This summer the church that I attend is having devotionals on Wednesday nights in lieu of classes since, like most churches, our summer attendance is spotty at best and we have a hard time rallying teachers for this season. Because of our preacher’s absence this week I have been asked to speak this coming Wednesday night. It has been about nine years since I have had to prepare a sermon (not counting weddings) and I have one thing to say: It’s not like riding a bike. Not even close. The past two weeks of preparation have been a serious struggle for me.

That said; I am still looking forward to it. One of the few things that I miss about full-time ministry is preaching, even if all that I ever did was fill-in or pinch hit. Any believers who are reading this: I sure would appreciate a prayer for my message sometime before 7:30 PM Wednesday night, Eastern Time. Many thanks.

Announcement One

Yesterday I was offered, and accepted, a new job – same employer (the county community services board), different location, and a raise by three pay grades. The job certainly looks interesting and challenging: I will be the primary therapist and case manager for adults with chronic mental illnesses, providing treatment to them and their families in their homes and in the community. I will be part of a multidisciplinary team consisting of doctors, day support/vocational rehabilitation, and advocates providing services.

To say that I am excited would be an understatement. Of course I am looking forward to the new challenges, new colleagues and clients, the opportunity to pursue clinical licensure, and the raise. But truth be told, I am just as pleased to be free of shift work (especially night shifts) for what I hope is the rest of my life. No more working nights, holidays, or weekends. If one of my clients melts down during off hours, emergency services rolls out, and I deal with it on the next business day. If you don’t understand why this is a big deal for me, consider: for the past 9 years I have worked (internships excepted) exclusively in residential services with a variety of populations, and their problems and needs don’t magically dissipate into the ether at 5:00 pm. Even when I was a supervisor, I had to worry about maintaining adequate coverage to insure my clients’ safety. And while I miss some of my past clients and some aspects of past jobs (even as I will miss some aspects of my current job) I know that I will not, for one moment, miss shift work.

Announcement Two

With a fairly new marriage to a woman whose company I enjoy, a new job that requires actual work (at least 50% of which will be done out of the office), a hoped-for increase in church involvement, and a deep burning desire to see my friends and family again, I think that I am going to have to retire the old blog. My enthusiasm for it has waned as I have mostly vented myself of everything that I wished to vent, and I see no point in posting just to post. I also see no point in keeping a blog to which I won’t be posting on at least a semi-regular basis. I am more than aware of the ubiquitous “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but I have been so busy!” posts. I am also aware that there are bloggers who are far busier than I who still manage to post consistently good material at a regular pace. I don’t know how they do it, but I know that I can’t. I also don’t place such value on my opinion on every single issue that I feel compelled to share it. Some thoughts can and should remain unposted. I don’t want to end up like this guy. Finally, I see no need to apologize for my erratic posting – I cannot imagine that there is anyone whose life is poorer for being denied my mental bi-products. If there is, then they have my pity.

I am not going quietly into the electronic ether, however. I have decided to close shop with a series of posts on some more controversial topics that I have avoided until now for two reasons: [1] I don’t like pissing contests and [2] absolutely nothing gets resolved in blog debates. I enjoy a good, juicy debate but for every thoughtful, reasonable commenter there are two or three blathering poster children for birth control whose bumper sticker philosophy and canned, clichéd responses to every point stink up the internet and derail any useful discussion. They are truly warts on the rear of humanity and I had no interest in dealing with them. But, at this point I see no reason to not go out with a bang, so that’s the game plan. The series will be called Those Other Things. At this point, I don’t know how many entries there will be but I hope that those who are still reading will stick around for the finish.

A couple of parents in Sweden have decided to fight the “social construct” of gender by keeping the biological sex of their two and a half year-old offspring a secret.

Only those who have changed the toddler’s diapers know if “Pop,” which is not the child’s real name, is male or female. “We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mold from the outset,” the tot’s 24-year-old mother told the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. “It’s cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”

Pop’s wardrobe includes both pants and dresses, and the child usually gets to decide what to wear. “Although Pop knows that there are physical differences between a boy and a girl, Pop’s parents never use personal pronouns when referring to the child — they just say Pop,”

 It gets better:

Yet, Kristina Henkel, Swedish gender equality consultant, says Pop’s parents’ experiment could help the child develop as an individual without being boxed in by gender-role stereotyping from birth. “If the child is dressed up as a girl or boy, it affects them because people see and treat them in a more gender-typical way,” Henkel explains. “Girls are told they are cute in their dresses, and boys are told they are cool with their car toys. But if you give them no gender they will be seen more as a human or not a stereotype as a boy or girl.”

