Day: April 19, 2005

every now and then in preparing for a message or a series of messages i will spend a half day or whole day at a place that inspires or teaches me concerning whatever the message is about. for example, when i was talking about suffering i spent the afternoon in a local emergency room working on the message but also just soaking up what was going on around me. awhile back for a message on community i spent the day at a mall watching people (the mall is a place that looks like a great community place – a large gathering area – but instead is a place of disconectedness). i try to do this every now and then and i find it very helpful.

in the near future i will be speaking about being on journey with CHRIST and therefore i figured i would spend the day traveling around baton rouge on it’s brcats public transportation system. the public transit service in baton rouge is not a very big deal. it’s a good system, it’s just that it’s not a very popular thing in louisiana to use public transportation and thus everyone tries to use their own vehicle instead. so i went to experience brcats for myself. jonathan, our minister of belonging, decided he wanted to go with me so i had a buddy for the day (really only about a half day). having a buddy meant i couldn’t really “write” anything while i was traveling but it did make for an enjoyable time. i’m still processing the day trying to figure out what to say from it. it may turn out that unlike most of my “message field trips” this one may not “produce” allot. all i know right now is that it was a good time.

so our catholic brothers and sisters now have their new pope but my question is how do you feel about yourself when everyone is referring to you as a “transitional pope“? basically benedict is the papal equivalent of eating a cracker in-between items of a tasting competition (wine, chili, etc.) to remove the taste of the previous bite you had. how lousy is this for benedict that he was pretty much chosen because the roman catholic cardinals figured he would be bland enough and die soon enough to prepare for another more significant pope?

interestingly i think the same thing happens with long term evangelical ministers. if you have a long tenure, significant pastor/minister at a church it doesn’t seem uncommon to me for the next pastor to be at that church for a short while and then move on thus preparing the way for another more significant pastor. it’s a “transitional pastor.” of course, that doesn’t usually involve the death of the “transitional poastor” and a “transitional pope” will need to die before the transition takes place.