today i am heading out into eastern kentucky with 44 youth and young adults to work with asp (appalachia service project) as part of our senior high mission experience. i don't expect to have wi-fi access at camp, so i'm putting in this twitter feed. i am confident in verizon to give me enough service to give updates via twitter. stop in regularly or subscribe to my twitter updates for your cell phone.
since i'll be heading out on our senior high mission experience tomorrow i'm guessing this post will stick around for a bit. unless i can find some wi-fi in the area. here are some links that i'm perusing.
this week are are in vbs week. it is kinda standard the last few years for me to work with the 5th & 6th graders. we try to be more 'big kid' like so that this group isn't feeling so old for vbs. like last year, we are a test church for next years cokesbury/abingdon curriculum. the theme/title is called camp edge. being a camping kinda guy i like the theme, it's a piece of cake to work with decorations wise. our room is in a state of construction so we are sorta minimal in decor, but the rest of the place is off the hook.
the curriculum is still in development, so i won't say it's great or not great. i have liked the daily teaching stuff pretty well, we adapt most of it to fit our schedule and age group as we see it. we have been doing a lot of initiative game stuff that requires rope and other outdoor elements to help keep it moving. i really like the music, it has a good energy and some cool dance stuff (that i cannot do, but the youth can). plus there is a good component of sign language, which i like as well.
i'm starting to post pictures at our youth flickr site from this week. check it out i will keep posting them as i can. i know many folks will be wanting ideas for their vbs next year.
heard an interview of dan ariely author of predictably irrational. he brought up a good point on people trading in their cars (generally high gas mpg vehicles) and getting low value for them, even taking a hit on their loan. all because of gas prices going up. he was saying that gas prices have only gone up a dollar in the last year which can equate to $1000 more over the year, but to take on new payments or pay interest to eclipse that raise doesn't make sense financially. you loose more money now with that reaction. so what is someone to do? hmm...
reading this i was revisiting my 'renaissance years' as i call them.
i was, and probably still am not, much of an academic. i had two very unfruitful college credit years in my first stop at university of alabama.. though i do have some decent stories to tell. i needed some perspective so i pulled out of the campus grind and began a two year journey i called my "renaissance years/period."
let me set the stage. i suck at college. i return home to new jersey after two years of college and mission service as summer staff. my fathers only request, "don't stop school," his fear being that i would not go back.. probably true too. soo...
. no gun, mace or stick.. just a whistle to thwart back evil goers. this was my day job.i don't know where the idea of going straight from one milestone to another has become such a given that taking time to develop life experiences is odd and newsworthy. i am grateful for my two years as a renaissance man. it was the best learning i had while i was supposed to be in some education process.
i have now been in hendersonville for three years. in those times we have started a family, made many friends and gotten to know many great people. but being an implant into a small town atmosphere has its interesting moments. like this
i'm walking the children's hallways one day and i see this little girl whom i see with her parents in my sunday school class every week. i say hello to the child and the teacher proceeds to tell me "do you know who this is?" and before i can even respond "this is hank thompson's grandchild." this confused me.. this is addison, amanda & john's little girl.. then i remember, hank is amanda's dad, who just happens to be the ex-mayor of hendersonville. he was the family member with the name and long standing member of my church, i just knew the family a little backwards from everyone else apparently.
hank passed away on sunday. like others of our hendersonville cloud of witnesses that have passed away in my three years time, i am still capturing who these people have been. i really only knew him as the dad to amanda. but as i found out through the last two days spending some 16 hours conversing with people touched by this man & seeing the full family in resolve & grief i know this new witness a whole lot more..
so other than working our vacation bible school (another posting). i was playing a different role mixing that 'do all things needed for ministry' to a job and doing all things for your friends. services were yesterday & today (visitaion & service). i never planned on ushering some 700 people (over 1000 in all) through the pews of our church in a maze i likened to an amusement park ride line. staying hours and hours later than a planned day, just to be a presence. standing holding seats, handing out bulletins, grabbing water, moving flowers, giving pats on the back, crying and laughing.
i grieved for the family & have prayed for them for over a year now, these last two days though have given me a little more clarity as to who was in my prayers and why our cloud of witnesses becomes a little more colorful.
but as son lance mentioned via
“He did not talk a lot about his faith because he didn’t feel like he had to,” Lance Thompson said. “He lived it out.”
i think hank will find a friend in saint francis.
driving down and back from vacation i got into my habit of listening to random radio stuff. bad christian preaching radio, old country, classical, you get the picture. not so random in the listening line up is npr. they had a great profile of victor wooten. it got me wondering what the fleck crew has been up too. i haven't seen bela fleck for a few years, since he came on stage with bobby mcferrin to do a set of dueling banjos, only mcferrin used his voice. that was awesome. so why not, get the fleck on.
