I'm Down With the Grinch

Spent the evening taking care of the boys (particularly Eli, who had it bad for a couple of days... he's just starting to feel better) while Aimee did the stomach flu, and then was given the opportunity to do it myself this morning. Am hating life right now. I can't believe how much you take good health for granted until the day you find yourself "talking to Ralph on the big white phone". Fortunately this appears to be the 24 hour variety of flu, and Aimee was able to start feeling better before those little viruses took control... so there are a couple of things to be thankful for.

But now my schedule is all messed up. Major papers are due, and I've got no choice but to pull up the bootstraps and give it the ol college try... yuck. If having too small a heart makes you feel lousy, I can see why the Grinch stuck it to those Whos. Have a nice weekend, and enjoy solid foods.

Nine More Things I Think I Think

1) Preached this morning to rave reviews. My subject was the Christmas story (the real one, not the one with Ralphie) and my focus was Joseph (for reasons that will be made clear later). You know, there are some parts of the Bible most of us just kind of skim, or mostly skip over, and then there are other parts that you've read so many times you begin to think you know them cold. Such is the Christmas story.

Mary and Gabriel. Joseph and his dream. A trip to Bethlehem. Shepherds and angels. A manger and a tiny baby boy. It becomes more difficult to get a new take on the subject after awhile.

This morning's sermon really had two parts. The latter was a story of something that happened to me while ringing a bell for the Salvation Army outside of a WalGreens in Goshen, Indiana years ago. A funny story of grace where a woman was touched upon hearing me whistle "Oh Holy Night". I knew I wanted to use the story, just because I like it so much, but I wasn't sure how it connected to the part A...

Which was the difference in how Mary and Joseph perceived the pregnancy. Mary is visited directly by Gabriel and is profoundly touched by the Holy Spirit. He sings hymns and celebrates with Elizabeth. For her, she is blessed to be a vessel to bring the Son of God into the world.

But Joseph's take on the scene is different. Instead of a direct visit, the angel visits Joseph, who is crushed by his fiance's apparent infidelity to the point that he is ready to break the engagement, in a dream. Dreams can be a little harder to sort out. While the Bible says he did as the Angel in the dream orders, marrying Mary and moving on with his life, I speculated that somehow the message of the dream wasn't really confirmed until the moment Joseph laid eyes on the baby.... which is a miracle all its own.... and he named him Joshua, son of Joseph. In my opinion, that's the moment that the dream became "holy adoption papers", and confirmation that the baby isn't just the Son of God but also, the Son of Man.

I won't go into detail as to how I put altogether, since it'll be preached again this Sunday at both 9 and 11am at Shawnee... and we will experiment with streaming video on the http://www.shawneeumc.com/ web site in the near future.

Anyhow, it turned out pretty well. Dr. Kalas was complimentary, and that, really is about the best confirmation of your preaching ability you can receive.

2) Hey, who said this (and it's a direct quote)

"If you got a problem with Mo Cheeks, there must be something wrong with you,"

If you said Allen Iverson, you just won two roundtrip ticket on Piedmont Airlines good any day it's not a whole owned subsidiary of any other airline, between now and the end of the year! Seems that Iverson, who has clashed with all of the coaches he's ever had in Philadelphia was told my GM Billy King that this latest demand for Mo Cheeks' head would not be granted, and Allen would be on the next bus out of town.

As one of like, 14 NBA fans left in the country, I've always really liked Iverson. For all the tattoos and bluster, the guy plays hard, takes good care of his wife and kids, and is simply one of the best reasons to buy a ticket to see an NBA game today. That being said, taking a little guard in his 30's with the kind of miles on the odometer that AI has on his, should make any GM nervous. The best rumor so far has Iverson going to Sacramento to play with Ron "I Am An Insane Tru Warrior" Artest. Here's hoping that happens, and the Maloofs can also pick up Rasheed Wallace, Zach Randolph, Stephen Jackson, Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Darius Miles, Bonzi Wells, maybe coax J.R. Rider, Bad News Barnes, Darrell Dawkins, and John Starks out of retirement, and hire Vernon Maxwell as the coach. That's an "All NBA Headcase Team" if I ever saw one, generating headlines that I'm sure would never cease to amaze.

I think my brother, Steve Clouse, and I are the only two people who read and understood that last post.

