Resurrection Life

Have you checked out Mt. Olivet Plymouth's new Wednesday night worship and education yet?

We have had a wonderful October with an all-new Wednesday evening schedule that includes a meal, worship and education. I am putting some pictures up from our worship time which is led by Jacy Pelstring and Eli Elstad and their band Clarety Drive.

Technorati Tags: life, liturgy, Lutheran, worship

Matt Weinstein: Go Ahead -- Put A Book In The Freezer!

Matt Weinstein: Go Ahead -- Put A Book In The Freezer!:

Some 25 years ago I took a class with the conceptual performance artist Kenneth Maue called "Water in the Lake," named after his book of that title. Why "Water in the lake?" Because that was the first thing we did on the first day of class -- we traveled to a local lake, and each of us poured a glass of water in the lake.

That was it. Class dismissed.

My favorite session was a class where each of us sat in a darkened room together with a box of matches. Every time you had a thought, you lit a match. If it was a minor thought you blew the match out right away. If it was a Big Thought, you let the match burn for a while. We never explained our thoughts out loud to the other students; we just sat in silence and observed the passage of the thoughts as they arose.

If there was one lesson that I got over and over from the class it was this: Wake up! Pay attention! Come alive in this moment!

For many years I have been a great proponent of having fun at work. The main purpose of bringing intentional, structured fun to work is to give you and the people around you a wakeup call, a chance to see things a bit differently, a chance to view your work environment from a new and fresh angle. I believe that fun at work will invariably lead to more "creative thinking" on the job. But it's most important result is that is awakens you to the infinite joy of just being awake and alive in this present moment.

One of the things that Kenneth Maue asked his students to do was to put a book in the freezer, and then to let him know the title of the book. He published all the titles in his Rollmag newsletter. I put a copy of Naked Lunch by William Burroughs in my freezer, and never took it out. Every time I opened the freezer door for the next twenty years, the first thing I noticed was the book, and most of the time it made me smile. (I am married to the writer Geneen Roth, and she famously writes in her book Appetities about the time she bumped her head on the fencepost, and, searching frantically through the freezer for some ice to stop the swelling, could only find my copy of Naked Lunch perched on the shelf. She roundly cursed not only me but also Kenneth Maue and William Burroughs that day.)

When I moved to my present home, I left Naked Lunch behind in the freezer for the next occupants, and as far as I know it still might be there. But I woke up this morning and realized that it's time for a new book in my freezer, so I am going to put one in there today: Yes Man by Danny Wallace.

I think it might be time for you to put a book in the freezer, too. If you want to go public with it, let's publish our book titles on the Facebook Fanpage.

Or if you don't feel like publishing your title, just let it be a secret between you and the universe. A secret that will probably give you an unexpected little smile the next time you go looking for some ice cream in the freezer.

Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God by Thom and Art Rainier: A Review

Simple Life is a big book. That was my first impression. My second was this: those authors must have a sense of humor if they think I have the time to read this book on creating a Simple Life!

The reality is this, something is wrong with how people are living life and the Rainer's (father and son) have not only put their finger on the problem, as many have, but, have even done research into the issue with a strong sample and a margin of error of 2.9%.

Their research showed them four areas that people generally find themselves yearning for something simpler: Time, Relationships, Money, and God. The interesting thing about people who are mired in the morass of busyness is this: what of what they are doing can truly be called bad? Work to provide for family? Sports to stay healthy and active? Schoolwork to get good grades and get into college? These are the very issues that church pastors and leaders bump up against all the time... and your members' level of church involvement is not going to figure large into their future earnings or the school their child is going to get into... so what we are left with is a diagnosis that we hear all the time as church leaders. We're TOO BUSY! So, what to do about it? Yell louder, lay bigger guilt trips? Close up shop?

Well, first thing, get this book... read it. Yes, it is thick; but it reads fast. Even the analogies make sense; I'm sure a couple of them will show up in a future sermon or two.

The authors have four core ideas around which the four areas for simplification circle. The foundational key is to remember that this process is a *journey* and that in itself is a freeing idea!

The first idea is *clarity*. Clarity means we know where we are going. The authors challenge the readers to develop an actual plan, when one follows a plan change results. When we don't the status quo reigns supreme.

The second idea is *movement*. Congestion is bad. A congested sinus will get infected. Congested traffic causes heart attacks. The authors show the readers how to use intentionality and incrementality to knock down the roadblocks to change and simplification. We all know that one big systemic change is way too tiring and scary to attempt and here is a way to get at real change in small, noticeable ways.

The third idea is *alignment*. Lives get out of alignment slowly and usually unnoticeably. Debt doesn't just show up overnight just like my spare tire didn't. You don't get overbusy in one day either. Eliminating some of the GOOD STUFF is key to aligning our lives around what really matters to us!

The final idea is *focus*. Focus means that some things just don't get done no matter how good they are.

The entire book is written about the dash. The dash. You know, that hash mark between your birth and death date that will appear on your grave marker one day? How are you going to live your life in that dash? And, when the sleep of blessed death comes to you one day, how will you be remembered? As one who was overbusy or one who learned how to life a life that mattered, a life that was lived according to why God created us in the first place?

Technorati Tags: Simple Life, Thom Rainer and Art Rainer

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn: A Review

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn is an insider's account of the political machine known as the Christian Coalition. The Coalition experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and power in the 1990's under the leadership of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson. Vaughn's book is an insider's tale that is great for those who truly enjoy "inside baseball" in the world of politics and the Christian conservative movement.

I found this book to be not only engaging but it is replete with teachable moments in regards to a. anyone thinking of starting a political movement b. anyone who works in the grey areas of church and politics and c. yet another warning to anyone involved in an organization that is personality driven on the necessity for succession planning years in advance.

My two criticisms of this book are that there are numerous typo and editorial gaffes (one being the misspelling of my former senator Rod Grams' name) and that, while organized along a timeline, the book itself seems unfocused at times. Vaughn sometimes seems to have an anecdote that had to be in the book and so he squeezed it in disrupting the natural flow of the story itself.

That being said, I was interested to see just how political, rather than religious, the Christian Coalition was. It truly showed me that in politics, which is a zero sum game, often the teaching and life of Jesus are supplanted by "issues" based movements. I wonder if Jesus would have been able to write this book, or start this movement, with chapters detailing how big his movement had become, which famous names had signed on, and how much money was coming into the downstairs countroom on a daily basis.

Vaughn did not intend his book to be about the religious and theological importance of the Christian Coalition, but as a pastor I have to step back and wonder just how useful it is for the Church to become involved in politics at all? It seems to me that it is the Church that gets used in those moments (and I'm talking about the liberal AND conservative churches and politicians) and left behind for whatever the next hot-button issue is or whichever organization will attract money and votes.

Regardless, I do find that this book was moderately insightful and definitely informative. This book would be a good read in a political science course of an undergraduate institution or by any leader who is building a movement of his or her own.

Technorati Tags: Christian Coalition