Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Since my last posting (4 days ago) I have had 3 people very close to me express the depths of depression which my blog induced within them. Since I am prone to not own others emotional states, I disclaim any direct responsibility if my posts are making you depressed. BUT - Why not do something about your dreams...even in a small way. I must admit that even I was somewhat depressed this week. One of my dreams seemed to be closed off to me. I want to attend a Youth Worker Summit in Orlando this November. In addition, I was going to take a few days of personal time and enjoy Disney. By myself even. A dream come true. But finances at the church are tight to nonexistant. So I was giving up. I went into a slump. There was a grieving that was taking place. My heart was broken. But then I read my first posting about dreams. I read what I said about Walt Disney. He never gave up. He didn't let the small things stand in his way. He pushed for those dreams to become reality. If Walt is my h...

This is a rare week for Lisa and I. Both of our boys are gone for a week. So it is just us adults in the house. Alone. And last night Lisa said something that just tickled my fancy. In a soft, sweet voice she says,"If you'll hurry and take out the trash, then we can (pause for dramatic effect) watch an episode of Emergency." Now that is exciting folks. What, you don't think that is exciting? Come on, it's Emergency. The greatest television show in the history of t.v. drama. Okay, some of you don't know about Emergency. That is forgiveable. But you should take some time to see it. Emergency was a show that started in the early '70's. It follows two firemen paramedics through all type of adventures and misadventures. It was that show that really gave me my first dream of what I wanted to become. I wanted to be a paramedic. I remember thinking about it all of my life. Oh there were other jobs I really would have liked to do. But always and for as long as ...

I think in the shower. That sounds weird, but I do. It is one of the few times in the day that my mind is idle. So thoughts just sort of pop to the surface. Like this one. The life we live as a Christian can be illustrated by a car. Look, I know it's weird. But John Wesley likened grace to a house, so go with me for a minute. Now I'm not an automative mechanic of any sort. I know enough to stay out from under the hood. But I know the basic working of a car. So here is my analogy. You have fuel, an engine, oil, a transmission, and an axle. The fuel is Bible reading, prayer, and other practices of devotion (fasting, studying, fellowship). The engine is faith. Church involvement is the oil. Our love of God is the transmission. Loving our neighbor is the axle. The fuel - hi-octane or regular? As we read our Bibles, pray, and practice other acts of devotion (called disciplines) we are supplying our faith life with what it needs to run efficiently. When we don't spend the time t...

Last night we went out to the movies. We found a theatre that shows first run movies for $4.00 per adult and $2.00 per kid. After 6 P.M. We went to watch Superman Returns. I have been waiting to see this one. I have always loved the Superman movies and T.V. shows. I even like the old black and white ones with George Reeves. I remember the first Superman movie and still love to watch it. I was a big fan of Lois and Clark. I try to watch Smallville when I can. So I was pumped about getting out to see the new movie. I was also a little hesitant. I wasn't sure about this new guy, Brandon Routh. I can say that he did a fairly good Superman/Clark Kent. Many times it was like watching an understudy of Christoper Reeve. The weird thing was that he looked bulkier as mild-mannered Clark Kent than in the red and blue supersuit. As far as the movie itself...I didn't care for it at all. I was disappointed with Bryan Singer's work. He did a fantastic job with X-Men and X-Men 2. I was rea...

Hello friends and family. Many people think that summer is a slow time for the church. Attendance drops. People are more active outside of church so programs are decreased. It's too hot to get out and do stuff. Well, summer is part of my busy season. My calender doesn't slow down until the last part of summer. In fact, this last week has been crazy. I have been at two different camps in the last week. The first camp was from Sunday the 18th through Friday the 23rd. It was a week-long camp with 69 Junior High Schoolers. J.E.M. is a Junior High leadership camp. We spend the week working with selected youth from local churches. This year's theme was Discipleship: Living the Life. Youth for this camp must be recommended by a pastor or youth leader. This is not a "ya'll come" camp. It is designed to take prospective youth from a local church, provide them training in areas of ministry, and send them back to their church to take active leadership roles. Youth are to...

