Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:18
That's all it said :)
In my search for a pastor job I come across a variety of interesting...how shall I sum it up...writings (not the best word but it will have to do). From job descriptions, to websites, to e-mails, and in this case bulletins.
Most job descriptions are simply lazy. It's obvious the search committee, if they even have one, copied and pasted their biblical support for a pastor from their constitution, by-laws...or whatever in their job description. The result is the repetitive sight of 1 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter scripture references.
I don't really know what to think of this. After seeing it so many times, you start to think, "well, duh, every church wants a pastor who fits the standard of God's word. I mean, isn't that common knowledge?" I guess it probably is to the pastors looking for jobs and the churches searching for pastors, but it probably isn't to the congregation. I wonder if these scripture references help calm any congregation's worries by letting them know - "yes, we the elders are looking for a man like the Bible describes." Whew! For a second I thought you might hire someone ungodly and below reproach. IDK, maybe someone's thinkin' that.
But that's my guess why search committees continually add these scripture qualifications as apart of their job description. Because come on, are there really pastors out there who are thinking to themselves, "ahah! I finally found a church who hasn't listed the Timothy, Titus, and Peter references! I'm home free!! I guess they don't care that I'm a multiple wife, addicted to wine, pugnacious person who is way way below reproach! bwahaha....They'll never ask, and I'll never tell of my many dark secrets :|)"
Sadly there are probably a few sickos out there who are more or less like this. OK, there are probably a lot of sickos out there who have convinced themselves they are really OK to pastor a church...b/c hey! freedom in Christ baby, and God forgives...all their consistent and repetitive sin.
But anyways...I got way off topic. The quote from above was a quote I found in a bulletin of a church I was looking at.
It made me laugh out loud :) Why? B/c that's ALL they had written! Nothing else! What words? those words in the verse? hahaha, it still makes me laugh.
It came across like they had a random bible verse generator for the bulletin each week and...surprise!....this was the verse it picked this week :) haha. Oh it's too rich.
I'll talk about bulletins later in another post. I wonder where they started? I mean it's not like the schedule changes drastically each week or has those random surprises that startle the congregation..."George! Oh my! We're singing Be Thou My Vision twice today!!" "I know Myrtle! and look at that - our preacher is singing his whole sermon!! I'm glad we had those bulletins, otherwise it might have frightened our children...to death!"
Alright, love you all - take my comments with a smile on your face, OK? :)
David
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Haiku: Discipline
My hate destroyed work.
But truth set discipline free,
and it's now my tool.
-David J Ruess
But truth set discipline free,
and it's now my tool.
-David J Ruess
Saturday, December 27, 2008
I watched 'The Fountain' (that artistic, “semi-hit” from a year or two ago) the other day. I'm pretty sure it was poignant, well-shot and very deserving of the critical praise that it received. It was also probably an allegory and a metaphor and I’m sure it must have profound implications for us right now, in this very moment. In fact, it’s probably telling me something about eternity, and about how I probably wasted too much time on the couch today. To be honest though I didn't really enjoy the movie, I didn't get it, I think I could have, but I honestly didn't care that much. And it was one of those movies where you have to care to get it (unlike Harold and Kumar, not that you
would care or should care about Harold and Kumar, I'm just saying.) to understand it.
Its how I sometimes feel about church. I see the same exact things that everyone else is seeing but for some reason, it just seems boring, life-less, irrelevant, and I won't use the word unnecessary because I know that sounds terrible and that “Biblically” its on-tap with saying that Paris Hilton is a virgin, but to be honest, it sometimes seems like it.
I did pick up a few things though watching the movie, and so without further introduction, heres my list of what I discovered during my viewing of the 'The Fountain.'
1. That guy, the one who was the fat guy on 'Remember the Titans' and I think 'Varsity
Blues,' and now is on that show that a lot of people find funny but that I've never really watched called 'My name is Earl' was in it.
2. They operated on the monkey of a brain. That was cool. It looked very sweet. It looked exactly how I thought it would look to see a monkey having his brain operated on.
3. Rachel Weise is just beautiful, I mean absolutely gorgeous. She could seriously have fur and I would still be attracted to her (?).
4. I put too much butter on my pop corn.
5. I'd rather watch 3 Ben Afleck movies back to back to back (not including Pearl Harbor or the onewith Matt Damon where he says, "how u like them apples!" but whose title I currently am blanking on) before I watch this movie again.
