Ouch…good ouch
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Hmmm
//ITUNES: Holy Hold from the album “Pray Naked” by The Seventy Sevens
From scott… diagonally parked in a parallel universe: (via Monday Morning Insight)
ministers love to brag about how overworked they are.
it has been difficult for me to start this blog inasmuch as, of all the confessions i have made in this series, this one hits the closest to home. i have been grossly negligent in this area. for 20 years of ministry i have used this crutch to excuse all manner of laziness, poor scheduling, inadequate preparation and relational aloofness. and i’m not alone.
everything is work time. including blogging. and coffee with friends. and shopping and driving and phone calls and reading and praying and talking and writing and visiting and planning and napping and thinking and answering emails and surfing the net and going to the bank and reading the paper. many of you have full time jobs that you come home from in order to make it to the church on time for any number of reasons. i usually had a nice nap before the meeting because i would be putting in extra time.
on many levels it is an amazing life. you are your own boss. you can literally blow off weeks, even months, without anyone really knowing. all you need to do is be unavailable, look a little haggard and constantly whine about how busy you are and no one will know. trust me, i’ve tried it.
pastors love to point out how busy we are. we NEVER say that things are slack. pastors realize that people don’t think they work much and there is something ingrained in their psychie that must justify their existence. it is frustrating to have people constantly make fun of you for working “one hour a week”.
it is not as though some pastors do not get their hours in. many work chaotic shifts and are barraged by demands and complaints for which there is no obvious solutions. pastors complain that they are always working, which is an exaggeration, but even if that is true - they may be working but not always working hard. and frankly, a ton of pastors i know are just lazy. there is said it. i could give you lots of names.
my name would sometimes be on that list as well.
many pastors would react to reading this words. some are justified. others simply do not know or remember what it is like to have a real job. they live in a bubble of pseudo-activity and flexible scheduling. no one yells at them everyday at work. they don’t have to drive 2 hours to get to the job site. they don’t have to get up early, or pack a lunch, or listen to complaints all day. they can shut off their phone and not be fired. they don’t get disciplined for being 10 minutes late to work. they can deduct their mortgage from their taxible income. they can write off any activity or expense. they are the only one paid to be at a funeral.
this is a very one-sided blog but i have, on many occasions, bemoaned the struggles of the pastor’s life. it can be a very difficult vocation. very few people have, however, discussed the other side of the equation - the incredible perks, the lack of tangible accountability, the accolades, the tax breaks.
and right now i’m not even getting paid to blog.
I have actually been thinking about this a lot lately. How hard do I work? How hard do pastors in general work? There are a lot of things we do that can turn from good things into laziness.
For instance, hanging out with someone I am discipling is work. But when those meetings get longer and longer and we are just hanging out all the time…is that still work?
Sure, reading the latest book is work…but I would be reading that book whether I had this job or not.
Etc etc etc.
Once a year or so, I track my hours for a month or so and it is always an eye opening experience. I am blown away with the amount of time I spend doing certain things. I am in one of those seasons right now. And I am doing two things to guarantee accurate and honest appraisals of my time.
1) I am using Timebox to track my hours instead of writing them down myself, where it can be tempting to fudge them slightly.
2) I am giving them to Dan and Mark so they can give me feedback.
I know of a church that requires all of their pastoral staff to keep timecards. It’s tempting to me.
If Only
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Green
//ITUNES: I Want You to Want Me from the album “10 Things I Hate About You” by Letters To Cleo
(Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press)
If only I had seen this before I went to work on my iPumpkin yesterday: White is the new orange when it comes to pumpkins:
Very cool illusion
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Illusive
//ITUNES: One Evening from the album “One Evening - Single” by Feist
Thanks to Doug for this Very cool illusion:
Stephen & Martin
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: In Between
//ITUNES: Let’s Stick Together from the album “Down In The Groove” by Bob Dylan
I mentioned a few days ago that my friend Brent gave a great thought about Stephen’s stoning in a message I heard last week. He was talking about roadblocks to our faith and what to do when we encounter them.
First, he shared about Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and how when they were thrown in the furnace for not worshipping Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 3, God rescued them.
Then, he went to the example of Stephen and how he stood up for his faith. But this time, God didn’t rescue him. Instead, he allowed him to be dragged into the street and stoned to death. Here’s the passage:
Acts 7:54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
Acts 7:57 Then they put their hands over their ears, and drowning out his voice with their shouts, they rushed at him. 58 They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The official witnesses took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Acts 7:59 And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And he fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Brent shared that this is the only time in the Bible that Jesus is pictured as “standing at the right hand of God.” He said that while Jesus did not rescue Stephen from being stoned to death, he stood because he was so pleased that Stephen did not back down.
