the church geek

Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney, cleans up messes for his law firm. He is a brilliant, engaging fellow with a knack for getting things done and making stubborn legal problems go away, or at least minimizing them the best he can.

But now he faces the mess of his life, one that even he may not be able to fix.

One of the firm’s attorneys, assigned to a multi-billion dollar case in defense of a giant agricultural chemical company, has a bipolar nervous breakdown that threatens to completely blow apart the case. It’s Michael’s job to get him back on his medicine and to do all he can to insure that the case doesn’t completely implode.

A battle ensues as Michael is vexed by the top level attorney for the chemical company, played by Tilda Swinton. She has different ideas about Michael’s ability to handle the problem and decides to complicate things by taking matters into her own hands.

While this is an engaging, compelling, and suspenseful thriller its not quite up to the level of the academy award nomination which it received. I rate this movie a 7 out of 10.

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In the Valley of Elah opens with Hank Deerfield receiving a phone call notifying him that his son has gone AWOL while on leave from duty in Iraq. Hank is surprised at this news as his son hadn’t even told him they were home.

A former military man himself, Hank drives across country to the military base to see if he can locate his missing son, but not long after his arrival the body of his son is uncovered. Lots of questions are asked but the answers given are neither forthcoming nor plausible. With the help of a civilian police detective, played by Charlize Theron, Hank is able to get to the heart of the mystery of his son’s disappearance and death.

The strength of this movie lies in the incredible and heartbreaking performance of Tommy Lee Jones who portrays Hank Deerfield with restraint and spare emotion in the face of his son’s death. His lack of tenderness is especially heartbreaking as it plays out in the relationship with his wife, played superbly by Susan Sarandon.

The movie’s weakness lies in the fact that we are never sure why it is titled “In the Valley of Elah,” the biblical location where David slays Goliath. The ancient biblical story is told twice, but no real connection is made between it and this modern day military story. This lack of connection is indicative of the movie’s overall failure to help us grasp its underlying message.

Overall I give this movie a 6 out of 10, based on nothing more than the very strong performances of Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon.

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Here are two photos I took during my retreat at the mother house for the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.

This is the bell tower on top of the chapel as seen from my room in the midst of a snowstorm:

And this is another view from my room a day later looking at the sun and some trees:

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Earlier this week, I spent two days with the Dominican Sisters at Sinsinawa on a personal spiritual retreat. I didn’t have a lot on my agenda except to relax, read, and pray.

One book I took along with me and subsequently spent a whole day devouring was Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for some encouragement on how to integrate various spiritual disciplines in your life. Barton’s book is winsome and engaging and by far the best book on the spiritual disciplines that I’ve encountered in a long time.

As a result of my time away and specifically in reflection on this book, here are a few reflections I’ve come away with:

1.) The intrusion of technology on my life has robbed me of significant quality time in other areas of my life. Because of an always on computer: I read less, I spend less time developing my spiritual life, and I spend less quality time in relationship with my wife. So I’ve come away realizing that I need to set limits: No computer time between 9PM and 9AM. Cull down the number of blogs I follow in my google reader. Close the laptop on the desk in my office more often. Check e-mail 2-3 times a day, not constantly. Make Sunday a sabbath day from the computer.

2.) I need to find ways to spend more time cultivating my spiritual life. There are two disciplines that Barton speaks of that seem especially appropriate for me at this time in my life. The first is the discipline of prayer, especially focusing in on the idea of breath prayer and also dedicating specific time each day I’m in the office to just sit in the sanctuary and pray. The second is the discipline of honoring the body, especially getting more serious about excercising three times a week and doing more reading/studying on the connection between the body and the spirit.

All in all it was a great retreat. Even though I initially felt guilty about spending the time away from the office and from my wife, it was time well spent and that will prove beneficial to me, to my wife, and to the church I serve. And, hopefully, I will feel less guilty about doing it again!

Now, I’m going to close the lid on this laptop and head into the sanctuary to spend a few moments in prayer before I spend the rest of my afternoon working on my sermon for Sunday.

Peace be with you.

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This week I won’t be posting a “Meaty Monday” nor a “Wednesday Roundup” Instead, assuming that the weather cooperates (we have yet another winter storm headed our way) I’ll be heading up to Sinsinawa Retreat Center for a few days away from the office for a bit of a spiritual retreat.

I don’t have much planned except to sleep, read, and pray. I am taking two books with me to guide my reflections:

The Crucifixion of Ministry by Andrew Purves

Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton (thanks Dave Winner for the great suggestion!)

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do if it looks like I can’t make the two hour drive to Dubuque tomorrow. We’ll have to punt and come up with another plan.

