Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

thoughts on the gulf coast

words can't express my disbelief with the disaster in the gulf coast. i have many old friends from that area, which i'm not sure their exact status. i've been friends with a number of churches on the coast, their current standing, i'm not sure. however, i hold out hope that we can all come together to support our family in our own backyard. i looked back at some of my thoughts and feelings from the tsunami in december. this is different as it's close and relational. a prayer for victims.

Lord, I ask you to help all the victims and their families to survive this disaster. Be with them and comfort them. Help them get food and shelter. You are a loving Father and want Your children to be comforted. Let Your will be done. Amen.

please give or support UMCOR or other agencies that are credible in giving aid to the people of the gulf coast. has anyone heard about the umcor sager brown depot? wondering if that was hit, i know it's in louisiana

in more lighthearted thoughts about the news coverage. i've often wondered why news reporters feel like they have to stand in the middle of the storm to report about it. i might be wrong, but i think most people can just look at the winds and know that it's pretty bad. when did bill hemmer join fox.. i thought he was at cnn?

blogger makeovers

for those who are needing some new threads, may i suggest your "claim the name, blogger" fashions. if you are one of those political pundits, then maybe you need the media fact checker shirt. for the husband who is only allowed to blog and work the bbq, you can do it all with the grill & blog master apron. if you are one of those who works out instead of bloggin (chris) then may i suggest your sleeveless tshirt. if you are one of those who blogs during work, don't hide in the shadows making browser windows disappear, just get your "i blog at work garb." for us methodists who are riding the fence of reconciling or confessing movements, why just get your "i'm not gay, but this blog may be." for you ladies, you can look sassy & say something with your "liberal blogger" tank top. ooo-la-la. if you are wanting to warn those men you go out with, let them know that you are blogger and will write about all the stupid things they do on your date. for those of you not in the south who need something more substantial than a t-shirt there is always a sweatshirt.

hauerwas on the 'right'

jonathon, in his week with hauerwas, posted a miriad of quotables on day 7. one that caught my eye was his take on the "religious right."

I think President Bush represents the privatized form of Christianity that revels in how important Jesus is for them but wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do if they followed any of the radical demands of the Gospel."

honestly, i don't know if GW has an deep enough spiritual understanding to grasp. a spiritual leader he is not & i don't fault him for that. not to get into a seperation of church & state argument. however, we give so much power to our government officials and other leaders, shouldn't some be leaders who are spiritually mature... maybe that would help us as a society to address issues that are not just scriptural, but cultural...

gorilla marketing for church

i found a new blog site that intrigued me, a generous orthodoxy think tank. much of the articles i'm too tired to read and digest, however there was one on church marketing, highlighting an article titled "churches seeking marketing savy breed of pastor." this intrigued me as i have a copy of "gorilla marketing" in my stack of readings, aimed to get an idea or two with communication with the youth ministry and the congregation.

reading the article i couldn't help but be confused by the energies expelled for marketing. mentioned in the article too is the huge (in church terms, 2mil is a drop in the bucket when we talk consumerism) umc marketing campaign. a piece that i draw to question was the scriptural reference that was thrown out to justify such passion for marketing.

"Go therefore ..."
Others, however, see marketing as a necessary part of Christ Jesus' great commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19, New Revised Standard Version).

doesn't the scriptures also say, "do not be of this world" & a consumeristic marketplace is certainly part of 'this' world? does their need to be an attractive spin put on Christian faith? we've got our seeker sensitive churches for that.. i don't know..

it seems to me as well, if channeled money for excellent graphics and put them into missions and/or supporting the poor then we would be more to the words of Christ.. but now, we go against him by saying things like "look at us!" when Christ on a time or two said, 'don't tell anyone what happened here.' now that's some strange marketing, but apparently it worked

youth ministry celebrity lookalike

i had lunch on wednesday with the 'old guys' of youth ministry. it's a group that mark devries (youth ministry architects & family based youth ministry) has organized. during the discussion. the question was posed. does mark really look like dick cavett? could it be a youth ministry celebrity look alike? or did dick cavett stir up so much controversy that he had to go under government protection and has resurfaced as a youth minister in nashville?

