Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

this morning i was reminded of what this whole tennessee conference mess reminded me of

so i woke this morning wondering how the clergy leadership of our church can be held accountable for the breech of trust in making decisions without any discernment or consultation with the laity. then i recalled this scene

update: jay has just posted a recent update from the bishop, which is good news and makes my prior statements seem ever more accurate in that our leadership jumped onto a vision that was not discerned through the traditional methodist church processes. yes they are slow, but they are faithful to the communities and inaccuracies of information and hurt feelings are avoided when done properly.

music monday (on wednesday) : all things great in 80's

i needed a little pick me up. i was gifted with a song that embodies just about everything from 80's music. asia's "only time will tell"

1. keyboard synthesizer in full effect? check (bonus points if if was the keytar)
2. multiple high pitch electrical guitar solos? check
3. dramatic waffing in and out of sound? check
4. power ballad lyrics that make little sense? check
5. group harmony, but not too much harmony? check
6. bad hair & dress? check, but under protest, they have some early 90's facial hair in the video

erin got a kick out of me singing this on the way home from the preds game.

hearing the voices that didn't get to speak in our tennessee conference

it is late and i have a huge headache, but i can't sleep so i am hoping this will calm my brain. today has been a crazy day. since i woke this morning i have been emailing, facebook, myspace, on the phone, or talking face to face with people about the recent actions by our ccom leadership. it has been a day try and explain an unexplainable to people that i care deeply for. the culmination came in tears while talking to one of our conference youth who called needing to make sense of it all. it broke my heart to hear "everyone is getting taken away from me" and then rattled off a list of youth leaders (beth included in that list) and a pastor that have significant meaning in her life. all i could say, "i am sorry, but i am here  for you." that hurts and is unnecessary.

some of the voices out there wanting to be heard.

• johnathan, one of our ccym members who blogs posted some of his letter to the bishop
• natalie shared her letter
• jay has his conversation with the bishop & a point of clarification (i followed you bro)
• jason remembered some conversations a group of us were having last week, in light of our recent situation. though i forgot the quote i too remembered the crux of our conversation. the part i remember most was david dark breaking down "administer" having the root word "minister" and the "admin" is action of being a conduit of God's ministry..
• steve shares empathy and thoughts
• one of our ex-ccym'ers shares a facebook note (this might not be readable due to facebook constraints)
• the petition has a pretty good number of folks which is cool

i have some emails that i would like to share, but i need to get permissions before so & it is late and those normal people are asleep now and not answering emails. maybe tomorrow

what i am asking now? pray for us, i am worried that our leadership is chasing a romanticism of evangelism/mission that is not the calling for all churches. in jay's conversation with the bishop jay paraphrased with this: emphasis mine

The ultimate goal is not to marginalize ministries with youth and children, but to direct more resources toward ensuring that youth and children become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The vision is especially directed at reaching at-risk kids in a more effective manner, providing resources that help churches to reach out in new ways.

now i might sound heretical in this, but when i hear "at-risk" i think low income, ethnic youth, from a housing project.. from here-say conversations, i believe this is the concept of the bishop as well. the problem, "at-risk" kids come in all ways & we are throwing away two effective sustainable ministries for a heart-string romanticized view of the mission field. my youth at hfumc might not need food on their table, but they have a poverty out of their affluence that is equally damaging to the shaping of identity & self-concept. if this vision is such a heartstring then just hire a new staff person, part time, or maybe petition some of the affluent churches who have missions or evangelism people to collaborate for the purposes of educating the conference. that sounds like a pretty good idea, but "oh wait!" i wasn't invited to the table to talk to share that idea...

so now i am asking people to send stories to bishop wills & loyd mabry about the evangelism and discipleship that the youth ministries & children's ministries has done for them. it needs to be claimed that transformation happens even if we are not doing the sexy stuff in ministry. a story, i think, that is perfect is not even a youth, it's my friend doug.

doug's wife went to a methodist church, she was befriended by the youth minister at that church. the youth minister invited over to the house met doug who didn't have a care in the world for God or a religion. the youth minister began a relationship with this couple and invited doug to come and play around at one of the entrance type events. doug loved being with the youth, he learn of Christ alongside the youth. eventually doug got serious about his relationship with Christ, accepting Christ beginning studies, asking questions, working with the youth passionately. eventually the church made him a youth leader with part time pay. he got involved in the youth ministry institute a thorough training program for youth leaders in our conference and deepened conference relationships & covenant relationships with other fellow youth workers (myself included). he's so charged up about his vocation in youth leadership he is now enrolled at martin methodist getting his undergrad degree (still keeping full time job and working with the youth at his church)...

