Monthly Archives: December 2008

2008 Year in Review

Posted on December 31, 2008 | 1 Comment

OK, a few of my friends are writing their thoughts on the fading year, so I figure I’d join the party.  Here’s my thoughts on the previous year.

Best Accomplishments

  • Designed in Mission was the most ambitious undertaking I’ve ever done.  The idea of bringing together a dozen conversation partners to leave Central with a gift of wisdom as it begins to transition was a good one.  If you haven’t seen the videos, check them out on CrossPointings.org (which needs a major over-haul).  For members of Central, DVD’s are half-way completed.
  • Kingdom Collision was a challenging sermon series for me to prepare.  It entailed a great deal of reading and research which started in March of 2008.  It was good to be able to express the First Century political implications of Jesus’ preaching – and use those implications to help Christians ponder their own political involvement.  The fact that we have members from a wide swath of the political spectrum made it more enjoyable – everyone was challenged at some point.
  • I started reading a great deal more American History.  Not only has it increased my appreciation for the uniqueness of what happened at the founding of this nation – it’s given me even more pride at the role my native city (Philly) played in forging the political, religious, and social values of the United States.
  • This is perhaps the most important thing for me – I taught both my children how to ride on two wheels.  This meant that I got much needed exercise as we rode around town together.  Personally, it made me feel like a dad – I often wonder if I’m able to teach my kids anything, and seeing them on two wheels was as much a rite of passage for me as it was for them.  It also made our week at the beach a BLAST.
  • I got to see my wife come into her own as a children’s minister at Central.  Her ambitions for our children’s ministry are exactly what this church needs.  Imagine, a church in which the kids grow up knowing the arc of the Biblical story!  I hope she puts the curriculum together for other churches to use.

Biggest Opportunities

  • For the second year running, 2008 had me increase my involvement with Eastern University’s student chaplains.  I got to work with them in a class session and led them on their winter retreat (hosted at Central).  In January 2009 they’ll be coming for their third retreat (which I’m feverously preparing).
  • I continued to work with ABCNJ as their ministry and technology guy.  This year will probably see me increasing my involvement there as churches become more aware of the resources we can offer.  I also have to migrate our site to joomla 1.5.x in January which will make my head explode, I’m sure.  People on the ABCNJ staff seem to appreciate what I bring to the table (both in terms of geek-lore and theological reflection), so it’s a pleasure to work with them.  At the same time, I’m also part of the establishment now so I have to fight the urge to scoff at myself.
  • My proposal to lead a session on “Sermon Painting” got accepted at the Bible and Technology conference.  While this opportunity will play it’s way out in 2009, it came to be in 2008 so I list it here.  Yes, I’m going to Seattle, land of 10,000 coffee shops (suggestions for “must visits” are welcome).

Things I could have done without

  • Too many funerals.  One funeral is too many, I had more than that.  I’m tired of buring people, can we do some baptisms please?
  • I hate congregational politics, I hate the sense of entitlement people have in a congregation from which congregational politcs springs.  Why is it always about winners and losers instead about becoming like Jesus?
  • Evangelicalism™ pretty much made 2008 the year I even stopped mentally associating with Evangelicalism and Evangelicals at all.  I don’t have time to be that angry and resentful.  Frankly, my soul can’t take it.  Where this leaves me in Protestantism remains to be seen – I could have done without this stress.
  • Too many friends had their marriages break up.  For their sake I could do without this soul-wrenching division.

Things I need to improve

  • Project management.  Frankly, I suck at project management.  I’m not a manager-type, it’s not my strength.  Yet, I see the value of management for specific tasks (like prepping a sermon series or event, for example).  I need to do a better job at managing projects so people feel included, valued, and empowered for our shared ministry at Central.  For an introvert, this is a daunting undertaking – but if we’re going to be moving forward I need to be a ton more deliberate in this respect.  Both Kingdom Collision and Designed in Mission could have been milestone movements at Central if I would have taken a more managerial role in developing them – that they weren’t as good as they should have been comes down on my shoulders.
  • I also need to develop what I can only call a better grasp of “idea management.”  My head swarms with ideas and thoughts – so I end up bouncing from one to the other.  Often this is because the ideas spring from each other, but sometimes it’s because I simply try to make too many of my ideas into reality at the same time.  I’d like to see the things I ponder come into fruition more readily, while keeping the joy in the work alive.  Chalk this up to ADD – my french-press medication is doing it’s part, now I need to work with it more.