Last night, I watched Luther. I have been wanting to see it for awhile. It struck me in a lot of ways. Again, it struck me that here was a man who would not back down. Here is an excerpt from his speech at the Diet of Worms:
Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted [convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us.
On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Amen.
One of the other things that really struck me watching the movie last night was Luther’s passion for the Word. I think I take it so for granted that I don’t dig into it the way I should. I don’t treasure it the way I should. I don’t stand for it the way I should.
Then, hearing about Kyle Lake’s death this morning, I was struck with the extreme shortness of life. He was one year younger than me and POOF he died. I want my life to be characterized with following Jesus unabashedly like Stephen, Martin, and Kyle.
Kyle Lake
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Reflective
//PODCAST: Coverville-051030-Tricks and Treats for your Halloween from the album “Coverville” by Brian Ibbott
OK, if you read Christian blogs this is all over the blogoshere, so this is probably redundant. But it bears repeating because I was stunned by it this morning. Especially in light of what I was planning on posting this morning. (Which I still will in a few minutes…)
Kyle Lake, pastor at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted when he grabbed the mic while in the baptismal at his church Sunday. Please take a few minutes and pray for his family. He leaves behind a wufe and three little kids.
Here’s the article from CNN.com: Pastor electrocuted while performing baptism - Oct 31, 2005:
iPumpkin
Oct 30, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Spooky
//NOISE: Kids
We carved pumpkins tonight for Halloween, so I thought I’d wish everyone a Happy Halloween with a picture of my pumpkin:
OK…this pisses me off
Oct 29, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Pissed
//TV: MSU 23 INDIANA 2
From NBC2 News Online:
Hurricane victims who wanted water had some difficultly finding it at a relief station in Clewiston Friday. The volunteer group running a supply center doesn’t like the company that donated the water, so they decided not to give it to those in line for help.
Twenty-two pallets of the canned water, distributed free by beer company Anheuser-Busch, bears the company’s label – and members of the Southern Baptist Convention refused to hand it out to those in need.
Resident lined up for miles to receive food and water at the distribution point. But the water was left on the sidelines by the Alabama-based group.
“The pastor didn’t want to hand out the Budweiser cans to people and that’s his prerogative and I back him 100-percent,” said SBC volunteer John Cook.
The SBC felt it was inappropriate to give the donation out, and they weren’t happy when NBC2 wanted to know why.
“Why do you want to make that the issue? That’s not the issue. The issue is that we’re here trying to help people,” Cook said.
Freakin’ amazing.
Well, at least I have found it within me to say something is terrible. That’s a good thing.
UPDATE: OK…I just read the update at the end of the article and it says:
UPDATE: Late Friday, as NBC2 was leaving Clewiston, we saw two members of the SBC handing out the canned water alongside the Red Cross.
Thank God for those two.
Wow
Oct 29, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Undisclosed
//NOISE: Kids
Woman gives birth as son dies in same hospital:
At Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Thursday, a woman gave birth to a son, delivered by Caesarean section. She did not know that during her recovery, elsewhere in the same hospital, she lost her oldest child, a 19-year-old deli worker who had been shot behind the counter by a man in a mask.
Praying
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Praying
//PODCAST: Episode 4 A Porn Star Talks (featuring Moonshine) from the album “Dirty Little Secrets with Craig Gross and Mike Foster”
For those of you praying for my friend Dave’s mom, check out his his blog. He is live-blogging surgery updates. Thanks for praying.
Worth
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Valuable
//NOISE: None
I have seen these all over so I thought I would give it a shot:
My blog is worth $29,920.62.
How much is your blog worth?
Hunt Adkins
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Laughing
//ITUNES: Baby Please Don’t Go from the album “Best Of Van Morrison” by Van Morrison
My friend Aaron works for an ad agency in Minneapolis. Check out their amazing website: Hunt Adkins. I could totally work there.
Balance
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Imbalanced
//ITUNES: Telescope Eyes from the album “Laughing City” by Eisley
So when attempting to avoid the attitude I expressed yesterday, I have been thinking about the issue of balance. Here are a bunch of random stuff floating around in my head. Any brilliant thoughts you have would be appreciated, as well:
1) I’m not right about everything.
