If you are going to ride on the road, please follow the rules of the road. I applaud your wanting to save money and the planet, but I am saddened by your lack of common sense. This includes your failure to stop at stop signals and instead blow through them, not being aware of the cars around you, and your failure to signal your turns. Also, if you are riding on the sidewalks, please know that the rules of pedestrians apply to you then. Don’t just be on the road and then off the road. Choose one and go with it! Oh, and also please wear a helmet, fool.
A friend of mine here on the blogosphere and in Tweetsville (twitter) made me think today. His name is Tyler. He is the “Man of Depravity” and he lives in Portland (my third favorite city on the west coast). He posed the idea of the Christian bubble. The Christian bubble is the seperation of the sacred and the secular in our lives. We see it all the time when christians go to christian stores to buy christian albums or christian books of christian artists written specifically for christians. This is the bubble that we live in. We live in it and when we do, we lose touch of the world outside of it.
When I was going to Trinity Western University, I saw this bubble first hand. I would drive on campus and see all of these students who knew each other, took classes together, had bible studies together, went to games together, and went to chapel and church together. The students were all stuck in the trinity bubble together, but had no need or even want to get out.
I saw this happening in my life. It’s hard not to when you work in a church. I wanted to get away from the bubble. I wanted to have “normal” conversations. I say normal because christianity is such a sub culture that we speak a whole different language. I wanted to converse with my friends who spoke with a native tongue that I once spoke before I met Jesus.
I got a part time job outside of the church. I did this for two reasons. 1) we needed money and 2) if I taught guitar lessons part time instead, my only clients were going to be references from churches. and so I donned the green apron and began pushing caramel machiatos to the masses. This is the idea of the bi vocational pastor. Though I do not hold the title pastor, I do work inside of a church and am therefore thrusted into the bubble.
I think the bubble is a sad place to be at times. Non Christians (NC) are uncomfortable being there and Christians try to be hospitable but their language and culture is so foreign that the NC’s feel even more awkward. Another thing is I feel that the Christians sometimes feel that their job is to make sure that the NC’s must leave having made some sort of progress toward becoming a Christ follower. This is just wrong. Now they are a project not a friend.
But if the Christian has lived in the bubble for so long, they may have nothing to talk about. They have seperated themselves from the culture. They couldn’t talk about things that may matter to modern day culture. again, awkward conversation. The bubble must be popped.
Now I am not saying to join the culture and abandon all that matters to you. What I am saying is that if we are to pop the bubble, we must no what matters outside of the bubble. Have an opinion but don’t think that it is the only one that matters because God is on your side (this drives me bonkers when Xtians pull this one out).
Am I the Grinch who stole Christmas carols? I had some people ask me to do Christmas carols during our worship at Roosevelt Community Church. As a staff member of a church that practices and obeserves the Advent season, this brought up a few Questions for me:
What is the true job of the ministers of the church?
Is the true reason to appease the congregation? Should we say “give them what they want”, or should we liken our job as ministers to teach what, how and why we believe as Christ followers? As a staff member of a church which follows the church calendar, only to find themselves in the middle of Advent, then I believe this is a great teaching moment. What if we taught the idea of patience in the midst of the season of antcipation. otherwise, to put it semi-crudely, we experience the climax without the foreplay. It’s just straight to the money shot and we don’t realize what had happened in between it all.
As an artist, what am I to do?
Do I simply go with the congregation, or do I challenge them to think? Is that not the purpose of the worship leader – to help people think, see, and experience Jesus in different ways? Maybe we need to push people outside of their comfort zones. Instead of singing the familiar tunes of “Angels We Have Heard on High”, we challenge people in experiencing the anticipation through the ideas of “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”.
What tears me apart as an artist is I want to challenge people, but on the other hand I have to think about the feelings of the congregation. So what can I do? Do I feel like a sell out, or keep the integrity of the season? I opt for the later, myself. Which draws another question:
Why couldn’t there be more accesible ways of explaining the Advent season?
Really, in teh singing world, you are stuck with a handful of songs that describe teh Advent season…about three I believe – the two more recognizable being “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”. After those two you need to be creative. I’ve written an Advent specific song that we share as a congregation, and have allowed artists to share in teh past through visual arts of painting. I wonder if, you who are reading this, you have any ideas? If so, please let me know.
I would say that I am the farthest from being grinchy. I start my Corporate Christmas ways on November 1st. I listen to music and tour around Target looking at the lights and decorations that have been made by children and prisoners from foreign countries (that’s a topic for a whole other post). I just want to teach my congregation just a little bit of restraint. I want to have one place where they can reflect and not be sucked into what they are hearing outside of the walls of our little church. Somewhere where they can learn a little more about their faith. Call me crazy, but that just might be what the church service was designed to be.
Starbucks announced that they will give money this holiday season to the (red) campaign. Seriously, didn’t this happen already? Isn’t everybody done with the (red) campaign? Of course, it’s a good thing, as St. Arbucks will donate .05 cents from every holiday trio sold (Gingersnap Latte, Peppermint Twist Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte), but what if instead they said they will donate all procedes from the holiday trio sold on one day? I am sure more people would be on board for this. Maybe Uncle Howie should have been on board two years ago when the (red) campaign was relevant.
or did McCain come off a little snarky last night? That’s right, I said snarky. To tell you the truth, it was a bit of a turn off. Now I know that Obama had his times of side comments, but I felt that McCain was really overdoing it.
just another reason I’m not going to vote for “that one over there”, and by “that one…” I mean McCain.
