Quote of the Day

Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right.
- Kurt Herbert Alder

I don't think this is quite accurate, but traditions do need to be understood in the context they were formed, and then viewed through the lens of the contemporary society to see how it might need to be changed to be "done right"

Peace,

Thanks for Watching

For the two readers who remain watching this blog - I appreciate your support. Please know, it isn't you, it's me.

I just don't know what to share anymore. I am pressed for time. I have so many good projects going on. I am trying to reinvigorate a church - they are already what I would call "vitalized" so I am trying to add some vigor...imagine taking warm water and pushing it to boiling. I am raising my child, and trying to be a good husband to my wife, and the mother of my child. I am organizing my sermons plans for the coming three years, as well as the worship content that can be expanded and explored along with it.

I still plan to blog as I find the need to outlet by way of journaling from time to time, and have some thoughts that just express well. I realize that in failing to blog "regularly" (daily, weekly or even habitually) I am just going to lose readership. I am willing to take that risk. I was never blogging for the readership, though it has made my day on occasion to see the kinds of remarks I gather. I put stuff here to hold a place for my thoughts and to generate ideas in the collective hive mind.

May God bless you if you venture off from here never to return. Should you decide to check in every now and then, or keep me on your blogroll, well, I am grateful that you have decided to keep the conversation going with me. Thank you.

More from Mikey

Mikey's Funnies offered this today

BIG GOD

One day on the way home from church a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me."

The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?

The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?"

"Yes, that's true," the mother replied.

"He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?"

Again the mother replied, "Yes."

"Well," said the girl. "If God is bigger than us and he lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"

Stupid Sports

Someone made a comment in something I paid attention to for a brief moment earlier today. I was watching Bones, and there was a questions asked by Hodgins whether the best Islamic team would beat the best Christian team. It followed a question about Celtics and Lakers, so I went to the basketball world immediately.

It got me thinking about whether a team made up of Christians or Muslims might have the advantage in a basketball all-star game. I immediately came up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Chris Jackson, and figured off-hand that Sharif Abdur-Rahim might fit the bill too.

Using Wikipedia and some other resources I came up with the following:

Muslim Team

NBA

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Converted to Islam from Catholicism in 1971.
• Tariq Abdul-Wahad - Former French player, and formerly name was Olivier Saint-Jean (converted in 1997)
• Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf - Former player for Denver Nuggets (converted in 1991, formerly Chris Jackson)
• Shareef Abdur-Rahim - Retired player, named NBA All-Star in 2001-02 season
• Larry Johnson - Retired player, played for the Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks
• Nazr Mohammed - Player for the Charlotte Bobcats, devout Muslim
• Mehmet Okur - Turkish player of the Utah Jazz
• Shaquille O'Neal - Player for the Phoenix Suns, also a rapper and actor
• Hakeem Olajuwon - retired Houston Rockets
• Rasheed Wallace - Center/power forward of the Detroit Pistons
• Baron Davis - Player for the LA Clippers
• Hidayet Türkoğlu - Turkish player for the Orlando Magic
• Rajon Rondo - Player for the Boston Celtics
• Jamaal Wilkes - LA Lakers

• Alaa Abdelnaby - retired Houston Rockets

Christian Team

NBA

• Dwight Howard - Orlando Magic
• David Robinson - San Antonio Spurs
• A.C. Green - LA Lakers
• Bobby Jones - Philadelphia 76ers
• Avery Johnson - Spurs
• Allan Houston - Knicks
• Michael Redd - Milwaukee Bucks
• Chris Paul - New Orleans
• David Thompson - Denver Nuggets
• Mark Price - Cleveland Cavaliers
• Charlie Ward - Knicks
• Luke Ridnour - Milwaukee Bucks
• Hubert Davis - Knicks
• Lenny Wilkens - Cleveland Cavaliers

Not sure who I give the nod to. Looks like the Islamic Community the edge at Center, though Howard and Robinson can hold their own and have the awards to prove it. PG lends the lead to Chris Paul, though the Muslim players have the depth to compete. Shooting guard, with Redd and Houston, as well as Mark Price gets the lead to the Christian team. I must give a clear assertion that Jamaal Wilkes, and Hedo definitely show some real strength. Power Forward goes to the Muslim players with the likes of Wallace, and Hakeem Olajuwon. Which brings the whole shooting match down to Small Forward with the players I have listed. Alaa Abdelnaby and Abdur-Rahim, with Larry Johnson stand up against Bobby Jones and AC Green. Bobby Jones is as great as they come, and AC Green had longevity that the others cannot even approach. Depth goes the other way - although Abdelnaby was less than stellar. Player/Coach Lenny Wilkens give the Christian players a definite edge, although Kareem is showing himself to be quite adept at the coaching side too.