Pop’s parents say that they will reveal the child’s gender when Pop thinks it is time to do so. In any case, he or she will soon have more company. The family is expecting another child, and with the next bundle of joy, the parents plan to continue playing the “what’s it to you?” gender card.

First thing: what is a “gender equality consultant”? Second thing: the gender equality consultant suggests that a child with no gender will be seen more as a human. How does that work, exactly? Denying gender is denying a part of what makes us human. As much as some theorists might want us to think otherwise, gender is part and parcel of the human experience. It is a biological construct, not a social one.

“Pop” is also being denied the development of his/her/it’s own persona. Since the parents have opted to turn their child into a social statement rather than raise him/her/it as a whole human being, they are undermining the child’s dignity and laying the foundation for some serious neuroses in the future. Children are not property, product, works of art, or a means of expressing our own individuality or ideology.

Christianity Today and Time both rushed to report that the President and his family have selected a church at which they plan to identify themselves as members. However, it appears that they may have spoken too soon.

And I submit to you: how important is this to anyone’s faith, or lack thereof?

So why am I even writing about it? Because people evidently think that this constitutes news. What’s more, some atheists are chortling over this as though it lends further credence to their meme (which apparently some of them really need to hold on to) that Obama is a closet atheist. If you don’t believe me, check out the Obama tag over at Friendly Atheist. I defy you to find at least one comment thread where some idiot doesn’t suggest that Obama pandered to all the slope-browed, mouth-breathing believers in order to be elected.  (FA is also the same site which gleefully informs us that a member of ABBA is an outspoken atheist. I guess if a member of a mediocre 70s vocal band doesn’t believe in God, well, the faith is sunk).

Until proven otherwise, I will maintain my default position that the god of all politicians, regardless of party allegiance, is power. Their only sacrament is approval ratings and their only holy day is the first one of their next term. I don’t need a pastor-in-chief to believe, and you don’t either.

Star Trek  A whole lot better than it should have been. I was right in hoping that they would keep the cool stuff (space travel, aliens, starship battles, phaser fights, fisticuffs, and camaraderie) and jettison the draggy stuff (wooden acting, cheap sets and special effects, self importance). The casting is rock solid (especially Karl Urban as Bones and Zachary Quinto as Spock) and the story moves like gangbusters with plenty of humor. Granted, like all movies featuring time travel there are some plot holes, but otherwise its great fun. Just one question: does anyone else wonder why alien species look and behave just like us in the Star Trek universe?

The Hangover  Absolutely appalling, but funny as all get-out. Caught this one on a guy’s night while my wife and some of her girlfriends went to see The Proposal. I think the guys got the better portion.

UP  As far as I am concerned, a new classic. Not a false note in this deeply moving, riveting, laugh-out-loud, heartfelt adventure, and I feel no shame in admitting that I choked up a couple of times. How does Pixar make movies with animated characters that seem so real while Michael Bay makes movies with flesh and blood actors who come off like cartoons?

Seen anything good? Seen anything that made you want to sue to get the time back that you spent on it? Sound off in the comments.

The federal government has spent nearly half a million dollars to fund a study to find out why some men would prefer not to wear condoms during sex.

Next up, a study on why people don’t like paying taxes.

Thomas Kinkade, purveyor of kitschy paintings and self-professed born again, has been found guilty of committing fraud against two distributors of his “paintings of light.”

From the article:

In its February 2006 decision, the arbitration panel said Kinkade and other company officials used terms like “partner,” “trust,” “Christian” and “God” to create “a certain religious environment designed to instill a special relationship of trust” with the couple.

What the company didn’t tell them, said their attorney, was that they would have to sell Kinkade’s works at minimum retail prices while the artist undercut them with discount sales, some of which he made himself on cable television.

It was part of a plan, they claimed, to lower the value of the publicly traded company before Kinkade bought it in 2004, at steep losses to many investors. Hazlewood and Spinello put their $122,000 savings into galleries in Charlottesville and Fredericksburg, Va., that opened in 1999 and 2000 and closed in 2003.

Sigh. Regardless of what one may think of Kinkade’s paintings, this is yet another strike against the credibility of believers. Most odious to me is his use of their shared faith to dupe the investors into supporting him.

Perhaps Kinkade rationalized this to himself by saying that the outcome was good – “light” was spread and folks were edified, right?

