Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

advent chronicles: daily office

as i did last year, i am using phyllis tickle's "Christmastide" daily office prayers for advent. it sometimes helps me to jot down prayers so off and on i will share what is significant or that i am meditating on from my daily office.

Prayer for the Week
Almighty God, give all of us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

advent chronicles

tonight was the beginning of advent for both our church & youth community. with help from jonathon, erin, and some of my youth ministers we put together an ambient worship to start our advent season. much of what was experienced was to name the things that distract us from the Christ Child on an upcoming Christmas Day. Looking over the youth's distractions it wasn't too out of the ordinary; boys, school, parents, etc. the usual suspects as i would say. my personal distractions would have to do with a house that missed a fall cleaning, giving blogging more time than i think God ever intended for this to become, & vh-1 television when i am tired. i'm sure there are more, but those are three i'm able to name tonight.

we trashed our distractions after naming them taking with us candles to help remind us of the Christ Child & necklaces to remember the pilgrimage of maggi & shepherds. i think it was a positive experience for the youth. my prayer is as a youth community we will be doing both preparations and pilgrimage for the Christ Child this Advent & this was the start.
ps: lilly, i put that ys roll of paper to work. thought you'd be excited

a black friday story

sam never ceases to amaze me. i'm so glad i get to call him and lynnette friends. he has a new story that he has shared which brings about the collision of two worlds ("two lists") that we live in here in america. apparently it's been picked up on the ooze, which i say, props friend. thanks for sharing.

10 things i'm thankful for

1. erin who is just wonderful to & for me
2. my abundance of family & friends
3. my ever deepening relationship with my God
4. coe & crimson, the best dogs a single guy could ask for
5. my brother made it home from iraq
6. i have a excellent new church family
7. i get to work with one of my all time fav pastors
8. a car that has heat & air
9. roof over my head
10. my folks moved closer, the trek to nj was a bear

the way i roll

some years ago my aunt told me a story of my uncle who was sitting at the death bed of a friend (he was dying of cancer). this was apparently 'the night' and my uncle was one of this mans best friends so he was naturally there. what my uncle had said during their conversation was a bit unconventional when he said "i'll be glad to know you will be my guardian angel." to which my aunt was that smiling upset, this is true to my uncle and was something this man took with the good nature that is my uncle. i believe he laughed and passed on later that evening. my uncle laughs and says he has an angel with him now.

a few years back one of my co-workers from my state wide training circuit that i was a part of went into the hospital with emergency heart surgery. from what i learned it too was a life threatening situation, however she pulled through amazingly. i wrote her some note in a card where told her some story where i stubbed my toe once and i knew exactly what she was going through. when we met up a few months later she pulled me aside and told me how that made her laugh and laugh and was exactly what she needed at that time. i got a good chuckle with her telling the story.

so it's not unlike me to be like this with conversations with friends and coworkers: the following an email series with one of our churches business managers this past week

bm: Please don't forget to save your receipts from this weekend.

me: sorry 'bm' but we were ordered to burn all receipts in some weird ritualistic worship service. they told us to let our finance friends worry about those details.. &:~D

i didn't expect much, but i was smiling with this response

bm: Gavin, seriously, thanks for the laugh. I received an e-mail from a friend, and i was on the verge of crying about a situation I can't do anything about.  Your e-mail was just what I needed to bring me back around until I can afford the time to be quite with God and talk to him about the other situation. You never know how God is going to use you, and I just want you to know he used you just now.

and this was interesting too for you church folk who always have trouble when it comes to receipts

bm: Technically, I think you are correct. You can burn them. I wanted to check the IRS web site before you burned them. Just want to issue you the proper IRS burn permit.  Easier to do that before they are burned rather than after the bonfire.

not sure what to say with all this, they are random thoughts yes, but this is the way i (and in the case of my uncle) roll. nothing is so serious that the humour is not allowed in. i'm glad people find them blessings at times, i feel blessed to know that people know me well enough to see the heart behind slapstick

youth minister as abbot

for those who are with me regularly you know that i consider myself to be a monastic within my umc denom. my monasticism stems from my efforts to live faithfully by monastic practices and the Rule of St. Benedict. the rule is something that i have brought into the youth group at hfumc, just they didn't know it till last week.

a few weeks back i met with some of our youth ministers about the behaviors of the youth over the past few weeks. they asked me to do something. i had two weeks to ponder thoughts and i admit to being sorta confused and not wanting to do some of the same junk that i know doesn't work or belittles the capacity of the youth. i retreated to the rule and started reading over the role of the abbot & it there it was.

fast forward to sunday night's youth gathering of two sundays ago and i walked out in front of the youth wearing a black monastic robe. i just stood there as they got their stares and chuckles in. from there i introduced myself as their abbot. i gave a quick history of the monastic community & how the rule has helped over hundreds of years to hold communities faithful to God and rooted in Christian practice. so i said, "i consider myself to be your abbot, i'd like you to know who i am." i began to read from the rule and highlight some aspects of where we as youth ministers (and ministers in general) need to be the abbot of our God given Christian communities.

