Why call a church?

A woman asked during a parade, while I was riding in the vehicle pulling the church float, if I'd help with her wedding. I asked her to call me during the week so that we could visit for a while. We finally spoke today.
Her words were familiar. Other people have told me they wanted a pastor for their wedding but who don't want to be part of the church. "I believe in God and pray, but I don't believe in church."
She's picked a date and booked a park to get married in; now all she needs, she thinks, is a pastor. She called the congregation located a few blocks from the park. They're part of a denomination that's pretty strict about marrying members only.
Not sure who to call next she tried us. The plan is to sit down tomorrow and see what they have in mind.

Summer Time Adventures

Summer rhythms are different for our family than school year life.
The thing I notice most with our kids this year is that they have more time to just be kids.
We see them on the porch drawing at the easel for an hour at a time. We see them playing with the neighbors and with each other. There's time throughout the day to read whatever, draw whatever, think about and talk about whatever.
We banter back and forth as parents about how much TV they ought to watch or how many video games they ought to play. But the truth is our girls are
Garrison Keillor in a monologue recently said that kids can just lay under a tree and look at it rather than thinking about what it is and what it's doing scientifically they can take in the beauty of the tree.
Summer's a gift the more I think about it.

Celebrating 7 Years

Our older two girls turned 7 today.
It's a great moment in their lives and ours. We celebrated a little with a day built all around the joys of 7 year-olds.
Donuts for breakfast eaten on the go, sticky and oh so satisfying.
Stopping strangers to announce, "It's our birthday. We're seven." Usually met with joy by the people who heard the news and said, "That's great,"
Baking cupcakes after lunch and frosting them too.
A midday dip in the pool.
Time with each other and neighbors sharing cupcakes just before heading in for bed.
Overall a good way to turn 7 with a birthday party with friends planned next weekend.

Life has Value

There are some people who like to provoke conversation. Peter Singer; who I rarely agree with in either his logic or his conclusions, has a knack for provoking conversation challenging his readers to bring out their best arguments to refute his writing. It's interesting to note that Singer doesn't always agree with the most extreme conclusions of his logic; but he does raise troubling questions for us as a culture.
Singer's most recent commentary in the New York Times called, "Should This Be the Last Generation" is a challenge to believers and humanists alike to see and name value in life. Singer's basic question, "Is life worth living?" invites two distinct response

1. Theological responses like comments on a discussion site frequented by Lutheran Pastors look to God as both the source and purpose of life.
2. Atheistic responses like those found in responses to Singer's article on n the Times website speaks of the chilling emptiness known in a life without God.

Singer's question is a worthy opening for us to bring both love and logic to our conversations about value, life, the environment, ethics, medicine and every other human endeavor. Meeting someone like Singer with logical arguments is good; but it's inadequate to the real task at hand for the church in our age. We have something better than logic; God's love made known to us in the person of Jesus crucified and risen.

One weekend two ends of life

On Saturday I went to a funeral for a man named Albion who died at 91.
On Sunday my beloved, our girls, and I attended the baptism of a 2nd cousin's baby girl, Mariah.
It was wonderful to see God's place, the families place, and the churches place in each of these events and the way that God, life, family, church, death, and baptism overlap. Baptism is about death first and then about life. It's hard to admit it really works this way because we deeply care for earthly life; but we as Christians are already dead because of baptism and we are alive now because of Christ.
Seeing Albion's funeral and Mariah's baptism reassures me that these two events are really connected. The pastor at Albion's funeral told a story about the Wednesday night after worship when Albion came to him as he was gathering up the communion elements. Al was singing the final hymn of the night as a question, "How can I keep from singing." The framed copy of the Beatitudes that hangs on my wall from Al reassures me that Al had faith and hope in the power of God's love. And in faith and hope he hasn't stopped singing.
The promise of Baptism assures me that Mariah's just begun to sing and that her singing and the singing of all who trust in Christ will not end.

Saying Goodbye to Albion

I went back to Kenyon today.
I've been part of Kenyon twice.
Once as a Pastor for two and a half years and again as a stay at home dad for about 8 months after our older two girls were born.
It's a tight knit town, who today said good-bye to Al Rodde. He was known in town as a man who laughed, told a lot of stories, was ready to debate, had a deep faith, and befriended lots of people including me and my family.
Albion could be found 5 days a week, except major holidays, at the grill in town having coffee at 10:15. I joined him and a group of about a dozen others to debate the issues of the day, tell old jokes, and laugh together. Today it was a blessing to watch that same group of guys serve as pallbearers for Albion.
I found out today that I'm not the only pastor who has a framed copy of the Beatitudes with a single spaced note of thanks and encouragement hanging in his office from Al.

Summer Time

There's warm air in the house tonight. I was cool all day until about 6pm.
The windows are open to let the night wind come in for a minute or two.
The kids are in bed with no alarm clock required for them until September.
It's summertime.

Counting down: the last days of school

Our older two are sure exited that school's going to end tomorrow.
Their excitement to learn seems to be waning, just a little, as the last day of class arrives. Our gilrs eager to be the smartest student in their class have started imagining the sort of things that await in the summer. They are talking about all the fun

• sleeping late
• time at the pool
• no homework to be turned in
• vacation Bible school
• summer soccer
• fishing

As excited as they are for the last day of school they were sure easy to get to bed. Wonder what tomorrow will be like.

Fighting Bed time

Our beloved one year old is fighting going to bed tonight. A few minutes ago she was almost asleep on my shoulder. She drank some milk from a bottle and settled in and seemed to be on her way to sleep. A few steps up the stairs and she was wide again. I gave her a quick kiss and set her into bed. She didn't lay down. She popped up on her feet to scream. I'll give her a few minutes to see if she can calm down; I hope she does.
Sure enough she did. It took a good 5 minutes of protesting but now she's sound asleep.
Time for cleaning and then bed for me too.

What happened to Blogging

I have been a blogger for just over 3 years. It's been quite fun keeping 4 different blogs going; Unlikely Conversation: a lectionary blog; Unlikely Banter: a blog about whatever; Unlikely Sermons: old sermons; and Unlikely Banter on Newsvine: a blog about news and views.
While some folks are still blogging I've begun to think that blogging is loosing popularity. Many blogs have been abandoned. Updating the links on my blog meant removing some expired links that once lead to very good blogs that have simply disappeared.
One of the best parts of blogging 3 years ago were the variety of blogs and blog-rings. A post could lead to comments from anyone in the world with a shared interest. In short there was at least the appearance that a person in one place could possibly have conversations with someone on the other side of the world, with someone they don't agree with, or with someone who isn't in your circle of friends on Facebook. I'm sure there are new bloggers; but I am not sure how many.
As Facebook reaches 400 million users it's clear that people are still sharing some on line. The difference is that many one time bloggers have chosen to leave the semi-anonymous world of Blogger and WordPress for the world of Facebook, "friends." In a time when it's becoming increasingly clear that Facebook is viewing their users more as a product to sell to advertisers than as their customers blogging looks more intriguing again.
Maybe its time to return to the vague anonymity of blogging rather than the vague privacy of Facebook. Maybe its time to see once again that blogs offers writers and readers very different opportunities to look at the world in a variety of different ways.
Just a thought.