So there’s my thoughts on 2008.  See you in 2009 – in which I’ll talk about my short-comings some more.

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What I Live For…

Posted on December 30, 2008 | 2 Comments

Over the last week I’ve experienced two things which reinforced the fact that I’m actually called to this ministry – despite my constant feelings of being woefully inadequate.

The first came when one person from our community stepped way out of her comfort-zone, stood up in front of a large crowd, and exercised her wonderful gift for reading out-loud.  She did this even though the thought of being in front of other people scares the living-daylights out of her.  She did it because I asked – I asked because she has an all-to-rare gift that the Church needs.  People who can read with inflection and can communicate understanding are pathetically rare in the Western World – she has that gift, and she exercised it to help people worship.

The second came during a memorial service for the mother of one of our members.  In preparing for the service I asked her, “Would you like to say something during the sharing time?”  This question was met with, “I couldn’t do that.”  I rarely press that issue when dealing with a family that’s grieving (teaching moments are great, lack of compassion is another), but for some reason I found myself resonding, “No, you can do it – you couldn’t do it without crying, but there’s not a person that will be ther who will care about that.”  After that, I let it drop.  After her husband did an excellent Job presenting the main eulogy, however, this same woman got up and spoke a wonderful testimony about her mom!  She started with, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but then I talked with Wes and he said I could, and after that things just kept coming to my mind that I wanted to say.”  I don’t know if her bravery inspired the rest of the family, but following this woman it seemed that the rest of her family flooded out their praise and thanks for her mom’s life – and one son boldly shared a tear-filled thanks to his parents for under-taking the painful decision of inviting his grandmother into their home to spend her final months.  I was impressed.

So, even though I sometimes look at the mountains and wonder why they haven’t moved yet – I often find that I’m looking at the wrong mountains when I think it.  What I’m seeing, in small ways, is mountains moving in the lives of people – it’s why I don’t tell Jesus to take his calling back so I can go earn a living as  full-time geek.  I’m grateful, and hope these changed people continue to band together and change the landscape of our community.

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Star Wars Christmas Tree

Posted on December 29, 2008 | 5 Comments


Final Battle

Originally uploaded by wezlo

I get Star Wars ornaments every Christmas from family, and from members of Central. I have so many of these ornaments that we now use an old tree from my wife’s college days to display them all.

Because nothing says, “Merry Christmas” like the Dark Lord of the Sith.

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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2008 | 3 Comments

Merry Christmas everyone.

We had a fairly decent Christmas Eve worship last night (positive critiques aside – you’re helping to plan next year Mel!), after that we came home and crashed.  We get a lot of invites from the various open houses that people host each Christmas eve, but we never go.  Mostly because by the time worship is over the kids are wiped and I’m ready to fall asleep, but also because if we went to one we’d feel that we were under obligation to pop in at the others as well.  I’m not very politically astute, but even I know that.

This morning the kids got us up early and we just enjoyed a comfortable day at home with our immediate family, and my wife’s folks and brother.  A large part of me wishes that our congregation gathered for worship on Christmas.  A smaller part of me is glad because if we gather for worship I expend a ton of energy by forcing myself to be in front of the crowd – which would kinda wipe me for the rest of the day.  So, a quiet day at home isn’t so bad despite my liturgical impulses.  There’s something to be said for sabbath.

Yes, I did get lots of “stuff” (folks who follow me on Twitter already know some), some of it was even useful for my work with Central and ABCNJ – and this makes for some fun.  This year, especially, I felt extremely humbled by the fact that so many folks from the Central Baptist community go out of their way to give gifts to me and mine.  People’s thoughtfulness to me, for all of my inner-fears that I’m an abject failure, helps me sense that there actually is some good things going on around here.  Thanks a lot.