that is what i call making disciples, which, if i remember correctly has something to do with the mission of the church. there are many stories of that sort, but they are not fancy, people don't write books about middle aged white man who met some crazy kids and he found Christ and has taken his role as Christian seriously.

i fear that we romanticize and let our heartstrings be tugged to the point we are forgoing stable, sustainable and life changing ministries for the sake of change to meet another need in the body. to me, that doesn't seem like vision, that seems like agenda...

thanks for listening to my late night ramble.

my letter to the bishop & conference connection director of tennessee conference on poor communication : updated

update: jay has had a conversation with our bishop and got permission to blog about it. so if you have already read this stuff or will do, i suggest checking out what word jay has heard. my update, i still haven't received an email or phone call.

in following up the events of recent with our conference & the recent "restructuring" moves. i wrote this letter this morning to the bishop & loyd mabry our director of connectional ministries for the conference. i will update with whatever reply i receive. probably not my best letter, but it will do.

Dear Loyd & Bishop Wills,

I am sending this note as your standing Tennessee Conference Youth Coordinator and CCYM member.

I have been sitting and waiting hoping to be given some "official" communication as to the change and restructuring of the conference program staff. Beth is a friend of mine, we have worked together as Director of Youth Ministries & Youth Coordinator for almost 7 years now, not to mention our time before that. As a friend I am upset for her. I know that the church is not just Beth and things will go on, at what capacity is what I am burdened with.

What upsets me more is than anything is the lack of communication in these moves. No CCYM member was informed or consulted at any point prior and I know that I have not been given any official communication as to the change. There was no phone call, no email, no listserv, letterhead mail or txt message (though I would have personally deemed those two insufficient, but it would have been something). I have since fielded emails, phone calls, and text messages asking Me what is going on. I have no answer to give. I cannot comfort by saying it is "okay." All I can say is that FRESH will go on as it will be my last event as Conference Youth Coordinator because you, Loyd, said that I had to rotate off.

I know that others have called or emailed and gotten a stock statement of "if you got the impression the conference doesn't care about youth ministries then you are misinformed" or something to that effect. But the fact of this matter, there is no information being communicated at any level, so there is no way for people to be informed to be "mis-informed."

Is there a plan at all? Who will be overseeing Day at Nashville Sounds, Conference Mission Trip, Nashville Shores, Summer Sizzler in the short term? If I remember correctly we stated a few years ago that a staff person has to be at events that involve youth & children and event type situations. For example a staff person has stayed at Cedar Crest during camp weeks, Beth has been present at all conference events. So we are in danger of breaking our own policy.

There is more I could go on about, but consider this my plea for some communication as to the plan or idea behind these actions and where they will lead the conference. If we do not have any communication than people have nothing else to work with than "misinformation" and that fault falls on the administration of the conference.

shalom
-gavin

my timeline & view of the breakdown of the youth ministries of the tennessee conference of the united methodist church

this is an email i sent to the friends i have at our conference's youth ministry institute 2. i wasn't going to say anything, but word was getting out and i was getting asked questions. beth who is mentioned is our director of youth ministries for the conference. you first saw news of this on the blog late last night or early this morning.

here is a short list for the time being. trying to be factual &:~)

• thursday beth got her 90 day notice of termination of her employment as it currently stands with the conference office. she was not happy
• in this meeting there was some discussion, but no plan on what the conference was going to do about FRESH, the sounds game, nashville shores, & the conference mission trip as that would be after beth's last day. they basically asked her to hang on and do those events. i suspect they didn't have a concept of the summer calendars that youth people go through
  
• there reasoning for the change was a restructure to the ccom. but there was no plan given as to this restructuring or how events or youth ministries will be done in the future.
• she is going to be given a severance pay that i think goes through august
  
• on friday beth was awarded her sabbath leave, which she is taking now and is part why her severance goes to august (i think)
• we found out that susan groseclose (children's ministries) was given similar information monday.
• beth has been calling folks as she has been able
• some, but not all of the ccym knows of this situation
• sara williams (conference youth president) has called and gave the bishop her opinion on the situation, her father said she did a really good job with that. no youth, certainly not the ccym, were consulted on this change so sara was pretty angry. seeing that the conference staff works for the ccym & other committees.
  
