Category: Uncategorized

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…

Fred Clark on Evangelical Tribalism, De-legitimizing Christians Outside the Evangelical Tribe, and Kirk Cameron, Tim Tebow and Contemporary Christian Tribalism.

Semi-related: Derek Webb on The Marketing of Jesus.

My friend Sherry Parker is at the United Methodist General Conference, and she promises updates from the conference on her blog; UMC peeps should check it out. Other General Conference bloggers to check out include:
Becca Clark
Dan Dick
and the Methoblog which will gather together a number of different news reports, blog posts and highlights.

Seth Godin (via the Domino Project), reminds of just a few of the people who were Self Published.

Lifehacker: DIY Natural Garden Pesticides.

Jeff Goins: One Sure Sign You’re a Professional.

Andrew Sullivan: Christianity in Crisis.

Nerd Porn: Tiny Printer Projects.

Good Magazine: Spring Cleaning – Get a Green Thumb.

Geek Dad: 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10.

Also from Wired/Geek Dad: An Adventure in Cable Cutting. I’m moving in this direction, I just need to find a good way to install an attic antenna and run a few feet of co-ax into the family room.

Britni Danielle: Why I’m Proud to be Part of ‘Generation Job-Hop’.

Music from the Soweto Gospel Choir (via NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts):

33 Animals Who Are Extremely Disappointed in You.

Barry Hill, Jr.: What I Learned About To-Do Lists From My 8 Year Old Son. (via Michael Hyatt’s blog)

Becca Clark: What’s Wrong With This Picture? Some more interesting thoughts on the Call to Action. I suspect is it a little unfair picking apart a picture when we don’t know the full context, but I think Becca continues to raise important questions around the Call to Action. Also from Becca: Diary of a Delegate: in Opposition to Disaffiliation.

Love this quote from Virgilio Elizondo (via Inward/Outward):

“Protest without fiesta is empty.”

From the Church Marketing Sucks blog: Steve Jobs – Church Communication Hero.

Shawn Lovejoy: Why I Resigned (And You Should Too).

Is your computer desktop feeling a little stale? Check out these wallpapers (via Lifehacker).

Busting Bike Myths. All of them are good, the helmet one is a particular pet peeve of my, and one I was keenly aware of last week on a ride when I saw a number of children and adults without helmets. I fear my upcoming mid-life crisis could turn into a crusade to get helmets on every Clarkston-area cyclist.

Related: Want to bike from Detroit to Windsor? Good luck; a 2 mile trip turns into 127 when you burn fat and not gas.

Jordon Cooper: Treat Employees Well & Make Money.

FastCompany: Generation Flux – Adapting to Succeed in the New Economy and Unlimited Vacation Boosts Productivity. I especially like that second article; within the life of the church I think we try to emulate the administrative and managerial aspects of secular business sometimes to our detriment, when a measure of simple trust and grace might simply work better. (At the same time I know that especially within the church some employees abuse the language of grace and lack of accountability so that even the basic elements of the job don’t get done, without any consequences to the individual’s bad behavior). 

Big bird with big teeth?

Texts from Dog. Some language and subject matter that might be offensive to some, but I still think it’s pretty funny.

Matthew Paul Turner looks at a video by Bob Larson and raises questions about demonic possession. I used to listen to Bob Larson on the radio as a kid; had no idea he was even still around doing this sort of thing.

New music this week from The Welcome Wagon. Vito serves Resurrection Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, NY, but he is originally from Tecumseh, MI. The new album comes out in June. If you like what you hear, you can download a copy of this track for free here.

The Welcome Wagon- Would You Come and See Me in New York from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Seth Godin: We say we want a revolution… how often do our daily actions betray our spoken “values”? Timely reminder for a church who says they want to rethink and answer a call to action; are we really, or do we just like talking about it? Also from Godin: Demolishing the Argument that Abundance Causes Scarcity.

7 Deadly Sins of Easter Outreach.

The Art of Non-Conformity: There’s a Letter You Need to Write.

Donald Miller: What to do When You Put Your Foot in Your Mouth. (Not “kiss your toes” as one of my friends suggested). Also from Miller, Do You Have an Undiscovered Genius?… I need to check out Robinson’s book The Element (Amazon affiliate link).

Don Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz is now a movie, soon to be released. Here’s some info on the push back it has received which highlights some of the fundamental problems of different conceptions around the labels “Christian” and “art”.

Kem Meyer: Would Money Make it Better? I’ve read something recently (not sure where) about how creativity needs “positive constraints” – situations where there are no deadlines, no financial limits, and no defined boundaries; basically the greatest possible measure of “creative freedom” tend to yield poor results. A good challenge to accomplishing a project makes us think more clearly and function more creatively.

