Ode to the Shark

The Shark is a spiritual man. He has spent his adult years a'sail in the wind of the Holy Spirit. He moves, lives and breathes when ever and where ever the Lord blows him. The Spirit led him to ministry in the Appalachian Hills of Philippi, West Virginia a few years back. He came to pray, i believe. He came and prayed, and preached and taught and discipled, but i believe the Lord sent him here to pray. And pray he did. His obnoxous style of worship will be missed. His jovial presence will be a loss. His infectous spirit is gone. His impromptu interuptions of worship "this is either a God thing, or a Shark thing, either way...here goes" that were always right on target will be missed. Random "Shark shout outs" in the form of little notes or emails will be gone. A hug will be gone. A dance in worship, which i believe he would do in his underwear if the law allowed, will be seldom seen, unless Viola steps up. The Medallion will be a different place. Philippi will sense the loss of the man, and a spiritual presence. The Shark: wild, unpredictable, aggressive (in all the right ways), full of love, grace, puffy clouds and butterflies. May the Lord bless him and keep him and set his ship asail with strong winds.

Mennonitis

My wife told me i swear too much in blogs, so ill try to keep this one clean. I was asked to preach or "share" at a local Mennonite church's church retreat this past weekend. Ive known some of the folks for quite some time. Not your stereotypical long skirts, bonnetts, plain blue, quasi-amish types that you think of. In fact they readily describe themeslves as liberal. Im not exactly sure what that means in thier context. Anyway, they meet at thier church weekly for worship. They meet in an average looking home on man street. They are very active in local ministries, such as Heart and Hand, a local outreach of clothing and food and housing. They also host a sepearate home that houses 4 recent highschool grads for a whole school year of service. Pretty socially active bunch. Thier retreat was at a random campground in the middle of Cheat Mountain here in WV. It was beyond chilled. On the schedule next to breakfast for saturday morning is had.... ?... too cool. Worship was some scripture reading, praying, sharing, singing of hymns and me "sharing" for 20 minutes. It was small (25 adults, 10 kids) and intimate. After the sharing time there is a respond time, for reflections or questions concerning the message. Other than a few questions for clarification on thier theology, it could be a cool place to "worship". As scarry as it sounds, some of the families live in neigborhoods together. Communities, they call it. But they have two communities where there is shared property, but individual homes, some shared farming things if you want, but mostly taking care of each other. Sounds kinda Biblical. Damn, oops, sorry hun.

Ameri-centric bastards

Ive been thinking about some of the disasters of late around the globe. The massive quake in Peru, Hurricane Dean in the Atlantic and Gulf, and oh ya, whats that place called again; Darfur? I couldnt help but think in light of the path of Hurricane Dean, Americans, particularly Texans, sighed a huge sigh to know that the category 4 storm wasnt gonna hit the US. Whew, thank God. While no one said it, it was there, it was in the unspoken air....better them than us. We never have even heard of the mexican towns that were hit, and no one really cares. The other day i was listening to news about all the rain and flooding in the US midwest. ABC news radio interviewed some random women, she couldnt stop talking about how afraid her cat was during the terrible ordeal. Dont get me wrong, i love my dogs, but Americans spent somewhere in the neigboor hood of 30 Billion on pets last year. And how may kids starved to death? We are sick. We cant help it, i spose. We were born here. I think i spend about 40 a month on dog food. How many kids could i feed with that? Peruvians are still uncovering folks, and we are on to Mike Vick and Lindsay Lohans next stint at the Hollywood penitentury. Met an old man tonight who lives in the woods, in a home that barely stands against the wind. At my presence he jumped to his feet for an opportunity for conversation. He lives alone. I should have stayed for hours and chatted, but seemed a bit bothered by his presence. I hurried along and made convesation end, politely of course. But now he's still sitting on his porch, as his hot house is too much to bare. Ill try to go back tomorrow. His story must be heard. He is eager to share. Who knows, he probably invented something cool, or fought for my lazy ass's freedom somewhere along the line. All we care about is ourselves, our well-being, our damn country and how tragic it is that we have to pay $3.00 per gallon of gas.