• there is talk of convening an unscheduled ccym meeting to discuss this and next steps, which will probably include a resolution to make sure that there is at the very least a part-time person dedicated to the needs & coordination of the youth ministries of the conference
• beth and i talked today, i will be working with the ccym to plan out fresh in june. anyone want to lead a session? &:~)
• after that? i don't know
• i hate that many of you are finding out this way, but you can only tell this story so many times in a day and you get angry, and it is beth's story to tell, so i have stayed quiet myself. even had a long conversation with anne carty at cokesbury after i heard and couldn't tell.. that is tough for me. &:~(

if you want to know what you can do. i would write and call the bishop (i think brett sent out an email with [email protected], and lloyd mabry ([email protected]). it is my experience that when things like these start rolling in the church it is impossible to reverse. but who knows. i would take exception, and i will myself, to the way things are/were handled and that the ccom staff is not to benefit the staff but the laity and without any clear answers or plan this change is a reflection of poor judgement and poor management. the tennessee conference is one of the highest functioning conferences in the nation, maybe world, when it comes to youth ministry.

i am looking for you tennessee conference united methodist

i might go on later about how i've been pissed off at my institutional part of my church since last week. if you wouldn't mind checking out and signing this petition one of our ex conference youth presidents put together it'd go a bit to help me feel better. this was her email

Hey Friends,
As you may or may not have heard, the TN Conference of the UMC has decided to phase out the programming positions related to children, youth, and young adults. These positions are currently held by Susan Groseclose and Beth Morris. If your life has been touched by these ministries (e.g. Warmth in Winter, Summer Sizzler, Youth Ministry Institute, Children's Ministry Institute, Conference Day with the Bishop, etc.), please read and sign a petition to have these positions reinstated at

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TNUMCProgrammingPositions/

We will send this petition as a resolution to annual conference. Resolutions are due this Friday, March 14th, so please sign and pass the word along to any one you know that would be interested. We hope to get as many signatures as possible by Friday, but will continue to collect them through Annual Conference.

Thanks and let us know if you have any questions.
Peace,
Rachel

n.t. wright in nashville

Cokesbury and West End United Methodist Church invite you to enjoy an evening of conversation and fellowship with N. T. Wright

Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

The Anglican Bishop of Durham, Church of England, Wright is called by many the world's leading New Testament scholar. He will discuss his latest book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

"Surprised by Hope is a bold and vigorous articulation of the 'blessed hope' of the Christian witness. Grappling with a vast array of controversial topics, this book is sure to surprise you and will, no doubt, fill you with hope."-Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline

"Tom Wright gives us a powerful account of 'the hope that is within us.' Here, in Wright's masterful work, Christian hope is defended, explicated, and proclaimed with all the wit, wisdom, intellect, and grace. This is quite simply the best book we have on the substance of Christian hope."-Will Willimon, Bishop, The United Methodist Church, and author of Conversations with Barth on Preaching

"N. T. Wright brings his enormous erudition to a most urgent contemporary question, the cluster of issues around the future and hope and resurrection, and life in the kingdom. Wright makes clear that resurrection hope cannot be understood by reference to universal categories, but only by the particular narrative of Jesus. His book is an important interpretive contribution to an ongoing theological pastoral task."-Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

"This book is N. T. Wright at his finest: dismantling the tired old theologies of escapism and evacuation to help a whole generation of us more clearly grasp a Jesus revolution for here, now, today."-Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
7:30-9:30 P.M.
West End United Methodist Church
2200 West End Avenue
615-749-6123

i am putting it on my calendar. anyone else in the nashville area care to join me?

if you are into this thing: you might be interested in this thriving church thing with tom bandy. i might go if the schedule permits. thrivingchurchbrochure.pdf

surely you don't mean me?

michael spencer @ internet monk has a fab post on why he doesn't read my blog.. this really hit home though michael.

3. Your level of knowledge regarding the subjects you write about is so low that a discussion isn’t moved forward by what you write. This is why I don’t blog very much on baseball- which I love. I don’t know enough to make it worth someone’s time to read what I write. Many bloggers aspire to be pundits, theologians and culture commentators, but they simply haven’t done their homework. They don’t know the subject, they haven’t read the books. They don’t have a freshman major’s level of understanding. If you don’t believe me, read 95% of what’s written about philosophical topics like “postmodernism.” The blind leading the blind, to much applause. Unlike what appears to be the case with some famous bloggers, most bloggers don’t have a staff paid for by denominational funds to do their research.

