PostSecret - Search for Significance

Here’s another Postsecret pic. (Warning: Some of the stuff on Postsecret is for grown up eyes only. Not anything you wouldn’t see on TV or not anything pornographic, but there are some adult themes.)

It’s amazing how important it is to make people feel a sense of belonging. The human desire to be loved is so great that people will do anything to get it. And it’s sad how many feel unimportant, like no one would be the wiser for their absence from earth. Tragic. We in the church can save a lot of souls if we can figure out how to come alongside lost people and help them realize their search for significance. I mean, what’s more significant than meaningful participation in the redemption of creation to God?!

Some Southern Drivers Are Too Nice

Everyone who lives around here ‘witha licka sense’ knows well the truth that the South is God’s Country. On that we can all agree.

But, when it comes to some Southern drivers, there is a recent epidemic of treacherous niceness that imperils all of us. At least once a day for the last week someone inappropriately, unsafely, and illegally tries to be nice to me… And it’s making me crazy.

It usually happens when I’ve been waiting for a green light and there are lots of cars behind the benevolent offender, who is across the intersection from me. Well, like anyone used to driving, y’know, legally, I begin to inch forward to wait until it’s safe to turn left.

But, in what seems like a disease that’s catching, the person across the way from me, who’s obviously supposed to be crossing the intersection toward me, will flash their lights and sit there, waiting for me to turn. Huh?!

As you can imagine, because I’m accustomed to legally and patiently waiting for my turn, I usually don’t catch on until the third or fourth flash. Of course, this just makes them mad, and here’s the straight-out-of-a-movie part… The kindly culprit, angry that I’ve questioned their advances, inevitably floors it and, while sprinting by, throws up their arms and glares at me in disgust as if I’m the one who’s the problem. I’ve even been flipped off!

So, while I appreciate the (first) gesture, you (initially) well-intentioned drivers can save it and keep right on driving according to the law, because I’m not turning… bless your hearts.

Tommy’s Here!

Our new Minister of Youth and Family Life, Tommy Staggs and his wife Leslie are here… and I’m elated. End of post.

FCC Staff out to Lunch

Now, don’t take the title too figuratively, people. Just thought I’d share a picture of our staff eating at a really awesome BBQ place here in Greeneville called Chuckwagon BBQ. Tommy, our new Minister of Youth and Family Life, made a good choice! (With some coaching, of course.)

Quote: Winston Churchill on Fanatics

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. -Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

That’s good stuff. As a minister, this is how I feel like when it comes to church… like a fanatic for God’s team.

This picture is taken from a great site by a guy named Mark Peacock, a photographer from East Tennessee, who has a whole slew of great Appalachian pictures on his blog, Appalachian Treks (and a lot of great quotes.)

FCC Newsletter - “Scott’s Thoughts” - Taming the Tongue (James 3:1-12)

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, has lectured throughout the country on the powerful, and often negative, impact of words. He often asks audiences if they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about, or to, another person. Invariably, a small number of listeners raise their hands, signifying “yes.” Others laugh, and quite a large number call out, “no!”

Telushkin responds: “Those who can’t answer ‘yes’ must recognize that you have a serious problem. If you cannot go 24 hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol. If you cannot go 24 hours without smoking, you are addicted to nicotine. Similarly, if you cannot go 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, then you have lost control over your tongue.”

The problem, according to the book of James, is that “[o]ut of the same mouth come praising and cursing” (James 3:10). Much like when people wonder, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?!” it can be, as James points out, like “a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body” that “corrupts the whole person” (James 3:6-7). Yeouch!

Like the rudder on a ship, James says, even though it is small, our tongues can steer our whole lives in a helpful or a hurtful direction.

So it is crucial for the Christian that we learn to control our tongues. Our witness to the reality of God, as individuals and as a church, depends on it!

So, how can we aim our “rudders” in the direction of helping? Might I suggest we practice. Captains of ships don’t just instantly become captains and take over the wheel their first time out. They have to learn. Likewise, using our words to help and to heal isn’t natural for most of us. It takes discipline and practice… not just empty prayers that ask the Holy Spirit to magically become the “Great Navigator” of our tongues while we idly wait for a miracle from on high. That was the error many committed when they marveled at Jesus’ powers as an easy fix that didn’t require them to change. Since when did exhibiting Godly behavior not take real work or effort? It’s why Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 that the “spirit is willing, but the body is weak” and Paul admonishes us to discipline our bodies.

