'm going to attempt to clear out my Drafts folder here on Blogger, so there may be some posts that reference some, um, past events in the...well, future... ) Last December we had a community dinner at the Tidioute Church. It was kind of a spontaneous idea that came up at our November board meeting: "Could we just invite people to come to a free dinner for Christmas?" "Invite who?" I ask, 'cause that's what I do. "Well..." I see what's going on. Sure, we could have a church dinner. Been there done that. We could invite family and friends... But, well, they'll have Christmas dinner. Who might not? "We just got the list of who will get food baskets for Thanksgiving. That's..." Papers shuffle and some quick counting. "...about 35 families...about, wow, about a hundred people." "We could send invitations." "Hey," someone says, "we could hand out invitati...

Found Online... Well, it's that time of year again in United Methodisim... When pastors get nervous whenever the phone rings, and if the caller ID says it's the District Superintendent, we're tempted to not answer the phone. But we do answer the call - the call of God that sometimes comes when the District Superintendent's caller ID shows up. And so Lori and I announced yesterday that we will be moving this July - not too far,though. Beginning July 1st, 2013 I will be the pastor at Corry First United Methodist Church. So we begin another brief moment of transition, and a new season of ministry. As always, we are sad to leave friends and ministry behind, but excited about new possibilities. These announcements are always bittersweet. I'll probably have more to say about it in future posts, but for those who don't get my news any other way... I wanted to make sure you knew...

Since Valentine's Day just passed... Nerd Wedding Cake!! :)

One of our young adults at Otterbein Church got this online Bible study going for Lent. I'm a couple days late in linking to it, but you should check it out: Renew 40 Read it, comment, check out the comments, however God uses it to minister to you. 40 days of renewal. Good stuff.

From Morguefile It always surprises people when I tell them that I'm an introvert - I know, Sunday mornings, I sure don't look like it. I get that. But, nevertheless, I'm an INFP on the Myers Briggs - a Dreamer ... yeah, that's about right... But in the I - the Introvert - I'm always off the chart - all the way over - no Extrovert at all. And I live that out. I HAVE to have some time alone - just to "recharge" if you will. So, what makes it hard is that this is an Extroverted society. We don't value Introverts. Now I'm not talking shyness here - which is self-centered and fearful. I'm not afraid.      Not Shy...           Or Backwards... Introverted. Interacting with people takes energy from me, being alone renews my energy - that's being introverted. Extroverts are energized by being around people, and get sucked dry when they have to be alone. Well, watch this, it explains a lot more than I can in a few sentences: (be ...

'Cause I can never remember what Lizard does...

Thanks to my friend Aaron for posting a link to this article about the longest game of tag ever - like 23 years.  These guys play tag one month a year (February) - but the catch is they don't all live in the same city anymore... and haven't for years. Cool story. As if that's not awesome enough, here's a link to an update: "it" has changed twice already this month. from huffington post Love and community. How many of us would rearrange our lives for someone else one month a year... for a game? How about for something really important? Would we fly across the country and hide in the bushes for two days... just for the HOPE of seeing that other person*? Okay, maybe a weird example... Would we make sacrifices and rearrange our schedules and even cold call complete strangers to involve them in somewhat complicated plots**? And I thought... I'd LOVE to do that. It would be PURE AWESOMENESS! I'd do that for a game... But not for Jesus... I wo...

So lots of churches do a five minute pre-service countdown that's... well... just numbers counting down. Why not combine that with your morning announcements? Do it in an engaging way and people will not only be on time for church, they'll show up early... Nicely done, maybe a little long in the Moses section but still pretty engaging. I might do a 3 minute version - or figure out a way to make it 5 minutes so one segment doesn't fell so long... But entertaining - and informative. I give it a thumb and a half up :)

Found online If you've read this blog, it's no secret that I like Seth Godin. My life has been busy and I haven't been following his blog very closely of late, but I checked it out this morning, and this post , I thought, was so full of truth...yet so very, very ironic. Here, I'll reproduce the post in it's entirety: You'll pay a lot... but you'll get more than you pay for. There's plenty of room for this sort of offer to work. The hard part isn't charging a lot. The hard part is delivering more (in the eye of the recipient) than he paid for. Plenty of people would happily pay extra for what you do... if they only believed that in fact it would turn out to be a bargain, worth more than it costs. One reason we price shop is that we don't trust that anything that costs more than the cheapest is worth what it costs. Too often, in the race to charge less, we deliver too little. And in the race to charge more, we forget what it is th...