To be worthy of the task of governing a monastery, the abbot must always remember what his title signifies and act as a superior should. He is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery.

as your abbot i am to be as Christlike as i possibly can be for you. my model and relationship with Jesus is critical, my understanding of the mysteries of the Father & Holy Spirit should be such that i can teach, but tell you how you need to believe.. but there's more

Anyone who receives the name of abbot is to lead his/her disciples by a twofold teaching: they must point out to them all that is good and holy more by example than by words, proposing the commandments of the Lord to receptive disciples with words, but demonstrating God's instructions to the stubborn and the dull by a living example.

i seek to not only teach you by words, games, activities, etc. but by living in community with you as Christ would so that you may know how to live in community with each other.

The abbot should avoid all favoritism in the monastery. He is not to love on more than another... Therefore, the abbot is to show equal love to everyone and apply the same discipline to all according to their merits.

i do not have favorites, but it is honest to say that some of you respect the community more than others. some respect me as abbot more than others. and if you were to say that you do respect me you do not show it through your actions within this unique community.

In his teaching, the abbot should always observe the Apostle's recommendation, in which he says: Use argument, appeal, reproof. This means he must vary with circumstances, threatening and coaxing by turns, stern as a taskmaster, devoted and tender as only a father can be. With the undisciplined and restless, he will use firm argument; with the obedient and docile and patient, he will appeal for greater virtue; but as for the negligent and disdainful, we charge him to use reproof and rebuke. He should not gloss over the sings of those who err, but cut them out while he can, as soon as they begin to sprout

you are not cut out, but we need to cut out the sin that is detrimental to our community. as abbot i need to help you be aware of this so that we can continue and grow as a community in Christ.

The abbot must always remember what he is and remember what he is called, aware that more will be expected of a man to whom more has been entrusted.

i have been untrusted with a great gift of this community. i must remember that i am your abbot and need to conduct myself as such. this means that we are going to do some trimming, but first we need to name our rules for living while we are gathering as this community.

from here i broke the group into small groups to come up with 3 rules that we should abide by as a community, which we would then share as a community and form them into rules that we will conduct ourselves by. yes, this might not be a new ym thing doing a list, i've done it in the past myself, however the framework is something that brought out an amazing collaboration by our community. i don't have the list (erin took it to make some professionally done posters/banners) but here are four concepts to the rules that they came up with

• we will remember that we come here to be with God, celebrate and learn about him
• we will treat this space as with the respect and care as if it were the sanctuary
• we will respect and listen to the person who has the floor (speaking)
• we will love each other & know why we love them

the last note of the role of abbot is that as abbot we will have to account for the souls that we are entrusted with as we come before God. that's a bit scary to think of, but as we are faithful to where God is leading and how he wishes for us to lead then we can't go to far from wrong. so on this night and from here on forth we have a rule of life for our community that we will learn, experience, and ad-hear too.

nywc last thought

i forgot to mention this, but this was probably the most amazing moment in the most obscure place of the whole youth workers convention.

i went to the bathroom (pretty normal). in there was the guy cleaning the bathroom and he had his head in a stall cleaning a toilet. there was another guy washing his hands. i stood at the urinal for purposes that need not stating. while there the guy washing his hands said to the cleaning guy "hey, i just want to thank you so much for all that you are doing for us this week here with what you do." (or something very similar to this)

i turned around to see the cleaning man say thank you and they parted ways.

to random guy washing his hands, thank's so much for thanking the humble & faceless people who serve us. i thought of him as i watched him scrubbing the toilet, but i wouldn't have had the courage or the presence to extend thanks as you did.

NYWC: day 5

day five is the day of blessings. it all started pretty quickly, i woke up late (8am) and had two messages from lilly "can you get the doughnuts i promised"... "don't worry about the doughnuts, i'll just see you when you get here." so i got ready and drove downtown. had to stop to get gas so when i finally arrived it was sometime after 9am. so i missed another workshop (this apparently was the theme for the week).

i did have a 10am meeting with diane, one of the spiritual directors. i signed up for this yesterday as she had an opening and thought, what the heck. i have done some reading on spiritual direction and have checked out some programs to certify one as a director to make this a part of our youth ministry at hfumc. however, i had yet to experience it, so it seemed like a good idea. we had a wonderful chat, getting to know each other and just being together. diane is a local umc pastor who i've met of a number of occassions, but never really gotten to know, but i know i've always liked her & we came to found out we have many connections. i like her even more now and i look forward to our friendship in the future.

one of the blessing moments aside from the session with diane was waiting for our session to start. i was sitting in the hall working on some thoughts on the youth minister as abbot (i'll post this in the next day or so) when jeanie came out of her session room and saw me down the hall. we chatted a second and she told me of a compliment she received on the prayer stations and specifically the "prayer cave." now i don't claim that to be my idea, but jeanie, lilly & the others give me the props as it became my project on day 1. it was a very intelligent & specific compliment which helped to encourage what we were doing with the prayer stations & that we had a special gift in doing creations such as this. it was affirming.

