Author: mike

It’s been a long time since I’ve put a roundup together, and it turns out to be a fairly short list, but hopefully this will get my back into a regular blogging routine…

I find myself really bothered by the whole “voter fraud” crackdown, as it seems to be a cheap ploy to curtail voting especially among minority populations and those in poverty. As The Atlantic reports, an extensive search of “illegal voters” in Florida found exactly 1 person (who happens to be from Austria and collects guns). Also from The Atlantic and worth reading, The Ballot Cops, takes a good look at the fine line between “observation” and “intimidation” and the long history of using these tactics particularly against minority groups. (Sara Silverman also has a few thoughts on this, you can find it here, it’s funny, but Sara does drop the f-bomb multiple times so not safe for work or people who are easily offended).

Emily C. Heath: How to Tell if Your Religious Liberty is Being Threatened in 10 Quick Questions.

Seth Godin: The People Who Came Before You. (The reason why more people don’t come to church? Maybe, because they’ve already been there… and the experience wasn’t good).

I’ll keep myself from commentary of Mitt Romney’s “47% of Americans” comment, but feel free to check out Fred Clark’s take (and additional links) on it.

Lifehacker: How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Newest Attempt to Track Everything You Do. I get why Facebook needs to do this from a monetary standpoint, and I can even understand the case of why additional information means more (better?) targeted advertising, but each step on this path makes me wonder more and more why I have a Facebook account.

Good: How to Start an Urban Farm in a Post-Industrial City. My friends in Cedar Rapids have already started a great urban farm project in their community, hopefully I can talk/help some friends serving churches in Detroit and Flint to do the same.

I’ve posted from Matisyahu on here before – a new album, Spark Seekercame out this summer, which I thought was pretty good. He looks very different without his Hasidic beard and locks, but still sounds great.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but Jeremy Smith’s recent couple posts on baptism fails, helped give me the push I needed to actually add my 2 cents to the blog.

The “standard practice” within the United Methodist Church for infant baptisms (as I have seen and done myself), is to invite the family to come forward at some point during the service, and then instruct the congregation to, “Please turn to page 39 in the hymnal.”

The congregation can then read along as the pastor offers the words of introduction, “Brothers and sisters in Christ: Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are initiated into Christ’s holy church. We are incorporated into God’s mighty act of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All of this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.” The congregation continues to read as the pastor follows the rest of the written liturgy, asking the parents the questions about their commitment to live a Christ-like life, and to raise their child in the same manner.

What follows is the problematic piece of the baptismal service, for me. The attention is then turned to the congregation and the pastor asks, as is written:

“Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons now before you in your care?”

The congregation responds:

“With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their service to others. We will pray for them, that they may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.”

The problem is that the congregation always reads that response as it is written, but not as it is intended. What is meant to be this beautiful statement of a congregation covenant, that I believe is an essential element of the sacrament, becomes this generic, awkward congregation response.

So here’s my appeal to my clergy friends – DON’T have the congregation “Turn to page 39” – they don’t need to read along with what you are saying – their eyes shouldn’t be on the book, they should be on the actions of this beautiful event taking place. They should be experiencing the moment, not reading along with it. In place of the “generic” congregation pledge, offer a specific, printed version – either in the bulletin, or on a projection screen that names the child. No longer will we “surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness” from now on we need to name names:

“With God’s help we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround Emma with a community of love and forgiveness, that she may grow in her service to others. We will pray for Emma that she may be a true disciple who walks in the way that leads to life.”

If you need to make it plural, make it plural; but let’s have the congregation say the names. Theologically, the whole point of baptism is about each person being uniquely named and claimed by God, and being held in covenant by the congregation. The “generic” congregational response doesn’t let that happen; while it is nice to expect the congregation to simply make the necessary changes to the printed italics, in a group setting, it just doesn’t happen, so we need to do the work for them – make the pledge personal.