my shameful secret

so i have this shameful secret. i'm a closet wrestling fan. yup, since i was a kid i've had some strange desire to watch fake fighting, where i can accurately predict what is going to happen. although i'm not rabid fan, buying pay-per-views or books written by men who spend more time in the gym than a book of any type, childrens or audio. however, i do keep as up to date as i need too, just as any other soap opera follower. what compelled me to speak about this now is reading an article that made me re-realize (like i hadn't thought this before) how much of a waste it is to spend my time watching this stuff.

Since poor Hogan can't move, and since the skin around his chest is wound tighter than Nicole Kidman's forehead, we're headed for a steady diet of shoves, shoulder blocks, arm locks, headlocks, elbows, punches, chest slaps and kicks … in other words, it's just like every Hulk Hogan match. I don't know why I even brought this up...

Well, the ref just got knocked out. I think I could have predicted everything that happened in this match so far -- except for Hogan's catheter getting yanked out and urine spraying everywhere. Nobody saw that one coming.

i've kept this my dirty secret from many for a number of years. erin didn't know that i was a wrestling fan until an old roommate came to town and we had 'family night' which consisted of shawn, tiffany (his now wife), davey (said roommate), and myself going to the local sports bar for sunday night football, baseball, & wrestling pay-per-view all on the same wall of tv's. she was dumbfounded and to this day wonders what else i keep from her. i sure as heck didn't tell her of the time i wore my pastors collar (not that i earned it, got if for 75% of at cokesbury tent sale on year) to a wwe match here in town when one of the wrestlers just happened to be a 'reverend.' i certainly don't give her the historical account of the wrestlers.. 'this guy used to be bad, but then he just happened to stick up for someone so now he's good and they changed his name... that name stunk so they put a mask on him now he's bad again.'

yes, for some reason, hulk-a-mania rules, no matter how lame it makes me. that's my shameful secret...

ps: i'm throwing jonathon under the bus, he claims pacifism, but yet he's addicted to ultimate fighter championship.

welsey on "why can't we all just get along?"

Mister Wesley's teaching: "For how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love." WORKS (Bic Ed) 1:107.

desert thoughts on church debate

abbot poeman says, get away from any man who always argues every time he talks.

blasted you desert fathers!! i suppose i cannot speak another word about the varied debates as it always is becoming argumentative for me. i'd suggest it is the same for others. i've had my fun, agitation, etc. i think i'll go back to my cell until i can come out and speak without an argument on my lips.

what does it take to get a comment

• homosexual
• lake junaluska
• reconciling
• gaby boom (saw this term on wesley blog)
• anti-war
• same sex marriage
• radical judges
• benny hinn/rick warren/pat robertson (choose your own adventure)
• literal bible
• open communion
• stem cell research
• partial birth abortion
• harry potter

as a collaborative effort with jonathon, we've come to feel that it doesn't matter what you write, as long as you have the buzz words that trigger controversial response/comments. let the games begin

what is up with Christian leadership

in what is certainly politics over Christ likeness, what is up with the some of the leadership of the Christian faith today. first you have pat robertson advocating assassination of the president of venezuela. now we have mark tooley (not as famous), leader of a conservative methodist movement (ird) calling for people to voice their disapproval at lake junaluska for allowing a "huge jamboree for homosexual activists and their supporters" as it will surely "endorse a wide range of exotic sexual activities based on the spurious premise of "tolerance" and "inclusion."" thanks to dean & josh for the info

new bloggin friends

i've come across some bloggin friends, old and new, encourage you to meet them.