last spring jay & and a crew of us teamed up to lead worship with brian mclaren at the festival of homiletics in an 'emergent' service. coming up with 'emergent' at 8:30 am with 1400 people was interesting to imagine. the tenets we thought up were images, participatory, and community.. the community part was manifested in our singing as our music had three musicians (jay being one of them) and each led a song. none of the songs were mainstream, but jays was one of his home brews and he's now sharing that sound and music for the song.
my friends at the center for youth ministry training are putting together a pretty good looking conference this fall. i'm still working out the dates to go, but hope to make it myself. deech and the others are people i am happy to call friends and talented & knowledgeable youth ministers.
deech has made available some of his braintrust for those interested. he's got some powerpoints and note outlines from some work he presented to the virginia annual conference.
update: been able to upload the many pictures from our days at the beach
hey folks, forgot to mention that i'm on vacation with my side of the family unit. we are chilling out for the week in fort morgan alabama. got a fat pad right on the beach and haven't done much of anything all week. awesome!
i find this highly amusing from shaun groves in speaking to stan hauerwas's staunch pacifism. tony, you might like this too.
Stanley Hauerwas has said, “I’m a pacifist because I’m a violent son of a bitch.” And I don’t believe him. Because he’s miniature. He’s a diminutive (brilliant) theologian no more than five feet tall and speaking with a voice that reminds me of an LP played at a 45’s speed. I’m not buying that he’s violent. Not physically. And that lets some of the credibility out of his entire pacifist position.
two of our youth put together this video. one actually started it and due to summer vacation had to pass the final cut onto another. the latest in our ministry highlight series. i think it's a bit long, but i can live with that as i think it is mostly excellent. yours truly gets to make a special appearance.
time just seems to be going everywhere but into blog posting. no biggie, just means i'm working with the youth who i am sorta paid to minister with. so for the time you can see some of the fruits of work & readings. this is my latest collection of stuff.
a bunch of friends have already highlighted this video. it's pretty darn cool to imagine it all as you see it
while playing a golf tournament on saturday one of my buddies called me gavin degraw.. i told him he can't call me that cause i wasn't sure if that was a bust or a compliment.. no idea who that is. but there is another gavin that i do know. he's still not the number one gavin richardson in google though! boo-yah! a blast from the past, bush - machinehead
myself and a group of our youth are putting together these highlight videos for all the overarching ministries of our church. one video highlight gets show each sunday through the summer. this past sunday was our youth min sunday. it's kinda hard to capture everything that we are in a 3 min video, but i'm kinda happy with this one, plus its different than the other videos we've been doing so far.
just a myriad of links from odd stuff i've have on tab in the browser.
living into my "productive years" in new jersey there are a few things that are prevalent in the south that i for some reason or another just don't grasp very well. things like, the 4 wheeler, hunting, and competitive fishing stand at the front of the list.
being in at a church now that is part of a town based around a lake system, and apparently a good fishing lake at that, my worlds of understanding and confusion collide every now and then. at the moment we are in the now of collision.
for whatever reason the mens professional bass tour will begin a tournament next weekend at our lake. apparently it is being moved from another lake due to some of the flooding in the mid-west. with news of the tournament i started to see the boats the next day. you know the boats, the ones that have all kinds of stickers on them (plus the cars that tow them) and have some massive sized engines off the back ends.
so while i was finishing up hitting some golf range balls this morning a guy asked if the course had a range. i confirmed for him that it did, the noticed as he drove away to park his van sported a bass sticker and a missouri plate. so i asked him if he was here for the tournament next weekend. "no" i'm hear for the womens tournament this weekend. me, "really." him, "yeah, she didn't have a good day ranking wise, but she caught like 35 bass." me, confused look. him, "it is really nice here, we've talked of moving here." me, "i certainly like it. so have a good day hitting them around."
i drive away and i find myself in another state of confusion.. women's competitive fishing....
last night many of you probably caught nt wright on the colbert report. for those that didn't, here's the fun. if you were not sure what exactly was said, go check in with jake, he transcribed the conversation.
love the onion, and love the onion news broadcasts. this one is just gross, it is scary to think of though as the principals behind making this product are quite real. tip jody
in a bit of a repeat, i am throwing out another talking heads video. this is a long-distance dedication to mike, one of my parents who loaned me a copy of "stop making sense" for my amusement. i don't think i thought about it then, but over the years i have seen the brilliance david byrne. this video shows some of that radical thinking, showing off that parody stuff you seen more of over the years. you might even see some familiar, yet younger, faces.
today we had a great day of conversation. i hooked up with friend jim palmer for a day of conversation 'connecting with non-religious yet spiritual people' and some 25 folks. i tried to broadcast it over ustream, which, it might have actually done. i think though our church wireless wasn't quite up to task for it though. i did record most of it on simple video, so maybe i can put some out there in future days. jim has given a little synopsis of the conversation.
i really enjoyed our time together today! let me try and summarize some things that came up, and then ask for your feedback on a few items.
in summary....