One other note – this isn’t part of my “appeal” just a great idea I got from Rev. Greg Dell when I was in seminary (and regardless of what you may know or think of Greg, this is a great idea): Incorporate the act of baptism into the children’s message. What this means is that I always schedule the baptism right after the children’s message, but as part of the time with children, I bring out the pitcher of water and a cup, and have the children take turns to help fill the baptismal font. As I do, I remind them that this baptism is a sign of God’s love of the person being baptized, but we are also promising to help teach them, pray for them, and show them God’s love; assuming it is an infant (or young child) baptism, I tell the kids, “pretty soon (name) is going to be running around, going to Sunday School and VBS with you, and they’ll need your help – to be their friend and teach them about Jesus; and you’ll be able to say that you helped on the day they were baptized.” It also works great because often there will be siblings or cousins of the baptized child there, so they have a part to play in this special day.

As I’ve mentioned before, this has been a busy summer, and I’ve fallen away from regular blogging. I have been playing with making the switch to Blogger’s “dynamic views” interface – let me know what you think of the current design/format.

I fear it’s likely to be a pretty sporadic summer in terms of blog updates, until I get into some new routines, but here’s a round-up covering pretty much the last month…

Fred Clark on Mutuality Week and the Burden of Proof (make sure to follow the links to see some of the postings from Rachel Held Evan’s Week of Mutuality – there is some good stuff in there; although it is rather depressing that we are even still debating these topics related to gender inclusion in the life of the church).

Also from Fred Clark: I Never, Leviticus Edition

The Real Generation Gap – how Baby Boomers have been on the receiving end of government assistance all of their lives. Fascinating article which states:

“There are a lot of incredible things boomers have done for our country, and I admire and learn from many of them. But, history reveals a gaping leadership and responsibility gap between boomers and their parents. Somehow, some way, the shared generational value of baby boomers’ parents — that of civic investment and “paying it forward” through taxes and good governance — was not transferred to their children, who now, paradoxically, seem to want less government and less taxes, despite having spent the majority of their lives depending on big government and tax revenue.”

Roger Olson: What Does “Inerrancy” Actually Do?

Seth Godin: How to Succeed

Mark Engler: Keep Your Government Hands Off My Welfare State

Dan Dick: Cheapening the Church

LaRae Quy: 3 Ways to Find the Truth About Yourself

Wil Wheaton: Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Weather it was Intentional

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary: Who Do You Think You Aren’t

Jonathan Coulton: Emily and David – I think Jonathan has some great insight into the future of intellectual property as it relates to music and far beyond. The issues are simply going to be much more complex in the years to come, but instead of fighting it, we need to find ways to embrace and adapt to the coming changes.

Lifehacker: Top 10 Ways to Upgrade Your Music Listening Experience

Also, music related, a new Looper album is apparently in the works. I know 99% of you who read this have no idea who Looper is, but Up a Tree is an amazing little album that 15 years later I still enjoy.

Geek Dad: These Lego Birds Aren’t Angry, Just Geeky (and pretty awesome!)

Scot McKnight: Baptists Chasing Methodists – and not in some game of denominational tag. The article talks about how, in the Southern Baptist Convention they are starting to see declines that parallel what the United Methodist Church has been experiencing over the last 40 years. Sometimes it seems like some in the UMC believe adopting a “theological purity” like the SBC would be the answer to all our problems, yet this trend shows that the issues surrounding membership and attendance are greater than notions of theological orthodoxy.

Semi-related (but not intentionally), Jeremy Smith asks,  Is the UMC the Rebellion or the Empire?

Also semi-related the Lewis Center Update points to the trends in the 2010 Religion Census Update

Shannon Karafanda: Church Hoarding. Good reflection about the propensity of churches to collect “stuff” that can never be recycled or thrown out, which then keeps us from moving forward in our mission. A good friend will be serving a new church this week and that is item #1 on his agenda – getting rid of all this unnecessary “stuff” that is crowding the hallways and filling the classrooms that has outlived it’s usefulness and is a power symbol for how the church has been stuck for some time.

Here’s Looper. I prefer the album version of this song to the one in the video, but it’s still good…

And we’ll do one more to give Jonathan Coulton some love too… I may have posted a version of this one before – an ode to zombies and business culture – Re: Your Brains:

Lots of catching up to do, so here you go…

Helpful tips from Ann Randers.

