Another post with the too familiar chorus, “I really am going to get better about regular updates…” Anyway, here’s some of the things catching my interest over the last few weeks:
“Bullying persists when bureaucracies and hierarchies permit it to continue. It’s easier to keep order in an environment where bullying can thrive (and vice versa), because the very things that permit a few to control the rest also permit bullies to do their work. The bully uses the organization’s desire for conformity to his own ends.”
It is interesting to think of this in the context of the church. I’ve always assumed that bullies who find their way into churches (and church leadership) do so, because it can be an environment where it can be easy to assume power, and it is filled with people who will tend to tolerate or excuse “bad” behavior in the name of “Christian love” and “forgiveness.” But what if there is something else happening at a deeper systematic level that helps foster an environment where bullies are welcomed and protected into the life of the church?
Semi-related – Shane Koyczan doing his poem “To This Day”… for the bullied and beautiful.
Scot McKnight put this up on his blog, I’m not sure what it says about me given that I like the “geek” movies, but the “hipster” bands. From: BecomeCareer.com
Elizabeth Evans Hagen: I left the church. Don’t hate me. Wonderful reflection on making the choice to leave pastoral ministry in search of a more faithful calling.
I just discovered this odd video this afternoon, by one of those “hipster bands” I’m so fond of; Beach House “Wishes”:
It’s national poetry day, and I don’t think I’ve put this one on my blog before…
“Stained Glass Scars”
Her tattoos tell a story She tries to keep them covered up Lest anyone connect the dots Disconnected, interwoven, overlapping Words, pictures, symbols Painted across her body Fragments and fractiles Outward and visible signs Of something inside She has no name for Each mark, a memory Early attempts at teenage rebellion One to shock the parents One from that Spring Break trip One from the summer job One from that time down in Dallas One from that weekend she still can’t remember One for that guy she met And one for when he left her Broken and alone One by one by one They all add up But do they equal anything? She had to wonder As she wandered The empty, unnamed streets In search of something She’s still looking for She once heard about this guy Pierced and scared Maybe he was like her Maybe he could like her Maybe he could unravel the artwork See past the cutaneous canvass Of stained glass scars To that place that can’t be covered in ink Once she tried to meet him But the stares she got Let her know she didn’t belong Might have been the hair Punk rock pink Didn’t match the muddy browns Betrayed by silver roots She sort of suspects the guy she was looking for Wasn’t really there anyway There was a cool looking cross on the wall Sort of like the one on her shoulder Maybe someday someone will tell her what it means Frankly she’s too scared, too scarred to ask So… Do I finish this piece like a comeback story Where she finds Christ in all his glory* Or do I make it a tragic tale Convict a church that often fails Maybe I leave it a mystery Leave the answer to you and me.
(*Note: the “comeback story/glory” line is borrowed and rearranged slightly from a song by The Hold Steady called “Charlemagne in Sweatpants“, written by Craig Finn. Craig, I think you are awesome, please don’t sue me).
A friend and ministry colleague, Rev. Elbert Dulworth, was recently installed as the District Superintendent for the Marquette District. For the installation, another good friend, Jeremy Peters wrote this piece – and I helped him with the video & delivery. Enjoy!
Donald Miller is working on a series of podcasts with Chase Reeves that look interesting. Information about the the podcasts can be found here.
Andrew Conrad asks an important question about clergy friendships with congregants. The comments are good there, as well. It’s a complex issue, because it gets into areas of professionalism and boundaries, but also into the very nature of what it means to be in pastoral ministry. It is easy to make bad analogies – I don’t expect to be friends with my lawyer, doctor, or mechanic, or therapist but (hopefully) pastoral ministry is something more than that; it is more intimate, more personal, and clergy should be able to be more fully themselves. At the same time, developing friendships has the potential to disrupt the nature of the work when a professional role needs to be asserted, can create at least the appearance of playing “favorites” with congregants (leading the jealousy, etc.), and impact the itinerant nature of pastoral ministry in the United Methodist Church. I think it can be done, it just has to be carefully navigated; but this complexity is also a cause for supporting greater clergy-to-clergy interactions, relationships and friendships – so that needed network of support can happen in other systems; this is why I love things like Clergy Family Camp.