3) Sounds like the commission to figure out how to get us out of Iraq is meeting with more than a little controversy. The current Iraqi government is upset. The hope by the commission is that we could get Iran and Syria to help patrol the country (good grief.... someone take Moammar Gadaffi off his meds and see if he'll send a few troops too)... which doesn't seem all that likely, or even desirable. Obviously the situation has degenerated into a mess, with the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shites all not wanting much to do with one another, and a whole lot of oil money at stake. If there ever is a functioning democracy in this country, we should all praise God and thank our lucky stars, as it looks like we have a Middle Eastern equivalent of the Balkans post-Marshall Tito on our hands.

4) People have been asking what I've been reading, and the answer is "nothing I'd recommend to others". This part of the dissertation requires a lot of reference books and commentaries, which are designed largely to read like stereo instructions. Which leads me to this...

Why do scholarly texts need to be so stinking boring? At what point in history did people quoting endlessly, other people, start passing itself off as relevant or important? I understand the need to credit others for the work they've done, but there's a reason you'd be better off reading one of Bishop Wright's books when he signs it "Tom", as opposed to "N.T.". The "Tom" books are supposed to be useful (which his series for laypeople on the life of Paul is.... it's terrific), where as "N.T." does so many mental gymnastics that the dense nature of the work almost becomes too obtuse to even be understood.

A new movement among scholars needs to start taking place... perhaps following "Tom" Wright's lead. The texts being produced now out of Biblical, Christo-historical, and theological circles has become so marginalized as to be almost inaccessible to common people. There's a reason they still sell so many Barclay Bible Series books.... folks can understand what the heck he's saying. While William Barclay is by no means cutting edge, his intent was education of the common reader, the everyday Christian, not to add more to the scholarly world.

I mean, all you brilliant guys out there... can't we have more of a balance? You are intellectually pricing yourself out of the market, leaving the stuff that passes as theology at the local Christian bookstore to fill the void. You are "Left Behinding" and "Prayer of Jabezing" the nation.... books not inherently evil in and of themselves, but can't they balanced by something else?

5) Had a nice weekend in Johnson City, Tennessee, interviewing people and surreptitiously observing the goings on at the Grandview Chrsitian Church. Grandview's senior pastor, Aaron Wymer, is on sabbatical pursuing his degree as a fellow BP. He suggested that we switch churches one weekend for the purpose of writing ethnography papers for one another as final projects for our Anthropology class. Here's his initial take of Shawnee, as detailed in his own fine blog.

Grandview is a part of the Independent Christian Church movement, which, as best I could understand it, started with a group of Scottish Presbyterians who were plenty angry at the established church, particularly for establishing creeds which appeared to supplant the role of scripture. There are now three major wings of this movement, the Acapella Church of Christ (which allows no instruments to be used in worship, and recognizes no other baptisms than those done in their own church..... the rest of us "out of luck", as it were), the ICC (which makes central a confession of Christ as Lord and Savior independent of any creeds or statements, looks to participate with other denominations, practices an "open table" at communion where all Christians regardless of background are invited to participate, and requires all members to have had a full-immersion baptism), and the Disciples of Christ (the group my buddy Pauly is affiliated with now... I think they are by far the most liberal of the three groups, and the only one to consider themselves a denomination).

Grandview is located only miles away from the ICC's flagship college (Milligan College) and seminary (Emmanuel School of Theology). If you want to know how closely those schools and the church are, I interviewed three Milligan profs, four more Milligan grads, an Emmanuel prof (an interesting fellow who after an education at Gordon-Cromwell and Harvard, has left his native Acapella Church of Christ Roots to join the ICC), and the youth pastor who is a Milligan grad and Emmanuel student. The preacher in the worship services was an Emmanuel prof, and the Communion meditation speaker in Grandview's second service was the Dean of Emmanuel.

Needless to say, there are more than a few experts in the congregation when Aaron preaches on Sunday morning.

All in all it was interesting experience. Every single person I talked to loves Aaron to death, and afraid he's going to leave after completing this degree, to which Aaron replied, "What kind of jerk do they think I am?" Not a jerk, sir... just thoroughly impressed enough with your ability that they are afraid another church will snatch you up.

No worries friends, he, Cindy, and the girls are coming home, and that right soon.

I was impressed with the depth of biblical understanding and theological depth of all the people who I met. The church is obviously very caring, and a great place for folks to be mentored into greater spiritual maturity. My hosts, the Allmans, are from the Midwest, and the husband is from Ironton and a huge Buckeye fan, so we watched Troy Smith win the Heisman. I ate great bar-be-que (go to The Firehouse if you are ever in Johnson City... trust me) with the Halls (who are passionate about their church... gotta like that). If I had any complaint on the weekend its that the people from Mapquest have never been to Johnson City... maybe they could buy an atlas and clean some things up. But beyond that, all was well. Thank you all for such a warm welcome.