• auntie em: emily austin is a fellow tennssee conference methodist. so i hope to catch up with her in person someday (a small goal of mine to meet all tn methodist bloggers). she's been a commentor for a long time who has taken a voice for herself, full of prayers, news, & commentary.
• lake neuron: this is john carney, an old friend from my days on Mountain TOP staff. he's a journalist by trade, so he has to have a lot to say, but right now he's talking about his mission trip experiences to Africa. i have aunti em to thank for hooking us up.
• accountable discipleship: steve manskar is still a baby at the moment, but author of several books, 'a perfect love' one that i've used. he's with the general board of discipleship as director of, what else "accountable discipleship."

note: for some reason dean snyder has not been on the blogroll, what a shame, no more after today.

coming soon to a blogroll near you

i will be participating in PoMogs one of those blogs based around a number of people reading a book and then doing what we do best, talk. we will be getting into "Eight Life-Enriching Practices of United Methodists" which sells for $6 bucks at cokesbury. i'm excited about talking more about spiritual practices as a um. email me if you want to get in on the blog, the more the merrier.

who do you say i am?

one of this weeks lectionary text was Matthew 16: 13-20. it is the narrative where Jesus asks the disciples who people say that he is, and then asks them, "who do you say that i am?" at youth tonight i challenged them to ask others and come to understand who other people say that they are. so i'm just curious, for those that read this blog..

"Who do you say that I am?"

never mind, it's not worth it

i remember some stories i read once. a guy named Moses went to Pharaoh and said that there would be plague, drought, and death if he didn't listen to God. as the story goes, Pharaoh didn't listen as his 'heart was hardened.' i'm really sick right now because i want to converse, listen, talk with people but i can comfortably say, their hearts are hardened.

this past week i've gotten a bit more involved in contributing (if one calls it that) at the umc discussion boards. what i've found is many people who are less about listening and discussion than they are about spouting their 'truths,' calling names, and being downright mean. much of this centers on the homosexuality debates and i'll admit, it's a big deal, but i'm of the position that in order to make good decisions we need a heart of Christ like discernment, not an attitude of who is right and wrong, absolute truths, & agendas.

so i was bothered as i was basically called out as a person pushing the homosexual agenda not because i push an agenda, but because i feel to truly listen, we don't need to 'harden our hearts' to the people who are speaking to us. unfortunately, i'm being perceived by those (using lame political labels) with liberal agendas as conservative and the conservative as liberal. in the world of political arena i call myself a moderate. in the matters of spiritual life i call myself one who listens who strives to discern. i don't want myself to have a 'hardened heart.'

maybe i just have an idea of how frustrated moses (and the others who dealt with the hardened heart) have felt.

youth ministry blog

i started a new blog for my new church and the youth ministers. it deals specifically with fumc hendersonville youth min. things, but for those of you who are youth ministers that actually read this blog (or ministers who want ideas working with your ym's) it could be some healthy food for thought. i'm throwing in elements of our theologic practice, youth programming ideas, etc.

:: hfumc youth ministries blog ::

remembering brother roger

official release from Taize'

Frère Roger has entered the life of eternity

    During the evening prayer on Tuesday 16 August, in the midst of the crowd surrounding the Community in the Church of Reconciliation, a woman - probably mentally disturbed - struck Brother Roger violently with knife blows. He died a few moments later.

    In its sorrow, the Taizé Community thanks all those who are supporting it by their affection and their prayer. On the morning of 17 August, after Brother Roger’s death, the following prayer was read in the church:

    “Christ of compassion, you enable us to be in communion with those who have gone before us, and who can remain so close to us. We confide into your hands our Brother Roger. He already contemplates the invisible. In his footsteps, you are preparing us to welcome a radiance of your brightness.”

    The funeral of Brother Roger will take place on Tuesday 23 August at 14.00.    

    Each afternoon, from 15.00 to 19.00, his body is placed in the church of Taizé, so that all who wish may go and meditate close by him.

    Eight years ago, Brother Roger designated Brother Alois to succeed him, as the person in charge of the community. Brother Alois has entered straightaway into his ministry as servant of communion at the heart of the community.

