3-Day Walk Reflections November 10, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: breast cancer, cheer station, proud husband, race for the cure, raising money, rose, roses, save second base, stop the war in my rack, walk, walk for the cure
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Okay so I’m a super-proud husband. My wife just finished the Susan G Koman 3-day walk for the cure. I had the joy of going out to cheer stations and one pit stop to support her and cheer for the nearly 3000 men and women that raised a total of $7.5 million. I had a couple impressions:
- The cheer stations were a lot of fun. It’s one of the first times that I’ve been a part of cheering for something that wasn’t competitive. I was surprised how long I stayed, cheering long after my wife and church members had passed through…usually to the end.
- Every now and then, I’d see someone walking by with tears in their eyes. I can only imagine the thoughts, memories or worries that they carried with them. I’m sure that made every step harder and beautiful at the same time.
- This is more than a fundraising walk. It is a protest–a protest against death…a march of unity that helps us deal with the threat from a source we cannot yet contain.
- The joy and humor of the walk was incredible! It’s been a while since I’ve seen that many breast related jokes but I’m not complaining. Humor is a wonderful way to cope with our struggles and fears. Here are two of my favoite slogans: 1) Save Second Base and 2) Stop the war in my rack. Brilliant!
- Best moment (apart from seeing my wife succeed at something important to her and us): As the walkers processed into the closing ceremonies, two anonymous women handed pink roses to my daughters. I have to admit, I cried (manly tears, of course). What a powerful symbol for what these walkers were doing. Walking
today so that my daughters and their family will have the lifetime together that they deserve.
Thanks be to God for the volunteers who supported walkers, rubbed their feet, gave them candy and cheered them on!
Thanks be to God for the community that comes from a shared purpose and goal!
Thanks be to God for the walkers who march against death and walk on to hope!
New posts at Methomergent Lab May 9, 2009
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I’ve posted some blogs about online ordination and the role of laity in the UMC. Check it out at:
methomergentlab.wordpress.com
Duke Basketball and the NBA May 2, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: battier, duke, duke basketball, henderson, jerry stackhouse, mavericks, mutombo, nba, ncaa, playoffs, rasheed wallace, rockets, shavlik randolph, spurs, steve blake
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Recently I went to a Dallas Mavericks game and was confronted with a challenge.
Who do I root for?
I’ve never really been a fan of the NBA and only came to appreciate basketball through the glory that is Duke Basketball. So what do I do when I go to or watch a professional basketball game when I have no particular team loyalty?
I live in Dallas, but I don’t really feel beholden to the Mavericks. I grew up in New Jersey but never got excited about the NETS (plus they have that thug, Vince Carter, on their team). Here’s what I do know. 1) I love Duke Basketball and all things related to it AND 2) I hate UNC and all things related to their basketball program. So I came up with a point system to determine which team I should cheer for in any given situation. I’ve posted it on my blog for the 2 of you out there that actually care.
Teams with Duke Alumni get points:
+2 points for all Duke Alumni, +1 bonus point if the person played while I was at Duke, +4 bonus oints for Shane Battier because you can chant his name in a way that sort of rhymes with “who’s your daddy”
Teams with UNC Alumni lose points:
-1 point for all UNC alumni (note, my love for Duke is greater than my disdain for UNC), -1 additional penalty for Vince Carter on account of general thuggishness and -6 additionaly penalty for Rasheed Wallace for excessive thuggishness and jerkmanship…the opposite of sportsmanship
Special bonus: players from my NBA 2k9 Team
My friend David and I play 2k9 on our Xbox 360s and I’ve grown a general fondness for said players. They each give a +1 lift to their teams.
Putting it into play:
We’re in the midst of the NBA playoffs. Here’s how the system works:
Rockets vs Trailblazers…I root for the Rockets
Rockets 8 (Battier +6, Mutombo +1, +1 sympathy point because of Mutombo’s injury)
Trailblazers 1 (+2 for Shavlik Randolph, -1 because I can’t stand Steve Blake)
Mavericks & Spurs…I don’t care who wins
Mavericks 0 (-1 for Jerry Stackhouse, +1 for Gerald Green on NBA 2k9)
Spurs 0
Pistons vs Cavaliers…Go Cavs Go!
Pistons -7 (Rasheed Wallace…need I say more?)
Cavaliers (+1 Ben Wallace from my NBA 2k9 team)
So there you have it. My completely scientific and rational approach to the NBA. (I’m so glad 
that my Duke education is worth something)
PS – Henderson, stay at Duke. If you can’t score two buckets against Villanova, you’re not readyfor the NBA.
