Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I was perusing the local Cokesbury store yesterday. And if you read the last blog then let me reassure you that I did NOT buy any new books. But in wandering up and down the aisles I saw a couple of new titles that just struck a dissonant chord with me. For some strange reason, the "Gospel According to..." are popping up all the time. I had a copy of the "Gospel According to Peanuts" from a few years back (it went into the pile). There are perspectives on the Gospel from Harry Potter, Star Wars (which really confuzzles me), and Science Fiction available. Well this morning I queued up my son Andrew's favorite series: The Superfriends. Yep, the 1970's/1980's television depiction of the Justice League: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and the Wonder Twins. Andrew likes the later shows with some of the other DC heroes (his current favorites are Green Lantern and Firestorm). Fortunately Cartoon Network's Boomerang Channel provides plenty of...

One of the downsides of moving is, well, moving. Lisa and I have spent some wonderful quality time packing boxes of, ahem, "treasured mementos". As I sit in my office, I am faced with the overwhelming task of packing books. Lots of books. Multiple bookcases of books. And the only comfort I have is in knowing that other ministers are faced with the same task. As I was hitting my morning blog rounds, I stumbled across this blog post via lifehacker.com . Bringing Your Bookshelves Back to Order There are some great tips about going through your bookcase and determining what to keep and what to discard. I just had a conversation with Lisa about gleaning the bookcases. I have already made one pass on books I know that I don't want or need anymore. But I knew that there is a second pass that needs to happen. And this one will be a little more painful. It's funny what we get attached to over time. I have books that I really don't have any need for (old college textbooks ...

We observed MLK day last week. Has this made everyone racial sensitive? This is what I saw first thing this morning as I went through my morning hot sheets: United Methodist News Service: Commentary: An invitation to evangelical white males A UMNS Commentary By Bill Mefford* April 9, 2008 Bill Mefford A few months ago, I attended a conference in Memphis, Tenn., where a Texas judge, who identified himself as a white, evangelical male, made a remarkable statement. He called himself "the most discriminated-against person on the face of this earth!" United Methodist video examines ‘white privilege’ A UMNS Report By Kathy L. Gilbert* April 9, 2008 In a church fellowship hall, a long line of people are beginning to realize that many of them live with "an invisible, unearned advantage" based on the color of their skin. They listen and respond as the Rev. Marion Miller, pastor at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, reads a list of commands in an exercise...

One of the top news stories of the last 24 hours has been the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints property in Texas. The raid by authorities was prompted by an anonymous phone call from a caller identifying herself as a 16 year old who had been married when she was 15, had a child, and had been abused. The authorities removed women and children from the compound while detaining male members of the organization at the compound. The authorities still have not been able to identify the girl who made the initial phone call. I do not know the whole story of this situation. But as I watch the reaction to this group, I'm getting a little edgy. There is a lot of use of the words abuse and brainwashing. And all of this is coming from people outside of the organization. Those outside of the group have a different standard, a different world view, than those inside the group. Perhaps I am worried how far the definitions of abuse and brainwashing will be appl...

A week ago, I got the call that informed me that I will be appointed to a new church. My family will be moving to the Panhandle of Oklahoma. I will be serving the Turpin and Baker UMChurches. Lisa and I are excited about the possibilities. But moving into a new setting always brings questions. So, for anyone from the new churches who may end up reading this, here are some of the answers you will be wanting to know. What do we call you? Pastor, preacher, brother, Hey You? What you call a pastor depends on your background and tradition. I don’t expect anyone to call me anything specific. But here are some helpful guidelines: • Reverend is a formal title best used for official address and invitations or business letters • Pastor is what I do and my relationship to the church. It is fine for people to call me Pastor Todd. Or even just Pastor. • Preacher is also what I do. I don’t mind people calling me Preacher. • “Hey, you” is perfectly fine until you get to know me. • Above all...

Forbes has just released an article on the most sinful cities in the U.S. America's Most Sinful Cities Interestingly enough, Oklahoma City showed up on two different lists. Oklahoma City ranked number 9 on the list of the top 10 most gluttonous cities. It also ranked number 8 on the most envious cities. The results of this study are based on the editors equivalent categories. So the gluttony sin was measured by looking at obesity statistics and BMI (body mass index) to find that Oklahoma City has a population of 27.5% that is obese. Envy, on the other hand, was measured by looking at property crime rates such as burglary, larceny, and auto theft. What I have to wonder is: why do this kind of study? Were the Forbes editors sitting around, thinking to themselves, "Hey, I wonder if your city is a greater place of sin than mine?" And if you just have to know, that cesspool of lust, Denver, Colorado was number 1. (By the way, Washington D.C. did make the list - #6. But it was ...

