When my father-in law goes out of town, we dog-sit his Great Dane, Rufus. Given that Bryant kept our dog, Lucy, for an entire year (while The Great One watched our cat, Trixie, who has still never forgiven us for retrieving her from the comfort and quiet of The Great One's apartment), and that my mother-in law loved that dog as if he were a child, we don't mind being his second home when Bryant needs to go out of town...
very much.
I never grew up with big dogs... or any dogs (except "Puppy Pillow") for that matter. Aimee, on the other hand, can't remember a time the Allen Zoo didn't have a Dane. She, better than I, knows just how big, smelly, and slobbery a big dog can be. The first time we had Rufus over after her new living room furniture was delivered, I thought she was going to have a cow. Given that we have three boys, a dog of our own, not the biggest house in the world, and that Rufus is an old Dane (8, going on 9) with bowel issues, the Bucher landscape gets altered considerably. And to preserve her couch and carpet, part of that altering involves new sleeping arrangements.
I mentioned the bowel issues, right? Nothing worse than a 150 pound dog with bowel issues.
Anyhow, the biggest challenge we face when Rufus stays with us that he has to go out in the middle of the night to deal with the said bowel issues. But the only way you'll know he has to go out is by locking him in a bedroom where you are sleeping, so he has to wake you up. If you don't do this, he'll just take care of business somewhere in the house, go back to sleep, leaving you with an unpleasant gift to deal with in the morning.
Since he can be loud, and the last thing we want is for him to wake Eli (who will use any excuse to not sleep), Xavier moves to his brother's room, and I sleep in Xavie's room, door shut, with both dogs. That way when Rufus wakes up at 3:15am, like he did today, I'm the only one who gets rousted out of bed.
So, the dog wakes me at an ungodly hour, I stumble out of bed (thinking things preachers ought not to think), and let the dogs outside to their business.
Just so you know, we don't own a fence. We bought one of those invisible ones for Lucy, but never were able to get it to work properly. All we own is a chain and pole stuck in the ground. Rufus, being ancient for a Dane, doesn't need to be chained. ON HIS OWN, he'll go out, do his thing, come back in, and go back to sleep. Lucy, though, is another story. She's part lab and part greyhound, so she loves to explore with her nose, and run... fast... and far. And even though she's half Rufus' age, and a quarter his size, she's the leader of the pack.
It is 3:15 in the morning. I am not thinking clearly. I let the dogs out, shut the door, and go back to bed knowing that Lucy or Rufus will bark to be let back in.
Only... it dawns on me, that I have forgotten to use the chain.
I pop out of bed as quickly as an overweight, middle-aged pasty white midwestern pastor could, rush to the back door, just in time to see both dogs disappear into the night.
Crap.
Since I sleep in my boxers (yeah, I know... to much information), I have to pull on some clothes. The only thing readily available are a pair of swim trunks Aimee folded and left on the dining room table, and the long-sleeve button down oxford shirt I wore yesterday.
And so it was, me, holding two leashes, venturing forth into the night, dressed in swim trunks, an oxford shirt, and a pair of pink flip flops, looking for two dogs who have made a midnight dash for freedom. All the while I am silently praying that the township police department have better things to do than patrol Sandy Lane in the wee hours of the night.
Eventually, I switched from foot to van, and found them just before 4am, wandering slowly back from wherever they had gone back to the house. Rufus, out of shape and older, was laying down in a random front yard panting like it was 120 degrees outside. I hustled them into the van, and got them home.... thankfully, not once having to produce identification or taking a Breathalyzer test. We got home, they drank about a gallon of water, I locked us back in our room, and listened to Rufus pant for another hour. Good times.
I'm going to look at fencing material, today.
Note: No wife or son or dog was harmed or wakened during the making of this story.. but dad is a little sleepy.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Ten Things I Think I Think
1) Well we started the Paul series yesterday. To be honest I was nervous about not kicking it off, but I thought Charlotte set the table well. I was off the preaching schedule yesterday because I had tentatively scheduled myself in Dallas this week to do some dissertation work. Unfortunately the churches I'm trying to schedule are just impossible to nail down, so I ended up staying home. Thus, since Charlotte had been assigned to the week, she put her heart and soul into getting things off on the right foot, and I thought she did a great job.
2) In case you missed it, we're going in two directions for the next couple of months. In the morning, we'll stay focused on the book of Philippians, which Paul wrote during his second, and ultimately tragic, term of imprisonment in Rome. The church at Philippi was unique in the sense that they seemed to embrace Paul's message with a depth of commitment and conviction that was somewhat missing in other churches. Paul's call for churches to be communities of not just spiritual but social transformation was often met by those communities with opposition or, in some cases, indifference. Many of the calls to sexual, culinary, and physical purity were so foreign to people of that era - particularly in religious traditions whose practices had often been marked by excess - that many new Christians had a hard time taking them seriously.
Remember, these churches were made up largely of people who either had been associated with Jewish faith communities in exile from Israel, or folks who had been associated with other faith movements and just walked in off the street into a worship service. They lived in a truly pluralistic world where major and minor cities alike would be awash with numerous different temples practicing all matters and forms of religion. Unwashed in 1700 years of Christian domination of western culture, folks from Paul's day were used to multiple religious practices co-existing. "Exclusive Monotheism" was still largely a novelty, and mostly unheard of in their world. They hadn't been born into the church like many of us were. It's just a totally different world.
And for whatever reason, the church in Philippi seemed to understand that if they were going to try to walk with Jesus, that things were going to be different. We'll focus on that in the morning.
3) On Tuesday evening will peer into Paul's world. The man who was simultaneously a Christian, a Jew, one educated in a Greek tradition (and thus, Greek), and a Roman citizen. How many other people could make these claims in 58 A.D.? I'm guessing not too many. Maybe nobody else in all the world. How strange it is that the Lord would merge together in one person ancient practices of the middle east, an education given in a style that ended up defining the way the western world still educates its graduates, a connection to the most powerful theo-political state the world has ever seen, and faith in Jesus. It's a miracle. Paul is at the intersection of the world that still marks us today.
People shaped and marked by ancient religious practices who fear they'll lose their identity in a rapidly changing world.
Nations that struggle with the role that religious ideals and leaders should play in governance.
The split between religious faith that emphasizes belief in the unseen and education that calls anything that hasn't been measured or observed a theory.
The tension that exists in living the Christian life between spiritual regeneration and social transformation; personal salvation and corporate accountability; emphasis on faith or works.
Paul's words hold keys, I believe, to helping us navigate these murky seas. I don't believe that he makes our way easier.... in fact he confronts us in ways that will make us very uncomfortable. But his way, a new way, Jesus' way, is a way of hope. Hope to you Tuesday.
4) Due to the lateness of the date, and years of unpredictable weather, last year, the local HOG chapter dropped their annual run for "Harvest for the Hungry". I was disappointed when I heard this since this would have been the first year I could have rode (a Kawasaki Voyager tucked in with all those loud American bikes) for the cause of the West Ohio Foodbank. Besides, each year we'd pick up $500 or so, and I hated for the WOF to lose it. I mentioned this to our "Ride and Dine" leader, Larry Inskeep, who, only two weeks ago, promptly organized a ride, which we held yesterday. Despite all appearances (because it was overcast and cloudy), it was a nice day for a ride.
Cool but not cold. Little or no traffic on the road. Corn harvested so there were fewer blind corners. Just a nice, nice day for a ride.
While we didn't end up with the biggest turnout, people pitched in and we still raised almost $700. And all involved seemed to have a great time. There were plenty of doorprizes (yours truly won a OSU cooler), lots of good food, and a nice (if not warm) warmy atmosphere in Solid Rock Cafe (where we ended our trip). We'll probably move this ride to coincide with the Blessing of the Bikes service the first week of May. Don't miss it. Larry lays out a nice ride, and the money will go for a good cause.