God, Country and Mavericks (the Dallas kind) April 29, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: america, christianity, dallas mavericks, disability, education, expensive hot dog, god and country, just war, killing, national anthem, new jersey, pacifism, public works, star spangled banner, war, welfare
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A couple weeks ago I went to a Dallas Mavericks game and was caught off guard by something the announcer said: “Please rise as we honor God and our country by singing the national anthem.” I wasn’t caught off guard by singing the national anthem before a sporting event. Professional sports in many ways embody many things central to American existence–competition, triumph and making a buck off anyone who will spend $6 on a hot dog. I was struck wondering, however, how does this event and especially singing the National Anthem honor God?
As I rose I quickly ran through the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner in my head. “Dawns early light…proudly hailing…land of the free, home of the brave.” Nope: no mention of God. Do we praise God in the song? Nope, we seem to “hail” a flag instead.
Maybe there are principles in the song that somehow glorify God? “Bombs bursting…rockets giving off red glare.” I find it hard to imagine that the God of the cross and the Prince of Peace feeling particularly honored by bombs bursting death upon God’s children. Even “Just War” theologians who believe that war is sometimes a necessary evil that Christians must adopt to rid the world of a greater evil do not think that such a thing could ever honor God. Killing in the midst of battle was allowed in certain situations, but it was something that called for repentance and forgiveness nonetheless.
I think far too often we assume that praising our country is something that God wants. While there are many things about our nation that I believe pleases God: Americorp, the Peace Corp, a Justice System that tries to be just, Welfare, Public Works, Disability Support, Women’s Rights, 
Anti-Racism laws, Universal Education, New Jersey. But those things are nto lifted up in the Star Spangled Banner. Our nations anthem is a war hymn. I’m not sure that I’m willing to assume that this song highlights the elements of our nation that I want to lift up to God with pride.
Susan Boyle and Lessons for Ministry April 16, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: britain's got talent, christianity, church, emergent, judging others, ministry, susan boyle, teenagers, youth ministry
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If you haven’t seen this yet, please run to YouTube (do not walk or click slowly because you need to see this lady)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
Read on if you’ve seen the clip from Britain’s Got Talent 2009.
I’m not gonna lie. This clip seriously brought tears to my eyes (don’t worry, they were manly tears). There is a huge lesson for us in ministry in this clip.
It’s easy to judge people based on how they look and how they act. If I’m honest with myself, I know that I do this sometimes with youth that I encounter in church or beyond. It’s easy after being in minstry for 10 years to start making assumptions about people and limit the list of people for whom we have great hopes.
I think, however, that every child of God has a beauty as immense as Susan Boyle’s. It may lie in a talent (like singing or art) or it may lie in capacity to love or conviction to care for others. Wherever it lies, it’s our duty as youth ministers and as Christians to dig up that beauty. When we do so, we see our students as God sees them and THAT makes all the difference. The people who have impacted my lives the most are the ones who have seen me the way that God sees me.
I pray that all of us in youth ministry and all of us in the church can remember that our youth groups, churches and neighborhoods are filled with Susan Boyles. Our task and calling is to see their beauty and look upon them as God would.
When I write, the clip has amassed 11,000,000 views in 4 days. Spectacular!
Palm Sunday Litany April 1, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: call to worship, church, emergent church, holy week, jesus, litany, palm sunday, palm sunday litany, palms
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I wrote this litany for Palm Sunday. I wanted to put something together that tied in Palm Sunday to the Eucharist. It looks like we won’t use it at my church. Perhaps you’d like to use it at yours!
___________________________________________________________________
Look to us, Lord. Look beyond the palms, beyond the pretense and into our souls.
We are hungry.
We realize the brokenness of our economy and value the opportunity to work more now than ever. We hunger for work and purpose.
We are hungry.
We live in a broken world in which the few have too much and the many have too little. We hunger for justice.
We are hungry.
We’ve built broken communities in which we far too often do not know the person down the street or down the pew. We hunger for communion.
We are hungry.
We see broken governments that rise against one another, killing soldiers and those caught in the middle. We hunger for peace.
We are hungry.
We have broken homes whose peace is shattered by domestic violence but no one hears the sound. We hunger for freedom.
We are hungry.
We live always in the shadow of death. Disease and disaster remind us of life’s frailty. We hunger for resurrection.
We are hungry.