headed to the general session and i ran into adam one of my clown buddies. we grabbed some coffee (large cup #2) and met up with paul. marko shared a message and i was struck down with the words, "we are saturday people." as youth ministers we are the people who work between Good Friday and Easter, that is where the fear, confusion, finger pointing, the 'what's next', etc come from and it's our life. i've never thought of life as a ym in liturgical space like that, but it hit deep and it's something i'll hold onto in the future. i caught up with mark shortly after, gave him thanks for that & he mentioned that is was inspiration he received from a conversation with tic & hadn't been a part of his message in the other conventions, so to that i'll say it was special blessing for me (as i'm sure others too). &:~)

ran out to pick up the last of my cd's and met up with lilly to clean up. jeanie & jerilyn though had picked up most of the materials, so we just were packing things onto pallettes for shipping. while packing up lilly offered a number of the worship materials which was just totally overwhelmed and overjoyed with. i now possess some fab pieces of artwork to help remember being 'saturday people' as well as a diving board, bucket of bricks, and a roll of butcher paper that has been dragged all over the country. thanks so much lilly!

i'm home now (the plus of living in town, you get home quicker than others) and i've unpacked some of my car. feel free to check out some more pictures and commentary in the nywc05 photo album.

NYWC: day 4

day four.. still no workshops, however i tried to go to one but it was packed. i dropped in at the church to lead morning prayers before sunday school class. it was nice to be in the presence of my kids, with retreats and family vacation i haven't seen many of them for three weeks.

louie gigglio was great during the afternoon general session. i was smirking with humor as i've often put louie as a face & person who has helped to aid what i'd call the consumerism of Christian worship. (that's not fair i know, he's not the only one putting out worship albums all over the place, i do pick on the big record companies more).. which reminds me of a story that eric (i think it was him) told me. some band whose original music wasn't doing well & they said, "our label told us we are going to do a worship album next." anyway, i'm glad louie talked on this, because it is important and i don't think many people differentiate where worship becomes "consumer" & "consumee." similarly, i was having lunch with a local episcopal youth leader i've just met a few months back and his friend. we were talking about some alternative worships, taize' in particular & a local service around the labyrinth. the friend asked about the labyrinth being a pagan symbol. the labyrinth could be a whole seperate post, but i refrain, i did give some historical significance, the Christian spiritual side of the physical prayer & symbolism for pilgrimage during the crusades eras. i don't know paganism enough to give a historical account on their use of the labyrinth, but from what i've seen their labyrinth is generally a different look and meaning. however, this brought around this thought, it's not that we worship the practice (ie. to say that the labyrinth is the only way to connect with God in prayer is to worship the practice or tool of prayer, not the God it aids you in, just as one wouldn't worship the mission organization that they do short term missions with) but we use practices & tools to help our spiritual life through prayer or service to connect with God.

i ran into some more random friends before the night ended which was capped off by a concert by some fuselage bands @ rocketown. one of them being eric's band, knapsack heroes. i was telling people that kh was like dctalk with a grunge edge.. however, i'm changing that they are like "talking heads" rapping twenty years later. eric reminds me of david byrne in some way. maybe it was him mixing up rap & melody.. could it have been the rock guitar to synthesizer mixer? hmmm.. anyways, i enjoyed their set. the voice mic's could have been done better, but they were having sound, amp & instrument trouble all night long. so you tell me, eric coomer the next david byrne? i think there might be something to this.

NYWC: day 3

how do you retreat with 7,500 youth workers? you don't, so today i am taking off. the size of the crowd has actually been pretty easy to work with, lunch can have a long line and going through the tunnel can be worse than hearding cattle.

the plan today is to make my cd selections for workshops and sessions. head to a free lunch for united methodist youth workers & then find a cool place (probably 'two doors down') to watch some football. alabama/auburn and usc/clemson (usc = univ. of south carolina).

so i am cutting out. i might share on something seen or conversation had, but don't count on it.

random: i was noticing this morning the difference between my blogging at emergent & ys this year. sure, both are different events, but it's funny how i don't care to grace one class now when i took days of notes and sessions at emergent05. hmmmm..

