Take a Drive Through Albuquerque

Lifeboat

I've been thinking a bit lately about celebrity and why many of us are so excited to share that we've met somebody of any importance. If you're a member of the general population, it's probably being able to say that you saw Will Smith walking down the street or got a picture with Julia Roberts. If you're a church geek, it might be the ability to say you ate dinner with Martin Marty or hung out with Mark Hanson for a bit (and if you don't know who these people are, then I'm obviously not going to impress you). But why is it that we're so happy to share the information that we got to eat with these people or have a picture of one of them with a golf ball in his mouth? Why don't we say the same things about our friends or a random person we met at a party? "I got to talk with Susan Reyes tonight!" Who is that? Why would we care?

The more I think about it, the more I believe it boils down to the lifeboat. Several months ago, I read a book by Donald Miller called Searching for God Knows What. At some point in the book, he describes what he calls the lifeboat theory. We go through life like we're stuck in a lifeboat and we need to get rid of one person. So we try to rationalize to the other people in the boat why it shouldn't be us that goes, why we have value. Most of us don't need to be the people with the most value, but we certainly don't want to be the lowest ones on the totem pole. So as long as there is somebody with less value below us, we feel alright.

So back to the celebrity thing, being able to say we met somebody of "importance" is something because not many people are able to say that. Scarcity usually translates to value and since fewer people can say they have met Will Smith or the presiding bishop of the ELCA, then that automatically gives us value by association.

So what does this mean for how we live our lives? Do we give into the lifeboat theory? I find that I often do without really thinking about it. But if I'm mindful of it, I remember that the one who gives real value is God and because I know and am loved by God, I have real value. I don't need to prove it to anybody - none of us do. But in this world, sometimes it's hard to remember that.

Kate

Censorship

So, one thing I've noticed since moving back down to Columbus - at least one of the major radio stations censors the songs they play... or at least one. The band Nickelback has a song playing on the radio right now called "Rock Star" and all the Cleveland stations leave it as is when they play it. Now, there's a lot of stuff in the song lyrically, well... just about all of it, I don't agree with. But because of some of the band's other songs, I'm more inclined to hear it as a social commentary that there are people out there who thirst for this kind of lifestyle. But I may be wrong.

Anyway, the Cleveland stations don't censor any of it and that's even prompted discussion on a morning show of one radio station about it. One of the DJs on that show has an 8 year old daughter who listens to the station and he has been in conversation with her about that particular song. I think it's been a good discussion - about drugs and the effects of taking them. Why we don't want to do it. I think it's a good thing for her to be grounded in what's right and have her parents be open to talking about it, which will hopefully prove to her that they are safe people to talk to in the future.

But now down here in Columbus at least one radio station has censored parts of the song - editing out certain words such as drugs. A couple of things to note - when you edit out as many words as they do in that particular song, why even play it at all? Plus, you can still tell what the word is, regardless of them editing it out. And, if you listen to another station here in Columbus, you can hear a non-edited version. So why edit it? If you believe so strongly that the public shouldn't hear certain words, then why play the song at all? And, even when you edit out particular words, I would still contend that there are many other parts of the song that are just as inappropriate without the "bad" words. Oddly enough (and I promise this will be my last complaint), they edit out certain things but not others. For example, throughout the song they edit out the word 'drugs' but then don't edit out the word 'pills' which definitely refers to the drugs they have edited out. Also, they edit out the word 'assholes' but not the word 'ass' later in the song. So I guess my last complaint is that if you're going to edit, be consistent.

Maybe my frustration lies in the fact that I like the song musically and miss hearing the unedited version. Would I have the same complaints if I had only heard the song edited and then moved to Cleveland where they don't edit it? I don't know.

Kate

Young Adults Aren't Sticking With Church

Young adults aren't sticking with church - USATODAY.com

Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds.

Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.

"This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry," says Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"It seems the teen years are like a free trial on a product. By 18, when it's their choice whether to buy in to church life, many don't feel engaged and welcome," says associate director Scott McConnell.

The statistics are based on a survey of 1,023 Protestants ages 18 to 30 who said they had attended church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school. LifeWay did the survey in April and May. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Few of those surveyed had kind words for fellow Christians when they reflected on how they saw church life in the four years after high school.

Just over half (51%) of Protestant young people surveyed (both the church dropouts and those who stayed on in church after age 22) saw church members as "caring" or had other positive descriptions, such as "welcoming" (48%) or "authentic" (42%).

Among dropouts, nearly all (97%) cited life changes, such as a move. Most (58%) were unhappy with the people or pastor at church. More than half (52%) had religious, ethical or political reasons for quitting.

Dropouts were more than twice as likely than those who continued attending church to describe church members as judgmental (51% for dropouts, 24% for those who stayed), hypocritical (44% vs. 20%) or insincere (41% vs. 19%)

The news was not all bad: 35% of dropouts said they had resumed attending church regularly by age 30. An additional 30% attended sporadically. Twenty-eight percent said "God was calling me to return to the church."

The survey found that those who stayed with or returned to church grew up with both parents committed to the church, pastors whose sermons were relevant and engaging, and church members who invested in their spiritual development.

"Too many youth groups are holding tanks with pizza. There's no life transformation taking place," Stetzer says. "People are looking for a faith that can change them and to be a part of changing the world."

These findings fit with findings by other experts.

"Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in doubt," says Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow in After the Baby Boomers, due in stores in September.

The proportion of young adults identifying with mainline churches, he says, is "about half the size it was a generation ago. Evangelical Protestants have barely held their own."

In research for an upcoming book, unChristian, Barna Research Group director David Kinnaman found that Christians in their 20s are "significantly less likely to believe a person's faith in God is meant to be developed by involvement in a local church. This life stage of spiritual disengagement is not going to fade away."

About 52% of American adults identify themselves as Protestant or other non-Catholic Christian denominations, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey. That's down from 60% in 1990.

I've been thinking about this kind of stuff for a little while now. Not only because as a young adult in the church, there have been times when I've noticed that I'm one of the few my age in a congregation. But now more specifically because of my career. For the past several months I've been doing a young adult small group down in Streetsboro and I have connected with several people who are not currently attending church anywhere. I've met them down in Streetsboro and started conversations, eventually inviting them to join the group. I think the church needs to step outside its comfort zone and start looking to meet people where they are rather than waiting for people to come to them - particularly with young adults. Jesus didn't wait in the synagogues for people to show up and hear his message (even though he did go there and teach), he went out and ate with the people, lived with them, walked with them. Should we as the church do the same? Meet people where they are and invite them into conversation? Invite them to see what God is already doing in their lives, in our lives? Just some thoughts. Tell me what you think.

Kate

Leaving

So this is the final week of internship... and I'm making final preparations to leave. This includes packing, wrapping up loose ends and prepping stuff for the next intern, writing a final sermon, and planning all the stuff that needs to happen in the immediate future following the end of internship.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about leaving. On one hand I'm excited to get back to school and see all my friends. I'm also not ashamed to say that I'm kind of excited about getting back into the classroom. But (and this is a big but), I am also very sad to be leaving here. I have some great friends up here and it's hard to leave them. It is also hard to leave the congregation and the work (even as much as I'm excited about getting back into the classroom). It's hard...

At the moment, I think all the work that needs to be done has kept me occupied so I don't have to think about leaving so much. But that may mean a very sad, sad Sunday morning. But the good news is, this isn't good bye forever - it's really just so long. And it's only 2 hours up here from Columbus. =)

Bilox Box Night Video 1

So here's one video from the night I slept in the box. Took a while... but it's here.