We experience a broken kingdom and sometimes wonder where, God, you are. So we wave our Palms, shout out ‘Hosanna’ and ‘Messiah’ to the last, great hope for the world, knowing that somehow in this holy mystery, only a broken god can offer hope and transformation to a broken world. Christ our Passover is coming for us.
Let us keep the feast.
Ash Wednesday Cross to Bear February 26, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: ash wednesday, ashes, children, death, emergent, imposition, lent, minister, mortality, priest, worship
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I’m not gonna’ lie. I hate Ash Wednesday. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the most painful 
things that I have to do as a minister.
I stand in front of people I love, smear the burnt remains of a joyous day and tell them that they are going to die. One by one, I remind them of their own mortality. It’s a strange thing to see their reactions. Some cry. Some look solemn. Some say ‘Amen.’ Some say ‘thank you,’ which I don’t understand but I do respect. I’m constantly at the edge of tears as I perform my macabre act.
People that I work with.
Students from my youth group.
children
But the part that really slays me…the part where I just about walk away: putting ashes on the
foreheards of my wife, my kids. I looked with fear when i saw them step into the aisle, praying they’d end up at someone else’s rail. God ordained, it seems, otherwise. I put ashes on my wife, my soulmate. My hands shook as I put ashes on my youngest daughter who so narrowly avoided death at her birth.
Today I put ashes on the forehead of my three-week old son. After several tries through the tears and emotion, I told him, ‘from dust you came and to dust you will return.’ I know what it is to have a child at a hair’s breadth from death. To tell my son…to tell myself…that this incredible gift who just entered the world will one day depart it. *That* was too much for me. A congregation member who was next in the line put a comforting hand on my arm. That may have been the one thing that allowed me to keep going in my priestly duty. And I’m glad that she did.
As much as I detest Ash Wednesday, I make sure not to miss it. I know that I need it. I need the reminder of the enemy of death. I need the reminder that it’s important to observe a holy lent because getting close to God is important NOW. We never know when this frail, beautiful life will end. I need Ash Wednesday because the more opportunities I have to face death just might help me to deal with my mortality when I face it.
Of course there is an ironic hope to what we clergy do on Ash Wednesday. In the very same moment in which I proclaim someone’s death and smear the remains of that which one was alive on their foreheads, I also make the sign of the cross–that which overcomes the power of death and the grave. Within the reminder of death we are also reminded of how we have overcome it. Thanks be to God.
May we all observe a holy lent and grow closer to our God and Redeemer.
I think he might be serious… January 30, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: appointment, baby bishop, bishop lowry, central texas conference, creative, emergent, emerging, good old boy, umc, united methodist church
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In the grand scheme of things, I haven’t been in ministry that long. I have, however, been in appointive ministry long enough to hear two baby bishops make grand promises about a change in the way appointments are made–an end to systems that ensure pastors climb the ladder…and end to appointments that take salary into account yadda yadda. I’ve heard two new bishops make promises to lead the appointment system the way we all know is *should* be instead of the way it always has been. Both times, I was disappointed.
Somehow, I have hope this time. Bishop Lowry has issued his own little manifesto for the Central Texas Conference of the UMC. I no longer serve in that conference, but did several years ago and felt that it was two generations away from anything that could be fixed.
Then Lowry comes in and actually says the stuff that pastors (until he came around) got into all sorts of trouble from the cabinet for saying. He starts to discuss controversial issues (in the Annual Conference that tables indefinitely ANY slightly controversial resolutions). He challenged the Board of Trustees at Texas Wesleyan to start acting like a religious school (the mere fact that he showed up for a Trustee meeting was revolutionary as the previous two bishops never did). He challenged the status quo which, it seems, is what Central Texas Conference was all about. And now he does this:
He declares war on the good ole boy network and he did it in a way that was authentic, honest and confessing. He laid it all out there–including the known vacancies for appointments–and encouraged pastors to contact their DS if they felt called to one of the positions.
It looks like there might be a Maverick in town to clean up the cowboys (and hopefully let a couple Cowgirls into the saloon). I’m praying for his efforts and God’s success.
Intimacy in Church January 25, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: cahones, dallas, ed young, emergent, emerging, fellowship, intimacy, points, scale of judgment, seven days of sex, sex, united methodist church
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A couple months ago, the pastor of the Fellowship Churches (Ed Young) in our area received national publicity for challenging his married congregation members to have sex every day for a week to increase the intimacy within marriages. Pastors and laypeople all over the Dallas area responded with laughter or disgust to the challenge.
In the spirit of judgment and competition that are incredibly healthy fodder for true conversation, I’ve decided to award some points.