NYWC: day2

it is late, or early depending on your perspective.

today was a good day in the life of gavin. started off with a target run returning some stuff and then picking up some things for the convention. the crew of us finished off the rest of the prayer stations and meditations which was nice. we had some time to catch up with the folks getting out of the critical concern courses before the general session, which was fun. lilly, jay, jonathon & myself opted for a calm start to the convention (we've been here two days but have done nothing highlighted on the schedule) so we started with mid-day prayers. i spent time in one of the "alone rooms with God," reading scriptures & praying with an icon of the trinity (one of my favorites by the way). prayers began shortly after which i really enjoyed..

prayers ended and we broke our seperate ways. i found my good friend paul from minnesota so i sat with him and another friend jenny. the general session was wonderful, jars of clay did basically an acoustic set which was great (not sure how the whole congregation took it though). david crowder band came on and the place went nuts. i have two dcb cd's that have been in constant rotation with my cd player in my car for the past three years so i had a blast belting out verse & choruses that had been previously confined to my in-car-rockstarness. it was great fun.

marko introduced mark yac. as a reluctant prophet, i'd agree with that assessment. he's someone whom i'd been wanting to get to hear from and know for quite some time. ever since i heard a story his dad told of how mark and his friends put together a wedding for friends of theirs i thought that he was a unique person of faith. later on, after my discovery of benedictine & monastic faith practices i come to find out about the youth ministry spirituality project he heads up, i knew we'd be like minded.

what i took from mark is seeing the person. we are 'the unaffirmed' folks and it makes us all the more significant to see people and love them, because in their lives, that is much of where they are. i am reminded of (what is quickly becoming) my favorite analogy of henri nouwen's. we are like the clowns, we help people live through their humanity beit laughter, anger, pain, anxiety, humility. we are the ones people identify with. but it is more than being playful, we must be willing to have intimate relationships that carry grace & love. i look forward to mark's upcoming book on contemplative youth ministry. makes me remember the outline and notes i began to write for monastic youth ministry some two years ago... hmm..

anyways, after the general session i was left to my own devices. i wandered and was actually able to navigate my way through the vendor hall without taking in too much free crap. i know people enjoy that stuff, but after awhile, it just seems the same. i did have fun playing games with some people.

them: "do you have two minutes?"
me: "no, but i can give you one minute thirty."
them again: "hey have you ever thought of going here?"
me: "i sure have, but if go with you my friend over at booth 682 won't talk to me again."

what i found out from walking the hallway is this.. ipods and laptops are the prize gift to give to any youth minister. it seems you float that over their heads and we will come, or atleast sign your mailing list. another thing i noticed, bigger is not always better. i am reminded of a study done of las vegas casino's some years back. they analyzed why some of the newer casinos didn't make as much money. short story: what they found was that people were much more comfortable in the casinos that had rooms with lower ceilings and less open space. it was somewhat confining, but more so, it was giving personal space where they weren't seen by everyone. just my observations, but the big set ups always seemed to be less busy than the smaller ones. a couple of the big set ups that had all kinds of open space were especially empty, no one seemed to grace their twenty by twenty invisible walls. in all, vendorland is an interesting place, i didn't get lost & i don't care to go back.

i lost my dinner date (my girlfriend) to illness, so i took in dinner at the "the tin roof" one of my favorite bars. i headed back to convention center to meet up with my evening dates..

a group of us jay, kay, tony, lilly, & alex headed to 'the station inn' for some bluegrass. it was pretty dead for some reason, but once the music started up it was a bit livelier. we had some spirited conversation over publishing, emergent church, church in general, worship, youth min, etc. nothing unexpected with a crew like ours.

the treat of today though (other than doing just about nothing that would be justifiable in a finance committee mtg), was getting invited to the twenty fifth floor. that was fun to catch up with some old friends and aquaintences, meet some new people and chat the night away. thanks for the invite, i enjoyed it and hope someday to do it again.

note: i'm throwing up pictures. i'll give them write-ups later & i've updated this from my original posting, another note to myself, don't blog at 3am.. it never turns out as well as you think.

NYWC: day1

today was the first day of the nwyc here in nashville. i started out the day heading to the   office to meet up with rich, buddy & andy. i don't remember the conversations, it was still feeling early (even though it wasn't that early). we packed up the stuff for the mtn top booth and headed out. andy and i took a stop by the general board to pick up a tv. then it was off to vendor land. vendor land was a first for me, i've never put in time setting up a booth for an event such as this or comparable one. note* i did help erin set up a booth at youth03, but i wasn't a decision maker, so this was new. i felt a bit lame with our booth as we didn't have 4 plasma tv's and 15' tall metal stage light rigging. however, we had enough and it was faithful to our humble ministry.

andy & i set up the booth and then i was off to meet up with lilly.

caught up with lilly, who greeted me with a "guess you didn't get my message?" i didn't as my phone gets increasingly crappier. said phone was already dead from an all night charge. she also mentioned that i needed to show up at her workshop on monday morning as that's when people sleep in. she wanted atleast a few people, i'm sure she'll have more, but we will see. we rumbled down the stairs and met up with jonathon, jerilyn, jay & jeannie. we jumped right moving around all the prayer station stuff. things seemed kinda slow at first (partly due to me missing the briefing), but once we got going things started shaping up.

