Categotry Archives: Rantings

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Why I Haven’t Backslidden (I Think)…Er…Why I Think I Haven’t Backslidden

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

Let’s just dispense with the diplomacy for a moment…I’ve seen more than my fair share of crap and hypocrisy in my church experience. Actually, being in or near the inner circles of ministry leadership for most of my life, I’ve probably seen more than most. Televangelists hospitalized under assumed names for drug abuse, prominent pastors fabricating medical records for insurance purposes, ministers who turn out to be compulsive gamblers or pedophiles. And then there’s the stuff that happens closer to home. Staff meetings that turn into shouting matches. Church members who engage in power struggles with one another, and sometimes with the pastors. Church boards who mutiny against a pastor with new ideas by tossing his belongings out into the parking lot, and changing the locks on the building (I’ve seen that happen in two different churches in two different states). Pastors who lie through their teeth, gossip, and back stab; pastors who manipulate their people emotionally to keep the advantage, just because they can. I don’t know if you have ever looked in a pastor’s eyes and seen malevolence and evil intent toward you, as if Satan himself were staring you down. I hope you never experience that; it isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s completely deflating, because it leaves you wondering who there is left to trust.

This is a preview of Why I Haven’t Backslidden (I Think)…Er…Why I Think I Haven’t Backslidden. Read the full post (655 words, 1 image, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

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The Rape of the Media

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Categories: creativity, food for thought, Meanderings (look it up), Rantings

Now THAT title ought to get me some Google hits. 🙂

Actually, at first glance, that title might seem to some like a contradiction. It sounds almost like “the media” (meaning the news media) are the victims, rather than the perpetrators as many of us often think of them.

However…that’s not what I mean by “media” here. 🙂 I am referring to the broader definition; any form of communication, particularly public communication, is a medium, not just journalism. Art, music, dance, literature, television, movies…all of them (and others) are the media I’m talking about.

So…who has been raping the media?

This is a preview of The Rape of the Media. Read the full post (1436 words, 1 image, estimated 5:45 mins reading time)

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I (Used To) Love the Red-Winged Blackbird

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Categories: random stuff, Rantings, What the heck was THAT?

I’m not really a bird-watcher. At least, not in the sense that I stalk through the marshes in khaki shorts with a camera, looking for a glimpse of the rare plaid-bellied whispercrike.* But I do enjoy seeing them out my window, especially when they are colorful; and when I’m traveling, I get a kick out of seeing species that aren’t found in my neck of the woods…although most of the time I couldn’t identify them as anything other than hey-look-at-that-red-and-blue-bird-with-a-little-bit-of-yellow-on-the-wings.**

All that said…we have red-winged blackbirds*** in our neighborhood. They don’t show up all the time, but you notice them when they do, because of, um, the small bright red marking on the wings. They sort of stand out among the other run-of-the-mill blackbirds we see flying around.

This is a preview of I (Used To) Love the Red-Winged Blackbird. Read the full post (700 words, 2 images, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

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God and Secrets and Missing the Point Again

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Categories: food for thought, Rantings

This morning I was thumbing through a popular Christian magazine I used to subscribe to. I no longer am a subscriber, but they keep sending me issues saying, “Your subscription is expired!” hoping I will re-subscribe.

Anywho…I was looking at the Christian book advertisements in it, and had the impulse to see how many times the word “secret” was employed to pitch the books.

I lost count. But it was more than a couple.

This is a preview of God and Secrets and Missing the Point Again. Read the full post (820 words, 2 images, estimated 3:17 mins reading time)

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Day, Interrupted

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Categories: Rantings, what I did today

“Hijacked” is more like it.

Getting ready to leave to do my normal morning stuff (i.e., BLOG, get stuff at the store)…I walked into the garage to find water pouring out of the water heater closet, through the garage and halfway down the driveway. Figured out quickly the water was backing up through the water heater drain (not the water heater), apparently caused by a clog deep down in the pipes.

So I went to call the plumber. Opened my cell phone…my display is busted. Colors are going nuts on it, the picture is warped…I can’t even read the numbers. Oh, great.

This is a preview of Day, Interrupted. Read the full post (170 words, 1 image, estimated 41 secs reading time)

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Why We Should Sort of Take It Easy on the Pastors

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Categories: changing mindsets, food for thought, Rantings

For the past few days I’ve been pondering the whole clergy-laity thing, and the idea of leadership within the context of the institutional church. A couple of days ago, I invited the readers to discuss whether human church leadership is Biblical–and there was a lot of very helpful input and insight left in the comments (thanks!). Yesterday, I weighed in on the conversation in this separate post.

Today, because I think/hope it will lend perspective…I have some thoughts about the abuse of authority in the church–from the leaders’ standpoint.

This is a preview of Why We Should Sort of Take It Easy on the Pastors. Read the full post (1476 words, 1 image, estimated 5:54 mins reading time)

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Square Peg

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Categories: Rantings, whine-and-opine

Sometimes being outside the walls of institutional church feels exciting to me, even hopeful. It’s like there’s a whole new way of looking at church, ministry, and Christ-following, and when you remove the typical parameters of “churchiness” from these, it’s like whole new realms of possibility open up–because there aren’t nearly as many requirements as to what ministry can look like. You can potentially get very creative about it, and still keep the heart of what the Scriptures intended, maybe even more so. The possibilities seem endless. And when I think of this, sometimes I get excited. Hopeful, even.

This is a preview of Square Peg. Read the full post (757 words, 1 image, estimated 3:02 mins reading time)

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Friendship–Only the Genuine Article, Please

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Categories: Rantings

I seem to be latching on to a thread of inspiration in writing this post. I was inspired by a post Sarah wrote today…and Sarah was inspired by Alan…and Alan was inspired by Steve. (Sounds almost like a genealogy, doesn’t it?) And our posts aren’t about exactly the same thing, but they all resonate from a similar theme: the disconnectedness believers often feel in church.

Here are some highlights from Sarah’s post:

This is a preview of Friendship–Only the Genuine Article, Please. Read the full post (761 words, 1 image, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)
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