5) Is OSU the number one team in the country? The pollsters say "yes", but as for this blogger... well, I'm not so sure. Thanks to Eric Stallkamp, the "Dean Four" (Dad, Brother esq, Unk, and myself) were at the game Saturday where the Bucks manhandled a Kent State team that seemed resigned to defeat almost from the beginning. Here's the list of who the Bucks have beat thus far:
Youngstown State, Akron, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Washington, Kent State
Here's who is left on the schedule:
Michigan State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan
Is there even one Top Ten team on this schedule? Nope. Not this year. Michigan seems to be finding itself, and Illinois and Penn State have shown life this season, but beyond that, no elites on the schedule this year.
So will OSU play in a National Championship game if they win out? Yep. Will we know before that game if they really deserve to be there. I don't think so. On the upside, it feels like 2002 all over again, when, thanks to a weak schedule and plenty of close games, not too many experts in the country gave them a prayer against the Hurricanes. On the downside, no Bucks fan could exhale until Dorsey through that last incompletion in overtime. Right now, it's that kind of year.
6) Max's last soccer game is tonight, and we have a SPRC meeting scheduled. I already missed a few of his games this fall due to work-related conflicts. I don't want to miss this one. I'd cancel the meeting (there's not much to tackle on the agenda), but that would make two-in-a-row we've canceled, which would be unparalleled in our history. Remember the SPRC deals with personnel issues, and in the last four years we are a church that's saw an associate pastor leave after less than a year in office, the hiring/loss of five youth pastors, and the succession of a 17-year old tenured pastor to a guy who has never been a senior pastor before. The SPRC has perpetually had a lot to do. No other committee has met more, or for longer, than SPRC. Now, with all salaries set until next June, no pressing issues at least in the immediate future, and an almost entirely new committee coming on in January (thanks to terms expiring and previously unfilled slots being filled) we have little that is controversial or difficult to deal with. Now, we need to start thinking about the future, that's where we'll be heading tonight... possible future hires fueled by dreams of the future.
But I'd still rather Max play soccer. Bummer. We'll see what we can work out.
7) Here are some very cool pictures from last week's Fall Fest. The overhead pics were taken by a fireman from the Shawnee Township Fire Department from the top of the extended ladder attached to the truck they parked outside of the church for the event. Hope you enjoy them.
Thank you to everyone who made it possible.
8) Bill Cosby, yesterday, pulled no punches yesterday on "Meet The Press". Cosby, who has been lauded and reviled because of his take on parenting within the black community, has co-authored a book on the subject. Cosby's take... the disappearance of fathers in the black community is directly linked to the decline of living standards for children in the black community. If you missed what he and his co-author had to say, here's the link.
Cosby's comments are timely, as today in the Lima News there was an article that cites rising graduation rates in urban communities here in Ohio over the last decade. The article goes further to say that the growth of specialty/magnet schools designed for specific minority groups has contributed greatly to this change. I know right now that the drop out rate young black males in the Lima City Schools is an issue that has come to the forefront for the community, school board and teacher's association. It will be interesting to see what creative solutions are suggested and pursued to deal with what has been an on-going issue. As the effects of globalization continue to drain jobs requiring unskilled labor from our area, Heaven knows some creative thinking is needed to help overcome these problems right now.
9) Male leadership is a huge issue right now in the life of the church. Protestant and Catholic churches for years now have watched a slow decline in the percentage of males attending churches with their wives or families. Even though someone like Mark Driscoll (who I blogged about last week) can say and teach things that are often terribly misogynistic, he is lauded in certain quarters within protestant circles as being a "savior" for the post-modern church because so many young males fill the pews of his church. It's no secret that males tend to be more action-oriented and more visually-oriented than females, yet churches tend to be slow-moving institutions that still put forth their message using primarily verbal mediums. As communal and generational bonds that historically tied people to Christian churches continue to break down, how we live out and present our message must change.
My wife sent me an interesting link entitle www.churchmarketingsucks.com
The site, which is blog that is published by the Center for Creative Church marketing, gives endless tips on new ways churches not only market themselves in the community, but convey and carry out their message. It seems like the examples of "what to do" are filled with web sites like this one, where the pastor is fit and trim, wears some sort of T-shirt, and preaches in a theater, but that seems to be where things are going. Or, in other words, using a new veneer to make it clear that this church "isn't your mother or grandmother's church". One wonders, though, if this isn't just a lot of window dressing on a message that maybe needs to grow and change... and if that veneer wears off quickly.
I have no idea.
10) Finally, this Saturday, as we approached Ohio Stadium, for the first time I've ever attended an OSU game, a church (one of the ones where the women all wear long skits and wear the their hair up in a bun) stood out in front of the stadium, handing out tracts and calling people to repentance. I always feel uncomfortable when I encounter this kind of evangelism. On the one hand, it takes a lot of guts to spend your day out in the hot sun/frigid cold openly professing not only you love for Jesus, but also a call that others embrace Him also. There is a fearlessness that's almost admirable. It reminds me of a dream I had last year that my Beeson colleagues and I traveled into downtown Lexington and we did street preaching... which I have never done my life. The idea of such an endeavor has always seemed distasteful to me... an offense to my refined mainline sensibilities I suppose.
But, on the other hand, talk about church marketing sucking... I don't know if you could make the Christian faith look more out of touch than those folks did that day. I thought it telling that next to one of the street preachers a woman who worked for a company that makes gum stood there handing out free samples. I don't know how many more people chose the gum than the tracts, but I'm guessing we're talking 10 or 12 times more people took her offering... and later I saw the ground littered with abandoned tracts.
Considering, once again, cause you'll get people at rock concerts, ballgames, and other big events engaging in the same kind of street evangelism, unlike after Peter's first major sermon in Acts, thousands didn't come to Jesus outside of Ohio Stadium. There was no great movement of people down to the banks of the Olentangy River for an impromptu baptismal service. I wondered, again, if maybe more harm than good was accomplished in their efforts.
I don't know if its possible to be challenged and repulsed all at the same time... but that's where I found myself Saturday morning in Columbus. Challenged to be bolder about my faith, but repulsed by the disdain my Christian brothers and sisters seemed to show for those that day who just wanted to see a ball game.
And now I wonder, what did God think about all of that? If you wondered, that's the stuff I think about all the time. Such is my life.
2) In case you missed it, we're going in two directions for the next couple of months. In the morning, we'll stay focused on the book of Philippians, which Paul wrote during his second, and ultimately tragic, term of imprisonment in Rome. The church at Philippi was unique in the sense that they seemed to embrace Paul's message with a depth of commitment and conviction that was somewhat missing in other churches. Paul's call for churches to be communities of not just spiritual but social transformation was often met by those communities with opposition or, in some cases, indifference. Many of the calls to sexual, culinary, and physical purity were so foreign to people of that era - particularly in religious traditions whose practices had often been marked by excess - that many new Christians had a hard time taking them seriously.
Remember, these churches were made up largely of people who either had been associated with Jewish faith communities in exile from Israel, or folks who had been associated with other faith movements and just walked in off the street into a worship service. They lived in a truly pluralistic world where major and minor cities alike would be awash with numerous different temples practicing all matters and forms of religion. Unwashed in 1700 years of Christian domination of western culture, folks from Paul's day were used to multiple religious practices co-existing. "Exclusive Monotheism" was still largely a novelty, and mostly unheard of in their world. They hadn't been born into the church like many of us were. It's just a totally different world.
And for whatever reason, the church in Philippi seemed to understand that if they were going to try to walk with Jesus, that things were going to be different. We'll focus on that in the morning.
3) On Tuesday evening will peer into Paul's world. The man who was simultaneously a Christian, a Jew, one educated in a Greek tradition (and thus, Greek), and a Roman citizen. How many other people could make these claims in 58 A.D.? I'm guessing not too many. Maybe nobody else in all the world. How strange it is that the Lord would merge together in one person ancient practices of the middle east, an education given in a style that ended up defining the way the western world still educates its graduates, a connection to the most powerful theo-political state the world has ever seen, and faith in Jesus. It's a miracle. Paul is at the intersection of the world that still marks us today.
