Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I picked up a copy of Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. Like many others in the church, I have noticed the growing absence of men in the church as a whole. Women are taking the majority of leadership positions, leading mission outreach activities, and showing up without their husbands. Murrow began to study the statistics and talk to men and women about this phenomenon. His answer can be summed up as: the church as it is in today's culture is a feminine haven where masculinity is shunned, retrained, or demonized. As I have been reading, I can see places where Murrow's argument is sound. He makes some very good points. And there are some times when I just cringe at what he says. One thing that really almost set me off of the entire book was in saying the men who are active in church are more feminine in characteristics than masculine. Basically he was saying that men who enjoy being in church fit a more feminine stereotype than masculine. And while that may strike...

I just finished reading a sermon that, for some, it was powerful and meaningful. General Conference is happening right now. Every 4 years United Methodists and affiliates gather from around the world to discuss, debate, and elect the path of the UMC for the coming 4 years. Interspersed among the issues of "how then shall we live" are sermons. Bishops, clergy, and laity provide the message of the Gospel to those in attendance. But the sermon I read was not from General Conference. No, it was a Sunday morning sermon. In fact, it was a sermon preached on the Third Sunday of Lent. And the congregation hearing the sermon had to have been engrossed in the words of the minister. Because I was hanging on every word, waiting to hear the Gospel. The sermon was entitled, "A Sermon on Werewolves". Yep, werewolves. And the sermon was about....werewolves. Granted, the sermon was preached in 1508 in Strasbourg, Germany. The context of the sermon needs to be considered. 16th Centur...

Okay, I need to explain that quite a bit. There is not a Power Ranger Bible. But there is a new line of Bibles that are related to the Power Rangers. Let's go back a few years. A guy named Walt Disney really changed the way the world looked at cartoons. From Mickey Mouse to Snow White, animated art became a major cultural machine. In Japan, Osamu Tezuka was influenced by Disney and brought those techniques, with a uniquely Japanese flavor, to Japanese reading audiences. This art form, called manga, became a huge cultural medium and remains so today. Manga is also more than just comic strips. They are visual storytelling. This form of story telling easily translated to animated medium. "Cartoons" based on manga art form, called anime, began to be popular in the 1970's. Some of those shows were shown in the U.S. and gained a following here. One of the earliest that I remember was Battle of the Planets. There was also Voltron, Defender of the Universe. This show in par...

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...