Are your things in order (do you have your shit together)

I can remember my first contact with a "born again" Christian. I was in Highschool. I traveled a couple of hours to Geneva College to see Petra in concert (i know, im dating myself). I was standing on my chair, shaking my head and fist, pointing my index finger in the air to a God I had not yet really come to know. A young, preppily dressed (is that word) young man was working his way down the row. He was walking where those of us on chairs should have been standing. He looked up at me and said "are your affairs in order?" Supid question to ask a teenagers. "huh" i said. "Are you born again?". "Ya dude", I quipt. I knew what he meant. He was asking if i had a personal relationship with Jesus. We will leave the "saved" lingo for another blog. "What the hell did he mean" i asked my friend, " about having my things in order?" He tried to explain, and my father later told me that he was referring to a secular question that often accompanies those who are close to death. It ask the questions: do you have a will? Do you have life insurance? Are those papers in order if something should happen to you? As the last kid in the house my parents would often show me "the box". It had all those papers in it that i would need if something happened and my parents died while they were traveling. People would always ask me if that creeped me out. Actually, it actually got me wondering how much mula my tight wad dad had squirled away. My affairs are in order. I do have a personal relationship with Jesus. Im not sure its something for the light hearted. IF you are a wimp in life, dont even try. Its one of the hardest things youll ever do. But the grace is as sweet as high quality joint dipped in the sweetest honey. My life would be a complete disaster without that grace. And a bleak future would cast me into the darkest depression with no return. My other affairs are in order too. I have two life insurance policies. The paper work is tucked away in a fire safe box next to the computer. My friend Matt had some things in order. Just a few months ago he joined our forces at work. When i met him i was scared. He was huge, dressed like a thug, tatoos from head to toe, cut off sleeves, ball cap, huge dip in his lip, and not much to smile about. 80% of his last 15 years were spent in Juvenile lock ups or prison. His beautiful wife Tiffany and He were just getting used to thier methodone doses to ease them off thier addiction to Heroin. They were both showing up to work. THey were joining our family. In the midst of some in depth conversations, "they got saved". I would have never put it that way. But what they understood was the Grace of Christ. In spite of thier life, thier incarceration, thier drugs, thier neglected daughter, they got it. They came to understand that we all stand equal in the site of GOd and helpless. They got the grace. With in a week our Baptist heavy staff had them down to the river, Matt, Tif, and 9 year old Sierra for a full emersion. They were coming to church. Sierra came to VBS. Matts special ankle bracelet kept him close by and he was an amazing spirit of joy and jocularity. His presence was pervasive. One of the side effects of the Methodone that we noticed right away was drowsiness. Matt and Tif would fall asleep at the drop of a hat. This past Friday morning it happened again. Unfortunately matt had the cruise set well above the speed limit. The State Trooper new he had fallen asleep at the wheel becasue thier were no skid marks at all following his car, crossing the median, and head on into a van. As you could see on the news, Matts body under the sheet, He didnt have a chance. He was crushed. Tif survived. Sierra was not with them. Left alone in her emergency room to deal with the pain of 2 breaks in her pelvis and a broken heart we found her sobbing out of control. " I saw him, i saw him laying there, i can get it out of my head, help me get him out of my head. What am i gonna do. What am i gonna do with out him". What do you say to that? What do you do? We all just kinda cried together. Im not sure i would have felt (doped up with anit-depressants) the true pain had i not seen Tif, or Matts Mom. She was broken, vomiting, falling, confused, faint. We all felt lost. As family members poured into the hospital, any judgement i had towards Matts lifestyle went away. He didnt have a chance in Hell to make it to heaven. I have never seen so many dregs of humanity in my life. Wrap sheets, tracks, tats, crack-teeth, crack-frames, illiterate, selfish, drama-addicted, products of Appalachian poverty. Matts one and only chance of a full life was grace and is eternity. TIf's is grace and grace now as she muddles through. Sierra's? Not sure. Maybe her life will be better with out a Dad, who as cool as he was, his environment and uprbrining would undoubtatly have put him back in prison. I think the Judge was right at his last hearing, "Matt, i think prison is the only place you can survive". He gave Matt one more chance. Why? cause we stepped in and asked him to. Maybe Matt would be still alive. Maybe he wouldnt. His dumbass grandfather blames his death on me/us, the Judge and police for letting him out. Who knows. We will bury him Thursday. The way it works here is that family and friends arrive with shovel to dig the grave. Its a reponsibility of those closest to him. My job? Get over it, move on, and put more effort into building a better world for children, like Sierra, who with all things constant would follow closely behing her mom an dad. We must build bridges out of poverty. We must build bridges made of grace. Is my shit in order. Yes, but i still wanna show my wife exactly where the papers are and the phone numbers of the people she must call that her shit can be in order when my shit is dead and gone. "my grace is sufficient for you". good thing, grace.

