Like a fire

Smitten

Posted by Paul - 05/02/09 at 07:02:09 am

I have been blogging about a lot of deeper issues lately, so I decided to put a little levity into the mix. That, and I had this great visual from Maker today. It’s called the Smitten and it is for people who like holding hands but don’t want to brave the cold weather.

This picture makes me feel a bit like a grumpy od man though. Back in my day, we cared enough about our loved ones to get frostbite. And my circulation was strong enough that I could usually warm not only my hand, but my girlfriends as well. Oh well, enough said.

Theology vs Listening

Posted by Paul - 03/02/09 at 06:02:07 am

While I was away at the AMIA Winter Conference I had a thought that has been with me since. The thought came at one of those random moments and, because it hasn’t left like so many others, I am giving it some space to process. The thought is something like this:

“Theology is for people who don’t hear God.”

I realize that this is somewhat of a provocative statement, but I think it has some merit. While I was in music school, most of us had heard plenty of music and even played some, but not many of us knew what we were doing. We would hear music and randomly determine if we liked it or not. So we were taught ear training and music theory (much like theology). After that time, I began to hear music and understand it for the first time. I couldn’t believe how much I missed. So it was the theory that taught me to listen, but if I already knewhow to listen, the theory wouldn’t have been useful. When Mozart or Bach wrote music, there was little in the way of written theory of music, much like the early spiritual fathers Abraham or even Enoch. Yet they were close to God and heard from him.

All of this is to say that I wonder if listening to God shouldn’t be preferable to knowing about God. I’ll probably be posting more about this but drop a comment if you have any thoughts.

Winter Conference 09

Posted by Paul - 02/02/09 at 08:02:07 am

I just got home from the AMIA Winter Conference and was so glad to see my family again. This was my second in attendance and I think I learned just as much as the year before, which is really great.

What I learned:

1. There are a lot of details that go into one of these conferences, and when the details aren’t looked after, people will get neglected and overlooked.

2. Spending most of your time and resources on one event that isn’t particularly well attended by your target is wasteful and ineffective.

3. I get way more out of meeting people and getting to know them, than I do from attending workshops.

All in all, it was a great time and I was glad to be there. I hope to be there next year, but I somehow think I won’t be. Just a hunch.

One of the best people I met and got to know there was Whis Hays. He leads a ministry called Rock the World that works toward making leaders in the kingdom. Whis is a down to earth guy with a heart for young people. He is driven to help them realize their potential in the kingdom and works towards making their part count through discipleship. If you are looking for a way to develop you youth when they leave youth ministry, check them out.

Twitterpated

Posted by Paul - 26/01/09 at 07:01:26 am

This may come as a bit of a surprise to many of you, but I don’t use Twitter. Not only do I not use Twitter, but  don’t really ever plan to. I usually try to stay ahead of the curve on technology and this would be a good way to do that, but there are some hang ups I have about it that I think bear mentioning. In case you don’t know Twitter it is “frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

First thing, I don’t really think anyone wants to know what I am doing throughout the day, at least enough to check. Don’t get me wrong, I have my share of stalkers and I do enjoy a bit of celebrity since I live in Alabama and used to have a mullet. I just don’t really have any people that want to follow my day like that.

Second, or B as Cathy would say, I don’t really want people to know that I just got finished with a big project, or went to eat lunch, or got a great deal on my car insurance. Also, I’m too lazy to update said activities since I would rather be doing them that talking about them. I know that there are celebrities who have amazing traffic on their Tweets, but that just isn’t me (and I don’t have a PA to update all of that for me).

Having said all of that, I do some great uses for Twitter especially in ministry. Several youth guys are using Twitter to update their groups on specifics for meetings. Imagine doing that to coordinate small groups or many of the other activities that operate on the fly. It could also be useful for project management, though only to update status (I use basecamp).  Of course, all of this hinges on your community being open to using Twitter. I don’t have a community that even knows it exists, so it doesn’t prove very useful for me right now.

There is a great little article over at Church Marketing Sucks on this if you want some follow up.

Lament

Posted by Paul - 22/01/09 at 11:01:47 am

I sat in on one of our classes last night at St. Peter’s. Never have I heard anything on the need for lament in the lives of Christians. It was a deeply personal and tender class and I really am still processing this whole idea.

Using Psalm 62, Gordon Bals walked us through what lament looks like and how it differs from grumbling or complaining. It was probably to first time I allowed myself to express some grief in front of other people in a classroom, and though it was a bit strange, I was more than willing just so that I could experience what was being taught.

According to Gordon, lament is:

“not grumbling. A grumbler is indifferent or hard towards God and has built a defensive fortress around his heart by ignoring pain, doubt and resentment instead of moving through them with the Lord’s help.”

Sounds a lot like me. I think I have built my life around grumbling more often than I am willing to lament. Maybe it is a fear of being close to a Holy God, but I run away as much as I press into that relationship. I realized last night that I don’t really like that about myself, and I think that I am ready to try somethings differently.