People shaped and marked by ancient religious practices who fear they'll lose their identity in a rapidly changing world.
Nations that struggle with the role that religious ideals and leaders should play in governance.
The split between religious faith that emphasizes belief in the unseen and education that calls anything that hasn't been measured or observed a theory.
The tension that exists in living the Christian life between spiritual regeneration and social transformation; personal salvation and corporate accountability; emphasis on faith or works.
Paul's words hold keys, I believe, to helping us navigate these murky seas. I don't believe that he makes our way easier.... in fact he confronts us in ways that will make us very uncomfortable. But his way, a new way, Jesus' way, is a way of hope. Hope to you Tuesday.
4) Due to the lateness of the date, and years of unpredictable weather, last year, the local HOG chapter dropped their annual run for "Harvest for the Hungry". I was disappointed when I heard this since this would have been the first year I could have rode (a Kawasaki Voyager tucked in with all those loud American bikes) for the cause of the West Ohio Foodbank. Besides, each year we'd pick up $500 or so, and I hated for the WOF to lose it. I mentioned this to our "Ride and Dine" leader, Larry Inskeep, who, only two weeks ago, promptly organized a ride, which we held yesterday. Despite all appearances (because it was overcast and cloudy), it was a nice day for a ride.
Cool but not cold. Little or no traffic on the road. Corn harvested so there were fewer blind corners. Just a nice, nice day for a ride.
While we didn't end up with the biggest turnout, people pitched in and we still raised almost $700. And all involved seemed to have a great time. There were plenty of doorprizes (yours truly won a OSU cooler), lots of good food, and a nice (if not warm) warmy atmosphere in Solid Rock Cafe (where we ended our trip). We'll probably move this ride to coincide with the Blessing of the Bikes service the first week of May. Don't miss it. Larry lays out a nice ride, and the money will go for a good cause.
5) Is OSU the number one team in the country? The pollsters say "yes", but as for this blogger... well, I'm not so sure. Thanks to Eric Stallkamp, the "Dean Four" (Dad, Brother esq, Unk, and myself) were at the game Saturday where the Bucks manhandled a Kent State team that seemed resigned to defeat almost from the beginning. Here's the list of who the Bucks have beat thus far:
Youngstown State, Akron, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Washington, Kent State
Here's who is left on the schedule:
Michigan State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan
Is there even one Top Ten team on this schedule? Nope. Not this year. Michigan seems to be finding itself, and Illinois and Penn State have shown life this season, but beyond that, no elites on the schedule this year.
So will OSU play in a National Championship game if they win out? Yep. Will we know before that game if they really deserve to be there. I don't think so. On the upside, it feels like 2002 all over again, when, thanks to a weak schedule and plenty of close games, not too many experts in the country gave them a prayer against the Hurricanes. On the downside, no Bucks fan could exhale until Dorsey through that last incompletion in overtime. Right now, it's that kind of year.
6) Max's last soccer game is tonight, and we have a SPRC meeting scheduled. I already missed a few of his games this fall due to work-related conflicts. I don't want to miss this one. I'd cancel the meeting (there's not much to tackle on the agenda), but that would make two-in-a-row we've canceled, which would be unparalleled in our history. Remember the SPRC deals with personnel issues, and in the last four years we are a church that's saw an associate pastor leave after less than a year in office, the hiring/loss of five youth pastors, and the succession of a 17-year old tenured pastor to a guy who has never been a senior pastor before. The SPRC has perpetually had a lot to do. No other committee has met more, or for longer, than SPRC. Now, with all salaries set until next June, no pressing issues at least in the immediate future, and an almost entirely new committee coming on in January (thanks to terms expiring and previously unfilled slots being filled) we have little that is controversial or difficult to deal with. Now, we need to start thinking about the future, that's where we'll be heading tonight... possible future hires fueled by dreams of the future.
But I'd still rather Max play soccer. Bummer. We'll see what we can work out.
7) Here are some very cool pictures from last week's Fall Fest. The overhead pics were taken by a fireman from the Shawnee Township Fire Department from the top of the extended ladder attached to the truck they parked outside of the church for the event. Hope you enjoy them.
Thank you to everyone who made it possible.
8) Bill Cosby, yesterday, pulled no punches yesterday on "Meet The Press". Cosby, who has been lauded and reviled because of his take on parenting within the black community, has co-authored a book on the subject. Cosby's take... the disappearance of fathers in the black community is directly linked to the decline of living standards for children in the black community. If you missed what he and his co-author had to say, here's the link.
Cosby's comments are timely, as today in the Lima News there was an article that cites rising graduation rates in urban communities here in Ohio over the last decade. The article goes further to say that the growth of specialty/magnet schools designed for specific minority groups has contributed greatly to this change. I know right now that the drop out rate young black males in the Lima City Schools is an issue that has come to the forefront for the community, school board and teacher's association. It will be interesting to see what creative solutions are suggested and pursued to deal with what has been an on-going issue. As the effects of globalization continue to drain jobs requiring unskilled labor from our area, Heaven knows some creative thinking is needed to help overcome these problems right now.
9) Male leadership is a huge issue right now in the life of the church. Protestant and Catholic churches for years now have watched a slow decline in the percentage of males attending churches with their wives or families. Even though someone like Mark Driscoll (who I blogged about last week) can say and teach things that are often terribly misogynistic, he is lauded in certain quarters within protestant circles as being a "savior" for the post-modern church because so many young males fill the pews of his church. It's no secret that males tend to be more action-oriented and more visually-oriented than females, yet churches tend to be slow-moving institutions that still put forth their message using primarily verbal mediums. As communal and generational bonds that historically tied people to Christian churches continue to break down, how we live out and present our message must change.
My wife sent me an interesting link entitle www.churchmarketingsucks.com
The site, which is blog that is published by the Center for Creative Church marketing, gives endless tips on new ways churches not only market themselves in the community, but convey and carry out their message. It seems like the examples of "what to do" are filled with web sites like this one, where the pastor is fit and trim, wears some sort of T-shirt, and preaches in a theater, but that seems to be where things are going. Or, in other words, using a new veneer to make it clear that this church "isn't your mother or grandmother's church". One wonders, though, if this isn't just a lot of window dressing on a message that maybe needs to grow and change... and if that veneer wears off quickly.
I have no idea.
10) Finally, this Saturday, as we approached Ohio Stadium, for the first time I've ever attended an OSU game, a church (one of the ones where the women all wear long skits and wear the their hair up in a bun) stood out in front of the stadium, handing out tracts and calling people to repentance. I always feel uncomfortable when I encounter this kind of evangelism. On the one hand, it takes a lot of guts to spend your day out in the hot sun/frigid cold openly professing not only you love for Jesus, but also a call that others embrace Him also. There is a fearlessness that's almost admirable. It reminds me of a dream I had last year that my Beeson colleagues and I traveled into downtown Lexington and we did street preaching... which I have never done my life. The idea of such an endeavor has always seemed distasteful to me... an offense to my refined mainline sensibilities I suppose.
But, on the other hand, talk about church marketing sucking... I don't know if you could make the Christian faith look more out of touch than those folks did that day. I thought it telling that next to one of the street preachers a woman who worked for a company that makes gum stood there handing out free samples. I don't know how many more people chose the gum than the tracts, but I'm guessing we're talking 10 or 12 times more people took her offering... and later I saw the ground littered with abandoned tracts.
Considering, once again, cause you'll get people at rock concerts, ballgames, and other big events engaging in the same kind of street evangelism, unlike after Peter's first major sermon in Acts, thousands didn't come to Jesus outside of Ohio Stadium. There was no great movement of people down to the banks of the Olentangy River for an impromptu baptismal service. I wondered, again, if maybe more harm than good was accomplished in their efforts.
