Once again church had a slight feeling of artificiality to it yesterday. Even though it was “good”, I kept getting this anguished feeling in my guts that we’re putting on a show, that we were presenting something from the front, that we were the production and they were the audience. I’m sure many there didn’t feel that way. And maybe I have issues. No, surely I do. I know you know.I just get so tired and suspicious of organized Christianity... Read more
This is a picture of my daughter smelling a rose. Casile manipulated the photo herself. I think it is beautiful and shows talent. We miss the simple beauty. We neglect the finer things. We don’t stop and smell the roses because we don’t even notice the roses.I’m continuing my read of the fascinating collection of essays by the essayist and farmer Wendell Berry called Citizenship Papers. Here’s a paragraph: Last summer my granddaughter, Virginia, who was eleven, put in some... Read more
Lisa and I went to the grocery store this morning. Here’s a conversation I had with someone we met there: Him: “Hi! I know I said I was going to come to your church. But I went and tried XYZ church, and I really like it. It’s nice and big!” Me: “It is nice and big!” Him: “Well, it’s just so… big. I liked it.” Me: “Good. I’m glad you found somewhere you like.” Him: “Oh, well. I like your... Read more
Welcome to another contribution to my “split segments”… posts that have to do with the church split which I went through 10 years ago. It’s also a little meditative commentary on the cartoon below. People’s actions speak louder than words. I’m convinced that there are few Christians who actually want to split a church. I mean consciously. Christians want to believe they are good people. Christians want to be sincere. So they will never say to you, “If you don’t... Read more
I wanna rant! I need to say something right here right now. Just the thought of having to sit in a meeting to talk about what we OUGHT to do, SHOULD do, or MUST do, just makes me want to hurl. Just the thought of sitting listening to someone reiterate the vision and try to fire me up to follow it makes me want to quit even before I join. I absolutely love the saying of Jesus, “Come to me... Read more
I want to clarify something I wrote yesterday. When I said I don’t like what I do, etc., I wasn’t referring to the different things I am involved in. I should’ve written, “I don’t like how I’m doing it!” Some people got from that post that I wanted to chuck in everything, leave pastoring, and do something else. I was hoping that the analogy of Frank Gehry would be applied: he was an architect before, but he did things he... Read more
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