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Playing catch-up again, but as I look at the list not a whole lot to report… here’s what’s caught my attention over the last few weeks.

Seth Godin on How to organize a retreat an advance. Also from Seth, Bigger or smaller, which contains this gem of wisdom:

“It’s so tempting to shut people down, to limit the upside, to ostracize, select and demonize. It makes things a lot simpler. Not seeing means you don’t have to take action. Not opening means it’s easier to announce that you’re done. And not raising the bar means you’re less likely to fail.”

Scot McKnight on A Christmas Pledge to Courtesy. He shares this powerful quote from Gina Dalfanzo:

“Christian courtesy is rooted and grounded in the idea that every person—however much we may dislike him or her—is made in the image of God and precious in his sight. It is an ideal that we may struggle to live up to, but the struggle makes us better people; it reminds us to show kindness when every impulse and instinct is urging us to do the opposite. It requires of us something deeper than a rally or a video, something more than the obligatory apology that follows most celebrity catfights. It’s a lifestyle that has to be consciously lived every day.”

In music news, for classic Celtic-punk fans, The Pogues are coming to town.

Another year, another batch of songs to mark the day – some old, some new; some meaningful, some in the mix just because I thought it would sound good.

Jonsi – Go Do
Electronic – Get The Message
Lightening Seeds – All I Want
Vampire Weekend – Horchata
Broken Social Scene – All To All
Arcade Fire – No Cars Go
Belle and Sebastian – The Ghost of Rockschool
Luna – California (All The Way)
The Mountain Goats – Genesis 3:23
The Housemartins – Caravan Of Love
Eels – I Like the Way This Is Going
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – Vocal Chords
Primal Scream – Come Together

Dan R. Dick on the Divided Methodist Church – this hurts to read, but in too many places he is speaking truth. Great quotes in there:

“We are not a “united” Methodist Church at the moment and focusing on program and structure when the relationships are damaged and the connection is broken promises nothing but disaster.  The problem is, were we to use our General Conference time to clarify what it means to be United Methodist in the 21st century, to reframe and clarify our theological task in contemporary culture, to codify and commit to our Social Principles, and to recover the missional/evangelical foundation that defined our heritage, it would draw a line in the sand and every living, breathing United Methodist would be forced to answer the key question: do I want to be a United Methodist or not.  And, being perfectly honest, we would probably lose a third to a half of our membership no matter which way we turn.”

and

“We are not “one in Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.”  We are a poster child of dysfunction and we tolerate egregious bad behavior.  We communicate poorly — both in content and style — and use information as a weapon more often than as a tool.”

one more line that caught my attention

“We have been a service-provider church for so long that the concept of becoming a disciple-making church is overwhelming.”

Be sure to check out the full article. A couple weeks ago I was in conversation with some colleagues about reclaiming the “radical center” in the church, the time for these political divisions has to come to an end so we can really move forward into building the church of today and tomorrow, instead of rehashing the bitter battles of the past century. The radical center isn’t about more wishy-washy ambiguity around identity and direction, it’s about drawing on the strengths of both camps – vital piety and social holiness, and moving ahead; offering grace to those who can’t travel with us. (Of course it’s a lot easier to throw these words up on this stupid little blog than to be in the position to make some of those hard decisions).

[I wrote those words above a couple weeks ago, I haven’t quite changed my mind since then, but I do find myself feeling nervous about how this “radical center” I speak of will ultimately be understood and defined. There still needs to be room for debate and diversity… it just needs to be done in a better way. If the radical center ever becomes a call for homogeneity in thought or practice, I’d probably have to count myself as one who won’t be able to move forward into this new future.]

I was back in Iowa this last week and saw a few articles from a series the Des Moines Register is doing on East High School. I was really struck by the comment by Ruth Ann Gaines that teacher morale is the lowest she’s seen in nearly 40 years of teaching, as well as the numbers – 70% of students are on free or reduced lunch, the drop-out rate is around 29% and East has the highest numbers for student absenteeism in the city.  Back when I was there it was a somewhat “rough” school – I knew there were kids coming from difficult situations, and just making it to graduation was an accomplishment for them, but it never seemed as bad as what’s being portrayed right now (my guess is the situation has gotten worse, but imagine I was also pretty blind to all that was happening even when I was there). I’m not sure what I can do from 600 miles away, but I’ve had the whole situation on my mind for the last couple days. There are a couple teachers still on staff from when I was a student there, and if nothing else I think I’ll be sending them long-overdue thank you notes for their work.