I don't know if its possible to be challenged and repulsed all at the same time... but that's where I found myself Saturday morning in Columbus. Challenged to be bolder about my faith, but repulsed by the disdain my Christian brothers and sisters seemed to show for those that day who just wanted to see a ball game.
And now I wonder, what did God think about all of that? If you wondered, that's the stuff I think about all the time. Such is my life.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Ten Things I Think I Think
1) Sorry to have missed Monday. This week has been spent, among other things, largely getting ready for what will become an annual stewardship campaign at Shawnee. Since it's my first in the senior pastor chair, I have been very particular about what is published, including both content and appearance. You wouldn't know it from my office, but I am extremely particular about how things look. Even though I had absolutely no talent for art as a youngster (of as an adult for that matter), I think maybe I still missed a calling in advertising or marketing as I've a critical eye for the way things of that sort appear. Maybe that eye isn't all that good, but still if stuff doesn't look right, it drives me nuts. So, I've been slaving both over wording and packaging. I finally turned in everything to my secretary, and will give her all the master copies so that next year, we have templates to work off of. Now, with the Koinania Bible Study and a new sermon series looming, I've got to delve back into Paul with a vengeance.
No rest for the wicked.
2) After sixteen years in this game, I've come to the conclusion that those who give the most money to a church are the least likely to complain, threaten, or cajole a pastor or lay-leadership into changing (or not changing things) things in ways they prefer. They'll discuss, debate, or question at times, but they refrain from the the kind of bullying that often infects people who want shortcuts to get what they want. That's why, friends of this blog, when pastors say financial giving is a spiritual issue, we genuinely mean it.
I type this remembering a particular family in a past church who (it seemed) perpetually threatened to withhold their giving if the church didn't (fill in the blank) by (fill in the time). They would make a big deal of this within their own circle (mainly their sunday school class) and, of course, word would leak back to the senior pastor (cause they'd never talk to him directly). Then, upon the worried phone calls from concerned lay people who "just heard that (blank) was upset, and maybe he should know about it" the pastor (or on occasion, his loyal associate) would have to wade into whatever issue the said family was concerned about, all while listening to open or veiled threats about "how others would join them" along the way. It was like going back in time to the days back on the school playground when at some particularly delicate juncture the guy who owns the ball being used in the game finally decides to push everyone else around by making the pronouncement:
"Well, if you don't like it, then me, and my ball, are going to go home."
Of course, that family, to the best of my knowledge, has never left that church... not do they ever intend to. For they realize that while they aren't well-respected as being particularly spiritually mature or deep, they do have power... because nobody ever called their bluff.
So, when I stand in the pulpit over the next three weeks encouraging people to make a pledge for the coming year, and I talk about why supporting a church isn't about a church being greedy, but a time for church members and friends to assess their spiritual depth, now you know why. The kingdom deserves better than disciples more than willing to take their ball and go home if they don't get their way. Much, much better.
3) Still no breakthrough on a name for the baby. We are as deadlocked as we were when she was pregnant with Eli. Pretty soon we'll need one of those arbitrators that are in between the Big Three automakers and the unions. I don't know what going on strike would look like for me, though. Aimee is the one with all the leverage, or as she likes to say, "She who breastfeeds makes the rules." Hard to argue with that.
4) Have gotten hooked on Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" album. It happened some time last week when I was flicking around the 400 some-odd channels we purchase the right to watch each month, and I stumbled on a show about the making of that album on VH1 Classics (which, unlike VH1, seems to remember that its a music channel). With limited resources (band members and friends mortgaged their houses to pay for studio time), Springsteen labored for months and months trying to get the exact sound he wanted for his music. According to those filmed at the time, it was a do-or-die time for Bruce and the E-Street band which had been doing a lot of touring, but with little in return to show for it.
Springsteen, years later, marveled at how accommodating the band was to doing the endless re-takes he demanded as he searched to capture a sound he had no idea how to get. He called their endless patience, 30 years and millions of copies sold later, a labor of love so great that when they play songs from that album together on stage it is, for the band, their version of "communion": an act of gratitude for not only sacrifices made, but acts that saved the band and preserved their future.
What a powerful definition of communion: An act of gratitude for not only for sacrifice made to save us, but for the way those sacrifices have preserved our future. One wonders how many Christians approach Communion with this kind of reverence. I suppose that the closer you felt to lost when you got found, the more likely it is to feel powerful feelings of connection to not only the One who saved you, but also those you are bound to in love who now know that without one another, life wouldn't mean much.
5) Every so often as I aimlessly surf the web, I venture over to Mark Driscoll's blog. Driscoll is the founding pastor of a huge Christian Reformed church that caters mainly to young adults in the city of Seattle. Thousands of people worship at multiple sites every week at worship services marked by loud contemporary music, eye-popping video visuals, and a fairly young pastor who dresses more like the lead singer for a pop band than the stodgy looking reverend you might have grown up with. I used to have Driscoll's blog posted on my masthead as a place you could go wander if your were bored, but he went through a long period where, either due to exhaustion or controversy over something he wrote during the Ted Haggard scandal (that basically, it was Haggard's wife's fault he strayed in their marriage because she wasn't making herself desirable enough at home... a statement he backtracked off of when the local paper dropped the religious article he had been writing for them as hundreds planned to picket his church in protest), he quit blogging, so I took it down.
But, recently, he's kind of gotten back into the groove. Recently he made this post about going to an Ultimate Fighting event in Las Vegas. As an offhanded comment, he noted that the crowd was filled with young adult men under the age of 30, an age-group he (accurately) surmised the church was unable to reach because...
...most churches and pastors have no idea what to do with men who are not motivated by a weepy worship dude(ish) singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.
Um.... right.
The interesting thing to me about Driscoll is that essentially as a reformed theologian, he asserts that God has pre-destined all of history, which is generally what reformed theologians say. But his take on this is that in the process God has pre-destined (among other things) gender roles. So young guys who come to his church not only are taught that the only kind of guys are those who know they are kind of the quintessential "alpha male" (i.e. a guy who gets off watching two guys beat one another senseless on a mat surrounded by a cage) and also that the guy has been made by God to be the alpha-male of his household. This is coupled by all kinds of teaching for women that they need to be somewhat subservient to their man, cause that's what God intends (hence the not-so-well thought out statement about Haggard's wife, and a multitude of other Neanderthal-esqe stuff Driscoll has uttered during his ministry life... his blog is archived with numerous examples of his "me-man-you-woman" behavior and teaching).
Quickly, if you're keeping score, guys at Mark's church should be guys who like taking chances and risks, understand that they are programmed to like violent action, should embrace their need to feel powerful and in control, should scoff at emotional "girly men", and make sure their woman (who is taught to be happy about this) at home knows who is the boss.
Couple that with all the bright lights and loud music, and it's not real hard to figure out why Mars Hill Church in Seattle is drawing so many young guys to its services. It's the same reason why every fundamentalist, conservative religion succeeds at drawing guys into their fold. I mean, if you are a young guy, what's not to like? You da man, and that's the way God designed it!
Of course, I don't find this message to be all that radical. Driscoll paints himself as a post-modern Christian, but outside of the unconventional worship service, the theology is as old as it gets. It's just dressed in new duds (complete with a pukka shell necklace, to make it look sexy).
I suppose this kind of reasoning will never fully die. It's too appealing to young guys who, as most young guys, are hungry, horny, and want to make their mark on this world. Strangely too, given the downside, you can see why so many women go for this kind of message. Guys are expected to be good providers and protectors, which can be very comforting to spouses living in a world where either a) they had that kind of male role model in the home they grew up in or b) lived with a guy who was a rotten provider and protector (of which there are, documented in our court system, too many of right now). I'm sure the structure this provides can make life much easier to navigate. And it's not like Driscoll is teaching men to be mean to their wives and children. I'm sure that congregation is filled with a good many loving relationships and strong families.