we set up prayer stations based on hurt and some off the theme of 'jump.' there was quite the bit of fun hanging the parachutes. working in the convention centers is fun when you can't hang anything or attach stuff to the wall. jay got served as he was saying he wasn't nailing into the wall while he had hammer and nail in hand. that was funny. the impromptu prayer station was my project, the prayer cave. the space underneath the stairs made for a nice sheltered area so we decided to make it a cave.. a number of pallettes, some black cloth, and a few "rocks" we now have a cave at the convention. more prayerful fun shall be had with the "wailing wall," hopscotch around the world, art station, belly flop, the diving board, and marko's hammock.

lilly, jerilyn & i headed out to dinner which may prove to be quite an undertaking with the numbers of people here at the convention. however, we stopped at mulligan's (an irish pub, go figure) for dinner & nice conversation. we were back to work after that in the tube (i'm calling the underground hallway from the convention center to the gaylord entertainment center) hanging poster & art meditations. by this time eric was actually there and working, that is until his band showed up (which happen to be playing sunday night at rocketown).

some other random experiences:

• people don't know where they are going or more people mean more lost people, either way, i gave out lots of directions
• i introduced jonathon as "he's saint francis with a ph" which made me realize how dorky i am that i expect people to know blog identities
• i heard a guy say "look, there's doug fields, he's like right there" - to which i asked myself, have we made ourselves our own celebrities?
• horse riding police have blinking red lights on the backs of the saddle.. i find this funny
• i think i'll eventually get lost in the vendor labyrinth

worshiploop1

Christ face video loop (quicktime : 7.4mg)

this is the first of what may be many video loops that can be used for worship, retreat, prayer, etc. this came out of the worship service we put on for the young adult summit. the full video was a bit much for internet so i broke it apart. this loop is pretty simple, but cool, this image just moves forward and backward very slowly. all you have to do is choose the video to loop and it will run continuous. i threw in some music, but you can just mute that and add your own if you like.

the resolution is low, but if you love this so much and want a higher resolution then let me know.

day 7: contemplation with merton

a continuation of my time with thomas merton on the complexities of war, peace, & the Christian. day 1: day 2: day 3: day 4: day 5: day 6

..our forefathers officially recognized and favored the Christian ethic of love. They fought some very bloody and unchristian wars, and in doing so, they also committed great crimes which remain in history as a permanent scandal. However, certain definite limits were recognized. Today a non-Christian world still retains a few vestiges of Christian morality, a few formulas and cliche's, which serve on appropriate occasions to adorn indignant editorials and speeches. But otherwise we witness deliberate campaigns to oppose and eliminate all education in Christian truth and morality. Not only non-Christians but even Christians themselves tend to dismiss the Gospel ethic on non-violence and love as "sentimental." As a matter of face, the mere suggestion that Christ counseled nonviolent resistance to evil is enough to invite scathing ridicule...

It is therefore a serious error to imagine that because the West was once largely Christian, the cause of the Western nations is now to be identified, without further qualification, with the cause of God. We must certainly oppose the tactics by which Communism seeks to attain world power, but a policy of nuclear extermination will do more harm than good to our own cause...

True, Christianity is not only opposed to Communism, but in a very real sense, at war with it. However, this warfare is spiritual and ideological. "Devoid of material weapons," says Pope John, "the Church is the trustee of the highest spiritual power."

This means not only that the Christian fights for peace and justice by prayer and faith, but that Christian social action is the most important weapon of the Church against Communism... Christians should give their wholehearted support to all reasonable plans for aid to underdeveloped countries, but of course we do not have to yield to starry-eyed utopianism in this ideal. Foreign aid must be effectively channeled so that it really benefits the people of nations concerned and is not diverted into the pockets of corrupt political and military cliques or, worse still, misused by enemies of freedom. We must furthermore not be deluded into thinking that economic aid and a higher standard of living are a satisfactory solution to all the problems of the "Third World."

In a word, to place our trust in the power of money is no more Christian than to rely on the bomb. In either case the aim is domination, not reconstructions, and Christian social action must work for a complete renewal of social structures wherever they have ceased to function adequately.

Victory over Communism can be achieved not by threats, still less by bribery, but only by a fully convincing demonstration of the constructive and creative capacities of the society that still appeals in great measure to classical and Christian standards of social justice. But if our society proves itself to be a system of organized and belligerent irresponsibility, then we have no other solution than a recourse to violence. And this will be no solution. It will be an immoral evasion of the problems created by our infidelity to our own Christian heritage.

some call it patriotism. if you have it then you are for the country and all that it does. does our currently use of patriotism now in fact dismiss our first calling of our forefathers & our Christian God of which we are founded as a country? can we find ourselves in a time where we no longer see patriotism as fighting persona but one who upholds the Christian ethic of our country.

and what might that ethic come to in todays world? do we have the courage (as i feel we have the power) to really take on the worlds issues in Christian social justice? this weekend i heard a quote "a hungry man is an angry man" speaking of the drought and poverty in Africa. could it be that we only perpetuate a problem by being less humanitarian than we are capable of being? shane put out a nice post sharing what could have been done with the price tag for the war in Iraq (sorta). now i will not dismiss the war in Iraq as wrong or the sacrifice of many Iraq's, Americans, and international peacemakers (beit military or civilian) in vein. though, with that said, what if we took money like that during a time of peace and shared it among the world to be a light unto this world as a country? we may or may not be in this war on terror. let us pray for creativity in coming to solutions for ours & the worlds needs. we have the resources and status to do something about it, but do we have the courage to look beyond ourselves to make it happen?

