Month: March 2008

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using what you have

the first methodist church of madison has been given a choice – free parking or helping the homeless. here’s an article on the situation. fred mohs, a lawyer and owner of a parking ramp in madison, wisconsin, has given first methodist free parking on his parking ramp for 18 years. this changed recently when mohs decided that the fact that the church operates as an overflow homeless shelter when it is cold is destructive to the wisconsin avenue area of madison. he gave the choice of continuing to have free parking as long as they no longer run the shelter. thankfully the church chose to give up the free parking. mohs has said that the church can regain the free parking whenever it gets rid of the overflow homeless shelter.

while i disagree with mr. mohs i am a firm believer that he has the right to say that first methodist can only use his parking lot if they agree with what he wants. i think what he is doing is stupid but i do think that he has the right to do it. other than governmental situations we should never have to financially support actions that we idealogically disagree with (i’m not even completely sure of governmental demands). of course, this cuts both ways. i don’t think that anyone who values what first methodist is doing should ever consider using the services of or supporting financially what mr. mohs is doing. i don’t plan on using associated with fred mohs.

if you want to email support to the church you can email pastor keith schroerlucke here.

my run for the day
distance – 7.0 miles
time – 1:14:18
pace – 10:37/mile
weather – 45º/sunny

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something is wrong

bowling for baton rouge
MY ELEVEN YEAR OLD SON KNOWS THE NAMES OF PROFESSIONAL BOWLERS!

yes i know the above statement is in all caps but that is just to show how drastic of a statement it is. why would an eleven year old know the names of any professional bowlers? i can’t think of any reason other than his dad or mom being really into bowling. pam and i aren’t. yet when i turned on the tv and ran across professional bowling on espn noah immediately shouted out one of the bowler’s names and said “i can’t stand him … i like (someone whose name i don’t remember) better!)

i feel as though i have failed as a parent.

my run for the day
distance – 6.0 miles
time – 1:02:12
pace – 10:22/mile
weather – 27º

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haunted

yesterday i was attached by an onion poltergeist.

i didn’t really experience any onion visuals or onion movements, but i know that i was attacked by an onion poltergeist because of the smell. before i say anything else let me say that to my knowledge i was not within 20′ of an onion all day. i did not handle an onion during the day nor was i around someone who was handling an onion. so there is no way that i should have naturally smelled of onion.

yet i did smell of onion and the smell grew stronger and stronger as the day went on. the first smell was faint at best. it was when i was having my eyes check for new glasses. this was mid afternoon. hour by hour the smell grew stronger as the ghost gained strength. by the evening the smell of onion on my person was so strong that everyone in the room could smell it. it was amazing.

in order to end this haunting i had to strip down and quickly wash everything i was wearing, including my winter coat, in “all” laundry detergent and holy water (i bless the washing machine). the exorcism took an hour but thus far it seems to worked. i no longer smell strongly of onion.

i am not sure what i did to tick off this onion phantom but i will try my best not to do it again. walking around with smelling like a 6’1″ onion was not a pleasant experience.

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photo document an event

lifehacker posted concerning photographically documenting your party and the article had several very cool ideas. i’ll probably steal some of these for when we launch tapestry but i wish i had known about them when i was doing youth ministry. these things have “lock-in” and “retreat” written all over them.

the three suggestions they have are:

  1. time elapsed webcam video
  2. computer photo both photos
  3. live party slideshow via eye-fi card

i think these things would be eaten up at a lock-in.

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d. min essay

as i posted earlier i am in the process of apply to new orleans seminary to work on a doctor of ministry degree. as a part of the application process i have to write an autobiographical essay which consists of:

  • a brief statement of conversion and call – 1 page
  • a brief description and evaluation of ministry experience – 2-3 pages
  • discussion of philosophy of ministry – 2-4 pages
  • a brief analysis of personality and leadership style 2-3 pages
  • a discussion of 3 influential books (apart from the Bible) read in the past three years – 2-3 pages
  • goals for personal and professional development – 1 page

so i’m working on this essay this week. i’m enthralled by the idea of electronic collaboration within then church and so my hope is to try and make this a collaborative effort. the only way i know to do that at this point is to set the file up as a google document and encourage people to help me edit it (once it’s written because right now there isn’t much that is written). you can view the document here. if you are interested in having access to edit the document please just email me at my name @gmail.com and i’ll add you to the editors. also if you think of another way that the essay could be even more collaborative please send that to me. i’m up for trying pretty much anything.

btw, since the document has to be done in the style of ole’ kate and i don’t know how to do such a thing in google documents, i will merely be using google docs to type out the meat of the essay and then transfering it to micro$oft word or open office for the actual formatting. this means the google document is a very incomplete document.

MAJORLY IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE
this essay is being written to a faith based institution and therefore i’ll be using the language of the evangelical subculture. hopefully i don’t usually talk like this but i understand what they are asking for and i am very afraid that they will not understand what i am trying to convey unless i describe it within evangelical language. thanks to a few youth laughing at me i have worked at trying to avoid such blatantly “churchy” language. i’ll have to use some of that language within this essay. once, i’m in the program they’ll know who i am and understand what i am trying to say. for now i need to speak in the language they will understand.

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porch-traits

i was looking at the solomon’s porch weekly email newsletter and saw this in it:

PORCH-TRAITS – the artists of the porch are excited to announce a great new project (with an incredibly cheesy name). we are endeavoring to make a portrait of everyone who considers solomon’s porch their home. the portraits will be displayed in our building. this will be an important contribution from the artists as we look to structure our identity in the coming year. we hope everyone here signs up! if you are a portraitee or portraitor please sign up at http://porchart.blogspot.com. all you need to do is write your name and “portraitee” or “portraitor” in the comments section of the post.

what a great idea! i think that it not only does a great job of infusing art & beauty into the church but is a wonderful reminder of the fact that a church is it’s people rather than it’s building. this one has been added to my google notebook idea file and will be “borrowed” later on.

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launch: starting a new church from scratch

i’m not much on following formulas which is why liked “launch” by nelson searcy and kerrick thomas. i just finished it after a long “on again / off again” reading of it. the book is a good resource on planting churches. there was a wealth of what not to do and what to do within it’s pages. thankfully it walked the fine line of offering helpful advice without jumping into the egotistical mindset of telling you that you should plant the church in just this manner. i like it when people acts as guides rather than experts. i am presently using and will continue to use a good bit of what i read within “launch.” if you believe GOD my be calling you to plant a church the book is well worth your time.

my run for the day
distance – 2.5 miles
time – 28:03
pace – 11/14/mile
weather – 21º/windy & icy