Dan Dick, back at the beginning of the month regarding General Conference: To Rainbow or Not to Rainbow and here he Looks Back at General Conference.

Fred Clark: David Barton says things that are not true. (Again, you have to go back to the beginning of the month when Barton was on The Daily Show; I was sorry to see John Stewart give Barton attention he doesn’t deserve).

Godin calls the business world to care more; good advice for the church, too. Also from Godin – Avoiding False Metrics – also good advice for the UMC. One more to check out – The Quickest Way to Get Things Done and Make Change.

Rev. Momma on Defending v. Defensive:

“I’m not interested in proof-texting or debating, I’m interested in relationship, in loving, and in sharing how my life has changed by Christ.”

To which I simply say, Amen!

From Lifehacker: Turn Your Cassette Tapes into MP3s. I’ve done this a few times with some my old radio recordings, but still have more to do.

Julie Clawson: Theology in the Dressing Room.

Adam Walker Cleaveland: Why Pastors Should Only Have 1 Facebook Profile.

Jay Voorhees posts An Open Letter to Bishop William Willimon – great reflection on the “trust problem” in the UMC; Jay also offers an important follow-up, I Love our Bishops.

Leilani Euper: Riding the Thunderbolt.

The Tyranny of Extroversion.

Taylor Burton-Edwards encourages us to Move Beyond the Death Metaphors for the UMC.

Is Mitt Romney a Unicorn?

Shawn Smucker: 35 Years in Church and I Still Don’t Know How to Respond to Poverty. Powerful and convicting reflection about how the church fails to equip people to “do ministry” and names the struggle we all face.

If You Build Bike Lanes, They Will Ride.

Millennials in Detroit.

Tough month for fans of 90s era college rock, Ween break up (there was a time at KRUI where it seemed like “Push the Little Daisies” was being played every hour), and much more significantly the loss of MCA from the Beastie Boys…

I know I’m way behind again on getting a regular posting out. Hopefully that will be corrected sometime this week.

One quick note I wanted to share – a few friends have asked about getting notified when I do add a new post. I have twitter and facebook set up to provide notifications, but sometimes those get lost in the mix. If you’d like to have new posts e-mailed to you, or if you want to subscribe in your favorite feed reader, those options should now be easily available. Just click/fill out the appropriate information in one of the boxes to the right of this post.

Hope that helps!

Great commencement address by Neil Gaiman (via Tim Ferriss)

As part of the Detroit Annual Conference Eric Kieb, Jeff Nelson, Jeremy Peters and I were asked to write a group piece based on Mark 5 – the story of Jesus encountering the Gerasene demoniac. Here’s what we came up with…

The waves were pounding
thunder resounding
While the wind was hounding
And darkness surrounding

On a mission – confounding

The boat sides were creakin’
The water was seepin’
The fishermen were weepin’
And Jesus was sleepin’

Jesus was sleeping?

Then who has been keeping
An eye on this trip,
Crossing over the sea, crossing over the border
Facing the chaos, facing disorder

Can’t we go back just like every other
Group that has ever tried to cross before

No hope is ahead,
nothing in store
But more wind and more rain and more terrible storm
It’s easier to complain and conform

One word
Stills the rain
Stills the wind
Stills the pain

“Peace”
Calls the rabbi, calls the Nazarene

After 50 long years they say this boat’s a sinkin’
Some chalk it up to cynical thinkin’
50 long years of desperation, decline
“What’s all the fuss, aren’t we just fine?”

“Peace” he calls out
After a year of baptisms and weddings
and attempted beheadings
from bridezillas who stalk and they squalk
as they threaten to outline our bodies in chalk
if the dog can’t be the one to bring down the rings
and if her little sister isn’t allowed to sing
“The first time ever I saw your face…”

“Peace”
After mission trips and bring-a-dish dinners
“Green-bean casserole – now there’s a winner”
And vain attempts to reach and to preach,
invite and incite, proclaim and teach
After all of the fighting’s without and the fears within
I’m not even sure where to begin

“Peace”
He calls out
After ten days of Tampa high-drama
It’s not a period, we’ll call it a comma.
Unsettling storms seem to dampen the Spirit
Of unity and pride, but we cannot hide