Last week I had some fun with 6-6-06. I hope everyone survived it alright. No new tatoos or bar codes or anything like that! What are your dreams? Not the dreams you have at night. What do you dream to do or have or become? I watch my boys and see them pretend and get excited about life. And then I look at adults and see reality and the mundane in their eyes. There are so few dreams talked about among adults. Lisa and I were watching a program on Walt Disney World. She commented about how Walt never saw WDW. Walt died before the Magic Kingdom was built. But I remember reading a comment about Walt's vision for Walt Disney World. One of the last people to talk to Walt was his brother Roy. Their conversation about about the Florida project. Walt, using ceiling tiles as a grid, described in detail the layout of the parks that would become Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Every detail was clear in Walt's mind. He may have never seen the park in the physical world. But Walt's dream was ...

This one is for fun-sies! Today is 6-6-06. If you are keeping track, today would be the Day of the Beast. My class on Revelation should be taking notes on everything that happens today; it may be on the test. There is a new Omen movie, Left Behind book, and hard rock band tour today. I woke up to hear that two churches in Tulsa were damaged by wind in an "isolated" down burst storm. There was what appears to have been a ghost in the Isreali Knesset (government building similar to the U.S. Capitol). If today is going to be a beastly day, just remember that God sealed the faithful before the Beast ever got out of bed.

I was listening to NPR's Day to Day program. There was a story about a Cuban exile who had been accused of rape. He escaped from custody and was on the run for over 10 years. While on the run he would take the identity of other people to get work or otherwise provide for himself. The catch was that some of these folks had outstanding warrants or were on the run themselves. If the law ever caught up with this guy, he would do the time for the other person's crime. 30 days for a petty crime or time for rape - which would you rather do? Anyway, he is eventually discovered and faced the punishment for the original charges. Come to find out, the guy was innocent of the rape charge. The court released AND didn't press charges for the original escape. BUT he is still in custody facing the original charges for the crimes of all the people of whom he assumed their identity. That got me wondering. How like our lives in Christ. Our sin before God is forgiven and the punishment is wave...

Over the last 2 1/2 years, I have been studying leadership. I never saw myself as a leader before. Only in this time frame have I begun to understand my role requires the qualities of being a leader. I was never a leader in high school. I wasn't a captain of the sports team. I didn't inspire or draw people to be my friends. I didn't see my role as a pastor being a leader in my previous appointments. But this time was different. I had to own the role and its responsibility. So as I read and studied the roles and responsibilities I was supposed to take on, I discovered that I am not suited for them as I am. I always thought that my mission as a pastor was to help people become better Christians. It seemed that my gifts and calling were such that I was to increase their ability to live the faithful life. I assumed that my life would develop naturally alongside. Reality is, though, that I have spent so much focus on others that I didn't manage my own development like I shou...

DaVinci Hits the Screens If you have been under a rock, then you are probably not reading this. If you have been paying attention, you understand that the most chaos producing movie of the last year is released today. The DaVinci Code arrives in a theater near you. Are you going to see it? If you are, let me share with you some of the advance screening hype. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. They said things like, Hollywood Reporter "... movie really only catches fire after an hour..." "... one of Tom Hanks' more remote, even wooden performances ...." "... the movie is so drenched in dialogue musing over arcane mythological and historical lore and scenes grow so static that even camera movement can't disguise the dramatic inertia." Entertainment weekly "The surprise, and disappointment, of The Da Vinci Code is how slipshod and hokey the religious detective story now seems." "...fails to build intellectual excitement into the...

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I announced in my Sunday School class that I was not going to be teaching another class for a while. Because of my stepping down, we will likely lose one of our two adult classes. It is always hard to find someone to step out on faith and start teaching Sunday School. I asked the leadership for their ideas about a new class and there weren't many suggestions forthcoming. So I have to wonder - Is Sunday School a thing of past generations? How does Sunday School continue when there is no excitement or passion for it to continue? Should we continue to offer something that will likely not be done with excellence just for the sake of filling the time? Growing up, Sunday School came after worship. We shared a pastor with another charge about 15 miles away. We had the early service and Sunday School followed. I was a youth in those days and never stayed in the adult Sunday School class. But we always had adults stick around for that. Then at my last appointment, Sunday School came before...