6) East Tennessee might be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'd love to ride a bike through it someday.

7) Our youngest, Elijah, has the stomach flu, and that on the day of our BP Christmas Party at Belle Notte (that Uncle Frank.... he goes upscale). Bummer. Such is the life of parents. Aimee's taken the brunt of him not being able to keep anything down, so I need to stop and pick up her "Number One Mom" medal on the way home. I just don't do the stomach flu all that well... I'm a wuss.

8) There are blogs, then there are good blogs, and then there are great blogs... and then there's Tina Dietsch's blog (where I lifted the Charlie Brown clip late last night). Tina, who's the pastor of a congregation in suburban Columbus, and former associate pastor at Lima Trinity UMC (my home church), is an unbelievably gifted writer. Mom and Dad loved her preaching while she was at Trinity, and used to bring me her sermons.... which I must admit became reference material for sermons I've done myself. An Asbury grad who is a good friend of fellow BP, Alicia Coltzer, her new blog is funny, insightful, and full of theological insights for all willing to read. I love her stuff!

9) Speaking of Lima Trinity, received news via their newsletter that Grace UMC, the last UMC located in what would be the south-end of Lima, has formally requested a merger which would involve Grace's congregation going to Trinity and putting her building up for sale. Over the course of the last five years, that will make the third UMC that's closed its doors in the City of Lima: First UMC (which merged with Epworth UMC to from Family of Faith UMC), High Street UMC (which merged with Sharon Park UMC to form Westside UMC... High Streets old building, by the way, is packed to the gills with Pentecostals who purchased the building with the intent of moving from suburban Shawnee into the City, which I find interesting), and now Grace. That leaves now only Trinity, Family of Faith, St. Marks, and Forest Park in a city of more than 40,000 people.

I hear a lot of talk at the conference level about making a commitment to urban communities, but in Lima throughout my lifetime, all I've witnessed is a slow retreat from the city. While I applaud pastors like Dave Harris, Senior Pastor at Trinity, Derek Russell (Forest Park) for standing strong in the heart of the community, I wonder what it is about our denomination that no longer easily speaks with an urban accent? Historically, our movement flourished in England's urban communities among the working class... that was the greatest strength of Wesley's movement. Francis Asbury, the first American Episcopal Bishop, found Jesus in a Methodist context while apprenticing to become a button-maker, came from the gritty industrial city of Birmingham, and never had more than six years of formal education.

Has credentialing made it difficult for us reach more impoverished communities? Have the requiring of MDiv's robbed us of the momentum needed to seek out those who might never pursue a graduate degree?

Anyhow, say a prayer for our city-center churches. You can feel the load growing heavier on their shoulders.

One Thing I Think I Think.....

1) I think I'm drowning in work this week. A sermon for my preaching class tomorrow. One last assignment to complete that class due this Thursday. A huge, mondo theology paper I've already received one extension on that relates to my dissertation. A weekend spent in Johnson City, Tennessee doing an ethnography for my final anthropology project... and another sermon for worship this Sunday at Shawnee.

Help!!!!

So please bear with me right now as I step back a little and try to avoid flunking out of school. I promise.

Thanks for a little bit of grace. I'll write more later today, or this week.

In the Pasture of the Lord

Went for a walk last night
A "Night Walk"
A great adventure for three boys
We bundled up, put Eli in the stroller
and into the night we went

We walked past Beeson Manor
We stopped and saw John Wesley
"I'm almost as tall as John Wesley, Dad!"
"Me too!"

We stopped to visit the SPOs
where the boys opened the doors
and Daddy got his mail

We stopped by the student center
where we saw Jesus carrying the lamb
Eli was amazed by the big Christmas tree
We ran through the gym
We saw flags from around the world

"Dad, Night Walks are the coolest things ever!"

