Good

Last night was a good night. We had the third of our Sunday night gatherings for Jr. Highers in the confirmation program. It was a great night. Nate Burleson did the music. Happy Fun Time did improv comedy, Erik Steen did a great job with the videos, Pastor Peter did the talk, along with Tom Tipton... The whole thing flowed. It was what we wanted it to be.

I came home last night with the sense of "this is why I do what I do." It is a program. Programs are not a magic panacea that answers all problems or issues. Far from it. But when it does work, they are tools. And really, if we are going to do programs, and we should, shouldn't we do them well?

The theme was "God Creates." The primary focus was on how God continues to create...to be active in our world... Externally and internally. It is a matter of being able to name God in the midst of that process.

My hope is that God continues to create within our process.

Old Vision

"If you're going to do things like you've always done them, you're going to get what you've always gotten."

I'm at at conference sponsored by the ELCA this weekend. The conference is a gathering of 250 people who are either synod evangelism specialists, or are a part of the Christian Educator's Network. It's been an interesting event. There are big parts of it that have been driving me crazy.

I can't seem to get anyone to understand what I mean when I talk ab out "language" as being a key to evangelism. Unfortunately, this event isn't about that.

I've heard mostly stuff that is repackaged from the past:

• Hospitality needs to be a priority.
• We need to live the story.
• The story has power.

None of these things are wrong. But every time that they were spoken, I cringed just a little. They are the same things that we have been saying for what...10? 20? 30 years? And how well has that worked for us so far?

The ELCA has shrunk in membership. 10% of ELCA congregations have grown by an average of 1 member per year over the last 10 years. (Yes, I typed 1 member.) That means the other 90% have been stable or shrunk.

Evangelism hasn't worked for us.

Is it our culture?
Is it our methodology?
Yes.

It is not our theology and it is not our message. They are a constant and they are life-giving.

But we need a new language. Or maybe new languages. We need to speak to a culture who doesn't "get" us. We need change. I don't know what that change is yet, but we need to figure it out. It is a problem that needs to be solved.

I'm not sure that the people who are here are capable of figuring it out. I'm not sure that our church, institutaionally, has the courage it takes to make the kinds of changes, or to think in creative ways necessary to institute change.

More on the event later...

At the Smithville Methodist Church

At the Smithville Methodist Church
by Stephen Dunn

It was supposed to be Arts & Crafts for a week,
but when she came home with the "Jesus Saves" button,
we knew what art was up, what ancient craft.

She liked her little friends.
She liked the songs they sang
when they weren't twisting and folding paper into dolls.
What could be so bad?

Jesus had been a good man,
and putting faith in good men was
what we had to do to stay this side of cynicism,
that other sadness. OK, we said, One week.

But when she came home singing
"Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so," it was time to talk. Could we say Jesus doesn't love you? Could I tell her the Bible is a great book certain people use to make you feel bad?
We sent her back without a word.

It had been so long since we believed,
so long since we needed Jesus as our nemesis and friend,
that we thought he was sufficiently dead,
that our children would think of him like Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson.

Soon it became clear to us: you can't teach disbelief to a child,
only wonderful stories, and we hadn't a story nearly as good.
On parents' night there were the Arts & Crafts all spread out like appetizers.
Then we took our seats in the church and the children sang a song about the Ark, and Hallelujah and one in which they had to jump up and down for Jesus.

I can't remember ever feeling so uncertain about what's comic, what's serious.
Evolution is magical but devoid of heroes.
You can't say to your child "Evolution loves you."
The story stinks of extinction and nothing exciting happens for centuries.

I didn't have a wonderful story for my child and she was beaming.
All the way home in the car she sang the songs, occasionally standing up for Jesus.
There was nothing to do but drive, ride it out,
sing along in silence.

APOD: 2005 November 7 - NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula

APOD: 2005 November 7 - NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula

An amazing photo from space

Bethel Lutheran of Biloxi Katrina Volunteers

Bethel Lutheran of Biloxi Katrina Volunteers

What is Honest

A friend of mine made a comment last weekend that I have been wrestling with. He said that in his prayer life, it was becoming more important to him to "just be honest."

Intersting.

Why would you not be honest in prayer? What good would it do to not be honest, if God is indeed all-knowing.

It's not about God, is it? It is about our own need to put ourselves in the best possible light, for God's sake and even more for our own. We are always trying to justify ourselves...to rationalize to ourselves, to make ourselves right.

It can't be done.

So how to be honest in prayer? I suppose I need to just start out figuring out how to be honest in life.

That's a different topic.

Academy

I'm in San Antonio for a planning meeting for the adult "Academy" at the ELCA Youth Gathering next summer.

I love the creative planning and dreaming process. The opportunity to dream about what kind of training the people who bring young people to the Gathering need, is really going to be fun. This is especially true when working on an project with the Gathering, which really has resources to throw around.

Saying What You Mean

This weekend 185 of our 10th graders affirmed their baptismal promises in the service of confirmation. It was a great weekend...a good celebration of faith...

It was interesting. There were many of the young people who were completely into the celebration. They were there because they "wanted" to make these promises their own and to enter into the life of the mystery of faith.

I also know that there were some young people who were completely going through the motions.

I love the young people who have strong faiths, who yearn to be challenged.
I love the young people who have doubts. Who wonder.
What drives me crazy are the young people (or any people) who are apathetic.