Metro-verted

I sat in on a seminar today. It covered in short detail some of those annoying personality test things. It was based on a national personality test thing called "colors". Those things always annoy me because i never seem to fit into one box. Others struggle because they havent had or dont have the ability to analyze themselves, so they tend to score themselves incorrectly or they score themselves as they want people to perceive them. When i try and answer the questions honestly i tend to fall mostly on the introvert side. I find that im extroverted in different settings, though. At work i think im extroverted. As a public speaker/teacher, i display mostly extrovert qualities. I want to be an extrovert, without the obnoxious qualities that typically accompany the type. On the inside, i much rather enjoy being alone, being quiet, thinking, analyzing, and avoiding small talk with new people. I think, bottom line, that i am both, can be both, but left alone without the challenges of work, society, etc, im an introvert at heart. Or does the recent lack of serotonin play a role. When its firing, im extrovert, when its not, im most comfy, at home, by myself, with my own thoughts? Perhaps im "bi" or a metro-vert.

contemporary is passe'

After my last blog i got in a conversation with some folks who are desperate to get kids to come to thier church. They wonder why thier congregation is old, gray and dissapearing. I had to hold back the lafter when they asked if i thought adding a contemporary service to thier offerings was a good idea. She assured me the question was probably mute, as she was sure the congregation would not vote in favor of the change. I guess to me, a gen x er, Contemorary worship (feminie looking 30 something guy up front in a golf shirt, jeans and clogs playing acoustic guitar) is the new traditional. The emergent style, experiential, tactical, relevant, sensual worship is perhaps the new contemporary. For those that dont read about the emergent movement, its totally foreign. Its scarry that churches are still debating contmporary. While debating if they could handle the change, or if the new music was offensive to God, or if they thought that worship should be relevant to each person, they missed all the 40 and 50 somethings who have teens. The 20's and 30' and thier toddlers will never dawn the door. THey have failed in the call to go to all the world and make disciples of all men. So thier stubbornness and closedmindedness actually pushed 4 seperate generations from the church. And now, transisition from Traditional to experiential is not even on the radarThis church will shut down in 10 years or less. I often wonder why so many church plants of the emergent style are popping up? Ive often wondered why so many? Why are they competing with the present churches? I guess the answer is that all those traditional churches are done in 10 years and those who think they are hip in thier jeans and clogs are done in 20. THe connection to my first blog is somewhat of an answer of the issue. The church is not supposed to be a big place with lots of peoples. THe small house or community church can easily flex to the needs of the group, and the purpose never changes. Celebration styles will need to change, but can be done just as easily as the transition of horse shoes to lawn jarts.

worship gripe

An age old question that has plagued my mine since i was a teen whose brain and heart were open to worship, by GOd. What is it for. Whats the purpose? What is supposed to happen during worship? Are there rules? God doesnt seem to have many for us other than to pray, sing, dance, adore, and live in community with one another. Where the hell does the concept of a sermon even come into the picture? The Catholic Church has it right i think. THey read through scripture and then a breif HOmily is shared. I really cant stand that fact that an average worship service is one hour and we spend about half of that listening to one person talk at us about what He (typically) thinks God meant when he spoke or acted. With regards to a worship service. I think 90% of what we do in worship today is man made. Im thinking the Sunday morning one hour gathering is completely man made. Church is the people, worship is building of the kindgom. Fellowship is when the Kingdom builders gather to share, pray, encourage, meditate, become aware of the needs of the community and act upon them. So as far as church? Its any community of believers who agree to be in community as the Bible describes it in ACTS. What most denominations call worship is what they created to either appease or gather people. Oddly enough while Willow Creek overshadows the world with amazing programatic "worship services:, if you ask them, thier "worship services" are not worship services. They are celebrations. They would say that Church is occuring all over the region in houses, coffe shops, work places, etc. They share, learn, pray, become aware of one anothers needs and act upon them. they encourage one another in thier role of building the kingdom. So in a celebration, thier are no rules, just celebrate. As much as i though i hated Willow Creek over the years, i think they are actually doing it, well, as close to what Acts records. An who knows, maybe Acts isnt even what Jesus imagined for us in terms of worship. Dont get me started.