Some of my most favoite gifts this year (from family and from the congregation) were:

  • Photoshop Elements.  I love the GIMP, but I hate X11 on OS X
  • A new bluetooth headset – I can’t wait to try a call in the car with the windows down
  • Wii Music – people say it’s lame, I say it’s dang fun and the family will be playing much music!
  • Various Star Wars Ornaments – we actually have a tree from my wife’s college dorm-room that has nothing but Star Wars ornaments on it now, keep ‘em coming guys!
  • The two best “big” movies to come out in 2008 – you figure it out.
  • Much coffee – yum!
  • My son got a killer Star Wars Lego Set – on of the Republic Walkers from the Clone Wars.
  • An actual, real-like, “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree, I kid you not.  I will have to make try hard not to kill this.  We’ve killed members of the cactus family though, so don’t hold your breath.  Still, its cute.

Now, I’m blogging and uploading photos while other people put shelves together.  There are days where the stress just melts away from me, this was one of them.

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Sometimes People Surprise Me

Posted on December 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

Well, yesterday we woke up to rain pelting our windows rather than gentle snow covering our lawn.  I checked the temperature and found out that it was below freezing outside.  The temperature didn’t match up with the preciipation that was hitting our windows so I opened our front door to see if my fears would be confirmed.  Outside our door I found a layer of ice beginning to coat the bushes we have in front of our house.  Taking a quick glance at our walk and our street I could only think one thing, “Well, no one’s going to come to worship in an ice storm.”

Sometimes I get discouraged that people at Central will take just about any opportunity to schedule a conflict with Sunday worship, and that can leave me feeling a bit cynical.  Yesterday however, when there actually was a reason to pack it in and stay in bed, folks came out to worship.  One woman even shifted 2 blocks on the ice to get to worship (and she won’t do that again, she’s lucky she’s not in the hospital).  I find this encouraging – like there might actually be hope that our commuity can find it’s core identity in Christ together.

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I Pastor People Who are Nuts

Posted on December 21, 2008 | Leave a comment

Christmas AntsBelieve me, I mean that as a compliment!

I got this drawing for Christmas from one of our members.  She like drawing little ants in all sorts of odd places and having interesting conversations.  In this particular drawing the ants are raiding a Christmas tree for supplies.  It takes a strange sort of mind to come up with something like this – and I’m sorry it never occured to me.

So, thank you my nutso congregants, you make life so interesting!

By the way, click the link to see this image at full resolution on Flickr.

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Making Connections

Posted on December 20, 2008 | Leave a comment

In college I remember a conversation I had with a good friend (alas, Chuckles, where are you?) shortly before graduation.  For some reason a group of us were talking about our first encounters with people we had become friends with and “Chuck” (her name was Charla, long story) said, “Oh man, I thought you were a jerk.    I mean you just said, ‘Hi’ to people and not much else.  It took me a while to figure out That you weren’t trying to be ‘too cool.’”  It wasn’t one of my happier college retrospectives.

Still, Chuck had a point.  See, I hate being in  a situation where I’m forced to talk with an unfamilar person – I have no idea what to say, nor do I know how to graciously remove myself from those situations.  Often (despite my attempts to be disciplined in showing more openness, too often) people view my uncomfortable posture and short comments as being “aloof.” This is what she saw as me looking like I was “too cool.”  Yet, I really wasn’t aloof – I was panicking deep inside!  Yes, this is a difficult trait for a person to have when they’re called to be a pastor.

For all my struggles with “first impressions,” however, I seem to be able to make connections with people which both give me strength and strenthen others.  I don’t always see that happening, and not infrequently do I have to be reminded that I’m actually naturally disposed to making friends, because there are times when I feel like  I’m just not capable of over-coming my innate tendency to be a the kid shouting from the corner  (thanks Jim and Frank for your reassurances, they mean a lot).  The truth is, I’m genuinely blessed with friends, and I have deep desire to develop friendships, even though I’m naturally terrified of making someone’s acquaintance – the fact that I’m ever able to work through these conflicting traits is nothing short of miraculous.

So, to everyone who’s been able to over-come my terrible first-impression, thanks.

To my friends (especially my wife) who challenge and encourage me to be who I’m supposed to be, thanks.

To everyone who has seen potential and gifts in me that I’m not even aware of, thanks.

I hope that I can be as good a friend to all of you as you have been to me.

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A Response to DA Carson and Technology

Posted on December 19, 2008 | 1 Comment

I’m responding to this post over at the Internet Monk.  My thoughts got long-winded so I went the trackback route.

Dr. Carson brings up some good points.  The dearth of trivial information on the ‘net is staggering – as is the problem that in a democratic medium EVERYONE can post their opinion on their own site without it getting modded into oblivion.