Even though I am a seminary grad with post grad hours and extensive reading, and even though I teach Bible professionally, I know the difference between myself and Ben Witherington III, which some bloggers clearly do not. Reading some rookie blogger tear into a guy with three Ph.d’s is, at the least, unlikely to yield any real insights.

dang, i claim my stupidity, all the time. you should see the email exchange i had with dr. aj levine on a part in her book "the misunderstood jew." her response to my question, or maybe more a clarification..

Thank you for your note.

I think the sentence to which you are referring is this:

" The occasional king who burns down a city or bridegroom who shuts the door in the face of five virgins who have run out of oil — that is, the parables in which the difficult readings cannot be swept away — tends not to get much sermon time, especially in liberal Christian settings. "

I'm sorry if I was unclear -- my pint is that is, parables of judgment tend not to be the focus of sermons in liberal settings, and by liberal I mean the type of church is which the focus is more on social justice, inclusivity, the condemnation of the ills of society, etc. (all splendid concerns, of course)  than on personal soteriology, divine judgment, eschatological punishment and reward, etc. (i.e.,  I am defining 'conservative' along the lines of Missouri Synod Lutheran, most of the leaders of the SBL, the PCA, Churches of Christ, etc., noting that there are exceptions to any label and that all generalities are inexact.

Does this make sense?

my response back

thanks dr. levine,

that is the sentence and no need for apologies. i think being the decently read, but not formally schooled lay/staff person i get myself in places where i have to interpret to my capabilities and something of what i thought just didn't jive. so i asked

thanks for the clarification. it is certainly different from the assumptions i was coming too, so i am glad i asked and grateful for your time in responding. i cannot honestly say, "sure it all makes sense".. but let me consult my harvey's theological terms book to remind myself of the "big words" that, i know i know but could never tell you exactly what they mean. does that make sense? 

&:~D 

again, thanks for your time
shalom

because she is cool like that!

smiling back at you ...

and never hesitate to ask questions.

oh, sorry for the tangent. i'd agree with michael and it is okay dude, you don't need to read my blog. i might have started it actually shape other peoples thoughts but quickly realized that was stupid, so it is me being me and what God has shaped me into. i figure there are a few people out there that would care for that.

 

sure to be my new favorite show

i am thinking that Ax Men is the Deadliest Catch on land.. with a different theme song. i think i am going to love it!

because it is one of the caziest videos out there

you may have seen this. if not, it starts slow but gets really good & you won't believe it.

blogging i want to get to

i have so many blog postings in que that i just haven't had time to read and/or respond too

• my mechanical contrivium
• the birds that are calling our front porch hanging baskets home. my own pictures later
• bw3's new perspective on paul excerpt
• a slap in the face to get back on track
• is the journey worth the reward?
• beth's thinkings on worship services
• how much does wesley matter?
• uncluttering or cleaning?
• ending the pastor's moving day
• older bro is hip, has a video with u2 music
• sunday prayer
• some of bob's take on sxsw conference
• atheism in the military
• five reasons why only your mom reads your missionary blog
• where is your "emphasis" tip richard
• maybe it's a good idea if your stock video is supporting you

twitter etiquette

do you use twitter? wonder what the proper twitter etiquette is? barbara has a link guide to talking in 140 spaces. after that, you can follow me if ya like or follow barbara.

looking for a short term mission experience

i spent the first decade or so of my life in christian leadership working in or with the community of mountain top (tennessee outreach project). as with any organization it has had its ups and downs, currently it is on a upswing of movement.

one of the things they have done is put together a relationship with the usda to put together some larger, generally ground up, type home improvements. they are looking for some adult / young adult help in filling out their aim (adults in ministry) weekends/weeks to get as much done as possible. if you are looking for something to plug into. from the appalachian to mountain top communities i couldn't suggest it enough. john would suggest it as well.

...last fall Mountain T. O. P. was awarded a $60,000 HPG (Housing Preservation Grant) from USDA Rural Development. We are still working with USDA with families for low interest loans. Now, our problem is getting the people to work on the projects.

