Missional Living

Engrish.com…just plain funny

Plus, a huge list of 80’s music videos. Flock of Seagulls. Autograph. Power Station. Hair bands to new wave. Viva Los Ochenta! Thanks to the midway-cleansed marko for the link…

I’m speaking this Sunday at the first-ever Baccalaureate service for one of our area high schools. Good times. For my spring board, I’m using the following introduction, taken from Charles Sykes:

1. Life is not fair- put on your big girl panties and get over it!
2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
3. You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t become a vice-president with a corner office until you earn both.
4. If you think Mrs. Bradley is tough, wait till you get a boss.
5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents
   had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
6. If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Besides, your boss doesn’t speak WHINESE.
7. Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are
   now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes
   and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So
   before you save the rain forest, try cleaning up your own room.
8. Some schools may have done away with winners and losers, but
   life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and
   they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.
   This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
10. Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to their jobs.
11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

It’s an excerpt from the book “Dumbing Down our Kids” by educator Charles Sykes. It is a list of eleven things you did not learn in school and directed at high school and college grads.

By the way….the ‘big girl panties’ line is mine, not Mr. Sykes….don’t want to get him in trouble…

Woo-hoo!

If you haven’t already, meet Douggieboomer (a.k.a. Doug Royer), our newest intern here.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Douggie.

It seems as though I keep running across blogs/podcasts/sites with a recurring theme.

This afternoon, I’m beginning to take one of our interns through Wild At Heart for the summer. Great book. Last night, I ran across a ministry/blog entitled Outfitting Your Faith which focuses on reaching men, either uninvolved or marginally involved in the church, and creating relevant, authentic, godly friendships among the testosterone camp. And, this morning, I find this on Joe Thorn’s blog. How cool would that be for us guys?

So, I’m (still) churning around the question in my mind: What makes a godly man? How do we define Biblical manhood? Look at Jesus’ relationship with the disciples. Look at the early church fathers. Even the earlier fathers of our faith such as Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, Solomon, etc.

In a world where boys who grow up fatherless (the father essentially betrays his son into life as a half-man), where do they look for manhood?

In 2002, I heard Spencer Burke talk about a buddy who started a church in his living room. He called it ‘Scum of the Earth’ Church, because he wanted to reach out to the outcasts, the vulnerable, and the social rejects of his area… I never found anything on it until now…

Evidently, Pastor Mike Sares, 52, the a former Denver English teacher and musician…and buddy Spence was talking about.

The article I found is here.
You can get a peek at what’s going on at scumoftheearth.net .

For any conspiracy theorists out there who may think that the church is teaching pablum-laced, watered-down theology, feel free to download sermons and/or subscribe to the podcast. You’ll find some great teaching, such as :
“Stuff Jesus Said”
“Being Drunk vs. Being Spirit Filled”
“The Problem With Suffering”
“Speaking in Tongues and Other Nonsense (and sense)”

…I think I’ll forward that last one to our IMB Trustees.

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We’re wrapping up our closing session as I’m typing this. The past 3 days of fellowship, networking, encouragement, and food (we ARE Baptist…) has been great. Did I mention how much I love San Antonio?

Thanks to the SBTC for putting this together again for the 4th year. Wolf, Lasater, and all the staff have done an outstanding job.

We’re heading back home after lunch….good times.

sigh.

From the May 4th Baptist Press article:

Baptists from diverse backgrounds issue an apology for our ‘narrowing’, ‘unloving’, and ‘narcissistic’ actions. They issued the ‘Memphis Declaration’.

“Expressing displeasure over what they call a
“narrowing of cooperation through exclusionary theological and
political agendas” in the Southern Baptist Convention, a group of
Southern Baptist conservatives issued a document May 3 announcing their
desire to seek renewal in the convention, their churches and their
personal lives through repentance.”

#1- We publicly repent of triumphalism about
Southern Baptist causes and narcissism about Southern Baptist
ministries which have corrupted our integrity in assessing our
denomination bureaucracy, our churches, and our personal witness in
light of the sobering exhortations of Scripture. Therefore, we…

#2- We publicly repent of an arrogant spirit that
has infected our partnership with fellow Christians in the advance of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, without the hearing of which men are
incapable of conversion. Therefore, we …..

#3- We publicly repent of having condemned those
without Christ before we have loved them, and that we have acted as
judge of those for whom Christ died by failing to live with a
redemptive spirit toward them. Therefore, we…

#6- We publicly repent of having misplaced our
priorities on the building and sustaining of institutions of secondary
and far inferior importance than the local church. Therefore, we…

If you’re going to read this, don’t bother.

After a couple of posts you’ll move on to something else. So forget it. Get out before things change. Save yourself.

Or, at least try.

There has to be something better on television. American Idol? 24? Desperate Housewives? Or since you have so much time on your hands, maybe you could take a night class. Become a court reporter. Make something out of yourself. Treat yourself to dinner out. Color your hair.

You’re not getting any younger.

If you click here, and follow the instructions, your neat little life may just take a dramatic change.

So don’t do it.

Some good thoughts are going on over at Mark Riddle’s blog (even for an Okie).

The YS/Zondervan marriage.

An upcoming film on the life of Kyle Lake (former pastor at Waco’s UBC).

For those interested, there are 3 posts concerning the ‘re-imagining of student ministry’ here. Good things. It’s about time we, as student ministers, grew up and started becoming pastoral. Start looking at the big picture. Start seeing parents as allies instead of obstacles. Start ministering to the family.

I’m glad others see it.

But it saddens me that it needed to be blogged about….