I do wonder if the whole porn thing is just a smoke-screen.  People who bring it up tend to be suffering from other issues like a lack of real community and/or friends with whom they can be genuinely open.  It *is* a problem, but it’s a symptom, not the disease.

The whole “the speed of the internet leads to a lack of reflection” idea shows Dr. Carson’s age.  The recent presidential election revealed the need for MORE reflection – and the person who picked up on the instantaneous nature of information dissemination was the one who carried the day.  He appeared thoughtful and reflective, whereas the campaigns that believed they could dole out information or obfuscate stories (Hillary in Bosnia, *cough*) got nailed on it.  People in public circles now have to be thinking about how they will be perceived more than ever – and the speed of the Internet is what’s leading to the transition.  Dr. Carson doesn’t seem to quite grasp that yet.

The REAL problem isn’t this whole “Whaaa, whaaa, people don’t read anymore” smokescreen.  People haven’t read for YEARS (Did anyone read Amusing Ourselves to Death?), the Internet isn’t the cause of that – nor it is accelerating that problem.  People have lost their fascination with story because we became enamored with “fact,” and then delved into trivial amusements to take the edge of that sterility.  Recent developments in our cultural psyche show me that genuine story-telling might be making a comeback – and if that happens there might be hope for the written word yet (hopefully not on the DRM’d kindle).  So what do I think is the REAL problem with the Internet?  Mob Mentality – look at the brew-ha-ha over Rick Warren’s place in the inauguration.  It’s a flame fest with no moderation and is done reasonably anonymously so you can say anything you want – and the shared catharsis escalates the rhetoric.  Among he WORST exemplars of this mentality on the ‘net, however, have got to be Conservative Christians – the un-Christlike frenzy over “the war on Christmas™” is a great example.  If you propose civil discourse over the whole “Happy Holidays” thing you’re immediately tagged as being against religion – and people pile one.  Try reminding one of those internet mobs that we’re in the season of Advent some time – it’s like dealing with a pack of rabid dogs.

There are, however, mechanisms being developed that are beginning to help people discern the loonies from actual information.  The key is, however, the reality that they are in process.  Comment moderation, and the culture of “don’t feed the trolls” are decent starts.  As the more rabid commenters emerge from their closed-in sites to post on news articles, for example, they are finding more and more that what plays in the mob sounds like idiocy in the wider world.  Time will only tell what societal compacts we’re going to have in the future.

The thing is, we’re in the middle of an insane paradigm shift.  10 years ago no one would have expected the rapid collapse of TV as the mass-medium.  4 years ago no one would have believed that YouTube could help elect a president, or that blogs would suddenly become a source for hard-news (this is a good and bad thing).  That is, however, the point – we’re in transition.  In this time Voices like DA Carson’s are valuable because they at least ask people to think before leaping into the surf, and that’s a good thing.  What I don’t appreciate, however, is how he framed the discussion.  I’m not sure that a hard-line rhetoric of, “Are we becomming just like the world” is helpful when the entire culture is in a paradigm shift.  The way Dr. Carson puts it makes me imagine that Christians weren’t alongside the rest of the culture before this shift started happening – this just isn’t the case.  Rather, I’d hope that Christians would work in community so that as the shfit happens we’ll already have thought out what our mission is going to look like as the Paradigm continues to shift – and how we can be there to make disciples of depth and grace.

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Apparently People Didn’t get the Memo

Posted on December 18, 2008 | 7 Comments

It’s doesn’t seem to matter to folks that a wide swath of people voted for President-Elect Obama in the presidential election – some folks seem to have seen it as a mandate on who can and cannot participate publically in his inauguration.  The announcement of Rick Warren as the pastor giving the invocation is creating a stink.  Sigh.

Look, I’m not the biggest Rick Warren fan.  I respect a number of things he’s done and is doing.  When  The Purpose Driven Life became a runaway best-seller Rick Warren paid his church back all the salary he had ever been given, and to this day doesn’t take a salary from the Church (he also has kept his lifestyle at the same level it was before he made an insane amount of money).  Pastor Warren has also become heavily involved in combatting the AIDS pandemic, even though many Evangelicals still see AIDS as a non-issue.  He has also been soundly condemed by true Evangelicals™ for having people from the “wrong” political beliefs come to his church to speak on various issues.  For all these things I do respect Pastor Warren.