And there are probably a lot of young guys in that congregation that look up to Mark as maybe the closest thing to a positive male role model as they've ever had.
But (yep... I'm the guy with the big "but") while the church's methods might be "missional" and culturally-compatible, I personally don't really see how what's preached in this setting has anything to do with the cultural and societal revolution that Jesus touched off, and Paul sent into motion. A revolution that obliterated the misogynistic culture embraced by every cultural (Jew or Gentile), religious, political, societal group or movement of that age. A movement that encouraged people to think critically about power (particularly those political or religious leaders who fancied themselves spiritual grand wizards), class, race, relationships, and (yes) even gender roles. How on earth are we to ever aspire to a day where God's will operates on earth like it does on heaven, if we don't begin to think critically, as Christ did, about the kinds of well-worn patterns of behavior that, unchecked, lead to nations where one man's word is worth that of three women? I think Jesus expects better.... far better.
Besides... I think you can make a reasonable case, without being a wimp, that Ultimate Fighting sucks. It's like a bar brawl, only they charge $50 for pay-per-view.
You can go ahead if you must, and ponder at the invitation of Mark Driscoll as to why so many young men go to Vegas and don't go to church, but I don't think it's any big mystery. Vegas tells young men they can get away with anything within reason (what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas) cause they are king. So does Driscoll's church. Mystery solved.
6) Speaking of things violent and primal, thanks to Eric Stallkamp, I'll be making the trek Saturday to Columbus with Dad, Brother, (to be known as "Brother ESQ" after he passes the Bar Exam) and Unk (a frequent contributor of comments to the blog). Last time we planned on this, the wife accidentally tossed the tickets (they were playing a horrible Illinois team a couple of years ago). So stricken was she with guilt she was that she actually planned on paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for replacement tickets on E-bay so we could watch a total mismatch.
It's good to have wife that loves you so much she'd blow the life savings on football tickets. I wish I was half the spouse she is.
They're playing Kent State this week (part of the "2007 Games Against Other Ohio Colleges Tour", which also included Youngstown State and Akron) so we're going more for the atmosphere of Ohio State's campus on game day than a competitive football game. Let's just the hope the players don't share our attitude. I don't think we could take the Bucks getting A-State'd by the Golden Flashes. In a year where the University of South Florida is the highest rated college football team in the state of Florida, anything is possible.
7) Great column today by Bill Simmons on why he admired LeBron James for wearing a Yankees cap at the Yankees/Indians Game 1 at the Jake last week. I don't agree with him, but I enjoyed the article. I think LeBron is ticked that the team, which is owned by a guy who makes his money making mortgage loans (that doesn't bode well, does it?), isn't spending money to bring him the help he needs to contend for a championship this year. Now, only weeks away from the beginning of the regular season, the team still has no true point guard, no reliable second options for scoring, and a coach whose idea of an offensive scheme is to give LeBron the ball at the top of the key and clear everyone else out (the "go get 'em big fella" offense). I do think he's sending a signal to management that he really could live and work in another city, and they'd better make good on their promise to surround him with a competitive team, where he can do what's he's good at... distribute the ball to others during the game, and deliver in crunch time.
We got a glimpse of just how much LeBron plays like Magic Johnson this summer during the FIBA North American Championships. Surrounded with scorers like Carmelo Anthony, Michael Redd, and Kobe Bryant, while playing with a point guard that made passing fantastic, we got to see just how well LeBron sets up other people to score. How fun would that be on a nightly basis at the Q if that's how he could play that way with the Cavs?
I say, "Beware the Yankees Cap, Danny Ferry." It could just be LeBron's shot off the port bow.
8) My Dad's birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday Dad... or as you'd rather be known as now, Grandpa.
9) Right now Shane's band is practicing in his office. I think they sound like Rush, except they currently have no lead singer, so they sound like Rush during the long instrumental interludes. Anyhow, they're rattling the walls of my office, and have inspired this haiku.
drums, guitar, and bass
playing loud complex music
but no Getty Lee
10) Be good.
No rest for the wicked.
2) After sixteen years in this game, I've come to the conclusion that those who give the most money to a church are the least likely to complain, threaten, or cajole a pastor or lay-leadership into changing (or not changing things) things in ways they prefer. They'll discuss, debate, or question at times, but they refrain from the the kind of bullying that often infects people who want shortcuts to get what they want. That's why, friends of this blog, when pastors say financial giving is a spiritual issue, we genuinely mean it.
I type this remembering a particular family in a past church who (it seemed) perpetually threatened to withhold their giving if the church didn't (fill in the blank) by (fill in the time). They would make a big deal of this within their own circle (mainly their sunday school class) and, of course, word would leak back to the senior pastor (cause they'd never talk to him directly). Then, upon the worried phone calls from concerned lay people who "just heard that (blank) was upset, and maybe he should know about it" the pastor (or on occasion, his loyal associate) would have to wade into whatever issue the said family was concerned about, all while listening to open or veiled threats about "how others would join them" along the way. It was like going back in time to the days back on the school playground when at some particularly delicate juncture the guy who owns the ball being used in the game finally decides to push everyone else around by making the pronouncement:
"Well, if you don't like it, then me, and my ball, are going to go home."
Of course, that family, to the best of my knowledge, has never left that church... not do they ever intend to. For they realize that while they aren't well-respected as being particularly spiritually mature or deep, they do have power... because nobody ever called their bluff.
So, when I stand in the pulpit over the next three weeks encouraging people to make a pledge for the coming year, and I talk about why supporting a church isn't about a church being greedy, but a time for church members and friends to assess their spiritual depth, now you know why. The kingdom deserves better than disciples more than willing to take their ball and go home if they don't get their way. Much, much better.
3) Still no breakthrough on a name for the baby. We are as deadlocked as we were when she was pregnant with Eli. Pretty soon we'll need one of those arbitrators that are in between the Big Three automakers and the unions. I don't know what going on strike would look like for me, though. Aimee is the one with all the leverage, or as she likes to say, "She who breastfeeds makes the rules." Hard to argue with that.
4) Have gotten hooked on Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" album. It happened some time last week when I was flicking around the 400 some-odd channels we purchase the right to watch each month, and I stumbled on a show about the making of that album on VH1 Classics (which, unlike VH1, seems to remember that its a music channel). With limited resources (band members and friends mortgaged their houses to pay for studio time), Springsteen labored for months and months trying to get the exact sound he wanted for his music. According to those filmed at the time, it was a do-or-die time for Bruce and the E-Street band which had been doing a lot of touring, but with little in return to show for it.
Springsteen, years later, marveled at how accommodating the band was to doing the endless re-takes he demanded as he searched to capture a sound he had no idea how to get. He called their endless patience, 30 years and millions of copies sold later, a labor of love so great that when they play songs from that album together on stage it is, for the band, their version of "communion": an act of gratitude for not only sacrifices made, but acts that saved the band and preserved their future.
What a powerful definition of communion: An act of gratitude for not only for sacrifice made to save us, but for the way those sacrifices have preserved our future. One wonders how many Christians approach Communion with this kind of reverence. I suppose that the closer you felt to lost when you got found, the more likely it is to feel powerful feelings of connection to not only the One who saved you, but also those you are bound to in love who now know that without one another, life wouldn't mean much.
5) Every so often as I aimlessly surf the web, I venture over to Mark Driscoll's blog. Driscoll is the founding pastor of a huge Christian Reformed church that caters mainly to young adults in the city of Seattle. Thousands of people worship at multiple sites every week at worship services marked by loud contemporary music, eye-popping video visuals, and a fairly young pastor who dresses more like the lead singer for a pop band than the stodgy looking reverend you might have grown up with. I used to have Driscoll's blog posted on my masthead as a place you could go wander if your were bored, but he went through a long period where, either due to exhaustion or controversy over something he wrote during the Ted Haggard scandal (that basically, it was Haggard's wife's fault he strayed in their marriage because she wasn't making herself desirable enough at home... a statement he backtracked off of when the local paper dropped the religious article he had been writing for them as hundreds planned to picket his church in protest), he quit blogging, so I took it down.