The dates for this year are:

Spring  April 24-27
Summer June 8-14
Summer June 22-28 (Summer Plus)
Summer  July 6-12 (Kaleidoscope)
Fall Oct. 2-5
Fall Oct. 9-12
Fall Oct. 16-19
Fall Oct. 23-26
Fall Oct. 30-Nov. 2

Please prayerfully consider spending a week or weekend helping the families of Grundy County.

social networking sites on the rise or fall

with some of the tech workshops i have done over the years with youth ministers we have done the gamut of talk with myspace issues. one thing i have always suggested is to be prepared to move onto the next big networking site.

i had an 'ah-ha' moment when i hear mitch joel share some stats on facebook's growth at last falls barcamp. with this little chart, via techcrunch, it looks like fubar.com is making some big jumps. this might not last & looking at the premise of this site probably won't be the next youth site, but it is a helpful chart to keep watch. so i share

if you asked me, i was always expecting to see an avatar based network site be the next big thing. from this list, myyearbook.com has the teen look

what is my dad trying to prove

my dad sent us kids this so to prove that he graduated from high school.. he is so weird

in the wilderness you can't twitter

i think Jesus gave up twittering for lent.. i guess when you go into the desert it is hard to tweet, but with cell coverage i would have thought he could do the txt updates.

on cramming morality down the throat : my two dads

or as i might say, inserting yourself into places you don't need to be.

my odd ramblings attempting to be cohesive

friends at music city bloggers are chatting away over proposed legislation prohibiting preschools & early education classes from 'promoting a homosexual lifestyle' by using inclusion-ary books or resources.

being trained and having worked as an early child educator for a number of years inclusion is a big part of a child's education. this inclusion 'best practices' covers, race, religion, disabilities, global issues, and lifestyles. since this conversation generally seems to stir around homosexuality this is inevitably about sex, not over lifestyle. now, i can agree with some comments that this should be taught in the family, but we would have to be honest in claiming that most families don't teach sex educations with their children and have been perfectly happy to relegate teaching that stuff to schools. why else would we need all this teen pregnancy education or your 7th grade sex/health class taught by your odd gym teacher.

since we give this teaching over to schools they have a particular responsibility to treat each person equally and by that we don't go overboard celebrating holidays that lift up a particular family and exclude another, not all teachings and toys are only resembling of a white perfectly healthy child, etc..

if this is a religious ideology thing then people have the option, send your kid to a private school that won't teach with these type materials or resources or teach against it. the religious ideologies has no place in the public education system. which might sound heretical to a fundamentalist point of view, but i grew up studying darwin and i am a pretty well adjusted and convicted Christian. children adjust and take on the influence of their family if the family wants to be the influence, they can give away their power.

what breaks my heart is that legislation like this is essentially sex morality issues and it dangles over the people the future of children which is absurd. you can not agree with homosexual lifestyle or same sex unions raising a child, but you cannot allow for hate of the child. and if you allow taboos and unknowns to be out there you perpetuate a fear and fear pushes hate and other terrible acts.

worship feast prayer stations : do you have a copy

are you one of the millions, thousands, maybe hundred or so that have a copy of my "worship feast prayer stations" cdrom? if so could you email me and tell me what prayer stations are highlighted in the cdrom? i was wanting to post some of the videos & pdf's that didn't make the resource but i have given away all the copies i had of it so i don't know anymore what was on there. thanks in advance

in case: if you didn't know, i have this cdrom out there on prayer stations. Worship Feast Prayer Stations, put out by abingdon press. it was set up to be a primer to get people started on doing their own, but have no idea about them or where to start. it has some meditative background images, original music, and video and pdfs on how to do some specific prayer stations plus alternatives which make up a total of around 20 prayer stations. not bad for a $20 price.

ode to the chick-i-fied church

update: because you care. mark apparently has too many friends on facebook.. and looking at the comments, he has a lot of guy friends.

you can always leave it up to mark driscoll for some good male chauvinism. someone took his talk of men not being wusses and put it to macho man music... no, not that macho man, this macho man. it's funny. via purgatorio tip to jody

razzle dazzle your next youth ministry message

maybe not optimally useful for youth ministry purposes, but it is super cool. i could see lots of uses for it for training or brainstorming sessions for programming. who knows it might make up the next super cool artist person at the next youth workers convention.

youth ministry standards

ian has linked to the uk's national occupational standards for youth ministry. it's a pretty cool document, way long, but as far as training and putting language to job descriptions, goal settings (outcomes & behaviors), and other organizational pieces it's a pretty solid looking resource.