I've never met Brother Roger, but he has his impact on my life with the spirit of the Taize' community, specifically their music, nourishing and helping my soul. for those of you who do not know of Taize it is an ecumenical monastic community in Taize' france steeped in world peace. a place of pilgrimage for many youth worldwide. i hope to do my own pilgrimage someday in the future, it will be saddened to know the physical presence of Brother Roger will not be there, however, his spiritual presence, i am sure, will permeate.

thank auntie em for letting me know.

update note: as i've thought about the taize' community and Brother Roger today, i've read and re-read this official statement. i struggle with this statement because it doesn't have the regular words of our culture, 'murder' or 'stabbing,' to convey the message of death. could it be that the taize' community is showing immediate grace to this woman? she may infact be mentally disturbed by a clinical definition, but the lack of the usual labels strikes me as interesting. if it is a means of grace by the community, then they are so much more amazing and inspirational than i had ever imagined.

homosexuality, sin, & whatever analogy we use under the sun: revisted1

thanks to all who shared to our listening session on homosexuality within the context of Christian spirituality. i had hoped to write about it sooner, but an issue as sensitive & divisive as this needs apt time for discernment. even as i start this post i feel it will take me more time to complete thoughts, but i'm stuck on this so i thought i'd share.

a few years back, when the episcopal church was going through separations after electing Bishop Robinson, i was discussing the state of the church with a close friend in the episcopal church. as we talked it became clear to us, that approaches to homosexual clergy & 'practicing' homosexual clergy were not addresses as a matter of spiritual or theological understanding. they were approached as a issue based solely on the act of sex.

when i started at the university of alabama i remember an afternoon walking through the local mall. as i walked around i saw a mixed race couple holding hands while shopping. i took notice and that bothered me. it didn't bother me because i thought it was weird (where i grew up in nj it was quite commonplace). i thought it odd in the deep south. i asked questions of whether that type of relationship was accepted here. i wondered if they had undue stress on their relationship for the sole reason that their cultural context might tell them they are not to be together. i threw some unsaid admiration their way and kept on.

when i started my call to ministry i met a guy named "d". we became good friends and had our own little circle of friends. as the story goes, a few years later "d" opened up about being gay. till then he had struggled within himself to be 'normal' going so far as to get engaged. since we are still friends i've met some of his boyfriends over the years, though that's not a big part of our friendship.

as i've thought about "d's" relationship and the story of the couple at the mall as significant imprints in my life i've come to understand something for myself. the only thing that i ever really wondered about "d" and his relationship is how they are able to be intimate. being comfortable & within context of my heterosexuality makes it difficult for me to understand the possibility of intimate relationship between same sexes. i can understand the intimate relationship between ethnicities, i only take notice because of a societal context. which, that societal context has changed views over the past 30 years.

for myself i've come to a point where i don't have to understand it.

for our greater Christian faith...

what seems to polarize this difficulty of understanding is that as a whole i think there is such an unhealthy understanding of our own sexuality. now, i'm not even going to attempt to go into a huge psychological analysis, but i think we need to take a look at how we view sex in our own lives. is our current view skewed by cultural trends? do we have a strong or weak sex drive? are we heterosexual or homosexual? are we afraid of sex because of criminal actions? does sex warrant criminal behavior? the individual will have to determine for themselves what parts of their sexuality they understand and seek how that moves or works in their spiritual life. after that they need to make decisions of action or cause. the group will just have to come to understand this instead of just speaking with understanding of where the individual is.

i am reminded of a visual that brian mclaren shared at the emergent convention here in nashville back in may. he brought up if you took a hetero and homosexual orientation comfort-ability on an 'x' axis and then stretched those same people out over the 'y' axis determined by their level of sex drive, you find that people are scattered all over the place.

i'd don't think i can call the 'homosexual' issue of the church the 'white elephant in the corner' because people are talking. however, i wonder if more of the issue has to do with the sex act over a spiritual perspective of Christian faith & practices.