Here is a positive though: For a drinking game, someone can watch the debate and drink everytime McCain says “My friends…” or mentions Ronald Reagan, or when Obama says “rather I say out loud…”.
Something that really frustrates me in the church world is the importance of numbers. Case in point: in the past two days, I’ve talked to people who went to the church that I used to lead worship at. Both people asked me where I’ve been, to which I replied that am leading at Roosevelt Community Church. First question out of both of their mouths (at different times of course) was “How are the numbers?” Augh! it’s so frustrating! Something that our culture has taught hte world is that numbers = success. But what about numbers says that your church is successful? We continue to live the lie that we have been taught that says that the more butts in the pews (or seats) that you have means that you are making a big impact.
My question is this – What about attendance says success? Is it really the number of people that dictates how well you are doing? Another idea: is it the purpose of the church to be successful? Is it our goal to have thousands of people coming to the church? How does this measure the impact on the kingdom?
Maybe it’s not the idea of the successful church but instead it is the idea of the thriving church. Maybe it’s the idea of what you do with the numbers as opposed to just having them come to your church. It reminds me of the parable of the talents. When given many, if you stay within the walls, you will answer for it. But I wonder if it is bigger than we all could imagine. Imagine if you took the biggest churches in your town and began quarterly service projects. Service projects where they get no recognition and nobody wears shirts or hats with church names on it. Imagine if this was a regular thing.
I guess I just get angry at teh numbers game. It’s basically a pissing contest between people who are a part of the same body of Christ. Why do we divide ourselves over something as stupid as numbers? I once went to a service at a rehabilitation center and a guy who was there was telling us how he goes to the big church up the street and that they have over 3000 peopel and 5 services. How is Jesus moving in the church? That’s the question. Luckily I know that Jesus is doing incredible things there, but what are they teaching this guy who lives in the rehab center? Who is visiting him? Has he created an idol in his head over the size of the church? Does he realize that we are all God’s children and that it’s not just the church we go to that determines us christians?
This summer has been kind of sad for me. For the previous four years, I had been working at Ray of Hope – a summer day camp for kids who had been through various forms of physical and emotional abuse, are socially awkward, or just plain forgotten or given up on. I really miss it. My job was to give a summer filled with fun for the kids who otherwise would be stuck at home in not so ideal conditions or in front of a television alone. It was one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had. I see kids once in a walking past starbucks. That rules. I just really miss having fun with the kids. Giving them a summer was one of the best things I could do.
One of the hardest parts of having a kid is naming them. You want the name to be strong and meaningful. The problem with this is that you start thinking up names that don’t exist or you start going to trendy names. That’s lame. Everybody is naming thier kids such wierd names like that name for food and numbers! Even worse, my last name is Pai (sounds like Pie). Growing up, I’ve heard all the names (apple, pumpkin, blackberry, etc), and so now we have to take even more consideration into normal names.
Case in point, Cynthia and I really liked the name Calvin. It’s not a theological thing or even the other half of Hobbes. We just liked the name. Problem: Cal is short for Calvin. When said fast, Cal Pai sounds like Cow Pie. Do you see our dilemma? I guess we’ll just stick to a Hawaiian name of some kind.
Classic Matt McConaughey line. Today I went to the doctor for a check up and I began realizing all of these signs of getting older. Here are a few that I’ve compiled out of my brain for all of us.
You know you’re getting older when:
* You go to the doctor every year and they tell you to “cut back on the salt and excercise more”…every year.
* You “go for a jog” and you’re sore for the rest of the week
* You have to look up words or phrases on UrbanDictionary.com because you don’t know what something you overheard a kid in the mall said means.
* Date night turns into Lowe’s and Costco Dogs.
* You have hairs growing out of your ears and nose, and even your eyebrow hairs are getting longer.
* You grow random gray hairs.
* The movies you watch are “smarter” which really means they are boring.
* You begin to worry if people think that you are the “crazy cat person”.
* Some music becomes too loud or just plain noise and you become the one that kids say just don’t get it.
* If you don’t have kids, you become uncle or auntie.
* If you have kids, you become Mr. or Ms/Mrs. “name of parent of the kid that your kid is playing with” or Your kids name’s Mommy or Daddy.
* You use possesive ways to describe people (i.e. My Lawyer, My accountant, My kids, etc).
* You don’t go out past 10 p.m. because you are too tired.
* If you are out past 10 p.m you go directly home because you are too tired.
* You get excited to go to a show because you haven’t been out in a while, but you are even more pumped because the show is all ages and should be done early.
* You get pissed off when you find out that the show is going to be going late.
* For women, your purses and underwear get bigger as you grow older.
* For men, your underwear grow as many holes in them as you have been living out of your mom’s house…same wallet that you’ve had since then also.
* Clothes you wore in Middle and High School are coming back in style.
* You say something to somebody and follow it up with, “Oh my gosh, I just sounded like my mother”.
* Kids wear shirts of bands that you liked in high school, but usually can’t name a single song or album by that band.
* You research things before you buy them.
* You begin to drink wine because it is a “healthier choice”.
These are just a few of the ones I came up with. What did I miss?