We stopped by the big town Christmas tree
We stopped by the Dollar General to look at toys

We stopped by Fitch's IGA
Max got a Popsicle
Xavie got a push-up
Daddy and Eli spilt an ice cream sandwich
and we bought Mom some malted milk balls

The night was quiet
my boys were not
they marveled at the stars
they spotted spies on the tops of buildings
they raced down the sidewalk

and I stood in the pasture of the Lord
and the angels appeared before me
and they sang...

glory to God
Heaven is now with you
for the baby in the manger
is not only the Son of God
but the Son of Man

There, in the moonlight
pushing the stroller
Xavier singing John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt

I remembered God's covenant of peace
The noose slipped off my neck
and I breathed in sweet fresh air
mercy and grace filling my lungs
so I could exult with joy
that Jesus is Lord

For I had forgotten the words to the Hallelujah Chorus
The music somehow slipped my mind
Thank God for Night Walks
the sweet innocence of children
and angels singing

It was there
standing in the Lord's pasture with Handel
I heard their chorus
"And He will reign forever and ever"

and I remembered

Let me sing, Almighty God
Let me sing forevermore

A Pastor Backs Down...

For those who were unaware, a bit of drama has been unfolding in the city of Seattle over the past couple of weeks. Mark Driscoll (the anti-Rob Bell Jr.), founding pastor of Mars Hill Church, a huge mega-church that practices something called "Resurgence Missional Theology" landed in a bit of hot water when, in the course of sharing his thoughts about the the Ted Haggard situation, wrote this as a word to young pastors who he mentors through his "Acts 29 Network"...

"Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either." (as posted on his blog, Resurgence)

First time I read that I thought... "Uh, did he just suggest that the blame for the Ted Haggard situation is Ted's wife for 'letting herself go'? I can't imagine too many people are going to agree with this."

Highly theological or well-developed my thoughts were not. But, like most things, I clicked off the blog, and went back to work. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks later to find out that other people did not just "click off" or "move on".

Mark, who I call the anti-Rob Bell, partly because if you've ever heard Rob Bell speak you'll know how sensitive the guy is, and partly because Driscoll has openly ridiculed Bell for not upholding the kind of values he believes Christian men should uphold (i.e. not sensitivity). Thus, Driscoll is famous of deriding men for having become "chickified" and "limp wristed" and for women to accept traditional roles of child-rearing and staying-at-home. In a city as progressive as Seattle, his comments on gender roles, thanks to his blog and the fact that he wrote a column for the local newspapers, for years he's been an object of derision in Starbucks City's blogosphere. I'd link you some examples of this, but, quite frankly, many of them are quite profane (the blog responses, not Driscoll's original posts).

But nothing Driscoll has ever said about gender roles, women in ministry (very opposed), or anything else generated the heat as that quote I listed above. The response was quick and immediate. A group calling itself "People Against Fundamentalism" formed and asked for a formal meeting with Mark and his Elders to explain what they called the latest, and most offensive statement, in a series of what was now be termed "misogynistic" statements".

Uh oh... even Mark realized immediately that this was some kind of trouble he'd never experienced before. While he did offer a kind of quasi-apology on his blog, he never re-tracted his statement, nor did agree to any meeting. This led to PAF scheduling a protest outside of one of Mars Hills' worship campuses for December 3rd, demanding that the Seattle Time fire him as a columnist, and the Elders of Mars Hill release Mark as their Senior Pastor.

Pretty soon, the situation moved off of blog pages and into those of various local newspapers. PAF soon found itself being endorsed from a number of different quarters, and the Elders at Mars Hill wondered what it would be like for families taking their children to church past protesters picketing the worship service. In the meantime, women started coming forward with stories about how abused they had felt (not physically) while attending Mars Hill. Here's an account in a blog written by a female pastor who had met with many of these women, and her attempts to try and meet with Driscoll to talk about the situation: http://www.monkfish-abbey.org/blog/20060308/grid-blog-for-international-womens-day-hammer-time/

With the day of the protest nearing, and this story gathering steam locally, my guess is that considerable pressure was placed on Driscoll, who I'm sure didn't want this kind of publicity either, to try and get this thing resolved. Finally, two days before the protest, Mark and some Elders sat down with a group assembled by PAF, and there he formally apologized, and promised to use different language to say what it was he was trying to say not only in his church, but also in the various venues where he has a voice. He also resigned from the Seattle Times, who was ready to remove him anyway. Apparently, one pastor, a female from the local Vineyard Church, an evangelical/Pentecostal-esque movement that emerged out of the Jesus Movement in the early seventies, made a particularly profound impression on Mark. Her name is Rose Madrid-Swetman. Here are her thoughts on this situation.