download  the professional_and_national_occupational_standards_for_youth_work.pdf

cheating on the methodist church

i am outraged! i don't know about you, but i've worn jeans to church. that just isn't a valid excuse. if you are not sure what the parody is about, then you might need to watch 'cheaters'

linkage of all kinds of stuff

• put together your own green youth ministry or church retreat.
• using a blog for ministry
• bishop willimon on his blogging experiences
• how not to take photos
• corporate responsibility and the freegans
• building christian community online part 2, part 1
• jim wallis & diana butler bass on cnn
• hauerwas on bonhoeffer lying and truthful speech
• the rules for library management (i know a lot out there need this)
• tony jones interview from the non-emergent side
• revfife on the recent nt wright interview by abc news on heaven
• whiffle ball game leads to charges, watch out youth folks! tip mcb

i am feeling like i need to get out more as well

i am feeling a lot like meredith in this article. i like this closing thought

We say John Wesley said, “The world is my parish,” but I’ve let the church become my parish. I get nervous about being among the people of God. I don’t want to be separated out. I want to be me, one of God’s children, one of the crowd.

Is that possible as a pastor?

nba & darfur : the cynic in me

this is one of those. i'm really happy that you have done this. but honestly, you have the opportunity to a whole lot more. there are people who are taking their fame and money and actually doing something. that is how you inspire change.

samuel wesley : monastic methodists

so my whole allure with monasticism over the last five or six years has some historic friends from my tribe. talking of samuel wesley, father of john wesley.

The practice of the societies to meet regularly to encourage each other in "practical holiness" was part of a larger design to retreat from the snares of "the world." In this respect there was more than a passing similarity with the purposes of the medieval monastic orders. As Samuel Wesley noted in his "Letter Concerning the Religious Societies,"

I know few good men but lament that after the destruction of monasteries, there were not some societies founded in their stead, but reformed from their errors and reduced to the primitive standard. None who had but looked into our own church history, can be ignorant how highly instrumental such bodies of men as these were to the first planting and propagating Christianity amongst our forefathers... A great part of the good efforts of that way of life may be attained without many of the inconveniences of it, by such societies as we are now discoursing of (M&M, 44)

wesley and the people called methodists

youth ministry idea : classified under "duh"

one of the things i hate about being a youth minister is money. the whole caterer/event planner/travel agent/bank loaner that comes along with the job takes a lot of effort for me. so, this idea from steve case & the journal for student ministries speaks to me as a no brainer.

Burger Debits by Steve Case

Many banks now offer debit cards with specific dollar limits. When you plan your next youth budget, consider putting in a line item for a debit card. Keep this in your wallet and use if for all those occasions when Johnny forgets to bring his wallet on the outing.

All youth leaders have dipped into their own pockets at one time or another for a student, but 50 or 60 burgers a year (or lattes or whatever) can start to add up. The burger debit card can help keep you from going broke, and it provides a record to your financial committee regarding how expensive it is to deal with “forgetful” youth.

Also, sometimes there will be students who don’t have the funds to stop for the frappa-dappa-chino, and they order ice water instead. The burger debit card can also serve as a way to help kids from feeling embarrassed when the rest of the table orders something fancy.

our church does have a credit card i could request use of, but i choose not too. the same reason i don't ask for keys, i don't want the responsibility of keeping up with more than i need.

thoughts of the day

• i am pondering what sort of relations do a postmodern model of youth ministry have with a methodist church and it's laity driven history.. and the trouble that brings about because it goes against just about every other model of youth ministry out there..??
• i am wondering what all i need to do to start doing a to-do-list to make sure i get stuff done during the rest of this week.
• i am thinking i want to get a new little tv for our bedroom, one that has a remote that works and the sound doesn't go funny when you have at a low volume.
• not sure what books i want to try to finish reading this week... it is a pretty open week work wise, so i've got some opportunities here.
• with some odd church activities tomorrow, we have no regular programming.. do i go and do some observations of other churches or just take the night off...??
• i am going to move into using the prayerbook from the iona community this week.. that is generally a month or two earlier than i have done in the past (usually start in summer)..

last comic eating ice cream

apparently 'the last comic standing' was in town the other day (sunday) for some auditions for the upcoming season. they stopped into my buddy jenny's ice cream shoppe, pied piper creamery, in east nashville to film a segment. which is very cool. if you haven't stopped by there yet, you need too. (nash scene write up)

not sure what the segment is about & whether or not it will make the final cut for the actual airing of the show. still, we have the picture.

music monday : i can't this out of my head

at this weekend's youth ministers gathering we were showing off funny or interesting youtube videos. i was showing off the potter puppet pals, now i can't get this song out of my head! maybe that is why i had a headache yesterday.

history of war : food fight

this is.. interesting.. odd.. a history of war, displayed with food. it took me a bit to figure out the food symbolism, but i am not having a very smart night. via bob