Yet, I’m not a “fan.”  Cedar Ridge has replaced Willow Creek as the lastest generator of Evangelical™ fads, and the two books I’ve read from him have left me wondering, “Is this as deep as we can get, really?”  I know his books have a lot of advocates, but even as primers for Spirituality they leave a lot to be desired (that’s another post).  I also don’t think that his comments that have been quoted on Proposition 8 were ridiculously bad and people have every right to question him on it.

Still, after the ways that Pastor Warren has been able to set aside the culture war mentality to work with people he has “issues” with, it would be nice to see the favor returned by people towards him.  Alas, that’s not happening – Pastor Warren’s been being cast as a hateful fear-mongerer by those who seem to think President-elect Obama’s election was a “victory, ” rather than an armastice, in the culture wars.  Thankfully, thus far, the President-elect doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo.

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Book Review

Posted on December 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

Last time I was in Williamsburg I picked up Under the Cope of Heaven, by Patricia U. Bonomi.  This book was first published in 1986, and at the time was on the forefront of re-examining the place of religion in the mid to late Colonial Period.  I’m reviewing the updated edition which was published in 2003, an editition which does a good job intergrating scholarship from 17 intervening years into the new text.  This is one of the aspects of the book that I most appreciate.  There are no “addendums to the original chapter” in the work, the new research has been intergrated into the text seemlessly.

Bonomi does an excellent job of countering the typical belief that religion in the colonies was dead or dying before the advent of the first Great Awakening.  Rather, Bonomi points out, at the time when religion was said to be dying in the colonies there was actually a rapid increase of new churches being started.  Bonomi does a good job unpacking how the typical belief of a vapid religious atmosphere came to be, pointing out that the oft-quoted lack of clergy did not mean that the people were not wanting spiritual nourishment.  She also makes a good case that the Anglican reports to the Society of Promotion of the Gospel often over-stated the case that the “sects” (non-established churches) were ignorant and immoral.  She even goes so far as to state that the commonly held “20% church attendance” was incredibly low – asserting that it was more like that “60%” of Colonial Americans were church goers.  Given what I’ve read about the nature of Colonail religion (as well as her own book) I have a hard time swallowing Bonomi’s number.  I have a feeling that the two are using different measuring sticks.

The key angle of the text, however, is religion’s effects on the political attitudes of Colonial Americans.  To Bonomi, the struggle that many “sepratist” Christians waged against the established churches set the stage for a later questioning of authority (in particular the authority of a church-state) that would culminate in the Revolution.  While this questioning first took form among the New Side and New Light Evangelicals of the Great Awakening, the practice of denominational politics eventually became commonplace – especially in the Middle Colonies (and especially Pennsylvania – who’s lack of a state church led to a poliferation of Christian denominations within it’s borders).  By the time of the revolution Evangelicals, Rationalists, and moderates were all utilizing similar religious language to stump for the Revolution.  Whether or not you think that was a good thing depends on your theological outlook, I suppose (I tend to cringe).

What most intrigued me in this book was how Bonomi deftly showed how Colonials came to embrace the relationship between civil and religious liberty (highlighted by the Colonial’s reaction to the proposal of seating a Bishop in America).  In the climate of the 17th Century the weapons of the “conservatives” (both civilly and religiously) was the doctrine of “passive obedience and nonresistance.”  This belief stemmed from the idea of divine right and monarchical absolutism – where opposing “God’s chosen ruler” was considered a great sin.  It was the siren warning of this doctrine that stoked so many, normally moderate, Christians to stump for the political liberty of the Colonies – included a high number of Southern Anglicans.  As someone educated at a Mennonite high school, it is fascinating to see the 17th Century English understanding of nonresistance framed as the tool of conservatives.  Mennonites, after all, use the same languge to promote radical obedience to God – not the king.

If you want to examine the great theological shifts and nuances of 17th Century America, Under the Cope of Heaven might leave you a bit disappointed, because that isn’t it’s purpose.  Rather, Bonomi uses those theological shifts to show how they impacted a segment of public life that had been overlooked by scholarship for years – that is, the religious impact on the political realm.  As she goes about her writing, however, Bonomi does a good job expressing the uniqueness of what was going on in the religous life of the Colonies and how it changed more than the Church.  It’s a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.

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