Pentecost Proper 25, Year B

First Reading: Psalm 34:1 - 8, 19 - 22

Sermon: Jeremiah 31:7 - 9

Handwritten / No Notes

Where is the tribe of Dan in Revelation 7:1 - 8?

Why is it missing?

And why are Manasseh and Joseph both in there?

What theories are out there?

Pentecost Proper 24, Year B 

First Reading: Psalm 91:9 - 16

Sermon: Mark 10:35 – 45

Handwritten / No Notes

The main question before the Bible Study Group tonight, via Psalm 1:

Is it possible to build in “change” as a normal part of the structure of a church, rather than having change always be disruptive?

The group’s response was a resounding “yes.”

They affirmed the hypothesis that if a congregation is made up primarily of people who desire God to change their lives, the congregation as a whole will be more greatly open to change.

So that’s what we must do, eh?

Today and for the next two days I’m attending the ABC/Ohio Annual Gathering at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus, OH.

The conference opened this afternoon with the business meeting. This year, the delegates amended the ABC/Ohio constitution to allow churches disaffected with the continued difficult politics of ABC-USA to withdraw from ABC-USA without having to withdraw from ABC/Ohio.

This is a watershed event because it implies that we, as the churches of ABC/Ohio are committed to our continued collaboration as a region of churches, and to the ministry that is common to us. However, we acknowledge that our continued connections to the ABC-USA are straining our relationships and we desire to allow our local collaboration to be a greater priority than our national connections.

As ABC/Ohio has a strong commitment to maintain a Biblical perspective on the issues facing ABC-USA, this means that we have opened the door to maintain that Biblical perspective no matter the ultimate direction of the national denomination.

This evening, we heard from Jim Herrington, author of Leading Congregational Change. He hit the nail on the head. I plan to put my notes up here for perusal later on. However, I left them in the hotel room where I am not able to get a free wireless connection.

This year, we have four of us from FBCWarren attending the convention. This is the first time in a long time that people other than the pastor have attended the convention. This is encouraging to me because we are all hearing from these good speakers and are all coming up to speed on what is going on with our brothers and sisters in Christ in ABC/Ohio.

Grace and Peace.

I had a rather humorous discussion today involving the difference between a complement and an compliment.

I guess I figured this was one everyone knew.

But it’s fun.

This is one of those cases that gets missed by computerized spelling and grammar checkers all the time, because they are both spelled correctly and their grammatical usage is similar.

A compliment is a congratulatory statement, such as “great job today!”

A complement is something that goes along with something else to complete it or exists as an added bonus.

Thus, when one makes a donation to the thesbians, one would want a complementary ticket to a stage play, which would probably get you in free, rather than a complimentary one, which would talk your arm off with congratulatory remarks.

When I was in seminary, I developed a discipleship “flowchart” to explain how discipleship in community is supposed to work. One of the things I worked on was the balance between the disciple-leader initiating teaching and the disciples initiating growth. I believed that there would be a continual phasing experience from the leader primarily initiating learning or curriculum to the disciples starting to initiate the learning initiatives.

Today I met with some folks who are beginning to take the first steps in initiating their own input into the discipleship process. It remains to be seen how that initiative will develop and where things are going. It seems that the process is working, but it is taking a different turn than I expected. It seems I underestimated the amount of time it would take to bring young disciples from a zero point to leadership as disciples. Much of this relates to instilling the values and the practices of Christ more than merely the base content of the faith.

Today, we decided to have those discipled begin to read the Bible on their own and bring passages to discuss rather than having me dictate which passages to read. I will be giving them a “Bible reading plan” to help them structure their reading, with a good deal of leeway. We will see how that develops.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case from California parents who complained after their children were required to simulate Muslim worship and attire as part of a history class.

So we can do Muslim worship in a school class.

“The kids were given handouts saying that `you and your classmates will become Muslims,”‘ White said. “They were divided into groups named after Islamic cities, they picked Islamic names and wore name tags with the star and crescent … they simulated the five pillars of faith and experienced self-denial as a Muslim would for Ramadan.”

He said children were given extra credit for fasting, but were not forced to fast. Some gave up things like soda or watching TV, he said.

Ok, so what happens if we do the same thing with Christian practices?

Probably couldn’t get away with it.

(full story here)

I just got back from a very nice, restful vacation at home.

It was very good.

I will share more very soon.

Here are some samples of photos from my latest sets on the gallery:

“Experimentation with Low Light”

“Chicago, June 2006″

Kyle and Kim Johnson’s Wedding

Check out the whole gallery!