 

watching our neighbors

the elca rejected a proposal allowing gay clergy who live within committed relationship that met some 'requirements.' what was interesting to me was some of the language coming out of the meeting.

Conservatives said the ordination proposal would have effectively overturned prohibitions against non-celibate gays in the Lutheran ministry and advocates for gays weren't satisfied, either. They said the measure would have created a second-class roster for homosexual clergy in the church.

New Jersey Synod Bishop Roy Riley, president of the ELCA's Council of Bishops, said the vote was a good indicator of how the entire church was thinking. "This church is not ready to make major changes in its ordination practices," Riley said. "That was the crux, really."

since i'm not quite sure what will happen with the umc in the coming months, but i'd suspect that for our next general conference (even though it's 3 years away) we will end with some of that same language.

coming in july

i mentioned this the other day when jonathon, brandon, & myself had a meeting with jenny. i was excited to find the cover in the proverbial 'inbox.' currently i'm working on the prayer stations for the project and sometime in the future i'll do something fun, like film myself.

reflections on justice sunday

sam has some great reflections on the recent "justice sunday 2" held here in nashville over the weekend. definitely worth reading.

youth 2007

adam sent me this design team application for youth 2007. youth 2007 is the next global gathering of united methodist youth. erin was a contract worker on the design team for youth 2003, so that meant that i worked a whole lot for the design team. i'm expecting on taking a big group & doing some workshop sessions, so i'm not sure if i'll put in similar time as the last event. it's great though and i'll be there to say hi to any of you who go.

form your own opinion

i've always said that some of the most serious things are said in jest. this made me laugh and gave me some ounce of wonder as to why this was made. i say an ounce because it's easy to see how people are beaten up by many who profess Christian faith. for those who want to bash the church, it's even easier.

thanks to ian (and i suppose pete) for the link.

bloggin on company time

so i've noticed on my own blog & others, that all you wonderful people who come by to share thoughts and read whatever nonsense is going on around me do not generally stop by over the weekend. hmm..

i'm reminded of articles and news reports sharing (of which i have my own experience) of spending hours on the internet during work time. on article saying it costs some $200 billion to businesses & for those of you in missouri you are the number one internet time waster according to wisconsin.

many of these reports say that people spend about 3-4 hours of time on the internet a day. as i see it, it's just during the work day. chris, i think you can rest assured that people are at least getting out for physical activity on the weekend... or maybe they are just opting for tv.

so the question is asked.. how much of your work day is spent bloggin (reading bloglines, searching for news articles, linking pages, etc.)?

i'm in a slump, so i'm only about 2 hours this week. i hope to waste more time next week and push my average up to 5. see you all online.

bishop wills weighs in on lake j.

so our current bishop weighed in on a the current situation at lake junaluska and the reconciling ministries. reading the letter i was kinda confused to say, are you asking us to be filled with Christ hearts, but only towards your viewpoint? is this letter as much agenda as the claim that the reconciling ministries use of lake j. is part of their agenda. one, i'm not sure that lake j. would be harmed by media types and thus have tarnished image after the conference either. i bet it will just go back to being the sleepy little lake town for retired ministers (until the summer when the youth camps invade). two, if you are asking people to be filled with Christ like hearts in addressing concerns of the church, shouldn't that be the first emphasis not the political sides.

August 12, 2005
Brothers and Sisters,

The decision to allow the Reconciling Ministries Network to meet at Lake Junaluska and the reaction of groups both within and outside the United Methodist Church to that decision bring us to a very difficult place as United Methodists in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, not unlike the difficult decisions that had to be made during the 2004 General Conference.

One of those decisions was to reaffirm the current prohibition on the ordination of self-avowed, practicing, homosexual persons. It was difficult because faithful Christian people within the United Methodist Church are deeply divided in their understanding of who qualifies to be a clergyperson in our United Methodist Church. Yet, at the end of the 2004 General Conference there was a commitment to hold our Church together and to build bridges of conversation and prayer among persons who hold differing convictions regarding this issue.