I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth watching again – Taylor Mali on “What Teachers Make” (warning: some objectionable language and a hand gesture).

Not much really stood out over the past couple weeks, just a couple of posts that caught my attention:

Jay Voorhees on Pastoral Accountability.

Seth Godin on When You Criticize My Choices.

I got hung-up trying to figure out a good song to put up this week… eventually went with Derek Webb, “This Too Shall Be Made Right” – seems like a good song that captures the anticipation of Advent – Luke 1:46-55

Reflecting on the United Methodist Call to Action report, Jay Voorhees asks, What is Congregational Vitality?

Donald Miller on The Joy of Getting Older. I love this last paragraph:

I wish I could go back and talk to myself when I was twenty. I’d say to myself “listen, don’t worry about the things you’ve been worrying about. Everything is going to work out great.” And I’d likely clarify with myself that “In the future I get everything I need?” And I’d say back to myself “No, you just realize you didn’t need it. And that’s even better.”

Seth Godin on Why We Prefer Live. I had the chance to hear Jim Walker (pastor of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community) and he made the comment that we live in a world where with a click of a button we can hear great preaching any time of any day. While the church needs to use social media to reach new people, we also have to offer the very thing you can’t get over the internet – face-to-face interactions, high-touch experiences, and the power that comes when people are gathered together in the same room.

I haven’t played with this, but it looks interesting – RedNotebook which is a wiki/journaling program (unfortunately Windows and Linux only). Also, via Lifehacker, 10 Things to Know about Photography Law.

Tough look at Detroit from Mother Jones (contains some objectionable language).

November 17 is National Unfriend Day… I’d already been thinking about paring down my Facebook friends, maybe this will be the time to do it.

Build your own home for $5000. Seems like an interesting project, probably not in my future (especially if I want to stay married).

I picked up the latest Eels album last week and have been enjoying it, Tomorrow Morning is the name of it available at all the usual places.

Lifehacker has some thoughts on delegating.


Levite Chronicles has some good thoughts on giving gifts that have meaning to the recipient. The point is to offer gifts that will bring lasting memories, but I found myself wondering about those gifts that churches often provide to first time visitors as well – are they meaningful, do they create lasting impressions, or is it just a cheap, disposable, easily forgotten item, with little long-term value or association?


Donald Miller on The Fear of Doing – I love this line: “Perhaps we should not put our energy into criticism, we should accept the challenge to squash what we do not like by creating something better.” Stop criticizing, start creating!


Kem Meyer on how the abundance of choice is wreaking havoc.


Seth Godin on Childish vs Child-like. Jesus calls us to be child-like, so why do we spend so much time in the church acting childish?

I had a chance to read through the UMC Call to Action Report report today. I still need some time to digest it fully, but there is some really good stuff in there. For example:

“Objective examination of data, trends, and observations from UMC leaders led to identification of a creeping crisis of relevancy with an accompanying acute crisis of an underperforming economic model that are both linked to frailties in the UMC’s culture. These include the absence of common definitions for the meaning of our mission statement, lack of trust, low levels of mutual respect, the frequent absence of civil dialogue, insufficient clarity about the precise roles and responsibilities of leaders, and a lack of agreed ways to measure success or assure collaboration.