The disciples they arrived on the other side of the sea,
And here today we gather both lay and clergy
At Adrian College or in the country of the Gerasenes
We come seeking Jesus always ready to seek the lost and unclean

And just as Jesus stepped out of the boat
A man came up not wearing a coat
Disheveled, delusional and demon possessed
Coming to Jesus beating his breast

Stuck outside living among the tombs
No hope no cure, everyone presumes

Today they like to say that our church is dead
Easier to blame than fix problems instead
Fighting constraints, restraints,
Chained down with no one to hear his complaints

Locked up with lanyards and empty platitudes
A landslide of legislation and bad attitudes
Robbed by Roberts and his Rules of Order
Stuck in the past like some kind of hoarder

“You’re out of order!”
“No you’re out of order!”
“This whole place is out of order!”

Shattering shackles, breaking the chains,
Is there’s no balm in Gilead to heal this man’s pain?

Should we skip the plenary to go see the Avengers?
No, the Hulk is right here, among the Amen-ers
A chain-snapping giant with incredible hope
That’ll make us feel like inevitable dopes
When they tie us down with inflexible rope
Wondering why we just keep trying to cope
“Wouldn’t it be easier to become Presbyterian”
“I’m finding a place with an infallible pope!”

Living night and day in the cemetery
Dawson Auditorium and Shipman Library
Howling and growling, bruising himself with stones
Marginalized madman left all alone

And his fist said to face I don’t need you
And arm said to chest, I think we are through
And his feet they said to his padded posterior
In this body, I am superior

And he deployed the Discipline, like a back-alley razor
Cut himself to pieces like black eye-lined teenager

Running to Jesus he got on his knees,
Listen to me Jesus, listen to me please
Don’t you torment me, don’t make me leave.

He bowed before the cross,
she put her hand in the air
They broke bread with Bishop,
sang hymns with flair

Praying so hard with all of their heart
“Lord, please go away…” don’t mess up our part
We’ve become accustomed to our messes
Our routines and our tombs
Our beautiful colored glass
And Sunday costumes
Leave us to sit in our comfortable pew
We’ll just sit and complain how “the workers are few…”

When Jesus asks,

“What is your name?”

Are we so honest that we proclaim:
My name is anger, resentment and hypocrisy.
My name is faction and fear. My name is pulpit envy.
My name is naked ambition, pride mixed with doubt.
My name’s in incomprehensible acronym, the meaning we’ve forgotten about.”
My name is bumper sticker theology,
my name is Pharisee,
My name is intolerance and ignorance,
and ‘Hey! Look at me!’”

“My name is Legion; for we are many.”

They begged him earnestly not to send them away
Please not to Marquette, that’s all I can say.

Don’t send us a pastor too young or old
Not sure we’re quite ready for a woman or theology too bold.

Don’t send me to the dirty
the downtrodden,
the drop outs and delinquents.
Don’t send me to the queers
to the ones baptized with tears
to those assaulted by fears.
Don’t send me to the
dis-respectable
dis-illusioned
dis-infranchied
or distraught
I don’t wanna be reminded
that there’s little that separates me
from them
from you
from me
from us.

Lord, heal our church.
Cast out our demons.

Imagine a church united
Imagine a people clothed in mercy.
Imagine a crew willing to engage broken people in broken places.
Imagine setting sail through torrents and storms.
Imagine getting out of the boat and getting the world right
The gates of Hell themselves would tremble at the sight.
After the storm
ministry happens.
On the other side
demons are defeated.
Lives are changed
Grace happens… even in graveyards…
especially in graveyards.

Get out of the boat
Cast out the demons
The world is our parish.
Michigan is our mission.

  As part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Sneeze program, I’ve had the chance to read and review the book Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff. If you are familiar with Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (affiliate links), you might recognize Bob and parts of his story – Don talks about Bob as the guy who is engaged in writing down all his memories (chapter 1) and who he meets while kayaking in British Columbia (chapter 24).

 Without a doubt Bob Goff has lived a remarkable life – he’s a successful lawyer, the founder of Restore International, which is a ministry focused on restoring justice to children in India and Uganda, and serves as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Uganda. This book, in part tells some of Bob’s story, highlighting memorable moments in his life, connects it with his faith, and builds the argument that faith and love isn’t about intellectual conviction as much as it is about revealed action.