This from the, "Take it for what it's worth" category. Last week I visited my 5 year old son's school for his Easter party. Being in Oklahoma, it is still acceptable for a school to have an Easter party. As long as we only talk about Easter bunnies, and eggs, and candy. Don't bother with that historical Jesus event. Anyway. It came time for the egg hunt. They kids all grabbed their baskets and trooped outside. My son has inherited my non-competitive nature. He leisurely wandered around the playground, not bothering with the objective of finding and gathering eggs. That were obvious. It's not like it was hard to find them. 18 seconds later, all the eggs had been found. My son had 2. Out of 500. Luckily one of his friends was a merciful type and shared from his bounty. But the point of the story is that when they got back to the room, the kids had to pool all of their eggs and then the eggs were redistributed equally to everyone. And I scratched my head. And I l...

There are some weeks where an image or an idea seems to follow you wherever you go. The past couple of weeks, the idea of hypocrisy seemed to be everywhere. I have been reading unChristian where they are discussing the attitudes of outsiders toward the church. In it they explore the opinion outsiders have of Christian's being hypocrites. We also had the very obvious case of Governor Spitzer: crusading law man turned simple, albeit it affluent, john. The word has also popped up in conversations I have been party to. Hypocrisy is a definite issue for the church to face and be honest about. The original understanding of the Greek words for hypocrite and hypocrisy come from the Greek theater. The hypocrite was the actor who performed a role behind the mask of a character. Hypocrisy was used in a broader sense. It could apply to any type of acting or faking. When we think about a hypocrite or hypocrisy in today's language, we think about someone who says or does one thing while hol...

One of the catch phrases of the emerging church movement is experiential worship. The substance of experiential worship is to move from recipient to participant. An experiential worship service attempts to draw everyone in the congregation into some aspect of worship beyond just singing or reciting prayers. It may call participants to touch or smell something that connects the people's lives with the message of the Gospel. It may have them actively respond to the worship or prayer through movement or an activity. It may move worship away from a traditional setting by going to a different place or changing the environment of the a familiar place. Last weekend I served as the worship leader for a confirmation retreat. A retreat setting always provides the opportunity to draw people into a more experiential service due to the unfamiliar or less familiar setting. But I was also asked to design more experiential services for two worship times. Since the retreat was for youth, I felt som...

Last week I got into a very opinionated conversation (Christian euphemism for an argument) with a friend over the issue of sharing our faith story with others. The substance of the argum....um conversation was whether our witness should be a life lived in the fullest sense of Christian faithfulness or should believers verbally witness to their faith with others. The context of the conversation was evangelism and youth. I came down on the side that believers should develop the skill to verbally express their faith with anyone who asks for the reason of their faith. I believe that includes other believers who want to learn from you as well as non-believers. As we discussed the positions, we were deadlocked in our position. Now that the moment has passed and I have had time to reflect I can see my friend's position. Our witness should be a life lived in faithful obedience to God through Christ. I can't deny that how we live is critical to our witness. If our outward life is not an...

Late last year 13 year old Cori Baker disappeared. An 18 year old man has been charged with her disappearance and likely death. There have been searches throughout the Tulsa metro area. The searches have been struggling to find volunteers to expand the search. The family is understandably distraught over not knowing what happened and move toward closure. The latest development in the search involves the use of a psychic medium to discern clues to what happened to Cori. After watching the press conference with the medium I am really concerned about how this case will proceed. First, the medium reserved divulging information until the press conference. If this family's emotional well-being were at the forefront, I have to wonder why search teams were not coordinated with maps prior to the event. It appeared from the press conference that he was withholding all of the information he had for that time. Second, the medium was allowed access to the suspect to "interview" him on...

I have been highly uninspired, unmotivated, uncreative (actually I believe that is non-creative, but I'm going for alliteration points here), and unproductive over the last few weeks. I believe it may be a bit of SAD. SAD is seasonal affective disorder. I have noticed that over the years I have hit "low" times during February-April. During these times I would experience a sense of lack of motivation. My energy levels would dip very often. Sometimes I would have full blown episodes of depression. I always believed that it had more to do with school (college and seminary). I attributed it to overload or burnout. But after seminary, I saw the same patterns occurring in my role as pastor. Again, I attributed to overload (post Christmas burnout, working with curriculum deadlines, etc.). But I believe that SAD may lie behind this. The hypothesis regarding SAD is that light plays a role in the affective condition of a body. The idea is that because of diminished light during win...