Fred Clark: Trayvon Martin – The Killing on an American Child.

Michael Hyatt: 7 Steps to Becoming a Happier Person and Leadership at Home Affects the Rest of Your Life.

My friend Anna has been doing medical work in Africa, check out her blog documenting her time there.

Andrew Cohen: Voter ID Laws and their impact on the poor and minority populations.

The story of “Keep Calm and Carry On”:

Here’s the variations I enjoy: Keep Calm and Time Travel and Get Excited and Make Things.

Rachel Held Evans: 15 Reasons Why I Left the Church.

Awesome TED Talk by Susan Cain on The Power of Introverts:

Sorry no music this week.

National economic hardship? Let social media come to the rescue: The Official Kickstarter Page for Greece. (No, it’s not really).

Seth Godin: Ashamed to Not Know and the Mathematical Impossibility of Universal Delight.

Libby Anne: Who are the Real Babies? House-Proofing and Modesty. Awesome article on the expectation that children can control their urges but adult men can’t. (via Fred Clark)

Fred Clark: Daughter, Go In Peace. Simple, straightforward take on the whole contraceptive/religious freedom debate.

Libraries morphing into bookstores. This move makes a lot of sense to me.

The Commuters Odyssey.

John Van De Laar: Learning to Belong.

Larae Quy: How Leaders Can Create Self-Worth.

My friend, Leilani has started blogging – writing some amazing stuff, for example – Change.

Jeremy Smith: Lamenting an Open-Source Call to Action.

Becca Clark: Vital Signs and Flat Lines.

Productivity Porn: Reinventing the Office.

Tracy Simmons: Pastor Says Hospitality Staff Can’t Live by Bread Alone. Love this ministry idea.

Wil Wheaton: Things Every Person Should Have.

Dunbar’s Number vs. Facebook. An attempt to challenge the notion that the human brain can only maintain about 150 relationships (and how it might be time to clear our your friend feed).

100 Mac Apps to Consider.

Drink More Tea.

The more Americans go on food stamps, the more money JP Morgan makes.

Music Andrew Bird – from last night’s Colbert Report; still haven’t grabbed his new album, but I need to (fortunately I still have some $$ left on an iTunes gift card)…

Domino Project/Seth Godin: Who Decides What Gets Sold in the Bookstore? – the challenge of electronic media consolidation. Also from Godin: Perfect and Impossible.

Jennifer Simonson: Lines from The Princess Bride that double as comments on freshman composition papers.

Bridget Nelson: My Inner Helicopter Parent.

Paste Magazine: 90 Best Albums of the 1990s. As always is the problem with these types of lists I could debate some of the rankings – The Sundays and Sugar should be ranked higher, and the various Wilco albums a little lower, plus I don’t know enough about most of the the hip-hop albums to fairly critique them, but it is an interesting list to look over if you’re from my generation where this music mattered. Also from Paste: 12 Michigan Acts You Should Listen to Now.

40 Ideas for Keeping Lent Holy.

Tim King: Don’t Blame College for Young People Leaving the Church.

Dan Dick: Losers Focus on… Losing.

Fred Clark: Banks Behaving Badly.

Awesome geek-dad song from the band, The Board of Education, Why is Dad so Mad?

New music from Bruce out next week…

…are the ones that don’t get recorded.

 If you are familiar with the inner-workings of the United Methodist Church you might have have heard something about Vital Congregations. There has been a lot of debate and rumblings about the value of this effort – basically each week, congregations are asked to submit a report listing a few key numbers – worship attendance, professions of faith, number of people participating in small groups and missions, total offering, and total given to mission and ministry support.

 What struck me yesterday morning is that the really important numbers are the ones that don’t get (and often can’t be) recorded. The number of people in worship matters, but what would be a more interesting number to know is the number of people not in worship. It’s easy to celebrate the fact that 92 people were in worship last Sunday; it’s a little more sobering to remember that there were 3,395 other people living in a 3-mile radius of the church who were not in worship; or that there was room in the sanctuary for at least 48 more people to be in worship with us. In a similar fashion, what would it mean to measure the number of members not involved in a small group and not engaged in mission last week, which begs the follow-up question, why weren’t they actively engaged in some form of ministry?

 Is it possible that giving too much attention to the easy numbers of “who’s in” might just reinforce our problem of not remembering “who’s still out” there, and isn’t that where our attention really needs to be – focused on the one lost sheep and not the 99 who are already accounted for?

 Is the world still our parish, or has the parish become our world?