Another Click to see it all - and Find Waldo...on Tatooine :) Awesomeness

I just saw this - 'cause I'm a little behind.... A pastor got offended when an automatic gratuity was added to her bill because she was in a group of more than eight people. Restaurant policy - computer kicks it out - 18%. Now, I suppose I understand that you may not want to leave 18% (I generally start at 20% and go up from there, so...) and most people don't like to have such things foisted on them... Anyway, here's what she left: I don't get it. Are you upset because this waitress gets like three bucks an hour and you don't want to help her actually earn a living - you know, she's just a waitress, let her live in poverty...  Yeah, I'm a little bitter...  And I don't get the God comment, either. I've NEVER tipped God. I may tithe, I may offer, I may even sacrifice. But a tip? Sounds...pretty disrespectful.* And then - AND THEN - when the picture hit the internet, somehow the pastor got outed. Maybe the waitress posted her name, I do...

...heh.... I got to "Guest Post" on my friend Aaron's blog  here... He's having guest posts every Monday this year. What a great idea...something maybe I should do....hmmm.... I like stealing great ideas :) Look for Guest Posts on here someday :)

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I was sitting in a waiting room, and I saw on on the magazine rack this: Now, I had no idea that Newsweek was going out of print. It's all going that way, I suppose. "Print is dead," (Dr. Egon Spengler was RIGHT)*.  Well, maybe not dead...but on life support... So, okay. Here's an article about Newsweek: Linky So Newsweek is going all digital and they're kinda sorta sad about it...but wait! We're TRENDSETTERS, so we're actually forging a NEW path... Um, no. You're cutting costs and going the path of least resistance, highest profitability... but at the cost of a calculated percentage of your readership. Let's face it, some are not ready to make the digital jump (hard to pass those around in the waiting rooms, you know what I mean?) and many people simply LIKE a physical something  to hold in their hands. And that's okay. They'll go to Time or something else... Until it goes all digital, too. The day of consumable media...

We are celebrating Communion this week. More importantly, we are taking the time to talk about Communion this week. If you search in the little box in the upper left corner, you'll see that I've written more than a few times on Communion over the past seven years of this blog's existence. And I THINK only once have I done a repost before this ( Bono on Grace - way back when I did the Grace series...) and that was simply because something I had written before linked in nicely with a series I was writing at the time... But I thought this was worth reposting.  If you're in worship this week you might hear this, or something very like it.  I don't often think I've written something worth repeating... Held Too Lightly "The Body of Christ broken for you on the cross..." The words rest in my ears, familiar yet powerful. The bread rests on my palm. It weighs nothing. I close my eyes and I can't tell it's there. I have to press down on it with my...

I was going to put this song on my YouTube channel, but I see somebody already did a couple years ago. This is my favorite Scott Phillips song, it's called "Just Because" Scott is from around here, and his parents go to our church. He's doing a band thing lately called  Good Little Giants . They're doing cool stuff in the area, you should check them out if you get the chance. But this isn't about Scott, or his band. The song... "I want a love, that looks past positions A love just because not a love with conditions I can search the whole world and find all kinds of love But love that is real is love just because..." It's a fan favorite, too. I think he often closes shows with it. The words resonate deeply with me. The idea, the truth of the song resonates deeply with me. It hasn't always - I used to think I knew more about love than I did. Most of our lives, we deal with transactional relationships. You give me what I w...

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