Speaking of movies, Why do we continue watching-why do we “stick out” movies-that don’t seem to make any sense? Why do we keep watching them even though we can’t see where their going or how all the scenes we’ve seen so far are going to fit together?
We keep watching because we believe it’s going somewhere. At least I suppose. Because we believe-with good evidence, that a creator-a director-has pieced these scenes together-indeed actually chosen them to unfold the very way they are happening. The creator has made a trajectory.
And so even though we don’t like that that one jerk has gotten the girl. And that the nice guy with red hair got killed for some reason, and that the cute blond girl is being blamed for something she obviously didn’t-we keep watching the movie. Because, it’s going somewhere.
Now, I’m not trying to make light of, or wrap a cute bow on what we face in this life-but I do feel the need to encourage and remind us that the lives we live do have trajectories whether they seem very random or not. They are not pieces of a story held together by nothing.
This doesn’t meant that if we walk super close to God that we will be able to fit all we go through together, into some nice puzzle of God’s proved faithfullnes. In short, it doesen’t mean that it will all “make sense” to us as we live our lives. Because often times it simply will not.
The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous and God’s ways are higher than ours (aka the jerk will get the girl, the nice red-headed guy will get killed, and the cute blond who did nothing wrong will get blamed).
Life can really hurt and cause our minds to wander when we don’t recognize the inherent story within. The earthly redemption….BUT, central to our faith is the abiding conviction that not only is history going somewhere-but we are too. Our lives (our excitement, our pain, our joy, our outbursts, our relapses, our victories, our transitions yadayada!). Our faiths. Our souls. I need to know that. I need to believe that.
-kevin j.
would care or should care about Harold and Kumar, I'm just saying.) to understand it.
Its how I sometimes feel about church. I see the same exact things that everyone else is seeing but for some reason, it just seems boring, life-less, irrelevant, and I won't use the word unnecessary because I know that sounds terrible and that “Biblically” its on-tap with saying that Paris Hilton is a virgin, but to be honest, it sometimes seems like it.
I did pick up a few things though watching the movie, and so without further introduction, heres my list of what I discovered during my viewing of the 'The Fountain.'
1. That guy, the one who was the fat guy on 'Remember the Titans' and I think 'Varsity
Blues,' and now is on that show that a lot of people find funny but that I've never really watched called 'My name is Earl' was in it.
2. They operated on the monkey of a brain. That was cool. It looked very sweet. It looked exactly how I thought it would look to see a monkey having his brain operated on.
3. Rachel Weise is just beautiful, I mean absolutely gorgeous. She could seriously have fur and I would still be attracted to her (?).
4. I put too much butter on my pop corn.
5. I'd rather watch 3 Ben Afleck movies back to back to back (not including Pearl Harbor or the onewith Matt Damon where he says, "how u like them apples!" but whose title I currently am blanking on) before I watch this movie again.
Speaking of movies, Why do we continue watching-why do we “stick out” movies-that don’t seem to make any sense? Why do we keep watching them even though we can’t see where their going or how all the scenes we’ve seen so far are going to fit together?
We keep watching because we believe it’s going somewhere. At least I suppose. Because we believe-with good evidence, that a creator-a director-has pieced these scenes together-indeed actually chosen them to unfold the very way they are happening. The creator has made a trajectory.
And so even though we don’t like that that one jerk has gotten the girl. And that the nice guy with red hair got killed for some reason, and that the cute blond girl is being blamed for something she obviously didn’t-we keep watching the movie. Because, it’s going somewhere.
Now, I’m not trying to make light of, or wrap a cute bow on what we face in this life-but I do feel the need to encourage and remind us that the lives we live do have trajectories whether they seem very random or not. They are not pieces of a story held together by nothing.
This doesn’t meant that if we walk super close to God that we will be able to fit all we go through together, into some nice puzzle of God’s proved faithfullnes. In short, it doesen’t mean that it will all “make sense” to us as we live our lives. Because often times it simply will not.
The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous and God’s ways are higher than ours (aka the jerk will get the girl, the nice red-headed guy will get killed, and the cute blond who did nothing wrong will get blamed).
Life can really hurt and cause our minds to wander when we don’t recognize the inherent story within. The earthly redemption….BUT, central to our faith is the abiding conviction that not only is history going somewhere-but we are too. Our lives (our excitement, our pain, our joy, our outbursts, our relapses, our victories, our transitions yadayada!). Our faiths. Our souls. I need to know that. I need to believe that.
-kevin j.
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