I am disappointed the Reconciling Ministries Network has chosen to meet at Lake Junaluska for their conference. The choice of this location appears to be agenda driven and not bridge building.

While the administration of the Lake Junaluska Retreat Center believed permitting this group to meet there was within the framework of the rental policy, I am sure they were under the impression they were doing what was right. In fact, the following paragraphs in The 2004 Book of Discipline were used to help the SEJ Administrative Executive Committee make the decision they did: # 612 and # 806.

LakeJunaluskadid not initiate or plan, nor has it endorsed, the RMN conference. The booking office at Lake Junaluska received a request from RMN to rent housing and meeting space. Junaluska is a retreat center that is open to Christians of all denominations and organizations, even those with whom United Methodists may have differences on some points of doctrine or practice. In his statement to the United Methodists of the SEJ, Rev. Carr cites the paragraphs in The 2004 Book of Discipline that pertain to RMN's request to rent space.

My concern is long after this gathering is over, neither the groups in favor of or opposed to the purpose of this event, nor the media who will be drawn to it will care what happens to Lake Junaluska or the ministries of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.

In times like these, evil wants to take control of God¹s Church by breaking any unity within the Body of Christ and thereby diverting our energies from our primary mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Evil seeks to take the love that Jesus has put in our hearts and make us mean-spirited to others around this issue. I do not believe God will honor words and actions that come from mean-spiritedness in our hearts.

Even though I do not support the decision to hold this event at Lake Junaluska, I must pray that God will keep my heart pure in times like these. Like Ezekiel, I pray that God will remove from us any heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh so that we will have a spirit to follow God¹s will for our lives, our ministry and our church. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

As your Bishop, I support and will uphold The 2004 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church and our current stance on the ordination of self-avowed, practicing homosexual persons. While holding this conviction, I also know that God wants me to keep an open heart to conversation with persons who see this issue differently in order to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I am aware that the Reconciling Ministries Network does not reflect the convictions of the majority of the United Methodist people, The 2004 Book of Discipline, or the program and ministries of the Southeastern Jurisdiction. This is one group, among many caucus groups, related to the United Methodist Church.

I call upon the people called United Methodists² in The Nashville Area to pray that God will give us loving hearts as we confront this difficult time and to express their convictions with a Christ like spirit. I urge all of us to be deeply in prayer for each other and for the leadership of our Jurisdiction that together we might fulfill our commission of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

john wesley on homosexuality, sorta...

you were right cole. wesley was way more concerned about rooting out gay people than poverty. here's a relevant quote.

"When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn." John "Liberace" Wesley

search me o' google

if you are like me you are intrigued or perplexed by the things people use search engines for to find themselves at ye' old blog. needless to say i get a ton of search hits and visits from 'back button' searches. however, i thought i'd compile some favorite searches from this week.

• in a rare yahoo search, the posting on pacifism ranks 2nd if you search for 'tranquility after slavery' i think i have anthony and john to thank for that one
• one of my pictures is a number one google hit for 'kilmore abbey' which is like a weekly if not daily hit
• my youth ministry category ranks 54th in google rankings if you search for "cool holy 'youth ministry'" which begs the question.. who is so persistent to get all the way to the 54th result?
• since jonathon is such a favorite i'm proud to be fifth if you do a google search for 'pastor jonathon norman nashville tn' let it be known that his blog is 3rd or 4th, so he must talk about himself more than i.
• logged into the ministry category of 'huh?' you will find a ranking of 5th for a google search of '"smell like teen spirit" navona' which makes me wonder.. who doesn't know how to spell nirvana?
• for some reason i get a weekly drop by someone looking for the 'faux mohawk'.. again i'm like 29th in the listing, who scans the internet like that. however, if you are looking for 'hair trends, faux hawk' i'm like 9th
• if you are looking for 'nashville emo' then i'm the 14th place to look according to yahoo.
• a picture of the christmon tree is sixth in a google search for 'christmon'
• if you want to check out 'hood theologian' the search for 'spatchula definition' and we're 4th in google

wesley on poverty

does john wesley have the answers to make poverty history? as wesley declared, "earn all you can. save all you can. give all you can." maybe there is wesley principles for sorting out the madness of poverty.

sabbath gone bust

today i had scheduled a sabbath retreat to penuel ridge. however, a meeting (which i mention more about in a minute) was bumped back to later in the day so making it to the ridge seemed like a rush and not in the spirit of what i needed. so, the decision was made to just hang out in nashville and do some other things.