So, how ‘bout this? Let’s try, as a body of believers, even if for only 24 hours, to go without saying any unkind words about, or to another person. Make a conscious decision and effort to do that one simple thing. And, over time, as we increasingly give ourselves to Godly patterns of behavior by using our speech as a bandage rather than a bludgeon, God will be glorified in our church.

Then, we won’t have people questioning out of sneering surprise, “You praise God and follow Jesus?” But they’ll declare out of genuine admiration and wonder, “You praise God and follow Jesus!”

A First for the First Christian Church Pulpit

I kinda tweaked my ankle a little bit this past week. The pathetic part is there’s no interesting story to tell other than to say that I have torn ligaments in both ankles over the years of basketball and soccer (and now, walking), so all it takes it a misstep around the corner or down the stairs, etc. And, no, a visit to the orthopedic doctor will not turn up anything other than a prescription to “take it easy” and stop playing sports that “people with aged ankles shouldn’t be playing” (”You mean 34?”). Anyway, when I woke up and got dressed this past Sunday morning, I put on my dress shoes, took a step and knew instantly that wasn’t gonna work. I need some significant support and cushioning when my ankles are hurting, so… I offer visual evidence of my solution… complete with gratuitous use of books in the background to provide that very official and pastoral “boy-he-must-know-a-lot” effect.

Balzac on “The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee”

This is a wonderful little read. For the full text, go here: The New Partisan.

Finally, I have discovered a horrible, rather brutal method that I recommend only to men of excessive vigor, men with thick black hair and skin covered with liver spots, men with big square hands and legs shaped like bowling pins. It is a question of using finely pulverized, dense coffee, cold and anhydrous, consumed on an empty stomach. This coffee falls into your stomach, a sack whose velvety interior is lined with tapestries of suckers and papillae. The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god; it brutalizes these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink - for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.

Ahhh, I think I’ll brew a cup now and start a war by feeding my tapestries of papillae!

(And you thought I was kidding about the “humor” tag cloud thing!)

“As evidence of my lighter side, I submit my ‘tag cloud.’”

I thought this was (hopefully) telling. My “tag cloud” (that cool new interwebby way of visualizing categories, tagwords, etc.) has “humor” as the biggest entry. I’m a lot more laid back than many folks here at church realize. I think it’s easy to get a one-sided impression of the “preacher” because the primary context for learning about him for most churchgoers is the Sunday morning “Thus-saith-the-Lord” mode of communication. (Can you tell what’s on my mind lately?)

So, as evidence of my lighter side, I submit my tag cloud.

(Some of you out there who know better are saying to yourselves, “Oh, save it, Scott! We know you’re just another curmudgeonly stick-in-the-mud.”) Well, yeah, that’s also true! But I just might include “humor” as a category tag on every single post to make sure it stays prominently displayed for all to think otherwise! :o)

FCC Newsletter Blurb - Why We Pursue Excellence

Figured I’d share some of what I’m writing in the church newsletter. I think I’m gonna have to use snippets from my vocational production (How stilted sounding is that?!… What the heck is “vocational production”?) in order to consistently have fodder for blogging and, at the same time, not add more time than it’s worth (i.e., drive myself crazy with yet another to-do list item that I will never get done.)

Why We Pursue Excellence
When Vince Lombardi took over for the Green Bay Packers, they had lost all but one of 12 games the previous year. They were an organization needing inspiration. Don’t worry, the metaphorical similarity to First Christian Church doesn’t begin there! :o) On the contrary, we’ve been blessed with many years of servant leadership the likes of which many churches never enjoy, and I am fortunate to begin my ministry as your preacher on the shoulders of many who have gone before. First Christian Church has been faithful to God’s calling since its formation in 1926 and, Lord willing, has many great years ahead of it. Friends, we’ve got good stuff to work with and, in many ways, there’s not a lot to “fix.”

But Lombardi did see untapped potential and, in his first speech with the new team he declared with a tone of purpose and confidence, “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence.” He paused, stepped up within a foot of the front row of players, and then he said, “I am not remotely interested in just being good.”

Wow! What challenging words for a team looking to win a few games! And while I’m certainly no Lombardi and First Christian Church is far healthier than a team coming off a one-win season, I am excited about pursuing excellence together because of the potential we have together. Not because we want to build a big church. Not because we want to be the coolest church in town… But because we want to communicate to our community and world the excellence of God. As God’s people we are called to spread a passion for the supremacy of God, and in light of that high calling, I don’t have much interest in just getting by. The glory of God is too important.

A lofty goal? Yes. But I’d rather fail trying to attain excellence than be successful at mediocrity. And while we certainly won’t always win, aiming high means we will catch excellence (and a quite a few not-yet-Christians) along the way!