But, recently, he's kind of gotten back into the groove. Recently he made this post about going to an Ultimate Fighting event in Las Vegas. As an offhanded comment, he noted that the crowd was filled with young adult men under the age of 30, an age-group he (accurately) surmised the church was unable to reach because...
...most churches and pastors have no idea what to do with men who are not motivated by a weepy worship dude(ish) singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.
Um.... right.
The interesting thing to me about Driscoll is that essentially as a reformed theologian, he asserts that God has pre-destined all of history, which is generally what reformed theologians say. But his take on this is that in the process God has pre-destined (among other things) gender roles. So young guys who come to his church not only are taught that the only kind of guys are those who know they are kind of the quintessential "alpha male" (i.e. a guy who gets off watching two guys beat one another senseless on a mat surrounded by a cage) and also that the guy has been made by God to be the alpha-male of his household. This is coupled by all kinds of teaching for women that they need to be somewhat subservient to their man, cause that's what God intends (hence the not-so-well thought out statement about Haggard's wife, and a multitude of other Neanderthal-esqe stuff Driscoll has uttered during his ministry life... his blog is archived with numerous examples of his "me-man-you-woman" behavior and teaching).
Quickly, if you're keeping score, guys at Mark's church should be guys who like taking chances and risks, understand that they are programmed to like violent action, should embrace their need to feel powerful and in control, should scoff at emotional "girly men", and make sure their woman (who is taught to be happy about this) at home knows who is the boss.
Couple that with all the bright lights and loud music, and it's not real hard to figure out why Mars Hill Church in Seattle is drawing so many young guys to its services. It's the same reason why every fundamentalist, conservative religion succeeds at drawing guys into their fold. I mean, if you are a young guy, what's not to like? You da man, and that's the way God designed it!
Of course, I don't find this message to be all that radical. Driscoll paints himself as a post-modern Christian, but outside of the unconventional worship service, the theology is as old as it gets. It's just dressed in new duds (complete with a pukka shell necklace, to make it look sexy).
I suppose this kind of reasoning will never fully die. It's too appealing to young guys who, as most young guys, are hungry, horny, and want to make their mark on this world. Strangely too, given the downside, you can see why so many women go for this kind of message. Guys are expected to be good providers and protectors, which can be very comforting to spouses living in a world where either a) they had that kind of male role model in the home they grew up in or b) lived with a guy who was a rotten provider and protector (of which there are, documented in our court system, too many of right now). I'm sure the structure this provides can make life much easier to navigate. And it's not like Driscoll is teaching men to be mean to their wives and children. I'm sure that congregation is filled with a good many loving relationships and strong families.
And there are probably a lot of young guys in that congregation that look up to Mark as maybe the closest thing to a positive male role model as they've ever had.
But (yep... I'm the guy with the big "but") while the church's methods might be "missional" and culturally-compatible, I personally don't really see how what's preached in this setting has anything to do with the cultural and societal revolution that Jesus touched off, and Paul sent into motion. A revolution that obliterated the misogynistic culture embraced by every cultural (Jew or Gentile), religious, political, societal group or movement of that age. A movement that encouraged people to think critically about power (particularly those political or religious leaders who fancied themselves spiritual grand wizards), class, race, relationships, and (yes) even gender roles. How on earth are we to ever aspire to a day where God's will operates on earth like it does on heaven, if we don't begin to think critically, as Christ did, about the kinds of well-worn patterns of behavior that, unchecked, lead to nations where one man's word is worth that of three women? I think Jesus expects better.... far better.
Besides... I think you can make a reasonable case, without being a wimp, that Ultimate Fighting sucks. It's like a bar brawl, only they charge $50 for pay-per-view.
You can go ahead if you must, and ponder at the invitation of Mark Driscoll as to why so many young men go to Vegas and don't go to church, but I don't think it's any big mystery. Vegas tells young men they can get away with anything within reason (what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas) cause they are king. So does Driscoll's church. Mystery solved.
6) Speaking of things violent and primal, thanks to Eric Stallkamp, I'll be making the trek Saturday to Columbus with Dad, Brother, (to be known as "Brother ESQ" after he passes the Bar Exam) and Unk (a frequent contributor of comments to the blog). Last time we planned on this, the wife accidentally tossed the tickets (they were playing a horrible Illinois team a couple of years ago). So stricken was she with guilt she was that she actually planned on paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for replacement tickets on E-bay so we could watch a total mismatch.
It's good to have wife that loves you so much she'd blow the life savings on football tickets. I wish I was half the spouse she is.
They're playing Kent State this week (part of the "2007 Games Against Other Ohio Colleges Tour", which also included Youngstown State and Akron) so we're going more for the atmosphere of Ohio State's campus on game day than a competitive football game. Let's just the hope the players don't share our attitude. I don't think we could take the Bucks getting A-State'd by the Golden Flashes. In a year where the University of South Florida is the highest rated college football team in the state of Florida, anything is possible.
7) Great column today by Bill Simmons on why he admired LeBron James for wearing a Yankees cap at the Yankees/Indians Game 1 at the Jake last week. I don't agree with him, but I enjoyed the article. I think LeBron is ticked that the team, which is owned by a guy who makes his money making mortgage loans (that doesn't bode well, does it?), isn't spending money to bring him the help he needs to contend for a championship this year. Now, only weeks away from the beginning of the regular season, the team still has no true point guard, no reliable second options for scoring, and a coach whose idea of an offensive scheme is to give LeBron the ball at the top of the key and clear everyone else out (the "go get 'em big fella" offense). I do think he's sending a signal to management that he really could live and work in another city, and they'd better make good on their promise to surround him with a competitive team, where he can do what's he's good at... distribute the ball to others during the game, and deliver in crunch time.
We got a glimpse of just how much LeBron plays like Magic Johnson this summer during the FIBA North American Championships. Surrounded with scorers like Carmelo Anthony, Michael Redd, and Kobe Bryant, while playing with a point guard that made passing fantastic, we got to see just how well LeBron sets up other people to score. How fun would that be on a nightly basis at the Q if that's how he could play that way with the Cavs?
I say, "Beware the Yankees Cap, Danny Ferry." It could just be LeBron's shot off the port bow.
8) My Dad's birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday Dad... or as you'd rather be known as now, Grandpa.
9) Right now Shane's band is practicing in his office. I think they sound like Rush, except they currently have no lead singer, so they sound like Rush during the long instrumental interludes. Anyhow, they're rattling the walls of my office, and have inspired this haiku.
drums, guitar, and bass
playing loud complex music
but no Getty Lee
10) Be good.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Two New Blogs For Your Enjoyment
Added links to two new blogs for your enjoyment. Lindsay in Africa is a blog being written by Lindsay Hefner, daughter or our associate pastor Charlotte Hefner, while she works as a short-term missionary in Sierra Leone for nine weeks. Working Diva is the musings of a fellow Miami alum who is working mother in Chicago. Hope you enjoy.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Baby Names (A Follow Up)
We told the boys last night that more than likely (I mean, did you see the ultrasound picture? I'd relay some of the off-color comments my friends have been making since the post yesterday, but this this is a family blog. Can't believe they use their mouths for eating...) we'd be welcoming a baby brother into our midst next March. Xavier was initially disappointed (he really wanted a sister), but when the subject of names came up, his disposition brightened considerably. Xavier then launched into about thousand different possible names, but our three favorites were:
- Jesus Bucher
- French Fry Bucher
- Lips Bucher
Aimee is actually leaning toward "Lips", so Xavie might have accidentally precipitated a crisis. No way I'm naming my kid something that will destine him to a life as trumpet player or front man. The boy needs to be in the rhythm section like his old man. Better we name him "Bootsy" or "Sticks" than "Lips".