Thus we identify the need for:

• Recognition of the value and need for the Council of Bishops to exercise strong and courageous leadership, working in concert and fostering alignment throughout the Connection

• More clarity and understanding about the UMC’s mission, culture, and values

• Less perceived organizational “distance” between and among the foundational units of the church

• Better-defined leadership roles, responsibilities, and accountability; with greater clarity about outcomes

• More standardized management processes and reporting systems

• Streamlining of connectional structures to achieve effective governance, lowered costs, and higher levels of performance.” (pg. 7)

There is a strong push for congregational vitality and pastoral effectiveness. In the report it says:

“Deciding what to measure as indicators of effectiveness is often debated, but the research is conclusive that we can stimulate vitality if at a minimum we join together to:

* increase the numbers of people participating in worship and small groups for prayer and study—starting and maintaining more programs for children and youth

* encourage spiritually devoted lay persons to share leadership roles in every facet of Church life

* offer multiple worship experiences and cultivate dynamic topical preaching

* improve pastoral effectiveness, including aspects of management and leadership

* provide longer clergy appointments where it is apparent that the gifts of the pastor fit the needs of the church and its community

* consistently cultivate incremental increases in financial giving and engagement in outreach, witness, and mission in local communities and the world.

The quality of clergy and lay leadership is essential for effectiveness, and we must retool our culture and systems of clergy recruitment, training, credentialing, and support with renewed emphasis on greater accountability for outcomes, giving appropriate, but much less, focus to intentions.” (pg. 15)

And check out this prayer of confession:

 “O holy and merciful God, we confess that we have not always taken upon ourselves the yoke of obedience, nor been willing to seek and do your perfect will.

We have pursued self-interests and allowed institutional inertia to bind us in ways that constrain our witness and dilute our mission. We have been preoccupied more with defending treasured assumptions and theories, protecting our turf and prerogatives, and maintaining the status quo for beloved institutions than with loving you with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. And we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

You have called to us in the need of our sisters and brothers, and we have passed unheeding on our way.

May almighty God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, shine in our hearts, cleansing us from all our sins, and restoring us to the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, in the face of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.” (pg. 17-18)

And this section on the call for leadership:

 “Leaders, beginning with the bishops and including lay and clergy across the Connection, must lead and immediately, repeatedly, and energetically make it plain that our current culture and practices are resulting in overall decline that is toxic and constricts our missional effectiveness.

Continued pursuit of the most prevalent of current approaches, structures, policies, and practices is likely to produce the same results with continued decline and decreasing mission impact.

Business as usual is unsustainable. Instead, dramatically different new behaviors, not incremental changes, are required.

The absence of strong, adaptive, decisive leadership will hasten the rate and magnitude of the well documented indicators of decline (baptisms, professions of faith, membership, attendance, funding for connectional ministries).

We need a cadre of mutually committed, collaborative, turnaround leaders that (1) make a compelling case for daring, disciplined, and sustained actions and (2) demonstrate strong leadership to vividly change what we emphasize, and de-emphasize many current treasured approaches and programs and forego familiar rhetoric that, though valued, does not lead to effectiveness in achieving different and desired outcomes.

Making this change requires leaders to forge strong coalitions, joining with willing partners who agree to disagree about lesser matters and setting aside many passionate causes in order to focus instead on overarching goals for the greater good. Choosing to continue behaviors that arise from narrow interests and subordinate objectives will lead to increased divisiveness and accelerate the current disintegration.

This calls for nothing less on the part of all who will lead than the kind of denial of self that Wesley placed at the heart of the sanctified life. “The ‘denying’ ourselves and the ‘taking up our cross’ . . . is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing his disciples.” (Sermon 48, “Self-Denial,” emphasis added). But even more so, it requires us to follow Paul’s advice that by “having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other,” we might “adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:2, 5 CEB).

This is not a time for leaders who are ambivalent, reluctant, or unwilling to walk forward with humility and courage.” (pg. 18-19, emphasis in original)

There is some brilliant stuff in there, hopefully this gets read, taken seriously, and put into action.

We Worship the god of Security.

North Ridge Church is for Liars. I actually saw one of these signs a couple weeks ago, and for about 2 seconds thought, “Wow! Someone really has it out for that church!” but then realized it was just a marketing campaign. I like the fact that it is provocative enough to capture the attention of people driving by, but I wonder about the metrics of how it actually translates to hits on the website, and new faces in worship on Sunday. I also wonder how far you go before “provocative” loses it’s edge, and the message people take away if they never go to the website and don’t get the underlying message (humor?) of the campaign.