• ran two errands that have been in the air for months. i stopped by jay's church to pick up some books & magazines jennifer freeman is giving to my bro and myself on speaking arabic & other arabic culture issues. stopped by the moutain top office to drop off a sweatshirt (the fact that i am dropping off a sweatshirt should indicate how behind this errand is).
• jonathon and i tried to meet up at stillpoint for noon day prayers. however, when i arrived the doors were all locked. i thought that jonathon and sister kathleen were having a steamy affair, so i peered through windows to get a look. no luck so i went to our conference office to pay some registration fees.
• caught up with jonathon, apparently he's not having steamy love affair with sister kathleen. she's apparently out of town. we opted for lunch at alektor with two other friends, talking youth ministry, um bishops, church gossip, etc.
• went to check out the new labyrinth layed down at scarritt's peace garden. due to our drought type weather the grass wasn't all that grown in, no matter, i didn't have the time to spend in the labyrinth today.
• last stop was the um publishing house. had a meeting with jenny (the aformentioned meeting that was put back). jonathon, brandon (add brandon to jonathon and you get treefinger), and myself were discussing a new cdrom worship project, latest installment of the worshipfeast series, that we will be putting together in the coming months for release in july. that's quite exciting.

wonder what tomorrow of my sabbath gone bust will entail?

lesson from my flowers

warning: rambling session trying to 'name it'

when we are a part of our change we don't always notice the subtlety to our life changes. when i have looked at my flowers (which are nothing more than a prayer station growing & some flowers that i have yet to plant) i forget to look at them intently from day to day. i certainly have a chance as they sit on my front doorstep. what happens is that i let the change happen until it is so drastic that i can't help but notice the deformity, illness, lack of nutrition, weakness, etc.

as i've started my pilgrimage in Christian life i rarely notice the subtle changes that alter me, good and bad. with me and some of you, i assume, the bad ones slowly consume till we are worn or depleted, left with nothing to show but a core of roots and stem. the good ones,.. i'm not sure, we probably celebrate them, they might feel like a new relationship where we have fallen in love, they might be an epiphany that we cannot understand.. whatever they are like, i've never been one to see it as a changing of my core foundation, but it generally has been.

the latest foundation lay-ed in my life has been the discovery of monastic spirituality, the practices and the mysticism woven with the monastic helped to lay a new foundation for the pilgrimage. since then i've tried to keep to my practices with varied success. as life has changed the romance of the new relationship has changed. i'm not giddy as much, but yet, i hold more to them now than ever. i know more about the practices than ever. yet, strangely, i feel more and more depleted. the times of being truly inspired by God are only there sporadically. the feeling of having profound thought (and i define this simply as being more productive thought than anything) seems fading.

this blog i feel, can & is a reflection of this feeling. moments of inspiration, and then just filler.

to me now, this is one of those proverbial crossroads. i can change for something else, setting a new foundation or i can continue with where i am. as a person of my culture i should just change, turn left or right at the crossroads. however, to be a Christian set apart from this world, shouldn't i choose to follow the path less traveled (to rip-off robert frost). or is it more of what St. Benedict says that a vow of stability is necessary for us, for me. stability as St. Benedict would impart is physical and spiritual. your physical being a stable presence in the monastery, the church, the home. the spiritual aspect of it.. could it be that we remain in the practices of our faith that root us in our relationship with God, even when they don't produce pretty flowers.

maybe it is that i have strayed from what was/is essential and added on the varied 'nutrients' that are made specifically for faith. anyways, i fed the plants water before i left this morning. i'll be seeking to find out what i need in the coming days. cause i darn tired of this dry time.

what's in a title

as i am catching up on my life from last week i got a funny series of emails from some of my friends at the edge ministries. i brought up some of this stuff when i proclaimed that i wanted to be a  'california monk' and 'death to seminary'

It is with great joy that I announce to you I have decided to enter The Ministry. I was recently ordained by the Universal Life Church in a lovely 3 minute on-line service.

