Indiana Conference of the UMC

I think I have seen it all now!

I got this in the mail yesterday.  I saw it in my box and to be honest, I looked at it quickly and tossed it aside --- I mean, it is from the Annual Conference so I knew it couldn't be too important.

Then I looked at it again, and this time I broke out into laughter.

Thursday, the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church will meet for our Annual Conference in Indianapolis.  This is our first venture into a big city.  Back in the day when we were just the North Indiana Conference (the north half of the state) we always meet on the campus of Purdue University.  Then a few years ago we united (merged is a forbidden word) with the South Indiana Conference and became The Indiana Conference.  (Did you get all that . . .)  For the past three years we have meet at Ball State University, but Thursday we hit the big time when we meet at the new Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.

There must be some real concern about the mental capacity of the delegates to send out this postcard.  If I am not capable of remembering where I parked, how am I capable of being in leadership in my church?  And how in the world will I remember where I put this stinking card?

Thanks, conference planning committee.  You gave me a good laugh today!

The Presence of God

Saturday, Nancy and I attended a wedding for a friend at a Serbian Orthodox Church.  The Church (St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church) was absolutely stunning.  It was just what you would expect to find, but it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere!  Then this morning, a friend posted a picture of her wedding (in the 90's) in a Greek Orthodox Church.  The two connections made me think.

What struck me about the orthodox service was how beautiful it was.  The Icons were amazing, the chanting,the incense creates such an otherworldly experience.  And that is the point.

Within the Orthodox Church, God is presented as a mystery that one must be drawn into.  Through the liturgy, and the setting, God is separate and distant from us, but can be experienced in the mass.  That is so different from the main-line protestant experience.

While I enjoyed the service (although it was a bit long), I was never able to experience the divine.  God always seemed to be off, behind the iconostasis (the Icon screen).  I know that is not the way it is supposed to be.  Theologically the iconostasis is supposed to bring the divine together with the worshippers, but in practice, I am not sure if that is what people experience.

We need to experience the divine.  And I have come to realize that we all do that in many different ways.  For some it is in the liturgy of the church, for others it is in service, and still others in nature.  Regardless of how we experience the divine, the key component is: WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT?

If it is just for our own benefit, then I would suggest that it is a waste of time.  God is concerned about how we live in community, and that community is not defined by a local church, or a denomination, or (heaven forbid) a religion.  Unfortunately, we have become so uncultured that the only way we tend to experience God is through he matrix of our local church/denomination or religion.

Israel - Wednesday, November 9

The journey over was uneventful.  I was sitting on the side on the plane with two women, I had the aisle seat.  The woman in the middle seat got up a dozen times during the night --- as you can imagine, I did not sleep very well.

At about 4:00 pm, on Wednesday, we arrived in Tel Aviv.

One we found our bags, and our bus, we began the bus ride to Tiberius where we would begin our journey.  We arrived to the Royal Plaza hotel around 8 pm, ate dinner, and then the five of us from Ridge walked a little over a mile into the city of Tiberius.  After our walk we returned to the hotel and went to bed.

Holy Land Adventure

Tuesday, November 8

The trip begins on a crazy note as I go to O'hare to pick up Nancy for her 9:30 arrival from visiting her parents in North Carolina.  The plane is late (and traffic was horrible), and I pick up Nancy at a little after 10:00 am.  We rush back to Munster, grab a quick bite at Panera and meet the group from Ridge as we begin our odyssey to the Holy Lands.

Our flight from Chicago to New York was late (are you noticing a theme), which turned out to be good.  Instead of a jam packed full plane, the flight to New York was relatively empty. We arrived just a little late, and had about an hour and a half wait until we boarded our plane for Tel Aviv.  Ran into the group from Church of Our Savior from Cincinnati, Ohio.  Grabbed a quick bite to eat, made a coupe of phone calls and boarded the plane a little before 8 pm for our departure at 8:50 for Tel Aviv.  The adventure was really beginning.

Every seemed to be on schedule for an on time departure, the plane was absolutely full (actually had more passengers than seats --- don't ask, it is a long story.)  A little before our scheduled time to pulled away from the gate to jump into the air ---- but alas, it was not to be.  A man, sitting in front of Kathy, was ill.  A doctor on the plane tended to him and the airline stopped the plane on the tarmac.  After a long delay, the airline decided to remove the man from the plane, he, however, refused to deplane without his bags, so they had to find his bag.  After a long wait (and we had no idea that this was going on at the time), we finally backed away from the gate once again to make the long jump to Israel.  At 11:11 pm our plane was airborne and on the way.

Israel Bound

I heard from my father last night that there was to be a general strike in Israel beginning today that would shut down the airport and thus jeopardize our trip.  Fortunately, the strike was short lived (only four hours), so as of now, we are a go.  Tomorrow at this time I will be heading to O’Hare with the group from Ridge Church to begin our great adventure.  We depart O’Hare at 2:50 and fly to NY where we will change planes and depart around 9pm.  We are scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv at 2:50 local time on Wednesday afternoon.  Once we gather up our belongings, go through customs, etc, we will be on our way to Tiberius and the Royal Plaza Hotel.

The Royal Plaza is not one of my favorites, but by going their first we will enjoy the hotel in Jerusalem all the more!  We will spend 3 nights in Tiberius before heading to Jerusalem on Saturday. 

I will try to blog every day, but I am not sure that I have internet access in Tiberius.  If not I will post my daily blogs once we arrive in Jerusalem.

I am ready for some Sabbath time!

Zombies!