2) I’m right about some stuff.
3) I need to have conviction / stand firm on some stuff.
4) I need to let some stuff go.
5) It is appropriate and healthy to have healthy dialog about issues.
6) That same dialog can sometimes be unhealthy.
7) I need to walk that fine line of having a good attitude, yet being angry about the right stuff and be willing to step on toes when necessary.
I need to use the appropriate forums to express these things.
OK, here’s why I am chewing on this.
I talked about the churches I visited last weekend. At all five of the services I attended, there were things I loved and things I thought were terrible. There are things I learned while there, both by positive and negative example.
Why did I not express any of the negative on this here blog?
Dunno.
Maybe it is not the appropriate forum for that criticism.
Or maybe I didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings.
Or maybe I’m too sensitive to what people will think of my opinions and therefore me.
Hmmm…
Healthy or Unhealthy?
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Healthy…I think
//ITUNES: Drive from the album “Automatic For The People” by R.E.M.
It seems that with every great positive is a great negative. It’s like the Newtonian law of life. Spiritual gifts are that way, personalities are that way, etc etc etc.
I was thinking about this as I was surfing around today. There are big sweeping positives and negatives with this here internet.
With the internet, we have this great ability to express our opinions about everything, both positive and negative. This can lead to healthy discourse on a lot of issues. There are people who we would never have occasion to meet that we have opinions about. We get this weird / outside / imbalanced view of their politics or faith or lifestyle or whatever. And now we have a forum to speak into and about the lives of these people whom we haven’t met.
Again, potential good.
The sweeping negative is that with the anonymity of the net, we can be arrogant and insensitive in how we talk about people, especially those whom we have not met. It is a temptation I feel all the time. I read an article / blog entry from someone and for some reason I find myself feeling I am an authority on all they stand for.
Not so.
So as you type, here’s my advice. Ask yourself this question, “would I say this the same way if I was sitting across the table from this person?”
It’s gonna get really interesting if this World Wide Web thing really takes off.
Yes, it’s true
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Juvenile
//NOISE: My own juvenile laughter
Yes, there really is a Big Bone Baptist Church in Union, Kentucky. And if their name isn’t culturally relevant enough, they have a podcast of their sermons as well. But, by far my favorite part is the top “News Item” on their front page. Here’s a snapshot:
Hopefully the pastor isn’t also the webmaster.
BTW, did I mention it’s Pastor Appreciation Month? Just thought it would be important for you to know.
Churches
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: I need to work…
//ITUNES: Amie from the album “O” by Damien Rice
OK, so I have a crapload of message prep to do, but I am having a horrible time getting a rhythm going, so I am going to report of my weekend first and then get back into the grind.
This last weekend, Sean and I visited Minneapolis. We stayed at my friend Mark’s house and had quite a full weekend. For the sake of getting my mind flushed and going back to work, I will diary our weekend here. I am going to talk about 5 church services (at two churches) we went to, as well. I mention this, because in the spirit of this post and not wanting to pick a fight, I am going to mention the things I liked about each of these services and I am going to be uncharacteristically quiet about what I didn’t like. I’m also not in the mood to pick a fight, so there you go.
FRIDAY
Early morning flight, arrived in Minneapolis at 8ish
IHOP for breakfast
Mall of America - we were in and out of there in an hour. And, yes, I worshipped at the Apple Store.
Hung out with Mark and his fam
Dinner with Lizz’s guy
Attended The Rock
The Rock is part of a multi-site church in the Twin Cities called Evergreen. They have five locations around the city, but consider themselves one church. They have something like 13 pastors that serve as a team (no Senior Pastor), which is very cool. It must be a trip, especially knowing the guys. Their meetings must be something to behold.
The Rock targets an aggressively younger crowd and it was cool to see so many young people in one place. It reminded me of our later Saturday Night service as far as the crowd was concerned. While we were there, I finally got to meet Adam and Peter in person. These guys have been blogging buddies for awhile now, so it was awesome to meet them in person. And, yes, Peter looks like John Larroquette.
That night, we went out with Andy and Marco from the Urban Refuge (another of Evergreen’s sites…but I’ll get into that in a bit).
SATURDAY
Slept in a bit.
Had lunch with my friend Aaron. He showed me around the city and we had an amazing lunch at some crazy pizza place that has ovens so hot they heat your pizza up in 90 seconds. Freakin’ awesome. I would eat there everyday. OK, maybe not. But it was good, nonetheless.