new music

a few years back i signed up for one of those bmg offers. since then i've promised that i would buy an album within a years time and then receive four more albums, which i have promised atleast two times. i forget why i signed up in the first place (probably to get back cd's lost or stolen that i didn't want to pay full price for).

anyhow, any good music suggestions that i can check to see if i can get from bmg? my music selection is unlimited except for country. for being in nashville i just can't get into country. i've tried, it didn't work.

nywc in nashville

anyone going to the national youth workers convention in nashville this week? i will be there and would love to catch up with some new folks or put faces to names & blogs. there isn't much of an agenda for me at this point. i'm going to catch up with lilly to help her out with some others, but that's pretty much it.

marko is starting the list of bloggers at the convention as well as some wi-fi links.

the blogging methodists

some of you may have already checked it out, but we have taken the blogging methodists blog that theresa set up and started a multi user blog. the spirit born out of this was a place where we could all come together to be in one spot of conversation. i don't think we are there yet, but it's a start. it will be neat to see how it takes form. current contributors cover the prizm of viewpoints in the methodist church today. if you have some ideas for the site, contribute them.

thanks be to God

thanks be to God! jonathon & i were able to bring together our first high energy worship. something in the spirit of the uk's alt worship scene. bill asked us to bring together the opening worship for a young adult summit put on by the gbod at opryland hotel.

i have admitted to being very nervous about the whole event. it wasn't something we've tried before, but i feel it came together very well. God's guiding spirit certainly inspired us when we finally sat down to listen and dream.

if you are wondering where this event came about. it is for invite only, each conference was asked to send 2-3 folks from their conferences that do young adult ministry. i'm not sure how the rest of the event has been going, but i hope we played a part in starting it out with God's spirit in presence.

i'll post some of the video loops later if you are interested and maybe some of the pictures in my contemplative worship collection.

a conversation with brueggemann & borg

i am signing up for this "january adventure" with walter brueggemann & marcus borg down at st. simon's island & epworth by the sea. just wondering if anyone would like to come with, and possibly share the cost of a room. topics entertain:

Being Christian in a Time of Empire: Then and Now. by Marcus Borg               

Practicing an Alternative in a Culture of Seduction? by Walter Brueggemann         

a sign of things to come?

could you imagine the liberal bishops yeilding their power against conservative clergy? and then the conservative clergy fighting back? i suppose we shouldn't have to worry about this as we do have a judicial process for defrocking pastors. but then again, anything is possible

:: full article ::

how i continue to have high self-esteem

i'm so glad that there are people out that which continue to help keep my self-esteem at a high level.

In September, after law enforcement officers in North Carolina spotted a reportedly stolen ambulance and chased it through three counties until forcing it into a ditch north of Greensboro, they found the driver to be mohawk-hairstyled Leon Hollimon Jr., 37, who is not a medical professional but was wearing a stethoscope and with latex gloves in his pocket. Strapped to a gurney in the back was a dead six-point deer, and according to witnesses cited by the Florida Times-Union newspaper (Hollimon is from Jacksonville, Fla.), an intravenous line was attached to it and a defibrillator had been used. [Florida Times-Union, 9-28-05]

The following people accidentally shot themselves recently: a Fond du Lac, Wis., man, in the abdomen, while using a screwdriver to dislodge a round from his pistol (August); a Nacogdoches, Texas, woman, in the foot while trying to kill a snake on her property (September) (and the same woman, again trying to kill a snake, shot herself in the other foot the next day); a Tennessee Highway Patrolman, in the leg as he holstered his pistol while chasing a fleeing suspect near Maryville (August); a teenage boy, in the leg while fleeing after robbing a food store in New Caney, Texas (August); a 33-year-old Milwaukee man, in the leg while fleeing after robbing a man on the street (October). And Danny Walden, Taylorsville, Ky., was shot by the rifle he had set up in his home as a booby trap to protect his 115 marijuana plants (October).

courtesy news of the weird

sigh

it seems the methdist blogosphere is calming down now. sigh!

can we all be friends again?
&:~)

mymusic

The challenge was handed over by Mike, so here we go:

Amount of Music on Your Computer
835MB on iTunes, however i've been known to have more that a couple of gig's on my comp before.

Currently Listening To:

Shawn McDonald - Live in Seattle

Five Songs That Mean a Lot to You
where the streets have no name - u2
refine me - jennifer knapp
you are so good to me - waterdeep
the hammer holds - bebo norman
surely God - steven iverson

Top Five Albums: (in no particular order)

1. neil young rust (live) - this was one of the first three albums i has as a cd with a five disc player. do the math, i listened to these a lot.