I don’t think that I have ever read a book quite like Jeff Kinley’s: Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: Slaying the Living Dead Within.  It is a strange book because it really wants to be two books inside one cover.  Part of the book is a fictional narrative about how Zombies are trying to take over our world.  The other book is about how our sinful nature is like having a Zombie inside of us.

I am a big fan of Christopher Moore’s irreverent stories about misfit angels and childhood friends of Jesus.  Kinsley’s imagination is not up to Moore’s, and I found his preaching a bit over the top

The fictional story is pretty slow getting developed, and at times I really had to force myself to stick with it.  And his theological understands are so out of touch with reality that those tended to turn me off.

Overall, the fiction story turned out to be decent.  The preaching, or Biblical application if you will, was a bit much.  If you are looking for a decent Zombie story and typical Evangelical Christian Biblical Application (seemed awfully Calvinistic) then this book is for you!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Same ole, Same Ole

We have all heard, or experienced the fact that a majority of children (once they get confirmed) drop out of the church never to be seen again.  According to a survey by LifeWay Reasearch: “Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30—both evangelical and mainline—who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23.”

Why?

Well internationally known defender of the faith Josh McDowell and co-author Bob Hostetler suggest in Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door that teens don’t have the answers to the questions that most perplex them.  They seek to give teens answers that make sense, even for the toughest of questions. Their answers are laced with humor to expose common myths about God, the Bible, religion, and life to show how Christianity stands up to the test of fact and reason. Well, sort of.

Unfortunately, they answer most questions by assuming that a teen is already indoctrinated in the faith and will accept the same old pat answers that we have been giving since the dawn of the Enlightenment.  I found the book frustrating, and dated (it is just a rehash of an older book) and unable to convince most of the non-believers that I encounter.

If a teen is on the edge and willing to check their brain at the door, then this is the book for them, otherwise I would suggest that they dig deeper into some of the modern thinkers (who aren’t thinking very modernly) and learn from them, because having faith in the Way of Jesus is essential for us all.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Thoughts about Steve Jobs

The world got the news last night that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had died at his home at the age of 56.  It has been interesting reading the reflections on his life, but a number of things bother me.

I was a proud owner of an original Macintosh Computer (1984), so I hopped on the Apple bandwagon very early.  When I started Celebration Church I really debated about going with Mac's but at the time there just wasn't much church oriented software out there (there still isn't) and I could not justify the cost.  I own the I-pod, I-phone and I-pad and just today ordered a Mac Book Pro for the Church.

I say all that because I think it is important that I separate my feelings for Apple with Steve Jobs the human.  One of the things that has long disturbed me is Jobs' lack of interest in philanthropy.  I know that Jobs' was a very private person, but his personal life left many things to be desired.  I don't need to detail any of that but the thing that struck me was his unwillingness to join Warren Buffett and Bill Gates' "Giving Pledge" in which they invited the super-rich to join them in donating at least half their wealth to worth causes.

Somewhere in the mix while we canonize Steve Jobs', we need to remember that inventing isn't the only thing.  Sure he will long be remembered as quite possibly the greatest inventor of our time; but we also need to remember his failure to be inventive with all the wealth that he accumulated.  Failure on his part to model for the rest of us ways to be generous, is also a major portion of his legacy.

Lots of Books and Stuff

In a little over a month I will heading back to Israel for a 13 day trip that will include a few days in Jordan.  The last time I was in Israel was February of 2008 when I was privileged to be the guest of the Grand Encampment of the Knights Templar.  Pictures from that trip can be found at: my flickr site.

One of the things that I hope to do is blog everyday about the trip.  I usually write a diary, but instead I will do it online.  I hope that this will provide some type of written journal not only for me but also for all those who join me on this trip.

One of the things that I am most excited about is the opportunity to return to Jordan.  I am not even certain when the last time I was there, but I would guess it was close to 10 years ago.

One of the things that I like to do on this blog is keep up to date on the books I have been reading.  I have been very dilatory in posting my reviews, and I doubt I will ever go back and do it.  So let me just share some of the books that I remember that I have read this summer.

Imperium by Robert Harris (very good story about Ancient Rome)

Pictures at A Revolution by Mark Harris (Wonderful history of Hollywood in 1967 and how that year transformed Hollywood forever.

Speaking Christian by Marcus Borg (Challenging book about how Christian words have lost their original meanings.)

Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (Miller is an author who often speaks my language, and when he doesn't he really gets me thinking --- I would highly recommend his books!)
Harvard Yard by William Martin (Fun historical fiction about the history of Harvard)

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler (Don't waste your time!!!)

In the Garden of Beasts by Eric Larson (Wow, I have loved everything that I have read from Larson and this one is no exception.  This is the story of an American diplomat during the rise of Hitler in Germany, 1933.  For any history buffs, this is a must read!)

The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbreck (This may be the definitive book on Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  It has made me want to travel to see the sights.)

Fire and Rain by David Browne (Great follow up to Pictures at a Revolution because this book follows the careers of The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY in 1970.  This book was a lot of fun and brought back lots of great memories!)

Sacred Trash by Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman  (OK, you have to be a little off to enjoy this book, and I did, since it is the story of the discovery of ancient texts from a Cairo Geniza.  You really have to be into archaeology and the back story to get into a book like this.)

I also just recently completed two books about Bicycle Touring.  One about touring on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the other about touring the Natchez Trace.  I plan on riding the Natchez Trace next summer, now I just have to get a bike!

I am sure I have forgotten a few books along the way.  I am going to try to do better and post regularly so that I don't fall so far behind, and so that I get in the habit before the trip to Israel.

Computer

After I got home, I went downstairs to turn on my computer and . . . nothing! I had been having problems for the last month with the darn thing and had it in the shop to remove some viruses, but now it seems to be doa! I don't need this right now!