Also, I have been conferred the highly impressive degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Biblical Studiestitles of:

Cardinal
Orthodox Monk
Archbishop
Saintly Healer
Spiritual Warrior
Swami
Wizard
and most importantly, Universal Philosopher of Absolute Reality.

Looking for a nice gift to send congratulating me on my spiritual and academic triumph? How about Clerical Apparel, ministry related consumables or a nice ministry starter set.

As you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.

The Very Esteemed Swami Jason
Ascetic Gnostic Universal Philosopher of Absolute Reality

have you seen erin?

while i was gone apparently erin went missing. i think this was tuesday of last week where some police officers from sparta came to nashville to track down erin. as it turns out there is a missing person of the same name for the past 5 years. they stopped by her apartment while she was at work and called her on her cell phone (she lives in a house apartment so the home owner called her). she tried to convince them that she wasn't missing and they could come to her office where she worked with her dad. the police were not satisfied with that, so they are going to catch up with her later. i'll let you know if she's found. till then, if you know of the real missing erin let someone know.

asp & the adventures of buddy Christ

i'm back from asp, yeah. that's the last of the big trips for awhile. i've taken some time to share with you the asp adventure through the life of 'Buddy Christ.' click here for the adventures of Buddy Christ. i have more pictures so check back throughout the week.

my community model

	You scored as Mystical Communion Model. Your model of the church is Mystical Communion, which includes both People of God and Body of Christ. The church is essentially people in union with Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit. Both lay people and clergy are drawn together in a family of faith. This model can exalt the church beyond what is appropriate, but can be supplemented with other models. Mystical Communion Model 72% Servant Model 72% Sacrament model 67% Herald Model 61% Institutional Model 39% What is your model of the church?

lake junaluska poll

there's been a lot of talk about the blogosphere about the use of lake junaluska by reconciling ministries. the institute on religion and democracy is hosting a poll for those interested.

supporting the ministry

one of the big experiences of my young Christian life was working summers @ mountain top (tennessee outreach project). from '93 to 2001 i spent some aspect of my Christian leadership formation on those mountains of appalachia. this summer decisions were made to change the leadership of this ministry. while this might not sound like much at first, it's big as the leadership changes are the people who helped found the ministry back in the early 70's. many are excited for the change as there are many ill feelings and burnt bridges from the past leadership, me being one of them. decisions like the ones made were hoped for by many years ago. however, things have been working on God's time.

two years ago you wouldn't have gotten anything but hurtful or critical words from me regarding the ministry's organization or varied policies. however, i'd always cap a sentence "good thing God works despite ourselves." in these past years though i've prayed often to give away the anger or resentment that would fill me. in the past year i've truly felt a sense of peace with my old feelings to reaching out to these folks and the ministry again. God has worked me to a point now where i find myself at the front of the efforts to heal, rebuild, & build the bridges for people to come back to the ministry and again make it something that we can say is 'God blessed' & a Christian model of ministry, not something that works "despite ourselves." the people who have made decisions and are leading this process are the right people for the job. the people in their leadership positions in prior years would not have sought God's heart in these changes. God felt the time was right. i'm excited for these changes and i hope to see a vital ministry emerge again.

for those interested, or those old mtn top friends who might actually read this blog. please check out a website effort to "gather the sheep" & bring together old and new friends to help heal, build bridges, and rebuild. www.supporttheministry.com.