Anyhow, crisis averted, for now, but given Driscoll's record (just take a look at his blog... go back far enough and you'll find the "Born Against Christian" T-Shirt for sale) I get the sense that maybe this thing isn't over.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1) Hope your Christmas season is getting off to a good start. The Buchers just went Christmas crazy this weekend. First and foremost, today we bought a tree. It's six feet tall, embraces fiber optic technology, and is, by far, one of the cheapest trees I have bought in my life (although it'll be tough to top last year, when I payed $10 for a tree marked at $95 at The Andersons.... that's a coup for the ages). The Dollar General was having a sale on Christmas trees, and since we're leaving Wilmore on December 17th for the holidays, we decided that something small and easy to put up and away, was in order. Since all we had to do was take this baby out of the box, pull the wire limbs down to give it a little oomph, and plug it in, I'd say we found a winner. I get the feeling you'll see it on this post before it's all said and done... but you'll need to pay attention.

2) The other thing our family did to get into the spirit was head on into Wilmore for the Chamber of Commerce's annual Christmas bash. On this evening, we saw the Wilmore City Christmas tree light up, AND SO CAN YOU (just lay your monitor on it's side to avoid hurting your neck)....



Next we ate chili and peanut butter sandwiches at the Wilmore UMC while we listened to a Big Band play some tunes (which they felt needed to be amplified in a room that's not much bigger than a three-car garage... but, hey, if it's too loud, you're too old!). Then virtually every business in town opened their doors, and invited everyone in for an open house where they gave you free stuff (usually a cookie and spiced cider... although a doc in town gave away boxes of cereal! The boys had Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast), and in every single shop, there were local artists playing Christmas music (the best: a jam-band at the local mexican restaurant one of Beeson spouses named "No Way Jose's"). Lots of lights, big crowds, cold-but-not freezing weather.... we had a blast!

You should have seen Elijah's face. I put him in the baby backpack, and I don't think the look of wonder or a smile, came off his face all evening. Small town America at its very best! You'll see more of Wilmore later... if you pay close attention.

3) We were late to church this morning. Quest Community Church, our temporary church while we're away from Lima, is about a 25 minute drive from our townhouse. Unfortunately, after I lost track of time reading the newspaper and then having to scrape ice off the van, we ended up with only 15 minutes to get there.

But how many times in my life will I ever be permitted to be late to church? Ah, do I detect the sweet smell of grace..... yes! I believe I do!

We were so late, that we ended up going to V2, which is the church's in-house cafe where the 10:22am service is video simulcast. The place was packed so we sat on a loveseat (Aimee, Xavier - who didn't want to go to his class until I pointed out that if he did he'd get a snack, Eli, and myself). The sermon was nice, and gentle, and peaceful. After Xavier went for his snac... er, class, Eli fell asleep, and we nestled in for the service. For the record, I like sitting in a loveseat at church... and because it's too easy to fall asleep, we'll never introduce them at Shawnee.

Like I need more help putting people to sleep.

4) Speaking of Shawnee, tonight Joseph is meeting with a number of laypeople at the church to announce that as of July 1, 2007, I'll be taking over his Senior Pastoral role at Shawnee. While this has been one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of secret keeping, that still doesn't mean people won't be shocked. Dr. Bishman has been with the church since January 1991, which, if you know anything about the United Methodist Church, is about four-times the normal tenure for an appointed pastor to be anywhere. Needless to say, our family is excited for this opportunity (the story of how all this happened, I'll tell in a later post.... it's pretty interesting) which has been over two years in the making. We just feel beyond blessed, and thank God that Joseph, the Cabinet, and the Bishop were willing to give us this opportunity.

5) I wrote in an earlier blog post that when given the choice to follow a highly successful pastor in a church that's been growing, or follow a pastor that has not done well in a church that's almost empty, almost to the person, my Beeson Pastor colleagues opted for the church deep in the hole. And to be honest, I know why. It's easy to follow someone a congregation was either hostile or apathetic towards. If you just take care of your business, people will just be relieved that you aren't messing up, and then, once they know you mean business, will cut you a lot of slack to try new things.

In churches where things have been rolling, however, expectations are high, relationships that were strong have been broken resulting in lots of grieving, and in many cases the pastor who follows ends up failing simply by not being the person that s/he followed.

Don't think this the case? After analyzing (for my dissertation) all the appointments made in the last 15 years in the West Ohio Conference involving a church averaging 250 people in worship or more, in about 80% of the cases, the church either declined or held steady. And in about as many cases the succeeding pastor only lasted about three years.

This has become such an issue for the conference, that in the case of Shawnee, Bishop Ough has been willing to try this (at Joseph's suggestion) because, quite frankly, he's looking for a new way to do appointments.