In the end I say it goes to overtime, and the fitness of the Centers, on the Christian team, wins out. 120-115OT

Peace,

Innovation

My dear child, the Bug, has decided to fuse two of the great fads of my time. Wearing clocks and Grillz.

She has taken to eating my wife's watch.

This creates a Grillz effect that bears the front teeth, with a watch face for all to view. I dare say this is far more effective than Flava Flav's pairing of the two.

Laggy

As you may have noticed with the lag in posts I am feeling a little slow and sluggish.

This one is a bit different from the kinds of depression I have had in the past, but it does not preclude the possibility that this is the front end of such a depression. I share this not for an outcry of help, but to name it for myself.

Then again, it is October and I know that I regularly have a slump in October. Sometimes this has to do with a more drastic change in daylight, or the onset of winter pollens/allergies. Sometimes it has to do with making it through the summer, and now into a fall let-down.

There is just so much that happens in the summer. And now I find myself just having to get through piece by piece. The initial rush of starting a new church is now settling into the routines, and the schedules, and trying to slog through the things that could not be gotten through quickly and easily, even in the honeymoon period.

So, I guess it is time to find the next good project and to follow my brain, which craves interaction and stimulation - which means as one friend put it "CEUs" and being challenged with new thoughts and possibilities.

Peace,

From Mikey

'Cause I got nuthin'

http://www.mikeysFunnies.com/

FAMILY TREE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH

His dizzy aunt ----------------------------------------------- Verti Gogh
The brother who ate prunes------------------------------------ Gotta Gogh
The brother who worked at a convenience store --------------- Stop N Gogh
The grandfather from Yugoslavia ---------------------------------- U Gogh
His magician uncle ------------------------------------- Where-diddy Gogh
The nephew who drove a stage coach ----------------------- Wells-far Gogh
The constipated uncle ---------------------------------------- Can't Gogh
The ballroom dancing aunt ------------------------------------- Tang Gogh
The bird lover uncle ---------------------------------------- Flamin Gogh
The fruit-loving cousin ---------------------------------------- Man Gogh
An aunt who taught positive thinking ------------------------ Way-to-Gogh
The little bouncy nephew --------------------------------------- Poe Gogh
A sister who loved disco ---------------------------------------- Go Gogh
And his niece who travels the country in an RV ---------- Winnie Bay Gogh

Men +1

Off to the Men's Fellowship Group at St. Andrew UMC for breakfast this morning. I am taking my daughter, so in one sense she represents the +1 in the title.

For years this group has focused on fellowship. I have no complaint with fellowship, as there is much that can happen by way of fellowship. In this particular instance, I want fellowship to be helping people more explicitly direct their walk with Jesus Christ.

To this end, I am excited because one of the best ways to get to know the people of the Men's Fellowship is to hear the story of faith that each of them brings. Very rarely do men have this type of forum to gather and share so deeply.

I have been thankful for my years in the Men's Fellowship at Bishop FUMC. They decided along the way to become a Chartered United Methodist Men's Group. The thing is that they focused on a Book study - scripture, tradition, and reason. The bulk of time though was directed to Experience. These men could relate, and they could lay out their own faith and its struggles more clearly working with other materials.

My hope is that our Testimony time with Men's Breakfast will continue to grow. I am grateful to Carl Gerber for introducing this method of fellowship to me. It works. I use the title Men +1, to echo Carl's sentiment, that there is always room for one more.

Men's Breakfast is the First Saturday of each month. The cost is per your sense of donation, and breakfast usually lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Youth Group

The Youth Group at St. Andrew UMC in Santa Maria is making a comeback.

This Sunday at 5PM, until 6:30PM, local youth are invited to St. Andrew UMC, in the Youth area (the far side of the building, across from the Sanctuary) for a selection from Combos, Vol. 2 on "God Man".

We will be discussing Jesus and both God and Man, fully Human, fully Divine.