1. all people have "spiritual" interests and desires (i.e. desire for peace,love, freedom, and contentment). unless you live on an island, every person has had exposure to religion. some people have spent more time and energy seeking God and spiritual things through religion than others but all people are influenced by the presence of religion in society and culture.
2. "religion" is defined as a fixed or defined system of beliefs, practices, and structures meant to aid people in knowing God.
3. a "non-religious" person is someone for whom that organized system of beliefs, practices, and structures is not beneficial for their "spiritual growth and desire to know God. in cases where those religious beliefs, practices, and structures are oppressive, legalistic, judgmental, shallow, hypocritical, and demeaning, people are deeply wounded and damaged from their previous religious involvements, and are therefore often resentful of those individuals and churches involved.
4. a highly organized form of church is only one form of church. this form of church works for some people but not all people. an increasing number of people no longer subscribe to the idea that "church" must involve a building, organized programs, and weekly worship services.
5. the panel today is representative of many non-religious people:
Mike - Buddhist AND Christian
Jeffrey - Don't label me anything, get to know me.
Carlene - Don't put yourself or others in a box.
Doug - Love is my religion.6. unconditional love and acceptance, and cultivating true relationships/friendships is what's most "relevant" to non-religious people. these cannot be accomplished or achieved within the typical systems, structures, and programs of organized church life. in other words, the true essence of "church" is not even possible AT church (services, classes, groups, meetings, programs, etc.).
7. religion often labels/stereotypes people, too quickly judges and condemns others who are different, and insists there must be "winners" and "losers." religious energies are often focused on converting people to different beliefs. what gets lost in all of this is truly understanding people as they are or where they are, and how they got there.
8. some people seek to "reform" organized forms of church to make the message of Christ more accessible to non-religious people. others choose to operate outside organized forms of church.
i want to encourage you to read the books: Authentic Relationships, and Divine Nobodies. Consider this Yahoo Group an open forum for the following:
- continuing the conversation of "connecting with the spiritual interests of non-religious people" - offering your feedback and input about today's gathering - sharing how things are evolving in your own personal life and/or in your faith community as it relates to this topic - sharing your input and feedback about the books - passing along other helpful resources
another gathering is scheduled for the fall. if you are interested in helping in any way, let me know. i am also working on a similar event in which the panel will include clerics from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and an Atheist. let me know if you have any interest in helping with that.
you can also always email me at jim(at)divinenobodies.com
thanks! jim
anastasia at ypulse has garnered a list of up and coming superstar teen bloggers.
If you ask your average teenager if they have a "blog," he or she will probably just look at you funny. "Blog" tends to describe the act of writing and publishing online in a more formal way... For most teens, blogging is just writing in their MySpace journal or LiveJournal -- and is usually intended for a very small group of readers, i.e. their good friends. The writing is more informal and can include acronyms and emoticons and misspellings. It's often a continuation of a conversation that may have begun in class that day that includes photos from so and so's party.
....
Carl Ocab (14)
Thilak Raj Rao (18)
Paul Bourque (19)
David Wilkinson (13)
Jason Pereira (17)
Jon Wheatley (20)
Ahson Rafiq (18)
Sly Blanco (16)
Marko Dimitrovski (13)
Nick Sullivan (17)
Eli Burford (17)
Collin LaHay (18)
Pranav Rastogi (13)
Shannon Lilly (19)
Maher Saleh (12)
Thomas Sinfield (17)
Wayne Liew (18)
Adly bin Mukhtar (19)
Chloe Spencer (16)
Sean (15)
James McDonald (18)
Josh Buckley (16)
Jim Regan (18)
Gareth Boyd (15)
Shane Hudson (14)
Jessica Mah (17)
Glenn Wolsey (15)
Connor Wilson (16)
James Owers (19)
Li (17)
in the context of our conversations of today. i found the final quotes of this video "what if this is your welcome committee" to be interesting. another thing i found striking, people are still hurting, you can see it in their faces. video sent from a friend to my inbox, thanks liz
the cynic in me said, boy there are a lot of tvs in that place
the us open kicks off today and i will be watching as i can. i am pulling for my boy phil. as a fellow lefty (and a lefty that is actually right handed) he's been my fav since he won the us amateur. it's in your backyard phil! go get it!
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