So, am I more than a little uneasy about all of this? Yep
Am I going to run away because I'm afraid? 'Fraid not
Why?

6) Fifteen years ago when I was hired at Shawnee as a part-part-part-part time youth pastor, the church was not in very good shape. They had declined to the point where they were struggling to meet their bills, had told the Associate Pastor of that moment (for those who remember, Barry Burns - he of the lovely wife Julie and the two sets of twins... yeah, that's right, TWO sets of twins... can't stop laughing when I say that) that he would no longer be in the church's employ come that June, and generally wasn't reaching many people in the community.

Joseph, who at the time was about 42 and fresh off a good stint at a church in Williamsburg, was the perfect fit for the church, and community. Spirit-filled, entrepreneurial (he hired me with $4000 the church didn't really have), funny, a terrific preacher, and fearless leader, Joseph met the challenges of that age, head on. And for all the success, what many people forget were the large number of people who didn't like all the changes, got upset, and left. When they hired me (then a student at Miami University) I actually lived in Oxford (127.5 miles) and only showed up on Sundays to help lead children's church in the morning and youth group in the evening... so, to be honest, much of carnage just kind of flew over my head. However, given my "unrefined personality" at the time, I was one of the changes not appreciated by more than a few people.... and that carnage I remember.

I remember the day Joseph got stopped by yet another older member of the church to complain about my, um, "unconventional ways" (I drug kids in with guitars to play on Sunday morning, dressed like a guy on a $4000 salary, and generally broke every taboo imaginable). "I don't like that Bryan" she told him. "I don't know why we keep him around here."

"Well Aunt Lucy", Joseph said, "that's OK. We didn't bring him here for you. The kids and their parents love him, so he stays."

Having lived through a few nightmares of my own, now I know.... that was gutsy.

But, the church has grown by almost 3 times it's size (attendance-wise). During that time, serving other people, particularly the poor, became one of its hallmarks. In a day and age where all the gurus pressured pastors who wanted to grow a church to get "more conservative", the church stuck to its guns... taking the phrase, "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" seriously, by staying in the center where the door can be held open the widest for all people looking for Jesus. And, most importantly, lots of folks found Christ over all these years. I remember baptizing whole families, folks who hadn't darkened the door of any church in quite sometime (or ever), and just generally being amazed at how many folks were able to get some things straightened out in their lives.

So, again, why not run? Well, my blood, sweat and tears are in this place. I've poured thousands of hours of prayer into her people. I feel resonsible for what happens to her. I'm proud of what Shawnee has become, and when God asked me if I'd be willing to pay the price to lead the faithful on who have been force for the Kingdom of Heaven on the corner of Zurmehly and Shawnee sinc the early 19th century, I couldn't think of a better way to honor his request than by saying "yes". I love the people. I love what they want to do. I love what they want, and what they want their kids, to become. I love what Jesus has done with them, and want to stick around to see what he does next.

Besides... I always said back in the day when the UMC would never have dreamed of doing some thing like this, "God bless the sucker who follows Joseph Bishman at Shawnee UMC".

You know what - I can safely say, that prayer has already been answered, with abundance.

7) Looks like it'll be the Gators and the Bucks in Glendale. I have no fear or qualms. Let the games begin!

8) As of today, I will not write another word about the Jeff Greenway situation. Now that we're officially colleagues (his new church, Reynoldsburg UMC in suburban Columbus) in the same UM Conference, I just don't feel it's proper. I've always tried to write impartially, and from the perspective of outsider looking for leadership lessons in what we BP's have turned into a case study on leadership.... but now, I just think it'd be too hard to be perceived as impartial, one way or the other, and that's a real problem now that Bishops and DS's are invovled... so I'm out. If you're here looking for info, I'd like to gracefully ask you to look elsewhere, and invite you to pray with me that someday, some sort of reconciliation can take place between Jeff and the school.

And, Pastor Greenway, if you're reading this, I look forward to seeing you at conference next year at Lakeside. Take my advise... get your housing now (it always goes fast) and do your best to stay in Lakeside proper. It's a lovely place the whole family would love. Let me know, and up there I'd be happy to buy you a cup of coffee some morning at "The Patio". Welcome to West Ohio!

9) Pray for me. Next Sunday I'll be visiting a church connected to one of my Beeson Pastor colleagues for the purpose of writing my final anthropology paper. It'll involve a lot of travel in a short period of time in the mountains during December, which can always be dicey. I kinda have to stay undercover, so I can't say a whole lot more without complicating the assignment further. An extra moment to whisper some good thing on my behalf to the Lord would be appreciated.