What do we do? How do we handle it? Do we "not" confirm? No, I don't think so. People are people and as God accepts them where they are at, we must also. Not everyone would agree with that. But it's where I'm at with it. So we confirm those who don't "deserve" it.

God's grace is not for those who deserve it.

God's grace is for me.

Confirmation is for them.

Time...

I've been too tired to write. Deep down tired.

We returned from our 8 days in Biloxi on Saturday night. There's not words to describe the experience. We blogged the trip on our web site.

Overall though, it was a powerful experience. 300 people a day...300 stories of pain. It sucks the energy right out of you. I have very rarely felt as useful and as needed as I did down there.

A Photo Share

The boys at Barnes and Noble

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Home Today

I Drove today from Hattiesburg back up to Jackson. I visited Ascension Lutheran Church in Jackson. These are amazing people. They are working an unbelievable pace, putting in unbelievable hours to distribute goods and to "warehouse" donations heading for the coast.

It's an amazing process, and the are doing this important work with grace. Theyh are not warehouse managers...they are not logixtics specialists...

The Pastor hung up the phone, looked at me and grinned and said "I just got another forklift!"

These people are tired and in need of relief, support and prayer too. They are doing the "grind it out" work that just needs to happen. Thanks to God for their work.

Seeing is believing

There are not words to describe what I'm seeing in Biloxi.

It's surreal:

• A McDonald's open for business like nothing is wrong, standing next to a Burger King which has been destroyed.
• Heavy traffic.
• RV and tent cities set up in the parking lots of K-Marts, Wal Marts and Save A Centers.
• Lines of cars to get free ice.
• Huge lines in the Wal Mart.

It's as if the destruction along Pass Road is "hit and miss." As if someone pointed at buildings one at a time and arbitrarily said "survive...survive...destroy...survive...destroy..."

Giant trees down everywhere.

The people are the most amazing though. The resiliancy awes me. The people at Bethel Lutheran are simply, quietly, going about the business of the Gospel. They are distributing food. They are distributing goods. 200-250 families a day. Amazing. They are not reflecting God's grace. They ARE God's grace.

The team gutting houses is working at a frantic pace. They are under a time limit before the mold becomes too significant. "Thank God for the Lutherans" a homeowner told me. "No one else is here in this neighborhood. Not FEMA, not the Red Cross, not even my own church...Thank God for the Lutherans."

The destruction along Hwy 90, the Beach highway, is a whole different story. I've never seen anything so complete. I've seen homes destroyed before, but they were always framed within the context of other homes that were fine, or several homes, but still within a neighborhood.

On 90, the destruction doesn't end. The only scene I can equate it to is the landscapes in the movie "Saving Private Ryan." The destruction, and rubble of burned out buildings goes on and on and on. But even the movie is in 2 dimensions. In 3 dimensions, Hwy 90 rocked my world. The power to destroy this way...I can't imagine it. And the people working in this area have a whole different demeanor. It's as if they are unaware of the rest of Biloxi...of the people in line in Wal Mart. These people are still, somehow, in rescue mode.

We will be back here in Mid October with a team. There is much to be done.

Our Habitat House!

The Habitat home our youth participated in building this past summer. It survived the storm.

Distribution of goods at Bethel Lutheran

The Fellowship Hall where our group ate its meals last summer, converted into a distribution center.

Supply Distribution at Bethel Lutheran

In the Narthex, outside of the Sanctuary.

Arrived

I arrived safely. Yes, I have a place to stay. I was able to get into a Fairfield Inn in Hattiesburg, which is halfway between Jackson and Biloxi, so it will reduce my drive tomorrow, which is nice. They don’t have a room for tomorrow night though. I’m going to try to extend it in the morning. Otherwise I’ll have to figure something else out. It will all work out.

Interesting though, Hattiesburg is still 70 miles from the gulf coast. The hotel parking lots are filled with Electrical company trucks from all over the south (North Carolina…Missouri…Georgia…). It is the crews staying in the hotels, not necessarily refugees, though there are probably some of them too.

On the drive down, at 120 miles from the coast, I began to see trees down. From 90 miles out to Hattiesburg (70 miles out) the trees were down on the side of the road almost continuously. At the 90 mile mark I began to see roofs off of buildlings and signs blown out by wind. Here in Hattiesburg, 50% of the road signs were bent down or blown over. Made finding the right exit a challenge.

I saw several power poles knocked over too.

The town here seems crowded. Lots of cars. I suppose because people are away from the coast.

Tomorrow I’ll be up and on the road by 7 or 7:30am and on the road. I'll try to update with photos as I am able.

A Long Drive

I drove today from Jackson, Mississippi to Hattieburg, Mississipi. I was fairly stressed by the drive, mostly because the majority of it was spent on the phone trying to make sure I would have a hotel room. (I'm still not sure if it was Expedia.com or Super 8 who screwed my reservation up...doesn't matter...I'm done with both of them.)

Still, I found myself in a quandry...I'm uptight because I may or may not have a motel room. The people I am going to see may not have homes at all.

100 miles from the Gulf Coast and I began to see evidence of trees down...at 90 miles, portions of roofs were missing. In Hattiesburg, whole freeway signs are bent in half.

I can't imagine what I'll see tomorrow. Tonight is going to be an anxious night.

A Picture Share...

Haircut with Uncle Paul