I look forward to seeing you there, as I begin leading this series, and using it as a time to train adults and youth about leading this amazing gathering for our Youth in Orcutt and Santa Maria.

And The Disciples were Concerned about Exorcists?

This from ASBO Jesus

Sermon Notes 9/27

I spoke yesterday on the passage in Mark 9:38-50. In many ways it is the most challenging passage in scripture for me. The great millstone to be hung around my neck should I lead any of the "little ones" astray. I spoke about how when I took things literally, it was very obvious just to give folks a cup of water. I told them by giving them water I had assured my reward in heaven (or been additionally blessed depending on your reading) - cause that's what it says. I then got to talking about how people really weren't taking the whole scripture literally, they were merely taking it literally as they chose. The evidence was a plain as the hand before my face. No one I knew was walking around maimed from having cut off hand, arm or eye or some other body part because it caused them to sin. I reminded them that the scriptures also tell us something deeper. The surface may be easy, but it does get harder. In that way I spoke about the passage where Jesus tells the Disciples it isn't what goes into the mouth that causes us to be unclean, but what comes out for it comes from the heart. And so it is with all sin, that it comes from our hearts and our minds. Our body parts don't cause us to sin. But, if I carry the logic out then I must cut my heart and mind out. Paul even tells us to have our hearts circumcised. We are given several commandments - the Great Commandment, and the others: to baptize, to teach them to obey, to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to care for those in prison. Water was a sign of hospitality, as are the commandments, they bring us back to community. We are not to run off those that do not do things our way, even if they are sinners to us (and yes I included adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, liars and the like by name, as well as running a denominational list before them), because Christ has called them to do things in his name as well. As long as they are doing so, they are not against us, but for us. So, if you want to take things literally, begin by giving some water.

Literally

I was once one of those who took the Bible literally. Pretty quickly I realized that I could not do so with any amount of integrity. I found passages that contradicted each other, and so I could justify those that directly override another passage, but then I get left with those that just plain contradict each other. (oh, gee, really, some of you want examples - sure now you throw that at me [sarcasm] I may have to come up with those for you)

But at the end of the day it was the passage from Mark 9 that talks about if your hand causes you to sin, or your leg, or your eye, then you need to remove it. Quite simply, "THAT SUCKS!" I would be a totally blind, crippled, eviscerated person by now - well, I would be quite dead by any measure.

I had to think more seriously about taking things literally. I still learn and think there is something to the surface presented, but that the power of Scripture (The Bible) is in fact that it comes together as an entire document, and find depth in each passage.

Happy reading!

Slacking

Maybe you have noticed that most of my blogs of late would qualify as Tweets in Twitter as well. I could take the cut and paste pieces and just add the shortened URL to the post.

I still want to add content. I know of one friend who reads this blog from time to time that he has deviated from his blog content, but that his tweet rate has gone way up. The thing of it is that those tweets are not as much original content as retweets and the like.

I wonder how much to tweet - and tend to keep it about three a day (though I have started to add in about 3 Retweets per day now too). And I wonder what that means for the content of this blog.

I have contemplated the change before, and wonder what it would mean. I started out with a bit of the "Doogie Howser" in me, where I wanted to quantify and qualify each day with some sort of thought that summarized things for me. I quickly remembered why I did not get into writing screenplay or for TV. I don't have that kind of pithy commentary. Nor do I necessarily have the drive to write in earnest every day, let alone the time every day to do so.

And, so I return to the old conundrum of what to write and why. I suspect that it will be a conflagration as it always has been, of posts about what is working in the church, what causes me to stumble, sermon notes and ponderings, foodie items, daily musings, and stuff that just catches my attention for one reason or another.

You see, ultimately, it is Doogie Howser at work as it is a journal of my life. I do not write the pithy comments, or the beautiful prose of others. I don't spend the time to really work my writing over here. I express my self at the moment it occurs to me to do so. I am trying to discipline myself to write, something, anything, even if it is someone else's work, everyday, so that I can come back and follow the trajectory of my life.

I concede that this is self-serving, as so many have labelled blogging to be. I write about my life. I don't tend to focus on anything necessarily external, like my cat, my wife or my child, let alone the community I serve, but about my history for the day.