10) It's no secret, even if you've followed this half-heartedly, that I like YouTube. It's one of the few links to the outside world I've had since moving down here in July. We don't have cable, so, for example, if a pastor from a mega-church makes a statement about a so-called scandal involving all sorts of unseemly things, what you watched on 24 hour cable news, I watched on YouTube. It's a place to see sports highlights, old SNL skits (I stopped watching before Will Farrell found his voice, so I'm catching up a little), and some of the weirdist things you'll ever see on the internet.

But, until today, I've always been one who exclusively downloaded things from YouTube, leaving uploading to other souls braver or less busy, than I.

That is, until today!

Before I left for Chicago for Willow's "Leadership Summit", Aimee and I bit the bullet and bought a digital camera that could take both stills and video. It's a weird little Chinese gadget I bought indirectly through www.woot.com that has always worked kind of, well, strangely. But, over time I've started to get the hang of it, and since Aaron Wymer beat me to the punch by posting the first BP produced video to YouTube over thanksgiving (the link to this blog is on the left column under, "go surfing"), I felt the time to keep up with the Wymer's was at hand.

Besides, he's a Florida grad... I can't be outdone by a Gator grad!

So, without further ado, for your viewing pleasure, my YouTube debut. Please pardon the video quality... it looks a lot better before it's compressed. The theme is "Christmas in Wilmore", but it's really just an excuse to put up video of the kids for family (particularly the grandparents.... and The Great One if she'd switch to a full computer) and friends at home. I hope you enjoy it, and that it gets you into the Christmas spirit.

Florida or Michigan?

(With apologizes to Juliet in London.... another American football post. I probably should owe her a pint for every football post that's up between now and the National Championship, but then I'd probably have to rob a bank or sell so much plasma that I'd be perpetually woozy. So, it'll have to be 1/6 a pint for each post... that way I can still buy my kids milk.)

Well, now that USC has crapped all over themselves, I've come to the conclusion that teams on the west coast and Nitre Dame are just really that bad. It can't be for lack of talent.. I mean if you're recruiting in California, or if you have your choice of top picks across the country while the academic provost for the first time in school history will bend the rules to admit your recruits (something that was never done for Ty Willingham), you have to wonder what gives. At least USC has an excuse.. they lost a quarterback and the two top running backs who anchored their offense last year, so I guess you have to give them a pass... maybe even kudos for playing way above themselves all season. But the rest of west coast.... let's face it, Boise State is the cream of the crop, and they just barely survived San Jose State two weeks ago.

Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Colorado, Stanford, Arizona State... where the heck have you guys gone?

And as for Notre Dame.... well, I've heard how fantastic Charlie Weis is, how well prepared the team is under his expert coaching, and how he's the future of football from various football announcers, ND fans, and even blog devotees so many times, that I feel obligated to point out three simple facts about the Charlie Weis era....

- The Patriots seem fine without Weis. They'll be in the playoff hunt again, and it's been two years AND they don't even have a decent receiver on the team. This should make you nervous.
- Last I heard you had to be able to stop somebody in football if you wanted to win games, and Weis just dosen't seem to have the same passion for defense that he does on offense. He's like a modern college version of Don Coryell, and Brady Quinn is Dan Foust. Until he gives two-cents about the time the QB is off the field, ND is going to have problems. http://www.cancharlie.com/ is saying as much, even as we speak, which bodes for stormy days ahead. Why anyone would want to coach in South Bend, given the pressure, is totally beyond me.
- Outside the comeback win over Michigan State, which I predicted would happen on Aaron Wymer's couch at the beginning of the 4th quarter (it was a hallmark of the John L. Smith era, which is why he'll be announcing games for the Louisville Cardinal Radio Network next season), ND still has no defining win in the Charlie Weis era. All the "must win" games (last year to USC and OSU, and this year to Michigan and USC), his team got outplayed... which in the days of Woody, Bo, and The Bear would have meant you got outcoached, cause they would have said they got outcoached. I'm telling you, next year he's playing with all players he recruited, and if the defining win doesn't come soon, ND fans will be running out of excuses.

But that's not why I blogged tonight... I want to address the question, "Now that USC is officially headed to the Rose Bowl, who plays OSU in the BCS Championship Game in January? Florida or Michigan?