 Overall, it’s a great book. The stories Bob shares are inspirational, engaging, and memorable. The way he speaks of faith, likewise, is in a very straight-forward, accessible way; it feels like you are having a conversation with a friend, instead of someone trying to convert you with a theological worldview. Likewise, the chapters are relatively short and clear to the point – making this both a fairly quick, but also an addictive read. This is one of those books, where you start reading, and the next thing you know it’s 2 hours later and you are almost at the end of the book. (For any preachers who might be reading this review, this book is also a great source for some solid illustrations, if you, like me, are always in search of a good story that help show a Biblical truth in a practical way).

 My only criticisms of the book are that towards the middle of the book, the structure of each chapter starts to feel a little formulaic – Bob shares a personal story, relates it to a passage from the Bible, offers some brief concluding words tying it all together, and then moves on to the next chapter. Towards the end of the book, he breaks this routine and more naturally integrates his life story into his theological understanding. My only other complaint would be that I wish Bob would tell more of his life story in a more chronological fashion – I felt like the moments he used were a little too random, and too safe; he never really delves into serious struggles he has faced along the way or how he had ever honestly wrestled with faith. I would guess that’s because he wants to keep this book optimistic, focused on the grace in our midst, but I think grace becomes more real when we confess to our brokenness as well – as Donald Miller says in A Million Miles – there needs to be conflict for a story to really work, and I feel Bob shielded us from some of the conflict. Alongside that, at several different points in the book, Bob tries to admit that he is just an “ordinary guy.” I know he’s making an effort to relate to the average reader, and help us to know we all have the opportunity to do extraordinary things, which I would agree with, but the fact is most “ordinary guys” I know don’t have the ability to take our daughters to London for their birthdays, or are asked to be the consul for Uganda. Through, what I’m sure, is a combination of hard work, dedication, and opportunity, Bob has built a life that is anything but ordinary, and I just wish he could acknowledge that and share the story, more fully, of how that happened. Guess I’ll just have to wait for “Part 2” of the story to be told.

 As I said before though, I really do feel that overall this is a great book; one that you’ll want to read and pass on to your friends. If you are looking for some inspiration in your life, please go and grab a copy. There’s the added bonus that all the proceeds from the book go to support The Mentoring Project and Restore International’s Leadership Academy.

 (Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for the purposes of review. The free book didn’t influence my review in any way).

Seth Godin (via Domino Project): Piracy? You Wish. Great reminder it’s the ideas and the art that matter, not the sales. Also from Godin: Tracts, Manifestos and Books.

Jen Lemen: How to be Happy (Part 6).

Bread for the World: Congress Wants Your Church to Spend $50,000 (via Fred Clark). While I sort of “get” the attempt to argue that feeding the hungry should be the work of the churches, it conveniently seems to forget that many of the church pantries I know are already stretched pretty thin even as donor generosity has increased, and it is VERY unlikely that people will turn their personal tax savings into charitable contributions (certainly not at a 1:1 ratio). It also fails to acknowledge the economics of scale – government programs can simply get much more value for each dollar, rather than a bunch of different churches working independently.

I’m pretty sure that when Jesus said to “pray for those who harass you” (Matthew 5:44), this is NOT what he meant. (also via Fred Clark)

Mark Engler: Tax Day Doesn’t Belong to the Tea Party Anymore.

My main focus this past week has been the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. Some of the key posts that have caught my eye:

Andrew Conrad developed a #gc2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project.

From Dan Dick: April 25 Reflections; Same Language, Different Meanings; Specific Conference; Value-Addled; and Safety in Numbness.

Rev. Momma on Guaranteed Appointments. (I’m hoping to get a post with my own thoughts on this soon).

Lovett Weems: The Tussle Over Metrics.

And while this post on God’s Different Kind of Arithmetic wasn’t necessarily General Conference related, it certainly fits some of the main concerns and themes of the week.

Found myself in the mood to listen, once again to the amazing Radiohead album OK Computer this morning…