2. creedence clearwater revival chronicle - this was the 2nd of the 3 aforementioned albums in my first cd collection

3. steve miller band greatest hits 1974 - 1978 - i liked the first greatest hits album, but this particular one cannot be challenged as one of the greatest chill party albums.

4. enter the worship circle 1 - when it comes to worship music that was starting to become 'packaged' this was such a fresh voice and sound. the subsequent 2nd and 3rd circles were good, but none can eclipse the first.

5. u2 joshua tree - it's one of those albums that i've bought like 3 or 4 times already either because someone stole it or i wore it out.

Last Album Bought
Russian Medieval Chant - Patriacharte Choir

Recent Discoveries?
Boards of Canada

The baton is hereby passed to:
jonathon norman
john the methodist
cole wakefield
josh tinley
little meyer

more on the alabama radio

while driving around the back road highways of banks alabama, or as my 2nd uncle put it "the suburbs of josey." i was listening to the morning sermon of a minister talking about Paul's letter to the Corinthians. this paraphrased statement stood out.

Paul was warning the Corinthians of going back to their evil sinful ways. You see before the people of Corinth were saved by Christ they lived in a world that was sinful and endulged in the sins of this world. Corinth today would be a lot like las vegas or san francisco of our world today...

okay, las vegas i gotcha. san francisco? that's a bit of a stretch don't you think? i wasn't a bit surprised to hear the ending of the radio broadcast after this.

you've been listening live to First Baptist Church of Enterprise Alabama on 106.7 wkmx.

in all, not the best sermon i've heard, but it wasn't the worst either.

compelling story

after spending over 12 hours on the road, npr is my best friend & 'this american life' blessed me with the audio diary of hyder akbar, a (at the time of the recording) teenage who was visiting his father in Kumar Afghanistan. he recorded his thoughts & experiences, and due to his father's high status within the government he has unusual access to troops, social conflict, and government issues.

i was taken by two specific things, one he mentioned how American government loves 'professionals' however the professionals were actually communists. they were not communist idealist, in that they could not espouse all of what communism stood for, but they were people who sided with the Russian government and were subsequently educated by them. two, the 'matter of fact' attitude towards an ambush which he recorded. other than these two specific points, the portrait of his uncle and life in Kumar is compelling and worth checking out.

my blog style

Your Blogging Type is Artistic and Passionate

You see your blog as the ultimate personal expression - and work hard to make it great. One moment you may be working on a new dramatic design for your blog... And the next, you're passionately writing about your pet causes. Your blog is very important - and you're careful about who you share it with.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

care to join me?

i just set a date for a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani. i will be taking a weekday retreat starting Feb 6th & ending either thursday or friday. if you'd care to join me just contact the monastery.

world can't wait..

argh! i had this nice post on thoughts about the 'world can't wait' protests and subsequent summit in venezuela. however, i lost it in loosing a wireless signal. so i'll just direct you to sam, his thoughts are more well thought out anyways.

friday rabbit bloggin

it's not often, but when threatened will defend itself with never before seen aggression. crazy humans are obviously in the way.

in related news, be sure to check out upcoming video series "when rabbits go wild"

bring in the Methomergents

jay had mentioned that this was being talked about. i'm quite excited to see how it all turns out. in a press release from emergent village.

5 October, 2005
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Emergent-U.S. has announced a new publishing partnership with Abingdon Press. The two organizations are developing a series of books of “Theology for the Emerging Church.” Leading theologians and biblical scholars are currently being contracted to write for the series, the first books of which will be published in early 2007.

“We are thrilled to be working with a publishing house as reputable and theologically astute as Abingdon,” said Tony Jones, the national coordinator of Emergent. Jones, who will also serve as the general editor of the series, added, “The emerging church conversation is deeply and richly theological, and this is a perfect opportunity to provide literary resources for the conversation.”

“Emergent’s emphasis on grace, on blending mind and heart in spiritual life, on theological conversation, on authentic worship, and on social responsibility, justice, and peace presents an opportunity for the wider church to engage in fresh thinking about how to present the Christian faith to postmodern culture,” said John Kutsko, Director of Academic & Professional Books. “Abingdon Press is uniquely situated to help the emerging church broaden its conversation and fulfill its mission.”

The agreement also includes the development of a web site that will act as a portal to some of the most innovative and provocative thinking in the church. With support from The United Methodist Publishing House, of which Abingdon Press is an imprint, the web site will contain theological content, blogs, podcasts, streaming video, and links. The site will go live in 2006.

from the bishops

update: jay gives us a translation of "bishopspeak"

thanks to mike for sending me this

A Pastoral Letter to the People of The United Methodist Church
From the Council of Bishops

By grace you have been saved through faith. -Ephesians 2:8

Grace to you from Jesus Christ who calls his church to welcome all people into the community of faith as it proclaims the Gospel.