In any event, Aimee, as expected refused to consider any of my suggestions for a name, and the boys balked at changing their names to "Bryan Dean Bucher" (which, they informed me, would make our fourth son Bryan Dean Bucher Jr. Jr. Jr. Jr.). So I'm still searching, long and far, for a suitable name (or the appropriate cash payment from a willing donor..... if you ever wanted to name someone else's child, college tuition looms on the horizon so now is your chance! I'm sure we can make arrangements for little Hefner TV Bucher to make his way into the world, just as long as the check clears.).
Stay tuned....
- Jesus Bucher
- French Fry Bucher
- Lips Bucher
Aimee is actually leaning toward "Lips", so Xavie might have accidentally precipitated a crisis. No way I'm naming my kid something that will destine him to a life as trumpet player or front man. The boy needs to be in the rhythm section like his old man. Better we name him "Bootsy" or "Sticks" than "Lips".
In any event, Aimee, as expected refused to consider any of my suggestions for a name, and the boys balked at changing their names to "Bryan Dean Bucher" (which, they informed me, would make our fourth son Bryan Dean Bucher Jr. Jr. Jr. Jr.). So I'm still searching, long and far, for a suitable name (or the appropriate cash payment from a willing donor..... if you ever wanted to name someone else's child, college tuition looms on the horizon so now is your chance! I'm sure we can make arrangements for little Hefner TV Bucher to make his way into the world, just as long as the check clears.).
Stay tuned....
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
A Picture Says One Word
I'm glad the technician who did this ultrasound could clear that up for us.
Well, since it's official, here are the Top Ten names for our son I'd come up with that my wife would never allow:
10) Yoda Skywalker Bucher: This was the name I wanted for Eli. Max and Xavie thought it was a great idea. No matter how much nagging we did, Aimee refused to give in. Instead we ended up naming the boy after an Old Testament prophet. Sometimes women have no imagination. (Chance of Succeeding: 0%)
9) Zydrunus Ilgauskas Bucher: In honor of the long-term Cavs center. We could call him "Little Z", and I'd think the chances we'd get at least one set of complimentary tickets court side would be pretty high. Come on honey... please? (3%)
8) Chuck Norris Bucher: Chuck Norris Bucher would go straight to walking, cause he wouldn't crawl for any human being. (4.7%)
7) Weird Al Yankovic Bucher: We bought an accordion on our honeymoon (don't ask) that has only ever been used as a prop in a skit we did at our church in Goshen. We could dust that puppy off, launching our son into a life of fortune of fame. Just think.. he could write parodies of "High School Musical 23" songs and star in his own movie - "Channel 227", which would be a story of him taking over a little known cable channel that creates bizarre shows with names like "The Rabid Parakeet Hunter", "Moldy Ed's Cartoon Playhouse", and "Cooking With Tree Rollins". (6.2%)
6) Bryan Dean Bucher: It's too late to name all of my sons after me, just like George Foreman did to his sons and daughters. Bummer. (7.9%)
5) Auguzztine: All the most famous athletes, entertainers, and (in this case) theologians are known by one name - Pele, Madonna, CarrotTop. He'd be destined for greatness if we just followed their lead right from the beginning. I added the "zz" in case he ever wanted to go into rap. (8.1%)
4) Hey Dude Bucher: That way everyone would know his name ("Hey Dude, you left your wallet"). (8.11%)
3) Joe (Name of Your Business Here): Just like sports teams are doing with stadiums, we could sell the naming rights to our child to the highest bidder on Ebay. Sure he'd have to live with a name like "Joe Coca-Cola", "Joe Roto-Rooter", "Joe Bank of America", "Joe Ohio State Teachers Retirement Fund" or "Joe Arby's" (here's your chance Roger), but if a stadium naming rights can go for millions, surely we could raise enough to send all four boys to college. And just think, if he ended up becoming "Joe Isuzu" he'd have a built in career starring in commercials. (8.12%)
2) Abdullah the Bucher: This would make me laugh every single day. My wife would refuse to name our child in such a way as to bring me personal amusement. She'd say that wasn't "mature" or "responsible". Like whatever... (11.2%)
1) Spike Painhouse Axe Chainsaw Bucher: I just believe you need a name that will help preserve your safety on the mean streets of Fort Shawnee Township. Kids would never mess with him if he had that name. No way. (13%)
Eh... oh well. Maybe I'll get my way for the next bab- (acckkkkk - Help! Aimee is strangling me.... Helllllpppppp!)
Monday, October 01, 2007
Ten Things I Think I Think
1) Must have had dozens of inquiries this past weekend about the Westboro Baptist "Church", and why in the world they'd protest at military funerals. If you have an hour, and want a fascinating look at these folks, feel free to click on the picture below. There, you can watch a great documentary (entitled "The Most Hated Family In America") done by Louis Theroux, who works as an investigative video journalist for the BBC. Louis actually was given full access to the family, living and talking with them over the course of a number of days. Why was he allowed by the "church" to do so? Apparently they live by the adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Here's the video report (it lasts about an hour):
2) Great Ad Board meeting tonight. We're getting things done as a church, and moving forward slowly but surely. Charlotte will have 12 new Home Fellowship groups (groups that get together to pray, discuss scripture, help one another, serve others, and do life together) going in the coming year. The youth ministry is really taking giant steps forward right now as more adults get on-board helping Leigh reach teens, and youth are challenged to think about taking responsibility for their own faith. Children's ministry numbers continue to grow and grow and grow. The building is being used almost constantly by a variety of in-house and community groups. The new fall women's bible studies are doing excellently. Fall Fest is coming up this week, and we've already got scores of new volunteers and lots of new financial support.
It's just going better than I ever could have expected... thus far. I just keep praying, and wondering what is next.
3) Our series, Jesus In The Suburbs, is now complete, and I am shocked at the number of folks who loved the series. We must have hit people where they live cause there are lot of folks talking about what they heard. Eugene Paik reminded me that the job of a pastor was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and I hope we were able to accomplish that as we challenged people to quit living lives of "passive safety"... that is, just trying to isolate themselves from the needs of the world in a bubble of comfort, hoping that bad things won't happen to them. Our world is filled with too much misery, and too much opportunity, for us to just stick close to home, only venturing forth to a lake house or an all-encompassing resort, while on streets with no names, Christ awaits our presence. Cool stuff.
4) What a crazy weekend in college football. Half of the "Top Ten" teams lost (including the Florida Gators, setting off much rejoicing among Buckeyes and all who love the Big Ten), and now you have teams like South Florida and Kentucky (looks like our classmate, Gordon Griffin, was right.... Kentucky football is on the rise) in the new Top Ten. That and Notre Dame is 0-5. 0-5 and getting lambasted by the talking heads on ESPN and other sports outlets who claim that Weis' new recruits aren't as talented as the guys Ty Willingham recruited onto campus. People are even openly wondering if ND might lose to the service academies. What a strange, strange year.
5) According to this article, things don't look good for Isiah Thomas, the Knicks GM who is being sued by a former employee for sexual harassment. The trial is just icing on the cake for the James Dolan/Isiah Thomas era which has pretty much decimated the once proud franchise. Bill Simmons (ESPN's "Sports Guy") wrote a "Guide To the Isiah Thomas Trial" that details all of the major points of this fiasco. Considering the NBA needs strong franchises in the cities with huge TV markets where basketball really matters - Boston, Philly, LA, and New York - don't be surprised if somehow David Stern steps in to help move along matters with Knicks (i.e. make sure Thomas is out of town faster than you can say "I will personally make sure you will get the top draft picks three out of the next five years if you tell Isiah to 'not let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya'". The NBA is already in freefall when it comes to mattering as the third largest sport in the country, and on its way to only being seen on the Versus network. Here's hoping Stern can right the ship with the Knicks, and the league in general.