Yet it’s funny how Jesus never endorsed an “ends justifies the means” ethic – not even for spreading the gospel. We would all do well to remember this.

Christine and I celebrated my brother’s birthday with him and his girl on Sunday night by catching local blues legends The Nighthawks at Jammin Java. Not much I can say about this except, well, what a show. They lit the place up and boogied like the masters that they are. For your listening pleasure, I have included a clip of them playing the old chestnut “I Wish You Would.” Enjoy!!

Over at The Onion’s AV Club there is an interesting post where the editorial staff writes about what fictitious world or worlds they would like to live in and why. There are some great responses. My personal favorite:

“…my fictional world is less a matter of geography than concept: I wouldn’t mind spending a week or two in the skewed reality of a Zucker-Abrams-Zucker film like Airplane! or Top Secret. How fun would that be, to have everything you say turned into a hyper-literal pun, for every stupid question to have an attendant snappy answer, and for your life to be filled with parodic non sequiturs?”

I think it’s a great question, and seeing as I lack the shame necessary to stop me from stealing a good idea, I wanted to put it to any readers who are interested. Mine is below the fold:

I’d like to live in the Wild West, Hollywood-style (remember, this is fictitious). In the Hollywood west, nobody gets scurvy, everyone has all of their teeth, the drinking water is clean, and most towns are only a couple of days’ ride apart. It hardly ever rains. There is adventure over every hilltop. Outlaws can’t shoot very well and the bad guys always get what is coming to them. Plus, the saloons are open 24/7, filled with pretty women, and there is always a poker game going on.

Runner up: The Looney Toons World. Being able to recover instantly from a 100 foot fall or having an anvil dropped on my head? Boss, man.

Now how about you? Anything in any genre goes, so kick in with your two cents: What fictional world (novels, film, television) would you like to live in (or visit for an extended period) and why?

There is a great profile of Tim Keller in this month’s issue of Christianity Today. For those of you who don’t recognize his name, Keller is a pastor, author and church-planter. In 1989 he and his wife began Redeemer Presbyterian Church in the heart of Manhattan. Keller’s prior experience had been as a pastor in the suburbs and a seminary professor. Balding, bespectacled, and studious, he is by his own admission neither dynamic or hip. In fact, he admits in the article that he didn’t even want to go.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? Yet today Redeemer has an average Sunday attendance of 5000 and shows no signs of slowing down their growth in the near future. Redeemer’s membership body is made up of life-long New Yorkers, Wall Street wizards, blue-collar workers, and everything in between. Every ethnicity in the city is represented. And they are in the process of planting new churches all over the city. They do this without multimedia, soft rock, or interpretive dance. Keller’s sermons follow the liturgy and the music is traditional, except for evening services. They didn’t even advertise. Consider:

“Redeemer’s worship is seemly and traditional. Instead of using video monitors, casually dressed worshipers follow a 20-page bulletin that includes hymns, prayers, and Bible texts. Organ and a brass quartet lead the music. For evening services, jazz musicians play contemporary Christian songs.

Standing 6′4″, with a bald head, glasses, and a coat and tie, Keller, 58, does not look hip. Nor is his sermon funny, charming, or daring. He preaches from the first chapter of Genesis, on the doctrine of Creation.

Keller speaks like a college professor, absorbed in his content, of which there is a lot. When longtime friend and founding member Dee Pifer invited colleagues from her Manhattan law firm, she would say, “I want you to hear a really good litigator.”‘

How does this happen?  You really need to read the article to get the whole picture, but the following points stood out to me:

Research  Before starting, the Kellers made it a point to learn everything they could about the city; moving beyond media presentations and stereotypes to get to know what life is like there.

True fondness  The Kellers, who previously had lived in rural and suburban areas (despite Tim’s teaching in Philadelphia) fell in love with city life and the people that they were ministering to. Their call became their passion.

Preaching that is accessible and responsible  As a former seminary professor, Keller is no theological lightweight, and he doesn’t water his sermons down or compromise Biblical truth. What he does do is tailor the delivery of his message to believer and unbeliever alike. Hard doctrine delivered in a way that makes sense to folks who have not really heard it before.

No politics  ’nuff said.

So maybe this is how it’s done. Maybe we don’t need mission statements, emblems, advertising, jugglers with flaming batons, or sex challenges to reach the lost. If we love God and love the people we are trying to reach (and I mean love in the agape verb sense) amazing things can happen. This is a lesson that we all need to learn, over and over again.