The Judicial Council, our denomination's highest judicial authority, recently issued a decision regarding a pastor's refusing a gay man's request for membership in the church. In the case, this man was invited to join the choir at the United Methodist Church in the community. As he became more active in the choir and the church, he asked to transfer his membership from another denomination to The United Methodist Church. Because he is a practicing homosexual, the pastor refused to receive him into church membership. The Judicial Council upheld the pastor's refusal of membership.

While pastors have the responsibility to discern readiness for membership, homosexuality is not a barrier. With the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church we affirm:

"that God's grace is available to all, and we will seek to live together in Christian community. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons."(Para. 161g, 2004 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church)

We also affirm our Wesleyan practice that pastors are accountable to the bishop, superintendent, and the clergy on matters of ministry and membership.

The United Methodist Church is committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ with all people. We, the bishops of the Church, uphold and affirm that the General conference has clearly spoken through the denomination's Constitution on inclusiveness and justice for all as it relates to church membership:

"The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth.  All persons without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or economic condition, shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, upon baptism be admitted as baptized members, and upon taking the vows declaring the Christian faith, become professing members in any local church in the connection." (Article IV, Constitution of The United Methodist Church)

We believe the ministry of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We call upon all United Methodist pastors and laity to make every congregation a community of hospitality.

Nov. 2, 2005
Lake Junaluska, N.C.

it looks like most letters, not powerful language, but does lean a certain way. the bishops are consistent too with their mark of asking people to seek God for guidance, not the blogs or agencies. i think that's sound advice.

all saints day

jonathon encouraged us to highlight a saint today. one that has been influential in my life is Abba Anthony or Saint Anthony (i like abba personally).

Two Greek philosophers ventured out into the Egyptian desert to the mountain where Anthony lived. When they got there, Anthony asked them why they had come to talk to such a foolish man? He had reason to say that -- they saw before them a man who wore a skin, who refused to bathe, who lived on bread and water. They were Greek, the world's most admired civilization, and Anthony was Egyptian, a member of a conquered nation. They were philosophers, educated in languages and rhetoric. Anthony had not even attended school as a boy and he needed an interpreter to speak to them. In their eyes, he would have seemed very foolish.

But the Greek philosophers had heard the stories of Anthony. They had heard how disciples came from all over to learn from him, how his intercession had brought about miraculous healings, how his words comforted the suffering. They assured him that they had come to him because he was a wise man.

Anthony guessed what they wanted. They lived by words and arguments. They wanted to hear his words and his arguments on the truth of Christianity and the value of ascetism. But he refused to play their game. He told them that if they truly thought him wise, "If you think me wise, become what I am, for we ought to imitate the good. Had I gone to you, I should have imitated you, but, since you have come to me, become what I am, for I am a Christian."

you should read more...

a prayer: Saint Anthony, you spoke of the importance of persevering in our faith and our practice. Help us to wake up each day with new zeal for the Christian life and a desire to take the next challenge instead of just sitting still. Amen

day ?: contemplation 'week' with merton

it's becoming clear that i'm not good with a daily endeavor as my week with merton is becoming more like 14 days of merton. day 1: day 2: day 3: day 4: day 5

[after going through some different theologians take]Yet it remains true that there is still all too general an apathy and passivity among the clergy and the faithful. Perhaps it is exact to say that they are afflicted with a kind of moral paralysis. Hypnotized by the mass media, wich tend to be aggressive and bellicose, baffled and intimidated by the general atmosphere of suspicion, bewildered by the silence or the ambiguity of their pastors and religious leaders, and remembering the failure of the peace movements that preceded World War II, people tend to withdraw into a state of passive and fatalistic desperation. There they have been literally run into earth by the shelter salesmen, and have set themselves despondently to digging holes in their back yards against the day when the missles begin to fly.

Pope John XXIII pointed out in his first encyclical, Ad Petri Cathedram, that Christians are obliged to strive "with all means at their disposal" for peace. Yet he warns that peace cannot compromise with error or make concessions to injustice. Passive acquiescence in injustice, submission to brute force, do not lead to genuine peace... Power can never be the keystone of a Christian policy. Yet our work for peace must be energetic, enlightened and fully purposeful... But we will not be able to do this without an interior revolution that abandons the quest for brute power and submits to the wisdom of love and of the Cross...It must however be stated quite clearly and without compromise that the duty of the Christian as a peacemaker is not to be confused with a kind of quietistic inertia that is indifferent to injustice, accepts any kind of disorder, compromises with error and with evil, and gives in to every pressure in order to maintain "peace at any price." The Christian knows well, or should know well, that peace is not possible on such terms. Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.

i was recently in a conversation where i had to ponder this 'more heroic' action towards peace. what does this look like? i've never seen it in my life, maybe on film or read in books, but not with my own eyes. who are or can be those leaders to emerge from the pack to show us what heroism towards peace looks like? is it within us all? certainly we have examples, quick to mind comes the example of Ghandi. do we need to look back at the heroism of Martin Luther King Jr.?