6) Rumors are that Paris Hilton wants to use her celebrity status to bring attention to real humanitarian issues, and she's starting this endeavor by traveling to Rwanda. If you don't know much about Rwanda, all you need to know is that AIDS and ongoing battle between rival tribes pretty much keeps the country living in some vestige of the Bronze age. I have no idea how in the world Paris Hilton drawing paparazzi to this corner of the world will change anything... but then again, maybe its time the woman did more than look pretty and go to parties. So I say, more power to you Paris. Here's hoping the religious epiphany you said you had while in jail will lead you truly to new life... and maybe a new life for others. I mean, stranger things have happened... haven't they?
7) We're coming off ten straight days of sickness at our house. Stomach flu, colds, fevers, aches, pains... we've all had em, and its wearing us out. Fortunately, it seems Eli is slowly getting over the last whatever it is he has (he's been battling a high fever), and both boys were finally back in school today. You just don't realize how much of a blessing good health is until you're doing laundry at 3:30am while being virtually unable to get the smell of semi-digested pizza out of your mind's nose.
8) Later this week I will attempt to put up a recent sermon on this blogsite for your listening pleasure. It'll just be an experiment in seeing what we'll need to do to begin podcasting our sermons on our own site, but an exciting experiment all the same. Slowly we move into the 21st Century.
9) Ten things are too many things to think... that's what I think.
10) And finally, there's a fascinating series in the New York Times right now that's focused on the issues facing Chinese officials and business people related to the ever-expanding Chinese economy. This latest installment takes a look at the looming ecological crisis (in this case, drinking water) as hundreds of thousands of people relocate to urban centers unprepared to provide the kind of infrastructure needed to accommodate all the basic needs required by growing numbers of human beings. Rapid growth means nothing if streets become overly congested, sewage can't be treated, garbage can't be adequately collected, food can't be distributed, and no potable drinking water is available. The ecological short-cuts that China is taking in order to get a leg up on the world were some of the same ones we took in the US (and in the West, in general) to be able to progress industrially. But the magnitude and scale of growth in China is many times over what it was in, say, Cleveland in the 19th century. Take the Cuyahoga River catching fire (or as Randy Newman sang during the opening credits of the movie "Major League", "burn on big river... burn on") and multiply it many times over, and you have the situation the Chinese are facing in terms of environmental issues as it taxes its natural resources to keep up with doubled-digit growth and a population of billions. The "greening" of emerging nations will present unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs and engineers.
I'm telling you folks.... now is the greatest time in the history of the world to be alive. The problems are massive, but the opportunity is unlimited.
Anyhow, it was a good article. Hope you enjoy it.
2) Great Ad Board meeting tonight. We're getting things done as a church, and moving forward slowly but surely. Charlotte will have 12 new Home Fellowship groups (groups that get together to pray, discuss scripture, help one another, serve others, and do life together) going in the coming year. The youth ministry is really taking giant steps forward right now as more adults get on-board helping Leigh reach teens, and youth are challenged to think about taking responsibility for their own faith. Children's ministry numbers continue to grow and grow and grow. The building is being used almost constantly by a variety of in-house and community groups. The new fall women's bible studies are doing excellently. Fall Fest is coming up this week, and we've already got scores of new volunteers and lots of new financial support.
It's just going better than I ever could have expected... thus far. I just keep praying, and wondering what is next.
3) Our series, Jesus In The Suburbs, is now complete, and I am shocked at the number of folks who loved the series. We must have hit people where they live cause there are lot of folks talking about what they heard. Eugene Paik reminded me that the job of a pastor was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and I hope we were able to accomplish that as we challenged people to quit living lives of "passive safety"... that is, just trying to isolate themselves from the needs of the world in a bubble of comfort, hoping that bad things won't happen to them. Our world is filled with too much misery, and too much opportunity, for us to just stick close to home, only venturing forth to a lake house or an all-encompassing resort, while on streets with no names, Christ awaits our presence. Cool stuff.
4) What a crazy weekend in college football. Half of the "Top Ten" teams lost (including the Florida Gators, setting off much rejoicing among Buckeyes and all who love the Big Ten), and now you have teams like South Florida and Kentucky (looks like our classmate, Gordon Griffin, was right.... Kentucky football is on the rise) in the new Top Ten. That and Notre Dame is 0-5. 0-5 and getting lambasted by the talking heads on ESPN and other sports outlets who claim that Weis' new recruits aren't as talented as the guys Ty Willingham recruited onto campus. People are even openly wondering if ND might lose to the service academies. What a strange, strange year.
5) According to this article, things don't look good for Isiah Thomas, the Knicks GM who is being sued by a former employee for sexual harassment. The trial is just icing on the cake for the James Dolan/Isiah Thomas era which has pretty much decimated the once proud franchise. Bill Simmons (ESPN's "Sports Guy") wrote a "Guide To the Isiah Thomas Trial" that details all of the major points of this fiasco. Considering the NBA needs strong franchises in the cities with huge TV markets where basketball really matters - Boston, Philly, LA, and New York - don't be surprised if somehow David Stern steps in to help move along matters with Knicks (i.e. make sure Thomas is out of town faster than you can say "I will personally make sure you will get the top draft picks three out of the next five years if you tell Isiah to 'not let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya'". The NBA is already in freefall when it comes to mattering as the third largest sport in the country, and on its way to only being seen on the Versus network. Here's hoping Stern can right the ship with the Knicks, and the league in general.
6) Rumors are that Paris Hilton wants to use her celebrity status to bring attention to real humanitarian issues, and she's starting this endeavor by traveling to Rwanda. If you don't know much about Rwanda, all you need to know is that AIDS and ongoing battle between rival tribes pretty much keeps the country living in some vestige of the Bronze age. I have no idea how in the world Paris Hilton drawing paparazzi to this corner of the world will change anything... but then again, maybe its time the woman did more than look pretty and go to parties. So I say, more power to you Paris. Here's hoping the religious epiphany you said you had while in jail will lead you truly to new life... and maybe a new life for others. I mean, stranger things have happened... haven't they?
7) We're coming off ten straight days of sickness at our house. Stomach flu, colds, fevers, aches, pains... we've all had em, and its wearing us out. Fortunately, it seems Eli is slowly getting over the last whatever it is he has (he's been battling a high fever), and both boys were finally back in school today. You just don't realize how much of a blessing good health is until you're doing laundry at 3:30am while being virtually unable to get the smell of semi-digested pizza out of your mind's nose.
8) Later this week I will attempt to put up a recent sermon on this blogsite for your listening pleasure. It'll just be an experiment in seeing what we'll need to do to begin podcasting our sermons on our own site, but an exciting experiment all the same. Slowly we move into the 21st Century.
9) Ten things are too many things to think... that's what I think.
10) And finally, there's a fascinating series in the New York Times right now that's focused on the issues facing Chinese officials and business people related to the ever-expanding Chinese economy. This latest installment takes a look at the looming ecological crisis (in this case, drinking water) as hundreds of thousands of people relocate to urban centers unprepared to provide the kind of infrastructure needed to accommodate all the basic needs required by growing numbers of human beings. Rapid growth means nothing if streets become overly congested, sewage can't be treated, garbage can't be adequately collected, food can't be distributed, and no potable drinking water is available. The ecological short-cuts that China is taking in order to get a leg up on the world were some of the same ones we took in the US (and in the West, in general) to be able to progress industrially. But the magnitude and scale of growth in China is many times over what it was in, say, Cleveland in the 19th century. Take the Cuyahoga River catching fire (or as Randy Newman sang during the opening credits of the movie "Major League", "burn on big river... burn on") and multiply it many times over, and you have the situation the Chinese are facing in terms of environmental issues as it taxes its natural resources to keep up with doubled-digit growth and a population of billions. The "greening" of emerging nations will present unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs and engineers.
I'm telling you folks.... now is the greatest time in the history of the world to be alive. The problems are massive, but the opportunity is unlimited.
Anyhow, it was a good article. Hope you enjoy it.
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