+10 cahones points for showing some “cahones” (not showing his cahones…that would have been super negative points) and talking about sex in church. Sex is an important thing for Christianity. Every other chapter in the Bible has someone having sex with someone else they should or should not (usually it’s should not) have been gettin’ it on with. The Bible is sexy…our churches should be too. (grand total: 10)
+2 clever points Young preached the sermon while lounging on a bed. (grand total: 12)
-2 clever points The bed had satin sheets. You can sometimes get a little too clever and spend way too much money on a gimmick that could have been used to feed about 100 guys at Austin St shelter for a week. (total: 10)
-10 gimmick points Ed Young acknowledged in the Dallas Morning News that this was done, in part, to pick up publicity. Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. It’s one thing to do something in the hope that it will get noticed and impact the world, but you should NEVER do something just to get publicity! It’s crap like that that destroys the church’s credibility (and if you do do something for publicity, you really shouldn’t say that to the press) (total: 0)
+7 breaking expectations points Most people think that the church is against sex or that the church thinks sex is bad. Young did a good job helping his church and many others to see that the church isn’t against sex. Sex is one of God’s greatest gifts! The very first commandment that God issues to creation is to have sex (okay…the actual quote is “be fruitful and multiply,” but if you think about it for 1.2 seconds, it’s a command to have sex). (total: 7)
-4 should have done more points At the end of the day, I’m not sure that Ed Young really took the message far enough. As my senior pastor said it, “dogs can have sex every day for a week–that doesn’t make them more intimate.” Intimacy is far more than sex. While Young alluded to this, I think THAT should’ve been the thrust of his series. Intimacy takes far more than sex. (total: 3)
-.5 it makes me nervous points I have not been able to watch the ENTIRETY of what was said around the worship services on the 7 days of sex challenge. I hope and pray that SOMEWHERE in there, he told his congregation that marriage is not a blank check for sex whenever one member of the couple wants it. That understanding of marriage is dangerous and illegal. It is possible for a spouse to rape a spouse. Sex must always be consensual and desired by both parts of a couple. I would give this a LOT more negative points if I knew he said that marriage means being willing to have sex all the time and I would give a LOT more positive points if I knew he talked about this. Anyone out there know? (total:2.5)
So there it is: 2.5 points to Ed Young for his seven days of sex challenge. Is this a good score? I’m not sure. The scale is virginal and arbitrary. Time will tell if 2.5 is a good score on my SCALE OF JUDGMENT (said in scary voice)
Right now our church is doing a series on intimacy. I’ll post some more about it as time goes on.
Peace!
Get your FREAK and / or GEEK on January 21, 2009
Posted by ireverant in Uncategorized.Tags: awesome job, disciples, freaks, freaks and geeks, freaks n geeks, jesus, john the baptist, locust, television, umc, youth group, youth minister
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I had the best afternoon at work today. I watched three hours of Freaks n Geeks episodes and wrote discussion questions to go with the episodes. THAT’s how awesome my job is!
For those of you who don’t know, Freaks n Geeks was an AMAZING show that ran at the turn of the millenia. It was one of the first things I ever saw that revealed high school as it truly is…for the outcasts. Our youth group has been watching episodes on Sunday nights and then talking about it afterwards. It’s been a great, low-key study that gets people to talk about what they actually experience in school and at home. Here’s the biggest reason I show it to my youth group:
Jesus spent most of his times with the freaks and / or geeks of his time. We talk about how Jesus 
hung out with the “wrong crowd”, but I don’t think we acknowledge very often just what a bunch of freaks Jesus spent time with! Zealot = freak. Boanerges = cool name, but still pretty freaky. the bickering brothers = freak. John the Baptist = total raging lunatic freak! Camel hair?! Do you know how disgusting that probably was? Don’t tell me that eating locusts was any better of an idea then than it is now!
If we want to see what Jesus could do in this world, we need to spend time with the freaks and geeks of our time. My church is in Plano, TX. Everything in our
surrounding culture tells teens to NOT stick out in any way. Freaks and Geeks can be used in subvert this culture and replace it with some gospel ideals. I’ve noticed that there are two big themes that run through our discussions:
- Should Lindsay (a “good kid”…like most of our youth group) spend time with the “freaks” of her school even though they do things that “good kids” shouldn’t do?
- Can I embrace my inner freak and / or geek?
I hope that, by the end of the series, most of our youth group will answer “yes” to both questions.
If you haven’t seen FREAKS and GEEKS, rent it or buy it. Also, if you want to see some possible discussion questions, leave a comment and I’ll send a copy to you.