Well, the truth be told, my belief is that we ought to see the Gators in Glendale... and here are the three reason why?

1) Michigan got their shot. They had their chance. Besides, two fumbled snaps, which aren't exactly products of fine defensive play, kept that game closer than it should have been. Giving Jim Tressel weeks to prepare for a team guarantees the team will be prepared. Giving Jim Tressel weeks to prepare for a team he's already faced, pretty much guarantees a not so close game. But apart from that, in honor of Woody and Bo, let's honor the tradition of The Game, and state unequivocally that when you win or lose, you win or lose it all. And, yes, I would feel the same way if the Buckeyes had lost that game. The mystique of The Game is that it is winner take all. We've destroyed so many other traditions in college football in the name of money, I just don't think most OSU and Michigan fans would have it any other way.

2) Nobody really believes that Florida is better than Michigan, except for a few wags in Gainesville. They run this bizarre two quarterback thing where the one guy who can actually pass moves the ball, and the other guy who should be a tight-end cause he's so large, runs up the middle for touchdowns. They've won consistently (save one game) but they always seem to play to the level of their opponent (which is why they lost the game that they did) which is why you just feel underwhelmed everytime your watch them play. But, I remember back in 2002 that another team, who ended the regular season undefeated after barely beating among others, Cincinnati (one touchdown pass dropped at the end of the game... that's how close it was), Purdue (Dad and I were there... Krenzel to Jenkins on 4th and 2, and a Boilermaker kicker who missed three field goals that day), and Illinois (in OT) ended up playing for a National Championship. None of the so-called experts gave them a chance against Miami that year...

and yet the 2002 National Champions Football travel mug in my kitchen is a constant reminder that the important thing is to win when you have to. Florida won when it had to, all season long. They deserve their shot.

3) If you had spent all year among a bunch of SEC football fans, jawing about how terrible their teams looked, openly mocking them when they talked about how much better the SEC is than everyone else, and generally making a boorish punk out of yourself all for the purpose of baiting them into replying... why wouldn't you rather see an SEC team in this game? For the next five weeks the SEC BP fans will secretly think that this is the ultimate revenge for all my trash-talk (things like "Are those Auburn lineman wearing high heels?" and "Well, at least Georgia's basketball program is superior to Kentuc... oh wait, scratch that.") and so they'll be humble on the outside, but on the night of the big game which I imagine we'll be watching together somewhere in Houston, they'll expect that their time will have arrived. Who wouldn't enjoy all of that drama?

oh, and lest I forget...

In August, Nolan Donald, a BP who graduated from Auburn, made it a point on his blog and in person to note how lonely I'd be this year because when it came down to it, because of our backgrounds, only SEC football would matter this year here on the Beeson commune... and that was when OSU was the pre-season consensus to win the whole shebang. I mean it still boggles my mind that any college football fan anywhere could utter something like this... but then again, I never knew how arrogant SEC fans really were.

(I want to make it clear that for the most part, I'm not talking about my colleagues, but rather the local paper, blogs they've connected with me with about various SEC school, various articles published in various places. Growing up in Lima on playgrounds hooping it up, I've always enjoyed trash-talking. When everyone is loose and having a good time, you're busting one another's chops. That's just the way it is. I tried to bait my colleagues into doing this all season, but either their too Christian/proper to do so, or the Bucks were too overwhelming for anyone to open their mouths. Thus, my biggest disappointment this season: not getting ripped back. Thus, unfortunately, my colleagues, for the most part, were perfectly respectful all year... although Gordon Griffin's take on how Florida could beat OSU a couple of weeks ago was particularly amusing... now if only he had insulted my momma, we'd have had something.)

Weeks of hearing how Iowa or Penn State couldn't hold LSU or Arkansas' candle, and whining about how an SEC school will never win another National Championship cause it's too tough top to bottom kind of leads me to believe that if OSU beats Michigan again... even if it's the true match-up of the best two teams in the country, there will be a bunch of cry-baby SEC fans who never had to fess up to the truth that this year was never their year.

That's why Florida needs to play in this thing. Because the only team we've been talking about consistently, all of us, all season, hails from Columbus and that team has had the last word against the Big Twelve (blasting Texas), the Big Ten (by beating Michigan), and the Pac Ten (vicariously through Michigan stomping ND). Since the ACC and Big East kind of shot themselves in their own feet, there's only one conference left to conquer, and prove to everyone, everywhere, that when it came to college football this year, it mattered, everywhere.

Do that, and you can say that you've truly crowned a National Champion.