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This is the first sermon in my sermon series “Faithful Questions.” This one deals with the question of figuring out God’s direction for our life. Admittedly, I can’t answer the question fully in a sermon and this particular sermon simply looks at Life Gifts and Spiritual Gifts. Inspiritation for this sermon comes from the work of Kise, Stark, and Hersh in their book “Life Keys: Discover Who You Are.” Also, the primary texts for this sermon were Exodus 35:30 - 36:1 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Whenever someone I don’t know very well discovers I’m a minister…it they don’t simply run away, I usually get the same question: So, what made you decide to become a pastor?

People find it an intriguing question. It’s also one I can’t answer very simply or very quickly.

What I’d like to say is one day a clap of thunder came from the sky and a loud voice said, “Jim, I want you to become a Minister of Word and Sacrament.” But it didn’t really happen like that. Figuring out God’s direction for my life was a lot more subtle than all of that. It was also a rather long journey.

Today, I’m going to tell you some of that journey in the hopes that it might highlight some of the ways we figure out God’s direction for our lives.

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This is the second in a sermon series on “Faithful Questions.” This sermon addresses the topic of prayer and takes Psalm 42 and Luke 11:1-13 as its primary texts. It was to have been originally preached on Feb 17th, but was delayed a week due to cancellation of worship because of a winter storm.

Imagine if you will what it would be like to try to live the Bible as literally as possible for one whole year. I personally think it would be pretty challenging.

The good news is you don’t have to try it for yourself to find out what it would be like because one fellow has already done it. His name is A.J. Jacobs, and he’s a writer for Esquire magazine. He writes about his year in a new book called, “The Year of Living Biblically.”

There is a somewhat humorous scene from the book where Jacobs figures out the most commonly mentioned punishment in the Hebrew Bible is stoning. He also discovers this loophole: the bible doesn’t say what size the stones have to be.

Hoping to find someone to stone, Jacobs – who lives in NY City - heads out to Central Park dressed up in his biblical garb; a white robe, tassels, and a staff, and he also brings along a handful of small white pebbles.

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I’m tired of winter, but here are some photos from the week capturing some of our winter phenomena.

This is a winter phenomenon I wasn’t aware of until this year. It’s called a sun dog:

This is the snow on our neighboring hill, making for an interesting abstract:

And these are some icicles off our church roof:

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1.) I really enjoyed this little essay by Elin Ljung on Adam Copeland’s blog. It is part of a series on the Bible in which Adam is inviting guest bloggers to submit the essays.

2.) Maybe you’ve seen this already as it’s popped up a few times on the blogosphere, but just in time for lent you can discover which city struggles the most with each of the seven deadly sins.

3.) Here’s another photo that I’ve enjoyed this week.

4.) Jason Byassee offers some thoughts on Bumper Sticker Politics.

5.) Where do you fit on the emerging/emergent map? I think it’s funny that on this map ‘evangelical’ fits right in the center of ‘Orthodox Christianity.’ I wonder what the Eastern Orthodox would think of that? Lots of emergent theology seems more consonant with Eastern Orthodoxy than evangelicalism does.

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At the end of the last year I asked my session to allow me the privilege of two spiritual retreat/study days a quarter away from the office. I’m more than pleased and grateful to report that they graciously and generously granted my request. So, next week Monday and Tuesday I will be heading over to the Dominican Sisters monastery/retreat center at Sinsinawa.

Perhaps later in the year I will use this time away to do some sermon planning and thinking specifically related to my current ministry within my congregation. This first time around, however, it’s my goal to simply get some rest and to spend some time seeking God in the hopes of being spiritually rejuvenated.

As I think about my two days away, I realize that I have one problem: I’ve never really done this sort of thing before. Now I know some of you out there have (or would like to!) so, how would you recommend I use my two days? What sort of books/resources should I bring?

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It seems that my recent Meaty Monday issues have raised more questions than answers. Well, today’s post happens to be no exception:

Recently, we’ve been struggling trying to figure out what youth ministry should look like in our congregation. Not just in our church but in churches across the country, I get the sense that we’re operating in crisis mode when it comes to the church and our youth. We know we’re losing them, but we don’t know exactly why nor do we know what to do about it.

To provide a little context our church currently has 94 members. As far as kids are concerned: we have a handful of middle school/senior high youth and then a huge number of elementary kids (a huge number for a church our size anyway….) For purposes of this conversation, I want to limit my consideration to the middle school/senior high age range. Here are some issues particular to small congregations such as ours:

1.) Generating a critical mass. When only one or two kids show up to something, whether its an event or a Sunday School class, it makes it very difficult to keep interest up. One kid shows up but his friend doesn’t. The second time the other kid shows up but his friend doesn’t. The third time neither shows up because they don’t want to be there alone. It can be difficult and often becomes a catch 22 situation to get the ball rolling.

