Trinity Decorated for Christmas

For all you who haven't been to Trinity (or even those of you who have), here's a picture for you.

Uncomfortable

Tonight, as I sat in a Starbucks reading, I observed some kids skateboarding across the street at a skate park... in the snow. I watched them doing ollies as the snow fell all around them and as I watched I thought about how much they must love skating. To love something so much to give up the warmth of being inside and instead be uncomfortable and cold.

I sat there with my warm cup of coffee inside a warm building and I thought about these kids as an image for ministry. To love something so much that we are willing to be uncomfortable... to love God so much that we are willing to be uncomfortable... How many of us sit in the warmth of our worship services on Sunday mornings, comfortable and unshaken? How many of us ride around in our cars or sit in our houses, comfortable? Are we willing to give some of this up for the sake of the gospel? Are we willing to be uncomfortable for something that could be so much fun?

Those kids were having a good time skating - the rush of landing a jump or speeding from one end of the park to the other... what about the rush of helping another person or living into our calling as children of God? Those kids gave up warmth, gave up comfort for some great fun. Are we willing to do the same?

Just a thought. =)

Kate

It's Been a While...

I recognize it has been a while since I last wrote anything. Life has been a tad bit crazy and I'm honestly wondering where the time keeps going.

School is going well. I'm enjoying being back in classes and thinking about things. I just wish I had more time in my day. This past week has sort of been some of that. This year, Trinity switched to semesters and this past week has been a week long fall break. I had grand plans for the week, plans to study for the GRE (the Graduate Record Examination - which I take on Monday) and to get some work done with more sleep than I traditionally I get. But I'm sitting at the end of the week and only some of my plans have actually happened. But that's ok. I have enjoyed having the week off though.

One thing that "interfered" with my grand plans this week was a funeral. A member of my internship congregation who I visited regularly last year died last Sunday. His funeral was on Thursday. I was able to drive up on Thursday and participate in the funeral and committal service. I saw a lot of members of the congregation and realized just how much I miss them all. I'm glad I was able to be there - it meant a lot to me and I'm sure his family appreciated it as well.

So now I'm looking toward the next couple of days and trying to plan out I need to do. More later I'm sure. =)

Kate

An Ethical Standard

One of the classes I'm currently taking is Theology and Sexuality. We're addressing a wide array of topics and what the church and our faith has to say in relation to our sexuality. We're starting to talk about ethical norms and wondering if we can establish an ethical standard with regard to sex.

I've been pondering ethical standards in general lately. Because we're living in a postmodern society, any ethical framework can be and is challenged by any other framework. Is there a framework that can be embraced by all or are we always going to have our own ethical frameworks depending on what subset of the culture we live in and subscribe to? I've often thought about an experience on internship when a book group at the church read and discussed the book Godless Ethics. It is an interesting proposal by a retired Episcopal bishop who both challenges Christian norms and upholds them throughout the book. But the basic premise is to answer the question, "Is there an ethic we can all subscribe to regardless of religion because it's built upon something other than God?" I think the answer is no... which then brings up another question in my mind.

Because I believe that we cannot all subscribe to the same ethical framework, I wonder if there is there a way for us to live together in the midst of our own ethical frameworks and not pronounce judgment on each other based on those frameworks. Basically, is there a way to peacefully coexist while maintaining our own beliefs and convictions? Is this even a legitimate question?

I ask all of this because as I think about sexual ethics in our congregations and the wider church, I have to wonder if it is acceptable for us to have different ideas about what is ethically right and good (while trying to be faithful to the gospel). What will come out of all these conversations the ELCA is having? Anything? A meta ethic we can all subscribe to or continued conversation because we can never agree? Will we ever be able to come to an agreement at all?

I don't know - all sorts of stuff to ponder. =)

Kate

Who Knows What This Is?

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.

Speaking Up

I had a conversation today with an older couple and I noticed something a couple times during the conversation that I've been wrestling with ever since.