Interesting (tech nerd) article on the 3G and 4G wireless standards, and why your cell phone carrier is probably lying to you.

Hugh MacLeod asks the question United Methodist’s need to be asking every day:

(Hugh’s stuff is really good, make sure you check it out… I haven’t read his book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity yet, but it’s on my list).

Storyline Conference from shieldsfilms.com on Vimeo.

Don also suggests surrounding yourself with a few good life editors. (In a similar vein, Lifehacker says you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with).

Andrew Conrad on finding value in the connection.

Mike Slaughter chats with Alan Hirsch.

Fred Clark has a great piece on the context of John 14 and embracing grace.

I know I’ve thrown Matisyahu up here before, but it is (probably) the best Hasidic Jewish reggae music you’ll hear all day.

Great thoughts by Donald Miller on How to Guide a Team Through Conflict.

Jay Voorhees asks some really good question in his posts on Is a Denomination a Brand or a Something Very Different and Is the UMC a Franchisor? The points he raises related to church identity are really important, and he articulates the problem is a way I never could have, although I think I’ve suspected the disjunction he points out. From the beginning of the “Rethink Church” campaign my fear has always been that we are projecting an image of the church that isn’t what most people will find when they visit. I LOVE the image “Rethink Church” promotes, it casts a vision of where we should be, but many local congregations aren’t quite there yet.

Furthermore, many United Methodist congregations (from my perspective) have a limited United Methodist identity of their own – “rethink” isn’t even on their radar when they are still trying to understand things like apportionments and the value of UMC missions (like UMCOR and Wesley Foundations), as opposed to non-denominational or para-church counterparts (which can certainly be worthy causes, but lack the theological, administrative, or accountability ties that the denominational programs hold). So not only is the a lack of uniform experience, that Voorhees makes note of, I suspect there are a lot of people who don’t even buy-in to some of the core principles within the denomination.

I think Jay is right when he says:

“The more I think about this the more I begin to get a sense that what we are is less of a national brand that is useful and worthwhile in helping persons to access our church, and more of an affiliation of multiple brands that are rooted at the local level. The general church nor the annual conference is not a franchisor in any traditional sense for there is really no attempt to enforce uniformity of experience, nor would we want to do so. For the most part we have tended to suggest that the diversity of experience in the UMC is in fact a virtue which allows many different types of people access to the throne room of God.”

 But (as I’m processing this idea as I type it out), I think there is also a basic need for an internal marketing/education effort to take place so that people within the United Methodist Church can come to understand our identity and history, to see how the local connects with the connectional, which in some cases has been lacking.

I’ll stop myself before delving too much more into that potential rant.

Seth Godin has some good stuff up this week: Heroes and Mentors being one that caught my attention. Also, check out Do You Need a Permit?

Leading Ideas has an important and insightful article by Chris Duckworth on the choices families make. Be sure to read the whole thing here, but to summarize his main point, Chris suggests that families that are faced with hard choices like soccer or Sunday School, are making the choices out of love, and while it is easy to criticize, sometimes we forget how stressed and overextended families are. Maybe the answer isn’t to wag our finger and expect them to “come to us” but to do the Christ-like (and Wesleyan) thing and go to where the people are.

Not an issue for me, but it may be for some (especially if you use a Windows laptop) – avoid connecting to “Free Public WiFi”. Also via Lifehacker this week, how handwriting can help your cognitive abilities; as much as I am drawn to the tech stuff, to me there is something powerful and important about using plain old pens/pencils and paper, especially when it comes to the creative or brainstorming type of work.
Ever wanted to make your own bacon? Here’s how.

The Beautiful South have come up on my iPod is shuffle mode a few times in recent weeks, so I might as well throw them up on the blog as well.

One more music post – for the longest time I thought I was going insane remembering a song that didn’t exist. One summer when I was working at Adventureland Amusement Park this song was on a 4-hour loop tape that played over the sound system. I was sure it was the B-52s (Fred’s voice is pretty unforgettable), I never knew what album it was from, and while I never didn’t a completely thorough search of their catalog, the few times I tried to figure out the song, I never could. Google & YouTube to the rescue! Turns out the song was removed after the first printing.