This is just what I remember from last night. Hopefully I will be able to post more as the weeks progress.

Reflections on Inauguration

Posted by Paul - 21/01/09 at 08:01:46 am

I absorbed as much as I could yesterday, knowing that this would be a day talked about for quite a while. There was a lot that happened, probably for the first time, but the magnifying glass was out probably as much as it has ever been as well. There were record crowds at the Mall and online as well, I’m sure, to watch the first black president, the first statesman in quite a while, the first senator and many years be sworn in to the office of the President of the United States of America. It was historic, but I wonder how it will be remembered.

It couldn’t have been more appropriate that this day came following the celebration of Martin Luther King and his crusade for civil rights. What a great triumph to have the first black president enter office the day after that celebration. Yet, because of so much emphasis on race, it seemed to make the message disagree with itself. Though it was a huge day for civil rights, it seemed to put more emphasis on differences than on equality. I think of the last couple of phrases in the benediction that went something like this, “when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around – when yellow will be mellow – when the red man can get ahead, man – and when white will embrace what is right.” This was very reminiscent of prayers I heard from the civil right movement placed more in the middle of the century. It’s as if there has been no progress or change since then, and the last line is just divisive. I hope that the president isn’t placed in that position for long in his term.

One thing that I have loved about Obama is that he is a statesman. He knows the subtlety of words and how to use them. He presents well. While we have had presidents that have done their job well, I don’t think America has seen a statesmen in office for quite a while. Some people have argued that it doesn’t matter that he can turn a phrase, but I disagree. As someone who believes in God’s word, I think that words and their proper use can make a difference in our lives.

I have heard the word “hope” more in this campaign than any other as well. Hope is not a small thing, and I think Obama is right to remind the country that it is dire need of hope. Here is what I hope for our president: that he can be a husband to his wife and a good father to his children; that he can be judged fairly, by what he does and not just how the press view him; that he can be a unifying agent in our government and society. I don’t know how possible any of those are, especially the last two, but I do think the nation has seen how he can move us toward that goal.

Rebecca Jordan

Posted by Paul - 19/01/09 at 08:01:07 am

I just stumbled upon this artist named Rebecca Jordan. Actually while watching Jack’s Big Music Show (children’s television), she sang an Irish song that left Cathy wondering about what kind of artist she is. If you want to hear the best version a Fleetwood Mac song, visit her site.

Watchmen Movie

Posted by Paul - 16/01/09 at 12:01:20 pm

I don’t often post on trivial stuff that I just think is cool, but I have to make an exception from time to time. I have been seeing a lot of stuff about the Watchmen movie and was mildly interested. I haven’t read the comic, so I don’t have a lot of investment like some other comic to movie franchises, but this one has caught my eye. Why? One look at the site will tell you. It is absolutely one of the best sites for a movie around and the best flash loader I have ever seen.

Check it out.

Last Night @ ESPY

Posted by Paul - 12/01/09 at 10:01:07 am

We had a great night in discussion at our youth meeting. To start it, we were all eating and one adult leader said that Jack’s apple pies are infinitely better than Milo’s (what the kid was eating). He said, “Compared to a Jack’s apple pie, what your eating is poop.” To which the kid replied,

“I love eating poop, especially this bite.”

I love our group.

A Personal Grace

Posted by Paul - 07/01/09 at 06:01:49 am

I have been thinking about grace a lot lately. It really is such an incredible thing that I don’t think I really get. I know I understand the concept, but I don’t walk around feeling it in my life. I don’t often think of how it is can be such a life changing thing. It makes me wonder about why.

Certainly, I don’t live moment to moment thinking of all the things I need grace for. I basically live as if I don’t need grace. Grace, when I usually think of it, is a one time thing that happens before we accept God as our Savior that we have no part in. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve (not like forgiveness, where God just doesn’t give us what we deserve). It is an interesting concept that I have thought of often and been taught by professors who know more about the Bible than I probably ever will.

But that isn’t what I need. I don’t really need to understand all of the theological concepts of grace to live in a place of personal grace. In fact, all this knowledge often keeps me from that. Knowing that grace happens one time and that it’s once and for all doesn’t leave much room for me living in a relationship with someone who extends me grace for the things that I will do in the next ten minutes.

It is much like the forgiveness paradigm in our culture. Someone wrongs someone else, they say they are sorry and the person says “it’s OK.” Well it’s not OK, and there can’t be forgiveness without acknowledging the hurt and then forgiving it. Living without personal grace is like short circuiting the relationship I have with Jesus. It makes it impersonal. It takes the good news out of the gospel of my life. It castrates the power and glory of the Gospel.

What I’m hoping to do in this idea is stop trying to understand for the sake of understanding and to make that understanding personal. I don’t really think understanding is bad, I just don’t think it is the best we can have if it is disconnected from a relationship. I am firmly convinced that a relationship is what God wants, created us for and intends for us. I’m hoping, even in this post that I process this out, is that somehow I can personalize this knowledge in a way that draws me closer to God.

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