Sean and I then wandered around Uptown, which is very cool.
Attended The Urban Refuge. It was kinda weird because we heard the exact same message as the night before. The same guy taught both places (which I understand is rare). This service meets in a church they share with a Baptist congregation. This was a very multi-ethnic church, which was cool. There was even one asian there, which made me fit in.
Then, Chad showed us around the city (quite different at night) and we grabbed dinner and talked Emerging Church stuff. In fact, we saw this truck with a glass box on the back with people in their swimsuits dancing inside. Weird for Minneapolis. They were advertising Mexico and getting a parking ticket.
SUNDAY
Went to Evergreen Lakeville. This service was also doing the same series as the other two. It was surreal, because their target is definitely older (35-45 or so). The same series, different message, different pastor teaching, same video. In fact they had this video that they showed at at 4 services we went to that parodied The Amazing Race.
They do one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. Just before the message, they have a five minute intermission so parents can walk their kids to their classes. Kinda cool. It was a bit of mingle time, as well.
We only had time to stay for 2 minutes of the message, so I can’t say much about that. We hopped in the car and drove to…
Evergreen Bloomington to go to another service. Again, same series. I finally asked and found out that they are in an advertising season and this is one of two times a year all the locations do the same thing. Gotcha. It was cool to be at this service, because I got to hear my friend Brent teach and he did an awesome job. In fact, he said the most amazing thing about Stephen’s stoning…but I’ll tell you about that later.
After church, I had lunch with Ben, Aaron, and Chris at a little pub. We tested my call in number deal (206-888-NOEL, by the way) and here’s our little ditty we recorded.
We then hung out with Mark and his fam again for a bit and then headed downtown to check out
Solomon’s Porch for their service. Solomon’s Porch shares a facility with two other churches (I continue to love this concept). This church was by far the most eclectic I have ever visited. I really appreciated their creativity and willingness to try new things and create their own traditions. We had to duck out a little early to catch our flight, but I wish we had been able to stay.
All of their music is original. None of the songs sounded like sing-songy worship songs, so that was very cool. They had lots of art, tons of people read scripture and other stuff. By far my favorite thing, though, was that when they did a baby dedication they invited all the kids in the church up to take part. Just as they asked the parents and the church to support this kid, they asked all t he kids to be his friend and to help him too. It was way cool.
Well, that’s about it. That may be my longest post ever, but now I have all that off my brain and I can squeeze a bit of message prep in before my appointment arrives in 22 minutes.
Sorry about any typos. There is no way in heck I am proofing this long ass post.
Quote of the Day
Oct 27, 2005 Quotes
From Sanctus1 Blog:
“God told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, and then He gave us our families to practice on.”
Personal Ad
Oct 27, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Surprisingly Good
//ITUNES: Don’t Be A Girl from the album “World Outside” by The Psychedelic Furs
My friend Adam just posted his answers to a Personal Ad Survey. Worth the read. I was laughing out-loud in the coffee shop.
Jack Radio
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Less tired, thank you
//ITUNES: Wake Up from the album “Letting Go” by Earshot
I have been searching around to figure out this phenomena of stations (Like MIKEfm) here in town trying to battle iPods, MP3s and Podcasts and what they are doing. MIKEfm is taking a cue from a lot of other stations nationwide, by following what’s called a Jack radio format:
The rules guiding a Jack-formatted station are simple: Unlike a typical radio station, which regularly plays 300 or 400 hits of a particular genre, programmers on Jack stations select 700 to 1,000 songs of completely different genres. Then, they sequence them to create what radio programmers call “train wrecks” — Billy Idol will follow Bob Marley, Elvis after Guns N’ Roses, and so on. And Jack stations often (but not always) use a smart-alecky recorded voice, rather than a live DJ, to make short quips between songs.
It will be interesting to see if ideas like this can actually compete in this new world. Is radio dying?
Questions
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Very Tired
//NOISE: Kids
John Piper lists Ten Reasons to Listen to Questions Before You Answer. Very good stuff.
Robert Webber
Oct 26, 2005 Uncategorized
//MOOD: Excited
//ITUNES: The Heartbreak Thing from the album “Laughter” by The Mighty Lemon Drops
So this is very cool. I very rarely announce a new blog I have stumbled upon. Normally, I just stick them in my links section and leave it to you to find. However, this time I will. Author and Prof Robert Webber now has a blog: ancientfutureworship.
He wrote Younger Evangelicals which I talked about here. I am excited about his blog. Wee ha.