At a couple of points in the conversation, the couple were talking about other people and I noticed that they were specific to mention if a person was African-American. But didn't say anything about the others (who I assume are white... they didn't describe them as white anyway). Honestly, I did not understand what the fact of the people being black had anything to do with what these people were talking about and the first time it happened I think the description came off a bit derogatory. They told me that they bought their house from "black people" and that it was very dirty when they moved in. Was the house dirty because the people were black and that means they can't clean or just because they were people who didn't clean? Why did they feel the need to share the information that the couple was black?

So here's where my wrestling comes in... should I have said something? It seems that there are some underlying prejudices there and I feel called to speak up against injustice. Yet I think to a certain extent I didn't want to make the observation because I didn't want to offend them (they are prospective members). But was I right in not trying to offend them? Is this something that is worth my energy wrestling with or is it something that I should just let slide? I guess is it really important enough to make the observation to these people or would it just disrupt too much?

But I also have to recognize the age difference as well as the difference in where we grew up. These people are probably in their 70s (they're within two months of their 53rd wedding anniversary) and have lived in Ohio if not all their lives but most of it (where there is much more racial tension I've noticed). I'm only 25 and grew up in New Mexico before moving to LA - so multiculturalism is a huge part of my life (and honestly, as much as I like Ohio, I miss a lot of it out here). So I guess I'm more sensitive to all of that and in some respects it's not surprising to me that I noticed it. I'm sure a huge part of it is due to age also - I've noticed that even the older people I know who have lived in New Mexico for a good portion of their lives are occasionally susceptible to the same sort of comments (although not as frequently I think).

So what do you all think? Was I right to just not say anything at all or was there a better way of handling it? Maybe this is just nothing and I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I don't know....

Kate

Still Alive... Really!

I promise that I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth. I promise that I am still alive. Things have just been crazy lately and instead of taking the time at night to write, I'm taking the time to sleep a bit more (most of the time).

It's been crazy here, but good. I had a good birthday - many good thoughts and wishes from friends and family not here - but also had a lunch hosted by staff and friends here, lunch out with Rob, and then out with friends that night which was good.

I'm walking again (it's been probably a month and a half since I ditched the crutches) and still doing massive amounts of physical therapy. It still swells and hurts, but I'm continuing to make progress which is very good. Someday it will return to normal... =)

Well, I'll write more later. I just wanted to say that I'm alive but very, very busy and should probably take more time out of my day to reflect and post on here.

Kate

Touchdown Jesus

And by the way, what's up with this church name?

Sunset

Look! I'm Jack Sparrow!

Mailboxes Of Florida

Buoy anybody?

Boundaries

I've been thinking a lot lately about boundaries or the lack thereof in our society - particularly when it comes to children and cell phones. I've heard or seen a couple of cell phone commercials lately that have made me think a bit about this. The first of these commercials I heard on the radio. The second was basically the same commercial but just on TV. In both these commercials (I think they're for Verizon), there's the notion that now parents can afford all the texting their kids are doing. The television version is actually kind of sad. The dad is really excited because now all the messaging (text, picture, etc...) is unlimited no matter the network. The kids don't even bat an eye because they already message as much as they want. But the dad tells them, "Yes, but now Mom can quit her second job," just as his wife walks in the room wearing a big taco costume.

Where are we at now that we allow our kids to run up big text messaging bills? We have boundaries in life and yet we aren't doing our kids any favors when we don't teach them to respect these boundaries. Sure, text messages aren't such a big deal - but if we can't learn to appreciate those boundaries, then we will probably push the limits on others as well. So what are we teaching our kids?

Now, how do we do ministry in a world where boundaries are often not respected? Do those who lack boundaries yearn for them? Or do they desire to throw away any boundaries that are there? I suspect it's probably the former rather than the latter. But how does that impact how we do ministry, how I do ministry?

Things to think about...

Kate

Almost 4 Weeks Later I Am Out Of The Boot And Into A Cast...

Results of the MRI: 2 torn ligaments, 1 stretched ligament/tendon, lots of bone bruising, and a hematoma. Still on crutches and not able to walk. But, I have more Darvocet which is good. It will heal eventually. At least now I know what's going on.

Happy Easter!