In that way I suppose I am creating a bible of my own. It is my story of my relationship with God and my fellow human beings, the creation around me and how it all ebbs and flows from one element to the next. I pull from those sources in my context that are prevalent, and occasionally appropriate them for my use, and my understanding, recognizing that for someone else they may not be the same, and may even be quite different in meaning.

I appreciate those of you that bother to come around. I appreciate your silent and spoken support. It is for this reason that I blog. I know that I need community, and I do express my self more clearly and more cleanly in this medium. I hope that from time to time you experience some benefit from my musings, my culled quotes, and even some stuff you have probably already read elsewhere, or will read later by someone who is able to write more cleanly and clearly.

Peace,

The Most Important Thing I Could Say

...belongs to someone else.

I share it anyway.

An Open Invitation to the People of the United Methodist Church

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the center of our Faith and that all of life flows from life in him…

If you believe that what unites us in Jesus Christ is greater than any difference that may separate us…

If you believe that we as Christ-followers need to recapture the gift of Christian Conversation…

If you believe that the Holy Scripture is best understood in light of the life, teaching death and resurrection of Jesus…

If you believe that we are better together than we are apart…that our strength is in unity not in schism…

If you believe that resurrection is stronger than death, that hope is greater than fear…

If you are tired of the endless arguing about who is in and who is out, who’s acceptable and who’s not…

If you would like to have a conversation about what’s right with the United Methodist Church…

I invite you to a conversation about the matters of our hearts and the desires of our faith…

I invite you to a conversation where we discover those places of vitality and strength…

Thought you ought to know

Some pieces that caught my attention today.

I do love my Coldstone Ice Cream

I also love my Social Media.

I might want to do something good and productive with each.

Giving to Make-a-Wish Foundation and making the Social Media Connections work better makes good sense to me. Check the links for details

Guaranteed Appointment

I have a friend on the United Methodist denomination wide study committee on ministry. As we continue into the 21st century, [they] are evaluating certain practices. [They] hope [I] would be able to answer a couple of questions, as [they] deeply value [my] opinion:

The two questions are:

1. What is your opinion of the guaranteed appointment as the United Methodist now practices with the itinerant clergy (the clergy agree to go where the bishop sends us, the bishop guarantees the clergy a job). Would you favor keeping it or not? As much detail and perspective that you can give would be most helpful.

2. If the guaranteed appointment is eliminated, and if non-seminary trained local pastors are ordained, what would be the motivation for a candidate for ministry to pursue a seminary education (and accumulate a large amount of debt)? Recent statistics suggest that almost half of new candidates for ministry are on the local pastor track (which currently means they are not ordained).

My response:

1. My opinion of the guaranteed appointment as the United Methodist Church now practices with itinerant clergy is that we are not doing any favors to our churches, our pastors, or the Gospel. By limiting risk, and rewarding complacency (don't rock the boat) we are not creating enough discomfort in our congregations and for our clergy to effectively risk and challenge and change. I am reminded of several passages in the epistles where the Apostles have gone out and appropriated what was before, in the culture, or in the historical record of Israel and made it work differently for the immediate context they live. Jesus does this as well, accepting the discomfort internally, while creating discomfort for the people. [Luke 4:14-30] I am in favor of guaranteed appointments, with a broader understanding of the purpose of the appointment, to train leaders, to administer the Sacraments, and to serve more churches (in the style of our Circuit Riders - entire regions of several states, etc, not our Current Circuits that encompass no more than 7 churches [that was the largest circuit I heard anyone serving]) I also believe that we do not do enough oversight of our clergy as provided for in the Discipline for evaluation and removal from ministry. If we were to do the work required for oversight as presented in the Discipline I think we would not have the same issues. Paragraphs 331.5-6 (deacons) and 334.4 (elders)

2. I know the expected debt load of incoming clergy is beyond what the expected income is. This should be better rectified, with a more strenuous examination prior to entering seminary, including service in the local church. It might be that the Board of Ordained Ministry would spend time culling from the ranks of the enhanced leadership of the Local Pastors those who would be a good fit for seminary. I applaud the efforts of our local pastors, and know them to do outstanding work. I think that setting seminary trained persons as guides and trainers for service would only serve to enhance that model, as well as allow for greater lay empowerment through the entire process.

I apologize if I have been anywhere unclear in my thoughts, and I would be happy to follow up as best I can.