Book Thoughts

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot

In my late-night, not-yet-ready-to-go-to-sleep, need-a-book haze last week, I pulled this off the shelf. I read it once way back in the day and remembered it fondly. It's every bit as good as I remember, if perhaps more obscure. Luther Arkwright is a pretty obvious Christ-figure whose first death and resurrection is beautiful and moving and sexy. His second reads as a bit of an afterthought. I've maintained for several years now that bringing people/characters back to life negates the sacrifice of their deaths. And yes, I am aware of the irony.

That said, it's a cool take on parallel universes in peril and the fight between good and evil. There's a sequel that I also remember as being good.

from Exotic Florida

Greetings, readers! (I realize, there may be fewer than the hundreds or thousands of readers that I once hoped. Are there, perhaps, dozens?)

I'm writing from sunny Oveido, Florida, home of man-eating alligators and mosquitoes that could take your arm off. Really, it's happened already this week.

This is a great conference--we're doing a lot of in-depth conversation about physical health (including stress and priorities), spiritual health (including Sabbath), and financial health (how do you spend your money, what the heck are all those retirement options?). Are you asleep yet? It's actually really cool. What makes it cool, I think, is that I am surrounded by 30 other priests under 40. That doesn't mean we're all the same--far from it. But we have a similar perspective on things. We're going bowling tonight, which is not hugely popular among our set as we all want to go dancing or to Gatorland, but we'll take it. It's good to get away from the scripts I feel like I have to follow at home. Thank you for letting me go.

On the road again

Leaving for CREDO tomorrow morning. Don't know my flight information. I know I had it here somewhere...

Scenic Lexington

Loving Husband and I are on vacation in scenic Lexington. Our hotel is lovely. It doesn't smell of smoke. It has wifi and a pool. Is in walking distance of a Waffle House. The bed has six pillows. We have a stunning view of the parking lot. It has cable so I can stay up late watching documentaries about BBQ.
We've a bottle of Cabernet to drink, friends to visit, and enough books to last us several weeks. In short, everything we could have hoped for.

Anatomy of a Sermon

It's that time in my week, gentle reader, when I should be committing my wisdom to paper and writing my sermon for tomorrow's service. What do you think I'm doing instead? If you guessed wasting time on the Internets, then you'd be right. See, the sermon-writing process is not as straightforward as it may seem at first glance. I have, for your convenience, created a bullet-pointed list to clarify:

-Monday: read the lessons for the next Sunday, contemplate their import, begin reading commentaries, write complex journal entries exploring their subjects...or work all day and forget that you're preaching the next week.
-Tuesday: re-read the lessons, discern which one God is calling you to expand upon, continue reading and contemplating, journaling, exploring...or get caught up in email and administrative meetings and forget that you're preaching next week.
-Wednesday: panic because you've just realized you have to preach tonight at the mid-week service in addition to two coffee dates, preschool chapel, and mission trip deposit deadline. Notice a niggling doubt that perhaps there's something you've forgotten.
-Thursday: Day Off. Do laundry, watch movies, eat cookies.
-Friday: suddenly remember that you're preaching on Sunday, read the lessons, develop an ulcer, make serious plans to write in the afternoon, then get distracted by something shiny.
-Saturday, 9am: sleep in.
-Saturday, noon: over breakfast/lunch consider how best to attack the lessons, come up with a possible idea, go do something fun secure in the knowledge that it won't be so bad now that you've got an idea.
-Saturday, 3-5pm: begin writing, by which I mean format the Word document, make a vague outline, doodle, and remember how difficult this really is.
-Saturday, 6pm: finish first draft, ball up and throw away as it is complete crap.
-Saturday, 9pm: wonder where it all went wrong.
-Saturday, midnight: finish writing final draft of what will be either (1) the worst sermon in the history of religion or (2) the Word direct from God.

Straight from the horse's mouth.

All New! All Better!

Ok, so it's not actually all new, but I have just spent an hour adding in new links to old posts, fixing links that no longer work, and generally making this blog the Best Blog on the Internet. Or something. Please do check out older posts--on books, on salvation, on toast--it might just be worth your while.

the Dreaded "E" Word

That's right, boys and girls, it's time to talk about Evangelism. This post brought to you by the number 3 and the Evangelism Marketing Board: try some yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

Some new statistics came out today about church attendance which have the clergy in a tizzy. That's right, I said "tizzy." Google it. "We've got to work on evangelism," we're saying over email. "Why are the numbers so bad?" we lament. This should come as no surprise as the 90s were supposed to be the Decade of Evangelism, according to the national church. Some of us have put forth the radical notion that sharing our passion for the faith and the relationships we form at church is precisely what Jesus meant when he said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." [Notice I did not suggest getting them to come to church or fill out a pledge card...]

Regardless, my father had the following to say about the whole thing and I think it worth reprinting:

"The hard thing to do of course is to know, well, what to do. You
know there are some who attribute or have attributed our decline to advocacy of women rights, civil rights, approval of gay clergy and marriage and 'abandoning Biblical ethics.' Others think we have declined because we have too much 'happy clappy' music or not enough. Or projections screens or whatever.

"For what it is worth, I lay the blame [that is the American game is it not] on the people of our generation who decided church was no longer important for them or their children. Thus we have a generation of people, now in their 30s who have never been to church or never seen it as important. The culture too works against all of us - bigger, better, faster, more and easier is the mantra of America and Western Europe.

"What I am saying is that the decline of the church all over western culture is not entirely the fault of those of us who work in the church. Still there is much we can do. I think this fits in with Bishop Breidenthal's desire to emphasize 'formation.' Let's work at teaching church members first that talking about religion and faith outside the walls of our building is acceptable and mandatory. Then let's teach them how to do it.One on one evangelism is the way to go."

What I've asked the youth of Redeemer is, "What do you love about this place?" What event do you love? Who can't you wait to see when you come here? What are you excited about doing? Now invite someone to do it with you.