2.) Who does youth ministry? We’re not large enough nor do we have enough resources to hire someone - even part time - to do youth ministry and to connect with kids in the way that we really should connect to them. As a solo pastor, I certainly don’t have the time nor the energy to ‘do’ youth ministry in the way that it should really be done. Right now, we have a parent volunteer who graciously heads the youth group activities/studies, but that presents its own challenges when their kid is one of the youth.

As I ask around at other churches, it seems there are some systemic issues we all face:

1.) Kids are so much more busy than when I was a kid 20 years ago. They are overbooked with commitments to all their various activities. Events that used to never happen on Sundays and Wednesday nights are now scheduled for those days. When kids do get a Sunday morning off, that turns out to be the only day they can sleep in. No wonder they won’t show up for Sunday School or for Worship.

2.) We’re stuck thinking of youth ministry models that worked when we were kids and we all lived in small towns. For many of us “Youth Group” was simply the place to be. It was the place were we gathered socially with other like minded kids. Especially in small towns, it was the primary social outlet. But that’s simply not the case anymore, kids have so many other options than they used to and the peer pressure of ‘youth group’ is just not there like it used to be.

3.) When it comes down to it, I’m not so sure anyone has a clue as to what we are doing in ministry with our kids. Are we trying to keep them entertained and off the streets? Are we trying to impart the truths of our faith and to instruct them about what to believe by doing pure Bible Study? Are we trying to raise kids to be socially aware and responsible by encouraging them to engage in mission and community service? I realize different churches will have different emphases, but as a general rule I suspect most churches haven’t really given serious thought about what the end product should be and if they are doing a good job getting there.

I’d be curious to hear if any of you have encountered these or other issues in your ministry with youth, and if you have found some solutions what have they been? I’d be especially interested to hear of any resources that have formed your thinking about youth ministry and the issues I’ve raised.

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Jake tagged me on this book meme, so here I go:

(1) Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating! (2) Turn to page 123. (3) Find the first 5 sentences. (4) Post the next 3 sentences. (5) Tag 5 people.

“Get up,” he says.

The other use of funerals is to remind us of those two words. When the last hymn has been sung, the benediction given, and the immediate family escorted out a side door, they may be the best we have to make it possible to get up ourselves.

This comes from Frederick Beuchner’s “Beyond Words” and is the last three sentences in his definition of the word “Funeral.”

Since I’m instructed to tag five people, I tag the following folks: Dave, Mark, Leslie, David, & Adam

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One of the roses that Lori bought yesterday to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

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1.) One place I occasionally discover stories for sermons is Geoff Pound’s blog Stories for Speakers and Writers. Geoff shares a compelling excerpt form Steve Martin about the strained relationship between him and his father.

2.) Put on your thinking caps: Tony Jones is running a contest seeking new metaphors for the atonement.

3.) The last time I bragged about my Vanderbilt Commodores, they promptly lost 4 out of their next 6 games. But, now riding a four game winning streak and sitting at 21-4 they appear to be back in early season form. Yesterday they manhandled the venerable UK Wildcats handing them their worst loss since 1989. I wonder if Kentucky wishes they had “Ten Loss Tubby” back at the helm?

4.) Here’s another beautiful photograph, for your enjoyment.

5.) As a pastor I struggle knowing how much I should make my political views and support of candidates known…having said that here is one reason I am supporting Barack Obama for President.

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There Will Be Blood is the tale of two men battling one another in oil rich California at the beginning of the 1900s.

Daniel Plainview is an oil prospector and a fierce competitor. He talks confidently and self-assuredly, seemingly never answering a single question asked of him.

Eli Sunday is the young charismatic preacher of The Church of the Third Revelation. He covers the weakness of his character with the piety of his office.

Following a mysterious lead from Eli’s brother Paul, Daniel convinces the Sunday family to lease him the rights to prospect oil from their ranch. Daniel also leases the rights from all ranches in the area except for one.

When the derrick is ready to begin operating, Eli asks Daniel to publicly acknowledge him and to allow him to say a blessing for the derrick. Daniel rebuffs him and the battle is on.

The brilliance of this movie comes from the battle of two men able to find a way to get the other to admit what he truly is. The failure of the movie is that this is as far as it goes. There is no redemption to be found, just two men whose poor souls descend into very pits of hell.

I’m totally divided on how to rate this movie. Positives: the acting is great and the cinematography is incredible. Negatives: too many details are left open and its message leaves little room for hope. In the end I give it a 6 out of 10.

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