Speaking of friends from Clergy Family Camp – powerful poem from my friend, Jeff Nelson: Thanksgiving Ride.
Another friend, Bri Desotel, posted a great sermon on the Trinity. One of my favorite bits: “See, whenever you think you’ve got the Trinity figured out,
you need to stop and be very careful…
because, chances are, you just became a heretic.
Whenever God makes sense, then we’ve made God far too small.”
One more friend, from my days in the Wesley Foundation, Amy Valdez Baker provides a helpful analysis around the “vital congregation” discussion surrounding the UMC.
Really interesting post from Taylor Burton-Edwards on Ordination, Orders and Rule of Life – I think it was a couple years ago I was wondering to myself how monastic orders and rules might translate into the United Methodist Order of Elders as a way of developing identity, support and accountability. Burton-Edwards really develops this idea well beyond my initial questioning.
David Fitch – STOP FUNDING CHURCH PLANTS, Start Funding Missionaries. This would require a major shift in thinking for United Methodists, but I think there are some really good points in there. I’ve wondered about how bi-vocational pastoral ministry might work before, and I think Fitch’s post is part of the answer.
Prince won’t record new music until internet piracy is under control. So in other words, Prince is done making music. While I understand the desire for greater copyright protection and how Prince might wish it was 1984 again, the reality is the world has changed. The system that helped make Prince famous – massive record labels, top-40 radio, and the youth culture hegemon of MTV – are no longer in place to help guarantee success, but the trade-off of financial guarantees is the very thing Prince said he wanted throughout the 1990s – creative control.
Prince now has the power to make any kind of music he wants, and he can distribute it, globally, without any kind of middle man to get in the way of how he might want to market it. Plus he is still in a far better position to do it than most artists still trying to make a living today – he still has name recognition AND the resources to create something people might be interested in. Yes, it means more work, with potentially greater risk, and lower returns, but if he is really interested in “the art” of music I’m sure he would still have enough of an audience wiling to pay that he could keep doing his thing.
The real problem, I suspect, isn’t that people aren’t stealing his music, but that no one really cares about his music anymore. He hasn’t made anything that connects with a wide audience and gets people excited. I’m sure that’s frustrating for him, but instead of being frustrated he has a choice – keep making music for that small group of fans that will always support him, or do something so good that it connects with a wide audience again. Until last Sunday I’d found myself feeling pretty burnt out around the music of U2 – I hadn’t bought the last couple of albums, and wasn’t really even listening to the old stuff anymore. Then I had a chance to see them live and they got me excited again. They knew how to play to the crowd, they kept their focus on their older music, slipping in only a couple of their more recent songs, but in was enough to get me interested in checking out those newer albums. I think there are still a significant number of people who would be interested in something new from Prince, he just has to connect with them and give them a reason to care. (Really I was thinking about Prince and changes in the music industry, but there is probably a lesson for the church somewhere in there as well).
Actually, Prince, should just check out this video with Seth Godin and Michael Hyatt, which pretty much explains what I was trying to say – the quote Seth Godin refers to “The enemy is not piracy, it’s obscurity” really says it all:
From BikeHacks – How to Upholster your Bike Saddle – I actually need to do this on my old bike the old covering has become un-stapeled/un-glued… or I could probably save myself a lot of hassle and just buy a new one.
Interesting infographic from Guy Kawasaki – How to Increase Your Likability:
Might as well put up some U2 for today’s music selection – this is from the 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind; I still want to learn bass guitar so I can seem as cool as Adam, and on Sunday, found myself wondering if I could ever pull off the “black stocking cap and goatee” look, like the Edge.
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; I still want to learn bass guitar so I can seem as cool as Adam, and on Sunday, found myself wondering if I could ever pull off the “black stocking cap and goatee” look, like the Edge.